Reciprocal Rights--American Ideas of Reciprocity--The Ad Valorem
System--Commercial Improvements--Trade with America--The Ottawa
Route--The Saskatchewan--Fertility of the Country--Water
Communication--The Maritime Provinces--Area and Population.
The absence of a winter port is an evil to Canada, for which no
energy and no advantages can compensate. Although Halifax has a
magnificent harbour, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia offer but small
facilities for winter navigation; and the day seems distant when
the great railroad of which so much has been spoken and written
shall open the communication between England and the remotest
portions of the vast empire which reaches from the Atlantic to the
Pacific.
The position of Canada threw her into close relations with the
United States, and the result of her geographical condition was
the Reciprocity Treaty, which has caused so much discussion and
discontent on both sides of the St. Lawrence, and which the
Government of the Federal States has now given notice to terminate.
In March, 1862, the report of the Committee of the Executive
Council, to which an able paper of Mr. Galt, then Finance Minister,
had been referred, advised that the views and suggestions therein
expressed by Mr. Galt should be adopted, and that report was
approved by Lord Monck. Mr. Galt’s Report was founded on a
reference made to him of the report of the Committee on Commerce
of the House of Representatives at Washington respecting the
Reciprocity Treaty, and of a memorial from the Chamber of Commerce
of Minnesota.
The House of Representatives reported in favour of a system
resembling that of the “Zollverein” as the only means of securing
the benefits of reciprocal trade, and recommended as desirable
a uniform system of lighthouses, copyrights, postage, patents,
telegraphs, weights and measures, and coinage.
This was a favourite scheme of the late Senator Douglas;
and if the American Government had exhibited any desire to
diminish the rigours of Morrill Tariffs and of State protective
enactments, we might applaud the liberality of their views and
the noble candour of their conclusions. They believed that “free
commercial intercourse between the United States and the British
North-American Provinces, developing the natural, geographical,
and other advantages of each for the good of all, is conducive
to the present interests of each, and is the proper basis of our
intercourse for all time to come”--sentiments certainly noble,
if somewhat vaguely expressed. We will see presently how Mr.
Galt deals with the practical rendering of them by the Federal
Government. The Reciprocity Treaty, negotiated between Lord Elgin
and Mr. Marcey in June, 1854, was entered into to avoid further
misunderstanding in regard to the extent of the right of fishing on
the coasts of British North America, and to regulate the commerce
and navigation between the respective territories and people in
such a manner as to render the same reciprocally beneficial and
satisfactory.
The Convention secured to American fishermen the liberty of
taking, curing, and drying fish on the British North-American
coast generally; the Treaty extended to them the liberty to take
fish of every kind (except shellfish) along the coast of Canada,
New Brunswick, Prince Edward’s Island, &c., with permission to
land, to dry nets, and cure fish, without any restrictions as to
distance from shore--reserving only the right of private property
and the salmon and shad-fishings in the rivers; and the same
rights were conceded to British subjects on the eastern sea-coasts
of the United States north of the 36th parallel of latitude. It
provided that the following articles should be admitted duty-free
reciprocally:--Grain, flour and breadstuffs, animals, fresh and
salt meat, cotton seed and vegetables, fruit, fish, poultry, hides
and skins, butter, cheese, tallow, lard, horns, manure, ores, coal,
stone, slate, pitch, turpentine, timber and lumber, plants, firs,
gypsum, grindstones, dye-stuffs, flax, rags, and unmanufactured
tobacco. It gave to Americans the right to navigate the St.
Lawrence and the Canadian canals, subject to the tolls, and it
gave to British subjects the right to navigate Lake Michigan; but
it reserved to the British Government the right of suspending, on
due notice, the privileges of Canadian navigation, in which event
the right of British subjects to navigate Lake Michigan should
also cease and determine, and the United States should have the
right of suspending the free import and export of the articles
specified. But here, it will be observed, there was a one-sided
reciprocity. The Americans received, absolutely, the right of
using all the canals in Canada from the British Government; the
Government of the United States conferred no such privilege
reciprocally on British subjects. All they did--perhaps all they
could do in consonance with the doctrine of States Rights they
are so busily engaged at present in destroying--was to engage to
urge on the State Governments to secure to the subjects of Her
Britannic Majesty the use of the several ship-canals on terms of
equality with the inhabitants of the United States. It was also
provided that “American lumber floated down to St. John and shipped
to the United States from New Brunswick should be free of duty.”
This treaty was to remain in force for ten years from the date at
which it came into operation, and further until the expiration of
twelve months after either of the contracting parties gave notice
to the other of its wish to terminate the same--each of them being
at liberty to give notice at the end of the ten years, or at
any time afterwards. This treaty expired on the 11th September,
1864, since which time the United States and Great Britain have
been free to give notice of the termination of its provisions,
to take effect in twelve months after the date of the notice. Of
this power, as already stated, the United States Government has
availed itself. An exception to the operation of the treaty is made
in the case of Newfoundland, in respect to which its provisions
hold good till December 12th, 1865. The State of New York, by its
Legislature, urged Congress to protect the United States from what
they denounced as an “unequal and unjust system of commerce.” They
asserted that nearly all the articles which Canada has to sell are
admitted into the United States free of duty, whilst heavy duties
are imposed on many articles of American manufacture, with the
intention of excluding them from the Canadian market; and that
discriminating tolls and duties, in favour of an isolating and
exclusive policy against American merchants and forwarders, to
destroy the effect of the treaty and in opposition to its spirit,
have been adopted by Canada; and on these grounds they demanded
a change in the system of commerce now existing, to protect the
interests of the United States in the manner intended by the treaty.
The Canadian Minister, in reply, observed that the treaty made
no mention whatever of the matters complained of, and, in a very
lucid argument, charges against the Legislature of the United
States the very same grounds of complaint as the Committee alleged
against Canada. No accusation of an infraction of the treaty is
made, and therefore the subjects treated of in the Report affect
the commercial relations and not the good faith of the contracting
parties. The Committee accuse Canada of violating the spirit and
intent of the treaty, by an increase of duties on manufactured
articles, by a change in the mode of levying duties, and by
abolishing tolls on the St. Lawrence canals and river; but Mr.
Galt contends that the treaty had nothing to do with manufactures,
but was expressly limited to the growth and produce of the two
countries mentioned in the schedule. Those articles not enumerated
in it are necessarily excluded from its operations, and must be
made the subject of special legislation between the two States
before any act of either respecting the mode of their admission can
be made ground of remonstrance.
As a proof of the narrow spirit in which these fine declaimers
about “liberty of commerce and reciprocity of trading advantages”
have dealt with the treaty, it may be mentioned that they imposed
duties on planks in part planed, tongued, or grooved, and on flour
ground in Canada from American wheat, and on lumber made in Canada
out of American logs. The Canadian Government, however, have
maintained, both against the Americans and the mother country,
their right to decide for themselves both as to the mode and the
extent to which taxation should be imposed. Declamations against a
policy of Protection come indeed with a bad grace from the United
States; and Mr. Galt, in suppressed sarcasm and irony, shows that
their doctrine of Free Trade with Canada really means an exclusive
protection for themselves against the manufactures of Great Britain.
If the gentlemen who composed the elaborate Report, bristling
all over with generous sentiments and with the expression of the
most enlightened and liberal doctrines, could blush, they might
well perform that interesting operation when reading Mr. Galt’s
reply. Canada admits the registration of foreign vessels without
charge; the United States do not. Canada has sought admission to
the great lakes for coasters; the United States refuse. Canada
allows American vessels to pass free through her canals; not a
Canadian vessel is allowed, even on payment of toll, to enter an
American canal. The promise in the treaty, that the Government of
Washington would urge on the States the concession of a right to
navigate their canals on equal terms with American subjects, has
not been kept; at least, there is no trace of any effort having
been made to induce the State Legislatures to relax their present
extreme policy, which is in strong contrast with the professions
of their Committee-men. Canada permits foreign goods bought in the
United States to be imported on the payment of duty on the original
invoice; the United States will not permit similar purchases to
be made in Canada. Tea imported from Canada is weighted with duty
of ten per cent., while the duties under the Canadian tariff are
very much lower than those levied in America. The permission to
pass goods under bond through the States conferred an obvious
advantage on American railroads; but, indeed, the Committee were
fain to admit that the United States had not established a fair
reciprocity, inasmuch as they recommend that reciprocity should be
made complete. Duties have been imposed in the United States for
purposes of Protection, and they can scarcely bring accusations
against Canada until they have established a system of duties as
low as those of Canada. The _ad valorem_ system of Canada, against
which the Committee protest, is the system of the United States;
for tea and sugar there is a discriminating duty in favour of
American vessels of twenty per cent. Duty is levied in Canada
solely for purposes of revenue: and though this policy, which has
led the late Minister and his predecessors to reduce tolls and
customs-dues to a minimum, has alarmed the canal and ship-owners
and railway-directors of New York, it is viewed with approbation by
the great Western States.
“It is,” says Mr. Galt, “a singular charge to make of
discrimination on our part against them, that we do not permit
one section of our public works to be used for purposes
exclusively beneficial to them, when they absolutely, and
contrary to the engagements of the treaty, debar any Canadian
vessel from entering their waters, if we except Lake Michigan,
specially mentioned in the treaty. Surely Canada does enough for
them when she places them precisely on the same footing as she
does her own vessels; and it is a novel doctrine that because the
whole St. Lawrence is made free, therefore an injury is done to
the New York route. The remedy is simple, and in their own hands:
let them do as Canada has done--repeal the tolls on their canals,
and admit Canadian vessels to ply upon them--and then the desired
state of ‘fair competition’ will have arisen. But the Committee
must have formed but a low estimate of the intelligence of their
own people in the West, when they make it a subject of complaint
against Canada that she has opened the St. Lawrence freely to
their trade. The undersigned apprehends that the inhabitants
of those great States will be much more likely to demand from
their own Government an equitable application of their own
customs-laws, so as to permit them to import direct _viâ_ the St.
Lawrence, and to buy in the Canadian market, rather than to join
with the Committee in requiring a return to a system by which the
entire West has hitherto been held in vassalage to the State of
New York.”
Mr. Galt argues that an increase of customs-duties does not,
necessarily, injuriously affect foreign trade within certain
limits, and that those limits have not been exceeded in Canada.
Formerly the cost of British goods in Canada was much enhanced,
owing to natural causes, whilst Canadian producers obtained a
minimum price for their exports. The duty was then generally 2½
per cent., but the price was enormous; and the Canadian suffered,
_pro tanto_, in his means to purchase them. Suppose the duties,
increased five per cent., were to produce a reduction of ten
per cent. on other charges, “the benefit,” says Mr. Galt, “would
accrue equally to the British manufacturer and to the consumer;
the consumer would pay five per cent. more to the Government, but
ten per cent. less to the merchant and forwarder.” As Mr. Galt
considers the principle of Canadian finance and customs to be
misapprehended in England as well as in the United States, it may
be as well to give his own words:--
“The Government has increased the duties for the purpose of
enabling them to meet the interest on the public works necessary
to reduce all the various charges upon the imports and exports
of the country. Lighthouses have been built, and steamships
subsidised, to reduce the charges for freight and insurance; the
St. Lawrence has been deepened, and the canals constructed, to
reduce the cost of inland navigation to a minimum; railways have
been assisted, to give speed, safety, and permanency to trade
interrupted by the severity of winter. All these improvements
have been undertaken with the twofold object of diminishing the
cost to the consumer of what he imports, and of increasing the
_net_ result of the labour of the country when finally realised
in Great Britain. These great improvements could not be effected
without large outlays; and the burthen necessarily had to be put
either through direct taxation, or by customs-duties on the goods
imported, or upon the trade by excessive tolls corresponding
with the rates previously charged. Direct taxation was the
medium employed, through the local municipalities, for the
construction of all minor local works--roads, court-houses and
gaols, education, and the vast variety of objects required in a
newly-settled country; and this source of taxation has thus been
used to the full extent which is believed practicable without
producing serious discontent. No one can, for a moment, argue
that, in an enlightened age, any Government could adopt such
a clumsy mode of raising money as to maintain excessive rates
of tolls; nor would it have attained the object, as American
channels of trade were created simultaneously, that would
then have defied competition. The only effect, therefore, of
attempting such course would have been to give the United States
the complete control of our markets, and virtually to exclude
British goods. The only other course was therefore adopted,
and the producer has been required to pay, through increased
customs-duties, for the vastly greater deductions he secured
through the improvements referred to. What, then, has been the
result to the British manufacturer? His goods are, it is true,
in many cases subjected to 20 per cent. instead of 2½ per cent.,
but the cost to the consumer has been diminished in a very much
greater degree; and the aggregate of cost, original price, duty,
freight, and charges are now very much less than when the duty
was 2½ per cent., and consequently the _legitimate protection_
to the home-manufacturer is to this extent diminished. Nor is
this all: the interest of the British manufacturer is not merely
that he shall be able to lay down his goods at the least cost to
the consumer, but equally is he interested in the ability of the
consumer to buy. Now, this latter point is attained precisely
through the same means which have cheapened the goods. The
produce of Canada is now increased in value exactly in proportion
to the saving on the cost of delivering it in the market of
consumption.
“If the aggregate of cost to the consumer remained the same now
as it was before the era of canals and railroads in Canada, what
possible difference would it make to the British manufacturers
whether the excess over the cost in Great Britain were paid
to the Government or to merchants and forwarders? It would
certainly not in any way affect the question of the protection
to home-manufacturers: but when it can be clearly shown that by
the action of the Government, in raising funds through increased
customs-duties, the cost to the consumer is now very much less,
upon what ground can the British manufacturer complain that these
duties have been restrictive on his trade?
“The undersigned might truly point to the rapid increase in
the population and wealth of Canada, arising from its policy
of improvement, whereby its ability of consumption has been so
largely increased. He might also show that these improvements
have, in a great degree, also tended to the rapid advance of
the Western States, and to their increased ability to purchase
British goods. He might point to the fact that the grain supplied
from the Western States and Canada keeps down prices in Great
Britain, and therefore enables the British manufacturer to
produce still cheaper. But he prefers resting his case, as to
the propriety of imposing increased customs-duties, solely on
the one point, that through that increase the cost of British
manufactured goods, including duty, has been reduced to the
Canadian consumer, and that consequently the increase has in its
results, viewing the whole trade, tended to an augmentation of
the market for British goods.”
In a tabular statement it is shown that the average amount of duty
levied on imports from the United States in 1861 is the same as
the average of the previous twelve years, that the variations have
been very slight, and that the rate per cent. was less than half
what it had been a few years before, whilst American trade has been
steadily increasing. Under the operation of the treaty, the imports
from the United States, in 1861, were nearly trebled, and the
exports from Canada to the United States were nearly quadrupled;
the whole amount of trade in 1851 being, in round numbers,
12,500,000 dollars, which was increased to 24,000,000 dollars in
1854, and to 35,500,000 dollars in 1861. These advantages may be
still further extended without injury to either nation or to the
just claims of Great Britain to an equality in the Canadian market;
and Mr. Galt professed himself quite ready for the abolition of
the coasting laws on inland waters--of all discrimination as to
nationality in respect of vessels--the free import of wooden wares,
agricultural implements, machinery, and books--the assimilation
of the patent-laws: but he totally opposes the project of a
Zollverein, on the ground that it would be inconsistent with the
maintenance of connexion with Great Britain, inasmuch as Canada
would be called upon to tax goods of British manufacture, while she
admitted those of the United States free.
“Great Britain is,” he observes, “the market for Canadian produce
to a far greater extent than the United States.” The United States
would necessarily impose her views on the Zollverein, and “the
result would be,” says Mr. Galt, “a tariff not, as now, based on
the simple wants of Canada, but upon those of a country engaged in
a colossal war.” It must be regretted, notwithstanding Mr. Galt’s
arguments, that the Canadian tariff is so high; but if she be
called upon to incur a fresh debt for the purposes of defence, it
is more likely that it will be increased rather than diminished.
In connection with the relations of Canada and the West to the
United States, the opening of new water-ways and roads becomes of
paramount interest and importance.
In March, 1863, a Select Committee was appointed by the Legislative
Assembly to investigate the subject of a navigable line between
Montreal and Lake Huron, by the Ottawa and Matawan Rivers, Lake
Nipissing, and French River. That Committee reported that there
were no engineering difficulties to interfere with the opening of
this route for vessels of every class up to the draught of twelve
feet, and that it would shorten the line to Chicago 350 miles,
the exact difference in favour of the Ottawa communication from
Montreal to Mackinaw being 68 miles. In point of time there would
be a reduction of 47 hours. The trade between the Western States
and the sea has increased to such an extent during the last four
years, that 120,000,000 of bushels of wheat and grain stood in need
of transport, according to the last calculation; and even with its
present communications, Montreal is second only to New York as a
grain-exporting port, the quantity shipped last year from it being
over 15,000,000 of bushels. The Ottawa route would actually be the
shortest line of communication between the ports on Lake Michigan
and New York itself by 150 miles, when the Champlain Canal shall
have been made, and the Northern Canal enlarged.
The tract through which the proposed line would pass, exceeding
in area the whole of the five New England States, is covered with
a wealth of timber surpassing belief; and the forestless prairies
would furnish a market valuable as gold itself to the lumberer.
Vessels going down and discharging their cargoes would return
with cargoes of timber, the demand for which in the West is so
great, that the city of Chicago consumes alone 100,000_l._ worth
in the year. Canadian pines would be in demand to construct the
new cities which are rising in the Prairie State, and to keep the
hearth fires alight through their rigid winters. The effect of
such a line in developing local traffic, agricultural improvement,
commercial enterprise, and the spread of civilisation, cannot be
over-estimated. In reference to the military advantages to be
derived from its construction, the Committee makes but a meagre
reference; but it is obvious that by securing such a route, far
removed from a foreign frontier, between the sea and the western
lakes, the means of defence and of transport in war would be very
much strengthened and improved.
The St. Lawrence canals can be destroyed, as Mr. Chamley observes,
by the Americans, without their being obliged to land a man in
Canada; whilst by the Ottawa route gunboats could proceed from
the St. Lawrence to Lake Huron in less time than they would now
require to get to Lake Erie. It is not to be overlooked, however,
that the higher latitudes through which the canal would run, expose
the waters to a longer frost and necessary cessation of traffic.
The advantages of the route to New York and to other North-Eastern
States of America, can only be gained by completing the proposed
Cooknawoogo Canal, between the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain,
and it is doubtful whether the jealousy of the Americans would
not prevent their furthering a project which would confer great
benefits on the Provinces, even though their refusing to do so
might deprive them of certain advantages. This line would, in fact,
give us or the Canadians an admirable interior communication,
and at the same time confer military, political, and commercial
benefits on the Provinces, the extent of which cannot be easily
foreseen.
Mr. Galt admits that there may be jealousies, though he protests
there should not be, and calls to mind the opposition of Mohawk
Dutchmen, the Frenchmen of Detroit, and others, to the Erie Canal.
If the plans for improving the communications which have been
suggested should ever be developed, the valley of Red River would
be reached without much difficulty, and land as good as that in the
unsettled portions of Iowa and Minnesota would be opened to the
British emigrant.
In the valleys of the Saskatchewan and Assiniboine, Canada
possesses a vast north-west of her own, enjoying a mild climate,
which contains, according to one of the witnesses whose opinion
is cited by the Committee, 500,000 square miles of fertile land,
capable of sustaining a population of nearly 30,000,000 of people.
It has been ascertained beyond doubt, that the tract between the
North and South Saskatchewan on the east is exceedingly fertile,
and that no intense cold prevails throughout an enormous region of
rich prairies on cretaceous and tertiary deposits. It is scarcely
possible for us to conceive what an enormous expanse of fertile
land lies to the east of the Rocky Mountains, about the sources
of those rivers; but there are too many witnesses of unmistakeable
veracity to render us sceptical concerning the beauty and
capabilities of these regions. Could the poor emigrant be carried
to these fertile districts, instead of sinking into the rowdyism of
American cities, or beating down the rate of wages by competition,
he would find at least a comfortable subsistence, even if he were
unable at once to obtain a profitable market for his labours.
Father de Smet, the missionary, a man whose name is a tower of
strength and faith, describes a district which makes us wonder
that poverty should ever be known in Europe, and corroborates
the glowing picture of Sir George Simpson:--a soil and climate
better suited for agriculture than that of Toronto--a region
abounding in game of all kinds, rivers and lakes swarming with
fish, plains covered with buffaloes--seams of coal--delicious
wild fruits--forests of pine, cypress, poplar, and aspen. Even at
Edmonton, potatoes, wheat and barley, corn and beans, are produced
in abundance. “Are these vast and innumerable fields of hay,”
asks Father de Smet, “for ever destined to be consumed by fire,
or perish in wintry snows? How long shall these superb forests be
the haunts of wild beasts? Are these abundant mines of coal, lead,
sulphur, iron, copper, and saltpetre doomed to remain for ever
valueless? No; the day must come when the hand of labour shall give
them value, and stirring and enterprising people are destined ere
long to fill this void; the wild beasts will give place to domestic
animals; flocks and herds will graze on the beautiful meadows, and
the mountain-sides and valleys will swarm with life.”
Before this picture, however, be realised, some communication
must be opened east or west between the community and the outer
world; and if the British Government does not take some steps to
secure a settlement of these regions by its own subjects, the
irresistible agency of American emigration will erase mere lines
upon the map, and determine the question of nationality beyond the
power of appeal or alteration. It is agreeable to admit that the
inhabitants of the State of Minnesota have not hitherto evinced
any design of raising difficulties as to jurisdiction, or of
disturbing the relations between the two Governments. In fact, the
St. Paul Chamber of Commerce, in 1862, presented a strong memorial
against the proposal to suspend or abrogate the provisions of the
Reciprocity Treaty. This memorial says:--
“Central British America, including an inhabitable area of
300,000 square miles, and extending north-west of Minnesota to
the Rocky Mountains, will probably be organised as a crown colony
of England, with the seat of government at Selkirk. There is good
reason to believe that a bill for this purpose will become an Act
of Parliament at the session now impending. British Columbia,
on the Pacific coast, having received a similar organisation
in 1858, the establishment of the province of Central British
America will go far to realise the hope so gracefully expressed
three years since from the throne of England: ‘That her Majesty’s
dominions in North America may ultimately be peopled in an
unbroken chain from the Atlantic to the Pacific, by a loyal and
industrious population of subjects of the British crown.’
“Minnesota, with the co-operation of the Government at
Washington, has relied with confidence upon the probability
of such a colonisation of the fertile valleys which stretch
beyond the international boundary, from the lakes of Superior
and Winnipeg, or the western limits of Canada, to the Pacific
colony of British Columbia. Our mails, our trains of regular
transportation, and our steam-vessels on the Red River of the
North, are already provided as important links of international
communication from Toronto to St. Paul, and thence to Fort
Garry. The projected railroads of Minnesota, with extensive
grants of land from Congress in behalf of their construction,
harmonise in a north-western trend to the valleys of the Red
River of the North, and the still more remote Saskatchewan. Our
whole commercial future has been projected in concert with the
victories of peace, even more renowned than war, of which we
still hope to witness the achievement in north-west America,
irrespective of the imaginary line of an international frontier.
“Animated by these expectations, which the march of events has
hitherto justified, we invoke the ‘sober second thought’ of
the country upon the subject of our continental policy. With
the suppression of the Southern rebellion; with dispassionate
discussions by all the parties interested; with the happy
accord of minds like Cobden in England and Chase in America
upon the best methods of revenue; and lastly, with the lessons
and suggestions of the next three years, a treaty, eminently
deserving the designation of a reciprocity treaty, will probably
be submitted to the Congress of 1864.”
When the Committee of Commerce, to which the Legislature of New
York referred its petition against the Reciprocity Treaty, made
their report, they gave expression to very different sentiments;
and enlarged on the magnitude of the present possessions of
the British Crown on the American continent, and the probable
grandeur of their future, in a manner which indicated certainly
the existence of a feeling not far removed from jealousy. With
great truth they say, that the value of the British North-American
possessions is seldom appreciated: stretching from the Atlantic
to the Pacific, they contain an area of at least 3,478,380
square miles. The isothermal line of 60 degrees for summer rises
on the interior plains of this continent as high as the 61st
parallel,--its average position in Europe. And a favourable
comparison may also be traced for winter and other seasons in the
year. Then, elevated by the subject, and warming by degrees, the
Committee draw a glowing picture of this enormous empire. “Spring
opens simultaneously,” they say, “on the plains, which stretch
for 1200 miles, from St. Paul’s to the McKenzie River. Westward
are countries of still milder climate, now scarcely inhabited,
but of incalculable value in the future. Eastward are the small
settlements, yet distant from the other abodes of civilisation,
enjoying the rich lands and pleasant climate of the Red River.” It
may well surprise the inhabitants of these isles, who have not got
100 miles of natural navigable rivers in the three kingdoms, to
learn that this same Red River is capable of steamboat navigation
for 400 miles.
The following extract from this Report gives perhaps the best idea
of the British Possessions in a few words which can be presented to
the reader:
“It is asserted by those who add personal knowledge of the
subject to scientific investigation, that the habitable but
undeveloped area of the British Possessions westerly from Lake
Superior and Hudson’s Bay, comprises sufficient territory to
make twenty-five States equal in size to Illinois. Bold as this
assertion is, it meets with confirmation in the isothermal charts
of Blodgett, the testimony of Richardson, Simpson, Mackenzie,
the maps published by the Government of Canada, and the recent
explorations of Professor Hind, of Toronto.
“North of a line drawn from the northern limit of Lake Superior
to the coast at the southern limit of Labrador exists a vast
region, possessing in its best parts a climate barely endurable,
and reaching into the Arctic regions. This country, even more
cold, desolate, and barren on the Atlantic coast than in the
interior latitudes, becoming first known to travellers, has given
character in public estimation to the whole north.
“Another line, drawn from the northern limit of Minnesota to that
of Maine, includes nearly all the inhabited portion of Canada, a
province extending opposite the Territory of Dakota and States
of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York,
Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, possessing a climate identical
with that of our Northern States.
“The ‘Maritime Provinces’ on the Atlantic coast include New
Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward’s Island, and Newfoundland.
Geographically they may be regarded as a north-easterly
prolongation of the New England system. Unitedly they include
an area of at least 86,000 square miles, and are capable of
supporting a larger population than that at present existing in
the United States or Great Britain. They are equal in extent to
the united territory of Holland, Greece, Belgium, Portugal, and
Switzerland.
“New Brunswick is 190 miles in length and 150 in breadth.
Its interests are inseparably connected with those of the
adjacent State of Maine. It has an area of 22,000,000 acres,
and a seacoast 400 miles in extent, and abounding in harbours.
Its population some years ago numbered 210,000, whose chief
occupations are connected with shipbuilding, the fisheries, and
the timber trade. Commissioners appointed by the Government of
Great Britain affirm that it is impossible to speak too highly of
its climate, soil, and capabilities. Few countries are so well
wooded and watered. On its unreclaimed surface is an abundant
stock of the finest timber; beneath are coal fields. The rivers,
lakes, and seacoast abound with fish.
“Nova Scotia, a long peninsula, united to the American continent
by an isthmus only fifteen miles wide, is 280 miles in length.
The numerous indentations on its coast form harbours unsurpassed
in any part of the world. Including Cape Breton, it has an area
of 12,000,000 acres. Wheat, and the usual cereals and fruits of
the Northern States, flourish in many parts of it. Its population
in 1851 was declared by the census to be 276,117. Besides
possessing productive fisheries and agricultural resources, it is
rich in mineral wealth, having beneath its surface coal, iron,
manganese, gypsum, and gold.
“The province of Prince Edward’s Island is separated from New
Brunswick and Nova Scotia by straits only nine miles in width.
It is crescent-shaped, 130 miles in length, and at its broadest
part is 34 miles wide. It is a level region, of a more moderate
temperature than that of Lower Canada, and well adapted to
agricultural purposes. Its population in 1848 was 62,678.
“The island of Newfoundland has a seacoast 1000 miles in extent.
It has an area of 23,040,000 acres, of which only a small portion
is cultivated. Its spring is late, its summer short, but the
frost of winter is less severe than in many parts of our own
Northern States and Territories. It is only 1665 miles distant
from Ireland. It possesses a large trade with various countries,
including Spain, Portugal, Italy, the West Indies, and the
Brazils.
“The chief wealth of Newfoundland and of the Labrador coast is
to be found in their extensive and inexhaustible fisheries, in
which the other Provinces also partake. The future products of
these, when properly developed by human ingenuity and industry,
defy human calculation. The Gulf Stream is met near the shores
of Newfoundland by a current from the Polar basin, vast deposits
are formed by the meeting of the opposing waters, the great
submarine islands, known as ‘The Banks,’ are formed; and the rich
pastures created in Ireland by the warm and humid influences of
the Gulf Stream are compensated by the ‘rich sea-pastures of
Newfoundland.’ The fishes of warm or tropical waters, inferior
in quality and scarcely capable of preservation, cannot form
an article of commerce like those produced in inexhaustible
quantities in these cold and shallow seas. The abundance of these
marine resources is unequalled in any portion of the globe.
“Canada, rather a nation than a province in any common
acceptation of the term, includes not less than 346,863
square miles of territory, independently of its North-western
Possessions not yet open for settlement. It is three times as
large as Great Britain and Ireland, and more than three times
as large as Prussia. It intervenes between the Great North-west
and the Maritime Provinces, and consists chiefly of a vast
territorial projection into the territory of the United States,
although it possesses a coast of nearly 1000 miles on the river
and gulf of the St. Lawrence, where fisheries of cod, herring,
mackerel, and salmon are carried on successfully. Valuable
fisheries exist also in its lakes. It is rich in metallic ore and
in the resources of its forests. Large portions of its territory
are peculiarly favourable to the growth of wheat, barley, and
the other cereals of the north. During the life of the present
generation, or the last quarter of a century, its population has
increased more than fourfold, or from 582,000 to 2,500,000.
“The population of all the provinces may be fairly estimated
as numbering 3,500,000. Many of the inhabitants are of French
extraction, and a few German settlements exist; but two-thirds of
the people of the provinces owe their origin either to the United
States or to the British Islands, whose language we speak, and
who ‘people the world with men industrious and free.’
“The climate and soil of these Provinces and Possessions,
seemingly less indulgent than those of tropical regions, are
precisely those by which the skill, energy, and virtues of the
human race are best developed. Nature there demands thought
and labour from man as conditions of his existence, but yields
abundant rewards to wise industry. Those causes which, in our
age of the world, determine the wealth of nations are those
which render man most active; and it cannot be too often or too
closely remembered in discussing subjects so vast as these, where
the human mind may be misled if it attempts to comprehend them in
their boundless variety of detail, that sure and safe guides in
the application of political economy, and to our own prosperity,
are to be found in the simple principles of morality and justice,
because they alone are true alike in minute and great affairs, at
all times and in every place.”