S2 QUEE.VS QUARTERLY. 



sible Canadian statesman risk a civil war in Canada b\' taking part 

 in the struggle in the English Channel? 



'■ The enemies of my King must be mine." I begin tci suspect a 

 Jacobite strain in your ancestry, or how else explain this rusty ii!eal 

 of personal loyalty as the arbiter of our policy, befitting a seventeenth 

 century Cavalier, thus reviving in a twentieth centurj- newspaper 

 man ? The King. God bless him, has nothing to do with the case. I 

 do not mean to underrate the importance of the sovereign's function 

 as the chief surviving s\mbol of imperial unitj-, nor the great ser- 

 ^^ces he has performed for Britain by putting his personal pop-:!ari:y 

 and his royal tact at the disposal of Britisli cabinets in their attempt 

 to find friends and allies in Europe. The homel}' virtues of \ ictoria 

 and the tact and sportsmanship of Edward have put off indefinitely 

 that funeral of monarchy which our republican friends used to pro- 

 phesy. But wh}-- use the King as a stalking-horse for the real makers 

 of British policy? WTien j-ou declare that the King's enemies are 

 yours, don't you mean diat the Harmsworth-Pearscm Gramaphone 

 Press' enemies are yours? I for one decline, even though Canadian 

 editors as well as Ross rifles should go off at half-cock, to be stam- 

 peded into meekly accepting whatever policy may seem good to the 

 organs of reaction in Britain to advance, in the attempt to block the 

 progress of social reform. If we are to be governed from London, let 

 us be governed by an Imperial Federation parliament in which at 

 least we will be represented, not by King Xorthcliffe. 



Sincerely yours, 



O. D. Skzltox. 

 A POSTSCRIPT. 



PoixTE Fortune. Que., July 1, 1909. 

 My Dear Skeltox, — 



* * * The discussion is one of far forecasts, very " academic" This 

 may cause some misunderstanding, against which I wish to guard myself. 

 The possibility of misunderstanding is e\-idenced by Mr. Hamilton ■^ declara- 

 tion for "independence within the Empire — and of the United St.^.te;.' In this 

 I am entirely at one with Mr. Hamilton, save that I rather favour the term 

 '' Independence under the Crown. ' for which cause I have been writing for 

 some thirty years, at every fair opportunity. In fact, Mr. John Ewart's plan 

 for Canadian independence i? precisely that which I favour. If any other im- 

 pression were taken from Mr. Hamilton's phrasing — i.e., were any reader to 

 suppose me averse from independence of both British Parliament and U. S. 

 Congress — then I should be, as it were, the kid seethed in its mother's milk. 



Were Canada not liable to be drawn into war without the voted consent 

 of her majority, and her own Parliament, then I should think her independ- 

 ence achieved, her situation politically sound and most desirable, her geogra- 

 phic situation one enabling her to fulfil her blessed destiny — that of most 

 imponantly aiding the fraternal union of the Englishry of the world. 



Really we three agree ver>- closely as to what should be done first, and it 

 has never been the way of our race to quarrel much over visions. What is is, 

 what will be will be. Yours sincerely, E. W". T. 



