The Cosmopolitan, an English paper, in alluding
to the confederation of the North American Provinces, says:
The extent of the earth's surface which
would thus come under one government, is so vast as to transcend all European
analogies. the area of the three provinces which are first to be united,
is above 370,000 square miles; of the two adjacent islands, 42,000; of Vancouver
Island, 20,000; of British Columbia, 200,000; of Central British America
and the Hudson's Bay Territory proper, taken together. 2,750,000 square
miles; or a total area of not less than (in round numbers) 3,900,000 square
miles. More than half this vast region - all beyond the line of perpetual
frost, as well as those great wildernesses within that line, where the only
vegetable substance is the reindeer moss, and the only indigenous land animals,
the caribou and the musk ox - all that part must be given up by man forever
to the absolute rule of barrenness. But throwing off one moiety, a million
and a half square miles still remain as the ground plan of the new dominion.
As to the climate and productive condition
and capabilities of the habitable part, we presume notions just as vague
and incorrect are entertained by most persons in this country. In Canada
proper, the song sparrow, is heard in the first ten days of April, and melons,
grapes and peaches ripen in the open air of summer. The island of Orleans,
below Quebec, was known to the early navigator as the isle of Bacchus, from
the quantity of its wild grapes; while in Central British America, cattle
have wintered out as far north as Fort Edmonton. Nothing can be more incorrect
than to associate, as most of us do, the idea of a snow-clad land with unproductiveness.
The truth is, that while frost is fatal to tender vegetation, snow covers
it like a warm mantle, excluding the other and destructive agent. The heart
of the farmer in Canada, in Minnesota, and the Red River country, rejoices
at the early fall of the friendly snow-flakes, which are to shield his budding
spring wheat, and to fertilize and irrigate his fields, when the season
of advancing vegetation arrives. As to the influence on human life of such
a climate, we believe the vital statistics give an average of 37 percent,
above those of the United States, taken as a whole.
The new power is to be known as Canada,
and is to be governed, under the Queen by a Governor General, by and with
the advice of a Privy Council, the number whereof is not stated in the Act
- that being considered, we presume, a matter of prerogative. The members
of the Privy Council are to be styled "Right Honourables" as in
England, the only indication of a titled order given in the bill, or indicated
anywhere, as desirable or congenial to the Canadian people.
The outfit of the new power may be judged
of by the following figures:
Value of farms, $546,000,000
Value of Agricultural Implements, 25,000,000
Value of Real Estate in Cities, Towns and
Villages, 200,000,000
Value of Horses, Cattle, etc., 120,000,000
Value of Paid-up Stock in Banks, 40,000,000
Value of miscellaneous Stocks, 50,000,000
Value of Goods on hand, in Stores, above Debts due, 50,000,000
Value of other personal property, 76,000,000
Value of Shipping, 30,000,000 .
Total, $1,136,000,000
