A Committee of the United States Senate has been taking
evidence as to the competition of Canadian railroads with railroads within the Union. That competition must, as regards interocea,nic traffic, gradually become sharp, and many witnesses intimate their opinion that the time has arrived for commercial fusion, which means annexation. Mr. Chauncey Depew, in particular, testified his belief that, in American opinion, "Canada was a ripening plum" which would soon drop into the hat of the United States, and also that, in the opinion of the people, if there were a way, it would be settled in a couple of days' campaigning. if 'that is an accurate reflection of popular notions, it is a curious evidence of the remark emphasised by a recent traveller, that the population of the United States, having
wandered West, have ceased to entertain the feelings of a maritime people. The power of a fleet is left out in that calculation as completely as the effect upon future politics of the vote of a section of the country needlessly humiliated by a. war of conquest. American statesmen, we fancy, differ a good deal from Mr. Chauncey Depew.
Previous page
