350 



TJic Progress of the iV'ew Dominion. 



March 



1883. 



sand souls, whose minibtM's are in- 

 creasing every suinmer. 'I'lie capi- 

 tal, \Viniiipeg, on tlie Red River, 

 has already a settled population of 

 over twenty thousand persons, and 

 seems destined, by its natural posi- 

 tion, and relation to the country 

 awav bevond, to become the Chicao-o 

 of the Canadian North-west. It 

 must be the emporium of the yearly 

 increasing trade of a country whose 

 natural resources will iind their 

 full development with the comple- 

 tion of the L'acilic Railway, and its 

 auxiliary lines, tapping the most 

 fertile sections of tlie territorv. Like 

 all new towns in the West, Win- 

 nipeg has been hurriedly run up, 

 — though, as its position is now as- 

 sured, a better class of buildings 

 is yearly erected, and the streets 

 liegin to present that substantial 

 appearance which is the best evi- 

 dence of its prosperity, and of the 

 confidence which its citizens liave 

 in its future career. Speculation 

 in land is the favourite employ- 

 ment of all classes of tlie citizens. 

 Hvcn the liotel barber forgets to 

 extol the merits of his "tonics'' 

 and " invigorators," and suavely 

 directs your attention to the ticket 

 which shows that he, too, has 

 " lots for sale." A great deal of 

 land has changed hands during the 

 past two years, and sharp specula- 

 tors have realised handsome sums. 

 Numerous companies have received 

 charters for colonisation on a very 

 extensive scale — the Duke of Man- 

 chester, Lord l*]Iphinstone, Mr. Ten- 

 nant, an<l other capitalists having 

 already made large investments in 

 the territory. So far the history 

 of colonisation in the North-west 

 is that of the Western States. For 

 a century peo[)le from the New 

 England and the older States have 

 been moving westward and occupy- 

 ing the new territories. In this 

 way, Illinois, Iowa, and all the 

 great States of the North-west 

 have been settled by the class of 



pioneers best suited to a new 

 country. It will be the same thing 

 in the Canadian North-west. Far- 

 mers from Ontario, chiefly from 

 the most thickly populated dis- 

 tricts, have been pouring into the 

 province of Manitoba and the ad- 

 jacent territory, and preparing the 

 way, as it were, for the emigrant 

 from Europe. By the time there 

 is a large influx of Old World pop- 

 ulation, there will also be found, 

 scattered all over the North-west, 

 little settlements of industrious 

 farmers from the older provinces, 

 whose experience and knowledge 

 will be invaluable, and, in fact, 

 absolutely necessary, to the Euro- 

 pean settler, to whom everything 

 will be at first very strange in his 

 new home. Already throughout 

 that vast region towns and villages 

 are beinu' " located" alonij the line 

 of railwav, and here and there 

 patches of cultivated ground tell of 

 the rapid march of the advance- 

 guard of that army of pioneers 

 already on their way to take pos- 

 session of the territory. The 

 cabins of these settlers — sentinels, 

 as it were, of civilisation in the 

 wilderness — are but humble homes; 

 their inmates must, for years to 

 come, lead lives of privation. But 

 we all know that the historv of 

 Western colonisation is ever the 

 same ; that difficulties are eventu- 

 ally overcome — that the rude cabins 

 are, sooner or later, turned into 

 largo and comfortable dwellings, 

 and the little clearings lost in 

 wide stretches of fields of ripening 

 grain. 



I have briefly reviewed the most 

 noteworthy features of the materia) 

 development of Canada, so rich in 

 territory, and all those natural re- 

 sources which create wealth and 

 attract population. The founda- 

 tions of her prosperity rest on a 

 sound systc'ii of popular education, 

 and on those principles of govern- 

 ment which, experience has shown, 



