tier as attempts on the part of the Confederates to involve Great Britain in a war with the North, in order to secure Southern success. "Plunder may be one object, but the sanction which these desperadoes must receive from Southerners of a better class proceeds, we fear, from a different motive. It is a noticeable fact, that while this outrage at St. Albans was in progress, two Confederate agents presented themselves in Quebec and were chagrined by the government declining to take cognizance of them. Had they been received by the Governor-General, the circumstance would have afforded an admirable pendant to the robbery of the banks and murder of the citizens of St. Albans." 1 The people of the province, both Liberals and Conservatives wherever their sympathies lay, were practically unanimous in their decision that Canada must not be used as a base for military operations directed by the Confederates against the North. As the Southern refugees continued to violate the laws of international comity, there was a steadily growing feeling throughout the province that by so doing they had forfeited not only all claim to sympathy, but even the protection heretofore assured them under the British flag.

Surely the fact that the Confederate agents in Canada did not accomplish more was due to the desire of the majority of Canadians to maintain the neutrality enjoined by the British Government. The Liberal press commended the strict neutrality maintained by the British government; and at the same time blamed the Leader, with its pro-Southern attitude, for its proposal that Great Britain should "interfere to secure the independence of the South-an interference which would almost certainly be followed by a bloody war between the two countries in which Canada would be the battle-ground.'

"2

1 The Globe, October 21, 1864.

'The Globe, November 27, 1862.

Commending, therefore, the strictly neutral attitude of the government of England under the leadership of Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell, the Globe said the people of the North should have been satisfied, and their journalists should have refrained from abuse of England, which had only lessened the popularity of their cause in Europe. Thus the significance of the maintenance of this neutrality was recognized:

Neutrality is best for England, but for Canada is absolutely essential, and it is an outrage for a Canadian journal to endeavor to make the British Government believe that any Canadian out of the Asylum desires an interference in American affairs, which would involve the Province in a disastrous contest with its neighbors. The people of Canada are ready to defend themselves when attacked, and are prepared to sustain the honour of the mother country. But they are not prepared to support any Government in a wanton interference in matters with which it has no concern, and more especially they have no desire to fight on behalf of the Southern slave power. There are enough of evil influences at work which threaten to bring the two countries into collision, without the press and people of Canada adding their share to the witches' cauldron. They have a simple duty to perform. Men will differ in opinion about North and South, but our evident policy is to observe a strict neutrality as a people towards both sections, and maintain as much cordiality with our neighbors as is possible, while so lively a controversy is being carried on upon matters which come to the hearts of everybody.1

The Canadian newspapers of the sixties followed very closely party lines, the Liberal newspapers of Canada West taking their cue from the Globe, and the Conservative newspapers from the Leader. Party discipline was more rigidly observed by newspaper men in the period of the sixties than

1Ibid.

in the twentieth century. Few editors showed any independence of judgment in their editorials; indeed, many of the editorials were largely reprints from one of the two leading newspapers.

Notable therefore for its opposition to the customary attitude among Liberal newspapers was the Huron Signal, which proudly proclaimed its independent policy, a policy at variance with its political party. One may well wonder whether the key to an understanding of the opinions voiced in the newspaper is not to be found in the fact that more negroes had settled in the Southwestern peninsula than in any other section of Canada West. From the outbreak of the American Civil War, the Huron Signal was just as consistent in its advocacy of a Southern policy, as the Globe was of a Northern. Frankly announcing its sympathy with the South, it declared that the war was not one for the abolition of slavery, but simply a contest for supremacy on the part of two divisions of one family in which the Southerners were valiantly fighting for their freedom.1 Differing with the other Liberal newspapers and agreeing frequently with the Conservatives of Canada West, this newspaper resented on behalf of its Liberal contemporaries the charge sometimes found in the Conservative press that the friendly attitude toward the North of the Reformers betokened disloyalty to Great Britain.2 Independent in the expression of its opinion, this paper was still loyal to the Liberal party.

Towards the question of annexation the Canadian press, both Conservative and Liberal, was united in its opposition. Here again the press was reflecting not only the sentiment of the vast majority of the people of Canada West, but also of the other British American provinces. This was not a party question, for Liberals and Conservatives were now 1 The Huron Signal, November 6, 1861.

Ibid., January 15, 1863.

united in a common loyalty to Great Britain. The small minority, the dissatisfied element, which may be found in the most favored countries, had been effectually silenced by the threatened disunion of the Republic. To them no longer did the Republic offer alluring prospects of greater commercial prosperity. Since the question of annexation with the United States was outside the realm of party politics, the Globe, May 3, 1861, in an editorial may be regarded as the spokesman of the British North American Provinces:

But though we Canadians were very much astonished to hear that we were panting to be annexed to the United States, large numbers of the Americans were not surprised at all. How could they be? . . . Do they not look with contempt upon us poor Provincials, who-as they think-pay an enforced homage to Queen Victoria? . . . Well, it is no use arguing with them, it is no use telling them that we don't see the Republic through their spectacles.

The Leader, with its strongly monarchical leaning, clearly indicated in its columns its opinion that republicanism was a failure, due to the lack of a strongly centralized government found in that form of government. The monarchical and republican forms of government were thus contrasted, always to the advantage of the former. Thus the Leader repudiated anything that savored of republicanism. It even went so far as to insinuate for political purposes that the sympathizers with the Northern cause who were principally to be found in the Liberal ranks, were disloyal to the British connection with a secret yearning toward a union with the neighboring Republic. The Conservative newspaper was well aware that this insinuation was false, but equally well did it know that it could make political capital out of it. Waving the flag has brought a party victory to many a politician. In its issue of November 19, 1861, thus appears the

following statement: "There are among us persons who laud as the perfection of wisdom the most despotic acts of a republican government, and who condemn every act of their own. [They] are always assuming that every institution is good or bad in proportion as it approaches to extreme democracy or recedes from that infallible standard of perfection." This opinion of republicanism persisted in Canada throughout the sixties. The chaotic conditions in the Republic were attributed by "John A", as Macdonald was affectionately called, to the evils which he as the leader and spokesman of the Conservative party, quite naturally considered inherent in that form of government." This sentiment persisted; John A. Macdonald remarked in April, 1863, with fine assurance, "our French brethren will fight side by side with us against the foreign foe." 2

1

3

In the Conservative newspapers of Canada West were also to be found occasional references to the hardships which the Western States had to endure due to their connection with the Eastern States of the United States. Since the manufacturing interests of the Eastern States had been built up at the expense of the West, the Patriot claimed that Western jealousy of the East was justifiable; moreover, the war itself had further increased Eastern prosperity, for the moneyed men of the East had induced Congress to pass outrageous tariff bills, such, for instance, as the Morrill Tariff, by which capital was retained in the East.* The championship of the interests of the Western States by the Conservative press of Canada West may be partially

1 The Giobe, April 10, 1863, reprint from Kingston News of speech of John A. Macdonald.

Ibid., April 10, 1863.

3 Cf. the Patriot, January 29, 1862.

Cf. article from Cleveland Herald quoted in the Patriot, January 19, 1861.