The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-01

nations, like individuals, are transiently
swayed more strongly by warm sentiment
than by cold self-interest To illustrate,
the South is twenty-six years distant from
the war, and yet the bitter memories of
the civil war, the sentimental regard for
the tattered, widowed Confederate flag
still prevails 30 strongly over the Southern
people that seif-interest is subordinated
by windy sentiment. The masses Of the
emigration of Northern men of industrial
brains, ambition, energy and character
would be of immense material advantage
to that section, yet knowing this they
frankly say they are not welcome I'VE
have no use for you, and we do not care
enough about your money to make you
socially comfortable or politically free
from dictation, molestation, practical dis
REIMBURSEMENT lawlessly and despotically
enforced"
Sentiment has enough tenacity Of life
both at the South and in Canada to outcrow
and overpower self-interest. Until this
sentiment is considerably subdued, COM
mercial union and its consequent and
ultimate annexation has no chance in
Canada, and for this reason intelligent,
thoughtful, Liberal Conservatives, who
have no theoretical hostility to unlimited
reciprocity, have ceased to consider it
live, practicable issue, and are more con-
cerned with the political solution of the
ecclesiastical problem presented in the
province of Quebec with ceaseless and
increasing pressure than they are with
unlimited reciprocity. This problem con-
stantly taxed all the ingenuity and
tested all the popularity of Sir John
Macdonald to temporarily compose and
quell, and it will be sure to plague his
successor. If Sir John had lived he could
not have extracted this thorn from the
flesh of the Dominion, for the attitude of
the Province of Manitoba had already
forced situation which cannot be settled
short of reference to the highest courts
of Canada and subsequently, to the British
government to decide whether under the
terms of the Dominion constitution Mani
TOBIAS action is o violation of that COM
pact.
The Province of Quebec is really Ro-
man Catholic hierarchy using its oppor-
tunity to bulldoze and bend to the will
of the church the free English constitu-
tional government of the rest of Canada.
The Province of Quebec is the flaw in the
diamond, the fly in the ointment, and the
happy solution of the problem is what is
likely to most violently vex Canada, rather
than that of commercial union and un-
limited reciprocity. OF course this Jesuit
hierarchy of Quebec do not seek annexa-
ton, for under our school laws and separ-
alton of church and state their power
would soon collapse, but to Canada the
Jesuit-ridden province is a perpetual bur-
den and menace to her progress and
prosperity. The death of Sir John Mac
donald will neither prevent nor precipitate
this question, for it had already reached
point that can no longer be met by eva
sion. In fact it is already clear that the
death of Sir John Macdonald has not inn
paired the morale of his party particle;
he was an able leader, but he is not indi-
spensable. No man is indispensable to a
free people who have any public questions
OF serious consequence to settle. Not even
Grant was indispensable to us in war, and
not even the death of Lincoln seriously
disturbed or deferred the effective reorgan-
ization and reconstruction of our peace.