212 



DOMINION OF CANADA. 



New Brunswick, Manitoba, British Columbia, 

 and Prince Edward Island, brought together 

 under one Parliament under the British North 

 America Act of the British Parliament in 1867. 

 The act contains provisions for the admission 

 of Newfoundland into the Dominion. The 

 other parts of British America are adminis- 

 tered as a Territory by the Dominion Govern- 

 ment. The Parliament consists of a Senate 

 with seventy-seven members, nominated for 

 life by the Governor-General, and a House of 

 Commons with two hundred and eleven mem- 

 bers, elected for five years. The system of 

 government is substantially the same as that 

 of Great Britain. The suffrage is restricted in 

 Ontario and Quebec to householders possessing 

 or occupying real estate of $300 assessed value, 

 or of the yearly value of $30, in cities and 

 towns; or of $200 value, or $20 rental, in other 

 districts. The other provinces have similar 

 property qualifications. Voting is open ex- 

 cept in New Brunswick, where it is by ballot. 

 The executive authority is exercised by the 

 Governor-General, under the advice of his 

 Privy Council, in the name of the Queen. The 

 seven provinces have each its local Parliament 

 and its administration presided over by a Lieu- 

 tenant-Governor. 



The present Governor- General of Canada is 

 Sir George Douglas S. Campbell, Marquis of 

 Lome, the heir to the duchy of Argyll, and a 

 son-in-law of the Queen. He entered upon 

 his office December 7, 1878. The Prime Min- 

 ister is Sir John Alexander Macdonald, who 

 holds the portfolio of the Interior Department. 

 He was the first Prime Minister of the Domin- 

 ion, holding office from 1867 to 1873, when he 

 made way for Mackenzie, the head of the Lib- 

 eral party. He returned to power in 1878, 



when the Conservatives won the elections on 

 the platform of a protective or "national" 

 policy. The other members of the Privy Coun- 

 cil are Sir Charles Tupper, Minister of Rail- 

 ways and Canals ; Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley, 

 Minister of Finance ; Louis A. W. McLellan, 

 President of the Council ; Sir Alexander Camp- 

 bell, Minister of Justice ; A. P. Caron, Minister 

 of Defense and Militia ; James Colledge Pope, 

 Minister of Fisheries and Marine ; John Henry 

 Pope, Minister of Agriculture; Hector Louis 

 Langevin, Minister of Public Works; James 

 Cox Aikins, Secretary of State; Mackenzie 

 Bowell, Minister of Customs ; Joseph Philippe 

 R. A. Caron, Minister of Inland Revenue; 

 John O'Connor, Postmaster-General. 



CENSUS. From the Dominion census of 1881 

 the following figures are taken : 



Dominion 



3,470,398 4,824,810 2,188,854 2,185,956 



The population of Manitoba within its old 

 limits was 49,502; of the extension, 16,452. 

 [Vancouver Island comprises 16,000 square 

 miles of the territory of British Columbia, and 

 17,292 of its inhabitants (5,647 Indians). The 

 Island of Cape Breton comprises 4,375 square 

 miles of the territory of Nova Scotia, and 

 84,500 of its inhabitants.] 



The strength of the principal religious sects 

 is shown in the following table : 



Of the Baptists, 50,055 were Free- Will, and 

 21,234 (in Ontario and Manitoba) Tunkers or 

 Mennonites. Of the Methodists, 582,963 be- 

 longed to the Church of Canada, 103,272 were 

 Episcopal, 27,236 Bible Christians, 25,680 Prim- 

 itive, and 3,830 other Methodists. Of the Pres- 

 byterians, 629,280 belonged to the Church in 

 Canada, 32,834 to the Church of Scotland, 

 12,945 were Reformed, and 1,106 other Pres- 

 byterians. There were 7,211 Adventists, 8,831 

 Brethren, 26,900 Congregationalisms, 20,193 

 Disciples, 2,596 Reformed Episcopalians, 2,393 

 Jews, 46,350 Lutherans, 4,478 pagans, 6,519 

 Protestants, 6,553 Quakers, 2,126 Unitarians, 

 4,517 Universalists, 14,269 of other denomina- 

 tions, 2,634 of no religion; religion not given, 



86,769. The increase of the population by im- 

 migration has fallen far short of the hopes of 

 the Canadians thus far. The number of immi- 

 grants settling in the Dominion in 1881 was 

 47,991. The construction of 500 additional 

 miles of railroad west of the Red River affords 

 improved facilities to the farmers of the new 

 Northwest. The distance of the prairie-lands 

 of the Dominion from Liverpool is 600 miles 

 less than that of the grain-districts of the 

 United States. The Survey Department laid 

 out into townships, sections, and quarter-sec- 

 tions, 9,000,000 acres in 1881, involving the 

 measurement of 23,000 miles of lines of demar- 

 kation. The population by origin and place of 

 birth is given in the following table : 



