THE GROWTH OF CANADA 291 



exercise that lofty function unaided, was obliged 

 to pay something like half a million dollars in 

 damages to the seized British sealers. 



The settlement of this dispute by arbitration 

 gave much satisfaction to the special friends 

 of peace among English-speaking peoples. Not 

 that the controversy over the seals had seri 

 ously threatened war. Feeling in relation to it, 

 whether in governmental circles or in the public 

 at large, never became generally bellicose in 

 either Canada, Great Britain, or the United 

 States. Yet it doubtless did contribute a share, 

 however small, to the stimulation of the intense 

 nationalistic susceptibilities that were manifest 

 in both the Dominion and the republic. 



Pride of strength and of achievement became 

 peculiarly demonstrative in the United States 

 during the decade of the eighties. The cause 

 can be but uncertainly detected amid the 

 obscurities of national psychology, but the 

 effects are patent and unmistakable. Through 

 press and pulpit and platform was revealed a 

 consuming sense of power and a deep craving 

 to make it felt, and to extort recognition of it 

 from other peoples. For three decades the prob 

 lems of slavery and civil war had absorbed the 

 physical and intellectual strength of the nation. 



