Section II., 1884. [ 1 ] Trans. Eoy. Soc. Canada. 



I. — The Making of Canada. 

 By John Reade. 



(Read May 21, 1884.) 



My purpose iu this paper is not so much to speak of what is striking and 

 dramatic in Canadian history, as to indicate some of the stages by which a handful of 

 adventurers (I use the word in its ancient and honourable sense) has become a nation of 

 five millions of people. I wish to draw attention to the influences of climate, occu- 

 pation, and surroundings by which the settlers were modified, until, in the course of 

 time, they came to form a new ethnic variety. I will then show briefly what 

 characteristics were contributed by the immigration that set in after the Cession and 

 has continued to the present. If I can make it plain that the stocks from which we 

 are derived are the best in Europe, and that the union of the ciualities which 

 have made them severally great ought, when efficaciously combined and developed, 

 to make us still greater, I shall look upon my labour as not in vain. But while 

 thus hopefully indicating the sources of our strength, it would be poor patriotism and 

 false delicacy to avoid any reference to equally obvious elements of weakness. These, 

 indeed, make themselves so conspicuous at certain periods in our growth to nationhood 

 that emphasis becomes unnecessary. But iu the early years of the colony there is generally 

 so much of the grand and heroic about the leading figures, that it is only by a scrutiny 

 which is out of sympathy with romance, that we discover the drawbacks that retarded its 

 progress. One of them undoubtedly was the lack of a consistently wise colonial policy on 

 the part of the metropolis. Neither to Acadia nor to Canada was it (if we except the new 

 departure of Colbert) either far-seeing as it concerned France or just to the colonists. It 

 may be said, indeed, that the healthy social life and industrial progress of the Canadian 

 people were due, in the main, to qualities which the founders of families brought with 

 them from their homes in Northern France, developed and fructified by the discipline of 

 the climate and the example and ministrations of a devoted clergy. Interesting as it 

 would be to follow step by step the career of Champlain and the colony under him, and to 

 share in the enthusiasm of Chomédy de Maisonneuve and his pious company, as with holy 

 rites they laid the foundations of Ville Marie, I can only cast a momentary glance at the 

 trials and the triumphs of that critical time. Rapid, indeed, under those brave explorers 

 of the iTth century, was the march of conquest. Once the foundations of the colony were 

 fairly laid, they shrank from no difficulty, no hardship, no danger. Missionary zeal, ambition, 

 commercial enterprise, enlightened curiosity and love of adventure, all combined to make 

 their successes rarely paralleled in boldness, range and usefulness. 



Sec. II., 1884. 1. 



