Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/849

Rh The effect of all this, at a time when jealousies and heart burnings had arisen out of the American civil war, led American statesmen to over-estimate the value of such facilities to the British Provinces, and even to conceive that the abrogation of the Reciprocity Treaty, and the restriction of such facilities, would suffice to create a desire for annexation. Happily, experience has led to very different results. In the &quot; Memorandum on Commercial Relations,&quot; already referred to, it is remarked : The industry of Canada had been largely directed to the supply of the American market with commodities for home consumption, as well as for foreign exportation, and the repeal in 1866 of the Reciprocity Treaty, under which so vast a trade had grown up, rendered imperatively necessary prompt measures to open new markets for the sale of Canadian produce. These measures were at once taken. Under the influence of the formal notice given by the United States in 1865, of their intention to terminate the treaty, federation of the provinces, then xindcr discussion, was hurried on, and became a fait accompli within fifteen months after its repeal. The Intercolonial Railway was at once undertaken, at a cost of over $20,000,000, at the national expense, to secure direct connection to and from the Atlantic ocean, at Halifax and St John, on Canadian soil. Commissioners were despatched to the British and other &quot;West India Islands, and to South American States, to promote the exten sion of direct trade between them and the Dominion. The enlarge ment of the canals, the improvement of the navigation of the lakes and river St Lawrence, the construction of the Bay Vertc canal, to connect the waters of the Bay of Fundy and the St Lawrence, the subsidizing of ocean and river steamship lines, and the promotion of the great shipbuilding and fishery interests, all received a new and vigorous impetus. &quot; These measures were attended with remarkable success. Only seven fiscal years have passed since the repeal of the treaty, but already the loss inflicted by it has been more than made up, and excellent outlets in new directions opened for Canadian commerce ; with an increasing annual proportion of the vast carrying trade formerly done for the provinces by the railways, canals, and steam ships of the Republic transferred to Canadian hands. The traffic between the United States and ths Provinces at once fell, from an average during the three years before the repeal (according to American official statistics) of nearly $75,000,000 per annum, to an average of 57,000,000 per annum during the first three years follow ing repeal ; the Act of Confederation, too, removed from the cate gory of foreign commerce to that of home consumption the large interchanges of commodities between the several sections of the Dominion ; and the aggregate foreign commerce of the provinces consequently fell in the first year after the repeal of the treaty to $139,202,615 from $160,409,455 in the previous year. As will be seen from the following statement, however, the trade of the Dominion speedily recovered from the blow, and the volume of its foreign commerce gradually increased until, in the seventh year from the repeal of the treaty, it reached the great sum (for a people of four millions) of $235,301,203, being seventy-five millions higher than it had ever reached in any year of the treaty s existence : 1867. Total exports and imports of Canada and Newfoundland $139,202,615 1868. 1869. 1870. 1871. 1872. 1873. 139,595,615 142,240,897 161,275,538 184,852,006 205,339,943 235,301,203 Total Foreign Commerce in seven years... $1,207,807,817 &quot; Thus the immediate effect of the repeal of the Recipro city Treaty was to draw the British provinces into closer union ; while, as appears from official returns, the inter change of traffic, which from 1820 to 1866 had been largely in favour of the States, underwent so great a change from 1866 to 1873 as to show a balance against the United States, and in favour of Canada, in value $51,875,008. Wheat, flour, provisions, and other articles, which were formerly sold to New York and Boston houses, are now sent through Canadian channels, direct to the maritime provinces, to Newfoundland, the West Indies, South America, and to Great Britain and Canada thus enters into competition with the United States in its own foreign markets. Mr E. H. Derby, special commissioner of the United States Treasury, makes this admission as to the effect of the treaty on a single port : &quot; The commerce of Boston affected by the Reciprocity Treaty exceeds $27,000,000 annually, namely, imports from and exports to the maritime provinces, $6,000,000 ; outfits and returns in deep-sea fisheries, $11,000,000 ; imports of wool, grain, and animals across the frontier of Canada and entered there, with returns, at least $10,000,000.&quot; With the union of the maritime provinces to those on the St Lawrence, Canada has passed from the condition of an inland colony, dependent on the good will or the interested aims of a foreign rival, to the position of the fifth maritime nation of the world. The fisheries more than all else have laid the foundation of the industrial progress of the eastern provinces ; and in the men who now sail their fish ing fleets Canada has acquired the elements of a powerful marine, which, in any national exigency, will be found to add no less to the defensive strength of the Dominion, than it now does to its commercial enterprise. By right of seniority the province of Quebec claims the first place among the sister provinces of the Dominion, though Nova Scotia may dispute with her the claim of earliest settlement. Among the cities of the Dominion it is probable also that Montreal will retain the pre-eminence by reason of the unparalleled advantages of her geogra phical position for commercial purposes. In numbers, wealth, and productive industry, however, the foremost rank is at present due to the province of Ontario. Refer ring to separate articles for a detailed description of each province, we confine ourselves here to what concerns the Dominion as a whole. Extent. The Dominion of Canada extends from 45 N. lat. northward to the Hudson Bay, and reaches from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. In superficial extent it is nearly equal to the whole of Europe, and comprises an area of about 3,500,000 square miles. The larger moiety of this, including the territory formerly held by the Hudson s Bay Company, is the property of the Dominion Government. Of this about 120,000 square miles con sist of prairie lands with occasional scattered groves and belts of trees along the rivers, admirably adapted for agri culture. A larger tract, consisting chiefly of timbered land, but interspersed with prairies, and well fitted for settlement and farming operations, may be estimated to cover little short of 500,000 square miles. Beyond those two available regions of land, adapted, by soil and climate, for the growth of wheat and other grains, and the rearing of stock, there is a further belt of land, which, though lying in a colder zone, is timbered, clothed with good natural grasses, and as fit for the growth of barley and oats as are many of the less genial regions of Northern Europe which support a considerable agricultural population. This northern belt of timbered land is estimated at little less than 930,000 square miles. All this, as well as much more still uncleared within the various provinces, has to be settled and brought under cultivation ; and out of the great prairie and forest lands of the north-west have yet to be fashioned the future provinces of the Dominion of Canada. Population. The population of the whole Dominion in 1871, exclusive of Indians beyond the limits of the provinces, was 3,485,761, but to this has since been added the provinces of British Columbia, Manitoba, and Prince Edward Island ; thereby increasing the population to nearly 4,000,000. To this a large addition has since been made, both by natural increase and by immigration. The entire population of Canada in 1875 was estimated to amount to 4,000,000, exclusive of Indians, estimated at 85,000. Indians. In the older provinces of Canada the Indians have long since been gathered together into settlements, under the care of superintendents and other officers of the Indian department, and in some cases, with industrial schools and other organizations for accelerating their pro-