F.—B

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may be counted on, and on all three transcontinental routes it will be possible and desirable to arrange to place copper wires for the special use of the Empire cable service, a service which I am satisfied will grow to large proportions demanding multiple means of transmission by land and by sea. A little reflection will satisfy any person that there are great possibilities in telegraphy throughout the Empire in the near future. To-day, thanks to Rowland Hill, Henniker Heaton, already named, and several others connected with the Post Office who have distinguished themselves, any person may send letters from any part of the Dominion to England, Ireland, Scotland, India, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and the West Indies, for 2 cents (Id.), each letter weighing an ounce; precisely the same small postage as that required to convey a letter of the same weight to the nearest village. In the appended documents it is demonstrated that the principle of a low uniform charge for all distances is even more applicable to telegraphy than to the postal service. Such being actually the case, is it not reasonable to anticipate that on the completion of the circle of cables advocated by the Ottawa Board of Trade, there will immediately follow an enormous reduction in long-distance telegraph charges, and that in consequence correspondence, both social and commercial, between all points within the influence of the Empire cables, will be completely revolutionised 1 With the evidence of facts before us, can we doubt the possibility of gaining a counterpart or a parallel service to penny postage in telegraphy by the Empire cables? Remembering the increasing demand for the freest means of mutual information, should we not welcome such an outcome? Could anything but good follow such an acquisition in the great interests of the Empire and all its parts? Could anything so fully-promote inter-Imperial commerce, friendship, intimacy, alliance, and unity? Are we not warranted in the opinion that there is probably no single act in which the several Governments might combine which so speedily and so effectively would lead to the development of that educated public opinion upon which in so large a degree must rest the future of the British family of nations? S. F. Address to His Excellency, Earl Grey, Governor-General of Canada. [Sub-enclosure 1 to Enclosure in No. 102.] Reply of His Excellency, Earl Grey, Governor-General of Canada. [Sub-enclosure 2 to Enclosure in No. 102.]

Explanatory Note. The following remarks are submitted in explanation of some points alluded to in the address which the President and Council of the Ottawa Board of Trade had the honour to present to His Excellency Earl Grey on the 21st June, 1907. The address had special reference to the British Empire and the acceleration of its satisfactory development through the most perfect means of intercommunication by the twin agencies of civilisation—steam and electricity. In course of past years vast oversea possessions have come under the British flag, and each of these possessions has to some extent become populated through immigration and other causes. The British Parliament in its wisdom granted self-government to the several oversea possessions, and they are now steadily increasing in population and rapidly becoming prosperous. Possessing as they do representative institutions modelled after those of the Mother-country, these communities are each developing into autonomous British States. They all retain allegiance to the one sovereign, and the flag of the Mother-country continues to float over them. The circumstances thus briefly outlined differ from anything previously known in the history of the world, and obviously give rise to a problem as yet unsolved. While the outcome is beyond our limited vision, we may rest satisfied that if it be the will of the Great Ruler of Nations, like many another problem, it will find its solution as time rolls on. We have only to look back over our Canadian development, to be assured on this point. The evidence goes to show that the practical solution of the great Imperial problem has, unconsciously to ourselves, been in progress for many years. Evidence of the fact can now be traced to a period in our history long anterior to the birth of Imperial Federation Leagues and like schemes. A few words of explanation will make this plain. Consulting historical facts, we find that not long since Canada consisted of two provinces only —Upper and Lower Canada. Forty years ago the settlements of the united provinces were confined to the country lying east of Lake Huron on the one side, and along the banks of the River St. Lawrence on the other. At that period a vast wilderness of fertile soil in the interior of North America was lying waste or occupied only by a few bands of Indians at war with the buffalo. The whole half-continent west of Lake Huron, embracing boundless plains and nearly impassable mountains, was claimed as the hunting - ground of the Hudson Bay Company. A small English settlement had been formed on the Pacific coast, which had received the name of British Columbia, and this settlement was the most distant colony of the Mother-country. It was reached by a long sea-voyage round Cape Horn, and was practically far more remote than New Zealand at the antipodes of England. Thirty-six years ago British Columbia became part of Canada, a fact which, judging from recent events, may now be regarded as a turning-point in the Empire's history.