The Canadian Dominion

Front matter

Books and Maps for Travellers in 187 1. Hours of Exercise in the A Ips ; A Collection of Scattered Essays. By John Tyndall, LL.D. F.R.S. In One Volume, crown 8vo. [Ina few days. The Playground of Europe. By Leslie Stephen, late President of the Alpine Club. With Four Woodcut Illustrations by E. Whymper. Crown Svo. price 10s. 6d. Pau and the Pyrenees. By Count Henry Russell, Member of the Geographical and Geological Societies of France, of the Alpine Club, of the Socie'te Ramond, &c. With Two Maps and a Panorama. Square fcp. 8vo. price 5-r. Guide to the Pyrenees, For the Use of Mountaineers. By Charles Packe. Second Edition, corrected ; with Frontispiece and Map, and an Appendix. Crown 8vo. price 7$. 6d. Ball's Guide to the Western Alps, Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa, &c. Including the whole range of the Alps of Piedmont, Dauphine, and Savoy, from Nice to the Pass of the Simplon.

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Preface

. I am not conscious that this book is written with undue partiality. I am certain that I entered Canada without prepossessions in favour of the country. During a tour of five months through the Dominion, I endeavoured to judge fairly of the present condition — social, commercial, religious, and political — of the country, and of its future prospects. I have tried to give the result of my im pressions and inquiries in the simplest and most condensed manner possible. I believe that, to estimate Canada justly, the country must be compared not only with England, but also with the United States. The contrast which Canada presents to the garden-like condition of the old country and

PREFACE.

. VI the highly-developed state of English society, is calculated to startle and sometimes to ag grieve the sensitive observer. These impres sions are modified when it is perceived that the crudity and roughness of the civilisation are not peculiar to the British provinces, but are incident to the youthfulness of the civilisation of the whole of this new continent. I had the advantage of passing into Canada from a tour through the Eastern States of the American Union, and of preparing this volume after the completion of a visit to the Western States. The Author. April, 1871. CONTENTS. CHAM L.K YAG-E Preface . v I The Dominion i II. . . . Quebec 12 III. . . . The 'Haeitans' 21 IV. . . . Lumber -37 V. . . . The Free-Grant Lands . . . .49 VI. . . . The Farming Interest 70 VII. . . . Niagara 85 VIII. . . .

Oil Springs and Salt 93 IX. . . . Little Africa 99 X. . . . The Indians 105 XI. . . . Across the Prairies 120 XII. . . . The Red River Revolt .... 145 XIII. . . . The Great North-West . . . .174 CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE XIV. . . . The Air-Line to China .... 199 XV. . . . The Maritime Provinces .... 206 XVI. . . . Inter-Continental Communication . .217 XVII. . . . Immigration ....... 220 XVIII. . . . The Political Question .... 239 XIX. . . . Canadian Defence . . . . . 254 XX. . . . The Future of Great Britain and her Colonies . . ... . . .270 Appendix . . . . . . .275 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. i. The Author in a Red River Costume Frontispiece. 2. Quebec from Point St. Levy . . To face page 12 3. The Falls of the Chaudiere . . „ 17 4. The Falls of Montmorenci . . „ 20 5. Fort Garrv, on the Red River . . „ 143 6. The Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, from above the rldeau canal . . „

Chapter I. The Dominion

Centuries ago a sew wigwams on the shore of one of the magnificent rivers of the New World gave a characteristic name to the strip of land on which they stood. The Indians called it ' Kanata,' the Place of Huts. The French applied the name to a wide piece of country ; the English to a great territory. The term now includes an empire stretching from ocean to ocean. The Dominion of Canada is the Land of Homes.1 The settlement of the country by Europeans is scarcely two centuries old. The English occupation dates from 1 760. The first explorers of the New World supposed, from the appearance of the indigenous races, that 1 See Note III., at the end of this volume. B they were the 'Indians' of that rich country of the east, which was sought by the long westward voyage. The name still clung to the red men, after the discovery that a greater India had been found.

The native races hesitated whether to unite against the intrusion of the pale-faced races from across the great sea, or to bid for their aid in their own inter necine wars. Champlain, one of the earliest and most distinguished explorers of Canada, leagued with the Hurons and Algonquins, put an army of their foes, the warlike Iroquois, to flight, by suddenly appearing in the midst of a battle in glittering armour, with miraculous firearms. A god in re splendent light with uplifted thunderbolts could not have produced greater dismay before the walls of Troy. But the Indians soon learnt that their new foes were mortal. Traders from the seas sup plied them, with fire-arms for the slaughter of the white settlers, and with fire-water for their own swifter destruction. The diminished tribes fought on both sides in the fierce struggle for supremacy on this continent, waged by French and English.

Now they have for the most part settled down to habits of peace. Under the wise and kindly policy persistently followed towards them by the English Government, they live in security on their settled reserves. By mixture of blood, and the agency of teachers and missionaries, the Indian tribes are slowly approximating to the condition of the white races. We may watch in Canada the interesting FRENCH DISCOVERY OF CANADA. 3 experiment of a fairly-conducted effort to elevate a lower race of people ; meanwhile their presence in the country adds to the picturesqueness of life. It is a fact of more interest, however, and of much greater importance, both social and political, that in Canada at this time a large proportion of the white population, perhaps even one quarter, under the English domination, is composed of a race foreign in blood, speaking a strange language, professing another religion, and yet living in assured content and peace.

The French are the discoverers of Canada. In 1534 Jacques Cartier appropriated its unknown ex tent to France, by erecting on the shore of the coast of Gaspe, a cross thirty feet high, inscribed with the arms of Francis I. Champlain established the first colonies. Colbert organised a great scheme for strengthening ' La Nouvelle France.' War-captains by sea and land, and martyrs tortured to death, make a long list of French names to emblazon ' the heroic age of Canada.' The gallantry of Montcalm, glad that his wounds should kill him before the English entered Quebec, fitly closes the period of French rule over the country. The people learnt quickly to acquiesce in the new order. They refused all solicitation to fight against the English during the war of American Independ ence. In 18 1 2 and the following years, when the American forces invaded Canada for its conquest, the French shared with the English the honour of B makings a successful defence of the country.

At this moment French Canada is as loyal as any part of the English dominions. The French do not forget their past ; they do not lose their distinctness of race ; they retain fondly their language, their old customs and social order, their separate system of law, and their ancient faith. But they are prosperous and contented. They have been treated by the Imperial Government with fairness and con sideration. They have responded with good-will, and have learnt to feel an attachment to the English rule, and a deep devotion to the country of their birth. The French are as thoroughly Canadian as the English. But the country has been conquered not only from the Indians, and from the French, but with severer effort from the tyranny of Nature herself. The fertile lands of the Dominion, covered with homesteads, villages, and towns along a measureless network of railways, roads, rivers, and canals, once formed part of the limitless northern forest wilds.

With infinite labour vast forests have been hewn down, and their tangled growths of interlacing roots torn up from the soil. Free way has been made for the sunlight and air, and the climate meliorated. Countless streams and rivers have been spanned with bridges. The rapid waters have everywhere been made to repay the damage of their tumultuous overflows by working the saws and hammers, the looms and mills of the settlers. FERTILITY OF CANADA. 5 The labour os making this country habitable has been beyond all estimate ; but the result is a full compensation. The older-settled districts have be come a fair garden. The farmsteads are homes of comfort and ease, and often of culture and refine ment. The log-hut gives place to the frame-house, and this to a substantial building of stone or brick.

Meanwhile the line of invasion on the old realm of sorest everywhere extends. The lumberman ad vances further and further north with his axe, and removes by the snow-roads of winter and the great water highways a mass of choice timber for all the markets of the world. The backwood's-man, more than reconciled to his life of excitement and variety, clears a space for his log-hut, fires the useless timber, and sows his first irregular crop. The cleared land is worth all the pains. The Ontario wheat is one of the finest in the world. Oats, barley, maize, and other grains, yield excellent crops. Fruits and vegetables grow generously. The Canadian apple is the standard of excellence. Melons and the tomato grow equally with the potato, pea, turnip, and the rest of the vegetables known in England.

The grape thrives well. Rasp berries, cranberries, cherries, and other fruits grow wild. Orchards everywhere prosper. But the great labour demanded in settling the country has produced a further result of great con sequence. It has developed a fine race of people. The Canadian, whether French, English, Irish, or Scotch, is well-proportioned and vigorous, often tall, with broad shoulders, sinewy frame, and capable of great endurance. He may not have much book learning, but he is quick of resource, and apt at many things. He is enterprising, but unhurried. He does not move in his affairs over-fast, but very surely. He is sober-minded, persistent, and trust worthy. The races of the British isles and of Nor mandy have certainly not degenerated here. The remarkable advance in material prosperity made by the country may be indicated by a com parison of statistics.

In 1 85 1, the export returns of the four provinces of Quebec (then Lower Canada), Ontario (then Upper Canada), Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, amounted to four millions of dollars. In the following ten years the exports of these provinces increased more than tenfold ; in 1 86 1 the returns were •#43 millions. For the past year, 1869, the exports came to #60 millions, or twelve millions sterling. For the same provinces the imports were : — In 1851, seven millions of dollars; in 1861, fifty-one millions; in 1869, seventy millions. The increasing quantity of land brought under cultivation — one of the most important elements in the well-being of a new country — is shown to be eminently satisfactory by the Government returns. In 185 1 the extent of land actually under culture in the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada was RESOURCES OF CANADA. 7 seven million acres.

By the year 1861 the amount had increased to eleven millions. It is estimated that the returns to be made at the next census will show a corresponding increase to the. present date. The returns of population afford significant proof of the rapid progress of the country. In 1841, the date of the union of Upper and Lower Canada, the population of the two provinces was 1,090,000. In 1852 an approximate estimate for the whole of the British North American provinces gave the popula tion as 2,471,366. From the census returns for 1861 the numbers for all the provinces was 3,447,706. A carefully-prepared estimate of the population for the present year — 1870 — for all the provinces, as before, makes the numbers 4,525,000. But statistics of the present condition of the coun try, and of its past progress, can scarcely suggest an adequate idea of the prosperity and importance which Canada appears destined to attain.

Her various sources of wealth waiting to be developed are immeasurable and exhaustless. Tracts of prairie and woodland as large as European kingdoms wait for settlers. Lands already cleared will yield double and fourfold their present increase when the farmer shall have sufficient time to adopt improved methods of culture. Mineral wealth, vast beyond conception, of iron, coal, copper, gold, silver, lead, lies stored away in ready waiting for the appliances of science. A great variety of exquisite marbles rest in yet untroubled quarries, to make a full amends for the unproductiveness of some regions of the soil. Orna mental woods will yet give greatly increased value to the returns of the forest. Inland and ocean fisheries, great as they are, are capable of indefinite expansion. From its northern position on the American con tinent, the Dominion of Canada possesses one remarkable commercial advantage, the importance of which is not yet appreciated either in the country itself or in England.

It possesses the shortest and easiest route for the trans-continental traffic between England and China. The most direct practicable line from Shanghae to Liverpool passes through British Columbia, traverses the fertile Saskatchewan valley, crosses Red River, follows the Ottawa, strikes Montreal on the St. Lawrence, and then passes from Halifax across the Atlantic. This route is over one thousand miles nearer than that through United States territory. By a happy freak of Nature a pass is prepared for this Canadian Pacific railway across the Rocky Mountains at an elevation less than half that which the United States line has had to climb. Sooner or later commerce is certain to find its way along this channel between Europe and Asia. This brief view of the Canadian Dominion may suggest the importance which it may one day attain in the British empire.

By its social order, by its political institutions, and by unbroken ties of associ ation and of interest, Canada is still firmly attached to the mother-country. Nothing but English in difference, or a persistent policy of alienation, will be CANADA AND THE MOTHER-COUNTRY. 9 likely to lead to a severance of the present con nexion. Canada is proud of the English name, and of the fame of English history. In any time of national danger this true New England would eagerly lend her aid to the country from which she springs. At this moment Canada in many respects is more like the England of Elizabeth, and more intensely English, than England herself. The bonds that hold her in the empire may be weakened, no doubt, with ease ; but they might be strengthened with greater ease. Perhaps there exists at present no question affect ing the future of the English race so deeply as the determination whether the Canadian Dominion will be retained in the empire, or become alienated from us with the almost certain result of being incorporated with the United States.

The permanent place of the mother-country among the nations of the world will probably be determined by the way in which this question is solved. Canada is no longer a puny stripling needing pro tection, incompetent for self-defence, and useless as an ally. The Dominion possesses an active militia force of over 40,000 men, with a trained reserve of 600,000. She has reared a large and hardy popula tion of seamen. By a singular caprice of destiny almost all the great inlets and bays on the Atlantic coast suitable for fisheries are placed within her boundaries. Her marine already ranks in order of importance next to France. THE CAN AD LAN DOMINION. 10 The empire perhaps can ill afford to suffer the loss to its prestige and power which would follow upon the alienation of its great colony. An impressive view of the magnitude and im portance of the interests involved may, I conceive, be obtained by a comparison of the extent of the Dominion with the countries of the Old World.

In the year 1867 the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia were confederated under the title of the Dominion of Canada. This year, during my stay in the country, the territory of the Hudson Bay Company has been ceded to the Canadian Government. At the present moment the terms are already arranged for the admission of the important province of Bri tish Columbia. The Dominion territory will there fore extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Now for our comparison. The old-settled, contented, industrious, French speaking province of Quebec contains more square miles than all France. The English-speaking, energetic province of Ontario counts more square miles than Great Britain and Ireland. New Brunswick has a greater territory than Hol land and Belgium combined.

Nova Scotia exceeds Switzerland in size. British Columbia surpasses in extent the whole of the North German Confederation, giving in the South German States to boot. FUTURE GREATNESS OF THE DOMINION, n The newly-added Far West is vaster than all Russia in Europe, counting in, and counting twice over, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Faroe, and Iceland. This is the empire, with its hardy, high-spirited population, already to be counted by millions, and growing to tens and scores of millions ; with its exhaustless sources of all kinds of material wealth ; with its commanding position as the highway to China and all Asia ; and with its assured future of greatness and power, which England may now retain in intimate association with herself to aid her prestige and influence, but which is apparently in danger of being lost to the empire by negligence or indifference. THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 12

Chapter II. Quebec

Unexampled for picturesqueness and magnificence of position on the American continent, and for the romance of her historic associations, Quebec sits on her impregnable heights a queen among the cities of the New World. At her feet flows the noble St. Lawrence, the fit highway into a great empire, here narrowed to a couple of miles' breadth, though lower down the waters widen to a score of miles, and at the gulf to a hundred. From the compression of the great river at this spot the city derives its name, the word signifying, in the native Indian tongue, the Strait. On the east of the city, along a richly fertile valley, flows the beautiful St. Charles, to join its waters with those of the great river. The mingled waters divide to enclasp the fair and fertile Isle of Orleans. The city as seen from a distance rises stately and solemn, like a grand pile of monumental buildings.

Clustering houses, tall, irregular, with high-pitched roofs, crowd the long line of shore and climb the rocky heights. Great piles of stone churches, col- QUEBEC FROM POINT ST. LEVY. PUBLLC BUILDINGS OF QUEBEC. 13 leges, and public buildings, crowned with gleaming minarets, rise above the mass of dwellings. The clear air permits the free use of tin for the roofs and spires, and the dark stone-work is relieved with gleaming light. Above all rise the long dark lines of one of the world's famous citadels, the Gibraltar of America. Let the spectator stand on the Flag-staff Battery within the lines won by Wolfe's gallantry, but which he could not live to enter. Below lie the steep, tor tuous, narrow streets of a city as French as Havre or Calais. Yonder is an open market-place, with groups of women sitting at their stalls with kerchiefed heads.

At a distant corner-house you may see a shrine to Our Lady, newly-whitewashed by the piety of the inmates. The vast stone block adjoining the cathedral is the celebrated Roman Catholic College, the Laval University, named in memory of the first bishop of Quebec. Another great pile of stone is the Parliament House for the provincial legislature. Unhappily, it must be admitted that the public buildings of Quebec look less imposing the nearer they are approached. From the citadel these two buildings look like dismal factories or workhouses. o However, the parliament buildings at least have already been burnt down more than once. Then, still below, the shores are lined with ware houses, and quays, and masses of shipping. All the surroundings waters are filled with sails ; the scene is one of sunlight and life.

Steamers with their filmy THE CANADLAN DOMLNLON. 14 lines of smoke pass up and down the river, or rapidly across, or tug* with much noise and short breath the heavy rafts of wood, acres wide, covered with hut villages that float down from the inland waters. At Point St. Levy, opposite the citadel, lie stranded or lazily floating incalculable masses of this lumber, waiting for transit to the British Isles, South America, or Australia. The abrupt or gently undulating banks of the opposite shore, of the Island of Orleans, and of the northern bank of the St. Lawrence, are fringed with rich woods, except where spaces have been cleared for villas and country houses, and for the long line of farm houses of the Jiabitans of the country. As I stood within this citadel made famous for ever in the annals of English war, the place seemed to me a fitting one for some reflections on the policy which has been lately adopted by the home Govern ment.

At the quay below lay a ship loading with old war material for England. ' A ship load of stores goes home now every week,' an officer of the garrison told me. ' And very much of it not worth carrying on to the ship,' exclaimed a Quebec gentleman, somewhat querulously. ' If your Government has determined not to use it for the defence of the country, then in the name of common sense let it be sold to the Dominion Government here ! ' ' Don't appeal to common sense, pray,' said another Canadian with good humour. ' Do you remember DEFENCES OF QUEBEC. 15 the story of the shanty guard-house brought here from Australia ? ' ' The home policy is an admirable one,' said the officer; .'it is to teach the colonies self-reliance, and compel them to develop their strength.' ' Well and good,' was the reply. ' But it would be better to tell us this plainly instead of making us think we are to be thrown off altogether.' My attention was directed to a long line of earth works thrown up on the heights on the further shore of the St. Lawrence.

Modern warfare demands another system of defence than that of stone ram parts. But I learned that the progress of the works was interrupted, and that it was not known whether the proposed line of defence was to be completed. At the time of my visit one regiment only remained in garrison at Quebec. I visited one day the convent of the Ursulines below the citadel. A mild-eyed nun passed me a key through the guicliet in the wall, and left me to wander about the chapel at my will. I found a few indifferent paintings, and a tablet on the wall that arrested my attention : — Honneur k Montcalm ! Le destin, en lui derobant La Victoire, L'a recompensee par Un Mort Glorieuse. I wondered if, when the time comes for England to fall from her place among the nations, she will make an end worthy of her past.

THE CANADIAN DOMINION. 16 In 1 86 1 the population of the city of Quebec was 51,109 souls. The census to be taken next year will show a large increase. The building of wooden ships for the carrying trade was formerly the chief industry of the place, but has greatly decreased since the introduction of iron vessels. The annual returns that were formerly 100,000 tons, sank in 1869 to 27,000 tons. But other industries will fill up this loss. Quebec has a large operative class in its population, and many advantages for the manu facturings trades. o As an inland port Quebec must always remain a place of great importance. Though it stands two hundred miles up the St. Lawrence, the city is still full three hundred miles nearer to Liverpool than New York is. In proportions always increasing, the export produce of the west is finding its way down the St. Lawrence to Quebec for ocean transport.

At the St. Charles river, which has a tidal flow of fourteen feet, Quebec possesses the means of con structing docks that may one day equal those of Liverpool. For picturesque beauty the environs of Quebec vie with those of any city in the world. A short drive will take the visitor to the Plains of Abraham, where he will wish to see a nobler monument to Wolfe than that at present erected. Or he may proceed along the picturesque St. Foy road, and pause at another monument in memory of the men who fell on this spot at the second battle of the THE FALLS OF CHAUDIERE. FALLS OF THE CHAUDIERE. 17 Plains, when the brave De Levis snatched a victory from the English, and almost succeeded in winning back the great citadel lost the year before. A sunset seen from the heights above the wide valley of the St. Charles, bathing in tender light the long undulating lines of remote hills, and trans figuring with glory the great chain of the Laurentides, is a sight of beauty to rest in the memory for ever.

Crossing the St. Lawrence ferry with a light caleclie, or with one of the handsomely appointed carriages that wait for hire in the open squares, the visitor will pass in an afternoon's drive through a wild and romantic piece of country along the St. Lery river to the highly picturesque Falls of the Chaudiere. For the last half-mile you wend your way afoot across fields and through a small wood, and then find unexpectedly a scene of bewildering beauty. In a long still reach of waters, where the bending forest trees and the clear sky overhead reflect themselves, the river sleeps in dreams of profound tranquillity, then suddenly leaps a pre cipice jagged with projecting masses of rock, and falls white and foaming a hundred and thirty feet into the seething caldron below. The spray rises in a thin mist to cool your brow where you stand in the hot sun.

Below stretch the gleaming reaches of the winding river, and around a wide range of undulating country soothes and satisfies the eye. It may add to the traveller's interest in this river to know that it flows with gold. At one spot near c its source a mining company obtained last year 838 ounces of the precious metal. At a similar distance of an afternoon's drive from Quebec to the north, lies the picturesque Indian village of Lorette. I had the pleasure of making a visit to this place in company with the Honourable Mr. Chauveau, the Minister of Instruction for the province of Quebec. The tribe settled here is of the Huron race ; but a glance at the features of the people proves that there has been a considerable intermixture of white blood. The chief of the tribe, M. Paul, a finely-made middle-aged man of much intelligence and good humour, introduced us to his family, and courteously conducted us through the settlement.

All traces of the old savage life have disappeared. The people live in neat, well-made frame-houses, each with its garden or piece of culti vated land. Many of them are well-to-do farmers ; others make a comfortable living by the manufacture of snow-shoes, canoes, basket-work, and Indian curiosities. The people all speak French. We attended divine service at the Roman Catholic chapel ; here the prayer was intoned in the old Huron language, but not a soul in the congregation, I was assured, understood a word. Over the altar was a painting, done, I should think, by one of the Indians, of the very house of Lorette, miraculously removed from Jerusalem to Rome, from which this village has its name. The people, old and young, attended to the service with devotion. INDIAN VILLAGE OF LORETTE. 19 Many of the houses we visited had an appear ance of comfort, and even of elegance.