i[BOURiNOT] CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA 21 



made up of ubout 176,000 depositors, mechanics, farmers, and people of 

 limited means. For years the only industries of imi)ortance were the 

 building of ships, the cutting of timber, and a few ill-supported manu- 

 factures of iron and various hard and soft wares. Now there is upwards 

 of $360,000,000 invested in manufactures, chiefly cotton and woollen 

 goods, of which the coarser fabrics compete successfully with English 

 goods in the Canadian market, even crowding out certain classes entirely. 

 Some fourteen lines of ocean steamers call at the j^ort of Montreal, which 

 has now a population of over 350,000. Toronto comes next in popu- 

 lation, about 194,000, whilst the other cities, Uke Halifax, St. John, 

 Quebec, Ottawa, Brantford, Guelph, St. Catharines, Fredericton, Hamil- 

 ton. London, range from 60,000 to 8,000. The aggregate of the popu- 

 lation of the cities and towns with over 10,000 population amounts to 

 some 1,000,000 souls, or the total population of Canada in 183V. The 

 urban population of Canada increased in 1891 to 1,390,910, compared 

 with 912,934 in 1881, or an increase of 28'77 per cent in ten years, 

 illustrating that there has been going on the same movement that has 

 prevailed in the United States. The total revenxie of the Dominion, 

 apart from the local and provincial revenues, is about $37,000,000 a year, 

 raised mainly from customs and excise duties, which are high, owing 

 to a largely protective policy, although much lower than those on 

 similar goods in the United States. If the expenditures of Canada of 

 late years have been very large, they have been mainly caused by the 

 development of the country, and by the necessity of providing rapid 

 means of intercommunication for trade and population in a country ex- 

 tending between two oceans. Canals, lighthouses, railways, the acquisi- 

 tion and opening up of the Northwest, and government buildings, have 

 absorbed at least $200,000,000 since 1867, and it is not remarkable, under 

 these circumstances, that a gross debt has been accumulated within half 

 a century of over $325,000,000, against which must be set valuable assets 

 in the shape of buildings and pviblic works' necessary to the progress of a 

 new country. The public buildings, churches, and universities display 

 within a quarter of a century a great improvement in architectural 

 beauty, whilst the homes of the people show, both in the interior and 

 exterior, decided evidences of comfort, convenience and culture. Instead 

 of the fourteen miles of railway which existed in 1837, there are now 

 over 16,000 miles in actual operation, affording facilities for trade and 

 commerce not exceeded by any country in the world. One of these rail- 

 ways, the Canadian Pacific, which reaches from Quebec to Vancouver, 

 on the Pacific Ocean, is the most remarkable illustration of railway 

 enterprise ever shown by any country ; certainly without a parallel for 

 rapidity of construction, even in the United States, with all its wealth, 

 population, and commercial energy. These railways represent an invest- 

 n^ent of nearly $1,000,000,000 in the shape of capital stock, municipal 



