312 TlMEHRI. 
Manitoba ; 7. British Columbia ; and, the North West 
Territory. In 1880 the population was 4,352,080 and 
now from natural increase and the incessant flow of immi- 
gration it must be about 5,000,000. 
Within the last few months it has come home forcibly 
to one immediately concerned with the growth and sale 
of the staple of the colony that the markets we have 
depended upon are slipping from our grasp, and whilst 
we discuss all the turns of the sugar question, as far as 
our knowledge goes, and adopt such measures as lie 
within our reach to better our position in these two 
greatest markets of the world, we can really do very- 
little of ourselves to help ourselves, seeing that on the 
one side we are barred by the prerogative of the Crown, 
on the other we come athwart the omnipotent band of 
doctrinaires who have put their hook in the nose of 
Leviathan, and lead him whithersoever they have a 
mind ; and so, as a diversion if you will, as a means 
to an end, if I may indulge such a hope, you will allow 
me to-day to set a current of thought running in another 
direction. 
The overproduction of sugar this year by the beet 
growing countries of Europe has caused an alarming fall 
of prices, one market has sympathized with another, 
until an equalization of values has taken place all over 
the globe, and we cannot expe6l any where to obtain the 
prices of past years ; but fiscal preference in some 
country's tariff would be of paramount consequence to 
us, if only it relieved us of a portion of our surplus pro- 
duce with certainty. 
Suppose we turn globe trotters and mentally visit the 
four quarters of the earth to see if some country does 
