THE president's ADDRESS. 83 



in the patriotism and morality of its people, has long been regarded 

 as second to no nation of any age. This England, with which the 

 Canadian people desire a perpetual connexion,, is greater and 

 better, and more to be respected, imitated and loved, than the 

 England of a century ago to which the American colonies of that 

 day gave many proofs of deep attachment. She treats her colonies, 

 too, with a generous consideration and a wisdom then unknown: 

 and while the desirableness of continued connexion with the old 

 land, has, in consequence, greatly increased, the distance between 

 Britain and America, which was, formerly, one great difficulty in 

 the way of long-continued connexion, has, through the progress 

 Bince made in scientific knowledge, ceased to be any difficulty. 

 Steam has brought us nearer, for all practical purposes, to the 

 Motherland, than, at the period referred to, some portions of the 

 British Islands were to each other ; and for part of one ever mem- 

 orable day, the 5th A^ugust, 1858, science accomplished even more 

 than this ; for, on that day, so far as relates to mutual commxuii- 

 cation, it annihilated all distance between us ; and now we have ' 

 again the gladdening news that a new atlantic cable is nearly com- 

 pleted, and probably will, before the year expires, renew the magic 

 connexion between the old world and the new, never again to be 

 broken. 



In view of the contemplated imion I have referred to, the men of 

 Canada are daily reminding one another that we shall start on our 

 new career with a population of nearly four millions : and that the in- 

 crease of our population has always been, and is likely to continue, 

 in a ratio far exceeding that of which European nations have had 

 any experience. Our fellow subjects to whom the subject is inter- 

 esting, (and to whom is it not interesting ?) are calling to mind, that, 

 in this population, there are half a million and more of able-bodied 

 men between the ages of 20 and 45 to defend our country and our 

 homes, from foreign aggression. They are referring to our vast 

 grain fields, our extensive timber lands, our invaluable fisheries, our 

 gold and copper mines, and our other yet almost undisturbed mineral 

 deposits. They are reckoning up that the confederation, without 

 taking into account the great North West, will embrace thirteen 

 millions of acres of cultivated land ; thirty millions of uncultivated 

 in the hands of private owners ; and many millions more that are 

 still in the hands of the G-ovemment ; that the exports of fish alone 



