Part 17

Even before the Canadian Pacific railway was fully completed, it proved of great service in a national emergency which suddenly arose in the north-west. With the organization of Manitoba and the opening of improved communication immigrants began to move rapidly westward, and government surveyors were soon busy laying off lands in the Saskatchewan valley. The numbers of the half-breed settlers of this district had been increased by the migration of many of those who had taken part in the first uprising at Fort Garry. Influenced by somewhat similar motives, fearing from the advance of civilization the destruction of the buffalo, on which they chiefly depended for food, with some real grievances and others imaginary, the discontented population sent for Riel, who had been living, since his flight from Fort Garry, in the United States. He returned to put himself at the head of a second rebellion. At first he seemed inclined to act with moderation and on lines of constitutional agitation, but soon, carried away by fanaticism, ambition and vanity, he turned to armed organization against the government. To half-breed rebellion was added the imminent danger of an Indian uprising, to which Riel looked for support. The authorities at Ottawa were at first careless or sceptical in regard to the danger, the reality of which was only brought home to them when a body of mounted police, advancing to regain a small post at Duck Lake, of which the rebels had taken possession, was attacked and twelve of their number killed. Volunteers and militia were at once called out in all the old provinces of Canada, and were quickly conveyed by the newly constructed line of railway to the neighbourhood of the point of disturbance. Major-general Middleton, of the imperial army, who was then in command of the Canadian militia, led the expedition. Several minor engagements with half-breeds or Indians preceded the final struggle at Batoche, where Gabriel Dumont, Riel's military lieutenant, had skilfully entrenched his forces. After a cautious advance the eagerness of the troops finally overcame the hesitation of the commander in exposing his men, the rifle pits were carried with a rush, and the rebellion crushed at a single stroke. Dumont succeeded in escaping across the United States boundary; Riel was captured, imprisoned, and in due course tried for treason. This second rebellion carried on under his leadership had lasted about three months, had cost the country many valuable lives, and in money about five millions of dollars. Clear as was his guilt, Riel's trial, condemnation and execution on the 16th of November 1885, provoked a violent political storm which at one time threatened to overthrow the Conservative government. The balance of power between parties in parliament was held by the province of Quebec, and there racial and religious feeling evoked no slight sympathy for Riel. But while a section of Quebec was eager to secure the rebel's pardon, Ontario was equally bent on the execution of justice, so that in the final vote on the question in parliament the defection of French Conservatives was compensated for by the support of Ontario Liberals. In the end 25 out of 53 French members voted in justification of Kiel's punishment. With him were executed several Indian chiefs who had been concerned in a massacre of whites. Painful as were the circumstances connected with this rebellion, it is certain that the united action of the different provinces in suppressing it tended to consolidate Canadian sentiment, and the short military campaign had the effect of fixing public attention upon the immense fertile territory then being opened up.

Macdonald's fiscal policy.

The general election of 1882 turned chiefly upon endorsement of the national policy of protection; in that of 1887 the electoral test was again applied to the same issue, while Sir John Macdonald also asked for approval of the government's action in exacting from Riel the full penalty of his guilt. On both issues the Conservative policy was upheld by the electors, and Macdonald was continued in power with a large parliamentary majority. From the election of 1887 the Riel agitation ceased to seriously influence politics, but the fiscal controversy continued under new forms. Between 1887 and 1891 a vigorous agitation was kept up under Liberal auspices in favour of closer trade relations with the United States, at first under the name of Commercial Union and later under that of Unrestricted Reciprocity. The object in both cases was to break down tariff barriers between the United States and Canada, even though that should be at the expense of discrimination against Great Britain. The Conservative party took the position that commercial union, involving as it would a common protective tariff against all other countries, including the motherland, would inevitably lead to political unification with the United States. The question after long and vehement discussion was brought to a final issue in the election of 1891, and Sir John Macdonald's government was again sustained. From that time protection became the settled policy of the country. On their accession to power in 1896 it was adopted by the Liberals, who joined to it a preference for the products of the mother country. Under the protective policy thus repeatedly confirmed, Canada gradually became more independent of the American market than in earlier times, and enjoyed great commercial prosperity. Soon after the election of 1891 Sir John Macdonald (q.v.) died, after an active political career of more than forty years. Under his direction the great lines of policy which have governed the development of Canada as a confederated state within the empire were inaugurated and carried forward with great success, so that his name has become indissolubly connected with the history of the Dominion at its most critical stage.

Macdonald's successors.

During the years which succeeded the death of Sir John Macdonald a succession of losses weakened the position of the Conservative party which had held power so long. The Hon. J.C.C. Abbott, leader of the party in the Senate, became prime minister on Macdonald's death in 1891, but in 1892 was compelled by ill-health to resign, and in 1893 he died. His successor, Sir John Thompson, after a successful leadership of about two years, died suddenly of heart disease at Windsor Castle, immediately after being sworn of the imperial privy council. Charges of corruption in the administration of the department of public works, which led to the expulsion of one member of parliament, involved also the resignation from the cabinet of Sir Hector Langevin, leader of the French Conservatives, against whom carelessness at least in administration had been established. The brief premiership of Sir Mackenzie Bowell, between 1894 and 1896, was marked by much dissension in the Conservative ranks, ending finally in a reconstruction of the government in 1896 under Sir Charles Tupper. Breaks had been made in the Liberal ranks also by the death in 1892 of the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie and the withdrawal of the Hon. Edward Blake from Canadian politics to accept a seat in the British parliament as a member of the Home Rule party. But the appeal made to the electors in 1896 resulted in a decisive victory for the Liberal party, and marked the beginning of a long period of Liberal rule.

Laurier.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier (q.v.) became prime minister, and strengthened the cabinet which he formed by drawing into it from provincial politics the premiers of Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The administration thus established underwent many changes, but after winning three general elections it was still in power in 1909. The period of Sir Wilfrid Laurier's rule was one of striking progress in material growth, and a marked development of national feeling. While the federation of the provinces favoured the growth of a strong sentiment of Canadian individuality, the result of unification had been to strengthen decidedly the ties that bind the country to the empire. This was as true under Liberal as under Conservative auspices--as Canadians understood the meaning of these party names. The outbreak of the South African war in 1899 furnished an occasion for a practical display of Canadian loyalty to imperial interests. Three contingents of troops were despatched to the seat of war and took an active part in the events which finally secured the triumph of the British arms. These forces were supplemented by a regiment of Canadian horse raised and equipped at the sole expense of Lord Strathcona, the high commissioner of the Dominion in London. The same spirit was illustrated in other ways. In bringing about a system of penny postage throughout the empire; in forwarding the construction of the Pacific cable to secure close and safe imperial telegraphic connexion; in creating rapid and efficient lines of steamship communication with the motherland and all the colonies; in granting tariff preference to British goods and in striving for preferential treatment of inter-imperial trade; in assuming responsibility for imperial defence at the two important stations of Halifax and Esquimalt,--Canada, under the guidance of Sir Wilfrid Laurier and his party, took a leading part and showed a truly national spirit.

Canadian expansion.

The opening years of the 20th century were marked by a prolonged period of great prosperity. A steady stream of emigrants from Europe and the United States, sometimes rising in number to 300,000 in a single year, began to occupy the vast western prairies. So considerable was the growth of this section of the Dominion that in 1905 it was found necessary to form two new provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan, from the North-West Territories, the area of each being 275,000 sq. m. Each province has a lieutenant-governor and a single legislative chamber, with a representation of four members in the Senate and five in the House of Commons of the Dominion parliament. The control of the public lands is retained by the general government on the ground that it has been responsible for the development of the country by railway construction and emigration. With the rapid increase of population, production in Canada also greatly increased; exports, imports and revenue constantly expanded, and capital, finding abundant and profitable employment, began to flow freely into the country for further industrial development. New and great railway undertakings were a marked feature of this period. The Canadian Pacific system was extended until it included 12,000 m. of line. The Canadian Northern railway, already constructed from the Great Lakes westward to the neighbourhood of the Rockies, and with water and rail connexions reaching eastward to Quebec, began to transform itself into a complete transcontinental system, with an extension to the Hudson Bay. That this line owed its inception and construction chiefly to the joint enterprise of two private individuals, Messrs Mackenzie and Mann, was a striking proof of the industrial capacities of the country. To a still more ambitious line, the Grand Trunk Pacific, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, aiming at extensive steamship connexion on both oceans, and closely associated with the Grand Trunk system of Ontario and Quebec, the government of Canada gave liberal support as a national undertaking. The eastern section of 1875 m., extending from Winnipeg to Moncton, where connexion is secured with the winter ports of Halifax and St John, was, under the act of incorporation, to be built by the government, and then leased for fifty years, under certain conditions, to the Grand Trunk Pacific Company. The western portion, of 1480 m., from Winnipeg to the Pacific, was to be built, owned and operated by the company itself, the government guaranteeing bonds to the extent of 75% of the whole cost of construction. The discovery of large deposits of nickel at Sudbury; of extremely rich gold mines on the head-waters of the Yukon, in a region previously considered well-nigh worthless for human habitation; of extensive areas of gold, copper and silver ores in the mountain regions of British Columbia; of immense coal deposits in the Crow's Nest Pass of the same province and on the prairies; of veins of silver and cobalt of extraordinary richness in northern Ontario--all deeply affected the industrial condition of the country and illustrated the vastness of its undeveloped resources. The use of wood-pulp in the manufacture of paper gave a greatly enhanced value to many millions of acres of northern forest country. The application of electricity to purposes of manufacture and transportation made the waterfalls and rapids in which the country abounds the source of an almost unlimited supply of energy capable of easy distribution for industrial purposes over wide areas.

Relations with the United States.

Since confederation a series of attempts has been made with varying degrees of success to settle the questions in dispute between the Dominion and the United States, naturally arising from the fact that they divide between them the control of nearly the whole of a large continent and its adjoining waters. Considering the vastness of the interests involved, there is much cause for satisfaction in the fact that these differences have been settled by peaceful arbitrament rather than by that recourse to force which has so often marked the delimitation of rights and territory on other continents The Washington Treaty of 1871 has already been referred to. Its clauses dealing with the fisheries and trade lasted for fourteen years, and were then abrogated by the action of the United States. Various proposals on the part of Canada for a renewal of the reciprocity were not entertained. After 1885 Canada was therefore compelled to fall back upon the treaty of 1818 as the guarantee of her fishing rights. It became necessary to enforce the terms of that convention, under which the fishermen of the United States could not pursue their avocations within the three miles' limit, tranship cargoes of fish in Canadian ports, or enter them except for shelter, water, wood or repairs. On account of infractions of the treaty many vessels were seized and some were condemned. In 1887 a special commission was appointed to deal with the question. On this commission Mr Joseph Chamberlain, Sir Sackville West and Sir Charles Tupper represented British and Canadian interests; Secretary T.F. Bayard, Mr W. le B. Putnam and Mr James B. Angell acted for the United States. The commission succeeded in agreeing to the terms of a treaty, which was recommended to Congress by President Cleveland as supplying "a satisfactory, practical and final adjustment, upon a basis honourable and just to both parties, of the difficult and vexed questions to which it relates." This agreement, known as the Chamberlain-Bayard treaty, was rejected by the Senate, and as a consequence it became necessary to carry on the fisheries under a _modus vivendi_ renewed annually.

In 1886 a difference about international rights on the high seas arose on the Pacific coast in connexion with the seal fisheries of Bering Sea. In that year several schooners, fitted out in British Columbia for the capture of seals in the North Pacific, were seized by a United States cutter at a distance of 60 m. from the nearest land, the officers were imprisoned and fined, and the vessels themselves subjected to forfeiture. The British government at once protested against this infraction of international right, and through long and troublesome negotiations firmly upheld Canada's claims in the matter. The dispute was finally referred to a court of arbitration, on which Sir John Thompson, premier of the Dominion, sat as one of the British arbitrators. It was decided that the United States had no jurisdiction in the Bering Sea beyond the three miles' limit, but the court also made regulations to prevent the wholesale slaughter of fur-bearing seals. The sum of $463,454 was finally awarded as compensation to the Canadian sealers who had been unlawfully seized and punished. This sum was paid by the United States in 1898.

As the result of communications during 1897 between Sir Wilfrid Laurier and Secretary Sherman, the governments of Great Britain and the United States agreed to the appointment of a joint high commission, with a view of settling all outstanding differences between the United States and Canada. The commission, which included three members of the Canadian cabinet and a representative of Newfoundland, and of which Lord Herschell was appointed chairman, met at Quebec on the 23rd of August 1898. The sessions continued in Quebec at intervals until the 10th of October, when the commission adjourned to meet in Washington on the 1st of November, where the discussions were renewed for some weeks. Mr Nelson Dingley, an American member of the commission, died during the month of January, as did the chairman, Lord Herschell, in March, as the result of an accident, soon after the close of the sittings of the commission. The Alaskan boundary, the Atlantic and inland fisheries, the alien labour law, the bonding privilege, the seal fishery in the Bering Sea and reciprocity of trade in certain products were among the subjects considered by the commission. On several of these points much progress was made towards a settlement, but a divergence of opinion as to the methods by which the Alaskan boundary should be determined put an end for the time to the negotiations.

In 1903 an agreement was reached by which the question of this boundary, which depended on the interpretation put upon the treaty of 1825 between Russia and England, should be submitted to a commission consisting of "six impartial jurists of repute," three British and three American. The British commissioners appointed were: Lord Alverstone, lord chief justice of England; Sir Louis Jette, K.C., of Quebec; and A.B. Aylesworth, K.C., of Toronto. On the American side were appointed: the Hon. Henry C. Lodge, senator for Massachusetts; the Hon. Elihu Root, secretary of war for the United States government; and Senator George Turner. Canadians could not be persuaded that the American members fulfilled the condition of being "impartial jurists," and protest was made, but, though the imperial government also expressed surprise, no change in the appointments was effected. The commission met in London, and announced its decision in October. This was distinctly unfavourable to Canada's claims, since it excluded Canadians from all ocean inlets as far south as the Portland Channel, and in that channel gave to Canada only two of the four islands claimed. A statement made by the Canadian commissioners, who refused to sign the report, of an unexplained change of opinion on the part of Lord Alverstone, produced a widespread impression for a time that his decision in favour of American claims was diplomatic rather than judicial. Later Canadian opinion, however, came to regard the decision of the commission as a reasonable compromise. The irritation caused by the decision gradually subsided, but at the moment it led to strong expressions on the part of Sir Wilfrid Laurier and others in favour of securing for Canada a fuller power of making her own treaties. While the power of making treaties must rest ultimately in the hands that can enforce them, the tendency to give the colonies chiefly interested a larger voice in international arrangements had become inevitable. The mission of a Canadian cabinet minister, the Hon. R. Lemieux, to Japan in 1907, to settle Canadian difficulties with that country, illustrated the change of diplomatic system in progress.

Education.

Under the British North American Act the control of education was reserved for the provincial governments, with a stipulation that all rights enjoyed by denominational schools at the time of confederation should be respected. Provincial control has caused some diversity of management; the interpretation of the denominational agreement has led to acute differences of opinion which have invaded the field of politics. In all the provinces elementary, and in some cases secondary, education is free, the funds for its support being derived from local taxation and from government grants. The highly organized school system of Ontario is directed by a minister of education, who is a member of the provincial cabinet. The other provinces have boards of education, and superintendents who act under the direction of the provincial legislatures. In Quebec the Roman Catholic schools, which constitute the majority, are chiefly controlled by the local clergy of that church. The Protestant schools are managed by a separate board. In Ontario as well as in Quebec separate schools are allowed to Roman Catholics. In Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba and British Columbia the public schools are strictly undenominational. This position was only established in New Brunswick and Manitoba after violent political struggles, and frequent appeals to the highest courts of the empire for decisions on questions of federal or provincial jurisdiction. The right of having separate schools has been extended to the newly constituted provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Secondary education is provided for by high schools and collegiate institutes in all towns and cities, and by large residential institutions at various centres, conducted on the principle of the English public schools. The largest of these is Upper Canada College at Toronto. Each province has a number of normal and model schools for the training of teachers. For higher education there are also abundant facilities. M'Gill University at Montreal has been enlarged and splendidly endowed by the munificence of a few private individuals, Toronto University by the provincial legislature of Ontario; Queen's University at Kingston largely by the support of its own graduates and friends. University work in the maritime provinces, instead of being concentrated, as it might well be, in one powerful institution, is distributed among five small, but within their range efficient universities. The agricultural college at Guelph and the experimental farms maintained by the federal government give excellent training and scientific assistance to farmers. Sir William Macdonald in 1908 built and endowed, at an expenditure of at least L700,000, an agricultural college and normal school at St Anne's, near Montreal. While the older universities have increased greatly in influence and efficiency, the following new foundations have been made since confederation:--University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, 1877; Presbyterian College, Winnipeg, 1870; Methodist College, Winnipeg, 1888; Wesleyan College, Montreal, 1873; Presbyterian College, Montreal, 1868; School of Practical Science, Toronto, 1877; Royal Military College, Kingston, 1875; M'Master University, Toronto, 1888. All the larger universities have schools of medicine in affiliation, and have the power of conferring medical degrees. Since 1877 Canadian degrees have been recognized by the Medical Council of Great Britain.

Indian tribes.

In her treatment of the aboriginal inhabitants of the country (numbering 93,318 in 1901) Canada has met with conspicuous success. Since the advance of civilization and indiscriminate slaughter have deprived them of the bison, so long their natural means of subsistence, the north-west tribes have been maintained chiefly at the expense of the country. As a result of the great care now used in watching over them there has been a small but steady increase in their numbers. Industrial and boarding schools, established in several of the provinces, by separating the children from the degrading influences of their home life, have proved more effectual than day schools for training them in the habits and ideas of a higher civilization. (See INDIANS, NORTH AMERICAN.)

Constitution.