It Is To Be Hoped, Now The Matter Has Been So Fully And Ably Brought Before The British Government, That Steps Will Be Immediately Taken To Enter Into Such Negotiations With The United States As Will Secure This Desirable Result.

If this were done, we cannot doubt that the Government of the United States will respond in a friendly

Spirit to the wishes of our own Government, and that not only the best results will follow as regards the treaty in question, but also as regards the general commercial relations between the United States, the British North American Provinces, and this country."

I felt so strongly that great opportunities had been lost owing to the negligence and incapacity of our rulers, that I drew up and widely circulated, various memoranda, intended to inform public opinion in England. I felt convinced that, if once this wise and fraternal treaty were allowed to expire, the future relations of the British Provinces and Canada must gravitate towards antagonism, or towards annexation. My forebodings are, at this moment, justified by the action of the United States Congress in the matter of the fisheries. Because Canada has enforced the provisions of the, still existing, and recognized, Treaty of 1818, the Congress of the United States has, in 1887, by statute, instructed the President to put in operation odious "reprisals" - reprisals which throw the "Milan Decrees" of the first Napoleon into the shade of barbarism. The President, believed to be an enlightened man, threatens to put his powers into strict operation. If he goes to the full length of this unique enactment, he may practically close all industrial, and even social, intercourse between the British territory - a territory larger in area than that over which he rules - and the United States. Such legislation, so eagerly acted on, is simply sickening. Talk of fraternity and liberty for all mankind. Delusion - mockery.

A concise resume of this question, written by me in 1865, here follows: -

"A treaty of amity and commerce between Great Britain and the United States of America, known as the 'Reciprocity Treaty,' [Endnote 1] has been allowed to expire with the expiry of the twelve months' notice, given on the 17th March, 1865, by the Government at Washington, under the authority of the Senate.

"No explanation has been given to Parliament; nor has a single paper of any kind been laid upon the table of the House by Her Majesty's Government. It is, therefore, thought to be time to ask for explanations, and thereby, so far as may now be possible, to prevent that gradual 'drifting' into serious complication which disfigured the transactions of the Whig Government in 1854 (Russian war), in 1861-2 (Poland), and in 1863-4 (Denmark). The Reciprocity Treaty provided not merely for free interchange of commodities between Her Majesty's North American Colonies and the United States, but it settled the fishery complications, on a coast line of 4,000 miles, and provided for the international navigation of the St. Lawrence (1,200 miles), and of the canals and locks of that mighty river, and of Lake Michigan and its tributaries.

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