CANADA
CANADA, geographically and politically, differs widely from the British colony known by that name prior to 1867. Before that date the country embraced under the name of Canada included a region about 1400 miles in length and from 200 to 400 miles in breadth, extending from the watershed west of Lake Superior eastward to Labrador. Alongside of it lay the independent British provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, and beyond it to the north and the west the vast regions abandoned to the Hudson s Bay Company But various causes combined to impress on Canadian statesmen the desirableness of uniting the colonies of British North America into one political confederation.
On the cession of Canada to Great Britain in 17G3, its French colonists were guaranteed the free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion, and equal civil and commercial privileges with British subjects. Further privileges were secured by "the Quebec Act" of 1774, whereby the old French laws, including the custom of Paris, the royal edicts, and those of the colonial intendants under the French regime, were declared binding in relation to all property and civil rights ; while the criminal law was superseded by that of England with its trial by jury. The seignories, with their feudal rights and immunities, were also perpetuated ; and thus, under the fostering protection of England, the colonial life of the France of Louis XV. and the regency survived in the " New France " of Canada, unaffected by the Revolution of 1792. But the whole French population at the date of the conquest did not exceed G5,000. From Great Britain, and still more from the older colonies, emigrants hastened to occupy the new territory to the north of the St Lawrence. On the declaration of independence by the revolted colonies in 1776, the loyalist refugees were welcomed by the Provincial Government, settled on land in Upper Canada, and aided with funds and farming implements ; and these were followed by emigrants from Great Britain. But it was not till 1791 that the rule of a governor, aided solely by a council appointed by the Crown, was superseded by the grant of a constitution establishing the Government with an elective legislature. At the same time Upper Canada, with its purely British settlers, was made a separate province from the old French colony of Lower Canada, At this date the population of Lower Canada had increased to upwards of 130,000, and that of Upper Canada was about 50,000. According to the first strictly reliable census of 1811 it amounted to 77,000. But the increase of popula tion of Lower Canada was in part due to the immigration of British settlers. In 1793 a Protestant bishop of Quebec was appointed by the home Government; and in 1804 a cathedral was erected for him at Quebec, on the site of the old Recoil et church. Dr Jacob Mountain, the Anglican bishop, exerted himself in the cause of education. Parlia ment enacted the establishment of free schools throughout the parishes of Lower Canada, but to this the Roman Catholic clergy gave resolute opposition ; and in various other ways a spirit of antagonism began to manifest itself between the French inhabitants and the British population.
The war of 1812 followed; and during the protracted struggle on the Canadian frontier till the signing of the treaty of Ghent in 1814, the French and British colonists were united in loyalty to England ; but with the restoration of peace internal political difficulties revived. The legisla tive and executive councils were at open variance with the popular representative assemblies ; and a new element of strife created antagonism between Upper and Lower Canada. The position of Quebec and Montreal gave to Lower Canada a control over the exports and imports of the country ; financial misunderstandings arose between the two provinces respecting their rightful share of import duties; and a proposal, first made in 1822, for a legis lative union between Upper and Lower Canada, was at length carried out in 1841, accompanied by important concessions designed to confer on the majority of the representatives of the people that influence over the execu tive Government which constituted the essential element of responsible government in England. But while the British colonists were divided by the old English party lines, the French Lower Canadians, united by local interests, race, and religion, were able to hold the balance of power when ever the two British parties divided on points of sufficient importance to preclude a compromise. Thus while the advantages of soil and climate, the industry, and the con sequent wealth of Upper Canada, enabled it to contribute an ever-increasing proportion of the revenue of the united provinces, it frequently received a very partial share in their distribution, and was liable to be outvoted on questions in which both local feeling and local interests were largely involved. This condition of things was turned to account in the party contests of the time with an ever-increasing irritation and sense of wrong on the part of the British colonists of Upper Canada, until a common feeling overrode party lines, and matters were brought practically to a deadlock.
This it was which led to the idea of a legislative union among the various British American colonies, while reserv ing to each the control of its own local government ; and the common dangers to which they were exposed by results springing out of the great American civil war furnished additional motives to such a union. The leaders of dif ferent parties representing the various interests of the provinces, after mature deliberation, agreed to the principles of the proposed confederation, and the Imperial Govern ment responded by giving it the requisite force of parlia mentary authority. The Imperial Act, known as "the British North American Act, 1867," provided for the voluntary union of the whole of British North America into one legislative confederation, under the name of the Dominion of Canada. Thus the older provinces have pre ceded, even by centuries, the Dominion within which they are now embraced, and have a separate history of their own. The Dominion thus constituted consists at present of the old provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, now designated respectively Ontario and Quebec, along with Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, and British Columbia. To it also pertain the territories in the north-west still unsettled, with power to receive them into the confederacy when they acquire the lequisite population and organization of provinces. Provision is also made in the Imperial Act for the admission of Newfoundland into the confederacy. It is further provided that the constitu tion of the Dominion shall be " similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom;" that the executive authority shall be vested in the sovereign of Great Britain and Ireland, and carried on in his name by a governor-general and privy council ; and that the legislative power shall be exercised by a parliament consisting of an Upper House, or " Senate," the members of which are nominated for life, by summons under the great seal of Canada, and a " House of Commons," duly elected by the several consti tuencies of the various provinces in proportion to the relative population of each.
