ANNEXING CANADA--LADY ABERDEEN--LADY MINTO
The first person from whom I heard of the American immigration into
Canada was Sir Wilfrid Laurier. He told me it had begun quietly, a
few American farmers drifting across the border in search of better
and cheaper land than could be had at home. There was no sound of
drum or trumpet. These men had nothing to do with the talk of
annexation. They had no political object. Their object was
agricultural; only that and nothing more. It is possible enough that
the reputed riches of the North-west province of Canada had something
to do with the policy, if it can be called a policy, of the American
annexationists, desiring to fire the hearts of the farmers in
Illinois and Minnesota who saw the yield of their wheat lands
diminishing yearly. It seems never to have occurred to the
politicians that the farmers were quite capable of looking after
their own interests, and that it was cheaper to buy land than to make
war for it.
The movement had, at the time of this conversation in 1902, been
going on for years. Beginning by scores, it had risen to hundreds
yearly, then {278} thousands. Sir Wilfrid computed that there were
altogether some fifty or sixty thousand American settlers in the
Canadian North-west, and that the yearly exodus from "the States" had
reached six thousand.
"But does not that raise or threaten to raise a political issue?"
"Oh, it is much too soon to think of that."
Nevertheless, I imagine Sir Wilfrid did think of it, and it may have
been present to Lord Grey's mind when he launched his memorable
declaration at the Waldorf Hotel two years later. Now, the number of
Americans who are moving northward and acquiring Canadian soil is
computed at a hundred thousand yearly or more. The political
difficulty, if there were one, would seem to be met by the Canadian
law allowing aliens to hold land but requiring them to become
Canadians at the end of three years. I am told there is such a law
but I do not know.
In truth, the political difficulty has never outgrown manageable
limits. There has always been more or less "tall talk" about
annexing Canada. Eloquent phrases have been heard--"One continent,
one flag," or "the Stars and Stripes from the Gulf of Mexico to the
Arctic Circle." But no party has taken up this cry. One newspaper
in New York, _The Sun_, did for a time preach annexation. _The Sun_
is a journal which does not disdain sensations, and has taught its
readers to expect them, and from time to time fulfils the
expectations it excites. The editor at that time was {279} Mr. Paul
Dana, son of the Mr. Charles A. Dana who made _The Sun_ a powerful
journal. Mr. Paul Dana started a society to promote the acquisition
of Canada. The capital of the society was $125,000, or £25,000.
That was the sum which Mr. Paul Dana and his friends thought
sufficient, or were able to raise, if they did raise it, to sever
from the British Empire a Dominion larger than the United States
without Alaska, capable, in military opinion, of self-defence, but,
in any case, with the military and naval power of Great Britain
behind it. Mr. Paul Dana, however, did not pursue matters to the
bitter end. He has ceased to be editor of _The Sun_ and Canada
remains British. I do not know whether his annexation society is
still in existence. But the American appetite for Canada, never
keen, has grown duller still. Men's minds turn to other things. The
Philippines and Hawaii and Porto Rico and the defence of the Pacific
Coast are more than enough to occupy our attention. The Senate
itself has grown tractable, and on the chief points of difference an
agreement has been reached where five years ago no agreement seemed
possible.
Two years after Sir Wilfrid Launer became Prime Minister the somewhat
agitated and perhaps agitating Governor-Generalship of Lord Aberdeen
came to an end. I suppose the cause of the troubled waters on which
that particular ship of State was tossed was not to be found wholly
or mainly in Lord Aberdeen himself, but in the multitudinous energies
of Lady Aberdeen. Her {280} convictions were strong, her zeal was
continuous, her certainty of being in the right was a certainty she
shared with her sex, or with all those women who think public affairs
their proper sphere. She had many admirable qualities and a courage
which shrank from no adventure merely because it was an adventure.
Her zeal in the cause of Home Rule for Ireland is well known. It had
been shown in Dublin. It was shown now at Ottawa. It crossed the
border and hung out a flag in Chicago. In the Chicago Exhibition,
or, as it was officially called, the "World's Columbian Exposition,"
in 1893, there was, among other attractions, an Irish village. This
village Lady Aberdeen took under her patronage, and over it she
hoisted an Irish flag of the kind in which the Home Rule heart
rejoices; a flag with the Harp but without the Crown. If Lady
Aberdeen had done this as a private individual it could hardly have
been allowed to pass. But she did it as wife of the Governor-General
of the Dominion of Canada. There were official remonstrances and the
flag was lowered. Against an indiscretion of that kind may be set
many useful and charitable enterprises, begun or encouraged by this
lady in Ottawa and all over Canada. She is kindly remembered there,
and her visits to Canada since Lord Aberdeen ceased to be
Governor-General have been welcomed. But there are many stories of
her crusading spirit besides the one I have told, and I suppose the
Canadians really like to live a more peaceful life {281} than they
were allowed to when Lady Aberdeen ruled over them.
Lord Minto succeeded Lord Aberdeen. Sir Wilfrid Laurier was Prime
Minister during the whole of Lord Minto's term, and Mr. Chamberlain
was Secretary for the Colonies down to the last year. I suppose it
may be remarked that seldom have three great officials worked in a
harmony more complete than did these three. It can hardly be
necessary to say anything of Mr. Chamberlain except this; that his
masterfulness never made itself felt in Canada in such a way as to
weaken, but always in such a way as to strengthen, the tie between
the Motherland and the Colony. His Imperialism took account of the
Dominion as well as of the Empire; it took equal account for all
purposes. It was under this strong hand that Canada felt her
independence, perhaps for the first time, completely safeguarded.
Between Lord Minto and Sir Wilfrid Laurier there was on all subjects
an understanding. That is not the same thing as saying they never
differed, which would be absurd. But they had before them the same
high objects, and they pretty well agreed as to the means of
attaining them. The relations between Government House and
Parliament House, where the Prime Minister had his headquarters, were
cordial, frank, unrestrained, and delightful. That there should be
relations of that kind between the representative of the Crown and
the representative of the Dominion is of equal advantage to the Crown
and to the {282} Dominion. They have not always existed, but there
seems every reason to believe they will exist in the future, as they
did in Lord Minto's time, and as they do now that Lord Grey speaks
for the Sovereign and Sir Wilfrid Laurier is still the trusted Prime
Minister of a Dominion which has grown too great to be called a
Colony.
As I have mentioned Lady Aberdeen, I may say a word, though for a
different reason, about Lady Minto, who for six years was the idol of
Ottawa and of the whole Dominion. If ever there was an example of
tact and felicity in the discharge of the duties that fall to the
wife of a Governor-General, Lady Minto was that example. What need
be added except that the statement is not a compliment but a
testimony? The Canadian Press has paid its tribute and there are
other tributes. One is that in Quebec and Toronto, the capital of
the French Roman Catholic province and the capital of the British
Protestant province, Lady Minto was equally popular and equally
beloved. In a very literal but strictly correct and conventional
sense it may be said that she was a power in the Dominion. The
receptions at Government House were very interesting; perhaps
sometimes curious as an example of democracy undergoing a social
evolution. In all the Commonwealths beyond the seas the same
process, I presume, may be studied. When Lady Carrington issued
three thousand invitations to a reception at Government House in
Sydney the limit had perhaps been reached for the time.
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There can be no such throng at Government House in Ottawa because it
is not large enough; perhaps is not quite large enough for the
dignity of the Dominion in these days of its amazing growth and
ever-increasing importance. But Ottawa, though a flourishing city,
is not a great city. It is a compromise capital; the middle term in
which the rivalries of Quebec on the one hand and Toronto on the
other found a means of peace on neutral and central ground.
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