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and serious preparations, would be able to overcome all difficulties, and that victory would shine upon French arms. Even our Parliamentarians, formerly so pacific and indifferent to the high interests of the country, have been affected by the national indignation and aspirations. This was conspicuous during the recent debates on the Franco-German Agreement, when M Jaurès' diatribes provoked general exasperation among the deputies, while protests made at the tribune by the representatives of the department of Lorraine caused so much emotion that the Minister of the Colonies, himself a member of one of these constituencies, was so overcome as to be compelled to leave the assembly.

Undoubtedly we have reached a psychological moment. In the life of nations, as in the life of individuals, there are times when circumstances are stronger than men. If the German Government does not change its methods, if its clumsiness and arrogance arouses fresh incidents, France will rise as one man, and the French Government, whatever it may think or whatever it may do, will be incapable of retarding for a single hour the accomplishment of her destiny.

ANDRÉ MÉVIL.

GREATER BRITAIN

CANADIAN AFFAIRS

1

THE Borden Administration is likely to have a busy time during the present session. Some of the difficulties it has to face are, needless to say, inherited from that which preceded it. There is, for example, the important question of the future of the State-owned portion of the National Transcontinental Line. Mr. Cochrane, the new Minister of Railways, states that the total cost of construction will exceed $258,000,000 (£51,600,000), which is about twice the estimate given out at the time when Sir Wilfrid Laurier succeeded in persuading the country to accept the proposed plan of a new ocean-to-ocean route. Despite the fact that the building of a line of low gradients through long stretches of difficult and unsettled territory was bound to exceed the preliminary estimate, it is obvious that the total expenditure, which works out at $143,000 a mile, can only be explained on the assumption that corruption and culpable negligence have been universal, and that there has been no attempt to secure economy in construction. In point of fact, it is abundantly clear that during the last year or two of the uneasy life of the Libera Government the whole undertaking was nothing more nor less than a gigantic means for bribing a portion of the electorate Compared with the National Transcontinental the Langevin Block, the stock example of the corrupt misuse of public fund under the old Conservative régime, was a small and futile essay in the arts of boodling and grafting. Construction costs work ou at $143,000 per mile, so that the rental, calculated at 3 per cent. to be paid by the operating company would reach the pre posterous figure of $4300 per mile. It is highly improbable

that the Grand Trunk would, for a moment, consent to pay any such rental, and under the agreement they cannot be compelled to do so, the expenditure having been obviously inflated by unjustifiable extravagance. It follows that the less profitable sections of the line will have to be taken over by the nation, which will thus be saddled with the business of operating a more costly and troublesome affair than the Intercolonial, which has not, and perhaps never will, pay interest on the money it has swallowed up. A democratic Government cannot operate a railway profitably, much less build it economically-an undeniable fact which should be seriously considered by OldCountry Socialists, Labour members and the like, who talk glibly of the nationalisation of the British railway system, not by purchase, but-a suggestion worthy of Colney Hatch, surely-by building new lines. In the circumstances the other great problems of improving Canada's inland transportation, eg. the cutting of the Georgian Canal, must be postponed for a time, though not sine die, since the national revenue still continues to increase rapidly. However, the construction of the Hudson Bay route, the "emergency exit" of Western traffic, is to be taken in hand without undue delay, and with that object in view a further inquiry is to be made forthwith into the details of the project.

Another question which is being watched with interest by members of North Canadian races is that of the future of the Roman Catholic Schools, mission schools for the most part, in the unorganised territory which is to be added to the Province of Manitoba. The extension to the waters of the Hudson Bay of the eldest of the prairie province has long since been earnestly desired by its people, who are tired of hearing Manitoba, a tiny square on the map in comparison with Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, jocosely described as the " postage stamp province!" The Quebec hierarchy demands recognition for the schools in question, and the Nationalists are supporting their point of view. But nothing 13 less likely than that Mr. Borden would grant this request even if a refusal were to lead to the temporary secession on that particular issue of several of the representatives of Quebec in the Dominion House of Commons. Home Rule in a restricted sense, by no means that which is in the minds of the supporters of

the claims of Irish Nationalists, is part and parcel, no doubt, of Canada's Federal system. But Rome Rule is out of the question in any part of the Dominion outside the land of the habitants, and even there signs of a change of mentality, remote perhaps but inevitable, may be dimly discerned. One of them is a widening breach between the French-Canadian and the Irish Roman Catholics. Another is the disposition in the cities and towns to regard the Ne Temere pronouncement as an inopportune expression of the ultramontanism of the Pope's advisers. The indivisibility of the Dominion is coming to be regarded even in faithful Quebec as a more important dogma than that of Papal infallibility. More and more the Established Church of Quebec tends to become Canadianised.

Mr. Borden's attitude in regard to all these questions seems to be generally approved throughout the Dominion. In all probability the result of the pending by-election in South Renfrew (Ontario), the first since the general election, will be in the nature of a cordial vote of confidence in the new Administration. The Liberal member who has resigned in favour of Mr. Graham, late Minister of Railways and heir-apparent to the Liberal leadership, had a majority of 600. The odds are that the Conservative candidate will be elected despite Mr. Graham's personal popularity.

2

In the near future, however, an engrossing constitutional question is almost certain to arise. The Opposition, under Sir Wilfrid Laurier's leadership, has carried on the business of criticism so vigorously and rigorously that the work of the new Ministers has become exacting and laborious to a degree. By means of obstructive tactics on the part of the Conservatives the late Government was compelled to go to the country on the Reciprocity issue, and it would seem that the remnant of the Americanising Liberals think that the same weapon may be used to shatter the compact majority opposed to them. The certainty that such efforts to hinder the business of administration and remedial legislation will be resented by the electorate has not been duly weighed by those belligerent partisans who still look upon the defeat of their party as due to a temporary aberration of judgment on the part of Providence, and expect to be returned to power

in a year or two. This state of the so-called "Progressive" mind is very famil ar to the students of British politics. Should their methods become actively obstructive it might be necessary for

Government either (1) to introduce changes in the procedure of the House or (2) appeal to the country to put the Opposition out of action. The latter course would perhaps be preferable, seeing that any restriction on absolute freedom of speech is repugnant to the Canadian mind. The difficulty of the situation for the Government lies in the fact that there is a strong Liberal majority in the Senate, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier hopes to be able to use it to embarrass his opponents. When the Bill creating a permanent Tariff Commission was brought in, Liberal amendments proposing (1) that the Commission should be composed of independent officials, and (2) should have the power of initiating Tariff changes, were promptly introduced on the plea that the new body would otherwise be employed by the Minister of Finance to increase all Protective duties, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier is credited with the deliberate intention of reviving these amendments in the Senate when they are rejected in the House of Commons. The Canadian Senate, a secondary rather than a Second Chamber, and having no social root in the community, has never hitherto been more than a species of registration department, and the vast majority of Liberals, together with a strong minority of Conservatives, look upon it as merely part of that which Walter Bagehot styled the " styled the "dignified" portion of the mechanism of Government. Unlike the American Senate, this vague and little-noticed body cannot be said to represent the great corporations and commercial interests of the country, and, knowing well that a definite case for its abolition would be welcomed by a great number of active and passive enemies, the members thereof have always carefully refrained from quarrelling even in small matters with the Party in power. It seems unlikely, to say the least, that the Liberal senators would risk the loss of their salaries and vested privileges by actively opposing a Government which has done nothing to lose the confidence of a great majority of the constituencies. They are peaceable veterans, enjoying a more or less well-deserved otium cum dignitate, and will, I think, turn a deaf ear to the silvery eloquence of the ex-Prime Minister. Otherwise we should

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