The New York herald., 1871-02-18
The Fisheries Debate In the Domini"u
Pariiameut-The Joint High Commls-

| Pnrsamcut-The Joint Hrgh Couamsls-
sion.
The Dominion Parliament spent much time
yesterday in discussing the fishery question.
Sir A. 7. Gait thought that il was highly
Important that Parliament should give express
sion to its opinion upon this grave question.
Sir John A. Macdonald, who. being member
OF the Joint High Commission, is supposed to
be posted on the subject, insinuated that the
Dominion Parliament knew very little about
1t, and that it might as well be left to the
properly constituted authorities to settle. The
opposition" speaking through its leader, Mr..
Mckenzie, took up the old tune, and abused
the press, the President and the citizens of
the United States for certain offensive Ian
guage used towards the Dominion because sit
occupied semi-independent position as a
dependency of the British empire, which they
desired to change by annexation to the
republic" Now, we are not at all anxious
about the matter Of annexation. That is
subject which touches the interests,
nay, the very vitality, of Canada, and it is for
the people there to decide when and how they
shall come over to u.s. Canada, for instance,
/ is not self-sustaining. She ia notoriously
burden to England. The statesmen of Great
Britain frequently and even as recently as
under Gladstones government so decla red it.
Her value to us, therefore, would not probably
be much more than that embraced In the
abandonment of the outrageous system of
| smuggling which prevails on the frontier, by
which articles of British manufacture, especially
in the iron trade, are stolen into this country.
to the great disadvantage OF our own manu-
facturers
We have long since come to regard the British
provinces on our northern frontier as Of
exceedingly small account, whether in their
old condition of colonies or under the more
pompous title Of Dominion" We have
always been content to await that inevitable
feature in the history of the North American
Continent when Canada and the whole
British possessions should come into the fold
| of the United States there to find peace,
comfort and prosperity-to find relief from
the perpetual paltry political excitements, the
| hopes, fears and terrors under which they
! have been suffering for SO many years. We
visedly, because we believe that our colonial
neighbors have been in most unhappy and
unsettled condition as to their future destiny.
They had to take several uncompromising
snubs from the mother country, and swallow
| them without sugar coating. In fact, they
! submitted to an amount of humiliation that
under the same circumstances any people
- l,oI- SI..
resented-the contemptuous Sights Of the home
| government-and declared their independence
long ago. The British government showed its
utter contempt of the Canadian colonies by
| refusing to send troops to defend them, by
| throwing upon the colonies the whole respon-
sibility of their own support-leaving them, in
| fact to seek protection wherever they could
find it. They were deserted by master who
had too little respect for them even to oppress
| them.
But how did the colonies comport themselves
all this time? They bullied and clustered
about everything which appeared in an Ameri-
can newspaper touching the affairs of the
Dominion of Canada. II, fer example, the
HERALD published a sensible article criticising
events across the border whole wasps' nest
Of wicked editors, big and little, was let loose,
and made horrible noise, although they in
fcted very little sting. When few hundred
wildly patriotic Irishmen, who mistook Canada
for England, invaded the sacred soil, all
Canada was in furry of terror. She drew
upon her local military resources as far as the
| militia would stand to her in the emergency.
She sent up doleful cry for help to the mother
| government, but it was disregarded. Canada
| asked for bread, and the Foreign Office gave
her stone. Who saved Canada from invasion
when the Fenians made their rash attempt?
Who rendered the part which Canada played on
those occasions farce and a byword? 1t
was the Executive of the United States,
who. in obedience to international law,
! seized the arms, munitions, and even
| the rations Of the INVADERS; thus
leaving them mere unarmed, unfed, dis
organized crowd when they reached the from
tier-a crowd which the gallant Canadian
volunteers had very little trouble in subduing
or running away from, as circumstances con-
trolled the fate Of battle However, we recol-
lect all these events distinctly, and many
others besides, which naturally lead us to
inquire upon what grounds this Dominion of
| Canada, with the antecedents which we have
sketched, assumes bold and defiant attitude
upon any question relating to the interests Of
! the United States
The Joint High Commission appointed by
the government of England and by our own
government will assuredly settle the fl sherry
question to the satisfaction Of all parties con-
cerned, as it will the difficulty about the Ala
bama claims Both are national questions.
1 D,,tYoc