CHAPTER VI 



THE GROWTH OF CANADA AND ITS 

 PROBLEMS 



IN the proceedings that resulted in the Treaty 

 of Washington of 1871 an important part was 

 played by two prominent Canadians. Sir John 

 Rose was the confidential agent of the British 

 cabinet in the twenty months of secret di 

 plomacy at Washington through which negotia 

 tion of the treaty was made possible; Sir John 

 A. Macdonald was one of the five British mem 

 bers of the joint high commission by which the 

 treaty was actually concluded. Rose had been 

 until very recently minister of finance in the 

 Canadian cabinet; Macdonald was the prime 

 minister of the Dominion. The participation 

 of Rose in the affair was determined largely by 

 his exceptionally wide and intimate business 

 and social connections in all three of the coun 

 tries concerned, and by his amiable personality; 

 the appointment of Macdonald signified the 

 formal recognition by Westminster that the 



British-American commonwealth was entitled 



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