DOMINION OF CANADA. 



281 



sion. Given free trade, given unrestricted in- 

 tercourse, and that trade might assume nearly 

 unlimited proportions in regard to a great many 

 of these articles. 



" It has been made a grave ground, it lias 

 been attempted to be set up as a"n insuperable 

 ground of objection, that, when you propose 

 to enter into a treaty for unrestricted trade 

 with the United States, you must thereby, of 

 necessity, discriminate against English manu- 

 factures and the manufactures of all other 

 countries except the United States. Now, 

 ttiat is true. I admit that. More than that. I 

 will admit that, prima facie, what we propose 

 to-day is a very unusual thing. I will admit 

 I am in nowise disposed to shrink from any 

 argument which can be fairly advanced I 

 admit frankly that, when a semi-dependent 

 state, when a colony proposes in one breath 

 to tax the goods of the parent state and admit 

 the goods of a foreign state free, while at the 

 same time the parent state admits our goods and 

 the goods of other countries free, and the for- 

 eign state taxes those goods very heavily, it 

 is a very unusual thing indeed. I grant that 

 it is clean atrainst all formulas. I do not deny 

 that. I admit that it appears to be reversing 

 the action of one hundred years ago when Eng- 

 land lost half of this continent because she en- 

 deavored to tax their goods without giving 

 them representation, and I admit that we are 

 going a little far in taxing her goods and not 

 the goods of the people of the United States. 

 I grant that this needs explanation, and I am 

 prepared to say that I can give a full explana- 

 tion why in the interests of England itself this 

 thing should be done. I think I have stated the 

 - strongly as honorable gentlemen can well 

 desire. Now, let us first of all look at the ma- 

 terial results which will flow to England should 

 this discrimination take place, and here let me 

 say. what is obvious to every one who has 

 given the subject a second thought, that, in our 

 peculiar geographical position toward the 

 United States, it is perfectly apparent that we 

 can not hope to gain free intercourse and un- 

 restricted reciprocity with them without dis- 

 criminating against the goods of other coun- 

 tries, unless and until the United States are 

 prepared to go in for free trade with all the 

 world, in which case our proposition would 

 not be necessary. The thing, I grant, is of the 

 essence of the bargain. I am not in the least 

 degree desirous of concealing that fact. but. 

 so far as the material side is concerned, the 

 practical results of assimilating our tariff in 

 certain points to the American tariff as against 

 England have been immensely and, I suspect, 

 purposely exaggerated. In the first place, the 

 House ought to remember that at this very 

 day our tariff is pretty nearly as hostile to 

 English manufactures as that of the United 

 States. Then it is well to bear in mind that, 

 the tariff to the contrary notwithstanding, Eng- 

 land has always managed to carry on a large 

 trade with the United States, and especially 



with the northern portion of it. There can 

 be no doubt, I think, that if we succeed in get- 

 ting unrestricted trade we shall become much 

 richer, and if we become much richer there is 

 no doubt that we shall buy a much larger 

 quantity of English goods than we do at pres- 

 ent, though perhaps not in the same line. I 

 believe that the result of England giving us a 

 free hand in this matter would be simply to 

 make some little alteration in the character but 

 not in the quantity of the goods she ?ells. 



" I do not say, and it is false to assert that I 

 have ever said, that Canada has not made any 

 progress during the past twenty years. I ad- 

 mit considerable progress lias been made in 

 certain directions. But what I contend for 

 now is this, that the progress has been partial, 

 inadequate, far below what the natural re- 

 sources of our country would warrant. It is 

 also far below what we made ourselves in the 

 twenty years before 1861, and infinitely below 

 what the United States made in the first twenty 

 years of their existence, when their population 

 was equal to ours. I am quite willing to grant 

 that a few towns have grown and prospered 

 within the past few years, but I say it was 

 none the less true that over many wide areas 

 of this country our population is stationary 

 and even retrograde. It is none the less true 

 that from one end of Canada to the other, the 

 value of farm lands is less to-day than it was 

 six, seven, or eight years ago; it is none the 

 less true that the value of farm products is 

 enormously lowered, and that our farmers are 

 exposed to a far more intense competition than 

 they hitherto experienced. Great new forces 

 are coming into existence, the full effect of 

 which we are only beginning to feel. There 

 is danger lest Canada, so far as regards our na- 

 tive-born population, should sink into a mere 

 residuum, a country from which the best and 

 most intelligent of our people are fleeing, not 

 by hundreds or by thousands, but by millions. 

 Then as to foreign immigrants, if these statis- 

 tics can be relied upon, it is clear that we are 

 becoming a mere dumping-ground for the ref- 

 use of those whom we import into this coun- 

 try. No one supposed, when we came together 

 in this Confederation, stretching over half a 

 continent, that we were to remain semi-de- 

 pendent forever. We are growing in stature, 

 not as fast as honorable gentlemen say. but still 

 we are growing, and we are entitled to a larger 

 measure of responsibilities and to a larger 

 measure of rights. One thing is clear, that every 

 one, as I have said, who thinks twice on the 

 subject knows and feels that things are not 

 satisfactory for us in many ways. I see no 

 way of our becoming a valuable member of a 

 British federation save only on one considera- 

 tion, and that is that you broaden your base 

 and take care that you unite yourselves with 

 the United States in the bonds of a firm and 

 friendly alliance which is not likely to be bro- 

 ken, and there is no way in which that is more 

 likely to be done than by greatly increasing 



