my heart, as well as my duty, urges me to strive, yet it is a peculiar delight that such endeavours should be illustrated by meeting with those who are descended from men at whose side, in the dark ages of trial and of difficulty, my fathers fought and died. We have many ancient memories in common. You tell me that these are rehearsed among you. I know that among your cousins at home the tales of the deeds of the heroes of the Feinn of Ireland and of Scotland, and the achievements of the great men who have lived since their day, in successive centuries, are constantly repeated. I would give nothing for a man who could place little value upon the lives and times of his ancestors, not only because without them he himself would have no existence—(laughter)—but because in tracing the history of their lives, and in remembering the difficulties they encountered, he will be spurred to emulate, in as far as in him lies, the triumphs that have caused them to be remembered. (Cheers.) I would give nothing for a French-Canadian who could not look back with pride on the glorious discoveries and contests of the early pioneers of Canada. I would give nothing for a German who in Ontario could forget that he came from the race who under Hermann hurled back the tide of Roman invasion; nor for an Englishman who forgets the splendid virtues which have made the English character comparable to the native oak. (Applause.) Such reminiscences and such incentives to display in the present day the virtues of our ancestors can have none but a good result. Here our different races have, through God's providence, become the inheritors of a new country, where the blood of all is mingling, and where a nation is arising which we firmly believe will show through future centuries the nerve, the energy, and intellectual powers which characterised the people of northern Europe. (Hear, hear.) And let our pride in this country with reference to its sons not be so much seen in pride of the original stock, as in the feeling of joy which should arise when we can say, "Such an orator, such a soldier, such a poet, or such a statesman is a Canadian." (Cheers.) Keep up a knowledge of your ancient language; for the exercise given to a man's mind in the power given by the ability to express his thoughts in two languages is no mean advantage. I would gladly have given much of the time devoted in boyhood to acquiring Greek to the acquisition of Gaelic. My friends, let me now tell you how happy it makes me to see that the valour, the skill, and the bravery which used to make you chief among your neighbours in the strife of swords, is here shown in the mastery of the difficulties of nature. Your lives are here cast in pleasant places. The aspect of the fertility of your lands, of the success of their cultivation, and of your prosperity in their enjoyment, is producing so powerful an effect upon your brethren at home, that we have some difficulty in persuading the most enterprising amongst them to remain in the old country. (Laughter.) You know that economic causes have forced much of the increasing population of Scotland to seek the towns, and the change in the proprietorship of lands has united in a few unfortunate instances with the love for hunting in tempting men, in more modern times, to care more for their preserves of animals than for the preserves they could point to as being filled with men. My family has always loved, not for policy, but on account of their fellow-citizens, to place in the balance, against the temptation for gain among the people, the love of home; and have thus had many men on their lands. In a small country, of poor climate as compared with Canada, this must of course be regulated by the resources of the land. But I visit always with a peculiar pleasure those districts at home where a large population has been able to find a competent livelihood. One island known to many of you, namely, Tiree, has upon a surface of twelve miles long by about two in width over three thousand souls. At the present day I find that some of those who have visited Ontario, or who know from their friends what this land is like, now come to us and say, "We are tempted to go to Canada, for each of our friends there has for himself a farm as big as the whole island of Tiree." (Laughter.) This is only an instance of how much the western Highlander has thriven in these new and more spacious homes. (Cheers.) Some amongst you are of my name. I find that the Campbells get on as well as anybody else in this country. Lately a gentleman managed to praise himself, his wife, and me by making the following speech. He said, "I am glad to see you here as Governor-General. I always find that the Campbells in this country manage to get most excellent places." He then pointed to his wife, and proved his argument by the announcement, "My wife there is a Campbell." (Renewed laughter.) That you, your children, and children's children, may continue to prosper is the wish of my heart, and the desire of all in the Mother Country, who see that here you are one of the powers that constitute, in the new world, a community devoted to the great traditions, to the might and enduring grandeur of our united empire. (Loud cheers.) Had it not been so you would not have come to meet me here to-day. Some time ago I visited Killin, in Perthshire, a most interesting place. It is a rocky island covered with heather, grass, and pine trees, placed in the centre of the foaming waters of the river Dochart, which streams from Benmore. It was the ancient burial place of the gallant race of Macnab, a clan which with its chief came over to Canada and was illustrious in the history of this country. Its chief, Sir Allan, became, not by virtue of descent, but by ability and integrity, a leader in the public life of Canada. His son came to Killin to see this last resting-place of his fathers, and was there seen by a poet, who in some beautiful verses says:—

"Would a son of the chieftain have dared to invade The isle where the heroes repose;"

Were it not, that as—

"A pilgrim he came to that place of the dead, For he knew that the tenant of each narrow bed, Would hail him as worthy of them."

He then asks how he and they had shown their metal, and in vindication of their fidelity to their ancient fame, he imagines that the very wind that waved the fir branches over the old tombs carries in rustling whisper, or in strong breath of storm, among the boughs:—

"A voice as it flies, From the far distant forest that fringes the deeps Of the rushing St. Lawrence, replies:— That, however to Albyn their name Has become like a tale of past years that is told; On the shores of Lake Erie that race is the same, And as true to the land of its birth and its fame, As their gallant forefathers of old."

May this be ever so with you, and may God prosper and bless you in all your undertakings. (Prolonged cheers.)



On his return to Winnipeg, after his tour through the North-Western Territories in 1881, His Excellency spoke as follows:—

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,—I beg to thank you most cordially for the pleasant reception you have given to me on my return to Winnipeg, and for the words in which you proposed my health and have expressed a hope for the complete recovery of the Princess from the effects of that most unfortunate accident which took place at Ottawa. I know that the Canadian people will always remember that it was in sharing the duties incurred in their service that the Princess received injuries which have, only temporarily, I trust, so much impaired her health. (Applause.) Two years hence the journey I have undertaken will be an easy one for all to accomplish throughout its length, while at present the facilities of railway and steam accommodation only suffice for half of it. For a Canadian, personal knowledge of the North-West is indispensable. To be ignorant of the North-West is to be ignorant of the greater portion of our country. (Applause.) Hitherto I have observed that those who have seen it justly look down upon those who have not, with a kind of pitying contempt which you may sometimes have observed that they who have got up earlier in the morning than others and seen some beautiful sunrise, assume towards the friends who have slept until the sun is high in the heavens. (Laughter.) Our track, though it led us far, only enabled us to see a very small portion of your heritage now being made accessible. Had time permitted we should have explored the immense country which lies along the whole course of the wonderful Saskatchewan, which, with its two gigantic branches, opens to steam navigation settlements of rapidly growing importance. As it was, we but touched the waters of the north and south branches, and striking southwestwards availed ourselves of the American railway lines in Montana for our return. It was most interesting to compare the southern mountains and prairies with our own, and not even the terrible events which have recently cast so deep a gloom upon our neighbours, as well as ourselves, could prevent our kinsmen from showing that hospitality and courtesy which makes a visit to their country so great a pleasure. (Loud applause.) I am the more glad to bear witness to this courtesy in the presence of the distinguished consul of the United States, who is your guest this evening, and who, in this city, so honourably represents his country—(applause)—in nothing more than in this, that he has never misrepresented our own. (Loud applause.) Like almost all his compatriots who occupy by the suffrage of their people official positions, he has recognised that fact, which is happily acknowledged by all of standing amongst ourselves, that the interests of the British Empire and of the United States may be advanced side by side without jealousy or friction, and that the good of the one is interwoven with the welfare of the other. (Cheers.) Canada has recently shown that sympathy with her neighbour's grief which becomes her, and which has been so marked throughout all portions of our Empire. She has sorrowed with the sorrow of the great commonwealth, whose chief has been struck down, in the fulness of his strength, in the height of his usefulness, in the day of universal recognition of his noble character, by the dastard hand of the assassin. We have felt in this as though we ourselves had suffered, for General Garfield's position and personal worth made his own and his fellow citizens' misfortune a catastrophe for all English-speaking races. The bulletins telling of his calm and courageous struggle against cruel and unmerited affliction, have been read and discussed by us with as strong an admiration for the man, and with as tender a sentiment for the anxiety and misery of his family, as they have been awaited and perused in the south. It is fitting and good that this should be. We have with the Americans, not only a common descent, but a similar position on this continent, and a like probable destiny. The community of feeling reaches beyond the fellowship arising from the personal interest attaching to the dignity of a high office sustained with honour, and to the reverence for the tender ties of hearth and home, sacred though these be, for Canadians and Americans have each a common aim and a common ideal. Though belonging to very different political schools, and preferring to advance by very different paths, we both desire to live only in a land of perfect liberty. (Loud cheers.) When the order which ensures freedom is desecrated by the cowardly rancour of the murderer, or by the tyranny of faction, the blow touches more than one life, and strikes over a wider circle than that where its nearer and immediate consequences are apparent. The people of the United States have been directed into one political organisation, and we are cherishing and developing another; but they will find no men with whom a closer and more living sympathy with their triumphs or with their trouble abides, than their Canadian cousins in the Dominion. (Cheers.) Let this be so in the days of unborn generations, and may we never have again to express our horror at such a deed of infamy as that which has lately called forth, in so striking a manner, the proofs of international respect and affection. (Hear, hear.) To pass to other themes awaking no unhappy recollections, you will expect me to mention a few of the impressions made upon us by what we have seen during the last few weeks. Beautiful as are the numberless lakes and illimitable forests of Keewatin—the land of the north wind, to the east of you—yet it was pleasant to "get behind the north wind"—(laughter)—and to reach your open plains. The contrast is great between the utterly silent and shadowy solitudes of the pine and fir forests, and the sunlit and breezy ocean of meadowland, voiceful with the music of birds, which stretches onward from the neighbourhood of your city. In Keewatin the lumber industry and mining enterprises can alone be looked for, but here it is impossible to imagine any kind of work which shall not produce results equal to those attained in any of the great cities of the world. (Great cheering.) Unknown a few years ago except for some differences which had arisen amongst its people, we see Winnipeg now with a population unanimously joined in happy concord, and rapidly lifting it to the front rank amongst the commercial centres of the continent. We may look in vain elsewhere for a situation so favourable and so commanding—many as are the fair regions of which we can boast. (Loud cheers.) There may be some among you before whose eyes the whole wonderful panorama of our Provinces has passed—the ocean-garden island of Prince Edward; the magnificent valleys of the St. John and Sussex; the marvellous country, the home of "Evangeline," where Blomidon looks down on the tides of Fundy, and over tracts of red soil richer than the weald of Kent. You may have seen the fortified Paradise of Quebec; and Montreal, whose prosperity and beauty is worthy of her great St. Lawrence, and you may have admired the well-wrought and splendid Province of Ontario, and rejoiced at the growth of her capital, Toronto, and yet nowhere will you find a situation whose natural advantages promise so great a future as that which seems ensured to Manitoba and to Winnipeg, the Heart city of our Dominion. (Tremendous cheering.) The measureless meadows which commence here stretch without interruption of their good soil westward to your boundary. The Province is a green sea over which the summer winds pass in waves of rich grasses and flowers, and on this vast extent it is only as yet here and there that a yellow patch shows some gigantic wheat field. (Loud cheering.) Like a great net cast over the whole are the bands and clumps of poplar wood which are everywhere to be met with, and which, no doubt, when the prairie fires are more carefully guarded against, will, wherever they are wanted, still further adorn the landscape. (Cheers.) The meshes of this wood-netting are never further than twenty or thirty miles apart Little hay swamps and sparkling lakelets, teeming with wild fowl, are always close at hand, and if the surface water in some of these has alkali, excellent water can always be had in others, and by the simple process of digging for it a short distance beneath the sod with a spade, the soil being so devoid of stones that it is not even necessary to use a pick. No wonder that under these circumstances we hear no croaking. Croakers are very rare animals throughout Canada. It was remarked with surprise, by an Englishman accustomed to British grumbling, that even the frogs sing instead of croaking in Canada— (great cheering)—and the few letters that have appeared speaking of disappointment will be amongst the rarest autographs which the next generation will cherish in their museums. But with even the best troops of the best army in the world you will find a few malingerers—a few skulkers. However well an action has been fought, you will hear officers who have been engaged say that there were some men whose idea seemed to be that it was easier to conduct themselves as became them at the rear, rather than in the front. (Laughter and applause.) So there have been a few lonely and lazy voices raised in the stranger press dwelling upon your difficulties and ignoring your triumphs. These have appeared from the pens of men who have failed in their own countries and have failed here, who are born failures, and will fail, till life fails them. (Laughter and applause.) They are like the soldiers who run away from the best armies seeking to spread discomfiture, which exists only in those things they call their minds—(laughter)—and who returning to the cities say their comrades are defeated, or if they are not beaten, they should in their opinion be so. We have found, as we expected, that their tales are not worthy the credence even of the timid. (Applause.) There was not one person who had manfully faced the first difficulties—always far less than those to be encountered in the older Provinces—but said that he was getting on well and he was glad he had come, and he generally added that he believed his bit of the country must be the best, and that he only wished his friends could have the same good fortune, for his expectations were more than realised. (Cheers and laughter.) It is well to remember that the men who will succeed here, as in every young community, are usually the able-bodied, and that their entry on their new field of labour should be when the year is young. Men advanced in life and coming from the old country will find their comfort best consulted by the ready provided accommodation to be obtained by the purchase of a farm in the old Provinces. All that the settler in Manitoba would seem to require is, that he should look out for a locality where there is either good natural drainage, and ninety-nine hundredths of the country has this, and that he should be able readily to procure in Winnipeg, or elsewhere, some light pumps like those used in Abyssinia for the easy supply of water from a depth of a few feet below the surface. Alkali in the water will never hurt his cattle, and dykes of turf and the planting of trees would everywhere insure him and them the shelter that may be required. Five hundred dollars should be his own to spend on his arrival, if he wishes to farm. If he comes as an artisan he may, like the happy masons now to be found in Winnipeg, get the wages of a British Army Colonel, [1] by putting up houses as fast as brick, wood, and mortar can be got together. Favourable testimony as to the climate was everywhere given. The heavy night dews throughout the North-West keep the country green when everything is burned to the south, and the steady winter cold, although it sounds formidable when registered by the thermometer, is universally said to be far less trying than the cold to be encountered at the old English Puritan city of Boston, in Massachussets. It is the moisture in the atmosphere which makes cold tell, and the Englishman who, with the thermometer at zero, would, in his moist atmosphere, be shivering, would here find one flannel shirt sufficient clothing while working. I never like to make comparisons, and am always unwillingly driven to do so, although it seems to be the natural vice of the well-travelled Englishman. Over and over again in Canada have I been asked if such and such a bay was not wonderfully like the Bay of Naples, for the inhabitants had often been told so. I always professed to be unable to see the resemblance, of course entirely out of deference to the susceptibilities of the Italian nation. So one of our party, a Scotsman, whenever in the Rocky Mountains he saw some grand pyramid or gigantic rock, ten or eleven thousand feet in height, would exclaim that the one was the very image of Arthur's Seat and the other of Edinburgh Castle. With the fear of Ontario before my eyes I would therefore never venture to compare a winter here to those of our greatest Province, but I am bound to mention that when a friend of mine put the question to a party of sixteen Ontario men who had settled in the western portion of Manitoba, as to the comparative merits of the cold season in the two Provinces— fourteen of them voted for the Manitoba climate, and only two elderly men said that they preferred that of Toronto. You will therefore see how that which is sometimes called a very unequal criterion of right and justice, a large majority, determines this question. Now although we are at present in Manitoba, and Manitoba interests may dominate our thoughts, yet you may not object to listen for a few moments to our experience of the country which lies further to the west. To the present company the assertion may be a bold one, but they will be sufficiently tolerant to allow me to make it, if it goes no further, and I therefore say that we may seek for the main chance elsewhere than in Main street. The future fortunes of this country beyond this Province bear directly upon its prosperity. Although you may not be able to dig for four feet through the same character of black loam that you have here when you get to the country beyond Fort Ellice, yet in its main features it is the same right up to the forks of the Saskatchewan. I deeply regret that I was not able to visit Edmonton, which bids fair to rival any place in the North-West. Settlement is rapidly increasing there, and I met at Battleford one man who alone had commissions from ten Ontario farmers to buy for them at that place. Nothing can exceed the fertility and excellence of the land along almost the whole course of that great river, and to the north of it in the wide strip belting its banks and extending up to the Peace River, there will be room for a great population whose opportunities for profitable cultivation of the soil will be most enviable. The netting of wood of which I have spoken as covering all the prairie between Winnipeg and Battleford, is beyond that point drawn up upon the shores of the prairie sea, and lies in masses of fine forest in the gigantic half circle formed by the Saskatchewan and the Rockies. It is only in secluded valleys, on the banks of large lakes, and in river bottoms, that much wood is found in the Far West, probably owing to the prevalence of fires. These are easily preventible, and there is no reason why plantations should not flourish there in good situations as well as elsewhere. Before I leave the Saskatchewan, let me advert to the ease with which the steam navigation of that river can be vastly improved. At present there is only one boat at all worthy of the name of a river steamer upon it, and this steamer lies up during the night. A new company is, I am informed, now being organised, and there is no reason why, if the new vessels are properly equipped and furnished with electric lights, which may now be cheaply provided, they should not keep up a night and day service, so that the settlers at Prince Albert, Edmonton, and elsewhere, may not have, during another season, to suffer great privations incident to the wants of transportation which has loaded the banks of Grand Rapids during the present year with freight, awaiting steam transport The great cretaceous coal seams at the headwaters of the rivers which rise in the Rocky Mountains or in their neighbourhood and flow towards your doors, should not be forgotten. Although you have some coal in districts nearer to you, we should remember that on the headwaters of these streams there is plenty of the most excellent kind which can be floated down to you before you have a complete railway system. Want of time as well as a wish to see the less vaunted parts of the country took me southwestward from Battleford, over land which in many of the maps is variously marked as consisting of arid plains or as a continuation of the "American Desert." The newer maps, especially those containing the explorations of Professor Macoun, have corrected this wholly erroneous idea. For two days' march—that is to say, for about 60 or 70 miles south of Battleford—we passed over land whose excellence could not be surpassed for agricultural purposes. Thence to the neighbourhood of the Red Deer Valley the soil is lighter, but still in my opinion in most places good for grain—in any case most admirable for summer pasturage,—and it will certainly be good also for stock in winter as soon as it shall pay to have some hay stored in the valleys. The whole of it has been the favourite feeding ground of the buffalo. Their tracks from watering place to watering place, never too far apart from each other, were everywhere to be seen, while in very many tracks their dung lay so thickly that the appearance of the ground was only comparable to that of an English farmyard. Let us hope that the entre-acte will not be long before the disappearance of the buffalo on these scenes is followed by the appearance of domestic herds. The Red Deer Valley is especially remarkable as traversing a country where, according to the testimony of Indian chiefs travelling with us, snow never lies for more than three months, and the heavy growth of poplar in the bottoms, the quantity of the "bull" or high cranberry bushes, and the rich branches that hung from the choke-cherries showed us that we had come into that part of the Dominion which among the plainsmen is designated as "God's country." From this, onward to the Bow River and thence to the frontier line, the trail led through what will be one of the most valued of our Provinces, subject to those warm winds called the "chinooks." The settler will hardly ever use anything but wheeled vehicles during winter, and throughout a great portion of the land early sowing—or fall sowing-will be all that will be necessary to ensure him against early frosts. At Calgarry—a place interesting at the present time as likely to be upon that Pacific Railway line [2] which will connect you with the Pacific, and give you access to "that vast shore beyond the furthest sea," the shore of Asia—a good many small herds of cattle have been introduced within the last few years. During this year a magnificent herd of between six and seven thousand has been brought in, and the men who attended them and who came from Montana, Oregon and Texas, all averred that their opinion of their new ranche was higher than that of any with which they had been acquainted in the south. Excellent crops have been raised by men who had sown not only in the river bottoms, but also upon the so-called "bench" lands or plateaux above. This testimony was also given by others on the way to Fort Macleod and beyond it, thus closing most satisfactorily the song of praise we had heard from practical men throughout our whole journey of 1200 miles. Let me advert for one moment to some of the causes which have enabled settlers to enjoy in such peace the fruits of their industry. Chief amongst these must be reckoned the policy of kindness and justice which was inaugurated by the Hudson's Bay Company in their treatment of the Indians. Theirs is one of the cases in which a trader's association has upheld the maxim that "honesty is the best policy," even when you are dealing with savages. The wisdom and righteousness of their dealing on enlightened principles, which are fully followed out by their servants to-day, gave the cue to the Canadian Government. The Dominion through her Indian officers and her mounted constabulary is showing herself the inheritress of these traditions. She has been fortunate in organising the Mounted Police Force, a corps of whose services it would be impossible to speak too highly. A mere handful in that vast wilderness, they have at all times shown themselves ready to go anywhere and do anything. They have often had to act on occasions demanding the combined individual pluck and prudence rarely to be found amongst any soldiery, and there has not been a single occasion on which any member of the force has lost his temper under trying circumstances, or has not fulfilled his mission as a guardian of the peace. Severe journeys in winter and difficult arrests have had to be effected in the centre of savage tribes, and not once has the moral prestige which was in reality their only weapon, been found insufficient to cope with difficulties which, in America, have often baffled the efforts of whole columns of armed men. I am glad of this opportunity to name these men as well worthy of Canada's regard-as sons who have well maintained her name and fame. And now that you have had the patience to listen to me, and we have crossed the continent together, let me advise you as soon as possible to get up a branch Club-house, situated amongst our Rocky Mountains, where, during summer, your members may form themselves into an Alpine club and thoroughly enjoy the beautiful peaks and passes of our Alps. In the railway you will have a beautiful approach to the Pacific, The line, after traversing for days the plains, will come upon the rivers whose sheltering valleys have all much the same character. The river-beds are like great moats in a modern fortress-you do not see them till close upon them. As in the glacis and rampart of a fortress, the shot can search across the smoothed surfaces above the ditch, so any winds that may arise may sweep across the twin levels above the river fosses. The streams run coursing along the sunken levels in these vast ditches, which are sometimes miles in width. Sheltered by the undulating banks, knolls, or cliffs, which form the margin of their excavated bounds, are woods, generally of poplar, except in the northern and western fir fringe. On approaching the mountains their snow caps look like huge tents encamped along the rolling prairie. Up to this great camp, of which a length of 200 miles is sometimes visible, the rivers wind in trenches, looking like the covered ways by which siege works zig-zag up to a besieged city. On a nearer view the camp line changes to ruined marble palaces, and through their tremendous walls and giant woods you will soon be dashing on the train for a winter basking on the warm Pacific coast. You have a country whose value it would be insanity to question, and which, to judge from the emigration taking place from the older Provinces, will be indissolubly linked with them. It must support a vast population. If we may calculate from the progress we have already made in comparison with our neighbours, we shall have no reason to fear comparison with them on the new areas now open to us. We have now four million four hundred thousand people, and these, with the exception of the comparatively small numbers as yet in this Province, are restricted to the old area. Yet for the last ten years our increase has been over 18 per cent, whereas during the same period all the New England States taken together have shown an increase only of 15 per cent. In the last thirty years in Ohio the increase has been 61 per cent.—Ontario has seen during that space of time 101 per cent of increase, while Quebec has increased 52 per cent. Manitoba in ten years has increased 289 per cent, a greater rate than any hitherto attained, and to judge from this year's experience is likely to increase to an even more wonderful degree during the following decade. Statistics are at all times wearisome, but are not these full of hope? Are they not facts giving just ground for that pride in our progress which is conspicuous among our people, and ample reason for our belief that the future may be allowed to take care of itself. They who pour out prophecies of change, prescribing medicines for a sound body, are wasting their gifts and their time. It is among strangers that we hear such theories propounded by destiny men. With you the word "annexation" has in the last years only been heard in connection with the annexation of more territory to Manitoba. I must apologise to a Canadian audience for mentioning the word at all in any other connection. In America the annexation of this country is disavowed by all responsible leaders. As it was well expressed to me lately, the best men in the States desire only to annex the friendship and good will of Canada. (Loud cheers.) To be sure it may be otherwise with the camp followers; they often talk as if the swallowing and digestion of Canada by them were only a question of time, and of rising reason amongst us. How far the power of the camp followers extends it is not for us to determine. They have, however, shown that they are powerful enough to capture a few English writers, our modern minor prophets who, in little magazine articles, are fond of teaching the nations how to behave, whose words preach the superiority of other countries to their own, and the proximate dismemberment of that British Empire which has the honour to acknowledge them as citizens. They have with our American friends of whom I speak at all events one virtue in common, they are great speculators. In the case of our southern friends this is not a matter to be deplored by us, for American speculation has been of direct material benefit to Canada, and we must regret that our American citizens are not coming over to us so fast as are the Scotch, the Irish, the Germans, and the Scandinavians. Morally, also, it is not to be deplored that such speculations are made, for they show that it is thought that Canadians would form a useful though an unimportant wing for one of the great parties; and, moreover, such prophecies clothe with amusement "the dry bones" of discussion. But it is best always to take men as we find them, and not to believe that they will be different even if a kindly feeling, first for ourselves and afterwards for them, should make us desire to change them. Let us rather judge from the past and from the present than take flights, unguided by experience, into the imaginary regions of the future. What do we find has been, and is, the tendency of the peoples of this continent? Does not history show, and do not modern and existing tendencies declare, that the lines of cleavage among them lie along the lines of latitude? Men spread from east to west, and from east to west the political lines, which mean the lines of diversity, extend. The central spaces are, and will be yet more, the great centres of population. Can it be imagined that the vast central hives of men will allow the eastern or western seaboard people to come between them with separate empire, and shut them out in any degree from full and free intercourse with the markets of the world beyond them? Along the lines of longitude no such tendencies of division exist. The markets of the North Pole are not as yet productive, and with South America commerce is comparatively small. The safest conclusion, if conclusions are to be drawn at all, is that what has hitherto been, will, in the nature of things, continue,—that whatever separations exist will be marked by zones of latitude. For other evidence we must search in vain. Our county councils, the municipal corporations, the local provincial chambers, the central Dominion Parliament, and last not least, a perfectly unfettered press, are all free channels for the expression of the feelings of our citizens. Why is it that in each and all of these reflectors of the thoughts of men, we see nothing but determination to keep and develop the precious heritage we have in our own constitution, so capable of any development which the people may desire. (Cheers.) Let us hear Canadians if we wish to speak for them. These public bodies and the public press are the mouthpieces of the people's mind. Let us not say for them what they never say for themselves. It is no intentional misrepresentation, I believe, which has produced these curious examples of the fact that individual prepossessions may distort public proof. It reminds me of an interpretation once said to have been given by a bad interpreter of a speech delivered by a savage warrior, who, in a very dignified and extremely lengthy discourse, expressed the contentment of his tribe with the order and with the good which had been introduced amongst them by the law of the white man. His speech was long enough fully to impress with its meaning and its truth all who took pains to listen to him, and who could understand his language, but the interpreter had unfortunately different ideas of his own, and was displeased with his own individual treatment. When at last he was asked what the chief and his council had said in their eloquent orations, he turned round and only exclaimed,—"He dam displeased!" (Great laughter.) And what did his councillors say? "They dam displeased!" (Roars of laughter.) No, gentlemen, let each man in public or literary life in both nations do all that in him lies to cement their friendship, so essential for their mutual welfare. But this cannot be cemented by the publication of vain vaticinations. This great part of our great Empire has a natural and warm feeling for our republican brethren, whose fathers parted from us a century ago in anger and bloodshed. May this natural affection never die. It is like the love which is borne by a younger brother to an elder, so long as the big brother behaves handsomely and kindly. I may possibly know something of the nature of such affection, for as the eldest of a round dozen, I have had experience of the fraternal relation as exhibited by an unusual number of younger brothers. Never have I known that fraternal tie to fail, but even its strength has its natural limit, so Canada's affection may be measured. None of my younger brothers, however fond of me, would voluntarily ask that his prospects should be altogether overshadowed and swallowed up by mine. So Canada, if I may express her feelings in words which our neighbours understand, wishes to be their friend, but does not desire to become their food. She rejoices in the big brother's strength and status, but is not anxious to nourish it by offering up her own body in order that it may afford him, when over-hungry, that happy festival he is in the habit of calling a "square meal." (Loud laughter.) I must ask you now once more to allow me, gentlemen, to express my acknowledgments to you for this entertainment. It affords another indication of the feelings with which the citizens of Winnipeg regard any person who has the honour, as the head of the Canadian Government, to represent the Queen—(cheers)—you recognise in the Governor-General the sign and symbol of the union which binds together in one the free and kindred peoples whom God has set over famous isles and over fertile spaces of mighty continents. I have touched, in speaking to you, on certain vaticinations and certain advice given by a few good strangers to Canadians on the subject of the future of Canada. Gentlemen, I believe that Canadians are well able to take care themselves of their future, and the outside world had better listen to them instead of promulgating weak and wild theories of its own. (Loud applause.) But however uncertain, and I may add, foolish may be such forecasts, of one thing we may be sure, which is this, that the country you call Canada, and which your sons and your children's children will be proud to know by that name, is a land which will be a land of power among the nations. (Cheers.) Mistress of a zone of territory favourable for the maintenance of a numerous and homogeneous white population, Canada must, to judge from the increase in her strength during the past, and from the many and vast opportunities for the growth of that strength on her new Provinces in the future, be great and worthy her position on the earth. Affording the best and safest highway between Asia and Europe, she will see traffic from both directed to her coasts. With a hand upon either ocean she will gather from each for the benefit of her hardy millions a large share of the commerce of the world. To the east and to the west she will pour forth of her abundance, her treasures of food and the riches of her mines and of her forests, demanded of her by the less fortunate of mankind. I esteem those men favoured indeed, who, in however slight a degree, have had the honour, or may be yet called upon to take part in the councils of the statesmen who, in this early era of her history, are moulding this nation's laws in the forms approved by its representatives. For me, I feel that I can be ambitious of no higher title than to be known as one who administered its Government in thorough sympathy with the hopes and aspirations of its first founders, and in perfect consonance with the will of its free parliament. (Cheers.) I ask for no better lot than to be remembered by its people as rejoicing in the gladness born of their independence and of their loyalty. I desire no other reputation than that which may belong to him who sees his own dearest wishes in process of fulfilment, in their certain progress, in their undisturbed peace, and in their ripening grandeur. (Cheers.)

[1] Masons wages had risen to an extraordinary height in the Autumn of 1881. Excellent pay can now be obtained by bricklayers, carpenters, and blacksmiths.

[2] The Canadian Pacific Railway has now been completed to a valley in the Rocky Mountains beyond Calgarry, through which place it passes.



A Monsieur le Prsident et Messieurs les Membres de l'Association de St. Jean Baptiste de Manitoba.

Messieurs,—J'ai l'honneur de vous remercier au nom de sa majest des sentiments de loyaut que vous venez d'exprimer.

C'est pour moi un plaisir d'entendre exprimer des sentiments de dvouement au trne, de quelque race qu'ils proviennent, soit de la bouche de Canadiens-frangais, d'Anglais, d'Ecossais, de Canadiens-irlandais ou de Canadiens d'origine quelconque.

Les gloires de chaque race aujourd'hui reprsente au Manitoba se confondent dans la gloire commune de la nation Canadienne. Que chacune d'elles conserve prcieusement ses associations historiques! Elles sont en effet autant de motifs d'encouragement travailler augmenter la force et la valeur de la nation entire, une et indivisible. A l'avenir, votre rivalit ne consistera que dans la sainte rivalit de votre dvouement Dieu et au grand pays qu'il vous a octroy dans notre puissance du Canada.

C'est un Canadien-franais que revient la gloire d'avoir le premier explor notre pays. Qu'il revienne aux descendants de cette race de cimenter leur union avec nos diverses races, et de leur donner ainsi de la force. Un Canadien-francais me disait tout dernirement Qubec: "Ma famille a souvent vers de son sang en combattant les Anglais." Je lui rpondis: "Oui, monsieur, et ma propre famille en a vers encore bien plus en les combattant, car nous les avons combattus pendant plus de trois sicles." L'histoire de vos anctres est aussi glorieuse que celle de l'Ecosse ou de l'Angleterre.

L'accueil que vous me faites comme chef du gouvernement fdral et comme reprsentant sa majest la reine, me convainc que le jour de la St. Jean Baptiste est clbr par vous comme le sont les ftes de St. Georges, St. Andr et St. Patrice. Ce sera une fte qui clbrera en mme temps les traditions de la race, de la foi, et l'inconqurable rsolution d'affermir notre population dans une fraternit chrtienne et une nationalit anime de sentiments chrtiens.



In reply to the Archbishop of St. Boniface, Winnipeg.

Monseigneur et Messieurs,—J'ai l'honneur d'accuser rception de votre gracieuse adresse, renouvelant l'expression de vos sentiments de loyaut envers la couronne, et de vous assurer que j'en apprcie la sincrit du fond de mon coeur.

Son loquence exprime, en termes qui prennent leur source dans le coeur, le devoir qui a t enseign et pratiqu parmi vous, par des prdicateurs loquents et des missionnaires hroques.

Vos paroles remarquables seront transmises la reine. Tout rcemment encore, sa majest me faisait part du plaisir qu'elle avait ressenti, en prenant connaissance des paroles prononces par des hommes distingus de la province de Qubec, lors de l'rection du monument la mmoire du Colonel de Salaberry.

Ce monument, digne de l'art canadien, a t rig en l'honneur d'un des enfants les plus illustres du Canada. Dou d'une force physique qui aurait fait envi aux preux Paladins de Roncevaux, le Colonel de Salaberry mit toute son nergie et sa force au service de son pays, et contribua repousser l'ennemi qui menaait l'intgrit de l'Empire Britannique en attaquant le Canada.

Permettez-moi de vous remercier aussi de tout mon coeur de ce que vous avez dit l'gard de la Princesse, qui espre tre de retour au Canada la fin d'octobre. J'aurais voulu qu'elle et pu prendre part la rception qui m'est faite St. Boniface. Non seulement cette rception me cause une vive satisfaction, mais elle m'inspire le plus grand intrt.

St. Boniface est le berceau de ce Canada plus grand que l'ancien. Sous les auspices de l'Eglise, les Canadiens-franais sont venus ici et ont fond une communaut heureuse et prospre. Leurs compatriotes des provinces de l'est peuvent tre certains que, sous les mmes auspices, leurs enfants trouveront ici les mmes bienfaits de l'ducation qui les guidera dans la vie.

De nombreux Canadiens quittent la province de Qubec pour se diriger vers le sud; ils abandonnent la vie saine des champs, et le bonheur de vivre avec leurs compatriotes pour la vie malsaine des manufactures sur la terre trangre. Un certain nombre d'entre eux songent rentrer au pays aprs des annes d'absence, mais il leur serait incomparablement plus avantageux, tous, de se diriger, de suite, vers les plaines du Nord-Ouest Canadien, o la fertilit du sol leur assurerait un avenir facile.

J'ai rencontr sur la ligne du chemin de fer, prs du Portage du Rat, plusieurs de vos compatriotes qui sont occups l'achvement de cette grande et importante oeuvre nationale. Tous m'ont donn entendre qu'ils avaient crit leurs amis, pour leur conseiller de venir s'tablir Manitoba. Ils ajoutaient que, quant eux-mmes, leur unique but tait de se procurer des terrains dans cette nouvelle et fertile province.

Je remercie votre grandeur et vous messieurs du clerg de St. Boniface, de l'accueil si bienveillant que vous me faites; je me compte, volontiers, au premier rang de ceux qui se plaisent reconnatre le prix du prcieux lment fourni notre population par la race Gauloise.



An address having been presented by the Board of Management of the Manitoba College, the following was His Excellency's reply:

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF MANAGEMENT OF THE MANITOBA COLLEGE:— Gentlemen,—Let me thank you for your welcome. The wise experiment made in your confederation of colleges has been watched by all who take an interest in education. It has made Manitoba as famous among men of thought as its wheat and other produce have rendered it well known among men interested in agriculture.

Your example will probably be followed in the older Provinces, for where universities are not generally supported by the various denominations, and these separate themselves too definitely, it is difficult to secure that large number of students, which it is necessary to have, if a university is to attract the best men.

It was at a College in Ontario such as this that I first saw in practice that wise toleration and determination to unite for the common good which has guided you. I saw there the clergy of all denominations uniting in prayer, at a ceremony such as the present, celebrating the erection of new buildings for a college, free to all, but under Presbyterian direction. The same enlightened feeling has prevailed in the west, where, having a free course, you have instituted a university to which all colleges are affiliated.

Where States are ancient and the habits of men settled deep in old grooves, the efforts made by an individual and the movement of thought, may have but little apparent effect. Hearts may be broken over seemingly useless work, for the ways of the people are formed and custom precludes change. Here in a new land, with a people spreading everywhere over the country whose value has only so lately been realised, you enjoy the more fortunate lot of being able to trace for the communities the outlines of their future life. It is this which makes these first steps of such incalculable importance. Each touch you give will give shape and form and make a lasting impression, and your hands labour at no hard and inductile mass. It is a real satisfaction to me that I am able to be present at a meeting which marks a fresh advance in the status of a college organised in connection with the University of Manitoba, and I thank you for the invitation you have given me.

Not even the constant exhibition of huge roots, tall heads of wheat, and gigantic potatoes and monster onions at the fairs in the eastern Provinces can do more to make Manitoba a temptation to settlers, than the proof you afford that their children shall be thoroughly educated by men belonging to the churches of which they are members, and in sympathy with their desires and hopes.

Where civil government is so perfect, where religious instruction and toleration are so well taught, and where education is prized even above the wonderful material prosperity guaranteed by the rich plains around you, men may be certain that they can choose no fairer land for themselves and for their children.

Before leaving Fort Shaw, Montana, September 1881, the members of the Mounted Police, who had accompanied the party for seven weeks, were paraded under command of Major Crozier, at His Excellency's request, who in bidding them farewell said:—

Officers, non commissioned officers and men,—Our long march is over, and truly sorry we feel that it is so. I am glad that its last scene is to take place in this American fort where we have been so courteously and hospitably received. That good fellowship which exists between soldiers is always to the fullest extent shown between you and our kind friends. This perfect understanding is to be expected, for both our Empires, unlike some others, send out to their distant frontier posts not their worst, but some of their very best men. I have asked for this parade this morning to take leave of you, and to express my entire satisfaction at the manner in which your duties have been performed. You have been subject to some searching criticism, for on my staff are officers who have served in the cavalry, artillery, and infantry. Their unanimous verdict is to the effect that they have never seen work better, more willingly, or more smartly done while under circumstances of some difficulty caused by bad weather or otherwise. Your appearance on parade was always as clean and bright and, soldier-like as possible. Your force is often spoken of in Canada as one of which Canada is justly proud. It is well that this pride is so fully justified, for your duties are most important and varied. You must always act as guardians of the peace. There may be occasions also in which you may have to act as soldiers, and sometimes in dealing with our Indian fellow-subjects you may have to show the mingled prudence, kindness, and firmness which constitute a diplomat. You have, with a force at present only 250 [1] strong, to keep order in a country whose fertile, wheat-growing area is reckoned about 250 million of acres. The perfect confidence in the maintenance of the authority of the law prevailing over these vast territories, a confidence most necessary with the settlement now proceeding, show how thoroughly you have done your work. It will be with the greatest pleasure that I shall convey to the Prime Minister my appreciation of your services, and the satisfaction we have all had in having you with us as our escort and companions throughout the journey.

[1] The number of the North West Mounted Police was raised in 1882 to 500 men.



A Society was founded by Lord Lorne, in 1882, for the encouragement of Science and Literature. Divided into sections, it was designed to furnish to Canada what the French Academy and the British Association give to Great Britain. At its first meeting, which took place in the Senate Chamber, he opened the proceedings with these remarks:— Gentlemen,—These few words I do not address to you, presuming to call myself one of your brotherhood, either in science or literature, but I speak to you as one whose accidental official position may enable him to serve you, persuaded as I am that the furtherance of your interests is for the benefit and honour of Canada. Let me briefly state the object aimed at In the institution of this society. Whether it be possible that our hopes be fulfilled according to our expectation the near future will show. But from the success which has attended similar associations in other lands possessed of less spirit, energy, and opportunity than our own, there is no reason to augur ill of the attempt to have here a body of men whose achievements may entitle them to recognise and encourage the appearance of merit in literature, and to lead in science and the useful application of its discoveries. It is proposed, then, that this society shall consist of a certain number of members who have made their mark by their writings, whether these be of imagination or the study of nature. In one division our fellow-countrymen, descended from the stock of old France, will discuss with that grace of diction and appreciation of talent, which is so conspicuous amongst them, all that may affect their literature and the maintenance of the purity of that grand language from which the English is largely derived. They well know how to pay compliments to rising authors, and how with tact and courtesy to crown the aspirants to the honours they will bestow. Among Englishmen of letters the grant of such formal marks of recognition by their brethren has not as yet become popular or usual, and it may be that it never will become a custom. On the other hand, it surely will be a pleasure to a young author, if, after a perusal of his thoughts, they who are his co-workers and successful precursors in the wide domain of poetry, fiction, or of history, should see fit to award him an expression of thanks for his contribution to the intellectual delight or to the knowledge of his time. They only, whose labours have met with the best reward—the praise of their contemporaries—can take the initiative in such a welcome to younger men, and whatever number may hereafter be elected to this society, it is to be desired that no man be upon its lists who has not by some original and complete work justified his selection. The meeting together of our eminent men will contribute to unite on a common ground those best able to express the thoughts and illustrate the history of the time. It will serve to strengthen emulation among us, for the discussion of progress made in other lands, will breed the desire to push the intellectual development of our own. We may hope that this union will promote the completion of the national collections which, already fairly representative in geology, may hereafter include archives, paintings, and objects illustrating ethnology and all branches of Natural History. In science we have men whose names are widely known, and the vast field for study and exploration afforded by this magnificent country may be expected to reward, by valuable discoveries, the labours of the geologist and mineralogist. It would be out of place in these few sentences to detail the lines of research which have already engaged your attention. They will be spoken of in the record of your proceedings. Among those, the utility of which must be apparent to all, one may be particularly mentioned. I refer to the meteorological observations, from which have been derived the storm warnings which during the last few years have saved many lives. A comparatively new science has thus been productive of results known to all our population and especially to seamen. Here I have only touched upon one or two subjects in the wide range of study which will occupy the time and thoughts of one half of your membership, devoted as two of your four sections will be to geological and biological sciences. It will be your province to aid and encourage the workers in their acquisition of knowledge of that nature, each of whose secrets may become the prize of him who shall make one of her mysteries the special subject of thought. America already bids fair to rival France and Germany in the number of her experts. Canada may certainly have her share in producing those men whose achievements in science have more than equalled in fame the triumphs of statesmen. These last labour only for one country, while the benefits of the discoveries of science are shared by the world. But widely different as are the qualities which develop patriotism and promote science, yet I would call to the aid of our young association the love of country, and ask Canadians to support and gradually to make as perfect as possible this their national society. Imperfections there must necessarily be at first in its constitution—omissions in membership and organisation there may be. Such faults may hereafter be avoided. Our countrymen will recognise that in a body of gentlemen drawn from all our provinces and conspicuous for their ability, there will be a centre around which to rally. They will see that the welfare and strength of growth of this association shall be impeded by no small jealousies, no carping spirit of detraction, but shall be nourished by a noble motive common to the citizens of the republic of letters and to the student of the free world of Nature, namely: the desire to prove that their land is not insensible to the glory which springs from numbering among its sons those whose success becomes the heritage of mankind. I shall not now further occupy your time, which will be more worthily used in listening to the addresses of the presidents and of those gentlemen who for this year have consented to take the chair at the meetings of the several sections.



At San Francisco, in 1882, the following reply was given to the British Residents:—

Gentlemen,—Our heartfelt thanks are due to you for the welcome given to us, a welcome whose expression is embodied in this beautifully decorated address. It echoes the loyal sentiments which remain predominant among those, who, wherever their business may cause them to reside, remember that they have been born under our British freedom. We shall gladly keep our gift in recollection of a visit to one of America's foremost cities, where the kindly feelings of our cousins have been shown in the generous hospitality which they are ever ready to extend to the stranger. With you whose interests are bound up with the greatness of California, and with the gigantic trade of the United States, we can cordially sympathise. Connected as we are for a time with the fortunes of the sister land of Canada, we know how much the welfare of the one country is affected by the good of the other; how the evil that falls on one must affect the other also. Our blood makes us brothers, and our interests make us partners. Our governments are engaged in the same task, and from experience there is no reason to think otherwise than that they will be allowed to work in that perfect harmony which is essential for their peace and for the peace of the world. They are arching the continent with two zones of civilisation; with light, not of one colour, but equally replacing the former darkness, and the harmony between them is as natural as is the relation in the rainbow of the separate hues of red and azure. Your presence here shows how our commerce is interwoven. In crossing the continent and marvelling at the wealth and power shown by every city of this mighty people, it is a pride to think how much of all they have is theirs by virtue of British and Irish blood; and when here and at New York, we reach the ports supplying this vast population, we find in the flags borne by the shipping, proof that it is still the old country that in the main ministers to and is benefited by the progress of her children.



At Victoria, in British Columbia, in 1882, at a public dinner in his honour, the Governor-General said:—

Mr. Mayor and Council,—It is, I assure you, with more than common feelings of gratitude that I rise to ask you to accept my acknowledgments and thanks for this evening's entertainment. The reception the Princess and I have met with in Victoria, and throughout British Columbia, will long live in our memory as one of the brightest episodes of a time which has been made delightful to us by the heartfelt loyalty of the people of our Canadian provinces. Nowhere has the contentment insured by British institutions been more strongly expressed than on these beautiful shores of the Pacific. I am rejoiced to observe signs that the days are now passed when we had to look upon this community as one too remote and too sundered from the rest to share to the full the rapid increase of prosperity which has been so remarkable since the Union. Attracted at first by the capricious temptations of the gold mines, your valleys were inundated by a large population. It was not to be anticipated that this could last, and although population declined with the temporary decrease of mining, it is evident that the period of depression in this, as in every other matter, has been passed. (Applause.) I have everywhere seen signs that a more stable, and therefore more satisfactory, emigration has set in. Victoria has made of late a decided start. I visited with much pleasure many of the factories which witness to this, and I hope before I leave to have made a still more exhaustive examination of the establishments which are rapidly rising among you. That the wares produced by these are appreciated beyond the limits of the city is very evident throughout the Province, where cleanliness is insured by Victoria soap, and comfort, or at least contentment and consolation, by Kurtz's Victoria cigars. (Loud laughter and applause.) No words can be too strong to express the charm of this delightful land, where a climate softer and more constant than that of the south of England ensures at all times of the year a full enjoyment of the wonderful loveliness of nature around you. There is no doubt that any Canadian who visits this island and the mainland shores and sees the happiness of the people, the forest laden coast, the tranquil gulfs and glorious mountains, can but congratulate himself that his country possesses scenes of such perfect beauty. (Applause.) We who have been much touched by the warmth of your welcome will, I am sure, sympathise with the desire which will be felt by every travelled Canadian in the future, that every alternate year at least the Dominion Parliament should meet at New Westminster, Nanaimo, or in Victoria. (Laughter and applause.) Where men seem to live with such comfort, regret will inevitably arise that you have as yet so few to share your good fortune. Though your contribution to the revenue is at least a million dollars, there are only twenty thousand white men over the three hundred and fifty thousand square miles of Province. Various causes, the most formidable of these being physical, have hitherto contributed to this. The physical difficulties, tremendous as they are, are being rapidly conquered There is no cause why any of a different character should not be surmounted with an equal success. What is wanted to effect this object is only cordial co-operation with the central Government. (Cheers.) There was perhaps a time when the Governor-General would not have been regarded, in his official capacity at all events, with as much favour as I flatter myself may now be the case. (Applause.) No wonder that the feeling is changed, now that the circumstances are better understood, for I challenge any one to mention any example in which a government, ruling over a comparatively small population of four and a half millions, has ever done as much as has the Canadian Government to insure for its furthest Provinces the railway communication which is an essential for the development of the resources of the land. (Cheering.) Mr. Francis [1] will back me, I am certain, when I say that the United States, with a population of fifteen or twenty millions, when California was first settled in 1849, did not push the railway through to the Pacific Coast in the vigorous manner in which the Canadian Government is now doing. (Loud cheers.) I have full confidence that you will see that policy of enterprise and of justice nobly carried out. Early promises, if made too hastily, showed that if there was profound ignorance of the physical geography of your country, there was at all events profound goodwill. Later events have proved that in spite of all obstacles "where there is a will there is a way." Pride in national feeling has made the country strain every nerve to bind still further with the sentiment of confidence the unity of the Confederation. (Applause.) Where is now the old talk which we used to hear from a few of the faint-hearted of a change in destiny or of annexation? (Cheers.) It does not exist. To be sure, here I have heard some vague terror expressed, but it is a terror which I have heard expressed among our friends on the American Pacific Slope also, and it is to the effect that annexation must soon take place to the Celestial Empire. (Great laughter.) Well, gentlemen, I fully sympathise with this fear. None of us like to die before our time, but I will suggest to you, from the healthy signs and vitality I see around me, that your time has not yet come. Your object now is to live, and for that purpose to get your enterprises and your railways as part of your assets. (Applause.) The rest will follow in time, but at the present moment we must concern ourselves with practical politics. Let us look beyond this Island and beyond even those difficult mountains, and see what our neighbours and friends to the south of us are about. An army of workmen—exactly double that now employed in this Province—are driving with a speed that seems wonderful a railway through to the coast. In another year or two a large traffic, encouraged by the competition in freights between it, the Central and the Southern Pacific will have been acquired. You are, by the very nature of things, heavily handicapped here, and a trade, as you know, once established is not easily rivalled. Take care that you are in the market for this competition at as early a day as possible. When you are as rich as California, and have as many public works as Queensland, it may be time for you to reconsider your position. There is no reason ultimately to doubt that the population attracted to you as soon as you have a line through the mountains, will be the population which we most desire to have—a people like that of the old Imperial Islands, drawn from the strongest races of northern Europe,—one that with English, American, Irish, German, French and Scandinavian blood shall be a worthy son of the old Mother of Nations. (Loud applause.) Only last week, in seven days, no less than 900 people came to San Francisco by the overland route from the East. Your case will be the same if with "a strong pull and a pull altogether" you get your public works completed. I have spoken of your being pretty heavily handicapped. In saying this, I refer to the agricultural capabilities of the Province alone. Of course you have nothing like the available land that the central Provinces possess, yet it seems to me you have enough for all the men who are likely to come to you for the next few years as farmers or owners of small ranches. (Applause.) The climate of the interior for at least one hundred miles north of the boundary line has a far shorter winter than that of most of Alberta or Arthabaska. Losses of crops from early frosts or of cattle from severe weather are unknown to the settlers of your upper valleys. In these—and I wish there were more of these valleys—all garden produce and small fruits can be cultivated with the greatest success. For men possessing from 200 to 600 a year, I can conceive no more attractive occupation than the care of cattle or a cereal farm within your borders. (Loud applause.) Wherever there is open land, the wheat crops rival the best grown elsewhere, while there is nowhere any dearth of ample provision of fuel and lumber for the winter. (Renewed applause.) As you get your colonisation roads pushed and the dykes along the Fraser River built, you will have a larger available acreage, for there are quiet straths and valleys hidden away among the rich forests which would provide comfortable farms. As in the north-west last year, so this year I have taken down the evidence of settlers, and this has been wonderfully favourable. To say the truth, I was rather hunting for grumblers, and found only one! He was a young man of super-sensitiveness from one of our comfortable Ontario cities, and he said he could not bear this country. Anxious to come at the truth, and desiring to search to the bottom of things, we pressed him as to the reason. "Did he know of any cases of misery? Had he found starving settlers?" The reply was re-assuring, for he said, "No; but I don't like it. Nobody in this country walks; everybody rides!" (Laughter.) You will be happy to hear that he is going back to Ontario. Let me now allude, in a very few words, to those points which may be mentioned as giving you exceptional advantages. If you are handicapped in the matter of land in comparison with the Provinces of the Plains, you are certainly not so with regard to climate. (Cheering.) Agreeable as I think the steady and dry cold of an Eastern winter, yet there are very many who would undoubtedly prefer the temperature enjoyed by those who live west of the mountains. Even where it is coldest, spring comes in February, and the country is so divided into districts of greater dryness or greater moisture, that a man can always choose whether to have a rainfall small or great. I hope I am not wearying you in dwelling on these points, for my only excuse in making these observations is, that I have learnt that the interior is to many on the island as much a terra incognita as it was to me. I can partly understand this after seeing the beautifully engineered road which was constructed by Mr. Trutch, for although I am assured it is as safe as a church—(laughter)—I can very well understand that it is pleasanter for many of the ladies to remain in this beautiful island than to admire the grandeur of the scenery in the gorges. As you have adopted protection in your politics, perhaps it would not be presumptuous in me to suggest that you should adopt protection also in regard to your precipices—(great laughter)—and that should the waggon road be continued in use, a few Douglas firs might be sacrificed to make even more perfect that excellent road in providing protection at the sides. Besides the climate, which is so greatly in your favour, you have another great advantage in the tractability and good conduct of the Indian population. (Applause.) I believe I have seen the Indians of almost every tribe throughout the Dominion, and nowhere can you find any who are so trustworthy in regard to conduct—(hear, hear)—so willing to assist the white settlers by their labour, so independent and anxious to learn the secret of the white man's power. (Applause.) Where elsewhere constant demands are met for assistance; your Indians have never asked for any, for in the interviews given to the Chiefs their whole desire seemed to be for schools and schoolmasters, and in reply to questions as to whether they would assist themselves in securing such institutions, they invariably replied that they would be glad to pay for them. (Loud applause.) It is certainly much to be desired that some of the funds apportioned for Indian purposes, be given to provide them fully with schools in which Industrial Education may form an important item. (Hear, hear.) But we must not do injustice to the wilder tribes. Their case is totally different from that of your Indians. The buffalo was everything to the nomad. It gave him house, fuel, clothes, and thread. The disappearance of this animal left him starving. Here, on the contrary, the advent of the white men has never diminished the food supply of the native. He has game in abundance, for the deer are as numerous now as they ever have been. He has more fish than he knows what to do with, and the lessons in farming that you have taught him have given him a source of food supply of which he was previously ignorant. Throughout the interior it will probably pay well in the future to have flocks of sheep. The demand for wool and woollen goods will always be very large among the people now crowding in such numbers to those regions which our official world as yet calls the North-West, but which is the North-East and East to you. There is no reason why British Columbia should not be for this portion of our territory what California is to the States in the supply afforded of fruits. (Hear, hear.) The perfection attained by small fruits is unrivalled, and it is only with the Peninsula of Ontario that you would have to compete for the supplies of grapes, peaches, pears, apples, cherries, plums, apricots, and currants. Every stick in these wonderful forests which so amply and generously clothe the Sierras from the Cascade range to the distant Rocky mountains, will be of value as communication opens up. The great arch of timber lands beginning on the west of Lake Manitoba, circles round to Edmonton and comes down along the mountains so as to include the whole of your Province. Poplar alone for many years must be the staple wood of the lands to the south of the Saskatchewan, and your great opportunity lies in this, that you can give the settlers of the whole of that region as much of the finest timber in the world as they can desire, while cordwood cargoes will compete with the coal of Alberta. (Loud cheers.) Coming down in our survey to the coast we come upon ground familiar to you all, and you all know how large a trade already exists with China and Australia in wood, and how capable of almost indefinite expansion is this commerce. Your forests are hardly tapped, and there are plenty more logs, like one I saw cut the other day at Burrard Inlet, of forty inches square and ninety and one hundred feet in length, down to sticks which could be used as props for mines or as cordwood for fuel. The business which has assumed such large proportions along the Pacific shore of the canning of salmon, great as it is, is as yet almost in its infancy, for there is many a river swarming with fish from the time of the first run of salmon in spring to the last run of other varieties in the autumn, on which many a cannery is sure to be established. Last, but certainly not least in the list of your resources, comes your mineral and chiefly your coal treasure. (Applause.) The coal from the Nanaimo mines now leads the market at San Francisco. Nowhere else in these countries is such coal to be found, and it is now being worked with an energy which bids fair to make Nanaimo one of the chief mining stations on the continent. It is of incalculable importance not only to this Province of the Dominion, but also to the interests of the Empire, that our fleets and mercantile marine as well as the continental markets should be supplied from this source. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) Where you have so good a list of resources it may be almost superfluous to add another, but I would strongly advise you to cultivate the attractions held out to the travelling public by the magnificence of your scenery. (Cheers.) Let this country become what Switzerland is for Europe in the matter of good roads to places which may be famed for their beauty, and let good and clean hotels attract the tourist to visit your grand valleys and marvellous mountain ranges. Choose some district, and there are many from which you can choose, where trout and salmon abound, and where sport may be found among the deer and with the wild fowl. Select some portion of your territory where pines and firs shroud in their greatest richness the giant slopes, and swarm upwards to glacier, snow field, and craggy peak, and where in the autumn the maples seem as though they wished to mimic in hanging gardens the glowing tints of the lava that must have streamed down the precipices of these old volcanoes. (Loud cheering.) Wherever you find these beauties in greatest perfection, and where the river torrents urge their currents most impetuously through the Alpine gorges, there I would counsel you to set apart a region which shall be kept as a national park. In doing so you can follow the example of our southern friends,—an example which, I am sure Mr. Francis will agree with me, we cannot do better than imitate, and you would secure that they who make the round trip from New York or Montreal shall return from San Francisco, or come thence via the Canadian Pacific Railroad. (Loud and continued applause.) I thought it might interest you, gentlemen, this evening to hear the last news regarding that Railway, and therefore I should like to read to you a letter received only a day or two ago from the engineer in chief, Major Rogers. You will see he speaks hopefully and assuringly: "I have found the desired pass through the Selkirks, it lying about twenty miles east of the forks of the Ille-cille-want and about two miles north of the main east branch of the same. Its elevation above sea level is about 4500 feet, or about 1000 feet lower than the pass across the Rockies. The formation of the country, from the summits of the Selkirks to the Columbia river, has been much misrepresented. Instead of the solid mass of mountain, as reported, there are two large valleys lying within these limits. The Beaver river, which empties into the Columbia river about twenty miles below the Black-berry (or Howse Pass route), rises south of the fifty-first parallel (I have not seen its source, but have seen its valley for that distance), and the Spellamacheen runs nearly parallel with the Beaver but in an opposite direction, and lies between the Beaver and the Columbia. I have great hope of being able to take with me this fall the results of a preliminary survey of this route. It necessarily involves heavy work, as must any short line across the mountains, a condition which will be readily accepted in consideration of the material shortening of the route."

This is the last news, and I hope we shall hear of its full corroboration before long. I beg, gentlemen, to thank you once more for your exceeding kindness, and for all the kindness shown us since our arrival. I have always been a firm friend of British Columbia, and I hope before I leave the country to see still greater progress made towards meeting your wishes.

[1] The United States Consul.



At a meeting of the National Rifle Association, held at Ottawa, 8th March 1883, His Excellency, spoke as follows:—

I believe all who value those qualities which lead to good rifle-shooting—steadiness and sobriety—and this means every family in the country, the father and mother, as well as the young men belonging to it, should give their ten cents or twenty-five cents, as they can afford it, to swell the funds of the association. As this association thus encourages personal, as well as a military training, it merits the support of all classes. We know that the amount of personal training that is required produces a love of temperance among those who attend the meetings of the association, and we know that by the military training given, a military sentiment is developed, which makes men at least not averse to discipline in moderation. It has been said by my predecessor, and I agree with the remark, that Canada is certainly the most democratic country upon the North American continent, but we know that although everybody may have been born equal, yet that equality suddenly and mysteriously disappears as soon as the schoolboy goes upon the school bench, or the rifleman goes upon the rifle ground. The militiamen of Canada show that a democratic people do not tolerate unearned superiority, but recognise the superiority given by training. I cannot let this opportunity pass without saying a last word as to the point of view from which I regard the importance of militia training in Canada. It is more perhaps from the point of view of an Imperial officer than from that of a man temporarily holding a Canadian civil appointment. There is a certain amount of feeling in this country that our whole militia force is a mere matter of fuss and feathers, of "playing at soldiers" in fact. I think that is always a most unfortunate feeling, because I cannot say how anxiously in the old country those steps are watched by which Canadians perfect themselves for purposes of self-defence. Englishmen know that in case of any trouble arising, which I hope not to see, and do not believe we shall see, they are bound and pledged to come to your assistance. The question must necessarily be asked, With what army are they to operate? with one that will be of real assistance, or with one that will have no more cohesion than that which fell under the organised blows of the Prussian army before Orleans? I can always point to the efforts made in Canada before my time to have an organised system of military training. I can point to the grants given by the Government for the encouragement of individual and regimental proficiency in rifle shooting. I can point also to the military schools for the militia which are being founded, and to the steps which are to be taken that officers shall always have some training received from those schools before they undertake the responsibility of leading their fellow-citizens in the ranks. I can point also to that splendid institution, the Military College at Kingston, and I can certainly say to the old country people, that should any misfortune arise that should compel us to operate together, they will in time find in Canada officers who will be perfectly able and ready to lead men, who from their physical powers and from their military sentiments and from their hardihood are likely, under proper training and guidance, to form some of the best troops in the world. (Loud cheers.)



At the Second Meeting of the Royal Society, at Ottawa, May 1883, the Governor-General said:—

Mr. President, Mr. Vice-President, and Members of the Royal Society of Canada,—When we met last year, and formally inaugurated a society for the encouragement of literature and science in Canada, an experiment was tried. As with all experiments, its possible success was questioned by some who feared that the elements necessary for such an organisation were lacking. Our meeting of this year assumes a character which an inaugural assembly could not possess. The position we took in asserting that the time had come for the institution of such a union of the scientific and literary men of this country has been established as good, not only by the honourable name accorded to us by Her Majesty, a designation never lightly granted, but also by that without which we could not stand, namely, the public favour extended to our efforts. Parliament has recognised the earnest purpose and happy co-operation with which you have met and worked in unison, knowing that the talents exhibited are not those of gold and silver only, and has stamped with its approbation your designs by voting a sum of money, which in part will defray the expense of printing your transactions. And here, in speaking of this as a business meeting, I would venture to remind you, and all friends of this society throughout the country, that the $5000 annually voted by the House of Commons will go but a very short way in preparing a publication which shall fully represent Canada to the foreign scientific bodies of the world. We have only to look to the Federal and State Legislatures of America to see what vast sums are annually expended in the States for scientific research. We see there also how the proceeds of noble endowments are annually utilised for the free dissemination of knowledge. It is, therefore, not to be supposed that the comparatively small parallel assistance provided by any Government can absolve wealthy individuals from the patriotic duty of bequeathing or of giving to such a national society the funds, without which it cannot usefully exist. You will forgive me, as one who may be supposed to have a certain amount of the traditional economical prudence of his countrymen, for mentioning one other matter on which, at all events, in the meantime, a saving can be effected. While it is necessary to have accurate and finely executed engravings of beautiful drawings for the illustration of scientific papers, it is necessary that the printing of the transactions should occasion as little cost as possible; and I believe you will find it advisable for the present that each paper shall be printed only in that language in which its author has communicated it to the society. Your position is rather a peculiar one, for although you work for the benefit of the public, it is not to be expected that the public can understand all you say when your speech is of science in consultation with each other. The public will therefore, I trust, be in the position of those who are willing to pay their physicians when they meet in consultation, without insisting that every word the doctors say to each other shall be repeated in the hearing of all men. When funds increase, it seems to me that the economy it will probably now be necessary to exercise in regard to this may be discarded.

In the sections dealing with literature it is proposed to establish a reading committee, whose duty it shall be to report on the publications of the year, that our thanks may be given to the authors who advance the cause of literature among us. To assist in that most necessary enterprise, the formation of a national museum, circulars have been addressed by the society to men likely to have opportunities for the collection of objects of interest, and the Hudson Bay Company's officers have been foremost in promoting our wishes. The Government is now prepared to house all objects sent to the secretary of the Royal Society at Ottawa, and contributions for collections of archives, of antiquities, of zoology, and of all things of interest are requested. I rejoice, gentlemen, that I have been able to be with you now; that a year has elapsed since our incorporation, as this period allows us in some measure to judge of our future prospects. These are most encouraging, and the only possible difficulty that I can see ahead of you is this: that men may be apt to take exception to your membership because it is not geographically representative. I would earnestly counsel you to hold to your course in this matter. A scientific and literary society must remain one representing individual eminence, and that individual eminence must be recognised if, as it may happen accidentally, personal distinction in authorship may at any particular moment be the happy possession of only one part of the country. A complete work, and one recognised for its merit, should remain the essential qualification for election to the literary sections, and the same test should be applied as far as possible to the scientific branches. If men be elected simply because they came from such and such a college, or if they be elected simply because they came from the east, from the west, from the north, or from the south, you will get a heterogeneous body together quite unworthy to be compared with the foreign societies on whose intellectual level Canada, as represented by her scientific men and authors, must in the future endeavour to stand. One word more on the kindly recognition already given to you. In America, in France, and in Britain, the birth of the new institution has been hailed with joy, and our distinguished president is at this moment also a nominated delegate of Britain. An illness we deplore has alone prevented the presence of an illustrious member of the Academy of France, and the French Government, with an enlightened generosity which does it honour, had expressed its wish to defray the expenses of the most welcome of ambassadors. We have the satisfaction of cordially greeting an eminent representative of the United States, and I express the desire which is shared by all in this hall, that our meeting may never want the presence of delegates of the great people who are dear as they are near to us.

It is, gentlemen, greatly owing to your organisation that the British Association for the advancement of science will next year meet at Montreal, following in this a precedent happily established by the visit last year of the American Association. These meetings at Montreal are not without their significance. They show that it is not only among statesmen and politicians abroad that Canada is valued and respected; but that throughout all classes, and wherever intellect, culture, and scientific attainment are revered, her position is acknowledged, and her aspiration to take her place among the nations is seen and welcomed.

I am sure that your British brethren have chosen wisely in selecting Montreal, for I know the hearty greeting which awaits them from its hospitable citizens. The facilities placed at the disposal of our British guests will enable them to visit a large portion of our immense territory, where in every part new and interesting matters will arrest their attention, and give delight to men who, in many cases, have but lately realised our resources. Their words, biassed by no interests other than the desire for knowledge, and founded on personal observation, will find no contradiction when they assert that in the lifetime of the babes now born, the vast fertile regions of Canada will be the home of a people more numerous than that which at the present time inhabits the United Kingdom.

I must not now further occupy your time, but would once more ask you to accept my heartfelt thanks for the determination shown by all to make the Royal Society a worthy embodiment of the literary activity and the scientific labour of our widely-scattered countrymen throughout this great land.



The Governor-General's reply to addresses from the Royal Academy and the Ontario Society of Artists, Toronto, June 1883:—

Mr. O'Brien, Mr. Allan, and Ladies and Gentlemen,—I beg to thank you most cordially for the most kind and courteous addresses which you have been so good as to present to us. We shall keep them as mementos of the part we have been able to take in promoting Art in the Dominion. That part has necessarily been a very small one. I have been able to do very little more than make suggestions, and those suggestions have been patriotically and energetically acted upon by the gentlemen who have taken in hand the interests of Art. But what we have done we have done with our whole hearts. The Princess has taken the deepest interest from its inception in the project of establishing a Royal Academy. When, owing to the unfortunate accident at Ottawa, she was unable to visit the first exhibition of the Academy held in that city, I remember she insisted that I should bring up to her room nearly every one of the pictures exhibited, in order that she might judge of the position of Canadian Art at that time. (Applause.) It is very fitting that your first meeting in Toronto should be held in a building devoted to education, such as this Normal School. I have not yet had the pleasure of seeing the Exhibition, but I am given to understand that it is an excellent one, and shows marked progress. That the Exhibition should be held in this building shows the appreciation of your efforts on the part of the Government of Ontario. It symbolises the wish of your association to promote education by extending Art-training, and training in design. It is therefore most fitting that the Normal School in Toronto, the great centre from which come the masters of education for Ontario, should be chosen as the place in which to hold this Exhibition. Perhaps when the Exhibition is next held in this city, you will be privileged to meet in a Hall belonging to the local Art Society—a gallery of paintings. A proper gallery is yet wanting. I have seen a good many such in other places, notably in Boston, New York, and Montreal. I am accustomed to think that Toronto is quite in the front rank, if not ahead of any other city upon this continent. It should not be behindhand in this respect. I know, at all events, one eminent Toronto man who lives not far from here, whose features and form are as well known as those of the Colossus were to the inhabitants of Rhodes in ancient days, who is not satisfied with himself, nor is the world quite satisfied, unless he is at least twenty lengths ahead of everybody else. [1] The position he has earned for himself is such that the Provincial Government and the Dominion Government, with my full consent, are prepared to spend $117,000 this year in securing his habitation, so that it shall not be swept away by the waves of Lake Ontario. (Applause and laughter.) I am sure—though I speak in the presence of much better authority—that if the association here shows itself as much ahead of the world as the gentleman to whom I have referred, the Provincial and Dominion Government will, in the same manner, back up your position by money grants if necessary. (Renewed laughter.) It has been a great satisfaction to me that when the Royal Academy was founded, I had the great assistance and support of the gentleman who was then President of your local association, Mr. O'Brien. As this may be the last time I shall have an opportunity to speak on Art matters in Canada, I should like to acknowledge the debt of gratitude which all those who had to do with founding the Academy owe to him. With untiring zeal, good temper, and tact, he worked in a manner which deserves, I think, the highest recognition. As a result of the labour bestowed upon the project, we see here to-night the Academy and the old Society in one unbroken line. With regard to the work done by the Academy, you are aware we have held three or four annual meetings, and marked progress has been seen. The patriotic determination not only to hold meetings in towns where good commercial results could be obtained, but in others, is shown by the holding of a meeting in Halifax and other towns where it was not expected that a very large number of pictures could at once be sold. The good results of this course are shown by the fact that as a result of the meeting in Halifax, a local Art society is to be established there. A local association has been started at Ottawa, and is making good progress. In Montreal a great impetus has been given to the local society, and throughout the Dominion the cause of Art has been promoted by a central body bearing a high standard and encouraging contributions from all parts of the country. We have also to pride ourselves upon the enterprise of our artists in seeking instruction abroad. Several names might be mentioned of those who have gone and have diligently studied at Paris and elsewhere. At the Paris Salon this year, two of our lady members, Miss Jones and Miss Richards, have been very successful in having every picture they sent admitted to the Exhibition. (Applause.) A subscription was made in Montreal, some years ago, for an excellent statue which was erected at Chambly, the subject being Colonel de Salaberry, and the artist, Mr. Hbert of Montreal, one of your members. I am happy to say that Mr. Hbert was successful in the face of strong competition from Italy, France, England, and America, in carrying off the prize for the best model for a statue to be erected in honour of Sir George Cartier by the Dominion Government Another of our members, Mr. Harris, has received a commission from the Federal Government to paint a picture commemorative of the Confederation of the Canadian Dominion. These are marked proofs that the position attained by our academicians is now recognised; and it shows also, if I may be allowed to say so, the influence a society like this may virtuously exercise upon the Government and the treasury. (Laughter and applause.) There is only one other subject I would like to mention, though it has no direct connection with Art. But it is one mooted by Lord Dufferin, I think, in this very place, at all events in Toronto, some years ago. He asked me when I came not to lose sight of it, but to push it upon all possible occasions. I allude to the formation of a national park at Niagara. I believe I am correct in saying that on the American side the suggestion originated with a mutual friend of Lord Dufferin's and mine, Mr. Bierstadt. Lord Dufferin took the most energetic steps in promoting the project. He wrote to the gentleman who was then governor of New York. Some difficulties arose at the time, still steps were taken by which the project might have been successfully carried out before now. However, a change came, and a less sympathetic regime followed that of the governor with whom Lord Dufferin had communicated. I believe that now our neighbours are perfectly ready, and have nearly, if not quite, carried a measure for the scheme so far as it affects them. Their part of the work is of course a much more serious undertaking than ours. I request the influence of the Canadian Academy, and of the Society of Artists, in asking both the Dominion and Provincial Governments to take measures to meet the Americans in this movement, if they have made or are about to make it. We should secure the land necessary to make this park, so that the vexatious little exactions made of visitors may cease. I am sure it will be an immense boon to the public at large, as well as to the inhabitants of this Province and of the State of New York, if this scheme, so well initiated, shall ultimately prove successful.