Page:The New England magazine (IA newenglandmagazi1891bost).pdf/632

states, as the natural competition of trade would bring prices in all parts of the country to the same level. The cost of carriage to the northern parts of the Union would protect the northern manufacturers, who would have all the facilities for the same production at their doors, with labor possibly cheaper than in the great centres of the Union. And, too, Canada thrown open without restriction would soon attract American capitalists, so that in stead of all the present industries being swept away, they would be greatly augmented.

Of course, there are quarters in Canada where the calm discussion of the advantages of annexation is impossible, and where a man advocating such a change would incur the risk of being insulted. But such circles are by no means representative of Canadian sentiment. I do not mean to affirm that the masses of the Canadian people are seriously considering annexation as an immediate question of practical politics; but everybody in Canada assents to the proposition that a change from existing conditions is inevitable, and that the present relations with the United States are becoming intolerable. The feasibility of a closer union with the United States is the topic of the hour, and those who believe that nothing short of political union is practicable, are listened to, with perfect good humor, by those who are in favor of a less radical change.

The British lion that is supposed by some Americans to stalk through the land and roar, whenever annexation is spoken of in Canada, is a purely mythical animal. He does not even roar in Downing Street. It is a matter of fact that the British Government does not expect to hold the colonies for very much longer. For years past every British statesman has acknowledged that the colonies must outgrow the restrictions of any sort of political allegiance to the mother country, and it would give them no greater concern to have Canada link her destinies with those of the United States than to have her begin her own national housekeeping in complete independence. As an appendage of the British crown, Canada imposes the same duties upon all English goods as does the United States, and English capitalists who have investments in Canada would congratulate themselves upon the enhanced value of their properties, which would certainly be one of the results of the admission of Canada into the Union. The English are, as they always have been, a nation of shopkeepers, and they only wax sentimental when their pockets are touched; witness their indifference over the alleged French encroachments upon the Newfoundland fisheries, and their Downing Street policy of masterly procrastination in the Behring Sea difficulties, which have been a thorn in the side of Canadian loyalty for so many years. Everybody knows that English syndicates are a great deal more anxious to secure commercial properties in the United States than in the Dominion; half the development of Canada's immense natural resources has been through the investment of American capital.

The Canadian Pacific Railroad, which the Government and Tory papers refer to with pride as "the national highway," is not only officered by Americans, from the president down, but has for one of its highest officials on the directorate a vice-president of the United States. It is to all intents and purposes an American enterprise. Its termini are in American cities. Halifax and St. John were originally the winter ports of the Dominion on the Atlantic seaboard, but these were too remote, and the Canadian Pacific built a line through the State of Maine, at the expense of the loyal Canadian tax-payer, and now the bulk of the Canadian exports in winter go by way of Boston, and Halifax and St. John are rapidly becoming, if they are not already, decadent and insignificant "coasting" ports, like the Salem of to-day. Rates from Boston over the Canadian Pacific to points in Western Canada are considerably lower than those over the same railroad from St. John and Halifax; and rates from the West to Boston are lower than those to either of the Canadian ports. The arrangement recently made, by which the Canadian Pacific enters New York over the New York Central and reaches tide-water there, will most assuredly diminish the im-