294 THE GROWTH OF CANADA 



England itself, as we have seen, such severance 

 had long been regarded in high political circles 

 as inevitable and not wholly undesirable. Now, 

 however, that the time seemed to be approach 

 ing for the realization of this predestined break 

 up, opposition became vigorously vocal in both 

 colonies and mother-land. The Imperial Feder 

 ation League, unofficially, and a succession of 

 conferences under the auspices of the imperial 

 and colonial governments, officially, instituted 

 earnest discussion of the ways and means of 

 maintaining the unity of the empire. 



While the origin of this agitation was in con 

 ditions remote from America, the future of 

 Canada and its relations with the United States 

 became at once, when the problem was fairly 

 posed, the central question of the debate. The 

 immediate practical end that engaged the 

 attention of the federationists was military and 

 naval defence of the widely scattered members 

 of the empire. Tariff arrangements that should 

 promote a unifying tendency were also sug 

 gested. So soon as discussion of these ends 

 touched Canada, her great neighbor to the 

 southward became the subject of disquieting 

 consideration. Defensive arrangements for New 

 South Wales might suggest malevolent inten- 



