A Nobleman's View of the North-West 553 



Dominion. If there is one thing to be lamented it is the want of 

 confidence in the future of our country among the Canadian 

 people. This is rapidly disappearing, but there is a considerable 

 element of the population which clings to the policy of despair, with 

 stiff-necked and unpatriotic devotion. Before a quarter of a century 

 more passes it will be generally admitted that Canada possesses the 

 greatest and most productive zone of territory on the North Ameri- 

 can Continent, and as our population increases by the settlement of 

 the vast prairie region, and lines of transcontinental communication 

 are opened up in connection with the St. Lawrence and Hudson's 

 Bay, a future generation will witness the development of a greater 

 San Francisco on the Pacific coast of British Columbia. Nay, 

 more, if nothing occurs to thwart the present onward flow of Cana- 

 dian progress, a majority of the present generation will live to see 

 the transfer of by far the greater portion of trans-Pacific and trans- 

 Atlantic commerce from United States to Canadian ports. The 

 shortest land routes for this trade must necessarily be used, and as 

 the Canadian zone possesses by far the shortest lines, Canada will 

 surely reap the legitimate result. 



