The Dominion in 1983 was first published as a thirty page booklet in 1883 under the pseudonym Ralph Centennius. (The author's real name is unknown.) This edition has been proof-read word-by-word against a copy of the original on microfiche. (Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions no. 00529)

In this text, a mixture of American and British spelling can be found. (For example "harbour" and "favor" are both used.) The phrase "rocket-car" is hyphenated twice, while appearing three times as two individual words. There are also some instances of unusual spelling and capitalization of words. With the exception of a few small emendations, spelling, capitalization and punctuation have been preserved as in the original.