THE GROWTH OF CANADA 273 



were in harmony with that ideal. Nationality, 

 as a basis of political organization, has been 

 historically a concept quite free from the 

 limitations of exact definition. Community of 

 ancestry, of language, of traditions, of customs, 

 of religion, of geographic environment, of eco 

 nomic interest, and of intellectual ideals have 

 been jointly and severally set up as the essential 

 justification for the claim to the rights and 

 privileges of a nation. No one of these could 

 be predicated of the Dominion of Canada in 

 1867. Under such circumstances it was no 

 light undertaking for the 3,500,000 scattered 

 people of the provinces to set out on the way of 

 self-sufficiency. The initial requirements of the 

 enterprise were obviously the assurance of po 

 litical and economic independence of the United 

 States and the maintenance at all hazards of 

 the connection with the United Kingdom. 

 Awkward questions were involved from the 

 outset in these requirements, but they were 

 met with boldness and success. 



The constitution of the Dominion dealt with 

 the most rancorous problems of race and relig 

 ion by disjoining the two old provinces of 

 Canada and giving to each Protestant and 

 English Ontario and Catholic and French Que- 



