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The letters which
are collected in this little volume were written during a two
months’ visit to Canada in the autumn of 1894. They are reprinted by
permission of the proprietors of The Colonies and India, in which
journal they first appeared. It has been thought that they might be
interesting, not only to persons who are acquainted with the
districts in which I travelled, but to those who take an interest in
the progress of the country.
Of course, much of
what was written of 1894 applies equally to 1895; but the condition
of things now is even brighter and more prosperous than it was then,
in view of the revival of trade, and of the magnificent harvest with
which Canada has been favoured this year. The letters, however, even
in their collected form, merely contain the impressions of a
traveller, and are not in any way intended to be a “book” in the
usual sense of the term. There are, no doubt, many matters which I
have omitted, deserving of attention, while others that are referred
to deserve more extended treatment than they have received.
I should like to
have devoted much more space to the development of steam
communication, and to the work of the various steamship companies
whose vessels, plying between British ports and Canada, have done so
much to promote the development of the country and its commerce. The
same remark applies to the railways and canals of Canada, of which
only passing mention has been made. The growth of the railways in
the Dominion in the last twenty years has, for instance, been
marvellous, and their effect upon inter-provincial development can
hardly be realised, much less over-estimated. There is also the
excellent banking system, which has done so much to preserve the
country from the dangers of the financial and commercial depression
that has been passing over the world since 1890. Apart from their
ordinary commercial business, the growth of the deposits in the
banks, and particularly the expansion of the deposits in the Post
Office and Government Savings Banks, form a valuable object-lesson
in themselves of the wonderful improvement in the social condition
of Canada since Confederation.
Then, again, there
is the old Hudson Bay Company, which has played so important a part
in the history of Canada for over 200 years. It seems only yesterday
that it handed over to Canada the administration of a territory—now
Manitoba and the North-West Territories— almost as large as Europe.
So well did its officers administer it that the task of dealing with
the Indians subsequently, and of preparing the way for settlement,
was a comparatively easy one, notwithstanding the difficulties that
occurred in 1870 and 1885, owing to the eccentricities and vanity of
some of the half-breeds. The company still occupies a prominent
position in the country as a trading concern. Its fur trade in the
Far North remains unimpaired; and it has, besides, a large stake in
the great NorthWest, in the shape of the many millions of acres of
land of which it is the owner.
I might also,
perhaps, have laid greater stress upon the scenic attractions of
Canada, and upon its charms for the sportsman. No good purpose,
however, will be served by attempting to make up in an introduction
for the deficiencies of the letters, especially in regard to matters
that are somewhat outside their scope. I can only hope that they may
be of some interest to those persons into whose hands they may fall.
London: November
1895. |
