The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-25
BRITISH AMERICA.
From the N. y. Tribune.

From the ~ y. Tribune.
There are unreckoned possibilities in the
immense territory north of us. Viewing this
fact, the Governor of Canada made q remark
able speech the other day on the union of
British America Lord Bury in Parliament
not long ago, said that the navigation of
British America needed improvement but in
three places in order that ship might be
taken from England to the foot of the Rocky
Mountains. Other Englishmen have been
speculative enough to agree with the noble
lord that the future communication between
England and India. China, and Japan would
be by the way of Canada, the Rocky Noun
tains, and the Frazer river, 1t is in accord
with this prediction that a scheme, pro-
vol1ed by the completion of our inter
oceanic highway, has been revived in England
AS far back as 1850 this scheme proposed ''to
extend the broad belt of England in the
temperate zone round the world" by a rail-
road through Canada, the Red River settle
ment, and the Hudson Bay hunting grounds,
to the Pacific, a route calculated to be 1900
miles shorter than our own, and in the iudg-
ment of its advocates, more practicable and
less costly. This British American highway
to the sea would open up new intermediate
country, which, it is said, comprises some of
the most fertile tracts in the world, and have
its Pacific terminus in the natural and admi-
rable harbor near Fort Langley at Vancou-
yer S Island. Projects of emigration, and of
the utilization of convicts, have been asso-
ciated with this prospectus; and by those who
see most in it, it is held that British America,
what with its broad water-courses, its fertile
acres, and it's great railroad, has in itself the
elements of vast enterprise
Therefore many Englishmen object to the
guarantee by England of the 81, 100000 with
which Canada is to purchase the territories of
the Hudson Bay Company They believe that
Canada can well trust to her exhaustless fu-
| ture rather than borrow from the mother
country anything but its population. The
purchase money secures all but compare
| lively small reserve of the great hunting
| grounds, and yields up to immigration and
labor what before was jealousy kept up as a
preserve for wild beasts. The ambition of the
| Canadians is to extend their dominion from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, and the possession
| of the new territories encourages them.
! Though to the further north of the hunting
| grounds nothing invites the settler, yet the
southern and fertile belt just above Mime
sofa has the capacity of receiving popula-
| ton equal to that of England, and is upon the
proposed highway between Canada and
British Columbia. What change might be
wrought in this quarter by continental en-
terprise such as we have described may be best
conceived by the fact that when the Duke of
Newcastle first brought the project of pur-
chase before the English Commons, Mime
sofa had but 2000 inhabitants, whereas twenty
years after, and about present writing, it has
400, 900 inhabitants or more, 562 manufac-
tories, and 800 miles of railway.
The connection of British Columbia with
Canada is logically considered as of the
highest Importance to the British dominion in
| America. 1t was announced in Parliament
that the former province contained vast mine
raj wealth, and that the Coal Company of
Vancouver had raised its dividends eighteen
or nineteen per cent.
Nevertheless, we hear occasionally from
Victoria that the province is chronic suf-
ferer financially and industrially, and to some
extent, Loyalty, if we are to value such pleas
for annexation as come to us through its Jour
nails True it is that great many settlers in
Columbia are Americans. and great many
of its Britons are loyal; but so long as the
colonies there have but half life the proxi
nifty of the laws, institutions, and pros
perity of the United States will be tempting
British America has but one remedy for the
desire of annexation, and that is to rely
upon herself, to awake at once to the enter
prise of opening up great part of this con
tinent, and to grow as we have grown. Sht
can thereby centre the attention of her mil
lions on her own empire and destiny. Blu
we fear that under the slow-going method
of Great Britain, her growth will not be fas
enough.