CORNELL UNITIVERSIT VY LIBRARY THE ANNA S. GURLEY MEMORIAL BOOK FUND FOR THE PURCHASE OF BOOKS IN THE FIELD OF THE DRAMA THE GIFT OF Witi1aM F. E. Gurrey CLASS OF 1877 17>) | Cornell University Library anadian Dominion. wii THE CANADIAN DOMINION GRADUATES’ EDITION VOLUME 49 THE CHRONICLES OF AMERICA SERIES ALLEN JOHNSON EDITOR GERHARD R. LOMER CHARLES W. JEFFERYS ASSISTANT EDITORS ALEXANDER SIR JOHN SIR JOHN S. D. MACKENZIE J. C. ABBOTT THOMPSON 1873-1878 1891-1892 1892-1894 SIR WILFRID SIR JOHN A. LAURIER MACDONALD 1896-1911 1867-73, 1878-91 SIR MACKENZIE SIR CHARLES SIR ROBERT L. BOWELL TUPPER, Bart. BORDEN 1894-1896 1896 1911- PRIME MINISTERS OF CANADA, 1867-1919 Photographs. THE CANADIAN DOMINION A CHRONICLE OF OUR NORTHERN NEIGHBOR BY OSCAR D. SKELTON 2 VERITAS NEW HAVEN: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS TORONTO: GLASGOW, BROOK & CO. LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1920 Copyright, 1919, by Yale Unwersity Press - I> ON oe A ind C2 CPCS gO A PRB plage oe A PREFACE Tue history of Canada since the close of the French régime falls into three clearly marked half cen- turies. The first fifty years after the Peace of Paris determined that Canada was to maintain a sepa- rate existence under the British flag and was not to become a fourteenth colony or be merged with the United States. The second fifty years brought the winning of self-government and the achievement of Confederation. The third fifty years witnessed the expansion of the Dominion from sea to sea and the endeavor to make the unity of the political map a living reality —the endeavor to weld the far-flung provinces into one country, to give Canada a distinctive place in the Empire and in the world, and eventually in the alliance of peo- ples banded together in mankind’s greatest task of enforcing peace and justice among nations. The author has found it expedient in this narra- tive to depart from the usual method of these wi vill PREFACE Chronicles and arrange the matter in chronological rather than in biographical or topical divisions. The first period of fifty years is accordingly covered in one chapter, the second in two chapters, and the third in two chapters. Authorities and a list of publications for a more extended study will be found in the Bibliographical Note. O. D. 5S. QUEEN’s UNIVERSITY, Kincston, CANADA, July, 1919. II. III. IV. CONTENTS THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT THE UNION ERA THE DAYS OF TRIAL THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE INDEX Page 1 54 147 200 279 285 ILLUSTRATIONS PRIME MINISTERS OF CANADA, 1867-1919 Photographs. Frontispiece CANADA: TERRITORIAL DEVELOPMENT AND ORGANIZATION Map, in two sections, by W. L. G. Joerg, of the American Geographical Society. Facing page 12 BOUNDARY SETTLEMENTS BETWEEN CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES Map by W. L. G. Joerg, of the American Geographical Society. “ “116 THE CANADIAN DOMINION CHAPTER I THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS ScARCELY more than half a century has passed since the Dominion of Canada, in its present form, came into existence. But thrice that period has elapsed since the fateful day when Montcalm and Wolfe laid down their lives in battle on the Plains of Abraham, and the lands which now comprise the Dominion finally passed from French hands and came under British rule. The Peace of Paris, which brought the Seven Years’ War to a close in 1763, marked the termi- nation of the empire of France in the New World. Over the continent of North America, after that peace, only two flags floated, the red and yellow banner of Spain and the Union Jack of Great Britain. Of these the Union Jack held sway over 1 2 THE CANADIAN DOMINION by far the larger domain — over the vague terri- tories about Hudson Bay, over the great valley of the St. Lawrence, and over all the lands lying east of the Mississippi, save only New Orleans. To whom it would fall to develop this vast claim, what mighty empires would be carved out of the wilderness, where the boundary lines would run be- tween the nations yet to be, were secrets the fu- ture held. Yet in retrospect it is now clear that in solving these questions the Peace oi Paris played no inconsiderable part. By removing from the American colonies the menace of French aggres- sion from the north it relieved them of a sense of dependence on the mother country and so made possible the birth of a new nation in the United States. At the same time, in the northern half of the continent, it made possible that other ex- periment in democracy, in the union of diverse races, in international neighborliness, and in the reconciliation of empire with liberty, which Canada presents to the whole world, and especially to her elder sister in freedom. In 1763 the territories which later were to make up the Dominion of Canada were divided roughly into three parts. These parts had little or nothing incommon. They shared together neither THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 3 traditions of suffering or glory nor ties of blood or trade. Acadia, or Nova Scotia, by the Atlantic, was an old French colony, now British for over a generation. Canada, or Quebec, on the St. Law- rence and the Great Lakes, with seventy thousand French habitants and a few hundred English camp followers, had just passed under the British flag. West and north lay the vaguely outlined domains of the Hudson’s Bay Company, where the red man and the buffalo still reigned supreme and almost unchallenged. The old colony of Acadia, save only the island outliers, Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island, now ceded by the Peace of Paris, had been in Brit- ish hands since 1713. It was not, however, until 1749 that any concerted effort had been made at a settlement of this region. The menace from the mighty fortress which the French were rebuild- ing at that time at Louisbourg, in Cape Breton, and the hostility of the restless Acadians or old French settlers on the mainland, had compelled action and the British Government departed from its usual policy of laissez faire in matters of em- igration. Twenty-five hundred English settlers were brought out to found and hold the town and fort of Halifax. Nearly as many Germans were 4 THE CANADIAN DOMINION planted in Lunenburg, where their descendants flourish to this day. Then the hapless Acadians were driven into exile and into the room they left, New Englanders of strictest Puritan ancestry came, on their own initiative, and built up new communities like those of Massachusetts, Connec- ticut, and Rhode Island. Other waves of volun- tary immigration followed — Ulster Presbyterians, driven out by the attempt of England to crush the Irish woolen manufacture, and, still later, Highlanders, Roman Catholic and Presbyterian, who soon made Gaelic the prevailing tongue of the easternmost counties. By 1767 the colony of Nova Scotia, which then included all Acadia, north and east of Maine, had a prosperous popu- lation of some seven thousand Americans, two thousand Irish, two thousand Germans, barely a thousand English, and well over a thousand surviv- ing Acadian French. In short, this northernmost of the Atlantic colonies appeared to be fast on the way to become a part of New England. It was chiefly New Englanders who had peopled it, and it was with New England that for many a year its whole social and commercial intercourse was carried on. It was no accident that Nova Scotia later produced the first Yankee humorist, ‘“‘Sam Slick.” THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 5 With the future sister province of Canada, or Quebec, which lay along the St. Lawrence as far as the Great Lakes, Acadia or Nova Scotia had much less in common than with New England. Hundreds of miles of unbroken forest wilderness lay between the two colonies, and the sea lanes ran between the St. Lawrence, the Bay of Fundy, or Halifax and Havre or Plymouth, and not be- tween Quebec and Halifax. Even the French set- tlers came of different stocks. The Acadians were chiefly men of La Rochelle and the Loire, while the Canadians came, for the most part, from the coast provinces stretching from Normandy and Picardy to Poitou and Bordeaux. The situation in Canada proper presented the British authorities with a problem new in their imperial experience. Hitherto, save for Acadia and New Netherland, where the settlers were few in numbers and, even in New Netherland, closely akin to the conquerors in race, religion, and speech, no colony containing men of European stocks had been acquired by conquest. Canada held some sixty or seventy thousand settlers, French and Catholic almost toaman. Despite the inefficiency of French colonial methods the plantation had taken firm root. The colony had developed a strength, a 6 THE CANADIAN DOMINION social structure, and an individuality all its own. Along the St. Lawrence and the Richelieu the set- tlements lay close and compact; the habitants’ whitewashed cottages lined the river banks only a few arpents apart. The social cohesion of the colony was equally marked. Alike in government, in religion, and in industry, it was a land where authority was strong. Governor and intendant, feudal seigneur, bishop and Jesuit superior, ruled each in his own sphere and provided a rigid mold and framework for the growth of the colony. There were, it is true, limits to the reach of the arm of authority. Beyond Montreal stretched a vast wil- derness merging at some uncertain point into the other wilderness that was Louisiana. Along the waterways which threaded this great No Man’s Land the coureurs-de-bois roamed with little heed to law or license, glad to escape from the paternal strictness that irked youth on the lower St. Law- rence. But the liberty of these rovers of the for- est was not liberty after the English pattern; the coureur-de-bois was of an entirely different type from the pioneers of British stock who were even then pushing their way through the gaps in the Alleghanies and making homes in the backwoods. Priest and seigneur, habitant and coureur-de-bois, THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 7 were one and all difficult to fit into accepted Eng- lish ways. Clearly Canada promised to strain the digestive capacity of the British lion. The present western provinces of the Dominion were still the haunt of Indian and buffalo. French- Canadian explorers and fur traders, it is true, had penetrated to the Rockies a few years before the Conquest, and had built forts on Lake Winnipeg, on the Assiniboine and Red rivers, and at half a dozen portages on the Saskatchewan. But the “Company of Adventurers of England trading in- to Hudson’s Bay”’ had not yet ventured inland, still content to carry on its trade with the Indians from its forts along the shores of that great sea. On the Pacific the Russians had coasted as far south as Mount Saint Elias, but no white man, so far as is known, had set foot on the shores of what is now British Columbia. Two immediate problems were bequeathed to the British Government by the Treaty of Paris: what was to be done with the unsettled lands between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi; and how were the seventy thousand French subjects in the valley of the St. Lawrence to be dealt with? The first difficulty was not solved. It was 8 THE CANADIAN DOMINION merely postponed. The whole back country of the English colonies was proclaimed an Indian reserve where the King’s white subjects might trade but might not acquire land. This policy was not devised in order to set bounds to the ex- pansion of the older colonies; that was an after- thought. The policy had its root in an honest desire to protect the Indians from the frauds of unscrupulous traders and from the encroachments of settlers on their hunting grounds. The need of a conciliatory, if firm, policy in regard to the great interior was made evident by the Pontiac rising in 1763, the aftermath of the defeat of the French, who had done all they could to inspire the Indians with hatred for the advancing English. How to deal with Canada was a more thorny problem. The colony had not been sought by its conquerors for itself. . It was counted of little worth. The verdict of its late possessors, as re- corded in Voltaire’s light farewell to “a few arpents of snow,” might be discounted as an instance of sour grapes; but the estimate of its new possessors was evidently little higher, since they debated long and dubiously whether in the peace settlement they should retain Canada or the little sugar island of Guadeloupe, a mere pin point on the map. Canada THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 9 had been conquered not for the good it might bring but for the harm it was doing as a base for French attack upon the English colonies — “the wasps’ nest must be smoked out.”” But once it had been taken, it had to be dealt with for itself. The policy first adopted was a simple one, nat- ural enough for eighteenth-century Englishmen. They decided to make Canada’ over in the image of the old colonies, to turn the ‘“‘new subjects,” as they were called, in good time into English- men and Protestants. A generation or two would suffice, in the phrase of Francis Maséres — himself a descendant of a Huguenot refugee but now wholly an Englishman — for “melting down the French nation into the English in point of language, af- fections, religion, and laws.”’ Immigration was to be encouraged from Britain and from the other American colonies, which, in the view of the Lords of Trade, were already overstocked and in dan- ger of being forced by the scarcity or monopoly of land to take up manufactures which would t The Royal Proclamation of 1763 set the bounds of the new colony. They were surprisingly narrow, a mere strip along both sides of the St. Lawrence from a short distance beyond the Ottawa on the west, to the end of the Gaspé peninsula on the east. The land to the north- east was put under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Newfound- land, and the Great Lakes region was included in the territory reserved for the Indians. 10 THE CANADIAN DOMINION compete with English wares. And since it would greatly contribute to speedy settlement, so the Royal Proclamation of 1763 declared, that the King’s subjects should be informed of his paternal care for the security of their liberties and proper- ties, it was promised that, as soon as circumstances would permit, a General Assembly would be sum- moned, as in the older colonies. The laws of Eng- land, civil and criminal, as near as might be, were to prevail. The Roman Catholic subjects were to be free to profess their own religion, “so far as the laws of Great Britain permit,”’ but they were to be shown a better way. To the first Governor instructions were issued “that all pos- sible Encouragement shall be given to the erect- ing Protestant Schools in the said Districts, Town- ships and Precincts, by settling and appointing and allotting proper Quantities of Land for that Purpose and also for a Glebe and Maintenance for a Protestant minister and Protestant school- masters.’ Thus in the fullness of time, like Acadia, but without any Evangeline of Grand Pré, without any drastic policy of expulsion, impossible with seventy thousand people scattered over a wide area, even Canada would become a good English land, a newer New England. THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS ll It is questionable whether this policy could ever have achieved success even if it had been followed for generations without rest or turning. But it was not destined to be given a long trial. From the very beginning the men on the spot, the sol- dier Governors of Canada, urged an entirely con- trary policy on the Home Government, and the pressure of events soon brought His Majesty’s Ministers to concur. As the first civil Governor of Canada, the British authorities chose General Murray, one of Wolfe’s ablest lieutenants, who since 1760 had served as military Governor of the Quebec district. He was to be aided in his task by a council composed of the Lieutenant Governors of Montreal and Three Rivers, the Chief Justice, the head of the customs, and eight citizens to be named by the Governor from ‘“‘the most considerable of the persons of property” in the province. The new Governor was a blunt, soldierly man, upright and just according to his lights, but deeply influenced by his military and aristocratic lean- ings. Statesmen thousands of miles away might plan to encourage English settlers and English po- litical ways and to put down all that was French. To the man on the spot English settlers meant 12 THE CANADIAN DOMINION “the four hundred and fifty contemptible sutlers and traders” who had come in the wake of the army from New England and New York, with no proper respect for their betters, and vulgarly and annoyingly insistent upon what they claimed to be their rights. The French might be alien in speech and creed, but at least the seigneurs and the higher clergy were gentlemen, with a due re- spect for authority, the King’s and their own, and the habitants were docile, the best of soldier stuff. “Little, very little,’ Murray wrote in 1764 to the Lords of Trade, “will content the New Subjects, but nothing will satisfy the Licentious Fanaticks Trading here, but the expulsion of the Canadians, who are perhaps the bravest and best race upon the Globe, a Race, who cou’d they be indulged with a few priviledges wch the Laws of England deny to Roman Catholicks at home, wou’d soon get the better of every National Antipathy to their Conquerors and become the most faithful and most useful set of Men in this American Empire.’’* Certainly there was much in the immediate t This quotation and those following in this chapter are from official documents most conveniently assembled in Shortt and Doughty, Documents relating to the Constitutional History of Canada, 1759- 1791, and Doughty and McArthur, Documents relating to the Con- stitutional History cf Canada, 1791-1818. THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 13 situation to justify Murray’s attitude. It was pre- posterous to set up a legislature in which only the four hundred Protestants might sit and from which the seventy thousand Catholics would be barred. It would have been difficult in any case to change suddenly the system of laws governing the most intimate transactions of everyday life. But when, as happened, the Administration was entrusted in large part to newly created justices of the peace, men with “little French and less 99 66 honour,” “to whom it is only possible to speak with guineas in one’s hand,” the change became flatly impossible. Such an alteration, if still in- sisted upon, must come more slowly than the . impatient traders in Montreal and Quebec desired. The British Government, however, was not yet ready to abandon its policy. The Quebec traders petitioned for Murray’s recall, alleging that the measures required to encourage settlement had not been adopted, that the Governor was encouraging factions by his partiality to the French, that he treated the traders with “a Rage and Rudeness of Language and Demeanor”’ and — a fair thrust in return for his reference to them as “the most immoral collection of men I ever knew”’ — as “dis- countenancing the Protestant Religion by almost 14 THE CANADIAN DOMINION a Total Neglect of Attendance upon the Service of the Church.”” When the London business corre- spondents of the traders backed up this petition, the Government gave heed. In 1766 Murray was recalled to England and, though he was acquitted of the charges against him, he did not return to his post in Canada. The triumph of the English merchants was short. They had jumped from the frying pan into the fire. General Guy Carleton, Murray’s successor and brother officer under Wolfe, was an even abler man, and he was still less in sympathy with de- mocracy of the New England pattern. Moreover, a new factor had come in to reénforce the soldier’s instinctive preference for gentlemen over shop- keepers. The first rumblings of the American Revolution had reached Quebec. It was no time, in Carleton’s view, to set up another sucking re- public. Rather, he believed, the utmost should be made of the opportunity Canada afforded as a barrier against the advance of democracy, a curb upon colonial insolence. The need of cultivating the new subjects was the greater, Carleton con- tended, because the plan of settlement by Eng- lishmen gave no sign of succeeding: “barring a Catastrophe shocking to think of, this Country THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 15 must, to the end of Time, be peopled by the Canadian race.” To bind the Canadians firmly to England, Carleton proposed to work chiefly through their old leaders, the seigneurs and the clergy. He would restore to the people their old system of laws, both civil and criminal. He would confirm the seigneurs in their feudal dues and fines, which the habitants were growing slack in paying now that the old penalties were not enforced, and he would give them honors and emoluments such as they had before enjoyed as officers in regular or militia regiments. The Roman Catholic clergy were already, in fact, confirmed in their right to tithe and toll; and, without objection from the Governor, Bishop Briand, elected by the chapter in Quebec and consecrated in Paris, once more assumed control over the flock. Carleton’s proposals did not pass unquestioned. His own chief legal adviser, Francis Maséres, was a sturdy adherent of the older policy, though he agreed that the time was not yet ripe for set- ting up an Assembly and suggested some well-con- sidered compromise between the old laws and the new. The Advocate General of England, James Marriott, urged the. same course. The policy 16 THE CANADIAN DOMINION of 1763, he contended eleven years later, had already succeeded in great measure. The assimi- lation of government had been effected; an as- similation of manners would follow. The exces- sive military spirit of the inhabitants had begun to dwindle, as England’s interest required. The back settlements of New York and Canada were fast being joined. Two or three thousand men of British stock, many of them men of substance, had gone to the new colony; warehouses and foundries were being built; and many of the prin- cipal seigneuries had passed into English hands. All that was needed, he concluded, was persistence . along the old path. The same view was of course strenuously urged by the English merchants in the colony, who continued to demand, down ito the very eve of the Revolution, an elective Assembly and other rights of freeborn Britons. Carleton carried the day. His advice, tendered at close range during four years’ absentee residence in London, from 1770 to 1774, fell in with the mood of Lord North’s Government. The measure in which the new policy was embodied, the famous Quebec Act of 1774, was essentially a part of the ministerial programme for strengthening British power to cope with the resistance then rising to THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 17 rebellious heights in the old colonies. Though not, as was long believed, designed in retaliation for the Boston disturbances, it is clear that its framers had Massachusetts in mind when decid- ing on their policy for Quebec. The main purpose of the Act, the motive which turned the scale against the old Anglicizing policy, was to attach the leaders of French-Canadian opinion firmly to the British Crown, and thus not only to prevent Canada itself from becoming infected with demo- cratic contagion or turning in a crisis toward France, but to ensure, if the worst came to the worst, a military base in that northland whose terrors had in old days kept the seaboard colonies cir- cumspectly loyal. Ministers in London had been driven by events to accept Carleton’s paradox, that to make Quebec British, it must be prevented from becoming English. If in later years the solidarity and aloofness of the French-Canadian people were sometimes to prove inconvenient to British interests, it was always to be remembered that this situation was due in great part to the de- liberate action of Great Britain in strengthening French-Canadian institutions as a means of ad- vancing what she considered her own interests in America. ‘The views of the British Government 18 THE CANADIAN DOMINION in respect to the political uses to which it means to make Canada subservient,” Marriott had truly declared, ‘‘must direct the spirit of any code of laws.” The Quebec Act multiplied the area of the col- ony sevenfold by the restoration of all Labrador on the east and the region west as far as the Ohio and the Mississippi and north to the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territory. It restored the old French civil law but continued the milder English criminal law already in operation. It gave to the Roman Catholic inhabitants the free exercise of their religion, subject to a modified oath of alle- giance, and confirmed the clergy in their right “to hold, receive and enjoy their accustomed dues and rights, with respect to such persons only as shall confess the said religion.”” The promised elective Assembly was not granted, but a Council appointed by the Crown received a measure of legislative power. On his return to Canada in September, 1774, Carleton reported that the Canadians had “‘testi- fied the strongest marks of Joy and Gratitude and Fidelity to their King and to His Government for the late Arrangements made at Home in their Favor.” The “most respectable part of the THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 19 English,” he continued, urged peaceful acceptance of the new order. Evidently, however, the respect- able members of society were few, as the great body of the English settlers joined in a peti- tion for the repeal of the Act on the ground that it deprived them of the incalculable benefits of habeas corpus and trial by jury. The Montreal merchants, whether, as Carleton commented, they “were of a more turbulent Turn, or that they caught the Fire from some Colonists settled among them,” were particularly outspoken in the town meetings they held. In the older colonies the op- position was still more emphatic. An Act which hemmed them in to the seacoast, established on the American continent a Church they feared and hated, and continued an autocratic political system, appeared to many to be the undoing of the work of Pitt and Wolfe and the revival on the banks of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi of a serious menace to their liberty and progress. Then came the clash at Lexington, and the War of American Independence had begun. The causes, the course, and the ending of that great civil war have been treated elsewhere in this series.‘ Here tSee The Eve of the Revolution and Washington and His Comrades tn Arms (in The Chronicles of America). 20 THE CANADIAN DOMINION it is necessary only to note its bearings on the fate of Canada. Early in 1775 the Continental Congress under- took the conquest of Canada, or, as it was more diplomatically phrased, the relief of its inhabit- ants from British tyranny. Richard Montgomery led an expedition over the old route by Lake Cham- plain and the Richelieu, along which French and Indian raiding parties used to pass years before, and Benedict Arnold made a daring and difficult march up the Kennebec and down the Chau- diére to Quebec. Montreal fell to Montgomery; and Carleton himself escaped capture only by the audacity of some French-Canadian voyageurs, who, under cover of darkness, rowed his whaleboat or paddled it with their hands silently past the Ameri- can sentinels on the shore. Once down the river and in Quebec, Carleton threw himself with vig- or and skill into the defense of his capital. His generalship and the natural strength of the posi- tion proved more than a match for Montgomery and Arnold. Montgomery was killed and Arnold wounded in a vain attempt to carry the city by storm on the last night of 1775. At Montreal a delegation from Congress, composed of Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll of THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 21 Carrollton, accompanied by Carroll’s brother, a Jes- uit priest and a future archbishop, failed to achieve more by diplomacy than their generals had done by the sword. The Canadians seemed content enough to wear the British yoke. In the spring, when a British fleet arrived with reénforcements, the American troops retired in haste and, before the Declaration of Independence had been pro- claimed, Canada was free from the last of its ten thousand invaders. The expedition had put Carleton’s policy to the test. On the whole it stood the strain. The seigneurs had rallied to the Government which had restored their rights, and the clergy had called on the people to stand fast by the King. So far all went as Carleton had hoped: “The Noblesse, Clergy, and greater part of the Bourgeoisie,” he wrote, “have given Government every Assistance in their Power.” But the habitants refused to follow their appointed leaders with the old docil- ity, and some even mobbed the seigneurs who tried to enrollthem. Ten years of freedom had worked a democratic change in them, and they were much less enthusiastic than their betters about the res- toration of seigneurial privileges. Carleton, like many another, had held as public opinion what 22 THE CANADIAN DOMINION were merely the opinions of those whom he met at dinner. “These people had been governed with too loose a rein for many years,” he now wrote to Burgoyne, “and had imbibed too much of the American Spirit of Licentiousness and Independ- ence administered by a numerous and turbulent Faction here, to be suddenly restored to a proper and desirable Subordination.” A few of the habit- ants joined his forces; fewer joined the invaders or sold them supplies — till they grew suspicious of paper “‘Continentals.”’ But the majority held passively aloof. Even when France joined the warring colonies and Admiral d’Estaing appealed to the Canadians to rise, they did not heed; though it is difficult to say what the result would have been if Washington had agreed to Lafayette’s plan of a joint French and American invasion in 1778. Nova Scotia also held aloof, in spite of the fact that many of the men who had come from New England and from Ulster were eager to join the colonies to the south. In Nova Scotia democracy was a less hardy plant than in Massachusetts. The town and township institutions, which had been the nurseries of resistance in New England, had not been allowed to take root there. The THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 28 circumstances of the founding of Halifax had given rise to a greater tendency, which lasted long, to lean upon the mother country. The Maine wilder- ness made intercourse between Nova Scotia and New England difficult by land, and the British fleet was in control of the sea until near the close of the war. Nova Scotia stood by Great Britain, and was reserved to become part of a northern nation still in the making. That nation was to owe its separate existence to the success of the American Revolution. But for that event, coming when it did, the struggling colonies of Quebec and Nova Scotia would in time have become merged with the colonies to the south and would have followed them, whether they remained within the British Empire or not. Thus it was due to the quarrel between the thir- teen colonies and the motherland that Canada did not become merely a fourteenth colony or state. Nor was this the only bearing of the Revo- lution on Canada’s destiny. Thanks to the com- ing of the Loyalists, those exiles of the Revo- lution who settled in Canada in large numbers, Canada was after all to be dominantly a land of English speech and of English sympathies. By one of the many paradoxes which mark the history 24 THE CANADIAN DOMINION of Canada, the very success of the plan which aimed to save British power by confirming French- Canadian nationality and the loyalty of the French led in the end to making a large part of Canada English. The Revolution meant also that for many a year those in authority in England and in Canada itself were to stand in fear of the prin- ciples and institutions which had led the old colo- nies to rebellion and separation, and were to try to build up in Canada buttresses against the advance of democracy. The British statesmen who helped to frame the Peace of 1783 were men with broad and generous views as to the future of the seceding colonies and their relations with the mother country. It was perhaps inevitable that they should have given less thought to the future of the colonies in Amer- ica which remained under the British flag. Few men could realize at the moment that out of these scattered fragments a new nation and a second empire would arise. Not only were the seceding colonies given a share in the fishing grounds of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, which was un- fortunately to prove a constant source of friction, but the boundary line was drawn with no thought THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 25 of the need of broad and easy communication between Nova Scotia and Canada, much less be- tween Canada and the far West. Vague definitions of the boundaries, naturally incident to the pre- vailing lack of geographical knowledge of the vast continent, held further seeds of trouble. These con- tentions, however, were far in the future. At the moment another defect of the treaty proved to be Canada’s gain. The failure of Lord Shelburne’s Ministry to insist upon effective safeguards for the fair treatment of those who had taken the King’s side in the old colonies, condemned as it was not only by North and the Tories but by Fox and Sheridan and Burke, led to that Loyalist migration which changed the racial complexion of Canada. The Treaty of 1783 provided that Congress would “earnestly recommend” to the various States that the Loyalists be granted amnesty and restitution. This pious resolution proved not worth the paper on which it was written. In State after State the property of the Loyalists was with- held or confiscated anew. Yet this ungenerous treatment of the defeated by the victors is not hard to understand. The struggle had been waged with all the bitterness of civil war. The smallness of the field of combat had intensified personal ill-will. 26 THE CANADIAN DOMINION Both sides had practiced cruelties in guerrilla war- fare; but the Patriots forgot Marion’s raids, Sims- bury mines, and the drumhead hangings, and re- membered only Hessian brutalities, Indian scalp- ings, Tarleton’s harryings, and the infamous prison ships of New York. The war had been a long one. The tide of battle had ebbed and flowed. A dis- trict that was Patriot one year was frequently Loyal- ist the next. These circumstances engendered fear and suspicion and led to nervous reprisals. At least a third, if not a half, of the people of the old colonies had been opposed to revolu- tion. New York was strongly Loyalist, with Penn- sylvania, Georgia, and the Carolinas closely follow- ing. In the end some fifty or sixty thousand Loyal- ists abandoned their homes or suffered expulsion rather than submit to the new order. They counted in their ranks many of the men who had held first place in their old communities, men of wealth, of education, and of standing, as well as thousands who had nothing to give but their fidelity to the old order. Many, especially of the well-to-do, went to England; a few found refuge in the West In- dies; but the great majority, over fifty thousand in all, sought new homes in the northern wilderness. Over thirty thousand, including many of the most THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 27 influential of the whole number (with about three thousand negro slaves, afterwards freed and de- ported to Sierra Leone) were carried by ship to Nova Scotia. They found homes chiefly in that part of the province which in 1784 became New Brunswick. Others, trekking overland or sailing around by the Gulf and up the River, settled in the upper valley of the St. Lawrence — on Lake St. Francis, on the Cataraqui and the Bay of Quinté, and in the Niagara District. Though these pioneers were generously aided by the British Government with grants of land and supplies, their hardships and disappointments during the first years in the wilderness were such as would have daunted any but brave and desper- ate men and women whom fate had winnowed. Yet all but a few, who drifted back to their old homes, held out; and the foundations of two more provinces of the future Dominion — New Bruns- wick and Upper Canada — were thus broadly and soundly laid by the men whom future generations honored as ‘‘ United Empire Loyalists.”” Through all the later years, their sacrifices and sufferings, their ideals and prejudices, were to make a deep impress on the development of the nation which they helped to found and were to influence its 28 THE CANADIAN DOMINION relations with the country which they had left and with the mother country which had held their allegiance. Once the first tasks of hewing and hauling and planting were done, the new settlers called for the organization of local governments. They were quite as determined as their late foes to have a voice in their own governing, even though they yielded ultimate obedience to rulers overseas. In the provinces by the sea a measure of self- government was at once established. New Bruns- wick received, without question, a constitution on the Nova Scotia model, with a Lieutenant Gover- nor, an Executive Council appointed to advise him, which served also as the upper house of the legis- lature, and an elective Assembly. Of the twenty- six members of the first Assembly, twenty-three were Loyalists. With a population so much at one, and with the tasks of road making and school building and tax collecting insistent and absorbing, no party strife divided the province for many years. In Nova Scotia, too, the Loyal- ists were in the majority. There, however, the earlier settlers soon joined with some of the new- comers to form an opposition. The island of THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 29 St. John, renamed Prince Edward Island in 1798, had been made a separate Government and had received an Assembly in 1773. Its one absorbing question was the tenure of land. On a single day in 1767 the British authorities had granted the whole island by lottery to army and navy officers and country gentlemen, on condition of the pay- ment of small quitrents. The quitrents were rarely paid, and the tenants of the absentee land- lords kept up an agitation for reform which was unceasing but which was not to be successful for a hundred years. In all three Maritime Provinces political and party controversy was little known for a generation after the Revolution. It was more difficult to decide what form of government should be set up in Canada, now that tens of thousands of English-speaking set- tlers dwelt beside the old Canadians. Carleton, now Lord Dorchester, had returned as Governor in 1786, after eight years’ absence. He was still averse to granting an Assembly so long as the French subjects were in the majority: they did not want it, he insisted, and could not use it. But the Loyalist settlers, not to be put off, joined with the English merchants of Montreal and Que- bec in demanding an Assembly and relief from 30 THE CANADIAN DOMINION the old French laws. Carleton himself was com- pelled to admit the force of the conclusion of William Grenville, Secretary of State for the Home Department, then in control of the remnants of the colonial empire, and son of that George Gren- ville who, as Prime Minister, had introduced the American Stamp Act of 1765: “I am persuaded that it is a point of true Policy to make these Con- cessions at a time when they may be received as a matter of favour, and when it is in Our own power to regulate and direct the manner of applying them, rather than to wait till they shall be ex- torted from us by a necessity which shall neither leave us any discretion in the form nor any merit in the substance of what We give.” Accordingly, in 1791, the British Parliament passed the Con- stitutional Act dividing Canada into two provinces separated by the Ottawa River, Lower or French- speaking Canada and Upper or English-speaking Canada, and granting each an elective Assembly. Thus far the tide of democracy had risen, but thus far only. Few in high places had learned the full lesson of the American Revolution. The majority believed that the old colonies had been lost because they had not been kept under a suffi- ciently tight rein; that democracy had been allowed THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 31 too great headway; that the remaining colonies, therefore, should be brought under stricter admin- istrative control; and that care should be taken to build up forces to counteract the democracy which grew so rank and swift in frontier soil. This con- servative tendency was strengthened by the out- break of the French Revolution in 1789.' Therulers of England had witnessed two revolutions, and the lesson they drew from both was that it was best to smother democracy in the cradle. For this reason the measure of representa- tive government that had been granted each of the remaining British colonies in North America was carefully hedged about. The whole executive power remained in the hands of the Governor or his nominees. No one yet conceived it possible that the Assembly should control the Executive Council. The elective Assembly was compelled to share even the law-making power with an upper house, the Legislative Council. Not only were the members of this upper house appointed by the Crown for life, but the King was empowered to bestow hereditary titles upon them with a view t It will be remembered that in the debate on the Constitutional Act the conflicting views of Burke and Fox on the French Revolution led to the dramatic break in their lifelong friendship. 32 THE CANADIAN DOMINION to making the Council in the fullness of time a copy of the House of Lords. A blow was struck even at that traditional prerogative of the popular house, the control of the purse. Carleton had urged that in every township a sixth of the land should be reserved to enable His Majesty “to reward such of His provincial Servants as may ’ merit the Royal favour” and “to create and strengthen an Aristocracy, of which the best use may be made on this Continent, where all Govern- ments are feeble and the general condition of things tends to a wild Democracy.”’ Grenville saw further possibilities in this suggestion. It would give the Crown a revenue which would make it independent of the Assembly, ‘‘a measure, which, if it had been adopted when the Old Colonies were first settled, would have retained them to this hour in obedience and Loyalty.’ Nor was this all. From the same source an endowment might be obtained for a state church which would be a bulwark of order and conservatism. The Con- stitutional Act accordingly provided for setting aside lands equal in value to one-seventh of all lands granted from time to time, for the support of a Protestant clergy. The Executive Council received power to set up rectories in every parish, THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 33 to endow them liberally, and to name as rectors ministers of the Church of England. Further, the Executive Council was instructed to retain an equal amount of land as crown reserves, dis- tributed judiciously in blocks between the grants made to settlers. Were any radical tendencies to survive these attentions, the veto power of the British Government could be counted on in the last resort. For a time the instalment of self-government thus granted satisfied the people. The pioneer years left little leisure for political discussion, nor were there at first any general issues about which men might differ. The Government was carrying on acceptably the essential tasks of surveying, land granting, and road building; and each mem- ber of the Assembly played his own hand and was chiefly concerned in obtaining for his constitu- ents the roads and bridges they needed so badly. The English-speaking settlers of Upper Canada were too widely scattered, and the French-speak- ing citizens of Lower Canada were too ignorant of representative institutions, to act in groups or parties. Much turned in these early years upon the per- sonality of the Governor. In several instances, 3 34 THE CANADIAN DOMINION the choice of rulers for the new provinces proved fortunate. This was particularly so in the case of John Graves Simcoe, Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada from 1792 to 1799. He was a good soldier and a just and vigorous administrator, particularly wise in setting his regulars to work building roads such as Yonge Street and Dundas Street, which to this day are great provincial arteries of travel. Yet there were many sources of weakness in the scheme of government — divided authority, absenteeism, personal unfitness. When Dorchester was reappointed in 1786, he had been made Governor in Chief of all British North Amer- ica. From the beginning, however, the Lieutenant Governors of the various provinces asserted inde- pendent authority, and in a few years the Governor General became in fact merely the Governor of the most populous province, Lower Canada, in which he resided. In Upper Canada, as in New Brunswick, the pop- ulation was at first much at one. In time, how- ever, discordant elements appeared. Religious, or at least denominational, differences began to cause friction. The great majority of the early settlers in Upper Canada belonged to the Church of England, whose adherents in the older colonies THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 35 had nearly all taken the Loyalist side. Of the Ulster Presbyterians and New England Congrega- tionalists who formed the backbone of the Revolu- tion, few came to Canada. The growth of the Methodists and Baptists in the United States after the Revolution, however, made its mark on the neighboring country. The first Methodist class meetings in Upper Canada, held in the United Empire Loyalist settlement on the Bay of Quinté in 1791, were organized by itinerant preachers from the United States; and in the western part of the province pioneer Baptist evangelists from the same country reached the scattered settlers neglected by the older churches. Nor was it in religion alone that diversity grew. Simcoe had set up a generous land policy which brought in many “late Loyalists,” American set- tlers whose devotion to monarchical principles would not always bear close inquiry. The fan- tastic experiment of planting in the heart of the woods of Upper Canada a group of French nobles driven out by the Revolution left no trace; but Mennonites, Quakers, and Scottish Highlanders contributed diverse and permanent factors to the life of the province. Colonel Thomas Talbot of Malahide, “‘a fierce little Irishman who hated 36 THE CANADIAN DOMINION Scotchmen and women, turned teetotallers out of his house, and built the only good road in the province,” made the beginnings of settlement midway on Lake Erie. A shrewd Massachusetts merchant, Philemon Wright, with his comrades, their families, servants, horses, oxen, and £10,000, sledged from Boston to Montreal in the winter of 1800, and thence a hundred miles beyond, to found the town of Hull and establish a great lumbering industry in the Ottawa Valley. These differences of origin and ways of thought had not yet been reflected in political life. Party strife in Upper Canada began with a factional fight which took place in 1805-07 between a group of Irish officeholders and a Scotch clique who held the reins of government. Weekes, an Irish-Ameri- can barrister, Thorpe, a puisne judge, Wyatt, the surveyor general, and Willcocks, a United Irish- man who had become sheriff of one of the four Upper Canada districts, began to question the right to rule of “the Scotch pedlars” or “the Shopkeeper Aristocracy,” as Thorpe called those merchants who, for the lack of other leaders, had developed an influence with the governors or ruled in their frequent absence. But the insurgents were backed by only a small minority in the THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 37 Assembly, and when the four leaders disappeared from the stage,’ this curtain raiser to the serious political drama which was to follow came quickly to its end. In Lower Canada the clash was more serious. The French Canadians, who had not asked for representative government, eventually grasped its possibilities and found leaders other than those ordained for them. In the first Assembly there were many seigneurs and aristocrats who bore names notable for six generations back — Tasch- ereau, Duchesnay, Lotbiniére, Rouville, Salaberry. But they soon found their surroundings uncongenial or failed to be reélected. Writing in 1810 to Lord Liverpool, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, the Governor, Sir James Craig, with a fine patrician scorn thus pictures the Assembly of his day: It really, my Lord, appears to me an absurdity, that the Interests of certainly not an unimportant Colony, involving in them those also of no inconsiderable por- tion of the Commercial concerns of the British Empire, t Weekes was slain in a duel. Wyatt and Thorpe were suspended by the Lieutenant Governor, Sir Francis Gore, only to win redress later in England. Willcocks was dismissed from office and fell fight- ing on the American side in the War of 1812. 38 THE CANADIAN DOMINION should be in the hands of six petty shopkeepers, a Blacksmith, a Miller, and 15 ignorant peasants who form part of our present House; a Doctor or Apothe- cary, twelve Canadian Avocats and Notaries, and four so far respectable people that at least they do not keep shops, together with ten English members compleat the List: there is not one person coming under the description of a Canadian Gentleman among them. And again: A Governor cannot obtain among them even that sort of influence that might arise from personal inter- course. I can have none with Blacksmiths, Millers, and Shopkeepers; even the Avocats and Notaries who compose so considerable a portion of the House, are, generally speaking, such as I can nowhere meet, except during the actual sitting of Parliament, when I have a day of the week expressly appropriated to the receiving a large portion of them at dinner. Leadership under these conditions fell to the “‘un- ’ principled Demagogues,” half-educated lawyers, men “with nothing to lose.” But it was not merely as an aristocrat facing peasants and shopkeepers, nor as a soldier faced by talkers, but as an Englishman on guard against Frenchmen that Craig found himself at odds with his Assembly. For nearly twenty years in this period England was at death grips with France, THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 39 and to hate and despise all Frenchmen was part of the hereditary and congenial duty of all true Britons. Craig and those who counseled him were firmly convinced that the new subjects were French at heart. Of the 250,000 inhabitants of Lower Canada, he declared, “‘about 20,000 or 25,000 may be English or Americans, the rest are French. I use the term designedly, my Lord, be- cause I mean to say that they are in Language, in religion, in manner and in attachment completely French.” That there was still some affection for old France, stirred by war and French victories, there is no question, but that the Canadians wished to return to French allegiance was untrue, even though Craig reported that such was “the general opinion of all ranks with whom it is possible to converse on the subject.” The French Revolu- tion had created a great gulf between Old France and New France. The clergy did their utmost to bar all intercourse with the land where deism and revolution held sway, and when the Roman Catholic Church and the British Government com- bined for years on a single object, it was little wonder they succeeded. Nelson’s victory at Tra- falgar was celebrated by a Te Deum in the Roman Catholic Cathedral at Quebec. In fact, as Craig 40 THE CANADIAN DOMINION elsewhere noted, the habitants were becoming rather a new and distinct nationality, a nation canadienne. They ceased to be French; they de- clined to become English; and sheltered under their “Sacred Charter’! they became Canadians first and last. The governors were not alone in this hostility to the mass of the people. There had grown up in the colony a little clique of officeholders, of whom Jonathan Sewell, the Loyalist Attorney General, and later Chief Justice, was the chief, full of racial and class prejudice, and in some cases greedy for personal gain. Sewell declared it “in- dispensably necessary to overwhelm and sink the Canadian population by English Protestants,” and was even ready to run the risk of bringing in Americans to effect this end. Of the non-official English, some were strongly opposed to the pre- tensions of the “Chateau Clique”; but others, and especially the merchants, with their organ the Quebec Mercury, were loud in their denunciations of the French who were unprogressive and who as *“Tt cannot be sufficiently inculcated on the part of Government that the Quebec Act is a Sacred Charter, granted by the King in Parliament to the Canadians as a Security for their Religion, Laws, and Property.” Governor Sir Frederick Haldimand to Lord George Germaine, Oct. 25, 1780. THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 41 landowners were incidentally trying to throw the burden of taxation chiefly on the traders. The first open sign of the racial division which was to bedevil the life of the province came in 1806 when, in order to meet the attacks of the Anglicizing party, the newspaper Le Canadien was established at Quebec. Its motto was signifi- cant: “Notre langue, nos institutions, et nos lois.” Craig and his counselors took up the challenge. In 1808 he dismissed five militia officers, because of their connection with the irritating journal, and in 1810 he went so far as to suppress it and to throw into prison four of those responsible for its management. The Assembly, which was prov- ing hard to control, was twice dissolved in three years. Naturally the Governor’s arbitrary course only stiffened resistance; and passions were rising fast and high when illness led to his recall and the shadow of a common danger from the south, the imminence of war with the United States, for a time drew all men together. While the foundations of the eastern provinces of Canada were being laid, the wildernesses which one day were to become the western provinces were just rising above the horizon of discovery. 42 THE CANADIAN DOMINION In the plains and prairies between the Great Lakes and the Rockies, fur traders warred for the privi- lege of exchanging with the Indians bad whiskey for good furs. Scottish traders from Montreal, following in the footsteps of La Vérendrye and Niverville, pushed far into the northern wilds.' In 1783 the leading traders joined forces in or- ganizing the North-West Company. Their great canoes, manned by French-Canadian voyageurs, penetrated the network of waters from the Ottawa to the Saskatchewan, and poured wealth into the pockets of the lordly partners in Montreal. Their rivalry wakened the sleepy Hudson’s Bay Com- pany, which was now forced to leave the shores of the inland sea and build posts in the interior. On the Pacific coast rivalry was still keener. The sea otter and the seal were a lure to the men of many nations. Canada took its part in this rivalry. In 1792, when the Russians were press- ing down from their Alaskan posts, when the Spaniards, claiming the Pacific for their own, were exploring the mouth of the Fraser, when It is interesting to note the dominant share taken in the trade and exploration of the North and West by men of Highland Scotch and French extraction. For an account of La Vérendrye see The Conquest of New France and for the Scotch fur traders of Montreal see Adventurers of Oregon (in The Chronicles of America). THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 43 Captain Robert Gray of Boston was sailing up the mighty Columbia, and Captain Vancouver was charting the northern coasts for the British Gov- ernment, a young North-West Company. factor, Alexander Mackenzie, in his lonely post on Lake Athabaska, was planning to cross the wilderness of mountains to the coast. With a fellow trader, Mackay, and six Canadian voyageurs, he pushed up the Peace and the Parsnip, passed by way of the Fraser and the Blackwater to the Bella Coola, and thence to the Pacific, the first white man to cross the northern continent. Paddling for life through swirling rapids on rivers which rushed madly through sheer rock-bound canyons, swim- ming for shore when rock or sand bar had wrecked the precious bark canoe, struggling over heart- breaking portages, clinging to the sides of preci- pices, contending against hostile Indians and fear- stricken followers, and at last winning through, Mackenzie summed up what will ever remain one of the great achievements of exploration in the sim- ple record, painted in vermilion on a rock in Burke Channel: Alerander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, the twenty-second of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three. The first bond had been woven in the union of East and West. 44 THE CANADIAN DOMINION Between the eastern provinces a stronger link was soon to be forged. The War of 1812 gave the scattered British colonies in America for the first time a living sense of unity that transcended all differences, a memory of perils and of victories which nourished a common patriotism. The War of 1812 was no quarrel of Canada’s. It was merely an incident in the struggle between England and Napoleon. At desperate grips, both contestants used whatever weapons lay ready to their hands. Sea power was England’s weapon, and in her claim to forbid all neutral traffic with her enemies and to exercise the galling right of search, she pressed it far. France trampled still more ruthlessly on American and neutral rights; but, with memories of 1776 still fresh, the dominant party in the United States was disposed to forgive France and to hold England to strict account. England had struck at France, regardless of how the blow might injure neutrals. Now the United States sought to strike at England through the colonies, regardless of their lack of any respon- sibility for English policy. The “war hawks” of the South and West called loudly for the speedy invasion and capture of Canada as a means of punishing England. In so far as the British THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 45 North American colonies were but possessions of Great Britain, overseas plantations, the course of the United States could be justified. But poten- tially these colonies were more than mere posses- sions. They were a nation in the making, with a right to their own development; they were not simply a pawn in the game of Britain and the United States. Quite aside from the original rights or wrongs of the war, the invasion of Canada was from this standpoint an act of aggression. “ Agrarian cupidity, not maritime right, wages this war,” insisted John Randolph of Roanoke, the chief opponent of the “war hawks” in Congress. “Ever since the report of the Committee on Foreign Relations came into the House, we have heard but one word — like the whippoorwill. but one eternal monotonous tone — Canada, Canada, Canada!”’ At the outset there appeared no question that the conquest of Canada could be, as Jefferson fore- cast, other than “‘a mere matter of marching.” Eustis, the Secretary of War, prophesied that “we can take Canada without soldiers.” Clay insisted that the Canadas were “as much under our com- mand as the Ocean is under Great Britain’s.”” The provinces had barely half a million people, two- thirds of them allied by ties of blood to Britain’s 46 THE CANADIAN DOMINION chief enemy, to set against the eight millions of the Republic. There were fewer than ten thou- sand regular troops in all the colonies, half of them down by the sea, far away from the danger zone, and Jess than fifteen hundred west of Montreal. Little help could come from England, herself at war with Napoleon, the master of half of Europe. But there was another side. The United States was not a unit in the war; New England was apathetic or hostile to the war throughout, and as late as 1814 two-thirds of the army of Canada were eating beef supplied by Vermont and New York contractors. Weak as was the militia of the Can- adas, it was stiffened by English and Canadian regulars, hardened by frontier experience, and led for the most part by trained and able men, where- as an inefficient system and political interference greatly weakened the military force of the fighting States. Above all, the Canadians were fighting for their homes. To them the war was a matter of life and death; to the United States it was at best a struggle to assert commercial rights or national prestige. The course and fortunes of the war call for only the briefest notice. In the first year the American plans for invading Upper Canada came to grief THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 47 through the surrender of Hull at Detroit to Isaac Brock and the defeat at Queenston Heights of the American army under Van Rensselaer. The cam- paign ended with not a foot of Canadian soil in the invaders’ hands, and with Michigan lost, but Brock, Canada’s brilliant leader, had fallen at Queenston, and at sea the British had tasted unwonted defeat. In single actions one American frigate after another proved too much for its British opponent. It was a rude shock to the Mistress of the Seas. The second year’s campaign was more checkered. In the West the Americans gained the command of the Great Lakes by rapid building and good sailing, and with it followed the command of all the western peninsula of Upper Canada. The British Gener- al Procter was disastrously defeated at Moravian- town, and his ally, the Shawanoe chief Tecumseh, one of the half dozen great men of his race, was killed. York, later known as Toronto, the capital of the province, was captured, and its public build- ings were burned and looted. But in the East for- tune was kinder to the Canadians. The American plan of invasion called for an attack on Mon- treal from two directions; General Wilkinson was to sail and march down the St. Lawrence from Sackett’s Harbor with some eight thousand men, 48 THE CANADIAN DOMINION while General Hampton, with four thousand, was to take the historic route by Lake Champlain. Half-way down the St. Lawrence Wilkinson came to grief. Eighteen hundred men whom he landed to drive off a force of a thousand hampering his rear were decisively defeated at Chrystler’s Farm. Wilkinson pushed on for a few days, but when word came that Hampton had also met disaster he with- drew into winter quarters. Hampton had found Colonel de Salaberry, with less than sixteen hun- dred troops, nearly all French Canadians, mak- ing a stand on the banks of the Chateauguay, thirty-five miles south of Montreal. He divided his force in order to take the Canadians in front and rear, only to be outmaneuvered and out- fought in one of the most brilliant actions of the war and forced to retire. In the closing months of the year the Americans, compelled to withdraw from Fort George on the Niagara, burned the adjoining town of Newark and turned its women and children into the December snow. Drummond, who had succeeded Brock, gained control of both sides of the Niagara and retaliated in kind by lay- ing waste the frontier villages from Lewiston to Buffalo. The year closed with Amherstburg on the Detroit the only Canadian post in American hands. THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 49 On the sea the capture of the Chesapeake by the Shannon salved the pride of England. The last year of the war was also a year of vary- ing fortunes. In the far West a small body of Cana- dians and Indians captured Prairie du Chien, on the Mississippi, while Michilimackinac, which a force chiefly composed of French-Canadian voya- geurs and Indians had captured in the first months of war, defied a strong assault. In Upper Canada the Americans raided the western peninsula from Detroit but made their chief attack on the Niag- ara frontier. Though they scored no permanent success, they fought well and with a fair measure of fortune. The generals with whom they had been encumbered at the outset of the war, Revolu- tionary relics or political favorites, had now nearly all been replaced by abler men — Scott, Brown, Izard — and their troops were better trained and better equipped. In July the British forces on the Niagara were decisively beaten at Chippawa. Three weeks later was fought the bloodiest battle on Canadian soil, at Lundy’s Lane, either side’s victory at the moment but soon followed by the retirement of the invading force. The British had now outbuilt their opponents on Lake Ontario; and, though American ships controlled Lake Erie 50 THE CANADIAN DOMINION to the end, the Ontario flotilla aided Drummond, Brock’s able successor, in forcing the withdrawal of Izard’s forces from the whole peninsula in No- vember. Farther east a third attempt to cap- ture Montreal had been defeated in the spring, after Wilkinson with four thousand men had failed to drive five hundred regulars and militia from the stone walls of Lacolle’s Mill. VY Until this closing year Britain had been unable, in face of the more vital danger from Napoleon, to send any but trifling reénforcements to what she considered a minor theater of the war. Now, with Napoleon in Elba, she was free to take more vig- orous action. Her navy had already swept the daring little fleet of American frigates and Ameri- can merchant marine from the seas. Now it main- tained a close blockade of all the coast and, with troops from Halifax, captured and held the Maine coast north of the Penobscot. Large forces of Wellington’s hardy veterans crossed the ocean, sixteen thousand to Canada, four thousand to aid in harrying the Atlantic coast, and later nine thousand to seize the mouth of the Mississippi. Yet, strangely, these hosts fared worse, because of hard fortune and poor leadership, than the handful of militia and regulars who had borne the brunt THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 51 of the war in the first two years. Under Ross they captured Washington and burned the official buildings; but under Prevost they failed at Platts- burg; and under Pakenhan, in January, 1815, they failed against Andrew Jackson’s sharpshooters at New Orleans. Before the last-named fight occurred, peace had been made. Both sides were weary of the war, which had now, by the seeming end of the struggle between England and Napoleon in which it was an incident, lost whatever it formerly had of reason. Though Napoleon was still in Elba, Europe was far from being at rest, and the British Ministers, backed by Wellington’s advice, were keen to end the war. They showed their contempt for the issues at stake by sending to the peace conference at Ghent three commissioners as incompetent as ever represented a great power, Gambier, Goulburn, and Adams. To face these the United States had sent John Quincy Adams, Albert Gallatin, Henry Clay, James Bayard, and Jonathan Russell, as able and astute a group of players for great stakes as ever gathered round a table. In these circumstances the British representatives were lucky to secure peace on the basis of the status quo ante. Canada had hoped that sufficient of the unsettled Maine 52 THE CANADIAN DOMINION wilderness would be retained to link up New Bruns- wick with the inland colony of Quebec, but this proposal was soon abandoned. In the treaty not one of the ostensible causes of the war was even mentioned. The war had the effect of unifying Canadian feeling. " Once more it had been determined that Canada was not to lose her identity in the nation to the south. In Upper Canada, especially in the west, there were many recent American settlers who sympathized openly with their kinsmen, but of these some departed, some were jailed, and others had a change of heart. Lower Canada was a unit against the invader, and French-Canadian troops on every occasion covered themselves with glory. To the Canadians, as the smaller people, and as the people whose country had been the chief battle ground, the war in later years naturally bulked larger than to their neighbors. It left behind it unfortunate legacies of hostility to the United States and, among the governing classes, of deep-rooted opposition to its democratic institu- tions. But it left also memories precious for a young people — the memory of Brock and Mac- donell and De Salaberry, of Laura Secord and her daring tramp through the woods to warn of THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS 53 American attacks, of Stony Creek and Lundy’s Lane, Chrystler’s Farm and Chateauguay, the memory of sacrifice, of endurance, and of courage that did not count the odds. ! Nor were the evil legacies to last for all time. Three years after peace had been made the states- men of the United States and of Great Britain had the uncommon sense to take a great step toward banishing war between the neighbor peoples. The Rush-Bagot Convention, limiting the naval arma- ment on the Great Lakes to three vessels not exceeding one hundred tons each, and armed only with one eighteen-pounder, though not always observed in the letter, proved the beginning of a sane relationship which has lasted for a century. Had not this agreement nipped naval rivalry in the bud, fleets and forts might have lined the shores and increased the strain of policy and the likeli- hood of conflict. The New World was already preparing to sound its message to the Old. CHAPTER ITI _THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT Tue history of British North America in the quar- ter of a century that followed the War of 1812 is in the main the homely tale of pioneer life. Slowly little clearings in the vast forest were widened and won to order and abundance; slowly community was linked to community; and out of the growing intercourse there developed the complex of ways and habits and interests that make up the everyday life of a people. , All the provinces called for settlers, and they did not callin vain. For a time northern New England continued to overflow into the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada, the rolling lands south of the St. Lawrence which had been left untouched by river- bound seigneur and habitant. Into Upper Canada, as well, many individual immigrants came from the south, some of the best the Republic had to give, merchants and manufacturers with little 54 . THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 55 capital but much shrewd enterprise, but also some it could best spare, fugitives from justice and keepers of the taverns that adorned every four cor- ners. Yet slowly this inflow slackened. After the war the Canadian authorities sought to avoid re- publican contagion and moreover the West of the United States itself was calling for men. » But if fewer came in across the border, many more sailed from across the seas. Not again until the twentieth century were the northern provinces to receive so large a share of British emigrants as came across in the twenties and thirties. Swarms were preparing to leave the overcrowded British hives. Corn laws and poor laws and famine, power- driven looms that starved the cottage weaver, peace that threw an army on a crowded and callous labor market, landlords who rack-rented the Connaught- man’s last potato or cleared Highland glens of folks to make way for sheep, rulers who persisted in deny- ing the masses any voice in their own government — all these combined to drive men forth in tens of thousands. Australia was still a land of convict settlements and did not attract freemen. To most the United States was the land of promise. Yet, thanks to state aid, private philanthropy, land- lords’ urging and cheap fares on the ships that 56 THE CANADIAN DOMINION came to St. John and Quebec for timber, Canada and the provinces by the sea received a notable share. In the quarter of a century following the peace with Napoleon, British North America re- ceived more British emigrants than the United States and the Australian colonies together, though many were merely birds of passage. The country west of the Great Lakes did not share in this flood of settlement, except for one tragic interlude. Lord Selkirk, a Scotchman of large sympathy and vision, convinced that emi- gration was the cure for the hopeless misery he saw around him, acquired a controlling interest in the Hudson’s Bay Company, and sought to plant colo- nies in a vast estate granted from its domains. Between 1811 and 1815 he sent out to Hudson Bay, and thence to the Red River, two or three hundred crofters from the Highlands and the Ork- neys. A little later these were joined by some Swiss soldiers of fortune who had fought for Canada in the War of 1812. But Selkirk had reckoned with- out the partners of the North-West Company of Montreal, who were not prepared to permit mere herders and tillers to disturb the Indians and the game. The Nor’Westers attacked the helpless colonists and massacred a score of them. Selkirk THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 57 retorted in kind, leading out an armed band which seized the Nor’Westers’ chief post at Fort Will- iam. The war was then transferred to the courts, with heart-breaking delays and endless expense. At last Selkirk died broken in spirit, and most of his colonists drifted to Canada or across the border. But a handful held on, and for fifty years their little settlement on the Red River remained a solitary outpost of colonization. Once arrived in Canada, the settler soon found that he had no primrose path before him. Canada remained for many years a land of struggling pioneers, who had little truck or trade with the world out of sight of their log shacks. The habi- tant on the seigneuries of Lower Canada continued to farm as his grandfather had farmed, finding his holding sufficient for his modest needs, even though divided into ever narrower ribbons as le bon Dieu sent more and yet more sons to share the heritage. The English-speaking settler, equipped with ax and sickle and flail, with spinning wheel and iron kettle, lived a life almost equally primitive and self-contained. He and his good wife grew the wheat, the corn, and the potatoes, made the soap and the candles, the maple sugar and the “‘yarbs,”’ 58 THE CANADIAN DOMINION the deerskin shoes and the homespun cloth that met their needs. They had little to buy and little to sell. In spite of the preference which Great Britain gave Canadian grain, in return for the preference exacted on British manufactured goods, practically no wheat was exported until the close of this period. The barrels of potash and pearl- ash leached out from the ashes of the splendid hardwood trees which he burned as enemies were the chief source of ready money for the back- woods settler. The one substantial export of the colonies came, not from the farmer’s clearing, but from the forest. Great rafts of square pine timber were floated down the Ottawa or the St. John every spring to be loaded for England. The lumberjack lent picturesqueness to the land- ‘scape and the vocabulary and circulated ready money, but his industry did little directly to ad- vance permanent settlement or the wise use of Canadian resources. The self-contained life of each community and each farm pointed to the lack of good means of transport. New Brunswick and the Canadas were fortunate in the possession of great lake and river systems, but these were available only in summer and were often impeded by falls and rapids. On THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 59 these waters the Indian bark canoe had given way to the French bateau, a square-rigged flat-bot- tomed boat, and after the war the bateau shared the honors with the larger Durham boat brought in from “the States.” , Canadians took their full share in developing steamship transportation. In 1809, two years after Fulton’s success on the Hudson, John Molson built and ran a steamer between Montreal and Quebec. The first vessel to cross the Atlantic wholly under steam, the Royal William, was built in Quebec and sailed from that port in 1833. Following and rival- ing American enterprise, side-wheelers, marvels of speed and luxury for the day, were put on the lakes in the thirties. Canals were built, the Lachine in 1821-25, the Welland around Niagara Falls in 1824-29, and the Rideau, as a military undertak- ing, in 1826-32, all in response to the stimulus given by De Witt Clinton, who had begun the “Erie Ditch” in 1817. On land, road making made slower progress. The blazed trail gave way to the cor- duroy road, and the pack horse to the oxcart or the stage. Upper Canada had the honor of inventing, in 1835, the plank road, which for some years there- after became the fashion through the forested States to the south. But at best neither roads nor vehicles 60 THE CANADIAN DOMINION were fitted for carrying large loads from inland farms to waterside markets. Money and banks were as necessary to develop intercourse as roads and canals. Until after the War of 1812, when army gold and army bills ran freely, money was rare and barter served pioneer needs. For many years after the war a jumble of English sovereigns and shillings, of Spanish dollars, French crowns, and American silver, made up the currency in use, circulating sometimes by weight and sometimes by tale, at rates that were con- stantly shifting. The position of the colonies as a link between Great Britain and the United States was curiously illustrated in the currency system. The motley jumble of coins in use were rated in Halifax currency, a mere money of account or bookkeeping standard, with no actual coins to correspond, adapted to both English and United States currency systems. The unit was the pound, divided into shillings and pence as in England, but the pound was made equal to four dollars in American money; it took £1 4s. 4d. in Halifax currency to make £1 sterling. Still more curious was the influence of American banking. Montreal merchants in 1808 took up the ideas of Alexander Hamilton and after several vain attempts founded THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 61 the Bank of Montreal in 1817, with those features of government charter, branch banks, and restric- tions as to the proportion of debts to capital and the holding of real property which had marked Hamilton’s plan. But while Canadian banks, one after another, were founded on the same model and throughout adhered to an asset-secured currency basis, Hamilton’s own country abandoned his ideas, usually for the worse. In the social life of the cities the influence of the official classes and, in Halifax and Quebec, of the British redcoats stationed there was all pervading. In the country the pioneers took what diversions ¥ a hard life permitted. There were “bees”? and = “frolics,”’ ranging from strenuous barn raisings, with heavy drinking and fighting, to mild apple parings or quilt patchings. There were the visits of the Yankee peddler with his “notions,” his wel- come pack, and his gossip. Churches grew, thanks in part to grants of government land or old endow- ments or gifts from missionary societies overseas, but more to the zeal of lay preachers and circuit riders. Schools fared worse. In Lower Canada there was an excellent system of classical schools for the priests and professional classes, and there were numerous convents which taught the girls, 62 .THE CANADIAN DOMINION but the habitants were for the most part quite untouched by book learning. In Upper Canada grammar schools and academies were founded with commendable promptness, and a common school system was established in 1816, but grants were niggardly and compulsion was lacking. Even at the close of the thirties only one child in seven was in school, and he was, as often as not, committed to the tender mercies of some broken-down pensioner or some ancient tippler who could barely sign his mark. There was but little administrative control by the provincial authorities. The textbooks in use came largely from the United States and glorified that land and all its ways in the best Fourth-of-July manner, to the scandal of the loyal elect. The press was represented by a few weekly newspapers; only one daily existed in Upper Canada before 1840. Against this background there developed during the period 1815-41 a tense constitutional struggle which was to exert a profound influence on the making of the nation. The stage on which the drama was enacted was a small one, and the actors were little known to the world of their day, but the drama had an interest of its own and no little significance for the future. THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 63 In one aspect the struggle for self-government in British North America was simply a local mani- festation of a world-wide movement which found more notable expression in other lands. After a troubled dawn, democracy was coming to its own. In England the black reaction which had identified all proposals for reform with treasonable sympathy for bloodstained France was giving way, and the middle classes were about to triumph in the great franchise reform of 1832. In the United States, after a generation of conservatism, Jacksonian de- mocracy was to sweep all before it. These de- velopments paralleled and in some measure in- fluenced the movement of events in the British North American provinces. But this movement had a color of its own. The growth of self-govern- ment in an independent country was one thing; in a colony owing allegiance to a supreme Parliament overseas, it was quite another. The task of the provinces — not solved in this period, it is true, but squarely faced — was to reconcile democracy and empire. The people of the Canadas in 1791, and of the provinces by the sea a little earlier, had been given the right to elect one house of the legislature. More than this instalment of self-government the 64 THE CANADIAN DOMINION authorities were not prepared togrant. The people, or rather the property holders among them, might be entrusted to vote taxes and appropriations, to present grievances, and to take a share in legis- lation. They could not, however, be permitted to control the Government, because, to state an obvious fact, they could not govern themselves as well as their betters could rule them. Besides, if the people of a colony did govern themselves, what would become of the rights and interests of the mother country? What would become of the Empire itself? What was the use and object of the Empire? In brief, according to the theory and practice then in force, the end of empire was the profit which comes from trade; the means was the political sub- ordination of the colonies to prevent interference with this profit; and the debit entry set against this profit was the cost of the diplomacy, the arma- ments, and the wars required to hold the overseas possessions against other powers. The policy was still that which had been set forth in the preamble of the Navigation Act of 1663, ensuring the mother country the sole right to sell European wares in its colonies: “the maintaining a greater correspond- ence and kindnesse between them [the subjects at THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 65 home and those in the plantations] and keeping them in a firmer dependence upon it [the mother country], and rendering them yet more beneficial and advantageous unto it in the further Imploy- ment and Encrease of English Shipping and Sea- men, and vent of English Woollen and other Manu- factures and Commodities rendering the Naviga- tion to and from the same more safe and cheape, and makeing this Kingdom a Staple not only of the Commodities of those Plantations but also of the Commodities of other countries and places for the supplying of them, and it being the usage of other Nations to keep their [plantation] Trade to them- selves.”” Adam Smith had raised a doubt as to the wisdom of the end. The American Revolution had raised a doubt as to the wisdom of the means. Yet, with significant changes, the old colonial system lasted for full two generations after 1776. In the second British Empire, which rose after the loss of the first in 1783, the means to the old end were altered. To secure control and to pre- vent disaffection and democratic folly, the authori- ties relied not merely on their own powers but on the codperation of friendly classes and interests in the colonies themselves. Their direct control was exercised in many ways. In last reserve there 5 66 THE CANADIAN DOMINION was the supreme authority of King and Parliament to bind the colonies by treaty and by law and the right to veto any colonial enactment. This was as before the Revolution. One change lay in the renunciation in 1778 of the intention to use the supreme legislative power to levy taxes, though the right to control the fiscal system of the colonies in conformity with imperial policy was still claimed and practised. In fact, far from seeking to secure a direct revenue, the British Government was more than content to pay part of the piper’s fee for the sake of being able to call the tune. “It is considered by the Well wishers of Government,” wrote Milnes, Lieutenant Governor of Lower Canada, in 1800, “‘as a fortunate Circumstance that the Revenue is not at present equal to the Expenditure.”’ A further change came in the minute control exercised by the Colonial Office, or rather by the permanent clerks who, in Charles Buller’s phrase, were really ‘Mr. Mother Country.”” The Governor was the local agent of the Colonial Office. He acted on its instruc- tions and was responsible to it, and to it alone, for the exercise of the wide administrative powers entrusted to him. But all these powers, it was believed, would fail in their purpose if democracy were allowed to grow THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 67 unchecked in the colonies themselves. It was an essential part of the colonial policy of the time to build up conservative social forces among the people and to give a controlling voice in the local administration to a nominated and official class. It has been seen that the statesmen of 1791 looked to a nominated executive and legislative coun- cil, an hereditary aristocracy, and an established church, to keep the colony in hand. British legis- lation fostered and supported a ruling class in the colonies, and in turn this class was to support British connection and British control. How this policy, half avowed and half unconscious, worked out in each of the provinces must now be recorded. In Upper Canada party struggles did not take shape until well after the War of 1812. At the founding of the colony the people had been very much of one temper and one condition. In time, however, divergences appeared and gradually har- dened into political divisions. A governing class, or rather clique, was the first to become differen- tiated. Its emergence was slower than in New Brunswick, for instance, since Upper Canada had received few of the Loyalists who were distin- guished by social position or political experience. 68 THE CANADIAN DOMINION In time a group was formed by the accident of occupation, early settlement, residence in the little town of York, the capital after 1794, the holding of office, or by some advantage in wealth or educa- tion or capacity which in time became cumulative. The group came to be known as the Family Com- pact. There had been, in fact, no intermarriage among its members beyond what was natural in a small and isolated community, but the phrase had a certain appositeness. They were closely linked by loyalty to Church and King, by enmity to re- publics and republicans, by the memory of the sacrifice and peril they or their fathers had shared, and by the conviction that the province owed them the best living it could bestow. This living they succeeded in collecting. “‘The bench, the magis- tracy, the high officials of the established church, and a great part of the legal profession,” declared Lord Durham in 1839, “‘are filled by the adherents of this party; by grant or purchase they have ac- quired nearly the whole of the waste lands of the province; they are all-powerful in the chartered banks, and till lately shared among themselves almost exclusively all offices of trust and profit.” Fortunately the last absurdity of creating Dukes of Toronto and Barons of Niagara Falls was never THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 69 carried through, or rather was postponed a full century; but this touch was scarcely needed to give the clique its cachet. The ten-year governor- ship of Sir Peregrine Maitland (1818-28), a most punctilious person, gave the finishing touches to this backwoods aristocracy. The great majority of the group, men of the Scott and Boulton, Sherwood and Hagerman and Allan MacNab types, had nothing but their preju- dices to distinguish them, but two of their num- ber were of outstanding capacity. John Beverley Robinson, Attorney General from 1819 to 1829 and thereafter for over thirty years Chief Justice, was a true aristocrat, distrustful of the rabble, but as honest and high-minded as he was able, seeking his country’s gain, as he saw it, not his own. A more rugged and domineering character, equally certain of his right to rule and less squeamish about the means, was John Strachan, afterwards Bishop of Toronto. Educated a Presbyterian, he had come to Canada from Aberdeen as a dominie but had remained as an Anglican clergyman in a capacity promising more advancement. His abounding vi- gor and persistence soon made him the dominant force in the Church, and with a convert’s zeal he labored to give it exclusive place and power. 70 THE CANADIAN DOMINION The opposition to the Family Compact was of a more motley hue, as is the way with oppositions. Opposition became potential when new settlers poured into the province from the United States or overseas, marked out from their Loyalist fore- runners not merely by differences of political back- ground and experience but by differences in religion. The Church of England had been dominant among the Loyalists; but the newcomers were chiefly Methodist and Presbyterian. Opposition became actual with the rise of concrete and acute griev- ances and with the appearance of leaders who voiced the growing discontent. The political exclusiveness of the Family Com- pact did not rouse resentment half as deep as did their religious, or at least denominational, pre- tensions. The refusal of the Compact to permit Methodist ministers to perform the marriage cere- mony was not soon forgotten. There were scores of settlements where no clergyman of the Estab- lished Church of England or of Scotland resided, and marriages here had been of necessity per- formed by other ministers. A bill passed the Assembly in 1824 legalizing such marriages in the past and giving the required authority for the future; and when it was rejected by the Legislative THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 71 Council,. resentment flamed high. An attempt of Strachan to indict the loyalty of practically all but the Anglican clergy intensified this feeling; and the critics went on to call in question the claims-of his Church to establishment and landed endowment. The land question was the most serious that faced the province. The administration of those in power was condemned on three distinct counts. The granting of land to individuals had been lavish; it had been lax; and it had been marked by gross favoritism. By 1824, when the population was only 150,000, some 11,000,000 acres had been granted; ninety years later, when the population was 2,700,000, the total amount of improved land was only 13,000,000 acres. Moreover the attempt to use vast areas of the Crown Lands to endow solely the Anglican Church roused bitter jealousies. Yet even these grievances paled in actual hardship beside the results of holding the vast waste areas unimproved. What with Crown Reserves, Clergy Reserves, grants to those who had served the state, and holdings picked up by speculators from soldiers or poorer Loyalists for a few pounds or a few gallons of whisky, millions of acres were held untenanted and unimproved, waiting for a rise in value as a consequence of the toil of settlers on 72 THE CANADIAN DOMINION neighboring farms. Not one-tenth of the lands granted were occupied by the persons to whom they had been assigned. The province had given away almost all its vast heritage, and more than nine-tenths of it was still in wilderness. These speculative holdings made immensely more diffi- cult every common neighborhood task. At best the machinery and the money for building roads, bridges, and schools were scanty, but with these unimproved reserves thrust in between the scat- tered shacks, the task was disheartening. ‘“‘The reserve of two-sevenths of the land for the Crown and clergy,”’ declared the township of Sandwich in 1817, “‘must for a long time keep the country a wilderness, a harbour for wolves, a hindrance to a compact and good neighborhood. ”’ A further source of discontent developed in the disabilities affecting recent American settlers. A court decision in 1824 held that no one who had resided in the United States after 1783 could possess or transmit British citizenship, with which went the right to inherit real estate. This decision bore heavily upon thousands of “late Loyalists” and more recent incomers. Under the instructions of the Colonial Office, a remedial bill was intro- duced in the Legislative Council in 1827, but it was THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 73 a grudging, halfway measure which the Assembly refused to accept. After several sessions of quar- reling, the Assembly had its way; but in the meantime the men affected had been driven into permanent and active opposition. The leaders of the movement of resistance which now began to gather force included all sorts and conditions of men. The fiercest and most ag- gressive were two Scotchmen, Robert Gourlay and William Lyon Mackenzie. Gourlay, one of those restless and indispensable cranks who make the world turn round, active, obstinate, imprudent, uncompromisingly devoted to the common good as he saw it, came to Canada in 1817 on settlement and colonization bent. Innocent inquiries which he sent broadcast as to the condition of the prov- ince gave the settlers an opportunity for voicing their pent-up discontent, and soon Gourlay was launched upon the sea of politics. Mackenzie, who came to Canada three years later, was a born agitator, fearless, untiring, a good hater, master of a vitriolic vocabulary, and absolutely unpurchas- able. He found his vein in weekly journalism, and for nearly forty years was the stormy petrel of Canadian politics. From England there came, among others, Dr. John Rolph, shrewd and politic, 14 THE CANADIAN DOMINION and Captain John Matthews, a half-pay artillery officer. Peter Perry, downright and rugged and of a homely eloquence, represented the Loyalists of the Bay of Quinté, which was the center of Cana- dian Methodism. Among the newer comers from the United States, the foremost were Barnabas Bid- well, who had been Attorney General of Massa- chusetts but had fled to Canada in 1810 when accused of misappropriating public money, and his son, Marshall Spring Bidwell, one of the ablest and most single-minded men who ever entered Cana- dian public life. From Ireland came Dr. William Warren Baldwin, whose son Robert, born in Cana- da, was less surpassingly able than the younger Bidwell but equally moderate and equally beyond suspicion of faction or self-seeking. How were these men to bring about the reform which they desired? Their first aim was obviously to secure a majority in the Assembly, and by the election of 1828 they attained this first object. But the limits of the power of the Assembly they soon discovered. Without definite leadership, with no control over the Administration, and with even legislative power divided, it could effect little. It was in part disappointment at the failure of the Assembly that accounted for the defeat of the THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 175 Reformers in 1830, though four years later this ver- dict was again reversed. Clearly the form of gov- ernment itself should be changed. But in what way? Here a divergence in the ranks of the Re- formers became marked. One party, looking upon the United States as the utmost achievement in de- mocracy, proposed to follow its example in making the upper house elective and thus to give the people control of both branches of the Legislature. An- other group, of whom Robert Baldwin was the chief, saw that this change would not suffice. In the States the Executive was also elected by the people. Here, where the Governor would doubt- less continue to be appointed by the Crown, some other means must be found to give the people full control. Baldwin found it in the British Cabinet system, which gave real power to ministers having the confidence of a majority in Parliament. The Governor would remain, but he would be only a figurehead, a constitutional monarch acting, like the King, only on the advice of his constitutional advisers. Responsible government was Baldwin’s one and absorbing idea, and his persistence led to its ultimate adoption, along with a proposal for an elective Council, in the Reform party’s programme in 1834. Delay in affecting this reform, Baldwin 76 THE CANADIAN DOMINION told the Governor a year later, was “‘the great and all absorbing grievance before which all others sank into insignificance.’’ The remedy could be applied “without in the least entrenching upon the just and necessary prerogatives of the Crown, which I consider, when administered by the Lieutenant Governor through the medium of a provincial min- istry responsible to the provincial parliament, to be an essential part of the constitution of the prov- ince.” In brief, Baldwin insisted that Simcoe’s rhe- torical outburst in 1791, when he declared that Upper Canada was “‘a perfect Image and Tran- script of the British Government and Constitution,” should be made effective in practice. The course of the conflict between the Compact and the Reformers cannot be followed in detail. It had elements of tragedy, as when Gourlay was hounded into prison, where he was broken in health and shattered in mind, and then exiled from the province for criticism of the Government which was certainly no more severe than now ap- pears every day in Opposition newspapers. The conflict had elements of the ludicrous, too, as when Captain Matthews was ordered by his military superiors to return to England because in the un- restrained festivities of New Year’s Eve he had THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 77 called on a strolling troupe to play Yankee Doodle and had shouted to the company, “‘Hats off”’; or when Governor Maitland overturned fourteen feet of the Brock Monument to remove a copy of Mac- kenzie’s journal, the Colonial Advocate, which had inadvertently been included in the corner stone. The weapons of the Reformers were the plat- form, the press, and investigations and reports by parliamentary committees. The Compact hit back in its own way. Every critic was denounced as a traitor. Offending editors were put in the pillory. Mackenzie was five times expelled from the House, only to be returned five times by his stubborn supporters. Matters were at a deadlock, and it became clear either that the British Parlia- ment, which alone could amend the Constitution, must intervene or else that the Reformers would be driven to desperate paths. But before mat- ters came to this pass, an acute crisis had arisen in Lower Canada which had its effect on all the provinces. In Lower Canada, the conflict which had been smoldering before the war had since then burst into flame. The issues of this conflict were more clear- cut than in any of the other provinces. A coherent 78 THE CANADIAN DOMINION opposition had formed earlier, and from beginning to end it dominated the Assembly. The governing forces were outwardly much the same as in Upper Canada — a Lieutenant Governor responsible to the Colonial Office, an Executive Council appointed by the Crown but coming to have the independ- ent power of a well-entrenched bureaucracy, and a Legislative Council nominated by the Crown and, until nearly the end of the period, composed chiefly of the same men who served in the Executive. The little clique in control had much less popu- lar backing than the Family Compact of Upper Canada and were of lower caliber. Robert Christie, an English-speaking member of the Assembly, who may be counted an unprejudiced witness since he was four times expelled by the majority in that house, refers to the real rulers of the province as “‘a few rapacious, overbearing, and irresponsible officials, without stake or other connexion in the country than their interests.” At their head stood Jonathan Sewell, a Massachusetts Loyalist who had come to Lower Canada by way of New Brunswick in 1789, and who for over forty years as Attorney General, Chief Justice, or member of Executive and Legislative Councils, was the power behind the throne. THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 79 The opposition to the bureaucrats at first in- cluded both English and French elements, but the English minority were pulled in contrary ways. Their antecedents were not such as to lead them to accept meekly either the political or the social pretensions of the “‘Chateau Clique”; the Ameri- can settlers in the Eastern Townships, and the Scotch and American merchants who were build- ing up Quebec and Montreal, had called for self- government, not government from above. Yet their racial and religious prejudices were strong and made them unwilling to accept in place of the bureaucrats the dominance of an unprogressive habitant majority. The first leader of the opposi- tion which developed in the Assembly after the War of 1812 was James Stuart, the son of the lead- ing Anglican clergyman of his day, but he soon fell away and became a mainstay of the bureaucracy. His brother Andrew, however, kept up for many years longer a more disinterested fight. Another Scot, John Neilson, editor of the Quebec Gazette, was until 1833 foremost among the assailants of the bureaucracy. But steadily, as the extreme nationalist claims of the French-speaking majority provoked reprisals and as the conviction grew upon the minority that they would never be anything but 80 THE CANADIAN DOMINION a minority,' most of them accepted clique rule as a lesser evil than “‘rule by priest and demagogue.” In the reform movement in Upper Canada there were a multiplicity of leaders and a constant shift- ing of groups. In Lower Canada, after the defec- tion of James Stuart in 1817, there was only one leader, Louis Joseph Papineau. For twenty years Papineau was the uncrowned king of the province. His commanding figure, his powers of oratory, outstanding in a race of orators, his fascinating manners, gave him an easy mastery over his people. Prudence did not hamper his flights; compromise was a word not found in his vocabulary. Few men have been better equipped for the agitator’s task. His father, Joseph Papineau, though of humble birth, had risen high in the life of the province. He had won distinction in his profession as a notary, as a speaker in the Assembly, and as a soldier in the defense of Quebec against the Ameri- can invaders of 1775. In 1804 he had purchased t The natural increase of the French-Canadian race under British rule is one of the most extraordinary phenomena in social history. The following figures illustrate the rate of that increase: the number was 16,417 in 1706; 69,810 in 1765; 479,288 in 1825; 697,084 in 1844. The population of Canada East or Lower Canada in 1844 was made up as follows: French Canadians, 524,244; English Canadians, 85,660; English, 11,895; Irish, 43,982; Scotch, 13,393; Americans, 11,946; born in other countries, 1329; place of birth not specified, 4635. THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 81 the seigneury of La Petite Nation, far up the Ottawa. Louis Joseph Papineau followed in his father’s footsteps. Born in 1786, he served loyally and bravely in the War of 1812. In the same year he entered the Assembly and made his place at a single stroke. Barely three years after his election, he was chosen Speaker, and with a brief break he held that post for over twenty years. Papineau did not soon or lightly begin his cru- sade against the Government. For the first five years of his Speakership, he confined himself to the routine duties of his office. As late as 1820 he pronounced a glowing eulogy on the Constitution which Great Britain had granted the province. In that year he tested the extent of the privileges so granted by joining in the attempt of the As- sembly to assert its full control of the purse; but it was not until the project of uniting the two Canadas had made clear beyond dispute the hos- tility of the governing powers that he began his unrelenting warfare against them. There was much to be said for a reunion of the two Canadas. The St. Lawrence bound them together, though Acts of Parliament had severed them. Upper Canada, as an inland province, re- stricted in its trade with its neighbor to the south, 6 82 THE CANADIAN DOMINION was dependent upon Lower Canada for access to the outer world. Its share of the duties collected at the Lower Canada ports until 1817 had been only one-eighth, afterwards increased to one-fifth. This inequality proved a constant source of fric- tion. The crying necessity of codperation for the improvement of the St. Lawrence waterway gave further ground for the contention that only by a reunion of the two provinces could efficiency be secured. In Upper Canada the Reformers were in favor of this plan, but the Compact, fearful of any disturbance of their vested interests, tended to oppose it. In Lower Canada the chief support came from the English element. The governing clique, as the older established body, had no doubt that they could bring the western section under their sway in case of union. But the main reason for their advocacy was the desire to swamp the French Canadians by an English majority. Sewell, the chief supporter of the project, frankly took this ground. The Governor, Lord Dalhousie, and the Colonial Office adopted his view; and in 1822 an attempt was made to rush a Union Bill through the British Parliament without any notice to those most concerned. It was blocked for the moment by the opposition of a Whig group led by Burdett THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 83 and Mackintosh; and then Papineau and Neilson sailed to London and succeeded in inducing the Ministry to stay its hand. The danger was avert- ed; but Papineau had become convinced that if his people were to retain the rights given them by their “Sacred Charter” they would have to fight for them. If they were to save their power, they must increase it. How could this be done? Baldwin’s bold and revolutionary policy of making the Executive re- sponsible to the Assembly did not seera within the range of practical politics. It meant in practice the abandonment of British control, and this the Colonial Office was not willing to grant. Antoine Panet and other Assembly leaders had suggested in 1815 that it would be well, “‘if it were possible, to grant a number of places as Councillors or other posts of honour and of profit to those who have most influence over the majority in the Assembly, to hold so long as they maintained this influence,” and James Stuart urged the same tentative sugges- tion a yearlater. But even before this the Colonial Office had made clear its position. ‘His Majesty’s Government,”’ declared the Colonial Secretary, Lord Bathurst, in 1814, “never can admit so novel & inconvenient a Principle as that of allowing the 84 THE CANADIAN DOMINION Governor of a Colony to be divested of his re- sponsibility [to the Colonial Office] for the acts done during his administration or permit him to shield himself under the advice of any Persons, however respectable, either from their character or their Office.” Two other courses had the sanction of precedent, one of English, the other of American example. The English House of Commons had secured its dominant place in the government of the country by its control of the purse. Why should not the Assembly do likewise? One obvious difficulty lay in the fact that the Assembly was not the sole authority in raising revenue. The British Parlia- ment had retained the power to levy certain duties as part of its system of commercial control, and other casual and territorial dues lay in the right of the Crown. From 1820, therefore, the As- sembly’s main aim was twofold — to obtain con- trol of these remaining sources of revenue, and by means of this power to bludgeon the Legislative Council and the Governor into compliance with its wishes. The Colonial Office made concessions, offering to resign all its taxing powers in return for a permanent civil list, that is, an assurance that the salaries of the chief officials would not be THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 85 questioned annually. The offer was reasonable in itself but, as it would have hampered the full use of the revenue bludgeon, it was scornfully declined. The other aim of the Patriotes, as the Opposi- tion styled themselves, was to conquer the Legisla- tive Council by making it elective. Papineau, in spite of his early prejudices, was drawn more and more into sympathy with the form of democracy worked out in the United States. In fact, he not only looked to it as a model but, as the thirties wore on, he came to hope that moral, if not physi- cal, support might be found there for his campaign against the English Government. After 1830 the demand for an elective Legislative Council became more and more insistent. The struggle soon reached a deadlock. Gover- nor followed Governor: Lord Dalhousie, Sir James Kempt, Lord Aylmer, all in turn failed to allay the storm. The Assembly raised its claims each session and fulminated against all the opposing powers in windy resolutions. Papineau, embit- tered by continued opposition, carried away by his own eloquence, and steadied by no responsi- bility of office, became more implacable in his demands. Many of his moderate supporters — Neilson, Andrew Stuart, Quesnel, Cuvillier — fell 86 THE CANADIAN DOMINION away, only to be overwhelmed in the first election at a wave of the great tribune’s hand. Business was blocked, supplies were not voted, and civil servants made shift without salary as best they could. The British Government awoke, or half awoke, to the seriousness of the situation. In 1835 a Royal Commission of three, with the new Gover- nor General, Lord Gosford, as chairman, was ap- pointed to make inquiries and to recommend a policy. Gosford, a genial Irishman, showed him- self most conciliatory in both private intercourse and public discourse. Unfortunately the rash act of the new Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, Sir Francis Bond Head, in publishing the instruc- tions of the Colonial Office, showed that the policy of Downing Street was the futile one of concilia- tion without concession. The Assembly once more refused to grant supplies without redress of griev- ances. The Commissioners made their report op- posing any substantial change. In March, 1837, Lord John Russell, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Melbourne Ministry, opposed only by a handful of Radical and Irish members, carried through the British Parliament a series of resolu- tions authorizing the Governor to take from the Treasury without the consent of the Assembly the THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 87 funds needed for civil administration, offering con- trol of all revenues in return for a permanent civil list, and rejecting absolutely the demands alike for a responsible Executive and for an elective Council. British statesmanship was bankrupt. Its final answer to the demands for redress was to stand pat. Papineau, without seeing what the end would be, held to his course. Younger men, carried away by the passions he had aroused, pushed on still more recklessly. If reform could not be obtained within the British Empire, it must be sought by setting up an independent republic on the St. Lawrence or by annexation to the United States. In Upper Canada, at the same time, matters had come to the verge of rebellion. Sir John Col- borne had, just before retiring as Lieutenant Gov- ernor in 1836, added fuel to the flames by creat- ing and endowing some forty-four rectories, thus strengthening the grip of the Anglican Church on the province. His successor, Sir Francis Bond Head, was a man of such rash and unbalanced judgment as to lend support to the tradition that he was appointed by mistake for his cousin, Ed- mund Head, who was made Governor of United Canada twenty years later. He appointed to 88 THE CANADIAN DOMINION his Executive Council three Reformers, Baldwin, Rolph, and Dunn, only to make clear by his re- fusal to consult them his inability to understand their demand for responsible government. All the members of the Executive Council thereupon re- signed, and the Assembly refused supplies. Head dissolved the House and appealed to the people. The weight of executive patronage, the insist- ence of the Governor that British connection was at stake, the alarms caused by some injudicious statements of Mackenzie and his Radical ally in England, Joseph Hume, and the defection of the Methodists, whose leader, Egerton Ryerson, had quarreled with Mackenzie, resulted in the over- whelming defeat of the Reformers. The sting of defeat, the failure of the Family Compact to carry out their eleventh hour promises of reform, and the passing of Lord John Russell’s reactionary resolutions convinced a section of the Reform party, in Upper Canada as well as in Lower Canada, that an appeal to force was the only way out. Toward the end of 1837 armed rebellion broke out in both the Canadas. In both it was merely a flash in the pan. In Lower Canada there had been latterly much use of the phrases of revolution and some drilling, but rebellion was neither definitely THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 89 planned nor carefully organized. The more ex- treme leaders of the Patriotes simply drifted into it, and the actual outbreak was a haphazard affair. Alarmed by the sudden and seemingly concerted departure of Papineau and some of his lieutenants, Nelson, Brown, and O’Callaghan, from Montreal, the Government gave orders for their arrest. The petty skirmish that followed on November 16, 1837, was the signal for the rallying of armed habit- ants around impromptu leaders at various points. The rising was local and spasmodic. The vast body of the habitants stood aloof. The Catholic Church, which earlier had sympathized with Pap- ineau, had parted from him when he developed radical and republican views. Now the strong exhortations of the clergy to the faithful counted for much in keeping peace, and in one view justi- fied the policy of the British Government in seek- ing to purchase their favor. The Quebec and Three Rivers districts remained quiet. In the Richelieu and Montreal districts, where disaffec- tion was strongest, the habitants lacked leadership, discipline, and touch with other groups, and were armed only with old flintlocks, scythes, or clubs. Here and there a brave and skillful leader, such as Dr. Jean Olivier Chénier, was thrown up by the 90 THE CANADIAN DOMINION stress, and in more than one skirmish the habit- ants fought bravely, but from the start the rising was doomed. British regulars supported by Eng- lish and French volunteers speedily stamped it out. The leaders fled to the United States or were made prisoners, and in a brief three weeks the fighting was over. In Upper Canada there was more deliberate plan- ning and careful organization but even less popular support. Mackenzie, with Rolph and Duncombe as his chief supporters, organized committees throughout the province. Early in December, his hand forced by the outbreak in Lower Canada, Mackenzie with less than a thousand followers endeavored to seize Toronto, the seat of govern- ment. The province was stripped of regular troops, and the Governor was incapable; but the rebels, save for one old Dutch soldier of fortune, Van Egmond, had no experienced leader. After a stage skirmish with the loyal militia they broke and fled. Mackenzie and Rolph escaped to the United States. With his headquarters at Buffalo, Mackenzie rallied a force of border desperadoes and seized Navy Island in the Niagara River. The border raids at this and other points kept the province under arms for a year; but, in view THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 91 of the hostility of the greater part of the people, their would-be liberators gave up the attempt at invasion. This border warfare came near to involving the United States and Great Britain in war. All along the boundary line American sympathy was strongly with the rebels. The Federal Government, somewhat tardily, took steps to prevent the mak- ing of its territory a base of operations against a friendly country; but the state Governments were lax, and the general public was openly eager to see the British flag hauled down. Raiding parties collected and crossed the border without being molested, and arms from state arsenals found their way into the raiders’ hands. But when a Canadian militia force crossed the Niagara, and cut out and burned a steamer which was moored to the American shore and which was supplying the rebels on Navy Island, killing one member of the crew, an outburst of popular indignation flared out against such a violation of neutrality. Later, in 1841, when Alexander McLeod, a Canadian who had boasted that he had been one of the cutting- out party, was arrested in New York State and tried for murder, feeling once more rose high, but fortunately the discharge of McLeod for lack of 92 THE CANADIAN DOMINION evidence opened a way out of the difficult situation. A year later Peel and Webster, representing the two countries, exchanged formal explanations, and the incident was closed. In Upper Canada many a rebel sympathizer lay for months in jail, but only two leaders, Lount and Matthews, both brave men, paid the penalty of death for their failure. In Lower Canada the new Governor General, Lord Durham, proved more clement, merely banishing to Bermuda eight of the captured leaders. When, a year later, after Dur- ham’s return to England, a second brief rising broke out under Robert Nelson, it was stamped out in a week, twelve of the ringleaders were executed, and others were deported to Botany Bay. The rebellion, it seemed, had failed and failed miserably. Most of the leaders of the extreme fac- tions in both provinces had been discredited, and the moderate men had been driven into the govern- ment camp. Yet in one sense the rising proved suc- cessful. It was not the first nor the last time that wild and misguided force brought reform where sane and moderate tactics met only contempt. If men were willing to die to redress their wrongs, the most easy-going official could no longer deny that there was a case for inquiry and possibly for reform. THE FIGHT FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT 93 Lord Melbourne’s Government had acted at once in sending out to Canada, as Governor General and High Commissioner with sweeping powers, one of the ablest men in English public life. Lord Dur- ham was an aristocratic Radical, intensely devoted to political equality and equally convinced of his own personal superiority. Yet he had vision, firm- ness, independence, and his very rudeness kept him free from the social influences which had ensnared many another Governor. Attended by a gorgeous retinue and by some able working secretaries, including Charles Buller, Carlyle’s pupil, he made a rapid survey of Upper and Lower Canada. Suddenly, after five crowded months, his mission ended. He had left at home active enemies and lukewarm friends. Lord Brougham, one of his foes, called in question the legality of his edict banish- ing the rebel leaders to Bermuda. The Ministers did not back him, as they should have done; and Durham indignantly resigned and hurried back to England. Three months later, however, his Report ap- peared and his mission stood vindicated. There are few British state papers of more fame or more worth than Durham’s Report. It was not, however, the beginning and the end of wisdom in colonial 94 THE CANADIAN DOMINION policy, as has often been declared. Much that Durham advocated was not new, and much has been condemned by time. His main suggestions were four: to unite the Canadas, to swamp the French Canadians by such union, to grant a measure of responsible government, and to set up municipal government. His attitude towards the French Canadians was prejudiced and shortsighted. He was not the first to recommend responsible gov- ernment, nor did his approval make it a reality. Yet with all qualifications his Report showed a con- fidence in the liberating and solving power of self- government which was the all-essential thing for the English Government to see; and his reasoned and powerful advocacy gave an impetus and a ral- lying point to the movement which were to prove of the greatest value in the future growth not only of Canada but of the whole British Empire. CHAPTER III THE UNION ERA THE struggle for self-government seemed to have ended in deadlock and chaos. Yet under the wreckage new lines of constructive effort were forming. The rebellion had at least proved that the old order was doomed. For half a century the attempt had been made to govern the Canadas as separate provinces and with the half measure of freedom involved in representative government. For the next quarter of a century the experiment of responsible government together with union of the two provinces was to be given its trial. The union of the two provinces was the phase of Durham’s policy which met fullest acceptance in England. It was not possible, in the view of the British Ministry, to take away permanently from the people of Lower Canada the measure of self- government involved in permitting them to choose their representatives in a House of Assembly. It 95 96 THE CANADIAN DOMINION was equally impossible, they considered, to permit a French-Canadian majority ever again to bring all government to a standstill. The only solution of the problem was to unite the two provinces and thus swamp the French Canadians by an English majority. Lower Canada, Durham had insisted, ‘ must be made “‘an English province.”’ Sooner or later the French Canadians must lose their sepa- rate nationality; and it was, he contended, the part of statesmanship to make it sooner. Union, moreover, would make possible a common finan- cial policy and an energetic development of the resources of both provinces. This was the first task set Durham’s successor, Charles Poulett Thomson, better known as Lord Sydenham. Like Durham he was a man of out- standing capacity. The British Government had learned at last to send men of the caliber the emer- gency demanded. Like Durham he was a wealthy Radical politician, but there the resemblance ended. Where Durham played the dictator, Sydenham pre- ferred to intrigue and to manage men, to win them by his adroitness and to convince them by his en- ergy and his business knowledge. He was well fit- ted for the transition tasks before him, though too masterful to fill the réle of ornamental monarch THE UNION ERA 97 which the advocates of responsible government had cast for the Governor. Sydenham reached Canada in October, 1839. With the assistance of James Stuart, now a baronet and Chief Justice of Lower Canada, he drafted a union measure. In Lower Canada the Assembly had been suspended, and the Special Council ap- pointed in its stead accepted the bill without serious demur. More difficulty was found in Up- per Canada, where the Family Compact, still en- trenched in the Legislative Council, feared the risk to their own position that union would bring and shrank from the task of assimilating half a million disaffected French Canadians. But with the sup- port of the Reformers and of the more moderate among the Family Compact party, Sydenham forced his measure through. A confirming bill passed the British Parliament; and on February 10, 1841, the Union of Canada was proclaimed. The Act provided for the union of the two provinces, under a Governor, an appointed Legis- lative Council, and an elective Assembly. In the Assembly each section of the new province was to receive equal representation, though the popula- tion of Lower Canada still greatly exceeded that of Upper Canada. The Assembly was to have full 7 98 THE CANADIAN DOMINION control of all revenues, and in return a perma- nent civil list was granted. Either English or French could be used in debate, but all parlia- mentary journals and papers were to be printed in English only. In June, 1841, the first Parliament of united Canada met at Kingston, which as the most cen- tral point had been chosen as the new capital. Un- der Sydenham’s shrewd and energetic leadership a business programme of long-delayed reforms was put through. A large loan, guaranteed by the Brit- ish Government, made possible extensive provision for building roads, bridges, and canals around the rapids in the St. Lawrence. Municipal institu- tions were set up, and reforms were effected in the provincial administration. Lord John Russell in England and Sydenham in Canada were anxious to keep the question of responsible government in the background. For the first busy months they succeeded, but the new Parliament contained men quite as strong willed as either and of quite other views. Before the * From 1841 to 1867 the whole province was legally known as the “Province of Canada.” Yet a measure of administrative separation between the old sections remained, and the terms “Canada East” and ‘Canada West” received official sanction. The older terms, “Lower Canada” and “‘ Upper Canada,” lingered on in popular usage. THE UNION ERA 99 first session had begun, Baldwin and the new French-Canadian leader, La Fontaine, had raised the issue and begun a new struggle in which their single-minded devotion and unflinching courage were to attain a complete success. Responsible government was in 1841 only a phrase, a watchword. Its full implications be- came clear only after many years. It meant three things: cabinet government, self-government, and party government. It meant that the government of the country should be carried on by a Cabinet or Executive Council, all members of Parliament, all belonging to the party which had the majority in the Assembly, and under the leadership of a Prime Minister, the working head of the Gov- ernment. The nominal head, Governor or King, could act only on the advice of his ministers, who alone were held responsible to Parliament for the course of the Government. It meant, further, na- tional self-government. The Governor could not serve two masters. If he must take the advice of his ministers in Canada, he could not take the possibly conflicting advice of ministers in London. The people of Canada would be the ultimate court of appeal. And finally, responsible government meant party government. The cabinet system 100 THE CANADIAN DOMINION presupposed a definite and united majority behind the Government. It was the business of the par- ty system to provide that majority, to insure re- sponsible and steady action, and at the same time responsible criticism from Her Majesty’s loyal Op- position. Baldwin saw this clearly in 1841, but it took hard fighting throughout the forties to bring all his fellow countrymen to see likewise and to induce the English Government to resign itself to the prospect. Sydenham fought against responsible govern- ment but advanced it against his will. The only sense in which he, like Russell, was prepared to concede such liberty was that the Governor should choose his advisers as, far as possible from men having the confidence of the Assembly. They were to be his advisers only, in fact as well as form. The Governor was still to govern, was to be Prime Minister and Governor in one. When Baldwin, who had been given a seat in the Executive Coun- cil, demanded in 1841 that this body should be reconstructed in such a way as to include some French-Canadian members and to exclude the Family Compact men, Sydenham flatly refused. Baldwin then resigned and went into opposition, but Sydenham unwillingly played into his hand. THE UNION ERA 101 By choosing his council solely from members of the two Houses, he established a definite connec- tion between Executive and Assembly and thus gave an opportunity for the discussion of the ad- ministration of policy in the House and for the forming of government and opposition parties. Before the first session closed, the majority which Sydenham had built up by acting as a party leader at the very time he was deriding parties as mere factions, crumbled away, and he was forced to accept resolutions insisting that the Governor’s advisers must be men “possessed of the confidence of the representatives of the people.”’ Fate ended his work at its height. Riding home one Septem- ber evening, he was thrown from his horse and died from the injuries before the month was out. It fell to the Tory Government of Peel to choose Sydenham’s successor. They named Sir Charles Bagot, already distinguished for his career in di- plomacy and known for his hand in matters which were to interest the greater Canada, the Rush- Bagot Convention with the United States and the treaty with Russia which fixed, only too vaguely, the boundaries of Alaska. He was under strict injunctions from the Colonial Secretary, Lord Stanley, to continue Sydenham’s policy and to 102 THE CANADIAN DOMINION make no further concession to the demands for responsible government or party control. Yet this Tory nominee of a Tory Cabinet, in his brief term of office, insured a great advance along this very path toward freedom. His easy-going temper pre- disposed him to play the part of constitutional monarch rather than of Prime Minister, and in any case he faced a majority in the Assembly resolute in its determination. The policy of swamping French influence had already proved a failure. Sydenham had given it a full trial. He had done his best, or his worst, by unscrupulous manipulation, to keep the French Canadians from gaining their fair quota of the mem- bers in the Union Assembly. Those who were elected he ignored. ‘‘They have forgotten nothing and learnt nothing by the Rebellion,” he declared, “and are more unfit for representative government than they were in 1791.” This was far from a true reading of the situation. The French stood aloof, it is true, a compact and sullen group, angered by the undisguised policy of Anglicization that faced them and by Sydenham’s unscrupulous tactics. But they had learned restraint and had found leaders and allies of the kind most needed. Papin- eau’s place — for the great tribune was now in THE UNION ERA 103 exile in Paris, consorting with the republicans and socialists who were to bring about the Revolution of 1848 — had been taken by one of his former lieutenants. Louis Hippolyte La Fontaine still stands out as one of the two or three greatest Cana- dians of French descent, a man of massive intellect, of unquestioned integrity, and of firm but moder- ate temper. With Baldwin he came to form a close and lifelong friendship. The Reformers of Canada West, as Upper Canada was now called, formed a working alliance with La Fontaine which gave them a sweeping majority in the Assembly. Bagot bowed to the inevitable and called La Fon- taine and Baldwin to his Council. II] health made it impossible for him to take much part in the government, and the Council was far on the way to obtaining the unity and the independence of a true Cabinet when Bagot’s death in 1843 brought a new turn in affairs. The British Ministers had seen with growing uneasiness Bagot’s concessions. His successor, Sir Charles Metcalfe, a man of honest and kindly ways but accustomed to governing oriental peoples, de- termined to make a stand against the pretensions of the Reformers. In this attitude he was strongly backed both by Stanley and by his successor, that 104 THE CANADIAN DOMINION brilliant young Tory, William Ewart Gladstone. Metcalfe insisted once more that the Governor must govern. While the members of the Council, as individuals, might give him advice, it was for him to decide whether or not to take it. The in- evitable clash with his Ministers came in the autumn of 1843 over a question of patronage. They resigned, and after months of effort Metcalfe patched up a Ministry with W. H. Draper as the leading member. In an election in which Metcalfe himself took the platform and in which once more British connection was said to be at stake, the Min- istry obtained a narrow majority. But opinion soon turned, and when Metcalfe, the third Governor in four years to whom Canada had proved fatal, went home to die, he knew that his stand had been in vain. The Ministry, after a precarious life of three years, went to the country only to be beaten by an overwhelming majority in both East and West. When, in 1848, Baldwin and La Fontaine were called to office under the new Governor General, Lord Elgin, the fight was won. Many years were to pass before the full implications of responsible government were worked out, but henceforth even the straitest Tory conceded the principle. Respon- sible government had ceased to be a party cry and THE UNION ERA 105 had become the common heritage of all Canadians. Lord Elgin, who was Durham’s son-in-law, was a man well able to bear the mantle of his predeces- sors. Yet he realized that the day had passed when Governors could govern and was content rather to advise his advisers, to wield the personal influ- ence that his experience and sagacity warranted. Hitherto the stages in Canadian history had been recorded by the term of office of the Governors; henceforth it was to be the tenure of Cabinets which counted. Elgin ceased even to attend the Council, and after his time the Governor became more and more the constitutional monarch, busied in laying corner stones and listening to tiresome official addresses. In emergencies, and especially in the gap or interregnum between Ministries, the personality of the Governor might count, but as a rule this power remained latent. Yet in two turn- ing points in Canadian history, both of which had to do with the relations of Canada to the United States, Elgin was to play an important part: the Annexation Movement of 1849 and the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854. In the struggle for responsible government, loyalty to the British Crown, loyalty of a superior and exclusive brand, had been the creed and the 106 THE CANADIAN DOMINION war cry of the Tory party. Yet in 1849 men saw the hot-heads of this group in Montreal stoning a British Governor General and setting fire to the Parliament Buildings, while a few months later their elders issued a manifesto urging the annexa- tion of Canada to the United States. Why this sudden shift? Simply because the old colonial system they had known and supported had come to an end. The Empire had been taken to mean racial ascendancy and trade profit. Now both the political and the economic pillars were crumbling, and the Empire appeared to have no further excuse for existence. In the past British connection had meant to many of the English minority in Lower Canada a means of redressing the political balance, of retain- ing power in face of a body of French-speaking citizens outnumbering them three or four to one. Now that support had been withdrawn. Britain had consented, unwillingly, to the setting up of responsible government and the calling to office of men who a dozen years before had been in arms against the Queen or fleeing from the province. This was gall and wormwood to the English. But when the Ministry introduced, and the Assembly passed, the Rebellion Losses Bill for compensating THE UNION ERA 107 those who had suffered destruction of property in the outbreak, and when the terms were so drawn as to make it possible, its critics charged, that rebels as well as loyalists would be compensated, flesh and blood could bear no more. The Governor was pelted with rotten eggs when he came down to the House to sign the bill, and the buildings where Parliament had met since 1844, when the capital had been transferred from Kingston to Montreal, were stormed and burned by a street mob. The anger felt against the Ministry thus turned against the British Government. The English minority felt like an advance guard in a hostile country, deserted by the main forces, an Ulster abandoned to Home Ruler and Sinn Feiner. They turned to the south, to the other great English- speaking Protestant people. If the older branch of the race would not give them protection or a share in dominance, perhaps the younger branch could and would. As Lord Durham had suggested, they were resolved that ‘Lower Canada must be English, at the expense, if necessary, of not being British.” But it was not only the political basis of the old colonial system that was rudely shattered. The economic foundations, too, were passing away, and 108 THE CANADIAN DOMINION with fem the profits of the Montreal merchants, who formed the backbone of the annexation move- ment. It has been seen that under this system Great Britain had aimed at setting up a self-con- tained empire, with a monopoly of the markets of ‘the colonies. Now for her own sake she was sweep- ing away the tariff and shipping monopoly which had been built up through more than two cen- turies. The logic of Adam Smith, the experiments of Huskisson, the demands of manufacturers for cheap food and raw materials, the passionate campaigns of Cobden and Bright, and the rains that brought the Irish famine, at last had their effect. In 1846 Peel himself undertook the repeal of the Corn Laws. To Lower Canada this was a crushing blow. Until of late the preference given in the British market on colonial goods in return for the control of colonial trade had been of little value; but in 1843 the duties on Canadian wheat and flour had been greatly lowered, resulting in a preference over foreign grain reckoned at eighteen cents a bushel. While in appearance an extension of the old system of preference and protection, in reality this was a step toward its abandonment. For it was understood that American grain, im- ported into Canada at a low duty, whether shipped THE UNION ERA 109 direct or ground into flour, would be admitted at the same low rates. The Act, by opening a backdoor to United States wheat, foreshadowed the triumph of the cheap food agitators in England. But the merchants, the millers, and the forwarders of Mon- treal could not believe this. The canal system was rushed through, large flour mills were built, and heavy investments of capital were made. Then in 1846 came the announcement that the artificial basis of this brief prosperity had vanished. Lord Elgin summed up the results in a dispatch in 1849: “Property in most of the Canadian towns, and more especially in the capital, has fallen fifty per cent in value within the last three years. Three- fourths of the commercial men are bankrupt, owing to free trade. A large proportion of the exportable produce of Canada is obliged to seek a market in the United States. It pays a duty of twenty per cent on the frontier. How long can such a state of things endure?” In October, 1849, the leading men of Montreal issued a manifesto demanding annexation to the United States. A future Prime Minister of Canada, J. J. C. Abbott, four future Cabinet Ministers, John Rose, Luther Holton, D. L. Macpherson, and A. A. Dorion, and the commercial leaders 110 THE CANADIAN DOMINION of Montreal, the Molsons, Redpaths, Torrances, and Workmans, were among the signers. Besides Dorion, a few French Canadians of the Rouge or extreme Radical party joined in. The movement found supporters in the Eastern Townships, nota- bly in A. T. Galt, a financier and railroad builder of distinction, and here and there in Canada West. Yet the great body of opinion was unmistakably against it. Baldwin and La Fontaine opposed it with unswerving energy, the Catholic Church in Canada East denounced it, and the rank and file of both parties in Canada West gave it short shrift. Elgin came out actively in opposition and aided in negotiating the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States which met the economic need. Mon- treal found itself isolated, and even there the re- vival of trade and the cooling of passions turned men’s thoughts into other channels. Soon the movement was but a memory, chiefly serviceable to political opponents for taunting some signer of the manifesto whenever he later made parade of his loyalty. It had a more unfortunate effect, however, in leading public opinion in the United States to the belief for many years that a strong annexationist sentiment existed in Canada. Never again did annexation receive any notable measure THE UNION ERA 111 of popular support. A national spirit was slowly gaining ground, and men were eventually to see that the alternative to looking to London for sal- vation was not looking to Washington but looking to themselves. In the provinces by the sea the struggle for re- sponsible government was won at much the same time as in Canada. The smaller field within which the contest was waged gave it a bitter personal touch; but racial hostility did not enter in, and the British Government proved less obdurate than in the western conflicts. In both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick little oligarchies had become en- trenched. The Government was unprogressive, and fees and salaries were high. The Anglican Church had received privileges galling to other denominations which surpassed it in numbers. The “‘powers that were” found a shrewd defender in Haliburton, who tried to teach his fellow Blue- noses through the homely wit of “Sam Slick”’ that they should leave governing to those who had the training, the capacity, and the leisure it required. In Prince Edward Island the land question still overshadowed all others. Every proposal for its settlement was rejected by the influence of the 112 THE CANADIAN DOMINION absentee landlords in England, and the agitation went wearily on. In Nova Scotia the outstanding figure in the ranks of reform was Joseph Howe. The son of a Loyalist settler, Howe early took to his father’s work of journalism. At first his sympathies were with the governing powers, but a controversy with a brother editor, Jotham Blanchard, a New Hamp- shire man who found radical backing among the Scots of Pictou, gave him new light and he soon threw his whole powers into the struggle on the popular side. Howe was a man lavishly gifted, one of the most effective orators America has pro- duced, fearing no man and no task however great, filled with a vitality, a humor, a broad sympathy for his fellows that gave him the blind obedience of thousands of followers and the glowing friend- ship of countless firesides. There are still old men in Nova Scotia whose proudest memory is that they once held Howe’s horse or ran on an errand for a look from his kingly eye. Howe took up the fight in earnest in 1835. The western demand for responsible government point- ed the way, and Howe became, with Baldwin, its most trenchantadvocate. In spite of the determined opposition of the sturdy old soldier Governor, Sir THE UNION ERA 113 Colin Campbell, and of his successor, Lord Falkland, who aped Sydenham and whom Howe threatened to “hire a black man to horse-whip,”’ the reformers won. In 1848 the first responsible Cabinet in Nova Scotia came to power. In New Brunswick the transition to responsible government came gradually and without dramatic incidents or brilliant figures on either side. Lemuel Wilmot, and later Charles Fisher, led the reform ranks, gradually securing for the Assembly control of all revenues, abolishing religious inequalities, and effecting some reform in the Executive Coun- cil, until at last in 1855 the crowning demand was tardily conceded. From the Great Lakes to the Atlantic the polit- ical fight was won, and men turned with relief to the tasks which strife and faction had hindered. Self-government meant progressive government. With organized Cabinets coérdinating and con- trolling their policy the provinces went ahead much faster than when Governor and Assembly stood at daggers drawn. The forties and especially the fifties were years of rapid and sound develop- ment in all the provinces, and especially in Canada West. Settlers poured in, the scattered clearings 8 114 THE CANADIAN DOMINION widened until one joined the next, and pioneer hardships gave way to substantial, if crude, pros- perity. Education, notably under the vigorous leadership of Egerton Ryerson in Canada West, received more adequate attention. Banks grew and with them all commercial facilities increased. The distinctive feature of this period of Cana- dian development, however, was the growth of canals and railroads. The forties were the time of canal building and rebuilding all along the lakes and the St. Lawrence to salt water. Canada spent millions on what were wonderful works for their day, in the hope that the St. Lawrence would be- come the channel for the trade of all the growing western States bordering on the Great Lakes. Scarcely were these waterway improvements com- pleted when it was realized they had been made largely in vain. The railway had come and was outrivaling the canal. If Canadian ports and channels were even to hold their own, they must take heed of the enterprise of all the cities along the Atlantic coast of the United States, which were promoting railroads to the interior in a vigorous ri- valry for the trade of the Golden West. Here was a challenge which must be taken up. The fifties became the first great railway era of Canada. In THE UNION ERA 115 1850 there were only sixty-six miles of railway in all the provinces; ten years later there were over two thousand. Nearly all the roads were aided by provincial or municipal bonus or guarantee. Chief among the lines was the Grand Trunk, which ran from the Detroit border to Riviére du Loup on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and which, though it halted at that eastern terminus in the magnificent project of connecting with the railways of the Maritime Prov- inces, was nevertheless at that time the longest road in the world operating under single control. The railways brought with them a new specula- tive fever, a more complex financial structure, a business politics which shaded into open corrup- tion, and a closer touch with the outside world. The general substitution of steam for sail on the Atlantic during this period aided further in lessen- ing the isolation of what had been backwoods prov- inces and in bringing them into closer relation with the rest of the world. It was in closer relations with the United States that this emergence from isolation chiefly mani- fested itself. In the generation that followed the War of 1812 intercourse with the United States was discouraged and was remarkably insignificant. THE UNION ERA 117 As settlement rolled westward one section of the boundary after another came in question. Begin- ning in the east, the line between New Brunswick and New England was to be formed by the St. Croix River. There had been a St. Croix in Cham- plain’s time and a St. Croix was depicted on the maps, but no river known by that name existed in 1783. The British identified it with the Schoodic, the Americans with the Magaguadavic. Arbi- tration in 1798 upheld the British in the conten- tion that the Schoodic was the St. Croix but agreed with the Americans in the secondary question as to which of the two branches of the Schoodic should be followed. Asimilar commission in 1817 settled the dispute as to the islands in Passamaquoddy Bay. More difficult, because at once more ambiguous in terms and more vitally important, was the de- termination of the boundary in the next stage westward from the St. Croix to the St. Lawrence. The British position was a difficult one to maintain. In the days of the struggle with France, Great Britain had tried to push the bounds of the New England colonies as far north as might be, making claims that would hem in France to the barest strip along the south shore of the St. Lawrence. Now that she was heir to the territories and claims 118 THE CANADIAN DOMINION of France and had lost her own old colonies, it was somewhat embarrassing, but for diplomats not impossible, to have to urge a line as far south as the urgent needs of the provinces for intercom- munication demanded. The letter of the treaty was impossible to interpret with certainty. The phrase, “the Highlands which divide those rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean,” meant according to the American reading a water- shed which was a marshy plateau, and according to the British version a range of hills to the south which involved some keen hairsplitting as to the rivers they divided. The intentions of the parties to the original treaty were probably much as the Americans contended. From the standpoint of neighborly adjustment and the relative need for the land in question, a strong case in equity could be made out for the provinces, which would be cut asunder for all time if a wedge were driven north to the very brink of the St. Lawrence. As lumbermen and settlers gathered in the border area, the risk of conflict became acute, culminating in the Aroostook War in 1838-39, when the Legislatures of Maine and New Bruns- wick backed their rival lumberjacks with reckless THE UNION ERA 119 jingoism. Diplomacy failed repeatedly to obtain a eompromise line. Arbitration was tried with little better success, as the United States refused to accept the award of the King of the Netherlands in 1831. The diplomats tried once more, and in 1842 Daniel Webster, the United States Secretary of State, and Lord Ashburton, the British Commissioner, made a compromise by which some five thousand miles of the area in dispute were assigned to Great Britain and seven thousand to the United States. The award was not popular on either side, and the pub- lic seized eagerly on stories of concealed “‘Red Line”’ maps, stories of Yankee smartness or of British trickery. Webster, to win the assent of Maine, had exhibited in the Senate a map found in the French Archives and very damaging to the American claim. Later it appeared that the British Government al- so had found a map equally damaging to its own claims. The nice question of ethics involved, whether a nation should bring forward evidence that would tell against itself, ceased to have more than an abstract interest when it was demonstrated that neither map could be considered as one which the original negotiators had used or marked.* tSee The Path of Empire, by Carl Russell Fish (in The Chronicles of America). 120 THE CANADIAN DOMINION The boundary from the St. Lawrence westward through the Great Lakes and thence to the Lake of the Woods had been laid down in the Treaty of 1783 in the usual vague terms, but it was deter- mined in a series of negotiations from 1794 to 1842 with less friction and heat than the eastern line had caused. From the Lake of the Woods to the Rockies a new line, the forty-ninth parallel, was agreed upon in 1818. Then, as the Pacific Ocean was neared, the difficulties once more increased. There were no treaties between the two countries to limit claims beyond the Rockies. Discovery and settlement, and the rights inherited from or admitted by the Spaniards to the south and by the Russians to the north, were the grounds put forward. British and Canadian fur traders had been the pioneers in overland discovery, but early in the forties thousands of American settlers poured into the Columbia Valley and strength- ened the practical case for their country. “‘Fifty- four forty or fight’? — in other words, the calm pro- posal to claim the whole coast between Mexico and Alaska — became the popular cry in the United States; but in face of the firm attitude of Great Britain and impending hostilities with Mexico, more moderate counsels ruled. Great Britain held THE UNION ERA 121 out for the Columbia River as the dividing line, and the United States for the forty-ninth parallel throughout. Finally, in 1846, the latter contention was accepted, with a modification to leave Vancou- ver Island wholly British territory. A postscript to this settlement was added in 1872, when the German Emperor as arbitrator approved the Amer- ican claim to the island of San Juan in the channel between Vancouver Island and the mainland.* With the most troublesome boundary questions out of the way, it became possible to discuss calmly closer trade relations between the Provinces and the United States. The movement for reciprocal lowering of the tariffs which hampered trade made rapid headway in the Provinces in the late forties and early fifties. British North America was pass- ing out of the pioneer, self-sufficient stage, and now had a surplus to export as well as town-bred needs to be supplied by imports. The spread of settlement and the building of canals and railways brought closer contact with the people to the south. The loss of special privileges in the English market made the United States market more de- sired. In official circles reciprocity was sought tSee The Path of Empire. 122 THE CANADIAN DOMINION as a homeopathic cure for the desire for annexa- tion. William Hamilton Merritt, a Niagara border business man and the most persistent advocate of closer trade relations, met little difficulty in se- curing almost unanimous backing in Canada, while the Maritime Provinces lent their support. It was more difficult to win over the United States. There the people showed the usual in- difference of a big and prosperous country to the needs or opportunities of a small and backward neighbor. The division of power between Presi- dent and Congress made it difficult to carry any negotiation through to success. Yet these ob- stacles were overcome. The depletion of the fish- eries along the Atlantic coast of the United States made it worth while, as I. D. Andrews, a United States consul in New Brunswick, urged persist- ently, to gain access to the richer grounds to the north and, if necessary, to offer trade concessions in exchange. At Washington, the South was in the saddle. Its sympathies were strongly for freer trade, but this alone would not have counted had not the advocates of reciprocity convinced the Democratic leaders of the bearing of their policy on the then absorbing issue of slavery. If re- ciprocity were not arranged, the argument ran, THE UNION ERA 123 annexation would be sure to come and that would mean the addition to the Union of a group of free- soil States which would definitely tilt the balance against slavery for all time. With the ground thus prepared, Lord Elgin succeeded by adroit and capable diplomacy in winning over the leaders of Congress as well as the Executive to his proposals. The Reciprocity Treaty was passed by the Senate in August, 1854, and by the Legislatures of the United Kingdom, Canada, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia in the next few months, and of Newfoundland in 1855. This treaty provided for free admission into each coun- try of practically all the products of the farm, forest, mine, and fishery, threw open the Atlantic fisheries, and gave American vessels the use of the St. Lawrence and Canadian vessels the use of Lake Michigan. The agreement was to last for ten years and indefinitely thereafter, subject to termination on one year’s notice by either party. To both countries reciprocity brought un- doubted good. Trade doubled and trebled. Each country gained by free access to the nearest sources of supply. The same goods figured largely in the traffic in both directions, the United States im- porting grain and flour from Canada and exporting 124 THE CANADIAN DOMINION it to the Maritime Provinces. In short the benefits which had come to the United States from free and unfettered trade throughout half a continent were now extended to practically a whole continent. Yet criticism of the new economic régime was not lacking. The growth of protectionist feeling in both countries after 1857 brought about inci- dents and created an atmosphere which were dan- gerous to the continuance of close trade relations. In 1858 and 1859 the Canadian Government raised substantially the duties on manufactured goods in order to meet the bills for its lavish railway pol- icy. This increase hit American manufacturers and led to loud complaints that the spirit of the Reciprocity Treaty had been violated. Alexander T. Galt, Canadian Minister of Finance, had no difficulty in showing that the tariff increases were the only feasible sources of revenue, that the agreement with the United States did not cover manufactures, and that the United States itself, faced by war demands and no longer controlled by free trade Southerners, had raised duties still higher. The exports of the United States to the Provinces in the reciprocity period were greater, contrary to the later traditions, than the imports. On economic grounds the case for the continuance THE UNION ERA 125 of the reciprocity agreement was strong, and prob- ably the treaty would have remained in force in- definitely had not the political passions roused by the Civil War made sanity and neighborliness in trade difficult to maintain. When the Civil War broke out, the sympathies of Canadians were overwhelmingly on the side of the North. The railway and freer trade had been bringing the two peoples closer together, and time was healing old sores. Slavery was held to be the real issue, and on that issue there were scarcely two opinions in the British Provinces. Yet in a few months sympathy had given way to angry and suspicious bickering, and the possi- bility of invasion of Canada by the Northern forces was vigorously debated. This sudden shift of opin- ion and the danger in which it involved the prov- inces were both incidents in the quarrel which sprang up between the United States and Great Britain. In Britain as in Canada, opinion, so far as it found open expression, was at first not un- friendly to the North. Then came the anger of the North at Great Britain’s legitimate and necessary, though perhaps precipitate, action in acknowledg- ing the South as a belligerent. This action ran 126 THE CANADIAN DOMINION counter to the official Northern theory that the revolt of the Southern States was a local riot, of merely domestic concern, and was held to fore- shadow a recognition of the independence of the Confederacy. The angry taunts were soon re- turned. The ruling classes in Great Britain made the discovery that the war was a struggle between chivalrous gentlemen and mercenary counterhop- pers and cherished the hope that the failure of the North would discredit, the world over, the de- mocracy which was making uncomfortable claims in England itself. The English trading classes resented the shortage of cotton and the high duties which the protectionist North was imposing. With the defeat of the Union forces at Bull Run the prudent hesitancy of aristocrat and merchant in expressing their views disappeared. The responsi- ble statesmen of both countries, especially Lincoln and Lord John Russell, refused to be stampeded, but unfortunately the leading newspapers served them ill. The Times, with its constant sneers and its still more irritating patronizing advice, and the New York Herald, bragging and blustering in the frank hope of forcing a war with Britain and France which would reunite South and North and sub- ordinate the slavery issue, did more than any THE UNION ERA 127 other factors to bring the two countries to the verge of war. -In Canada the tendency in some quarters to reflect English opinion, the disappointment in others that the abolition of slavery was not ex- plicitly pledged by the North, and above all re- sentment against the threats of the Herald and its followers, soon cooled the early friendliness. The leading Canadian newspaper, for many years a vigorous opponent of slavery, thus summed up the situation in August, 1861: The insolent bravado of the Northern press towards Great Britain and the insulting tone assumed toward these Provinces have unquestionably produced a marked change in the feelings of our people. When the war commenced, there was only one feeling, of hearty sympathy with the North, but now it is very differ- ent. People have lost sight of the character of the struggle in the exasperation excited by the injustice and abuse showered upon us by the party with which we sympathized." The Trent affair brought matters to a sobering climax.? When it was settled, resentment lingered, but the tension was never again so acute. Both in * Toronto Globe, August 7, 1861. 2See Abraham Lincoln and the Union, by Nathaniel W. Stephenson (in The Chronicles of America). 128 THE CANADIAN DOMINION Great Britain and in Canada the normal sym- pathy with the cause of the Union revived as the war went on. In England the classes continued to be pro-Southern in sympathy, but the masses, in spite of cotton famines, held resolutely to their faith in the cause of freedom. After Lincoln’s emancipation of the slaves, the view of the English middle classes more and more became the view of the nation. In Canada, pro-Southern sentiment was strong in the same classes and particularly in Montreal and Toronto, where there were to be found many Southern refugees, some of whom made a poor return for hospitality by endeavoring to use Canada as a base for border raids. Yet in the smaller towns and in the country sympathy was decidedly on the other side, particularly after the Herald had ceased its campaign of bluster and after Lincoln’s proclamation had brought the moral issue again to the fore. The fact that a large number of Canadians, popularly set at forty thousand, enlisted in the Northern armies, is to be explained in part by the call of adventure and the lure of high bounties, but it must also be taken to reflect the sympathy of the mass of the people. In the United States resentment was slower in passing. While the war was on, prudence forbade THE UNION ERA 129 any overt act. When it was over, the bill for the Alabama raids and the taunts of the Times came in. Great Britain paid in the settlement of the Ala- bama claims. Canada suffered by the abrogation of the Reciprocity Treaty at the first possible date, and by the connivance of the American authorities in the Fenian raids of 1866 and 1870. Yet for Canada the outcome was by no means ill. Ii the Civil War did not bring forth a new nation in the South, it helped to make one in the far North. A common danger drew the scattered British Provinces together and made ready the way for the coming Dominion of Canada. It was not from the United States alone that an impetus came for the closer union of the British Provinces. The same period and the same events ripened opinion in the United Kingdom in favor of some practical means of altering a colonial relation- ship which had ceased to bring profit but which had not ceased to be a burden of responsibility and risk. The British Empire had its beginning in the ini- tiative of private business men, not in any con- scious policy of state. Yet as the Empire grew the teaching of doctrinaires and the example t See The Day of the Confederacy, by Nathaniel W. Stephenson; and The Path of Empire (in The Chronicles of America). 130 THE CANADIAN DOMINION of other colonial powers had developed a definite policy whereby the plantations overseas were to be made to serve the needs of the nation at home. The end of empire was commercial profit; the means, the political subordination of the colonies; the debit entry, the cost of the military and naval and diplomatic services borne by the mother country. But the course of events had now broken down this theory. Britain, for her own good, had abandoned protection, and with it fell the system of preference and monopoly in colonial markets. Not only preference had gone but even equality. The colonies, notably Canada, which was most influenced by the United States, were perversely using their new found freedom to protect their own manufacturers against all outsiders, Britain in- cluded. When Sheffield cutlers, hard hit by Canada’s tariff, protested to the Colonial Secretary and he echoed their remonstrance, the Canadian Minis- ter of Finance, A. T. Galt, stoutly refused to heed. “Self-government would be utterly annihilated,” Galt replied in 1860, “if the views of the Imperial Government were to be preferred to those of the people of Canada. It is therefore the duty of the present government distinctly to affirm the right of the Canadian legislature to adjust the taxation THE UNION ERA 131 of the people in the way they deem best — even if it should unfortunately happen to meet the dis- approval of the Imperial Ministry.’ Clearly, if trade advantage were the chief purpose of empire, the Empire had lost its reason for being. With the credit entry fading, the debit entry loomed up bigger. Hardly had the Corn Laws been abolished when Radical critics called on the British Government to withdraw the redcoat garrisons from the colonies: no profit, no defense. Slowly but steadily this reduction was effected. To fill the gaps, the colonies began to strengthen their militia forces. In Canada only a beginning had been made in the way of defense when the Trent episode brought matters to a crisis. If war broke out between the United States and Great Britain, Canada would be the battlefield. Every Canadian knew it; nothing could be clearer. When the danger of immediate war had passed, the Parliament of Canada turned to the provision of more adequate defense. A bill providing for a compulsory levy was defeated in 1862, more on personal and party grounds than on its own merits, and the Ministry next in office took the other course of increasing the volunteer force and of providing for officers’ training. Compared with any earlier arrangements 132 THE CANADIAN DOMINION for defense, the new plans marked a great advance; but when judged in the light of the possible neces- sity of repelling American invasion, they were plainly inadequate. A burst of criticism followed from England; press and politicians joined in denouncing the blind and supine colonials. Did they not know that invasion by the United States was inevitable? ‘If the people of the North fail,” declared a noble lord, “they will attack Canada as a compensation for their losses; if they succeed, they will attack Canada in the drunkenness of victory.”” If such an invasion came, Britain had neither the power nor the will, the Times declared, to protect Canada without any aid on her part; not the power, for “our empire is too vast, our population too small, our antagonist too power- ful”; not the will, for “‘we no longer monopolize the trade of the colonies; we no longer job their patronage.”” To these amazing attacks Canadians replied that they knew the United States better than Englishmen did. They were prepared to take their share in defense, but they could not forget that if war came it would not be by any act of Canada. It was soon noted that those who most loudly denounced Canada for not arming to the teeth were the Southern sympathizers. ‘‘The THE UNION ERA 133 Times has done more than its share in creating bad feeling between England and the United States,” declared a Toronto newspaper, “‘and would have liked to see the Canadians take up the quarrel which it has raised. ... We have no idea of Canada being made a victim of the Jefferson Bricks on either side of the Atlantic.” The question of defense fell into the background when the war ended and the armies of the Union went back to their farms and shops. But the dis- cussion left in the minds of most Englishmen the belief that the possession of such colonies was a doubtful blessing. Manchester men like Bright, Liberals like Gladstone and Cornewall Lewis, Conservatives like Lowe and Disraeli, all came to believe that separation was only a question of time. Yet honor made them hesitate to set the defenseless colonies adrift to be seized by the first hungry neighbor. At this juncture the plans for uniting all the colonies in one great federation seemed to open a way out; united, the colonies could stand alone. Thus Confederation found support in Britain as well as a stimulus from the United States. This, however, was not enough. Confederation would not have come when it did — and that might have 134 THE CANADIAN DOMINION meant it would never have come at all — had not party and sectional deadlock forced Canadian politicians to seek a remedy in a wider union. At first all had gone well with the Union of 1841. It did not take the politicians long to learn how to use the power that responsible government put into their hands. After Elgin’s day the Governor General fell back into the réle of constitutional monarch which cabinet control made easy for him. In the forties, men had spoken of Sydenham and Bagot, Metcalfe and Elgin; in the fifties, they spoke of Baldwin and La Fontaine, Hincks and Macdonald and Cartier and Brown, and less and less of the Governors in whose name these men ruled. Politics then attracted more of the coun- try’s ablest men than it does now, and the party leaders included many who would have made their mark in any parliament in the world. Baldwin and La Fontaine, united to the end, resigned office in 1851, believing that they had played their part in establishing responsible government and feeling out of touch with the radical elements of their following who were demanding further change. Their place was taken in Canada West by Hincks, an adroit tactician and a skilled financier, intent on railway building and trade development; and THE UNION ERA 135 in Canada East by Morin, a somewhat colorless lieutenant of La Fontaine. But these leaders in turn soon gave way to new men; and the political parties gradually fell into a state of flux. In Canada West there were still a few Tories, survivors of the Family Compact and last-ditch defenders of privilege in Church and State, a growing number of moderate Conserv- atives, a larger group of moderate Liberals, and a small but aggressive extreme left wing of “Clear Grits,”? mainly Scotch Presbyterians, foes of any claim to undue power on the part of class or clergy. In Canada East the English members from the Townships, under A. T. Galt, were ceasing to vote as a unit, and the main body of French-Canadian members were breaking up into a moderate Liberal party, and a smaller group of Rouges, fiery young men under the leadership of Papineau, now re- turned from exile, were crusading against clerical pretensions and all the established order. The situation was one made to the hand of a master tactician. The time brought forth the man. John A. Macdonald, a young Kingston law- yer of Tory upbringing, or “John A.”, as genera- tion after generation affectionately called him, was to prove the greatest leader of men in Canada’s 136 THE CANADIAN DOMINION annals. Shrewd, tactful, and genial, never forget- ting a face or a favor, as popular for his human frailties as for his strength, Macdonald saw that the old party lines drawn in the days of the strug- gle for responsible government were breaking down and that the future lay with a union of the mod- erate elements in both parties and both sec- tions. He succeeded in 1854 in bringing together in Canada West a strong Liberal-Conservative group and in effecting a permanent alliance with the main body of French-Canadian Liberals, now under the leadership of Cartier, a vigorous fighter and an easy-going opportunist. With the addi- tion of Galt as the financial expert, these allies held power throughout the greater part of the next dozen years. Their position was not unchallenged. The Clear Grits had found a leader after their own heart in George Brown, a Scotchman of great ability, a hard hitter and a good hater — especially of slavery, the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and “John A.” Through his newspaper, the Toronto Globe, he wielded a power unique in Canadian journalism. The Rouges, now led by A. A. Dorion, a man of stainless honor and essentially moderate temper, withdrew from their extreme anti-clerical position but could not live down their youth or THE UNION ERA 137 make head against the forces of conservatism in their province. They did not command many votes in the House, but every man of them was an orator, and they remained through all vicissitudes a power to reckon with. ; Step by step, under Liberal and under Liberal- Conservative Governments, the programme of Can- adian Liberalism was carried into effect. Self-gov- ernment, at least in domestic affairs, had been attained. An effective system of municipal govern- ment and a good beginning in popular education followed. The last link between Church and State was severed in 1854 when the Clergy Reserves were turned over to the municipalities for secular purposes, with life annuities for clergymen who had been receiving stipends from the Reserves. In Lower Canada the remnants of the old feudal system, the rights of the seigneurs, were abolished in the same year with full compensation from the state. An elective upper Chamber took the place of the appointed Legislative Council a year later. The Reformers, as the Clear Grits preferred to call themselves officially, should perhaps have been content with so much progress. They insisted, however, that a new and more intolerable privilege had arisen — the privilege which Canada East 138 THE CANADIAN DOMINION held of equal representation in the Legislative Assembly long after its population had fallen behind that of Canada West. The political union of the two Canadas in fact had never been complete. Throughout the Union period there were two leaders in each Cabinet, two Attorney Generals, and two distinct judicial sys- tems. Every session laws were passed applying to one section alone. This continued separation had its beginning in a clause of the Union Act it- self, which provided that each section should have equal representation in the Assembly, even though Lower Canada then had a much larger population than Upper Canada. When the tide of overseas immigration put Canada West well in the lead, it in its turn was denied the full representation its greater population warranted. First the Conser- vatives, and later the Clear Grits, took up the cry of “Representation by Population.’ It was not difficult to convince the average Canada West elector that it was an outrage that three French- Canadian voters should count as much as four English-speaking voters. Macdonald, relying for power on his alliance with Cartier, could not ac- cept the demand, and saw seat after seat in Can- ada West fall to Brown and his “Rep. by Pop.” THE UNION ERA 139 crusaders. Brown’s success only solidified Canada East against him, until, in the early sixties, party lines coincided almost with sectional lines. Parties were so closely matched that the life of a Ministry was short. In the three years ending in 1864 there were two general elections and four Ministries. Po- litical controversy became bitterly personal, and corruption was spreading fast. Constant efforts were made to avert the threat- ened deadlock. Macdonald, who always trusted more to personal management than to constitu- tional expedients, won over one after another of the opponents who troubled him, and thus post- poned the day of reckoning. Rival plans of con- stitutional reform were brought forward. The simplest remedy was the repeal of the union, leaving each province to go its own way. But this solution was felt to be a backward step and one which would create more problems than it would solve. More support was given the double major- ity principle, a provision that no measure affecting one section should be passed unless a majority from that section favored it, but this method broke down when put to a practical test. The Rouges, and later Brown, put forward a plan for the abolition of legis- lative union in favor of a federal union of the two 140 THE CANADIAN DOMINION Canadas. This lacked the wide vision of the fourth suggestion, which was destined to be adopted as the solution, namely, the federation of all British North America. Federal union, it was urged, would solve party and sectional deadlock by removing to local legis- latures the questions which created the greatest divergence of opinion. The federal union of the Canadas alone or the federal union of all British North America would either achieve thisend. But there were other ends in view which only the wider plan could serve. The needs of defense demanded a single control for all the colonies. The probable loss of the open market of the United States made it imperative to unite all the provinces in a single free trade area. The first faint stirrings of national ambition, prompting the younger men to throw off the leading strings of colonia] dependence, were stimulated by the vision of a country which would stretch from sea to sea. The westward growth of the United States and the reports of travelers were opening men’s eyes to the possibilities of the vast lands under the control of the Hudson’s Bay Com- pany and the need of asserting authority over these northern regions if they were to be held for the Crown. Eastward, also, men were awaking THE UNION ERA 141 to their isolation. There was not, in the Maritime Provinces, any popular desire for union with the Canadas or any political crisis compelling drastic remedy, but the need of union for defense was felt in some quarters, and ambitious politicians who had mastered their local fields were beginning to sigh for larger worlds to conquer. It took the patient and courageous striving of many men to make this vision of a united country areality. The roll of the Fathers of Confederation is a long and honored one. Yet on that roll there are some outstanding names, the names of men’ whose services were not merely devoted but indis- pensable. The first to bring the question within the field of practical politics was A. T. Galt, but when attempt after attempt in 1864 to organize a Ministry with a safe working majority had failed, it was George Brown who proposed that the party leaders should join hands in devising some form of federation. Macdonald had hitherto been a stout opponent of all change but, once converted, he threw himself into the struggle with energy. He never appeared to better advantage than in the negotiations of the next few years, steering the ship of Confederation through the perilous shoals of personal and sectional jealousies. Few had a 142 THE CANADIAN DOMINION harder or a more important task than Cartier’s — reconciling Canada East to a project under which it would be swamped, in the proposed federal House, by the representatives of four or five English-speak- ing provinces. McDougall, a Canada West Re- former, shared with Brown the credit for awaken- ing Canadians to the value of the Far West and to the need of including it in their plans of expansion. D’Arcy McGee, more than any other, fired the imagination of the people with glowing pictures of the greatness and the hmitless possibilities of the new nation. Charles Tupper, the head of a Nova Scotia Conservative Ministry ‘which had overthrown the old tribune, Joseph Howe, had the hardest and seemingly most hope- less task of all; for his province appeared to be con- tent with its separate existence and was inflamed against union by Howe’s eloquent opposition; but to Tupper a hard fight was as the breath of his nos- trils. In New Brunswick, Leonard Tilley, a man of less vigor but equal determination, led the struggle until Confederation was achieved. It was in June, 1864, that the leaders of the Par- liament of Canada became convinced that federa- tion was the only way out. A coalition Cabinet was formed, with Sir Etienne Taché as nominal THE UNION ERA 143 Premier, and with Macdonald, Brown, Cartier, and Galt all included. An opening for discussing the wider federation was offered by a meeting which was to be held in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Is- land, of delegates from the three Maritime Prov- inces to consider the formation of a local union. There, in September, 1864, went eight of the Cana- dian Ministers. Their proposals met with favor. A series of banquets brought the plans before the public, seemingly with good results. The confer- ence was resumed a month later at Quebec. Here, in sixteen working days, delegates from Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Is- land, and also from Newfoundland, thirty-three in all, after frank and full deliberation behind closed doors, agreed upon the terms of union. Macdonald’s insistence upon a legislative union, wiping out all provincial boundaries, was over- ridden; but the lesson of the conflict between the federal and state jurisdiction in the United States was seen in provisions to strengthen the central authority. The general government was empowered to appoint the lieutenant governors of the various provinces and to veto any provin- cial law; to it were assigned all legislative powers not specifically granted to the provinces; and a 144 THE CANADIAN DOMINION subsidy granted: by the general government in lieu of the customs revenues resigned by the provinces still further increased their dependence upon the central authority. It had taken less than three weeks to draw up the plan of union. It took nearly three years to secure its adoption. So far as Canada was con- cerned, little trouble was encountered. ~ British traditions of parliamentary supremacy prevented any direct submission of the question to the people; but their support was clearly manifested in the press and on the platform, and the legisla- ture ratified the project with emphatic majorities from both sections of the province. Though it did not pass without opposition, particularly from the Rouges under Dorion and from steadfast supporters of old ways like Christopher Dunkin and Sandfield Macdonald, the fight was only half- hearted. Not so, however, in the provinces by the sea. The delegates who returned from the Que- bec Conference were astounded to meet a storm of criticism. Local pride and local prejudice were aroused. The thrifty maritime population feared Canadian extravagance and Canadian high tariffs. They were content to remain as they were and fear- ful of the unknown. Here and there advocates THE UNION ERA 145 of annexation to the United States swelled the chorus. Merchants in Halifax and St. John feared that trade would be drawn away to Montreal. Above all, Howe, whether because of personal pique or of intense local patriotism, had put him- self at the head of the agitation against union, and his eloquence could still play upon the preju- dices of the people. The Tilley Government in New Brunswick was swept out of power early in 1865. Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland both drew back, the one for eight years, the other to remain outside the fold to the present day. In Nova Scotia a similar fate was averted only by Tupper’s Fabian tactics. Then the tide turned. In New Brunswick the Fenian Raids, pressure from the Colonial Office, and the blunders of the anti- Confederate Government brought Tilley back to power on a Confederation platform a year later. Tupper seized the occasion and carried his motion through the Nova Scotia House. Without seeking further warrant the delegates from Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick met in London late in 1866, and there in consultation with the Colonial Office drew up the final resolutions. They were embodied in the British North America Act which went through the Imperial Parliament not only 146 THE CANADIAN DOMINION without raising questions but even without ex- citing interest. On July 1, 1867, the Dominion of Canada, as the new federation was to be known, came into being. It is a curious coincidence that the same date witnessed the establishment of the North German Bund, which in less than three years was to expand into the German Empire. CHAPTER IV THE DAYS OF TRIAL Tue federation of the four provinces was an ex- cellent achievement, but it was only a beginning on the long, hard road to nationhood. The Fa- thers of Confederation had set their goal and had proclaimed their faith. It remained for the next generation to seek to make their vision a reality. It was still necessary to make the Dominion actual by bringing in all the lands from sea to sea. And when, on paper, Canada covered half a continent, union had yet to be given body and substance by railway building and continuous settlement. The task of welding two races and many scattered provinces into a single people would call for all the statesmanship and prudence the country had to give. To chart the relations between the federal and the provincial authorities, which had so nearly brought to shipwreck the federal experiment of Canada’s great neighbor, was like navigating an 147 148 THE CANADIAN DOMINION unknown sea. And what was to be the attitude of the new Dominion, half nation, half colony, to the mother country and to the republic to the south, no one could yet foretell. The first problem which faced the Dominion was the organization of the new machinery of government. It was necessary to choose a federal Administration to guide the Parliament which was soon to meet at Ottawa, the capital of the old Canada since 1858 and now accepted as the capital of the larger Canada. It was necessary also to establish provincial Governments in Canada West, henceforth known as Ontario and in Canada East, or Quebec. The provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were to retain their existing provincial Governments. There was no doubt as to whom the Governor General, Lord Monck, should call to form the first federal Administration. Macdonald had proved himself easily the greatest leader of men the four provinces had produced. The entrance of two new provinces into the union, with all the possi- bilities of new party groupings and new personal alliances it involved, created a situation in which he had no rival. His great antagonist, Brown, passed off the parliamentary stage. When he THE DAYS OF TRIAL 149 proposed a coalition to carry through federation, Brown had recognized that he was sacrificing his chief political asset, the discontent of Canada West. But he was too true a patriot to hesitate a moment on that score, and in any case he was sufficiently confident of his own abilities to believe that he could hold his own in a fresh field. In this expectation he was deceived. No man among his contemporaries surpassed him in sheer ability, in fearless honesty, in vigor of debate, but he lacked Macdonald’s genial and supple art of managing men. And with broad questions of state policy for the moment out of the way, it was capacity in managing men that was to count in determining success. Never afterward did Brown take an active part in parliamentary life, though still a power in the land through his newspaper, the Toronto Globe, which was regarded as the Scotch Presbyterian’s second Bible. Of the other leaders of old Canada, Cartier with failing health was losing his vigor and losing also the prestige with his party which his solid Canada East majority had given him; Galt soon retired to private busi- ness, with occasional incursions into diplomacy; and McGee fell a victim in 1868 to a Fenian as- sassin. From the Maritime Provinces the ablest 150 THE CANADIAN DOMINION recruit was Tupper, the most dogged fighter in Can- adian parliamentary annals and a lifelong sworn ally of Macdonald. It was at first uncertain what the grouping of parties would be. Macdonald naturally wished to retain the coalition which assured him unques- tioned mastery, and the popular desire to give Confederation a good start also favored such a course. In his first Cabinet, formed with infinite difficulty, with provinces, parties, religions, races, all to consider in filling a limited number of posts, Macdonald included six Liberal ministers out of thirteen, three from Ontario, and three from the Maritime Provinces. Yet if an Opposition had not existed, it would have been necessary to create one in order to work the parliamentary machine. The attempt to keep the coalition together did not long succeed. On the eve of the first federal election the Ontario Reformers in convention decided to oppose the Government, even though it contained three of their former leaders. In the contest, held in August and September, 1867, Macdonald triumphed in every province except Nova Scotia but faced a growing Opposition party. Under the virtual leadership of Alexander Mackenzie, fragments of parties from the four provinces were THE DAYS OF TRIAL 151 united into a single Liberal group. In a few years the majority of the Liberal rank and file were back in the fold, and the Liberal members in the Cabinet had become frankly Conservative. Coalition had faded away. Within six years after Confederation the whole northern half of the continent had been absorbed by Canada. The four original provinces comprised only one-tenth of the area of the present Domin- ion, some 377,000 square miles as against 3,730,- 000 today. The most easterly of the provinces, little Prince Edward Island, had drawn back in 1865, content in isolation. Eight years later this province entered the fold. Hard times and a glimpse of the financial strength of the new federa- tion had wrought a change of heart. The solution of the century-old problem of the island, absentee landlordism, threatened to strain the finances of the province; and men began to look to Ottawa for relief. A railway crisis turned their thoughts in the same direction. The provincial authorities had recently arranged for the building of a narrow- gauge road from one end of the island to the other. It was agreed that the contractors should be paid £5000 a mile in provincial debentures, but without 152 THE CANADIAN DOMINION any stipulation as to the total length, so that the builders caused the railway to meander and zig- zag freely in search of lower grades or long paying stretches. In 1873, which was everywhere a year of black depression, it was found that these deben- tures, which were pledged by the contractors to a local bank for advances, could not be sold except at a heavy loss. The directors of the bank were influential in the Government of the province. It was not surprising, therefore, that the gov- ernment soon opened negotiations with Ottawa. The Dominion authorities offered generous terms, financing the land purchase scheme, and taking over the railway. Some of the islanders made bitter charges, but the Legislature confirmed the agreement, and on July 1, 1873, Prince Edward Island entered Confederation. While Prince Edward Island was deciding to come in, Nova Scotia was straining every nerve to get out. There was no question that Nova Scotia had been brought into the union against its will. The provincial Legislature in 1866, it is true, backed Tupper. But the people backed Howe, who thereupon went to London to protest against the inclusion of Nova Scotia without consulting the electors, but he was not heeded. The passing THE DAYS OF TRIAL 153 of the Act only redoubled the agitation. In the provincial election of 1867, the anti-Confederates carried thirty-six out of thirty-eight seats. In the federal election Tupper was the only union candi- date returned in nineteen seats contested. A second delegation was sent to London to demand repeal. Tupper crossed the ocean to counter this effort and was successful. Then he sought out Howe, urged that further agitation was useless and could only bring anarchy or, what both counted worse, a movement for annexation to the United States, and pressed him to use his influence to allay the storm. Howe gave way; unfortunately for his own fame, he went further and accepted a seat in the federal Cabinet. Many of his old fol- lowers kept up the fight, but others decided to make a bargain with necessity. Macdonald agreed to give the province “better terms,’ and the Do- minion assumed a larger part of its debt. The bitterness aroused by Tupper’s high-handed pro- cedure lingered for many a day; but before the first Parliament was over, repeal had ceased to be a practical issue. Union could never be real so long as leagues of barren, unbroken wilderness separated the mari- time from the central provinces. Free intercourse, 154 THE CANADIAN DOMINION ties of trade, knowledge which would sweep away prejudice, could not come until a railway had spanned this wilderness. In the fifties plans had been made for a main trunk line to run from Hali- fax to the Detroit River. This ambitious scheme proved too great for the resources of the separate provinces, but sections of the road were built in each province. As a condition of Confederation, the Dominion Government undertook to fill in the long gaps. Surveys were begun immediate- ly; and by 1876, under the direction of Sandford Fleming, an engineer of eminence, the Intercolonial Railway was completed. It never succeeded in making ends meet financially, but it did make ends meet politically. In great measure it achieved the purpose of national solidification for which it was mainly designed. Meanwhile the bounds of the Dominion were being pushed westward to the Pacific. The old province of Canada, as the heir of New France, had vague claims to the western plains, but the Hudson’s Bay Company was in possession. The Dominion decided to buy out its rights and agreed, in 1869, to pay the Company £300,000 for the transfer of its lands and exclusive privileges, the Company to retain its trading posts and two THE DAYS OF TRIAL 155 sections in every township. So far all went well. But the Canadian Government, new to the tasks of empire and not as efficient in administration as it should have been, overlooked the necessity of consulting the wishes and the prejudices of the men on the spot. It was not merely land and buf- falo herds which were being transferred but also sovereignty over a people. In the valley of the Red River there were some twelve thousand métis, or half-breeds, descendants of Indian mothers and French or Scottish fathers. The Dominion authorities intended to give them a large share in their own government but neglected to arrange for a formal conference. The métis were left to gather their impression of the character and intentions of the new rulers from indiscreet and sometimes overbearing surveyors and land seekers. In 1869, under the leadership of Louis Riel, the one man of education in the settlement, able but vain and unbalanced, and with the Hudson’s Bay officials looking on unconcerned, the métis decided to oppose being made “the colony of a colony.” The Governor sent out from Ottawa was refused entrance, and a provisional Government under Riel assumed control. The Ottawa authorities first tried persuasion and sent a commission of three, 156 THE CANADIAN DOMINION Donald A. Smith (afterwards Lord Strathcona), Colonel de Salaberry, and Vicar General Thibault. Smith was gradually restoring unity and order, when the act of Riel in shooting Thomas Scott, an Ontario settler and a member of the powerful Orange order, set passions flaring. Mgr. Taché, the Catholic bishop of the diocese, on his return aided in quieting the métis. Delegates were sent by the Provisional Government to Ottawa, and, though not officially recognized, they influenced the terms of settlement. An expedition under Colonel Wolseley marched through the wilderness north of Lake Superior only to find that Riel and his lieu- tenants had fled. By the Manitoba Act the Red River country was admitted to Confederation as a self-governing province, under the name of Mani- toba, while the country west to the Rockies was given territorial status. The Indian tribes were handled with tact and justice, but though for the time the danger of armed resistance had passed, the embers of discontent were not wholly quenched. The extension of Canadian sovereignty beyond the Rockies came about in quieter fashion. After Mackenzie had shown the way, Simon Fraser and David Thompson and other agents of the North- West Company took up the work of exploration THE DAYS OF TRIAL 157 and fur trading. With the union of the two rival companies in 1821, the Hudson’s Bay Company became the sole authority on the Pacific coast. Settlers straggled in slowly until, in the late fifties, the discovery of rich placer gold on the Fraser and later in the Cariboo brought tens of thousands of miners from Australia and California, only to drift away again almost as quickly when the sands began to fail. Local governments had been established both in Vancouver Island and on the mainland. They were joined in a single province in 1866. One of the first acts of the new Legislature was to seek consolidation with the Dominion. Inspired by an enthusiastic Englishman, Alfred Waddington, who had dreamed for years of a transcontinental rail- way, the province stipulated that within ten years Canada should complete a road from the Pacific to a junction with the railways of the East. These terms were considered presumptuous on the part of a little settlement of ten or fifteen thousand whites; but Macdonald had faith in the resources of Can- ada and in what the morrow would bring forth. The bargain was made; and British Columbia entered the Confederation on July 1, 1871. East and West were now staked out. Only the 5 158 THE CANADIAN DOMINION Far North remained outside the bounds of the Do- minion and this was soon acquired. In 1879 the British Government transferred to Canada all its rights and claims over the islands in the Arctic Archipelago and all other British territory in North America save Newfoundland and its strip of Labra- dor. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the forty-ninth parallel to the North Pole, now all was Canadian soil. Confederation brought new powers and new re- sponsibilities and thrust Canada into the field of foreign affairs. It was with slow and groping steps that the Dominion advanced along this new path. Then — as now — for Canada foreign rela- tions meant first and foremost relations with her great neighbor to the south. The likelihood of war had passed. The need for closer trade relations remained. When the Reciprocity Treaty was brought to an end, on March 17, 1866, Canada at first refrained from raising her tariff walls. “‘The provinces,’’ as George Brown declared in 1874, “assumed that there were matters existing in 1865-66 to trouble the spirit of American statesmen for the moment, and they waited patiently for the sober second thought which was very long in THE DAYS OF TRIAL 159 coming, but in the meantime Canada played a good neighbor’s part, and incidentally served her own ends, by continuing to grant the United States most of the privileges which had been given under the treaty — free navigation and free goods, and, subject to a license fee, access to the fisheries.” It was over these fisheries that friction first de- veloped.‘ Canadian statesmen were determined to prevent poaching on the inshore fisheries, both because poaching was poaching and because they considered the fishery privileges the best make- weight in trade negotiations with the United States. At first American vessels were admitted on payment of a license fee; but when, on the increase of the fee, many vessels tried to fish inshore with- out permission, the license system was abolished, and in 1870 a fleet of revenue cruisers began to police the coast waters. American fishermen chafed at exclusion from waters they had come to con- sider almost their own, and there were many cases of seizure and of angry charge and counter- charge. President Grant, in his message to Con- gress in 1870, denounced the policy of the Canadian authorities as arbitrary and provocative. Other issues between the two countries were outstanding t See The Path of Empire. 160 THE CANADIAN DOMINION as well. Canada had a claim against the United States for not preventing the Fenian Raids of 1866; and the United States had a much bigger bill against Great Britain for neglect in permitting the escape of the Alabama. Some settlement of these disputed matters was necessary; and it was large- ly through the activities of a Canadian banker and politician, Sir John Rose, that an agreement was reached to submit all the issues to a joint commission. Macdonald was offered and accepted with mis- givings a post as one of the five British Com- missioners. He pressed the traditional Canadian policy of offering fishery for trade privileges but found no backing in this or other matters from his British colleagues, and he met only unyield- ing opposition from the American Commissioners. He fell back, under protest, on a settlement of narrower scope, which permitted reciprocity in navigation and bonding privileges, free admission of Canadian and Newfoundland fish to United States markets and of American fishermen to Canadian and Newfoundland waters, and which provided for a subsidiary commission to fix the amount to be paid by the United States for the surplus advantage thus received. The Fenian THE DAYS OF TRIAL 161 Raids claims were not even considered, and Mac- donald was angered by this indifference on the part of his British colleagues. ‘They seem to have only one thing in their minds,” he reported pri- vately to Ottawa, “that is, to go home to England with a treaty in their pocket, settling everything, no matter at what cost to Canada.” Yet when the time came for the Canadian Parliament to decide whether to ratify the fishery clauses of the Treaty of Washington in which the conclusions of the commission were embodied, Macdonald, in spite of the unpopularity of the bargain in Canada, urged Parliament “to accept the treaty, accept it with all its imperfections, to accept it for the sake of peace and for the sake of the great Empire of which we form a part.” The treaty was ratified in 1871 by all the powers concerned; and the stim- ulus to the peaceful settlement of international disputes given by the Geneva Tribunal which followed? justified the subordination of Canada’s specific interests. A change in party now followed in Canada, but the new Government under Alexander Mackenzie was as fully committed as the Government of Sir John Macdonald to the policy of bartering fishery «See The Path of Empire. It 162 THE CANADIAN DOMINION for trade advantage. Canada therefore proposed that instead of carrying out the provisions for a money settlement, the whole question should be reopened. The Administration at Washington was sympathetic. George Brown was appointed along with the British Ambassador, Sir Edward Thorn- ton, to open negotiations. Under Brown’s ener- getic leadership a settlement of all outstanding issues was drafted in 1874, which permitted free- dom of trade in natural and in most manufactured products for twenty-one years, and settled fishery, coasting trade, navigation, and minor boundary issues. But diplomats proposed, and the United States Senate disposed. Protectionist feeling was strong at Washington, and the currency problem absorbing, and hence this broad and statesmanlike essay in neighborliness could not secure an hour’s attention. This plan having failed, the Canadian Government fell back on the letter of the treaty. A Commission which consisted of the Honorable E. H. Kellogg representing the United States, Sir Alexander T. Galt representing Canada, and the Belgian Minister to Washington, M. Delfosse, as chairman, awarded Canada and Newfoundland $5,500,000 as the excess value of the fisheries for the ten years the arrangement was to run. The THE DAYS OF TRIAL 163 award was denounced in the United States as absurdly excessive; but a sense of honor and the knowledge that millions of dollars from the Ala- bama award were still in the Treasury moved the Senate finally to acquiesce, though only for the ten-year term fixed by treaty. In Canada the award was received with delight as a signal proof that when left to themselves Canadians could hold their own. The prevailing view was well summed up in a letter from Mackenzie to the Canadian representative on the Halifax commission, written shortly before the decision: “I am glad you still have hopes of a fair verdict. I am doubly anxious to have it, first, because we are entitled to it and need the dollars, and, second, because it will be the first Canadian diplomatic triumph, and will justify me in insisting that we know our neighbors and our own business better than any Englishmen.”’ Mackenzie’s insistence that Canada must take a larger share in the control of her foreign affairs was too advanced a stand for many of his more con- servative countrymen. For others, he did not go far enough. The early seventies saw the rise of a short-lived movement in favor of Canadian inde- pendence. To many independence from England seemed the logical sequel to Confederation; and 164 THE CANADIAN DOMINION the rapid expansion of Canadian territory over half a continent stimulated national pride and national self-consciousness. Opinion in England regarding Canadian independence was still more outspoken. There imperialism was at its lowest ebb. With scarcely an exception, English politi- cians, from Bright ‘to Disraeli,‘ were hostile or indifferent. to Ronnection with the colonies, which had now ceased to be a trade asset and had clearly become a military liability. But ‘no .concrete’ problem, arose to make the matter a political issue. In England a growing uneasiness over the protectionist policies and the colonial ambitions of her. European rivals were soon to revive imperial sentiment. In Canada the ties of affection for the old land, as well as the in- ertia fostered by long years of colonial dependence, kept the independence movement from spreading far. For the time the rising national spirit found expression in economic rather than political chan- nels. The protectionist movement which a few years later swept all Canada before it owed much of its strength to its claim to be the national policy. But it was not imperial or foreign relations that dominated public interest in the seventies. THE DAYS OF TRIAL 165 Domestic politics were intensely absorbing and bitterly contested. Within five years there came about two sudden and sweeping reversals of power. Parties and Cabinets which had seemed firmly en- trenched were dramatically overthrown by sudden changes in the personal factors and in the issues of the day. In the summer of 1872 the second general election for the Dominion was held. The Opposition had now gained in strength. The Government had ceased to be in any real sense a coalition, and most of the old Liberal rank and file were back in the party camp. They had found a vigorous leader in Alexander Mackenzie. Mackenzie had come to Canada from Scotland in 1842 as a lad of twenty. He worked at his trade as a stonemason, educated himself by wide reading and constant debating, became a successful con- tractor and, after Confederation, had proved him- self one of the most aggressive and uncompro- mising champions of Upper Canada Liberalism. In the first Dominion Parliament he tacitly came to be regarded as the leader of all the groups opposed to the Macdonald Administration. He was at the same time active in the Ontario Legis- lature since, for the first five years of Confedera- tion, no law forbade membership in both federal 166 THE CANADIAN DOMINION and provincial Parliaments, and the short sessions of that blessed time made such double service feasible. Here he was aided by two other men of outstanding ability, Edward Blake and Oliver Mowat. Blake, the son of a well-to-do Irishman who had been active in the fight for responsible government, became Premier of Ontario in 1871 but retired in 1872 when a law abolishing dual rep- resentation made it necessary for him to choose be- tween Toronta ond Ottawa. His place was taken by Mowat, who for a quarter of a century gave the province thrifty, honest, and conservatively progressive government. In spite of the growing forces opposed to him Macdonald triumphed once more in the election of 1872. Ontario fell away, but Quebec and the Maritime Provinces stood true. A Conservative majority of thirty or forty seemed to assure Macdonald another five-year lease of power. Yet within a year the Pacific Scandal had driven him from office and overwhelmed him in disgrace. The Pacific Scandal occurred in connection with the financing of the railway which the Dominion Government had promised British Columbia, when that province entered Confederation in 1871, would be built through to the Pacific coast within ten THE DAYS OF TRIAL _ 167 years. The bargain was good politics but poor business. It was a rash undertaking for a people of three and a half millions, with a national reve- nue of less than twenty million dollars, to pledge itself to build a railway through the rocky wilder- ness north of Lake Superior, through the trackless plains and prairies of the middle west, and across the mountain ranges that barred the coast. Yet Macdonald had sufficient faith in the country, in himself, and in the happy accidents of time —a confidence that won him the nickname of “Old Tomorrow” — to give the pledge. Then came the question of ways and means. At first the Govern- ment planned to build the road. On second thoughts, however, it decided to follow the example set by the United States in the construction of the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific, and to entrust the work to a private company liberally subsi- dized with land and cash. Two companies were or- ganized with a view to securing the contract, one a Montreal company under Sir Hugh Allan, the foremost Canadian man of business and the head of the Allan steamship fleet, and the other a To- ronto company under D. L. Macpherson, who had been concerned in the building of the Grand Trunk. Their rivalry was intense. After the election of 168 THE CANADIAN DOMINION 1872 a strong compromise company was formed, with Allan at the head, and to this company the contract was awarded. When Parliament met in 1872, a Liberal mem- ber, L. S. Huntington, made the charge that Allan had really been acting on behalf of certain Amer- ican capitalists and that he had made lavish con- tributions to the Government campaign fund in the recent election. In the course of the summer these charges were fully substantiated. Allan was proved by his own correspondence, stolen from his solicitor’s office, to have spent over $350,000, largely advanced by his American allies, in buying the favor of newspapers and politicians. Nearly half of this amount had been contributed to the Conservative campaign fund, with the knowledge and at the instance of Cartier and Macdonald. Macdonald, while unable to disprove the charges, urged that there was no connection between the con- tributions and the granting of the charter. But his defense was not heeded. A wave of indignation swept the country; his own supporters in Parlia- ment fell away; and in November, 1873, he resigned. Mackenzie, who was summoned to form a new Min- istry, dissolved Parliament and was sustained by a majority of two to one. THE DAYS OF TRIAL 169 Mackenzie gave the country honest and effi- cient administration. Among his most. important achievements were the reform of elections by the introduction of the secret ballot and the require- ment that elections should be held on a single day instead of being spread over weeks, a measure of local option in controlling the liquor traffic, and the establishment of a Canadian Supreme Court and the Royal Military College — the Canadian West Point. But fate and his own limitations were against him. He was too absorbed in the de- tails of administration to have time for the work of a party leader. In his policy of constructing the Canadian Pacific as a government road, after Allan had resigned his charter, he manifested a cau- tion and a slowness that brought British Colum- bia to the verge of secession. But it was chiefly the world-wide depression that began in his first year of office, 1873, which proved his undoing. Trade was stagnant, bankruptcies multiplied, and acute suffering occurred among the poor in the larger cities. Mackenzie had no solution to offer except patience and economy; and the Opposition were freer to frame an enticing policy. The coun- try was turning toward a high tariff as the solu- tion of its ills. Protection had not hitherto been a 170 THE CANADIAN DOMINION party issue in Canada, and it was still uncertain which party would take it up. Finally Mackenzie, who was an ardent free trader, and the Nova Scotia wing of his party triumphed over the protectionists in their own ranks and made a low tariff the party platform. Macdonald, who had been prepared to take up free trade if Mackenzie adopted protection, now boldly urged the high tariff panacea. The promise of work and wages for all, the appeal to national spirit made by the arguments of self- sufficiency and fully rounded development, the desire to retaliate against the United States, which was still deaf to any plea for more liberal trade relations, swept the country. The Conservative minority of over sixty was converted into a still greater majority in the general election of 1878, and the leader whom all men five years before had con- sidered doomed, returned to power, never to lose it while life lasted. The first task of the new Government, in which Tupper was Macdonald’s chief supporter, was to carry out its high tariff pledges. ‘‘Tell us how much protection you want, gentlemen,”’ said Macdonald toa group of Ontario manufacturers, “‘and we’ll give you what you need.” In the new tariff needs were rated almost as high as wants. Particularly on THE DAYS OF TRIAL 171 textiles, sugar, and iron and steel products, duties were raised far beyond the old levels and stimulated investment just as the world-wide depression which had lasted since 1873 passed away. Canada shared in the recovery and gave the credit to the well- advertised political patent medicine taken just be- fore the turn for the better came. For years the National Policy or “N. P.,” as its supporters termed it, had all the vogue of a popular tonic. The next task of the Government was to carry through in earnest the building of the railway to the Pacific. For over a year Macdonald persisted in Mackenzie’s policy of government construction but with the same slow and unsatisfactory results. Then an opportunity came to enlist the services of a private syndicate. Four Canadians, Donald A. Smith, a former Hudson’s Bay Company factor, George Stephen, a leading merchant and banker of Montreal, James J. Hill and Norman W. Kittson, owners of a small line of boats on the Red River, had joined forces to revive a bankrupt Minnesota railway.* They had succeeded beyond all parallel, and the reconstructed road, which later devel- oped into the Great Northern, made them all rich t See The Railroad Builders, by John Moody (in The Chronicles of America). 172 THE CANADIAN DOMINION overnight. This success whetted their appetite for further western railway building and further mil- lions of rich western acres in subsidies. They met Macdonald and Tupper half way. By the bargain completed in 1881 the Canadian Pacific Railway Company undertook to build and operate the road from the Ottawa Valley to the Pacific coast, in return for the gift of the completed portions of the road (on which the Government spent over $37,000,000), a subsidy of $25,000,000 in cash, 25,000,000 selected acres of prairie land, exemption from taxes, exemption from regulation of rates until ten per cent was earned, and a promise on the part of the Dominion to charter no western lines connecting with the United States for twenty years. The terms were lavish and were fiercely denounced by the Opposition, now under the leadership of Edward Blake. But the people were too eager for railway expansion to criticize the terms. The Government was returned to power in 1882 and the contract held. The new company was rich in potential re- sources but weak in available cash. Neither in New York nor in London could purse strings be loosened for the purpose of building a road through what the world considered a barren and Arctic THE DAYS OF TRIAL 173 wilderness. But in the faith and vision of the president, George Stephen, and the ruthless energy of the general manager, William Van Horne, American born and trained, the Canadian Pacific had priceless assets. Aided in critical times by further government loans, they carried the project through, and by 1886, five years before the time fixed by their contract, trains were running from Montreal to Port Moody, opposite Vancouver. A sudden burst of prosperity followed the build- ing of the road. Settlers poured into the West by tens of thousands, eastern investors promoted colonization companies, land values soared, and speculation gave a fillip to every line of trade. The middle eighties were years of achievement, of pros- perity, and of confident hope. Then prosperity fled as quickly as it had come. The West failed to hold its settlers. Farm and factory found neither markets nor profits. The country was bled white by emigration. Parliamentary contest and racial feud threatened the hard-won unity. Canada was passing through its darkest hours. During this period, political friction was inces- sant. Canada was striving to solve in the eight- ies the difficult question which besets all feder- ations — the limits between federal and provincial 174 THE CANADIAN DOMINION power. Ontario was the chief champion of provin- cial rights. The struggle was intensified by the fact that a Liberal Government reigned at To- ronto and a Conservative Government at Ot- tawa, as well as by the keen personal rivalry between Mowat and Macdonald. In nearly every constitutional duel Mowat triumphed. The ac- cepted range of the legislative power of the prov- inces was widened by the decisions of the courts, particularly of the highest court of appeal, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Eng- land. The successful resistance of Ontario and Manitoba to Macdonald’s attempt to disallow provincial laws proved this power, though con- ferred by the Constitution, to be an unwieldy weapon. By the middle nineties the veto had been virtually abandoned. More serious than these political differences was the racial feud that followed the second Riel Re- bellion. For a second time the Canadian Govern- ment failed to show the foresight and the sym- pathy required in dealing with an isolated and backward people. The valley of the Saskatche- wan, far northwest of the Red River, was the scene of the new difficulty. Here thousands of métis, or French half-breeds, had settled. The passing of THE DAYS OF TRIAL 175 the buffalo, which had been their chief subsistence, and the arrival of settlers from the East caused them intense alarm. They pressed the Govern- ment for certain grants of land and for the reten- tion of the old French custom of surveying the land along the river front in deep narrow strips, rather than according to the chessboard pattern taken over by Canada from the United States. Red tape, indifference, procrastination, rather than any ill- will, delayed the redress of the grievances of the half-breeds. In despair they called Louis Riel back from his exile in Montana. With his arrival the agitation acquired a new and dangerous force. Claiming to be the prophet of a new religion, he put himself at the head of his people and, in the spring of 1885, raised the flag of revolt. His military adviser, Gabriel Dumont, an old buffalo hunter, was a natural-born general, and the half- breeds were good shots and brave fighters. An expedition of Canadian volunteers was rushed west, and the rebellion was put down quickly, but not without some hard fighting and gallant strokes and counterstrokes. The racial passions roused by this conflict, how- ever, did not pass so quickly. The fate to be meted out to Riel was the burning question. Ontario 176 THE CANADIAN DOMINION saw in him the murderer of Scott and an ambitious plotter who had twice stirred up armed rebellion. Quebec saw in him a man of French blood, perse- cuted because he had stood up manfully for the undoubted rights of his kinsmen. ‘Today experts agree that Riel was insane and should have been spared the gallows on this if on no other account. But at the moment the plea of insanity was re- jected. The Government made up for its laxity before the rebellion by severity after it; and in November, 1885, Riel was sent to the scaffold. Bitterness rankled in many a French-Canadian heart for long years after; and in Ontario, where the Orange order was strongly entrenched, a fac- tion threatened “‘to smash Confederation into its original fragments” rather than submit to “French domination.” Racial and religious passions, once aroused, soon found new fuel to feed upon. Honoré Mercier, a brilliant but unscrupulous leader who had ridden to power in the province of Quebec on the Riel issue, roused Protestant ire by restoring estates which had been confiscated at the conquest in 1763 to the Jesuits and other Roman Catholic authori- ties, in proportions which the act provided were to be determined by “Our Holy Father the Pope.” THE DAYS OF TRIAL 177 In Ontario restrictions began to be imposed on the freedom of French-Canadian communities on the border to make French the sole or dominant tongue in the schoolroom. A little later the controversy was echoed in Manitoba in the repeal by a deter- mined Protestant majority of the denominational school privileges hitherto enjoyed by the Roman Catholic minority. Economic discontent was widespread. It was a time of low and falling prices. Farmers found the American market barred, the British market flooded, the home market stagnant. The factories stimulated by the “N. P.” lacked the growing market they had hoped for. In the West climatic conditions not yet understood, the monopoly of the Canadian Pacific, and the competition of the States to the south, which still had millions of acres of free land, brought settlement to a standstill. From all parts of Canada the “exodus” to the United States continued until by 1890 there were in that country more than one-third as many people of Canadian birth or descent as in Canada itself. It was not surprising that in these extremities men were prepared to make trial of drastic reme- dies. Nor was it surprising that it was beyond the 178 THE CANADIAN DOMINION borders of Canada itself that they sought the unity and the prosperity they had not found at home. Many looked to Washington, some for unrestricted trade, a few for political union. Others looked to London, hoping for a revival of the old imperial tariff preferences or for some closer political union which would bring commercial advantages in its train. The decade from 1885 to 1895 stands out in the record of the relations of the English-speaking peoples as a time of constant friction, of petty pin pricks, of bluster and retaliation. The United States was not in a neighborly mood. The mem- ories of 1776, of 1812, and of 1861 had been kept green by exuberant comment in school textbooks and by “‘spread-eagle’’ oratory. The absence of any other rivalry concentrated American oppo- sition on Great Britain, and isolation from Old World interests encouraged a provincial lack of responsibility. The sins of England in Ireland had been kept to the fore by the agitation of Parnell and Davitt and Dillon; and the failure of Home Rule measures, twice in this decade, stirred Irish- American antagonism. The accession to power of Lord Salisbury, reputed to hold the United States in contempt, and later the foolish indiscretion of THE DAYS OF TRIAL 179 Sir Lionel Sackville-West, British Ambassador at Washington, in intervening in a guileless way in the presidential election of 1888, did as much to nour- ish ill-will in the United States as the dominance of Blaine and other politicians who cultivated the gentle art of twisting the tail of the British lion. Protection, with the attitude of economic war- fare which it involved and bred, was then at its height. Much of this hostility was directed against Canada, as the nearest British territory. The Do- minion, on its part, while persistently seeking closer trade relations, sometimes sought this end in unwise ways. Many good people in Canada were still fighting the War of 1812. The desire to use the inshore fishery privileges as a lever to force tariff reductions led to a rigid and literal enforce- ment of Canadian rights and claims which pro- voked widespread anger in New England. The policy of discrimination in canal tolls in favor of Canadian as against United States ports was none the less irritating because it was a retort in kind. And when United States customs officials levied a tax on the tin cans containing fish free by treaty, Canadian officials had retaliated by taxing the baskets containing duty-free peaches. The most important specific issue was once more 180 THE CANADIAN DOMINION the northeastern fisheries. As a result of notice given by the United States the fisheries clauses of the Treaty of Washington ceased to operate on July 1, 1885. Canada, for the sake of peace, ad- mitted American fishing vessels for the rest of that season, though Canadian fish at once became duti- able. No further grace was given. The Canadian authorities rigidly enforced the rules barring in- shore fishing, and in addition denied port privileges to deep-sea fishing vessels and forbade American boats to enter Canadian ports for the purpose of trans-shipping crews, purchasing bait, or shipping fish in bond to the United States. Every time a Canadian fishery cruiser and a Gloucester skipper had a difference of opinion as to the exact where- abouts of the three-mile limit, the press of both countries echoed the conflict. Congress in 1887 empowered the President to retaliate by excluding Canadian vessels and goods from American ports. Happily this power was not used. Cleveland and Secretary of State Bayard were genuinely anx- ious to have the issue settled. A joint commission drew up a well-considered plan, but in the face of a presidential election the Senate gave it short shrift. Fortunately, however, a modus vivendt was arranged by which American vessels were admitted THE DAYS OF TRIAL 181 to port privileges on payment of a license. Heal- ing time, a healthful lack of publicity, chang- ing fishing methods, and Canada’s abandonment of her old policy of using fishing privileges as a makeweight, gradually eased the friction. Yet if it was not the fishing question, there was sure to be some other issue — bonding privileges, Canadian Pacific interloping in western rail hauls, tariff rates, or canal tolls — to disturb the peace. Why not seek a remedy once for all, men now began to ask, by ending the unnatural separa- tion between the halves of the continent which God and geography had joined and history and perverse politicians had kept asunder? The political union of Canada and the United States has always found advocates. In the United States a large proportion, perhaps a majority, of the people have until recently considered that the absorption of Canada into the Republic was its manifest destiny, though there has been little concerted effort to hasten fate. In Canada such course of action has found much less backing. United Empire Loyalist traditions, the ties with Britain constantly renewed by immigration, the dim stirrings of national sentiment, resentment against the trade policy of the United States, have 182 THE CANADIAN DOMINION all helped to turn popular sentiment into other channels. Only at two periods, in 1849, and forty years later, has there been any active movement for annexation. In the late eighties, as in the late forties, com- mercial depression and racial strife prepared the soil for the seed of annexation. The chief sower in the later period was a brilliant Oxford don, Goldwin Smith, whose sympathy with the cause of the North had brought him to the United States. In 1871, after a brief residence at Cornell, he made his home in Toronto, with high hopes of stimulat- ing the intellectual life and molding the political future of the colony. He so far forsook the strait “Manchester School” of his upbringing as to sup- port Macdonald’s campaign for protection in 1878. But that was the limit of his adaptability. To the end he remained out of touch with Canadian feel- ing. His campaign for annexation, or for the reunion of the English-speaking peoples on this continent, as he preferred to call it, was able and persistent but moved only a narrow circle of readers. It was in vain that he offered the example of Scotland’s prosperity after her union with her southern neighbor, or insisted that Canada was cut into four distinct and unrelated sections each THE DAYS OF TRIAL 183 of which could find its natural complement only in the territory to the south. Here and there an editor or a minor politician lent some support to his views, but the great mass of the people strongly condemned the movement. There was to be no going back to the parting of the ways: the con- tinent north of Mexico was henceforth to witness two experiments in democracy, not one unwieldy venture. Commercial union was a half-way measure which found more favor. A North American customs union had been supported by such public men as Stephen A. Douglas, Horace Greeley, and William H. Seward, by official investigators such as Taylor, Derby, and Larned, and by committees of the House of Representatives in 1862, 1876, 1880, and 1884. In Canada it had been endorsed before Confederation by Isaac Buchanan, the father of the protection movement, and by Luther Holton and John Young. Now for the first time it became a practical question. Erastus Wiman, a Canadian who had found fortune in the United States, began in 1887 a vigorous campaign in its favor both in Congress and among the Canadian public. Gold- win Smith lent his dubious aid, leading Toronto and Montreal newspapers joined the movement, 184 THE CANADIAN DOMINION and Ontario farmers’ organizations swung to its support. But the agitation proved abortive owing to the triumph of high protection in the presiden- tial election of 1888; and in Canada the red herring of the Jesuits’ Estates controversy was drawn across the trail. - Yet the question would not down. The political parties were compelled to define their attitude. The Liberals had been defeated once more in the election of 1887, where the continuance of the Na- tional Policy and of aid to the Canadian Pacific had been the issue. Their leader, Edward Blake, had retired disheartened. His place had been ta- ken by a young Quebec lieutenant, Wilfrid Laurier, who had won fame by his courageous resistance to clerical aggression in his own province and by his indictment of the Macdonald Government in the Riel issue. A veteran Ontario Liberal, Sir Richard Cartwright, urged the adoption of com- mercial union as the party policy. Laurier would not go so far, and the policy of unrestricted reci- procity was made the official programme in 1888. Commercial union had involved not only absolute free trade between Canada and the United States but common excise rates, a common tariff against the rest of the world, and the division of customs THE DAYS OF TRIAL 185 and excise revenues in some agreed proportion. Unrestricted reciprocity would mean free trade between the two countries, but with each left free to levy what rates it pleased on the products of other countries. i When in 1891 the time came round once more for a general election, it was apparent that reci- procity in some form would be the dominant is- sue. Though the Republicans were in power in the United States and though they had more than ful- filled their high tariff pledges in the McKinley Act, which hit Canadian farm products particularly hard, there was some chance of terms being made. Reciprocity, as a form of tariff bargaining, really fits in better with protection than with free trade, and Blaine, Harrison’s Secretary of State, was com- mitted to a policy of trade treaties and trade bargaining. In Canada the demand for the United States market had grown with increasing depres- sion. The Liberals, with their policy of unre- stricted reciprocity, seemed destined to reap the advantage of this rising tide of feeling. Then suddenly, on the eve of the election, Sir John Mac- donald sought to cut the ground from under the feet of his opponents by the announcement that in the course of a discussion of Newfoundland 186 THE CANADIAN DOMINION matters the United States had taken the initiative in suggesting to Canada a settlement of all out- standing difficulties, fisheries, coasting trade, and tariffs, on the basis of a renewal and extension of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854. This policy promised to meet all legitimate economic needs of the country and at the same time avoid the po- litical dangers of the more sweeping policy. Its force was somewhat weakened by the denials of Secretary Blaine that he had taken the initiative or made any definite promises. As the election drew near and revelations of the annexationist aims of some supporters of the wider trade policy were made, the Government made the loyalty cry its strong card. ‘The old man, the old flag, and the old policy,” saved the day. In Ontario and Que- bec the two parties were evenly divided, but the West and the Maritime Provinces, the ‘‘shreds and patches of Confederation,” as Sir Richard Cartwright, too ironic and vitriolic in his speech for political success, termed them, gave the Gov- ernment a working majority, which was increased in by-elections. Again in power, the Government made a for- mal attempt to carry outits pledges. Two pilgrim- ages were made to Washington, but the negotiators THE DAYS OF TRIAL 187 were too far apart to come to terms. With the triumph of the Democrats in 1892 and the lowering of the tariff on farm products which followed, there came a temporary improvement in trade relations. But the tariff reaction and the silver issue brought back the Republicans and led to that climax in agricultural protection, the Dingley Act of 1897, which killed among Canadians all reciprocity long- ings and compelled them to look to themselves for salvation. Although Canadians were anxious for trade relations, they were not willing to be bludgeoned into accepting one-sided terms. The settlement of the Bering Sea dispute in 1893 by a board of arbitration, which ruled against the claims of the United States but suggested a re- triction of pelagic sealing by agreement, removed one source of friction. Hardly was that out of the way when Cleveland’s Venezuela message brought Great Britain and the United States once more to the verge of war. In such a war Canadians knew they would be the chief sufferers, but in 1895, as in 1862, they did not flinch and stood ready to sup- port the mother country in any outcome. The Venezuela episode stirred Canadian feeling deeply, revived interest in imperialism, and ended the last lingering remnants of any sentiment for annexation. 188 THE CANADIAN DOMINION As King Edward I was termed “‘the hammer of the Scots,”’ so McKinley and Cleveland became “the hammer of the Canadians,” welding them into unity. While most Canadians were ceasing to look to Washington for relief, an increasing number were looking once more to London. The revival of im- perial sentiment which began in the early eighties, seemed to promise new and greater possibilities for the colonies overseas. Political union in the form of imperial federation and commercial union through reciprocal tariff preferences were urged in turn as the cure for all Canada’s ills. Neither solu- tion was adopted. The movement greatly in- fluenced the actual trend of affairs, but there was to be no mere turning back to the days of the old empire. The period of laissez faire in imperial matters, of Little Englandism, drew to a close in the early eighties. Once more men began to value empire, to seek to annex new territory overseas, and to bind closer the existing possessions. The world was passing through a reaction destined to lead to the earth-shaking catastrophe of 1914. The ideals of peace and free trade preached and to some THE DAYS OF TRIAL 189 degree practiced in the fifties and sixties were passing under an eclipse. In Europe the swing to free trade had halted, and nation after nation was becoming aggressively protectionist. The triumph of Prussia in the War of 1870 revived and inten- sified military rivalry and military preparations on the part of all the powers of Europe. A new scramble for colonies and possessions overseas be- gan, with the late comers nervously eager to make up for time lost. In this reaction Britain shared. Protection raised its head again in England; only by tariffs and tariff bargaining, the Fair Traders insisted, could the country hold its own. Odds and ends of territory overseas were annexed and a new value was attached to the existing colonies. The possibility of obtaining from them military support and trade privileges, the desirability of re- turning to the old ideal of a self-contained and cen- tralized empire, appealed now to influential groups. This goal might be attained by different paths. From the United Kingdom came the policy of im- perial federation and from the colonies the policy of preferential trade as means to this end. In 1884 the Imperial Federation League was organized in London with important men of both parties in its ranks. It urged the setting up in 190 THE CANADIAN DOMINION London of a new Parliament, in which the United Kingdom and all the colonies where white men predominated would be represented according to population. This Parliament would have power to frame policies, to make laws, and to levy taxes for the whole Empire. To the colonist it offered an opportunity to share in the control of foreign affairs; to the Englishman it offered the support of colonies fast growing to power and the assurance of one harmonious policy for all the Empire. Both in Britain and overseas the movement received wide support and seemed for a time likely to sweep all before it. Then a halt came. Imperial federation had been brought forward a generation too late to succeed. The Empire had been developing upon lines which could not be made to conform to the plans for centralized par- liamentary control. It was not possible to go back to the parting of the ways. Slowly, unconsciously, unevenly, yet steadily, the colonies had been ceas- ing to be dependencies and had been becoming nations. With Canada in the vanguard they had been taking over one power after another which had formerly been wielded by the Government of the United Kingdom. It was not likely that they would relinquish these powers or that self-governing THE DAYS OF TRIAL 191 colonies would consent to be subordinated to a Par- liament in London in which each would have only a fragmentary representation. The policy of imperial codperation which began to take shape during this period sought to recon- cile the existing desire for continuing the connec- tion with the mother country with the growing sense of national independence. This policy involved two different courses of action: first, the colonies must assert and secure complete self-government on terms of equality with the United Kingdom; second, they must unite as partners or allies in carrying out com- mon tasks and policies and in building up machinery for mutual consultation and harmonious action. It was chiefly in matters of trade and tariffs that progress was made in the direction of self-govern- ment. Galt had asserted in 1859 Canada’s right to make her own tariffs, and Macdonald twenty years later had carried still further the policy of levying duties upon English as well as foreign goods. That economic point was therefore settled, but it was a slower matter to secure control of treaty-making powers. When Galt and Hunting- ton urged this right in 1871 and when Blake and Mackenzie pressed it ten years later, Macdonald opposed such a demand as equivalent to an effort 192 THE CANADIAN DOMINION for independence. Yet he himself was compelled to change his conservative attitude. After 1877 Canada ceased to be bound by commercial treaties made by the United Kingdom, unless it expressly desired to be included. In 1879 Galt was sent to Europe to negotiate Canadian trade agreements with France and Spain; and in the next decade Tupper carried negotiations with France to a suc- cessful conclusion, though the treaty was for- mally concluded between France and Britain. By 1891 the Canadian Parliament could assert with truth that “the self-governing colonies are recognized as possessing the right to define their respective fiscal relations to all countries.” But Canada as yet took no step toward assuming a share in her own naval defense, though the Aus- tralasian colonies made a beginning, along colonial rather than national lines, by making a money contribution to the British navy. The second task confronting the policy of im- perial codperation was a harder one. For a part- nership between colony and mother country there were no precedents. Centralized empires there had been; colonies there had been which had grown in- to independent states; but there was no instance of an empire ceasing to be an empire, of colonies THE DAYS OF TRIAL 193 becoming self-governing states and then turning to closer and codperative union with one another and with the mother country. Along this unblazed trail two important ad- vances were made. The initiative in the first came from Canada. In 1880 a High Commissioner was appointed to represent Canada in London. The appointment of Sir Alexander Galt and the policy which it involved were significant. The Governor- General had ceased to be a real power; he was be- coming the representative not of the British Gov- ernment but of the King; and, like the King, he governed by the advice of the responsible minis- ters in the land where he resided. His place as the link between the Government of Canada and the Government of Britain was now taken in part by the High Commissioner. The relationship of Canada to the United Kingdom was becoming one of equality not of subordination. The initiative in the second step came from Britain, though Canada’s leaders gave the move- ment its final direction. Imperial federationists urged Lord Salisbury to summon a conference of the colonies to discuss the question they had at heart. Salisbury doubted the wisdom of such a policy but agreed in 1887 to call a conference to 13 194 THE CANADIAN DOMINION discuss matters of trade and defense. Every self- governing colony sent representatives to this first Colonial Conference; but little immediate fruit came of its sessions. In 1894 a second Conference was held at Ottawa, mainly to discuss intercolonial preferential trade. Only a beginning had been made, but already the Conferences were coming to be regarded as meetings of independent govern- ments and not, as the federationists had hoped, the germ of a single dominating new government. The Imperial Federation League began to realize that it was making little progress and dissolved in 1893. Preferential trade was the alternative path to imperial federation. Macdonald had urged it in 1879 when he found British resentment strong against his new tariff. Again, ten years later, when reciprocity with the United States was finding favor in Canada, imperialists urged the counter- claims of a policy of imperial reciprocity, of special tariff privileges to other parts of the Empire. The stumblingblock in the way of such a policy was England’s adherence to free trade. For the pro- tectionist colonies preference would mean only a reduction of an existing tariff. For the United Kingdom, however, it would mean a complete THE DAYS OF TRIAL 195 reversal of fiscal policy and the abandonment of free trade for protection in order to make discrimina- tion possible. Few Englishmen believed such a reversal possible, though every trade depression re- vived talk of “‘fair trade”’ or tariffs for bargaining purposes. A further obstacle to preferential trade lay in the existence of treaties with Belgium and Germany, concluded in the sixties, assuring them all tariff privileges granted by any British colony to.Great Britain or to sister colonies. In 1892 the Liberal Opposition in Canada indicated the line upon which action was eventually to be taken by urging a resolution in favor of granting an imme- diate and unconditional preference on British goods as a step toward freer trade and in the interest of the Canadian consumer. Little came of looking either to London or to Washington. Until the middle nineties Canada remained commercially stagnant and _ politically distracted. Then came a change of heart and a change of policy. The Dominion realized at last that it must work out its own salvation. In March, 1891, Sir John Macdonald was re- turned to office for the sixth time since Confedera- tion, but he was not destined to enjoy power long. The winter campaign had been too much for his 196 THE CANADIAN DOMINION weakened constitution, and he died on June 6, 1891. No man had been more hated by his politi- cal opponents, no man more loved by his political followers. Today the hatred has long since died, and the memory of Sir John Macdonald has be- come the common pride of Canadians of every party, race, and creed. He had done much to lower the level of Canadian politics; but this fault was forgiven when men remembered his unfailing courage and confidence, his constructive vision and fertility of resource, his deep and unquestioned devotion to his country. The Conservative party had with difficulty sur- vived the last election. Deprived of the leader who for so long had been half its force, the party could not long delay its break-up. No one could be found to fill Macdonald’s place. The helm was taken in turn by J. J. C. Abbott, “‘the confidential family lawyer of the party,”’ by Sir John Thomp- son, solid and efficient though lacking in imagina- tion, and by Sir Mackenzie Bowell, an Ontario veteran. Abbott was forced to resign because of ill health; Thompson died in office; and Bowell was forced out by a revolt within the party. Sir Charles Tupper, then High Commissioner in London, was summoned to take up the difficult THE DAYS OF TRIAL 197 task. Butit proved too great for even his fighting energy. The party was divided. Gross corrup- tion in the awarding of public contracts had been brought to light. The farmers were demanding a lower tariff. The leader of the Opposition was proving to have all the astuteness and the mastery of his party which had marked Macdonald and a courage in his convictions which promised well. Defeat seemed inevitable unless a new issue which had invaded federal politics, the Manitoba school question, should prove more dangerous to the Opposition than to the forces of the Government. The Manitoba school question was an echo of the racial and religious strife which followed the execution of Riel and in which the Jesuits’ Es- tates controversy was an episode. In the early days of the province, when it was still uncertain which religion would be dominant among the settlers, a system of state-aided denominational schools had been established. In 1890 the Mani- toba Government swept this system away and re- placed it by a single system of non-sectarian and state-supported schools which were practically the same as the old Protestant schools. Any Roman Catholic who did not wish to send his children to such a school was thus compelled to pay for the 198 THE CANADIAN DOMINION maintenance of a parochial school as well as to pay taxes for the public schools. A provision of the Confederation Act, inserted at the wish of the Protestant minority in Quebec, safeguarded the educational privileges of religious minorities. A somewhat similar clause had been inserted in the Manitoba Act of 1870. To this protection the Manitoba minority now appealed. The courts held that the province had the right to pass the law but also that the Dominion Government had the constitutional right to pass remedial legis- lation restoring in some measure the privileges taken away. The issue was thus forced into federal politics. A curious situation then developed. The leader of the Government, Sir Mackenzie Bowell, was a prominent Orangeman. The leader of the Opposi- tion, Wilfrid Laurier, was a Roman Catholic. The Government, after a vain attempt to induce the province to amend its measure, decided to pass a remedial act compelling it to restore to the Roman Catholics their rights. The policy of the Oppo- sition leader was awaited with keen expectancy. Strong pressure was brought upon Laurier by the Roman Catholic hierarchy of Quebec. Most men expected a temporizing compromise. Yet THE DAYS OF TRIAL 199 the leader of the Opposition came out strongly and flatly against the Government’s measure. He agreed that a wrong had been done but insisted that compulsion could not right it and promised that, if in power, he would follow the path of con- ciliation. At once all the wrath of the hierarchy was unloosed upon him, and all its influence was thrown to the support of the Government. Yet when the Liberals blocked the Remedial Bill by ob- structing debate until the term of Parliament ex- pired, and forced an election on this issue in the summer of 1896, Quebec gave a big majority to Laurier, while Manitoba stood behind the party which had tried to coerce it. The country over, the Liberals had gained a decisive majority. The day of new leaders and a new policy had dawned at last. CHAPTER V THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT Witrrip LAURIER was summoned to form his first Cabinet in July, 1896. For eighteen years previous to that time the Liberals had sat in what one of their number used to call “‘the cold shades of Op- position.”’ For half of that term Laurier had been leader of the party, confined to the negative task of watching and criticizing the administration of his great predecessor and of the four premiers who followed in almost as many years. Now he was called to constructive tasks. Fortune favored him by bringing him to power at the very turn of the tide; but he justified fortune’s favor by so steering the ship of state as to take full advantage of wind and current. Through four Parliaments, through fifteen years of office, through the time of fruition of so many long-deferred hopes, he was to guide the destinies of the nation. Laurier began his work by calling to his Cabinet 200 THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 201 not merely the party leaders in the federal arena but four of the outstanding provincial Liberals — Oliver Mowat, Premier of Ontario, William S. Fielding, Premier of Nova Scotia, Andrew G. Blair, Premier of New Brunswick, and, a few months later, Clifford Sifton of Manitoba. The Ministry was the strongest in individual capacity that the Dominion had yet possessed. The prestige of the provincial leaders, all men of long experience and tested shrewdness, strengthened the Admin- istration in quarters where it otherwise would have been weak, for there had been many who doubted whether the untried Liberal party could provide capable administrators. There had also been many who doubted the expediency of making Prime Minister a French-Canadian Catholic. Such doubters were reassured by the presence of Mowat and Fielding, until the Prime Minister himself had proved the wisdom of the choice. There were others who admitted Laurier’s personal charm and grace but doubted whether he had the po- litical strength to control a party of conflicting elements and to govern a country where different race and diverging religious and sectional interests set men at odds. Here again time proved such fears to be groundless. Long before Laurier’s long 202 THE CANADIAN DOMINION term of office had ended, any distrust was trans- formed into the charge of his opponents that he played the dictator. His courtly manners were found not to hide weakness but to cover strength. The first task of the new Government was to settle the Manitoba school question. Negotiations which were at once begun with the provincial Government were doubtless made easier by the fact that the same party was in power at Ottawa and at Winnipeg, but it was not this fact alone which brought agreement. The Laurier Govern- ment, unlike its predecessor, did not insist on the restoration of separate schools. It accepted a compromise which retained the single system of public schools, but which provided religious teach- ing in the last half hour of school and, where num- bers warranted, a teacher of the same faith as the pupils. The compromise was violently denounced by the Roman Catholic hierarchy but, except in two cities, where parochial schools were set up, it was accepted by the laity. With this thorny question out of the way, the Government turned to what it recognized as its greatest task, the promotion of the country’s material prosperity. For years industry had been at a standstill. Exports and imports had ceased THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 203 to expand; railway building had halted; emigrants outnumbered immigrants. The West, the center of so many hopes, the object of so many sacrifices, had not proved the El Dorado so eagerly sought by fortune hunters and home builders. There were little over two hundred thousand white men west of the Great Lakes. Homesteads had been offered freely; but in 1896 only eighteen hundred were taken up, and less than a third of these by Canadians from the East. The stock of the Cana- dian Pacific was selling at fifty. All but a few had begun to lose faith in the promise of the West. Then suddenly a change came. The failure of the West to lure pioneers was not due to poverty of soil or lack of natural riches: its resources were greater than the most reckless orator had dreamed. It was merely that its time had not come and that the men in charge of the country’s affairs had not thrown enough energy into the task of speeding the coming of that time. Now fortune worked with Canada, not against it. The long and steady fall of prices, and particularly of the prices of farm products, ended; and a rapid rise began to make farming pay once more. The good free lands of the United States had nearly all been taken up. Can- ada’s West was now the last great reserve of 204 THE CANADIAN DOMINION free and fertile land. Improvements in farming methods made it possible to cope with the peculiar problems of prairie husbandry. British capital, moreover, no longer found so ready an outlet in the United States, which was now financing its own development; and it had suffered severe losses in Argentine smashes and Australian droughts. Capital, therefore, was free to turn to Canada. But it was not enough merely to have the re- sources; it was essential to display them and to disclose their value. Canada needed millions of men of the right stock, and fortunately there were millions who needed Canada. The work of the Government was to put the facts before these po- tential settlers. The new Minister of the Interior, Clifford Sifton, himself a western man, at once began an immigration campaign which has never been equaled in any country for vigor and practi- cal efficiency. Canada had hitherto received few settlers direct from the Continent. Western Eu- rope was now prosperous, and emigrants were few. But eastern Europe was in a ferment, and thou- sands were ready to swarm to new homes overseas. The activities of a subsidized immigration agency, the North Atlantic Trading Company, brought great numbers of these peoples. Foremost in THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 205 numbers were the Ruthenians from Galicia. Most distinctive were the Doukhobors or Spirit Wres- tlers of Southern Russia, about ten thousand of whom were brought to Canada at the instance of Tolstoy and some English Quakers to escape per- secution for their refusal to undertake military service. The religious fanaticism of the Doukho- bors, particularly when it took the form of mid- winter pilgrimages in nature’s garb, and the clan- nishness of the Ruthenians, who settled in solid blocks, gave rise to many problems of government and assimilation which taught Canadians the un- wisdom of inviting immigration from eastern or southern Europe. Ruthenians and Poles, how- ever, continued to come down to the eve of the Great War, and nearly all settled on western lands. Jewish Poland sent its thousands who settled in the larger cities, until Montreal had more Jews than Jerusalem and its Protestant schools held their Easter holidays in Passover. Italian navvies came also by the thousands, but mainly as birds of passage; and Greeks and men from the Balkan States were limited in numbers. Of the three million immigrants who came to Canada from the beginning of the century to the outbreak of the war, some eight hundred thousand came from 206 THE CANADIAN DOMINION continental Europe, and of these the Ruthe- nians, Jews, Italians, and Scandinavians were the most numerous. It was in the United States that Canada made the greatest efforts to obtain settlers and that she achieved the most striking success. Beginning in 1897 advertisements were placed in five or six thousand American farm and weekly newspapers. Booklets were distributed by the million. Hun- dreds of farmer delegates were given free trips through the promised land. Agents were ap- pointed in each likely State, with sub-agents who were paid a bonus on every actual settler. The first settlers sent back word of limitless land to be had for a song, and of No. 1 Northern Wheat that ran thirty or forty bushels to the acre. Soon immi- gration from the States began; the trickle became a trek; the trek, a stampede. In 1896 the immi- grants from the United States to Canada had been so few as not to be recorded; in 1897 there were 2000; in 1899, 12,000; in the fiscal year 1902-03, 50,000; and in 1912-13, 139,000. The new immi- grants proved to be the best of settlers; nearly all were progressive farmers experienced in western methods and possessed of capital. The counter- movement from Canada to the United States never THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 207 wholly ceased, but it slackened and was much more than offset by this northward rush. Nothing so helped to confirm Canadian confidence in their own land and to make the outside world share this high estimate as this unimpeachable evidence from over a million American newcomers who found in Canada, between 1897 and 1914, greater op- portunities than even the United States could offer. The Ministry then carried its propaganda to Great Britain. Newspapers, schools, exhibitions . were used in ways which startled the stolid Eng- lishman into attention. Circumstances played in- to the hands of the propagandists, who took ad- vantage of the flow of United States settlers into the West, the Klondike gold fields rush, the pres- ence of Laurier at the Jubilee festivities at London in 1897, Canada’s share in the Boer War. British immigrants rose to 50,000 in 1903-04, to 120,000 in 1907-08, and to 150,000 in 1912-13. From 1897 to the outbreak of the war over 1,100,000 Britishers came to Canada. Three out of four were English, the rest mainly Scotch; the Irish, who once had come in tens of thousands and whose descendants still formed the largest element in the English-speaking peoples of Canada, now sent only one man for every twelve from England. 208 THE CANADIAN DOMINION The gates of Canadian immigration, however, were not thrown open to all comers. The criminal, the insane and feeble-minded, the diseased, and others likely to become public charges, were barred altogether or allowed to remain provisionally, subject to deportation within three years. Immi- grants sent out by British charitable societies were subjected, after 1908, to rigid inspection before leaving England. Noimmigrant was admitted with- out sufficient money in his purse to tide over the first few weeks, unless he were going to farm work or responsible relatives. Asiatics were re- stricted by special regulations. Steadily the bars were raised higher. Not all the 3,000,000 who came to Canada be- tween 1897 and 1914 remained. Many drifted across the border; many returned to their old homes, their dreams fulfilled or shattered; yet the vast majority remained. Never had any country so great a task of assimilation as faced Canada, with 3,000,000 pouring into a country of 5,000,000 in a dozen years. Fortunately the great bulk of the newcomers were of the old stocks. Closely linked with immigration in promoting the prosperity of the country were the land policy and the railway policy of the Administration. The THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 209 system of granting free homesteads to settlers was continued on an even more generous scale. The 1800 entries for homesteads in 1896 had become 40,000 ten years later. In 1906 land equal in area to Massachusetts and Delaware was given away; in 1908 a Wales, in 1909 five Prince Edward Islands, and in 1910 and. 1911 a Belgium, a Netherlands, and two Montenegros passed from the state to the settler. Unfortunately not every homesteader became an active farmer, and production, though mounting fast, could not keep pace with speculation. Railway building had almost ceased after the completion of the Canadian Pacific system. Now it revived on a greater scale than ever before. In the twenty years after 1896 the miles in operation grew from 16,000 to nearly 40,000. Two new trans- continentals were added, and the older roads took on a new lease of life. At the end of this period of expansion, only the United States, Germany, and Russia had railroad mileage exceeding that of Can- ada. Much of the building was premature or du- plicated other roads. The scramble for state aid, federal and provincial, had demoralized Canadian politics. A large part of the notes the country rashly backed, by the policy of guaranteeing bond issues, were in time presented for payment. Yet 14 210 THE CANADIAN DOMINION the railway policies of the period were broadly jus- tified. New country was opened to settlers; out- lets to the sea were provided; capital was obtained in the years when it was still abundant and cheap; the whole industry of the country was stimulated; East was bound closer to West and depth was added to length.* The opening of the West brought new pros- perity to every corner of the East. Factories found growing markets; banks multiplied branches and business; exports mounted fast and imports faster; closer relations were formed with London and New York financial interests; mushroom millionaires, country clubs, city slums, suburban subdivisions, land booms, grafting aldermen, and all the appara- tus of an advanced civilization grew apace. A new self-confidence became the dominant note alike of private business and of public policy. With industrial prosperity, political unity be- came assured. Canada became more and more a name of which all her sons were proud. Expansion t During the Great War it became necessary for the Federal Gov- ernment to take over both the National Transcontinental, running from Moncton in New Brunswick to Winnipeg, and the Canadian Northern, running from ocean to ocean, and to incorporate both, along with the Intercolonial, in the Canadian National Railways, a system fourteen thousand miles in length. THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 211 brought men of the different provinces together. The Maritime Provinces first felt fully at one with the rest of Canada when Vancouver and Winni- peg rather than Boston and New York called their sons. Even Ontario and Quebec made some ad- vance toward mutual understanding, though cler- ical leaders who sought safety for their Church in the isolation of its people, imperialists who drove a wedge between Canadians by emphasizing Anglo-Saxon racial ties, and politicians of the baser sort exploiting race prejudice for their own gain, opened rifts in a society already seamed by differ- ences of language and creed. In the West unity was still harder to secure, for men of all countries and of none poured into a land still in the shaping. The divergent interests of the farming, free trade West and of the manufacturing, protectionist East made for friction. Fortunately strong ties held East and West together. Eastern Canadians or their sons filled most of the strategic posts in Government and business, in school and church and press in the West. Transcontinental railways, chartered banks with branches and interests in every province, political parties organizing their forces from coast to coast, played their part. Much had been accomplished; but much remained to be done. 212 THE CANADIAN DOMINION With this background of rapid industrial de- velopment and growing national unity, Canada’s relations with the Empire, with her sister democ- racy across the border, and with foreign states, took on new importance and divided interest with the changes in her internal affairs. From being a state wherein the mother country exercised control and the colonies yielded obedience the Empire was rapidly being transformed into a free and equal partnership of independent com- monwealths under one king. Out of the clash of rival theories and conflicting interests a new ideal and a new reality had developed. The policy of imperial codperation — the policy whereby each great colony became independent of outside con- trol but voluntarily acted in concert with the mother country and the sister states on matters of common concern — sought to reconcile liberty and unity, nationhood and empire, to unite what was most practicable in the aims of the advocates of independence and the advocates of imperial federation. The movement developed unevenly. At the outbreak of the Great War, it was still in- complete. The ideal was not always clearly or consciously held in the Empire itself and was wholly ignored or misunderstood in Europe and THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 218 even in the United States. Yet in twenty years’ space it had become dominant in practice and theory and had built up a new type of political organization, a virtual league of nations, fruitful for the future ordering of the world. The three fields in which this new policy was worked out were trade, defense, and political or- ganization. Canada had asserted her right to con- trol her tariff and commercial treaty relations as she pleased. Now she used this freedom to offer, without asking any return in kind, tariff privileges to the mother country. In the first budget brought down by the Minister of Finance in the Laurier Cabinet, William S. Fielding, a reduction, by in- stalments, of twenty-five per cent in tariff duties was offered to all countries with rates as low as Canada’s — that is, to the United Kingdom and possibly to the Netherlands and New South Wales. The reduction was meant both as a fulfilment of the Liberal party’s free trade pledges and as a token of filial good will to Britain. It was soon found that Belgium and Germany, by virtue of their special treaty rights, would claim the same privileges as Britain, and that all other countries with most favored nation clauses could then de- mand the same rates. This might serve the free 214 THE CANADIAN DOMINION trade aims of the Fielding tariff but would block its imperial purpose. If this purpose was to be achieved, these treaties must be denounced. To effect this was one of the tasks Laurier undertook in his first visit to England in 1897. The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, cele- brating the sixtieth anniversary of her reign, was made the occasion for holding the third Colonial Conference. It was attended by the Premiers of all the colonies. Among them Wilfrid Laurier, or Sir Wilfrid as he now became, stood easily pre- eminent. In the Jubilee festivities, among the crowds in London streets and the gatherings in court and council, his picturesque and courtly figure, his unmistakable note of distinction, his silvery eloquence, and, not least, the fact that this ruler of the greatest of England’s colonies was wholly of French blood, made him the lion of the hour. In the Colonial Conference, presided over by Joseph Chamberlain, the new Colonial Secre- tary, Laurier achieved his immediate purpose. The British Government agreed to denounce the Belgian and German treaties, now that the pref- erence granted her came as a free gift and not as part of a bargain which involved Britain’s aban- donment of free trade. The other Premiers agreed THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 215 to consider whether Canada’s preferential tariff policy could be followed. Chamberlain in vain urged defense and political policies designed to centralize power in London. He praised the ac- tion of the Australian colonies in contributing money to the British navy but could get no promise of similar action from the others. He urged the need of setting up in London an imperial council, with power somewhat more than advisory and likely “‘to develop into something still greater,” but for this scheme he elicited little support. After the Conference Sir Wilfrid visited France and in ringing speeches in Paris did much to pave the way for the good understanding which later developed into the entente cordiale. The glitter and parade of the Jubilee festivities soon gave way to a sterner phase of empire. For years South Africa had been in ferment owing to the conflicting interests of narrow, fanatical, often corrupt Boer leaders, greedy Anglo-Jewish min- ing magnates, and British statesmen — Rhodes, Milner, Chamberlain — dominated by the impe- rial idea and eager for an “all-red”’ South Africa. Eventually an ¢mpasse was reached over the ques- tion of the rights and privileges of British subjects in the Transvaal Republic. On October 9, 1899, 216 THE CANADIAN DOMINION President Kriiger issued his fateful ultimatum and war began. What would be Canada’s attitude toward this imperial problem? She had never before taken part in an overseas war. Neither her own safety nor the safety of the mother country was con- sidered to be at stake. Yet war had not been for- mally declared before a demand arose among Cana- dians that their country should take a hand in res- cuing the victims of Boer tyranny. The Venezuela incident and the recent Jubilee ceremonies had fanned imperialist sentiment. The growing pros- perity was increasing national pride and making many eager to abandon the attitude of colonial dependence in foreign affairs. The desire to emu- late the United States, which had just won more or less glory in its little war with Spain, had its in- fluence in some quarters. Belief in the justice of the British cause was practically universal, thanks to the skillful manipulation of the press by the war party in South Africa. Leading newspapers en- couraged the campaign for participation. Par- liament was not in session, and the Government hesitated to intervene, but the swelling tide of pub- lic opinion soon warranted immediate action. Three days after the declaration of war an order in THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 217 council was passed providing for a contingent of one thousand men. Other infantry battalions, Mounted Rifles, and batteries of artillery were dis- patched later. Lord Strathcona, formerly Donald Smith of the Canadian Pacific syndicate, by a deed recalling feudal days, provided the funds to send overseas the Strathcona Horse, roughriders from the Canadian West. In the last years of the war the South African Constabulary drew many re- cruits from Canada. All told, over seven thousand Canadians crossed half the world to share in the struggle on the South African veldt. The Canadian forces held their own with any in the campaign. The first contingent fought under Lord Roberts in the campaign for the relief of Kimberley; and it was two charges by Canadian troops, charges that cost heavily in killed and wounded, that forced the surrender of General Cronje, brought to bay at Paardeberg. One Cana- dian battery shared in the honor of raising the siege of Mafeking, where Baden-Powell was besieged, and both contingents marched with Lord Roberts from Bloemfontein to Pretoria and fought hard and well at Doornkop and in many a skirmish. Perhaps the politic generosity of the British leaders and the patriotic bias of correspondents exaggerated 218 THE CANADIAN DOMINION the importance of the share of the Canadian troops in the whole campaign; but their courage, initiative, and endurance were tested and proved beyond all question. Paardeberg sent a thrill of pride and of sorrow through Canada. The only province which stood aloof from whole- hearted participation in the war was Quebec. Many French Canadians had been growing nerv- ous over the persistent campaign of the impe- rialists. They exhibited a certain unwillingness to take on responsibilities, perhaps a survival of the dependence which colonialism had bred, a dawn- ing aspiration toward an independent place in the world’s work, and a disposition to draw tighter ra- cial and religious lines in order to offset the em- phasis which imperialists placed on Anglo-Saxon ties. Now their sympathies went out to a people, like themselves an alien minority brought under British rule, and in this attitude they were strength- ened by the almost unanimous verdict of the neu- tral world against British policy. Laurier tried to steer a middle course, but the attacks of ultra- imperialists in Ontario and of ultra-nationalists in Quebec, led henceforward by a brilliant and elo- quent grandson of Papineau, Henri Bourassa, ham- pered him at every turn. The South African War THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 219 gave a new unity to English-speaking Canada, but it widened the gap between the French and English sections. The part which Australia and New Zealand, like Canada, had taken in the war gave new urgency to the question of imperial relations. English im- perialists were convinced that the time was ripe for a great advance toward centralization, and they were eager to crystallize in permanent insti- tutions the imperial sentiment called forth by the war. When, therefore, the fourth Colonial Con- ference was summoned to meet in London in 1902 on the occasion of the coronation of Edward VII, Chamberlain urged with all his force and keen- ness a wide programme of centralized action. ‘‘ Very great expectations,” he declared in his opening address, “‘have been formed as to the results which may accrue from our meeting.”’ The expectations, however, were doomed to disappointment. He and those who shared his hopes had failed to recog- nize that the war had called forth a new national consciousness in the Dominions, as the self-govern- ing colonies now came to be termed, even more than it had developed imperial sentiment. In thesmaller colonies, New Zealand, Natal, Cape of Good Hope, the old attitude of colonial dependence survived 220 THE CANADIAN DOMINION in larger measure; but in Canada and in Australia, now federated into commonwealths, national feel- Ing was uppermost. Chamberlain brought forward once more his proposal for an imperial council, to be advisory at first and later to attain power to tax and legislate for the whole Empire, but he found no support. Instead, the Conference itself was made a more permanent instrument of imperial codperation by a provision that it should meet at least every four years. The essential difference was that the Con- ference was merely a meeting of independent Gov- ernments on an equal footing, each claiming to be as much “His Majesty’s Government” as any other, whereas the council which Chamberlain urged in vain would have been a new Government, supreme over all the Empire and dominated by the British representatives. Chamberlain then sug- gested more centralized means of defense, grants to the British navy, and the putting of a definite proportion of colonial militia at the disposal of the British War Office for overseas service. The Cape and Natal promised naval grants; Aus- tralia and New Zealand increased their contribu- tions for the maintenance of a squadron in Pa- cific waters; but Canada held back. The smaller THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 221 colonies were sympathetic to the militia proposal; but Canada and Australia rejected it on the grounds that it was “‘objectionable in principle, as derogating from the powers of self-government enjoyed by them, and would be calculated to impede the general improvement in training and organization of their defense forces.’’ Chamber- lain’s additional proposal of free trade within the Empire and of a common tariff against all foreign countries found little support. That each part of the Empire should control its own tariff and that it should make what concessions it wished on Brit- ish imports, either as a part of a reciprocal bargain or as a free gift, remained a fixed idea in the minds of the leaders of the Dominions. Throughout the sessions it was Laurier rather than Chamberlain who dominated the Conference. Balked in his desire to effect political or military centralization, Chamberlain turned anew to the pos- sibilities of trade alliance. His tariff reform cam- paign of 1903, which was a sequel to the Colonial Conference of 1902, proposed that Great Britain set up a tariff, incidentally to protect her own in- dustries and to have matter for bargaining with foreign powers, but mainly in order to keep the colonies within her orbit by offering them special 222 THE CANADIAN DOMINION terms. In this way the Empire would become once more self-sufficient. The issue thus thrust upon Great Britain and the Empire in general was primarily a contest between free traders and pro- tectionists, not between the supporters of codpera- tion and the supporters of centralization. On this basis the issue was fought out in Great Britain and resulted in the overwhelming victory of free trade and the Liberal party, aided as they were by the popular reaction against the jingoist policy which had culminated in the war. When the fifth Con- ference, now termed Imperial instead of Colonial, met in 1907, there was much impassioned advocacy of preference and protection on the part of Alfred Deakin of Australia and Sir L. 8. Jameson of the Cape; but the British representatives stuck to their guns and, in Winston Churchill’s phrase, the door remained “‘banged, barred, and bolted”’ against both policies. At this conference Laurier took the ground that, while Canada would be prepared to bargain preference for preference, the people of Great Britain must decide what fiscal system would best serve their own interests. A consistent ad- vocate of home rule, he was willing, unlike some of his colleagues, from the other Dominions, to let the United Kingdom control its own affairs. THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 223 The defense issue had slumbered since the Boer War. Now the unbounded ambitions of Germany gave it startling urgency. It was about 1908 that the British public first became seriously alarmed over the danger involved in the lessening margin of superiority of the British over the German navy. The alarm was echoed throughout the Dominions. The Kaiser’s challenge threatened the safety not only of the mother country but of every part of the Empire. Hitherto the Dominions had done little in the way of naval defense, though they had one by one assumed full responsibility for their land defense. The feeling had been growing that they should take a larger share of the common burden. Two factors, however, had blocked advance in this direction. The British Government had claimed and exercised full control of the issues of peace and war, and the Dominions were reluctant to assume responsibility for the consequences of a foreign policy which they could not direct. The hostility of the British Admiralty, on strategic and political grounds, to the plan of local Dominion navies, had prevented progress on the most feasible lines. The deadlock was a serious one. Now the imminence of danger compelled a solution. Taking the lead in this instance in the working out of the policy of 224. THE CANADIAN DOMINION colonial nationalism, Australia had already insisted upon abandoning the barren and inadequate policy of making a cash contribution for the support of a British squadron in Australasian waters and had established a local navy, manned, maintained, and controlled by the Commonwealth. Canada de- cided to follow her example. In March, 1909, the Canadian House of Commons unanimously adopted a resolution in favor of establishing a Canadian naval service to coéperate in close rela- tion with the British navy. During the summer a special conference was held in London attended by ministers from all the Dominions. At this confer- ence the Admiralty abandoned its old position; and it was agreed that Australia and Canada should establish local forces, cruisers, destroyers, and sub- marines, with auxiliary ships and naval bases. When the Canadian Parliament met in 1910, Sir Wilfrid Laurier submitted a Naval Service Bill, providing for the establishment of local fleets, of which the smaller vessels were to be built in Canada. The ships were to be under the control of the Dominion Government, which might, in case of emergency, place them at the disposal of the British Admiralty. The bill was passed in March. In the autumn two cruisers, the Rainbow THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 225 and the Niobe, were bought from Britain to serve as training ships. In the following spring a naval college was opened at Halifax, and tenders were called for the construction, in Canada, of five cruisers and six destroyers. In June, 1911, at the regular Imperial Conference of that year, an agree- ment was reached regarding the boundaries of the Australian and Canadian stations and uniformity of training and discipline. Then came the reciprocity fight and the defeat of the Government. No tenders had been finally accepted, and the new Administration of Premier Borden was free to frame its own policy. The naval issue had now become a party ques- tion. The policy of a Dominion navy, a policy which was the logical extension of the principles of colonial nationalism and imperial codperation which had guided imperial development for many years, was attacked by ultra-imperialists in the English-speaking provinces as strategically unsound and as leading inevitably to separation from the Empire. It was also attacked by the Nationalists of Quebec, the ultra-colonialists or provincialists, as they might more truly be termed, under the vig- orous leadership of Henri Bourassa, as yet another concession to imperialism and to militarism. In 5 226 THE CANADIAN DOMINION November, 1910, by alarming the habitant by pic- tures of his sons being dragged away by naval press gangs, the Nationalists succeeded in defeating the Liberal candidate in a by-election in Drummond- Arthabaska, at one time Laurier’s own constit- uency. In the general election which followed in 1911, the same issue cost the Liberals a score of seats in Quebec. When, therefore, the new Prime Minister, Sir Robert Borden, faced the issue, he endeavored to frame a policy which would suit both wings of his foliowing. In 1912 he proposed as an emergency measure to appropriate a sum sufficient to build three dreadnoughts for the British navy, subject to recall if at any time the Canadian people decided to use them as the nucleus of a Canadian fleet. At the same time he undertook to submit to the electorate his permanent naval policy, as soon as it was determined. What that permanent policy would be he was unwilling to say, but the Prime Minister made clear his own leanings by insisting that it would take half a century to form a Cana- dian navy, which at best would be a poor and weak substitute for the organization the Empire already possessed. The contribution to the British navy satisfied the ultra-imperialists, while the promise THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 227 of a referendum and the call for money alone, and not men, appealed to the Nationalist wing. Under the impetuous control of its new head, Winston Churchill, the British Admiralty showed that it had repented its brief conversion to the Dominion navy policy, by preparing an elaborate memoran- dum to support Borden’s proposals, and also by formulating plans for imperial flying squadrons to be supplied by the Dominions, which made clear its wish to continue the centralizing policy permanently. The Liberal Opposition vigorously denounced the whole dreadnought programme, ad- vocating instead two Canadian fleet units some- what larger than at first contemplated. Their obstruction was overcome in the Commons by the introduction of the closure, but the Liberal ma- jority in the Senate, on the motion of Sir George Ross, a former Premier of Ontario, threw out the bill by insisting that it should not be passed before being “‘submitted to the judgment of the country.” This challenge the Government did not accept. Until the outbreak of the war no further steps were taken either to arrange for contribution or to establish a Canadian navy, though the naval college at Halifax was continued, and the training cruisers were maintained in a half-hearted way. 228 THE CANADIAN DOMINION In the Imperial Conference of 1911, one more attempt was made to set up a central governing authority in London. Sir Joseph Ward, of New Zealand, acting as the mouthpiece of the imperial federationists, urged the establishment, first of an Imperial Council of State and later of an Imperial Parliament. His proposals met no support. “It is absolutely impracticable,” was Laurier’s verdict. ‘Any scheme of representation — no matter what you call it, parliament or council — of the overseas Dominions, must give them so very small a repre- sentation that it would be practically of no value,” declared Premier Morris of Newfoundland. “It is not a practical scheme,”’ Premier Fisher of Australia agreed; “‘our present system of respon- sible government has not broken down.” “The creation of some body with centralized author- ity over the whole Empire,”’ Premier Botha of South Africa cogently insisted, “would be a step entirely antagonistic to the policy of Great Brit- ain which has been so successful in the past. It is the policy of decentralization which has made the Empire — the power granted to its various peoples to govern themselves.”’ Even Premier Asquith of the United Kingdom declared the proposals “‘fatal to the very fundamental THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 229 conditions on which our empire has been built up and carried on.” Stronger than any logic was the presence of Louis Botha in the conferences of 1907 and 1911. On the former occasion it was only five years since he had been in arms against Great Britain. The courage and vision of Sir Henry Campbell-Banner- man in granting full and immediate self-govern- ment to the conquered Boer republics had been justified by the results. Once more freedom proved the only enduring basis of empire. Botha’s task in attempting to make Boer and Briton work to- gether, first in the Transvaal, and, after 1910, in the Union of South Africa, had not been an easy one. Attacked by extremists from both directions, he faced much the same difficulties as Laurier, and he found in Laurier’s friendship, counsel, and example much that stood him in good stead in the days of stress to come. Not less important than the relations with the United Kingdom in this period were the relations with the United States. The Venezuela episode was the turning point in the relations between the United States and the British Empire. Both in Washington and in London men had been 230 THE CANADIAN DOMINION astounded to find themselves on the verge of war. The danger passed, but the shock awoke thousands to a realization of all that the two peoples had in common and to the need of concerted effort to remove the sources of friction. Then hard on the heels of this episode followed the Spanish-American War.* Not the least of its by-products was a re- markable improvement in the relations of the English-speaking nations. The course of the war, the intrigues of European courts to secure inter- vention on behalf of Spain, and the lining up of a British squadron beside Dewey in Manila Bay when a German Admiral blustered, revealed Great Britain as the one trustworthy friend the United States possessed abroad. The annexation of the Philippines and the definite entry of the United States upon world politics broke down the irre- sponsible isolation which British ministers had found so much of a barrier to diplomatic accom- modations. With John Hay and later Elihu Root at the State Department, and Lansdowne and Grey at the Foreign Office in London, there began an era of good feeling between the two countries. Ottawa and Washington were somewhat slower in coming to terms. Many difficulties can arise «See The Path of Empire. THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 231 along a three thousand mile border, and with a people so sure of themselves as the Americans were at this period and a people so sensitive to any in- fringements of their national rights as the Cana- dians were, petty differences often loomed large. The Laurier Government, therefore, proposed shortly after its accession to power in 1896 that an attempt should be made to clear away all outstand- ing issues and to effect a trade agreement. A Joint High Commission was constituted in 1898. The members from the United States were Sena- tor Fairbanks, Senator Gray, Representative Nel- son Dingley, General Foster, J. A. Kasson, and T. J. Coolidge of the State Department. Great Britain was represented by Lord Herschell, who acted as chairman, Newfoundland by Sir James Winter, and Canada by Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Sir Richard Cartwright, Sir Louis Davies, and John Charlton, M. P. The Commission held prolonged sittings, first at Quebec and later at Washington, and reached ten- tative agreement on nearly all of the troublesome questions at issue. The bonding privileges on both sides the border were to be given an assured basis; the unneighborly alien labor laws were to be relaxed; the Rush-Bagot Convention regarding 232 THE CANADIAN DOMINION armament on the Great Lakes was to be revised; Canadian vessels were to abandon pelagic sealing in Bering Sea for a money compensation; and a reciprocity treaty covering natural products and some manufactures was sketched out. Yet no agree- ment followed. One issue, the Alaska boundary, proved insoluble, and as no agreement was ac- ceptable which did not cover every difference, the Commission never again assembled after its adjournment in February, 1899. The boundary between Alaska and the Do- minion was the only bit of the border line not yet determined. As in former cases of boundary dis- putes, the inaccuracies of map makers, the am- biguities of diplomats, the clash of local interests, and stiff-necked national pride made a settlement difficult. In 1825 Russia and Great Britain had signed a treaty which granted Russia a long pan- handle strip down the Pacific coast. With the purchase of Alaska in 1867 the United States suc- ceeded to Russia’s claim. With the growth of settlement in Canada this long barrier down half of her Pacific coast was found to be irksome. At- tempt after attempt to have the line determined only added to the stock of memorials in official THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 233 pigeonholes. Then came the discovery of gold in the Klondike in 1896, and the question of easy access by sea to the Canadian back country be- came an urgent one. Canada offered to compro- mise, admitting the American title to the chief ports on Lynn Canal, Dyea and Skagway, if Pyramid Harbor were held Canadian. She urged arbitration on the model the United States had dictated in the Venezuela dispute. But.the United States was in possession of the most important points. Its people believed the Canadian claims had been trumped up when the Klondike fields were opened. The Puget Sound cities wanted no breach in their monopoly of the supply trade to the north. The only concession the United States would make was to refer the dispute to a com- mission of six, three from each country, with the proviso that no area settled by Americans should in any event pass into other hands. Canada felt that arbitration under these conditions would either end in deadlock, leaving the United States in possession, or in concession by one or more of the British representatives, and so declined to accept the proposed arrangement. Finally, in 1903, agreement was reached between London and Washington to accept the tribunal 234 THE CANADIAN DOMINION proposed by the United States, which in turn with- drew its veto on the transfer of any settled area. Canada’s reluctant consent was won by a provision that the members of the tribunal should be “im- partial jurists of repute,’”’ sworn to render a judi- cial verdict. When Elihu Root, Senator Lodge, and Senator Turner were named as the American representatives, Ottawa protested that eminent and honorable as they were, their public attitude on this question made it impossible to consider them “impartial jurists.” The Canadian Government in return nominated three judges, Lord Alverstone, Lord Chief Justice of England, Sir Louis Jetté, of Quebec, and Mr. Justice Armour, succeeded on his death by A. B. Aylesworth, a leader of the Ontario bar. The tribunal met in London, where the case was thoroughly argued. The Treaty of 1825 had provided that the south- ern boundary should follow the Portland Canal to the fifty-sixth parallel of latitude and thence the summits of the mountains parallel to the coast, with the stipulation that if the summit of the mountains anywhere proved to be more than ten marine leagues from the ocean, a line drawn paral- lel to the windings of the coast not more than ten leagues distant should form the boundary. Three THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 235 questions arose: What was the Portland Canal? Did the treaty assure Russia an unbroken strip by making the boundary run round the ends of deep inlets? Did mountains exist parallel to the coast within ten leagues’ distance? In October these questions received their answer. Lord Alver- stone and the three American members decided in favor of the United States on the main issues. The two Canadian representatives refused to sign the award and denounced it as unjudicial and unwarranted. The decision set Canada aflame. Lord Alver- stone was denounced in unmeasured terms. From Atlantic to Pacific the charge was echoed that once more the interests of Canada had been sacrificed by Britain on the altar of Anglo-American friend- ship. The outburst was not understood abroad. It was not, as United States opinion imagined, merely childish petulance or the whining of a poor loser. It was against Great Britain, not against the United States, that the criticism was directed. It was not the decision, but the way in which it was made, that roused deep anger. The decision on the main issue, that the line ran back of even the deepest inlets and barred Canada from a sin- gle harbor, though unwelcome, was accepted as a 236 THE CANADIAN DOMINION judicial verdict and has since been little questioned. The finding that the boundary should follow cer- tain mountains behind those Canada urged, but short of the ten league line, was attacked by the Canadian representatives as a compromise, and its judicial character is certainly open to some doubt. But it was on the third finding that the thunders broke. The United States had contended that the Portland Channel of the treaty makers ran south of four islands which lay east of Prince of Wales Island, and Canada that it ran north of these islands. Lord Alverstone, after joining in a judg- ment with the Canadian commissioners that it ran north, suddenly, without any conference with them, and, as the wording of the award showed, by agreement with the United States representa- tives, announced that it ran where no one had ever suggested it could run, north of two and south of two, thus dividing the land in dispute. The is- lands were of little importance even strategical- ly, but the incontrovertible evidence that instead of a judicial finding a political compromise had been effected was held of much importance. Af- ter a time the storm died down, but it revealed one unmistakable fact: Canadian nationalism was growing fully as fast as Canadian imperialism. THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 237 The relations between Canada and the United States now came to show the effect of increasingly close business connections. The northward trek of tens of thousands of American farmers was under way. United States capitalists began to invest heavily in farm and timber lands. Factory after factory opened a Canadian branch. Ten years later these investments exceeded six hundred millions. In the West, James J. Hill was planning the ex- pansion of the Great Northern system throughout the prairie provinces and was securing an interest in the great Crow’s Nest Pass coal fields. Tourist travel multiplied. The two peoples came to know each other better than ever before, and with knowl- edge many prejudices and misunderstandings van- ished. Canada’s growing prosperity did not merely bring greater individual intercourse; it made the United States as a whole less patronizing in its dealings with its neighbor and Canada less queru- lous and thin-skinned. In this more favorable temper many old issues were cleared off the slate. The northeastern fisher- ies question, revived by a conflict between New- foundland and the United States as to treaty privi- leges, was referred to the Hague Court in 1909. The verdict of the arbitrators recognized a meas- 238 THE CANADIAN DOMINION ure of right in the contentions of both sides. A detailed settlement was prescribed which was ac- cepted without demur in the United States, New- foundland, and Canada alike. Pelagic sealing in the North Pacific was barred in 1911 by an in- ternational agreement between the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and Russia. Less success attended the attempt to arrange joint action to regulate and conserve the fisheries of the Great Lakes and the salmon fisheries of the Pacific, for the treaty drawn up in 1911 by the experts from both countries failed to pass the United States Senate. But the most striking development of the decade was the businesslike and neighborly solution found for the settlement of the boundary waters con- troversy. The growing demands for the use of streams such as the Niagara, the St. Lawrence, and the Sault for power purposes, and of western border rivers for irrigation schemes, made it essen- tial to take joint action to reconcile not merely the conflicting claims from the opposite sides of the border but the conflicting claims of power and navigation and other interests in each country. In 1905 a temporary waterways commission was appointed, and four years later the Boundary THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 239 Waters Treaty provided for the establishment of a permanent Joint High Commission, consisting of three representatives from each country, and with authority over all cases of use, obstruction, or diversion of border waters. Individual citizens of either country were allowed to present their case directly before the Commission, an innovation in international practice. Still more significant of the new spirit was the inclusion in this treaty of a clause providing for reference to the Commission, with the consent of the United States Senate and the Dominion Cabinet, of any matter whatever at issue between the two countries. With little dis- cussion and as a matter of course, the two democ- racies, in the closing years of a full century of peace, thus made provision for the sane and friendly set- tlement of future line-fence disputes. The chief barrier to good relations was the cus- toms tariff. Protectionism, and the attitude of which it was born and which it bred in turn, was still firmly entrenched in both countries. Tariff bars, it is true, had not been able to prevent the rapid growth of trade; imports from the United States to Canada had grown especially fast and Canada now ranked third in the list of the Re- public’s customers. Yet in many ways the tariff 240 THE CANADIAN DOMINION hindered free intercourse. Though every dictate of self-interest and good sense demanded a reduc- tion of duties, Canada would not and did not take the initiative. Time and again she had sought reciprocity, only to have her proposals rejected, often with contemptuous indifference. When Sir Wilfrid Laurier announced in 1900 that there would be no more pilgrimages to Washington, he voiced the almost unanimous opinion of a people whose pride had been hurt by repeated rebuffs. Meanwhile protectionist sentiment had grown stronger in Canada. The opening of the West had given an expanding market for eastern factories and had seemingly justified the National Policy. The Liberals, the traditional upholders of freer trade, after some initial redemptions of their pledges, had compromised with the manufacturing interests. The Conservatives, still more protec- tionist in temper, voiced in Parliament little criti- cism of this policy, and the free trade elements among the farmers were as yet unorganized and inarticulate. Signs of this protectionist revival, which had in it, as in the seventies, an element of nationalism, were many. A four-story tariff was erected. The lowest rates were those granted the United Kingdom; then came the intermediate THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 241 tariff, for the products of countries giving Canada special terms; next the general tariff; and, finally, the surtax for use against powers discriminating in any special degree against the Dominion. The provinces one by one forbade the export of pulp wood cut on Crown Lands, in order to assure its manufacture into wood pulp or paper in Canada. The Dominion in 1907 secured the abrogation of the postal convention made with the United States in 1875 providing for the reciprocal free distribu- tion of second class mail matter originating in the other country. This step was taken at the instance of Canadian manufacturers, alarmed at the effect of the advertising pages of United States magazines in directing trade across the line. Yet even with such developments, the Canadian tariff remained lower than its neighbor’s. In the United States the tendency was in the other direction. With the growth of cities, the interests of the consumers of foods outweighed the influence of the producers. Manufacturers in many cases had reached the export stage, where foreign markets, cheap food, and cheap raw ma- terials were more necessary than a protected home market. The ‘“‘muckrakers” were at the height of their activity; and the tariff, as one instrument of 16 242 THE CANADIAN DOMINION corruption and privilege, was suffering with the popular condemnation of all big interests. United States newspapers were eager for free wood pulp and cheaper paper, just as Canadian newspapers defended the policy of checking export. It was not surprising, therefore, that reciprocity with Canada, as one means of increasing trade and re- ducing the tariff, took on new popularity. New England was the chief seat of the movement, with Henry M. Whitney and Eugene N. Foss as its most persistent advocates. Detroit, Chicago, St. Paul, and other border cities were also active. Official action soon followed this unofficial cam- paign. Curiously enough, it came as an unex- pected by-product of a further experiment in protection, the Payne-Aldrich tariff. For the first time in the experience of the United States this tariff incorporated the principle of minimum and maximum schedules. The maximum rates, fixed at twenty-five per cent ad valorem above the normal or minimum rates, were to be enforced upon the goods of any country which had not, before March 10, 1910, satisfied the President that it did not discriminate against the products of the United States. One by one the various nations demon- strated this to President Taft’s satisfaction or THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 243 with wry faces made the readjustments necessary. At last Canada alone remained. The United States conceded that the preference to the United Kingdom did not constitute discrimination, but it insisted that it should enjoy the special rates re- cently extended to France by treaty. In Canada this demand was received with indignation. Its tariff rates were much lower than those which the United States imposed, and its purchases in that country were twice as great as its sales. The de- mand was based on a sudden and complete re- versal of the traditional American interpretation of the most favored nation policy. The President admitted the force of Canada’s contentions, but the law left him no option. Fortunately it did leave him free to decide as to the adequacy of any concessions, and thus agreement was made possible at the eleventh hour. At the President’s sugges- tion a conference at Albany was arranged, and on the 30th of March a bargain was struck. Canada conceded to the United States its intermediate tariff rates on thirteen minor schedules — chinaware, nuts, prunes, and whatnot. These were accepted as equivalent to the special terms given France, and Canada was certified as being entitled to mini- mum rates. The United States had saved its face. 2A4 THE CANADIAN DOMINION Then to complete the comedy, Canada immediately granted the same concessions to all other countries, that is, made the new rates part of the general tariff, The United States ended where it began, in receipt of no special concessions. The motions required had been gone through; phantom reductions had been made to meet a phantom discrimination. This was only the beginning of attempts at accommodation. The threat of tariff war had called forth in the United States loud protests against any such reversion to economic barbarism. President Taft realized that he had antagonized the growing low-tariff sentiment of the country by his support of the Payne-Aldrich tariff and was eager to set himself right. A week before the March negotiations were concluded, a Democratic candidate had carried a strongly Republican con- gressional district in Massachusetts on a platform of reciprocity with Canada. The President, there- fore, proposed a bold stroke. He made a sweeping offer of better trade relations. Negotiations were begun at Ottawa and concluded in Washington. In January, 1911, announcement was made that a broad agreement had been effected. Grain, fruit, and vegetables, dairy and most farm products, fish, hewn timber and sawn lumber, and several THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 245 minerals were put on the free list. A few manu- factures were also made free, and the duties on meats, flour, coal, agricultural implements, and other products were substantially reduced. The compact was to be carried out, not by treaty, but by concurrent legislation. Canada was to extend the same terms to the most favored nations by treaty, and to all parts of the British Empire by policy. For fifty years the administrations of the two countries had never been so nearly at one. More difficulty was met with in the legislatures. In Congress, farmers and fishermen, standpat Re- publicans and Progressives hostile to the Admin- istration, waged war against the bargain. It was only in a special session, and with the aid of Demo- cratic votes and a Washington July sun, that the opposition was overcome. In the Canadian Parlia- ment, after some initial hesitation, the Conserva- tives attacked the proposal. The Government had asafe majority, but the Opposition resorted to obstruction; and late in July, Parliament was sud- denly dissolved and the Government appealed to the country. When the bargain was first concluded, the Cana- dian Government had imagined it would meet 246 THE CANADIAN DOMINION little opposition, for it was precisely the type of agreement that Government after Government, Conservative as well as Liberal, had sought in vain for over forty years. For a day or two that ex- pectation was justified. Then the forces of op- position rallied, timid questioning gave way to violent denunciation, and at last agreement and Government alike were swept away in a flood of popular antagonism. One reason for this result was that the verdict was given in a general election, not in a referendum. The fate of the Government was involved; its general record was brought up for review; party ambitions and passions were stirred to the utmost. Fifteen years of officeholding had meant the accu- mulation of many scandals, a slackening in admin- istrative efficiency, and the cooling by official compromise of the ardent faith of the Liberalism of the earlier day. The Government had failed to bring in enough new blood. The Opposition fought with the desperation of fifteen years of fasting and was better served by its press. Of the side issues introduced into the campaign, the most important were the naval policy in Que- bec and the racial and religious issue in the Eng- lish-speaking provinces. The Government had to THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 247 face what Sir Wilfrid Laurier termed ‘“‘the unholy alliance” of Roman Catholic Nationalists under Bourassa in Quebec and Protestant Imperialists in Ontario. In the French-speaking districts the Government was denounced for allowing Canada to be drawn into the vortex of militarism and im- perialism and for sacrificing the interests of Roman Catholic schools in the West. On every hand the naval policy was attacked as inevitably bringing in its train conscription to fight European wars — a contention hotly denied by the Liberals. The Conservative campaign managers made a working arrangement with the Nationalists as to candi- dates and helped liberally in circulating Bourassa’s newspaper, Le Devoir. On the back “concessions” of Ontario a quieter but no less effective campaign was carried on against the domination of Canadian politics by a French Roman Catholic province and a French Roman Catholic Prime Minister. In vain the Liberals appealed to national unity or started back fires in Ontario by insisting that a vote for Borden meant a vote for Bourassa. The Conservative-Nationalist alliance cost the Govern- ment many seats in Quebec and apparently did not frighten Ontario. Reciprocity, however, was the principal issue 248 THE CANADIAN DOMINION everywhere except in Quebec. Powerful forces were arrayed against it. Few manufactures had been put on the free list, but the argument that the reciprocity agreement was the thin edge of the wedge rallied the organized manufacturers in al- most unbroken hostile array. The railways, fear- ful that western traffic would be diverted to United States roads, opposed the agreement vigorously under the leadership of the ex-American chairman of the board of directors of the Canadian Pacific, Sir William Van Horne, who made on this occasion one of his few public entries into politics. The banks, closely involved in the manufacturing and railway interests, threw their weight in the same direction. They were aided by the prevalence of protectionist sentiment in the eastern cities and industrial towns, which were at the same stage of development and in the same mood as the cities of the United States some decades earlier. The Liberal fifteen-year compromise with protection made it difficult in a seven weeks’ campaign to revive a desire for freer trade. The prosperity of the country and the cry, ‘“‘Let well enough alone,” told powerfully against the bargain. Yet merely from the point of view of economic advantage, the popular verdict would probably have been in its 5 THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 249 favor. The United States market no longer loomed so large as it had in the eighties, but its value was undeniable. Farmer, fisherman, and miner stood to gain substantially by the lowering of the bars into the richest market in the world. Every farm paper in Canada and all the important farm or- ganizations supported reciprocity. Its opponents, therefore, did not trust to a direct frontal attack. Their strategy was to divert attention from the economic advantages by raising the cry of political danger. The red herring of annexation was drawn across the trail, and many a farmer followed it to the polling booth. From the outset, then, the opponents of reci- procity concentrated their attacks on its political perils. They denounced the reciprocity agreement as the forerunner of annexation, the deathblow to Canadian nationality and British connection. They prophesied that the trade and intercourse built up between the East and the West of Canada by years of sacrifice and striving would shrivel away, and that each section of the Dominion would become a mere appendage to the adjacent section of the United States. Where the treasure was, there would the heart be also. After some years of reciprocity, the channels of Canadian trade would 250 THE CANADIAN DOMINION be so changed that a sudden return to high protec- tion on the part of the United States would disrupt industry and a mere threat of such a change would lead to a movement for complete union. This prophecy was strengthened by apposite quotations showing the existing drift of opinion in the United States. President Taft’s reference to the “light and imperceptible bond uniting the Dominion with the mother country” and his “parting of the ways”’ speech received sinister in- terpretations. Speaker Champ Clark’s announce- ment that he was in favor of the agreement be- cause he hoped “‘to see the day when the American flag will float over every square foot of the British > North American possessions”’ was worth tens of - thousands of votes. The anti-reciprocity press of Canada seized upon these utterances, magnified them, and sometimes, it was charged, inspired or invented them. Every American crossroads poli- tician who found a useful peroration in a vision of the Stars and Stripes floating from Panama to the North Pole was represented as a statesman of na- tional power voicing a universal sentiment. The action of the Hearst papers in sending pro-reci- procity editions into the border cities of Cana- da made many votes — but not for reciprocity. THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 251 The Canadian public proved that it was unable to suffer fools gladly. It was vain to argue that all men of weight in the United States had come to understand and to respect Canada’s independent ambitions; that in any event it was not what the United States thought but what Canada thought that mattered; or that the Canadian farmer who sold a bushel of good wheat to a United States miller no more sold his loyalty with it than a Kip- ling selling a volume of verse or a Canadian financier selling a block of stock in the same market. The flag was waved, and the Canadian voter, mindful of former American slights and backed by newly ar- rived Englishmen admirably organized by the anti- reciprocity forces, turned against any “‘entangling alliance.” The prosperity of the country made it safe to express resentment of the slights of half a century or fear of this too sudden friendliness. ~: The result of the elections, which were held on September 21, 1911, was the crushing defeat of the Liberal party. A Liberal majority of forty-four in a house of two hundred and twenty-one members was turned into a Conservative majority of forty- nine. Eight cabinet ministers went down to de- feat. The Government had a slight majority in the Maritime Provinces and Quebec, and a large 252 THE CANADIAN DOMINION majority in the prairie West, but the overwhelm- ing victory of the Opposition in Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia turned the day. The appeal to loyalty revealed much that was worthy and much that was sordid in Canadian life. It was well that a sturdy national self-reliance should be developed and expressed in the face of American prophets of “manifest destiny,” and that men should be ready to set ideals above pocket. It was unfortunate that in order to dem- onstrate a loyalty which might have been taken for granted economic advantage was sacrificed; and it was disturbing to note the ease with which big interests with unlimited funds for organizing, advertising, and newspaper campaigning, could pervert national sentiment to serve their own ends. Yet this was possibly a stage through which Canada, like every young nation, had to pass; and the gentle art of twisting the lion’s tail had proved a model for the practice of plucking the eagle’s feathers. The growth of Canada brought her into closer touch with lands across the sea. Men, money, and merchandise came from East and West; and with their coming new problems faced the Government THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 253 of the Dominion. With Europe they were trade questions to solve, and with Asia the more delicate issues arising out of oriental immigration. In 1907 the Canadian Government had estab- lished an intermediate tariff, with rates halfway between the general and the British preferential tariffs, for the express purpose of bargaining with other powers. In that year an agreement based substantially on these intermediate rates was ne- gotiated with France, though protectionist opposi- tion in the French Senate prevented ratification until 1910. Similar reciprocal arrangements were concluded in 1910 with Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy. The manner of the negotiation was as significant as the matter. In the case of France the treaty was negotiated in Paris by two Cana- dian ministers, W. S. Fielding and L. P. Brodeur, appointed plenipotentiaries of His Majesty for that purpose, with the British Ambassador associated in what Mr. Arthur Balfour termed a “purely tech- nical” capacity. In the case of the other countries even this formal recognition of the old colonial status was abandoned. The agreement with Italy was negotiated in Canada between “the Royal Consul of Italy for Canada, representing the gov- ernment of the Kingdom of Italy, and the Minister 254 THE CANADIAN DOMINION of Finance of Canada, representing His Excel- lency the Governor General acting in conjunction with the King’s Privy Council for Canada.” The conclusions in these later instances were embodied in conventions, rather than formal treaties. With one country, however, tariff war reigned instead of treaty peace. In 1899 Germany sub- jected Canadian exports to her general or maxi- mum tariff, because the Dominion refused to grant her the preferential rates reserved for members of the British Empire group of countries. After four years’ deliberation Canada eventually retal- iated by imposing on German goods a special sur- tax of thirty-three and one-third per cent. The trade of both countries suffered, but Germany’s, being more specialized, much the more severely. After seven years’ strife, Germany took the in- itiative in proposing a truce. In 1910 Canada agreed to admit German goods at the rates of the general — not the intermediate — tariff, while Germany in return waived her protest against the British preference and granted minimum rates on the most important Canadian exports. Oriental immigration had been an issue in Cana- da ever since Chinese navvies had been imported in the early eighties to work on the government THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 255 sections of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Mine owners, fruit farmers, and contractors were anx- ious that the supply should continue unchecked; but, as in the United States, the economic objec- tions of the labor unions and the political objec- tions of the advocates of a “‘ White Canada”’ carried the day. Chinese immigration had been restricted in 1885 by a head tax of $50 on all immigrants save offi- cials, merchants, or scholars; in 1901 this tax was doubled; and in 1904 it was raised to $500. In each case the tax proved a barrier only for a year or two, when wages would rise sufficiently to warrant Orientals paying the higher toll to enter the Promised Land. Japanese immigrants did not come in large numbers until 1906, when the activi- ties of employment companies brought seven thou- sand Japanese by way of Hawaii. Agitators from the Pacific States fanned the flames of opposition in British Columbia, and anti-Chinese and anti- Japanese riots broke out in Vancouver in 1907. The Dominion Government then grappled with the ques- tion. Japan’s national sensitiveness and her posi- tion as an ally of Great Britain called for diplomatic handling. A member of the Dominion Cabinet, Rodolphe Lemieux, succeeded in 1907 in negotiating 256 THE CANADIAN DOMINION at Tokio an agreement by which Japan herself undertook to restrict the number of passports issued annually to emigrants to Canada. - The Hindu migration, which began in 1907, gave rise to a still more delicate situation. What did the British Empire mean, many a Hindu asked, if British subjects were to be barred from British lands? The only reply was that the British Gov- ernment which still ruled India no longer ruled the Dominions, and that it was on the Dominions that the responsibility for the exclusion policy must rest. In 1909 Canada suggested that the Indian Government itself should limit emigration, but this policy did not meet with approval at the time. Failing in this measure, the Laurier Government fell back on a general clause in the Immigration Act prohibiting the entrance of immigrants except by direct passage from the country of origin and on a continuous ticket, a rule which effectually barred the Hindu because of the lack of any direct steam- ship line between India and Canada. An Order-in- Council further required that immigrants from all Asiatic countries must possess at least $200 on entering Canada. The Borden Government sup- plemented these restrictions by a special Order-in- Council in 1913 prohibiting the landing of artisans THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 257 or unskilled laborers of any race at ports in British Columbia, ostensibly because of depression in the labor market. The leaders of the Hindu move- ment, with apparently some German assistance, de- termined to test these restrictions. In May, 1914, there arrived at Vancouver from Shanghai a Japa- nese ship carrying four hundred Sikhs from In- dia. A few were admitted, as having been pre- viously domiciled in Canada; the others, after care- ful inquiry, were refused admittance and ordered to be deported. Local police were driven away from the ship when attempting to enforce the order, and the Government ordered H. M. C. S. Rainbow to intervene. By a curious irony of his- tory, the first occasion on which this first Canadian warship was called on to display force was in ex- pelling from Canada the subjects of another part of the British Empire. Further trouble followed when the Sikhs reached Calcutta in September, 1914, for riots took place involving serious loss of life and later an abortive attempt at rebellion. Fortunately there were good prospects that the Indian Government would in future accept the proposal made by Canada in 1909. At the Impe- rial Conference of 1917, where representatives of India were present for the first time, it was agreed 17 258 THE CANADIAN DOMINION to recommend the principle of reciprocity in the treatment of immigrants, India thus being free to save her pride by imposing on men from the Dominions the same restrictions the Dominions imposed on immigrants from India. But all these dealings with lands across the sea paled into insignificance beside the task imposed on Canada by the Great War. In the sudden crisis the Dominion attained a place among the nations which the slower changes of peace time could scarcely have made possible in decades. When the war party in Germany and Austria- Hungary plunged Europe into the struggle the world had long been fearing, there was not a moment’s hesitation on the part of the people of Canada. It was not merely the circumstance that technically Canada was at war when Britain was at war that led Canadians to instant action. The degree of participation, if not the fact of war, was wholly a matter for the separate Dominions. It was the deep and abiding sympathy with the mother country whose very existence was to be at stake. Later, with the unfolding of Germany’s full de- signs of world dominance and the repeated dis- play of her callous and ruthless policies, Canada THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 259 comprehended the magnitude of the danger threat- ening all the world and grimly set herself to help end the menace of militarism once for all. On August 1, 1914, two days before Belgium was invaded, and three days before war between Brit- ain and Germany had been declared, the Domin- ion Government cabled to London their firm as- surance that the people of Canada would make every sacrifice necessary to secure the integrity and honor of the Empire and asked for suggestions as to the form aid should take. The financial and administrative measures the emergency demanded were carried out by Orders-in-Council in accord- ance with the scheme of defense which only a few months before had been drawn up in a War Book. Two weeks later, Parliament met in a special four- day session and without a dissenting voice voted the war credits the Government asked and con- ferred upon it special war powers of the widest scope. The country then set about providing men, money, and munitions of war. The day after war was declared, recruiting was begun for an expeditionary force of 21,000 men. Half as many more poured into the camp at Val- cartier near Quebec; and by the middle of October this first Canadian contingent, over 30,000 strong, 260 THE CANADIAN DOMINION the largest body of troops which had ever crossed the Atlantic, was already in England, whereits train-- ing was to be completed. As the war went on and all previous forecasts of its duration and its scale were far outrun, these numbers were multiplied many times. By the summer of 1917 over 400,000 men had been enrolled for service, and over 340,000 had already gone overseas, aside from over 25,000 Allied reservists. Naturally enough it was the young men of Brit- ish birth who first responded in large numbers to the recruiting officer’s appeal. A military back- ground, vivid home memories, the enlistment of kinsmen or friends overseas, the frequent slight- ness of local ties, sent them forth in splendid and steady array. Then the call came home to the native-born, and particularly to Canadians of English speech. Few of them had dreamed of war, few had been trained even in militia musters; but in tens of thousands they volunteered. From French-speaking Canada the response was slower, in spite of the endeavors of the leaders of the Opposition as well as of the Government to en- courage enlistment. In some measure this was only to be expected. Quebec was dominantly rural; its men married young, and the country THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 261 parishes had little touch with the outside world. Its people had no racial sympathy with Britain and their connection with France had long been cut by the cessation of immigration from that country. Yet this is not the complete explana- tion of that aloofness which marked a great part of Quebec. Account must be taken also of the resentment caused by exaggerated versions of the treatment accorded the French-Canadian minority in the schools of Ontario and the West, and es- pecially of the teaching of the Nationalists, led by Henri Bourassa, who opposed active Canadian par- ticipation in the war. Lack of tact on the part of the Government and reckless taunts from ex- tremists in Ontario made the breach steadily wider. Yet there were many encouraging considerations. Another grandson of the leader of ’37, Talbot Papineau, fell fighting bravely, and it was a French- Canadian battalion, Les Vingt Deuxiémes, which won the honors at Courcelette. When the war first broke out, no one thought of any but voluntary methods of enlistment. As the magnitude of the task came home to men and the example of Great Britain had its influence, voices began to be raised in favor of compulsion. Sir Rob- ert Borden, the Premier, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier 262 THE CANADIAN DOMINION alike opposed the suggestion. Early in 1917 the adoption of conscription in the United States, and the need of reénforcements for the Canadian forces at the front led the Prime Minister, imme- diately after his return from the Imperial Confer- ence in London, to bring down a measure for com- pulsory service. He urged in behalf of this course that the need for men was urgent beyond all ques- tion; that the voluntary system, wasteful and un- fair at best, had ceased to bring more than six or seven thousand men a month, chiefly for other than infantry ranks; and that only by compulsion could Quebec be brought to shoulder her fair share and the slackers in all the provinces be made to rise to the need. It was contended, on the other hand, that great as was the need for men, the need for food, which Canada could best of all countries supply, was greater still; that voluntary recruiting had yielded over four hundred thousand men, pro- portionately equivalent to six million from the United States, and was slackening only because the reservoir was nearly drained dry; and that Quebec could be brought into line more effectively by conciliation than by compulsion. The issue of conscription brought to an end the political truce which had been declared in August, THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 263 1914. The keener partisans on both sides had not long been able to abide on the heights of non-po- litical patriotism which they had occupied in the first generous weeks of the war. But the public was weary of party cries and called for unity. Suggestions of a coalition were made at different times, but the party in power, new to the sweets of office, confident of its capacity, and backed by a strong majority, gave little heed to the demand. Now, however, the strong popular opposition of- fered to the announcement of conscription led the Prime Minister to propose to Sir Wilfrid Laurier a coalition Government on a conscription basis. Sir Wilfrid, while continuing to express his desire to codperate in any way that would advance the common cause, declined to enter a coalition to car- ry out a programme decided upon without consul- tation and likely, in his view, to wreck national unity without securing any compensating increase in numbers beyond what a vigorous and sym- pathetic voluntary campaign could yet obtain. > For months negotiations continued within Par- liament and without. The Military Service Act was passed in August, 1917, with the support of the majority of the English-speaking members of the Opposition. Then the Government, which 264 THE CANADIAN DOMINION had already secured the passage of an Act provid- ing for taking the votes of the soldiers overseas, forced through under closure a measure depriving of the franchise all aliens of enemy birth or speech who had been admitted to citizenship since 1902, and giving a vote to every adult woman relative of a soldier on active service. Victory for the Gov- ernment now appeared certain. Leading Eng- lish-speaking Liberals, particularly from the West, convinced that conscription was necessary to keep Canada’s forces up to the need, or that the War Times Election Act made opposition hopeless, decided to accept Sir Robert Borden’s offer of seats in a coalition Cabinet. In the election of December, 1917, in which passion and prejudice were stirred as never be- fore in the history of Canada, the Unionist forces won by a sweeping majority. Ontario and the West were almost solidly behind the Government in the number of members elected, Quebec as sol- idly against it, and the Maritime Provinces nearly evenly divided. The soldiers’ vote, contrary to Aus- tralian experience, was overwhelmingly for con- scription. The Laurier Liberals polled more civil- ian votes in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, and British Columbia, and in the Dominion as a whole, than THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 265 the united Liberal party had received in the Reci- procity election of 1911. The increase in the Unionist popular vote was still greater, however, and gave the Government fifty-eight per cent of the popular vote and sixty-five per cent of the seats in the House. Confidence in the administrative capacity of the new Government, the belief that it would be more vigorous in carrying on the war, the desire to make Quebec do its share, the influence of the leaders of the Western Liberals and of the Grain Growers’ Associations, wholesale promises of exemp- tion to farmers, and the working of the new fran- chise law all had their part in the result. Eight months after the Military Service Act was passed, it had added only twenty thousand men to the nearly five hundred thousand volunteers; but steps were then taken to cancel exemptions and to simplify the machinery of administration. Some eighty thou- sand men were raised under conscription, but the war, so far as Canada was concerned, was fought and won by volunteers. “The self-governing British colonies,” wrote Bernhardi before the war, “have at their disposal a militia, which is sometimes only in process of formation. They can be completely ignored so far as concerns any European theater of war.” This 266 THE CANADIAN DOMINION contemptuous forecast might have been justified had German expectations of a short war been ful- filled. Though large and increasing sums had in recent years been spent on the Canadian militia and on a small permanent force, the work of build- ing up an army on the scale the war demanded had virtually to be begun from the foundation. It was pushed ahead with vigor, under the direction, for the first three years, of the Minister of Militia, General Sir Sam Hughes. Many mistakes were made. Complaints of waste in supply departments and of slackness of discipline among the troops were rife in the early months. But the work went on; and when the testing time came, Canada’s civilian soldiers held their own with any veterans on either side the long line of trenches. It was in April, 1915, at the second battle of Ypres — or, as it is more often termed in Canada, St. Julien or Langemarck — that the quality of the men of the first contingent was blazoned forth. The Germans had launched a determined attack on the junction of the French and Canadian forces, seeking to drive through to Calais. The use, for the first time, of asphyxiating gases drove back in confusion the French colonial troops on the left of the Canadians. Attacked and outflanked by a THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 267 German army of 150,000 men, four Canadian bri- gades, immensely inferior in heavy artillery and tor- tured by the poisonous fumes, filled the gap, hang- ing on doggedly day and night until reénforcements came and Calais was saved. In sober retrospection it was almost incredible that the thin khaki line had held against the overwhelming odds which faced it. A few weeks later, at Givenchy and Festubert, in the same bloody salient of Ypres, the Canadian division displayed equal courage with hardly equal success. In the spring of 1916, when the Canadian forces grew first to three and then to four divisions, heavy toll was taken at St. Eloi and Sanctuary Wood. When they were shifted from the Ypres sector to the Somme, the dashing success at Courcelette showed them as efficient in offense as in defense. In 1917 a Canadian general, Sir Arthur Currie, three years before only a business man of Vancouver, took command of the Canadian troops. The cap- ture of Vimy Ridge, key to the whole Arras posi- tion, after months of careful preparation, the hard- fought struggle for Lens, and toward the close of the year the winning of the Passchendaele Ridge, at heavy cost, were instances of the increasing scale and importance of the operations entrusted to Currie’s men. 268 THE CANADIAN DOMINION In the closing year of the war the Canadian corps played a still more distinctive and essential part. During the early months of 1918, when the Germans were making their desperate thrusts for Paris and the Channel, the Canadians held little of the line that was attacked. Their divisions had been withdrawn in turn for special training in open warfare movements, in close codperation with tanks and air forces. When the time came to launch the Allied offensive, they wereready. It was Canadian troops who broke the hitherto unbreakable Wotan line, or Drocourt-Queant switch; it was Canadians who served as the spearhead in the decisive thrust against Cambrai; and it was Canadians who cap- tured Mons, the last German stronghold taken before the armistice was signed, and thus ended the war at the very spot where the British “‘Old Contemptibles” had begun their dogged fight four years before. Through all the years of war the Canadian forces never lost a gun nor retired from a position they had consolidated. Canadians were the first to practice trench raiding; and Canadian cadets thronged that branch of the service, the Royal Flying Corps, where steady nerves and individual initiative were at a premium. In countless actions they proved their THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 269 fitness to stand shoulder to shoulder with the best that Britain and France and the United States could send: they asked no more than that. The casualty list of 220,000 men, of whom 60,000 sleep - forever in the fields of France and Flanders and in the plains of England, witnesses the price this people of eight millions paid as its share in the task of freeing the world from tyranny. The realization that in a world war not merely the men in the trenches but the whole nation could and must be counted as part of the fighting force was slow in coming in Canada as in other demo- cratic and unwarlike lands. Slowly the industry of the country was adjusted to a war basis. When the conflict broke out, the country was pulling itself together after the sudden collapse of the specula- tive boom of the preceding decade. For a time men were content to hold their organization to- gether and to avert the slackening of trade and the spread of unemployment which they feared. Then, as the industrial needs and opportunities of the war became clear, they rallied. Field and factory vied in expansion, and the Canadian con- tribution of food and munitions provided a very substantial share of the Allies’ needs. Exports increased threefold, and the total trade was more 270 THE CANADIAN DOMINION than doubled as compared with the largest year before the war. The financing of the war and of the industrial expansion which accompanied it was a heavy task. For years Canada had looked to Great Britain for a large share alike of public and of private borrow- ings. Now it became necessary not merely to find at home all the capital required for ordinary de- velopment but to meet the burden of war expendi- ture, and later to advance to Great Britain the funds she required for her purchase of supplies in Canada. The task was made easier by the effec- tive working of a banking system which had many times proved its soundness and its flexibility. When the money market of Britain was no longer open to overseas borrowers, the Dominion first turned to the United States, where several federal and provincial loans were floated, and later to her own resources. Domestic loans were issued on an increasing scale and with increasing success, and the Victory Loan of 1918 enrolled one out of every eight Canadians among its subscribers. Taxation reached an adequate basis more slowly. Inertia and the influence of business interests led the Gov- ernment to cling for the first two years to customs and excise duties as its main reliance. Then excess THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 271 profits and income taxes of steadily increasing weight were imposed, and the burdens were dis- tributed more fairly. The Dominion was able not only to meet the whole expenditure of its armed forces but to reverse the relations which existed before the war and to become, as far as current liabilities went, a creditor rather than a debtor of the United Kingdom. It was not merely the financial relations of Can- ada with the United Kingdom which required re- adjustment. The service and the sacrifices which the Dominions had made in the common cause ren- dered it imperative that the political relations be- tween the different parts of the Empire should be put on a more definite and equal basis. The feel- ing was widespread that the last remnants of the old colonial subordination must be removed and that the control exercised by the Dominions should be extended over the whole field of foreign affairs. The Imperial Conference met in London in the spring of 1917. At special War Cabinet meetings the representatives of the Dominions discussed war plans and peace terms with the leaders of Britain. It was decided to hold a Conference immediately after the end of the war to discuss the future con- stitutional organization of the Empire. Premier Q72 THE CANADIAN DOMINION Borden and General Smuts both came out strongly against the projects of imperial parliamentary fed- eration which aggressive organizations in Britain and in some of the Dominions had been urging. The Conference of 1917 recorded its view that any coming readjustment must be based on a full rec- ognition of the Dominions as autonomous nations of an imperial commonwealth; that it should recog- nize the right of the Dominions and of India to an adequate voice in foreign policy; and that it should provide effective arrangements for continuous con- sultation in all important matters of common con- cern and for such concerted action as the several Governments should determine. The policy of alliance, of codperation between the Governments of the equal and independent states of the Empire, searchingly tested and amply justified by the war, had compelled assent. The coming of peace gave occasion for a wider and more formal recognition of the new inter- national status of the Dominions. It had first been proposed that the British Empire should ap- pear as a unit, with the representatives of the Dominions present merely in an advisory capacity or participating in turn as members of the British delegation. The Dominion statesmen assembled THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT 273 in London and Paris declined to assent to this pro- posal, and insisted upon representation in the Peace Conference and in the League of Nations in their own right. The British Government, after some debate, acceded, and, with more difficulty, the consent of the leading Allies was won. The repre- sentatives of the Dominions signed the treaty with Germany on behalf of their respective countries, and each Dominion, with India, was made a mem- ber of the League. At the same time only the British Empire, and not any of the Dominions, was given a place in the real organ of power, the Ex- ecutive Council of the League, and in many re- spects the exact relationship between the United Kingdom and the other parts of the Empire in in- ternational affairs was left ambiguous, for later events and counsel to determine. Many French and American observers who had not kept in close touch with the growth of national consciousness within the British Empire were apprehensive lest this plan should prove a deep-laid scheme for multiplying British influence in the Conference and the League. Some misunderstanding was natural in view not only of the unprecedented character of the Empire’s development and polity, but of the incomplete and ambiguous nature of 18 274 THE CANADIAN DOMINION the compromise effected at Paris between the nationalist and the imperialist tendencies within the Empire. Yet the reluctance of the British imperialists of the straiter sect to accede to the new arrangement, and the independence of action of the Dominion representatives at the Conference, as in the stand of Premier Hughes of Australia on the Japanese demand for recognition of racial equality and in the statement of protest by Gen- eral Smuts of South Africa on signing the treaty, made it clear that the Dominions would not be merely echoes. Borden and Botha and Smuts, though new to the ways of diplomacy, proved that in clear understanding of the broader issues and in moderation of policy and temper they could bear comparison with any of the leaders of the older nations. The war also brought changes in the relations between Canada and her great neighbor. For a time there was danger that it would erect a barrier of differing ideals and contrary experience. When month after month went by with the United States still clinging to its policy of neutrality, while long lists of wounded and dead and missing were filling Canadian newspapers, a quiet but deep resentment, THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT Q75 not without a touch of conscious superiority, de- veloped in many quarters in the Dominion. Yet there were others who realized how difficult and how necessary it was for the United States to at- tain complete unity of purpose before entering the war, and how different its position was from that of Canada, where the political tie with Britain had brought immediate action more instinctive than reasoned. It was remembered, too, that in the first 360,000 Canadians who went overseas, there were 12,000 men of American birth, including both residents in Canada and men who had crossed the border to enlist. When the patience of the United States was at last exhausted and it took its place in the ranks of the nations fighting for free- dom, the joy of Canadians was unbounded. The entrance of the United States into the war assured not only the triumph of democracy in Europe but the continuance and extension of frank and friendly relations between the democracies of North Amer- ica. As the war went on and Canada and the United States were led more and more to pool their united resources, to codperate in finance and in the supply of coal, iron, steel, wheat, and other war essentials, countless new strands were woven into the bond that held the two countries together. Nor 276 THE CANADIAN DOMINION was it material unity alone that was attained; in the utterances of the head of the Republic the highest aspirations of Canadians for the future ordering of the world found incomparable expression. Canada had done what she could to assure the triumph of right in the war. Not less did she be- lieve that she had a contribution to make toward that new ordering of the world after the war which alone could compensate her for the blood and treasure she had spent. It would be her mission to bind together in friendship and common aspira- tions the two larger English-speaking states, with one of which she was linked by history and with the other by geography. To the world in general Canada had to offer that achievement of difference in unity, that reconciliation of liberty with peace and order, which the British Empire was struggling to attain along paths in which the Dominion had been the chief pioneer. “In the British Common- wealth of Nations,”’ declared General Smuts, “‘this transition from the old legalistic idea of political sovereignty based on force to the new social idea of constitutional freedom based on consent, has been gradually evolving for more than a century. And the elements of the future world government, which will no longer rest on the imperial ideas THE YEARS OF FULFILMENT Q7T7 adopted from the Roman law, are already in operation in our Commonwealth of Nations and will rapidly develop in the near future.” This may seem an idealistic aim; yet, as Canada’s Prime Minister asked a New York audience in 1916, ““What great and enduring achievement has the world ever accomplished that was not based on idealism?”’ BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE For the whole period since 1760 the most comprehen- sive and thorough work is Canada and its Provinces, edited by A. Shortt and A. G. Doughty, 23 vols. (1914). W. Kingsford’s History of Canada, 10 vols. (1887-1898), is badly written but is an ample storehouse of material. The Chronicles of Canada series (1914-1916) covers the whole field in a number of popular volumes, of which several are listed below. F. X. Garneau’s Histoire du Canada (1845-1848; new edition, edited by Hector Garneau, 1913-), the classical French-Canadian record of the development of Canada down to 1840, is able and moderate in tone, though considered by some critics not sufficiently appreciative of the Church. Of brief surveys of Canada’s history the best are W. L. Grant’s History of Canada (1914) and H. E. Egerton’s Canada (1908). The primary sources are abundant. The Dominion Archives have made a remarkable collection of original official and private papers and of transcripts of docu- ments from London and Paris. See D. W. Parker, A Guide to the Documents in the Manuscript Room at the Public Archives of Canada (1914). Many of these docu- ments are calendared in the Report on Canadian Ar- chives (1882 to date), and complete reprints, systemat- ically arranged and competently annotated, are being 279 280 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE issued by the Archives Branch, of which A. Shortt and A. G. Doughty, Documents Relating to the Constitutional History of Canada, 1759-1791, and Doughty and Mc- Arthur, Documents Relating to the Constitutional History of Canada, 1791-1818, have already appeared. A useful collection of speeches and dispatches is found in H. E.' Egerton and W. L. Grant, Canadian Constitutional Development (1907), and W. P. M. Kennedy has edited a somewhat larger collection, Documents of the Canadian Constitution, 1759-1915 (1918). The later Sessional Papers and Hansards or Parliamentary Debates are easily accessible. Files of the older newspapers, such as the Halifax Chronicle (1820 to date, with changes of title), Montreal Gazette (1778 to date), Toronto Globe (1844 to date), Manitoba Free Press (1872 to date), Victoria Colonist (1858 to date), are invaluable. The Dominion Annual Register and Review, ed. by H. J. Mor- gan, 8 vols. (1879-1887) and The Canadian Annual Re- view of Public Affairs, by John Castell Hopkins (1901 to date), are useful for the periods covered. For the first chapter, Sir Charles P. Lucas, A History of Canada, 1763-1812 (1909) and A. G. Bradley, The Making of Canada (1908) are the best single volumes. William Wood, The Father of British Canada (Chronicles of Canada, 1916), records Carleton’s defense of Canada in the Revolutionary War; and Justin H. Smith’s Our Struggle for the Fourteenth Colony (1907) is a scholarly and detailed account of the same period from an American standpoint. Victor Coffin’s The Province of Quebec and the Early American Revolution (1896), with a review of the same by Adam Shortt in the Review of Historical Publications Relating to Canada, vol. 1 (University of Toronto, 1897), and C. W. Alvord’s The Mississippi BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 281 Valley in British Politics, 2 vols. (1917) should be con- sulted for an interpretation of the Quebec Act. For the general reader, W.S. Wallace’s The United Empire Loyal- ists (Chronicles of Canada, 1914) supersedes the earlier Canadian compilations; C. H. Van Tyne’s The Loyalists in the American Revolution (1902) and A. C. Flick’s Loyalism in New York during the American Revolution (1901) embody careful researches by two American scholars. The War of 1812 is most competently treated by William Wood in The Wur with the United States (Chronicles of Canada, 1915); the naval aspects are sketched in Theodore Roosevelt’s The Naval War of 1812 (1882) and analyzed scientifically in A. T. Mahan’s Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812 (1905). For the period, 1815-1841, W. S. Wallace’s The Family Compact (Chronicles of Canada, 1915) and A. D. De Celles’s The Patriotes of ’37 (Chronicles of Canada, 1916) are the most concise summaries. J.C.Dent’s The Story of the Upper Canadian Rebellion (1885) is biased but careful and readable. William Lyon Mackenate, by Charles Lindsey, revised by G. G. S. Lindsey (1908), is a sober defense of Mackenzie by his son-in-law and grandson. Robert Christie’s A History of the Late Prov- ince of Lower Canada, 6 vols. (1848-1866) preserves much contemporary material. There are few secondary books taking the anti-popular side: T.C. Haliburton’s The Bubbles of Canada (1839) records Sam Slick’s op- position to reform; C. W. Robinson’s Life of Sir John Beverley Robinson (1904) is a lifeless record of the greatest Compact leader. Lord Durham’s Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839; available in Methuen reprint, 1902, or with introduction and notes by Sir Charles Lucas, 3 vols., 1912) is indispensable. 282 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE For the Union period there are several political biog- raphies available. G. M. Wrong’s The Earl of Elgin (1905), John Lewis’s George Brown (1906), W. L. Grant’s The Tribune of Nova Scotia (Chronicles of Canada, 1915), J. Pope’s Memoirs of the Right Honourable Sir John Alez- ander Macdonald, 2 vols. (1894), J. Boyd’s Sir George Etienne Cartier (1914), and O. D. Skelton’s Life and Times of Sir A. T. Galt (1919), cover the political developments from various angles. A. H. U. Col- quhoun’s The Fathers of Confederation (Chronicles of Canada, 1916) is a clear and impartial account of the achievement of Confederation; while M. O. Hammond’s Canadian Confederation and its Leaders (1917) records the service of each of its chief architects. For the years since Confederation biographies again give the most accessible record. Sir John 8. Willison’s Sir Wilfrid Laurier and the Liberal Party (1903) is the best political biography yet written in Canada. Sir Richard Cartwright’s Reminiscences (1912) reflects that statesman’s individual and pungent views of affairs, while Sir Charles Tupper’s Recollections of Sixty Years (1914) and John Castell Hopkins’s Life and Work of Sir John Thompson (1895) give a Conservative ver- sion of the period. Sir Joseph Pope’s The Day of Sir John Macdonald (Chronicles of Canada, 1915), and O. D. Skelton’s The Day of Sir Wilfrid Laurier (Chronicles of Canada, 1916) between them cover the whole period briefly. L. J. Burpee’s Sandford Fleming (1915) is one of the few biographies dealing with industrial as distinct from political leaders. Imperial relations may be studied in G. R. Parkin’s Imperial Federation, the Problem of National Unity (1892) and in L. Curtis’s The Problem of the Commonwealth (1916), which advocate imperial BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 283 federation, and in R. Jebb’s The Britannic Question; a Survey of Alternatives (1913), J.S. Ewart’s The Kingdom Papers (1912-), and A. B. Keith’s Imperial Unity and the Dominions (1916), which criticize that solution from different standpoints. The Reports of the Imperial Conferences of 1887, 1894, 1897, 1902, 1907, 1911, 1917, are of much value. Relations with the United States are discussed judiciously in W. A. Dunning’s The British Empire and the United States (1914). Phases of Canada’s recent development other than political are covered best in the volumes of Canada and its Provinces, a History of the Canadian people and their institutions, edited by A. Shortt and A. G. Doughty. A useful guide to recent books dealing with Canadian history will be found in the annual Review of Historical Publications Relating to Canada, published by the Uni- versity of Toronto (1896 to date). INDEX Abbott, J. J. C., and annexa- tion of Canada to United States, 109; Premier of Canada, 196 Acadia (Nova Scotia), 3; in- habitants exiled, 4; origin of Acadians, 5; see also Nova Scotia Adams, British peace com- missioner at Ghent, 51 Adams, John Quincy, peace commissioner at Ghent, 51 Alabama claims, 129, 160 Alaska boundary question, 232-36 Albany, conference at (1910), 243 Allan, Sir Hugh, 167 Alverstone, Lord, on Alaska boundary tribunal, 234-36 Amherstburg captured by Americans, 48 Andrews, I. D., United States consulin NewBrunswick, 122 Anglican Church in Canada, Gig Bk, La Annexation Movement of 1849, 105-11; later agitation, 178, 182-83 Armour, Justice, on Alaska boundary tribunal, 234 Arnold, Benedict, expedition to Quebec, 20 Aroostook War (1838-39), 118 Ashburton, Lord, negotiates with Webster, 119 Asquith, H. H., British Pre- mier, quoted, 228-29 Assiniboine River, forts on, 7 Australia, as convict settle- ment, 55; and South African War, 219; national feeling in, 220, 221; establishes navy, 224 Aylesworth, A. B., on Alaska boundary tribunal, 234 Aylmer, Lord, Governor of Canada, 85 Bagot, Sir Charles, Governor of Canada, 101-02, 103, 134 Baldwin, Robert, 134; son of W. W., 74; reformer, 75-76; on Executive Council, 88; and responsible government, 99, 100, 112; and La Fon- taine, 103; Premier with La Fontaine, 104; and annexa- tion, 110 Baldwin, Dr. W. W., 74 Balfour, Arthur, quoted, 253 Baptists in Canada, 35 Bathurst, Lord, Colonial Sec- retary, 116; quoted, 83-84 Bayard, James, peace com- missioner at Ghent, 51 Bayard, T. F., Secretary of State, 180 Becker, Carl, The Eve of the Revolution, cited, 19 (note) Belgium, treaty affecting tariff, 195, 218, 214; tariff nego- tiation with, 253 Bering Sea controversy, 187 Bernhardi quoted, 265 285 286 Bidwell, Barnabas, 74 Bidwell, M. S., son of Barna- bas, 74 Blaine, J. G., State, 185 Blair, A. G., Premier of New Brunswick, 201 Blake, Edward, Premier of Ontario, 166; Opposition leader, 172; retires, 184; and treaty-making, 191 Blanchard, Jotham, 112 Boer War, see South African War Borden, Sir Robert, Premier of Canada, 225; and navy, 226; on conscription, 261- 262; on imperial federation, 271-72 Botha, Louis, Premier of South Africa, 228, 229 Boulton, 69 Boundary Waters Treaty, 238- 239 Bourassa, Henri, leader of ultra-nationalists, 218, 225, 247, 261 Bowell, Sir Mackenzie, 198 Briand, Bishop, 15 Bright, John, and tariff, 108; on separation of Canada from England, 133, 164 British Columbia, enters Con- federation (1871), 157; on verge of secession, 169 British North America Act, 145 Brock, Isaac, 52; Hull sur- renders to, 47; succeeded by Drummond, 48 Brodeur, L. P., 253 Brougham, Lord, ham, 93 Brown, General Jacob, 49 Brown, lieutenant of Papineau, 89 Brown, George, 134; leader of “Clear Grits,’’ 136, 138-39; Secretary of 196, and Dur- INDEX plan for federal union, 139, 141; retires from political life, 148-49; on tariff, 158— 159; and settlement of diffi- culties with United States, 162 Buchanan, Isaac, 183 Buller, Charles, 93; quoted, 66 Burdett, Sir Francis, Whig leader, 82 Burke, Edmund, on French Revolution, 31 (note) Burke Channel, Mackenzie in, 43 Campbell, Sir Colin, Governor of Nova Scotia, 112-13 Campbell-Bannerman, Henry, 229 Canada, division of territory, 2-7; settlers, 3-4, 16, 26- 28, 54-57, 204-07; see also Immigration; as_ British problem, 7 et seg.; British policy in, 9 et seqg.; bounda- ries, 9 (note), 18, 24-25, 117- 121, 232-36; government, 11, 28 et seq.; 148 et seq.; and American Revolution, 19-24; Constitutional Act (1791), 30-33; and War of 1812, 44-58; pioneer life, 57 et seg.; transportation, 59-60, 154, 166-68, 171-73, 209; money and banking, 60-61; social life, 61; educa- tion, 61-62, 137; growth of self-government, 62-67, 137; commerce, 64-65; union of provinces, 95 et seg.; ‘“‘ Prov- ince of,’’ 98 (note); question of responsible government, 98 et seg.; reciprocity with United States, 110, 121-25, 158, 184-85, 232, 242-52; and American Civil War, 128-33; plan for Confedera- tion, 133-46; ‘‘Representa- tion by Population,” 138; Sir INDEX Canada—Continued Dominion formed (1867), 146; growth of territory, 151, 154, 156-58; trouble in West, 155-56, 174-76; fisher- ies dispute, 159-61, 179-81, 237-38; question of inde- pendence, 163-64; tariff as party issue, 169-71; Na- tional Policy, 171, 184; racial conflicts, 175-77; exodus to United States, 177; and United States, 178-88, 229-52, 274-75; policy of imperial codpera- tion, 191-95, 228-29; Mani- toba school question, 197-99; land policy, 208-09; growth of political unity, 210 et seq.; prosperity, 210; and South African War, 216-19; de- fense issue, 223-27; estab- lishes navy, 224; and Europe, 252-54; immigration, 254- 58; and Great War, 258-72; and Peace Conference, 272; bibliography, 279-83; sce also Lower Canada, Upper Canada, names of Provinces Canada (Quebec), province, see Quebec Canada East, 98 (note) Canada West, 98 (note), 103 Canadian National Railways, 210 (note) Canadian Northern Railway, 210 (note) Canadian Pacific Railroad, 169, 184, 203, 209 Canadien, Le, newspaper es- tablished at Quebec, 41 Cape of Good Hope, 219, 220 Cape Breton, 3 Cariboo, discovery of gold in, 157 Carleton, General Sir Guy, Governor of Canada, 14-16, 17; in Revolutionary War, 20; becomes Lord Dorches- 287 ter, 29; returns to Canada as Governor, 29-30 Carolinas, Loyalist in Revolu- tion, 26 Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton, 20-21 Carroll, Jesuit priest, brother of Charles, 21 Cartier, Sir G. E., leader of French-Canadian liberals, 134, 136, 138, 142, 149, 168 Cartwright, Sir Richard, and commercial union, 184; quoted, 186; on Joint High Commission, 231 Cataraqui, Loyalists settle on the, 27 Catholics, come to Canada, 4; under British law, 10, 12-13; and Quebec Act, 18; attitude toward France, 39; in re- bellion of 1837, 89; on annexation of Canada to United States, 110; Rouges against, 135 Chamberlain, Joseph, Colonial Secretary, 214, 215, 219, 220, 221 Charlton, John, on Joint High Commission, 231 Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, conference to form federation held at, 143 Chase, Samuel, 20 “Chateau clique,’ 40, 79 Chénier, Dr. J. O., 89-90 Chesapeake captured by the Shannon, 49 Chippawa, British forces de- feated at, 49 Christie, Robert, quoted, 78 Chrystler’s Farm, defeat at, 48 - Churchill, Winston, 227 Civil War, Canada and the, 125-33 Clark, Champ, quoted, 250 Clay, Henry, quoted, 45; peace commissioner at Ghent, 51 288 “Clear Grits”? or Reformers, political party, 135, 136, 137, 138 Cleveland, Grover, and fisher- ies question, 180; Venezuela message, 187; “‘the hammer of the Canadians,’’ 188 Clinton, DeWitt, and “Erie Ditch,’’ 59 Cobden, Richard, and tariff, 108 Colborne, Sir John, 87 Colonial Advocate, Brock monu- ment and, 77 Colonial Conference, Salisbury calls first (1887), 193-94; second at Ottawa (1894), 194; third in London, 214; fourth in London (1902), 219; fifth (1907), 222; see also Imperial Conference Columbia River, Robert Gray on, 43 Commerce, in pioneer period, 58, 64-65; policy of Great Britain, 130; question of commercial union of Canada and United States, 183-88; see also Tariff Confederation Act, 198 Conscription, 261-63 Constitutional Act, 30-33 Continental Congress, 20 Coolidge, T. J., on Joint High Commission, 231 Corn Laws, repeal of, 108 Craig, Sir James, quoted, 37- 38; hostile to French-Cana- dians, 39-40 Cronje, General, surrender of, 217 Currie, Sir Arthur, War, 267 Customs union, 183 Cuvillier, supporter of Pap- ineau, 85 the in Great Dalhousie, Lord, governor gen- eral of Canada, 82, 85 INDEX Davies, Sir Louis, on Joint High Commission, 231 Davitt, Michael, agitation in Ireland, 178 Deakin, Alfred, of Australia, 222 Defense, 46, 213, 223-27 Delfosse, Belgian Ambassador at London, fisheries award, 162 Derby and customs union, 183 Detroit, Hull surrenders at, 47 Devoir, Le, Bourassa’s news- paper, 247 Dillon, John, Ireland, 178 Dingley, Nelson, tariff, 187; on Joint High Commission, 231 Disraeli, Benjamin, and separa- tion of Canada from Great Britain, 133, 164 Dorchester, Lord, 34; see also Carleton, General Guy Dorion, A. A., and annexation of Canada to United States, 109; leader of Rouges, 136, 144 Doughty and McArthur, Docu- ments Relating to the Con- stitutional History of Canada, 1791-1818, cited, 12 (note) Douglas, Stephen A., 183 Doukhobors in Canada, 205 Draper, W. H., 104 Drummond, Sir George Gor- don, succeeds Brock, 48 Duchesnay, seigneur in Lower Canada, 37 Dumont, Gabriel, 175 Duncombe, supporter of Mac- kenzie, 90 Dundas Street, 34 Dunkin, Christopher, 144 Dunn on Executive Council under Head, 88 Durham, Lord, quoted, 68; governor general of Canada, 92, 93; Report, 93-94; policy of union, 95, 96 agitation in INDEX Education, 10, 61-62, 114, 137; Manitoba school question, 177, 197-99, 202 Election reforms, 169 Elgin, Lord, governor general of Canada, 104, 105, 134; and annexation, 109, 110; and reciprocity, 123 “Erie Ditch,’ 59 Estaing, Admiral d’, 22 Eustis, William, Secretary of War, 45 Fairbanks, C. W., on Joint High Commission, 231 Falkland, Lord, governor of Nova Scotia, 113 Family Compact, 68, 70, 88, 97, 185 Fenian Raids, 145; claim against United States for, 160 Fielding, W. S., in Laurier’s Cabinet, 201, 213; negotiates treaty with France, 253 “Fifty-four forty or fight,’’ 120 Finance, money and banking, 60-61; war, 270-71 Fish, C. R., The Path of Em- pire, cited, 119 (note), 121 (note), 129 (note), 159 (note), 230 (note) Fisher, Premier of Australia, on establishment of Imperial Parliament, 228 Fisher, Charles, reform leader in New Brunswick, 113 Fisheries, 24, 159-61, 179-81, 237-38; see also Sealing Fleming, Sir Sandford, 154 Foss, E. M., and reciprocity, 242 Foster, General J. W., on Joint High Commission, 231 Fox, C. J., debate on French Revolution, 31 (note) France, loses control in New World, 1-2; and War of 1812, 44; treaty with, 192, 253 19 289 Franklin, Benjamin, 20 Fraser, Simon, 156 Fraser River, Spaniards ex- plore, 42; Mackenzie on, 43; discovery of gold, 157 French-Canadians, increase un- der British rule, 80 (note); restrictions in Ontario, 177; and South African War, 218; attitude in Great War, 260-61; see also Lower Canada French Revolution, 31, 39 Gallatin, Albert, peace com- missioner at Ghent, 51 Galt, A. T., 135, 136; and an- nexation, 110; Minister of Finance, 124; quoted, 130- 131; and Confederation, 141; retires from public life. 149; on fisheries commission, 162; and control of treaty-making, 191 Gambier, James, British peace commissioner at Ghent, 51 Geneva Tribunal, 161 George, Fort, Americans with- draw from, 48 Georgia, loyalist in Revolution, 26 Germans in Canada, 3-4 Germany, treaty affecting tariff, 195, 213, 214; menace of, 223; tariff war with Canada, 254 Ghent, Treaty of, 51-52 Gladstone, W. E., 104, 133 Globe, Toronto, 136, 149; quoted, 127 Gore, Sir Francis, lieutenant governor of Canada, 37 (note) Gosford, Lord, governor gen- eral of Canada, 86 Goulburn, British peace com- missioner at Ghent, 51 Gourlay, Robert, 73 Grand Trunk Railway, 115, 167 290 Grant, U. S., denounces Cana- dian fisheries policy, 159 Gray, Captain Robert, 43 Gray, Senator, on Joint High Commission, 231 Great Britain, problems be- queathed by Treaty of Paris, 7-8; and American Civil War, 125-26; see also Tariff, War of 1812 Great Lakes, limitation of naval armament on, 53 Great Northern Railroad, 171, 237 Great War, 258 et seq. Greeks in Canada, 205 Greeley, Horace, 183 Grenville, William, quoted, 30, , 3% Grey, Sir Edward, Secretary ~ of State for Foreign Affairs, 230 Guadeloupe, Great Britain con- siders retaining, 8 Hagerman, 69 Hague Court settles north- eastern fisheries question, 237-38 Halifax, English settlers in, 3, 23; naval college, 225, 227 Hampton, General Wade, de- feat, 48 Hay, John, 230 Head, Edmund, Governor of Canada, 87 Head, Sir Francis Bond, Lieu- , tenant Governor of Upper Canada, 86, 87 Hearst papers and reciprocity, 250 . Herald, New York, 126, 127 Herschell, Lord, on Joint High Commission, 231 Highlanders in Canada, 4, 35 Hill, J. J., 171, 237 Hincks, Sir Francis, 134 Hindu migration to Canada, 256-58 INDEX Holton, Luther, 109, 183 Home Rule, Irish, 178 Howe, Joseph, 112-18, 145, 152 Hudson’s Bay Company, do- mains of, 3; and North-West Company, 42, 157; Lord Selkirk and, 56; Dominion buys rights of, 154-55 Hughes, General Sir Sam, 266 Hull, General William, surren- der at Detroit, 47 Hull founded, 36 Hume, Joseph, 88 Huntington, L. S., 168, 191 142, Immigration to Canada, 4, 54-56; encouraged, 9, 204, 206-07; to the West, 208; from Europe, 205-06; from United States, 206, 237; from Great Britain, 207; restrictions, 208, 255, 256- 258; Chinese and Japanese, 254-56; Hindu, 256-58 Imperial Conference (1907), 222; (1911), 225, 228; (1917), 257-58, 271 Imperial Federation League, 189-91, 194 Imperial codperation, policy of, 212-13 Indians, reserve for, 8; Great Lakes region reserved for, 9 (note) Intercolonial 210 (note) Irish in Canada, 4, 207 Italians in Canada, 205 Italy, tariff agreement with, 253 Izard, General George, 49 Railway, 154, Jackson, Andrew, at New Or- leans, 51 Jameson, Sir L. S., of Cape of Good Hope, 222 Japan, immigration agreement with, 255-56 INDEX Jefferson, Thomas, on con- quest of Canada, 45 Jesuits’ Estates controversy, 197 Jetté, Sir Louis, on Alaska boundary tribunal, 234 Jews in Canada, 205 Johnston, R. M., Washington and His Comrades in Arms, cited, 19 (note) Joint High Commission, 231, 239 Kasson, J. A., on Joint High Commission, 231 Kellogg, E. H., 162 Kempt, Sir James, 85 Kingston, first Parliament meets at, 98 Kittson, N. W., 171 Kriiger, President, issues ul- timatum, 216 La Fontaine, L. H., 99, 103, 104, 134; opposes annexa- tion, 110 La Vérendrye, P. G. de Varennes, Sieur de, 42 Labrador restored by Quebec Act, 18 Lachine canal, 59 Lacolle’s Mill, Wilkinson at, 50 Lafayette, Marquis de, plan of invasion of Canada, 22 Land, 29, 32-38, 35, 71-72, 208-09 Lansdowne, Marquis of, Secre- tary of Foreign Affairs, 230 Larned, and customs union, 183 Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, Liberal leader, 184; a Catholic, 198; Quebec majority for, 199; Premier, 200; Cabinet, 201; visits England, 214; and imperialism, 218; dominates Colonial Conference, 221, 222; submits Naval Service Bill (1910), 224; on Joint 291 High Commission, 231; op- poses conscription, 261-62, 263 Lemieux, Rodolphe, negotiates agreement with Japan, 255- 256 Lewis, Cornewall, on separa- tion of Canada from Great Britain, 133 Liquor traffic, control of, 169 Liverpool, Lord, Craig’s letter to, 37 Lodge, H. C., on Alaska bound- ary tribunal, 234 Lotbiniére, seigneur in Lower Canada, 37 Louisbourg, French fortress at,3 Lount, Samuel, rebel leader in Canada, 92 Lowe, Robert, on separation of Canada from Great Britain, 133 Lower Canada, political con- flict, 77-87; population, 80 (note); armed rebellion, 88- 90; banishment of leaders, 92; French-Canadian prob- lem, 95-96; union measure drafted, 97; named Canada East, 98 (note); feudal sys- tem abolished, 137; see also Canada Lumbering, 58 Lundy’s Lane, 49 Lunenburg, Germans in, 4 Macdonald, J. A., 134; Liberal- Conservative leader, 135- 136, 138, 139, 148, 149, 150, 153; and Confederation, 141; British commissioner, 160, 161; election (1872), 166; and Pacific Scandal, 168; and Canadian Pacific, 170; and Mowat, 174; and reci- procity, 185; and tariff, 191; and preferential trade, 194; election (1891), 195; death, 196 292 Macdonald, Sandfield, 144 Macdonell, Colonel, 52 McDougall, William, Reform- er in Canada West, 142 McGee, D’Arcy, 142, 149 Mackay, companion of Mac- kenzie, 43 Mackenzie, Alexander, jour- ney to Pacific coast, 43, 156 Mackenzie, Alexander, Liberal leader, 150, 161, 163, 165; Premier, 168, 169; and tariff, 170; and _ treaty-making power, 191 Mackenzie, W. L., 73, 77, 88, 90 Mackintosh, Sir James, Whig leader, 83 McLeod, Alexander, 91-92 MacNab, Allan, 69 Macpherson, D. L., 109, 167 Maitland, Sir Peregrine, Gover- nor of Upper Canada, 69, 77 Manitoba, admitted to Con- federation, 156; political differences, 174; school ques- tion, 177, 197-98, 202 Marriott, James, Advocate General of England, 15; quoted, 18 Maséres, Francis, 15; quoted, 9 Matthews, Captain John, 74, 76 Matthews, Peter, rebel leader in Upper Canada, 92 Mennonites, 35 Mercier, Honoré, 176 Mercury, Quebec, 40 Merritt, W. H., 122 Metcalfe, Sir Charles, Governor General of Canada, 103-04, 134 Methodists in Canada, 35 Michigan Lake, Canadian ves- sels granted use of, 123 Michilimackinac in War of 1812, 49 Military Service Act (1917), 263, 265 INDEX Milner, Sir Alfred, British statesman, 215 Milnes, Lieutenant Governor of Lower Canada, quoted, 66 Molson, John, runs steamer between Montreal and Que- bec, 59 Molsons, commercial leaders in Montreal, 110 Monck, Lord, Governor of Canada, 148 Montgomery, Richard, expedi- tion against Canada, 20 Montreal, captured by Mont- gomery, 20; in War of 1812, 47, 50; pro-Southern senti- ment in, 128 Moody, John, The Railroad Builders, cited, 171 (note) Moraviantown, Procter’s de- feat at, 47 Morin, A. N., 135 Morris, Premier of Newfound- land, quoted, 228 Mowat, Oliver, Premier of Ontario, 166; and Mac- donald, 174; in Laurier’s Cabinet, 201 Murray, General James, Gov- ernor of Quebec, 11-14 National Policy (‘‘N. P.’’), 171, 184 National Transcontinental Railroad, 210 (note) Navigation Act of 1668, 64-65 Navy Island, Mackenzie seizes, 90 Neilson, John, editor of Que- bec Gazette, 79, 83, 85 Nelson, Robert, rebel leader, 89, 92 Netherlands, tariff treaty with, 258 New Brunswick, founded, 27; government, 28, 111, 145, 148 New England, immigration to Canada from, 4, 54; rela- INDEX New England—Continued tions with Nova Scotia, 5; and War of 1812, 46 New Orleans, Andrew Jack- son at, 51 New York, Loyalist in Revolu- tion, 26 New Zealand, and South Afri- can War, 219; colonial de- pendence of, 219; defense measures, 220 Newark, Americans burn, 48 Newfoundland, colonies given fishery rights in, 24; with- draws from Confederation, 145; not transferred to Can- ada, 158 Niagara, in War of 1812, 49; Loyalists at, 27 Niobe (cruiser), 225 Niverville, Chevalier de, 42 North Atlantic Trading Com- pany, 204 North-West Company, 42, 56, 156 Nova Scotia, population, 4; British influences, 22-23; boundary, 24; slaves brought to, 27; Loyalist majority, 28; government, 111, 112- 113, 148; and Confederation, 152-58; see also Acadia O’Callaghan, lieutenant of Papineau, 89 “Old Tomorrow,’”’ nickname of Macdonald, 167 Ontario, Canada West be- comes, 148; and provincial rights, 174; French-Cana- dian restrictions, 177 Pacific Scandal, 166-68 Pakenham, General Sir Ed- ward, at New Orleans, 51 Panet, Antoine, and respon- sible government, 83 Papineau, Joseph, father of L. J., 80 293 Papineau, L. J., reform leader in Lower Canada, 80-81, 83, 85, 89, 135 Papineau, Talbot, grandson of L. J., 261 Paris, Treaty of, 1-2, 7 Parnell, C. S., agitation in Ireland, 178 Patriotes, Opposition party in Lower Canada, 85, 89 Peel, Arthur Wellesley, Vis- count, and McLeod affair, 92; repeals Corn Laws, 108 Pennsylvania, Loyalist in Revolution, 26 Perry, Peter, 74 Plattsburg, British defeat at, 51 Poles in Canada, 205 Pontiac Conspiracy, 8 Prairie du Chien captured by Canadians, 49 Prevost, General Sir George, failure at Plattsburg, 51 Prince Edward Island, British since 1713, 3; St. John re- named, 29; government, 29; land policy, 29, 111-12; and Confederation, 143; with- draws from Confederation, 145, 151 Proclamation of 1763, 9 (note), 10 Procter, General, defeat at Moraviantown, 47 Protection, see Tariff Quakers in Upper Canada, 35 Quebec (city), Benedict Ar- nold at, 20; conference at, 148 Quebec British, 3; becomes, 148 Quebec Act (1774), 16, 17, 40 (note); see also ‘‘Sacred Charter”’ Queenston Heights, American defeat at, 47 (province), becomes Canada East 294 Quesnel, supporter of Papin- eau, 85 Quinté, Bay of, Loyalists on, 27, 35, 74 Railroads, see Transportation Rainbow (cruiser), 224-25, 257 Randolph, John, of Roanoke, quoted, 45 Rebellion Losses Bill, 106-07 Reciprocity, 110, 121-25, 158- 159, 184-85, 232, 242-52 Red River, forts on, 7 : Redpaths, commercial leaders in Montreal, 110 Reformers, see ‘Clear Grits”’ Religion, 34-35; Clergy Re- serves, 32, 71, 137 Responsible government, 98 et seq.; in Nova Scotia, 112- 113 Revolutionary War, 14, 23-24 Rhodes, C. J., statesman, 215 Rideau canal, 59 Riel, Louis, rebellion (1869), 155-56; second rebellion, 174-75; execution, 176 Roberts, Lord, in South Afri- ean War, 217 Robinson, J. B., 69 Rolph, Dr. John, 73, 88, 90. Root, Elihu, 230, 234 Rose, John, and annexation, . 109; plans joint commission, 160 Ross, General, captures Wash- ington, 51 Ross, Sir George, Premier of Ontario, 227 Rouges, political party, 135, 136, 139 Rouville, seigneur Canada, 37 Royal Military College estab- lished, 169 Royal William (steamboat), 59 Rush-Bagot Convention, 53, 101, 231-32 Russell, Lord John, Chancellor 110, in Lower INDEX of the Exchequer, 86, 88, 98 Russell, Jonathan, peace com- missioner at Ghent, 51 Russia, explorationsin Canada, 7, 42; boundary treaty with, 101 Ruthenians in Canada, 205 Ryerson, Egerton, 88, 114 Sackville-West, Sir Lionel, 179 “Sacred Charter’? (Quebec Act), 40, 83; see also Quebec Act St. Croix River as boundary, 117 St. Francis Lake, settle on, 27 St. John, Island of, renamed Prince Edward Island, 28- 29 St. Lawrence, Loyalists settle in valley of, 27; need for improvement, 82; improve- ment, 98, 114; American vessels granted use of, 123 Salaberry, Colonel de, 37; in War of 1812, 48, 52; on com- mission to West, 155-56 Salisbury, Lord, 178; summons Colonial Conference, 193 San Juan, Island of, American claim approved, 121 Saskatchewan River, forts on, Loyalists Scandinavians in Canada, 206 “Scotch pedlars,’’ 36 Scott, 69 Scott, General Winfield, 49 Scott, Thomas, killed by Riel, 156 Sealing, suggested restriction (1893), 187; settlement of question (1911), 238 Secord, Laura, 52-53 Selkirk, Lord, attempted set- tlement of West, 56-57 Seven Years’ War, 1 Seward, W. H., 183 INDEX Sewell, Jonathan, 40, 78, 82 Shannon captures Chesapeake, 49 Sherwood, 69 “Shopkeeper Aristocracy,’”’ 36 Shortt and Doughty, Docu- ments Relating to the Con- stitutional History of Canada, 1759-1791, cited, 12 (note) Sifton, Clifford, 201, 204 Simcoe, J. G., lieutenant gover- nor of Upper Canada, 34, 76 “Slick, Sam”’ (Judge Halibur- ton), humorist, 4, 111 Smith, Adam, and _ colonial system, 65; influence on tariff, 108 Smith, D. A., afterwards Lord Strathcona, 156, 171 Smith, Goldwin, and annexa- tion, 182-83 Smuts, General, 272; quoted, 276-77 South African War, 215-19 Spain, explorations on Pacific coast, 42; Canadian trade agreement with, 192 Spanish-American War, 230 Stanley, Lord, Colonial Secre- tary, 101, 103 Stephen, George, 171, 173 Stephenson, N. W., Abraham Lincoln and the Union, cit- ed, 127 (note); The Day of the Confederacy, cited, 129 (note) Strachan, John, 69 Strathcona, Lord, 217; see also Smith, D. A. Stuart, Andrew, 79, 85 Stuart, James, 79, 83, 9 Suffrage, 264 Swiss in Canada, 56 Sydenham, Lord, Governor of Canada, 96-99, 134; and re- sponsible government, 100- 101, 102; death, 101 Taché, Bishop, 156 295 Taché, Sir Etienne, 142 Taft, W. H., and tariff, 244; quoted, 250 Talbot, Colonel Thomas, of Malahide, 35-36 Tariff, England and free trade, 108; protection in United States, 162, 179; party issue in Canada, 169-70; ‘“‘Na- tional Policy,” 171, 184; McKinley Act, 185; Ding- ley Act, 187; protection in Great Britain, 189, 221-22; Canada’s right to control her, 191, 213; preferential trade, 194; demand for lower, 197; barrier between United States and, 239-40; protectionist sentiment in Canada, 240-41; Payne-Al- drich bill, 242; Canada’s bargaining, 253; see also Commerce, Reciprocity Taschereau, seigneur in Lower Canada, 37 Taylor, Sir Henry, supports customs union, 183 Tecumseh, 47 Thibault, Vicar General, 156 Thompson, David, 156 Thompson, Sir John, 196 Thomson, C. P., see Syden- ham, Lord Thornton, Sir Edward, 162 Thorpe, Judge, of Upper Can- ada, 36, 37 (note) Tilley, Leonard, 142, 145 Times, the, London, quoted, 132 Toronto, capture of, 47; pro- Southern sentiment in, 128 Torrances, commercial leaders in Montreal, 110 Transportation, early develop- ment, 59-60; improvements around St. Lawrence, 98, 114; railroads, 114-15, 171- 173, 203, 209-10; Pacific Scandal, 166-68 126; 296 Treaty of 1783, 24 Trent affair, 127, 181 Tupper, Charles, Canadian statesman, 142, 150, 153, 170, 196; and Confederation, 145; negotiates with France, 192 Turner, George, on Alaska boundary tribunal, 234 Ulster Presbyterians, immi- grants to Canada, 4, 35 United Empire Loyalists, 27, 35 United States, attitude toward rebellion in Canada, 91; boundary disputes, 115-21, 232-36; Joint High Com- mission (1898), 231-32; re- lations with Canada during Great War, 274-75; see also Annexation, Fisheries, Re- ciprocity, Tariff Upper Canada, foundation, 27; religious differences, 34—- 35; land policy, 35-36, 71- 72; party strife, 36-37, 67- 71, 73-77, 80, 87-88, 90-91, 92; and War of 1812, 52; education, 62; disabilities affecting American settlers, 72-73; need for union, 81- 82; popular use of term, 98 (note) Van Egmond, rebel leader, 90 Van Horne, William, 173, 248 Van Rensselaer, defeat at Queenston Heights, 47 Vancouver, Captain George, 43 Vancouver, anti-Chinese riots in, 255 INDEX Vancouver Island, British territory, 121 Venezuela episode, 187, 229 Victoria, Pacer Diamond Jubilee, 214 Waddington, Alfred, 157 War of 1812, 44-53 Ward, Sir Joseph, of New Zea- land, 228 Washington burned, 51 Washington, Treaty of, fisher- ies clauses annulled, 180 Webster, Daniel, and McLeod affair, 92; negotiates with Ashburton, 119 Weekes, barrister in Upper Canada, 36, 37 (note) Welland canal, 59 Whitney, H. M., 242 Wilkinson, General James, campaign in Canada, 47- 48, 50 Willcocks, Joseph, sheriff in Upper Canada, 36, 37 (note) William, Fort, Selkirk seizes, 57 Wilmot, Lemuel, 113 Wiman, Erastus, 183 Winnipeg, Lake, forts on, 7 Winter, Sir James, 231 Wolseley, Colonel Garnet, 156 Workmans, commercial leaders in Montreal, 110 Wright, Philemon, 36 Wyatt, surveyor general of Upper Canada, 36, 37 (note) captured and Yonge Street, 34 York, see Toronto Young, John, 183 Ypres, Canadians at, 266-67; see also Great War gle