VENEZUELA AND AFTER 343 



Alaskan boundary arbitration, among Irishmen 

 perennially and everywhere were barely dis 

 coverable by the acutest observers amid the 

 multifold chorus of amity. 



There was especial significance in this sit 

 uation from the fact that it was accompanied 

 by a remarkable transformation in the ideals 

 and principles of both British and American 

 political systems. In the last quarter of the 

 century of peace his Britannic Majesty s do 

 minions became very distinctly a federative 

 empire, and the United States became no less 

 unmistakably an imperialistic republic. The 

 earliest evidence of a tendency in these direc 

 tions had been the occasion of reciprocal resent 

 ment and hostility on the part of Great Britain 

 and the United States. The southern and 

 westward expansion of the American Republic 

 in the first half of the nineteenth century caused, 

 as we have seen, much uneasiness and dissat 

 isfaction to the British Government; yet the 

 absorption of the Spanish dominions in the 

 West Indies and the Far East at the century s 

 end evoked that government s cordial approval. 

 So on the other side the earlier steps toward 

 the development and utilization of Canadian 

 resources for distinctively imperial purposes 



