MR: GOLDWIN SMITH ON CANADA.* THERE is so much in
Mr. Goldwin Smith's book both of what we heartily approve and of what we consider wrong. headed, injudicious, unsatisfactory, and out of political per- spective, that we hardly know how to speak of it. The mother-thought ' of the book is excellent, and shows the writer's strong and penetrating political instinct in the abstract. Unfortunately, however, his thought suffers greatly in its translation into the concrete and practical, and the definite conclusions ultimately arrived at are in no sense worthy of the ideas that inspired them. The mother-thought of which we speak in regard to Mr. Goldwin Smith's treat- ment of the Canadian Question, is the same as that which directed the old Liberal policy towards the Colonies,—the policy which declared that the Colonies and the parent State would be both benefited by allowing to English- men beyond the sea complete freedom of self-govern- ment,—an independence which ought to be bestowed gradually, but which must have as its ultimate goal, entire autonomy. To this Mr. Goldwin Smith has added that wider sympathy of view which, in considering the welfare of the English kin, rightly refuses to leave out of sight our countrymen of the United States, He realises fully that no scheme for the future development of our race can be worth having which does not take the Americans into account. Un- fortunately, however, he does not seem able to go the one step further, which would allow him to find complete salva- tion on the question of the English-speaking kin. He seems to imagine, for example, that Canada can only obtain her full development by becoming independent of England in the sense that foreign nations are independent. He apparently closes his eyes to the idea of a relationship between the Mother-country and the Daughter-States which shall neither be that'of foreign Power to foreign Power, nor of suzerain to dependency, but of self-governing co-equals possessing a community of citizenship as of letters and language, and bound together by a perpetual tie which must not be called alliance, since alliance seems to infer the possi- bility of hostility, but which shall substantially be of that nature. This is the relationship in which the United States would now stand to England had not the old bond been cut with the sabre, and the daughter-State been forced into the position of a foreign country. Generations, perhaps centuries, will have to elapse before the torn ligament reunites, though a blind and unexpressed desire for reunion is somewhere in the heart of every English-speaking man and woman. Surely it is not wise to do anything which will induce the Colonies to assume the foreign-nation relation instead of that of an integral part of a community of States where citizenship in one will bring with it citizenship in all the others.
As we have said above, the main idea in Mr. Goldwin Smith's mind—the unity of the race—is above praise, though its application is so unfortunate. His power of saying the wrong thing is, indeed, sometimes extraordinary. His aim is to induce Canada to enter the United States, and therefore one of his objects is to write sympathetically of the Americans. Will it be believed, then, that every now and again throughout his book, he contrives to say the most offensive things about the Americans P We all know how sensitive Americans are, and rightly are, as regards English opinion ; yet Mr. Goldwin Smith, when the mood is on him, does not hesitate to say things of the kind which Mr. Stevenson, alluding to English abuse of Americans, says make him "grill in his blood" to read. -But though we have so much of complaint to make '0 Canada nl th (3 CILIUM ta )1 qvastion. By Coldwin Smith, D.C.L. With map. London and Now York; Macmillan ath Co. Toronto: ELtiltol, Rose, nth Co, about a certain portion of Mr. Goldwin Smith's book, both as regards matter and manner, we are in no sense blind to its great merits. The book, from the first page to the last, has not a dull page in it. Every word is alive with interest, and the writer's inimitable power of style and phrase is everywhere felt in picturesque and yet dignified rhetoric and biting epigram. The style is classic in the best sense. It fits the thought like a glove, and gives it its full and most striking expression. To read Canada and the Canadian Question is, indeed, to be reminded that serious literature of the old and stately school is not dead. It is in the following passage, admirable for its shortness and perspicuity, that Mr. Goldwin Smith states the question with which he deals :— " Whoever wishes to know what Canada is, and to understand the Canadian question, should begin by turning from the political to the natural map. The political map displays a vast and un- broken area of territory, extending from the boundary of the United States up to the North Pole, and equalling or surpassing the United States in magnitude. The physical map displays four separate projections of the cultivable and habitable part of the Continent into arctic waste. The four vary greatly in size, and one of them is very large. They are, beginning from the east, the Maritime Provinces—Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island ; Old Canada, comprising the present Provinces of Quebec and Ontario ; the newly-opened region of the North-West, comprising the Province of Manitoba and the districts of Alberta, Athabasca, Assiniboia, and Saskatchewan ; and British Columbia. The habitable and cultivable parts of these blocks of territory are not contiguous, but are divided from each other by great barriers of nature, wide and irreclaimable wildernesses or manifold chains of mountains. The Maritime Provinces are divided from Old Canada by the wilderness of many hundred miles through which the Inter-colonial Railway runs, hardly taking up a passenger or a bale of freight by the way. Old Canada is divided from Manitoba and the North-West by the great freshwater sea of Lake Superior, and a wide wilderness on either side of it. Manitoba and the North-West again are divided from British Columbia by a triple range of mountains, the Rockies, the Selkirks, and the Golden or Coast range. Each of the blocks, on the other hand, is closely connected by nature, physically and economically, with that portion of the habitable and cultivable continent to the south of it which it immediately adjoins, and in which are its natural markets—the Maritime Provinces with Maine and the New England States ; Old Canada, with New York and with Pennsylvania, from which she draws her coal ; Manitoba and the North-West, with Minnesota and Dakota, which share with her the Great Prairie; British Columbia, with the States of the Union on the Pacific. Between the divisions of the Dominion there is hardly any natural trade, and but little even of forced trade has been called into existence under a stringent system of protection. The Canadian cities are all on or near the southern edge of the Dominion ; the natural cities at least, for Ottawa, the political capital, is artificial. The principal ports of the Dominion in winter, and its ports largely throughout the year, are in the United States, trade coming through in bond. Between the two provinces of Old Canada, though there is no physical barrier, there is an ethnological barrier of the strongest kind, one being British, the other thoroughly French, while the antagonism of race is intensified by that of religion. Such is the real Canada. Whether the four blocks of territory constituting tho Dominion can for ever be kept by political agencies united among themselves and separate from their Con- tinent, of which geographically, economically, and with the ex- ception Quebec ethnologically, they are parts, is the Canadian ci Mr. Goldwin. Smith, as is well known, favours the inclusion of Canada in the American Union as the only solution of this problem, and his whole work is indirectly, though we readily acknowledge, in no sense unfairly, permeated with the idea. He regards the Dominion as a failure, and considers absorption as the manifest destiny of the Colonies. His ground for looking forward to this result is threefold. Economic considerations necessitate the union of British North America with the States. Secondly, he considers that only through union will the Colonies obtain the highest political development. Thirdly, he believes that union is necessary to secure the whole of the North American Continent to the English kin.
Without such union, he fears that the French element in the Dominion may end by dominating its counsels. Before we attempt to meet Mr. Goldwin Smith's arguments in favour of Canada entering the Union, let us first admit that we are not to be counted amongst those who look upon the notion with fear or horror. In many ways the arrangement would be a good one, though, on the whole, we think that the balance of advantage inclines the other way. Canada would gain greatly by Free-trade and unrestricted intercourse of all kinds with America, and the wealth of the States would doubtless be freely used to develop her territory. Again, the English race would gain as a whole. If ten Canadian Pro- vinces entered the Union, we should have always twenty Senators friendly to England ; while the Canadian vote at
Presidential elections would prevent the game of "twisting of the Lion's tail," which has so regrettable an attraction for certain American politicians. Against these advantages we must, however, place the following disadvantages. Canada would lose the chance of developing a nationality of her own, under a system of government which, in our opinion, is a very much better one than that prevailing across the border. It is no small matter that in Canada the marriage law, criminal law, and the appointment of the Judges, are in the hands of the central Government. Canada would soon be lost in the States; but by herself she may be able to develop a type of Englishman dis- tinct, and in certain respects worthier, than any other in existence. The English-speaking race would be none the poorer for a race of American Scotsmen, rendered hardy and self-c,onfident by their climate, and forced to become educated by the five months' leisure of their winter. Again, we do not feel confident that the Canadians, at present unen- cumbered with problems, except that of the French and Catholic population, ought to join their fate with that of a nation which is beset with many difficult questions. That in the end the United States will overcome its diffi- culties, we do not doubt ; but before victory is obtained, there may be a time of trouble and perplexity. Would the Canadians be wise voluntarily to take upon their backs the black nightmare of the States P If they enter the Union, they join hands with some ten million Negroes, many of them in a condition little above that of Guinea savages. Nor is this all; there are also in the States some three or four million non-Teutonic foreigners—Italians, Czechs, Hun- garians—whose absorption is a matter that will not be found too easy. Again, institutions such as the Pension List, the Spoils system, and the Boss, though they will doubtless be ultimately got rid of, are not attractive. Canada may well consider long and earnestly before she throws in her lot with her kinsmen across the border.
But though we can see no ground for wishing the Canadians to seek political admission into the Union, we entirely agree with Mr. Goldwin Smith that complete commercial union, as opposed to mere reciprocity in natural products, is to be desired. Commercial union would have all the advantages of absorption in the States, and none of its disadvantages. It would give free play to Canada com- mercially, and it would foster a good feeling with America. Free-trade with the whole world would no doubt be better ; but that is apparently impossible, and therefore Free-trade with the nearest great community, the next- best thing, is to be desired by all who wish Canada well. It will be said, perhaps, that by advocating commercial union we are contradicting ourselves, for commercial union, it is asserted, must mean in the end political absorption. We are aware that this is the common argument ; but what ground is there for saying so P In the past., free commercial intercourse has not meant the obliteration of nationalities, and we do not for a moment believe that it need mean it in the future. The war, amt the Zollverein, made Germany an Empire. We cannot wish Canada a better fate than first to obtain Free-trade with the United States, and then to join with them in throwing off the shackles of Protection, and in allowing the whole world to exchange with her the thousand products and manufactures that are used by mankind.
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