Page:The New England Magazine 1891, 5.1.djvu/109

and achievements form the staple of his fame, which will long be a sacred treasure to his countrymen.

Sir George Cartier's successor, Sir Hector Langevin, has certainly shown much ability and tact in securing the loyal support of the British Protestant population of Ontario and the other provinces. The eminent qualifications for leadership of the French Canadians are daily manifested in the course of the Liberal chief at Ottawa, Hon. Wilfrid Laurier, who has gained the confidence and good-will of his own party, two-thirds of whom are Protestants. Able men like Hon. Edward Blake, the late leader of the Liberals, and his clever colleagues, Hon. Alexander Mackenzie and Sir Richard Cartwright, heartily co-operate with him, not only on account of his brilliant oratorical power and statesmanship, but his consistency, sterling honesty, and pure-minded patriotism. Another clever representative of this race is the Hon. Honoré Mercier, Prime Minister of the Province of Quebec, a man of vast political resources, excellent judgment, and the best debater in the local house.

The present condition and prospects of the Dominion have for some time commanded a considerable share of the attention of the leading men of all races and parties. That its actual position is not devoid of difficulties calculated to excite no ordinary uneasiness in many quarters, as well as a sense of the necessity of a prudent policy by both the leading parties, or by the sections of them averse to a revolutionary change, it would be absurd to deny. Popular opinion on some of the important issues of the day is much divided. Many Canadians, British and French, undoubtedly favor a further trial of the existing constitution, on the ground of uncertainty as to whether a new one, or one much different from the present, would be an improvement. On the other hand, many, especially among the working classes, favor more intimate relations with the United States. Such questions as "the future of Canada," "the best commercial policy for Canada," and "the proper attitude for Canada toward the United States," etc., are topics of daily discussion, both in the press and at public meetings. The impression is steadily gaining ground that, despite more or less obstructive tariffs, or party political contrivances, the trade of Canada and the Republic is certain to keep growing, and at a rapid rate, too. With expanded material, we usually look for and witness extended social relations; results which the recent history of the United States and the Dominion emphatically exemplifies.

The idea of the possibility of some decided change in the mutual relations of the several provinces, and some, also, in their relations with Great Britain and the United States ere long, has been generally admitted of late years. Many British Canadians openly extol a legislative union of the provinces, believing it would prove more economical than the actual system of confederation, with its various local legislatures and official systems, besides the general government at Ottawa. And recently a certain number have pronounced in favor of a Federation with Great Britain.^[1] But the French Canadians so far regard both schemes with disfavor and apprehension, stating they would be at a numerical disadvantage at Ottawa in any settlement of provincial questions, and overshadowed as a foreign-ruled province, of a world-encircling empire like Great Britain's. They strongly desire to preserve their autonomy, and to exercise supreme power in the management of their local affairs. And when these political reforms are urged upon them, they deal freely in prediction and menace. Politicians and litterateurs speculate as to the probable consequences of the gravitation of any large province in the Dominion to the Republic, many naturally perceiving the vast increase of the moral and material difficulties that would be cast in the path of the weakened power, and the much greater likelihood of an early similar settlement of the other provinces within the same great prosperous constellation. It would not be wise on the part of the friends of British connection to alarm French Canadian interests,