24 CANADA AND THE EMPIRE.

that Mr. Bourassa’s views are those of the French
Canadians generally, and that the habitants will
be ready to demand release from a constitution
which may imperil the sacred freedom of Canadian
action. We can unhesitatingly assert that the new
Imperialism must set up a party in Canada up till
now non-existent, which will be opposed to the
Imperial connection, and this party will number
at least two-fifths of the people of Canada.
The maritime provinces favour no alteration in
Imperial relations. Their inhabitants believe in
the British connection because they recognise that
the British navy would be important if Canada
were involved in war (although this protection is
good-humouredly pooh-poohed because Canadians
consider they are not likely to have war except by
reason of the British connection). Their natural
market, however, is in the republic of the United
States, if only they could gain access to it, and it
would be most unwise to give them an Imperial
grievance by bidding them abandon all hope of
this. They fully realise that an arrangement for
Imperial trade would be hard to get away from
and would deprive Canada of all chance of altering
her fiscal policy quickly should a conflicting advantage
 be offered. So that within the ranks of the
Liberal party it is abundantly clear that we have
more than sufficient evidence to flatly contradict
Mr. Chamberlain’s statement about the colonial
support for his policy. Though there may be
found many Liberals who welcome the commercial