BACK THROUGH OTTAWA
It was just before sunrise that I first saw Ottawa. I was on my way
back from Vancouver, and had spent four successive days in the train,
getting out only for minutes at a time to stamp about platforms where
the train waited long enough to permit of such exercise.
Such days, varied only by meals for which one is always looking, but
never hungry, tend to become monotonous, even though one spends them
mostly in the observation car. The fact is, observation pure and
simple is one of the most difficult things possible to a member of
the human tribe--as hard as doing compulsory jig-saws; and reading
humorous American magazines, one after the other, is an alternative
that also requires the strong mind. If I must travel long distances
by train, I want to be the engine-driver.
The country, I thought, looked less attractive {283} as I repassed it
now than it looked before, and I put this down to the freeze-up,
which had come unusually early, people kept saying, and gave to the
land a black and ruffled look, like a sick bird's. Later it would be
beautiful again in snow, and the life and work of the season of snow
would begin. Meanwhile, people in the little northerly stations we
passed had the appearance of having stopped work. You saw them
standing about--always with their backs to buildings to get out of
the shrivelling wind. I suppose in most of these places there is a
between-time in which nobody can work.
Nothing much was doing in Ottawa when I got out there, but that of
course was due to the earliness of the hour. It was so early that
when I reached a hotel they told me breakfast was not to be had for
some time yet, and so, since I was too wide-awake to go to sleep
again, I thought I would spend the hour looking at the Dominion
Parliament Buildings. Perhaps it was the too early hour, perhaps it
was the coldness of the wind blowing round that bluff above the river
on which the famous buildings stand--but I could feel none of that
satisfaction, when I looked at them, which great architecture gives.
The {284} situation is fine, but not the buildings. Anthony Trollope
has written of them:--'As regards purity of art and manliness of
conception, the work is entitled to the very highest praise.... I
know no modern Gothic purer of its kind or less sullied with
fictitious ornamentation'--but I think he must have breakfasted
handsomely first. Some one else, but I forget who, and it does not
matter, has described the buildings as 'a noble pile,' which seems to
hit the mark, if, as I fancy, that mid-Victorian expression suggests
something on so large a scale, which has obviously cost such a lot of
money, that vague admiration is the least of the emotions which
should be produced by a sight of it. 'A noble pile,' then, let them
remain, especially since, seen from some distance, with the beautiful
river below and a spacious country stretched before them, they
possess a certain imposing appearance. Closer up, one is less
impressed. There is a long-backed unmeaning set to the buildings, as
though the architects had found concentration a vexation, and had
decided to extend instead. Still, they might have elaborated
painfully, and they did not--except for those little turrets on the
side-buildings, surmounted by railings which one associates chiefly
with {285} the London area. Area railings are meant, I suppose, to
prevent errand-boys from falling into the areas, but there can be few
errands to the roof of the Parliament Buildings. In passing, I did
not like those hundreds of silly little windows that peep all round:
one, as it were, for every official to peep from.
Reflection should serve to temper criticism, however. The year 1867,
in which the Dominion Parliament required its Houses, was not one of
brilliant achievement in the architectural world; and when it is
remembered that Canada itself was also a new country, the wonder is
that nothing worse was built. Only a few years before, we in England
had been transfixed with admiration of the Crystal Palace; Royal
Academicians were above criticism, and 'almost too great to live';
bright in the sun gleamed the Albert Memorial. We ruled the waves,
but not the arts; and 'our daughter of the snows' took over our large
ideas and our little taste in building.
Whether she took over our political ideas is another matter, upon
which I pondered as I contemplated those Parliament Buildings. There
stood the House in which Sir John Macdonald evolved that
east-and-west policy which seemed such an empire-cementing thing;
{286} where Sir Wilfrid Laurier teaches the world how to lead a
party; where not as yet had been ratified that Reciprocity Agreement
with America which has been agitating our statesmen so much this
year, though, even as I gazed, it must have been in course of
construction. Would an Imperial Parliament sit there some day, I
wondered, and direct the affairs of the British Empire from what
would be, not so long hence, a far more central and important spot
than Westminster? I could not quite imagine it. I could not even
like the idea, as some Imperialists at any price can. Home Rule for
England is one of the policies I shall always stand for, I believe;
even when Canadians have that grasp of Imperial affairs which we in
England impute to them--by comparison, we generally mean, with our
own English political opponents--that grasp which, as a matter of
fact, is much less common among them at present than it is among us,
whether we be Liberals or Conservatives.
I wish our party political system allowed of our minimising the zeal
and intelligence of the side opposed to us without magnifying those
qualities in a third party which, in strict reality, it scarcely
possesses. I wish, for example, that Tariff Reformers could deride
{287} the Imperialistic attitude of Free Traders (and vice versa)
without declaring that Canadians could in this matter teach us all
lessons. For the truth is that Canadians could not give lessons to
either in this matter. They have an Imperial sentiment all right,
but they do not worry over it as we do. Take that question of
Preference which has been making us all so hot for several years now.
It never troubled Canadians at all. They thought that there was a
good deal in it from a business point of view, and they were prepared
to try it--and did so. But they never for a moment fancied or
perturbed themselves with thinking that, either with or without it,
the Empire would totter to its fall. Our fervours left them entirely
cool; and in that business-like state of coolness, after duly
granting us Preference, they have, equally duly in their opinion, set
out to establish reciprocity with the States. The only thing likely
to make them hot in this matter is the suggestion that they have been
lacking in Imperial spirit. Of course they had been lacking in that
early, romantic, self-immolating and fantastically quaint, Imperial
spirit which we attributed to them--just to make our own Little
Englanders try and feel ashamed; but, equally again, they {288} never
had it, and would not dream of claiming it even if they could be made
to understand what our devotees meant by it. To forgo trade in order
to uphold the flag would not appeal to a Canadian--mainly for the
reason that the idea would strike him as grotesque.
In the matter of this Reciprocity Agreement, then, I think it is we
who are wrong if we make it a reproach to the Canadians. It may or
may not be a sound economic proceeding, but it is entered upon
without prejudice to Imperial sentiment. Only if we first assume
that all Canadians have been burning for years past with the same
zeal for an Imperial Zollverein that has animated our own Tariff
Reformers, can we now credit them with cooling off and backsliding.
But such an assumption would be a very great mistake. All
assumptions that Canadians view our political problems from our point
of view are great mistakes. They no more do so than we view theirs
from their point of view. We do not. Nothing struck me more
forcibly than the fact that what causes us political turmoil in Great
Britain is viewed with complete coolness in Canada, and that what
Canadians are keen after remains unknown to us. While I was there, I
kept seeing letters {289} in English papers (reproduced
sometimes--but very briefly--in Canadian papers) saying that Canada
was whole-hearted for Tariff Reform, or that Canadian Free Traders
were sweeping the country; whereas the fact was and is, that these
two terms (whatever might in reality be the state of Canadian
parties) never conveyed in the least in Canada what we mean by them,
and therefore conveyed no truth that could be understood of both
peoples equally.
Does this inter-Imperial lack of comprehension threaten the future of
the Empire? It might seem so at first. Lack of understanding
between fellow-citizens cannot be a good thing in itself. But it has
this merit, that it makes real interference on either side a rare
thing. If we understood--or believed we understood--what was for the
future welfare of Canada, it is doubtful if we could refrain from
pointing it out, even if we could refrain from insisting upon it. If
the Canadians thought themselves capable of directing us in the right
way--say in the management of India--they would feel urged to give
their opinion, and Anglo-Indian officials, having this last straw
added to their backs, would strike _en masse_. As it is, we let each
other's real problems {290} alone, and are satisfied with our own
solutions of them. Imperial Conferences are necessary because in
some matters the Empire must work together, having the same
interests. Cables and Dreadnoughts are cases in point. That Great
Britain still bears the main expenditure in all such matters is
proof, if proof be needed, that what American papers somewhat
unkindly call 'British Island Politics' are, still, more Imperial
than the politics of any other part of the Empire. We pay and we ask
for little in return, and the Empire will go on, even now that Canada
has become a nation. Only some mistake could, I think, part us--a
mistake as big as that which parted us from the United States--and we
are not likely to make it; nor is Canada likely to wish for it,
however great she may picture and make her own destiny. But that she
will want to rule entirely in her own house is certain. Canadians
themselves--the voters I mean--are not likely for a long time to wish
for much more than they have in the way of national liberty. I do
not think they would much worry as to whether their ambassador at
Washington, for example, was appointed from Ottawa or from London.
The results in either case would be likely to be very similar, {291}
and in any case, as I have said, Canadians are not obsessed at
present with politics. But it has to be remembered that besides
Canadian voters, there are Canadian politicians, and since it is in
the nature of politicians to be at least as ambitious as other
people, it is natural that Canadian politicians should want in their
own hands all the important posts that are to be had. Just at
present Canadians take such a disrespectful view of politicians in
general--which is unfair no doubt to their own political
representatives, but natural perhaps in a new country which has not
too much time to reflect upon the real benefactions politicians may
confer, and rather fancies, from isolated examples, that 'graft' is
what they are usually after--that they are not likely to demand of
their own accord more power to the hand of their own statesmen. But
the accord of voters depends in due course upon the persuasive powers
of candidates, and I foresee the candidates persuading pretty hard in
the near future: all of which will make work for Imperial Conferences
of the near future, but not, it is to be hoped, impossible work.
I find that having represented myself as reflecting upon Canadian
politics outside the {292} Dominion Parliament Buildings, I have
altogether omitted Canadian politics in favour of Imperial
considerations. Beyond showing, or rather trying to show, that
Canadian politics--the things that really interest Canadians--are not
in the least what we are accustomed to think them, I have got no
further at all. Still, that--if I have shown it--is something, for
it may suggest to some gentle reader that an Empire is not a simple,
extended Great Britain, in which every one thinks precisely the same
things to be of the same immediate importance; of which all the
emotions and reflections may be realised in full by a perusal, let us
say, of the Standard of Empire.
And so I remove myself from that bluff above the river at Ottawa to
my hotel, and thence to divers parts of that charming town, which
looked then--for Parliament was not sitting--something like Oxford
out of term; and thence to the train carrying me back to Montreal and
Quebec.
Afterwards came the return across the Atlantic to a country smaller
than Canada--(less than a week of steaming, my friends), in company
with Canadians who were returning to see what the old place was like
after many years. I think they would not be {293} ill-pleased with
it, small as it is by comparison. I hope they found behind it some
of the qualities which, as it seems to me, are to be found also in
THE FAIR DOMINION, making it to my eyes yet more fair.
{294}
INDEX
ABBOTT, MOUNT, 215.
Alaska, 274.
Alberta, 13, 138, 141, 142, 143, 164, 165, 217.
Alps, the, 177, 180, 199.
Angell, Norman, 68.
Annunzio, Gabriel d', 178.
Anticosti, 16.
Archangel, 13.
Athelmer, 233, 238.
BAIE ST. PAUL, 40.
Banff, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 183.
Beacon Hill, 276.
Beaupré, 47, 48, 49, 50.
Beaupré, Ste. Anne de, 48, 51, 53.
Bears, Grizzly, 246-50.
Belle Isle, 16.
Birmingham, 156.
Blondin, 90.
Bourassa, Mr., 30, 31, 33, 85, 86.
Bourne, Archbishop, 17.
Bow River, 141, 144, 179.
Bradley, A. G., 31.
British Columbia, 188, 216, 237, 238, 256, 274, 279.
Bruce, Randolph, 221, 222, 225.
Brussels, 88.
CADBORO' BAY, 276.
Calgary, 141, 143, 144, 145, 163, 164, 170, 195.
Canadian Pacific Railway, 18, 141, 142, 152, 162, 182, 261.
Cartier, 40.
Ceylon, 267.
Champlain, 35, 42.
Chicago, 159.
Chicoutimi, 39, 43.
Chuzzlewit, Martin, 128.
Colonial Intelligence for Educated Women, Committee of, 195.
Columbia River, 218, 219, 222, 224, 230, 233.
Columbia Valley, 215, 216, 225, 234, 238.
Cooper, Fenimore, 92.
Covent Garden, 117.
DICKENS, CHARLES, 29, 90.
Dufferin Terrace, 26, 27, 28.
Duncans, 267, 268, 270.
EDEN CITY, 129.
Edmonton, 268.
Eliott, Professor, 163.
Emerald Lake, 206.
_Empress of Britain_, S.S., 1.
Eucharistic Congress, the, 17, 77, 78, 79.
FARNHAM, MOUNT, 229.
Fort William, 114.
Fraser River, 257.
Free Trade, 29, 149, 287.
French River, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99, 101, 102.
GLACIER HOUSE, 215.
Glasgow, 73.
Golden, 215, 216, 217, 218, 224, 232, 236, 237, 238, 239, 241, 244.
Gordon, Adam, 252.
Grand Trunk Railway, 261.
Grasmere, 268.
HAMMERSMITH, 94.
Hampstead Heath, 117.
Heights of Abraham, 34.
Hennepin, Father Louis, 89.
Hesse, Landgraf of, 226.
Hewlett, Maurice, 250.
Higgsville, 128.
Himalayas, the, 177, 227.
Home Rule, 31.
Hoogly, the, 44.
Howells, W. D., 90.
Hudson Bay Company, 115.
IMPERIALISM, 33, 36, 287, 290.
Illecillewaet Glacier, the Great, 215.
Iron Top Mountain, 224.
Irrigation Company, Columbia Valley, 237.
Irrigation Works, Columbia Valley, 221.
KAMLOOPS, 216, 229.
Keats, John, 200.
Kildonan, 123, 124.
Kinchinjunga, 177.
Kipling, Rudyard, 105, 106, 253.
LACHINE RAPIDS, 77.
Laggan, 200.
Laurentian Mountains, 27.
Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, 278, 286.
Liverpool, 1.
LONDON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, 152.
London, 73, 86, 117, 118, 119, 285.
Loti, Pierre, 110, 111.
Louise, Lake, 198, 199, 200, 206.
Lourdes, 47.
MACDONALD, SIR JOHN, 285.
Manchester, 156.
Manitoba, 114, 144.
Marseilles, 77.
Maskinongé, 93, 96, 99, 100.
M'Bride, Richard, 275, 278, 279.
Meredith, George, 130.
Montmorency Falls, 38, 39, 49, 50.
Montreal, 17, 34, 45, 56, 64, 66, 67, 68, 69, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76,
77, 79, 80, 81, 84, 292.
Moosejaw, 126, 156.
Moraine Lake, 201, 204.
Murray Bay, 40.
Muskoka Lakes, 92.
NAPOLEON, 120.
National Park, 179, 181.
New Brunswick, 32, 237, 238, 242.
New York, 39, 51, 154, 159.
Niagara Falls, 38, 89, 90.
Nightingale, 163, 165, 166.
North Pole, 136.
Nottingham, 28.
Nova Scotia, 32.
OJIBWAY, AN, 96, 97, 99, 100.
Okanagan, 216, 219.
Olympian Mountains, 276.
Ontario, 8, 13, 32, 33, 45, 85, 109, 111, 112, 113, 141, 151.
Orléans, Ile d', 40.
Ottawa, 84, 282, 283, 292.
Oxford, 77, 292.
PANAMA CANAL, 261, 274.
Paris, 77, 117, 158.
Parkman, Francis, 41, 42.
Parnell, Charles Stewart, 31.
Peterborough, 8, 81.
Pickerel, 95, 98.
Pitt, William, 265.
Police, North-West Mounted, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136.
Port Arthur, 114.
QUAMICHAN LAKE, 268.
Quebec, 18, 20, 22, 26, 28, 31, 32, 34, 37, 38, 39, 45, 49, 50, 53,
56, 60, 61, 64, 111, 112, 292.
REVELSTOKE, 253.
Red River, 123, 144.
'Reddy,' 265.
Regina, 82, 126, 131, 132, 136, 156, 218.
Remittance Men, 161.
Rockefeller, 23.
Rockies, the, 170, 171, 177, 181, 198, 209, 215, 216, 230.
Rome, 34, 79.
Roosevelt, Theodore, 45.
Russia, 135.
SAGUENAY, 37, 39, 41, 43, 44, 46.
San Francisco, 258.
St. Irénée, 40.
St. John, Reversible Falls of, 237.
St. Laurent, 67, 68.
St. Lawrence, 16, 26, 34, 39, 40, 44, 57.
St. Malo, 41.
Saskatchewan, 144.
Seattle, 260, 264, 274.
Selkirk, Lord, 123.
Selkirks, the, 215, 216, 224, 225, 253.
Siegfried, André, 18, 147.
Sir Donald, Mount, 215.
Spain, 156.
Spillamacheen, 232, 234, 237.
Strathmore, 163, 164.
Sudbury, 102, 107.
Superior, Lake, 114.
TADOUSAC, 40, 41, 42, 44.
Tariff Reform, 149, 286, 288.
Thames, 94.
Thebes, 127, 128, 129.
Toronto, 29, 65, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 91, 92, 93.
Town Planning Bill, 140.
Trachoma, 3.
Trinité, Cap, 43, 44.
Trollope, Anthony, 284.
ULSTER, 33.
VALLEY OF THE TEN PEAKS, 201, 202, 204.
Vancouver, 196, 236, 258, 259, 261, 262, 263, 264, 265, 267, 273,
274, 282.
Vancouver Island, 266-71, 274.
Vannutelli, Cardinal, 78.
Victoria, 196, 267, 273, 275, 277, 280.
WALKER, BRUCE, 119, 120.
Webb, Captain, 90.
Wilmer, 216, 220, 221, 224, 232, 236.
Windermere, Lake, 222, 223.
Winnipeg, 8, 84, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 123, 124, 127, 128, 130,
144.
Wolfe, General, 34, 35, 39.
Wood, Major, 34.
World's Fair, the, 82, 83, 87, 88.
YOHO VALLEY, 206, 207, 209, 210.
Young Women's Christian Association, 196.
Yukon, 188, 250, 251, 252.
Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty
at the Edinburgh University Press