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iniquitous to be considered in cool blood The very loyal partisans of the conservative persuasion think this argument clinching and irrefutable it certainly has considerable weight with the unintelligent portion of the agricultural population, in whose veins run Scotch and English blood, undiluted by even a generation. "At home" they always voted for the church and "the squire," without inquiry into the issues of the hour, and in their new home they vote on the same plan for "the old flag." Appeals are in variably made during election tapes by the conservative stamp orators to the "old flag"; it is a telling cord in an illiterate constituency. But the young men of Canada are beginning to do their own thinking, and they ask, "Why all this anxiety about the interest of the British manufacturer? why are not British goods admitted into the country free now, if we love the British manufacturer so much, and owe him so much consideration? and what does this British manufacturer, to whom we owe so much deference, do for us?" The illogical position of the Protectionist Imperialists who shut out the British manufacturer in favor of the Canadian manufacturer, and at the same time wax indignant if his interests are threatened, could not be better shown than in these few questions. The thoughtful people of Canada are not hood winked by such ridiculous arguments. They cannot be persuaded that Canada was discovered, and settled, and developed for the sole benefit of the British manufacturer; and they will not be galled into sacrificing their own commercial future for any such airy sentiment with such a leaden weight beneath it. The Imperialists argue that as Canada is at present a part of the British Empire, subject to British laws, therefore the Canadian people must confine their purchasing to British manufacturers, however superior may be the advantage offered by the great trading nation immediately to the south of them. That is, Canada is to remain crude and undeveloped, with in exhaustible natural resources, because a few manufacturers three thousand miles away might be slightly inconvenienced if those of the United States were allowed to compete. But, as a matter of fact, even now the British manufacturer has to pay higher duties than the American manufacturer.

The inconsistency of the disloyal discrimination" argument is best shown in a crystallization of its manifold absurdities. It is the Conservative Government which brought in the protective policy of Canada, and has shut out the British manufacturer, and it is the Conservative Government and its supporters, mostly manufacturers, and those indirectly and directly interested in manufactures, who plead so pathetically for the British manufacturer. The farmers feel the iron grip of the manufacturing and railroad hierarchy upon them, and, as in the States, they are becoming a little alarmed and restless. They find the "National Road" giving reduced rates of freight to their competitors across the boundary; they find that Canadian manufactures are only about one or two per cent cheaper than a much superior grade of American manufactures; they find that in exporting to the United States the whole burden of the customs appraisement falls upon them; and they are beginning to question whether they are benefited by the policy of protection that was to have made everybody happy and prosperous. And yet their best market is in the United States,—and this makes them reflect. Indeed, since 1878 the trade with Great Britain has diminished, while that with the United States has rapidly increased. The national policy was strenuously opposed in England, and Sir John Macdonald's government twists the lion's tail a great deal more frequently than does Mr. Blaine; and the irony of Sir John's atten tions is that he twists the lion's tail in the alleged interests of the lion.

The old argument of the protectionists, that Canada would become the slaughter market of American manufactures if the tariff barrier was removed, is a ridiculous one. A great many Canadian manufacturers are willing to compete on equal terms with their American rivals in trade: and there would be no possibility of, or necessity for American manufacturers making a slaughter market of the Canadian