the
maritime provinces as winter harbors; but take a look at the map! The
maritime provinces are the longest possible spiral distance from the
rest of Canada. They necessitate a rail haul of from two to three
thousand miles from the west. What gives Galveston, New Orleans,
Baltimore, Buffalo preeminence as harbors? Their nearness to the
centers of commerce--their position far inland of the continent,
cutting rail haul by half and quarter from the plains. Montreal has
this advantage of being far inland; but from November to May Montreal
is closed; and Canadian commerce must come out by way of American
lines, or pay the long haul down to the maritime provinces. There can
be no doubt that this disadvantage is one of the factors forcing the
West to find outlet by Hudson Bay--where harbors are also closed by the
ice but are only four hundred miles from the wheat plains. There can
also be no doubt that the opening of Panama will draw much western
commerce to Europe by way of the Pacific.

III

When one comes to consider Quebec under its new boundaries, one is
contemplating an empire three times larger than Germany, supporting a
population not so large as Berlin.[9] It is the seat of the old French
Empire, the land of the idealists who came to propagate the Faith and
succeeded in exploring three-quarters of the continent, with canoes
pointed ever up-stream in quest of beaver. All the characteristics of
the Old Empire are in Quebec to-day. Quebec is French to the core, not
in loyalty to republican France, but in loyalty to the religious ideals
which the founders brought to the banks of the St. Lawrence three
centuries ago. Church spire, convent walls, religious foundations
occupy the most prominent site in every city and town and hamlet of
Quebec. From Tadousac to Montreal, from Labrador to Maine or New
Hampshire, you can follow the thread of every river in Quebec by the
glitter of the church spires round which nestle the hamlets. No matter
how poor the hamlet, no matter how remote the hills which slope wooded
down to some blue lake, there stand the village church with its cross
on the spire, the whitewashed house of the cure, the whitewashed square
dormer-windowed school.

Outside Quebec City and Montreal, Quebec is the most reposeful region
in all America. What matter wars and rumors of wars to these habitants
living under guidance of the cure, as their ancestors lived two hundred
years ago? They pay thei