Western develop ment. States the command of the sea approaches to the Klondyke mining districts, and included within American territory two islands lying near to the future terminus of a new transCanadian railway. The result of the findings was received with very different feelings in the United States and in Canada. President Roosevelt telegraphed from Washington congratulating the impartial jurists of repute' on the greatest diplomatic victory of the century, while in Canada strong language was used against the English Chief Justice, and even the cautious Prime Minister threatened that it might be necessary for the Dominion to take its own diplomatic work into its own hands. It may be hoped, however, that, so far as boundary questions are concerned, the end has been reached of controversies which have added little to the reputation of any of those who had been concerned in them. But while the political life of the country has gone on during the last few years on much the old lines, by far the most important event of recent history has been the wonderful material development which is taking place in Western Canada. Amongst those of little faith there had been great disappointment that the building of the Canadian Pacific railway had not been followed by more immediate results. In the striking letter of Mr. Blake addressed to the West Durham electors, in March, 1890, which has been already mentioned, the North-West was spoken of as 'empty still'. It is true that, before the construction of the railway, there had been a certain amount of immigration to the North-West by Scottish farmers, but even after the railway was opened the Canadian North-West had a formidable competitor in the Western States of America, the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Iowa, as well as Northern Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin. Moreover, such emigration as there was to Western Canada consisted to a considerable degree of foreigners, Galicians, Russians Doukhobors (Christians of the Universal New Brotherhood), and others. With the opening, however, of the twentieth century, the future of Western Canada began to be realized. The emigration figures to Canada went up by leaps and bounds, until in 1906 the arrivals numbered nearly 216,000, being nearly 71,300 more than in the previous year. The late Minister of the Interior, Mr. Clifford Sifton, did much to encourage emigration, and to help the settlement of the newly arrived emigrants, and the present Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Fisher, has worked hard to promote amongst them scientific methods of farming. In the year 1881 the present provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta had a population of 105,681, inclusive of 22,783 Indians, and an area of 56,971 acres in wheat. In 1891 the total population was 219,305; and the area in wheat was 1,010,430 acres. In 1901 the population was 419,512, and the area in wheat, barley, and oats was 3,491,413 acres. In 1906 the population was 808,863, and the area in wheat, barley, and oats, was 7,915,611 acres. The number of farms increased from 31,815 in 1891 to 54,625 in 1901, and to 120,439 in 1906. Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba, which in 1870 had hardly 300 inhabitants, has now a population of over 90,000, and Brandon, about 130 miles to the west of Winnipeg, has a population of over 10,000. To meet the development which was taking place, the provinces. new provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta were in 1905 carved out of the North-West Territories. The boundary between the two new provinces is the 110th degree of west longitude, Saskatchewan being bounded on the east by Manitoba and the territory of Keewatin, and Alberta on the west by British Columbia. The capital of Saskatchewan is Regina, and of Alberta, Edmonton; both of which are rapidly rising in importance. It is difficult to grasp facts by statistics, but the words which Lord Strathcona has prefixed to Mr. Howard Angus Kennedy's New Canada and the New Canadians serve to make us realize what has been done in one man's ment. lifetime. When I first went there,' he writes, the North- Lord Strathcona West was very difficult of access, and indeed could only be on western approached with any comfort, and not much of that, through developthe United States, or by canoes by the Ottawa river, Lake Huron, Lake Superior, and the rivers and lakes, with portages between, through what were then the wilds of Rupert's Land on to Lake Winnipeg. At that time Winnipeg did not exist. Between Fort Garry and the Rocky Mountains there was no settlement on the great prairies, except here and there some Hudson Bay's post or an Indian encampment. In those days the buffalo still roamed over the plains, though in decreasing numbers... The position of Western Canada to-day is very different. Now there are railways in every direction, and further lines are being built each year to accommodate those who are making their homes on the prairies.... The population is rapidly increasing, but only the fringes of the fertile plains are occupied, and there are still less than a million people between the great lakes and the Rocky Mountains... There is no reason why Western Canada should not become as important and as well-populated as the western territories of the United States. And the fact that people are flocking across the boundary from the latter country is evidence of the advantages which are offered under the British flag.' This exodus of the American farmer to the Canadian American west has been one of the most striking features of the new tion. immigradevelopment. The pressure of population has raised the value of land in the American States, thus making it difficult for the settler without capital to prosper, and offering temptations to the pioneer farmers to dispose of their lands to immigrants from the Eastern States, and to embark upon new virgin soil in Canada. A great number of these Americans are described as Canadians, who are returning to their native country, and immigrants of foreign origin, very largely Germans. But the American new element is Imperial sentiment. Railway develop ment. sufficiently strong to make men ask, what significance has the movement upon the future of the Dominion as a portion of the British Empire? It is satisfactory to be told by shrewd observers that the Americans in Western Canada are perfectly content with the political institutions which they find in their new home, and are in no wise inclined to work for annexation to the United States. During the last few years, moreover, the proportion of British to foreign immigration has somewhat increased, and though it might be unreasonable to expect in these western districts the passionate imperial patriotism which is still felt in the old provinces by descendants of British Empire loyalists, there is no valid ground for apprehending any immediate danger to British connexion from the new population. At the same time, the same observers, whose accounts are, on the whole, reassuring, warn us of the necessity of cultivating by all means possible communication and intercourse between Great Britain and these new communities. The recent cheapening of the carriage of newspapers, in 1907, should do much to this end, and in this connexion it would be idle, whatever may be our views on tariff questions, to ignore the warnings addressed to us by loyal subjects of the King in the eastern provinces, who say that by a small preference on Canadian wheat the material advantages of British citizenship might be brought home to men, whose present attitude is one tending towards indifference. To those who have followed, however cursorily, the difficult beginnings of the Canadian Pacific railway, the present situation of railway development will seem startling; and yet that such development should go on at a quickened rate appears the main present economic need of the country. Besides the Canadian Pacific railway, the Canadian Northern and the Grand Trunk Pacific will furnish other transcontinental lines from east to west, and there is the possibility of a fourth line to connect with the Great Northern system of |