IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) V, A ^ fj^ .^.% < \^ 1.0 I.I Ui|28 |2.5 :^ 1^ 12.0 1.8 11.25 il.4 IIIIII.6 P» Ph 7 J (?>. f 7 '^ ^^^ ^ '/ z!^ t> II CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHIVI/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadia'^ Institute for Historical Microreproductions Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 1980 Technical Notes / Notes techniques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Physical features of this copy which may alter any of the images in the reproduction are checked below. L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Certains difauts susceptibles de nuire d la quality de la reproduction sont not^s ci-dessous. 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Le diagramme suivant iilustre la mdthode : 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 w /' o^e-- «^<-^ 4 / N<^arly 150 years liave elapsed since CJanada was ao(Hiire(l by Britain. Duiing all that time Biitain has done her best fur us. Her treasury has paid millions of pounds for our military protection, and hei- investors have supplied loans lor the dcsveiop- metit of the country with so free a hand that to-day, on public and i)rivate account, we owe theni a thousanles with the IJ'nited States ; that she gave away invalualile seaboards rather than t\<^]\t, po<.!i-pi) ihed the Fenian raid <,'laims, and let the Americans i,'et hold of Alaska. The an- swer is, briefly, that she could not lielp it. Her own interests are world-wide, and if she is to continue to bear on her shoulders the " too vast orb of her late," it is obvious that she caimot afford to plunLje into war every time a colony considers itself aggrieved. Taking ever^'thing into account, she has been a truly generous parent to ( "anada. None acknowledge this more cor- dially than the advocates of the Political Union of Canada and the tJnited States. Parado.xical as it may appear to some, they take their stand on that measure because they believe it would retlound to her well-being no less than t(j the well being of Canada. First of all, let us see how Canada would be affected. If this is not, as Dominion Day orators pretend, the best half of the contin- ent, it is, to say tiie least, a land of great possil ilities. How is it that by comparison with the rate of progiei-s, not in the United States as a whole, but merely in individual States lying close by, our development has been so painfully slow :' In 1880, Upper (".m- ada had a population half as large again as that of Illinois. X-ow, the population of Illinois is nearly twice that of Upper (Janada. Yet, as Mr. Larned said in a repcjit to the Treasury at Washington, this province is " one of the most favored spots of the continent, where {)opulation ought to breed with almost Belgian fecundity." Since IJS.'jO, New York State has added four millions to its po[)ula- tion, Pennsylvania four, Ohio nearly three, and the entire American North-West has come into existence with several millions more, not to speak of the South- West with such populous common- wealths as Texas and Kansas, or of California. Again, our sea- board provinces possess an abundance of timber, fish, coal, iron, and good farming land, and Britain spent a pretty penny in pro- moting their .settlement. Nevertheless, their united population (JLK Jil.ST I'dMCV. is not imicli over one-tliirj() tif public money has been S})ent on the North- West, but, as Mi-. f>ljike said, it is " empty still." The white population froui Lake Supei'ior to the Pacitie Ocean, that is, in New Ontario, Manitnlia, the Territories and iJiit- ish Colund)ia, is not as larye as that of l)akota, which started even with Manitoba, both beinj,^ mere hunting,' grounds, in INTO. The numerical increase in Minnesota alone in the last census decade was almost as great as the numerical increase in the entire Dominion. Of course while we remain a colony we cannot hope to yet our full share of emigi'ants. As a general thing, those who pack up and leave the Old World want to have done with it once for all. The prime cause (jf our trouble, however, as all impar- tial obsei'vers oeiceive, is economic. We are cut off fi'om the commercial and industrial life of the continent to which we be- long, shut up withi'i ourselves and left, so to speak, in a state of siege, with the result that we cannot make the most of our labor and resources. Take the richest group of States in the Union, div'orce them in like manner Irom the rest by n double row of tariffs, and they would soon resemble us in exhibiting signs of atro- phy and decay. One of the principal arguments foi- Confedera- tion was that it w^ould abolish the interprovincial tariff's and make one market of all Canada, (a) It n^rjuires no great wisdom to see that tiie benefits derived would bear no compari- son with those which would accrue from the conversion into one market of the whole continent. We have had some experi- ence in that line. We have tried four different trade policies — preferential trade with England, reciprocity in natural pioducts with the United States, a revenue tariff, pi'oteciion; and it is allowed on all hands that the rccipiocity period was the period of greatest prosperity in our history. It is true the Anti-Slavery war and the inflated currency had the efiect of outiiunibers luT hy more than i'i),'lif to one, 1111(1 who a iniaitor of a century liciice will |irol)al)l.\ Vireseiit sixly-ei'/lit millions to nix millions on the opiio^iie side of a naturally defe'celcss frontier. It is evident l>-iat a more iinpromisiti;;- nacUiis of a new nation can hardly l>e found on the face of t)ie t'Tth." Mr. Howe made a prettv fair gutss. In Is'Jti the liiited Stales had ti'B.UUO.UDO jieojile. Canada in Ib'.H had 4,M)0,00 ; on tlio other haiiil, the reciprocity was hut a pai'tial tree tra'le, (ionfined to natural proihicts. We couM not exchan^j^e our harley freely for Ainerican inipUMuents or Aniericnii factory j^oods of any kind, nor s(!ll them our manufactures, nor take ])art vvitii our large marine ot" those (hiys in the Ameriem coasting traile, nor give foreign capital seeking investment any assurance that the treaty, ami witli it our roaring profits, would last Ixsyond the allotted term. The early Ih-itish Governors did not care to let Canadians come in contact with Americans at all. They sincerely desired to see the colony prosper, l)ut were more desirous that it should remain British. Intercourse with the Tnited States they regarded as dangerous. Under the preferential trade system the products of Canada and other colonies were admitted to the British tnarket at lower customs duties than similar procnicts from foreign coun- tries. The products of one colony had also a preference in the market of another. In i-eturn Britain adjiisteil the colonial tariffs in the interest, as was supposed, of the British manufacturer and artisan. Our modern imperial federationists declare that it was an ideal arrangement, and would like to see it revived for the sake of imperial unity. As a matter of fact, it was a bad policy for the colonies and worse for Britain. (Janula and the West Indies got more for their wheat, Hour, timber and sugar in the Briti.sh mar- ketthan the foreigner because the e<^an toclamoi- lor reeipiocity. As soon as Kn^dand adopted free trade, she s"t to work at Wasldn^ton and t,'ot it. The ])erson just quoted predicted that Canadian iarmers " would Le crowdeij out of their own mark(!ts Vj}' the free admission of American live stock, pork, butter and cheese.'' He was anieably disappointed. They throve as thi-y had nevei'done befort- oi' since. So did the lundterman, miner and fisherman and the coinitry at larot?. Writiuir shortly- af'tei' tin; treaty took effect, William Lyon Alackenxie said it afibrdeij "at all seasons a steady, (juick and active cas'; demand for all the pioduets of the farm and forest.'" The expoi'ts of the ])ort of Torcjuto rose (JO percent, in a twelvemonth. The imports of Os- wego from Upper r'anada increased in tiie same space from three to twelve million dollars. In theii- meinoiondum (1874) to Sec- retai'y Fish, Sir Edward Thoiiiton and Mr. (Jeoi'fife Brown said: — " The grand fact remains that under the operation of the treaty of 1N54, the aggiegate inteichange of commodities b(!tween the Republic and the Provinces rose fiom an annual aver- age of i5l4,0()0,000 in the previous eight years to i?:}8,rj00,- 000, gold currenc}, in the first year of its existence; to 843,000,000, gold currency, in the second year; to !:>84,000,00(), at war piice.*-', in its thirteenth year." The exports of the ITnited Strf: '■ to Canada, during the treaty, came to as much as the ex- perts of the United States to China, Japan, Brazil, Italy, Hayti, Russia, A'enezuela, Austria, the Argentine Republic, Denmark, Turkey, Portugal, the Sandwich Islands and the Central Ameri- can States, all put together. The population of Canada increased more rapidly than it has done since. The people had lucrative em- ployment in the development of their resomces ; emigrants from Europe were attracted ; the native Canadian was not driven from home by the necessity of finding work. Our political literature during that period is largely taken up With commendation of the treaty. The only fault found with it was that it did not go far enough. Nova Scotia wanted access for her wooden ships to the American register and the American coasting trade. The view.s of business men in Upper and Lower Canada were expre.s.sed in the Canadian Merchants' Magazine for 1858 in an article com- plaining that owing to the temporary and limited character of OL'tt BEST I'OLICV. the reciprocity ca|)italist.s did not care to invest in nianufactur- inf^ in Canada but preferred manufacturing on the American Hide where the lai'^est market was; whereas with complete free trade between the two countries, ( 'anachi, havin;^ unlimited water power and lying geographically in the centre of the most populous part of the l/nion, would attract capital, and if free trade "could i)e accomplished by raising our tariff as against Kuropefl manufactures to a level with that of the Unit- ed States the boon would be choaiily acquired." When ab- rogation was talked of the Canadian Privy Council addressed a note to the British (Jovernmenl/ in which it said : — "It would be impossible to express in figures, with any approach to accuracy, the extent to whicli the facilities of commercial inttircourse created by the lleciprocitv I'reaty have contributed to the wealth and jirosperity " of Up{>er and Lower Canada; " and it would be diffi- cult *o exaggerate the importance ' i the people of Canada attach to tlie continued enjoyment o' ': se facilities." In 184'1», a movement in favor of political union had been started at Mon- treal, chielly on the ground that reciprocity could not be got, and, if got, would be only temporary, whereas Political Union woulersistent eff'orts to have it restored. Sir John Macdonald did what he could during the Washington Treaty negotiations and on several occasions afterwards. The so-called National Policy was put forward, when coaxing them had failed, as a means of coercing the Americans. Our harsh interpretation of the ffshery articles of the treaty of LSI 8 was adopted long ago for a like purpose, and has been jnaintained ever since in the hope that Congress may be worried into yielding at least reci- procity in f 'i. The Liberals have been as active as the Conser- vatives in trying to "e-establish reciprocity. In 1870 they as good as declared for Commercial Union. In 1874, Mr. George Brown arranged a mixed treaty with Mr. Fish, certain manufac- tures being included with natural products, but it did not pass the L^nited States Senate. In 1888 they adopted "unrestricted reciprocity " as their platform. It was Commercial Union under an alias and would probably have won them the general elections of 1891 had not Sir John Macdonald pretended to be carrying on 8 OUR 15EST POLICY. ncf,'otiations with Mr. Blair.'.; for a limited reciinocity like tliat of 18o4-()G. Their present platform calls for reciprocity without the afljective.. and their opponents ])rofess, no doubt honestly, to be still anxious for the limited form. A glance at the map convinces even observers at a distance that nature designed the two countries to be one commercially, (a) A line drawn from the top of Minnesota to the top of Maine in- cludes nearly all the inhabited portion of the two oldest provinces. Maine projects like a wedge to within forty miles of the Lower yt. Lawrence, leaving the Maritime Provinces within the New England area. Ontario projects like a wedge 400 miles south into American territory. It and Quebec are sepaiated from the seaboard provinces by a long stretch of liarren land, from Manitoba by a freshwater sea and a thousand miles of rock and muskeLr, while Manitoba in turn is separated from British Columbia by the Rocky Mountains. The Dominion is thus broken up geogra]>hic- ally into four blocks, each of which, if let alone, would find its natural market in the States adjoining it to the south. Ontario wouldnot deal with Nova Scotia or Manitoba so much as with New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Illinois, which contain twenty million customers right at her door. She can talk to some of them by telephone, and leach them all by rail or water in a few hours. Buffalo has as many inhabitants as there are between Lake Superior and the Rocky Mountains; Chicago nearly twice as many as there are in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Yet in order to get trade, Ontario, the milch-cow of Confederation, has allowed herself to be sundered from those rich markets and saddled with gigantic burdens for a railway to Manitoba and another all the way to Cape Breton. The case of Manitoba is almost as absurd. That tine province is the northern projection of the Great Prairie of the United States, and its interests demand free trade with its nearest maikets at Minneapolis and Chicago. But it is cut off from the rest of the Great Prairie and forced to deal with mark- ets three days off by rail, to reach which its products have to pay exorbitant transjiortation rates to make up for the com- pany's loss in operating in the sterile region traversed en route. The return freights of merchandise have to run the same gaunt- let. Crops like barley and potatoes, which grow lu.airiantly, can scarcely be raised at a profit because they are unable to bear (a) Lord Karrer, formerly Periimnent Secretary of the Governient Bourd of Trade in Enirlaiid, snvs in his " Free Trade v. Fair Trade " :— " Canada and EnMrland are separated l)y tlie Atlantic ; Canada and the I'nited States are distinguished rather ihan separated l)y a bridged and navi^atile river, or by an imaginary line. Trade between England and t'anada lias'to overcome natural ditfl- culties ; trade between Canada and the United States would be unchecked but for artilicial dithoul- ties. The people of Canada and the United States are similar in rnc •, Iti language, in habits, ami are becoming more so daily," Again, "The United States and Canada are meant by nature to do business freely with one another. An artificial bnrrier between them is to the eyes of common sense, as of politiual philosophy, absurd and urmatural." OUIl BEST POLIt'V 9 the rate to Ontario and are excluded fror.i the United States by a duty. Cattle are sent from the ranches on the foot-hills to 'i'oronto when a better price could l)e got at Ul)ica>j;o. It is much the same with the seaboard piovinces. They could take their })i'oduce by sea to iJoston in a few hours and exchatige it tor cheaj) manufactures. Instead of that they are compelled to pay a duty on enterint^ Boston, to return empty, and procuie dear manufactures from the distant markets ot Montreal, Toronto, and Hamilton, which buy nothin^;" fi'om them but a few canned lobsters. The duty at Boston prevents them from makinn" the most of their fisheries. A Dominion otHcial reports the Biince Edward Islanders as askini; what is the use of catch inof sprini;- herring when they cannot sell them at a profit. New England is the natural market for their coal and iron. But because CVmgj'ess shuts them out, they conceived the idea of shutting the manufac- turing Province cf Ontario out oilier natural markets for coal and iron in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois, ami making her tributary to them, as if an injury inflicted upon her would compensate the Dominion foi' the injury inflicted upon themselves. But the Ontario niiuiufacturer continues in spite of the Canadian duty to get all his coal and most of his iron from the neighboring States, so that Nova Scotia gets but little additional trade and such as it is she has to pay through the nose for it along with the farmers of Ontario and Alanitoba in the enhancey ' the striking con- trast presented by the Aineiican and Uritisli si<]es of the frontier line in respect of every sign of pre luctive industry, increasing wealth and productive civilization;" it was " the theme of (jvery traveilei' who visits these countiies and who observes on one side the abunihmce and on the other the scarcity of every sign of material prosperity."' This moi'tifying contrast remains — Detroit and Windsor, IJutialo and St. Cathaiines, 'J'oronto and (^Miicago, Kocliester and Kingston, (Quebec, Montri'al and New York, Halifa.x and l^jston, Saii Fiancisco and N'ictoria, etc. It is a .sad sight but sadiler than all is the headlong Might of popula- tion, almost uid\nown in Lo'd ])urham's day, from a new coiintry tLeuiing with jtotential wealth, which cannot be converted into actual w(.'alth by Canadian labor .simply Ijeeause we aie not suthciently true to Canadian interests to seek and find our nat- ural market. Five-sixths of our min(>i{d exports go to the Uniteil States notwithstanding the tai'iff wall. There is no profitable mar- ket foi' them worth speaking of elsewhere. Till the Unit- ed States market is permanently free, they can never be pro- perly devehjped. Tlie .American iron mines on Lake Superior will ship over eight million tons of ore (18!>.'); to American fur- naces, giving employment to an army of skilled and unskilled woikmen and fleets of vessels. The deposits on the (Janadian .shore, said to be e(|ually rich, are uiiworked ; the Canadians who should be working them are employed on the otheis. Our lake marine," once consirice of the Canadian lish carried to Boston, but render it un})rofitable for the fishermen to catch the cheaper kinds. The lumbermen enjoy free lumber under the existing American tariff, but the airangement may be terniinated any day by Congress, and lack of permanerice is a grave rovinces destitute alik(t (d" 'feoirraphicjil unit \, of uidt\-of laee. and of unity of commereiid interest, and efniuected <'nly hy a riominal alle'_dance to a he held to^eihei- so as to foiiii a hasis f'oi- '_(,)vei nment, and at tlie same time to h(! ke[it separate from the ecuitinent of which, hy nat ure, they are parts." Such is tint task cordVontin^,' tlie f'iiniidi;in poiit ici;in, and, as we all know, he makes it a re;^rular husiness to coi rupt pro- vince's, ia';es, r(di;^dous sects, constituencies and indivi(|u;ds with their own money. The c(jhesiv(; power' of plunder' is pr-ir^tically tin; ord\' liindinif l'(,'r(;e tliat (;;irr he invoked. The ollicediolder, |jli(;r;d or Torv, is, of ef>utse, arr optimist. He is sat isfied with thin"s ;is thev;ire and seeks to encouia.re the ta.xpayer who has to maintain him with ^dowin;jf preilicti(,ns of a future that never' is hut ;dways is to he. How matiy times irr the last fiv<; and twenty years has lyanadii. h';err on the e\e of her-orninir tin; most jnospeious countrv on the Ijhv; orea.r'tli ' l']\('r'\' lar-n; uridertakiriLf is her'fdded as the lorc'dook-td for t;ilis- man, is carried out at an excfjssive (tost on a,ccount of \]u\ hooil- lin^', allor'd-' the contractors and pijrhaps a Minister or' two a chance; to m;dulky ;i';i|ni(;^c.i/ic)()(). Jn^tcail of tli-i.t it i-^ .^2oO ()()(», 000 tlu; i-t(;i;i)jts from laiiil !ia\«' not lnM-ri siiliif:iulfitiori is Jiotin ii <'oMt(!HttMi fcMiiic of iiiiri'l. S(j far a> tin; Ontario fjirmcr is con- (•••rncd, tim o|H;niii'.^ of tlitr Noitli West lias li(;cn a distiiutt lo-,-. Hi^ t;i\t:s liav! \)i'.i'.n ;iut(m<;iitt;il li)' tli<; ••onstriiction (>[' tin; ' 'an- ay (•,lica|) |»ro(|ii(;>;. Tlii'r<; may l,(; .^oni<;t liin;/ in tin: at;.(iimi'nt that ilir < 'aiiailian I'afilic, is of a tin; road iKtlpcii to solidify ' .'ariada. It is now i|nit(; as nnjcli an yXimiican a^ a <."anadiari institution. Its line trav(;r.s<'T tin; Stat"; of Maine on tip; east and works with Atne-riean ports liijtii sniiMiie-r an to fnalile it to carry it,-, t ran:^coiit inental tiaHie throuLjli M inne.-,ota, and thus andon(;d. llaA in;( to sf.'r-.ure American rf<-it.(lit in ordi'i to Ii V (; it ehar;^f(;s lower' iat< s l)i;twe('ri .M inri(;aj)olis and litat < 'onimer'ce law^ wwuld wind it up a.nd < 'onf(;dcr'ation alon'4 witli it. The rnari- a'feis of th<; r'oa.d diil what they could t(; maintain it in itsoii'd- nal I olc of an all-< ';i.riadiari route s(;rvin;r ('aruidian inte.»"ests lii ^t, last and always hut L,'eo;rraphy [irovc-d t(.o much lor- them. The cariaU on which S(i()OO(),0()() has hccn .^pent wer-t; of far- more service in the early days wh(;n there w(;ie no railroads than now. i"he lli'leau was constructed hy the Impctrial ( io\-- (;rriment t<» seise as a commercial and military passa;^-.; he- twecri I'ppei- and liOW< r' ' 'ariada, it,s distance from the American iVontier- hein;^ rij^aided as of importance ; hut was .soon supi.-rseded hy the mor<; f the shf^it line ihr'ou^'h Maine. The Welland and lower' canals wei<; loi- a time the; only mi;aris of r'ea<:hin'.^f tide water' Ir'om the west. |j(;for'e t!i(;ii' con.-,ti'uction tin; prodiicc ot 14 OUR BEST I'OF.ICY. Western Ontario was shipped on Lake Erie to tlie Welland liver. conveyed as tar up as the depth of water would allow, and then portaged to Niaj^ara, where it was reshipped upon Lake Ontario to Prescott, there to be loaded on batteaux that ran the rapids to Montreal. Merchandise was sent westward from Montreal in the same tedious and costly way. But of late, while they aH'ord a clioap route in the season of navigation anened to 20 feet before this, the Canadian lake marine raised to a flourishing condition, and the lake cities of Canada ren,0()0 a year 'a). To keep the vai'ious provinces in counten- ance they have to bo represented in the Caliinet by men (jf their own. They would have no confidence 'u\ a Ministry selected for merit without i-efei-ence to geographical con.siderations. In like manner it is necessary to placate thf French race, the Orange Scjciety, the Roman Catholic Chinch and othei* large bodies with seats in the Cabinet for their .spmtial re[)resentatives. Thus while there are ordy eight (Cabinet officers at Washington there are fourteen or fifteen at Ottawa. The eight sub vice-regal diijfnitaries known as lieutenant-goveiiiors are better i)aid than the State governors across the line, and are provided with ofhcial residences. The Senate is a fifth wheel, but <^>uebec and the smaller provinces prize it because it would enable them to hold Ontario in check on (piestions affecting their local ititei'cst. All told, in the Dominion Parliament and the eight local legislatures there are 700 lawmakers, of whom 50 are Ministers of the Crown, for less than five million people. The lieutenant-governor* cost 870,000 a year in salaries alone, the Ottawa ( "abinet S!)0,000, the High Commissioner in liondon 810,000 with princely " sun- dries." Each of the provinces has its separate hjcal machine manned by regular civil-servants and a horde of cfHcials paid by fees. These fee places — shrievalties, registrarships, ami the like — are sinecures much sought after by members of the local legisla- tures. In Ontario over forty former members of the legislature have been provided for; many have looked after relatives a well. Municipal government is conducted on the same absurdly ex- tra vacant scale. The cost of such services as the administration of justice is out ot all proportion to the means of the people. In Ontario the county court judges and deputy judges number about (a) See Mr, Miilock'8 Bpeech in Parliament, 1S95. I() nil! lilisT I'nl.KV. 70, tliouii;]i liltec!!! or twenty could do the work easily, (a) The iiiulti|'lic'ation of otHecs has served tlie jmipose of l\ee|)iiihe . The colonial status itself i,s unfavorable to the growth of robust opinion and tiius conduces to moral laxity (/>). I>ut the prime cause of the l»ad condition of politics is the rooted provincialism and the impossibility of holding together diflcrent races and separate blocks of pi-ovinces, which have not nearly as much in connnon with one another as with the States iuunediately to the south of them, except by sinister methods. Since 18()7 population has increased about 'M) percent., while the expenditure is three times ai. 1 the ilebt three and a half times gieater than it was then. (Jovei-nment lailroads are built to bribe localities, (Jjvenmient bonuses granted and Government buiMings erected for the same purpose; then the eontractois and bonus-getters are bled foi' campaign funds and allowed to recoup themselves out of "extras" or by scamping. Miidsters do nc^t hesitate to carry the hat round among protecteil manufacturers and to disburse the proceeds. Members secure tim- ber-limits for themselves ov bonuses for roads in which they ai'e interested as j)romoteis, or Government loans for other private un- dertakiiiiis. Sometimes they are directlv interested in Govern- meul contracts. I'he punish uient of a boodler is a i-are occur- rence. ( )ne nieuiber has been sent to jail, but he was soon released and re-elected to the House at the first vacancy; anothei' who was expelled was shortly afterwards elected mayor of the city in (a) A iia]U'i- OM inut]ic'i|i!il ta\a(i(in liy Mr. (!. II. Ciricrtoii, imhlislicd in llic ijiiiinlcs of thi' Count \ Coil mi I ot I he Couiitv of Onturio tor 1.>1)3, u'i' i*> Iritiri'sliiii,' parliculars of tlie liloiili.(l con- oitioii of till' iiuiinciiial uinl |iro\ iruial >.er\ iucs. {b) In his " Coloiiiis of Ktn;laiul " Mr. Koi'lxicls ("Tear iin '") si id :— " The career iliat lies lit- twi'iii two mill, one of whom Ins hvv\\ tioi ii Mid li\ us iiiion thi -oiiilii'm sliore ot the St. Law rutiif, and thi' oilur on the north ot tliat ri\tr, is a ^trilviim exaiiiiile of the ol s> r\atioii hire iiii'd<\ The one is It citizen of file I'nitcd states, the olhi'r a sulijecl of Iv ;;land, a Canadian colonist. The one has a counlr.v whiili lie ran call lii> own, and a j^reat counlr.i aliead.v dis iiiijuished in ainii, in arts, and in some deu:ree in li'eralur*. In his conntrx's honor mhI fame the .\iiiericaii hasa sh^re, and he enters iipnii ihe career of his life with loft> as]iiratioiis, hoiiini.' t" achieve taiiie for himse'f in some of the many jiaths 1 ■ renown which his coiimry atV nls. She has a senate, an army, a na\y, a I ar, many powerful .and wealthy churi'hes ; lur men of siieiiee, her iih,\si.'iana, jihiloso- )ihirs, are all a national l>totherh"od, ^ \in^' anvhere he ins to lin-er out his lif>; unknown lo fame, has no history, IjO jiast, jilory, no present leiiown What tlice is of ii > e is IjiirUunl's. Canada is not a nalioti, she is a tolony," Ihe satellite of a i> iyhty star in whose hriKhliiess she is los'. Canada Ins no i.avy, no .irniy, no literali:re, no lirotlierhood of science, if then a Canadian looks f r honor in any of these vaiioiis fields he must seek it as an i;ii;;;ishnian ; he must fnr^'et and deseit his .ounrry before he can he known to fame." .\s a matter i.f fact he seeks it as an Am riian. Canadians distinguished io the inilpit or as schtlars, jotirnaHsts. inventors, athletes, eti'., usually cross the line. OUU HEST rOLICV. 17 wliich ho residos. American politics arc not over-pnro, luit at any rate the guilty are punished and the rc-eloction of a convicted rascal is a thing unheard of. The electors rofuse in some places to vote with their jmrty till they are paid, or till the (Jovernmont buys them en bloc, and value a member according to Ids success in raiding the treasury for their benefit. The corruption is not all on one side ; nepotism is as rife in the Ontario Legislature as at Ottawa, while the exploits of Quebec Liberals have never been sur- passed. It is frefjuently said that the return to ofiice of the Pacific Scandal culprits was the cause of the wholesale corruption that now prevails. No doubt that event made matters worse, but corruption was rife long before. In fact, it was inherent and inevitable in a community so situated. The Federal debt of Canada is now !?o() per head, the Federal debt of the United States ^14. The individual provinces owe far more in proportion to population t'^an the individual States. The latter are in many instances proiiibited by their constitutions from contracting debts at all, or above a certain figure, but with us the provinces have full fling, the only limit to their borrow- ing being the patience of the lender. It is true the Federal debt of the United States was incurred for powder and shot, whilst ours has been for the most part incurred ostensibly for internal development; but we should not lose sight of the ma- terial gain to the United States from the abolition of slavery an and 1S12, the ( 'hurch threw all hei' iidluence (jt) the side of the Crown and when the trouble i»lew over d(Mnandt;d her rewai'd. In 1N.S7, the Oentlemen of the Seminary of St. Sulpice wei'e foremost in loyalty, and intluenced Bishoji liartij^nic to take the ferocious stand he did in refusin;L,' rites to the deail. sa(!ra- ments to the dyini( re])els. In return, the liritish (loveriuiieiit (piieted the title of the seminary to the island of .Montreal and the n.jf of Two Mountains, and thus made it perhaps the richest ec- clesiastical corpoi'ation in the world. Ahout the siune time, as a reward for the loyalty of the Church in <,a!n(nal on that occasion, the French parish law was extended to that portion of the Pi'ovince of < Quebec wliich had previously been under Imil(- lish law, and the consequences to the Kn<,dish-speali' tithuil and tuxc(i for the liuildin;; of chnrches. So lon^f us a farm is owned by a non-Caiholic, tlnrclort', it is nnpro diK'tivt- to the Clmri;h. But wlu'n it passes into the hands of a Catliolie, it Nic^dg a 2«tli (i 'ri of ilif tjrain towards the priest's salary, and such taxes for tmildinK and rrpairinif ilie local ihiircli and the priest's hou3c as the ohiirrhwardens may levy. Hence, as soon as ilie i>iri-h Uw was introdmi d in the KoKlish settlements, " a system itic scheme was inaujiurated and is carried on with f;ro\\ - hig \ itfor to push out the F'nv'lishsiieakinjf farmers and substitute liaUitanin." (h) As Masen.-s puts it, the clergy of the Church of Kngland In Britain " are paid for perform- ins; its ceremonies and leiohini^ its doctrines by funds assiirned to them by the pntilic authority of the State, and in the sam..' sense the Konian Tatholie religion ni.iy be said to be estalilislied in Canada, for a iiublic fund, to wit, the tithes of the I'opish iiarishioiiers, that is. of 41) out of .W, is assiuned to the priest as a maintenance and reward for performini,' the ceremonies and teachini; the doctrines of that relijfion. I know that some persons liave asserted that this mtasuri' is noc an establishment of the Popish relij;ion in Canada, ticause the I'rotestant )iarishinnersare not oblitjed to pay tithes to the Romish priests. But tliis atfecls the 'iwnilum of tlie provision lor llie inaintenanoe of those priests and the relltfion they a'e to teach. It is somewliat less ample ibm it would be if the Protestants were forced to pay the tithes to them an will as the Bom in Catbo- lics. Biitlhe nature and desitjn of the provisioa are the sime in both cises. It is a fiuiil provid- ed by public authority for the support of priests to exeriMse and teach tbi' reliirion of the C'Imrcb of Homo. And this, ii>resume,i8 all that the words, establiehment of a religion, naturally and ■isually import." .Maseres, who wrote this in 1776, had been Attorney! Jeneral of (Quebec under- British rule, 20 OIMl nEHT POLirV. with the provincial lofjislaturc, which advances money to the re- ligious orders, gives tlicni contracts to manage pulilioisyluuis and reformatories, exempts her estates from taxation and places edu- cation unreservedly under her control. She is defender of the faith and of the faithful in the other provinces. Maseres prepar- ed a scheme for depriving her of a portion of her wealth and re- straining her spiritual and political activity. But the Britiah Government was afraid to antagonize her lest she should carry French C^anada into the United States. She has gone on adding to her possessions and extending her influence till she is now supreme at Quebec and exceedingly powerful at Ottawa. ^t.ound her has grown the Fiench Canadian nationality with a language and literature, ideals and aspirations of its own. Canada is not one country but two countries in uneasy union. Of late the Galilean clergy in French Canada have been should- ered out by the Ultramontanes, and the race and religious quarrels are growing more fretjuent and more bitter. Since Confedera- tion there has been a series of controversies in which race and re- ligion have been blended in about equal parts. Riel was the re- presentative of the French lace in the North-west, of Des Groso- liers, La Verandrye and other French discoverers, but he was also the representative of the Church in his first rebellion. In New Brunswick the aL^litio^ of Separate Schools was an attack on the Church, but it was also an attack on the race, a large pro- portion of the Catholics being French. The abolition of Separate Schools in Manitoba is resented in Quebec (|uite as much because it seems to be part of a ])lan for anglicising the French as on religious grounds. The murder of Scott at Fort Gairy by order of the Riel party would not have stirred Ontario Orangeism to the depths but for the protection thrown around Riel by the hier- archy. The payment to the Jesuits in Quebec of a large sum as compensation for the escheat of their estates by the British Crown on the dissolution of the society by Pope Cleuient was re- garded as a sort of triumph for the French Canadia • race over the first British rulers of the colony, rendered com- plete by the grant to the Jesuits of a lot of land at Laprairie which had been the C-anadian Aldershot of Britain; while the Roman Catholic religion found its victory in the extraordinary use made of the Pope's name in the preamble of the Act. In some cases the controversies at first relate exclusively to religion but sooner or later race is dragged in. In the Guibord case, where the Church undertook to refuse burial, in his own plot, to a French-Canadian printer who had belonged to a banned literary club, the quarrel was one between French Catholics till the Judicial Committee decided against the Church, whereupon the cry was raised that the committee wanted to discredit the OUH nEST FOLIC 21 Churcl I order to anfjlicise the race. Woll-nieaning rolij,Mous bodies m the Kn<^lish provinces niaititain niissioriH for convert- ing the French-Car xdians to Protestantism, whicli is likewise \)nt down as an underhand attempt to tamper with the race. The presence of a Roman (Catholicism so powerful and so domineering fosters a rank growth of Orangeism and kindred plants, and the conflict goes on unceasingl}'. Attempts to " promote religious har- mony," and " fire the two races with mutual love," l»y distributing the offices, even Cabinet offices, according to the numerical strength of ea'^h result as might be expected in nothing but intrigue and local ^ ^bbery. In the North-west rel)ellion it was not deemed advl.:>acle to send the French volunteers to the front or let them mix with the Ontario men. Outside Montreal and Que- bec, where the British control the banking, mercantile, shipping, lumber and railroad business, the English settlements in S rench Canada are doomed.(«.) The French are also crovvding across the Ottawa into eastern and northern Ontario, carrying with them their language and parish organization and their solid column in politics, to bread future trouble. The loyalty of the French Canadian is given not to Britain, which conquered him, but to the Church wh-ih has been his faithful friend and protector. For a time the Ultramontanes dreamed of establishing an independent French Canadian repub- lic, regulated like a Spanish American state from Rome, This notion has got its death-hlow from the exodus to New England. Therace is now astride the line, the best fourth of it being on Ameri- can soil. The exodus has carried off a surplus population which otherwise would have found its way to New Brunswick on the east and Ontario and Manitoba on the west, and intensified the race war in those parts. It has to that extent served the in- terests of peace, but the economic loss to the Dominion has been enormous and French Canada has been embittered. In Quebec, as in Ireland, the emigrant is popularly regarded as a victim of misgovernment ; if the Oranr/ifite had not persecuted, if Wolfe had never appeared, if French Canada had had fair play, he would have lived happy and died happy beneath his parish steeple. The loss of so many people coupled with the bankruptcy of the provincial treasury through vain efforts to diminish the exodus by multiplying public works, and with the cheeks which the race has received in New Brunswick and Manitoba, has pro- duced a widespread feeling of irritation. It would not take much to arouse a demand, even among the clergy, for Political Union with the United States. The race, to be sure, would be swallowed (a.) "Once they controlled Heven counties. It is questionable it the next census will show them to he a majority in more than t ree. The most santfuine jtei'son acknowiedijes that at the exist- in;; rate of decrease the extin^'uishment of the English-speaking {Arming communitiet) is simply a questioa of time," " History of Huntin^'don," etc- , 1888. ippi 22 OUR BEST POLICY. up in that vast English-speakini^ community. " But," some of the younfjer cures say, "as it is tlie evident intention of English- speaking- (Canadians to deprive us of our rights and privileges bit by bit, why not make the grand plunge at once ? There, at least, we shoulil have )ieace and be with our own." 'i'he people now con- sider Political Union their inevital»lo destiny and are reaily for it. They get the French ])apers publisheil in New England, and are more familiar with American geography than with tluitof On- tario. There is hardly a family which has not a member or two there, and the inthience exerted by the absentees in preparing the minds of their friends by letters f;,nd occasional visits is reiaaik- al>le. Mr. Alercier estimated that by the close of the century there would be fully half as many Fi'ench Canadians by birth and descent in the United States as in French (,'anada. It is scarcely necessary to say that if French Canada were to secede the rest of the Dominion could not live apart from the United States. The St, Lawrenoe is the key of the country and the French would take it with them. Apart from tiie wearing friction with Uritish Canada, French Canada is suffering from internal disorders. Politics there is necessarily an overcrowded profession^ and as a rule the politicians have to make it ))ay ; hence the universal peculation. There is no sucli thing as public opinion, although there are plenty of empty conventionalities. The mass of the people are dc[)endent on agriculture and suffer from the taxation of their products at the American frontier. Most of them are too poor to turn to dairying for the iJritish market; moreover the long win- ter is a bar. They inherit the handiness of the European French, imj)roved perhaps by their indoor work during five or six months of winter, and make ca])ital factory operatives. To stop them from going to New England, the Dominion and Quebec Governnients liave stpiandered money on harbors, railways and other enter- prises which do not pay running expenses and never will. The community has been thoroughly demoralized, and now that the provincial treasury is empty the conviction that Confedera- tion has been a failure is becoming general, Again, the Church imposes burdens which ai"e beginning to be intolerable. The tithe of every twenty-sixth bushel of cereals is a much heaviei" tax to-day when prices are low and the soil worn out by over- cropping than formerly. The fabri(jue tax for erecting and re- pairing churches was comparatively light under the rule of the easy-going Gallicans, but the Ultramontane cures have a mania for building tine churches and manses, and the frecpient subdivi- sion of the parishes affords them a field for gratifying it at the hahitant's expense. The fabrique tax and tithe are a first lien on the soil and hinder the owner from obtaining advances on mort- ( m^ mm Oril liEST POLICY. 23 ] fT;a<,fc to carry on improvements. The concentration of great landed properties in the hands of tlie reli<,Mon,s orders, and their exemption in wliole or in part from nniiucipal taxation, is another grave evil. In not a few municipalities the vahie of the exemp- tions exceeds that of all the proj)erty taxed. The excessive " swarming " of the orders themselves and the constant arrival of new ones from Euiope add to the load. The orders get no share of the tithe, but manage to tlnive. Some conduct indus- trial establishments and as their machinery and iiuiltiings are exempt from taxes and their pauper or criminal labor subsidized by the piovince, they can undersell the legular wage-earner. There are over seven thousand religious of all kinds, or one for every forty Catholic families. While the peasants of the Saguenay are in want of seed grain, the Seminary of St. Sul[)ice is lending millions of French Canadian money to build colleges in the IJ^iiited States and other orders ai'e investing in street railways. Tl;e ecclesiastical iisc is altogether out of harmony with modern ideas and presses hard upon a connuunity of farmers umie]' a sub-ai'ctic sky who are liandicapped by a foreign tarilf in selling their coarse products. In answer to the nmrnuiring the hierarchy })oint to their treaty rights, to the Quebec Act and other parch- ments, but forget that while, as Jiancroft says, you may hold the evanescent mortal to the strict letter of an ancient system you cannot bind an undying race of men with sucli gyves without producing a convulsion. The Province of r^ue'hec is already in the throes of an economic revolution which will .ernunate only with the abolition of tho ecclesiastical taxes and the confiscation for public purpose^ of the ecclesiastical estates, said to be wortli ^^50,000,000. The strife of races is painfully visible in Parliament from which so-called burning questions are seldom absent. At times it renders the rational discussion of other matters impossible. No one knows when an election campaign begins what the determin- ing issue is to bo till the hierarchy have been heard from. It may open with tariff reform or pre iicial rights when .suddenly a re- ligious crusade is begun and the real tjuestion before the coun- try obscured or wholly lost sight of. The Dondnion Cabinet never knows when a mine may be sprung under its feet in furtherance of some end which the Church or the French race desires to bring about. It may be blackmailed out of millions for Quebec while the division bell is ringing ; a leading member of it may be defeated without, warning in his constituency for having held a Itriet" for the Callicans • all the French ministers may go on stiike because the bishops iiave a grievance in Mani- toba. Politics consists in the main of propitiating the hierarchy in order to get the solid vote at its disposal, and the best interests ■^^ 24 OUR HEST POLICY. of the country suffer accord in <,'ly. Intelligent French Catholics are a.s weary as intelligent Protestants of the disheartening game. They have to endure much and would be far better off merged in the Catholic body of the United States, which is at peace with its environment. There is no hope of peace hero till Political Union brings it. The Knglish-speakingrace is not sufficiently numerous to absorb the French race even if the constitution permitted fusion, which it does not. Mr. Mercier advocated Political Union on the ground that .'L would give the French Canadians more complete coi-^rol of their local affairs than they have now, and, above all, end the war of nicesi.(a.) Ih'itain is blamed by some for having allowed two separate and distinct nationalities to grow up ; it is said she ought to have turned the French Canadians into Englishmen while the feat was practicable. Britain sacri- ficed the unity of Canada to the political connection, just as at a later day she sacrificed its Maine seaboard and its Pacific sea- board. There was nothing else to be done if the connection was to be preserved. The real wellbeing of the colony has always been a secondary consideration, and always nust be while the connection lasts. " Canada," says a student of our affairs, " re- minds us of a rabbit or a dog in the hands of an experimental anatomist. Like anin.als doomed to vivisection for the benefit of science, she has been operated upon unsparingly for the good of the empire."(6) Gait, Blake, Huntington and other Canadians native to the soil once attempted to arouse a national feeling. The Canada First party labored in the same cause. " The title of colonist," said Mr. Cauchon, " implies nothing criminal or dishonorable in itself, nevertheless we feel that it humiliates us because it means infancy, subjection, guardianship." Mr. Blake described Cana- dians as five millions of Britons not free. The arguments for independence are to be found, without going further, in our commercial disabilities. We cannot make a com- mercial treaty with a foreign nation without taking in Britain, who does the negotiating, and extending our concession.? to count- ries with which she has favored-nation arrangements covering the colonies. Under such conditions, of course, foreign nations do not care to treat with us. Why should Americans, for instance, be expected to grant to Britain everything they are prepared to give to Canada in return for special concessions from Canada ? (o) I/Avenir dii Canada, 1893. Mr. Mercier sums ,',,) the national advantajfcs which Political I'nion would liriii),' to French Canada. There would l)e a nuh of |)0])ulation and capital to the province ; the fanner would ^'et more for his produce ; it would then be possible to develop the minerals, water power, etc. lie came to the conclusion that the status i/uo could not lie main- tained much lonfjer, the arran(;ement between the two races havint; broken down as plainly ap- pears from the inuefsant collisions. (b) " tiuirkt' of Diplomacy." See also Mr. Sandford Klemin^'H history of the Intcrroloniol, where the Maine boundary i|ue8tion is dealt with, and Mr. W. A, Weir on " What Treaties have done for Canada." I L J OUll HEST POLICY. 25 The case is well stated by Mr. Bowman of Massachusetts in a speech already quoted from. " We in the United States," he said, " made fish free to Canadians because, as a consideration, we receiv- ed the right of fishing in Canadian waters. Can England or France, Germany or the Hawaiian Islands come in and say that we are therefi)re bound to make fish free to them ? That cannot bo maintained for a moment. We reply to those countries that when they can do for us exactly what Canada does, or as much as Canada does, they will have claims on our consideration, but until then they have none." Britain herself makes treaties with foreign countries that do not apply to or include Canada, an), but in any event England would profit in the highest sense by complete reconciliation with the United States. As long, however, .ts she holds Canada there cannot be complete reconciliation. " Suppose Scotland," says Mr. Goldwin Smith, " were a dependency of the United States and an outfpost of American democracy in the realm which mon- archy and democracy deem their own; suppose the Americans were always proclaiming that they hoped by means of this political footing in Great Britain to prevent the consolidation of British power, and to preserve the island from falling entirely under the dominion of English institutions. Suppose the Scottish democracy were to outvie, as they certainly would do, the people of the mother country in their anti-monarchical and anti-aristocratic demonstrations. Surelv there would be in England, at least among the Conservative classes, a feeling against the Americans whi(;h it would take a great many professions of amity, a great many l)usts and dirges, a very liberal contribution to the world- fairs of England on the part of the Americans to allay. "(c) It is (a) In .111 address to the people in 1S4'J the Political Unionists of that day said : — " We were always pcrsnaikM) that the people of Great ISritaiii would consent to allow the separation which we desired, without which consenc we would consider it neither ])r;M;tioal)k' nor desirable." In 1S41) the Lcuiflatiire of Vermont passed the followintr resolution: "That the annexation of Canada to the I'nittd States, with the consent of the British Ooveninient and of the people of Canada, and upon just and lionoraWe terms, is an object in the hiarhest Uujfree desiralile to the people of the I'nited States. It would open a wide and fertile field to the t-nterprise and in lustry of the Aine'i- can people ; it wotild extend the boundai'ies and increast the power of oui' coun'ry ; it would enlist a brave, industrious and intelligent peoiile under tliedaj; of '-'sr natio'i ; it would spread wide the liberal principles of republican froverrnient and promote the preponderance of free institutions in the I'nion. We therefore trust that our National Gov eminent., in the sjiirit of peace and courtesy to Iwth the British Govcrniiient and the people of Canada, will adojit ail proper and honorable means to secure the annexation of Canada to the United States." That the entrance of Canada would have promoted the p'eponderiiicc of free institutions within the Cnited States seems t3 have been perceived by the South. At any rate it was comiiionly believed in Canada that the reci- procity treaty of 1 8r)4 was passed by Southern influence in order to check the ttrowinn desire in Canada for annexation, and, as Sir John Macdonald admitted in 18) In the article, " Kin beyond Sea," in the Xorfh Ameriran lievieu' for 1878, he said :— " There can hardly be a doubt as between the America and the Kuifland of the future that the dauirhter at some no very distant date will, whether fairer or less fair, be uniiuestionably stronger than the mother. O matre forti filia forticr." (c) " Canada and the Canadian Question." This admirable statement of the position of Can- ada is isHued gratis by the Continental Union Association, Toronto. OUR BEST POLICY. 27 hardly necessary to tell British investors in Canada that they would benefit considerably by the union of the j)oorer coun- try with the richer. Amongst other thinit them that, man for man, the colonists are (,'reaier borrowers from Britain than foreigners. In "Retaliation and Commercial Federation ' Lord Farrer savs •—" The real question for us (En^'lisliiiien) is not the amount of trade per man hut the aJ,'^,'reK'ate amount of trade, inohidinif not only the actual amount of trade at the i)resent moment, but the recent |iro- gress of trade as indicaiiii): its probable f iture." The argument of Imperial Federationists that Britain's trade with the Colonies is increasing faster thiin her trade with forei^fn countries, er>;o it would pay her to levy tariff discrimination airainsl foreign and in favor of colonial products— that is, revive the Plantation jwlicy— is founded on a misapprehension. Lord Farrer shows by tables, goinjf back to K^i, that her trade with forei),'n countries is as large in proportion as it ever was. It constitutes 75 per cent, of Britain's total ooinmerco. In his reply to the resolutions of the Intercolonial Conference at Ottawa, Lord Ripon i>ointed out that it would be imoossible for Britain to revert to thf old policy without most disastrous results to herself. ('>) At one time more I'.ritish emi^frants came to Canada th»n went to the I'nited States. Now, 70percent,. or s> iro n the Unitod Stales, and the remainder to Canada, Australia and South Africa. The late Karl V.tov, Colonial .Secretary many y jars air •, says in his " Lord Jobn Russell's Co onial Policy " that this is no loss to Kni^laixl because American interes's "are now so inti- mately bound up with our own that the emiirrants from our shores, in a\ij.Mrienting the wealth and population of the Unitet' St.ites, are in effect contributing.' to promote iiiitish trade and British prosperity."