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From The Quarterly Review.
CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES:
THEIR PAST AND PRESENT RELATIONS.*

pressed on the imperial authorities its right to be consulted as to the choice of commissioners who were to decide a quesTHE Canadian people can find some tion of such deep interest to the Dominevidence of the growing importance of ion. Mr. Fish, among other things, said their Dominion by a reference to the offi- that "the reference to the people of the cial documents of the United States for Dominion of Canada seems to imply a When the fishery | practical transfer to that province of the right of nomination which the treaty gives to her Majesty." Coming down to a later time, when the Behring Sea difficulty arose to create some feeling between Can

several years past.
question was under consideration in 1869,
President Grant expressed his surprise in
one of his messages to Congress that the
"imperial government should have dele-
gated the whole, or a share, of its jurisdic-ada and the United States, we find Mr.
tion or control of its inshore fisheries to Blaine himself assuming the position that
the colonial authority known as the Do- Canada, whatever might be her stake in
minion of Canada, and that that semi-in- the question at issue, should be consid-
dependent but irresponsible agent has ered of little weight, and that her govern-
exercised its delegated powers in an un- ment should be kept quietly in the back-
friendly way." When some years later it ground, whilst the statesmen of England
became necessary to appoint a commission and the United States settle matters with
to consider the value of the Canadian as little interference as possible from mere
fisheries, opened up to the fishermen of outsiders like the Canadians; in fact, just
the United States under the Washington as they did in the good old times when
Treaty of 1871, the secretary of state of Canada was a relatively insignificant coun-
that day, Mr. Hamilton Fish, to quote try, and diplomatists of the republic had
the language of Mr. Blaine in his review it generally all their own way. In the now
of the correspondence between London | famous correspondence on the question,
and Washington on the subject, "very Mr. Blaine displays some irritation that
sharply rebuked the interposition of the "the rights of the United States within
government of Canada," because it had Behring Sea and on the islands thereof are
not absolute, but are to be determined by
one of her Majesty's provinces," and even
intimates his opinion that the English
government should interpose and prevent
any objection on the part of the "Prov-
4. The Intercolonial Railway. A History, 1832-ince of Canada" to any arrangement that
1876. By Sandford Fleming, C.E., C.M.G. Montreal, the imperial authorities may choose to
1876.
make with the United States.

· 1. Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute. Vols. 1-21. London, 1869-1890.

2. Canada: Statistical Year Book of Canada for

1889. Government of Canada, Ottawa, 1890.

3. The Old North-West. By B. A. Hinsdale, Ph.D. New York, 1888.

5. Canada since the Union of 1841. By John Charles Dent. Toronto, 1882.

6. Canadian Studies in Comparative Politics. By J. G. Bourinot, C.M.G., D.C.L. Montreal, 1891.

The iteration of the word "province in these several State documents is some evidence that the public men of the United States do not yet appreciate the position of Canada in the British Empire, but be8. Papers of the American Historical Associa-lieve that this aggregation of provinces,

7. Correspondence respecting the Behring Sea Seal Fisheries, 1886-1890. Presented to both Houses of Parliament. London, 1890.

tion, 1890. New York and London.

9. A Treatise on International Law. By W. E. Hall, M.A. Third edition. Oxford. At the Clarendon Press, 1890.

10. Oregon: The Struggle for Possession. By W.

Barrows. Boston, 1884.

11. History of the United States of America. By James Schouler. Vols. 1-4. 1783-1847. New York,

1880-1889.

12. Narrative and Critical History of America. Edited by Justin Winsor, of Harvard University. Vols. 1-8. Boston and New York, 1889.

13. Canada and the Canadian Question. By Gold

win Smith, D.C.L. London, 1891.

known constitutionally as the "Dominion of Canada," possessing large rights of selfgovernment, and an increasing influence in imperial councils, is still practically ruled in all matters by Downing Street, as in the days previous to the concession of responsible government. A little irritation on the part of American statesmen, however, is quite intelligible, when we consider that the political development of

was no comparison whatever between the two populations. The people of the En

energy and the spirit of political freedom. The people of the French province were the mere creatures of a king's ambition, and their energies were chiefly devoted to exploration and the fur trade. The con

Canada within a few years has been a sort of revelation to the United States, who, for a long time, were taught to be-glish colonies were full of commercial lieve that Canada was a relatively insignificant appendage of the British crown, whose interests were not considered of any importance in the case of negotiations between England and other nations, and that she could not possibly have any in-flict that was fought in America for a fluence in the arena of international diplo- century and more was a conflict of antagmacy. As we shall endeavor to show onistic principles — the principles of self in the course of this paper, the political government and free thought, against the development of Canada has given her a principle of centralization and the represposition in the empire which makes her sion of political liberty. Freedom was at last a factor in the affairs of the conti- won on the plains of Abraham, and a nent of America, and that the time has great Frenchman and a great Englishman passed when her boundaries, and her ter- consecrated by their deaths on the same ritorial claims, can be made the mere battlefield the future political union of shuttlecocks for ambitious and astute two races on the northern half of the statesmen of the United States. Canada has won this position only after many sacrifices, and a stern fight against the ambitious designs of a powerful neighbor, not always animated by the most generous feelings towards the Dominion, and too often carried away by a belief in "a manifest destiny," which would eventually grasp the whole continent.

continent. Of the great events of history that have moulded national destinies none has had more momentous consequences than the conquest of Canada one hundred and thirty years ago. One consequence has been the development of a powerful federal republic now composed of sixtytwo millions of people- the heirs of those free colonies which were founded by Englishmen and flourished under the influence of English principles of government. The second consequence has been the establishment of a federation known as the Dominion of Canada, possessing political institutions which give remarkable scope to individual energies, and enable the French Canadians themselves even now to look forward to the realization of those dreams of ambition, which were the incentive to action of many noble men in those brave old days, when France held the St. Lawrence and the illimitable

Indeed, when we look at the past history of America, we can well believe that there has been a destiny ever "shaping the ends" of the Canadian communities, however diplomatists and statesmen have endeavored to "rough hew" them in the early times of their development. In the beginning of the seventeenth century England and France entered on that contest for the supremacy in America which did not end for a hundred and fifty years. When the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1763, the results of French ambition in America were to be seen in a poor strug-region of the West. But this grand congling colony on the banks of the St. Lawrence, and in a few settlements on the Illinois and in the Mississippi valley. The total population of these settlements did not exceed eighty thousand souls, of whom seventy thousand were living in the St. Lawrence valley. Even then the population of the thirteen colonies had reached one million one hundred and sixty thousand souls, or nearly fifteen times the French population of the St. Lawrence and Mississippi Basins. In wealth there

ception of an empire is in course of reali. zation, not under the influence of French principles of government, but under the inspiration of those English institutions, which the experience of centuries proves are best calculated to develop political freedom, individual energy, and the finest qualities of human endeavor.

The conquest of Canada removed that fear of France which had long contined the whole thirteen colonies to the country between the sea and the Alleghanies, and

ན། །།།་

opened up at last to their adventurous | and of the North-West, since it estab-
sons that great West which in later times lished a larger province with the civil law
has had such wondrous effects on the of the French régime, and removed the
commerce of America. The Treaty of political disabilities under which the Ro-
Paris in 1763 was the end of French man Catholics had labored since the con-
dominion on this continent. It was im- quest of Canada. During the War of
mediately followed by a proclamation from Independence impassioned appeals were
George III. establishing new governments made to the French of Canada to join the
in America as a result of the English ac- thirteen colonies against England; and
quisitions from France and Spain. East with a curious ignorance of the conditions
and west Florida were formed out of the of a people who probably never saw a
Spanish possessions to the south of the printed book, and who never owned a
thirteen colonies, and the old French col-printing-press during the French régime,
ony was confined practically to the St. references were made to the writings of
Lawrence, and was to be thereafter known Beccaria and to the spirit of the "immor-
as the government of Quebec. The En-tal Montesquieu." With the same re-
glish possessions now reached the east
bank of the Mississippi River, while
Spain held the great country to the west
of the river, known as Louisiana. The
claims of the thirteen colonies to the
country between the Alleghanies and
the Mississippi were not recognized by
the British government. On the contrary,
settlement was discouraged in that rich
region, and there is every reason for the
opinion that the English ministry of that
day had determined to retain its control
in their own hands, and not to give new
opportunities for the expansion of the old
colonies, whose restlessness and impa-
tience of all imperial restraint were be-
coming quite obvious to English states-

men.

But events, as usual, moved faster than the logic of statesmen. The war of American Independence broke out as a result of the practical freedom enjoyed by the colonies for a hundred years and more. The self-assertion of the thirteen colonies had its immediate results on the fortunes of Canada, for among the acts passed by the imperial government, in accordance with a new and vigorous policy of colonial government, was the statute known as the Quebec Act of 1774, which extended the limits of the Province of Quebec so as to include the country long known as the old North-West. This act was obviously intended — indeed, it appears to have been a sequence of the policy of 1763 - to confine the old English colonies to the country on the Atlantic coast, and to conciliate "the new subjects " of England, the French population of the St. Lawrence

markable fatuity that has often prevented the people of the United States in these later days from understanding the feelings of Canadians, their predecessors in those early times attacked the Quebec Act as a measure of Roman Catholic tyranny at the very time they were asking the assistance of the French Canadians. Canada was invaded; and when Montgomery fell at Quebec, the tide of invasion was forced back into the rebellious colonies. The influence of the Quebec Act was from the outset felt throughout the country, and the dominant classes, the bishops and clergy of the Roman Catholic Church, and the principal French Canadian seigneurs, combined to preserve Canada to a country which had given such strong guarantees for the preservation of the civil and religious rights of its new subjects.

The period from 1774 to 1800 was one of great moment to Canada and the revolted colonies. The Treaty of 1783, which acknowledged the independence of the latter, fixed the boundaries to the two countries, and laid the foundation to fruitful controversies in later times. Three of the ablest men the United States can claim as its sons - Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay-succeeded, by their astuteness and persistency, in extending its limits to the eastern bank of the Mississippi, despite the insidious efforts of Vergennes on the part of France to hem in the new nation between the Atlantic and the Appalachian Range. The relatively little interest that was taken in Canada during the preliminary negotiations may