[LOXGLEVJ DIFFICULTIES WITH NEWFOUNDLAND 265 



The propriety of the attitude of Canada in respect of the Blaine- 

 Bond convention may possibly be open to difference of. opinion, but a 

 fair consideration of the whole question must lead to the judgment that 

 it was not only justifiable, but, from a national point of view, impera- 

 tive. Regard must be had for the differences in situation between 

 the two parties. Newfoundland was a small colony of scarcely 200,000 

 inhabitants; Canada, on the other hand, was the owner of half a 

 continent, with nearly 6,000,000 people and acquiring the status of a 

 nation. While every interest pointed to the desirability of friendly 

 relations with the United Staes, it was still important, at the initial 

 stages of her national life, for Canada to secure the respect of her 

 great neighbor by a rigid maintenance of her rights. It was the ideal 

 and aspiration of the Canadian people that there should be, not one, 

 but two, great nations in North America, and the vast territory now 

 rapidly being opened by up railway communications and the enter- 

 prise of her people justified reasonable expectation that in a few 

 decades Canada would be a recognized power among the nations of the 

 world. Hitherto the United States had not pursued a liberal policy 

 toward Canada. They had deliberately ended every treaty of Reci- 

 procity, had ignored Canadian proposals for a just settlement of all 

 difficulties between the two countries, and refused to even consider 

 proposals for better commercial relations. The fisheries of B.N. 

 America were of immense value, and by the Treaty of 1818 the United 

 States were excluded from any participation in them except at a few 

 points of no great importance. It was Canada's right and Canada's 

 policy to preserve the fishing interests of B.N. America from American 

 interference. They were ready to admit their big neighbor to a large, 

 or even a full, participation in these fishing privileges, provided there 

 was a corresponding disposition to concede trading privileges of 

 equivalent advantage to Canada. Instead of this^ the McKinley 

 tariff of 1,890 imposed increased, and even prohibitory dutiesagainst 

 many of Canada's most important products, with the avowed aim of 

 excluding them from the American market, and this begot a si)irit in 

 Canada which, events have shewn, has contributed in no small degree 

 to her commercial growth and national self-respect. Excluded largely 

 from American markets, she has sought others and increased the 

 volume of her trade enormously, greater proportionally than her 

 powerful rival. Whatever British power and prestige was to exist in 

 North America was dependent upon the growth and attitude of the 

 great Dominion, and 'could scarcely be appreciably affected by any 

 possible development of a small colony like Newfoundland. 



Under these circumstances, it was inevitable that the Imperial 

 Government should have shaped their action accordingly to the 



Sec. I & II, Sig. 26 



