The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-26
THE NEW DOMINION

IHE I'VE W DOHINION.
TIE young English prince has not gone to
the New Dominion one day too soon. The
discomfort of the people is rapidly increasing,
and their loyalty is waning away so rapidly
that the presence of half dozen of Victoria S
children may soon be necessary to quell the
aspirations of the Kanucks for independence
and annexation. The abrogation of the Reel
procity treaty has demonstrated the vital inn
portance of free trade with the United States
and the conviction is rapidly growing that if
it can be had on no other terms than incorpo-
ration in the Union, those terms should be
submitted to. English aid to Canada is ne
cessarily selfish and comparatively useless.
Millions of English capital have been ex-
pended in the construction of Canadian rail
wavs but the routes have been selected rather
with view to promote the military interests
Of Great Britain than with a desire
TO accommodate the people. Their welfare
is made subordinate to ulterior designs, and
if their affairs can be manipulated in man
ner conducive to British interests, the home
Government cares but little how much they
NAV suffer. The whole New Dominion
scheme was founded on the false idea that a
powerful confederation could be built up on
our Northern frontier as q check to American
progress; that eventually railway route from
tbe Atlantic to the Pacific could be opened
to the British possessions, which would be-
come a formidable rival of the continental
RAILWAYS of the United States, and that the
bulk of British emigrants, hereafter, would
seek new homes in this new elysium But
these plans were completely thwarted by the
abrogation of the Reciprocity treaty. 1t
demonstrated that all the aid Great Britain
could render was of no practical
value il American markets were
not freely opened to Canadian products
Instead of attracting emigrants from Europe
the New Dominion has sent hundreds of
thousands of her best citizens to the United
States; and at a recent annexation meeting
held in Quebec one of the speakers said that
1,25O,0O0 Canadians were now prosperous
contented and happy in this country, while
those who remained behind were miserable,
and one-half of the year restricted to the bare
necessaries of life." John Bull has made
nearly as bad failure in his New Dominion
project as Napoleon made in his scheme to
establish an empire in Mexico. Animated by
the same motive, jealousy of the Republic,
they have both been discounted by the in-
herent impracticability of their plans, and
their folly would be laughable, if it had not
caused much misery to the immediate victims
of their experiments. In striving to engirde
or crush us they have only depleted their own
treasures and imposed unnecessary sufferings
upon the people to the north and southwest
Of our broad dominions.
The practical question in the New Dominion
to-day is quantity expressed by a writer in the
Montreal press to be, 'Shall we become ma
ton of marksmen, and the object
tOn - And the general disposition to answer
this question in the affirmative is only
checked by the exaggerations Of the burdens
of the American debt which are published in
the Tory newspapers. A candid examination
of the bugbear, however, results in the convic
ton that the existing debt of the New
Dominion is more oppressive to the
people, in their present impoverished condi
ton, than their share of our debt would be
if their prosperity was restored by free trade
with the United States. Sooner or later thi
agitation can have but one result. 1t mus
lead to annexation. But it is better for al
parties that the subject should be thorough,
considered in all its bearings, and if our Gov
ernment steadily refuses to re-establish tn
Reciprocity treaty the Canadians will inevi
tably learn the value of close affiliation wit
the American people.