112 CANADA AND THE EMPIRE.

all their offers the Home Government was unresponsive,
 and not only so, but the answers they allowed
to go back to Canada were thought to cast doubts
on the good faith of the offer. To nothing is the
Canadian more sensitive than to lack of confidence,
brusque treatment, or doubt as to his capacity of
administration. Moreover, the Dominion Department
 of Agriculture is so excellently equipped, and
so thoroughly enjoys the confidence of the people
over whose destinies it presides, that ignorance only
could excuse suspicion of its capabilities. The
public spirit of the Canadian farmer and the energy
of the Government have prevented any outbreak
of pleuro-pneumonia, and there is no room for the
slightest suspicion as to the existence at the present
time of the disease in any part of the Dominion.
In their own interest as much as in ours the
Canadians can be relied upon to prevent the
importation of infected cattle from the United
States, and in the interests of true Imperialism the
cattle embargo should be removed without delay.
It can only be regarded now as an effort to protect
the British cattle breeder at the expense of the
Canadian farmer, at the expense of the British
farmer who feeds store cattle for the meat market,
and at the expense of the consumer who buys his
meat. And this anti-Imperial experiment in Protection
 is hypocritically masked as a method of guarding
 against a non-existent disease. The Canadian
has good ground for complaint, and is, moreover,
particularly aggrieved that of all Governments it