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CANADA AND THE EMPIRE.

UNITED STATES 7. CANADA.

So far we have dealt with the prosperity and possibilities
 of Canadian agriculture. We have admitted
that if Canadian agriculture were not prosperous
and immigrants were not arriving, a potent argument
 in favour of Imperial interference would be
available, but this argument, as we have seen,
does not hold. Again, if the quality of her produce
 already guarantees a market to Canada, it
is unnecessary and unstatesmanlike to attempt to
guarantee her a market at the cost of British taxpayers.
 And as to accelerating her development,
it is indeed doubtful whether an attempt by means
of preference would be successful, for so profitable
is agriculture in Canada under existing conditions,
and so fast are the immigrants arriving, that even
if the preference went to the agriculturist and was
not absorbed in other places, it is unlikely that
more could be induced to immigrate.
But it is often urged that, apart altogether from
any alteration in the price of wheat, by means of a
preference in the British market Canada would be
given an advantage over the United States which
would turn the stream of immigration into Canada
and establish her fame as the agricultural portion
par excellence of the American continent. It may,
therefore, be worth pausing to prove that Canadian
agriculture has already so great a preference over
United States agriculture that if settlers still
choose the Republic it must be owing to some