[bourinot] CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA 35 



prise of the English Canadians have not prevented them from creating a 

 province which is essentially French Canadian, and atfords many evi- 

 dences of prosperity due to the hardihood of the race that inhabits it. 

 A century and more has passed since the English-speaking people sought 

 their fortunes in the West or on the shores of the Atlantic. For years 

 many of these hardy pioneers led toilsome lives — lives of solitude, among 

 the great forests that overshadowed the whole country ; but year by 

 year the darkness of the woods was brightened by bursts of sunlight, as 

 the axe opened up new centres of settlement and echoed the progress of 

 the advanced guards of civilization. Years of hardship and struggle 

 ensued and political diflticulties followed to add to individual trials, but 

 the people were courageous and industrious and soon surmounted the 

 obstacles of early times. The material development went hand in hand 

 with the political progress of the country. The magnificent heritao-e 

 which the people of Canada now own is the result of unremitting toil 

 and never-failing patience and, summing up the achievements of the 

 past, they may well look forward with hopefulness to the future, for of 

 them it may be truly said, 



" Men the woi'kers ever reaping something new ; 

 That which they have done but earnest of the things that they will do," 



What is to be the next great step in the political career of Canada is 

 a question which frequently occurs to imperial as well as colonial states- 

 men. One thing is qviite certain that the movement is towards the 

 placing of the relations between the parent state and its great depend- 

 ency on a basis which will strengthen the empire and at the same time 

 give Canada even a higher position in the councils of the imperial state. 



The federation of the empire in the full sense of the term may be 

 considered by some practical politicians as a mere political phantasm, 

 never likely to come out in a tangible form from the clouds where it is 

 now concealed ; and yet who can doubt that out of the grand conception. 

 Avhich first originated in the brain of Franklin and Otis, statesmen mav 

 yet evolve some scheme that will render the empire secure from the 

 dangers which arise from continual isolation, and from the growth of 

 peculiar and distinct interests, that naturally result from the geo- 

 graphical situation of communities so widely separated from each other 

 throughout the world ? 



At the Ottawa Conference of 1894, when delegates from Australasia 

 and South Africa discussed with Canadian representatives questions 

 affecting the Empire at large, not a word was said on the subject of 

 Imperial federation. Imperial defence was not even considered ; but, 

 despite this studied neglect of a scheme which, more than once, had 

 been eloquently urged by several representatives — especially by Mr. 

 Foster, then Finance Minister of Canada — it is probable that this con- 



