TERRITORIALLY Canada is a great country; extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the United States boundary to the Arctic Ocean, and embracing within these limits about one-sixteenth

of the whole earth. The historian Robertson's remarks about America as a whole are equally true of Canada. He speaks of Nature here carrying on her work on a scale of peculiar grandeur. Contrasted with her mighty streams, the rivers of Europe are mere brooks. Were her great lakes found in the Old World they would be dignified with the name of seas, and were her vast and varied resources of river, forest, field and mine located on the other side of the Atlantic, poverty would disappear and the nations would sing for joy of heart.

Many have very inaccurate ideas on this subject, for accustomed to think and speak of the continental nations the average European is unable to realize the vastness of the Canadian domain. To illustrate. The united duchies of Brunswick and Saxe-Coburg Gotha, which have given sovereigns to the proudest empires of modern times, are only equal in size to little Prince Edward

Island. Denmark and Switzerland combined, each rich in the traditions of a glorious past, possess no more acres than are found in New Brunswick. Greece, the land of Marathon and Thermopylæ, is no larger than Nova Scotia. France, chivalrous, heroic France, the empire of Charlemagne, St. Louis and Napoleon, is smaller than Quebec. Great Britain, the land of heroes and historians, of poets and of sages, whose names and deeds are embalmed in deathless song, would require Holland and Saxony to make her the equal of Ontario. Austria and Belgium would be dwarfed if placed beside British Columbia. Scotland, which has given to the world a Knox and a Chalmers, a Scott and a Burns, a Watt and a Stevenson, a Bruce, a Wallace and a Clyde, is not half the size of Manitoba. Ireland, upon whose glory-roll are the names of Wellington, Burke, Curran, Dufferin, and scores of others scarcely less distinguished, is very little larger than New Brunswick. And a dozen countries as large as Spain could be carved out of the territories of Alberta, Athabasca, Assiniboia and Saskatchewan.

Or, to make comparisons nearer home, take the provinces of the Dominion in detail, and we find that Prince Edward Island is about as large as Delaware; Nova Scotia owns more acres than Massachusetts and Vermont combined; New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island rolled into one would only equal New Brunswick. It would take New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland to make a Quebec; Ontario is more than two and a half times larger than New York; Manitoba is twice

the size of Massachusetts; British Columbia embraces a wider extent of territory than is found in all the above named States.

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Here, then, is "ample room and verge enough" to satisfy the most ambitious, and within which achieve the greatest triumphs in the different departments of human effort. Here, unencumbered on the one hand by many of the laws and usages of the Old World, and on the other free from the perpetual excitement and revolutionary tendencies of republicanism, the loyal sons of Britain have had committed to them the great problem of constitutional government. As the British is considered the model government of the Eastern Hemisphere, as the only safe and efficient system at all compatible with extended dominion, it is the object of the Canadian people to reproduce its counterpart in the Western.

Canadian history is not very richly adorned with the names of those who have won immortal fame on the ensanguined field of war, not because her sons are destitute of the material out of which heroes are made, but because, fortunately, opportunities for thus distinguishing themselves have rarely been afforded. But there are other victories than those won "amid the groans, the cries, the dying strife." The axe and the hoe have wrought mightier triumphs than the rifle and the sword. The whistle of the locomotive is a much more agreeable sound than the strains of martial music. The conversion of the dreary woodland into a fruitful field, and the building of towns and cities in the once untrodden wilds, are achievements of far greater value than any won in war. The church and the schoolhouse, the readingroom and the lecture-hall, are truer signs of progress than the most formidable ironclad or fortress.

The history of Canada, however, is neither dull nor uninteresting.

Connected therewith is many an incident of wild adventure and deadly encounter; of patient endurance and heroic daring; of perilous enterprises and marvellous escapes, and of scenes and circumstances to which attach a most romantic interest, and which have again and again been made "to point a moral or adorn a tale." From its pages we learn how the dusky savage was wont to surprise and scalp the unsuspecting paleface; how the Frank and Saxon struggled for the supremacy; how the patriotic colonist sought to lay broad and deep the foundations of a new empire; and how the pious missionary of the Cross endeavoured to Christianize the native races. It tells also how, on several occasions, her sturdy sons, though few in number, rose in their might and repelled the attacks of those who, first by honeyed words and then by force of arms, had sought to separate her from the grand old Motherland. With all this the intelligent reader is already familiar.

The climate of Canada has been greatly misrepresented and the severity of its winters unduly exaggerated. True, she has not the soft and sunny skies nor the balmy breezes of more southern climes, but these are more than compensated for by a happy immunity from many of the diseases indigenous to other lands. Epidemics, so destructive elsewhere, are of rare occurrence, are comparatively light and confined within narrow limits, while the general healthfulness and longevity of the people prove the climate to be an exceptionally good As a whole it is dry, healthy, and invigorating; in the North-West cattle graze at large all winter, while along the Canadian shores of the Pacific the Japanese current produces the same effects as the Gulf Stream does in England.

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Canada is very largely an agricultural country, considerably more

than half the whole population being engaged in farming operations. Up to a comparatively recent date the aid of science was but little sought for in this important field of effort, and nature was allowed to work out her processes as best she could. But things are different to-day. Science has joined hands with nature and their combined forces have been pressed into the service of the farmer. As a consequence the products of the field have become richer in variety and larger in volume.

In every province there are large areas now under cultivation and still larger ones awaiting cultivation. Almost every acre of Prince Edward Island can be farmed to profit. Various fruits and every kind of cereal grain and grass are raised in immense quantities in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. There is an abundance of excellent land in Quebec yet unoccupied. Ontario is an annual exporter of enormous supplies of food products. Manitoba was well and truly described by Lord Dufferin as, "a land of magnificent distances and unlimited possibilities." Hon. Mr. Seward, Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Lincoln, after a tour through these then newly opened up regions, declared them to be the greatest bread-producing countries in the

world.

That declaration is being verified by the logic of events. Each year sees a heavier yield than the one preceding it, and the resources of the regions referred to are such as to defy all calculation as to what may be produced. In the Budget speech of Mr. Foster, the Finance Minister, during a late session of Parliament the gratifying statement was made that the value of the farm products exported during the last fiscal year amounted to over $50,000,000, being an increase of more than $6,000,000 over the year before. Mr. Wiman, who is extremely anxious that

Canada should cast in her lot with the United States, says: "Here is room for future millions that must from Europe come. The United States have nearly exhausted their arable soils and a land hunger has set in that only in Canada can be appeased. Canada must be

relied upon as the granary from whence must come the future food supply of the world."

The forest has always furnished profitable employment to a large portion of the population. The principal woods are pine, spruce, cedar, birch and maple. While by reason of fires and reckless cutting the sources of supply are being constantly diminished yet such is the vastness of the supply yet untouched that many a long year must pass away ere any want will be felt or inconvenience experienced. We have no means of ascertaining the amount produced for home use, but the value of the exports for last year ran up to about $26,000,000.

The mineral wealth of the Dominion is as yet an unknown quantity. From Cape Breton to British Columbia valuable deposits of various kinds are known to exist, but to what extent has not been determined. This much, however, is certain, that the supply is practically inexhaustible, at least in the more useful kinds. Until quite recently the immense coal-fields of the NorthWest were comparatively valueless on account of their remoteness from the sea and the lack of facilities for transportation. But the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway and its numerous branches, has made them available, not only for the furnishing of fuel for the prairie regions but for export as well. The value of the exports last year amounted to over $5,800,000. What the developments of the future along this line may be it is impossible to determine, but that they will be of a gigantic character no prophet's eye is needed to foresee.

Of the value and extent of the Canadian fisheries it is impossible to speak in exaggerated terms. From Hudson's Bay to the Bay of Fundy, embracing some ten thousand miles of broken and indented coast, with harbours, bays, inlets and rivers innumerable, are to be found the richest fisheries in the world. Here a good and beneficent Creator annually provides for the use of man an abundance of the most valuable of the finny tribes, and to these waters for more than two centuries have the hardy fishermen of Britain, France and the United States resorted to share in the profits of the trade. For their possession many a battle has been fought, and when France was finally driven from the American continent, she still clung to a few insignificant islands, and by diplomacy succeeded in obtaining from her victorious rival certain fishing privileges which have been of incalculable benefit to her people. For the right to fish in these waters American statesmen have written, and threatened, and all but involved the two nations in war. These things speak volumes and show the estimate placed upon this trade by those best competent to judge. About seventy thousand persons are engaged in the business itself, besides those on shore who are employed in the manufacture of boats, nets, barrels, and other requisites. More than thirty-one thousand vessels and boats, valued at $4,840,000, are required to carry it on, and the total value of production of 1894 was in the neighbourhood of $20,700,000-one-half of which was sent to other countries.

But manufactures are indispensable to national greatness. Without them there can be little of private or public wealth, little of civilization, little of independence as a commonwealth, and little of political importance and power. To furnish food for others to live upon, and raw materials for others to work over and grow rich by the applica

tion of their skill, art and ingenuity, is a condition of dependence and subserviency both individually and nationally. The power to turn rude materials into things of beauty and usefulness, is a potent means of promoting the public prosperity. Of this we have in Great Britain a most striking example. In her we behold the greatest power on earth, occupying a position of unequalled and unprecedented importance, and holding a recognized supremacy upon the ocean, without any special natural advantages securing to her such an amplitude of power and dominion. So insignificant in size that were she drowned in the depths of the sea she would hardly be missed, with a climate and soil by no means the best, without forests, with comparatively little water power, and rejoicing in but few of Nature's bounties, yet despite all this taking the lead of all the world in activity, power, wealth, influence and splendour, laying every nook and corner of creation under tribute, wielding a sceptre over an empire on which the sun never sets, and giving laws, language and literature. to nearly one-fourth of the world's population. To this proud position she has largely been led by the manufacturing skill and genius of her people.

During the last few years Canada has made large advances along this line. Many articles previously brought from abroad have been produced at home, and some of these in such abundance that after supplying domestic needs heavy exportations have been made to the Motherland, the United States and other countries. Looking at her vast and varied resources, the words of Mr. Wiman will scarcely be called extravagant when he says: