[boueinot] builders OF NOVA SCOTIA 17S 



which have settled landmarks, and are controlled by Provincial Degislatures. 

 Thro-wing out of consideration the unorganized territory bshind, let me show 

 you, by comparison what the rest inolude. The great Province of Canada 

 is equal in size to Great Britain, Prance and' Prussia. Charmed by her 

 classic reooillections, how apt are we to magnify everything in the old world, 

 and to imagine that Providence has been kind to her alone. Yet the noble 

 St. Lawrence is equal in proportions to the Nile— the great granary of the 

 east, which, from the days of the patriarchs^ has fed millions with its produce. 

 Take the Italian's Po, the Frenchman's Rhone, the Englishman's Thames, 

 the German's Rhine and the Spaniard's Tagus, and roll them all into one 

 channel and you then have only a stream equal to the St. Lawrence. The 

 Great Lakes of Canada, are larger than the Caspian Sea, and the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence (with which we are so familiar that we forget what it is) contains 

 a surface of one hundred thousand square miles, and is as large as the Black 

 Sea, on which the proud fleets of four hostile nations may at thisi moment 

 be engaged. Accustomed to think and feel as Colonists, it is difficult for us 

 to Imagine that the Baltic, illustrated by Nelson's achievements aiUd CampbeLl's 

 verse, is not something different from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and yet it is 

 not. Its dimensions are about the same ; its ciinxate rigorous ; its coasts 

 originally sterile, and the sea kings and warriors who caime out of it, made of 

 no better stuff than the men who shoot seals on the ice flakes of Newfoundland, 

 till farms on the green hills of Piotou, or fell trees in the forests of New 

 Brunswick. 



But, Sir, let us confine our attention for a few minutes to the Maritime 

 Provinces alone. Of these you rarely hear in the mother country. If an 

 Englishman thinks of North America at all he divides it between Canada and 

 the United States. Except in some sets and circles, chiefly m'ercantile, yon 

 rarely hear of Nova Sooitia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island or New- 

 foundland. The learned member for Annapolis truly described the Colonial 

 condition when he stated tliat in the estimation of our fellow subjects at 

 home, a Colonist is nothing. But with God's biessing we will wipe away the 

 invidious distinction. The Maritimie Provinces alone cover 86,000 square miles 

 of territory. They are half as large again as England and Scotland together. 

 They are as large as Holland, Greece, Portugal, Belgium and Switzerland all 

 put together. New Brunswick alone is as large as the kingdom of Sardinia 

 and even Nova Scotia is larger than Switzerland. 



Mr. Chairman, I listened with pleasure to the member for AnnapoXis, when 

 he spoke as he did yesterday of the resources of Nova Scotia. I do not so 

 listen to him when, misguided by passion, he disparages his country that 

 he may have a fling at the Government. I have said that Nova Scotia is as 

 large as Switzerland_ a country which has maintained its freedom for ages, 

 surrounded by European) despotisms. If it be answered that Switzerland 

 owes her national existence to her inaccessible mountains, then I say that 

 Nova Scotia is as large as Holland, which, with a level surface, did the same. 



The Hollanders, who almost won from the sea a country no larger than 

 ours, defieid the whole power of the Spanish monarchy, swept the British 

 channel with their brooms, and for a century monopolized the rich commerce 

 of the Eastern islands which ithey had subdued by their enterprise and valour. 

 Our country is as large as theirs, and let us not be told then that we are 

 getting on stilts when we either point to the resources which past industry 

 has but imperfectly developed, or foreshadow that future which looms before 

 us so full of hope and promise. Why, Sir, even little Prince Edward Island 

 is larger than all the Ionian Islands put together, and yet they are more 

 thought of by European diplomats than are our Provinces, only because they 

 sometimes indulge themselves in the dignity of insurrection. 



But it may be said, What is extent of territory if it be a howling wilder- 



