The Nineteenth Century , No 182, Apr 1892 [‎20v] (45/244)

530
THE NINETEENTH
April
to Canada, and between Canada and Australia. She has already
given 15,000^ a year to the steamers between Canada and Japan and
China, making a total annual sum of 180,000^ for the best form of
naval defence. At a time when Canada has accomplished so much for
the security of the Empire in the past, and is now struggling to
secure at great cost such an important enterprise, is she to be held
up to the contempt of the people of this country as not taking her
fair share of the burdens of the Empire? Let me say to Sir John
Colomb, who criticises in his ' Survey of Existing Conditions' the
issues which occupied the people of Canada at the late general
election, that when the Opposition propounded to the country, then
smarting under the McKinley tariff, the policy of consulting their
own interests by supporting free trade with the American Eepublic,
involving the adoption of their prohibitory tariff against England,
the, Government of Canada joined issue with them on that point, and
went in to the battle with 'British institutions, and no discrimination
against the mother country' inscribed on their banners. Their great
leader. Sir John A. Macdonald, who in his seventy-sixth year braved
the inclemency of a Canadian winter, fell a martyr in that struggle,
but not until he had planted that flag securely upon the ramparts of
his country, and had his dying hours cheered, like the immortal
Wolfe, by the consciousness that victory was assured. All that I
have said in regard to Canada on this question may be said in
reference to Australia. If those great colonies are suffering at this
moment from financial embarrassment, it is because their credit has
i )een strained in a loyal endeavour to open up their country for
settlement and to provide the means of defence on land and sea.
I am glad to be able to inform Lord Thring that the law requires
that the officer at the head of the Canadian Militia and Military Force
shall be an officer of the Imperial Army, that he has always been
selected by the Commander-in-Chief here, and that the Canadian Act
provides that ' Whenever the militia or any part thereof is called out
for active service by reason of war, invasion, or insurrection. Her
Majesty may place them under the orders of the commander of her
regular forces in Canada.'
In my former article, after dealing with what I considered a
practicable mode of giving the outlying portions of the Empire the
best means of making their opinions known on questions of foreign
policy affecting them, and of securing cordial co-operation between
them and the Imperial Grovernment, I expressed the opinion that the
Chancellor of the Exchequer would be able to devise with the three
representatives of Canada, Australasia, and South Africa a fiscal policy
that would be mutually advantageous, and at the same time greatly
promote the development of the colonies and expand the trade of
England. I offered at the same time some evidence to show that a
small duty on corn would not necessarily raise the price of bread.