/ 
 
 / 
 
 , CONTINENTAL UNION 
 
 -^->4^<^ 
 
 A SHOElT 3TXJDY 
 
 t OF 
 
 ITS ECONOMIC SIDE 
 
 By constitutional' ftieans, involving the consent of the Mother Country, to bring about 
 '.he union, on fair and honorable terms, of Canada and the United States. — 
 Platform of the Association. 
 
 \ 
 
 IS 
 
 THE CONTINENTAL UNION ASSOCIATION OF ONTARIO, 
 
 MA V, ISOj 
 
 ■■«'.' 
 
 I, 
 
 PRINTED BY HUNTER, ROSE & COMPANY, 
 ' 1893. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It is said that we must not dare to discuss the question of Con- 
 tinental Union because we should be breaking the bond which 
 connects us with the Mother Country. The bond of the heart 
 it is to be hoped we shall never break. That bond is natural, not 
 artificial or dependent on political arrangements. It would be 
 confirmed, not weakened, by the dissolution of the political tie 
 because there would be an end of all possibilities of disagreement . 
 It would not be less cherished by the mass of our people though 
 there might be no longer a Governor-General to serve out cham- 
 pagne to a few members of Parliament and officials at Ottawa, or 
 any baronetcies and knighthoods to turn into sham aristocrats a 
 few of our millionaires or politicians. Of what use is the polit- 
 ical tie either to the Mother Country or to us ? It brings the 
 Mother Country no gain. It can bring her no military strength, 
 for if British Gana,da would contribute to imperial armaments 
 French Canada would not. It is always leading her into dangerous 
 disputes about the North Atlantic Fisheries, Behring Sea or some 
 other Canadian question with the United States. On the other 
 hand, it may any day involve Canada in a British dispute perhaps 
 about the Egyptian question, the South African question, or the 
 East Indian question, and our trade may be cut up in a quarrel 
 with which we have nothing to do. Great Britain cannot under- 
 take nor does she pretend that she can undertake the defence of 
 a dependency so distant ; iii the present state of maritime circum- 
 stances her navy would ha\ e enough to do to defend her own 
 coasts, and it is well understood that if war broke out she would 
 
have to withdraw even the small force she has in Canada to save 
 it from capture. To talk of hsr guiding us politically ia a,bsurd 
 when our people are on the average fully as intelligent as hers, 
 i and not one Englishman in ten thousand knows anything about 
 
 j our affairs. Her leading statesmen and her chief organs of opin- 
 
 [ ion have always told us that though they prize our attachment 
 
 j and do not wish to thrust us from their door, we have free leave 
 
 to depart whenever we think fit and without any breach of affec- 
 tion on either side. Independence would sever us politically 
 from England just as much as Continental Union, yet it is antic- 
 ipated with complacency by one so attached to Great Britain as 
 Sir Oliver Mowat. If we can ever help the Mother Country at 
 all politically it will be by our influence as citizens of the Ameri- 
 can Republic on the policy of the great power of this continent. 
 There is nothing, then, in our relation with the Mother Country 
 or in our duty towards her to prevent our considering the ques- 
 tion of Continental Union with regard to our own interest, which 
 from c commercial point of view is that of the Mother Countiy 
 also, since her large Canadian investments would gain in value 
 like all our own property by the change. 
 
if 
 
 3— English Opinion. 
 
 The statesmen of England have always looked forward to the 
 separation of Canada from the Mother Country as an event sure to 
 occur. They are well aware that a time must arrive when we 
 shall have to go our own way, just as a son come to years of 
 discretion leaves his father's house to plunge into " the world 
 and wave of men." In a speech in the English House of Com- 
 mons on the British North America Act, (Professor Thorold 
 Rogers' collection of his speeches), John Bright said : — " For my 
 share, I want the population of these provinces to do that which 
 they believe best for their own interests — to remain with this 
 country, if they like it, in the most friendly manner, or to be- 
 come independent States if they wish it ; if they should prefer 
 to unite themselves with the United States I should not com- 
 plain even of that." This is the keynote of all the utterances 
 from England, namely, that whilst sentiment may be a powerful 
 influence to the contrary, the consideration which must ulti- 
 mately prevail in a colony is consideration for its own material 
 well-being. Mr. Gladstone {" England's Mission," Nineteenth Cen- 
 tury, 1878), says of the colonies that, " it is the welfare of those 
 communities which forms the great object of interest and desire " 
 amongst Liberals ; hence, " if the day should ever come when in 
 their own view that welfare would be best promoted by their ad- 
 ministrative emancipation, then and then only the Liberal mind 
 of England would at once say. Let them flourish to the uttermost, 
 and if their highest welfare requires their severance we prefer their 
 amicable independence to their constrained subordination." The 
 late Lord Sherbrooke (Mr. Robert Lowe) in an article about the 
 same time in the Fortnightly Review on the value to the United 
 Kingdom of the colonies, said : — " It is not natural that nations 
 which are destined probably in the lifetime of some persons now in 
 existence to become more populous than our own, should submit to 
 be forever in a state of tutelage. Our wisdom is to defer the change 
 as long as possible, and when it does come to throw no captious ob- 
 stacles in the way, but to console ourselves by the reflection that 
 the experience of a hundred years ago shows us that it is very easy 
 to exaggerate the mischiefs that arise from such a separation." This 
 is a reference to British trade with the United States which in 
 spite of hostile tariffs has reached a volume that no one could 
 have anticipated in the colonial days. Lord Blachford {Nine- 
 teenth Century, 1878) said in an article on Imperial Federation, 
 a scheme which he deems impracticable : — '• There is a period in 
 
6 
 
 the life of distant nations, however close their orif^inal connection, 
 at which each must pursue its own course, whether in domestic 
 or foreign politics, unembarrassed by the other's leading. And 
 the arrival of that period depends upon growth. Every increase 
 of colonial wealth, or numbers, or intelligence, or organization, is 
 in one sense a step towards disintegration. The Confederation of 
 Canada was therefore such a step." ■ 
 
 All three, it will be seen, adopt Mr. Bright's view that the col- 
 onies should and will take the course best adapted to promote their 
 own welfare. These men were not " traitors." Mr. Gladstore is 
 premier of England to-day, Mr. Bright and Lord Sherbrooke were 
 members of the Cabinet, Lord Blachford was permanent Undei'- 
 Secretary for the Colonies. Common sense tells us that a colo'ay 
 which, if we can conceive such foolishness, should run counter lOr 
 an}"- length of time to its own material interests for the sake of a 
 sentimental attachment would lose population, be shunned by 
 the investor, become a prey to discontent and probably at last cut 
 loose in a rage from the parent State. The Libeials are not the 
 only Englishmen who look with philosophical resignation to a 
 change in the colonial relation. In his " Memoirs of an Ex- Minis- 
 ter," Lord Malmesbury prints a letter from Lord Beaconstield, then 
 Mr. Disraeli, urging his Secretary of Foreign Aifairs to push the 
 Canadian fisheries question to a settlement whilst the situation 
 at Washington is favorable, and remarking that " these wretched 
 colonies will all be independent in a few years, and are a millstone 
 round our necks." Mr. Disraeli evidently agreed at bottom with 
 Cobden, Bright, Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Sir Henry Taylor, 
 and other leading men who were not able to see what advantage 
 Britain derived from the possession of Canada, though keenly 
 alive to the disadvantages of the connection to both. 
 
 Cobden visited Canada and the United States more than once, 
 and when the Confederation Act was on the stocks wrote as fol- 
 lows to a friend here (Life of Cobden bj'- John Morley) : — " I can- 
 not see what substantial interest the British people have in the 
 connection to compensate them for guaranteeing three or four 
 millions of North Americans living in Cauada against another 
 community of Americans living in their neighborhood. We are 
 told indeed of the loyalty of the Canadians, bat this is an ironical 
 term to apply to people who neither pay our taxes, nor obey our 
 laws, nor hold themselves liable to fight our battles, who would 
 repudiate our right to the sovereignty over an acre of their terri- 
 tory, and who claim the right of imposing their own customs 
 duties even to the exclusion of our manufactures. We are two 
 peoples to all intents and purposes, and it is a perilous delusion 
 
to both parties to attempt to keep uj) a sham connection and de- 
 pendence, which will snap asunder if it should ever be put to 
 the strain of stern reality. It is all very well for our Cockney 
 newspapers to talk of defending Canada at all hazards. It would 
 be just as possible for the United States to sustain Yorkshire in 
 a war with England as for us to enable Canada to contend against 
 the United Stat'^s. It is simply an impossibility. Nor must we 
 forget that the only serious danger of a quarrel between the two 
 neighbors arises from the connection of Canada with this country. 
 In my opinion, it is for the interest of both that we should, as 
 speedily as possible, sever the political thread by which we are as 
 communities connected, and leave the individuals on both sides to 
 cultivate the relations of commerce and friendly intercourse as 
 with other nations. I have felt an interest in this Confederation 
 scheme because I thought it was a step in the direction of 
 an amicable separation. I am afraid from the last telegrams that 
 there may be a difficulty either in your province or in Lower 
 Canada in carrying out the project. Whatever may be the wish 
 of the colonies will meet with the concurrence of our Government 
 and Parliament. We have recognized their right to control their 
 own fate even to the point of asserting their independence when- 
 ever they think fit, and which we know to be only a question of 
 time." Since Cobden's day, our tariff, then for revenue only, has 
 been transformed into a high protective tariff, British goods in 
 the bulk paying a larger amount of duty than American goods 
 because they are principally manufactures whilst the States send 
 us a great deal of raw material admitted free. The British de- 
 mocracy, the artisans whose goods we tax, are no better pleased 
 than the British Tories with the N. P., and, like Cobden, regard 
 our professions of loyalty as so much sounding brass, Cobden was 
 no traitor ; the Queen offered him his choice of a baronetcy or ad- 
 mission to the Privy Council for his services in connection with 
 the Anglo-French commercial treaty but he declined to accept 
 either. In his " Recollections and Suggestions," Lord John Rus- 
 sell, who had been premier, opposed the cession of Canada to the 
 United States by any British Ministry but nevertheless felt call- 
 ed on to make this observation : — " It is hardly necessary to say 
 that when the majority in any of our dependencies declare by 
 their representatives that they wish to separate from us, no at- 
 tempt should be made to detain them. The faults committed by 
 George Grenville, Charles Townshend and Lord North can never 
 be repeated." 
 
 It may be taken for granted, without multiplying quotations, 
 that we are at perfect liberty, so far as Britain is concerned. 
 
to make this an independent country or to join the United 
 States as we ourselves may determine. Canadians have as good 
 a right to discuss the future of Canada as British statesmen. If it 
 be not " treasonaV>le " in Mr. Gladstone, Lord Beaconsfield or Lord 
 John Russell to look forward to the severance of the connection, 
 it is not treasonable for any citizen of this country to do so, nor 
 for him to look forward to the happy consummation which Mr. 
 Bright predicted in a speech at Birmingham on the anti-slavery 
 war: 
 
 *' I cannot believe that civilization, in its journey with the snn, will 
 Bink into endless night in order to tjratify the ambition of the leaders of this 
 revolt, who seek to 
 
 Wade through slaughter to a throne, 
 And shut the gates of mercy on mankind. 
 
 I have another and a far brighter vision before my fgaze. It may be but a 
 vision but I will cherish it. I see one vast confederation stretching from the 
 frozen north in unbroken line to the glowing south, and from the wild bil- 
 lows of the Atlantic westward to the calmer waters of the Pacific main — and 
 I see one people, and one language, and one law, and one faith, and, over all 
 that wide continent, the home of freedom and a refuge for the oppressed of 
 every race and every clime." 
 
 3.— Expectation^^ at Confederation. 
 
 The growth and prosperity of Canada must be judged by that 
 of the United States. There is no getting away from Ibis com- 
 parison since we ourselves invite it whenever we ask a Euro- 
 pean emigrant to settle here rather than in the States. More- 
 over the comparison is always before the eyes of our native 
 born population, which soon learns to whaf. extent we are running 
 behind. Canada has prodigious resources. The Atlantic provinces 
 contain iron, coal, lumber and prolific fisheries ; Quebec has copper, 
 asbestos, phosphates and slate, water-power of immense capacity, 
 an abundance of spruce and white woods, and a people thrifty, in- 
 dustrious and adapted for factory work. It is not necessary to 
 speak of the wealth of Ontario in pine, iron, nickel, salt and farm- 
 ing land, or of that of the North- West and British Columbia. If 
 ours is not the best half of the continent it is certainly a right 
 goodly heritage. At the union of Upper and Lower Canada 
 public men began to expatiate upon the great future which they 
 
believed to be at hand. They compared our census returns with 
 those of the United States and were tilled with enthusiasm. ^"^ 
 Dr. Lillie, of Toronto, who wrote a book, was satisfied Ohio had no 
 chance in the race with Upper Canada. At Confederation this 
 superb confidence had in no degree abated ; the more ardent ad- 
 vocates of the new regime looked for a marvellous increase in 
 population and wealth in a very short time. It was thought by 
 some that there would be ten million people by ISJSl; one speaker 
 at a public meeting entered into an elaborate calculation to show 
 that there would be fifteen millions by 1891. The " fathers " 
 accordingly erected a most elaborate framework of government. 
 The error then committed has since been aggravated by both 
 parties until Canadians are now paying more for government in 
 proportion to their capacity than any other five million people in 
 the world. 
 
 There are fifteen or sixteen Ministers within and without 
 the Cabinet at Ottawa, of whom twelve or more are '.n receipt 
 of a salary of $7,000 a year with a sessional allowance of SI, 000, 
 or S8,000 in all. The Premier draws 89,000, The other paid 
 Ministers, those outside the Cabinet, get less. Yet the af- 
 fairs of the United States are managed by eight Ministers and no 
 more who are paid S8,O00, and as they do not sit in Congress 
 they have no extras. There are 215 members of the House of 
 Commons and 80 members of the Senate. Each is paid i? 1,000 
 sessional allowance with mileage. The present Congress consists 
 of 88 senators and 35G members of the House of Representatives. 
 They are paid .$5,000 a year with mileage. But their duties are 
 more arduous than those of Canadian members; every second 
 session is known as the long session and often lasts nine 
 months or more. In the Commons at Ottawa there is one mem- 
 ber for every 23,000 people ; in the House of Representatives 
 one for every IT+jOOO. In the Dominion Senate, Ontario and 
 Quebec have 24 members each, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick 
 10 each, Manitoba and British Columbia 3 each, iPrince Edward 
 Island 4 and the Territories 2. In the United States Senate, each 
 State of the Union is represented by two senators only. The 
 United States Senate discharges functions of the highest irapor- 
 
 (o). Some fell victims to what Is known as the percentage fallacy. For instance, a pro\ince 
 which, let it be supposed, had 10,f»00 inhabitants in 1840 and ■2<),(X)0 in 1850 has doubled its popula- 
 tion, while a State which contained 500,fHX) in 1840 and 675,000 iti 1850 has incjreased only 35 per cent. 
 But it would be absunl to infer from these percenta^'es of growth that the population of the province 
 was certain to overtake and pass that of the State. As well suppose that an infant which hasdoubled 
 its age from its first to its second year is bound to catch up with its father who in the same space 
 of time has added V)ut one year to his twenty or thirty. 
 
10 
 
 tance, but it is not easy to define those of the Senate at Ot- 
 tawa. It was constituted as a protection to the provinces but 
 has never moved a finger for the protection of provincial rights ; 
 it was to have been a check on hasty legislation but Mr. 
 Edward Blake said : — "I have seen bills which, even in our hur- 
 ried and unsatisfactory way of disposing of business in the Com- 
 mons, had taken long and weary sittings sent up to the Senate, 
 read the first time, read a second time, referred to the committee 
 of the whole, passed by committee of the whole, reported to the 
 House, read the third time and passed and sent down to us again 
 in almost as short a time as I have taken to tell the story." Thus 
 far, although everybody regards it as a fifth wheel to the coach, 
 no serious attempt has been made to reform or abolish it ; in fact 
 the game of both the old parties seems to be to augment rather 
 than to diminish the number of Federal and Provincial tax- 
 eaters. The local legislatures are eight in number, including that 
 of the Territories. In the three Maritime Provinces and Quebec 
 there are double chambers, but Nova Scotia and New Brunswick 
 are about to adopt the single chamber. The number of members 
 is 420 odd. (") Adding the members at Ottawa, it takes over 700 
 persons to make laws for us. Of this number 50 are Ministers of 
 the Crown in receipt of salaries. Each legislature meets annually. 
 In the United States the State legislatures are bicameral as in 
 Quebec and the Maritime Provinces ; on the other hand almost 
 a'l meet but once in two years. (^) According to our proportion 
 about 9,000 Federal and State law-makers would be required in 
 the United States. The Governor-General receives 350,000 a year 
 with a free house, or as much as Preside "t Cleveland. The lieu- 
 tenant-governors of Ontario and Quebec get SIO.OOO a year with 
 free house ; the other six are paid from $7,000 to 89,000 with a 
 house. The governors of the rich commonwealths of New York, 
 Pennsylvania and New Jersey get 810,000 a year with free house, 
 and there are lieutenant-governors besides; but in the other States 
 the salary of the governor runs from $1,500 in Vermont and $2,000 
 
 (a) Prince Kdward Island has 13 le^^islative councillors and 30 members of the Assembly ; Nova 
 Scotia, 17 and 38 resi)eetively ; New Brunswick, 17 and 41. There are thus 156 local representatives 
 for a pouulation under (XXt.fKK), with three Lieutenant-Governors each havintf a sub-viceregal 
 establishment. Government House at Reji^iiia, built by the Dominion Government, coot alwut 
 >K>0,(XKj. CoVwien wrote of Confederation :— " There is, I think, an inherent weakness in the parody 
 of our old English constitution that is performed on the miniature scenes of the colonial capitals, 
 with their speeches from the throne, votes of confidence, appeals to the country, changes of min- 
 istry, etc., and all about such trumpery issues that the game at last becomes ridiculous in the eyes 
 of both s^jectators and actors." ____-' -^ ^^ ^ 
 
 (&) There are 48 State and Territorial legislatures. All but five meet biennially. The five are 
 the legislatures of Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and South Carolina. 
 
11 
 
 in Michigan to S6,000 in California and Illinois. If the yearly 
 cost, direct and indirect, of our governors, Federal and Provincial 
 legislators, municipal councils, school and license boards, Federal 
 civil service, Provincial civil service, registrars, sheriffs, bailiffs, 
 and other functionaries of high and low degree could be ascer- 
 tained, the amount would stagger the office-holders themselves. It 
 is worth while remarking that when Confederation was being dis- 
 cussed, the Imperial Government hinted that the cost of so much 
 machinery might prove burdensome. In a despatch (Dominion 
 Sessional Papers, 1865) to Lord Monck, Mr. Cardwell said : — " A 
 very important part of this subject is the expense which may at- 
 tend the working of the Central and Local governments. Her 
 Majesty's Government cannot but express the earnest hope that 
 the arrangements which may be adopted in this respect may not 
 be of such a nature as to increase, at least in any considerable 
 degree, the whole expenditure, or to make any material addition to 
 the taxation and thereby retard the internal industry or tend to 
 impose new burdens on the commerce of the country." The of- 
 fice-holder always opposes any change likely to endanger his ten- 
 ure. The army of them billeted on the Canadian tax-payer is 
 intensely hostile to Continental Union. 
 
 The Confederation men not only made preparations by erect- 
 ing a costly system of government for the burst of population 
 and prosperity that was expected, but set to work with a will 
 to construct railways, canals, harbors and public buildings. 
 In 1870 the North-west was acquired ; British Columbia joined 
 in 1871 ; Prince Edward Island in 1873 Each cf these additions 
 called for fresh expenditure which was cheerfully provided. 
 That the politicians should have been sanguine is not to be 
 wondered at. The United States had just emerged from a civil 
 war in which three million fighting men had been engaged and 
 an immense amount of property destroyed, to say nothing of the 
 destruction of human life. The Federal debt of the United 
 States in 18G6, counting claims subsequently paid, was over 
 three thousand million dollars, and the annual interest charge 
 close on 8150,000,000. A considerable portion of the debt 
 had been borrowed at excessive rates of interest and at periods 
 when a hundred-dollar bond did not bring more than 350 in 
 gold. Trade and commerce were dislocated, almost every article 
 entering into the cost of living and producing was taxed by the 
 customs tariff or the internal revenue schedules, the currency 
 was depreciated, the bloated expenditures had produced much 
 political corruption, and a good many Americans bad lost heart. 
 On the other hand, the new Dominion was lightly burdened, the 
 
12 
 
 gross debt being 893,000,000 or about S30 per head of the popula- 
 tion against nearly S90 in the United States. The tariff was a low 
 revenue tariff which enabled the farmer and lumberman to buy 
 store goods cheaply and abundantly, thus as it were creating a 
 demand for their wares. Englishmen took an interest in us and 
 strove to divert the stream of emigration from the United States 
 to these provinces. " We start," said Sir Alexander Gait at Sher- 
 brooke, " with a wet sheet and a flowing sea and it will be our 
 own fault if we do not make port." 
 
 Probably no community of the same size ever embarked with 
 a lighter heart on undertakings so large and ambitious. To begin 
 with, we built the Intercolonial, which has recently been extend- 
 ed to Cape Breton. Main line and branches, it is now 1,200 
 miles long and has cost on capital account over $50,000,000, on 
 which we pay S-,000,000 a year interest. It has been run on the 
 paternal principle, the colliery owners amongst others have en- 
 joyed rates which did not pay the cost of the haul. It also 
 seems probable that the Liberals when in office turned it into a 
 sort of eleemosynary attachment to the party machine precisely 
 as Conservatives are accused of doing now. At any rate it has 
 never paid running expenses much less interest on capital. 
 Then we set about deepening the canals, a task not yet com- 
 pleted. The official " Statistical Year Book of Canada," 1891, 
 gives the expenditure on canals by the Imperial and Provincial 
 governments prior to Confederation as 321,000,000. At Con- 
 federation the canals became the property of the Dominion 
 Government, which has spent on them, exclusive of cost of re- 
 pairs, a further sum of 836,500,000, making the total outlay over 
 $57,000,000. They have yielded no direct return on the money 
 sunk, but have undoubtedly done much to promote the develop- 
 ment of the country. 
 
 Of late a large amount has been spent in b( musing locai rail- 
 ways by the Dominion and Provincial governments and the 
 municipalities. Our principal venture, however, has been the 
 Canadian Pacific. In cash, built sections and lands, putting a very 
 moderate value on the lands, we have given that system in all its 
 ramifications in the neighborhood of 8100,000,000. The bar- 
 gain was that it should be an all-Canadian line fi-om end to end, 
 devoting itself in particular to the colonisation of the North- 
 West. That, in fact, was its reason for being ; public aid 
 would not have been granted except on that understanding. 
 Some Liberals and a few Conservatives like Sir David Macpher- 
 son thought an all-Canadian route would cost too much. Sir 
 David said in a pamphlet that his own opinion " had always 
 
13 
 
 been that we should have been content for the time to use the 
 United States lines for our all- rail route to Manitoba, and 
 begin our Pacific Railway at Pembina." This was Mr. Blake's 
 view too, but other Liberals like George Brown favored an all- 
 Canadian route from start to finish. The public mind was 
 quieted by the assurances of Sir John Macdonald. He de- 
 clared in the House (Feb. 10th, 1882) that the lands would 
 pay for the road. He was positive on the point. " It is 
 safe," he said, *' it is certainly beyond the possibility of doubt 
 to say that every farthing and every cent and every dollar 
 that has been or will be expended in building the Canadian 
 Pacific Railway — that not one shilling of the burden will fall on 
 our shoulders or on the shoulders of the generation that shall 
 succeed us. We will be frae from the whole amount of that 
 debt." Sir Leonard Tilley in his budget speech in 1882 ex- 
 pressed the same confidence in the ability of the Government to 
 make good the outlay on the road by the sale of lands to settlers 
 so that there would be no permanent addition to the debt. ^"^ 
 
 According to the Year Book,(^^ the Dominion Government had 
 spent down to 1891 no less than 8143,000,000 in bonusing rail- 
 ways and had advanced loans, still outstanding, to the amount of 
 $21,000,000 more, whilst the provinces had spent 830,000,000 
 and the municipalities 816,000,000, making the grand cash out- 
 lay on railways by five millions of people 8210,000,000. More- 
 over, upwards of 47,000,000 acres of land have been given to 
 i ail ways by the Dominion Government, principally to lines in 
 the North-West. Quebec and some of the other provinces have 
 voted land grants exceeding thirteen million acres. It is diffi- 
 cult to estimate the value of the lands, and they may be put out 
 of the calculation with the remark that the acreage voted away 
 in the North-West is equal to twice the area under culti- 
 vation in the Province of Ontario. Adding the cost of the 
 canals to the cash subsidies and loans to railways, we get $270,- 
 000,000 as the amount spent on opening the country for settle- 
 
 (a) In that speech, Sir Leonard estimated the increase of population throughout Canada between 
 1881 and 1891 at 18 per cent, at the least (it turned out to be only 12), reckoned that 75,000,000 acres 
 would be griven away to settlers by 1890 and 75,000,0f)0 more sold at ><1.50 per acre,, -;nd concluded 
 that in 1890 the Federal debt would be about 81<X»,000,(»( M), or less than ^20 per h.ad. See u.lso 
 Sir Charles Tupper's speeches in April, 1882, and May, 1883. Sir John Macdonald calculated that 
 by 1891 the receipts from lands would amount to *!58,(XK),0(MJ after deducting the expense of man- 
 ag-ement, etc. Up to the present the receipts have not paid for surveys and management. Sir 
 Charles Tupper expected to live to see 100,000 farmei-s raising 640,000,000 bushels of wheat a year. 
 
 (6) Wherever the Dominion Year Book is quoted it is the Year Book for 1891. At the time of 
 writing the Year Book for 1892 has not been issued from Ottawa. 
 
14 
 
 ment by mems of transportation routes. Were the people of the 
 United States, putting their number at sixty-five millions or 
 thirteen times ours, to launch out to-mcrrow for internal im- 
 provements in the same lavish manner the outlay would ex- 
 ceed their war debt at its highest notch. 
 
 'S. ' 
 
 4.-The Keality. 
 
 No one would attempt to deny that there has been a very con- 
 siderable measure of growth and expansion in Canada. A young 
 community which should remain stationary would be in the pre- 
 liminary stages of atrophy. But our rate of progress has been 
 painfully slow. De Tocqueville described the contrast which ex- 
 isted in his day between the slave States and the free State* 
 across the line in these words : 
 
 " The traveller who floats down the current of the Ohio to the point 
 where that river joins the Mississippi, may be said to sail between liberty 
 and slavery, and he needs only to look around him in order to decide in an 
 instant which is the more favorable to humanity. On the southern bank of 
 the river the population is thinly scattered ; from time to time one descries 
 a gang of slaves at work, going with indolent air over the half desert fields ; 
 the primeval forest unceasingly reappears ; one would think that the people 
 were asleep ; man seems to be idle, nature alone offers a picture of activity 
 and life. From the northern bank, on the contrary, there arises the busy 
 hum of industry which is heard afar off ; the fields abound with rich har- 
 vests ; comfortable homes indicate the taste an I care of the laborer : prosper- 
 ity is seen on all sides ; man appears to be rich and content." 
 
 Canadians are not in bondage, yet, with a few verbal changes, 
 this description would apply fairly well to the contrast between 
 the Canadian and the American sides of the international bound- 
 ary from ocean to ocean. It is true the United States had the 
 start of us, although not to any great extent of French Canada ;. 
 but surely there must be some other reason for the profound dif- 
 ference between our country and theirs in the matter of activity, 
 development and wealth. The census returns furnish the ex- 
 planation in part. We are unable to retain our population. The 
 blue books show that between 1881 and 1891 over 800,000 per- 
 sons from Europe settled in Canada. Nevertheless the population 
 in those ten years increased only 500,000 ; in other words, we lost 
 through emigration to the United States a multitude equal in 
 number to the whole natural increase in the decade plus 300,000 
 
15 
 
 of the emigrants, or at least a million men, women and children. An 
 invader who should overrun the country could not do worse if he 
 wished to efface us than deport our choicest flesh and blood in 
 that wholesale fashion. In an eloquent rebuke to those who be- 
 lieve in British connection at any price, " Fidelis," of Kingston^ 
 writes : 
 
 Ye drive our best and brightest forth, our nation's hope and pride — 
 More precious to our country's weal than all her wealth beside, 
 To be the strength of alien stai. -, of empire not our own, 
 And all to "build the nation up ' without its corner stone ! 
 
 Then from the dregs of other lauds, the wretched and the weak, 
 Unfit for what before them lies, new sutierings come to seek ; 
 Will they give back to Canada the strength she casts away — 
 Can they replace the gallant youth that leave our shores to-day ? 
 
 God gave this mighty continent to this our fathers' race, 
 The north and south He made for all, and crowned them with H s grace. 
 That each might fill the other's lack, and love and plenty reign — 
 What He hath joined together let no man cleave in twain ! 
 
 According to the returns (Statesman's Year Book, 1893) the 
 total emigration of British subjects from the United Kingdom for 
 1881-90 was 2,558,000. But besides being an old the United King- 
 dom is an overcrowded community with a population (37,900,000) 
 more than seven times greater than ours; so that a comparison of its 
 volume of emigration with ours only serves to set in a more vivid 
 light the truly appalling drain to which this young country is 
 being subjected. ^"^ Look for an instant at the American cctisus. 
 The percentage of increase there was more than double the per- 
 centage here notwithstanding that the percentage tends to dimin 
 ish, accf rding to arithmetical rule, as population ex pands. A single 
 State in the North- West, Minnesota, showed as large a numerical 
 increase as the whole Dominion ; the increase in the city of Chic- 
 ago was greater by 90,000. Dakota, which started even with 
 Manitoba in 1870, has now a population of 512,000, while 
 the population of Manitoba and all the North-Wcou Terri- 
 tories is only half that figure. Ohio, which Dr. Lillie thought 
 would be overshadowed by Upper Canada, contains 3,672,000 
 inhabitants, or a million and a half more than Upper 
 Canada; it and Michigan have 700,000 more than the entire 
 
 (a) The exodus is no respecter of persons. It Cannes off clerfrymen, doctors, lawyers, univer- 
 sity graduates, etc., as well as fanners, inechaiiics and clerks. The Toronto papers of Mny 6 con- 
 tained a rej)ort of the proceedinjfy of the Board of Regents of Victoria University in which this pas- 
 sage occurred: "Mr. .John N. Lake, who has gone to reside in New York, resigned his position as 
 regent. Dr. Downey, who has gone to Chicago, also resigned his position, and so did Rev. Dr. 
 Hugh Johnston, who has gone to a church in Washington." 
 
>: "i 
 
 16 
 
 Dominion. Illinois, Nebraska, Oregon, Texas, Wisconsin, Wash- 
 ington and othe' new States exhibit an equally remarkable 
 growth. The answer of Sir Oliver Mowat and the Tory knights 
 is that raral New England is losing population. It is not, as any- 
 one can see, a sufficient answer, but it is the only thing tbey can 
 think of to set against the wonderful development in the Repub- 
 lic. Now, Nev/ England is not and never was a gocd farming 
 region. The iee-cap which covered the continent ages ago left it 
 strewn with rocks and bleak hillsides where the husbandman 
 '■• *' stands little chance with his competitor on good soils like those of 
 
 i[ Ontario and the Western States. Farming is being abandoned, as 
 
 iron smelting was abandoned in Kent, because it can be carried 
 on more profitably elsewhere. But the population which deserts 
 rural New England does not desert the United States ; it migrates 
 beyond the Ohio or seeks employment in the workshops and ware- 
 houses nearer home, and still helps to build up the Union. No 
 one would put Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime Provinces — Old 
 Canada — on a level with New England as regards agricultural 
 capabilities. The former possess as good a soil as is to be found 
 in America outside the deep black loams of the North- West ; 
 indeed there are tracts in Ontario, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward 
 Island as fertile as any under the sun. Furthermore, the 
 Canadian provinces contain a wealth of lumber and fish surpass- 
 ing that of New England in her palmiest days, with a store of 
 minerals, including coal and iron, such as she could never boast 
 of. Nevertheless population in Old Canada is not increasing 
 nearly so rapidly as in New England ; and what is worse, the 
 young men and young women who abandon those provinces do not 
 move to the western lands in our own country but for the 
 most part, as the census shows, go across the line. ^"^ 
 
 (a) The census returns of the older provinces for 1881-91 are here compared with the census re- 
 turns for 1880-90 from the New England States :— 
 
 Percentage 
 1881. 1891. of increase. 
 
 Ontario 1,923,228 2,114,321 993 
 
 Quebec 1,359,027 1,488,535 9-53 
 
 NovaScotia 440,572 450,396 2"22 
 
 Prince Edward Island 108,891 109,078 0-17 
 
 New Brunswick 321,233 321,263 0-00 
 
 1880. 1890. 
 
 Massachusetts 1,783,085 2,238,.>43. „ 25-57 
 
 Connecticut 622,700 746,258 .19-84 
 
 Rhode Island 276,531 345,506 24-94 
 
 NewHampshire 346,991 376,530 851 
 
 Maine 648,936 661,086 187 
 
 • Vermont 332,286 332,422 0-00 
 
17 
 
 For abandoned farms and farms on which the former owner is 
 now residing as a mere caretaker for the mortgagee, we need not 
 go so fai' afield as New England. There are many hundreds in 
 Ontario and Quebec ; they are particularly plentiful along the 
 south shore of the St. Lawrence from Point Levis to Ri^^er du 
 Loup, where the Intercolonial bjgius. Neither that fifty- 
 million dollar road, operated on easy-going principles, nor 
 the good soil, nor the inexhaustible supply of coal and iron 
 lying side by side, nor the rich fisheries and lumber, nor the 
 multiplication of subsidised branch railways, thickest where the 
 party scrimmage has been most severe, has prevented the Mari- 
 time Provinces from losing to the United States virtually the 
 whole of the natural increase in their population together 
 with the increase through emigration from Europe. Nothing 
 like the catastrophe which has overtaken them has ever 
 occurred in any other new country of equal resources. It 
 is only by studying their woeful plight, by noting the large num- 
 ber of counties in Ontario and Quebec which show an actual de- 
 cline in population, and by counting the swarm of friends and 
 relations each of us hat: lost by the exodus, that one can accept 
 the statement of the Washington census bureau that there are 
 close on a million (980,000) native Canadians in the United States, 
 to say nothing of the hundreds of thousands of European-born 
 persons who sojourned in Canada for a while, br-^ught out many 
 of them at the public expense, and then crossed the frontier to 
 better their lot. 
 
 What are the moral consequences to a country of the flight of 
 the best, the fittest to survive, of its people ? Lecky, the his- 
 torian, after giving an account of the rush from Ireland to Amer- 
 ica at the end of the eighteenth century, says: — 
 
 *' If, as there appears much reason to believe, there is such a thing as a 
 hereditary transmission of moral and intellectual qualities, the removal from 
 a nation of tens of thousands of the ablest and most energetic of its citiz- 
 ens must inevitably, by a mere physical law, result in the degradation of the 
 race. Nor is it necessary to fall back upon any speculations of disputed 
 science. In every community there exists a small minority of men wnose 
 abilities, high purpose and energy of will mark them out as in some degree 
 leaders of men. These take the first step in every public enterprise, counter- 
 act by their example the vicious elements of the population, set the current 
 and form the standard of public opinion, and infuse a healthy moral vigor 
 into the nation. In Ireland, for three or four generations, such men were 
 steadily weeded out. Can we wonder that the standard of public morals and 
 of public spirit should have declined ? " 
 
 Had we been able to retain the flower of our population, native 
 and foreign born, during the last twenty or thirty years, public 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 opinion would scarcely have sunk into that " death-iike apathy " 
 which has proved so favoraMe to the growth of boodling and 
 kindred forms of polioical rase ility. We should probably have 
 been a manlier people ; ther,. ^vould have been less grovelling be- 
 fore a fetich^ and, it is safe to say, a more strenuous insistence 
 upon our duty to do t- e bes' we can for ourselves and our child- 
 ren regardless of minor considerations. In proportion to popula- 
 tion Canada is now losing more people by emigration than any 
 M , other civilised country old or young in the world, Ireland not 
 
 j , excepted. Is not that enough to satisfy every reasonable man 
 
 ^ ; that there is something radically wrong in our condition ? ^"^ 
 
 The trade returns are another good index of the state of the 
 country. For three years, 1872-3-4, the foreign trade (imports 
 and exports combined) averaged 8210,000,000 a year. Then 
 there was a falling off until 1882-83. The average for those ^ i^o 
 years was $226,000,000. Another falling off occurred to such an 
 extent that the average for the five years 1887-91 was only 
 $209,000,000. The apologists say that there has been a great 
 drop in values since 1883, and particularly since 1873 and 1874, 
 affecting exports and imports alike. This is quite true, and it is 
 rather an awkward thing for those who promised that the value 
 of farm products, which form the bulk of our exports, would be 
 augumented by their protective tariff. Allowing for the drop in 
 values, we must on the other hand note that since 1874 the 
 ordinary expenditure of the Dominion has risen from twenty 
 three to thirty -six millions, and that the debt has been more than 
 doubled, the increase from $108,000,000 to $2*^8,000,000 in 1891 
 having gone mainly into new railways and other agencies for en- 
 larging the field and capacity of the great natural industries of 
 farming, mining, fishing and lumbering. Then, notwithstanding 
 the exodus, there has been a considerable increase in population 
 since 1874. Taking everything into account, therefore, the fact 
 that our foreign trade was less in value between 1887 and 1891 
 than at former periods as far back as 1872-74 is a very ugly fact. 
 It is idle for Ministers to ramble off into comparisons between 
 the per capita value of our foreign trade and the per capita value 
 of the foreign trade of the United States. Both countries injure 
 their commerce by tariffs framed expressly to prevent the for- 
 eigner from giving his surplus goods in exchange for theirs and 
 
 (a) In a speech at Parkdale, July, 1878, Sir John Macdonald said : " Was it not a crying' shame 
 that though this country had a fertile soil, a healthful climate, a strong and well-educated people 
 and good laws, 500,000 of our people should have crossed our borders in these years and taken up 
 their abode in the United States because they could not find employment here for their skill and 
 energy and enterprise in consequence of the false policy of our rulers?" 
 
19 
 
 which necessarily have th-^ affect of diminishing their sales to 
 him. The foreign trade i/ tlio United States, though much less 
 per capita than ours, has Siiown a pretty steady increase since 
 1872. The yearly average for lS7?-74 was 81,100,000,000 ; for 
 1882-3, $1,500,000,000 ; for 1887-01, ^1,540,000,000 ; and all that 
 time the public debt was not increasing but vanishing. ("> 
 
 5 —The Federal and Provincial Oelit. 
 
 The reason why we are not more prosperous being e x:plained 
 in part by the exodus, let us encpiire briefly into the causes 
 of the exodus, beginning at the fringe by comparing our debt 
 with that of the United States. 
 
 It has been said that much of the United States debt was con- 
 tracted at exorbitant rates of interest and at times when the 
 bonds fetched but 50 per cent, in gold of their face value. 
 Many supposed that the people could not be induced to redeem 
 with $100 in gold the bond which had brought them only $50 ; 
 but the American democracy has been scrupulously honest and 
 its creditors are getting all that was covenanted for to the last 
 cent.<^> 
 
 The net Federal debt of the United States on June 30, 1892, 
 was $841,500,000, or $14 per head of the population according to 
 the census of 1890. 
 
 The net Federal debt of the Dominion at the same date was 
 $241,100,000, or $50 per head. 
 
 (a) The Year Book shows that in 1891 the foreign trade of Canada was «'45 per head, and that 
 of the United States only >>~27.50. The compiler adds that these figures "do not necessarily indicate 
 that this countrj' is in a better coinmerc al position, but probably only that as regards imports a 
 larger proportion of home nia'.ufactured goods is provided in the States, and that that country, there- 
 fore, is not compellefl to the same extent to go elsewhere for supplies." The United States, a coun- 
 try of two or three climates, naturally does a larger internal tratle than a country with only one ; 
 besides, over a million persons are added by immigration and natural increase to its home market 
 every year. And, as Mr. Gladstone and others have observed, it is of all countries the one best 
 adapted for, i.e., the one likely to suffer lea«t from a protective tariff. 
 
 (6) Writing in 1S80 in an article, " Kin Beyond theSea," Mr. Gladstone praised the " self-corn 
 mand, self-denial, and wise forethought for the future " of the Americans in redeeming their debt 
 at its par value so rapidly. The historian would record with surprise that " the most unmitigated 
 democracy known to the annals of the world resolutely reduced at its own cost prospective liabili- 
 ties of the State, which the aristocratic and plutocratic and monarchical Government of the United 
 Kingdom had been contented "nobly to hand over to posterity." 
 
20 
 
 The annual interest charge on the debt of the United States 
 has fallen from $140,000,000 in 18G0 to 823,000,000. The net 
 interest charge on the Dominion debt has risen from 34,400,000 
 in 1868 to $8,700,000. 
 
 The net debt of the individual States and Territories in 181)0 
 was $223,000,000. The net debts of the provinces cannot be cor- 
 ^-ectly ascertained, but they exceed $25,000,000, and some of the 
 assets, especially in Quebec, are of exceedingly doubtful value. 
 
 The aggregate of the net Federal, State, county, city and town, 
 and school district debts of the United States, that is, of their en- 
 tire public indebtedness, amounted in 1890 to $32 per head, or 
 to about two-thirds of the per capita of our Dominion debt 
 alone. There are no returns in this country giving the municipal 
 debts, but they are known to be large, ^ior is it possible to in- 
 stitute a comparison between the private mortgage indebtedness 
 in the two countries ; American figures are accessible but there 
 are none from Canada. 
 
 Confining ourselves then to the Federal, State and Provincial 
 debts, the Americans owe $18 per head whilst we owe $55. 
 To put it differently, a family of five in the States is burdened to 
 the extent of $90, a family in Canada to the extent of $275. The 
 per capita liability for interest is far and away less on that side 
 of the line than on this. 
 
 From time to time in his speeches on the budget, Sir Richard 
 Cartwright has cited figures to prove that, all lound, Canada is 
 more heavily taxed than the United States apart altogether from 
 the superior ability, owing to their greater wealth, of the Ameri- 
 cans to bear taxation. Probably that is true though it is ex- 
 tremely difficult to make a strictly accurate comparist»n. The fin- 
 ancial systems of the two countries are not alike. Thus the Do- 
 minion treasury grants subsidies to the provinces to enable them 
 to defray the cost of local government, whilst in the United 
 States each State stands on its own feet with its hands in its own 
 pockets and provides for local expend ituie wholly from local re- 
 sources. There are other differences which need not be described 
 at length; for example, there is nothing analogous in the Dominion 
 budget to the vast sum paid for war pensions and debt redemption 
 in the United States. A comparison may be made of the sums 
 paid in customs taxes ($174,000,000 in the States last year against 
 $20,500,000 in Canada) and in other ways, but it is not a precise 
 test. It is indisputable, however, that the general burdens Fed- 
 eral and State across the line have been becoming less and less 
 onerous whilst ours have enormously increased since 1867- 
 
 The plan of granting Federal subsidies to the provinces has 
 proved vicious. It engenders provincial extravagance and leads 
 
8i 
 
 to frequent log-rolling for "better terms," which go to swell 
 the Dominion debt. With the single exception of Ontario, 
 all the provinces are running into debt, the yearly exi)enditule 
 exceeding the receipts with unvarying regularity, and what is 
 euphemistically termed a "readjustment" must soon be made 
 again. Quebec is in desperate straits and if her load be not light- 
 ened may be tempted to repudiate. To relieve her and the 
 others, it would be necessary to add twenty or thirty millions to 
 the Dominion debt, for Ontario would have to be compen- 
 sated. But in reality no compensation which Ontario could get 
 would be fair to her. She pays three-fifths of the expenses of 
 the Dominion, hence supposing the embarrassed provinces received 
 relief to the extent of twenty millions and she got as much for com- 
 pensation, she would be putting the interest on twenty into 
 her own exchequer whilst paying into the Federal exchequer three- 
 fifths oi the interest on forty — a losing transaction. The 
 unsatisfactory condition of the finances of Quebec and the Mari- 
 time Provinces is due in the main to extravagance, and to the fact 
 that those provinces pay for much of the service performed in 
 Ontario by the municipal councils at the expense of the municipal 
 ratepayer. The whole arrangement is unjust. It would be money 
 in the Docket of Ontario to enter the American Union where she 
 would have to provide for her own local expenditure only. That 
 she could do for years without resorting to direct taxation inas- 
 much as the Crown lands, the iron and nickel deposits and every 
 stick of pine owned by the province would be immensely en- 
 hanced in value and her revenue from them proportionately in- 
 creased. The States, as has been said, pursue this system. Hav- 
 ing to foot their own bills without hope of assistance from Wash- 
 ington, they are careful in their expenditure and do not enter 
 upon large ventures without first counting the cost. Many of 
 them have constitutional provisions limiting the amount of the 
 debt which may be contracted. Some, like Michigan and Kansas, 
 have constitutional provisions against the carrying on of internal 
 improvements by the State Governments, such work being very 
 properly left to private enterprise. In all, the spirit of thrift pre- 
 vails ; if other abuses arise at times extravagance is seldom com- 
 plained of. It is startling to reflect that the net debt of Quebec 
 is as large as the State debts of all New England and those of 
 Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York combined.^") 
 
 (a) At the census of 1890 the net debts of those States carae to 825,140,000 ; they have since 
 been reduced. The net debt of Quebec at an honest reckoning is about 824,000,000. Her popula- 
 tion is 1,488,000 ; that of the States named 17,400,000. There is no comparison between their wealth 
 and hers. 
 
22 
 
 The friends of the colonial status try to make a point l)y 
 a>serting that althoutjh our neij^hbors have been paying oti" 
 their Federal debt with surprising ease, it is a debt which 
 represerts nothing but ])Owder and shot; while, per contra, if 
 we have been heaping up debt with e«|ual energy it is a debt that 
 represents useful improvements. An American would probably 
 reply that his Federal debt removed the stain of slavery from the 
 escutcheon of his country and welded a loose conireries of States into 
 a great and powerful nation. He would add that notwith- 
 standing the wholesale redemption of the debt — a thousand mil- 
 lions in ten years — Americans have by no means neglected the 
 work of internal development; for example there are now 165,000 
 miles of railroad in o])eration, or more than in all Europe. The dif- 
 ference between Canada and the United States ap) tears to be this 
 — that the labor of the ei^ht million emigntnts who have settled 
 in that country in the last twenty years has, in conjunction w^ith 
 native enterprise and private capital, carried on the work of ma- 
 terial improvement in the United States with comparatively little 
 assistance from the jmblic chest, besides redeeming a vast amount 
 of debt ; whereas we in Canada have been obliged to resort to a 
 much greater extent, relatively speaking, to public subsidies and 
 owing to the ravages of the exodus have had less help from the 
 productive energy of our people. 
 
 6.— Our '^Xiitioiial Ilij^liway." 
 
 Besides havinor to bear a heavier load of debt, the Cana- 
 dian producer is handicapped in his competition with the Amer- 
 ican producer by excessive railroad rates and by the absence 
 of a law such as the Interstate Commerce Act of the United 
 States for bridling the railroad corporations and ensuring 
 fair treatment for the public. There are practically but two 
 railroads west of Point Levis — the Canadian Pacific and the 
 Grand Trunk. Those two roads have received from the 
 people in money or money's worth not far short of $130,000,000, 
 counting the subsidies to the minor lines which they have swal- 
 lowed. Nevertheless they charge exorbitant rates for freight 
 and passengers especially to and from points where there is no 
 competition. The complaints of the North-West settler against 
 the Canadian Pacific were set forth at a recent farmers' meeting 
 
23 
 
 at Moosomin, a report of which appeared! in the Toronto Globe of 
 March 14. The president of the Moo.soniin Agricultural Society 
 said in an address : 
 
 " Our >' rplus dairy products go principally to British Columbia on 
 which we pay almost two cents per pound freight — nearly if not (juite as 
 much as is charged from Montreal to the same place, more than twice the 
 distance. 
 
 " On our wheat we have to pay almost 30 cents per bushel all rail to 
 points in Ontario. This is more, according to the distance, than is charged 
 by the oaiilt line on American wheat. 
 
 "They also charge us 10 l-5c per bushel on wheat from Winnipeg to 
 Fort NVilliam, 420 miles, while wheat is hauled from St. Paul to Chicago for 
 12c. per bushel, a like distance. 
 
 '* '^^•^ a ci.r of beef, 20,000 lbs., from Moosomin to Port Arthur, GoO miles, 
 the treii^ht is 8256, and the rate to Montreal, 1,000 miles further on, is 5^542 
 per car for the same quantity. 
 
 "On things comini; into t'le country, except settlers' effects, the rates 
 are higher still, while the local rates are excessive and discriminate a;|aiast 
 non-competing points. 
 
 ' ■ We as Canadians have to bear our share of large responsibilities in- 
 curred in aiding the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway and 
 should be entitled to moderate rates and if there are any advantages going 
 we should receive them, not the Americans. It seems to me the North- West 
 Assembly did not go as far as they should have jdone in memorializ.ag the 
 Uomitiion Government on this subject." 
 
 Speaking of the condition of the farmers in the district the 
 president said ; 
 
 "Over 1,000,000 bushels of wheat have been exported, which netted 
 the farmer 30 cents or less per bushel. Would any farmer sell wheat for 
 from 20 to 30 cents a bushel unless forced to do so b / actual necessity ? 
 
 " Thousands of farmers (and merchants in turn) are unable to meet 
 their engagements. There is general complaint of business being in a very 
 unsatisfactory condition throughout the towns, and one can scarcely pick up 
 a piper without finding complaints from farmers, 
 
 " The rate of interest on mortgages is from 8 to 9 per cent, and there 
 is a correspondingly high rate on notes, all of which goes to show the ex- 
 tremely depressed condition of the country. 
 
 " This is our true position. Politicians may produce elaborate arrays 
 of figures to show Canada's increasing trade, to show that our exports 
 exceed our imports, and so on. They deceive only themselves and but 
 prove the gigantic efforts of the farmers of Canada to make both ends meet 
 under conditions which would ruin any other industry in short order." 
 
 It was not a Grit meeting. The seconder of the principal 
 resolution is chairman of the local Conservative association. The 
 resolutions called for a sweeping reduction of the N. P. and for 
 the passage of a law similar to the Interstate Commerce Act. But 
 Parliament is not likely to try a fall with railroad kings who 
 make and could unmake it. - 
 
 There is a brief reference in the president's address to the dis- 
 crimination against the Canadian and in favor of the American 
 
24 
 
 wheat-grower practised by our so-called national highway. 
 This ia a matter of grave importance. The Canadian Pacific Tas 
 pledged to do its best to colonize the Canadian North-West 
 and to have its winter port within Canada, at St. John, Hali- 
 fax or elsewhere. It discovered, however, that it could not 
 exist upon the traffic obtainable in Canada alone and began to 
 build and acquire lines in the United States. To get freights 
 for its American feeders it has to make its rates from one point 
 in the United States to another vid Canada as low as those of 
 its American competitors. Thus, in carrying the wheat of 
 Dakota and Minnesota from Minneapolis to the Sault and Sud- 
 bury and thence to Boston, or in carrying merchandise from 
 New York to Minneapolis, it frames its rates not according to 
 those which it charges in the Canadian North-West, where it has 
 a virtual monopoly, but according to those charged by the Am- 
 erican liuet: between Minneapolis, Boston and New York. The 
 result is that instead of favorinjj the Canadian settler who has 
 to bear his share of the huge Federal borrowings incurred for its 
 construction, it charges him more both for what it carries out 
 and for what it brings in than it charges the settler south of 
 the line who has not given it a cent. In like manner, in order to 
 secure traffic from and to American ports like Boston it cuts its 
 rates below those charged on similar goods going to or coming 
 from St. John and Halifax, and, in fact, uses American ports in 
 winter instead of Canadian ports for the greater part of its 
 through traffic. It has ceased, in short, to be a national road 
 and is promoting American interests east and west at our ex- 
 pense. The following table, taken from the Canadian Pacific 
 winter tariff 1892-3, clearly establishes this anomalous state of 
 things : 
 
 Rate for wheat from Winnipeg to St. John and Halifax, 63 i cents 
 
 per 100 pounds or 28y\j cents i»er bushel. 
 Rate for wheat from Winnipeg to Boston, 54 cents per 100 pounds 
 
 or 32 * cents per bushel. 
 Rate for wheat from Minneapolis to Boston, 37§ cents per loO 
 
 pounds or 22^^ cents per bushel. 
 Rate for first-class merchandise from St John to Winnipeg, S2.60 
 
 per 100 pounds; from Halifax to Winnipeg, $2.68. 
 Rate for first-class merchandise from New York to Winnipeg, 
 
 $2.13 per 100 pounds. 
 Rate for first-class merchandise from New York to Minneapolis, 
 
 $1.30 per 100 pounds. <«) 
 
 (a) The wheat rate from Winnipefj to points in Ontario west of Brockville is 46 cents per IW 
 pounds, 27 6/10 cents per bushel, nearly five cents more than the rate from Minneapolis to Boston. 
 
'1^ 
 
 A large quantity of wheat is carriei from the Canadian and 
 American North- West eastward in winter. Had Parliament and 
 the people supposed that the shipper and importer in Manitoba 
 and Canadian ports on the Atlantic would have been discriminated 
 against in this sweeping manner, it is certain they would not 
 have voted 8100,000,000 for the building of the Canadian Pacific. 
 We should have saved our money and been no worse off as 
 regards rates by using the American lines, as an all-rail route to 
 Manitoba, and running our own road from Pembina and W^inni- 
 peg into the prairie country, as proposed by Mr. Blake and Mr, 
 Macpherson. 
 
 It is no doubt true as Mr. Van Home and his newspapers con- 
 tend that Minneapolis is nearer the seaboard than Winnipeg; 
 that if the road is to be kept going in Canada it must obtain 
 American traffic by lowering its rates to the American figure ; that 
 there is a long stretch of wilderness east of Winnipeg where no 
 local freight is obtainable; that St. John and Halifax are too 
 remote to be taken into account in the transportation of North- 
 West wheat and merchandise, and not sufficiently provided with 
 steamship lines. Granting this and all else that can be said 
 from the point of view of the railroad, the fact remains that the 
 Canadian people are the victims of misplaced confidence. 
 
 But how are we to get rid of this weighty grievance under 
 existing political conditions ? And how are we to clear off our 
 Federal and Provincial indebtedness so that we may be on a 
 level footing with the Americans when the last of their 
 bonds shall be redeemed at a time not far remote («). The 
 tendency of our debt is to grow, and it does not need a prophet 
 to tell that if it keeps on growing whilst theirs is being 
 finally extinguished we may look for a constantly increas- 
 ing exodus and a more marked disposition on the part of the 
 foreign investor to give us the cold shoulder. 
 
 1.— Our Commercial Isolation. 
 
 The chief drawback to Canadian prosperity, however, is the 
 severance of the country from its natural market. That is the 
 
 (o) Andrew Camejfie, in " Triumphant Democracy," says : "It niav confidently be^predicted 
 that ere the close of this centurj-, extraordinary events excepted, the last bond of the Republic* 
 will be publicly burned at Washinj^ton with imposinj^ ceremonies amid the universal rejoicings of 
 the people." 
 
2G 
 
 source and origin of most of the evils which afflict us. It may 
 be true that, even if Canada joined the United States, there would 
 still be an exodus owinw to the instinctive desire of a northern 
 race to turn its face to the sun. But anyone who studies the 
 question must perceive that the principal cause of the exodus is 
 the inability of tho people, arising from their isolation from the 
 rest of the continent, to make the most profitable use of their 
 labor and resources, and that, by doing away forever with that 
 disqualification, Continental Union would bring us increased pop- 
 ulation and increased wealth as if at a magician's call. 
 
 Look at the map and bear in mind that nature takes no 
 account of artificial boundaries established by man. The Do- 
 minion is divided not by man but b}"^ nature into four distinct 
 geographical sections. The Maritime Provinces are separated 
 from Ontario and Quebec by a howling wilderness ; Ontario and 
 Quebec from the North -West by a thousand miles of rock and 
 water; the North-West from the inhabited portion of British 
 Columbia by lofly mountain ranges. Each of these blocks, if let 
 alone, would trade with the American territory to the south 
 rather than with the other blocks, for all the blocks lie within the 
 same zone and are hundreds of miles apart to boot. The Atlantic 
 Provinces would not trade much with Ontario, 1,200 miles dis- 
 ta'" , if thev were under the same flag as New England which 
 they can reach by water in a few hours, winter as well 
 as summer. Their coal, lumber, fish, iron and farm products 
 could be laid down at Boston for a trifling rate, with an 
 assured demand. New P]ngland contains nearly as many inhab- 
 itants in a space of 60,000 square miles as the whole long- 
 drawn out Dominion from Cape Breton to Vancouver ; and our 
 Maritime brethren would have a profitable market there for all 
 they could produce even if they did not sell a dollar's worth to 
 the rest of the United States. Quebec would also have a lucra- 
 tive market in the manufactuiincj towns of New England, and, 
 like the Maritime Provinces, would herself become the seat of 
 manufactures. Ontario rests upon the four seas of Superior, 
 Huron, Erie and Ontario. She projects wedge-like for 400 
 miles into American territory. A line drawn from the top of 
 Minnesota to the top of Maine includes the best part of On- 
 tario and the best part of Quebec. The protectionist says the 
 nearer you bring the consumer to the producer the better for 
 both. That is true, provided you do not give the producer power 
 to thrust on the consumer goods that could be purchased for less 
 elsewhere. Consider, then, the advantageous position Ontario 
 
27 
 
 would occupy in being within easy reach by water and rail of 
 the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michii^an and II- 
 li'^ois with their twenty millions of well-to-do people. Would 
 not that be a better home market for her farmers and manufac- 
 turers than the 2,700,000 Canadians scattered over the rest 
 of the Dominion from Dan to Beersheba whom she now relies on ? 
 There is nothing in the cry that the Americans raise products 
 similar to our own and therefore do not want our stuff. Those who 
 employ that argument upset it in the next breath by declaring 
 that the trade between the several Canadian provinces, whose 
 products are more alike, is highly profitable. Nature has so 
 arranged things that Canadian coal and iron lie alongside parts 
 of the United States which have none, and vice versa; our Atlantic 
 fisheries are rich while theirs are becoming exhausted ; they have 
 yellow pine in the south and white pine in Michigan, Wisconsin 
 and Minnesota, but none so handy and cheap for northern con- 
 sumption as ours ; from climatic and other causes we can raise 
 better barley, peas, apples, cattle, horses, combing wool, etc., than 
 they can, whilst for a like reason they can produce cotton, corn 
 and various other articles which we cannot produce at all or only 
 in insufficient quantities ; and so on. Judge of the truth of the 
 CI}' that they do not want our stuff by the following table of ex- 
 ports of goods the produce of Canada to the United States and 
 Great Britain for the twenty-four years 1868 to 1891 (Year Book, 
 1891, p. 232):— 
 
 Canadian Exports Canadian Exports 
 to United States. to Great Britain. 
 
 Aggregate for five years 1868-72 $146,000,000 ^106,000,000 
 
 do do 1873-77 Io0,0o0,000 173,000,000 
 
 do do 1878-82 159,000,000 183,000,000 
 
 do do 1883-87 179,000,000 189,000,000 
 
 do for four years 1888-91 154,000,000 152,000,000 
 
 Total 8788,000,000 $803,000,000 
 
 In this period we borrowed a gigantic sum on public and 
 private account from Great Britain, the annual interest on which 
 is re.nittod in products. We have not borrowed at all from the 
 United States. Then again whilst Britain admits our wares 
 free of duty the United States taxes them and the taxation, 
 which has always been high, interrupts the flow of our products 
 southward and diverts it, to our loss, to Britain or some other 
 second-best market. The imports of Canada for home consump- 
 
28 
 
 tion from Britain and the United States between 13G8 and 1891 
 were as follows: - 
 
 Canadian Imports Canadian Imports 
 from United States, from Great Britain. 
 
 Aggregate for five years 1868-72 ^141,000,000 8223,000,000 
 
 do do 1873-77 2.50,000,000 272,000,000 
 
 do do 1878-82 207,000,000 197,000,000 
 
 do do 1883-87 244,000,000 222,000,000 
 
 do for four years 1888-91 205,000,000 167,000,000 
 
 Total $1,047,000,000 81,081,000,000 
 
 Our borrowings from Britain come in the form of manufactures, 
 dry goods, etc. Note, however, the greater growth of purchases 
 from the States notwithstanding the double row of custom houses 
 on the frontier. If you drive out nature with a pitchfork she 
 is sure to come running back. Trade v/ith oar neighbors flour- 
 ishes despite hostile tariffs, but we should be vastly better 
 off" if tariffs and boundaries were abolished and we became 
 full partakers in the commercial and industrial life of the United 
 States, with the British market still open, as it would be, to our 
 surplus wares. Does any sensible person believe that Michigan, 
 Minnesota, New York or Pennsylvania would have grown as they 
 have if they had been cut off" from the rest of the Union ? 
 Would they not have suffered as we are suffering from arrested 
 development and the manifold evils that accompany it ? 
 
 There are object lessons in the history of Ireland and Scotland 
 from which our population is so largely recruited. At one time 
 England prohibited the importation of Irish cattle, sheep and 
 swine, beef, pork, bacon, mutton, butter an'^. cheese. The chief 
 source of Irish prosperity was annihilated at a blow. Then Irish 
 wool was embargoed and Irish linens taxed 30 per cent. The 
 consequence was that Irish industry well-nigh perished and 
 free trade with England became the shibboleth of the 
 whole population. Scotland had a parliament of her own 
 down to 1707. She was excluded from trade with the col- 
 onies, her trade with England was severely hampered by 
 customs taxes, ,her agriculture languished, her manufactures were 
 weak, her mines unopened. Just before the union, England 
 threatened to embargo Scotch cattle, coal, linen and other staples. 
 The emancipation of trade by the removal of the customs line 
 was a policy that commended itself to every Scotchman. Politi- 
 cal union brought that about and Scotland began to prosper as 
 
29 
 
 she had never prospered before ^). Many prophesied that she 
 would be ruined by the union. S e had no national debt whilst 
 England had a large one for those days. The Preaoyterians did 
 not relish being brought in contact with English episcopacy. 
 Lord Belhaven, one of the Presbyterian loids in the Scottish Par- 
 liament, made a speech which should be read by those who pre- 
 dict evil things of the union of Canada and the United States W. 
 He foresaw the national church " descending into a plain upon an 
 equal level with Jews, Papists, Socinians, Arminians and Ana- 
 baptists ;" the peerage put on a footing with excisemen ; the 
 burghers " walking their desolate streets, hanging down their 
 heads under disappointments, wormed out of all the branches of 
 their old trade, and necessitated to become prentices to their un- 
 kind neighbors ; " the tradesman •' drinking water instead of ale 
 and eating his saltless porridge;" the husbandman " cursing the 
 day of his birth and dreading the expense of his burial." His 
 lordship fell on his knees during his speech and stopped abruptly 
 to drop a tear over the tribulations in store for his country. 
 Nevertheless the union was carried and theie is not a -^..tchman 
 alive who would vote for undoing it. 
 
 8.— Past Relations with tlie United States. 
 
 But why go abroad for examples ? An economic history of 
 Canada since 1816 would be in the main an account of the efforts 
 of the Canadian people, through their representatives, to get into 
 the American market and share in the material advantages 
 which inure to American citizenship without assuming ios re- 
 sponsibilities. The United States has always been the largest 
 single free-trade area in the world and its inhabitants the best of 
 
 (o) Lecky saj's: — " Immediately after the union the movement of industry and commerce was 
 felt in every part of the Lowlands." He describes the extraordinary jj;ro\vth of shippinjj, of the 
 inen woollen and caqiet trades, and adds : — " The majority of the nation were certainly opposed 
 to the union, and, directly or indirectly, it. is probaWe that much corruption was employed to effect 
 it ; hut still the fact remains that by it one of the most ardent wishes of all Scottish patriots waa 
 attained ; that there ha<i been for many years a powerful and intelligent minority who were prepar- 
 ed to purcho^e commercial freedom even at the expense of the fusion of legislatures ; and that in 
 consequence of the establishment of free trade the next generation of Scotchmen witnessed an in- 
 crease of material well-being that was utterly unprecedented in the history of their country." 
 
 (6) The speech will be found in Goodrich " Select Briti&h Eloquence " and other works. 
 
30 
 
 customers. From 1810 to 1854 Canadian politicians frequently 
 importuned the British Government to secure reciprocity. The 
 administrations of Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Jackson, Harri- 
 son, Tyler, Polk, Taylor and Fillmore were all approached by the 
 British Minister at Washington. Sometimes we tried to get it by 
 coercion, by threatening to clap heavy taxes on American goods 
 while admitting British free, or by placing a cast-iron construc- 
 tion on Article 1 of the Treaty of 1818 and refusing common 
 hospitality to American fishermen, All this time Canadian 
 staples like wheat and lumber received preferential treatment in 
 the British market, the policy of England being to promote the 
 industries of her colonies by letting their products into her ports 
 at a lower rate of duty than that imposed on similar products 
 from foreign countries. In return, the colonies gave preferential 
 treatment to British over foreign manufactures ; indeed our 
 tariff was framed by Britain. Bui notwithstanding the pull 
 they had in Britain over foreign competitors, our people saw 
 that the United States was the best market for much that 
 they raised; it was so near that many products especially 
 those of a bulky and perishable nature could be sold more 
 profitably, whilst remittances were more prompt and there 
 was less risk. When the annexation movement arose in 1849, 
 the efforts to obtain reciprocity from the Washington Govern- 
 ment were renewed with increased vigor. A conference of dele- 
 gates from all the provinces met at Halifax and begged the 
 British Minister at Washington to lea/e no stone unturned. 
 In 1850 a reciprocity bill was thrown out by Congress but 
 in 1854 Lord Elgin went to Washington and obtained a natural 
 products treaty, which was said to have been floated through on 
 champagne. The Democrats were in office — Mr. Pierce was 
 President, Mr. Marcy Secretary of State — and the truth ap- 
 pears to be that the South supported the treaty 'n order to quenoh 
 
 (a) The late Professor Thorold Rojjrers put it this way : — " Translated into economical language, 
 the Mother CVmntry and the colonies were at the pains to adopt a policy which was either superflu- 
 ous or mischievous ; the former, if each of the producing countries supplied such goods as could 
 compete with other products in point of price and quality ; the latter, if En^rlish manufactures or 
 colonial raw material were inferior in (|ualit}- or higher in price than those of foreign origin. The 
 fact was that the English manufacturer enjoyed no actual advantage, for the growth of English 
 manufacturing industry was such that English products could undersell those of most other nations ; 
 but the colonist did enjoj' an advantage as a very considerable and a very lucrative monopoly was 
 accorded him by the protective operation of the English tariff." Mr. Uunckley has shown that in 
 1845, the j'ear before the preferential system was abolished, England .paid so much more for sugar 
 grown in her West India possessions than she would have had to pay ha<:l foreign-grown sugar been 
 admitted on equal terms, that it would have paid her to dump all the manufactures she sent to the 
 West Indies into the sea, provided that by so doing she could have purchased foreign sugar at the 
 tariff rates granted to the sugar colonies. 
 
.SI 
 
 the annexation fires in Canada, its leaders bein<^- averse to seein<y 
 the North reinforced by the addition of provinces which lonor be- 
 fore had repudiated slavery and all its works. The treaty lasted 
 from 1854 to 18tJ6 and the provinces prospered amazingly'. In 
 1865 the Government of Upper and Lower Canada did what they 
 could to secure its prolongation. In 1869, and a little later dur- 
 ing the Washington Treaty negotiations, our Ministers made fresh 
 overtures. In 1874 George Brown, acting for the Mackenzie Cab- 
 inet, arranged a new treaty but it was not passed by the United 
 States Senate. Reciprocity was the great objective of the N. P. 
 adopted in 1879. The resolutions which Sir John Macdonald 
 put forward when in Opposition declared that the N.P., "moving 
 as it ought to do in the direction of a reciprocity of tariffs with 
 our neighbors, so far as the varied interests of Canada may de- 
 mand, will greatly tend to procure for this country eventually 
 reciprocity of trade;" and he placed an offer of reciprocity in cer- 
 tain natural products on the statute book. The stimulus of high 
 duties coupled with the colossal outlay for railways gave a tem- 
 porary fillip to the country, but the inevitable headache succeed- 
 ed the debauch and in 1891 Sir John, afraid to conjure any 
 longer with the IS. P. alone, went to the polls with the cry that 
 he was going to try to obtain a renewal of the reciprocity of 
 18.54. Sir Charles Tupper had previously made some kind of a 
 trade offer to Secretary Bayard. 
 
 This brief outline of events shows that when they do not 
 sophisticate themselves with colonial jingoism, Canadians on both 
 sides of politics realize that their true policy is to look to the 
 United States and its market. No dissociating ocean rolls between 
 the two countries. Nothing but an imaginary line separates them; 
 they cai^ converse by telephone ; you leave Toronto at noon 
 and are as far south as Washington or as far west as Chicago for 
 breakfast. It is estimated that the annual value of the internal 
 trade of the United States, the trade within each and between all 
 of the forty-four commonwealths, amounts to no less than thirty- 
 fi\e thousand million dollars. It is no wonder that Canada should 
 strive without ceasing to be allowed to fill her rivulet from 
 that vast stream. When the customs bars were removed in 
 1854 so far as to permit the free interchange of natural products, 
 trade advanced with a bound. The Year Book for 1886 gives 
 interesting statistics on the subject ^"> and sums them up 
 thus : " During the twelve years taken as comprising the whole 
 period of the treaty, the total imports (of Canada from the United 
 
 (a) See Appendix. 
 
32 
 
 States) averaged i52!J,14l,yG2, the exports .^20,328,559 and the 
 total trade §55,470,521 per annum ; and comparing these Hgures 
 with those of the period from 1850 to 1854 there was an in- 
 crease in the average annual trade of 122 per cent." The 
 anti-slavery war which raged from 1861 to 1865 must have 
 created an exceptionally brisk demand for Canadian products ; on 
 the other hand, the war bounties attracted thousands of ( 'anadians 
 to the American armies and so reduced the producing power of 
 the country. All agree, however, that the treaty was beneficial 
 in the highest degree to the British provinces though it was 
 far from placing them in the position of a State of the 
 Union, which enjoys free trade in its entirety with all the 
 other States. A report of a committee of the Canadian Privy 
 Council (Fel). 19th, 1864, in Sessional Papers of 1865) which was 
 intended to rouse the British Government to do something to pre- 
 vent the abrogation of the treaty, began as foUov/s : 
 
 " It would be impossible to express in figures with any approach to accur- 
 acy the extent to which the facilities of commercial intercourse created by 
 the Reciprocity Treaty have contributed to the wealth and prosperity of this 
 province ; and it would be difficult to exaggerate the importance which the 
 people of Canada attach to the continued enjoyment of these facilities. Nor 
 is the subject entirely devoid of political significance. Under the beneficent 
 operations of self-government which the later policy of the Mother Country 
 has accorded to Canada in common with the other colonies possessing re- 
 presentative institutions, combined with the advantages secured by the 
 Reciprocity Treaty of an unrestricted commerce with our nearest neighbors 
 in the natural productions of the two countries, all agitation for organic 
 changes has ceased, all dissatisfaction with the existing political relations of 
 the province has wholly disappeared." 
 
 The concluding words referred to the melting away of the an- 
 nexation movement amid the prosperity flowing from reciprocity. 
 The report went on to speak of " the connection which is usually 
 found to exist between the material prosperity and the political 
 contentment of a people," and hinted in diplomatic fashion that if 
 the treaty were not renewed annexation might lift its obscene 
 head again. The Americans complained that we had broken faith 
 with them in increasing the duties on their manufactured goods, ^*) 
 but in reality the treaty was abrogated because of the ill-feeling 
 that had arisen between the United States and England. Some 
 Canadians, aping the British aristocracy, had sympathised with 
 
 (a) In April, 1864, the committee on commerce of the House of Representatives reported a 
 resolution declaring that "nearly all the articles which Canada has to sell are admitted into the 
 United States free of dutj-, whilst heavy duties are now imposed upon many of the articles which 
 the people of the United States have to sell with the intention of excluding chem from Canada.' 
 
33 
 
 slavery but the great majority rejoiced at the triumph of the 
 North. Nevertheless the colony had to suffer for the conduct of 
 England with respect to the Alabama. In like manner, were 
 England to go to war to-morrow with a maritime power like 
 France or Russia over a squabble in which we had no sort of in- 
 terest, Canadian shipping would undoubtedly have to pay war 
 ])remiums, which would place us at a disadvantage in send- 
 ing our products to Europe. To induce the Americans to prolong 
 the treaty, our Government acknowledged that the war taxes bore 
 heavily on the American farmer and ai;reed to let his wares into 
 Canada free as before whilst Canadian farm products were to 
 pay at the frontier duties equivalent to the American war taxes. 
 This remarkable })roposition was made by the British Minister at 
 Washington who privately submitted a schedule of the duties to 
 be levied on Canadian products, to show to what extent Can- 
 adians were prepared t j contribute to the payment of the United 
 States war debt provided they were allowed to enjoy a sem- 
 blance of reciprocity. ("^ The Canadian proposals of 1869 com- 
 prised, besides the use by the Americans **or a term of years of 
 our fisheries and canals, which had been o. "kf the conditions of 
 the treaty of 18-34, the free exchange of ma ctured goods, the 
 virtual assimilation of the customs and excioe duties of the two 
 countries, the enlargement of the canals, and the concession of an 
 import duty equal to the internal revenue taxes of the United 
 States. ('') Without f - oher laboring the point, it is obvious that the 
 Conservative leaders of that period set a very high value indeed 
 upon the American market, though evidently not higher than the 
 experience of the country justified. 
 
 9.— Projects of Relief. 
 
 No one now regards the N. P. as a permanent affair. It was 
 to have diminished the exodus but the exodus has grown at an 
 alarming rate. ^"^ It was to have augmented the price of farm pro- 
 
 fa) The schedule, &c., is in the archives of the State Department at Washington. 
 
 ('>) See Mr. Brown's Senate speech (1375) on liis draft treaty. 
 
 (c) One of Sir John Macdonald's N. P. resohitions declared that "such a policy will retain in 
 Cana<ia thousands of our fellow countrv men now oblis,'ed to expatriate themselves in search of the 
 employment denied them at home." The census returns tell a different tale. Mr Thomas Cote, 
 
 3 
 
!'l 
 
 34 
 
 ducts but they are lower than ever before. It was to have 
 brought a lasting prosperity but hard times set in about 1887, 
 have been with us ever since, and show no signs of departing. 
 Toronto was pointed to as a miracle of development but it is now 
 as depressed as the rest of the country. The boom caused by the 
 tlocking in of the discouraged rural population and by the em- 
 ployment in building operations of capital which, if the farmers 
 J had been prosperous, would have been lent to them, has colh ;)sed 
 
 V; and smothered a good many investors in the debris. The df pre- 
 
 tif^ elation in the value of farm lands throughout Ontario in the 
 
 '^ " past eight or ten years has been fully 30 per cent. In Quebec 
 
 farms cannot be sold at all. " Under reciprocity," said an old 
 conductor at Point Levis the other day, " our main line and sid- 
 ings were crowded with car-loads of produce, animals and lumber 
 goinnr to the States, but nowadays we ship mostly men and 
 women." The attempt to sell barley, eggs, hay, and other 
 '. idky wares in England ha? not been successful. If there is any 
 profit left for the farmer after the ocean rate, insurance, break- 
 age and middleman's charges have been defrayed, it is exceed- 
 ingly small compared with that which he would derive from 
 ; shipping to a free American market. The traffic in live cattle 
 
 has been stopped by the British Board of Agriculture and our 
 : farmers can hardly compete in dead meat with the Americaas be- 
 
 I cause, after all our bonusing, they have to pay higher railroad and 
 
 \ ocean rates. Then again the cost of raising well-fed beef is prob- 
 
 f ably higher in Canada than in the States, where there is more 
 
 t corn and less cold weather It is evident, too, that the Cana- 
 
 I dian farmer must prepare for a decline in the British demand 
 
 ■ for foreign cheese and butter. Within a few years two million 
 
 : acres in the United Kingdom have been changed from wheat to 
 
 J dairy land. The British farmer is beginning to see that with his 
 
 f unstable climate and other drawbacks he cannot raise orain sue- 
 
 i cessfully in competition with America, Russia, India and Australia. 
 
 I The cost of transportation from those countries used to be a natu- 
 
 \ ral protection to him but it has been greatly reduced by modern 
 
 I science. 
 
 i Ministers themselves feel that something must be done and 
 
 1 talk of pruning the N. P. next session. Mr. D'Alton McCarthy 
 
 \ recommends free trade with Great Britain with a tariff against 
 
 I 
 
 li 
 
 t 
 
 an able Montreal journalist, Wavelled throu^'-h a part of Kastern (Quebec last fall anrl puljished the 
 names of hea<ls of families who had emigrated mostly sitice the census was taken. In some parishes 
 ten per cent, of the population hafl <fone. In Kimouski there were twelve abandoned farms along' 
 a frontag'e of three miles on a main road. In Kamonraska churches have been closed in conse- 
 quence of the exodu-s. 
 
35 
 
 the United States, but does not say how the loss of customs 
 revenue is to be made good or what we are to do if this discrim- 
 ination should lead the Americans to retaliate by embargoing 
 Canadian exports and shutting out Canadian railroads. The 
 Liberals favor tariff reform which however desirable in itself will 
 not lower the McKinley duties on a single (.'anadian product. Some 
 of them cling to unrestricted reciprocity, an alias for commer- 
 cial union invented to pacify the weaker brethren, but the ma- 
 jority have been frightened by the Tory cry of ti-eason and now 
 preach tariff reform and reciprocity without discrimination against 
 England, which is nothing more than the Tory platform. Cana- 
 dian Imperial Federationists cling to the belief tha. the British 
 democracy will revive the old preferential policy for the benefit 
 of the colonial farmer and be content with a small loaf for his 
 .sake, whilst allowing colonial manufacturers as now to ex- 
 clude British exports. It seems to be taken for granted that the 
 British democracy is a fool. There is a school of Imperial Feder- 
 ationists in England, headed by Mr. Howard Vincent, which 
 advocates the restoration of the preferential policy in its original 
 form, colonial pi'oducts to be treated better in the British mar- 
 ket than foreign products and British manufactures to be 
 treated better in colonial markets than foreign manufactures ; 
 but it is unable to get a heajing from either Liberals or Tories. ^''^ 
 
 (a J The En>(lish papers of April I8th printed a letter trom Mr. Glail>:tone to Mr. Howard 
 Vincent, who had asked him to receive a deputation from the I'nited Empire Trade LesvK-ue, 
 the Leajrue I»ein>r anxious to have a ifeneral council of the empire sunmioned to iliscuss "trade 
 relations." Mr. Gladstone's letter was as follows : — 
 
 " I clearly understand that the puq>ose of your desire to confer with me is that you m a\ recom- 
 mend to the Government a method of trade leu'islation which would impose differentia 1 duties on 
 the import:.tion of foreifrn conmiodities into this country. I fear that my seeinj,' a deput ation on 
 such a subject woul<l lead to misapprehension and disappointment. It could hardly do less than 
 convey to the public the idea that there mig'ht be circumstances under which I nii'jrh t be ready to 
 recommend to my colleagues the adoption of such a plan. But, since I am compelled to rejrarfl the 
 plan as unjust to the mass of the community, nnfavora))le i;o the industry and cnteri)rise of the 
 country, and subversive of the le^slation which it cost us twenty or twenty -five years to accomplish, 
 you will see that with these opinions I am precbuled in principle from the discussion of such a plan; 
 and, were I to receive a deputation in its favor, I miyht he unjustly clunked w ith actinif under 
 false pretences and (Jfivinjjf encouragement to expectations which I did not mean to fulfi 1. You will, 
 therefore, I am confident, on these irrounds excuse my from receivin,' the de]>utation ." 
 
 In his famous Hastinj^s spech (.May ISth, 1S!»2). in which he propo-ied to i)ut duties on luxuries in 
 order to compel the foreij^'n countries exporting them to lower their tariffs on British troods, Lord 
 Salisbury said : — " The i)cwer of which at this moment we have the most reason to comp lain is the 
 Unitefl States, but it 'o happens that what the l'nite<l States furnishes us with mainly, not entirely, 
 are articles which are essential to the i;ood of the peojile and raw materials which are essential to 
 our manufactures, and we cannot exclude one or the other without serious injury to ourrelves" 
 Yon cannot raise the price of food, you cannot raise the price of raw material ; but there is an enor- 
 mous mass of other iiiiporiations. shijipeti from other countries than the United .States, which are 
 mere matters of luxurious consumption ; and if it be a ijuestion of wine or silk or spirits or i^loves 
 
30 
 
 Another school of English Fedcrationists seeks to establisli a 
 uniform policy of free trade throughout the em])ire, but Canadian 
 protectionists mock at it. Imperial Fedei-ation is as old as Har- 
 rington's " Oceana" but no one has yet succeeded in construct- 
 ing a feasibli' scheme The adoption of high tariffs by the lead- 
 ing colonies has rendered the job all the more difticult. It is 
 clear that th i ([uixotic notion of drawing on the colonies for men 
 and mo!iey to carry on imperial wars must be given up. 
 
 The fatal objection from the British point of view to a revival 
 of the preferential system is that it would exalt the price of food 
 and raw materials to the British manufacturer and artisan and 
 strike a blow at England's foreign trade, which is much more 
 valuable than her trade with the colonies. The " Book of Com- 
 merce " for 1892, an English publication compiled from the blue- 
 books, shows that for the five years 1880-90 England's imports 
 from foreign countries averaged 77.1 per cent of her total imports 
 whilst her imports from the colonies av^eraged 22.9 j)ercent. Her 
 exports to foreign countries amounted to TO 5 per cent of her whole 
 export trade and her exports to the colonies to 29.5. It is not 
 true, as often alleged, that her trade with the colonies is advan- 
 cing very much faster than her trade with foreign countries. For 
 the five years 1S5G-00 her imjjorts from and exports to foreign 
 countries averaged 77.5 and 71.1 per cent respectively of her to- 
 tal import and export trade ; and her imports from and exports 
 to the colonies 22.5 and 2S.9 res})ectively. 
 
 Such in brief are the devices for enabling C mada to live a 
 while lonijer in a state of divorce from the continent to which 
 she belongs. Every intelligent Canadian feels in his heart when 
 he looks at the debt on one side and at the census and other evid- 
 ences of torpor on the other that our fight against nature is as 
 hopeless as the old battles of men again-it the gods — that to pro- 
 long it is simply to augment our burdens and render us poorer 
 and poorer by comparison with our mighty neighbor. Thj poli- 
 ticians are endeavoring to keep the people quiet by telling them 
 that a Democratic President and Congress will repeal the farm 
 schedule of the McKinley bill as v/ell as the duties on iron, coal, 
 lumber and fish. Even the Jingoes amongst them allow that our 
 future largely depends on the next four years' legislation at 
 Washington. But there is no warrant for saying that the Dem- 
 ocrats are again in favor of granting us liberal access to the 
 
 or lace or anythin;^ of that kind 1 shoulii not shrink from dinunishiii<r the eonsinnption for tlie pur- 
 pose of insistinij on our access to the m.arkets of our neiy:hhors." If the Conservative leader would 
 not tax American food-stuffs and raw material his policy would be of no use to us in Canada. 
 
37 
 
 American iiiiiiket. It will take Conffress a loiifj time to revise 
 the manufacturing schedule and though the coal, iron and lumber 
 duties may be r. 'uced nobody at Washinj^'ton seems to care 
 whether the farm Sv...odule is touched or not. Most Americans 
 like most Canadians believe that our farmers pay the duty. 
 Their farmers in the border States are certainly not clamoring 
 for a chunge. But suppose Congress should make a clean 
 sweep of protection and go in for a revenue tariff, who could 
 guarantee the permanence of such a state of things ? Sup- 
 posing, however, that it should be accepted by the Repub- 
 licans as a tinality, what would our condition be ? The Finance 
 Minister has declared that the necessities of the revenue render a 
 large reduction of the N. P. impossible. In his West Durham 
 letter Mr. Blake said the same thing. The N. P. mi^ht be great- 
 ly improved by the elimination of " defects, anomalies and oppres- 
 sions," and a substantial retrenchment of the expenditure might 
 be made, but " the result of our policy for the last thirteen years 
 is that we shall be compelled for an indefinite time to raise the 
 bulk of an enormous revenue by high duties on imports." Every 
 serious politician knows that direct taxation for Federal purposes 
 would not be tolerated ,("> A Liberal paper said recently that the 
 Liberal party could reduce the expenditure so much that a low 
 tariff would bufhce for our revenue needs. The fact is, as Sir 
 Richard Cartwright has pointed out, about 75 per cent, of the 
 expenditure is absorbed by charges that are uncontrollable^''^ so 
 that the margin for economising is very narrow. Assuming, then, 
 that we shall be obliged for an indefinite period to maintain high 
 import duties, how should we fare if the Americans reduced theirs 
 to a revenue basis ? Sir Alexander Gait warned us five and twenty 
 years ago, when such an eventuality was deemed impossible, that 
 the day of wrath for Canada would begin when the United 
 States should have a lower tariff and a smaller debt, should 
 be in short a cheaper country to live in ; and anybody can see that 
 our position would be just as critical as it is now. 
 
 (a) In Quebec the people are paying two sets of direct taxes already, one for provincial, the 
 other for clerical purposes. Mr. Blake said in his letter :— " Direct taxation, even in its most prom- 
 isinjr form, a succession tax, is, I regret to say, at present out of the question." 
 
 (b) The ordinary expenditure in 1891-92 was !S36,800,000. Here are items in which no material 
 reduction could be made : — 
 
 Public Debt— Interest, Sinkinjf Fund, etc Jjri.OOO.OOO 
 
 Subsidies to Provinces 4,C0O,O0O 
 
 Charges for Collection of Revenue 9,400,000 
 
 Indians 900,000 
 
 t26,300,000 
 
38 
 
 10.— Continental Union 
 
 It is not pretended that Continental Union would cure all the 
 ills from which the community is suffering. It would not, for ex- 
 ample, do away with agricultural depression but it would alleviate 
 it by giving the Canadian farmer an immense market at his 
 own door and enabling him to buy cheaper store goods. To buy 
 thriftily is just as important as to sell profitably — a penny saved 
 is a »enny gained. Many of the fundamental articles that en- 
 ter into his economy, e. g., iion and steel, implements, coal oil, 
 binding twine, barbed wire, nails, cotton and other textiles, 
 are cheaper in the United States than in Canada. About the 
 only commodities now smuggled from Canada to the States 
 are opium and Chinamen, neither of them home products. 
 Even with a hicjher tariff" the Americans can manufacture more 
 cheaply as a rule than we can by reason of the greater size of their 
 market which permits of the specialisation of labor and machinery. 
 The farmer would likewise profit along with the rest of us by 
 the letting loose of the imprisoned forces of nature. The develop- 
 ment of Canadian mines alone would ensure him a better home 
 market. It can be said without fear of contradiction that Con- 
 tinental Union would confer the following amongst other benefits 
 upon us all : — 
 
 It would make us citizens of a free country containing the 
 larger half or the English-speaking race. At present we are the 
 only five millions of white men on the globe content to be mere 
 colonists. (**> The fact that our future was assured would ot* itself 
 strengthen the Canadian character and imbue us with greater 
 confidence in ourselves and our undertakings. 
 
 It would lighten our burdens. The United States would un- 
 doubtedly assume the Provincial as well as the Dominion debt. 
 
 As States of the Union we should enjoy free trade with the 
 whole continent from Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, with 
 its variety of climates and products, and get the benefit of the 
 commercial treaties existins: between the United States and other 
 countries in this hemisphere. In a word, we should be fighting 
 with nature instead of against her. 
 
 Each province as a State would enjoy complete autonomy in 
 
 Xa) Mr. Blake said at Aurora that we were "five millions of Britons not free." We cannot 
 'egislate as we see fit on copyright, naturalisation, extradition and other important matters nor 
 make coimnercial treaties of our own. A democratic people, we ha\e no \ oice in the appointment 
 our chief ruler or even in that of the commander of the volunteers. 
 
39 
 
 local aft'airs. Ontario would no lonj^er be a milch cow for others. 
 We should get rid of the treaty obligations imposed by England 
 and France in 1763 as well as of the restraints imposed by the 
 Confederation Act. In short, each province would start with a 
 clean slate and have the power to legislate as it pleased upon all 
 matters affecting the religious, educational and social life of its 
 inhabitants. We could appoint our judges and other officers for 
 life as now ; no province need establish a divorce court ; there 
 would be no veto except by a governor elected by ourselves and 
 indirectly by the courts, and at all times we should be at liberty 
 to amend the State constitution. The friction caused by dualism 
 in race and language would cease at once. There would soon be 
 but one tongue, and that the English tongue, from the St. Law- 
 rence to the Rio Grande. 
 
 It would bring a rush of American capital and enterprise. The 
 older provinces would profit by the natural facilities for manu- 
 facturing which they possess. With the increase in wealth and 
 population the value of real estate would be augmented. If some 
 of our tarifF-born, tariff-bred and tariff-fed industries should be 
 overborne by manufactures carried on with the new capital, 
 the derangement would be trifling compared with the general 
 gain. 
 
 The North-West would begin to fill up. It would no longer 
 be shunned by emigrants from the European continent who, 
 having fied from militarism and other Old World evils, do not 
 care to settle in the colony of an Old World kingdom. 
 
 The minerals of Canada would have a market and would there- 
 fore be developed. The production in 1891 was valued at $20,400,- 
 000. The mineral production in the United States that year was 
 valued at $666,000,000. The free British market is of little worth 
 to the Canadian miner ; of our exports of minerals 80 per cent, goes 
 to the United States notwithstanding the customs duties. ("^ 
 
 (a) The royal coininission on mining appointed bv the Ontario Government says in its report 
 (1890) on the iron deposits in this province : — "Great deposits of ore Van l)e reached by rail and 
 laid down che.iply at Lake Ontario ports. The cost of transportation from the mines to Cleveland, 
 Ashtabula or Pittsburg is not greater, and in some cases is slightly less, than from the mines of 
 Northern Wisconsin and Michigan to the same points. Millions of dollars worth of iron ore could 
 be place<l in the Anieriian markets annually, and apparently the only thing that stands in the way 
 of the development of a great and profitable trade with the United States is the American duty." 
 The commission wa.s of ojiinion that charcoal iron could be produced as cheaply in Ontario 
 as in Michigan, which manufactured 180,000 tons in 1887, the outlay for labor l)eing over two mil- 
 lion dollars. Speaking of the effect of free trade with the States on the mining industries ui gener- 
 al of Ontario the commission said:— "The favorable results can scarcely be estimated and would 
 beyond doubt far exceed popular anticipation;" and again: — " More than one-half of our mining 
 capital is now American but it represents only a amall fraction of the amount that would speedily 
 
40 
 
 The lake shipping of Ontario, now moribund, would be revived 
 and the seaboards of British Columbia, Quebec and the Maritime 
 Provinces made the most of. The great lakes on the American 
 side have splendid fleets. The tonnage which goes through the 
 American canal at the Sault is ijreater than that which ooes 
 through the Suez Canal. A few years ago eight per cent of it 
 was Canadian, now only four per cent. What Swift said of the 
 harbors of Ireland is almost true of the magnificent inland water- 
 ways of Canada, that "the conveniency which nature has bestowed 
 is of no more use to us than a beautiful prospect to a man in a 
 dungeon." ^"^ 
 
 It would lead to the improvement of the St. Lawrence route. 
 The Americans will shortly have a 21-foofc channel from Buffalo 
 to Duluth and talk of building a canal at a cost of $500,000,000 
 through their own territory to the Hudson River, which would 
 deprive Montreal of much of its business. To deepen the Wel- 
 land canal and the canals below Kingston to 21 feet would cost, 
 ihis said, $200,000,000. The Dominion Government could not 
 ra.se such a sum but to the Government of the United States it 
 weald be a mere bagatelle. A 21-foot channel from Port Arthur 
 and Duluth would afford passage for vessels drawing 10|^ feet, 
 and it is asserted by shipowners that wheat could then be car- 
 ried from those points to Liverpool for ten or twelve cents per 
 bushel. The eflTect of this water rate would be to greatly reduce 
 rail rates and make farming in the North-West and elsewhere 
 more profitable. 
 
 Lastly, Continental Union would ensure the peace and happi- 
 ness of North America and might pave the way for an alliance 
 of the whole English race not by any political machinery but by 
 virtue of the common tongue, the common literature and our 
 common faith. What have we to do with George the Third and 
 Lord North ? Why should we as sane men keep alive to our 
 own infinite injury the hatreds and schisms of that time ? 
 
 We do not serve the dead — the past is past ; 
 
 God lives, and lifts His glorious mornings up 
 T>efore the eyes of men, awake at last, 
 
 Who put away the meats they used to sup. 
 
 We are told that by entering the Union freely and on honor- 
 
 seek investment in Ontario if the two countries were connnercinlly one." The tariff adopted ii» 
 1887 at the instance of Sir Charles Tupper has done nothinjjc but exalt the cost of iron and steel. 
 In 1890 there were four furnaces in Vilast in the Dominion and the output of pig iron was 24,(K»0 tons, 
 or less than in 1884. In 1890 the output of pig iron in the United States rose to 9,200,0(K) tons. _; 
 (a) See Appendix. 
 
41 
 
 able terms we shall be making over cur country to a " foreign 
 power." It is truly surprising that men of sense should talk in 
 that strain. Did Scotland when she entered into a union with 
 England transfer her country ? Does an American State which 
 enters tho Union transfer its territory ? Does a trader en enter- 
 ing into p itnership transfer his estate ? We should keep every- 
 thing we have, only with a value enhanced by the union. The 
 " nationality " which it is said we should forfeit is now not ours. 
 We are at present not a nation but a dependency without a re- 
 cognized place among the nations, without the power of negotiat- 
 ing with other countries except by sufferance, without the power 
 even of amending our constitution, which has been enacted for 
 us by the Parliament of Great Britain, ^or is there much hope 
 of our ever becoming a united nation with the French province 
 in the midst of us. To think that we shall acquire national spirit 
 by remaining a dependency is as idle as it is to imagine that 
 under the present system we shall grow strong enough to be a 
 match for the United States. Let us enter the Union, and On- 
 tario will be a member, and no mean member, of that which will 
 soon be the greatest nation that ever existed in the world. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 The Movement of 1849. 
 
 The Political Union movement of 1849 took rise in consequence of 
 the adoption in 1846 of free trade by England, whereby the system of 
 giving preferential treatment to colonial products in the British market 
 was abolished, and of the repeated failure of the British Government to 
 obtain for us a reciprocity treaty with the United States. Trade and 
 commerce throughout the colony were greatly depressed. A manifesto 
 was signed by leading Liberals and leading Tories and by prominent 
 merchants of Montreal. The manifesto spoke of the prevailing depres- 
 sion, of the backwardness of Canada as compared with the United 
 States, ot the heavy public debt and excessive cost of government, of 
 the evils arising from the colonial state which everybody regarded as 
 a transitional state and which offered nothing fixed or permanent, and 
 so on. It went on to discuss reciprocity, which, though desirable, 
 would " yield but an instalment of the advantages that might otherwise 
 be secured " ; declared that Canada could not exist as an independent 
 republic since independence would not open the North American con- 
 tinent to Canadian products nor give permanence and stability to the 
 institutions of the country ; and proceeded thus : — 
 
 " Of all the remedies which have been suggested for the acknowledged and 
 insufferable ills with which our country is afflicted, there remains but one to 
 be considered. It propounds a sweeping and important change in our politi- 
 cal and social condition, involving considerations which demand our most 
 serious examination. This remedy consists in a friendly and peaceful separ- 
 ation from British connection and a union upon e(T[uitable terms with the 
 great North American Confederation of Sovereign States. 
 
 "We would premise that towards Great Britain we entertain none other 
 than sentiments of kindness and respect. Without her consent we consider 
 separation as neither practicable nor desirable. That it is the resolve of Eng- 
 land to invest us with the attributes and compel us to assume the burdens of 
 iniependence is no longer problematical ; the threatened withdrawal of her 
 troops from oth i' colonies, the continuance of her military protection to our- 
 selves only on tht condition that we shall defray the attendant expenditure, 
 betoken intentions towards our country against which it is weakness in us 
 not to provide. An overruling conviction then of its necessity and a high 
 sense of the duty we owe to our country, a duty we can neither disregard nor 
 postpone, impel us to entertain the idea of separation ; but whatever nego- 
 tiations may eventuate with Great Britain a griteful liberality on the part of 
 Canada should mark every proceeding. 
 
 ** The proposed union would render Canada a field for American capital 
 into which it would enter as freely for the prosecution of public works and 
 
43 
 
 private enterprises as in any of the present States. It would eijualise the 
 value of real estate upon both sides of the boundaiy, thereby probably 
 doubling at once the entire present value of pro])erty in Canada, whilst, by 
 giving stability to our institutions and introducing prosperity, it would raise 
 our public, corporate and jjrivate credit. 
 
 " It would increase our commerce both with the United States and foreign 
 countries, and would not necessarily diminish to any great extent our inter- 
 course with Great Britain, which our products would, for the most part enter 
 on the same terms as now. It would render our rivers and canals the high- 
 way for the immigration to and for the exports from the West to the incal- 
 culable benefit of our country. 
 
 " It would also introduce manufactures, and to Lower Canada especially, 
 where water powers are abundant and cheap, it would attract manufacturing 
 capital, enhancing the valuf^ of property and agricultural produce and giving 
 remunerative employment to what is at ])resent a non-producing population. 
 Nor would the United States merely furnish the capital for our manufactures. 
 They would also supply them with the most extensive market in the world 
 without the intervention of a customs ofhcer. Railways would forthwith be 
 constructed by American capital as feeders for all the great lines now ap- 
 proaching our frontiers, and railway enterprise in general would doubtless be 
 as active and prosperous as amongst our neighbors. 
 
 " The value of our agricultural jiroducts would be raised at once to a par 
 with that of the United States whilst agricultural implements and many of 
 the necessaries of life such as tea, coffee and sugar would be greatly reduced 
 in price. The value of our timber would also be greatly enhanced by free 
 access to the American market, where it bears a high price but is subject to 
 an onerous duty. At the same time there is every reason to believe that 
 ship-builders, as well at Quebec as on the great lakes, would find an unlimit- 
 ed market in all parts of the American continent. 
 
 " The simple and econf)mical State government in which direct responsi- 
 bility to the people is a distinguished feature, would be substituted for a sys- 
 tem at once cumbrous and expensive. 
 
 *' In the place of war and the alarms of war with a neighbor there would 
 be peace and amity. Disagreements between the United States and her chief 
 if not only rival among nations would not make the soil of Canada the san- 
 guinary arena for their settlement, as vnider our existing relations must neces- 
 sarily be the case. That such is the unenviable condition of our state of de- 
 pendence upon Great Britain is known to the whole world, and how far it 
 may conduce to keep prudent capitalists from making investments in the 
 country, or wealthy settlers from selecting a foredoomed battle-field for the 
 home of themselves and their children, it needs no reasoning on our part to 
 elucidate. 
 
 " But other advantages than those bearing on our material interests may 
 be foretold. It would change the ground of political contest between races 
 and parties, allay and obliterate thoce irritations and conflicts of rancor and 
 recrimination which have hitherto disturbed our social fabric. Changing a 
 subordinate for an independent condition, we would take our station among 
 the nations of the earth. We have now no voice in the affairs of the empire 
 nor do we share in its hcmora or emoluments. England is our parent state 
 with whom we have no equality, but towards whom we stand in the simple 
 relation of obedience But, as citizens of the United States the public ser- 
 vice of the nation would be open to us — a field of high and honorable did - 
 tinction on which we and our posterity might enter on terms of perfect 
 equality." 
 
44 
 
 Much that was said then is as true and as pertinent now. The 
 United States <»f that period had a population of twenty-three millions. 
 The movement was killed by the Reciprocity treaty of 1854, wliich let 
 in a flood of prosperity. When the treaty was abrogated in 180G, Con- 
 federation was on the boards and great things were expected of it. 
 The huge expenditure since has given the country the appearance of 
 prosperity, but we have reached the end of our tether as large borrowers, 
 and Political Union is once more a buining question. Sir Oliver 
 Mowat congratulated himself and his followers the other day on the 
 fact that the present movement had not attracted any notable poli- 
 ticians in this province. Hitherto he and his fellow-reactionaries at 
 Ottawa have contrived by dismissals, by onslaughts in their party news- 
 papers and otherwise to terrorize the politicians known to favor Politi- 
 cal Union. To quote a phrase from J. S. Mills essay on Liberty, which 
 Sir Oliver might read with profit, there exists in Ontario " a state of 
 things in which a large portion of the most active and inquiring intel- 
 lects tind it advisable to keep the general principles and grounds of 
 their convictions within their own breasts, and attempt, in what they 
 address to the public, to tit as much as they can of their own conclu- 
 sions to premises which they have internally renounced." But that is 
 passing away. Public men in Quebec are no longer afraid to speak 
 their minds, and those in Ontario are taking heart. Everyone knows 
 tiiat the people are more advanced than the politicians. 
 
 The Reciprocity of 1854. 
 
 Under the Reciprocity treaty of 1854-66 the free exchange of the 
 following articles was allowed : — 
 
 Grain, flour and other Ijreadstuffs, 
 Animals of all kinds. 
 Eggs and poultry. 
 Stone and marble unwrought. 
 Slate. 
 
 Lard, horns, manures. 
 Coal. 
 
 Timber and lumber, unmanufac- 
 tured. 
 Wool and pelts. 
 Rice, broom-corn, bark. 
 Grindstones. 
 Seeds and vegetables. 
 
 Fish and fish products. 
 
 Fresh, smoked, and salted meats. 
 
 Fruits, dried and undried. 
 
 Hides and furs. 
 
 Butter, cheese and tallow. 
 
 Ores of all kinds. 
 
 Turpentine, ashes, pitch, tar. 
 
 Firewood. 
 
 Gypsum, dye-stuffs. 
 
 Flax, hemp and tow. 
 
 Rags. 
 
 Unmanufactured tobacco. 
 
 Cotton Wool. 
 
 The trade of Upper and Lower Canada, then united under one gov- 
 ernment, with the United States rose from $24,000,000 in 1854 to $41,- 
 000,000 in 1856. There was f light decline after that, but in 1863 
 the trade came to $43,000,000 itnd in 1866, the last year of the treaty, 
 to $55,000,000. The trade of tiie other provinces with the States 
 
. • 45 
 
 f.ourislied in like manner. The only complaint af,'ainst the treaty from 
 Canada was that it did not go far enough,— that it did not admit 
 Can.idian ^ essels to the American coasting trade. 
 
 The McKinley Tariff. 
 
 The following list gives the customs duties levied on leadin'- On- 
 tario products by the McKinley tariff of 1890, now in force, together 
 with the duties levied by the previous United states tariff, that of 
 1883:— 
 
 l^Sd. McKinley. 
 
 Barley, per bush 10 cents 30 cents. 
 
 J;«g^ Free. per doz. 05 cents. 
 
 Horses, valued under 
 
 ^^ ^l-'^O 20 per cent, ad val. per head $30 00 
 
 Horses, valued at 8 1 50 
 
 and over do 30 per cent. 
 
 Cattle, over a year old do per head $10 00 
 Cattle, a year old or 
 
 l^^s do d(. 82 00 
 
 Sheep, one year t>ld oi- 
 
 «it)re do clo 81 50 
 
 Sheep, less than a year 
 
 oW do do 75 
 
 Hogs do do 1 50 
 
 Butter, per lb 04 cents. 06 cents. 
 
 ^eans 10 per cent, ad vaL per bush. 40 " 
 
 Hay, per ton $2 00 $4 00 
 
 Hops, per pound 08 cents. 15 cents. 
 
 Potatoes, per bush .. . 15 " 25 " 
 
 Apples, green or ripe. Free. 25 " 
 
 Poultry, live 10 percent, ad. val. per pound 03 " 
 
 do dressed do do 05 " 
 
 ^pions . . .^ do per bush. 40 " 
 
 Ties and telegraph 
 
 poles of cedar . . Free. 20 per cent. ad. val. 
 
 Sawn pine lumber, per 
 
 thousand $2 00 $1 00 
 
 Iron ore, per ton 75 cents. 75 
 
 Wool, Canada long or l: 
 
 combing, per lb . . 10 to 11 cents. 12 cents. 
 Flax, not hackled or 
 
 dressed, per ton . . 820 00 820 00 
 
 B irley malt, per bush. 20 cents. 4.5 cents. 
 
 P*''^s ^.^ 10 per cent, ad tml. per bush. 40 " 
 
 -f 
 
46 
 
 United States Reciprocity Treaties. 
 
 Under section 3 of the McKinley act reciprocity treaties have 
 been entered into by a number of cane and beet sugar-producing 
 countries with the United States. That section empowered the President 
 to impose duties on sugar, coflFee and hides coming from countries 
 which did not make concessions to American exports. The treaties 
 with countries in this hemisphere are as follows, but the list of enum- 
 erated articles is t(X) long to be given in fui) : 
 
 With Brazil : — American wheat, tiour, buckwheat, rye, corn, barley, 
 potatoes, pork, fish, farm implements, etc., are admitted free. Lard, 
 hams, butter, cheese, lumber and a variety of manufactured goods are 
 admitted at 25 per cent, reduction of the duties levied on similar com- 
 modities coming from countries other than the United States. 
 
 With San Domingo : — American corn, oats, hay, lumber and various 
 manufactures are adniitted free : butter, cheese, fish, meats and various 
 manufactures under a 25 per cent, reduction. 
 
 With Salvador: — American corn, barley, rye, beans, hay, imple- 
 ments and other manufactures are free. 
 
 With Nicaragua : — American wheat, l>eans, potatoes, hay, lumber 
 and various manufactures are free. 
 
 With Honduras : — American corn, beans, hay and various manu- 
 factures are free. 
 
 With Guatemala: — American hay, potatoes, beans, peas, barley 
 lumber and various manufactures are free. 
 
 With Cuba and Porto Rico (colonies of Spain) : — American meats, 
 lard, fish, oats, rye, hay, Imtter, and various manufactu'-es are free. 
 American manufactures of iron and steel, furniture, rubber goods, etc., 
 are admitted at a 50 per cent, reduction of the regular duties. Other 
 American goods are admitted at a 25 per cent, reduction. American 
 wheat, floui', potatoes and corn are admitted under favorable specified 
 rates. 
 
 With the British West Indies : — Certain American farm products, 
 woods and manufactures are admitted under more favorable terms 
 than before. There is no open discrimination as in the case of all or 
 most of the other treaties against Canada, but the tariffs of the 
 islands and of British Guiana are so adjusted that the American ex- 
 porter has a decided advantage over the Canadian. The Jamaicans are 
 about to establish a subsidised steamship line of their own running to 
 New York. The following resolution proposed April 24 in the legis- 
 lature by Mr. George Solomon was accepted by the Government of the 
 oolony : — 
 
 "That the present low rate of speed in carrying mails, passengers, merch- 
 andise and fruit to New York is calculated to injure the general commerce 
 of the island by limiting its export of fruit and delaying its correspondence, 
 and is fatal to all attempts to make it a general winter resort for visitors from 
 
47 
 
 the United States ; that with a view to removing these obstacles the Gov- 
 ernment invite tenders to be received not earlier than the Ist <jf November 
 next for a fortnightly service for five years from Kingston and other ports of 
 the island to New York ; that $50,000 per annum be allowed as a subsidy 
 during the period of contract ; the steamers to be well found and of not less 
 than 2,500 tons, to perform the voyage in four days and to have first-class 
 accommodation for 100 passengers, the maximum rates of freights and pass- 
 age to be fixed in accordance with a schedule to be arranged by the Govern- 
 ment." 
 
 Mr. Solomon in speaking to his resolution said that at present the 
 voyage from Jamaica to New York takes six or seven days. The 
 island did not get full va' ae for the large subsidy it paid to the Royal 
 Mail Company for the conveyance of mails from Jamaica to England. 
 With a quick service of four days to New York, letters from Jamaica 
 would reach England in eleven days,^ whereas the Royal Mail Co. took 
 sixteen or seventeen days to reach England. He was positive that it 
 was to the advantage of Jamaica to be drawn closer to the United 
 States. The leader of the Government pledged it to do all it could to 
 establish a fast line to New York. 
 
 The United States has also obtained important tariflf concessions from 
 Germany, Austria-Hungary and France. 
 
 Political Union would of course give Canada the same advantage in 
 all these markets as the United States now enjoys. We have been 
 trying for years to extend our markets but are unable to make recip- 
 rocity treaties on this continent simply because we have no market to 
 offer in return to the foreigner comparable with the immense market 
 he can get through reciprocity with our neighbors ; witness the failure 
 of Mr. Foster's attempt to obtain a reciprocity from the British West 
 Indies, which a few weeks afterwards formed one with the United 
 States. Fuithermore, Britain sometimes compromises us by granting to 
 foreign nations with which she has commercial treaties favored-nation 
 clauses binding upon us. Conversely, she sometimes excludes us from 
 the operation of her commercial treaties with foreign nations, and so 
 in a manner discriminates against us. Yet it is said we cannot dis- 
 criminate in our own interest against her without being disloyal. It 
 is a poor rule that does not work both ways. 
 
 The €eii§u§ of 1891. 
 
 The population of the provinces now forming the Dominion was esti- 
 mated at 240,000 in 1800, It has increased as follows in the last 
 thirty years : 
 
 1861 3,090,000 
 
 1871 3,635,000 
 
 1881 4,325,000 . 
 
 1891 4,833,000 
 
 The figures down to 1861 were little better than estimates. Those 
 for 1871 were not accurate, for the figures Tor Manitoba and British 
 
 t 
 
48 
 
 Columbia were based upon a census taken in 1870, while the popula- 
 tion of the Territories was guessed at. The Dominion as now consti- 
 tuted was not completed until the entrance of Prince Edward Island 
 in 1S73. Between 1871 and 1881. the percentage of increase was 
 18.97; between 1881 and 1891 the percentage was 11.74. That of 
 England and Wales in the lattei- decade was 11.65, that of the United 
 .States 24.85. Dualism is the curse of Canada. In 1891 the division 
 
 of the two chief races was as follows : 
 
 Per cent, of 
 Total Population. 
 
 French-speaking 29.4 
 
 English-speaking and all others 70.0 
 
 100 
 
 The distril)ution of the principal religious denoniinations was as 
 
 follows : 
 
 Per cent, of 
 Total Population. 
 
 Roman Catholics 41.43 
 
 Methodists 17.11 
 
 Presbyterians 15.64 
 
 Church of England 13..35 
 
 Baptists 6.86 
 
 All others 5.61 
 
 100 
 
 In Ontario and Quebec, which contain three-fourths of the entire 
 population, the constitution provides in effect that Protestant and 
 Catholic children shall be educated apart. In like manner it provides 
 against the fusion of the two chief races. In race, language, religion, 
 civil laws and local institutions French Canada is a community within 
 the community as indigestible as a cannon ball. Those who talk of 
 Vjuilding up a " united Canada" ignore the utter impossibility of the 
 task uader existing circumstances. 
 
 'llie U. S. CCI1SU9 of 1§90. 
 
 The first census of the United States was taken in 1790. The tiffures 
 for that and for subsequent censuses are as follows : — 
 
 Year. Population. Percentage of 
 
 Increase. 
 
 1790 3,929,000 
 
 1800 5,308,000 35.10. 
 
 1810 7,240,000 36.38. 
 
 1820 9,634,000 33.07. 
 
 1830 12,866,000 33.55. . 
 
 1840 17,069,000 32.67. 
 
 o' 
 
 J^. 
 
49 
 
 Year. Population. Percentage of 
 
 Increase. 
 
 1850 23,192,000 35.87. 
 
 18fi0 31,443,000 35.58. 
 
 1870 38,558,000 22.0.3. 
 
 1880 50,156,000 30.08. 
 
 1890 62,022,000 24.85. . 
 
 The percentage of increase in the last twenty years has l)een 63. 
 Tn the Dominion it has been 33. Of the progress of settlement in the 
 United States, Francis A. Walker, the economist ind statistician, 
 writes {Forum, June, 1891): — "The people of 1790 were found wholly 
 in a narrow tract along the Atlantic shore, except where adventurous 
 colonists, to the numljer of perhaps 200,000, had taken up lands amid 
 primeval forests in the valley of the Ohio. The total inhabited area 
 of those days may be roughly given as a quarter of a million square 
 miles. To day nearly a millon and three-quarter stjuare miles are more 
 or less densely covered by population. ^^ ^ The moral and physical 
 energy and courage, the intellectual activity and enterprise exhibited 
 by the American people in thus over-running and occupying, settling 
 and cultivating a million and a half of stjuare miles in the course of a 
 single century, is absolutely unparalleled in the history of mankind. 
 Think what it means — an average each year of 15,000 square miles, a 
 territory larger than Holland, nearly as large as Switzerland with 
 its barren mountains ; for each ten years a territory as large as Great 
 Britain and Ireland combined entered upon, t^iken up and annexed to 
 the previously occupied and cultivated area." 
 
 Unlike those of Canada, the institutions of the United States pro- 
 duce a people of but one tongue. The various European races are put 
 into the hopper and come out Americans speaking the English lan- 
 guage and filled with the national spirit. The evolution of a new race, 
 the American race, is going on, 
 
 Savingrs Bank Deposits. 
 
 Lord Stanley in a recent tour dwelt on the growth of bank deposits 
 as evidence of a wide-spread prosperity. It is held by many good 
 authorities that an increase in bank deposits goes to show, not that a 
 country is highly prosperous but that the opportunities and avenues 
 for investment in trade, industry and speculation have been diminished 
 through a decline of prosperity. In Canada there was a boom in Gov- 
 ernment saving bank deposits for a time because the Government paid 
 a higher rate of interest on the money which it thus borrowed than 
 was paid by the chartered banks. The rate was reduced from 4 to 3i 
 per cent, in 1889. The Year Book says "the total amount of money 
 on deposit in June, 1891, in the chartered banks, post office and Gov- 
 ernment savings banks, Montreal and Quebec savings banks, and in 
 the hands of loan companies was 8218,000,000, or $45 per head of the 
 
 : A ---^ .--^- --^- ■ 
 
50 
 
 IM>j)uliition." It is impossible to make an accurate comparison with the 
 <l('|M>sits in the United States. The Htatisiicai Abstiact of the I', S. 
 tor 181)2 j,'ives the deposits in the national banks as J? 1,800,000,000 and 
 those in the sav'n<^8 banks as $1,700,000,000 ; but nothing is said of 
 the deposits in State Ixinks, State loan companies, etc. From otticial 
 tiyures printed in the N^w York Conunercuil and Financial Chronicle 
 in its supplement for 1892, we learn that Massachusetts has deposits 
 to the amount of over $000,000,000 in her national banks (she has no 
 State banks), savings banks and ti ist and loan companies. The de- 
 jH)sIts in the savings banks alone are $370,000,000. Of coui-se Massa- 
 chusetts is an exceptionally wealthy State. Her population is less than 
 half that of the Dominion. In Connecticut the deposits in national 
 banks in 1891 were $'U,000,000, in State banks $-4,000,000, in trust 
 and loan companies $4,000,009, in savings banks $123,000,000 ; a total 
 of $1(55,000,000 for a population of 746,000, or $220 per head. The 
 United States pt»ssesses iai- greater wealth per head than Canada, and 
 its wealth is increasing much more rapidly. Let an Ontario man travel 
 from Montreal eastward to Cape Breton and he will discover that he is 
 hitched to a region rich by nature but mighty poor by policy. Putting 
 the economic value of each Canadian who crosses the line at only the 
 price of a good slave, the amount we lose every year by the exodus is 
 astounding. 
 
 Canadian Shipping:. 
 
 The Year Book gives the tonnage on the Canadian register from 1873 
 to 1891, as follows : 
 
 Tonnage. Tonnage. 
 
 1873 1,073,000 1883 1,276,000 
 
 1874 1,158,000 1884 1,254,000 
 
 1875 1,206,000 1885 1,232,000 
 
 1876 1,261,000 1886 1,218,000 
 
 1877 1,310,000 1887 1,130,000 
 
 1878 1,333,000 1888 1,090,000 
 
 1879 1,332,000 1889 1,040,000 
 
 1880 1,311,000 1890 1,025,000 
 
 1881 1,31 1,000 1891 1,005,000 
 
 1882 1,261,000 
 
 The decline is due principally to the substitution of iron and steel for 
 wooden vessels. The same cause has aflfected ship-building in the 
 United States. The high tariffs in both countries have doubtless had 
 something to do with the decline. In the States, ocenn shipping suf- 
 fered severely during the war from the Southern cruisers built in 
 England. Tlie United States register shows a total tonnage of 4,685- 
 000 in 1891, or greater than at any time since 1875. The American 
 lake marine is in a very flourishing condition. In 1891 no loss than 
 112,000 tons of aew shipping were built on the lakes. In the san«« 
 
7f ^ 
 
 61 
 
 year only 17,000 tons were built in all Caneda outside of Nova Sef)tia, 
 which built 36,000 tons for her ocean and cojistin^^ trade. In Ontario 
 and Quel)ec which monoj)olise the Canadian traffic on the great lakes, 
 the new tonnage in 1891 was only 6,8('0. Canadian vessel-owners on 
 the lakes are greatly handicapped by the American law preventing 
 them from carrying a cargo fiom one American port to another 
 American port. 
 
 The Dominion Debt. 
 
 The Dominion expenditure in 1871 when we had a population of 
 3,600,000 was ,t=l-'),600,000. It has mounted up rapidly ; in 1891 when 
 the population was 4,800,000 it was §36,000,000. 1 he net debt has 
 also increased very much faster than population. Here are a. few 
 tiirures :— 
 
 '!? 
 
 1871 $ 78,000,000 1883 ... .8158,000,000 
 
 1874 108,000,000 1886 . . 223,000,000 
 
 1877 1 33,000,000 1889 237,000,000 
 
 1880 152,000,000 1892 241,000,000 
 
 The following tid)le shows the rapid reduction of the net Federal 
 debt of the United States : — 
 
 1871 82,250,000,000 1883 $1,500,000,000 
 
 1874 2,100,000,000 1886 1,300,000,000 
 
 1877 2,000,000,000 1889 975,000,000 
 
 1880 1,900,000,000 1892 841,500,000 
 
 Between 1870 and 1890 the population of the United States increased 
 from 38,560,000 to 62,620,000. Certain members of Parliament 
 and newspapers shrink, as well they may, from comparing our debt 
 with that of the United States, and rush oflf into compaiisons with 
 the debts of the Australian colonies If the Australians owed a hun- 
 dred fold more per head that would not alter the fact that we must 
 submit to be judgetl not by their standard but by that of our immediate 
 neijjhbors. There are 215 Federal constituencies, so that each owes 
 $1, 120,000. It is estimated that on public and private account we 
 owe Britain $750,000,000. A great deal of it yields no return to the 
 British investor and is not likely to yield any until the condition of 
 the country is improved by Continental Union. 
 
 Immigrrants from tlie United States. 
 
 Government officials employed at immigration work report that set- 
 tlers are leaving Dakota for Manitoba and the Territories. It is to \ie 
 hoped they are not exaggerating. They have made some sad blundei-s 
 in estimating the number of emigrants from other countries who have 
 entered that region. In a speech in the House, March 5th, 1889, Sir 
 Richard Cartwright said ; " We had numerous disputes three or four 
 
52 
 
 years apjo as to the population of tlie North-West Territories and Mani- 
 toba. In 1885 and 1886 special censuses were taken there. The re- 
 ports of the Department showed by most positive statements for the 
 years 1881-6 that 166,803 settlers hfid gone to Manitoba and the North- 
 West, though when the census was taken there were only 118,000 
 whites found in all that country. According to the census of 1881, and 
 allowing for natural increase, we should have had 74,000 without one 
 single immigrant. Deduct that from 118,000 and you have this re- 
 markable result : The Department asserted that 166,803 had settled in 
 that country whereas only 44,000 of the new-comers could be found ; 
 the remaining 122,000 had vanished into thinnest air." In 1890, the 
 Government decided to pay a bonus of $10 to each head of a family and 
 )?5 to each member over 12 settling in the North-West, and an addi- 
 tional bonus of $10 to each member who within six months of sailing 
 becomes a settler there. Perhaps this inducement has had something 
 to do with the alleged movement from Dakota. It is a regrettable fact, 
 however, that we lose more people in a month from French Canada 
 alone than we are ever likely to get from Dakota in a twelvemonth. 
 
 Mr. Carling used to argue that the United States was nearly filled 
 up and that we were therefore bound to get a ste.adily increasing share 
 of the emigration from Europe. The census returns do not bear out 
 that view. The Federal lands adapted for homesteading are becoming 
 exhausted in the United States, but there are still enormous tracts of 
 good railway and State lands unsettled. Texas, for instance, with an 
 area of 266,000 square miles has millions of acres of State lands await- 
 hig the settler. It will be many a long day before the Uniteti States is 
 tilled up. Excluding Alaska, the population per square mile in 1890 
 vvas only 21. The population per square mile in Scotland in 1891 was 
 135, in England and Wales 498, in Belgium 539, in France 187. 
 
 The total emigration of persons pf British and Irish origin from the 
 United Kingdom from 1853 to 1891 was 7,300,000, of whom 4,900,000 
 or nearly 70 per cent, went to the United States. The remainder went 
 to Canada, Australia, the Cape, ^c. 
 
 I 
 
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