The Fortnightly Review: No. CCCCLXIII, New Series [‎602r] (94/239)

THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE.
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compliment to their susceptibilities, but as emphasising the
recognition already accorded to them as a distinct political entity.
Thus Lord Lansdowne scored his first diplomatic success.
Very early in his public career Lord Lansdowne had learned
that Imperial unity does not require uniformity of language and
race, 'lo use an expression with which we have recently become
familiar, he had learned to think imperially. His keen political
vision refused to endorse the views expressed by Huskisson when
Colonial Secretary, by Brougham, and by others, that England
must cast Canada adrift. A short experience in the West
convinced him that the superficial and somewhat interested so
phistics of Professor Goldwin Smith grossly misrepresented
Canadian feeling. He even ventured to traverse the dogma of
Printing House Square that Canada was ‘ ‘ a dead weight to
England.” 1
In a speech delivered in Toronto on January 10th, 1884—twenty
years before the renaissance of our colonial policy—he clearly
enunciated the views he advocated. Protesting against the
simile of a celebrated F rench statesman who had compared colon
ies to fruit which fell from the parent tree as soon as it became
ripe, he said in language well worth repeating “ If we are to
make a comparison I think I can suggest a better one. I have
seen in our English forests a stately elm still vigorous and
majestic pushing out towards every point of the compass huge
limbs, some of which promise to vie in strength and size with the
parent stem. Of these some have from their very weight touched
the earth and taken root there, shooting downwards into the soil
and upwards towards the sky, and drawing sap and vigour, partly
from the parent stock, and partly from the earth beneath, until at
last the old tree has become the centre of a sturdy group, of
which each member helps to shelter and support the rest.” 2 Is it
too much to say that in these words Lord Lansdowne adumbrated
the Australian Commonwealth?
When the new Governor-General entered office the political
horizon was clear. True, a Fenian plot or two against his life
were alleged. The Clan-na-Gael, also, uttered threatenings. But
there were no serious difficulties to be faced as, for instance,
awaited Lord Dufferin in the Pacific Scandals, or the case of
Lieutenant-Governor Litellier, which strained the relations be
tween Lord Lome and the Canadian Ministry to well-nigh
breaking point. Trade was flourishing. During the last ad
ministration the revenue had risen from twenty-two to thirty-five
million dollars, and savings-bank deposits from eight to twenty-
(1) “Canada and Empire,” National Review, v. 27, 674.
(2) Vide Times, May 22nd, 1888.