Toronto Is At Present The Seat Of
Government, And The Governor-General Resides Here.
"This city, and its people, present many points of favourable contrast
with the older cities and population of Lower Canada.
The soil and
climate may perhaps be more favourable, and the vicinity of American
energy may have some effect; but the secret of the greater growth of
this province may be traced to its settlement by American Loyalists in
1783. These men, driven away from their country by their adherence to
the British Crown, here found a refuge and new home. The whole land
along the St. Lawrence, above the French settlements, was formed into
townships, and farms were allotted to these, the 'United Empire
Loyalists,' who thus became the fathers of Upper Canada. The population
of Upper Canada was not more than 210,000 in 1830, now it is nearly
1,000,000. Much of the land in the Province is equal to any in the
world; and nature seems to have given every aid to the formation of a
great country. All that is wanting would seem to be that independence,
which, with all its reputed vices, would appear to be the condition of
Anglo-Saxon progress. Canada has been hitherto the resort of British
settlers only, while the United States have become a home for all the
world."
What precedes was written nearly thirty-six years ago. I need not
apologise for its crudeness, for I only represent, in plain words, the
impressions of the time. And I think I have troubled the reader quite
enough about my "first visit to America, and the reason for it." I may
say, however, that my trip induced many other visits to the growing
countries of North America. I was, to some extent, a pioneer traveller
to the other side of the Atlantic.
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Reciprocity Treaty with the United States.
After asking various questions in the House of Commons, to which I
received unsatisfactory replies, I brought the subject of the
Reciprocity Treaty with the United States before the House of Commons
late one night in February, 1865. My observations, as reported in
"Hansard," were: -
"That the hour was too late to permit more than a speech in outline as
to the Reciprocity Treaty and the Bonding Acts. Under the latter,
articles chargeable with duty could be sent through United States
territory and Canada in bond, and as Canada was for the present, and
would be until the completion of railway communication to Halifax on
the Atlantic, cut off from access to the ocean for five winter months
of the year, the Bonding Acts enabled her commerce with the outside
world to pass unimpeded. The Northwestern States received in return
corresponding facilities of access through Canada. The Reciprocity
Treaty included three essential provisions - the rights of fishery on a
shore line of 1,500 miles, the free navigation of the St. Lawrence, and
the free interchange of productions between the British Provinces and
the United States. (The beneficent theory of the treaty was to make two
countries, politically distinct, commercially one, and to induce the
two peoples, otherwise opposed, to live in co-operation and in peace.)
The provision as to the fisheries had settled for the time difficult
questions leading, in past days, and over and over again, to dispute,
collision, and sometimes the imminence of war. The free navigation of
the St. Lawrence and of Lake Michigan had removed jealousies and
fostered the idea of common interests in the great waterways to the
ocean, while the results of trade had been so happy that a total annual
interchange of commodities of a value of nearly 10,000,000l. a year
in amount between the British Provinces and the United States now
existed. They were now threatened with the termination of this treaty
at the end of twelve months, and no hope appeared to be held out, so
far, of an amicable revision and extension of its benefits. The
consequences to commerce were evident, and at first would be most
serious. Trade at last, no doubt, would take other channels, and the
British Provinces, trading between each other and with the Mother
Country, and reducing their duties to a low rate, might at the end be
largely benefited at the price of a present loss; but that was merely
the money view, and such a gain would be dearly purchased at the cost
of humanity and civilization if it broke up the commercial and social
union heretofore existing. He held that peace and progress and the
future good relations between Great Britain and the United States, on
which peace and progress were largely based, would suffer by such an
isolation, and he would look with distrust upon a prosperity which was
not still shared between the people on each side of the border. He had
travelled much on both sides of the British lines, and it was cheering
to see there how thoroughly one the two peoples had become, socially
and commercially. They traded together, went into partnership together,
visited together. A Canadian or New Brunswicker would often have a farm
on each side of the, practically imaginary, boundary line; and a
citizen of the United States often lived on his own and traded or
manufactured on the other side of the border. In fact, the border
jealousies which had caused such bitterness and danger even in our own
country had in this generation all but disappeared in this case, under
the operation of high-minded and far-sighted legislation. Considering,
therefore, the magnitude of the commercial interests, the grave
questions of navigation, ocean rights, and free communication, he must
express the most anxious, surprise to learn that Her Majesty's
Government had allowed the matter to drift into its present position.
He was told that no effort whatever had been made to preserve the
treaty as it was, or as it might be amended, by negociations at
Washington. His honorable friend, the Under-Secretary for Foreign
Affairs, had said, in answer to a question he had put in that House
last May, that no negociations were pending as to the Reciprocity
Treaty, and that Government had no official information upon the
subject of the Bonding Acts.
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