THE GROWTH OF CANADA 267 



tible. The impulse to its actual realization 

 came, however, as much from without as from 

 within the provinces. It was not a mere coin 

 cidence that the initial steps toward creating 

 the Dominion of Canada were taken during the 

 Civil War in the United States. 



Sympathy in Canada with the South was 

 sufficiently common and sufficiently outspoken 

 during the war to evoke much heated denun 

 ciation across the border. With the rumors 

 and realities of extensive operations by the Con 

 federates from a base in Canada, the temperature 

 of Northern comment became excessively high. 

 The attitude of the Canadian authorities re 

 mained scrupulously correct, and the excitement 

 pervading the press and platform of the North 

 was properly discounted; yet there remained a 

 feeling of uneasiness and foreboding as to what 

 was going to happen when the titanic struggle 

 should end. If the North should triumph, a 

 war of revenge against Great Britain and its 

 possessions was likely; if the North should fail, 

 an effort to compensate for the loss of the South 

 by expansion at the expense of Great Britain 

 might equally be expected. In either case it 

 behooved the prudent statesman to take all 

 possible precautions for the care of the provin- 



