246 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



"In the course of the last thirty years we have seen two wars 

 waged against liberty — the American war and the war against the 

 French people in the early stages of their Revolution — And for what 

 belongs more especially to ourselves at this time we may affirm — that 

 the same presumptuous irreverence of the principles of justice, and 

 blank insensibility to the affections of human nature which deter- 

 mined the conduct of our government in these two great wars against 

 liberty, have continued to accompany its exertions in the present 

 struggle for liberty, and have rendered them fruitless" (Tract On the 

 Convention of Cintra.) 



The voices of Chatham, Burke and Wordsworth had their effect. 

 They recalled England to her true self and she began to set her own 

 home in order. Her patriot sons had struck a note which over- 

 powered the lingering discords of the old imperial policy, though it 

 did not become clear and resonant till well on in the nineteenth cen- 

 tury. A sense of responsibility for a Commonwealth greater than 

 that which she lost in the revolt of the American Colonies was making 

 itself felt. A new theory of Empire arose. 



During the nineteenth century Britain became democratic, 

 and the process by which the franchise was widened and changes 

 were effected so that expression might be given to the will of the 

 people, has been a large factor in the creation of the new policy of 

 Empire Avhich has almost insensibly displaced the old. Imperialism 

 had been associated for the most part with that side of politics which 

 drew its strength from the families who supplied the great soldiers 

 and sailors, and who assumed that the prestige of expanding dominions 

 was a continuance of the prowess of Elizabethan days. But in truth 

 the Empire is not thus Imperialistic as to origin or character. It is 

 not the result either of premeditated conquest or of set colonizing 

 purpose. It can only be understood by considering the quality of the 

 emigration from Britain, and the causes that stimulated it. No 

 ruling idea, or special creed* or practice drove our Canadian fore- 

 fathers out, as was the case with many of those who went to the 

 United States, nor did they flee from England to a new land in the 

 hope of securing wider freedom. Unlike the New England and the 

 Pennsylvanian emigrations our people did not come to our present 

 home to escape from a condition of affairs that was oppressive. They 

 parted in goodwill from tiiose whom they left behind with their eye 

 set on the new land where they and their children might better them- 

 selves in a worldK- way, and often their hearts turned back in affection 

 to their kinsfolk overseas. Even their children continued to talk of 

 Britain as "Home," and when after a generation through the favour of 

 fortune their sons visited the old land, they sought the place of their 



