the better sense of these peoples will come to recognize that each is by comparison at least a good neighbour to the other.

The interdependence of Canada and the United States economically makes for the permanence of good will. Each needs the other. United by the great lakes and rivers in common interests, their conjoint control is essential to the life of both peoples. Ontario gets her coal from Pennsylvania; the United States relies on Canada for paper, and probably will before long rely on her for wheat and fish. Such is the magnitude of these common interests that statesmen seek to prevent their being endangered by the explosions of second-rate politicians, though the form of American government allows less power to secretaries of state and other leaders than is exercised by the prime minister in Britain or in any Dominion. Readers of President Cleveland's biography are aware how his best intentions towards Canada were thwarted by an opposition which almost led to deadlock. It is therefore imperative that in both countries, bound together as they are by common interests, a large body of mutual understanding and good-will should be created which lesser persons with narrow interests cannot flout.

It is evident that Canada now holds an extraordinary position of vantage in respect to the United States and Great Britain as compared with that of

even half a century ago. There were then recurrent troubles, as from a piece of bone left in an old wound, and when it became necessary for Britain to send plenipotentiaries to Washington to negotiate their removal, they often showed impatience with the restive colony which caused them so much inconvenience. And the United States asked even more petulantly why Britain did not put a stop to the complaints of these unreasonable and ill-conditioned folk by handing them over to her. For the one Canada was not much more than a ward; for the other a child who would go into decline if left to herself. So far from being a unifying influence between the two peoples, she was in those days a source of irritation.

But now all that is changed. England regards Canada with the pride of a first-born; in the Empire she holds the prestige of age and position. The United States no longer looks upon her as an intruding colony on the continent, but respects her as a nation within the British Commonwealth and as a neighbour who will take her own way to success. The Dominion, therefore, may now play a new part. No longer thought of as factious she may become an interpreter. As for the Briton, he is gratified at the individuality of both French- and English-speaking Canadians who have worked out their character in their environment; he is quietly pleased with the

new footing that his kinsmen have got on the continent from which he was almost driven one hundred and fifty years ago; he was deeply moved by the response and accomplishment of the Canadians in the War. Therefore he will listen with indulgence to what they have to say.

Canada's success also has been a powerful motive in changing the attitude of the American. He recognizes that the Canadian people have displayed no small political capacity. Discordant notes arise, it is true, from different provinces of the Dominion, many of them, however, to be silenced by prosperity, but the national life speaks to-day with a fuller and clearer voice than ever. These people have also built a commercial and social structure no less impressive than the political. The development of transcontinental railways, the strength and flexibility of the banking system, the magnitude of hydro-electric construction, the financing of the War and the organization of industry during that period have proved their practical efficiency. Moreover their general well-being, orderliness of life and freedom from crime even in the newest parts are signs of high civilization. And this result-political, commerical, moral-has been accomplished by the Canadian not as an imitator nor under tutelage; he has been the architect of his own fortunes.

Such rapprochement between Briton and American

as Canada may be privileged to further, will be the easier because of the change that has taken place in both peoples during the last generation. The world of America as Dickens caricatured it and of England as Henry Adams recoiled from it in the 'sixties have disappeared. Long before the War the Briton discovered that he had closer affinities with the United States than with any country of Europe; and the older American has come to see that human society and the civilization which he treasures are not as safe as he had believed. The time, therefore, is ripe.

But her function as interpreter Canada will perform not of set purpose. In fact the average man would be surprised to think of his country in this rôle. In so far as she plays such a part it will be simply by being true to herself and by living her own life where she is. When the Englishman travels in the Dominion he finds much that is strange to him in the manner of life, the conventions of society, even in the tone of speech and words. But he accepts the new world for the most part without adverse criticism, or at least regards it with an indulgent eye, as being chiefly the product of his own kith and kin. He experiences something of the process of Americanization in the larger sense, and is being so inoculated with the spirit of the continent that, when he crosses the border into the United States, he will be immune from much discomfort which otherwise he would have felt.

Having become accustomed to life in Canada he will be more tolerant of similar manners and methods as they exist in the United States; and his approach to the American being thus made the easier he will find that beneath an exterior, which had he encountered it first among aliens might have repelled him, there is a fund of Anglo-Saxon conviction and idealism which he entirely understands.

But even more important is the function Canada may perform in interpreting to the United States the character of the British Commonwealth. Americans, however, often say that they find Canadians very critically disposed towards them. In fact the remark has been made that while they welcome Canadians and grant them full privileges as citizens, they are treated as aliens when they come to the Dominion. The case of the Scotsman in England and of the Englishman in Scotland is a parallel instance, and perhaps for a similar reason. In both a smaller people has felt its nationality endangered by a more powerful neighbour. Especially in Ontario and Quebec does this state of mind prevail, where the memories of the war of 1812 and the threats made at the time of the Civil war still linger, the cooling embers being occasionally stirred anew by talk of the manifest destiny of annexation. Of late there has been perhaps less cordiality than usual, because the Canadian with his heavy burden of taxation sees such large numbers of