CHAP. V] TREATY RELATIONS 1141
by the actual facts and perhaps in some measure by the ill-
advised action of the Hudson’s Bav Company’s representa-
tive in the west, but it was clearly not a surrender of Canadian
interests on Imperial grounds.
The Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, negotiated by Lord Elgin,
was unquestionably of the greatest advantage to Canada,
and a striking proof of the anxiety of the Imperial Govern-
ment in Canadian interests, and the regret with which its
termination by the United States was greeted in Canada is
conclusive proof of its value.
On the other hand, great feeling was caused by the con-
clusion of the Treaty of Washington in 1871. Sir John
Macdonald was one of the plenipotentiaries, and he evidently
felt that the British negotiators were too much inclined to
sacrifice Canadian for Imperial interests! On the other
hand must be set the fact that Great Britain was prepared
to make to the United States the enormous sacrifice involved
in the agreement to arbitrate the Alabama claims on a basis
which rendered a heavy liability inevitable. Moreover, the
United States were at the height of their military power,
having vast forces trained in the Civil War, Canada was
practically defenceless, and the terms which were obtained
for Canada cannot, on a calm review, be considered to
have been unsatisfactory. The Behring Sea Arbitration,” in
which Canada was successful in a large measure, satisfied the
Canadian people, but this satisfaction was dispelled by the
award in the Alaska boundary case? It is easy now to
regret that an arbitration should ever have been accepted
which confronted three national arbitrators with other three
national arbitrators, and to deplore the quixotic action of
Canada in maintaining the impartial character of thesc
arbitrators when three far from impartial arbitrators had
* Pope, Sir John Macdonald, ii. 104 seq. Cf. Morley, Life of Gladstone.
ii. 401, n. ; Ewart, The Kingdom Papers, pp. 65-7.
® See Parl. Pap., C. 6918-22, 6949-51, 7107, 7161 (1893-4) ; C. 7836.
® Bee Parl. Pap., Cd. 1400, 1472 (1903); 1877, 1878 (1904); 3159; Ewart,
Kingdom of Canada, pp. 299 seq.; Sir W. Laurier in Canada House of
Commons Debates, 1903, p. 14815; cf. 1892, pp. 1143, 1144; 1909-10,
P 4705; Canadian Annual Review, 1903, pp. 346 seq.
