government that we know our rights, that we are an independent people, and will startle the home government some day sooner than they expect."

The Catholics have declared their purpose to "gird at the oath" till it is abolished. A bill to that effect will, no doubt, be introduced year after year till it is passed. If Lord Salisbury reads the temper of Parliament aright, the bill is certain to be wrangled over, probably with considerable acrimony, consuming much precious time, and in this and other ways "increasing," as Earl Grey says, "the difficulties of his Majesty's government." It will most likely be It will most likely be defeated a few times, but of the final result there can be no doubt. The declaration must follow the rest of the anti-Catholic legislation to the museum of antiquities.

Meantime, like all things founded on malice and bigotry, the oath, before departing, will probably do as much mischief as possible. At a time when the thought and energy of every one ought to be bent on conciliation, for the purpose of securing the greater cohesion of the empire, this imp of darkness will embitter people's minds against one another by a flood of venemous words. Such will be the inevitable result if the natter is left to Parliament, for Parliament is proverbially incapable of acting except in response to unendurable pressure. As a consequence, when finally the demand is granted, the good effect will be lost. A concession wrung from an unwilling hand by clamor, violence, and threats after long and pertinacious refusal,

creates in the recipient not gratitude but triumph, mingled with contempt. It is regarded as a sign not of generosity but of weakness.

Now that Parliament has reassembled, the Catholics have promptly given us a specimen of what they mean by "girding at the oath." A monster meeting of the leading Catholics of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was held on January 22, in the course of which Archbishop O'Brien said: “We have met here to-night to protest emphatically, against the further continuance of a declaration blasphemous in itself, most insulting to nearly one-half of the people of this Dominion, and painful, as we must suppose, to the sovereign who is forced to echo the unholy hates and the base calumnies, veiled though they be, of an evil age. In the hearts of free Canadians, loyalty is not as in the hearts of the English, a blind traditional sentiment of devotion to a person or a dynasty; it is, rather, a reasonable as well as a reasoned adherence to a principle. Its continuance is contingent on the verification of that principle."

To forestall this unhappy agitation, there seems to be only one means: the matter ought not to be left to Parliament. There is said to exist in England a feeling that the Crown has not enough power. The South African Magazine (Catholic) says: "The Crown cannot move in the matter." This, to a foreigner, seems surprising, since it is the King whose conscience and self-respect are vit ally interested in the matter. "King" used to mean "leader"; has it come

to pass that the King must always be led? Here is an opportunity to restore to the word its ancient meaning. The Heir Apparent, sharing his father's repugnance to anything ungentlemanly, is said to have referred, "with generous indiscretion," to "that horrid oath." If he were to announce before some assembly (preferably in Ireland) that he intends to make no declaration whatever on his accession, the results (so it seems to a cis-Atlantic observer who knows precious little about the British constitution) could not fail to be the happiest. At the risk of appearing ignorant and "out of order," one may venture to suggest that all petitions for the abolition of the declaration should be addressed not to Parliament or to any Minister but to the Prince who is expected in the course of time to make the declaration. The Catholics of England might organize a great deputation, or pilgrimage, to lay this request before the Prince in person. If such a proceeding be "irregular," that will matter very little, so long as it accomplishes the desired result. If minisIf ministers "advise" to the contrary, let them understand that advice is not always equivalent to command, even when given to kings. The Prince would not have to brave the will of the nation, for the nation has no will on the subject; it is merely apathetic. It seems preposterous to think that Parliament could offer any resistance, for his Royal Highness would have the support of every intelligent man. in the British empire and in the world. Who will venture in either House to

propose that his future sovereign be forced to sully his lips with words which he has declared too coarse and too silly for his utterance? A bill to abolish the declaration will almost certainly be passed with hardly a word of dissent; the ancient relic will depart "with none so poor to do it reverence." If a few bitter words are spoken, they will have no power to sting; being impotent, they will rather provoke merriment. His Royal Highness is perhaps the only person in England who has it in his power to turn this stumbling-block into a stepping stone to concord. The oath must go in the end-there can be no doubt of that; then do not waste time over it but drop it at once, and let it do as much good as possible in dropping. It is pleasant, even in anticipation, to imagine the joy which the news would bring to the Catholics of Canada, Australia, and South Africa. The fervor of loyality thus kindled may be a factor of no little importance when the practical solution of the problem of Imperial Federation is taken in hand. The good-will of the eighteen million Catholics in the United States may be of decisive influence in any endeavor to promote the cause of the Anglo-American alliance. Then there is the alliance with Germanythe Older England, as Green affectionately calls it-an alliance so earnestly advocated by Sir Henry M. Stanley, and so natural that in point of fact there is not a single instance in history where Englishmen and Germans faced each other on the battlefield, while in most of their

battles the two peoples fought side by side. If it be desired to render this natural alliance formal and perpetual, the good-will of the powerful Center party in the Reichstag will be of essential moment. All these happy results, however, will be small compared to the conciliation of Ireland. That a nation of three millions, constituting an integral part of the British empire, should be as hostile to it as any foreign foe, is the darkest cloud on Britain's title to greatness. It is the perpetual ghost at the imperial Anglo-Saxon feast. To an Englishman possessed of feeling it must be a veritable stab to hear Irish leaders speak of "the English enemy." To allay this hostility, what better means could be devised than the measure here proposed? If the Heir Apparent, as above suggested, were to announce before an assembly of Irishmen his determination not to submit to the foolish statute that would force him to insult their religion, it would startle the Irish nation as the "swee: bell" which, according to the legend, is to proclaim to their isle a reign of "peace and love." The young Prince would be greeted with such a burst of loyalty as would go far to convince. the predominant partner that the sister nation may safely be trusted with self-government (a measure

which seems almost an indispensable prerequisite to the Anglo-American alliance). Thus the Crown would achieve in a moment what Parliments have labored in vain for a century to achieve. Can any one doubt that royalty would from that moment take on new life? Courage is admired the world over; it used to be the foremost quality of kings. After such an exhibition of courage, the Heir Apparent, even before his accession, would be "every inch a king." On the contrary, if, ignoring the spirit of the constitution, he were to cling to the letter that killeth, submitting his conscience to be made. the will-less plaything of contending factions, and bearing the insult of being forced to utter words which he loathes, would it not be a loud notice to the world that royalty in England has indeed lost all vital meaning and has itself become a vermiform appendix in the digestive tract of a practical republic? Never was there a case in which one might more appropriately say with Coriolanus:

"What custom wills, in all things should we do it.

The dust on antique time would lie unswept,

And mountainous error be too highly heaped

For truth to overpower. Rather than fool it so,

Let the high office and the honor go
To them that would do thus."

N the central portion of Canada

North and the Rocky Mountains -are the great prairies and plains of the Canadian Northwest. A generation ago this vast expanse was a terra incognita. Tenanted alone by the nomadic Indian and innumerable herds of buffalo, it was aptly called the Great Lone Land. The advance of the Anglo-Saxon race, however, has wrought a wonderful transformation in recent years, and by the construction of the Canadian Pacific railway across its entire breadth, a Newer Britain has been created in this once remote region which promises to shortly become one of the world's greatest granaries. Thriving towns and villages have arisen, and in many parts of this wide territory there are prosperous settlements of contented tillers of the soil.

How were these great plains formed? After the disappearance of the waters that engulfed them in the long ago, according to geologists, they were covered with dense forests, which were destroyed by fire, and, denuded of the trees, were converted into prairies. "Whatever may have been," writes Dr. Selwyn, chief of the Canadian Government Geological staff, "the effect of those disastrous conflagrations on this region from a hygrometric point of view, it is beyond

doubt that at different epochs nearly every superficial mile of the region. comprised between the Red River and the Rocky Mountains has been subjected to the action of fire, and that hundreds of square miles of forests have been thus converted into prairies nearly stripped of trees." Dr. Dawson, another member of the Canadian Geological staff, has stated the same fact respecting the valley of the Peace River. "Whatever may be," he says, "the theory adopted, or that any one has been able to propose, as an explanation of the origin of the great prairies of the western part of America situated more to the south, the origin of the Peace River prairies is sufficiently evident. There cannot be a doubt that they have been produced and are preserved by fires. In its nature. this is a forest country, and the young trees grow rapidly in places where the fire has not passed for several years." These fires, it is reasonable to think, are the work of men, and it is clear that before it was inhabitated by the savages, this country was everywhere covered with dense forests. That the origin of the prairie zones actually existing goes back to a distant date, is clearly demonstrated by the appearance of these prairies, especially by the fact that they are cut everywhere in furrows by the old paths repre

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