CANADA THREATENS SECESSION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 28, 1 November 1889, Page 31

CANADA THREATENS SECESSION.

(From the Pilot.)

RECENT events in tha Dominion have not tended to strengthen the ties that bind Canada to tbe mother country. The seizure of seal poachers in Behring Sea, while it has made our neighbours very angry with the United States, has made them ten times more so with Great Britain for not taking their part.

The Montreal Herald, owned by Hon. Peter Mitchell, ex-Minister of Fisheries, and an organ of the advanced Liberal party, so-called, threatens that Canada will " take the matter into her own hand," if the Home Government neglect its duty. Just what would happen in that case it does not say, but doubtless Bomething to make Washington and London shake in their shoes.

Another and more serious grievance of Canada against the mother (country is the way in which British capital is buying up Canadian manufacturing concerns, and, as a Canadian paper says, " skimming all the cream" from protected industries in that country, as it has done in the United States. Our neighbours are beginning to ask themselves, to what purpose have they protected their home industries by a strong tariff, it English free-trade, by buying up those industries, may reap all the benefits at tbe cost of the Canadian consumer and tax-payer ? Perhaps we might ask ourselves the same question, and be puzzled to apswer it satisfactorily. The third grievance, of Canada is the Quebec question, a thorn in the Bide of the Orange faction. The inhabitants of Quebec, being French by blood and Catholic by religion, have the audacity to remain such, and even to increase and multiply in a manner that is highly objectionable to Mr. Goldwin Smith and his not over tolerant friends. Without knowing exactly how, the Orange gentry have a vague idea tnat annexation to this country would settle the Quebec question. In default of that, and lacking any help from the Home Government, they have some hope of inaugurating a war of races, and establishing a happy condition of affairs, such as they used to enjoy at home in the good old days of Protestant ascendency.

Of course the great bulk of the Canadian people must not be judged by the noisy patriots and demagogues who spout " loyalty " or " treason," just as they happen to be in or out of office. Still less are they to be beld accountable for the frothy nonsense uttered by the Orange faction ; but beneath all the noise there is a good deal of genuine discontent, which is more material than sentimental in its basis. The country i 9 not prosperous. Its resources are undeveloped. Its pecple are hampered politically and commercially by their dependant position, for in any possible dispute with this country , Great Britain will never hesitate to sacrifice Canada to propitiate the greater power. Canadians know this, and Englishlyn do not deny it. Sir John Mac Donald, the Canadian Premier, Ja wonderfully able statesman, who can guide his country through "■fee most intricate perils as no other man in the Dominion probably could do. But he is an old man. After him the next ruler of Canada will have no easy task in trying to keep his countrymen contented with their unsettled and anomalous position among the nations.