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 LMPERIAL 
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 ON 
 
 
 ANUARY 19th, 1888, 
 
 
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 DELIVERED AT 
 
 THURSDAY, JAN. IQth, 1888, 
 
 — BY — 
 Vice President " Imperial Federation League in Canada." 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : It is a great pleasure 
 to me to be here in Paris to-night. 1 account it a great privikge to 
 be permitted to address such a meeting as this of my fellow- 
 countrymen, and of my countrywomen too, on that great theme which 
 has touched the hearts and stirred the enthusiasm of so very many 
 of the most eminent and practical statesmen in the Mother Country 
 and the colonies, and which in its magnitude and importance to the 
 British race dwarfs almost into insignificance all other political issues. 
 
 Imperial Unity or Imperial Disintegration — Empire or no 
 Empire — that is the question. Fortunately it is not a party ques- 
 tion. Sj little of a party question is it, that I see by the last number 
 of Imperial Federation, the admirable journal of the Imperial Fede- 
 ration League, that public meetings in the interest of Imperial Fede- 
 ration are being held in England, under the joint auspices of mem- 
 bers of Parliament and the political opponents they defeated at the 
 polls. Those who know anything of political election contests — 
 and I take it you are not all utterly ignorant of them in Paris — will 
 admit that this is a tolerably conclusive proof that Imperial Federa- 
 tion is not a party issue in England ; and, further, that it hjfe taken 
 a deep hold of the public mind. 
 
The fact is, as Lord Rosebery happily remarked the other day 
 the greatest discovery of the century by the people of England is the 
 discovery of the British Empire. The colonies, he added, have not 
 made the discovery, for they have always been perfectly aware of the 
 existence of their Empire. Great popular movements in England are 
 like the making of the young flood tide upon her coasts. They are 
 slow movements at first, and even when they have gathered volume 
 and grown deep, and full, and strong, like the advance of the flood 
 in its spring, they are often like that mighty movement of ocean, so 
 silent that they are unheeded and unobserved till the appearance of 
 rising waters in some unexpected quarter startles the loiterer on the 
 beach and warns him that the world of waters is at hand. And 
 so it has b-*en with this movement in favor of Imperial Federation. 
 It has for years past been silently but surely making head ; but it 
 was altogether unheeded, till one day, the 29th of July, 1884, it 
 startled the British public by welling up in a most unmistakable way in 
 the city of London itself ; and from that point it has with astonishing 
 rapidity overflowed the land. This generation has witnessed no such 
 marvellous political movement in England as this movement in favor 
 of Imperial Federation. But it has not been conflned to England ; 
 it has extended to the remotest confines of the Empire. It has swept 
 over Australasia, ind it has kindled afresh the hopes and aspirations 
 of our fellow-countrymen in South Africa. It is here with us in 
 Canada too ; and — Professor Goldwin Smith to the contrary notwith- 
 standing — I say it has made great and substantial progress in the 
 Dominion. It was only in 1885 that the Canadian branch of the 
 league was formed, and already it comprises among its members 
 some 60 members of the Dominion Parliament, and many others of 
 the foremost men in the Dominion. Why, only the other day a 
 branch of the League was formed at Ottawa, and there in the capital 
 itself some 140 or 150 of their leading citizens, with Mr. Sanford 
 Fleming as president, enrolled themselves as members. And why? 
 I will tell you. Because the people of Canada have a warm heart 
 to their kindred beyond the seas ; because they regard with venera- 
 tion and gratitude the mighty mother of nations from whom they 
 spring ; because they glory in their own Empire ; and because they 
 are also firmly persuaded that their material interests are best 
 
served by the maintenance of the connection between Great Britain 
 and her colonies. 
 
 " We rejoice in the connection as it exists now. It has been one 
 of unmixed good." And again : " It is im|X)ssible to exaggerate the 
 feeling of loyalty and affection that exists in Canada," i. e., towards 
 the Mother Country. 
 
 These are strong expressions. About as strong as can be framed 
 in English ; and they are specially significant ad coming from an 
 experienced lawyer and politician accustomed carefully to weigh his 
 words. They are the words of the Premier of this province, spoken 
 during the summer of 1884, only some three years ago, in the city 
 of London, the heart of your Kmpire, which we are proud to remem- 
 ber is also the metropolis of the world. " The connection," he says, 
 " has been one of unmixed good." " It is impossible to exaggerate 
 the feeling of loyalty and affection that exists in Canada." 
 
 Is there a man in this hall, be he Conservative or Reformer, who 
 is prepared to deny these statements of Mr. Mowat ? Not one. 
 There is not, I venture to say, one man present who does not from 
 his heart fully endorse them. There is not one man present who 
 does not know full well that there is no other political sentiment in 
 Canada that exceeds (if indeed there b< ^ny that at all equals) in 
 volume and intensity that sentiment of loyalty and affection to the 
 old Mother Land, which pervades all classes of our people. There 
 is not one man present who does not in his heart and conscience 
 know that Canada's connection with the Mother Country has been to 
 her a source of almost incalculable benefit and blessing. Who does 
 not know full well that by and through that connection this noble 
 young Canada of ours, that we all so glory in and love, has been 
 enabled to advance by leaps and bounds towards a place in the fore- 
 front of the nations of the world, unimpeded in the progress by the 
 jealousies or hostility of any powerful competitor ? There is not a 
 man who hears me that does not know full well that by and through 
 that connection it is that we can stand up to-day in the face of the 
 civilized world, and, v\ ithout risk of successful contradiction, make 
 the proud boast that, except within the confines of our own Empire, 
 except under the sheltering folds of our own flag, there never was 
 since the world began, there never was under the broad canopy of 
 
heaven, a people who enjoyed so full a measure of true and perfect 
 liberty as th.<t which is the blessed portion of our people in Canada. 
 For it is a full measure of Biitish liberty. And what is that ? It is 
 alxsolutely uncontrolled freedom of thought, word and action, within 
 the bounds of wise and just laws. Outside those bounds lie licenbe 
 and anarchy. There British freedom wills and dies ; and just in pro- 
 portion to the degree in which those bounds are jealously guarded, 
 just in proportion to the degree in which those wise and just laws are 
 carefully administered and firmly enforced, do we have a more or 
 less perfect form of that British liberty which the good sense and 
 j)atriotism of the people of this country have so happily conserved 
 for themselves and their children after them. I say there is not a 
 man present who does not know that to this British connection we 
 owe this British liberty, and there is not within the four corners of 
 this broad Dominion a man who does not in his heart know and 
 confess that it is through and by virtue of that British connection 
 alone that Canada, with her 5,000,000 of people, has been enabled 
 to maintain her just rights against the high-handed encroach- 
 ments of her powerful neighbor to the south, and is to-day enabled 
 to treat upon terms of the most perfect and absolute equality with 
 that great republic and her 55 or 60 millions of inhabitants. Talk of 
 using our fishery rights as a lever with which to move the United 
 Slates to trade with us upon fair terms ! I should like to know where 
 our lever would have been to-day were it not for the protecting 
 power and influence of Great Britain ; and I venture to think the 
 value of our lever is none the less that we have the weight and might 
 of Britain at the right end of it. But, thank God, it is there for us to- 
 day as it has ever been of yore, ready, aye, ready, at our need. And 
 yet, oh, burning, blistering shame ! oh, poor, frail humanity ! there 
 are those among us who would strive to persuade themselves and 
 you that we might in all honor and with conscience clear use this 
 power with which the Mother Country thus willingly and affection- 
 ately supplies to us and fashion with it a weapon to wound her own 
 breast ; that at the very moment v/hen she is lending us her strength 
 to struggle with our adversary, we should use that (her own) strength 
 to betray her own best interests and dismember her own empire. In 
 other words, that we might as honest and honorable men use those 
 fishing rights which, but for the sheltering power and influence of 
 
the Mother Country, would long since have been filched from us 
 and which are to-day ours to use solely by reason of that power and 
 influence, that we might use those fishery rights as a bribe to in* 
 duce the United States to enter into such trading relations with us 
 as would virtually exclude the Mother Country from our mprkets. 
 
 The proposal is horrible. It is unnatural. It is altogether too 
 hideous and monstrous a thing to be born of this glorious, beauteous 
 young Canada. She must, she will disown, she has disowned it. 
 
 But to return to what Mr. Mowat said : After stating that it was 
 impossible to exaggerate the benefits that Canada had derived from 
 British connection, that it had been for us unmixed good, Mr. 
 Mowat went on to say that in his opinion and in the opinion of many 
 of the people in Canada, it was quite impossible for the present state 
 of things to be permanent. The people would sooner or later 
 demand some voice in Imperial affairs. (In this view of the situa- 
 tion Mr. Mowat is, I think, sustained by all the leading statesmen of 
 England.) The difliculty was, Mr. Mowat said, to see how that 
 could be arranged. He was not as sanguine as some as to the dis- 
 covery of a satisfactory solution of the difficulty. But what, he 
 asked, were statesmen for, if not to solve difficulties ? And for his 
 own part he could .say that no man was more anxious than he that 
 this difficulty should be solved ; and he (Mr. Mowat) accordingly, 
 on the 29th of July, 1884, the day to which I have already referred, 
 seconded this most important resolution. " That for the purpose of 
 enlightening and instructing the people, both in the United Kingdom 
 and the colonies, as to the incalculable advantages which will accrue 
 to the whole Empire from the adoption of such a system of political 
 organizations, a society be formed of men of all parties, to advocate 
 and support the principle of Federation." 
 
 The meeting in London to which I have referred, and at which 
 Mr. Mowat spoke, was the conference held by leading men of all 
 parties for the purpose of considering the advisability of forming a 
 Society to promote the cause of Imperial Federation ; the resolution 
 which Mr. Mowat so gladly seconded was, as you see, the resolution 
 by virtue of which the Imperial Federation League has its existence. 
 
 It is for the purpose of saying a few words to you about this 
 principle of Federation of the Empire, thus advocated by Mr. Mowat, 
 
that I am here to address you to-night. I have sought to emphasize 
 the fact that the principle meets with Mr. Mpwat's approval, 
 because I am anxious that you should all understand that from the 
 very inception of the movement until the present time the promo- 
 ters of Imperial Federation have striven by every means in their 
 power to keep it clear and pure from all taint of party politics. We 
 have felt that the maintenance of the unity of our Empire was a 
 principle upon which Conservative and Radical, Grit and Tory, 
 could well agree. We have felt that upon this one issue at least we 
 might well lay aside our local differences and jealousies, and remem- 
 bering only that we are alike citizens of a matchless Empire, 
 strive with all our strength, with all our energies, to preserve intact 
 the mighty heritage bequeathed to us by the prowess and wisdom of 
 our forefathers. And thus we find that as we have the leader of the 
 Reform party in this Province actively engaged in promoting this 
 movement by seconding the resolution on the strength of which the 
 League was founded, so also you have Sir John Macdonald and Sir 
 Charles Tupper countenancing it by their presence and their utter- 
 ances at the great initial meetings in London. And in England, while 
 the first president, the leading spirit of the association, was a Liberal 
 — one of the truest and ablest and most single-minded statesmen of 
 modern times — I mean the late Mr. Forster — and while the present 
 president is also a Liberal, and a Gladstonian Liberal, too. Lord 
 Roriebery, yet Conservatives have just as warmly espoused the cause, 
 and public opinion there has, as I have said, moved in favor of Im- 
 perial Federation with a rapidity, volume and power which has 
 utterly astonished its warmest and most sanguine supporters. And 
 now what is Imperial Federation ? What do we mean by it ? What 
 is the object we have in view ? 
 
 The object we have in view is to preserve to ourselves and our 
 children after us for ever the unity of our Empire. There are, I 
 think, sir, few people in Canada, siill fewer of the British breed, who 
 will deny that this is a good object. The preservation of our . 
 Empire — our Empire — mark you, my friends ! It is just as much 
 ours as it is the empire of the British people living in any other 
 part of it — living in England, Ireland, or Scotland, for example. We 
 have, in fact, to all intents and purposes, a greater share of it under 
 our own immediate control than they have ; and no one who has 
 
given even a casual thought to these matters can havt failed to 
 observe that our influence is year by year becoming more and more 
 potent in reference to matters of a less strictly local nature. Our 
 right to be consulted as to matters of imperial moment is being 
 more and more fully recognized. The most obvious and striking proof 
 of this fact is the summning of the Imperial Conference last year. 
 But on this subject the present leader of the Imperial House of 
 Commons has said,— on the same day on which Mr. Mowat seconded 
 the resolution by virtue of which the League has its existence — " We 
 regard our colonial friends as Englishmen in the full and true intent 
 of the word, and they are entitled and should obtain as complete a 
 place in the management and in the control of the affairs of the 
 Empire as we Englishmen claim in our own little island." And 
 again he said : " Let us at least assert the principle that unity is to 
 be maintained, that some method shall be found, some course 
 adopted, which shall give our colonists all the rights, and the inte- 
 rests, and the advantages which belong to resident Englishmen in 
 Great Britain and Ireland." This statement of Mr. Smith's was 
 received with cheers. And he emphatically added : '' I beliove 
 it can be done." That is the deliberately expressed opinion of that 
 eminently practical statesman who at present leads the greatest 
 legislative body in the world , that was the opinion of the late Mr. 
 Forster, than whom no man in England was more prized fur calm, 
 clear-sighted sagacity; that was the opinion of Lord Shaftesbury, 
 that is the opinion of Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, of Lord Carnarvon, 
 of the present Secretary for the Colonies, of the present Priipe 
 Minister of England. I understand that to be the o])inion of 
 Mr. Chamberlain. That is the opinion of premiers and ex-premien^ 
 of colonies in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa ; that is the 
 opinion of scores and scores of the most eminent and practical 
 statesmen of the Mother Country and the Empire over. And yet, 
 as I have said once before, we are to be told by one or two anony* 
 mous writers, by half a dozen Yankee sympathizers, and forsooth 
 by Professor Goldwin Smith, that the deliberately formed and 
 openly expressed opinion of all these great, experienced and prac- 
 tical statesmen is mere childishness — a dream, a vision, a phantasy 
 — something quite unworthy the consideration of sober-minded, 
 sensible people. 
 
m} 
 
 Now, who is Professor Goldwin Smith ? What weight ought to be 
 attached to his opinions on this subject? Mr. Goldwin Smith is a 
 man of learning and culture, who writes singularly graceful and 
 forcible English. He is a gentleman who for his great literary 
 attainments is deservedly held in much esteem by the people of 
 Canada. But no one dreams of regarding Mr. Smith as a statesman. 
 His opinions on such a subject as Imperial Federation are not for a 
 moment to be weighed against that of any one of the phalanx of 
 great Imperial statesmen who have approved the principle ; and it 
 simply vanishes from the calculation altogether when opposed to the 
 combined weight of the opinions of them all. 
 
 The fact is that Professor (loldwin Smith is a good deal like the old 
 harper in Sir Walter Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel. And it occurs 
 to me that we have a representative of the Orphan Boy, too, in the 
 person of poor, innocent Erastus Wiman, who so prettily prattles 
 one version of his little story in Canada, and with childlike unconcern 
 qu'te another version of it in the United States. Professor Goldwin 
 Smith is an interesting relic of a bygone time, and almost as great 
 a curiosity as that famous ornithological specimen, a live dodo. He 
 is, in fact, about the only extant specimen left to us of the once 
 famous Manchester school. That was the school that would have 
 confined England within the bounds of th» famous ** silver streak.*' 
 That was the school that taught that England's colonies were a source, 
 not of strength but of weakness — that they were prepared to turn 
 their backs upon her on the first favorable opportunity. That was 
 the school of disintegration and surrender that urged the cutting 
 adrift the Empire of England the getting rid of the obligation to 
 defend the colonies, and the leaving them to shift for themselves as 
 best they might at the earliest possible moment. I will show you 
 that Mr. Goldwin Smith was one of the leading apostles of that 
 school which was once influential in England, and I will show you 
 what is thought in England of his teaching to-day. 
 
 •* The dominant party in the State was," (at that time) says the 
 Times, " powerfully influenced by the ingenious and passionate 
 arguments of writers like Mr. Goldwin Smith, and by reaction 
 against the policy of Lord Palmerston." 
 
 " Cut and dried schemes of deliberate separation, such as that 
 
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 V" 
 
 
 which Lord Rosebery connected tnily enough with the name of Mr. 
 Goldwin Smith," says the radical Daily News. 
 
 The Goldwin Smith propaganda is thus described by the London 
 Globe : " If Imperial disintegration resulted, what matter ? Canada, 
 Australia, New Zealand and South Africa would still be open to our 
 trade as ever, while we should save a great deal of money by with- 
 drawing from their protection." 
 
 These are the views and sentiments of the gentleman who is, all 
 unconscious of evil — for to him it seems no crime — seeking to foul 
 the fountains of Canadian loyalty to that old Mother Land that 
 guards in her bosom the bones of our forefathers. 
 
 But let us see what is thought of Mr. Goldwin Smith's doctrines 
 in England now. The Pall Mall Gazette is, as you all know, one of 
 the ablest exponents of the views and principles of the Liberal 
 party in England. It says : " To-day, when we take up newspaper 
 after newspaper, we are in amazement. The advocates of a little 
 England, where are they now ?***** Judging from the com- 
 ments of the newpapers, the journalist of the school of Mr. Goldwin 
 Smith is as extinct as the Megatherium. The contraction of England 
 has not one articulate advocate left in the daily press, and Liberals 
 and Radicals vie with Conservatives in professions of enthusiastic 
 patriotism in that larger sense which regards all the English, whether 
 they live at home or are dwellers beyond the seas, as fellow-citizens of 
 a common realm." 
 
 You see that Professor Goldwin Smith is therefore, as I have said, 
 a relic of a bygone time, and with but little variation Sir Walter 
 Scott's lines accurately describe him : 
 
 His fad, his sole remaining joy, 
 Was mnnagcd by an alien l)oy. 
 The last of all that School was he 
 That deemed disgrace in chivalry— 
 That urged on Britain infamy. 
 For happily its date is fled : 
 Its sordid doctrines all are dead : 
 And he, discredited, distressed, 
 Could he grow wise, would be at rest. 
 
 But one of the interesting things about Professor Goldwin Smith 
 is that, clever though he be, he can't grow wise. He is like the 
 
 EH 
 
■■ 
 
 It 
 
 schoolman of old who made facts conform to their preconceived' 
 theories, not their theories to the facts. He has lived to see the con- 
 federation of the great German Empire, and the unification of Italy. 
 He has seen Alsace and Lorraine torn from the bleeding side of 
 France, and all Europe shuddering at the prospect of the death- 
 struggle which in consequence will sooner or later be waged. He 
 knows that Canada is teeming with the descendants of men who hold) 
 their world'y gear as dross in comparison with that precious jewel 
 they cherished in their hearts, — loyalty to king and country. And 
 yet a country is still, for Professor Goldwin Smith, but a geogra- 
 phical expression ; and the human beings who possess it are, with all 
 their hopes and fears, their joys and griefs, their sentiments and 
 aspirations, but money-making machines. 
 
 This gentleman and these few others I have mentioned either 
 cannot or will not see how a federation of the Empire may be 
 achieved. Those whose hearts are full of the great theme refuse to 
 formulate from any particular locality, without consultation with 
 representatives of the interests involved, a cut and dried scheme for 
 federation of a world-wide Empire. Many Imperial Federationists 
 hold that the work of the League is to inculcate the principle of 
 unity, to urge upon Local and Imperial Governments the adoption 
 of all measures tending towards unity and consolidation, and to leave 
 federation to develop and shape itself gradually as the exigencies of 
 the times may require — even as the British Constitution shaped 
 itself out of the practical business capacity, the saving commen sen^e 
 and the self-governing instincts of the Anglo-Saxon race. And so 
 because no such cut and dried scheme is propounded you are to be 
 told that Imperial Federr<tion is an impossibility, that the Imperial 
 Federation League is of no practical utility, and you are to sit down 
 and fold your hands, twirl your thumbs, and let your Empire fall to 
 pieces before your eyes if it will — let slip from your nerveless grasp a 
 heritage dazzling in splendor beyond the dream of man. I say No ! A 
 thousand times No ! Perish the thought : and perish the dastard who 
 would be so false to himself, to his fathers and to his children after him, 
 as to refuse to raise his voice, and, if needs be, his hand, too, in defence 
 of the matchless Empire of England of which this glorious young 
 Dominion of ours forms so great and important a part. The Empire 
 of England ! Your Empire ! And what an Empire I One is almost 
 
 'i 
 
*1 
 
 n 
 
 afraid to say what an Empire it is. For the palest description of it 
 sounds like spread eagleism. It is an Empire four times greater 
 than the world famous Empire of Rome. The German Empire of to- 
 day is a mighty Empire. Yours is forty times its extent. It com- 
 prises within its limits one-fifth of the whole habitable globe. The 
 'sails of your innumerable fleets whiten every sea, and on every sea 
 yours is the proudest flag that floats at a mast-head. Just think of 
 this world of ours and see what a shaping, forming power your 
 Empire has been upon the face of it. Think of the shocks of battle 
 it has . withstood. Think of the glorious deeds of arms it has 
 achieved. Think of the lion deeds it has done in the cause of liberty 
 and justice. Think of the incense-breathing deeds of pity and mercy. 
 Think of all its triumphs in science, in literature and art, and then 
 tell me is not the preservation of this Empire of yours something 
 worth planning for, something worth working for, something worth 
 fighting, and, if needs be, dying for ? Certain it is that man never 
 died in a holier cause. 
 
 But because we refuse (simply to please our critics) to formulate 
 some crude cut and dried scheme of Imperial Federation, therefore 
 you are to be taught that the thing is impossible, the enemies of 
 Imi)erial unity are to have a free hand to work their own sweet will 
 among our people, and the friends of the empire are to sit stock 
 still and " grin and bear it." Did we do so we should deserve to 
 lose our cause and to go down to posterity branded as the men who 
 had betrayed their trust, and had stood idly by while their own 
 Imperial heritage crumbled into the dust before their very eyes. 
 
 Mr. Forster said that he "thought they were the real foes of 
 union, or at least the disbelievers of its possibility, who would ask 
 to day what should be the form of Federation or demand at this 
 moment a written Federal constitution." And Lord Rosebery said 
 that " if an absolutely perfect and complete scheme, to which no 
 possible objection of time or space could be urged, were introduced 
 to the Parliament of Great Britain, it would have no chance of 
 acceptance. The British Parliament would say, and wisely say, 'we 
 will go gently ; we wish to see how this scheme works in minor 
 matters before we proceed to any cut and dried constitution of the 
 British Empire.' " 
 
12 
 
 The object of Imperial Federation is Imperial unity. What is 
 Imperial Federation itself? It is Imperial consolidation — Imperial 
 organization — the so ordering the great forces within the Empire 
 that they shall not oppose one another, shall not conflict with one 
 another — the so marshalling them that they shall act together for 
 the common good. The word " Federation " has been a stumbling- 
 block to many who are heartily in favor of Imperial unity. They 
 have imagined that it necessarily implied a confederation like our 
 own but on a vastly larger scale, and they have feared it would be 
 unworkable. But Mr. Forstei, the chief organizer of the movement 
 in England, as to this again says that " The word does not neces- 
 sarily imply a Federal Parliament. It may, for instance, be fulfilled 
 by a council of representatives of the different colonies. In fact all 
 that is implied is that there should be some combination together of 
 the colonies with the Mother Country which would bind them so 
 that separation would be felt to be a most improbable result." Mr. 
 Freeman, the great historical and constitutional authority, defines a 
 Federal Commonwealth in its most perfect form as " one which 
 forms a single state in its relation to other nations, but which consists 
 of many states in relation to its internal government." It is one of 
 the fundamental axioms of the Imperial Federation League that 
 must never be lost sight of, but which has carefully been kept out of 
 sight of the public by the opponents of Imperial unity, that " no 
 scheme of Federation should interfere with the existing rights of local 
 parliaments in relation to local affairs." So that when you are told 
 that it is the intention of Imperial Fede ration ists to interfere with 
 your local self-government, you are told what is exactly the opposite 
 of the truth. The word Federation, in its ordinary acceptation, 
 means simply, *' a league, a compact." The object of that league or 
 compact is the preservation of the unity of the Empire. The terms 
 of the compact and the details for carrying it out can only be arran- 
 ged by consultation among the parties interested — and that probably 
 only gradually and as occasion may require. 
 
 My friend, Mr. D' Alton McCarthy, whose great name and influence 
 has been so valuable to the League in the Dominion, thinks that the 
 negotiations for closer union between the Mother Country and her 
 colonies will result ultimately in the formation of an Imperial 
 Federal Parliament, in which the colonies will have representation. 
 
 0' 
 
a 
 
 i 
 
 13 
 
 The representation of Canada in such a Parliament would (on the 
 basis of population) be to-day about equal to that of Ireland, and 
 Australia would send about as many representatives as Scotland. 
 The representation from all the colonies would, therefore, even now 
 be a powerful factor in any such Imperial Parliament. And when 
 we think of what it would become by colonial growth and develop- 
 ment by the end of the century, it is apparent that the objection so 
 often urged that the colonies would have no influence in any such 
 body and would be hopelessly swamped is simple, unadorned non- 
 sense. And 1 might ask-, has the treatment of her colonies by the 
 mother country been such as to justify us in assuming that she would 
 vish to swamp us ? 
 
 Tlie objection of distance, too, falls to the ground. For if the 
 proposed fast transatlantic service so much spoken of lately be 
 effected — and such a service we must soon have — Canadian repre 
 sentatives from Ottawa could reach London in about half the time 
 required to bring members from British Columbia to Ottawa at the 
 commencement of the last Dominion Parliament. 
 
 But, on the other hand, as we have seen, Mr. Forster did not 
 think an Imperial Federal Parliament necessarily implied in Imperial 
 Federation ; and Sir John Macdonald takes the same ground, and 
 holds that the Federation is more likely to take the form of a close 
 and intimate aUiance between the mother country and her offspring. 
 
 Last year witnessed, as you all know, for the first time in the 
 history of the Empire an imperial conference. Delegates from all 
 the colonies, summoned by our common Sovereign, met together on 
 English soil to plan together with members of the Imperial Govern- 
 ment, for the weal of the whole Empire. It is simply impossible to 
 exaggerate the importance of this event. The experiment proved 
 eminently successful, and it can scarcely be doubted that recourse 
 will be had to it again. Here then we have a very apparent, a 
 very tangible advance towards Imperial uniiy, towards Imperial 
 organization and consolidation. Let us each and all help on the 
 glorious work, by giving to it our countenance, our sympathy, our 
 support, by pronouncing with no uncertain voice in favor of every 
 measure making for consolidation and unity and against every mea- 
 sure tending towards a loosening of those golden links of loyalty and 
 
 ■ 
 
14 
 
 love that bind our Empire together. That is our work for the 
 present. The future will take care of itself. The descendants of 
 the men who framed the British Constitution may safety be trusted 
 to know how to shape a scheme that will give effect to the desire of 
 kindred beyond the seas for more intimate political relations with 
 one another. 
 
 But of this rest assured, the constitution of your Empire — if I 
 may use that term for want of a better — will be worked out by wise 
 heads, and defended, if needs be, by stror.g arms, in accordance 
 with the self-governing instincts of the race to which you belong. 
 A mighty movement is speading over the Empire making for a 
 more perfect unity. And I have too much " faith in the breed" to 
 doubt its being able to attain its object. I say more, I say it would 
 be a slander and a calumny upon the British race to assert that 
 they were incapable of guarding and keeping whole that Empire 
 which has been won and bequeathed to them by their forefathers. 
 
 The question we have to ask ourselves is simply this : '* Do we 
 wish to preserve our Empire ?" Every man who has that great 
 hope in his heart is with us. To him we extend the right hand of 
 fellowship, whether he be Liberal or Conservative, Grit or Tory. 
 He is with us in heart. We ask him to be with us in deed also, and 
 to become a fellow-worker in the cause. But it is objected in good 
 faith by friends of our Empire that we should not expect public 
 supi ort for the policy of Imperial Consolidation until we have for- 
 mulated a scheme for carrying it into effect. *' How," it is asked, 
 " can men support a thing that is without form, and void ? Let us 
 see the details of your scheme first, and then we will tell you what 
 we think of it. But until you do so you have no right to expect our 
 support." 
 
 Now, surely it is evident that the approval of the principle comes 
 first, the details afterwards. The people of Paris made up their 
 minds that they required and were determined to have a Town hall 
 before they entered into the question of the exact details of the 
 building they proposed to erect. So it is with Imperial Federa- 
 tion. The question to-day is, Do we approve of Imperial unity ? 
 If we do let us support it by strengthening the hands of those who 
 are laboring to maintain and perfect it. If hereafter any details are 
 
IS 
 
 proposed which you disapprove, oppose them. But don't say you 
 won't have your Town Hall at all, merely because an architect may 
 perchance propose to make a ceiling loo low or a window too narrow. 
 
 In the meantime we can see some of the things which are implied 
 in and will go to make up the sum of this Federation of the Em< 
 pire. One«is that there shall be an organization for mutual defence. 
 Let us suppose that this does not entail any additional expense. 
 Let us suppose that each of the colonies is • paying its fair share 
 towards the common defence of the Empire. They may or may 
 not be. But suppose they are. Is it not clear that a thorough organ- 
 ization upon the best and most scientific principles of the forces thus 
 at the disposal of the Empire would add enormously to their effective 
 value ? Would not such an organization be in itself a great stride 
 towards a more perfect unity of our Empire? Well, but this great 
 stride has been taken. This organization for purposes of mutual 
 defence is in progress. For among the matters dealt with last year 
 by the great Imperial council was this very matter of an organization 
 for mutual defence, and one of the outcomes from this great Impe- 
 rial council was an ■ arrangement by virtue of which the mother 
 country agreed to supply a fleet of ships of war for Australian waters, 
 the cost of the maintenance of which our brothers and friends in 
 Australia cheerfully undertook to defray. So much for consultation 
 and organization ; and so much, too, for the Imperial Federation 
 League, at whose instance it was that this Imperial Conference was 
 convened. And which — visionary though its objects and impractic- 
 able though its methods may be made to appear — has in a very 
 short space of time achieved this somewhat substantial result. I 
 believe it was admitted at the conference that in the establishing and 
 maintenance of the Military College at Kingston, in the maintaining 
 of our militia forces, and in the construction of the Intercolonial 
 and Canadian Pacific railways, we have in the meantime been doing 
 our fair share towards Imperial defence. But I venture to say that I 
 express your sentiments when I assert and I hope you will correct me 
 if I misrepresent you) that should the integrity of the Empire be 
 menaced, or should the honor of the British race be assailed, no 
 colony under the Crown, no portion of the British people would be 
 prepared to make more substantial sacrifices than the people of 
 Canada to preserve that Empire intact «nd that honor invic^ate. 
 
 f 
 
II 
 
 16 
 
 Imperial Recipocity. 
 
 The summoning of this Imperial Council was a great stride 
 towards a more perfect unity. The organization for mutual 
 defence is another stride in the same direction. Soon we hope 
 to be able to record still another advance. We hoye soon to 
 see a mutual arrangement effected, by virtue of which the members 
 of the Empire will trade with one another on much more natural and 
 much more profitable terms than they do at present. The different 
 members of the Empire ought to trade with one another upon more 
 favorable terms than with foreign countries. The Mother Country, 
 for example, admits most of our products free of duty. The United 
 States has raised up an enormous tariff against us. We ought to 
 admit the products of the Mother Country to our markets on terms 
 more favorable than we admit those of the United States. We 
 purchase, per head of our population, much more from the Mother 
 Country than the people of the United States do. The Mother 
 Country ought to discriminate in our favor against the United States. 
 In otht. words, she ought to rearrange her tariff at least so far as 
 this, that it would advantage the producer in the Empire without 
 materially adding to the expenses of the consumer. For example, 
 she might begin in this way : In place of making poor people pay 
 a duty of 50 or 60 pcv cent, on their tea, she ought very much to 
 reduce the duty on China tea, and let in the tea produced by her 
 own people ia India free. She ought to reduce the enormous duty 
 on foreign tobacco, and let in the tobacco of her own people free. 
 §he ought to treat coffee, chickory and dried fruits in a similar 
 manner. She ought to give her own wine producers an advantage 
 iu her market over the foreigner, and the large revenues she thus lost 
 she ought to provide by taxing, for example, the butter and cheese 
 and dried fish, and horses and peas of the foreigner, letting ours in 
 free. It is not, perhaps, known to all of you that the cheese alone 
 we exported to the Mother Country last year and the year before 
 almost equalled in value all the wheat, wheat meal, wheat flour, oats 
 ^nd oatmeal that we exported to Great Britain and Ireland during 
 the same periods of time. England might put a tax on foreign 
 lumber, too, and foreign furs, while admitting ours duty free. I 
 don't think there would be much injury done to the consumer if 
 
17 
 
 there were a tax levied on the vile oleomargarine or bogus butter 
 with which our American cousins and commercial rivals flood the 
 English market, to the injury of the English and Canadian farmer. 
 All parties assisted in urging our own Government to exclude the 
 ville stuff from our markets — as much for the sake of the consumer 
 as of the producer of genuine butter — and this has been done. 
 Neither do I think a tax on seal or other furs would hit poor people 
 much harder than ' a tax on their tea and tobacco, which are as 
 necessary to them as either cheese or butter. And a very much 
 smaller tax than that now paid on tea, tobacco, coffee, etc. , levied 
 against the foreigner on the goods I have mentioned, and others thai 
 might be enumerated, would give to the Canadian farmer an 
 enormous advantage in the English market. And this tax would be 
 certainly, in part at least, borne by the foreigner, whereas the tea and 
 coffee tax is wholly paid by the English consumer. 
 
 If it be said that this is not free trade, I reply neither is 50 or 60 
 per cent, on tea free trade. If it be said that England will never 
 consent to anything like this, I say that, for my own part, I believe 
 she very soon will. In fact, while Free Trade is still the politico- 
 economic creed of the English people, there is a strong conviction 
 rooting itself in their minds that the foreigner is getting very much 
 the better of the bargain, and for my own part I am satisfied that it 
 needs but energetic action on the part of the Colonies to make the 
 movement in favor of Imperial Reciprocity irresistible. I have been 
 asked by the Toronto Mail to show any good ground for this belief* 
 I think the ground for it is very apparent. The difficulty is rather 
 to understand how anyone can be blind to its existence. In the first 
 place I may just remark that there is a very important and influen- 
 tial society, having its head-quarters in the great trading city of 
 Manchester, formed for the very purpose of advocating differential 
 duties in favor of members of the Empire. The Mail says there is 
 not a responsible politician connected with it. Well, I don't know 
 if the Mail admits that members of parliament are responsible poliii 
 ticians. Perhaps some are not held as responsible as they should 
 be. But at any rate this society, I find, numbers amongst its 
 members no less than twenty-eight of the Imperial House of 
 Commons, and the Duke of Manchester is at its head. The London, 
 
Id 
 
 Sheffield and Glasgow Chambers of Commerce have approved the 
 policy advocated by this society. 
 
 What does the Mail make of the fair trade movement ? When 
 this movement was first heard of it was derided as something quite 
 too riduculous to have a place in free trade England. Then a 
 strange thing took place in the Imperial House of Commons. It 
 was surely a piece of gratuitous effrontery on the part of these fair 
 traders to ask for a committee to enquire into the whole fiscal 
 policy of England. That was rather "too, tool" Mr. Gladstone 
 rose in his wrath and declared that the granting such a commission 
 would shake Free Trade to its very base, even in its stronghold, and 
 the motion was defeated. Time went on. A general election took 
 place, and we were assured that fair trade was annihilated. But this 
 motion for enquiry into the causes of the depression of English 
 trade came up again in the House of Commons, and, marvellous to 
 relate, the motion was carried. The commission was appointed. 
 The investigation took place. The facts were made public ; and a 
 few weeks ago, at the great convention of the Conservative party in 
 England, when the question of fair trade versus free trade was 
 submitted to the meeting, every hand but twelve was held up for 
 fair trade; and there were at that meeting i,ooo delegates. I think 
 that is sufficiently conclusive evidence that tair trade has grown to 
 be a great power in England, and that it is a rapidly increasing 
 power. Fair trade in England means the discriminating in favor of 
 those who in their trade discriminate in favor of England. Every 
 fair trader in England would be in favor of discriminating in favor of 
 the Colonies, provided we returned the compliment. 
 
 Now we have it in our power to hold out very great inducements 
 to the Mother Country to adopt such a policy. By slightly raising 
 to the fo'*e^gner the duty on manufactured goods which England pro- 
 duces — by raising it to a much smaller degree than it has been lately 
 proposed to raise it against English goods — we give her an enormous 
 advantage in our markets over the foreigners. Our own manufac* 
 turer is not only not injured by this but is also a participator in this 
 advantage over his foreign competitor. A policy framed on the lines 
 of Imperial reciprocity is the trade policy advocated by the Imperial 
 Federation League in Ganada. It is the natural and I believe the 
 

 19 
 
 inevitable policy of the Empire, and it will, I am persuaded, com- 
 mend itself more and more to the people of Canada the more it is 
 enquired into and discussed. It is a policy that will act and react 
 to the mutual benefit of the colonies and the Mother Country. 
 Everyone knows that England finds her best markets within the 
 Empire, and we have seen, not without a pang, that in some cases 
 this market is slipping away from her, and falling into the hands of 
 the commercial rivals of the Empire. This policy would enormously 
 increase her market in the Colonies, both directly and indirectly. 
 Indirectly, because the better market obtained by the Colonies 
 would largely increase their purchasing power. It is a policy that 
 would benefit both the Canadian farmer and manufacturer, not a 
 policy which would put the industry of the one against that of the 
 other, and thus divide the country against itself. It is a policy hav- 
 ing a tendency to increase rather than diminish our revenue, and 
 this largely at the expense of the foreigner. It is essentially a policy 
 making for Imperial consolidation and unity ; not a policy tending 
 to disintegration or annexation ; and it will, I am satisfied, be ap- 
 proved by the good sense, the patriotism, the instincts of affection, 
 and the sentiments of loyalty of the Canadian people. 
 
 Now I don't wish to be misunderstood. I don't want anyone to 
 suppose that I put this forward as a scheme for Imperial Recipro- 
 city. I am speaking purely from a Canadian standpoint, and I wish 
 to point out that a scheme of reciprocity between Canada and the 
 Mother Country, mutually advantageous to each of them, could be 
 arranged without calling upon the English consumer to pay one 
 farthing more in custom duties than he does to-day, and this, too 
 without entailing the duty on breadstuffs. 
 
 You will probably see the Mother Country go further than this, 
 and the breadstuffs also. Be that as it may, I am satisfied that, as 
 with Canada, so, too, with the othci colonies of the Empire, recipro- 
 cal trading might be arranged between each of them and the Mother 
 Country, and also between the colonies themselves, which would be 
 mutually advantageous to all parties concerned. 
 
 Much better proposals than those I have made may be advanced. 
 These are merely thrown out in the rough in order to show that reci- 
 procity between the colonies and the Mother Country is not that in^- 
 possible thing it is so often represented to be. 
 
 
so 
 
 CoMMiRCiAL Union, 
 
 I know, indeed, that another and very different policy has been 
 proposed to us — a policy which has been desperately and despair- 
 ingly thrust forward at the present moment for more reasons than 
 one, and for one, as a set-off to a policy of Imperial reciprocity. Our 
 sharp-witted commercial rivals and very good friends to the south 
 of the line are apprised by the Uhlans of their trading forces, their 
 ever vigilant consular agents, that this Imperial policy is looming up 
 in the near future. And the convening of the Imperial Conference 
 in London last year, together with the important discussions on this 
 very subject of Imperial Reciprocity, which afterwards took place 
 there, lent emphasis to the warning. They have over and over again 
 spumed our overtures for more intimate trade relations with them. 
 Now they are alarmed lest they lose our markets at the same moment, 
 and by virtue of the same policy which makes us to them more 
 formidable rivals than ever before in those markets which are most 
 valuable to them — the markets of England and the Empire. Hence 
 the flutter and alarm, and the desperate efforts that are being made 
 to absorb our rapidly growing trade with their own before it is too 
 late ; and to dominate our industries, and, if possible, to obtain con- 
 trol of that great railway which we have provided for ourselves, at 
 the cost of so much money and so much anxiety, and which is des- 
 tined to play so prominent and important a part in the Imperial 
 Reciprocity of the future. The alternative policy proposed to us 
 does indeed bear the stamp of Yankee thoroughness and audacity. It 
 is to us slow going Canadians a somewhat startling policy. For the 
 policy thus coolly proposed to us is a policy of national degradation 
 and abject surrender — rendered wise and justifiable because of the 
 squalid misery which has enabled our farmers and laborers and me- 
 chanics to increase their deposits in our Post Office Savmgs Banks, 
 from Mr« millions to only seventeen millions since June, 1879 — i.e., 
 in eight years, and which is further evidenced by the substantial 
 houses and commodious barns springing up by the thousand in 
 every county in the Province ; a policy rendered wise and justifiable 
 also because of the extreme poverty in natural resources of this* half 
 ppntjnen^ of ours, and because our finances are in such desperate 
 
ft 
 
 straits that the financiers of the world — regardless of reiterated warn* 
 ings — will insist upon lending us their money on terms far more 
 favorable than ever before ; and, above all, a policy rendered wise and 
 justifiable because of the well-known business benevolence and trad' 
 ing tenderness of cousin Jonathan, by reason of which he never could 
 or ever would seek to obtain an unfair advantage in any bargain I 
 
 Mark you, my friends, I am speaking of the policy called Com- 
 mercial Union with the United States, not of a policy of mere Reci- 
 procity with them. For my own part I should gladly see a fair and 
 equitable Reciprocity treaty arranged between Canada and the 
 United States. The people of the United States have many great 
 and good qualities, and I hope we shall always live in neighborly 
 friendship with them. But if you want a sure recipe for making 
 neighbors unneighborly, you cannot have a better than to tie them 
 fast down to an agreement for farming on shares, for example, by 
 virtue of which one of the parties has an unfair advantage of the 
 other. If they were good neighbors before that, it will very soon 
 make a coolness between them ; if there was a coolness before, it will 
 be fortunate if it does not now break out into open hostility. There 
 is no doubt that a reciprocity treaty might be framed to the material 
 advantage of both countries. But it is just as certain that such a 
 treaty might, be drawn up as would give more advantage to one coun- 
 try than to the other. Commercial Union, or anything the least like 
 it, would, in my opinion, give our country away to the United 
 States. 
 
 Now, I am not going to enter upon a discussion of Commercial 
 Union to-night. And for these reasons : First, because you are, I 
 am sure, getting tired of me ; and, secondly, because I am getting 
 tired — certainly not of you, who have so kindly heard me — but of 
 myself. And in the third place, because, in order to discuss any ques- 
 tion, we must first of all clearly understand what the subject of dis- 
 cussion is; and just what is proposed to us by the friends and 
 supporters of Mr. Wiman, is one of those things that, as 1-ord 
 Dundreary would say, " No fellah can find out." One day it is 
 Commercial Union, pure and simple, if either of these terms are 
 applicable ; then it is Commercial Union with the union left out; 
 then it is unrestricted reciprocity ; then it is unrestricted recipro- 
 
22 
 
 city restricted by custom houses on the frontier. What among 
 these mutually destructive propositions is left to us to-day 
 seems to me almost as difficult a problem to determine as the 
 problem of the three snakes set by a famous senior wrangler of 
 Cambridge. Suppose, he said, you have three snakes, each taking 
 hold of the tail of the other so that they formed a circle. Now 
 let them commence to devour one another; the circle will of 
 course grow smaller as the swallowing process proceeds. How small 
 can it become "* How much will be left of it when the snakes have 
 swallowed one another to the greatest possible extent ? It is said 
 that not one of the assembled wisdom of the University could solve 
 the problem. Well, if I were inclined to guess, I should say that 
 our Commercial Union snakes, when they had continued their con- 
 sumption of one another a little longer, may resolve themselves into 
 a harmless eel called simple Reciprocity — a slippery fish to catch 
 by hand but which is sometimes caught by bait. 
 
 But mark you, my friends, we had real snakes at first — venomous 
 snakes, too- — though they don't care to show their fangs so plainly 
 now. 
 
 You have had many reasons urged upon you in proof that you 
 should approve Mr. Wiman's scheme for your well-being. Perhaps 
 you have not had this one. It is Mr. Wiman's own. This is how 
 Mr. Wiman is planning for the welfare of the Canadian people. Un- 
 fortunately it happened to be mentioned by him, not here in Canada 
 but in the United States, so you may have missed it. But he would 
 regret that you should be without it. Here is an extract from 
 speech of Mr Wiman made in the United States. 
 
 " When one recalls the 5,000 miles of coast line fishing privileges 
 possessed by Canada ; the limitless forests of timber greatly needed 
 by the United States ; the exhaustless hills of iron ore, the copper, 
 nickel and other minerals ; the mountains of phosphates, the miles 
 and miles of coal in close proximity to eastern manufacturing centres 
 and western needs, the infinite variety of riches which God in his 
 Providence has placed in those regions for the good of all mankind ; 
 and when one recalls that for the most part these are lying silent, 
 dormant and dead, it needs only to turn and look into the earnest faces 
 of the great nation on the borders of Qanada to realize that the good 
 
I 
 
 23 
 
 Providence has also provided a people whose high mission it is to take 
 these vast riches and most grate/ulli/ enjoy His bounty ! " 
 
 Do you quite agree to that ? Do you think this Canada of ours 
 was intended by the good Providence for the great nation on your 
 borders and not for you ? Are you prepared to accept Mr. Wiman's 
 views of the matter, and be guided by him, so that the Americans 
 may take the vast riches of your own native land and most gratefully 
 enjoy them ? I think if Mr. Wiman were here you would give him a 
 decisive answer. 
 
 Now hear what Alfred Tennyson says : 
 
 Sharers of our glorious past, 
 Brothers, must we part at last ? 
 Shall not we through good and ill 
 Cleave to one another still ? 
 Britain's myriad voices call, 
 " Sons, be welded, each and all 
 Into one Imperial whole, 
 One with Britain heart and soul ! 
 One life, one flag, one fleet, one throne!" 
 Britons ? Hold your own ! 
 And God guard all ! 
 
^/ 
 
^mpertaP ^cbevation B<^ao^\^t in Cdnciia. 
 
 D'ALTON McCARTIiY, Q.C, M.T., Toronto. 
 
 ALEX. McNEIL!,, M.l'., VViauton. 
 
 H. II. LYMAN, '384 St. Paul Street, Montuk.al, 
 
 ARCIL McGOUN; Jr., i8i vSl. James Street, Montkkai.. 
 R. CASIMIR DICKSON, 15 Wilcox Street, Toronto. 
 
 JVIoNTRKAi.. — IIknry Lvman, ChairiTuui ; Roswei.l C. Lyma.n,' Treas" 
 urer. 384 St. Paul Street; Arch. McGoun, Jr.' 
 Secretary, 181 St. James Street. 
 
 Ingf.rsoll. — M.Walsh, President; J. Castell Hopkins, Sec.-Treas. 
 
 Halifax. — Sir Adams Archibald, President; K. G. Kenny, Treasur- 
 er ; C. IT. Cahan, " Heruld Office," Cor. Secretary ; 
 J. M. Geldert, Jr., Rec. Secretary. 
 
 Peterdorough. — J. H. Loxo, M.A., Chairman; \Vm. I^rundrette, 
 Treasurer; Fred. E. Bell, Secretary^ 
 
 Ottawa.— Sandford Eleming, C.M.G., Ch.-'rman; Thomas Mac- 
 farlane, F.R.S.C , Treasurer ; R. G. Code, Sec. 
 
 Toronto. — J. Beverley Robinson, Chairman ; Commander Fred. 
 C. Law, Secretary-Treasurer. 
 
 Brantford. — Dr. T. M. MacIntvre, President; Col. J. V. GiL- 
 KiNSON, Treasurer; G, H. Muirhead and W. P, 
 Brewster, Joint Secretaries. 
 
 Port Arthur. — Rev. C. J. Macuin, Chairman ; L. A. Radcliffe, 
 Treaburer; R. N. K'ing, Secretary. 
 
 St. Thomas. — A. Giluert, President ; Ald. Sanders, Treasurer ; 
 '!'. W, Morton, Cor. Secretary ; W. P. Brewsieu, 
 Rec. Secretary. 
 
 OrUvLIA. — J<ji!n Gray, Coldwater, Hon. Cliairmaiij Dr. John McLean, 
 Orillia, Chairman ; Geo. H. Hale, " Packet," 
 Treasurer; Stephen C. Lett, Secretary.