CANADA. er from the mother-country, scarcely attempted to establish themselves among the ancient settlers; thus producing a kind of reciprocal isolation, which even down to the present day, has not been materially disturbed. Generally speaking, therefore, the two grand elements of the provincial population are locally distinguished from each other-a relative position which has happily excluded, as between them, nearly every difficulty as to education and religion. The settlers of French origin, almost entirely confined to East C., occupy the banks of the St. Lawrence and of the lower courses of its tributary streams; all the rest of East C. and the whole of West C., so far as they are reclaimed at all, belong to colonists of English race. According to the census of 1851, the former numbered about 700,000; while the latter, including a small proportion neither English nor French, amounted to about 1,140,000. The population of French origin according to the census taken in 1861, amounted to 880,902; natives of Canada not of French origin, 1,037,541; all others, 589,214. The way in which the population was divided, in 1851, in respect of creed, will be seen from the following table: The two divisions of the province present a striking contrast in their rates of progress. To take, for instance, the growth of towns: In Lower C., Sherbrooke, the capital of the Eastern Townships, with about 1,500 inhabitants, forms almost the only addition to Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal the three French foundations; in Upper C., besides five cities, to be immediately noticed, there are already six-and-thirty towns at least equal, on an average, to Sherbrooke. With respect, again, to cities, properly so called, the growth of Montreal and Quebec, remarkable enough in itself, has been owing rather to their commercial facilities with regard to the country at large than to the agricultural resources of their immediate vicinities; while Toronto, London, Kingston, and Hamilton-each nurtured chiefly by its chiefly by its own locality-have an aggregate population of about 100,000; the first two having quadrupled their numbers respectively within the last 20 and 10 years. Great part of C., more especially the shores of Lake Superior, is valuable only for mineral resources, such as irou, zinc, lead, copper, silver, gold, cobalt, manganese, gypsum, marl, granite, sandstone, limestone, slate, and marbles of nearly every imaginable colour. Considerable portions, also, though heavily timbered, chiefly with pine, are yet but little adapted to settlement and cultivation. Towards the gulf of the St. Lawrence, again, a considerable section derives importance mainly from the fisheries, being, with partial exceptions in Gaspe, comparatively worthless for every other object. Thus the area for the profitable production of ordinary cereals cannot materially exceed 40,000 square miles, containing however, within this space a singularly small proportion of irreclaimable surface. This cultivable block increases regularly in width and fertility, from its commencement on the Lower St. Lawrence to the shores of Lake Huron. Below Quebec-to say nothing of the precarious nature of the crops-there may always be seen, on one or on both sides, the primeval forest. Between that city, again, and the basin of the Ottawa, a gradual improvement shews itself, even on the north side; and towards the south, there stretches away to the frontier of the United States a broad belt of generally undulating character, probably the best field in the country for the blending of pasturage and agriculture. From the basin of the Ottawa inclusive, the parallel of the south end of Lake Nipissing may be said to cut off, towards the south-west, the entire residue of the practicable soil, in the shape of a roughly defined triangle, which, as a whole, is at least equal, in the growth of grain in general and of wheat in particular, to any region of the same extent in North America. As C. slants southwards eight or nine degrees from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to that of the Detroit, which communicates between Lakes St. Clair and Erie, the climate of the west must be warmer than that of the east. In addition to this cause of difference, it holds as a general law over the continent that the climate improves in advancing westward, even on the same parallel. Besides, the lakes of Upper C. appear, in a good measure, to neutralise and mitigate the extremes of a Canadian climate. While Quebec in winter ordinarily enjoys five or six months of sleighing, the corresponding season in Toronto ranges from five or six days to five or six weeks. As to summer, the difference in favour of Toronto is rather in point of duration than of intensity. As indications of the climate of C., it may be stated that the isle of Orleans, immediately below Quebec, is famous for its plums, and the island of Montreal for its apples; and from the neighbourhood of Toronto to the head of Lake Erie, grapes and peaches ripen without any aid whatever. Melons, again, of large size, come to maturity, through the settled parts of the province, in the open air; and pumpkins and squashes attain enormous size, some of them near Toronto having weighed 300 lbs. The climate of C., though, as a whole, vastly steadier than that of the British Isles, is yet occasionally liable to such changes as among us are all but impossible. Montreal, for instance, may be said, on an average, to have an extreme cold of 24° below zero, and an extreme heat of 96° above it. Now on short notice, a thaw may surprise the former temperature, and a frost the latter; so that there is. room, in winter and summer respectively, for a comparatively sudden rise or fall of about 60°. The In the matter of communications, C. is unrivalled. The St. Lawrence, with its lakes, puts it in connection at once with the most commercial sections of the United States, and with the open ocean. navigation of this great water-system has been greatly assisted by art. Below Montreal, Lake St. Peter has been deepened; and above that city, a series of cuts, skirting the rapids, admit sea-going vessels into Lake Ontario. Beyond this, the Welland Canal lifts the maritime navigation round the Falls of Niagara into Lake Erie. Without reckoning, therefore, the American, works between Huron and Superior, the Canadian settlement at the foot of Sault Ste. Marie, now a free port, is virtually, as it were, washed by the tides of the Atlantic. The government has subsidised a line of steam-ships, running weekly to England from the St. Lawrence in summer, and from Portland, in the state of Maine, during winter. In addition to the navigation of the main artery, there are numerous canals and navigable streams and lakes throughout the province. The chief canal is the In 1868, the ordinary revenue from all sources reached $12,432,748, or about £2,568,700 sterling. The public debt was not less than £14,148,418 sterling. Over and above all these facilities in the way of navigation, C. is not deficient in roads of every description. To say nothing of the snow and ice, The larger half of the provincial trade-namely, with which, at least in the north and east of the that with the neighbouring republic-is the result country, the winter paves the length and breadth chiefly of a Reciprocity Treaty between C. and the of land and water alike, or of the macadamised United States. To say nothing of the mutual thoroughfares in the older localities, the government advantages of such intercourse to the parties interhas recently laid out, in the newer and remoter ested, the compact in question places in a new townships, two great systenis of highways, seven light the commercial relations between the motherlines for the upper province, and five for the lower, country and the colonies. Within less than 100 subsidising, as it were, the same by free grants of years, Great Britain selfishly and heavily fettered 100 acres to each holder on both sides of every even the internal economy of its American dependroute, under condition of residence and cultivation.encies, issuing penal prohibitions against the making As to railways, C. has more miles in proportion to of hats and the working in iron-against everything, population than any country in the world. Exclu- in a word, that threatened a practical abridgment sive of the Grand Trunk Railway, there are fourteen of imperial monopoly; and now C., besides enjoying of these works of the aggregate length of 1006 absolute immunity within its own borders from miles, of which the Great Western from Niagara | such extraneous interference, is permitted to negoFalls to Detroit, including its branches to Guelph tiate with the nations, as freely as they negotiate and Toronto, forms upwards of a third. The Grand with one another, on the subject of commerce and Trunk, which extends from Detroit to below Quebec, manufactures. In this respect, the colony of C. with an extension to Portland, in the United States, may challenge comparison with the neighbouring in order to secure an ocean port in winter, has a sovereign states. length (exclusive of that extension) of 870 miles. The Victoria Bridge (q. v.), by which this railway crosses the St. Lawrence at Montreal, is one of the wonders of the world. Even politically, C. is virtually its own master as to its domestic concerns. Responsible government, as recommended by Lord Durham in 1838-1839, necessarily led to this result. In addition to the rule of a common sovereign, the single tie that still binds the colony to the mother-country is that of protection, military and diplomatic. In other words, the subordination of C. to the empire, so far from being a badge of subjection or an instrument of oppression, is a guarantee at once of external independence and internal tranquillity. The provincial constitution rests on the broadest basis. The elective franchise is nearly universal. Every man who pays 30 dollars of house-rent in city or town, or 20 in a rural district, is entitled to vote. Neither creed nor colour is any disqualification; while, by a residence of three years, a foreigner may acquire the right of suffrage. In the face of the severe competition of energetic rivals, who were sooner in the field, C. now presents the shortest and cheapest and speediest route, whether for goods or for passengers, between Europe and the north-western states of the American Union. Hitherto, whatever may have occasioned the shortcoming, the incidental outlay has been very far from repaying itself. But, in the hope of ultimate success, the legislature has hesitated at no sacrifice. On the St. Lawrence canals, which cost fully £1,500,000, it has entirely remitted, on behalf of provincial interests, all tolls and dues; and to the Grand Trunk Railway it has handed a virtual donation of more than £3,000,000. At the rate of even 5 per cent. a year, the two sunk Parliament prior to 1867 consisted of two houses capitals are equivalent to an annual payment in per--the Council and the Assembly; while the authority petuity of £225,000. The following table will exhibit the trade of C. with G. Britain, the U. States and other countries : of the crown is represented by a governor, who is at the same time Governor-general of the other North American colonies. The Council, at present in a state of transition between royal nomination Total. and popular election, has 54 members in all-30 $57,992,905 nominated and 24 c'ected equally between the two 5,915,950 53,849,344 sections of the colony. The Assembly, again, con6,355,877 tains 130 representatives--65 for Upper C. and 65 for Lower Canada. Lower C. returns 8 for four cities and towns, and 57 for as many counties; while Upper C., with 9 for eight cities and towns, apportions 56 between twenty-five counties and the thirty-one ridings of fifteen more. The parliament is elected for four years. Before the union, the separate places of meeting were Quebec and Toronto. Since then, the united parliament has been successively held in Kingston, Montreal, and Toronto; and at present (1860), it provisionally sits at Quebec, till Ottawa, lately chosen as the capital, where the Prince of Wales has just laid the foundationstone of the requisite buildings, may be ready to receive it. ' The principal exports were :— Produce of mines, $1,446,857; $1,446,857; of fisheries, $3,357,510; of the forest, $18,262,170; animals, $6,893,167; manufactures, $1,572,546; agricultural products, $12,871,055; and ships, $837,892. Total, $54,606,137. The trade of the dominion of Canada is chiefly with the United States and Great Britain. In consequence of the abrogation (1866) of the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States, there was a reduction in the imports from the latter country in the year en<ding June 30, 1868. Woollen and cotton manufactures are the chief articles imported into Canada from G. Britain. The average amount of the former imported into Canada in the five years, 1864-68, was £1,250,000, and of the latter £1,000,000. Detailed statistics with respect to so extensive a country, the intending emigrant must not expect to find in so brief a summary as this; suffice it to say, that, whatever may be his means and views, he will meet in C. all the main elements of comfort and prosperity-the civilisation of Europe with the cheaper land and higher wages of America. Besides the free grants already mentioned along the newly opened highways, he may at reasonable rates, and CANADA BALSAM-CANAL. CANADA GOOSE. See Goose. CANA'L, an artificial charnel for water, formed for purposes of drainage, irrigation, or navigation, but now usually employed to designate only such cuts as are intended for the passage of vessels. means under easy terms of payment, select, from many, It is the finest kind of turpentine obtained from millions of acres, such allotments as may suit his any of the conifera, and is much employed for resources, purchasing not only from the government, medicinal purposes, particularly as a stimulant for but also from either of the great companies-the the cure of mucous discharges, and as a detergent British American for the lower province, and the application to ulcers. It is also used for a variety of Canada for the upper. If he has carried with him purposes in the arts-as an ingredient in varnishes, capital, or has acquired it on the spot by his skill or in mounting objects for the microscope, in photolabour, he will always be able to secure a ready-graphy (q. v.), and by opticians as a cement, parmade homestead for less than it would cost him to ticularly for connecting the parts of achromatic erect it. If he has substance to spare beyond the lenses to the exclusion of moisture and dust. Its immediate demands of his own location, he may value for optical purposes is very great, and depends invest it in duly registered mortgages at 8 per not only on its perfect transparency, but on its cent., or else buy blocks of about 50,000 acres possessing a refractive power nearly equal to that each, at prices varying from 9d. sterling to 2s. an of glass. acre, and that on not very onerous conditions of survey and settlement. Places of worship abound in all but the youngest and wildest localities. The Church of England, besides 2 bishops in each province, numbers 315 clergymen. The Church of Rome, with 8 bishops in all, has about 540 priests. Among Presbyterians and Methodists respectively, Canals date from a period long anterior to the of all known denominations, there are 325 and 743 Christian era, and were employed as a ministers. Other sects, dividing among them 359 of irrigation and communication by Assyrians, preachers of the gospel, make up a total of 2294 Egyptians, and Hindus; also by the Chinese, whose pastors; or, on an average, one pastor to little more works of this kind are said to be unrivalled than a thousand of the population. In the eye in extent; one of them, the Imperial C., having a of the law, all denominations are equal, for the length of about 1000 miles. For the most part, tithe payable in Lower C. by the flocks of the however, these early canals were of one uniform Church of Rome is not a real burden a real burden on the level, and hence exhibit no great skill or ingenuity; property, as such, but merely a personal liability and the moderns were content to follow the rudion the part of the occupier, as a Catholic. In mentary efforts of the ancients in this way until facilities for education, too, C. presents great advan- the 15th c., when the invention of the Lock tages to the intending emigrant. In the upper (q. v.), shewing how canals might be generally and province-there were, in 1858, 12 universities and advantageously used for inland navigation, in colleges, and 4242 schools-121 grammar, 255 private countries whose surface was irregular-gave a great and 3866 common; while the pupils attained the impulse to this branch of engineering. The Italians aggregate of 306,626. In the lower province, again, and Dutch, for both of which nations the invention during the same year, there were, besides 2 univer- of the lock has been claimed, were the first to In sities and colleges, 2985 schools-10 superior, 170 develop this kind of engineering in Europe. secondary, 3 normal, 2 special, and 2800 primary; France, the first C., that of De Briare, to form a while the pupils numbered 156,872. It thus appears communication between the Loire and the Seine, that Lower C. mustered a far smaller attendance was opened in 1642. In 1681 was completed the than Upper C., whether in proportion to seminaries greatest undertaking of the kind on the continent, or to population. While the population must have the C. of Languedoc, or the C. du Midi, to connect been about 3 to 4, the attendance was a fraction the Atlantic with the Mediterranean. The length more than 1 to 2; and the respective averages to of this C. is 148 miles, it has more than 100 locks, each seminary were about 52 and 72. and about 50 aqueducts, and in its highest part it is no less than 600 feet above the sea. It is navigable for vessels of upwards of 100 tons. It was not until nearly a century later that C. navigation assumed importance in England, through the sagacity, energy, and liberality of the Duke of Bridgewater (q. v.), and his celebrated engineer, James Brindley (q. v.). The success of these works stimulated other public persons to engage in similar undertakings. Speculation in C. shares became a mania similar to that which overtook the people in connection with railways at a more recent period, and a crash ensued on the prospect of war in 1792. It would be an endless task to pursue the history of canal development in Britain, which speedily became intersected with these watery highways to an extent unequalled in any European country save Holland. In the space Every year some new movement marks the progress of affairs in C., where but for political contentions, and the occasional but angry brawls of the British and French races, we should have to report a state of unalloyed peace and prosperity. On the 1st of June, 1867, the provinces of Canada, N. Scotia and N. Brunswick were federally united as the Dominion of Canada, for further notice of which see Art. CANADA in supplement to this work, 10th vol. CANADA BALSAM is a kind of turpentine (q. v.) obtained from the Balm of Gilead Fir (Abies or Picea balsamea), a native of Canada and the northern parts of the United States. See FIR. It exists in the tree in vesicles between the bark and the wood, and is obtained by making incisions, and attaching bottles for it to flow into. It is a transparent liquid, almost colourless, and with an agreeable odour and acrid taste. It pours readily out of a vessel or bottle, and shortly dries up, and becomes solid. When fresh, it is of the consistence of thin honey, but becomes viscid, and at last solid by age. It consists mainly of a resin dissolved in an essential oil, and its composition is as follows: * In the fen-districts of the east coast of England, however, the large channels required for drainage are made subservient to purposes of inland navigation by sluices at the mouth-one to keep out the tide at high water, and another acting in the opposite direction, to retain water of depth sufficient in the channel to float such boats as make use of it. These combinations of drain and canal are commonly called navigations; hence the workmen employed in their construction were called navigators, which, contracted into navvy, is now applied indiscriminately to persons engaged in any kind of earth-works. CANAL. remaining at our disposal, we shall briefly consider, On the Morris C. (United States), boats are conthe several kinds of canal. Canals may be divided into three general headsviz., 1. Canals proper, i. e., entirely artificial channels, having no water running through them beyond what is necessary for their own purpose; 2. Tidal, i. e, affected by the rise and fall of the tides; and 3. Rivers rendered navigable by weirs built across them to increase their depth, and having a lock at one end for the ascent or descent of vessels; and occasionally, when there is much fall, or any formidable obstruction in the river, by lateral cuts, with locks for part of their course. Another division may be made (1) of ship-canals for the transit of sea-going vessels generally, from sea to sea; these are necessarily of large dimensions, and must be crossed by swing or draw bridges; and (2) of canals for the passage of mere boats or barges, generally without masts, so that they may be crossed by stone or other solid bridges. The largest ship C. in Europe is the Great North Holland C., completed in 1825, which has a breadth of 125 feet at the water-surface, and of 31 feet at the bottom, with a depth of 20 feet. It extends from Amsterdam to the Helder, a distance of 51 miles; it thus enables ships of as much as 1400 tons burden to avoid the shoals of the Zuyder Zee. The surface of the water in this C. is below the high-water level of the German Ocean, from which it is protected by embankments faced with wickerwork. The locks on this C. are 297 feet long, 51 feet broad, and 20 feet deep. There is a similar C. from near Rotterdam to Helvoetsluis, to avoid the shallows of the Brill at the mouth of the Maas. Another great ship C. is the Caledonian C. (q. v.). The Forth and Clyde C. is also one on a smaller scale for the passage of sea-going vessels. Its length is 35 miles; its medium width is 56 feet at the surface, and 27 feet at the bottom, and its depth 9 feet. It has 39 locks, each 75 feet long, and 20 feet wide, and a rise of 155 feet. In constructing ship-canals, it is important to secure a sheltered entrance, one not likely to become silted up, and of sufficient depth to admit vessels at all times of the tide; and towing-paths on both sides are desirable. Among the principal canals in England for the passage of barges, some of which run to very great elevation, are the Length. Rise. veyed on a carriage up a railway inclined plane, water Other matters engineers have to consider are an ample supply of water, by means of feeders and reservoirs, to the summit-level; stop-gates at convenient distances, to shut off the water in case of damage to any part of the C.; means of drainage when repairs are necessary; and provision against leakage through the banks, by puddling or otherwise. The floor-line or bottom of a C. is usually made twice the width of the largest boat likely to enter the C., with an addition of 6 or 8 inches for play at each side, and the depth 12 or 18 inches more than the draught of the boat. The introduction of railways has materially interfered with C. traffic, and some canals have been altogether abandoned. Many, however, still continue to prosper, as, for instance, the Grand Junction, which in 1840 conveyed 924,259 tons, and in 1856, 1,187,201 tons, shewing an increase of 262,942 tons; Lea Navigation, which increased from 214,927 tons in 1851 to 269,044 in 1856; and the Trent and Mersey, which rose from 1,284,222 in 1855 to 1,558,027 in 1857. There are in Great Britain 2172 miles of C. proper, which have been established at a cost of £28,400,000; and 1315 miles of improved river-navigation, formed at a cost of £6,270,000. In France, in the same year, there were 1974 miles of C., the cost of which had been about £12,250,000; and in the United States, 2000 miles, costing £9,200,000. Among the works of extraordinary magnitude, expense and utility which have been projected and completed, the Suez canal is one of the most remarkable. Through it an uninterrupted communication has been established, whereby sailing-vessels and steamers of heavy tonnage may pass from sea to sea, and thus avoid the long and dangerous voyage around the Cape of Good Hope. The Suez C. extends from Port Saïd, on the Mediterranean, nearly south, through a series of lakes, the bed of ancient watercourses, and artiSuez. It is about 100 miles in length, though the ficial cuttings through a plateau to the Red Sea at distance from sea to sea is but 75 miles, 62 miles of the C. passing through a series of lakes, in a portion of which it requires embankments. Its width is 328 feet in the lower levels, with a base of from 200 to 246 feet, and depth of water 26 feet, but this has not been attained at the deep cuttings at mid-distance The C. of the Loire is one of those aiding the from either sea. At Port Saïd two piers have been navigation of a river, it has a width on the water-constructed 2726 and 1962 yards long, respectively, afline of 33 feet, and a depth of 54 feet, the locks fording a safe and commodious harbour. These piers being 17 feet broad, and 100 feet long. The river are made of huge blocks of concrete, measuring 12 Lea and the Mersey and Irwell Navigations in England, and the Welland C. in Canada, formed to connect Lake Erie with Lake Ontario, and avoid the Falls of Niagara, are also among the most noteworthy works of this class; the river Thames, above the first lock at Twickenham, partakes also Grand Junction, Kent and Avon of the nature of a canal. Miles. 128 128 93 433 ༄ Many canals pass through long tunnels, some very low and without towing-paths, in which case the mode of propulsion is by the boatmen lying on their backs and pushing with their feet against the roof of the tunnel. The great expenditure of water and time in 'locking' have led to the trial of various other plans for overcoming differences in level. On the Great Western C., boats are raised and lowered by means of machinery, called a perpendicular lift. cubic yards, and weighing 22 tons each. From a miserable sand bank Port Saïd has grown to a flourishing seaport of 12,000 inhabitants, while Suez now contains 25,000, and is rising in importance. A subsidiary canal, 50 miles long, extending fron. the Nile eastwardly to Ismailia, the midland port of the Suez Canal, supplies the district with fresh water dinand de Lesseps this great work owes its inception To the enterprise and indomitable energies of Ferand completion. In 1854 he organized the company, and entered into agreement with the Egyptian Govfavourable terms. He commenced the ernment upon favourable terms. work in 1859, and after many discouragements, the persistent energy of De Lesseps fought its way to success, and the work was opened with imposing cere monies Nov. 17, 1869. See SUEZ CANAL in supplement to this work. |