246 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 
provision made for alleged claims on account of the 
acts of the Fenians. But the United States would 
not listen to either of these propositions: so that the 
Dominion had opportunity to allege that she was 
sacrificed to the Metropolis, and thus’to obtain, by 
way of compensation, the guaranty on the part of the 
Imperial Government of a large loan for the construc. 
tion of the proposed trans-continental railway from 
the Great Lakes to the Pacific Ocean. 
In some respects, the arrangements we have been 
considering resemble those of the Reciprocity Treaty ; 
but they are much more comprehensive, and they are 
better in other respects. 
We have placed the question of the fisheries on an 
independent footing. If the American fisheries are of 
inferior value to the British,—which we do not con- 
cede,—then we are to pay the difference. But the 
fishery question is no more to be employed by the 
Dominion of Canada, as it has been heretofore, either 
as a menace or as a lure, in the hope of thus inducing 
the United States to revive the Reciprocity Treaty. 
Apart from other new provisions in the Treaty of 
Washington of less moment, there is the all-important 
‘ one, stipulating for reciprocal right of commercial 
transit for subjects of Great Britain through the 
United States, and for citizens of the United States 
through the Dominion: in view of which Sir John 
Macdonald has no cause to regret his participation 
in the negotiation of the Treaty. 
Sir Stafford Northcote, in the late debate on the 
Queen’s speech, repels with force and truth the sug- 
