The morning call., 1891-10-26
THE TROUBLES OF CANADA.

When q fire is started it is often difficult
to foresee where it will stop. The investi-
CATION into the alleged corruption of the
MERCER administration in the province OF
Quebec seems to be leading to singular de-
velopments. NJ. MERCER and his colleagues
have been openly charged with boOdleism,
and committees of investigation have been
taking testimony which appears to sustain
tie charges. He now turns round upon his
accusers, and through his organ makes tu-
rious attack upon Lord Stanley, the Gov
ernor-General, whom he threatens in the
most savage manner. lie seems to have got
the British connection mixed up with his
own boodleism, and he says that "if rep
resentatiye of the mother country allows all
those things which attach US to England to
be trampled on, out of respect to our own
dignity we are obliged TO question the fu-
ture." This of course squints at annexa-
ton to the United States
This country is not huugering and thirst
ing for fresh supply of boodlers from Cam
ada, having a fully adequate crop of home
growth. If NJ. Mercier's desire for annexa-
ton rests on no better basis than resent
ment at the pending Investigation at Ottawa
it will not command much attention on this
pside of the line. On the very day when the
Quebec Premier was threatening to play
Coriolanus it came out in evidence that
SI00.O 600 of the Government subsidy to the
Chaleurs road was divided between prOml-
neut leader in Parliament, an influential
editor and third party, who is anonymous.
OF this sort of thing we have supply at
home, and we are really not sollcltOuS
about importing a further supply of the ar
ticle. NJ. MERCER will have to come with
clean hands if be wants to get into the
Union.
But it is plain that Doodle or no Doodle.
investigation or no investigation, the force
of facts viii compel the Canadians before
long TO pay more attention than they have
been paying to the advice of Erastus Wiman,
and to consider whether their destiny can
be accomplished under a colonial regime.
The dread which the shadow of coming
events is causing may distinctly be dis
cerned by the readers of such Tory papers
as the Toronto Empire which claims to
have the largest circulation in the Domin-
ion. This Journal is positively rabid in its
abuse of the party which, IL says, "adyo-
Gates annexation in yelled form" 1t &C
cuseS them of being false to Canada, of ig-
norng its future possibilities, Of betraying
their country and treating it as if it were
already part Of the United States-a nation
of which no honorable man should wish to be
a member Ittries to goad the people Of To-
rOntO into an attack on the Globe newspa-
per, which ought not to be allowed to be
published" Such virulence shows that the
Tories are getting very much afraid indeed
Of the drift Of manifest destiny.
The best answer to it are the facts con-
tanned in the last census of Canada, which
,ir,f, 10
population, and, with the exception of On
tario is positively retrOgrading in wealth
and prosperity. The figures of the census
are reliable. They were collected By Cana
dams They were not the fruit of the
conspiracy between Canadians and Amer
leans" which the Empire denounces so
fercely. They tell tale of decay which it
would be difficult to explain on any other
theory than the one which asserts that pro-
ress is impOssib bic under the colonial regime.
There are no more intelligent and energetic
people anywhere than the Canadians. They
have in spots an admirable country, tull
of natural resources. Their system of
water communication is unsurpassed any
where in the world They have managed,
by borrowing money, to complete line of
railroad from ocean to ocean, over which
England proposes TO move her troops to and
from India. And yet Canada is going back,
while the United States, with which it is
cotermnous, is going forward More new
people have settled within the past twelve
month in the State of Washington than have
made themselves permanent homes in the
whole Dominion during the same period.
1t is quite on the cards that the public
scandals which have lately been unearthed
in Canada may emphasize these facts so as
to induce a general longing for a change.
1t is only when discomfort becomes general
| that PEOPLE begin to think of altering the in
! stitutons under which they live. To US it
| is apparent that the annexation Of Canada
TO The United States would not extinguish
boodIeism in the northern country, but, at
any rate, under the American fl g the Ca
nadians might have something more for