the middle of the 19th century. Some of these were that of Palliser and Hector, 1857, of H. Y. Hind in the same year, and of Milton and Cheadle a few years afterward. A famous parliamentary investigation took place in London in the year of Palliser's expedition. Canada was at this time becoming alive to the importance of the Northwest. Negotiations took place between the British and Canadian governments which culminated in 1868-70 in the virtual decision that Rupert's Land, and the Northern and Western territories which were leased to the Hudson's Bay Company, should become Canadian. Unskilful dealing on the part of the Dominion Government with the people of Red River Settlement led, however, to the Riel rebellion, 1869–70. A military expedition of British troops and Canadian volunteers was sent by the old fur traders' route to Red River, but the rebels disappeared before the arrival of the troops. In 1870 the sum of $1,500,000 was paid by Canada to the Hudson's Bay Company to satisfy its claims, the new province of Manitoba was formed by the Canadian Parliament, and thenceforward the West as far as the Rocky Mountains became a part of Canada. Several years afterward British Columbia came into the Dominion as a province.

ous.

The Hudson's Bay Company, though shorn of all political power, still survives, and is vigorIt still seeks for furs in the far North, and is the largest land company in Canada, owning one twentieth of every new township, which the government surveys. This serves to give the Hudson's Bay Company a strong interest in building up and developing the newer portions of the country. In addition to this the company has largely devoted itself to conducting large shops in the leading business centres of western Canada. The largest of these is the store in Winnipeg. This with its different departments does an enormous trade not only in Winnipeg, but in supplying by the use of the mails the needs of all parts of the country. Important stores are maintained by the company in Portage la Prairie, Rat Portage, Fort William, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, and Prince Albert. The present governor of the Hudson's Bay Company is the predominating figure, Lord Strathcona, the Canadian commissioner in London. As the writer has elsewhere said, "for the last 15 years the veteran of kindly manner, warm heart, and genial disposition, Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal (q.v.), has occupied this high place. The clerk, junior of 'ficer, and chief factor of 30 hard years on the inhospitable shores of Hudson Bay and Labrador; the commissioner who, as Donald A. Smith, soothed the Riel rebellion, and for years directed the reorganization of the company's affairs at Fort Garry and the whole Northwest; the daring speculator who took hold, with his friends, of the Minnesota and Manitoba Railway, and with Midas touch turned the enterprise to gold; a projector and a builder of the Canadian Pacific Railway; the patron of art and education, and the patriot who sent out at a cost of between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000 the Strathcona regiment of horse to the South African war has worthily filled the office of governor of the Hudson's Bay company, and with much success reorganized its administration and directed its affairs." See also CANADA - THE ERA OF EARLY

33. Canada - The

Washington Treaty. The Treaty of Washington, between the United States and Great Britain, was signed on 8 May 1871, and had reference to the Alabama claims (q.v.), the fisheries question, the lake, river and canal navigation, the bonding privilege, and the Vancouver water boundary question. In the years immediately following the Civil War several causes of acute friction existed between the two countries. Of these the principal was the question of indemnity for the depredations committed by the Alabama and other southern cruisers, whose construction in England was claimed by the United States to be a violation of neutrality. The second main cause of conUnder the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, the fishtention was the question of the coast fisheries. ermen of each nation were admitted to the inshore coast fisheries of the other. With the American fishermen on the Atlantic coast of expiration of the treaty in 1866 the rights of Canada were limited to the privileges secured under the convention of 1818, with a modificaFundy. By this they were excluded from taktion of 1845 admitting them to the Bay of ing fish within three marine miles of any coasts, bays, creeks, or harbors of British North America, except in special parts of the Newfoundland and Labrador coast, and off the Magdalen islands. The proper interpretation of this three mile limit had been a standing subject of controversy. It was claimed by Great Britain that the terms of the treaty precluded entrance into the bays: by the United States that it merely forbid a nearer approach to the shores of the bay than a distance of three miles. This left in dispute the right to fish in the Bay of Chaleurs and other important places. (See Cushing, Treaty of Washington, ch. v.) As a temporary expedient since 1866, the Canadian government had sold licenses to American fishermen for a nominal fee. This scheme had proved abortive, for the raising of the license fee in 1868 had resulted in an almost complete cessation in their use, only 25 being taken out in 1869. The Dominion government, in consequence, by an order in council (8 Jan. 1870) abandoned the system of licenses and equipped cruisers to protect its claims in the coast fisheries. The Alabama claims and the fisheries had been for some time a standing subject for negotiations. A treaty of January 1869 (known as the Johnson-Clarendon Treaty) was rejected by the Senate. Negotiations were renewed under President Grant and, at the suggestion of the British government, it was finally decided to appoint a joint high commission to meet at Washington to settle outstanding matters of dispute. The commissioners for the United States were Hamilton Fish, secretary of state; Gen. Robert Schenck, Judge Nelson of the Supreme Court, Ebenezar Hoar, and George H. Williams. The British commissioners were Lord de Grey, Sir Stafford Northcote, Sir Edward Thornton, Professor Montague Barnard, and Sir John Macdonald, prime minister of Canada. Their deliberations lasted from 27 Feb. until 6 May 1871. Of the different points in the treaty agreed upon the most important is that in reference to the Alabama

claims, on account of its bearing upon international law. The matter at issue here was the extent to which Great Britain had been guilty of a breach of neutrality. The Alabama had been built in Birkenhead. The purpose of her construction had been a matter of general notoriety The British government had refused to listen to any representations that fell short of being technical evidence. Even when the American consul at Liverpool furnished the needed proof, the dilatory action of the government permitted the cruiser to depart unmolested. The question was whether, in reference to the Alabama and other Confederate cruisers, the government of Great Britain had shown the diligence demanded of a neutral power (see 42d Congress, 2d Sessn. Senate Exec. Doc. 31 November, pp. 146-51). The commission decided that the claims thus arising "shall be referred to a tribunal of arbitration to be composed of five arbiters, one to be named by the President of the United States, one by Her Britannic Majesty, one by the king of Italy, one by the president of the Swiss Confederation, and one by the emperor of Brazil. The questions considered were to be decided by a majority. Article 6 of the treaty declares: In deciding the matters submitted to the arbitrators they shall be governed by the following three rules, which are agreed upon by the high contracting parties as rules to be taken as applicable to the case, and by such principles of international law not inconsistent therewith as the arbitrators shall determine to have been applicable to the case: 'A neutral government is bound: First, to use due diligence to prevent the fitting out, arming or equipping, within its jurisdiction, of any vessel which it has reasonable ground to believe is intended to cruise or to carry on war against a power with which it is at peace; and also to use like diligence to prevent the departure from its jurisdiction of any vessel intended to cruise or carry on war as above, such vessel having been specially adapted, in whole or in part, within such jurisdiction, to warlike use. Secondly, not to permit or suffer either belligerent to make use of its ports or waters as the base of naval operations against the other, or for the purpose of renewal or augmentation of military supplies or arms, or the recruitment of men. Thirdly, to exercise due diligence in its own ports and waters, and, as to all persons within its jurisdiction, to prevent any violation of the foregoing obligations and duties." The tribunal thus arranged met at Geneva (December 1871) and in September 1872, rendered its decision "that the British government had failed to use due diligence in the performance of its neutral obligations," and awarded an indemnity of $15,500,000 to the United States. In regard to the fisheries, the treaty practically re-established the status under the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, throwing open the inshore fisheries of the Atlantic coast north of latitude 39° to the fishermen of both nations (Art. XVIII., XIX.). It also established reciprocal free trade in fish and fish oil (Art. XXI.) and decided that commissioners should be appointed to determine what extra compensation, if any, should be paid by the United States for the privileges thus acquired. A compensation of $5,500,000 was subsequently awarded by the Halifax Fisheries Commission (1878). The location of the northwestern boundary (see NORTHWEST BOUNDARY

DISPUTE) which under the treaty of 1846 was declared to follow the 49th parallel "to the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island and thence southerly through the middle of the said channel and Fuca Straits to the Pacific Ocean," was left (Art. XXXIV.) to the decision of the German emperor. It was further agreed (Art. XXVI.) that the navigation of the river Saint Lawrence shall forever remain free and open for the purpose of commerce to the citizens of the United States. The United States in return declared the Yukon, Porcupine and Stikine open to British commerce, (Art. XXVI.) granting also to British subjects the right of navigating Lake Michigan, the use of the Saint Clair Flats Canal on terms of equality with inhabitants of the United States. The bonding privilege (Art. XXIX.) was mutually conceded. The fisheries provisions were not to go into effect until the "laws required to carry them into operation" should be passed by the British and Canadian Parliaments, the legislature of Prince Edward Island, and the Congress of the United States. The entire treaty was to remain in force for 10 years, after which certain articles — the fisheries arrangement, the right of navigating Lake Michigan, and the bonding privilege-might be terminated on two years' notice from either party. The fisheries clauses of the treaty were subsequently renounced by the United States, and after due notice, expired 1 July 1885. For further details the work of Cushing (mentioned above) may be consulted. The text of the treaty is in Treaties and Conventions of the United States' (1889). For the part played by Sir John Macdonald (q.v.) in the negotiations and their relation to Canadian politics, see Pope, 'Memoirs of Sir John A. Macdonald,' Vol. II., ch. xix.-xxi. See also UNITED STATES FOREIGN AFFAIRS, 18611904; TREATIES OF THE UNITED STATES WITH FOREIGN NATIONS. STEPHEN LEACOCK, Lecturer in Political Science, McGill University.

34. Canada - Jesuit Estates Act. This measure passed by the legislature of Quebec in 1888, gave rise to an agitation which occupied public attention throughout all parts of Canada during the following year and for a time threatened to bring about a reconstruction of political parties. Under the French régime, which ended in 1763, the Jesuits had owned considerable landed estates at various points in the valley of the Saint Lawrence - particularly at Quebec, Montreal, and Laprairie. After the conquest of Canada by the English the religious orders were permitted to retain the property which they held under grant from the French crown or by other legal title, with the exception of the Jesuits. This order had been banished from France, 1767, and was suppressed generally by the papal brief Dominus ac Redemptor (1773). Although Gen. Amherst brought influence to bear upon the government to secure for himself the estates of the Jesuits in Canada, his efforts proved unsuccessful. Despite personal pressure and the papal brief the "black robes" at Montreal and Quebec were not immediately molested by the British authorities, who refrained from taking over their property until the death of Father Casot, the last remaining member of the society. This event occurred in 1800. Once possessed of the Jesuits' estates the Crown had to determine what should

be done with them, and after a certain amount of indecision it was decided that their income should be used for the support of education in the province of Lower Canada. In vain the Roman Catholic bishops maintained the legality of the Church's claim to the property. The government stood its ground and appropriated the revenues.

From having been originally assigned to Lower Canada, the Jesuits' estates passed at Confederation (1867) into the hands of the province of Quebec. It was found, however, by the local government that their actual value was impaired by the ecclesiastical claims which stood against them. The bishops did not cease to protest against their retention by the state and the Jesuit order, revived under papal warrant, defended the justice of its own title. Had these lands been situated in a Protestant community the representations of bishops and Jesuits might have carried little weight, inasmuch as they could not be vindicated by an appeal to the courts, but where the mass of the population was Catholic the reiterated claims of the Church had their effect upon the market. After Confederation the rent of the property decreased until it became almost negligible in comparison with the valuation, and when the government sought to effect a sale no purchaser could be found. In 1887, after the question had been put off by several preceding administrations, Mr. Mercier, a French Nationalist of pronounced views, endeavored to effect a final settlement of it. Whatever the motives which actuated him, to criticize them would be to raise a matter of opinion. He introduced a bill which gave $400,000 to the Roman Catholic Church as compensation for the property which the Crown had seized in 1800. This sum was, for the moment, to constitute a special deposit which eventually should be distributed by the Pope in return for a relinquishment of all claims to the Jesuits' estates that had been advanced by the bishops or by the Jesuits themselves. As a matter of fact the Pope divided the money between the Jesuits, the bishops, and Laval University, but in the meantime this recognition of his right to allot what were considered public funds among members of his own Church, drew forth cries of remonstrance from a large number of Protestants. A simultaneous grant of $60,000 to Protestant schools in Quebec did not allay the feeling of hostility.

It should be observed that two distinct questions were raised by the agitation which proceeded from the Jesuits' Estates Act. The first had its root in the opposition of religious systems; the second was due to the federal character of the Canadian constitution. In 1888, Col. O'Brien, a Protestant member of the House of Commons, proposed that the Dominion Parliament should disallow the action of the Quebec Legislature in appealing to the Pope and setting aside $400,000 as a subsidy to Roman Catholic institutions. The debate which followed was marked by a series of able and aggressive speeches from all quarters of the House. The chief supporter of Col. O'Brien's motion was Mr. Dalton McCarthy, while against him were ranged the premier, Sir John Macdonald, and Mr. Laurier, the leader of the Opposition. On the one side an appeal was made to the alleged political misdeeds of the Jesuits throughout the whole course of their history and to

GEOGRAPHY

their expulsion from the chief countries of the civilized world. On the other, it was maintained that the Dominion Parliament could not, without extreme danger, disallow provincial legislation and that "the subject-matter of this act was one of provincial concern, only having relation to a fiscal matter entirely within the control of the legislature of Quebec." The vote of 188 to 13 against Col. O'Brien's motion conveys but a faint idea of the public interest in this debate and in the issues which lay behind it. The fundamental claim of the extreme Protestant party was that recognition of papal authority and the encouragement of the Jesuits were direct blows at British freedom; while the leaders of both parties united to point out the constitutional dangers which would accompany disallowance.

Outside the House of Commons the agitation caused by the Jesuits' Estates Act led to the formation an "Equal Rights" party, which was recruited from the ranks of the more pronounced Protestants. It proved impossible, however, to break down existing political lines by giving central importance to an anti-Catholic movement. Despite many public meetings and an active campaign in the newspapers, the attack upon the Jesuits' Estates Act has left no lasting trace upon party organization in Canada.

CHARLES W. COLBY,

Professor of History, McGill University. 35. Canada - Geography. I. GENERAL.— area and Boundaries. With the exception of Alaska, Greenland, Newfoundland, and the two small islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, all the northern half of the North American continent is comprised in the Dominion of Canada. Alaska, the great peninsular projection at the northwest corner of the continent, with a narrow strip of coast depending from it southward, belongs to the United States; Greenland, a huge island at the northeast corner, is Danish; Newfoundland, another island blocking the mouth of the Saint Lawrence estuary on the east coast, is British, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon, lying off Newfoundland, are French. To the north of the continent there is a cluster of large islands, divided from the mainland and from one another by comparatively narrow channels. All of these form part of Canada and are included in its area, but as yet they have been only partially explored, and their exact dimensions are not known. The official estimate, as nearly accurate as it can be made at present, gives the total area of Canada, including the great fresh-water lakes wholly within its boundaries, as 3,729,665 square miles. The boundaries separating Canada from its only continental neighbor, the United States, are to a great extent meridians of longitude or parallels of latitude. Between Canada and Alaska, beginning from the north, the boundary follows lon. 141° W. from the Arctic Ocean to Mount Saint Elias, within 20 miles of the Pacific, from which point it is an irregular line running about parallel with the coast round the heads of all bays and inlets of the sea at a distance of 20 to 30 miles inland. It reaches tide-water again at the head of Portland Channel, down which it passes, terminating in the Pacific Ocean. All the islands of the coast south of lat. 54° 40′ belong to Canada as far as the southern extremity of Vancouver Island