armaments, than floating Leviathans armed with thunder, than tented fields, than hundreds of thousands of soldiers armed from head to heel, is the great silent force of Christianity which reaches to the hearts and souls of men (applause) because that force is working here if the different names under which it is called do not belie themselves. By the last census we have 2,229,600 Roman Catholics in Canada; we have 2,731,035 professing Christianity under three or four of its leading denominations, and mixed through you have the fallibility and infallibility which ought to preserve reasonably well the equilibrium of our faith. We have of Methodists, 916,000, of Presbyterians, 842,000, of Anglicans, 690,000, of Baptists 316,000. Take these four denominations and mix them as you choose, or take them up one by one, and endeavour to understand their purposes, study their principles, survey the work they have done, consider what they are doing now, how they bring before the mind of our Canadian people the one great fact that life is real, life is earnest, and the grave is not its goal, how they emphasize, and accentuate every duty in life, in business, in public and in private, by the supreme authority of one great God who loves and rules us all, no escape from the consequences of sin, public or private, but all acts of life and all its functions accentuated by that responsibility, will that not make a nation? Can injustice prevail if Christianity rises to the full altitude of its power? Can there be poverty in the land when He who fills our barns with plenty says he who labours in the sweat of his brow can enjoy the substance, the substantial things of life? Can there be meanness in the face of the great standard of self-sacrifice and service which the Bible presents to us? Can there be laggards in the face of the great duty imposed upon every one to fulfil the full purpose for which he was created and be a man no matter what position he occupies? That leavening influence of Christianity gives us a moral purpose which nothing, in my judgment, can restrain.

Then we have our educational resources-our Colleges, our schools of all shades and grades by which

every child can be educated. No place for illiterates, no place for ignorance; a press that reaches to almost every home and watches as from a watch tower the weaknesses and failings of frail man and then publishes in heroic language the judgment of our fellow-citizens. That is in itself a great educator. But I must pass over these things quickly.

I have spoken of our racial origin, of the moral foundation on which we stand. What are we doing to show that we have the energy to develop these resources and to possess these lands? Are we timid like those who wandered in the desert for forty years, and do we hesitate to possess the goodly land which is open to us? What do our energies produce? We are engaged in industrial pursuits, and as a proof of our energy in industrial life suffice it to say that last year the products of our factories realized the enormous sum of $1,164,000,000 of money. That was produced by 514,281 artisans and workingmen. Marvellous results! Raw material taken into the factory and produced ready for common use by the busy hand of the toiler-God bless him. Do we realize his usefulness who from early morn till late at eve makes this Canada a great hive of industry, and fills what might be destitute homes with peace and plenty? The force and energy of seven millions producing these results is in itself a guarantee of achievements yet to come. And not only do we produce that, for that is practically only our own consumption, but we have money enough to buy from abroad. We did buy last year $472,000,000 worth of imported goods, of which $327,000,000 worth were manufactured in more or less degree of completion. We can feed and clothe ourselves sumptuously with certain articles which we can produce, and having done so we can go to the corners of the world and supplement what we produce ourselves with that large amount of foreign supply. This fact also shows the extent to which the commerce and trade of Canada has grown. Let me give you one fact. In 1868 when we began Confederation we were able to export $57,000,000 worth of goods. That would be about eighteen dollars per head. Last year we exported $297,

000,000 worth of goods. We increased our productivity six and a half fold in forty-five years. Of course we about doubled our population in that time, but assuming that we did double our population we increased our exports five and a half fold. We were able in 1868 to buy $73,000,000 worth of goods. Money was scarce at that time, and we were poor. Last year we bought $472,000,000 worth of foreign goods, or six and a half times as much as we were able to buy forty-five years ago. That shows a large increase in wealth. Our imports and exports can be placed alongside of the greatest commercial country in the world. Britain, for imports, for trade, has no rival, shall I say, except Canada. The trade of Great Britain represents $125 per head. The trade of Canada to-day, by last year's returns as far as reported, represents just exactly the same amount. (Applause) The trade of the United States represents thirty-six dollars per head. The United States exports more manufactures than we do, but imports less than we do. They import nine dollars' worth of manufactured goods per head, and we import forty-seven dollars' worth, thus showing the immense space yet to be filled by the home industries of Canada. We have reached that high point of advancement; but when you consider the height to which the Americans have reached compared with us, you will see what great room there is yet for the expansion of our Canadian industries. Let me give a fact or two. We imported, for instance, of cottons and manufactures $19,000,000 worth. Of course a good deal of that was raw cotton. We imported hats, caps, and bonnets, $3,500,000. Of course these may be fashionable things that we may not be expected to produce, but we imported them. Iron and steel $86,000,000 worth. Wool manufactures $24,000,000 worth, and if you look over the table of imports you will see an immense variety of things which I shall hope yet to see produced at home giving employment to our own people and encouraging the development of our own industries. (Applause) I do not object to foreign produce, but I believe that goods made at home by Canadians in Canadian factories bring more wealth to Canada than

goods made in a foreign factory by people who are adding to the wealth and increasing the population of a foreign country.

But I must pass over some of these things which are very interesting in some respects. Now, I have shown, as I have already indicated, what we are producing. We are not an idle people. We could not be idle when our commerce has grown as it has. We could not be idle with our factories producing as much as they do. Have we kept up with the demands of this development in the way of transportation? There is no good producing an article unless you can send it to the market. You cannot produce material unless you have the facilities for bringing the raw material to your factory. In railway development Canada's position stands very high. For our population we have more miles of railway than the United States. In 1836, "when you and I were young, Maggie, a long time ago," we just had sixteen miles of railway. In 1866, at the time of Confederation, we had 2,978 miles. That was thirty years' progress. In 1896, thirty years more, we had 16,270 miles, and now we have 25,400 miles and three Transcontinentals,—one completed and two on the eve of completion. We with a population of seven millions have three Transcontinentals, and the United States with a population of ninety millions have seven Transcontinentals. Very well for Canada! We have invested in railways between stocks and subsidies and cash and guarantees $1,879,204,812, nearly two billion dollars of capital, mostly borrowed, but we have the credit, and I suppose we ought to use it in the development of this country. Now, what does that signify? That we a young people, seven millions only, could be so bold and so adventurous as to open up millions of acres which we possess as far as we have done by the construction of such an extensive system of railways, and we are only on the way-there is much yet to be done although much has been done can you show any other people with the same courage and enterprise? And never as far as I can remember at this moment has any of our railways failed or been put into the hands of a receiver. A different story comes to us

from the other side. Then we have developed at an expenditure of $130,000,000 of money the largest canal system in the world, reaching from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where necessary, up to the western end of Lake Superior. That gives us communication along one half of our southern frontier. I point out these advantages in transportation to you for two reasons. First of all they show the indomitable energy in dealing with difficulties. Secondly, they show commendable and, shall I say, heroic enterprise in undertaking what appeared early in our history to be an undertaking to overcome insurmountable difficulties. Who would have thought we would have scaled the Rocky Mountains just about seventeen years after the Americans sent their first train from Washington to California? The Union Pacific crossed in '69, and we crossed in '86, and we were a small folk then compared with the United States. I mention this for another reason, to show that these transportation facilities afford the basis of future development. They may not be in the future on so large a scale, but they are on a scale at least large enough to meet our present necessities. That is the result of our natural energy.

Then the working capital of Canada, whether it keeps pace with the demands of industry is for you business men to say, but let me say it is considerable. I am speaking first of our banking system. We have $113,000,000 of stock in our banks paid up yielding a dividend of from six to eighteen per cent. I hope you all hold some of the eighteen per cent. stock. We have reserves of $104,000,000. We have deposits of loose money of $1,096,859,979. Where the banks got that money from I don't know. I do not trouble them with much of it. $1,000,000,000 of money not required for actual business by those who deposit it, but afterwards given out by the banks to the extent of between $800,000,000 and $900,000,000 for business discount. We have in our Government Savings Banks $14,000,000. We have in our Post-office Savings Banks $58,000,000. You are getting rich. I fear you are looking now as if you are getting richer. Our insurance companies distribute $55,000,000.