64 CANADA AND THE EMPIRE.

that the United States may have in the direction
of reciprocity will be strengthened by Mr. Chamberlain’s
 scheme. It is remarkable, since this
propaganda was started, how marked has been
the increase of the feeling in the United States
for reciprocity with Canada. Should the United
States adopt this policy, the advantages she would
be able to offer Canada must infallibly far outweigh
 anything Britain can place in the scale
against them. Canada would have the prospect of
entry for the first time into a protected market
of 80,000,000 people, and against this Britain
could only offer slightly improved terms in a
market of 42,000,000, in which Canada already
enjoys a very secure position.
It would be a deplorable thing from the point
of view of British trade were Canada to enter into
a reciprocal treaty with the United States, and
would mean considerable loss of trade with Canada.
Nevertheless, we maintain that if Canada’s true
commercial policy lies in the direction of making
trade freer than it is at present on the North
American continent that policy will inevitably
sooner or later be fulfilled, and a colonial policy
which tries to thwart it for the sake of a few
millions of trade is a dangerously obtuse and
short-sighted one, and one moreover which, when
the time comes, will assuredly fail to achieve
its object. But should Canada find that her
true commercial policy is to make a treaty with
the United States, and reciprocity ensue, we