The war between the United States and Great Britain, in 1812-14, exposed the two Canadas and the Maritime Provinces to a severe ordeal, through which they came triumphant; and afterwards our French and English fellow-subjects resumed their agitation for a full measure of popular government. They went ultimately to the length of rebellion; and then it was not long before the Home Government granted their desire. Friction had occurred between the two Canadas on questions of revenue, and so, by the Act of 1840 that conceded a democratic constitution, these two Canadas, after half a century of separation, were again made into one Canada under one Legislature; the two halves of a political whole being now distinguished as Canada East and Canada West. Happily, however, a clash of interests arose between the French population and the English—happily, I say, because it led to the union, in 1867, of Canada West and Canada East (thence-forward to be known as the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec) with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick; and this was the first stage of Confederation, a process whereby the name “Canada” was transferred to the great country, stretching from ocean to ocean, which bids fair to develop wealth and population like the United States of America, and to become the foremost nation of the British Empire. I have only told, in broad outline, the story of Eastern Canada—that part of the Dominion which holds the accumulated interest of stirring vicissitudes experienced over a period of four hundred years. We will now turn to the only other part of the Dominion that has a history stretching back to the Middle Ages. I refer to the Hudson Bay region. Man is a toy in the hands of Time. Things he does in one century are apt, in the light of another, to assume the character of a droll misuse of opportunity. The early history of the Hudson’s Bay Company tells, in effect, of men who worked in a rich gold mine and collected nothing but quartz. In 1610 Henry Hudson—that glorious, pathetic hero—discovered the great northern indentation in the map of Canada; and it was re-discovered overland, about sixty years later, by two dashing adventurers from “New France”—Medard de Groseillers and Pierre Radisson, who returned from Hudson Bay with rich booty, of which they were despoiled by the authorities at Quebec. The two indignant Frenchmen went with the story of their wrongs to France, where they were treated with laughing contempt. Then they crossed to England and told our King all about it. Charles II. (who was staying at Oxford, to avoid the plague of London) pricked up his ears, and—some of his followers being minded to invest their money in a promising business speculation—a Royal Charter was granted to “Gentlemen Adventurers trading to Hudson’s Bay.” His Majesty did the thing handsomely while he was about it; for the Charter gave the Adventurers all the country and all it contained for all time.