{bocbinot] CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA 19 



confederation. Efforts were made to bring in Newfoundland, but purely 

 seltish local considerations prevailed in that island over the national 

 sentiment ; though the unwisdom of the course pursued by the island 

 politicians has become evident according as the fishery question with the 

 United States comes up from time to time, and it is now quite clear that 

 this large colony, which has been placed as a sentinel at the jjortals of 

 Canada, must, ere long, fall into line with its sister colonies in North 

 America. One of the most important results of confederation in its 

 early days was the annexation by the Dominion of that vast tract of 

 country which, up to that time, had been almost exclusively in the pos- 

 session of the Indians and the traders of the Hudson Bay Com]iany — 

 that region well described by General Butler as " the lone land," over 

 whose trackless wastes French adventurers had been the first to pass — a 

 region of prairies, watered by great rivers and lakes, above whose 

 western limits tower the lofty picturesque ranges of the Eockies. Next 

 came into confederation the province of British Columbia, which extends 

 from the Eockies to the waters of the Pacific Ocean — a country with a 

 genial climate, with rapid rivers teeming with fish, with treasures of coal 

 and gold, with sublime scenery only rivalled by California. A new 

 province was formed in the Northwest, watered by the Eed and the 

 Assiniboine Elvers and territorial districts, as large as European states 

 arranged for purposes of government out of the vast region that now 

 with the sanction of the Imperial authorities, has been brought under 

 the jurisdiction of the government of Canada. Within a period of 

 thirty years Canada has stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and 

 the territory now under her control is very little inferior in extent to 

 that of the great Eepublic to the south, and contains within itself all the 

 elements of a prosperous future. It is, unhappily, true that this result 

 was not achieved until blood had been shed and much money expended 

 in crushing the rebellious half-breeds led by the reckless Eiel ; but, 

 apart from this sad feature of Canadian history, this important acquisi- 

 tion of territor}-, the first step in the formation of an empire in the Avest, 

 has been attained under circumstances highly advantageous to the 

 Dominion. Canada now possesses an immense territorj- of varied re- 

 sources — the maritime provinces with their coal, fish and shipping, to- 

 gether with a valuable, if limited, agricultural area, not yet fully 

 developed ; the large province of Quebec, with ranges of mountains on 

 whose slopes, when denuded of their rich timber, may graze thousands 

 of cattle and sheep, with valuable tracts of meadow lands, cajDable of 

 raising the best cereals, and already supporting some of the finest cattle 

 of the continent ; the rich province of Ontario, which continues to be 

 the chief agricultural section of the Dominion, and whose cities and 

 towns are full of busy industries ; the vast Northwest region still in the 

 very infancy of its development, destined to give the confederation .sev- 



