has to contend in striving to achieve the unity and security of this widely extended confederation.

When the Canadian provinces were united, in 1840, the French Canadians were restive and uncertain of their future. The Act of Union was considered by many of them as an attempt to make them subservient to British influences. The elimination of their language from legislative records was to them a great grievance, because it was, in their opinion, a clear evidence of the spirit which lay at the basis of the union. As a matter of fact, however, the Union Act was a measure which, from the very outset, gave to Lower Canada a political superiority in the government of the whole country. The representation of the two provinces was equal in the assembly, but the greater unity that distinguished the French Canadians in all matters that might affect their political power, or their provincial interests, naturally enabled them to dominate the English parties, divided among themselves on so many political

issues.

The French language was soon restored to its old place, and step by step all the principles that the popular party of Lower Canada had been fighting for previous to 1840 were granted-even an elective legislative council-under the new regime.

The consequence was that French Canada eventually recognized its power, and its people forgot their old grievances and were ready to sustain the Union into which they had entered with doubt and apprehension. It was the English-speaking people of the West that now raised the clamour against French domination, when the representation granted in 1840 did not do justice to the increase of population in Upper Canada, where, since that year, the progress had been more rapid than in the French section. The consequence was that the two provinces, united in law, were practically divided on the floor of parliament, and government at last became almost impossible from the division of parties and the controlling influence of French Canada, always determined to yield nothing to the cry from the upper province that would destroy the equality of representation. The solution of the difficulties, arising, it will be scen, from national antagonism, was found in a federal union, under which Lower Canada obtained a supreme control over the provincial matters in which she has an immediate interest and at the same time has been able to exercise great influence in national affairs by means of her large representation in the Dominion parliament.

-Sir Lewis Morris.

Armenia, or part of it, is known in the Bible as Ararat, Minni or Togarmah. The ark rested on the "mountains of Ararat." (Gen. viii. 4.) Isaiah, predicting the downfall of Babylon, hears "the noise of a multitude in the mountains" (Ch. xiii. 4) and Jeremiah summons against Babylon "the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz (Ch. xli. 27.) After killing their father, the sons of Sennacherib "escaped into the land of Armenia." name Armenia is first found in a Persian inscription, about 500 B.C. Many suppose it to come from HarMinni, i. e., the Mountain of Minni; but the derivation is quite uncertain.

The

According to their own legendary history, in which ancient traditions. are curiously combined with biblical lore, the Armenians are descended from Haik, a son of Togarmah, grandson of Japhet, who fled from the tyranny of Belus Assyria and settled in the country which now, in their language, bears his name. If Togarmah is Armenia,

the Armenians in the time of Ezekiel traded with Tyre "in carriagehorses, riding-horses and mules" (Ch. xxvii. 14.)

Armenia has had a troubled history almost continuously. For brief periods now and then it enjoyed independence or quasi-independence; and it has been under the yoke of Assyria, Macedonia, Parthia, Rome and Persia. As early

as the fourteenth century the Kurds began their depredations, and the country suffered from the cruelties of Timour. Since 1604 Armenia has had no separate political existence. It is at present divided between Turkey, Russia and Persia. Of the 4,000,000 or more Armenians, 2,500,000 are in the Turkish Empire, while more than 1,000,000 are under Russia. Armenians are found all round the Levant. In European Turkey there are said to be 400,000, of whom 200,000 are in Constantinople. There are several thousands of this active, trading people in India, and in England and America there are, perhaps, 10