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THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA, AND THE SEVERAL
PROVINCES THEREOF, IN 1878.

GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

His Excellency the Right Honorable Sir FREDERICK TEMPLE, Earl of Dufferin, K.P., G.C.M.G. (appointed 22nd May, 1872.)

Succeeded on 14th October, 1878, by

His Excellency the Right Honorable Sir JOHN DOUGLAS SUTHERLAND CAMPBELL, Marquis of Lorne, K.T., G.C.M.G.

PRIME MINISTER.

The Honorable ALEXANDER MACKENZIE (appointed 7th November, 1873.)

Succeeded on 17th October, 1878, by

The Right Honorable Sir JOHN ALEXANDER MACDONALD, K.C.B., D.C.L.,

LL.D., Q.C.

PROVINCE OF ONTARIO.

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR.

The Honorable DONALD ALEXANDER MACDONALD (appointed 18th May, 1875.)

PREMIER.

The Honorable OLIVER MOWAT, LL.D., Q.C. (appointed 31st October, 1872.)

PROVINCE OF QUEBEC.

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR.

The Honorable Luc LETELLIER DE ST. Just, N.P. (appointed 15th December,

1876.)

PREMIER.

The Honorable CHARLES EUGENE BOUCHER DE BOUCHERVILLE, M.D. (appointed

22nd September, 1874.)

Succeeded on 8th March, 1878, by

The Honorable HENRI GUSTAVE JOLY.

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR.

The Honorable ADAMS GEORGE ARCHIBALD, C.M.G., Q.C. (appointed 4th July,

1873.)

PREMIER.

The Honorable PHILIP CARTERET HILL, D.C.L., Q.C. (appointed 8th May,

1875.)

Succeeded on 22nd October, 1878, by

The Honorable SIMON HUGH HOLMES.

PROVINCE OF NEW BRUNSWICK.

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR.

The Honorable SAMUEL LEONARD TILLEY, C.B. (appointed 5th November, 1873.)

Succeeded on 16th July, 1878, by

The Honorable EDWARD BARRON CHANDLER.

PREMIER.

The Honorable GEORGE EDWIN KING, Q.C. (appointed 9th June, 1870.)

Succeeded on 4th May, 1878, by

The Honorable JOHN JAMES FRASER, Q.C.

PROVINCE OF MANITOBA.

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR.

The Honorable JOSEPH EDOUARD CAUCHON (appointed 2nd December, 1877.)

PREMIER.

The Honorable ROBERT ATKINSON DAVIS (appointed 2nd December, 1874.)

Succeeded on 16th October, 1878, by

The Honorable JOHN NORQUAY.

PROVINCE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA.

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR.

The Honorable ALBERT NORTON RICHARDS, Q.C. (appointed 27th June, 1876.)

PREMIER.

The Honorable ANDREW CHARLES ELLIOTT (appointed 1st February, 1876.)

Succeeded on 25th June, 1878, by

The Honorable GEORGE ANTHONY WALKEM, Q.C., F.R.G.S.

PROVINCE OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR.

The Honorable Sir ROBERT HODGSON, Kt. (appointed 4th July, 1874.)

PREMIER.

The Honorable LOUIS HENRY DAVIES (appointed 6th September, 1876.)

NORTH-WEST TERRITORIES.

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR.

The Honorable DAVID LAIRD (appointed 7th October, 1876.)

INTRODUCTORY.

A "New Nationality"* was created in British North America under an Act of the Imperial Parliament, on the first day of July, A.D. 1867. It was named the DOMINION OF CANADA, and included, prospectively, all the possessions of the British Crown in America. At present, the colony of Newfoundland is the only British American territory south of Hudson's Straits which has not been definitively added to the Dominion. The territorial extent of the Dominion, including Newfoundland, is estimated at 3,600,000 square miles, or about one-half of the North American continent, omitting Mexico. The population thus united under one general government, with its legislative and executive departments at Ottawa, in the Province of Ontario, may be reckoned (including Indians and the population of Newfoundland) at 4,000,000. The great Confederation, which rules the central part of North America, began its career about one hundred years ago with a population of not more than four millions, exclusive of Indians. In some other elements of national strength it was inferior to the new Confederation of the North. Our mercantile marine, our public works, our Federal revenues, our exports and imports, &c., far exceed those of the American Confederation at the end of its first decade. Starting with the advantage of numerous discoveries and improvements in every department of human industry; with greater facilities for immigration from the old world, and stronger motives impelling its crowded populations to emigrate, may we not safely predict that the Dominion of Canada will increase in

* "I congratulate you on the legislative sanction which has been given by the Imperial Parliament to the Act of Union, under the provisions of which we are now assembled, and which has laid the foundation of a new nationality, that I trust and believe will ere long extend its bounds from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean." Lord Monck's Speech on opening the first Dominion Parliament, November, 1867.

numbers, in wealth, in naval and military strength, and in material and intellectual resources of every kind more rapidly than her southern rival? That even with the drawback of a northern climate, she will not require one hundred years to command fifty millions of subjects?

The fulfilment of this prediction depends in a great degree upon the wisdom, energy, and statesmanship of the present generation of Canadians. Many, who are well informed, believe that the centre of population, if not the seat of Empire, will, in less than fifty years, be found west of Lake Superior. The annals of a nation or people who have achieved success in the battle of life; who have conquered the wild and gloomy wastes of nature, and converted them into smiling fields and happy homesteads; who have built cities and towns and public works, rivalling those of civilized Europe; who have established more schools, and colleges, and universities, and places of worship, in proportion to population, than any other people of modern times; who have founded free institutions, and stable governments, and equal laws in a territory larger than that which acknowledged the power of Rome, when she called herself mistress of the world, ought to be preserved in chronological order, and digested with care and impartiality. They will be interesting to posterity, and may prove useful and instructive, even to contemporaries. They will guide the historian in his researches; they will help him to winnow the chaff from the wheat, and in many instances furnish him with the most trustworthy materials for his connected narrative.* An intelligible history of the social, commercial, and political events which preceded and ended in Confederation would, of itself, fill a large volume. We must resign that task to other hands.

It may be enough to state here that the extreme tension of the relations between the United States and England in consequence of the depredations of the Alabama and other Confederate cruisers, fitted out in English ports, or supplied by English subjects, during the great rebellion, hastened, if it did not set on foot, the movement in the Mother Country, as well as in the Colonies, towards union and consolidation. British North America, in case of war between England and the American

Alison, in the preface to his History of Europe, while regretting the dearth of native genius applied to the subject, says:-" It is fortunate that a connected narrative of events of continued interest and extensive information is to be found in the Annual Register."

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