PREFACE.

ours in domestic questions for a month.
The natural sympathy of such Colonies
should then be with the Liberal party. But
if they are under the impression that it is
necessary that a reactionary party should
control and fetter the old root-country, and
that a party in sympathy with their own
views of domestic policy is a menace to the
Empire, we are in full view of a situation
detrimental not merely to the Liberal party
but to the Empire as a whole.
If the authors have not made one truth
evident they must be held to have failed
in their purpose. That truth is that the
Canadians are convinced that both their
prosperity and their allegiance to the Empire
depend on their realised independence and
right of self-government under the Crown.
These they will not allow to be tampered with.
But the wisest Canadians see that these will
be greatly affected by tariff bonds, which
would not merely produce constant friction,
but seriously curtail freedom of action. When
this result became apparent, snap would go
the tariff bond—and some other bonds would
be seriously strained as well.