Dominion. A wider field of thought has, undoubtedly, been opened up to
these communities, so long dwarfed by that narrow provincialism which
every now and then crops up to mar our national development and impede
intellectual progress. Already the people of the Confederated Provinces
are every where abroad recognised as Canadians--as a Canadian people,
with a history of their own, with certain achievements to prove their
industrial activity. Climatic influences, all history proves, have much
to do with the progress of a people. It is an admitted fact that the
highest grade of intellect has always been developed, sooner or later,
in those countries which have no great diversities of climate.
[Footnote: Sir A. Alison (Vol. xiii. p. 271). says on this point:
'Canada and the other British possessions in British North America,
though apparently blessed with fewer physical advantages than the
country to the South, contain a noble race, and are evidently destined
for a lofty destination. Everything there is in proper keeping for the
development of the combined physical and mental qualities of man. There
are to be found at once the hardihood of character which conquers
difficulty, the severity of climate which stimulates exertion, and
natural advantages which reward enterprise.'] If our natural conditions
are favourable to our mental growth, so, too, it may be urged that the
difference of races which exists in Canada may have a useful influence
upon the moral as well as the intellectual nature of the people as a
whole. In all the measures calculated to develop the industrial
resources and stimulate the intellectual life of the Dominion, the names
of French Canadians appear along with those of British origin. The
French Canadian is animated by a deep veneration for the past history of
his native country, and by a very decided determination to preserve his
language and institutions intact; and consequently there exists in the
Province of Quebec a national French Canadian sentiment, which has
produced no mean intellectual fruits. We know that all the grand efforts