Volume 23 - Section XII - ElectricCanadian.com

PUBLISHERSPREFACEINa prospectus of Canada and its Provinces, issued some years ago,the publishers printed an advance description of the plan and purpose of the present volume, the twenty-third and last of the series.This description, being in the nature of a bid for subscribers, wouldpresumably not be underdrawn. It would naturally paint the forthcomingvolume in colours as vivid as possible.Now that the volume is published,and accomplishment has taken the place of promise,it may be interestingto see how the actual performance compares with the manifesto.This volume, the prospectus promises, will be of the highest possibleimportance. In the foregoing twenty-two volumes the associates haveplaced their facts and conclusions before the reader in this volume;theywill name and point to the sources from which these facts are drawn. Thenarratives will be followed chapter by chapter, arid documentary and otherauthorities will be cited. By this procedure of consigning citations for themost part to the final volume, the pages of the text are not burdened, andthe majority of readers annoyed, by elaborate footnotes, while at the sametime the student who wishes to know the sources will have them at hiscommand.Then will follow a Chronological Conspectus of Canadian history, inwhich the reader may trace its development in condensed outline ; and, asa reminder that the development of Canada was after all but a phase inthe onward march of the world s civilization, the chief contemporaneousevents of European and American history will be placed in parallel columns.By the laws of association this will further serve as an aid to the memoryand understanding, and will epitomize what is already made clear in thenarratives, to wit, how events in Canada, in its early stages, were influencedand moulded by, and in some great matters were but the outgrowth of,contemporaneous events in Europe.But the crowning feature of this volume and of the work willbe theGeneral Index, wherein the facts contained in the twenty-two volumes willbe collected in alphabetical order and rendered as instantly available as thevii