Commercial Relations with Canada. 309 
by the wants of civilization, such as the Anglo Saxon 
carries with him wherever he goes, — how suddenly would 
this hobby of the antiquarian become invested with 
a real living interest ; what a beautiful form of flesh and 
blood would these old dry bones assume ! 
As members of an industrial community, of a country 
that lives by its exports, every one would be full of hope 
and of expectation of good things to come from this 
discovery, and the common topic of conversation and of 
newspaper articles, and the burthen of public meetings 
in this time of unexpected gloom would turn to Atlantis 
as the Deus ex machina which should deliver the country 
out of its straits. 
Is this the prelude to an idle story, is it merely the 
stuff of which dreams are made, or has it in any way a 
local application ? 
I trust to be able to show you before I reach the end of 
this paper that a change of name will remove my imagi- 
nary sketch out of the realms of Utopia, and clothe 
Atlantis with a practical interest directly personal to the 
inhabitants of this colony. 
For Atlantis then I substitute Canada, the great North- 
land, that every year is advancing in population, in 
wealth, and in power ; not as a matter of fact an undis- 
covered island, but still from a commercial standpoint 
almost an unexplored region to British Guiana. 
Why is it that the Dominion of Canada and the colony 
of British Guiana, two parts of the same empire, should 
have so few transactions together, as to be not much 
more than geographical ideas to one another? 
One reason is that Canada is overshadowed by her 
southern neighbour coming between us and her 3 and ab* 
Q9 2 
