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862 



The Progress of the New Dominion. 



March 



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future career of Canada, to prevent tions of provincial interest wliich 

 the progress of an annexation sen- can be eahily arranged. It is the 

 tiinent in tlic country. Indeed hope of ilie Canadian [)eoplo, who 

 Canadians liave .so nmcii practical arc making all possible sacrifices, 

 work on hand for years to come, and exert-ng their best energies 

 especially in the North-west Ter- to develop the resources of their 

 ritory, that they have literally no country, that they will meet with 

 time to devote to theoretical specu- that cordial sympathy from the 

 lations about their future destiny, parent Slate vvliich will be at once 

 When tlic Dominion has a popula- a guarantee of success and a reward 

 tlon above 10,000,000 — probably for their fidelity to the empire, 

 by the end of a decade — Canadians And when the time comes for solv- 

 may aspire to a higher position ing the <picstion of the destiny of 

 among communities. Whether this Canada, it will be well both for her 

 great dependency will become a and the eini)ire if it be left to tho 

 more active partner in the empire decision of statesmen possessing the 

 — in tliat imperial federation which foresight and the breadth of view 

 was foreshadowed by James Olis,^ of the late Lord r)eaconslicld. Inl- 

 and is the aspiration nowadays perialism is a word which certain 

 of not a few far-seeing states- political critics have been wont to 

 nien,^ — is a question which must construe only in a derogatory sense ; 

 be left to the solution of time, but a Canadian writer may be al- 

 Canada is pursuing her work of lowed to say, that a policy which 

 development under the most fa- makes England a real inlluence and 

 vourable circumstances. She en- power in the councils of Europe, 

 joys all the security and prestige and at the same time promotes the 

 which connection with the empire unity of the empire by attaching 

 can give licr. She is bound by the due importance to the possession 

 closest ties of commercial interest of colonies, is, after all, that policy 

 and family affection to the powerful whicli is deserving of the approval 

 nation on her borders. European and sup[)ort of true Englishmen 

 complications are not likely to en- pall the world over, 

 danger her peace whilst England \ Only a few words in concluding 

 can perform police duties on the | a '^kfxcr \yhioh i^ necessarily but a 

 seas. The questions which agitate i brief review or some leading fea- 

 the public mind are simply ques-j tures of the material and political 



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1 Bancroft's Constittition of tlie United States, vol. i. p. G. 



2 ISiuce tins article was ])ut in type, tlie principle of colonial fcderntiou has re- 

 ceived powerful support from .ispoechdeliverecl at Edinburgli l)y adislinp;uishcd 

 (■auadlan, Sir Alexander Gait, G.C.^I.G., in the course of whicli he said: "He 

 was quite prepi'ved to say that, as rei^ards everything, there could be no doubt 

 federation would be an unmixed good. It would certainly lend to consolidate the 

 empire, to bring the inherent elements of strenglh more directly under the con- 

 trol of the principal GovcM'umcnt, and increase its inthicuce and strength. The 

 general principle would be simply the consolidation of the general interests which 

 concern us all, whether east or west, north or south — the consolidation of those 

 under one general Legislature, and the localising of the sectional questions which 

 were not imperial. . . . There were certain local questions which they could 

 deal 'vith better than anybody' else could; and he believed that, as regards the 

 general question, it would be very much better if they were dealt with by all 

 whose interests were really embarked in it. . . . The truth was the empire was 

 growing beyond the present system ; and he hoped that as the necessity for further 

 changes caiiie, those changes might seek a direction which would give vitality 

 and permanence to the British empire." 



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