92 CANADA AND THE EMPIRE.

advantages we may gain, and will continually
bid against us. Then, again, we have pointed
out that Imperial reciprocity is antagonistic to the
policy of retaliation. And the desire to make use
of the latter, which exists strongly at present in
Canada, will be a force acting against the permanency
 of the arrangement.
It is a business policy, and depends for its success
upon its soundness. Is it a sound policy that an
Empire as great as ours should subsist upon its own
washing? Even at the present time there is little
to recommend it. Canada stands to gain from it
practically nothing that she has not got at present.
By it Britain cannot materially improve her market
in Canada. As the Empire grows it will have even
less to recommend it, for as the colonies grow larger
they will have of necessity to look for other markets.
These markets will be found, just as they are being
found at present, along the course of the natural
streams of trade. It has never been either .a
wise or a remunerative policy to try and turn aside
the natural course of trade. The building of costly
canals along which to force it in opposite directions
to those in which it would naturally flow, which is
what Mr. Chamberlain is attempting to do, is
doomed to eventual failure, especially when
foreign countries are improving and facilitating
what is already the natural course. What will
be the result of a policy economically unsound?
[t will not bring in the profits expected. Disappointment
 and resentment at any little Imperial