The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-27

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dent. 1t was not to be. The coeval
colonization by France and England
which accompanied the opening of the
seventeenth century, its differing sys-
TENS, the colonists volunteering to de-
part for New England SO unlike those
who were sent to Canada by France, the
mutual aggressions by each on the other,
the final conflict at Quebec, the cession
only dozen years before the Declaration
of Independence OF Canada by France
to victorious England reveal the reason
why French Canada had no fancy for
further controversy with England, but
preferred to leave the restless thirteen
colonies to fight out for themselves the
preference" of that day, and the unfair
discrimination in ocean trade. French
Canadians succumbed. Fortunately or
unfortunately, they had nothing else
to do.
Looking backward on the relations of
the United States to the Dominion on
the north Of us, we can plainly see how
our Senate has Numbered. II Numbered
when, in advance OF negotiation, it
urged the Buchanan Packenham con-
vention, which accepted the boundary
of 40 degrees proposed by England in
stead of standing by "fifty-four-forty
or fight" 1t Numbered by abrogating
in 1868, instead Of amending, the Marcy
Elgin reciprocity treaty with Canada.
1t Numbered when it advised GRANTS
| Administration not to negotiate another
Canadian reciprocity which Canada sent
GEORGE Brown to Washington to urge.
All that is now, however, "a back num-
ber"-at least, until and unless the
United Kingdom rejects, in like manner,
Canada's present plan of preference, 3"
the adoption Of which Mr.. CHAMBERLAIN
has declared is the only thing that can
hold together the British Empire and re-
tain Canada therein. A very startling
utterance, yet no experienced statesman
either in England or in America thinks a
displacement of British sovereignty over
Canada is within the range Of practical
politics. 1t is not sought or wished by
America
The abrogation of the Marcy-Elgin
treaty of 1854 was followed year later,
by the formation of the Canadian Con-
federation, and great prosperity under
lower Gf our memory serves u.s. Canadian
tariff rates but in 1873 came blight, and
emigration across the border was great.
No tariff laws could prevent that. Be-
har hn,
free-trade mother across the sea, Canada
found herself pulled in two opposite di-
rections, till finally she seemed TO have
cast her lot frankly with the policy Of
protection for her industries.
There is obscurity, at least for for
eigners, regarding the date of origin Of
Canadian preference" for the mother
country over other nations, including
the United States in tariff rates and its
scope. Perhaps it began in 1874 and in
the interest Of free trade with the United
Kingdom, which increased freedom the
radical protectionists naturally resisted.
At any rate, the British Colonial Office
withstood it for twenty years, and till Mr..
Canada would not abandon soGle pro-
lection for her manufactures by a tariff
| on imports, even against the United King
dom and the other British colonies. 1t is
TO be hoped that the fact will turn out
to be that Canada did not furtively at
tempt to capture the English wheat
market for herself, and GUST the United
States. That would have been very
naughty of herr
A White Book, containing copies of
the diplomatic notes that passed, from
May 10, 1897, to July 3, 1903, between
London and Berlin, which has just been
presented to Parliament. offers to those
not in the British Empire a kernel or two
of fact amid the myriad of Brming-
ham leaflets now whirling around like
autumn leaves in an October storm, the
bewildering abstracts of statistics and
the rub-a-dub Of British newspapers
over the relative merits of free trade and
protection. Dates now become i'm
portant for one seeking light on the
motives of the author of the new Biz
mngham departure.
Germany complained in May, 1897
more than six years ago-of the Canadian
proposal" to discriminate in its new
tariff in favor Of British imports, because
the discrimination violated stipulations
with Germany in the treaty of 1865, and
because Great Britain could, if she would,
control Canada in the matter. The
| United States has not a similar favored
nation treaty with Great Britain. Lord
! SALIsBURY's only reply, made two
months later, was a notice of abrogation
of the treaty at the end of year, because
its stipulations, regarding Canada, were
due to oversight, or to u want of ade-
| quate consideration Canada, he added.
has complete tariff autonomy; she does
] not like such treaty, and the Imperial
| Government cannot coerce her. In the
subsequent discussion, Germany held
on to the admission that Canada il an in
| dependent nation in tariff matters as q
dog clings to his bone The treaty was
| torn up. London thereupon proposed
to Berlin that another be made. Two
months after the German com plant
Lord SALISBURY wrote to Berlin con-
fession that Canada had violated the