unfortunately, retain much of their old brutish disposition and
ferocity in the midst of all the civilizing influences of modern
times, so that statesmen foresee an inevitable collision in the
not distant future between the Sclav and the Anglo-Saxon. It is
disheartening in these days of splendid progress, when we had
hoped that war was for ever banished from the world, to find that
humanity has yet to endure the old horrors once more. How fearful
these horrors will be, and how great the destruction of life, it is
hardly possible to conceive, so terrible are the forces at man's
command nowadays, if he uses them simply for destructive purposes.
The Sclav has spread from South-Eastern Europe and multiplied
greatly in Asia, till his boundaries are coterminous with British
territory, and it is his inveterate aggressive disposition which
causes all the gloomy forebodings. Before we return to our own
happy Canada, let us glance at Africa, the "dark continent" of the
last century. Civilization has long penetrated to the upper waters
of the Nile, and to the great fresh water lakes which rival our
Huron and Superior. The beautiful country in which the mighty
Congo and the Nile take their rise, is all open to the world's
commerce, and highways now exist stretching from Alexandria
through these magnificent regions to the Transvaal and the Cape.
Madagascar, fair, fertile and wealthy, has developed, under
Anglo-Saxon influence, her wonderful latent resources for all
men's good. In addition to mineral treasures she had wealth to
bestow in the shape of healing plants, whose benefits were greater
to suffering humanity than tons of gold and silver. The botanical
gardens at New Westminster, and the conservatories at Churchill,
are greatly indebted to the flora of Madagascar. But let us now
return to Canada and continue our contrasts.