THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 



223 



to increase than to diminish. Yet two encouraging 

 facts may be noted. The interest in religious 

 questions is certainly greater now than it was 

 twenty years ago : the pages of almost every pe- 

 riodical which proposes to address the thought- 

 ful and educated class bear witness to the fact 

 that religion is not so nearly dead as many would 

 persuade us. And, further, such a book as the 

 " New Republic," in which as in the later Greek 

 comedy, well-known characters are brought to- 

 gether on the stage under the most transparent 

 of masks to discuss religious and social and moral 

 questions, whatever may be thought of the taste 



of such a proceeding, is at least a proof that such 

 questions are held to be susceptible of discussion 

 among persons who differ even as to fundamental 

 principles. And if once religion can be lifted 

 above the level both of pietism and of ecclesias- 

 ticism to a position analogous to that which the 

 schoolmen assigned to theology as the "Mater 

 Scientiarum," to the position of the all-embracing 

 and all-pervading kingdom of heaven on earth, 

 then we shall learn that religious conversation is 

 not only possible but inevitable, and God and his 

 government will no longer be the one subject on 

 which men are agreed to keep silence. 



— Fraser's Magazine. 



THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 



Br Sir FRANCIS HINCKS. 



CANADA has been for more than a century 

 a dependency of the British crown, and it 

 may with truth be asserted that at no period of 

 its history have the people of all classes been 

 so satisfied with their political institutions as at 

 the present time. There are, of course, two po- 

 litical parties, each, it is only charitable to believe, 

 anxious for the prosperity of the country, and 

 each believing that that prosperity will be best 

 advanced by the adoption of the particular policy 

 which it specially recommends. These parties, 

 though bitterly hostile to one another, are ani- 

 mated by the same feelings of loyalty to the sov- 

 ereign of the empire, and of attachment and re- 

 spect to the representative of the crown within 

 the Dominion. Neither in nor out of the Cana- 

 dian Parliament has there been, since the con- 

 federation of the provinces in 1867, any manifes- 

 tation of discontent with the Constitution, or any 

 expression of a desire for change. On the con- 

 trary, the minority, which in all the provinces 

 opposed confederation with all the energy in 

 their power, accepted, some with praiseworthy 

 alacrity, others with more hesitation, the decision 

 of the majority, and have cheerfully lent their 

 aid to the development of the new institutions. 



Writers in English periodicals have been pay- 

 ing unusual attention of late to the relations be- 

 tween the colonies and the empire, professing to 

 believe that they are in anything but a satisfac- 

 tory state. Mr. Goldwin Smith has predicted that 

 sooner or later annexation to the United States 



will be the destiny of Canada, it being assumed 

 that her present dependent condition cannot be 

 permanent, and that the only other alternative 

 would be for her to form part of a great imperial 

 confederation. What is called a Pan-Britannic 

 confederation does not appear to Mr. Goldwin 

 Smith to be practicable, and although he admits 

 that under the present Canadian Constitution im- 

 perial supremacy is a mere form, and that self- 

 government is independence, all questions that 

 arise between Ottawa and Downing Street being 

 settled in favor of self-government, yet he cannot 

 bring himself to believe that the Canadians will 

 continue to submit to nominal dependence on the 

 crown of Great Britain. Sir Julius Vogel has 

 undertaken to defend imperial confederation in 

 the Nineteenth Century, and it is to a certain ex- 

 tent satisfactory to have even a very crude scheme 

 brought before the public for consideration. It 

 was pointed out fairly enough by Mr. Goldwin 

 Smith with reference to imperial confederation : 

 " Yet of the statesmen who dally with the pro- 

 ject, and smile upon its advocates, not one vent- 

 ures to take a practical step toward its fulfill- 

 ment." Sir Julius Vogel has undertaken to es- 

 tablish the following propositions : 



1. The unsatisfactory nature of the relations 

 between the mother-country and the colonies. 



2. The urgent necessity for doing something 

 to arrest the disintegration, toward which prog- 

 ress is being made. 



3. That a union depending upon the pleasure, 



