An "Act for the better Government of India" was passed in 1858,
which provided that all the territories previously under the
government of the Company were to be vested in Her Majesty, and all
the Company's powers to be exercised in her name. The Viceroy, with
the assistance of a Council, was to be supreme in India.
In 1867 a great colonial reform was carried out, the Confederation
of the North American Provinces of the British Empire. By this Act
the names of Upper and Lower Canada were changed respectively to
Ontario and Quebec. The first Dominion Parliament met in the autumn
of the same year, and lost no time in passing an Act to construct
an Inter-Colonial Railway affording proper means of communication
between the maritime and central provinces.
In 1869 the Hudson Bay territory was acquired from the Company which
held it, and after the Red River Insurrection, headed by a half-breed,
Louis Riel, had been successfully crushed by the Wolseley Expedition,
the territory was made part of the Federation. In 1871 British
Columbia became part of the Dominion, on condition that a railway
was constructed within the following ten years which should extend
from the Pacific to the Rocky Mountains and connect with the existing
railway system.
The great Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1885, opening
out the West to all-comers.
The rise and growth of the Imperialistic spirit has been greatly
influenced by the literature on the subject, which dated its
commencement from Professor Seeley's _Expansion of England_ in 1883.
Pages:
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131