Nova Scotia is an old colony with all the advantages of experience. The wonderful mineral wealth of the Province, its noble harbours, its fertile soil, its extensive fisheries, its proximity to Europe, its water power, its temperate climate, and its possession of the winter port of the vast Canadian Pacific system to the Pacific, all indicate Nova Scotia as destined to achieve her ambition for extended commerce, and to be the seat of great manufactures, for wielding a great power not only in the Dominion but over the entire American continent. With an honest pride in the resources of Nova Scotia, I can say, no emigrant from Britain should pass this noble Province by when seeking a home on the other side of the Atlantic, for in Nova Scotia all will be found that goes toward making life pleasant. Good laws, a good climate, the same flag he has always lived under, all depending upon his own rational exertions and industry, without which, soil, climate, and social conditions cannot count in the battle before him. Nova Scotia should have 1,000,000 settlers from the overcrowded fatherland Britain. Good homes await all who go to this Province-health, comfort, and happiness, in this most favoured spot of England's possession on the broad continent of America.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

BY PROFESSOR J. P. SHELDON, J.P.

LYING in the form of a crescent in the lap of the great Gulf of St. Lawrence, and separated by the Strait of Northumberland from the shores of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island occupies to all appearance a snug position on the map of Eastern Canada. Lying, too, between 45° 58′ and 47° 7′ north latitude, and 62° and 64° 27' west longitude, its geographical location is favourable for the well-being of man and beast, of trees and flowers and cultivated crops, all of which are found to flourish on that little gem in Canada's inland ocean. The form of the crescent, however, is altogether wanting in evenness of outline, for the coast has numerous bays and estuaries, some of them forming trusty landlocked harbours, the one particularly noticeable being that in which Charlottetown, the capital of the Island, is situated. This harbour, indeed, is spacious, placid, and picturesque to a degree not easily excelled elsewhere on the eastern side of North America, but it suffers from the disadvantage of being ice-bound in the winter, in common with the mighty river St. Lawrence itself, and communication with the inainland for the time being is accomplished on foot or in sleighs, the shortest distance across the Strait being less than ten miles. The inconvenience of transit, unchangeable as it is save by the construction of a tunnel under the Strait or by the employment of powerful ice-breaking steam-boats, is not very serious except when the ice is forming in November and break

ing up again in March, and the people get along for the most part fairly well, on the ice, in respect to intercommunication with their fellow countrymen in the adjacent maritime Provinces of Canada. The time occupied in the closing of the Strait by frost in the fall of the year and in its reopening in the spring is anticipated by means which readily span the process in either case, and indeed winter in Prince Edward Island, as in Eastern Canada generally, is looked forward to as affording opportunities for rest and enjoyment seasoned with the ordinary cares of the period.

ITS DISCOVERY

To whom the earliest discovery of Prince Edward Island must be ascribed, is not by any means satisfactorily known; and this uncertainty promises to remain for the future, as for the present, a problem unsolved. One would naturally be inclined to believe that a record exists amongst the archives of France or of England-or perhaps of both, but almost certainly of one, and that one probably England, though possibly France that would clear up once for all a doubt whose removal would be welcomed alike in Canada and in England. So far, however, no such record has been disinterred from the documentary limbo of either country, or if disinterred has not been restored to life. The tradition that Sebastian Cabot, sailing under a royal commission issued by Henry VII. of England, sighted the Island on June 24, 1497, is not sufficiently well authenticated at present to be accepted as history. The dates are precise enough, no doubt, if only precision of dates were proof of achievements. Circumstantial

evidence is not in their favour, however, in this case, inasmuch as England neglected to claim the Island at the time, by taking possession of it, or by any other method; and we may venture to assume, indeed, that

our ancestors of four hundred years ago, or of any subsequent period, would hardly be likely to let slip so good an opportunity of acquiring a fair possession on such easy terms. Jacques Cartier is said to have discovered it-mark the month and the day-on June 24, 1534, and he is admitted to have named it the Isle of St. Jean, the day being that of St. John. This midsummer-day discovery, occurring in both cases, is, to say the least, a remarkable coincidence, and it throws a doubt-unequally, of course, but still a doubt -on the strict authenticity of both; but the probability is clearly in favour of Cartier, inasmuch as he gave a name to the Island. It has also been said that the French took possession and claimed sovereignty over it in virtue of its discovery by an Italian named Verazzini, who was sent out by Francis I. of France in 1523 or 1524. Yet again there is no

authentic evidence at hand that Verazzini ever saw the Island. In any case, however, the name, Isle St. Jean, was that by which the Island was known for inore than two and a half centuries, during which time various stirring incidents occurred. Up to the seventeenth century, early in which Champlain took possession of it on behalf of France, the Island does not seem to have been thought worth special annexation by either France or England, and statements made about it differ very considerably so far as the sixteenth century is concerned. Eventually, however, France took it in hand. In the year 1663 a grant of the Island was made to Captain Doublet, who, failing to establish the stipulated settlements in the Colony, forfeited his interest in it. In 1719 it was granted to the Count of St. Pierre, who, at considerable expense, strove to establish fisheries and a trading company; his efforts, too, were unsuccessful, and his grant was annulled. The Island was captured by the British in 1745, but was restored to France by the treaty of

Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, and was again taken by the British in 1758, since which time it has continued to form a part of the British Empire. For several years the Island was under the administration of Nova Scotia, but in 1770 the dignity of a separate government was accorded. Three years later the first Parliament was convened, and in 1798 the name of the Island was changed to that of Prince Edward Island, in compliment to the Duke of Kent, the father of our greatly revered Queen Victoria, who was then commander-inchief of the forces in British North America. The Act of the local legislature changing the name of the Island was confirmed in the following year by the king in Council, and the new name has just now entered into its second century.

ITS SETTLEMENT

After the peace of 1763 the British Government decided on having a survey made, and a plan was agreed upon under which the Island was laid out in townships of some 20,000 acres each. These lands were granted extensively to certain individuals who were understood to have claims on the Government for military or other public services, but granted with reservations as to quitrents and such portions of territory as might afterwards be found necessary for fortifications or public purposes, for churches and glebe lands, for schools and endowments thereof; while 500 feet from high-water mark were reserved for free fishery purposes; and all deposits of gold, silver, and coal, if any, were reserved to the Crown. It was also stipulated that the grantee of each township should settle the same within ten years from date, in the proportion of one person for each 200 acres, such settlers to be either European Protestants or persons who had already lived two years in British North America.