“Here is the great fact of the north-western areas of this continent. An area not inferior in size to the whole United States east of the Mississippi, which is perfectly adapted to the fullest occupation by cultivated nations, yet is almost wholly unoccupied, lies west of the 98th meridian, and above the 43rd parallel, that is, north of the latitude of Milwaukee, and west of the longitude of Red River, Fort Kearney, and Corpus Christi; or, to state the fact in another way, east of the Rocky Mountains, and west of the 98th meridian, and between the 43rd and 60th parallels, there is a productive, cultivable area of 500,000 square miles. West of the Rocky Mountains and between the same parallels, there is an area of 300,000 square miles.“It is a great mistake to suppose that the temperature of the Atlantic coast is carried straight across the continent to the Pacific. The isothermals deflectgreatly to the north, and the temperatures of the Northern Pacific are paralleled in the high temperatures in high latitudes of Western and Central Europe. The latitudes which inclose the plateaus of the Missouri and Saskatchewan, in Europe inclose the rich central plains of the Continent. The great grain growing districts of Russia lie between the 45th and 60th parallel, that is, north of the latitude of St. Paul, Minnesota, or Eastport, Maine. Indeed, the temperature in some instances is higher for the same latitudes here than in Central Europe. The isothermal of 70 deg. for the summer, which on our plateau ranges from along latitude 50 deg. to 52 deg., in Europe skirts through Vienna and Odessa in about parallel 46 deg. The isothermal of 55 deg. for the year runs along the coast of British Columbia, and does not go far from New York, London, and Sebastopol. Furthermore, dry areas are not found above 47 deg., and there are no barren tracts of consequence north of the Bad Lands and the Coteau of the Missouri; the land grows grain finely, and is well wooded. All the grains of the temperate districts are here produced abundantly, and Indian corn may be grown as high as the Saskatchewan.“The buffalo winters as safely on the upper Athabasca as in the latitude of St. Paul, and the spring opens at nearly the same time along the immense line of plains from St. Paul to Mackenzie’s River. To these facts, for which there is the authority of Blodgett’s Treatise on the Climatology of the United States, may be added this, that to the region bordering the Northern Pacific, the finest maritime positions belong throughout its entire extent, and no part of the west of Europeexceeds it in the advantages of equable climate, fertile soil, and commercial accessibility of coast. We have the same excellent authority for the statement that in every condition forming the basis of national wealth, the continental mass lying westward and northward from Lake Superior is far more valuable than the interior in lower latitudes, of which Salt Lake and Upper New Mexico are the prominent known districts. In short, its commercial and industrial capacity is gigantic. Its occupation was coeval with the Spanish occupation of New Mexico and California.”
“Here is the great fact of the north-western areas of this continent. An area not inferior in size to the whole United States east of the Mississippi, which is perfectly adapted to the fullest occupation by cultivated nations, yet is almost wholly unoccupied, lies west of the 98th meridian, and above the 43rd parallel, that is, north of the latitude of Milwaukee, and west of the longitude of Red River, Fort Kearney, and Corpus Christi; or, to state the fact in another way, east of the Rocky Mountains, and west of the 98th meridian, and between the 43rd and 60th parallels, there is a productive, cultivable area of 500,000 square miles. West of the Rocky Mountains and between the same parallels, there is an area of 300,000 square miles.
“It is a great mistake to suppose that the temperature of the Atlantic coast is carried straight across the continent to the Pacific. The isothermals deflectgreatly to the north, and the temperatures of the Northern Pacific are paralleled in the high temperatures in high latitudes of Western and Central Europe. The latitudes which inclose the plateaus of the Missouri and Saskatchewan, in Europe inclose the rich central plains of the Continent. The great grain growing districts of Russia lie between the 45th and 60th parallel, that is, north of the latitude of St. Paul, Minnesota, or Eastport, Maine. Indeed, the temperature in some instances is higher for the same latitudes here than in Central Europe. The isothermal of 70 deg. for the summer, which on our plateau ranges from along latitude 50 deg. to 52 deg., in Europe skirts through Vienna and Odessa in about parallel 46 deg. The isothermal of 55 deg. for the year runs along the coast of British Columbia, and does not go far from New York, London, and Sebastopol. Furthermore, dry areas are not found above 47 deg., and there are no barren tracts of consequence north of the Bad Lands and the Coteau of the Missouri; the land grows grain finely, and is well wooded. All the grains of the temperate districts are here produced abundantly, and Indian corn may be grown as high as the Saskatchewan.
“The buffalo winters as safely on the upper Athabasca as in the latitude of St. Paul, and the spring opens at nearly the same time along the immense line of plains from St. Paul to Mackenzie’s River. To these facts, for which there is the authority of Blodgett’s Treatise on the Climatology of the United States, may be added this, that to the region bordering the Northern Pacific, the finest maritime positions belong throughout its entire extent, and no part of the west of Europeexceeds it in the advantages of equable climate, fertile soil, and commercial accessibility of coast. We have the same excellent authority for the statement that in every condition forming the basis of national wealth, the continental mass lying westward and northward from Lake Superior is far more valuable than the interior in lower latitudes, of which Salt Lake and Upper New Mexico are the prominent known districts. In short, its commercial and industrial capacity is gigantic. Its occupation was coeval with the Spanish occupation of New Mexico and California.”
The climate of this district is at least as favourable to the agriculturist as that of Kingston, Upper Canada, and is quite salubrious. Special science thus describes it:—
Professor Hind, who spent two summers in the country in charge of an expedition sent out by the Canadian Government, writes: “The basin of Lake Winnipeg extends over twenty-eight degrees of longitude, and ten degrees of latitude. The elevation of its eastern boundary, at the Prairie Portage, 104 miles west of Lake Superior, is 1480 feet above the sea, and the height of land at the Vermillion Pass is less than 5000 feet above the same level. The mean length of this great inland basin is about 920 English miles, and its mean breadth 380 miles; hence its area is approximately 360,000 square miles, or a little more than that of Canada.“Lake Winnipeg, at an altitude of 628 feet above the sea, occupies the lowest depression of this great inland basin, covering with its associated lakes, Manitobah, Winnipegosis, Dauphin, and St. Martin, an area slightly exceeding 13,000 square miles, or nearlyhalf as much of the earth’s surface as is occupied by Ireland.“The outlet of Lake Winnipeg is through the contracted and rocky channel of Nelson River, which flows into Hudson’s Bay.“The country, possessing a mean elevation of 100 feet above Lake Winnipeg, is very closely represented by the outline of Pembina Mountain, forming part of the eastern limit of the cretaceous series in the north-west of America.“The area occupied by this low country, which includes a large part of the valley of Red River, the Assiniboine, and the main Saskatchewan, may be estimated at 70,000 square miles, of which nine-tenths are lakes, marsh, or surface rock of Silurian or Devonian age, and, generally so thinly covered with soil as to be unfit for cultivation, except in small isolated areas.“Succeeding this low region there are the narrow terraces of the Pembina Mountain, which rise in abrupt steps, except in the valleys of the Assiniboine, Valley River, Swan River, and Red Deer’s River, to the level of a higher plateau, whose eastern limit is formed by the precipitous escarpments of the Riding, Duck, and Porcupine Mountains, with the detached outliers, Turtle, Thunder, and Pasquia Mountains. This is the greatprairie plateauof Rupert’s Land; it is bounded towards the south-west and west by the Grand Coteau de Missouri, and the extension of the tableland between the two branches of the Saskatchewan, which forms the eastern limit of theplainsof the north-west. The area of the prairie plateau, in the basin of Lake Winnipeg, is about 120,000 square miles; it possesses a mean elevation of 1100 feet above the sea.“The plains rise gently as the Rocky Mountains are approached, and at their western limit have an altitude of 4000 feet above the sea level. With only a very narrow belt of intervening country, the mountains rise abruptly from the plains, and present lofty precipices that frown like battlements over the level country to the eastward. The average altitude of the highest part of the Rocky Mountains is 12,000 feet (about lat. 51 deg). The forest extends to the altitude of 7000 feet, or 2000 feet above the lowest pass.“Thefertile beltof arable soil, partly in the form of rich, open prairie, partly covered with groves of aspen, which stretches from the Lake of the Woods to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, averages 80 to 100 miles in breadth.”
Professor Hind, who spent two summers in the country in charge of an expedition sent out by the Canadian Government, writes: “The basin of Lake Winnipeg extends over twenty-eight degrees of longitude, and ten degrees of latitude. The elevation of its eastern boundary, at the Prairie Portage, 104 miles west of Lake Superior, is 1480 feet above the sea, and the height of land at the Vermillion Pass is less than 5000 feet above the same level. The mean length of this great inland basin is about 920 English miles, and its mean breadth 380 miles; hence its area is approximately 360,000 square miles, or a little more than that of Canada.
“Lake Winnipeg, at an altitude of 628 feet above the sea, occupies the lowest depression of this great inland basin, covering with its associated lakes, Manitobah, Winnipegosis, Dauphin, and St. Martin, an area slightly exceeding 13,000 square miles, or nearlyhalf as much of the earth’s surface as is occupied by Ireland.
“The outlet of Lake Winnipeg is through the contracted and rocky channel of Nelson River, which flows into Hudson’s Bay.
“The country, possessing a mean elevation of 100 feet above Lake Winnipeg, is very closely represented by the outline of Pembina Mountain, forming part of the eastern limit of the cretaceous series in the north-west of America.
“The area occupied by this low country, which includes a large part of the valley of Red River, the Assiniboine, and the main Saskatchewan, may be estimated at 70,000 square miles, of which nine-tenths are lakes, marsh, or surface rock of Silurian or Devonian age, and, generally so thinly covered with soil as to be unfit for cultivation, except in small isolated areas.
“Succeeding this low region there are the narrow terraces of the Pembina Mountain, which rise in abrupt steps, except in the valleys of the Assiniboine, Valley River, Swan River, and Red Deer’s River, to the level of a higher plateau, whose eastern limit is formed by the precipitous escarpments of the Riding, Duck, and Porcupine Mountains, with the detached outliers, Turtle, Thunder, and Pasquia Mountains. This is the greatprairie plateauof Rupert’s Land; it is bounded towards the south-west and west by the Grand Coteau de Missouri, and the extension of the tableland between the two branches of the Saskatchewan, which forms the eastern limit of theplainsof the north-west. The area of the prairie plateau, in the basin of Lake Winnipeg, is about 120,000 square miles; it possesses a mean elevation of 1100 feet above the sea.
“The plains rise gently as the Rocky Mountains are approached, and at their western limit have an altitude of 4000 feet above the sea level. With only a very narrow belt of intervening country, the mountains rise abruptly from the plains, and present lofty precipices that frown like battlements over the level country to the eastward. The average altitude of the highest part of the Rocky Mountains is 12,000 feet (about lat. 51 deg). The forest extends to the altitude of 7000 feet, or 2000 feet above the lowest pass.
“Thefertile beltof arable soil, partly in the form of rich, open prairie, partly covered with groves of aspen, which stretches from the Lake of the Woods to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, averages 80 to 100 miles in breadth.”
Dr. James Hector, and all the explorers, agree in their descriptions of this region. It is difficult to reach; but is it so difficult to reach as the shores of America itself were, 300, or 200, or 100 years ago? We cannot conceive what a century has done in America, or at home. How little, then, can we conjecture what the next fifty years will effect in these distant lands! The map, which now is crowded with the names of cities where red men roamedin terra incognitaso recently as the beginning of this century, should reprove any incredulity. The nations are like water. When a country is filled above its capacity, its surplus overflows. As soon as all the eligible districts of Canada are occupied, the streams of settlers will pour westwards; tracks and roads will be made; and, if the land be good, it will soon be filled with people. As to the great regions which lie to the west, and open on the Pacific, it can only be said that they are to uswhat California was to the United States on the first discovery of gold; and that after fifty years they may be less than California is now, if steps be not taken to bind them up with British interests, and to oppose the Americanisation with which they are threatened. Without reference to the Far West, or the Far North-West,—without regard to the Red River and Assiniboia or to British Columbia, there is before us the great fact, that out of the Canadas, and the British North American Provinces and dependencies, can be created a powerful Confederation attached to this country, and capable of the grandest development in spite of climatic influences. We have already given a slight sketch of the extent and capability of these provinces, and hinted at the difficulties that may arise in the working of the Confederation. Canada is now more than threatened with the loss of the advantages which were supposed to depend on the Reciprocity Treaty, and Great Britain is formally warned that she must prepare to meet Federal encroachments on the Lakes. Mr. Galt, in a very elaborate speech, exhaustive of the topics connected with the financial aspect of the future Confederation, lately laid before his hearers a series of calculations which deserve close attention, and which are, we believe, entitled to full confidence. The United States at the end of the year 1865 will either have effected the subjugation of the South by the destruction of all her armies in the field, or she will see an increase to her debt of at least forty millions sterling, or she will have arranged a compromise with the South of which one feature will be the assumption of the Southern debt. In the first case, the North must prepare for a long and costly military occupation. In nocase as yet have the trade and commerce of any Southern port or city subjugated and held by Union troops, paid the Federal Government for the cost of holding it. In the second case, increase of taxation must fall with such a crushing weight on the poorer classes, especially in the agricultural States, as to force many of the people to take refuge in Canada, unless deterred by unforeseen obstacles. In the third case, the immediate result will be to throw on the Northern States for some considerable period, a greater amount of debt, and of consequent derangement, than they would have been subjected to by either of the preceding conditions. There can be no just comparison between the United States and the projected Confederation, except in the ratio of taxationper capita. And, if we take income, expenditure, and possible debt at the end of 1865, and contrast the financial position of the British Confederate with that of the American Federalist, we will find that the advantage is decidedly on the side of the latter.
According to the Hon. A. T. Galt, the following is a fair statement of the revenue and expenditure of the provinces, of the debts and liabilities, of the trade exports and imports, and of all the assets and demands by which the future Confederation would be influenced, excluding of course the cost of such undertakings as great intercolonial roads or enlargements of canals. Mr. Galt may not be a favourite with some theorists of the Colonial Office; he certainly is not popular at Washington, and he is not more honoured at home than most prophets, but he is an able, clear-headed, trustworthy man:—
[1]Average of the last four years.
[1]Average of the last four years.
[2]Interest on excess of debt.
[2]Interest on excess of debt.
[3]Not estimated by Mr. Galt, for reasons given in the speech.
[3]Not estimated by Mr. Galt, for reasons given in the speech.
A people of more than four millions will owe something over £13,000,000, as compared with a people of thirty millions owing £900,000,000 sterling; and with a trade of £27,000,000 a-year there is no compensating power in any commercial superiority the United States may possess to establish an equation. If the expenses of the local and of the Federal Governments be properly kept in hand, the condition of the British Confederation, in a pecuniary point of view at all events, must be infinitely better than that of the Federal Union either by itself or with the Southern States.
The Confederation which has just been proposed by delegates at Quebec, and which will come before Parliament soon after this volume escapes from the printers, vests the Executive in the Sovereign of Great Britain; a superfluous investiture, unless the delegates meant rebellion; and it provides for its administration according to the British constitution, by the Sovereign or authorised representative. It does not appear very plain how the Sovereign of a mixed monarchy with a limited franchise for the people can administer his quasi-republican and unaristocratic viceroyalty according to the principles of the British constitution; particularly, as the Sovereign or his representative is to be the Commander-in-Chief of the land and naval forces of the Confederation, which are thus expressly removed from the control of the War-Office at home. Difficulties of a merely technical character will no doubt be overcome. But the King of Great Britain and Ireland, in whom the Executive is vested, will have to deal with a Transatlantic House of Commons founded on abstract returns of population, and elected by the provinces according to their local laws; so that some members will representuniversal suffrage, and others limited constituencies, which is very different indeed from the House of Commons of Great Britain and Ireland.
In the Upper House a Wensleydale peerage is reproduced. It is to consist of seventy-six members nominated by the Sovereign for life, of whom twenty-four are assigned to Upper Canada, and twenty-four to Lower Canada, ten for Nova Scotia, ten for New Brunswick, four for Newfoundland, and four for Prince Edward Island. The Lower House, far less aristocratic in its relations to Lower and Upper Canada, has eighty-two members from the latter, and sixty-five from the former, nineteen from Nova Scotia, fifteen for New Brunswick, eight for Newfoundland, and five for Prince Edward Island. “Saving the Sovereignty of England,” the powers of the Federal Parliament, as enumerated under thirty-seven different heads, are very large, and on such heads as currency and coinage seem to trench on dangerous ground, and in the last head of all are dangerously vague. The appointment of the Lieutenant-Governor by the Federal Government itself is obviously open to exception, because it is anomalous; but as all the principles as well as the details of the measure will receive the most careful consideration, it is not necessary to treat the proposal as an accomplished fact, although it certainly is most desirable to treat every article with respectful attention, and to give every weight to the expressed opinion of the delegates. Among the objects specially indicated for the future action of the Confederate or Federal Government are the completion of the Intercolonial Railway from Rivière du Loup to Truro, in Nova Scotia, through the Province of New Brunswick, and the completion ofcommunication with the North-Western territories, so as to open the trade to the Atlantic seacoast; both to be effected as soon as the Federal finances permit. Here there is the most tangible proposal for the opening up of the great regions to which I have called attention; and the Valley of the Saskatchewan is promised the facility which is alone wanting to make it the seat of a flourishing colony. When the Red River Settlement is once connected with Lake Superior, the way to the sea is open, but the advantages of access to the world will be increased enormously as soon as the railway is pushed on to the shores of Lake Huron from Nova Scotia.
So eager is one to grasp at the benefits which some such Confederation promises to confer, that the perils to the prerogative of the Crown, and to the body so formed, are apt to lie hid from view. But they must be well guarded against; and I for one am persuaded that it would be far better for us to see the Provinces of British America independent than to behold them incorporated with the Northern Republic. The greatest of all these internal perils is in the maintenance of the Local Parliaments, which may come into collision with the Federal Government on local questions impossible to foresee, or define, or adjust; but as the delegates considered the plan of a complete Legislative Union quite incompatible with the reserved rights of a portion of the Confederation, the only way left to escape the mischiefs which threaten the future life of the new body is to bind those Local Parliaments within the most narrow limits, consistent with local utility and existence.
It is not for the sake of our future connection, butfor their own integrity and happiness that such a course is recommended. They have “an awful example” at their doors. The torrents of blood which have deluged the soil of the North American Republics all welled out of the little chink in the corner-stone of the Constitution, on one side of which lay States’ Rights, and on the other Federal Authority. Without some justification in law and in argument, such men as Calhoun, and Stephens, and Davis, would never have reasoned, and planned, and fought, and worked a whole people up to make war against the Union. Sad as the spectacle is of a community of freemen waging war against the principles of self-government, it must be admitted that their instinct may be sounder than their reasoning, and that they are engaged in a struggle for self-preservation, in which they have swelled their proportions into that of a gigantic despotism, but have after all attained a giant’s port and strength. It is impossible to say whether the corruption which Montesquieu has declared to be the destruction of a democracy, has yet seized upon the tremendous impersonation of brute force, of unconquerable will, of passion, of lust of empire, which now rules in the Capitol, and occupies the throne whereon feebly sat heretofore the mild impuissance of the old Federal Executive; but if the pictures which have been presented to us be true, there is a prophetic meaning in the words of the philosophic Frenchman:—“Les politiques grecs, qui vivaient dans le gouvernement populaire, ne reconnaissaient d’autre force qui pût le soutenir que celle de la vertu. Ceux d’aujourd’hui ne nous parlent que des manufactures, de commerce, de finances, de richesse, et de luxe même.” The giant’s feet may be of clay, and his body may be ofthat artificial stiffening which gives to worthless stuffs a temporary substantiality, but behind the giant stand the great American people, with hands dyed in their brothers’ gore, and who, having sacrificed friendship, traditions, constitution, and liberty at home, will think but little of adding to the pyre of their angry passions the peace and happiness of others.
THE END.
BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.