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1883. 



The Progress of tlte New Dominion. 



345 



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THE PROGRESS OF THE NEW DOMINION. 



" I liear tin- tread of i)ioneers 

 Of natioiis yet to be, 

 Tlie first low wash of liiiman waves. 

 Where soon shall roll a sea." 



— 'SVhittiku. 



It >vas an cinincnt AiHcricMii 

 statesman and orator, Daniel Web- 

 ster, who gave e.\[)ression to the 

 finest imago that was ])r()hat)ly 

 ever conceived of the [xiwer of 

 England as sliown hy the extent 

 of her colonial possessions. Whilst 

 standino; on the heights of the old 

 city of (Quebec at an early honr of 

 a smnmcr day, ho heard the driini- 

 beat which called the soldiers to 

 their diitv, and instantaneously 

 there llashed across his mind an 

 idea which he clothed in elixjuent 

 words on a subsecjuent occasion, 

 when he wished to impress an 

 audience with the greatness of tlie 

 J>ritish empire. The place where 

 he stood on that summer morning 

 Avas associated with many memories 

 peculiarly interesting to an Ameri- 

 can statesman. The old gates and 

 walls of the fortifications recalled 

 the davs of Frontenac and other 

 French viceroys, who were contin- 

 ually threatening the peace of the 

 New England settlements. The 

 ([uaint architecture of the Ikmiscs, 

 and tlic narrow streets running up 

 and down the hills, were so many 

 memorials of the French rer/lme 

 which liad vanished with the vic- 

 tory on the plains of Abraham, 

 whose green meadows might even 

 1)0 .seen from where the American 

 was standing. The black-robed 

 priests, the sisters and nuns in their 

 peculiar garments of sombre hue, 

 hastening to the antique churches 

 and convents, were all character- 

 istic of a town in iNormandy or 

 ]>rittany, rather than of an Ameri- 

 can city on the banks of one of 

 tlie great highways of the Western 



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continent. He might for an instant 

 have thought himself in a town 

 of old France; but he was soon 

 aroused from his reverie as he 

 heard the beat of the morning 

 drum, and saw the flag run up the 

 statf on the citadel which erowns 

 those historic; heights. At such a 

 moment, amid such a scene, Ik 

 might well think of the vastiioss 

 of the empire of I'^ngland, even 

 without the possession of the old 

 American colonies. His j)rescient 

 mind could sec in the great north- 

 land, of which (^>uebcc was but the 

 gateway, the rudiments of States 

 as nourishing and })rosperous as 

 the American commonwealth, of 

 which he was one of the most illus- 

 trious citizens. The ships in ihe 

 harbour below, so maiiv representa- 

 tives of the maritime nations, wei'c 

 among the evidences of the grow- 

 ing commerce of half a continent 

 still under the dominion of I'lng- 

 land. Half a million of French 

 Canadians, even at that day, were 

 dwelling by the side of tlie St. 

 Lawrence and its trl!)utary rivers; 

 whilst away beyond the borders of 

 the French province, stretched a 

 vast territory, already occupied by 

 a thrifty, enero-etic class of British 

 settlers. As the revciUc awoke the 

 echoes of tlio heights, even the 

 American statesman, proud of liis 

 own country, and confident of its 

 future, was forced to acknowledge 

 the greatness of a Power " which 

 has dotted over the surface of the 

 whole globe with her* possessions 

 and military posts; whose morning 

 drum-beat, following the sun and 

 keeping company with the hours. 



*vi. 





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