Part 9 (1/2)

A British co Sir Edward Thornton, British ton, and Mr Brown, as joint plenipotentiaries to negotiate a treaty of fisheries, coovernment of the United States This overnotiations of 1871, when Sir John A Macdonald, as one coht for the rights of Canada Mr Broas selected, not only because of his knowledge of and interest in reciprocity, but because of his attitude during the hich hadthose who opposed slavery and stood for the union

Negotiations were formally opened on March 28th The Canadians proposed the renewal of the old reciprocity treaty, and the abandonment of the fishery arbitration The Aement of the Canadian canals, and the addition of manufactures to the free list The Canadian coreed to consider these proposals, a project of a treaty was prepared to form a basis of discussion It provided for the renewal of the old reciprocity treaty for twenty-one years, with the addition of certain manufactures; the abandonment of the fishery arbitration; coe of the Canadian, New York, and Michigan canals to vessels of both countries; the free navigation of Lake Michigan; the appoint fisheries and erecting lighthouses on the Great Lakes Had the treaty been ratified, there would have been reciprocity in farm and other natural products, and in a very iricultural i, puddled, rod, sheet or scrap; iron nails, spikes, bolts, tacks, brads and springs; iron castings; locoines and ines; wrought and cast steel; steel plates and rails; carriages, carts, wagons and sleighs; leather and its rain bags, deni; woollen tweeds; cabinet ware and furniture, andpaper for newspapers, paper- eneral terms, it was as near to unrestricted reciprocity as was possible without raising the question of discriainst the products of Great Britain

Mr Brown found that American misapprehensions as to Canada, its revenue, co, railways and industries were ”truly enerally believed that the trade of Canada was of little value to the United States; that the reciprocity treaty had enriched Canada at their expense; and that the abolition of the treaty had brought Canada nearly to its wits' end There was some excuse for these misapprehensions Until confederation, the trade returns from the different provinces were published separately, if at all No clear statement of the combined traffic of the provinces with the United States was published until 1874, and even Canadians were ignorant of its extent Aue quantities of wheat and flour to the United States, but not that the United States sent larger quantities to the Maritime Provinces; that Nova Scotia and Cape Breton sold coal to Boston and New York, but not that five times as much was sent fro that the British North Aht one hundred and sixty-seven oods from the United States, and the United States only sixty-seven million dollars worth from the provinces; that in the thirteen years of the treaty, the trade between the two countries was six hundred and thirtyto the Canadian returns, and six hundred and seventyto the American returns; and that the so-called ”balance of trade” in this period was considerably against Canada It was shown that the repeal of the treaty did not ruin Canadian coed one hundred and fifteen million dollars a year from 1854 to 1862, rose to one hundred and forty-two ation, and to two hundred and forty ard to wheat, flour, provisions, and other commodities of which both countries had a surplus, the effect of the prohibitory American duties had been to send the products of Canada to compete with those of the United States in neutral markets

This memorandum was completed on April 27th and was immediately handed to Mr Fish It was referred to the treasury department, where it was closely examined and admitted to be correct Fro

Brown also carried on a vigorous propaganda in the newspapers In New York the _Tribune_, _Herald_, _Ti Post_, _Express_, _Journal of Commerce_, _Graphic_, _Mail_, and other journals, declared in favour of a new treaty; and in Boston, Chicago, St Louis, Cincinnati and other large cities, the press was equally favourable A charge originated in Philadelphia and was circulated in the United States and Canada, that this unanimity of the press was obtained by the corrupt use of public money Mr Brown, in his speech in the senate of Canada denied this; said that not a shi+lling had been spent illegitiotiation to the people of Canada would be little more than four thousand dollars

In his correspondence Brown speaks of , General Garfield and Carl Schurz, all of ere favourable

Secretary Fish is described as courteous and painstaking, but tirasp of the subject, and Brown speaks i the consideration of the draft treaty over to the end of the session of congress

It did not reach the senate until two days before adjournment ”The president” wrote Mr Brown on June 20th, ”sent aa decision before the adjournood; but it has the defect of not speaking definitely of thison the senate to sustain hih now But noith a er of its being thrown over until Decen Relations Committee of the senate

”There were six present; three said to be for us, one against, and two for the measure personally, but wanted to hear fro Hoill end, no one can tell” As a matter of fact it ended there and then, as far as the United States were concerned

Of the objections urged against the treaty in Canada, the ainst the free list of manufactures

This was, perhaps, the first evidence of the wave of protectionist sentiovern the treaty, Mr Brown said: ”Time was in Canada when the iarded as aduty was resented by the people But increasing debt brought new burdens; the deceptive cry of 'incidental protection' got a footing in the land; and from that the step has been easy to the bold demand now set up by a few favoured industries, that all the rest of the coht to be, and should rejoice to be, taxed seventeen and a half per cent, to keep them in existence”

Brown joined issue squarely with the protectionists ”I contend that there is not one article contained in the schedules that ought not to be wholly free of duty, either in Canada or the United States, in the interest of the public I contend that the finance minister of Canada who--treaty or no treaty with the United States--was able to announce the repeal of all customs duties on the entire list of articles in Schedules A, B, and C,--even though the lost revenue was but shi+fted to articles of luxury, would carry with hiratitude of the country Nearly every article in the whole list of manufactures is either of daily consu all classes of our population, or an iely into the economical prosecution of thescale, of which so much was heard at the time, was only another phase of the protectionist objection The charge that the treaty would discriainst British imports was easily disposed of Brown showed that every article admitted free from the United States would be admitted free from Great Britain But as this meant British as well as American competition, it made the case worse from the protectionist point of view The rejection of the treaty by the United States left a clear field for the protectionists in Canada

Four years after Mr Brown's speech defending the treaty, he made his last important speech in the senate, and al Tilley's protectionist budget, and nailing his free-trade colours to the mast

CHAPTER XXIII

CANADIAN NATIONALISM

It will be remembered that after the victory won by the Reformers in 1848, there was an outbreak of radical sentiment, represented by the Clear Grits in Upper Canada and by the Rouges in Lower Canada It may beof the blood in Ontario and in Quebec after the Liberal victory of 1874 The founding of the _Liberal_ and of the _Nation_, of the National Club and of the Canada First association, Mr Blake's speech at Aurora, and Mr Goldwin Smith's utterances combined to mark this period as one of extraordinary intellectual activity Orthodox Liberalisreat, and as was then believed, a permanent victory over Macdonald and all that he represented, and it had no sy force likely to break up party lines, and to lead young men into new and unknown paths

The platform of Canada First was not in itself revolutionary It embraced, (1) British connection; (2) closer trade relations with the British West India Islands, with a view to ultimate political connection; (3) an income franchise; (4) the ballot, with the addition of co; (5) a scheeration and free homesteads in the public domain; (7) the imposition of duties for revenue so adjusted as to afford every possible encouragement to native industry; (8) an improved militia system under command of trained Dominion officers; (9) no property qualifications in anization of the senate; (11) pure and econoramme was severely criticized by the _Globe_ Some of the articles, such as purity and economy, were scornfully treated as cos as these” The framers of the platfor themselves above the old parties, and were advised to ”tarry in Jericho until their beards be grown”

But the letter of the programme did not evince the spirit of Canada First, which was more clearly set forth in the prospectus of the _Nation_ There it was said that the one thing needful was the cultivation of a national spirit The country required the stilish, Scottish, Irish and German people were crystallized Canadians must assert their nationality, their position as members of a nation These and other declarations were analyzed by the _Globe_, and the heralds of the new gospel were pressed for a plainer avowal of their intentions Throughout the editorial utterances of the _Globe_ there was shown a growing suspicion that the ulterior ai about the independence of Canada The quarrel came to a head when Mr Goldwin Smith was elected president of the National Club The _Globe_, in its issue of October 27th, 1874, brought its heaviest artillery to bear on the members of the Canada First party It accused theht to book as to their principles, it said, they repudiated everything They repudiated nativism; they repudiated independence; they abhorred the very idea of annexation The ed by these repudiations, but was very significant and involved grave practical issues when judged by the practices of its members They had talked loudly and foolishly of emancipation from political thraldom, as if the present connection of Canada with Great Britain were a yoke and a burden too heavy and too galling to be borne They had adopted the plank of British connection by a majority of only four They had chosen as their standard-bearer, their prophet and their president, one whose chief claim to prominence lay in the persistency hich he had advocated the breaking up of the British empire Mr Goldwin Smith had come into a peaceful community to do his best for the furtherance of a cause which meant simply revolution The advocacy of independence, said the _Globe_, could not be treated as an academic question It touched every Canadian in his dearest and most important relations It jeopardized his ious interests Canada was not a mere dead liht The union was real, and the branch was a living one Great Britain, it was true, would not fight to hold Canada against her will, but if the great mass of Canadians believed in British connection, those ished to break the bond must be ready to take their lives in their hands The very proposal to cut loose fro of trouble In any case as sought was revolution, and those who preached it ought to conteht be the fathers and founders of a new nationality, but they nificance and powerlessness were their sole protection, ere not ih for ”either a traitor's trial or a traitor's doom”

Mr Goldwin Smith's reply to this attack was that he was an advocate, not of revolution but of evolution ”Gradual eradual concession by the overnment; this process has already been carried far Should it be carried further and ultimately consummated, as I frankly avowwill be the same that it has always been Each step will be an Act of parliament passed with the assent of the Crown As to the filial tie between England and Canada, I hope it will endure forever”

Mr Goldwin Smith's vieere held by soer section were Imperialists, who believed that Canada should assert herself by deovernes and responsibilities of citizens of the empire The bond that united the Imperialists and the advocates of independence was national spirit This hat the _Globe_ failed to perceive, or at least to recognize fully Its article of October 27th is powerful and logical, strong in sarcasm and invective It displays every purely intellectual quality necessary for the treatht that coination and sympathy The declarations of those whose ue, but this vagueness was the result, not of cowardice or insincerity, but of the inherent difficulty of putting the spirit of the movement into words A youth whose heart is stirred by all the aspirations of coe exciteht have the sas and aspirations on a sheet of paper, and reatest intellect of the Liberal party felt the impulse At Aurora Edward Blake startled thethe federation of the e, extension of the franchise and representation of minorities His real the until we undertook national responsibilities He described the Canadian people as ”four land, in which we had no voice or control, Canada ed into the horrors of war Recently, without our consent, the navigation of the St Lawrence had been ceded forever to the United States We could not cos unless ere prepared to assume the full responsibilities of citizenshi+p within the e men of Canada heard these words with a thrill of enthusiasain The movement apparently ceased, and politics apparently flowed back into their old channels But while the naans of Canada First in the press disappeared, the force and spirit remained, and exercised a powerful influence upon Canadian politics for many years

There can be little doubt that the Liberal party was injured by the unco hostility which was shown to the inal thinkers, began to look upon Liberalisressive and hostile to new ideas When the independent lodgment afforded by Canada First disappeared, many of them drifted over to the Conservative party, whose leader was shrewd enough to perceive the strength of the spirit of nationalisive it what countenance he could

Protection triumphed at the polls in 1878, not uments, but because it was heralded as the ”National Policy” and hailed as a declaration of the coislation for the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, bold to the point of rashness, as it seemed, and unwise and improvident in some of its provisions, was heartily approved by the country, because it was regarded as a th of the Conservative party froely due to its adoption of the vital principle and spirit of Canada First

The _Globe's_ attacks upon the Canada First party also had the effect of fixing in the public e Brown as a dictator and a relentless wielder of the party whip, a picture contrasting strangely with those suggested by his early career He had fought for responsible government, for freedom from clerical dictation; he had been one of the boldest of rebels against party discipline; he had carelessly throay a great party advantage in order to promote confederation; he had been the steady opponent of slavery In 1874 the Liberals were in power both at Ottawa and at Toronto, and Mr