THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



SUPPLEMENT. 



THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA 



By GOLDWIN SMITH. 



IGNORANCE of the future can hardly be good 

 for any man or nation ; nor can forecast of 

 the future in the case of any man or nation well 

 interfere with the business of the present, though 

 the language of colonial politicians seems often to 

 imply that it may. No Canadian farmer would 

 take his hand from the plough, no Canadian ar- 

 tisan would desert the foimdery or the loom, no 

 Canadian politician would become less busy in 

 his quest of votes, no industry of any kind would 

 slacken, no source of wealth would cease to flow, 

 if the rulers of Canada and the powers of Down- 

 ing Street, by whom the rulers of Canada are 

 supposed to be guided, instead of drifting on in 

 darkness, knew for what port they were steering. 



For those who are actually engaged in mould- 

 ing the institutions of a young country not to 

 have formed a conception of her destiny — not to 

 have made up their minds whether she is to re- 

 main forever a dependency, to blend again in a 

 vast confederation with the monarchy of the 

 mother-country, or to be united to a neighboring 

 republic — would be to renounce statesmanship. 

 The very expenditure into which Canada is led 

 by her position as a dependency in military and 

 political railways, in armaments and defenses, 

 and other things which assume the permanence 

 of the present system, is enough to convict Cana- 

 dian rulers of flagrant improvidence if the per- 

 manency of the present system is not distinctly 

 established in their minds. 



To tax forecast with revolutionary designs or 

 tendencies is absurd. No one can be in a less 

 revolutionary frame of mind than he who foresees 

 a political event without having the slightest in- 



terest in hastening its arrival. On the other hand, 

 mere party politicians cannot afford to see beyond 

 the hour. Under the system of party govern- 

 ment, forecast and freedom of speech alike belong 

 generally to those who are not engaged in public 

 life. 



The political destiny of Canada is here con- 

 sidered by itself, apart from that of any other 

 portion of the motley and widely-scattered " em- 

 pire." This surely is the rational course. Not 

 to speak of India and the military dependencies, 

 such as Malta and Gibraltar, which have abso- 

 lutely nothing in common with the North Ameri- 

 can colonies (India not even the titular form ot 

 government, since its sovereign has been made 

 an empress), who can believe that the future of 

 Canada, of South Africa, of Australia, of the West 

 Indies, and of Mauritius, will be the same ? Who 

 can believe that the mixed French raid English 

 population of Canada, the mixed Dutch ind Eng- 

 lish population of the Cape, the negro population 

 of Jamaica, the French and Indian population of 

 Mauritius, the English and Chinese population of 

 Australia, are going to run forever the same po- 

 litical course ? Who can believe that the mould- 

 ing influences will be the same in arctic conti- 

 nents or in tropical islands as in countries lying 

 within the temperate zone? Among the colonies, 

 those, perhaps, which most nearly resemble each 

 other in political character and circumstances, 

 are Canada and Australia ; yet the elements of 

 the population are very different — and still more 

 different are the external relations of Australia^ 

 with no other power near her, from those of Can- 

 ada, not only conterminous with the United States, 



