confederation.
At the present time, a population of probably five million four hundred
thousand souls inhabit a Dominion of seven regularly organised
provinces, and of an immense fertile territory stretching from Manitoba
to British Columbia. This Dominion embraces an area of 3,519,000 square
miles, including its water surface, or very little less than the area of
the United States with Alaska, and measures 3500 miles from east to
west; and 1400 miles from north to south.
No country in the world gives more conclusive evidences of substantial
development and prosperity than the Dominion under the beneficial
influences of federal union and the progressive measures of governments
for many years. The total trade of the country has grown from over
$131,000,000 in the first year of confederation to over $321,000,000 in
1899, while the national revenue has risen during the same period from
$14,000,000 to $47,000,000, and will probably be $50,000,000 in 1900.
The railways, whose expansion so closely depends on the material
conditions of the whole country, stretch for 17,250 miles compared with
2278 miles in 1868; while the remarkable system of canals, which extend
from the great lakes to Montreal, has been enlarged so as to give
admirable facilities for the growing trade of the west. The natural
resources of the country are inexhaustible, from the fisheries of Nova
Scotia to the wheat-fields of the north-west, from the coal-mines of
Cape Breton to the gold deposits of the dreary country through which the
Yukon and its tributaries flow.
No dangerous questions like slavery, or the expansion of the African
race in the southern states, exist to complicate the political and
social conditions of the confederation, and, although there is a large
and increasing French Canadian element in the Dominion, its history so
far need not create fear as to the future, except perhaps in the minds
of gloomy pessimists. While this element naturally clings to its
national language and institutions, yet, under the influence of a
complete system of local self-government, it has always taken as active
and earnest a part as the English element in establishing and
strengthening the confederation. It has steadily grown in strength and
prosperity under the generous and inspiring influence of British
institutions, which have given full scope to the best attributes of a
nationality crushed by the depressing conditions of French rule for a
century and a half.
The federal union gives expansion to the national energies of the whole
Dominion, and at the same time affords every security to the local
interests of each member of the federal compact. In all matters of
Dominion concern, Canada is a free agent. While the Queen is still head
of the executive authority, and can alone initiate treaties with foreign
nations (that being an act of complete sovereignty), and while appeals
are still open to the privy council of England from Canadian courts
within certain limitations, it is an admitted principle that the
Dominion is practically supreme in the exercise of all legislative
rights and privileges granted by the imperial parliament,--rights and
privileges set forth explicitly in the British North America act of
1867,--so long as her legislative action does not conflict with the
treaty obligations of the parent state, or with imperial legislation
directly applicable to Canada with her own consent.
The crown exercises a certain supervision over the affairs of the
Dominion through a governor-general, who communicates directly with an
imperial secretary of state; but in every matter directly affecting
Canada--as for instance, in negotiations respecting the fisheries, the
Bering Sea, and other matters considered by several conferences at
Washington--the Canadian government is consulted and its statements are
carefully considered, since they represent the sentiments and interests
of the Canadian people, who, as citizens of the empire, are entitled to
as much weight as if they lived in the British Isles.
In the administration of Canadian affairs the governor-general is
advised by a responsible council representing the majority of the house
of commons. As in England, the Canadian cabinet, or ministry, is
practically a committee of the dominant party in parliament and is
governed by the rules, conventions and usages of parliamentary
government which have grown up gradually in the parent state. Whenever
it is necessary to form a ministry in Canada, its members are summoned
by the governor-general to the privy council of Canada; another
illustration of the desire of the Canadians to imitate the old
institutions of England and copy her time-honoured procedure.
The parliament of Canada consists of the Queen, the senate, and the
house of commons. In the formation of the upper house, three
geographical groups were arranged in the first instance, Ontario,
Quebec, and the maritime provinces, and each group received a
representation of twenty-four members. More recently other provinces
have been admitted into the Dominion without reference to this
arrangement, and now seventy-eight senators altogether may sit in
parliament. The remarkably long tenure of power enjoyed by the
Conservative party--twenty-five years from 1867--enabled it in the
course of time to fill the upper house with a very large numerical
majority of its own friends, and this fact, taken in connection with
certain elements of weakness inherent in a chamber which is not elected
by the people and has none of the ancient privileges or prestige of a
house of lords, long associated with the names of great statesmen and
the memorable events of English history, has created an agitation among
the Liberal party for radical changes in its constitution which would
bring it, in their opinion, more in harmony with the people's
representatives in the popular branch of the general legislature. While
some extremists would abolish the chamber, Sir Wilfrid Launer and other
prominent Liberals recognise its necessity in our parliamentary system.
In all probability death will ere long solve difficulties arising out
of the political composition of the body, if the Liberal party remain in
power.
The house of commons, the great governing body of the Dominion, has been
made, so far as circumstances will permit, a copy of the English house.
Its members are not required to have a property qualification, and are
elected by the votes of the electors of the several provinces where, in
a majority of cases, universal suffrage, under limitations of
citizenship and residence, prevails.
In each province there is a lieutenant-governor, appointed by the
Dominion government for five years, an executive council, and a
legislature consisting of only one house, except in Nova Scotia and
Quebec where a legislative council appointed by the crown still
continues. The principles of responsible government exist in all the
provinces, and practically in the North-west territory.
In the enumeration of the legislative powers, respectively given to the
Dominion and provincial legislatures, an effort was made to avoid the
conflicts of jurisdiction that have so frequently arisen between the
national and state governments of the United States. In the first place
we have a recapitulation of those general or national powers that
properly belong to the central authority, such as customs and excise
duties, regulation of trade and commerce, militia and defence,
post-office, banking and coinage, railways and public works "for the
general advantage," navigation and shipping, naturalisation and aliens,
fisheries, weights and measures, marriage and divorce, penitentiaries,
criminal law, census and statistics. On the other hand, the provinces
have retained control over municipal institutions, public lands, local
works and undertakings, incorporation of companies with provincial
objects, property and civil rights, administration of justice, and
generally "all matters of a merely local and private nature in the
province." The _residuary_ power rests with the general parliament of
Canada.
The parliament of Canada, in 1875, established a supreme court, or
general court of appeal, for Canada, whose highest function is to decide
questions as to the respective legislative powers of the Dominion and
provincial parliaments, which are referred to it in due process of law
by the subordinate courts of the provinces. The decisions of this court
are already doing much to solve difficulties that impede the successful
operation of the constitution. As a rule cases come before the supreme
court on appeal from the lower courts, but the law regulating its powers
provides that the governor in council may refer any matter to this court
on which a question of constitutional jurisdiction has been raised. But
the supreme court of Canada is not necessarily the court of last resort
of Canada. The people have an inherent right as subjects of the Queen to
appeal to the judicial committee of the privy council of the United
Kingdom.
But it is not only by means of the courts that a check is imposed upon
hasty, or unconstitutional, legislation. The constitution provides that
the governor-general may veto or reserve any bill passed by the two
houses of parliament when it conflicts with imperial interests or
imperial legislation. It is now understood that the reserve power of
disallowance which her Majesty's government possesses under the law is
sufficient to meet all possible cases. This sovereign power is never
exercised except in the case of an act clearly in conflict with an
imperial statute or in violation of a treaty affecting a foreign nation.
The Dominion government also supervises all the provincial legislation
and has in a few cases disallowed provincial acts. This power is
exercised very carefully, and it is regarded with intense jealousy by
the provincial governments, which have more than once attempted to set
it at defiance. In practice it is found the wisest course to leave to
the courts the decision in cases where doubts exist as to constitutional
authority or jurisdiction.
The organised districts of the North-west--Assiniboia, Alberta,
Athabaska, and Saskatchewan--are governed by a lieutenant-governor
appointed by the government of Canada and aided by a council chosen by
himself from an assembly elected by the people under a very liberal
franchise. These territories have also representatives in the two houses
of the parliament of Canada. The Yukon territory in the far north-west,
where rich discoveries of gold have attracted a large number of people
within the past two years, is placed under a provisional government,
composed of a commissioner and council appointed by the Dominion
government[8], and acting under instructions given from time to time by
the same authority or by the minister of the interior.
[8: Since this sentence was in type the Dominion government has given
effect to a provision of a law allowing the duly qualified electors of
the Yukon to choose two members of the council.]
The public service enjoys all the advantages that arise from permanency
of tenure and appointment by the crown. It has on the whole been
creditable to the country and remarkably free from political influences.
The criminal law of England has prevailed in all the provinces since it
was formerly introduced by the Quebec act of 1774. The civil law of the
French regime, however, has continued to be the legal system in French
Canada since the Quebec act, and has now obtained a hold in that
province which insures its permanence as an institution closely allied
with the dearest rights of the people. Its principles and maxims have
been carefully collected and enacted in a code which is based on the
famous code of Napoleon. In the other provinces and territories the
common law of England forms the basis of jurisprudence on which a large
body of Canadian statutory law has been built in the course of time.
At the present time all the provinces, with the exception of Prince
Edward Island, have an excellent municipal system, which enables every
defined district, large or small, to carry on efficiently all those
public improvements essential to the comfort, convenience and general
necessities of the different communities that make up the province at
large. Even in the territories of the north-west, every proper facility
is given to the people in a populous district, or town, to organise a
system equal to all their local requirements.
Every Englishman will consider it an interesting and encouraging fact
that the Canadian people, despite their neighbourhood to a prosperous
federal commonwealth, should not even in the most critical and gloomy
periods of their history have shown any disposition to mould their
institutions directly on those of the United States and lay the
foundation for future political union. Previous to 1840, which was the
commencement of a new era in the political history of the provinces,
there was a time when discontent prevailed throughout the Canadas, but
not even then did any large body of the people threaten to sever the
connection with the parent state. The Act of Confederation was framed
under the direct influence of Sir John Macdonald and Sir George Cartier,
and although one was an English Canadian and the other a French
Canadian, neither yielded to the other in the desire to build up a
Dominion on the basis of English institutions, in the closest possible
connection with the mother country. While the question of union was
under consideration it was English statesmen and writers alone who
predicted that this new federation, with its great extent of territory,
its abundant resources, and ambitious people, would eventually form a
new nation independent of Great Britain. Canadian statesmen never spoke
or wrote of separation, but regarded the constitutional change in their
political condition as giving them greater weight and strength in the
empire. The influence of British example on the Canadian Dominion can be
seen throughout its governmental machinery, in the system of
parliamentary government, in the constitution of the privy council and
the houses of parliament, in an independent judiciary, in appointed
officials of every class--in the provincial as well as Dominion
system--in a permanent and non-political civil service, and in all
elements of sound administration. During the thirty-three years that
have passed since 1867, the attachment to England and her institutions
has gained in strength, and it is clear that those predictions of
Englishmen to which we have referred are completely falsified. On the
contrary, the dominant sentiment is for strengthening the ties that have
in some respects become weak in consequence of the enlargement of the
political rights of the Dominion, which has assumed the position of a
semi-independent power, since England now only retains her imperial
sovereignty by declaring peace or war with foreign nations, by
appointing a governor-general, by controlling colonial legislation
through the Queen in council and the Queen in parliament--but not so as
to diminish the rights of local self-government conceded to the
Dominion--and by requiring that all treaties with foreign nations should
be made through her own government, while recognising the right of the
dependency to be consulted and directly represented on all occasions
when its interests are immediately affected.
In no respect have the Canadians followed the example of the United
States, and made their executive entirely separate from the legislative
authority. On the contrary, there is no institution which works more
admirably in the federation--in the general as well as provincial
governments--than the principle of making the ministry responsible to
the popular branch of the legislature, and in that way keeping the
executive and legislative departments in harmony with each other, and
preventing that conflict of authorities which is a distinguishing
feature of the very opposite system that prevails in the federal
republic. If we review the amendments made of late years in the
political constitutions of the States, and especially those ratified not
long since in New York, we see in how many respects the Canadian system
of government is superior to that of the republic. For instance, Canada
has enjoyed for years, as results of responsible government, the secret
ballot, stringent laws against bribery and corruption at all classes of
elections, the registration of voters, strict naturalisation laws,
infrequent political elections, separation of municipal from provincial
or national contests, appointive and permanent officials in every branch
of the civil service, a carefully devised code of private bill
legislation, the printing of all public as well as private bills before
their consideration by the legislative bodies; and yet all these
essentials of safe administration and legislation are now only in part
introduced by constitutional enactment in so powerful and progressive a
state as New York.
Of course, in the methods of party government we can see in Canada at
times an attempt to follow the example of the United States, and to
introduce the party machine with its professional politicians and all
those influences that have degraded politics since the days of Jackson
and Van Buren. Happily, so far, the people of Canada have shown
themselves fully capable of removing those blots that show themselves
from time to time on the body politic. Justice has soon seized those men
who have betrayed their trust in the administration of public affairs.
Although Canadians may, according to their political proclivities, find
fault with some methods of governments and be carried away at times by
political passion beyond the bounds of reason, it is encouraging to find
that all are ready to admit the high character of the judiciary for
learning, integrity and incorruptibility. The records of Canada do not
present a single instance of the successful impeachment or removal of a
judge for improper conduct on the bench since the days of responsible
government; and the three or four petitions laid before parliament, in
the course of a quarter of a century, asking for an investigation into
vague charges against some judges, have never required a judgment of the
house. Canadians have built wisely when, in the formation of their
constitution, they followed the English plan of retaining an intimate
and invaluable connection between the executive and legislative
departments, and of keeping the judiciary practically independent of the
other authorities of government. Not only the life and prosperity of the
people, but the satisfactory working of the whole system of federal
government rests more or less on the discretion and integrity of the
judges. Canadians are satisfied that the peace and security of the whole
Dominion do not more depend on the ability and patriotism of statesmen
in the legislative halls than on that principle of the constitution,
which places the judiciary in an exalted position among all the other
departments of government, and makes law as far as possible the arbiter
of their constitutional conflicts. All political systems are very
imperfect at the best; legislatures are constantly subject to currents
of popular prejudice and passion; statesmanship is too often weak and
fluctuating, incapable of appreciating the true tendency of events, and
too ready to yield to the force of present circumstances or dictates of
expediency; but law, as worked out on English principles in all the
dependencies of the empire and countries of English origin, as
understood by Blackstone, Dicey, Story, Kent, and other great masters of
constitutional and legal learning, gives the best possible guarantee for
the security of institutions in a country of popular government.
In an Appendix to this history I have given comparisons in parallel
columns between the principal provisions of the federal constitutions of
the Canadian Dominion, and the Australian Commonwealth. In studying
carefully these two systems we must be impressed by the fact that the
constitution of Canada appears more influenced by the spirit of English
ideas than the constitution of Australia, which has copied some features
of the fundamental law of the United States. In the preamble of the
Canadian British North America act we find expressly stated "the desire
of the Canadian provinces to be federally united into one Dominion under
the crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a
constitution similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom," while
the preamble of the Australian constitution contains only a bald
statement of an agreement "to unite in one indissoluble federal
Commonwealth under the crown," When we consider the use of
"Commonwealth"--a word of republican significance to British ears--as
well as the selection of "state" instead of "province," of "house of
representatives" instead of "house of commons," of "executive council"
instead of "privy council," we may well wonder why the Australians, all
British by origin and aspiration, should have shown an inclination to
deviate from the precedents established by the Canadian Dominion, which,
though only partly English, resolved to carve the ancient historic names
of the parent state on the very front of its political structure.
As the several States of the Commonwealth have full control of their own
constitutions, they may choose at any moment to elect their own
governors as in the States of the American Union, instead of having them
appointed by the crown as in Canada. We see also an imitation of the
American constitution in the principle which allots to the central
government only certain enumerated powers, and leaves the residuary
power of legislation to the States. Again, while the act provides for a
high and other federal courts, the members of which are to be appointed
and removed as in Canada by the central government, the States are still
to have full jurisdiction over the State courts as in the United States.
The Canadian constitution, which gives to the Dominion exclusive control
over the appointment and removal of the judges of all the superior
courts, offers a positive guarantee against the popular election of
judges in the provinces. It is not going too far to suppose that, with
the progress of democratic ideas in Australia--a country inclined to
political experiments--we may find the experience of the United States
repeated, and see elective judges make their appearance when a wave of
democracy has suddenly swept away all dictates of prudence and given
unbridled licence to professional political managers only anxious for
the success of party. In allowing the British Parliament to amend the
Act of Union on an address of the Canadian parliament, we have yet
another illustration of the desire of Canadians to respect the supremacy
of the sovereign legislature of the empire. On the other hand, the
Australians make themselves entirely independent of the action of the
imperial parliament, which might be invaluable in some crisis affecting
deeply the integrity and unity of the Commonwealth, and give full scope
to the will of democracy expressed at the polls. In also limiting the
right of appeal to the Queen in council--by giving to the high court the
power to prevent appeals in constitutional disputes--the Australians
have also to a serious degree weakened one of the most important ties
that now bind them to the empire, and afford additional illustration of
the inferiority of the Australian constitution, from an imperial point
of view, compared with that of the Canadian Dominion, where a reference
to the judicial committee of the privy council is highly valued.
The Canadian people are displaying an intellectual activity commensurate
with the expansion of their territory and their accumulation of wealth.
The scientific, historical and political contributions of three decades,
make up a considerable library which shows the growth of what may be
called Canadian literature, since it deals chiefly with subjects
essentially of Canadian interest. The attention that is now particularly
devoted to the study and writing of history, and the collection of
historical documents relating to the Dominion, prove clearly the
national or thoroughly Canadian spirit that is already animating the
cultured class of its people.
Of the numerous historical works that have appeared since 1867 two only
demand special mention in this short review. One of these is _A History
of the days of Montcalm and Lévis_ by the Abbé Casgrain, who
illustrates the studious and literary character of the professors of the
great university which bears the name of the first bishop of Canada,
Monseigneur Laval. A more elaborate general history of Canada, in ten
octavo volumes, is that by Dr. Kingsford, whose life closed with his
book. Whilst it shows much industry and conscientiousness on the part of
the author, it fails too often to evoke our interest even when it deals
with the striking and picturesque story of the French régime, since the
author considered it his duty to be sober and prosaic when Parkman is
bright and eloquent.
A good estimate of the progress of literary culture in Canada can be
formed from a careful perusal of the poems of Bliss Carman, Archibald
Lampman, Charles G.W. Roberts, Wilfred Campbell, Duncan Campbell Scott
and Frederick George Scott. The artistic finish of their verse and the
originality of their conception entitle them fairly to claim a foremost
place alongside American poets since Longfellow, Emerson, Whittier,
Bryant and Lowell have disappeared. Pauline Johnson, who has Indian
blood in her veins, Archbishop O'Brien of Halifax, Miss Machar, Ethelyn
Weatherald, Charles Mair and several others might also be named to prove
that poetry is not a lost art in Canada, despite its pressing prosaic
and material needs.
Dr. Louis Fréchette is a worthy successor of Crémazie and has won the
distinction of having his best work crowned by the French Academy.
French Canadian poetry, however, has been often purely imitative of
French models like Musset and Gautier, both in style and sentiment, and
consequently lacks strength and originality. Fréchette has all the
finish of the French poets and, while it cannot be said that he has yet
originated fresh thoughts, which are likely to live among even the
people whom he has so often instructed and delighted, yet he has given
us poems like that on the discovery of the Mississippi which prove that
he is capable of even better things if he would seek inspiration from
the sources of the deeply interesting history of his own country, or
enter into the inner mysteries and social relations of his picturesque
compatriots.
The life of the French Canadian habitant has been admirably described in
verse by Dr. Drummond, who has always lived among that class of the
Canadian people and been a close observer of their national and personal
characteristics. He is the only writer who has succeeded in giving a
striking portraiture of life in the cabin, in the "shanty" (_chantier_),
and on the river, where the French habitant, forester, and canoe-man can
be seen to best advantage.
But if Canada can point to some creditable achievements of recent years
in history, poetry and essays, there is one department in which
Canadians never won any marked success until recently, and that is in
the novel or romance. Even Mr. Kirby's _Le Chien d'Or_ which recalls the
closing days of the French régime--the days of the infamous Intendant
Bigot who fattened on Canadian misery--does not show the finished art of
the skilled novelist, though it has a certain crude vigour of its own,
which has enabled it to live while so many other Canadian books have
died. French Canada is even weaker in this particular, and this is the
more surprising because there is abundance of material for the novelist
or the writer of romance in her peculiar society and institutions. But
this reproach has been removed by Mr. Gilbert Parker, now a resident in
London, but a Canadian by birth, education and sympathies, who is
animated by a laudable ambition of giving form and vitality to the
abundant materials that exist in the Dominion for the true story-teller.
His works show great skill in the use of historic matter, more than
ordinary power in the construction of a plot, and, above all, a literary
finish which is not equalled by any Canadian writer in the same field of
effort. Other meritorious Canadian workers in romance are Mr. William
McLennan, Mrs. Coates (Sarah Jeannette Duncan), and Miss Dougall, whose
names are familiar to English readers.
The name of Dr. Todd is well known throughout the British empire, and
indeed wherever institutions of government are studied, as that of an
author of most useful works on the English and Canadian constitutions.
Sir William Dawson, for many years the energetic principal of McGill
University, the scientific prominence of which is due largely to his
mental bias, was the author of several geological books, written in a
graceful and readable style. The scientific work of Canadians can be
studied chiefly in the proceedings of English, American and Canadian
societies, especially, of late years, in the transactions of the Royal
Society of Canada, established over eighteen years ago by the Marquess
of Lorne when governor-general of the Dominion. This successful
association is composed of one hundred and twenty members who have
written "memoirs of merit or rendered eminent services to literature or
science."
On the whole, there have been enough good poems, histories, and essays,
written and published in Canada during the last four or five decades, to
prove that there has been a steady intellectual growth on the part of
the Canadian people, and that it has kept pace at all events with the
mental growth in the pulpit, or in the legislative halls, where, of late
years, a keen practical debating style has taken the place of the more
rhetorical and studied oratory of old times. The intellectual faculties
of Canadians only require larger opportunities for their exercise to
bring forth rich fruit. The progress in the years to come will be much
greater than that Canadians have yet shown, and necessarily so, with the
wider distribution of wealth, the dissemination of a higher culture, and
a greater confidence in their own mental strength, and in the
opportunities that the country offers to pen and pencil. What is now
wanted is the cultivation of a good style and artistic workmanship.
Much of the daily literature of Canadians--indeed the chief literary
aliment of large numbers--is the newspaper press, which illustrates
necessarily the haste, pressure and superficiality of writings of that
ephemeral class. Canadian journals, however, have not yet descended to
the degraded sensationalism of New York papers, too many of which
circulate in Canada to the public detriment. On the whole, the tone of
the most ably conducted journals--the Toronto _Globe_, and the Montreal
_Gazette_ notably--is quite on a level with the tone of debate in the
legislative bodies of the country.
Now, as in all times of Canada's history, political life claims many
strong, keen and cultured intellects, though at the same time it is too
manifest that the tendency of democratic conditions and heated party
controversy is to prevent the most highly educated and sensitive
organisations from venturing on the agitated and unsafe sea of political
passion and competition. The speeches of Sir Wilfrid Laurier--the
eloquent French Canadian premier, who in his mastery of the English
tongue surpasses all his versatile compatriots--of Sir Charles Tupper,
Mr. Foster and others who might be mentioned, recall the most brilliant
period of parliamentary annals (1867--1873), when in the first
parliament of the Dominion the most prominent men of the provinces were
brought into public life, under the new conditions of federal union. The
debating power of the provincial legislative bodies is excellent, and
the chief defects are the great length and discursiveness of the
speeches on local as well as on national questions. It is also admitted
that of late years there has been a tendency to impair the dignity and
to lower the tone of discussion.
Many Canadians have devoted themselves to art since 1867, and some
Englishmen will recognise the names of L.R. O'Brien, Robert Harris,
J.W.L. Forster, Homer Watson, George Reid--the painter of "The
Foreclosure of the Mortgage," which won great praise at the World's Fair
of Chicago--John Hammond, F.A. Verner, Miss Bell, Miss Muntz, W.
Brymner, all of whom are Canadians by birth and inspiration. The
establishment of a Canadian Academy of Art by the Princess Louise, and
of other art associations, has done a good deal to stimulate a taste
for art, though the public encouragement of native artists is still very
inadequate, when we consider the excellence already attained under great
difficulties in a relatively new country, where the great mass of people
has yet to be educated to a perception of the advantages of high
artistic effort.
Sculpture would be hardly known in Canada were it not for the work of
the French Canadian Hebert, who is a product of the schools of Paris,
and has given to the Dominion several admirable statues and monuments of
its public men. While Canadian architecture has hitherto been generally
wanting in originality of conception, the principal edifices of the
provinces afford many good illustrations of effective adaptation of the
best art of Europe. Among these may be mentioned the following:--the
parliament and departmental buildings at Ottawa, admirable examples of
Italian Gothic; the legislative buildings at Toronto, in the Romanesque
style; the English cathedrals in Montreal and Fredericton, correct
specimens of early English Gothic; the French parish church of
Notre-Dame, in Montreal, attractive for its stately Gothic proportions;
the university of Toronto, an admirable conception of Norman
architecture; the Canadian Pacific railway station at Montreal and the
Frontenac Hotel at Quebec, fine examples of the adaptation of old Norman
architecture to modern necessities; the provincial buildings at
Victoria, in British Columbia, the general design of which is
Renaissance, rendered most effective by pearl-grey stone and several
domes; the headquarters of the bank of Montreal, a fine example of the
Corinthian order, and notable for the artistic effort to illustrate, on
the walls of the interior, memorable scenes in Canadian history; the
county and civic buildings of Toronto, an ambitious effort to reproduce
the modern Romanesque, so much favoured by the eminent American
architect, Richardson; Osgoode Hall, the seat of the great law courts of
the province of Ontario, which in its general character recalls the
architecture of the Italian Renaissance. Year by year we see additions
to our public and private buildings, interesting from an artistic point
of view, and illustrating the accumulating wealth of the country, as
well as the growth of culture and taste among the governing classes.
The universities, colleges, academies, and high schools, the public and
common schools of the Dominion, illustrate the great desire of the
governments and the people of the provinces to give the greatest
possible facilities for the education of all classes at the smallest
possible cost to individuals. At the present time there are between
13,000 and 14,000 students attending 62 universities and colleges. The
collegiate institutes and academies of the provinces also rank with the
colleges as respects the advantages they give to young men and
women. Science is especially prominent in McGill and Toronto
Universities--which are the most largely attended--and the former
affords a notable example of the munificence of the wealthy men of
Montreal, in establishing chairs of science and otherwise advancing its
educational usefulness. Laval University stands deservedly at the head
of the Roman Catholic institutions of the continent, on account of its
deeply interesting historic associations, and the scholarly attainments
of its professors, several of whom have won fame in Canadian letters.
Several universities give instructions in medicine and law, and Toronto
has also a medical college for women. At the present time, at least
one-fifth of the people of the Dominion is in attendance at the
universities, colleges, public and private schools. The people of Canada
contribute upwards of ten millions of dollars annually to the support of
their educational establishments, in the shape of government grants,
public taxes, or private fees. Ontario alone, in 1899, raised five
millions and a half of dollars for the support of its public school
system; and of this amount the people directly contributed ninety-one
per cent, in the shape of taxes. On the other hand, the libraries of
Canada are not numerous; and it is only in Ontario that there is a law
providing for the establishment of such institutions by a vote of the
taxpayers in the municipalities. In this province there are at least
420 libraries, of which the majority are connected with mechanics'
institutes, and are made public by statute. The weakness of the public
school system--especially in Ontario--is the constant effort to teach a
child a little of everything, and to make him a mere machine. The
consequences are superficiality--a veneer of knowledge--and the loss of
individuality.