DOMINION OF CANADA. 



317 



Boleyn" (4 vols., 1873-74); "Diana, Lady 

 Lylo " (3 vols., 1877) ; and " Ruby Grey " (3 

 t 1878). 



DOMINION OF CANADA. Tho Conser- 

 vativo party, after a seclusion of five years, 

 returned to office upon gaining the general 

 election of September 17, 1878, upon the tariff 

 issue. Sir John A. Macdonald, assuming the 

 .Ministry of the Interior, formed the present 

 Cabinet, as follows : Sir Leonard Tilley, Min- 

 <f Finance; Sir Charles Tupper, Public 

 Works ; J. II. Pope, Agriculture ; James Mac- 

 donald, Justice ; F. R. Masson, Militia ; Mac- 

 kenzie Rowell, Customs; F. G. Baby, Inland 

 Revenue; J. 0. Pope, Marine and Fisheries; 

 A. Wilmot, without portfolio; John O'Connor, 

 President of the Council ; J. 0. Aikins, Secre- 

 tary of State ; Mr. Langevin, Postmaster-Gen- 

 eral ; Alexander Campbell, Receiver-General. 



The first session of the Fourth Dominion 

 Parliament was opened on the 14th of Febru- 

 ary, 1879. The Marquis of Lome delivered the 

 speech from the throne, amid unusual cere- 

 monial. It pledged the Ministry to the prom- 

 ised alterations in the tariff, and proposed the 

 assumption of the business of insurance by the 

 Government, in view of the success of Gov- 

 ernment savings banks. J. G. Blanchet was 

 elected Speaker of the new House of Commons. 

 This sitting of Parliament was perhaps the 

 most momentous one since the confederation 

 of the provinces, made so by the adoption of 

 the national policy, which can not but have a 

 serious influence upon the prosperity of the 

 Dominion for many years to come. Whether 

 the policy of protection, to which the Canadian 

 people have committed themselves almost ir- 

 revocably, will not prove too burdensome for a 

 people who are engaged to far the greatest ex- 

 tent in agricultural and similar purusuits, will 

 depend in the first place upon the facility with 

 which the industries which are propagated by 

 the new fiscal measures can supply the nation 

 with suitable manufactures, and next upon the 

 willingness of the protected capitalists to fore- 

 go a portion of the profits which, in a country 

 where competition can not be strong in capi- 

 talistic industry, the protective measures will 

 enable them to extort. There will remain, 

 however, a way by which the Canadians can 

 return to their old system without openly re- 

 canting their newly avowed principles that is, 

 by making a new reciprocity treaty with the 

 United States, whose provisions, according to 

 the rules insisted upon by the Imperial Gov- 

 ernment, would apply to Great Britain as well. 

 In such a treaty any desired compromise 

 between free trade and protection could be 

 effected. One cause of the popularity of the 

 national policy has been the belief that by such 

 a strong course of action Canada would be 

 enabled to exact more favorable terms in her 

 future commercial negotiations with the Unit- 

 ed States. 



Tho programme of protection which brought 

 the Conservatives into power was heralded as 



a new departure, which wonld produce great 

 and striking improvements in the material con- 

 dition of Canaaa. The new tariff was elabo- 

 rated by Mr. Tilley and laid before Parliament 

 on the 14th of March. As was expected by the 

 country, it embodied protective principles of 

 the strongest character. Tho protective mea- 

 sures were directed chiefly against the import 

 trade from the United States. The general 

 depression of trade had disposed the people to 

 welcome any innovation in the commercial 

 policy of the Dominion, and the large increase 

 in imports from the United States which had 

 taken place during several years, accompanying 

 a diminishing importation from Great Britain, 

 had aroused a feeling of discontent among all 

 classes, and had grated against both the senti- 

 ment of Canadian patriotism and of British 

 loyalty. The free-trade Liberal party, which 

 had possessed the popular favor a few years 

 back, had rejoiced in the largo imports as a 

 sign of prosperity, and welcomed the commer- 

 cial bonds which were forming between Can- 

 ada and the American Republic. The new 

 commercial system, which was proclaimed as 

 the National Policy, was designed in a sense and 

 spirit directly opposed to the objects which had 

 prompted the treaty of reciprocity. The Cana- 

 dians of the older provinces, whose lands, like 

 those of the Atlantic States of the Union, had 

 become less valuable for agricultural purposes 

 since the development of the resources of the 

 interior, hoped by emulating the protective 

 policy of the Americans to build up flourish- 

 ing manufacturing industries likewise. The 

 tariff framed with this purpose could not fail 

 to prove exceedingly hostile to the interests 

 of British as well as American manufactures. 

 Besides the general depression which had pro- 

 duced a disposition among the people favorable 

 to an alteration of the fiscal policy, the deficit 

 in the Treasury would in a measure justify the 

 Government in establishing the new tariff even 

 if it failed of attaining the expected objects, if 

 it only produced a larger revenue furnishing 

 the excuse, in the event of its not affording the 

 promised commercial relief, that at least it pro- 

 duced a revenue. Although protective mea- 

 sures, however beneficial they may prove in 

 the end, can not produce immediate relief in a 

 depressed state of trade, but rather tend on the 

 whole to augment the financial distress, yet if 

 the introduction of the new policy is concur- 

 rent in time with a renewed activity in busi- 

 ness, even though the improvement is directly 

 due to a commercial revival in the United States, 

 whose intimate commercial relations with the 

 Dominion it would take much more decisive 

 measures of exclusion to break off, it will ap- 

 pear justified, in spite of the continued and 

 able remonstrances of an active free-trade op- 

 position. The inauguration of this bold and 

 experimental course involves also active efforts 

 on the part of the Government to provide an 

 outlet for the fostered manufactures, the en- 

 couragement and, if necessary, subvention of 



