84 THE president's ADDRESS. 



will amount to ten millions of dollars ; that a year's produce of its 

 fields and gardens will be worth one hundred and fifty millions; 

 that the present assessed value of the farms within its territory ia 

 upwards of five hundred millions ; and that the real value probably 

 upwards of half as much more. But to the present provinces, 

 with all these vast resources and all this great wealth, our statesmen 

 are hoping soon to add the great North "West, with its rich expanses 

 of fertile prairies, and its treasures of gold, and iron, and coal, and 

 salt; and are reminding us that this North "West Territory 

 contains more land suited for the permanent abode of men than 

 Canada itself does ; and that, including this territory, our British 

 American Nation will be capable of supporting a population 

 more than double that of the British Islands. It is remembered, 

 also, that it is across the territory of this British American 

 Nation there is to be found the shortest and cheapest route for 

 the great railway which must one day be built to connect the 

 Pacific with the Atlantic. Our politicians are calling to mind 

 that the climate and soil of all these territories are precisely those 

 by which the skill and energy and endurance of the human race 

 are best developed ; that here thought and labor are the conditions 

 of man's existence, but yield abundant rewards whenever they are 

 faithfully bestowed. In view of all these facts, the Canadian people 

 feel that the elements of Empire are here ; and so they are. But in 

 the great scheme thus absorbing the public mind in British North 

 America, are there no points which Science touches, and which may 

 without impropriety be alluded to in this assembly of the learned P 

 I think there are. For the prospect before us increases immensely 

 the importance of every agency that is fitted to advance the reputa- 

 tion or to mould the character of the people of this new nation ; and 

 I look on the Canadian Institute, and the objects it has in view, as 

 having a very close connexion with both our reputation and our 

 future character as a people. 



It is to be remembered, for example, that in connexion with the 

 continuance of British supremacy, the contemplated scheme also in- 

 volves an extension of power in some respects to the Canadian people. 

 Our present institutions are popular institutions. For more than a 

 score of years our people have been accustomed to self-government. 

 Their local municipal affairs in town and country are in their own 

 hands ; and their municipal councils have larger powers than those of 



