11 MARCH 1911, Page 3

Sir Wilfrid Laurier went on to declare that if his

voice could reach the Americans, he would say (we quote from the Times) :— "Remember that if you have founded a nation upon separation from the Mother Land, we Canadians have set our hearts upon building up a nation without separation, and in this task we are already far advanced with our institutions, with our national entity as a people, and with everything that constitutes a nation to whom we are just as devoted as you are to yours. Remember that the bloed which flows in our veins is just as good as your own, aOsd that if you are a proud people, though we are not of your liattubers we are just as proud as you are, and that rather than tart with our national existence we would part with our lives."

We believe that Sir Wilfrid Laurier expresses in these noble And sincere words the characteristic feeling of Canada. To build an Empire on such sentiments is an infinitely surer way than that " tied-house Imperialism " preached by our Tariff Reformers. We must not forget to add, however, that Sir Wilfrid Laurier assumed that the throwing into one of the American and Canadian markets for natural products would

not exclude the possibility of Imperial Preference. The old proposal that Canada should give a preference to British

manufactured articles in return for a preference to Canadian natural products would be repeated, he said, at the approach.

Ing imperial Conference. On Thursday the amendment to refer the Reciprocity Agreement to the electorate was defeated by 111 votes to 70.