THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 



dcncy ; they have valued themselves on their 

 birth in the imperial country and the superior 

 traditions which they supposed it to imply ; they 

 have personally cherished the political connec- 

 tion, and have inculcated fidelity to it with all 

 their might. But their number is rapidly de- 

 creasing ; as they die off natives take their places, 

 and Canada will soon be in Canadian hands. Im- 

 migration generally is falling off ; upper-class im- 

 migration is almost at an end, there being no 

 longer a demand for anything but manual labor 

 and the- influence of personal connection with 

 England will cease to rule. The press is passing 

 into the hands of natives, who are fast learning 

 to hold their own against imported writing in lit- 

 erary skill, while they have an advantage in their 

 knowledge of the country. 



d. While the British troops remained in Can- 

 ada, their officers formed a social aristocracy of 

 the most powerful kind, and exercised a some- 

 what tyrannical influence over opinion. The 

 traces of this influence still remain, but, with the 

 exception of the reduced garrison of Halifax, the 

 military occupation has ceased, and is not likely 

 to be renewed. 



e. The Anglican Church in Canada clings to 

 its position as a branch of the great state Church 

 of England, and, perhaps, a faint hope of reestab- 

 lishment may linger in the breasts of the bishops, 

 who still retain the title of " lords." We have 

 already said that the roots of Anglicanism in 

 Canada do not appear to be strong, and its chief 

 source of reenforcement will be cut off by the dis- 

 continuance of upper-class emigration. It is rent 

 in Canada, as in England, by the conflict between 

 the Protestants and the Ritualists ; and in Can- 

 ada, there being no large endowments or legal 

 system to clamp the hostile elements together, 

 discord has already taken the form of disruption. 

 As to the other churches, they have a connection 

 with England, but not with England more than 

 with the United States. The connection of Ca- 

 nadian Methodism with the United States is very 

 close. 



/. Orangism is strong in British Canada, as 

 indeed is every kind of association except the 

 country. It retains its filial connection with its 

 Irish parent, and is ultra-British on condition that 

 Great Britain continues anti-papal. Old Irish 

 quarrels are wonderfully tenacious of life, yet 

 they must one day die, and Orangism must fol- 

 low them to the grave. 



g. The social influence of English aristocracy, 

 and of the little court of Ottawa over colonists of 

 the wealthier class. With this (to dismiss at once 



a theme more congenial to the social humorist 

 than to the political observer) we may couple the 

 influence of those crumbs of titular honor which 

 English aristocracy sometimes allows to fall from 

 its table into colonial mouths. If such forces 

 cannot be said to be transient, the tendencies of 

 human nature being perpetual, they may at least 

 be said to be secondary ; they do not affect the 

 masses, and they do not affect the strong. 



h. Antipathy to the Americans, bred by the 

 old wars, and nursed by British influences, mili- 

 tary and aristocratic, not without the assistance 

 of the Americans themselves, who, in the case of 

 the Fenian raids, and in other cases, have vented 

 on Canada their feelings against England. This 

 antipathy, so far as it prevails, leads those who 

 entertain it to cling to an anti- American connec- 

 tion. But, generally speaking, it is very hollow. 

 It does not hinder young Canadians from going 

 by hundreds to seek their fortunes in the United 

 States. It does not hinder wealthy Americans 

 who have settled in Canada from finding seats at 

 once in the Canadian Parliament. It never, in fact, 

 goes beyond talk. So far as it partakes of the 

 nature of contempt, it can hardly fail to be modi- 

 fied by the changed attitude of the British aris- 

 tocracy, who have learned to exhibit something 

 more than courtesy toward the victorious repub- 

 lic ; while the Americans, it may be reasonably 

 presumed, now that the cause of irritation is re- 

 moved, will not think it wise to make enemies of 

 a people whose destinies are inextricably blended 

 with their own. 



i. The special attachment naturally felt by 

 the politicians, as a body, to the system with ref- 

 erence to which their parties have been formed, 

 and with which the personal ambition of most of 

 them is bound up. Perhaps, of all the forces 

 which make for the present connection, this is 

 the strongest ; it has proved strong enough, when 

 combined with the timidity and the want of inde- 

 pendence which life-long slavery to a faction al- 

 ways breeds, to prevent any Canadian politician 

 from playing a resolute part in such efforts as 

 there have been to make Canada a nation. In 

 some cases it is intensified by commercial con- 

 nections with England, or by social aspirations, 

 more or less definite, which have England for 

 their goal. In this respect the interest of the 

 politicians, as a class, is distinct from, and is 

 liable to clash with, the real interest of the com- 

 munity at large. So, in the case of Scotland, it 

 was the special interest of the politicians to resist 

 the union, as, without special pressure and in- 

 ducements, they would probably have persisted 



