[1] The number of the North West Mounted Police was raised in 1882 to 500 men.
A Society was founded by Lord Lorne, in 1882, for the encouragement of Science and Literature. Divided into sections, it was designed to furnish to Canada what the French Academy and the British Association give to Great Britain. At its first meeting, which took place in the Senate Chamber, he opened the proceedings with these remarks:— Gentlemen,—These few words I do not address to you, presuming to call myself one of your brotherhood, either in science or literature, but I speak to you as one whose accidental official position may enable him to serve you, persuaded as I am that the furtherance of your interests is for the benefit and honour of Canada. Let me briefly state the object aimed at In the institution of this society. Whether it be possible that our hopes be fulfilled according to our expectation the near future will show. But from the success which has attended similar associations in other lands possessed of less spirit, energy, and opportunity than our own, there is no reason to augur ill of the attempt to have here a body of men whose achievements may entitle them to recognise and encourage the appearance of merit in literature, and to lead in science and the useful application of its discoveries. It is proposed, then, that this society shall consist of a certain number of members who have made their mark by their writings, whether these be of imagination or the study of nature. In one division our fellow-countrymen, descended from the stock of old France, will discuss with that grace of diction and appreciation of talent, which is so conspicuous amongst them, all that may affect their literature and the maintenance of the purity of that grand language from which the English is largely derived. They well know how to pay compliments to rising authors, and how with tact and courtesy to crown the aspirants to the honours they will bestow. Among Englishmen of letters the grant of such formal marks of recognition by their brethren has not as yet become popular or usual, and it may be that it never will become a custom. On the other hand, it surely will be a pleasure to a young author, if, after a perusal of his thoughts, they who are his co-workers and successful precursors in the wide domain of poetry, fiction, or of history, should see fit to award him an expression of thanks for his contribution to the intellectual delight or to the knowledge of his time. They only, whose labours have met with the best reward—the praise of their contemporaries—can take the initiative in such a welcome to younger men, and whatever number may hereafter be elected to this society, it is to be desired that no man be upon its lists who has not by some original and complete work justified his selection. The meeting together of our eminent men will contribute to unite on a common ground those best able to express the thoughts and illustrate the history of the time. It will serve to strengthen emulation among us, for the discussion of progress made in other lands, will breed the desire to push the intellectual development of our own. We may hope that this union will promote the completion of the national collections which, already fairly representative in geology, may hereafter include archives, paintings, and objects illustrating ethnology and all branches of Natural History. In science we have men whose names are widely known, and the vast field for study and exploration afforded by this magnificent country may be expected to reward, by valuable discoveries, the labours of the geologist and mineralogist. It would be out of place in these few sentences to detail the lines of research which have already engaged your attention. They will be spoken of in the record of your proceedings. Among those, the utility of which must be apparent to all, one may be particularly mentioned. I refer to the meteorological observations, from which have been derived the storm warnings which during the last few years have saved many lives. A comparatively new science has thus been productive of results known to all our population and especially to seamen. Here I have only touched upon one or two subjects in the wide range of study which will occupy the time and thoughts of one half of your membership, devoted as two of your four sections will be to geological and biological sciences. It will be your province to aid and encourage the workers in their acquisition of knowledge of that nature, each of whose secrets may become the prize of him who shall make one of her mysteries the special subject of thought. America already bids fair to rival France and Germany in the number of her experts. Canada may certainly have her share in producing those men whose achievements in science have more than equalled in fame the triumphs of statesmen. These last labour only for one country, while the benefits of the discoveries of science are shared by the world. But widely different as are the qualities which develop patriotism and promote science, yet I would call to the aid of our young association the love of country, and ask Canadians to support and gradually to make as perfect as possible this their national society. Imperfections there must necessarily be at first in its constitution—omissions in membership and organisation there may be. Such faults may hereafter be avoided. Our countrymen will recognise that in a body of gentlemen drawn from all our provinces and conspicuous for their ability, there will be a centre around which to rally. They will see that the welfare and strength of growth of this association shall be impeded by no small jealousies, no carping spirit of detraction, but shall be nourished by a noble motive common to the citizens of the republic of letters and to the student of the free world of Nature, namely: the desire to prove that their land is not insensible to the glory which springs from numbering among its sons those whose success becomes the heritage of mankind. I shall not now further occupy your time, which will be more worthily used in listening to the addresses of the presidents and of those gentlemen who for this year have consented to take the chair at the meetings of the several sections.
At San Francisco, in 1882, the following reply was given to the British
Residents:—
Gentlemen,—Our heartfelt thanks are due to you for the welcome given to us, a welcome whose expression is embodied in this beautifully decorated address. It echoes the loyal sentiments which remain predominant among those, who, wherever their business may cause them to reside, remember that they have been born under our British freedom. We shall gladly keep our gift in recollection of a visit to one of America's foremost cities, where the kindly feelings of our cousins have been shown in the generous hospitality which they are ever ready to extend to the stranger. With you whose interests are bound up with the greatness of California, and with the gigantic trade of the United States, we can cordially sympathise. Connected as we are for a time with the fortunes of the sister land of Canada, we know how much the welfare of the one country is affected by the good of the other; how the evil that falls on one must affect the other also. Our blood makes us brothers, and our interests make us partners. Our governments are engaged in the same task, and from experience there is no reason to think otherwise than that they will be allowed to work in that perfect harmony which is essential for their peace and for the peace of the world. They are arching the continent with two zones of civilisation; with light, not of one colour, but equally replacing the former darkness, and the harmony between them is as natural as is the relation in the rainbow of the separate hues of red and azure. Your presence here shows how our commerce is interwoven. In crossing the continent and marvelling at the wealth and power shown by every city of this mighty people, it is a pride to think how much of all they have is theirs by virtue of British and Irish blood; and when here and at New York, we reach the ports supplying this vast population, we find in the flags borne by the shipping, proof that it is still the old country that in the main ministers to and is benefited by the progress of her children.
At Victoria, in British Columbia, in 1882, at a public dinner in his honour, the Governor-General said:—
Mr. Mayor and Council,—It is, I assure you, with more than common feelings of gratitude that I rise to ask you to accept my acknowledgments and thanks for this evening's entertainment. The reception the Princess and I have met with in Victoria, and throughout British Columbia, will long live in our memory as one of the brightest episodes of a time which has been made delightful to us by the heartfelt loyalty of the people of our Canadian provinces. Nowhere has the contentment insured by British institutions been more strongly expressed than on these beautiful shores of the Pacific. I am rejoiced to observe signs that the days are now passed when we had to look upon this community as one too remote and too sundered from the rest to share to the full the rapid increase of prosperity which has been so remarkable since the Union. Attracted at first by the capricious temptations of the gold mines, your valleys were inundated by a large population. It was not to be anticipated that this could last, and although population declined with the temporary decrease of mining, it is evident that the period of depression in this, as in every other matter, has been passed. (Applause.) I have everywhere seen signs that a more stable, and therefore more satisfactory, emigration has set in. Victoria has made of late a decided start. I visited with much pleasure many of the factories which witness to this, and I hope before I leave to have made a still more exhaustive examination of the establishments which are rapidly rising among you. That the wares produced by these are appreciated beyond the limits of the city is very evident throughout the Province, where cleanliness is insured by Victoria soap, and comfort, or at least contentment and consolation, by Kurtz's Victoria cigars. (Loud laughter and applause.) No words can be too strong to express the charm of this delightful land, where a climate softer and more constant than that of the south of England ensures at all times of the year a full enjoyment of the wonderful loveliness of nature around you. There is no doubt that any Canadian who visits this island and the mainland shores and sees the happiness of the people, the forest laden coast, the tranquil gulfs and glorious mountains, can but congratulate himself that his country possesses scenes of such perfect beauty. (Applause.) We who have been much touched by the warmth of your welcome will, I am sure, sympathise with the desire which will be felt by every travelled Canadian in the future, that every alternate year at least the Dominion Parliament should meet at New Westminster, Nanaimo, or in Victoria. (Laughter and applause.) Where men seem to live with such comfort, regret will inevitably arise that you have as yet so few to share your good fortune. Though your contribution to the revenue is at least a million dollars, there are only twenty thousand white men over the three hundred and fifty thousand square miles of Province. Various causes, the most formidable of these being physical, have hitherto contributed to this. The physical difficulties, tremendous as they are, are being rapidly conquered There is no cause why any of a different character should not be surmounted with an equal success. What is wanted to effect this object is only cordial co-operation with the central Government. (Cheers.) There was perhaps a time when the Governor-General would not have been regarded, in his official capacity at all events, with as much favour as I flatter myself may now be the case. (Applause.) No wonder that the feeling is changed, now that the circumstances are better understood, for I challenge any one to mention any example in which a government, ruling over a comparatively small population of four and a half millions, has ever done as much as has the Canadian Government to insure for its furthest Provinces the railway communication which is an essential for the development of the resources of the land. (Cheering.) Mr. Francis [1] will back me, I am certain, when I say that the United States, with a population of fifteen or twenty millions, when California was first settled in 1849, did not push the railway through to the Pacific Coast in the vigorous manner in which the Canadian Government is now doing. (Loud cheers.) I have full confidence that you will see that policy of enterprise and of justice nobly carried out. Early promises, if made too hastily, showed that if there was profound ignorance of the physical geography of your country, there was at all events profound goodwill. Later events have proved that in spite of all obstacles "where there is a will there is a way." Pride in national feeling has made the country strain every nerve to bind still further with the sentiment of confidence the unity of the Confederation. (Applause.) Where is now the old talk which we used to hear from a few of the faint-hearted of a change in destiny or of annexation? (Cheers.) It does not exist. To be sure, here I have heard some vague terror expressed, but it is a terror which I have heard expressed among our friends on the American Pacific Slope also, and it is to the effect that annexation must soon take place to the Celestial Empire. (Great laughter.) Well, gentlemen, I fully sympathise with this fear. None of us like to die before our time, but I will suggest to you, from the healthy signs and vitality I see around me, that your time has not yet come. Your object now is to live, and for that purpose to get your enterprises and your railways as part of your assets. (Applause.) The rest will follow in time, but at the present moment we must concern ourselves with practical politics. Let us look beyond this Island and beyond even those difficult mountains, and see what our neighbours and friends to the south of us are about. An army of workmen—exactly double that now employed in this Province—are driving with a speed that seems wonderful a railway through to the coast. In another year or two a large traffic, encouraged by the competition in freights between it, the Central and the Southern Pacific will have been acquired. You are, by the very nature of things, heavily handicapped here, and a trade, as you know, once established is not easily rivalled. Take care that you are in the market for this competition at as early a day as possible. When you are as rich as California, and have as many public works as Queensland, it may be time for you to reconsider your position. There is no reason ultimately to doubt that the population attracted to you as soon as you have a line through the mountains, will be the population which we most desire to have—a people like that of the old Imperial Islands, drawn from the strongest races of northern Europe,—one that with English, American, Irish, German, French and Scandinavian blood shall be a worthy son of the old Mother of Nations. (Loud applause.) Only last week, in seven days, no less than 900 people came to San Francisco by the overland route from the East. Your case will be the same if with "a strong pull and a pull altogether" you get your public works completed. I have spoken of your being pretty heavily handicapped. In saying this, I refer to the agricultural capabilities of the Province alone. Of course you have nothing like the available land that the central Provinces possess, yet it seems to me you have enough for all the men who are likely to come to you for the next few years as farmers or owners of small ranches. (Applause.) The climate of the interior for at least one hundred miles north of the boundary line has a far shorter winter than that of most of Alberta or Arthabaska. Losses of crops from early frosts or of cattle from severe weather are unknown to the settlers of your upper valleys. In these—and I wish there were more of these valleys—all garden produce and small fruits can be cultivated with the greatest success. For men possessing from £200 to £600 a year, I can conceive no more attractive occupation than the care of cattle or a cereal farm within your borders. (Loud applause.) Wherever there is open land, the wheat crops rival the best grown elsewhere, while there is nowhere any dearth of ample provision of fuel and lumber for the winter. (Renewed applause.) As you get your colonisation roads pushed and the dykes along the Fraser River built, you will have a larger available acreage, for there are quiet straths and valleys hidden away among the rich forests which would provide comfortable farms. As in the north-west last year, so this year I have taken down the evidence of settlers, and this has been wonderfully favourable. To say the truth, I was rather hunting for grumblers, and found only one! He was a young man of super-sensitiveness from one of our comfortable Ontario cities, and he said he could not bear this country. Anxious to come at the truth, and desiring to search to the bottom of things, we pressed him as to the reason. "Did he know of any cases of misery? Had he found starving settlers?" The reply was re-assuring, for he said, "No; but I don't like it. Nobody in this country walks; everybody rides!" (Laughter.) You will be happy to hear that he is going back to Ontario. Let me now allude, in a very few words, to those points which may be mentioned as giving you exceptional advantages. If you are handicapped in the matter of land in comparison with the Provinces of the Plains, you are certainly not so with regard to climate. (Cheering.) Agreeable as I think the steady and dry cold of an Eastern winter, yet there are very many who would undoubtedly prefer the temperature enjoyed by those who live west of the mountains. Even where it is coldest, spring comes in February, and the country is so divided into districts of greater dryness or greater moisture, that a man can always choose whether to have a rainfall small or great. I hope I am not wearying you in dwelling on these points, for my only excuse in making these observations is, that I have learnt that the interior is to many on the island as much a terra incognita as it was to me. I can partly understand this after seeing the beautifully engineered road which was constructed by Mr. Trutch, for although I am assured it is as safe as a church—(laughter)—I can very well understand that it is pleasanter for many of the ladies to remain in this beautiful island than to admire the grandeur of the scenery in the gorges. As you have adopted protection in your politics, perhaps it would not be presumptuous in me to suggest that you should adopt protection also in regard to your precipices—(great laughter)—and that should the waggon road be continued in use, a few Douglas firs might be sacrificed to make even more perfect that excellent road in providing protection at the sides. Besides the climate, which is so greatly in your favour, you have another great advantage in the tractability and good conduct of the Indian population. (Applause.) I believe I have seen the Indians of almost every tribe throughout the Dominion, and nowhere can you find any who are so trustworthy in regard to conduct—(hear, hear)—so willing to assist the white settlers by their labour, so independent and anxious to learn the secret of the white man's power. (Applause.) Where elsewhere constant demands are met for assistance; your Indians have never asked for any, for in the interviews given to the Chiefs their whole desire seemed to be for schools and schoolmasters, and in reply to questions as to whether they would assist themselves in securing such institutions, they invariably replied that they would be glad to pay for them. (Loud applause.) It is certainly much to be desired that some of the funds apportioned for Indian purposes, be given to provide them fully with schools in which Industrial Education may form an important item. (Hear, hear.) But we must not do injustice to the wilder tribes. Their case is totally different from that of your Indians. The buffalo was everything to the nomad. It gave him house, fuel, clothes, and thread. The disappearance of this animal left him starving. Here, on the contrary, the advent of the white men has never diminished the food supply of the native. He has game in abundance, for the deer are as numerous now as they ever have been. He has more fish than he knows what to do with, and the lessons in farming that you have taught him have given him a source of food supply of which he was previously ignorant. Throughout the interior it will probably pay well in the future to have flocks of sheep. The demand for wool and woollen goods will always be very large among the people now crowding in such numbers to those regions which our official world as yet calls the North-West, but which is the North-East and East to you. There is no reason why British Columbia should not be for this portion of our territory what California is to the States in the supply afforded of fruits. (Hear, hear.) The perfection attained by small fruits is unrivalled, and it is only with the Peninsula of Ontario that you would have to compete for the supplies of grapes, peaches, pears, apples, cherries, plums, apricots, and currants. Every stick in these wonderful forests which so amply and generously clothe the Sierras from the Cascade range to the distant Rocky mountains, will be of value as communication opens up. The great arch of timber lands beginning on the west of Lake Manitoba, circles round to Edmonton and comes down along the mountains so as to include the whole of your Province. Poplar alone for many years must be the staple wood of the lands to the south of the Saskatchewan, and your great opportunity lies in this, that you can give the settlers of the whole of that region as much of the finest timber in the world as they can desire, while cordwood cargoes will compete with the coal of Alberta. (Loud cheers.) Coming down in our survey to the coast we come upon ground familiar to you all, and you all know how large a trade already exists with China and Australia in wood, and how capable of almost indefinite expansion is this commerce. Your forests are hardly tapped, and there are plenty more logs, like one I saw cut the other day at Burrard Inlet, of forty inches square and ninety and one hundred feet in length, down to sticks which could be used as props for mines or as cordwood for fuel. The business which has assumed such large proportions along the Pacific shore of the canning of salmon, great as it is, is as yet almost in its infancy, for there is many a river swarming with fish from the time of the first run of salmon in spring to the last run of other varieties in the autumn, on which many a cannery is sure to be established. Last, but certainly not least in the list of your resources, comes your mineral and chiefly your coal treasure. (Applause.) The coal from the Nanaimo mines now leads the market at San Francisco. Nowhere else in these countries is such coal to be found, and it is now being worked with an energy which bids fair to make Nanaimo one of the chief mining stations on the continent. It is of incalculable importance not only to this Province of the Dominion, but also to the interests of the Empire, that our fleets and mercantile marine as well as the continental markets should be supplied from this source. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) Where you have so good a list of resources it may be almost superfluous to add another, but I would strongly advise you to cultivate the attractions held out to the travelling public by the magnificence of your scenery. (Cheers.) Let this country become what Switzerland is for Europe in the matter of good roads to places which may be famed for their beauty, and let good and clean hotels attract the tourist to visit your grand valleys and marvellous mountain ranges. Choose some district, and there are many from which you can choose, where trout and salmon abound, and where sport may be found among the deer and with the wild fowl. Select some portion of your territory where pines and firs shroud in their greatest richness the giant slopes, and swarm upwards to glacier, snow field, and craggy peak, and where in the autumn the maples seem as though they wished to mimic in hanging gardens the glowing tints of the lava that must have streamed down the precipices of these old volcanoes. (Loud cheering.) Wherever you find these beauties in greatest perfection, and where the river torrents urge their currents most impetuously through the Alpine gorges, there I would counsel you to set apart a region which shall be kept as a national park. In doing so you can follow the example of our southern friends,—an example which, I am sure Mr. Francis will agree with me, we cannot do better than imitate, and you would secure that they who make the round trip from New York or Montreal shall return from San Francisco, or come thence via the Canadian Pacific Railroad. (Loud and continued applause.) I thought it might interest you, gentlemen, this evening to hear the last news regarding that Railway, and therefore I should like to read to you a letter received only a day or two ago from the engineer in chief, Major Rogers. You will see he speaks hopefully and assuringly: "I have found the desired pass through the Selkirks, it lying about twenty miles east of the forks of the Ille-cille-want and about two miles north of the main east branch of the same. Its elevation above sea level is about 4500 feet, or about 1000 feet lower than the pass across the Rockies. The formation of the country, from the summits of the Selkirks to the Columbia river, has been much misrepresented. Instead of the solid mass of mountain, as reported, there are two large valleys lying within these limits. The Beaver river, which empties into the Columbia river about twenty miles below the Black-berry (or Howse Pass route), rises south of the fifty-first parallel (I have not seen its source, but have seen its valley for that distance), and the Spellamacheen runs nearly parallel with the Beaver but in an opposite direction, and lies between the Beaver and the Columbia. I have great hope of being able to take with me this fall the results of a preliminary survey of this route. It necessarily involves heavy work, as must any short line across the mountains, a condition which will be readily accepted in consideration of the material shortening of the route."
This is the last news, and I hope we shall hear of its full corroboration before long. I beg, gentlemen, to thank you once more for your exceeding kindness, and for all the kindness shown us since our arrival. I have always been a firm friend of British Columbia, and I hope before I leave the country to see still greater progress made towards meeting your wishes.
[1] The United States Consul.
At a meeting of the National Rifle Association, held at Ottawa, 8th
March 1883, His Excellency, spoke as follows:—
I believe all who value those qualities which lead to good rifle-shooting—steadiness and sobriety—and this means every family in the country, the father and mother, as well as the young men belonging to it, should give their ten cents or twenty-five cents, as they can afford it, to swell the funds of the association. As this association thus encourages personal, as well as a military training, it merits the support of all classes. We know that the amount of personal training that is required produces a love of temperance among those who attend the meetings of the association, and we know that by the military training given, a military sentiment is developed, which makes men at least not averse to discipline in moderation. It has been said by my predecessor, and I agree with the remark, that Canada is certainly the most democratic country upon the North American continent, but we know that although everybody may have been born equal, yet that equality suddenly and mysteriously disappears as soon as the schoolboy goes upon the school bench, or the rifleman goes upon the rifle ground. The militiamen of Canada show that a democratic people do not tolerate unearned superiority, but recognise the superiority given by training. I cannot let this opportunity pass without saying a last word as to the point of view from which I regard the importance of militia training in Canada. It is more perhaps from the point of view of an Imperial officer than from that of a man temporarily holding a Canadian civil appointment. There is a certain amount of feeling in this country that our whole militia force is a mere matter of fuss and feathers, of "playing at soldiers" in fact. I think that is always a most unfortunate feeling, because I cannot say how anxiously in the old country those steps are watched by which Canadians perfect themselves for purposes of self-defence. Englishmen know that in case of any trouble arising, which I hope not to see, and do not believe we shall see, they are bound and pledged to come to your assistance. The question must necessarily be asked, With what army are they to operate? with one that will be of real assistance, or with one that will have no more cohesion than that which fell under the organised blows of the Prussian army before Orleans? I can always point to the efforts made in Canada before my time to have an organised system of military training. I can point to the grants given by the Government for the encouragement of individual and regimental proficiency in rifle shooting. I can point also to the military schools for the militia which are being founded, and to the steps which are to be taken that officers shall always have some training received from those schools before they undertake the responsibility of leading their fellow-citizens in the ranks. I can point also to that splendid institution, the Military College at Kingston, and I can certainly say to the old country people, that should any misfortune arise that should compel us to operate together, they will in time find in Canada officers who will be perfectly able and ready to lead men, who from their physical powers and from their military sentiments and from their hardihood are likely, under proper training and guidance, to form some of the best troops in the world. (Loud cheers.)