34 CANADA AND THE EMPIRE.

the time when the United States will consume
more wheat than they produce, and although large
markets for wheat are being developed in the far
East, the rapid development of Canada’s vast area
must inevitably have the effect of accelerating the
steady fall in the price of wheat that has been
going on for the last half century. It may be a
good many years before the abundance of Canada’s
wheat materially affects the markets of the world,
but nevertheless the advantage a preference will
give to British landowners can only be a passing
one, and therefore a dangerous one, as an experiment
 conducted at the expense of the poor will
result only in temporarily disturbing the condition
of the land. Nor can the Canadian farmer hope
to earn for long so much as he does now in actual
money, and his only advantage will be in relation
to his foreign competitors.
[t is often urged that even if, as free traders
contend, it be proved that economically the policy
is unsound, it is worth making some sacrifice for
the good of the colonies. Now if the British
people are to be asked to make a sacrifice for the
benefit of Canada it is well to know whether
Canada is in need of assistance or sacrifices.
Were we convinced that we had in Canada a
country of great promise in which people refused
to settle, that her good resources were going
begging and her development was arrested, then
indeed some desperate remedy might be necessary.
But on this score there is no ground for the