530 Our North Land. 



the grand work of nation-building, turn their energies, as they are 

 sure to do, instinctively and patriotically, to the still greater enter- 

 prise of connecting the great North-West with Europe by the 

 Hudson's Bay route, then will be "inaugurated an era of greater 

 Canadian development than has yet been hoped for by the most 

 sanguine nationalists of our time. We may say with propriety, 

 and in a very wide sense, that so far Canada has been but preparing 

 for the vast flood of immigration that is destined to reach this 

 country. The Confederation of the British North American Prov- 

 inces and Territories ; and the construction of national railways to 

 give a commercial reality to that union have been foundation 

 strokes, which, when fully consummated, will place the country in 

 a position to successfully compete with any nation for European 

 immigration. And look what immigration has done for the world ! 

 It has built up the great and prosperous countries of Australia ; it 

 has made the United States a powerful and thrifty Republic of fifty 

 millions, and it is building up Canada. But look at it from an 

 emigration standpoint. I see it stated on the best of authority that 

 about a million and a-half of people have emigrated from and 

 through Great Britain alone during the last ten years ; and the 

 movement as already stated, does not begin to show any sign of 

 exhaustion, but is increasing. During the year 1882 it was larger 

 than ever before, as well from the United Kingdom as from Germany, 

 and other parts of Europe. It appears, however, that even in the 

 face of this outflow there is crowding in the labour market, and a 

 very large amount of pauperism. Emigration relieves both of these 

 while it builds up prosperous and happy communities in hitherto 

 waste places of the earth. One feature of this emigration is that 

 very large amounts of money are sent home by the immigrants 

 within one year after their arrival, to prepay the passages of their 

 friends, in order to enable them also to emigrate. The Irish and the 

 Germans have been particularly conspicuous in sending back money 

 for this purpose. No accurate statistics of the amounts can be 

 obtained ; but it is known that the sum sent to the United King- 

 dom alone in one year reached over $10,000,000, and it is also 

 known that many thousand Germans come annually in the class 



