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THE

POLITICAL RELATIONS OF CANADA

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES.

Delivered to the Nineteenth Century Club, Nev: York, on the 31st

/anuary, iSgo.

{

GOLDWIN SMITH.

-S

PRINTED BY HUNTER, ROSE & COMPANY.

1890.

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THE

POLITICAL RELATIONS OF CANADA

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES.

Americans have at last begun to feel an interest in Canada.
Hitherto I have always told my CJanadian friends that what
they had to fear was not aggression, but indifference. To
know^ whether an antagonistic empire is being formed to
the north of you and whether a French nation is being
formed on the Lower St. Lawrence is surely important to
your statesmen and your people. The question of Annexa-
tion, as it is improperly called, or as it ought to be called of
political union, is one which 1 .shall not attempt this even-
ing to decide, though a little light may be thrown upon it.
But whatever I might have to say about it I should feel
safe before this audience. I am sure there is no one here
who if he wishes for a union of Canada with the United
States wishes for any but a free, equal and honourable union,
such as might be discussed by loyal and patriotic citizens on
both sides, without prejudice to their loyalty or their patriot-
ism. After twenty years of intercourse with Americans, I
have felt warranted in assuring Canadians that there exists
here no desire of bringing Canada into the Union otherwise
than by the free consent of her people. Apart from mor-
ality, your people would be too wise to incorporate disaffec-
tion. But discussion is not aggression, nor likely to lead to
it ; and to prohibit the two sections of the Knglish-speaking

4 CANADA SELF-GOVERNED.

people of this continent, situated as they are, from thinkino-
of their future rehitions to each other would be futile. As
well might you forbid their looking- at each other across the
St. Lawrence.

The political relation of Canada to CIreat Britain is, as you
know, that of a self-governed colony to the Imperial country.
This is now the relation borne by the colonies generally, as
distinguished from the dependencies. The only part of the
Empire to which that name properly applies is India. It
is sometimes said that England was frightened into giving
the colonies self-government by the American Revolution.
This is not so. Canada was ruled by Royal Governors,
though with elective Assemblies, until 1837 : she was ruled
honourably and on the whole well. The tide of Liberal-
ism which set in after the great French war, and which
brought Parliamentary Reform in England, brought also
self-government to the colonies. What is called the Cana-
dian Rebellion was really not so much a rebellion against
the Imperial Grovernment as a petty civil war. In British
Canada it was a petty civil war between the Tories and the
Reformers; in French Canadit it was a civil war between the
French majority and the Briti.sh minority who as conquerors
had engrossed power. The Tories in Upper Canada put
down the rishig without the aid of a single British bayo-
net. But Liberalism then reigned in England. Responsible
Government, as it was called, was introduced into the
colony. The Royal Governor ceased to rule, and power was
transferred to a Cabinet nominally appointed by him but
really representing the party which had the majority in Par-
liament. Nothing was outwardly changed, but different in-
structions were issued to the Governor. Lord Metcalfe, who
had been trained in India and was sent to Canada by a Tory
government, tried to resume personal power, but he was
defeated. Constitutional Government after the British model
was finally establiihed, and the connection between the
Imperial country and the colony {was reduced to what is
called " the silken thread." Just so has England herself passed ,

r*^ '9

THE GOVERNOU-OENKHAL. ft

without change of tho forms, and nuleed without being con-
scious ol the transition, from a Monarchy into a KepubHc.
This pohcy ot conservatism in form and revolution in sub-
stance is deemed the height of wisdom, but perhaps there
may be tw^o sides to that question.

The Imperial country still sends out a governor, but he has
no longer any ])olitical power. The last prerogative retained
was that of dissolving or refusing to dissolve Parliament, and
this was given up to the Prime Minister by the late Gover-
nor-General. The prerogative of mercy was personally exer-
cised by Lord DuHerin in a special case, to relieve his
ministers of a difficulty, but it w^as understood that this was to
be the last time. The late Governor-General marked his
irresponsibility by reading, at the dictation of his Prime Min-
ister, a speech from the Throne in which he commended
u fiscal policy laying protective duties on English goods.
By holding his little court at Ottawa, by recommending
to baronetcies and knighthoods, by getting Canadian ladies
presented at the British Court, by going round and speak-
insr, dinins', or laving first stones, the Governor-General
fosters the monarchical and aristocratic sentiment. With
Lord Dutferin this social propagandism began to be active.
Aristocracy clings to the hope that it may yet rescue from
democracy a part of the JSew World. No one who has at all
imbibed the spirit of history can have narrow feelings
against historical institutions. Aristocracy had its day, when
it did the service of an iron time. But its day, even for
the Old World, is past. In the New World its intrusion
surely can do nothing but mischief Democracy has its evils
and perils, as all men of sense know, and as all noble spirits
struggling for improvement know too w^ell. But titles of
honour, so-called, do not make the bearers honourable. The
spirit of the lacquey does not cast out the spirit of the dema-
gogue, and nothing but the spirit of the lacquey can w^ell be
bred by these petty courts without ancestral grandeur or
traditi(»nal refinement. Some of the best men in Canada

LEGISLATION AND JUDICIAL AUTHORITY.

have refused titles, while by some who are not among the
best they are, as might be expected, eagerly sought.

England also sends out a general to command the militia,
but the control of the military administration is entirely in
Canadian hands. Even the presence of an English general
is viewed askance, and that by some who deem themselves
supremely loyal.

Canada makes her own laws, though legally the Imperial
Legislature is supreme. The Home Grovernment has a veto,
but this would never be exercised except in case of conflict
with Imperial statutes, treaties or fundamental rules of
Imperial policy. In one respect the supremacy of the
Imperial Legislature is still felt, and felt to our disadvan-
tage. Our Constitution is embodied in an Act of the Im-
perial Parliament and can be amended only by the same
authority. Thus we are without the power of constitutional
amendment. Our Constitution is, as it were, in mortmain,
and the stream of political life is frozen at its source ; for the
Imperial Parliament has far too much on its hands to bestow
a thought on our concerns. The Constitution was never sub-
mitted to the Canadian people. It was I'ramed by the Can-
adian politicians in concert with the Colonial Office and passed
by the Colonial Secretary through the British Parliament.

Canada makes her own tarift. She lays protective duties
on British goods. This liberty was demanded and obtained
by the Colony of Victoria about twenty-five years ago. It is
said that the colonies are still restrained from discriminating
in their tariffs against their Mother Country. Otherwise, the
fiscal unity of the empire is dissolved, and every member is
left to do what it thinks best for itself in the circumstances in
which it is placed.

The supreme judicial authority is still in the British Privy
Council, that tribunal unique in history which metes out
justice to the people of so many lands, tongues and religions,
now deciding a boundary question between Ontario and

THE TRKATY-MAKING POWER. /

Manitoba, now a question about the effect of a Koman Catholic
excommunication in Quebec, now which of two Hindoo
famihes shall take a Hindoo heritage and perform the ianiily
sacrifice to a Hindoo deity. It is an upright as well as an
august tribunal ; but it is distant and expensive. Canada has
set up a Supreme Court of her own to reduce as far as possi-
ble the number of appeals.

The Treaty-making power is of course still in the Imperial
country. But the colony is allowed under the wing- of the
colonial office practically to make her own commercial trea-
ties. It has been moved in the Canadian Parliament to send
a Commissioner, who would virtually be a Commercial
Ambassador, to Washington, and though the motion was lost
it received a large vote. The colony is involved in all the
quarrels and wars of the Mother Country, while the Mother
Country reciprocally is involved in all the quarrels of the
colonies. Canadian commerce may any day be cut up in a
war about Egypt, about a boundary in Africa, or about the
frontier of Afghanistan. Grreat Britain, on her part, has to
interfere in these Fisheries and Seal questions in which she
has no interest, though honour binds her to do her best for
her colony. Not one man in a thousand probably in Grieat
Britain has the least idea what the Fisheries question or the
Behrings Sea imbroglio means. I have seen a proclamation
of the Privy ('ouncil in which the Province of Ontario was
designated as ' that Town.' It was drawn up of course by the
clerk, not by the Council : but the clerk would be a highly
educated man.

Of the Imperial army nothing is left in Canada but the re-
duced garrison of Halifax. It is so in all the British colonies.
Soon the beat of that drum will go round the world with the
rising sun no more. But as the last throb of England's war-
drum dies away will be heard the voice of law, literature and
civilization speaking in the English tongue. I read in one of
your leading journals the other day that the American people,
by which I hope the Editor meant his own subscribers, would

UTILITY OF THE CONNECTION.

rejoice over any misiortuue which might belall England. Let
thoni rejoice. They will not efface the record of English
greatness. Nor will they ever see the I'all ol' that grander and
better Empire to which all whose language is English must
for ever belong.

Canada contributes nothing to Imperial armaments. Her
force is a militiu half of which is trained for a fortnight each
year. Evidently such a torce could not be brought into line
within the time allowed by the swift march of modern war.
Excelieut soldiers might, no doubt, be recruited in Canada,
though thev miffht be somewhat too democrat!:, lor the strict
discipline of th<' British army. In war the colony must look
to England for protection. Tribute no colony or even depen-
dency of Great Britain has ever paid oiherwise than m the
indirect form of commercial preference.

What then is the use to England of a supremacy without
power, without commercial preference, and with dangerous
liabilities ? None. What is the use to the colony of a de-
pendence also attended with dangerous liabilities which are
poorly compensated by a very precariou?s protection ? None.
Is it in any way desirable that a free community on this side
the Atlantic should be governed or have its Constitution iixed
by a community not a whit superior to it in intelligence and
ignorant of all its concerns on the other side ? Apparently it
is not. There is no tie left but sentiment. Of sentiment
we will not speak lightly so close to '^"rll Street. But
sentiment to be genuine and lasting must be the glow, as it
were, on sense, and without sense cannot long endure. The
cable is worn to its last strand. A maritime war between
England and other powers cutting up Canadian commerce
•would probably be the end. In their hearts British statesmen,
some of them at least, know the truth w^hatever conventional
sentiment, and as they think honour, may force them to say
with their lips. Even Lord Beaconsheld, as we now know,
in his confidential correspondence with Lord Malmesbury,
called the colonies in general and Canada in particular mill-

IMPKRIAL FEDEUATION.

stones round the nock of England and said tliat tlioy would
soon bo independent. The strength ot England is in herself.
Against Philip 11., against Louis XIV., against Napoleon, she
fought and won without aid from any dependency whatever.

The end of connection is apparently near, and the feeling
that it is near produces a spasm of recoil under the name ot
Imperial Federation. I wonld speak with respect of the
Imperiil Federationists. They want the Grreater Britain and
I want the Oreatest. But Imperial Federation takes no tangi-
ble form : its devotees Ct ' upon our bosoms to swell with
enthusiasm for a scheme hereafter to be disclosed. What
precedent does history afford for such a fedr»ration of com-
munities of all sorts and sizes scattered over r lie globe, and
differing as widely as possible from each othm* in their local
circumstances and requirements V The P' :nan Empie was
vast, but it was within a ring fence and it wa.s alone in its
world, not Mcatt>n'ed and wit'u othm- povvi -s nitervening
betw ;en its members. Who are to be included in Imperial
Federation ? Is the negro of the West Indies to vote on
Imperial policy? What is to bo done with India? Its
people are five-sixths of the population of the Empire. If
they are taken in, they will swamp the Federation ; if
they are left out who is to govern them? Are we to
have one State of the Federation holding an Empire of its
own five times as populous as all the rest of the Federation,
with a policy, a budget, and armaments apart ? What is the
British Crown to do with two sets of advisers, one Federal
the other British, perhaps advising different ways ? How is
representation to be apportioned ? If according to population,
and Great Britain is to have members in proportion to St.
Helena, what hall will hold the Federal Parliament ? How is
the fiscal policy of the Empire to be haimonized with the dif-
ferent fiscal policies which the several colonies have adopted
and are determined to keep ? There are t:> be sub-Federa-
tions of the North A. ^erican Colonies, the Australian Colonies,
the South African Colonies. Of which body will each man
feel himself a citizen, and how can any statesmanship manage

COLONIAL DEPEKDENCY A MISTAKE.

such a complication of relations and a?' 3giances? Those who
undertake to carry out such a scheme have not only to put
back the shadow on the dial of colonial history, which has so
lonj^ been moving- towards complete emancipation, but to
combat the inherent tendency of the race, w^hich is not
towards centralization but towards self-government.

Instead of a grander unity and sublimer sentiment there
w^ould probably come a rupture. The Mother Country
would forfeit the aliection ol another set of colonies An-
other set of colonies would break with its past, renounce the
heritage of memories which sobers while it exalts the spirit
of a nation, and perhaps make a miserable religion of enmity
to the central hearth of its race and the source of its
civilization.

Colonial dependency was a mistake from ^the beginning.
The relation was always fraught with the danger of angry
rupture. The founders of the Grreek Colonies showed us the
right way when they took the sacred fire from the temple
hearth of the Mother Country and set forth to establish a new
Commonwealth bound to its mother only by the filial tie.
"VVe have, however, to bear in mind that while the French
Monarchy was powerful and aggressive we needed here the
protection of British arms. France saved you in a war against
England : therefore you hate England and love France : but
remember that had it not been for the protecting arm of
England France might have reigned here.

What is the relation of Canada to the United States ? I
speak of British Canada : a word about French Canada here-
after. Formally the two communities are foreign nations
to each other, and everything said about the possibiUty of any
other relation must be said without prejudice to allegiance.
But Mr. Chamberlain speaking as the representative of the
Queen and speaking in Canada said that he could not regard
the Americans as a foreign nation.

INTERNATIONAL FUSION.

The separation was an historical accident, the result of a
civil war and would never have taken place at all had your
ancestors shown after your first civil war anything Uke the
wisdom and magnanimity which you showed after your
second. Not only is there no natural boundary between the
people of the United States and those of the Dominion, but
the territories are so interlocked, the four separate masses
composing the Dominion being unconnected with each other,
while each of them is closely connected with the States to the
South of it, that unless Nature can be beaten as she has never
been beaten before, a glance at the map is almost enough to
settle these questions. The populations are identical in every
respect, in race, language, religion, character and organic in-
stitutions. They are rapidly fusing, for there is a large and
constant exodus not only of the French biit of the farmers of
British Canada ; half of those who remain have relatives
south of the Line ; and if a Canadian Loyalist levels a blow
at the detested Yankees, the odds are that his fist lights on
the fjice of his own brother or cousin. Americans settle
as freely though not in so large numbers in Canada, and
if they go into politics are apt to turn high Tories. Dakota
and others of your new Western States are full of Cana-
dians : so are New York and Chicago. Canadian youths go
to the American centres to push their fortunes as readily
as Scotch youths go to London or Liverpool. Those Ameri-
can fishermen for whom you are fighting so hard in the Fish-
eries question are three-fourths of them Canadians. New
York is becoming more and more the commercial centre of
Canada. American bank bills go through the Dominion at par,
while those of our own remoter Provinces do not, or do so
only by virtue of a special arrangement. The connection
of the railway systems is complete, and with their extension
the interflow of population and the general intercourse in-
crease. The Churches on the two sides of the Line are the
same and are in perfect communion, clergymen accepting
calls freely from one country to the other. The American
Science Association meets at Toronto. The periodical litera-

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC R. R.

ture of Canada is mainly American. There is a free circu-
lation of Professors and students between Canadian and Ame-
rican Universities. The benevolent societies, such as those of
the Freemasons, Odd Fellows, and Knights Templars, extend
across the Line ; so do even national societies, snch as the St.
George's Society, and political societies such as that of the
Orangemen. Philanthropic and social movements, such as
Prohibitionism and Woman's Rights are common to the two
countries. Labour organizations, such as the Knights of
Labour, are common also. The same problems are before both
secti^/iis, the same conflicts are going on in both. The mind
of o\v people as well as the mind of your people is exercised
by t e problem of marriage and divorce. Our people like
your people feel themselves on the eve of a struggle between
modern civilization and the Church of the Past. There is
a Lodge of your Grand Army at Ottawa, and there were thou-
sands of Canadian enlistments in your army during the war ;
a pretty good set-ott" by the way against the one seaman of the
British Naval Reserve who sailed in the Alabama. Your social
and pleasure capitals are largely ours ; the Canadian who
thunders eternal separation in the Canadian Parliament brings
out his daughters at Washington. Canadians resort to Ame-
rican watering-i)laces and there is a continual interchange of
bridal parties. Last bat not least, there is a connection be-
tween the base-ball organizations, and the Toronto " nine " is
recruited in the United States.

The history of the Canadian Pacific Railway is instructive.
To make up for the lack of geographical or commercial unity
between the Provinces of the Dominion they were to be
bound together by political railways. The first of these poli-
tical railways was the Litercolonial, which was to bind the
Maritime Provinces to Ontario and Quebec, wliile it afforded
a military highway for Imperial troops. The si^cond was the
Canadian Pacific Railway, which was to link the newly-
opened North- West and British Columbia to the ]*]astern Pro-
vinces, and at the same time to separate them from the United
States. The undertaking was to be strictly national and Imperial-

STRUCTURE OF SOCIKTY.

ist. Its chief constructors have been made baronets or knights
on that account. In this character it received from the Domin-
ion subsidies exceeding a hundred millions. No American was
to have anything to do with it. What was the result ? An
American firm was in the Syndicate, an American, now Vice-
President of the United States, was Vice-President, an Ame-
rican was Manager and is now President. The road has
become almost as much an American as a Canadian road ; its
trunk line runs throu<?h the State of Maine ; it has its American
connections not only in the East, but at the Sault and at
Vancouver. To gain American trade, it actually discriminates
against Canada in its freights. By uiking the short cut
through Maine it kills the other national and Imperial rail-
way, the Intercolonial, which cost Canada forty-five millions.
Never was a more strenuous effort made to beat nature and
never was her victory more complete.

The structure of society, the character of the people and
their social sentiments are the same in British Canada that
they are in the Northern and Western States. There is an
official and quasi-aristocratic tinge on society at Ottawa.
There is an English tinge on society at Toronto. But the
English tinge is dying away now that the British regiments
are gone, and the leadership of the professions, of commerce,
and of society, which used to be in the hands of immigrants
from England, has passed into the hands of native Canadians.
British Canadian society is distinctly that of the New, not that
of the Old World. It is democratic though the democratic
character is tempered by distinctions of wealth, of education,
of position in the hierarchies of industry and commerce, Like
American society, Canadian society is industrial and un-mili"
tary, while in both there is the same love of military show
and the same worship of military fame. The same peculiar
phrases strike the ear, the same little traits of character meet
the eye. on both sides of the line. Canada has the same
trouble that you have with democracy in the kitchen. Onr
matrimonial relations are in a lees disturbed condition ; but
that problem, as I have said, is before us, and after all the law

wKm

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS.

■<i
I

of Illinois or Indiana is not the law of the United States. In
the richer country the standard of living* will naturally be
higher: so will be the standard of literary culture. But I be-
lieve Canadians bear a high character for industry and trust-
worthiness among commercial employers in the United States.
Depend upon it, it the people of British Canada should ever
determine to cast in their lot with yours, you will find them no
unworthy partners in the work of building up a larger and
happier humanity, of which this continent seems destined to
be the scene.

In brief, British Canada and the United States are now
one people under two governments and with a Customs line
drawn across it. That I believe is the true statement of the
case. The nearest historical parallel, I do not say a perfect
parallel, but the nearest, is the relation borne by the different
States of Grermany to each other after the abolition of the
Empire and before the Zollverein. Bear in mind always
that the division of the British Canadian from the other
British American colonists had its origin in a civil war.

The political institutions and the political character formed
by them are essentially the same on both sides. Canada, like
the United States, is an absolute democracy. The monarchi-
cal parts of the Canadian Constitution are merely a false front,
not a part of the polity. What was intended to be the aristo-
cratic element, the Senate nominated by the Crown, is also
almost a nullity or an addition to the patronage fund of party.
Canada, like the United States, is a Confederation. In fact,
the Constitution of the United States was the real model. A
Canadian Province would play its part at once, as a State of
the Union, without feeling the difference except that it would
have more self-government. The same thing would be true
reciprocally of an American State. So far as the political ma-
chinery was concerned you would only have to turn the two
Federal Grovernments into one. There are differeuc* f of detail

•■5

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS.

between the two systems. The most important perhaps is
that Canada, like England, has a Prime Minister and Cabinet
with seats in Parliament, whereas you have a President and
Cabinet without seats in Congress. The Federal Grovern-
ment and legislature have or were intended to have more
power in Canada than they have in the United States. The
framers of the Canadian Constitution supposed wrongly that
secession was due to the weakness of the central power,
whereas slavery was the sole cause. The Federal legislature
makes the criminal law and the law of marriage. The Fed-
eral Grove rnment appoints all the judges and has the direct
command of the militia. By the Constitution there is a Fed-
eral veto on Provincial legislation, but this has been practically
renounced. Canada has a permanent civil service, but you are
trying to get one. Canada has a judiciary, like that of Eng-
land, appointed for life, and to her great benefit; but the Judges
of your Supreme Court are appointed in the same manner.
In the most important and the most sinister point of all, the
two governments are identical ; both are party governments.
In Canada, as in the United States, the system of party is es-
tablished, and brings with it the Machine, the Boss, the Con-
vention, the Stump, the Party Press, and all its other inevi-
table concomitants, including unhappily political corruption.
Let the forms of the two Constitutions differ in detail
aS they may, it is party in both cases that rules through
those forms, and it rules for party ends. If we have not these
Presidential elections, which seem as if in time they would
tear the Commonwealth to pieces, we have general elections to
settle who shall be Prime Minister, which are the same thing
in a somewhat milder form. Our system of municipal govern-
ment is the same as y^urs and bears the same fruit with
rather less luxuriance. Our system of public education
is the same, saving that, with us the Roman Catholics
in two Provinces have separate schools. Shades there are and
shades only of difference in political character. The political

FRENCH CANADA.

character of Canadians betrays in some degree the distinctive
influence of dependence ; yours the distinctive influence of
the Revolution in which your Republic had its origin. But
the social and literary fusion of which I have spoken is pro-
moting complete assimilation of political character also. It
can hardly be said that two independent experiments are be-
ing carried on, so identical in all important respects are the
two sets of institutions and their practical effects.

It is of British Canada that I have been speaking. French
Canada stands apart. She is a French nation with a practic-
ally theocratic government, the power being in the hands of
the priesthood to whom the political leaders generally owe
their position. The theocratic character has been intensified
by the coming of Ultramontanism, which has supplanted the
old Galilean Church and the impersonation of which is the
Jesuit. The political relation of French Canada to Great
Britain is that of passive loyalty to the British Crown. The
loyalty has become of late more than ever passive and is morally
superseded by allegiance to the Pope, whose authority in the
case of the Jesuits Estates' Act has actually been introduced
into French Canadian legislation. The political relation of
Quebec to British Canada is that of an ill-assorted and uneasy
federation. Canadian federation in fact was rather a divorce
than a union ; its main object was to put an end to the legis-
lative union between French and British Canada which had
been a perpetual quarrel and had brought government to a
deadlock. Canadian politicians thought they would drown
their trouble by immersion in a union of all the British col-
onies in North America. The patriotism of the French Can-
adian centres entirely in French Canada. If he cares for
anything beyond it and Rome, it is for his old mother country,
France, the connection with which is being renewed, now
that the storm of the French Revolution is over. The relation
of the French Canadians to the United States at present is
that of peaceful invaders on a lar.fje scale of your North-Eastern
States, where they seem likely co form extensive settlements.

1«

FIIENCH-CANADIAN INVASION.

and where they shock your school inspectors by the illiteracy
everywhere characteristic of the Church ol'tht Past and alarm
your sanitarians by their religious neglect of vaccination. The
Church in Quebec, as in Ireland, bids all the people marry
early, and the land in both cases being poor, overpopulation
is in both cases the result. Quebec would bo another Ireland
if there were not a ready overflow into the United States.
British Canada has not had force to assimilate the French
element of Quebec as you have assimilated enough at least for
political purposes the French element in Louisiana; and the re-
sult is this French nationality which is threatening to break
the unity of American civilization. Mr. Samuel Adams should
have waited with his revolution till Quebec had not only been
wrested from France but made English. However the emi-
grants are spreading American ideas amoi.g their kinsmen at
home, to the dismay of the priests, who at Hrst tried rejiatri-
ation, but that having failed seem now to have made up their
minds to go with their flocks, and try to build up a commun-
ity of French Catholics in the old home of the English Puritan.

It is not only New England that the French Canadian is
invading. He is invading British Canada also. From the
Province of Quebec he is fast extruding the remnant of
British. He is fast gaininj? ground in Eastern Ontario and
bringing his language and his Church organization with him.
He has tried to make the North-West his own, though in this
he will probably fiul. Lord Durham cited the saying that the
day might come when the English of Quebec, to remain Eng-
lish, would have to cease to be British. By the rapidity of
French encroachment that saying** is now being recalled to the
minds of the British Canadians and not in Quebec alone.

As to British Canada, the true statement of the case, I repeat,
appears to me to be that its people and the people of the
United States are one, thouij'-h there are two governments, and
the territory has a Customs line drawn across it.

"Will the duality of government, sprung, let us always re-
member, out of historical accident, last for ever ? Will Canada

■■■■Mm

1«

WILL DUAL GOVERNMENT LAST (*

find it worth her whih» always to keep up a system, the ex-
pense of which far exceeds the meie cost of the Government,
since subsidies and appropriations on a large scale are con-
stantly required to hold tog-ether provinces which, being-
neither geographically nor commercially connected with each
other, have been federated rather than united; which are so
far indeed from having been united that an inhabitant of
Nova Scotia or British Columbia does not even call himself
a Canadian. This is what I do not undertake this evening to
say. There are influences drawing both ways. There is the
identity of the two civilizations. There is the advancing fusion
of the two sections of the English-speaking- race. There is the
geographical configuration, which is such that a political divi-
sion separating from the continent those four blocks of terri-
tory which lie at intervals along its line, were the thing to be
done now, would be deemed insane. There is the idea of a
confederation covering the whole of this Northern continent,
dedicated to industry, shutting out war and opening a new
field for human development This idea can hardly fail to take
hold of men's mind> when the old feud is once buried, and it
is not less practical than grand ; for the capacity ol' the federal
system, provided it retains its character, is unlimited, aild if
four hundreu millions of Chinese can live under a centralized
government surely a hundred millions or even two hundred
millions of our race can live under a government not central-
ized but locally free and elastic. On the other hand, there is
the strong tendency of communities to run on in the groove
in which they have once begun to run. There is the natural
attachment of the Ottawa Grovernment and all its officials to
their own existence. There is a Parliament at Ottawa in
which also the love of life is strong. There is the old flag, not
the least important item in the account. There are the
United Empire Loyalists w^ho cherish the ancient feud not
only as a family tradition but as a patent of gentility. There
is Orangeism, though Orangeism is likely to become less
separatist now that it is itself astride the Line. "We must try
in these cases to see which are the great and permanent
forces, which forces are secondary and transitory. However

CANADIAN INDEPENDENCE.

immeroiis and seemingly powerful the secondary and tran-
sitory forces may be, however long they may suspend the
action of the great forces, in the end the great forces prevail.
Italy is unified, Germany is unified, though sagacious states-
men, seeing the repeated failures, thought that the event
would never come. One day the stars are propitious, a shock
of some kind lifts the nation out of its groove, the man, the
Cavour or Bismarck, arises and the will of destiny is done.

Immediately after Canadian Confederation there came,
chiefly among our young men, a pulse of patriotic feeling and
of national aspiration, which gave birth to a short-lived move-
ment in favour of independence. The old politicians and the
Governor-General of that day, used all their inlluence to
stifle this movement and stilled it was. Efforts are now being-
made, still chiefly among the young men, to revive it. It
was from the beginning and is now a generous movement,
deserving t»f all sympathy and respect. But since its first en-
trance on the stage the difficulty, al ,v ays great, of making one
nation of British and French Canada has grown an apparent
impossibility, while the extension of the Dominion westward
to a territory severed from us by Lake Superior and four hun-
dred miles of wilderness has destroyed the last vestige of
geographical unity in the territorial seat of the projected
nation. It seems almost certain that before these obstacles
the movement in favour of independence will succumb.

Were political union between the United States and Canada
now proposed the negotiation would have its difficulties. The
Union of Scotland with England was as clearly as possible
designed by nature. Somers, Godolphin, and their colleagues
w^ere great statesmen and had been trained in diplomacy on
the grandest scale ; what is more, they had real powder in
their hands : yet their skill was tasked to the utmost. As
soon as you touch the point all the opposing forces are called
into active life. It was so in the case of England and Scot-
land. In the Scotch Parliament Lord Belhaven asked the leave
of the House, in the midst of his great speech against the

OUSTACM.ES TO UXION.

Union, to pause ior a lew moments that he might shed a tear
over the approaching- ruin of his country — a ruin which came
in the shape oC an unparalleled burst oi' prosperity. States-
men olthe highest class are needed, and this great game of party
is apt to produce skili'ul players at that game, rather than states-
men. It is apt to produce men adept in the art of collecting
votes, but without a broad policy, without grandeur or steadi-
ness of aim, always on the stump, unable even to keep their
own council, and always vmbosoming themselves on plat-
forms. The vision ol these men is too often narrowed
to the table on which their game is played. Whatever they
see they see only in its bearing on elections. A United States
♦Senator once told me that he was against the admission of
Canada into the Union because he thought she would vote
Democratic. How long it took you to get Dakota admitted
as a State ! Party would prevail, as it always does, over
national interests. Whichever party had the negotiation in
hand the other party would try to make it miscarry, and the
party press, from the interference of which the negotiations
of the union between England and Scotland were compar-
atively free, would do all the mischief in its power. Local
interests too might revolt against national interests and pre-
vail as they already have in connection with this very matter.
Difficulties of this kind have perhaps hardly been enough
taken into account.

What is the feeling of the Canadian people? It is impossible
to answer that question with confidence because there is no
test. Nothing could test the feeling but a thoroughly secret
ballot. The real sentiment of the people is greatly hidden
beneath the conventional sentiment which the official class
labours with every engine of moral coercion to maintain.
The assiduity with which those engines are plied, however, in
itself betrays misgiving on the part of those who ply them.
While we arc all in the dark everybody says that which he
wishes to be true. One day a leading journal asserts that
there are not seven Annexationists in Canada ; the next day a
correspondent replies that there are seven times seven in the

•I

rANADTAN FEKI.INO.

circle of his own acquaintauce. If tho daily utterances of the
Tory organ at Toronto were to be believed, its opponents,
that is a full half of the people of Canada, must be Annexa-
tionists openly or in disguise. Sentiment dith'rs with locali-
ties and class. Official Ottawa is staunchly separatist of course.
A friend of mine was betraying Unionist sentiments in
company there when an official told him that were it
not for the restraint of social confidence he would denounce
him. Come into the street, replied my Irieiid, collect the l)ig.
gest crowd you can, and I will soon relieve you of the re-
straint of social confidence. It has been said that you could
not speak of political union before a meeting of Canadians
without being stoned. I feel sure that this is not true. You
have your Tail-Twisters and we have our Jingoes and Paper
Tigers, But a meeting of ordinary Canadians would hear
you discuss in proper terms the possible reunion of the Eng-
lish-speaking race on this continent without showing any in-
clination to take up stones. How should it be otherwise,
seeing that half those men have sons or brothers in the United
States ? A man could not run for Parliament as a political
unionist because political unionism is not a plank in the plat-
form of either party. Bat if he got a nomination on the party
platform I do not believe that in an ordinary constituency his
political unionism would do him harm. A political unionist
of the most pronounced type was the other day elected mayor
of his city by acclamation. The Provincial Prime Minister
of Quebec, says that there are political unionists in his
parts, and though he has been abused for saying this he has
not been contradicted. My impression is that all along the
Line, in the North- West and in the Maritime Provinces, the
people generally are inclined to closer relations with their
own continent. I use a vague expression which best accords
with the vagueness of the sentiment. The ill-feeling which
' was stirred up by the Trent affair and the Fenian raids has
died out, though the threat of retaliation the other day pro-
duced another slight access of resentment. On the other
hand, there is no anti-British feeling M'hatever except among

FEELINO IN QUEBEC.

a certain portion of the Irish, but, on the contrary, strong
attachment to the Old Country. You talk about the phim
ripening. Remember that plums to ripen them, though they
do not need fingering, need sun, and that Anglophobia is not
sunshine to Canadians, still less to England, whose consent is
indispensable to any change. British Canadians, settled in
the United States, you will find are generally opposed to the
annexation of Canada. The reason of this is that their British
and Anti-American feeling is being always kept alive by the
insults which your Press daily fiings on everything British.
You estrange the hearts and chili the allegiance of perhaps the
very best part of your new citizens, and at the same time you
drive and have always been driving the Anglo-Saxon, in
whom self- government resides, to Australian shores instead
of allowing him to come and reinforce the self-governing
element here. Surely if half of what your papers say about
British character and history is true, Americans must have
some very bad blood in their veins. Inured to these mani-
festations, as I am, and well as I know their source and
meaning, I cannot help myself being galled by them, and I
sometimes turn for relief to the Grerman Press of the United
States in which no Anglophobia is to be found.

The feeling of Quebec it is specially difficult to divine at a
moment when, owing to the development of a strong French
nationalism there everything is in a state of fermentation and
transition. I have mentioned what is said by the Prime Min-
ister of the Province. The natural tendency of a priesthood
is to cling to seclusion and twilight. Quebec is the only
part of this Northern Continent in which tithe is collected by
law. It is the only part in which miracles are performed,
though perhaps it is the part in which they are least needed.

Well, some people say, let the question as to the two
Federal &overnmonts be settled now or hereafter as it may :
there can be no doubt that the Customs Line drawn across
the continent is a commercial nuisance and ought if possible

THE TARIFF WALL.

fOSS

ible

to be removed.* A glance at the economical map is enough
to show that the continent is destined by nature to be treated
as an economical whole. In the mines, the forests, the sea and
lakes of the North are vast natural stores of which the South
wants to avail itself and to which its capital is the key, while
the North wants in exchange the manufactures of the weal-
thier and more scientitic South. To build a tariff" wall be-
tween North and South is, as clearly as anything can be, to
fight against nature and reject the benefits which she proffers
with open hand. That the natural trade of Canada is not
with her own continent but with Great Britain is a political
ligment belied by facts. Wherever an opening has been
made by the remission of duty in the tariff" wall, trade has
rushed through ; it climbs over the wall even where there is
no such openi.g; climbs over it furtively by smuggling as
well as openly by the payment of customs ; so that Canada's
trade with the United States already nearly equals her trade
with England though the ports of England are free. Canada
as a country with a limited range of production suffers more
from the separation than the United States with their much
larger range. But when a witness before your Senate Com-
mittee says that you would be giving aw^ay a market of sixty
millions for a market of live millions we must ask whether he
really thinks that a market is given away by enlarging it.
Would the market of the United States be better without the
live millions of the State of New York ? Canada suffers
greatly by being out of the commercial pale of her continent,
but the continent also suffers by the exclusion of Canada from
its commercial pale. A Zollverein would ofcour.se inv^olve an
assimilation of the -.eaboard tariffs, because otherwise there
would be smuggling through one country into the other.

*lt should be mentioned, with leferetce to what follows that the Address wai
delivered before the lecturer had received the news of the adoption in the
Canadian House of Commons of Mr. Mulock's " loyalty " Resolution. This anti-
Oontinental demonstration, in which it was ([uite natural that Sir John Macdonald
should concur, has materially changed the scene.

mmmm

COMMERCIAL UNION

That ought not to be impossible, siiicu the principle ot the
tariffs and the articles dealt with are much the same. When
the object to be gained is g-reat, difficulties of detail subside,
and those Custom houses once down would never be built
up ag-ain. Canada as the smaller interest of the two and at
the same time the greater gainer might well afford to yield a
point. The principle of Protection need not be surrendered ;
at least if Protection is to be kept within the bonds of sanity ;
for there are people whose theories imply that if a tariff wall
were built round each state of the Union every State would
be the richer for its seclusion.

What the effect of Commercial Union on political relations
would bo must be matter of conjecture. If the United
States were ever to embrace Free Trade it is not unlikely that
Canada would slide into the Union because it would be-
come impossible to maintain the existing fiscal system
in Canada or the political system which is bound up with
it. But Free Trade, your politicians say, is a long way off.
Commercial Union need produce no more effect on political
relations than the railway union and the partial monetary
union which have already taken place. All would depend
on the direction in which the great forces were tending.
The Zollverein would not have united Grermany politically if
the other grounds of union had not already been there.

Assimilation of tariffs would involve, it is said, discrim-
ination by Canada against the Imperial country, and Cana-
dian manufacturers who seek by Protective duties to exclude
British goods altogether hold up their hands in horror at
the thought of discriminating against them. Let Great Bri-
tain speak for herself when she has the case fairly before her.
Her interest in Canada as an investor fully countervails her in-
terest as an importer. Canada already discriminates, though
not against special British articles, against the bulk of British
trade, and Grreat Britain knows that the commercial unity of
the Empire is at an end. Let Great Britain, I repeat, with

POLICY TO BE PURSUED.

the case iairly before her, speak for herself. Her policy siv
what you will, is that of moderation. Her one real interest
on this continent is the friendship of its whole Eno-lish-sneak-

mg race

Leaving then politics and politicians to take their cours.
leaving questions of Annexation or Imperial Federation o,'
Canadian Independence to be gradually settled by the pro-
gress of opinion, why should we not enter at once into thn
enjoyment of a great commercial benefit and of the social and
moral benehts which it brings in its train V

There are certain interests on both sides of the line which
would forbid and are striving to prevent Commercial Union
but these interests are narrow as well as selfish. Unhappily
under this system of party government a very narrow ancl
very selfish interest being able to turn the balance of party
too often has the casting vote.

if Commercial Union embraced the Fisheries and the
Coasting Trade there would be an end of these wretched
bickerings which otherwise will never have an end It is not
for one unconnected with politics to dictate a policy to states-
men, ieast of all to the statesmen of another country. But this
may be safely said, that of all poHtics the worst, except per-
haps for some mere party purpose, is that of fitful and
impotent irritation. Your relations with the people of Canada
must be intimate and increasingly intimate as the power of
the unifying forces grows. Adopt towards them that policy
which you deem best, provided it is deliberate and is steadily
pursued; but do not poison and estrange their hearts.