ure and domesticity in the midst of political strife, they are always the same-simple, unassuming, kind and hospitable. They are always endeavoring to enable their guest to appear at his best, and with generous self-effacement seeking only to minister to his welfare. Their hospitality is not confined to any

COLDSTREAM, LORD ABERDEEN'S RANCH NEAR
VERNON, BRITISH COLUMBIA.

sect, party, class or condition. The visitors' book at Haddo bears many names, from that of Her Majesty the Queen down to some of the poorest of her subjects. Nor have any rested within its walls without experiencing the charm which comes from perfect culture combined with high religious purpose, which is felt all the more because it is never aggressively asserted. Among the later guests who assembled at Haddo House immediately before the departure of the Aberdeens for Canada was Col. John Hay, who left as his autograph in the visitors' book a couple of verses which may be appropriately quoted here:

"Ask me not here amid these storied halls,

Vowed to traditions of high strenuous duty, Where faces of dead statesmen deck the walls With righteous glory's ever living beautyAsk me not here to turn a careless rhyme,

It ill would suit the solemn place and hour When Haddo's Lord bears to a distant clime

The Gordon conscience backed by Britain's power."

Dollis Hill, near London, is the great gathering ground for religious and philanthropic movements. The first time I visited it was to listen to Mr. Gladstone address an out of-door assemblage in protest against the coercion of Ireland, but religious denominations and various charitable associations find there their natural rallying ground. In their absence from England it is difficult to see who will fill their place. Lady Aberdeen is an enthusiastic photographer, and her book, "Through Canada with a Kodak," bears abundant testimony to the fact that she has the eye of an artist as well as the pen of a quick and observant writer. As a speaker she is very effective, her voice is full of music and singularly free from the shrillness which sometimes mars the oratory of women. Every morning at Rideau Hall the household assembles for morning prayers, which are conducted by Lord Aberdeen, or in his absence by his wife. They are very simple. A hymn is sung, a chapter in the Bible is read and then Lord Aberdeen reads prayers, and the household then join in the Lord's prayer. This, however, is by no means the only occasion on which the heads of the house and the domestics meet on a footing of equality. Every week they have a meeting of their household club, which is social and educational. Members of the household and visitors take part in a medley of music, speechmaking and discussion. There are besides classes held in connection with the club and lantern lectures given. On the whole, the experiment is one full of hope and promise and worthy of imitation.

There is a fine spirit of brotherliness running through the whole establishment at Rideau Hall and the genial glow of that household life will be felt far and wide in the New World. What the future may hold it is impossible to say, but it is not a very hazardous prediction to say that at the end of five years even those who most grieved that Lord and Lady Aberdeen did not return in 1892 to the Green Isle they love so much, and which so heartily returns that love, will rejoice that this did not come to pass at that time. It is impossible for me to express more strongly my conviction as to the good results which are likely to follow from this Governor-Generalship.

I

HOPE that you will not think that I aspire upon the strength of having been a little more than ten days in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, to read your horoscope for the future. I have come more to seek information than to impart my own views, and I can honestly say that since I came to Canada I have talked to men and women of all shades of opinion and I have heard quite a bewildering variety of views. It is not, however, of what has been said to me that I want to talk to-night.

I want rather to speak to you of ideas which we have long discussed on the other side. First I should like you to understand the position from which I approach this subject. I come from an old country. You are in a new land which differs in so very many things from our country that it is difficult for us to understand the working of some of your institutions. Then again we differ from you in Canada in believing in Free-Trade. We may be all wrong, but we believe we are all right. The Dominion of Canada, however, is run upon the opposite principle. We do not say that you are wrong; we only say that if we had to pronounce an opinion, upon what seems to us sound principles, we should say that you were wrong. You, however, have come to the opposite conclusion in Canada. This again makes one very modest and diffident in expressing any opinion upon a subject on which your people and ours can take such opposite views.

THE ENGLISH SPEAKING WORLD.

As a

What is the body to which Canada belongs? Possibly some of you may think that I am going to say it belongs to the British Empire. That is not my answer. matter of fact, politically of course, that is true; but that is not the body to which I refer. The body to which Canada belongs is the same as that to which England, Australia and the United States of America belong. Canada is a natural part and an important part of that great body politically, as yet but imperfectly organized and very imperfectly realized, which we call the English speaking world. That world has, as yet, no common centre of government, and so far as a central government goes there is no such entity as the English speaking world in the political sense.

But if any one came down to this planet from another star and looked at the children of men he would recognize the English speaking world as a real and substantial entity, divided by seas it is true, but with one law, one language and, on the whole, one system of government by the people, for the people and through the people, one literature and, if we speak broadly, one social and religious ideal. These things constitute the English speaking world an organic entity in a more real sense than, for instance, that which is created by the uniform government which the British Empire has established over the many and varied populations of Hindoostan. The English speaking world is a far more real entity, with far more solidarity in it, with more cohesiveness and with

more self consciousness of unity tan the congeries of races and tribes which live in peace together in British India in one State system or empire. Therefore, I think that we are justified in speaking of the English speaking people as one people. I may be wrong, but to me it seems that the strengthening of the ties which bind the various parts of that world together constitutes the most important political task that is before us as a race.

OUR SUPREME DUTY.

Looking from the standpoint of London it seems to us that the great question which lies before us as a race is the great question as to what are to be the future relations between the British Empire and the American Republic. So far as I am concerned I do not hesitate to say that I regard the maintenance of good relations between the British Empire and the American Republic-nay further, the establishment of some closer nexus which would bring the Empire and the Republic into one political unityas the greatest object for which any politician or statesman could work or for which any patriot could pray. In other words, after a hundred years in which we have been separate countries and in the course of which we have more than once been brought almost to the verge of war, it seems to me that the time has come when we ought to ask ourselves seriously whether there is no possibility of undoing the mistake which George the Third made? I do not mean, as you all understand, I do not even wish to see the States of the American Republic restored to their old position of dependence upon the mother country. That would be just a trifle too mad for any one outside of Belam to suggest. There is, however, a great deal of difference between that lunacy and wishing to undo the fault of the past. We can surely wish to close the great gulf yawning between the two sections of the English speaking race without wishing to see them in the position of dependent colonies governed from Downing Street. The great work which we as patriots and especially as imperialists have to do is to endeavor by every means in our power to pro ote the growth of that unity which was sacrificed a hundred years ago.

CANADIAN POWER AND RESPONSIBILITY.

This being the case, you can see how immensely important a position Canada holds in our outlook over the universe. Canada is the pivot state, she holds the pass. It depends upon you in Canada what these relations will be. Your dealing, your manifest dealing is to decide whether the British Empire and the American Republic are in the future to be friends or foes. No, not foes. That is out of the question. I never, even in a nightmare, think of the possibility of an actual war between America and Britain. But we may be a great deal short of friends without being at war. It depends upon you in Canada more than upon any other population in the world whether the Empire and the Republic are to be jealous, nagging neigh

bors, or cordial friends and allies all the world over. The future of civilization and the hope of the world depend upon the answer you will give. It is a great position which you hold. We in our own country may be as anxious to be friends with our American kinsfolk as it is possible for mortals to be. We might even make it the great object of our state policy, but you could paralyze and render abortive anything that we might attempt to do. You are the man on the horse in the present instance; we have to take the back seat. You are face to face with the actual questions-questions which arise and constantly will arise which create friction between the two sections of the English speaking people.

THE ISSUE AT STAKE.

The great question for us to consider is whether in this English speaking world there is to be reproduced the old bloody anarchy of Europe or a federal legal system towards which a beginning has been made in the United States of America. Which is it to be? Here again you have the deciding voice more than any other section of the English speaking people. I must say that in talking to many of your leading men I do not find that any sense of the enormous issues which lie waiting your decision has entered their minds. To talk to some of your politicians, one would think that the one great question which Canada had to decide was whether a certain Mr. Somebody, or an Hon. Mr. Nobody had to be in office for the next few years. It is very important, I agree,

to the somebodies and nobodies as to who is in office, and it is also important to you whether there are honest men in power or rogues, but far more important than the mere local and provincial issues at your elections is this great and supreme issue in the great world-wide problem of the human race. Is Canada going to use her influence for peace or for war, for the establishment of good relations by a legal and federative system, or is she going to raise her voice in favor of reproducing in the New World the worst evils of the Old, and to estabish in the midst of the English speaking world that principle of absolute independence which refuses to admit any superior, to recognize any law or to submit differences to any permanently constituted tribunal, and which patches up a court whenever difficulties get a little too hot to be settled by diplomacy. If I could speak so as to be heard by all your politicians and all your voters, I would implore you to remember that it lies with you to decide whether you will be the angel of peace helping to unite into one the English speaking people, or whether you will be like another Cadmus sowing the dragon's teeth from which will spring up armed men to desolate the world. That is the great question which it is your destiny to decide.

CANADA FIRST-BUT NOT LAST.

In the Old Country we want you to be first of all Canadians. We do not want you to sacrifice your Canadian commonwealth or your Canadian future to either Eng land, Scotland, Ireland or Wales. We want you to look at this question from the point of view of the nationality which has come into existence in this land, and which is going to stay and grow more and more powerful and strong as the years go by, and which therefore has a right to judge all questions which come before it from the point of view of its own independent national existence. But at the same time that we expect you to do that, in the first place, we also ask you to look at the broader question of the common interests of the whole English speaking people. And let me here remark, for fear of misun

derstanding, that while expecting you to be Canadian, we hope you will never cease to be British. However much talk there may be among those who write much and think little as to the readiness of the Old Country to cut the painter and let you go, or on your part to declare your independence and terminate once for all the existing relations which unite you to the mother land, there is no difference among us on our side in regarding such a severance as a disaster and a calamity. We are proud of you. We think that you are our greatest hope on this Western continent, and we look to you to enable us to do many of the things with the acccomplishment of which we believe we are intrusted by Providence. We cling to you as brothers true and tried; and palsied be my tongue rather than it should say one word that would cause any Canadian heart to imagine that we in the Old Country think little of you or of your connection with us. But we have to look at you as parts of a larger whole. We look at you as the trusted friend and age-long ally through whom we have to approach the United States of America. We wish to know, if we honestly and with a whole heart try to bridge the chasm that was made a hundred years ago between England and the States, shall we have your hearty sympathy and help, or will you find it necessary, from some mistaken view of your own interests, to counterwork or to even oppose us and trip us up? If you have come to the latter determination, nothing that we can do will be any good. You have had your share of being dragged at our chariot wheels in times past. But now, in this question we have to follow and you must take the lead.

SOME SETTLED QUESTIONS.

1

Perhaps, however, I had better clear the way by saying that there are certain matters which I do not touch at all. I do not propose for a moment to discuss the question of the British connection. I have been told by your politicians on all sides that you have no wish to discuss that question, neither have I. There is only one danger that I can see to the British connection at present, and that would arise if any party, in order to snatch an electoral advantage, were to try to degrade the old flag into a party emblem. It is little short of treason to the Empire for any political party to impute to its opponents, without very good and absolute proof, a lack of loyalty to the flag that they are ready to shed their blood in defending. Neither do I discuss the question which is sometimes raised as to the usefulness of a Governor-General. think that the question of the Governor-General is very much like that of the Monarchy with us. The GovernorGeneral, like the Crown, represents a great reserve force of Democracy. If it were not for the Crown in our country we should have no chance at all of doing anything with the House of Lords. As all the prerogatives of the Crown can be exercised by the Prime Minister for the time being, the Monarchy gives a much greater power to the people than some republics, which make a much greater parade of their devotion to the rule of the people. although our Monarchy is as a sceptre of power held in reserve by the democracy, I do not think that the Monarchy would survive another George the Fourth, nor do I think you would put up with a Governor-General who was either a fool or a knave. I think that the institution in both countries will last as long as the Monarchy and the Governor-General are respected by the people over whom they bear sway. Considering whom you have as your Governor-General to-day and considering how much we have lost by letting him come to you, I do not think that we need regard the question as to the office of

But

Governor-General as likely to be discussed for at least five years to come.

There is another question which is a more burning one, judging from the reports of meetings which I see occasionally in your papers. I do not propose to discuss the question of Canada assenting, or being compelled to assent, to the re-establishment of the Inquisition by the Jesuits, nor do I believe that Canadian electors have decided to banish their country out of the pale of civilization by re-enacting the penal laws. I believe that you mean that Canada is to remain a civilized country and therefore, whatever a few here or there may say, you, as a people, are not going to try and put the clock back fifty or sixty years and exclude or disenfranchise any section of your citizens because of their religious faith.

I think also in Canada you intend to remain, as a whole, an English speaking community. I do not think that any of my French fellow-subjects can possibly object to the frankest possible assertion of that on your part. While you allow the fullest liberty to any man to speak any language which he chooses and to have his children taught the language of their fathers and their mothers, there is no doubt at all as to your determination that, as a whole, this country is to be governed as an integral part of the English speaking world. That question, we think in England, was settled some hundred years ago at a famous battle near Quebec, and if any doubt existed on that point it was further dispelled by the recent ignominious collapse of one man who stood forth before the Old World as the somewhat blatant representative of a faction which imagined that, notwithstanding these hundred years, they could induce you, with all this continent behind you, to consent to the establishment of an independent French settlement at the mouth of the St. Lawrence. The United States long ago settled the question of the French state which stood at the mouth of the Mississippi. You have no need to settle that question. It was settled long ago and will not need to be reopened.

EMPIRE AND TRADE.

We can now go on to look at the question of your relations to the United States. I am an Imperialist, I was a strong advocate of Imperialism in the English press when very few English Liberals cared to call themselves by the name, but I am an Imperialist, as I often say, plus common sense and the ten commandments. I do not think that if you have sufficient common sense and enough regard for the ten commandments that your Imperialism will carry you into any antagonism with your neighbors. As an Imperialist I should have liked, of course, to have seen free trade the rule throughout the Empire, as it is the universal rule throughout the American Union. Therein it seems to me that the American Union has the advantage over us in that none of its States which lie between one seaboard and another can have any custom houses established on their frontiers. I wish that we had a similar rule throughout the whole of the British Empire. However, it is no use crying over spilled milk when Destiny, or Providence, or what you will, had decided it otherwise. We have now in all our colonies tariffs more or less hostile to the manufactures and the products of the mother country. I am not pleading with you to alter that in the least. You know well enough without any Englishman needing to tell you that we should be very glad if you could alter your tariff in our favor. But in discussing this question of free trade or protection an interested individual or one whose bias is

obviously in any one direction cannot speak with very much weight.

IS BRITAIN'S TRUE INTEREST IN CANADA?

No argument for protection from a man who is making his fortune on a protected industry carries weight, and you naturally distrust an Englishman pleading for better. terms between England and Canada. That would be to our own interest, and, therefore, you might say "you are only asking for this in your own interest for our own interest. " But I will not plead for better terms. Nay, I will go further. I attach so much importance to the good relations which ought to prevail between the Republic and the Empire that if it were proved to me, as an absolutely ncontrovertible fact, that there was no other way of maintaining good and friendly relations than for Canada to discriminate against the mother country and in favor of the Republic, I should say, in God's name do it! But I do not believe this to be true, nor do I believe that any one will be able to prove that it would be so. I only mentioned it in order to show that I am not pleading for English selfish interest in this matter. Of far greater importance than differential duties with our market is the maintenance of good relations and of a cordial entente with your neighbors. I maintain that from the British Imperialist point of view, from the standpoint of our own interests, this is far more important than any chance there might be of having the tariff discriminated in our favor. Apart from the value of American friendship, what is our real, vital, permanent, even from a trade point of view, interest? It is that you should be as prosperous as possible, that you should want to buy as many British goods as possible, and it is not our interest to stand in the way of your prosperity, even to the extent of a red cent. What we want you to do is to get rich and strong, and the more you prosper the more business you will do with us, no matter what idiocy you put into your tariff, and you can do a great deal that way. (Laughter.) I was told again and again that although your present tariff was rot a differential tariff discriminating against English goods, it does, nevertheless, take it all round, press more heavily upon English goods than upon American. And for this reason: Because your specific duties press heavier upon cheaper produce and, therefore, you discriminate against us, who produce the cheaper commodities. If you are really discriminating against us already I do not see why there should have been so much high falutin' about the old flag at the last general election.

THE ACCURSED CUSTOM HOUSE.

It seems to me that if we were in your place it would take a great deal of arguing to convince us that our interests were bound up with any commercial policy which insisted on running a line of custom houses right across our country. We have custom houses in the Old Country and a great nuisance they are, and yours are very much like their parents. There is, however, one thing in which our custom houses differ from yours. They stand upon our frontier which is the sea. We have no imaginary geographical line with custom houses on either side of it. But, you say, supposing we have no custom houses between ourselves and the United States, does that not mean that we have to adopt the United States tariff? I must say that men of both political parties with whom I have talked have repudiated that, the Liberals even more strongly than the Conservatives. But while it may be impossible for you to have absolute free trade between the Dominion and the

United States, there is no man who knows what business is and believes in free trade who can hesitate to say t at such an ideal is the ultimate aim and end of every rational man. It can never be to the interests of communities identical in language, in religion and in law, living side by side along a great stretch of country, to establish any artificial barrier which will stand in the way of the freest possible communication and trade that t ey can desire. I do not think that that can be construed into a declaration of party policy at all. It is a principle which to an Englishman seems as plain as two and two make four. Whether it is a Chinese wall, or a wall of tariffs or a line bristling with bayonets, it is all of the devil, all the same.

FREE TRADE BETWEEN CANADA AND THE STATES.

I think you are all agreed, even including the present Ininisters of the Dominion, that some time in the far future, as they would say, or so soon as it would be practically possible, as others would say, it is your interest to reduce to the least possible minimum the custom house cordon which stands between you and your A" erican brothers over the line. I hope that none of you will imagine for a moment that because I hate the custom house and would get rid of it whenever possible that I am in the least degree pointing towards a solution of the question which very few people have advocated here-namely, an annexationist policy. I am not for a moment even looking that way. I take the British connection as one of those things upon which there will be no discussion. But speaking as an Englishman, I think there can be nothing more fatal to the British connection than to tie up with the idea of the British connection the monstrous delusion that your farmer would get less for his eggs than if Canada had not been joined to Great Britain. It seems to me that your duties upon the American products and their duties on yours all tend to embarrass the farmer's hen in the performance of her necessary functions. It is very desirable that you who live on either side of the line which is drawn across this continent should be able to trade together as easily and with as little difficulty as possible

PARTNERSHIP IN SEALS, WHY NOT IN FISH?

There are many things which I think we could help to do. I was very glad to see Sir John Thompson's speech concerning the Bering Sea Arbitration. I suppose the net result of it is that he Empire and the Republic have entered into a kind of copartnership arrangement in which we have to look after the seals. The seals have given us a good deal of trouble, but they are nothing like the fish on the other side of the continent. As a rule, when an English newspaper editor has to write anything about the United States and Canada he always feels inclined to get the Encyclopædia Britannica and look up Fisheries. (Laughter) But where trouble and danger are, there is opportunity. It is difficulties which bring almost all the good things of this world. Everyday easy things do not cause people to think; it is when you have a good hard nut to crack that your ingenuity comes into play. There are plenty of difficulties between the Dominion and the Republic. All that I ask is that you should think of them seriously, bearing in mind the immense responsibility which weighs upon you. Do not look at them as a mere

question merely between the "ins" and the "outs." It is much more than that.

AN ENGLISH SPEAKING CITIZENSHIP.

It seems to me that in the future that is before us there should be but one common citizenship for all the English speaking lands, and that when an Englishman goes to Canada or America he shall be accepted as a citizen without having to take out naturalization papers. It would simplify matters a great deal.

AN INTERNATIONAL SUPREME COURT.

In that matter I think another great step might be taken. That is, whether the time has not come for the establishment of a Supreme Court. I think by a system of delegation from our Privy Council and from the Supreme Court at Washington by some other means, so as to form a permanent tribunal before which all disputes which could not be settled amicably should be brought. I do not like the idea of representatives of France, Italy and Scandinavia being called in to settle a question as to a close time for seals, which was a question between Canada and the States. I think the English speaking world is quite big enough to settle within itself all questions which may arise. But you must have your court in existence, however. It does not do to wait until the row comes on to decide that you will have a magistrate. You need to have him ready on the spot. Let us keep always in view the conception of a paramount International Court which would adjust these questions. I think it would be well if we had a tribunal which in time of heated wrangling could call halt and ask the disputants to pause and think a little. Such a pacificator's court would be very useful sometimes. At present the people who are supposed to act as guides of public opinion are the newspapers, and they are about the worst peace makers in the world. It is dull work making peace, and the natural interest of the newspaper man is to make his paper interesting. Therefore sometimes you will see how the British lion will roar and lash his sides so that all the world resounds, and you will hear the eagle on the other side flapping its wings and screaming like a demented barn door fowl, and all that it means is that so many columns have to be filled with readable copy with plenty of ginger in it. If we have really to work for peace in the world I think you ought to have some person who would be out of the conflict and could see both sides of the quarrel and ascertain what the real facts are and where the hitch comes in. Fortunately you have not had so much experience as we in the Old Country have had what trouble a misunderstanding may cause which a five minutes' talk with a level-headed man on either side would have enabled people to see where the difficulty lay. There is no more patriotic or Christian duty than that of endeavoring to minimize the causes of dispute and to reduce to the uttermost all points of friction between nations.

It comes all back to this: The foundation of national greatness lies deep down in the heart of every individual man and woman, and unless you can raise citizens who will bring a conscience to their work of voting, otherwise all your efforts at constitution building will be in vain, and we will go the way of Greece, Babylon, and of Rome.