reached to the very heart of Canadian womanhood, and stands to-day one with us in our needs, our strivings, and our fulfilments."

She

Lady Laurier is one of the vice-presidents at large of the National Council of Women of Canada. has been described as a woman of " tact, judgment, and enthusiasm," and as one born to share with her distinguished husband in the honours of the exalted position to which he has been called.

Canadian women have through the establishment of the National Council placed the women's movement on a permanent footing, and their work in the years to come cannot fail to have a great influence for good in the progressive life of the Canadian people. The literature of the young Dominion is also being enriched by many charming lady writers, who by their pen are doing much to awaken the national life. Space is too short to refer even in brief to more than a few, but the writings of Agnes Maule Machar, Faith Fenton, Lady Edgar, and Lady MacDonald call for more than passing notice.

Miss Fenton, who was born and educated in Toronto, early developed a talent for writing (inherited from her grandfather, who was a skilful song-writer and dramatist), which soon led her to find her true vocation. She came into notice more particularly as a miscellaneous writer during the existence of the Toronto Empire, her descriptions of public men and the running comments in that paper being publicly read and admired. After the fusion of the Empire with the Mail she wrote for a brief period for the New York Sun, and was afterwards editor-in-chief of the Canadian Home Journal, established in September 1895. She writes equally well in prose or verse, and has been placed by well-known English critics at the head of the lady journalists in Toronto.

Lady Edgar, who is an active member of the

Women's Canadian Historical Association, is VicePresident of the United Empire Loyalist Association, and has gained distinction in the literary field as author of "Ten Years of Upper Canada in Peace and War," 1805-1815 (Toronto, 1895), a volume that has received and earned the special commendation of Mr. Gladstone, and the principal English and Canadian reviews.

Baroness Earnscliffe, or to give her the more wellknown title, Lady MacDonald, has contributed much that will live in the literature of her country. Her position for so many years as the wife of the prime minister and by far the greatest man in Canadian political life, has given her a unique knowledge of Canadian politics and society. Miss Agnes Maule Machar has written much that is interesting, but her historical contribution, "Stories of New France," at once places her in the forefront of Canadians, who are both chroniclers of their national history and writers of note.

No sketch of Canadian women could be complete without a reference to Miss Martin, the first woman who was admitted to the practice of the law.

Miss Clara Brett Martin is a native of Ontario, and was educated at Trinity University, Toronto (B.A. 1890, B.C.L. 1897). She was articled first with Messrs. Mulock, Miller, Crowther & Montgomery, and afterwards with Messrs. Blake, Lash & Cassels, and was called to the bar 1897. It required two special enactments of the Legislature to permit of her enrolment as a solicitor and barrister. Special regulations were framed by the Law Society of Upper Canada. Under these regulations every woman admitted to practise as a barrister-at-law shall pay the same fees as those paid by other students-at-law. She shall become subject to the statutes, rules, and provisions of the society as in

other cases. And upon appearing before convocation upon the occasion of her being admitted to practise, shall appear in a barrister's gown, worn over a black dress, wearing a white necktie, and with her head uncovered. She was an unsuccessful candidate for school trustee in Toronto, 1894, but afterwards became a member of the Collegiate Institute Board.

THE CANADIAN ABORIGINES

By W. WILLIAMS AND S. G. B. CORYN

It is especially difficult to speak historically and numerically of a people so nomadic in their habits, and living in so vast a territory, as the Canadian Red Indians. As settlement has advanced westward and northward, so detailed and comprehensive particulars have supplemented the estimates and the reports of Hudson Bay factors and agents. At the present time the available information as to the Canadian aborigines is fairly adequate, and as accurate as it is sympathetic.

In 1856, the number of forts erected and owned by the Hudson Bay Company was 154. These forts were scattered over the whole country, and were usually the one point of contact between the red men and the white, forming centres of civilisation and law. The Red Indian tribes necessarily fell largely under their influence and government, an influence mainly depending upon toleration and rigid justice, indispensable qualities where large numbers of natives are to be successfully controlled by a strictly limited number of whites.

That the policy of the Hudson Bay Company towards the Red Indians was based upon a wise humanity it will be sufficient to quote from the standing rules of the Company, issued to their officials :

"That the Indians be treated with kindness and indulgence, and mild and conciliatory means resorted to in order to encourage industry, repress vice, and inculcate morality; that the use of spirituous liquors

be gradually discontinued in the very few districts in which it is yet indispensable; and that the Indians be liberally supplied with requisite necessaries, particularly with articles of ammunition, whether they have the means of paying for it or not, and that no gentleman in charge of district or post be at liberty to alter or vary the standard or usual mode of trade with the Indians except by special permission of Council."

Some statistics of the aboriginal population of Canada were given before a Select Committee of the House of Commons, appointed in 1857, to consider the state of the British Possessions in North America. These figures are useful as affording perhaps the first reliable numerical returns on this subject:

Indian population in the North-West

60,300

The above may be classified according to races somewhere as follows:

The respective characteristics of the various tribes differ very widely from one another, although the common constraining influence of the law may cause such differences to be less apparent. Thus the Assiniboine Indians acquired a special character for consistent treachery and cruelty, and the Saulteaux Indians for