Chapter X: Part II (7)

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.)

At the Second Meeting of the Royal Society, at Ottawa, May 1883, the Governor-General said:--

Mr. President, Mr. Vice-President, and Members of the Royal Society of Canada,--When we met last year, and formally inaugurated a society for the encouragement of literature and science in Canada, an experiment was tried. As with all experiments, its possible success was questioned by some who feared that the elements necessary for such an organisation were lacking. Our meeting of this year assumes a character which an inaugural assembly could not possess. The position we took in asserting that the time had come for the institution of such a union of the scientific and literary men of this country has been established as good, not only by the honourable name accorded to us by Her Majesty, a designation never lightly granted, but also by that without which we could not stand, namely, the public favour extended to our efforts. Parliament has recognised the earnest purpose and happy co-operation with which you have met and worked in unison, knowing that the talents exhibited are not those of gold and silver only, and has stamped with its approbation your designs by voting a sum of money, which in part will defray the expense of printing your transactions. And here, in speaking of this as a business meeting, I would venture to remind you, and all friends of this society throughout the country, that the $5000 annually voted by the House of Commons will go but a very short way in preparing a publication which shall fully represent Canada to the foreign scientific bodies of the world. We have only to look to the Federal and State Legislatures of America to see what vast sums are annually expended in the States for scientific research. We see there also how the proceeds of noble endowments are annually utilised for the free dissemination of knowledge. It is, therefore, not to be supposed that the comparatively small parallel assistance provided by any Government can absolve wealthy individuals from the patriotic duty of bequeathing or of giving to such a national society the funds, without which it cannot usefully exist. You will forgive me, as one who may be supposed to have a certain amount of the traditional economical prudence of his countrymen, for mentioning one other matter on which, at all events, in the meantime, a saving can be effected. While it is necessary to have accurate and finely executed engravings of beautiful drawings for the illustration of scientific papers, it is necessary that the printing of the transactions should occasion as little cost as possible; and I believe you will find it advisable for the present that each paper shall be printed only in that language in which its author has communicated it to the society. Your position is rather a peculiar one, for although you work for the benefit of the public, it is not to be expected that the public can understand all you say when your speech is of science in consultation with each other. The public will therefore, I trust, be in the position of those who are willing to pay their physicians when they meet in consultation, without insisting that every word the doctors say to each other shall be repeated in the hearing of all men. When funds increase, it seems to me that the economy it will probably now be necessary to exercise in regard to this may be discarded.

In the sections dealing with literature it is proposed to establish a reading committee, whose duty it shall be to report on the publications of the year, that our thanks may be given to the authors who advance the cause of literature among us. To assist in that most necessary enterprise, the formation of a national museum, circulars have been addressed by the society to men likely to have opportunities for the collection of objects of interest, and the Hudson Bay Company's officers have been foremost in promoting our wishes. The Government is now prepared to house all objects sent to the secretary of the Royal Society at Ottawa, and contributions for collections of archives, of antiquities, of zoology, and of all things of interest are requested. I rejoice, gentlemen, that I have been able to be with you now; that a year has elapsed since our incorporation, as this period allows us in some measure to judge of our future prospects. These are most encouraging, and the only possible difficulty that I can see ahead of you is this: that men may be apt to take exception to your membership because it is not geographically representative. I would earnestly counsel you to hold to your course in this matter. A scientific and literary society must remain one representing individual eminence, and that individual eminence must be recognised if, as it may happen accidentally, personal distinction in authorship may at any particular moment be the happy possession of only one part of the country. A complete work, and one recognised for its merit, should remain the essential qualification for election to the literary sections, and the same test should be applied as far as possible to the scientific branches. If men be elected simply because they came from such and such a college, or if they be elected simply because they came from the east, from the west, from the north, or from the south, you will get a heterogeneous body together quite unworthy to be compared with the foreign societies on whose intellectual level Canada, as represented by her scientific men and authors, must in the future endeavour to stand. One word more on the kindly recognition already given to you. In America, in France, and in Britain, the birth of the new institution has been hailed with joy, and our distinguished president is at this moment also a nominated delegate of Britain. An illness we deplore has alone prevented the presence of an illustrious member of the Academy of France, and the French Government, with an enlightened generosity which does it honour, had expressed its wish to defray the expenses of the most welcome of ambassadors. We have the satisfaction of cordially greeting an eminent representative of the United States, and I express the desire which is shared by all in this hall, that our meeting may never want the presence of delegates of the great people who are dear as they are near to us.

It is, gentlemen, greatly owing to your organisation that the British Association for the advancement of science will next year meet at Montreal, following in this a precedent happily established by the visit last year of the American Association. These meetings at Montreal are not without their significance. They show that it is not only among statesmen and politicians abroad that Canada is valued and respected; but that throughout all classes, and wherever intellect, culture, and scientific attainment are revered, her position is acknowledged, and her aspiration to take her place among the nations is seen and welcomed.

I am sure that your British brethren have chosen wisely in selecting Montreal, for I know the hearty greeting which awaits them from its hospitable citizens. The facilities placed at the disposal of our British guests will enable them to visit a large portion of our immense territory, where in every part new and interesting matters will arrest their attention, and give delight to men who, in many cases, have but lately realised our resources. Their words, biassed by no interests other than the desire for knowledge, and founded on personal observation, will find no contradiction when they assert that in the lifetime of the babes now born, the vast fertile regions of Canada will be the home of a people more numerous than that which at the present time inhabits the United Kingdom.

I must not now further occupy your time, but would once more ask you to accept my heartfelt thanks for the determination shown by all to make the Royal Society a worthy embodiment of the literary activity and the scientific labour of our widely-scattered countrymen throughout this great land.

The Governor-General's reply to addresses from the Royal Academy and the Ontario Society of Artists, Toronto, June 1883:--

Mr. O'Brien, Mr. Allan, and Ladies and Gentlemen,--I beg to thank you most cordially for the most kind and courteous addresses which you have been so good as to present to us. We shall keep them as mementos of the part we have been able to take in promoting Art in the Dominion. That part has necessarily been a very small one. I have been able to do very little more than make suggestions, and those suggestions have been patriotically and energetically acted upon by the gentlemen who have taken in hand the interests of Art. But what we have done we have done with our whole hearts. The Princess has taken the deepest interest from its inception in the project of establishing a Royal Academy. When, owing to the unfortunate accident at Ottawa, she was unable to visit the first exhibition of the Academy held in that city, I remember she insisted that I should bring up to her room nearly every one of the pictures exhibited, in order that she might judge of the position of Canadian Art at that time. (Applause.) It is very fitting that your first meeting in Toronto should be held in a building devoted to education, such as this Normal School. I have not yet had the pleasure of seeing the Exhibition, but I am given to understand that it is an excellent one, and shows marked progress. That the Exhibition should be held in this building shows the appreciation of your efforts on the part of the Government of Ontario. It symbolises the wish of your association to promote education by extending Art-training, and training in design. It is therefore most fitting that the Normal School in Toronto, the great centre from which come the masters of education for Ontario, should be chosen as the place in which to hold this Exhibition. Perhaps when the Exhibition is next held in this city, you will be privileged to meet in a Hall belonging to the local Art Society--a gallery of paintings. A proper gallery is yet wanting. I have seen a good many such in other places, notably in Boston, New York, and Montreal. I am accustomed to think that Toronto is quite in the front rank, if not ahead of any other city upon this continent. It should not be behindhand in this respect. I know, at all events, one eminent Toronto man who lives not far from here, whose features and form are as well known as those of the Colossus were to the inhabitants of Rhodes in ancient days, who is not satisfied with himself, nor is the world quite satisfied, unless he is at least twenty lengths ahead of everybody else. [1] The position he has earned for himself is such that the Provincial Government and the Dominion Government, with my full consent, are prepared to spend $117,000 this year in securing his habitation, so that it shall not be swept away by the waves of Lake Ontario. (Applause and laughter.) I am sure--though I speak in the presence of much better authority--that if the association here shows itself as much ahead of the world as the gentleman to whom I have referred, the Provincial and Dominion Government will, in the same manner, back up your position by money grants if necessary. (Renewed laughter.) It has been a great satisfaction to me that when the Royal Academy was founded, I had the great assistance and support of the gentleman who was then President of your local association, Mr. O'Brien. As this may be the last time I shall have an opportunity to speak on Art matters in Canada, I should like to acknowledge the debt of gratitude which all those who had to do with founding the Academy owe to him. With untiring zeal, good temper, and tact, he worked in a manner which deserves, I think, the highest recognition. As a result of the labour bestowed upon the project, we see here to-night the Academy and the old Society in one unbroken line. With regard to the work done by the Academy, you are aware we have held three or four annual meetings, and marked progress has been seen. The patriotic determination not only to hold meetings in towns where good commercial results could be obtained, but in others, is shown by the holding of a meeting in Halifax and other towns where it was not expected that a very large number of pictures could at once be sold. The good results of this course are shown by the fact that as a result of the meeting in Halifax, a local Art society is to be established there. A local association has been started at Ottawa, and is making good progress. In Montreal a great impetus has been given to the local society, and throughout the Dominion the cause of Art has been promoted by a central body bearing a high standard and encouraging contributions from all parts of the country. We have also to pride ourselves upon the enterprise of our artists in seeking instruction abroad. Several names might be mentioned of those who have gone and have diligently studied at Paris and elsewhere. At the Paris Salon this year, two of our lady members, Miss Jones and Miss Richards, have been very successful in having every picture they sent admitted to the Exhibition. (Applause.) A subscription was made in Montreal, some years ago, for an excellent statue which was erected at Chambly, the subject being Colonel de Salaberry, and the artist, Mr. Hébert of Montreal, one of your members. I am happy to say that Mr. Hébert was successful in the face of strong competition from Italy, France, England, and America, in carrying off the prize for the best model for a statue to be erected in honour of Sir George Cartier by the Dominion Government Another of our members, Mr. Harris, has received a commission from the Federal Government to paint a picture commemorative of the Confederation of the Canadian Dominion. These are marked proofs that the position attained by our academicians is now recognised; and it shows also, if I may be allowed to say so, the influence a society like this may virtuously exercise upon the Government and the treasury. (Laughter and applause.) There is only one other subject I would like to mention, though it has no direct connection with Art. But it is one mooted by Lord Dufferin, I think, in this very place, at all events in Toronto, some years ago. He asked me when I came not to lose sight of it, but to push it upon all possible occasions. I allude to the formation of a national park at Niagara. I believe I am correct in saying that on the American side the suggestion originated with a mutual friend of Lord Dufferin's and mine, Mr. Bierstadt. Lord Dufferin took the most energetic steps in promoting the project. He wrote to the gentleman who was then governor of New York. Some difficulties arose at the time, still steps were taken by which the project might have been successfully carried out before now. However, a change came, and a less sympathetic _regime_ followed that of the governor with whom Lord Dufferin had communicated. I believe that now our neighbours are perfectly ready, and have nearly, if not quite, carried a measure for the scheme so far as it affects them. Their part of the work is of course a much more serious undertaking than ours. I request the influence of the Canadian Academy, and of the Society of Artists, in asking both the Dominion and Provincial Governments to take measures to meet the Americans in this movement, if they have made or are about to make it. We should secure the land necessary to make this park, so that the vexatious little exactions made of visitors may cease. I am sure it will be an immense boon to the public at large, as well as to the inhabitants of this Province and of the State of New York, if this scheme, so well initiated, shall ultimately prove successful.

[1] Mr Hanlan, Champion Sculler of the World.

Ottawa, May 1883.--Address to His Excellency.--Mr. Speaker announced the receipt of an informal intimation from the Senate that they were awaiting the arrival of the Commons to present the farewell address to His Excellency the Governor-General, in view of his early departure from the country.

On the arrival of Mr. Speaker and the members of the Commons in the Senate Chamber, the following address was read to His Excellency and H. R. H. the Princess Louise by Sir John Macdonald.

To His Excellency the Governor-General of Canada, etc, etc.,--May it please your Excellency, We, Her Majesty's dutiful subjects, the Senate and House of Commons of Canada in Parliament assembled, desire on behalf of those we represent, as well as on our own, to give expression to the general feeling of regret with which the country has learned that your Excellency's official connection with Canada is soon about to cease. We are happy, however, to believe that in the councils of the Empire in the future, and whenever opportunity enables you to render Her Majesty service, Canada will ever find in your Excellency a steadfast friend, with knowledge of her wants and aspirations, and an earnest desire to forward her interests.

Your Excellency's zealous endeavours to inform yourself by personal observation of the character, capabilities, and requirements of every section of the Dominion have been highly appreciated by its people, and we feel that the country is under deep obligations to you for your untiring efforts to make its resources widely and favourably known.

The warm personal interest which your Excellency has taken in everything calculated to stimulate and encourage intellectual energy amongst us, and to advance science and art, will long be gratefully remembered The success of your Excellency's efforts has fortified us in the belief that a full development of our national life is perfectly consistent with the closest and most loyal connection with the Empire.

The presence of your illustrious consort in Canada seems to have drawn us closer to our beloved Sovereign, and in saying farewell to your Excellency and to her Royal Highness, whose kindly and gracious sympathies, manifested upon so many occasions, have endeared her to all hearts, we humbly beg that you will personally convey to Her Majesty the declaration of our loyal attachment, and of our determination to maintain firm and abiding our connection with the great Empire over which she rules.

His Excellency the Governor-General made the following reply:--

Honourable Gentlemen,--No higher personal honour can be received by a public man than that which, by this address, you have been pleased to accord to me. In asking you to accept my gratitude, I thank you also for your words regarding the Princess, whose affection for Canada fully equals mine. It will be my pride and duty to aid you in the future to the utmost of my power. Now that the pre-arranged term of our residence among you draws to its end, and the happiest five years I have ever known are nearly spent, it is my fortune to look back on a time during which all domestic discord has been avoided, our friendship with the great neighbouring Republic has been sustained, and an uninterrupted prosperity has marked the advance of the Dominion. In no other land have the last seventeen years, the space of time which has elapsed since your Federation, witnessed such progress. Other countries have seen their territories enlarged and their destinies determined by trouble and war, but no blood has stained the bonds which have knit together your free and order-loving populations, and yet in this period, so brief in the life of a nation, you have attained to a union whose characteristics from sea to sea are the same. A judicature above suspicion, self-governing communities entrusting to a strong central Government all national interests, the toleration of all faiths with favour to none, a franchise recognising the rights of labour by the exclusion only of the idler, the maintenance of a Government not privileged to exist for any fixed term, but ever susceptible to the change of public opinion and ever open, through a responsible Ministry, to the scrutiny of the people--these are the features of your rising power. Finally, you present the spectacle of a nation already possessing the means to make its position respected by its resources in men available at sea or on land. May these never be required except to gather the harvests the bounty of God has so lavishly bestowed upon you. The spirit, however, which made your fathers resist encroachment on your soil and liberties is with you now, and it is as certain to-day, as it was formerly, that you are ready to take on yourselves the necessary burden to ensure the permanence of your laws and institutions. You have the power to make treaties on your own responsibility with foreign nations, and your high commissioner is associated, for purposes of negotiation, with the Foreign Office. You are not the subjects but the free allies of the great country which gave you birth, and is ready with all its energy to be the champion of your interests. Standing side by side, Canada and Great Britain work together for the commercial advancement of each other. It is the recognition of this which makes such an occasion as the present significant. Personal ties, however dear to individuals, are of no public moment. These may be happy or unhappy accidents, but the satisfaction experienced from the conditions of the connection now subsisting between the old and the new lands can be affected by no personal accident. I therefore rejoice that again it has been your determination to show that Canada remains as firmly rooted as ever in love to that free union which ensures to you and to Great Britain equal advantage. Without it your institutions and national autonomy would not be allowed to endure for twelve months, while the loss of the alliance of the communities which were once the dependencies of England would be a heavy blow to her commerce and renown. I thank you once more for your words, which shall be dear treasures to me for ever, and may the end of the term of each public servant who fills with you the office which constitutes him at once your chief magistrate and the representative of a united empire, be a day for pronouncing in favour of a free national Government defended by such Imperial alliance.

At the conclusion of His Excellency's reply, Mr. Speaker returned to the Commons Chamber, followed by the members. The last paragraph of the speech from the Throne was as follows:--

Honourable Gentlemen of the Senate: Gentlemen of the House of Commons,--I desire to thank you for the great honour conferred on me by the presentation of a joint address. The Princess and I have both been profoundly touched by your words, and the message of which you make us the bearers, comes, as we personally know, from a people determined to maintain the Empire. The severance of my official connection with Canada does not loosen the tie of affection which will ever make me desire to serve this country. I pray that the prosperity I have seen you enjoy may continue, and that the blessing of God may at all times be yours, to strengthen you in unity and peace.