THE FRENCH ARISTOCRACY. By the Count de Calonne (1) A REMEDIABLE GRIEVANCE. By George Adams. (2) IS THE BRITISH RAJ' IN DANGER? By Rafiuddin Ahmad A MOSLEM'S VIEW OF THE PAN-ISLAMIC REVIVAL. By Rafiuddin Ahmad FIFTY YEARS OF THE ENGLISH COUNTY COURTS. By Judge Snagge. THE PROMISED IRISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL. By John E. Redmond BRITISH SUZERAINTY IN THE TRANSVAAL. By Edward Dicey THE MONETARY CHAOS. By Sir Robert Giffen CREEDS IN THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS. By Sir Joshua Fitch THE ITALIAN NOVELS OF MARION CRAWFORD. By Ouida THE PROBLEM BEYOND THE INDIAN FRONTIER. By Sir Auckland Colvin THE DUAL AND THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE AND GREAT BRITAIN. By Francis (2) By Lord Charles Beresford THE WAYS OF 'SETTLEMENTS AND OF MISSIONS. By Canon Barnett 975 SOME REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY. By Professor St. George THE PRESENT SITUATION OF ENGLAND: A CANADIAN IMPRESSION. By 1009 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY No. CCXLV-JULY 1897 ENGLAND'S OPPORTUNITY GERMANY OR CANADA? I claim for the present Government of Canada that they have passed a resolution by which the products of Great Britain are admitted on the rate of their tariff at 12 per cent. and next year at 25 per cent. reduction. This we have done not asking any compensation. There is a class of our fellow-citizens who ask that all such concessions should be made for a quid pro quo. The Canadian Government has ignored all such sentiments. We have done it because we owe a debt of gratitude to Great Britain. We have done it because it is no intention of ours to disturb in any way the system of free trade which has done so much for England. But we are told that this policy which has been adopted by the Canadian Government cannot last, because it is coming into conflict with existing treaties. Let me tell you this-the Canadian people are willing to give this preference to Great Britain; they are not willing to extend it to other countries at the present time. We claim that treaties which are opposed to us cannot stand in the way of our policy; we claim that they do not apply, and that position we intend to discuss with the Imperial authorities. But it may be that, after all, we may fail in our contention; it may be that, after all, it may be held against us, as it has been in the past. If the treaties apply, I have only this to say-that the position will have to be reconsidered in toto. If the treaties apply, a new problem will have to be solved, and this problem, what will it be? The problem will be that either Canada will have to retreat or England will have to advance.1 THIS is perhaps the most remarkable passage in the very remarkable speech delivered by the distinguished Prime Minister of Canada immediately after he landed upon the shores of the mother country. It raises questions of intense interest and possibly of absolutely vital 'Speech of the Right Hon. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Prime Minister of the Dominion of Canada, delivered at Liverpool, June 12, 1897. VOL. XLII-No. 245 B importance to the future of the British Empire. The facts referred to by Sir Wilfrid Laurier have excited much public attention and are widely known. It may be worth while, however, briefly to restate them. At the instance of Sir Wilfrid Laurier's Government the Canadian Parliament has passed a resolution whereby the products of countries which admit Canadian produce free of duty will be admitted into Canada with a reduction upon the existing Canadian tariff of 12 per cent. during the next twelve months, and subsequently of 25 per cent. The reduction is offered to all countries which admit Canadian products free of duty. The only countries which actually do so admit them are Great Britain and her colony of New South Wales. And, as a matter of fact, the intention and desire of the Canadian Government is to confer an advantage upon Great Britain. At the same time, it is in the power of any and every country to share in this advantage by complying with Canada's conditions. So far as Great Britain is concerned, Canada asks for no quid pro quo. She makes no stipulation whatever for preferential treatment. There is no question of any infringement of the traditional free-trade policy of Great Britain. We have apparently nothing to do but to accept the boon the Canadian resolution confers upon us. For once, in fact, our free-trade policy appears to bring us a striking reward in a domain where its successes have not hitherto been conspicuous. I said we have apparently nothing to do but to accept the boon, yet all the world now knows the matter is not quite so simple as it at first sight appears. Throughout the various discussions which have taken place during the last seven or eight years upon questions connected with Imperial Federation, an Imperial Zollverein, and even the more limited, though not less interesting, subject of an Imperial Defence Customs duty, every one concerned with such matters has known that there were treaties in existence with certain foreign Powers which might, at least for a time, present great difficulties to those who were seeking for closer commercial and fiscal relations between the colonies and the mother country. The treaties in question are, a treaty of commerce and navigation concluded with Belgium in 1862, and a treaty of commerce and navigation concluded with Prussia and the German Zollverein in 1865. ? The Belgian treaty, which is the earlier of the two, is an ordinary treaty of commerce, containing the usual reciprocal covenants for 'most-favoured-nation treatment by both the high contracting parties. It presents no unusual features until we come to Clause XV., which runs as follows: Articles the produce or manufacture of Belgium shall not be subject in the British colonies to other or higher duties than those which are or may be imposed upon similar articles of British origin. The German treaty is similar in character to the Belgian treaty. There are the usual clauses conceding mutual privileges and 'mostfavoured-nation' treatment in all tariff matters. For our present purpose the interesting clause is No. VII., which reads thus: The stipulations of the preceding Articles shall also be applied to the colonies and foreign possessions of her Britannic Majesty. In those colonies and possessions the produce of the States of the Zollverein shall not be subject to any higher or other import duties than the produce of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or of any other country of the like kind; nor shall the exportation from those colonies or possessions to the Zollverein be subject to any higher or other duties than the exportation to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Let us take the clause in the Belgian treaty, from which the clause in the German treaty was probably copied, or at all events by which it was suggested. Its plain meaning is, that so long as the treaty is in force Belgian goods shall not be subject in British colonies to higher duties than British goods. This is not an ordinary 'most-favoured-nation' clause, or it would have run as follows: Articles the produce or manufacture of Belgium shall not be subject in the British colonies to other or higher duties than those which are or may be imposed upon the same goods, the produce of any other foreign country. Some such clause as this we might possibly have expected to find. A country may fairly ask that it shall not be treated less favourably than any third country. Such a claim constitutes, in fact, the essence of the modern commercial treaty system. But by the clauses as they stand in both treaties Great Britain has granted to Belgium and to Germany, and through them (by means of the most-favoured-nation' clause inserted in other treaties) to other civilised nations of the world, absolute identity of treatment not with each other only, but with ourselves, in every British colony and possession. There is no reservation of rights in case of eventualities, nor is there any reciprocal arrangement conferring corresponding privileges upon Great Britain in Belgian or German colonies, if any such should be established. One can only stand aghast at the amazing nature of this agreement! It is easy to be wise after the event, but if the statesmen who negotiated these treaties could have foreseen the time when Germany would be our most dangerous commercial rival, imitating all our manufactures, counterfeiting our commercial marks, competing with us, not always by fair means, in every market of the world, they would certainly have hesitated before putting their names to a treaty which sacrifices in Germany's favour our freedom of action in a vital matter of imperial importance. But they no more foresaw our industrial struggle with Germany than they foresaw the Imperial movement of to-day. They apparently signed these treaties with a light heart, unhampered by any misgiving, or indeed consciousness, that the engagements they were entering upon might be fraught with the gravest consequences. Speaking on this very subject to a deputation which waited upon him at the Foreign Office in June 1891, Lord Salisbury said: We have tried to find out from official records what the species of reasoning was which induced the statesmen of that day to sign such very unfortunate pledges. But I do not think they had any notion they were signing any pledges at all. I have not been able to discover that they at all realised the importance of the engagements into which they were entering. The fact is, the 'Manchester delusions' were at that time just at their height. The colonies were looked upon as dependencies which must drop off one by one as they reached even the most immature maturity. The idea of a United Empire, which to us seems so natural and unquestionable, had not dawned upon the imagination of any practical politician. After a lapse of even so short a period as five-and-thirty years it is difficult to carry ourselves back into the political atmosphere of the early sixties upon ali colonial questions. Politically we live in a changed world. Probably no idea in our time has ever spread more rapidly than the idea of imperial unity. Twenty years ago it was a dream in the minds of a few thinkers. To-day it is an eager desire in the hearts of millions of the Queen's subjects. One had only to observe the demeanour of the London crowds on Jubilee day, when the colonial procession marched through the streets, one had only to listen to the cheers which greeted it, to realise that even the 'man in the street' had caught the significance of that unique spectacle, and had understood it with a clearness beyond one's most sanguine hopes. The question which presents itself to the minds of our statesmen undoubtedly is, whither is this idea going to lead us, what will be its practical outcome? No one knows. No one can foretell. For the moment the aspiration is for closer commercial relationship. So much at all events is clear, for suddenly Canada has taken the first step-has, so to speak, made the plunge. Sir Wilfrid Laurier tells us in the passage quoted at the beginning of this article that Canada is moved by a feeling of gratitude to Great Britain. She may have other motives also, but with them we are not concerned. She has adopted a plan which does not in any way interfere with our existing system of free trade. She approaches us with a gift, and asks nothing în return but our acceptance of it. And here are we uncertain how to receive the advances of our own colony, hampered as we are by engagements entered into by another political generation, at a time when entirely different ideas of our relationship with our colonies prevailed. It is not my intention to discuss here whether this new Canadian policy does or does not come into conflict with the treaties of 1862 and 1865. Even if Canada succeeds in her contention that they do not |