The Project Gutenberg eBook ofCanada (1535-Present Day)This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Canada (1535-Present Day)Compiler: James MunroEditor: Kenneth BellS. E. WinboltRelease date: November 20, 2016 [eBook #53563]Most recently updated: October 23, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: E-text prepared by John Campbell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADA (1535-PRESENT DAY) ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: Canada (1535-Present Day)Compiler: James MunroEditor: Kenneth BellS. E. WinboltRelease date: November 20, 2016 [eBook #53563]Most recently updated: October 23, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: E-text prepared by John Campbell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)
Title: Canada (1535-Present Day)
Compiler: James MunroEditor: Kenneth BellS. E. Winbolt
Compiler: James Munro
Editor: Kenneth Bell
S. E. Winbolt
Release date: November 20, 2016 [eBook #53563]Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: English
Credits: E-text prepared by John Campbell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADA (1535-PRESENT DAY) ***
The Project Gutenberg eBook, Canada (1535-Present Day), by James Munro
A detailed TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE can be found at theend of the book.
A detailed TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE can be found at theend of the book.
BELL'S ENGLISH HISTORY SOURCE BOOKS
General Editors:S. E. Winbolt, M.A., andKenneth Bell, M.A.
CANADA
(1535—PRESENT-DAY)
BELL'S ENGLISH HISTORY SOURCE BOOKS.Volumes now Ready.1s. net each.1307-1399. War and Misrule(special period for the School Certificate Examination, July and December, 1913). Edited byA. A. Locke.1154-1216. The Angevins and the Charter.Edited byS. M. Toyne, M.A., Headmaster of St. Peter's School, York, late Assistant Master at Haileybury College.1485-1547. The Reformation and the Renaissance.Edited byF. W. Bewsher, Assistant Master at St. Paul's School.1547-1603. The Age of Elizabeth.Edited byArundell Esdaile, M.A.1603-1660. Puritanism and Liberty.Edited byKenneth Bell, M.A.1660-1714. A Constitution in Making.Edited byG. B. Perrett, M.A.1714-1760. Walpole and Chatham.Edited byK. A. Esdaile.1760-1801. American Independence and the French Revolution.Edited byS. E. Winbolt, M.A.1801-1815. England and Napoleon.Edited byS. E. Winbolt, M.A.1815-1837. Peace and Reform.Edited byA. C. W. Edwards, Assistant Master at Christ's Hospital.1876-1887. Imperialism and Mr. Gladstone.Edited byR. H. Gretton.1535-Present-day. Canada.Edited byJames Munro, M.A., Lecturer in Colonial and Indian History in the University of Edinburgh.Other volumes, covering the whole range of English History from Roman Britain to 1887, are in active preparation, and will be issued at short intervals.LONDON: G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.
BELL'S ENGLISH HISTORY SOURCE BOOKS.
Volumes now Ready.1s. net each.
1307-1399. War and Misrule(special period for the School Certificate Examination, July and December, 1913). Edited byA. A. Locke.1154-1216. The Angevins and the Charter.Edited byS. M. Toyne, M.A., Headmaster of St. Peter's School, York, late Assistant Master at Haileybury College.1485-1547. The Reformation and the Renaissance.Edited byF. W. Bewsher, Assistant Master at St. Paul's School.1547-1603. The Age of Elizabeth.Edited byArundell Esdaile, M.A.1603-1660. Puritanism and Liberty.Edited byKenneth Bell, M.A.1660-1714. A Constitution in Making.Edited byG. B. Perrett, M.A.1714-1760. Walpole and Chatham.Edited byK. A. Esdaile.1760-1801. American Independence and the French Revolution.Edited byS. E. Winbolt, M.A.1801-1815. England and Napoleon.Edited byS. E. Winbolt, M.A.1815-1837. Peace and Reform.Edited byA. C. W. Edwards, Assistant Master at Christ's Hospital.1876-1887. Imperialism and Mr. Gladstone.Edited byR. H. Gretton.1535-Present-day. Canada.Edited byJames Munro, M.A., Lecturer in Colonial and Indian History in the University of Edinburgh.Other volumes, covering the whole range of English History from Roman Britain to 1887, are in active preparation, and will be issued at short intervals.
1307-1399. War and Misrule(special period for the School Certificate Examination, July and December, 1913). Edited byA. A. Locke.
1154-1216. The Angevins and the Charter.Edited byS. M. Toyne, M.A., Headmaster of St. Peter's School, York, late Assistant Master at Haileybury College.
1485-1547. The Reformation and the Renaissance.Edited byF. W. Bewsher, Assistant Master at St. Paul's School.
1547-1603. The Age of Elizabeth.Edited byArundell Esdaile, M.A.
1603-1660. Puritanism and Liberty.Edited byKenneth Bell, M.A.
1660-1714. A Constitution in Making.Edited byG. B. Perrett, M.A.
1714-1760. Walpole and Chatham.Edited byK. A. Esdaile.
1760-1801. American Independence and the French Revolution.Edited byS. E. Winbolt, M.A.
1801-1815. England and Napoleon.Edited byS. E. Winbolt, M.A.
1815-1837. Peace and Reform.Edited byA. C. W. Edwards, Assistant Master at Christ's Hospital.
1876-1887. Imperialism and Mr. Gladstone.Edited byR. H. Gretton.
1535-Present-day. Canada.Edited byJames Munro, M.A., Lecturer in Colonial and Indian History in the University of Edinburgh.
Other volumes, covering the whole range of English History from Roman Britain to 1887, are in active preparation, and will be issued at short intervals.
LONDON: G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.
BY
JAMES MUNRO, M.A.
LECTURER IN COLONIAL AND INDIAN HISTORY IN THEUNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
LONDONG. BELL AND SONS, LTD.
1913
This series of English History Source Books is intended for use with any ordinary textbook of English History. Experience has conclusively shown that such apparatus is a valuable—nay, an indispensable—adjunct to the history lesson. It is capable of two main uses: either by way of lively illustration at the close of a lesson, or by way of inference-drawing, before the textbook is read, at the beginning of the lesson. The kind of problems and exercises that may be based on the documents are legion, and are admirably illustrated in aHistory of England for Schools, Part I., by Keatinge and Frazer, pp. 377-381. However, we have no wish to prescribe for the teacher the manner in which he shall exercise his craft, but simply to provide him and his pupils with materials hitherto not readily accessible for school purposes. The very moderate price of the books in this series should bring them within the reach of every secondary school. Source books enable the pupil to take a more active part than hitherto in the history lesson. Here is the apparatus, the raw material: its use we leave to teacher and taught.
Our belief is that the books may profitably be used by all grades of historical students between the standards of fourth-form boys in secondary schools and undergraduates at Universities. What differentiates students at one extreme from those at the other is not so much the kind of subject-matter dealt with, as the amount they can read into or extract from it.
In regard to choice of subject-matter, while trying to satisfy the natural demand for certain "stock" documents of vital importance, we hope to introduce much fresh and novel matter. It is our intention that the majority of the extracts should be lively in style—that is, personal, or descriptive, or rhetorical, or even strongly partisan—and shouldnot so much profess to give the truth as supply data for inference. We aim at the greatest possible variety, and lay under contribution letters, biographies, ballads and poems, diaries, debates, and newspaper accounts. Economics, London, municipal, and social life generally, and local history, are represented in these pages.
The order of the extracts is strictly chronological, each being numbered, titled, and dated, and its authority given. The text is modernised, where necessary, to the extent of leaving no difficulties in reading.
We shall be most grateful to teachers and students who may send us suggestions for improvement.
S. E. Winbolt.Kenneth Bell.
NOTE TO THIS VOLUME
For liberty to reproduce the more recent of the extracts here quoted, I have to acknowledge the kindness of Miss E. Pauline Johnson of Vancouver (No. 52); of Mr. Charles G. D. Roberts (No. 57); of Mr. F. A. Talbot and Messrs. Seeley, Service & Co., author and publishers ofThe Making of a Great Canadian Railway(No. 55); and of Messrs. Constable & Co., the publishers of the late Lord Wolseley'sStory of a Soldier's Life(No. 48). To several of the sources quoted I was directed by the volume of selections published in 1907 under the titleCanadian Constitutional Development, by Professor H. E. Egerton of Oxford and Professor W. L. Grant of Kingston, Ontario, both of whom have also made other helpful suggestions, as has Mr. H. P. Biggar, the representative of the Canadian Archives Office in this country. Finally, the task of finding what one wanted has been very greatly facilitated by the sympathetic aid of Mr. P. E. Lewin, who never loses a chance of making the superb collection over which he presides in the Library of the Royal Colonial Institute useful to anyone who may be interested in the Britains overseas.
J. M.
PAGE1.A Great Land of Rivers and LakesSpeech by Lord Dufferin12.Jacques Cartier at Hochelaga, 1535Lescarbot's "History"33.The French Settlement at St. Croix, 1604""54."The Ancient Mariner," 1631-2T. James's "Voyage"75.Two English Explorers in Hudson Bay, 1631"The North-West Fox"86.The Birthday of Montreal, 1642F. Parkman107.Governor Frontenac Leads the War-Dance, 1690"118.Madelaine de Verchères, 1696Her Own Narrative139.The French Canadians, 1737 (in French)Memoir by G. Hocquart1710.The "White" Men of the Prairies, 1738La Vérendrye's "Journal"1811.The Expulsion of the Acadians, 1755Lieut.-Gov. Lawrence's Circular Letter2112.The Conquest of Canada, 1757-60H. Walpole's "Letters"2313.The Siege of Quebec, 1759"Gentleman's Magazine2614.Wolfe's Difficulties, 1759""2815.The Plains of Abraham, 1759Capt. J. Knox's "Journal"3016.The Government of Quebec under the British, 1763-74Shortt and Doughty's "Const. Docts."3317.The Coppermine River, 1771S. Hearne's "Journey"3518.The Quebec Act, 1774Shortt and Doughty's "Const. Docts."3719.One of the Loyalists, 1783Transactions of U.E. Loyalists' Association3820.The Mackenzie River, 1789Sir A. Mackenzie's "Voyages"4121.The Constitutional Act, 1791Shortt and Doughty's "Const. Docts."4322.To the Pacific Overland, 1793Sir A. Mackenzie's "Voyages"4523.A Servant of the North-West Company, 1800Masson's "Bourgeois du Nord-Ouest"4824.The Beaver, 1807G. Heriot's "Travels"4925.A Rapid on the Fraser River, 1808Masson's "Bourgeois du Nord-Ouest"5226.Laura Secord, 1813Her Own Narrative5427.Lundy's Lane, 1814"The Annual Register"5528.Attack on Lord Selkirk's Colony, 1816A "Statement" published in 18175729.Proposed Union of the Canadas, 1822Canadian Archives Report, 18975930.The Founding of Guelph (Ontario), 1827The Autobiography of John Galt6231.Sam Slick criticises the "Bluenoses," 1836T. C. Haliburton's "The Clockmaker"6432.A Struggle not of Principles but of Races, 1838Sir C. Lucas's edition of Lord Durham's Report6733.The French Canadians in 1838Sir C. Lucas's edition of Lord Durham's Report6934.The Irresponsible Opposition in Lower Canada, 1838Sir C. Lucas's edition of Lord Durham's Report7135.Durham's RecommendationsSir C. Lucas's edition of Lord Durham's Report7336.Durham Resigns and Appeals to Public Opinion1839 edition of the "Report and Despatches"7537.The Evils of the Old Colonial System, 1839J. Howe's "Letters and Public Speeches"7738.The Benefits of Responsible GovernmentJ. Howe's "Letters and Public Speeches"7939.The Union Act, 1840Houston's "Documents"8040.Edmonton in 1841Sir G. Simpson's "Journey"8141.The Mohawk Indians in Ontario, 1842J. R. Godley's "Letters from America"8442.The Position of the Governor, 1854Elgin's "Letters and Journals"8643-45. The Confederation Debates, 1865Debates in the Parliament of Canada8746.The British North America Act, 1867Egerton's "Federations and Unions"9147.The Work of the Hudson Bay Company (to 1869)Paper by Lord Strathcona9648.Red River Rebellion, 1870Lord Wolseley's "Story of a Soldier's Life"9849.Entering the Rockies, 1872"Ocean to Ocean," by G. M. Grant10050.The Destiny of Canada (1873)"Ocean to Ocean," by G. M. Grant10251.Tariff Reform in Canada in 1876Speech by Sir J. A. Macdonald10452.Prairie Greyhounds (since 1885)Poem by E. Pauline Johnson10553.Laurier's Tribute to Macdonald, 1891Speech in Canadian House of Commons10654.Canadian Troops in the Boer War, 1900Speech in Canadian House of Commons10855.Pioneers of the Railway, 1910Talbot's "Making of a Great Canadian Railway"11056.Canadian Naval Policy, 1912"The Times" Supplement11257.Canadian StreamsPoem by C. G. D. Roberts115Notes on Persons named in the Extracts117
CANADA(1535—Present-day)
Source.—A Speech delivered by Lord Dufferin at Winnipeg, quoted inRound the Empire, by Mr. G. R. Parkin. London, 1893.
As a poor man cannot live in a big house, so a small country cannot support a big river.
Now to an Englishman or a Frenchman the Severn or the Thames, the Seine or the Rhone, would appear considerable streams; but in the Ottawa, a mere affluent of the St. Lawrence, an affluent, moreover, which reaches the parent stream six hundred miles from its mouth, we have a river nearly five hundred and fifty miles long, and three or four times as big as any of them.
But even after having ascended the St. Lawrence itself to Lake Ontario, and pursued it across Lake Erie, St. Clair, Lake Huron, and Lake Superior to Thunder Bay—a distance of fifteen hundred miles, where are we? In the estimation of a person who has made the journey, at the end of all things; but to us, who know better, scarcely at the beginning of the great fluvial systems of the Dominion; for from that spot, that is to say, from Thunder Bay, we are able at once to ship our astonished traveller on to the Kaministiquia, a river of some hundred miles long. Thence, almost in a straight line, we launch him on to Lake Shebandowan and Rainy Lake and River—a magnificent stream three hundred yards broad and a couple of hundred miles long, down whose tranquil bosomhe floats to the Lake of the Woods, where he finds himself on a sheet of water which, though diminutive as compared with the inland seas he has left behind him, will probably be found sufficiently extensive to render him fearfully sea-sick during his passage across it.
For the last eighty miles of his voyage, however, he will be consoled by sailing through a succession of land-locked channels, the beauty of whose scenery, while it resembles, certainly excels, the far-famed Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence.
From this lacustrine paradise of sylvan beauty we are able at once to transfer our friend to the Winnipeg, a river whose existence in the very heart and centre of the continent is in itself one of Nature's most delightful miracles—so beautiful and varied are its rocky banks, its tufted islands; so broad, so deep, so fervid is the volume of its waters, the extent of their lake-like expansions, and the tremendous power of their rapids.
At last let us suppose we have landed our traveller at the town of Winnipeg, the half-way house of the continent, the capital of the Prairie Province.... Having had so much of water, having now reached the home of the buffalo, like the extenuated Falstaff he naturally "babbles of green fields" and careers in imagination over the green grasses of the prairie. Not at all.... We take him down to your quay and ask him which he will ascend first—the Red River or the Assiniboine—two streams, the one five hundred miles long, the other four hundred and eighty, which so happily mingle their waters within your city limits. After having given him a preliminary canter up these respective rivers, we take him off to Lake Winnipeg, an inland sea 300 miles long and upwards of 60 broad, during the navigation of which, for many a weary hour, he will find himself out of sight of land, and probably a good deal more indisposed than ever he was on the Lake of the Woods, or even the Atlantic.
At the north-west angle of Lake Winnipeg he hits upon the mouth of the Saskatchewan, the gateway of the North-West,and the starting-point to another 1500 miles of navigable water flowing nearly due East and West between its alluvial banks.
Having now reached the foot of the Rocky Mountains, our Ancient Mariner—for by this time he will be quite entitled to such an appellation—knowing that water cannot run uphill, feels certain his aquatic experiences are concluded.
He was never more mistaken. We immediately launch him upon the Athabasca and Mackenzie Rivers, and start him on a longer trip than he has yet undertaken—the navigation of the Mackenzie River alone exceeding 2500 miles. If he survives this last experience we wind up his peregrinations by a concluding voyage of 1400 miles down the Fraser River, or, if he prefers it, the Thompson River, to Victoria in Vancouver, whence, having previously provided him with a first class return ticket for that purpose, he will probably prefer getting homeviathe Canadian Pacific.
Now, in this enumeration, those who are acquainted with the country are aware that, for the sake of brevity, I have omitted thousands of miles of other lakes and rivers which water various regions of the North-West: the Qu'Appelle River, the Belly River, Lake Manitoba, Lake Winnipegosis, Shoal Lake, and others, along whose interminable banks and shores I might have dragged, and finally exterminated, our way-worn guest.