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attempt to trace back Canada to the days of Jacques Cartier is without warrant. He sailed up the river with many other navigators, and only that he left the record of his voyage, no trace of his presence would remain. As well speak of Vancouver as being founder of British Columbia, as he was the first to ascend and survey the several bays and inlets of the coast. It would be, indeed, a greater act of justice to identify the name of the traveller sir Alexander Mackenzie with the western province, than to confound Jacques Cartier with the history of Canada as a French province. Cartier can be assigned the rank of the first discoverer, who placed on record the geography of the Saint Lawrence. His last voyage was in 1541. No semblance of any settlement was made until 1603, when Champlain arrived with his few followers. During these sixty years, for two generations of men, all mention of Canada passed away. Whatever the merits of Jacques Cartier as a navigator, no place can be claimed for him in the continuous history of colonization and settlement of the shores of the Saint Lawrence.

I am, myself, inclined to date the commencement of French rule in Canada, in its broad sense, at the re-occupation of the country in 1632, after Kirke's conquest. If this view be conceded, it may be said that French rule existed for one hundred and twenty-eight years. At the time of the conquest, there were 60,000 souls; there were about 15,000 males between sixteen and sixty years of age. It is from this limited number, the French Canadian population has increased to its present magnitude. The population of the province of Quebec by the census of 1881 is set forth at 1,359,027, of which, 1,073,820 are reported to be French Canadians, while 102,743, named as being resident in Ontario, are to be added to the total so classified.

It cannot be pretended that this number has sprung from the 15,000 males who became British subjects at the time of the conquest, and that the French Canadians can claim to be a race of pure blood from these forefathers. The contrary is the case. They have incorporated into their family every

foreign element with which it has come in contact. It is only within the last few years that the Irish Roman Catholic population in the province of Quebec, which has much intermarried with the French Canadians, has asserted its nationality in the religious point of view. On the ground of convenience and expediency in the larger cities, they have acted upon the policy of constructing and maintaining their own churches, in which the sermon and other parts of the service are delivered in English only: thus establishing distinct congregations of English speaking Roman Catholics. The two great influences which have given strength to French Canadian sentiment are language and religion. Until the settlement of the eastern townships, which commenced at the close of the last century, no English was spoken out of the cities and in their immediate neighbourhood. The children of all those who passed to the country districts, whatsoever their place of birth, became French Canadians; their names being gallicized. When mixed marriages took place the female children were brought up Catholics, and married into French Canadian families and were counted among them. There is scarcely an example in history of so powerful an absorbment, as that of the incorporation by the French Canadians of every foreign relationship. They have all the elements of a compound race; possessing characteristics totally different from French sentiment and feeling, they may claim this distinction in the sense, that they have grown to their present number, retaining many elements and peculiarities of their origin, but having engrafted upon them a tone of thought peculiar to themselves, widely diverging from the early prototype. It is plain that whatever be the ethnological character of the French Canadians, that it has been under the British government that they have attained to the force and power they possess, and have moulded themselves to the type they present. The political liberty they have enjoyed has enabled them thus to increase in numbers and prosperity. From 1632 to 1760, one hundred and twentyeight years, the number of French Canadians reached 60,000. In the succceding one hundred and twenty years they have

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increased to a million and a quarter. At the time of the conquest, in 1760, except a few families at the Cedars, Vaudreuil and Chateauguay, there was no settlement beyond Saint Genevieve, on the thinly peopled island of Montreal. The few hundred men, wandering beyond the western lakes, were pursuing their career as Indian traders, in many cases domiciled with the savages, and living as they lived. There were one thousand souls at Detroit, according to Rogers, at this time; many, doubtless, had been gathered there owing to the operations of Amherst. It is impossible not to contrast the benefits which Canada has enjoyed from the date of the conquest, with the hard, stern, depressing rule which weighed them down under the French government.

In relating these events, I have endeavoured, so far as I have been able, to adhere rigidly to what I have held to be the truth, and I have pointed out the sources whence, if errors exist, they may be rectified. There is a phantom constantly brought before the French Canadians, of their duty to adhere to their language, their institutions, and the laws of former times. It is only in accordance with the promptings of nature that a strong feeling of race should exist; it is a sentiment inseparable from our being, and it clings to the highest as to the lowest races. To this day, in the far west the Indian demands recognition of his old customs and traditions. From time to time a wave of this feeling passes across Europe, and this love of race is appealed to as the strongest of political arguments. The handful of men who surrendered at the conquest, was granted no special privileges. The one assurance given was liberty of religious worship. Although French law has remained as the procedure of the civil courts, and a conservative spirit has resisted all change in its form and system; and all amendment, more from political sentiment, than a wise consideration of that which is best and essential, has been resisted, the liberty of the subject is protected by English criminal law; and political freedom is assured by representative institutions transplanted from England, the "mother of parliaments"; which places

the government of the country under the control of a parliamentary majority.

The French Canadian habitant is much more British than he himself knows, until circumstances make him aware of the political rights he enjoys, and the tone of thought which they have engendered.

It is on this feeling that the harmony of the future must rest; the use of language and the practice of a religion go far to create a sentiment of unity, strong and powerful when assailed by injustice and wrong. They are weapons for the arena where the contest is between foes, and the cause of quarrel is manifest and on the surface. They fail in their strength and might when appealed to by littleness, selfishness. and fraud. Where there is liberty of thought, and the printing press is active, even those who are most careless regarding passing events must learn to discern the difference between an actual and imaginary wrong. The well-being of the dominion is in the hands of those patriotic men who have higher views than the notoriety of holding some prominent position for a few years, to pass away into forgetfulness when they fail in their duty to the state, or only to be mentioned with contempt. History ever avenges herself, and there is a certain nemesis for those who misuse their opportunity for good, however apparently for the time they may be successful.

While Canada relies on the sinew and industry of her sons to develop her material interests, it is to her true and patriotic children that she must look for the maintenance of those institutions, by which she can preserve her political freedom with the peace and prosperity which attend a government wisely and honestly administered.

END OF THE HISTORY OF FRENCH RULE.

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THE TREATY OF PARIS.

The following are the articles from the definitive treaty of Paris, 10th of February, 1763, bearing upon the cession of Canada to the crown of Great Britain, and the rights granted to Newfoundland.

IV. His most Christian Majesty renounces all pretensions, which he has heretofore formed, or might form, to Nova Scotia, or Acadia, in all its parts, and guaranties the whole of it, and with all its dependencies, to the King of Great Britain:

Moreover, his most Christian Majesty cedes and guaranties to his said Britannic Majesty, in full right, Canada, with all its dependencies, as well as the Island of Cape Breton, and all the other islands and coasts in the gulf and river Saint Laurence, and in general, every thing that depends on the said countries, lands, islands, and coasts, with the sovereignty, property, possession, and all rights, acquired by treaty or otherwise, which the most Christian King, and the crown of France, have had till now over the said countries, islands, lands, places, coasts, and their inhabitants, so that the most Christian King cedes and makes over the whole to the said King, and to the crown of Great Britain, and that in the most ample manner and form, without restriction, and without any liberty to depart from the said cession and guaranty, under any pretence, or to disturb Great Britain in the possessions above mentioned.

His Britannic Majesty, on his side, agrees to grant the liberty of the Catholic religion to the inhabitants of Canada: he will consequently give the most precise and most effectual orders, that his new Roman Catholic subjects may profess the worship of their religion, according to the rites of the Romish church, as far as the laws of Great Britain permit.

His Britannic Majesty further agrees, that the French inhabitants, or others, who had been the subjects of the most Christian King in Canada, may retire, with all safety and freedom, whenever they shall think proper, and may sell their estates, provided it be to subjects of his Britannic Majesty, and bring away their effects, as well as their persons, without being restrained in their emigration, under any pretence whatsoever, except that of debts, or of criminal prosecutions : the term limited for this emigration shall be fixed to the space of eighteen months, to be computed from the day of the exchange of the ratification of the present treaty.

V. The subjects of France shall have the liberty of fishing and drying, on a part of the coasts of the Island of Newfoundland, such as it is specified in the XIIIth article of the treaty of Utrecht; which article is renewed and confirmed

* The following is the XIII. article of the treaty of Utrecht, to which allusion is made in the treaty of Paris :

"XIII. The island called Newfoundland, with the adjacent islands, shall from this time forward belong of right wholly to Britain; and to that end the town and fortress of Placentia, and whatever other places in the said island are in the possession of the French, shall be yielded and given up, within seven months from the exchange of the ratification of this treaty, or sooner, if possible,