of Norway, Russia or the United States, and copper, which could be obtained from the Dominion in unlimited quantities. Upon the subject of a tariff Preference, Mr. Ross spoke briefly. He quoted the scheme urged by Colonel Denison, and previously advocated by Mr. J. H. Hoffmyer, of Cape Colony, involving a duty imposed by the Empire of 5 per cent. over and above existing tariffs, and applied only to foreign countries; this duty to be utilized as a contribution to Imperial defence; as being "the most practical solution of the problem of Preferential trade" which he had yet heard of. At the annual meeting of the League, in Manchester, on July 31st, with Earl Egerton of Tatton, in the chair, the Premier of Ontario again spoke at some length. Amongst the first points which he made was the expression of a belief that the time had come when the great men who ruled Britain should see if some means could not be devised whereby a Federation might be formed, "consecrated by the loyalty and devotion of His Majesty's subjects all the world over." "May May we not hope," continued Mr. Ross, "that some time or other, under the shadow of Westminster, there shall be an Assembly from the remotest corners of the Empire— Colonists with devoted hearts and loyal purpose who will assist in binding together more closely the various parts of the Empire than they are now bound, and uniting by fact, as well as sentiment, all the Colonies."

Upon his return home, the Ontario Premier was received at Niagara by a large gathering of his supporters and friends from Toronto and other parts of the Province. Mr. H. M. Mowat, K.C.,

President of the Toronto Reform Association, presented an eulogistic Address. Mr. Ross replied in a review of his experiences in England and of the opinions which he had formed from his environment there. He believed that British opinion of the Colonies had greatly changed; he had found Sir Wilfrid Laurier's name and personality highly prized; he thought the Preferential tariff of Canada had won much appreciation and directed much favourable attention in a commercial and financial way to the Dominion. The personal influence of Lord Strathcona and the sentimental effect of Canada's attitude in the War had also done much good. He was deeply impressed by the huge responsibilities and engrossing duties of British statesmen; of Great Britain watching over and guarding the interests of her vast and complex Empire. As to the possibility of a mutual Preferential tariff he was not hopeless. He advocated once more the scheme of a 5 per cent. Defence Fund for the Empire and repeated his views regarding the effect of increased emigration upon Imperial commerce and defence. "Imperialism means that the British Empire is one and that her interests are one, and that what makes the British Empire great makes Canada great; that if Britain falls Canada falls; that if Canada is hurt the Empire is hurt; that if you strike a blow at the Empire you strike Canada." The final Imperial incident of the year, so far as Mr. Ross was concerned, was his speech in Toronto at a formal welcome given by the British Empire League on October 25th to Sir Frederick Young, K.C.M.G., the veteran English champion of the

cause. Lieut.-Col. Denison occupied the chair and after the address by the guest of the evening the Premier spoke briefly. He was in favour of a federation, only, in which Canada would retain just as much of the liberty which she now enjoyed as Great Britain should retain. He was opposed to any permanent Consultative Council which was not responsible to the people of Canada. At present the best course was to continue the occasional Conferences in London. An active propaganda was necessary in England; a clear presentation of the advantages to be gained by closer relations and especially by better trade relations.

Mr. J. P.
Whitney

Policy

The Leader of the Conservative Opposition in the Ontario Legislature made comparatively few references and Empire to Imperial matters in his political speeches during the year. At Caledon, on September 19th, however, he dealt at some length with the Provincial Premier's recent speeches in England, and elsewhere, and took occasion to put his own opinions on record. He accused Mr. Ross of inconsistency and quoted from his speech at Glencoe on September 29, 1900, in which he had stated that a Preferential duty of 5 per cent. imposed by Great Britain in favour of the Colonies would involve a tax of $45,000,000 on the $900,000,000 worth of food supplies which the Mother Country annually required from abroad. Mr. Whitney went on to point out that such a 5 per cent. duty on the total British imports of 2,000 million dollars would be $100,000,000 while the same tax upon Colonial imports would net only $7,000,000. He did not apparently favour this policy and declared that "we Canadians require no bribe to induce us to take up willingly our share of the burdens of the Empire; nor will we haggle about terms." The spirit of Naomi in the Bible story represented, he thought, the spirit of the Canadian people toward the Mother Country and this was the sentiment always fostered by the late Sir John A. Macdonald who had hoped and worked for the time when Canada should take its place as an outlying and auxiliary Kingdom-a buttress and bulwork of the British Empire. "The people of Canada to-day are imbued with the same hope and aspiration." Great changes come quickly in these days and the practical accomplishment of Sir John's ambitions left nothing to do but "to watch the development of the Imperial spirit as it goes on from day to day to a practical solution of the question and the crystallization of sentiment into permanent legislation by the Imperial and Colonial Parliaments."

Mr. Monk

geron on

These two leaders of French-Canadian Conservatism and Mr. Ber- gave expression during the month of November to some important opinions regarding the relations of the Imperialism Dominion and the Empire. On November 18th, a banquet was given at Montreal to Mr. F. D. Monk, K.C., M.P., the leader of the French Conservatives in the House of Commons. Amongst those present were prominent party men-Dominion and Provincial-such as the Hon. Alphonse Desjardins, Senator Landry, Mr. R. H. Pope, M.P., Hon. G. A. Nantel, Hon. P. E. Lebanc, Hon. L.

O. Taillon, K.C., Hon. T. Chase Casgrain, K.C., M.P., and J. G. H. Bergeron, ex-M.P. During his speech Mr. Monk endeavoured to analyze the present position of the question embodied in the words Imperialism, or Imperial Federation. No one seemed able, in his opinion, to define these phrases. It was true that Sir Wilfrid Laurier and Mr. Tarte had expressed themselves as favourable to Canadian representation in the Imperial Parliament despite the fact that the existing system of complete self-government had given ample satisfaction during the past forty years. "Those who desire an innovation in this state of things, who wish to have representatives of the Colonies in the Imperial Parliament, who wish to have a Supreme Council for the Empire where all portions would have envoys, who wish to establish a supreme tribunal for the arbitration of questions of general interest, will render to the Empire a very problematical service and their efforts, in my view, will only tend to weaken that rich heritage of autonomy which our predecessors accumulated in such a generous measure and which they have transmitted to us." The basis of this erroneous scheme, he considered to be centralization and this was the capital vice of the Napoleonic plan of government and contrary to the basic principles of the British constitution. "Never," he declared, "will the Conservative party, I feel sure, tend toward a system which is contrary to all its traditions. Instead of progressing it would be retrograding and not one iota of our acquired rights should be relinguished. What we have we'll hold." As the matter of military defence of the Empire Mr. Monk thought French-Canadians had always been willing to do their share. But there must be nothing of a compulsory character. Parliament of the country could determine when and in what measure the Dominion should assume a share of Imperial defence." In connection with trade and commerce he deprecated the granting of the British Preferential tariff without securing a return and advocated a mutual trade and tariff policy between the different parts of the Empire.

"The

On November 29th, the Toronto Globe quoted at length from an interview recently given to Le Pionnier by Mr. J. G. H. Bergeron, a Conservative leader in the last Parliament and one of those FrenchCanadians who were supposed to approve the sending of troops to South Africa. According to this translation he considered the present situation a beneficent re-action from "the exaggerated jingoism of the first few days of the Transvaal War." At that time the French Canadian members were in face of a sudden infatuation of the English Provinces for participation in the struggle. "We bowed for a moment to the storm, so as to avoid a certain conflict and probable rupture between the Provinces which would, in the circumstances, have been disastrous." He and others were also inclined to accept the situation because indiscreet promises and engagements had been made by the Government affecting the honour of the country. Another consideration was that the prestige if not the integrity of the Mother Country seemed to be seriously threatened and this would

have deeply affected Canadian interests. The result might be regarded as "a case of legitimate and obligatory defence.' Mr. Bergeron went on to say that he thought when the present crisis had passed away their English fellow-citizens would decide that it was not advantageous for Canada to engage definitely to participate in all the military adventures of the Empire. Such is a summary of two speeches which created considerable interest at the time.

The Pro

This question assumed a position of considerable posed Union importance in 1901. Since the negotiations of 1895

of Canada and Newfoundland

between the Government of Sir Mackenzie Bowell and that of Sir W. V. Whiteway, little had been heard of the matter; but the evident joint interests of the two countries in respect to trade and investment, and the equally marked but divergent policy of the Bond Government in regard to tariffs, now revived the discussion. The Premier of Newfoundland, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Robert Bond, was in Montreal early in the year, and his remarks upon the subject to the Gazette, of January 31st, were not very encouraging. "Confederation, as an issue, is dead with us now. I am afraid that Canada lost a fine opportunity (in 1895) of securing another Province, but I cannot help thinking that had Sir John Macdonald, or Sir John Thompson, been Premier of Canada at the time of our negotiations, they would have been successful." To the London Sketch, of March 13th, Mr. Bond made the following state

ment :

There has been little talk about federating with Canada since 1895. In that year there was a Conference at Ottawa between representatives of Newfoundland and Canada, and the whole question was at that time gone into fully. I was Chairman of the Newfoundland Delegation. The rock on which the bark of union split was in itself comparatively a small one-it was the assumption by Canada of a railway liability of five million dollars (£1,000,000), a liability which the Colony had assumed for building a line, then just begun, from Exploits to Port-au-Bosque. Well, Canada declined to take up the liability, and the negotiations came to an end; and nothing has been attempted since. The interests of the Dominion and of Newfoundland are not identical.

Speaking to the Montreal Gazette, on April 18th, the Hon. E. P. Morris, K.C., a member of the Newfoundland Government, expressed similar views. "I believe the question of Confederation is further away to-day than ever." On May 21st the subject was discussed in the Canadian House of Commons in connection with an inquiry by the Hon. Mr. Haggart as to the rumours about a revival of the Bond-Blaine Treaty. The Premier, in his reply, hinted at a possible reconsideration of existing relations with Newfoundland, and Mr. Clarke Wallace followed with a general discussion of the question of bringing the Island into Confederation. The late Government of Sir James Winter was, he declared, in favour of union. The new Bond Administration was not favourable to Canada and was, he thought, desirous of carrying out the old Fishery and Reciprocity policy of Mr. Bond in connection with the United States. The failure of the High Commission would therefore involve Canada in further trouble with Newfoundland unless we were willing to split the commercial

system of the Empire with a wedge of discrimination. "The remedy for that is for the Government to open negotiations for the admission of Newfoundland into the Confederation. There are many other reasons for that; but this appears to be the strong immediate inducement. The Fisheries are along the Atlantic coast, the coasts of Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence being the joint possession of the two countries and, if Newfoundland were added to the Confederation, Canada would have the undisputed right of dealing with these Fishery questions with the United States, or with any other foreign Power."

But he feared that the Government would not move on account of the French Shore question. Union, however, would hasten the settlement of that difficulty by putting the Dominion behind the Island. The Government had stated no definite policy in regard to bringing Newfoundland in, and they should do so. Sir L. H. Davies agreed with Mr. Haggart as to the importance of the matter, but pointed out that an opportunity had been lost by the last Government mainly upon a financial question. "That failure was due to a picayune policy of pounds, shillings and pence." The present Government had laid down a policy two years ago, and had declared in the House their desire to bring Newfoundland into the Dominion upon any reasonable terms. Any direct attempt to carry out this wish would, however, have been a dismal failure. The French Shore question was not now a material factor; it was purely a sentimental one. The matter would be settled in due time. Meanwhile, any Canadian effort to influence opinion in the Island was impossible of success, and they could only await its future voluntary action. At this point, and in reply to a personal inquiry, the Premier stated that, so far as he was informed, "even if Newfoundland intends to negotiate with the United States, they have no intention of discriminating against Canada."

During the following months, a number of the Island papers expressed opinions somewhat favourable to Confederation. In one of its August issues, the St. John's Herald stated that "our contemporaries seem to have made up their minds that union with Canada is a settled thing, and that it will be consummated in the near future.” It suggested that the beginning of the century might see its accomplishment, and if so, the Duke of Cornwall and York should complete his Empire tour by putting the finishing touches upon the work. About the same time several other papers commented upon the subject. The Western Star favoured union, and another journal stated that at least three of Mr. Bond's Ministers were supporters of the scheme. The St. John's Telegram declared that in the western part of the Island the feeling was strongly unionist, though in the northern districts that opinion was not very prevalent. "It is nevertheless true that where a few years ago it would be highly dangerous for an outspoken Confederate to exhibit himself too freely the subject is at present an ordinary subject of conversation. It cannot be denied that such a change has actually taken place, and