It Is To Be Hoped, Now The Matter Has Been So Fully And Ably Brought Before The British Government, That Steps Will Be Immediately Taken To Enter Into Such Negotiations With The United States As Will Secure This Desirable Result.

If this were done, we cannot doubt that the Government of the United States will respond in a friendly

Spirit to the wishes of our own Government, and that not only the best results will follow as regards the treaty in question, but also as regards the general commercial relations between the United States, the British North American Provinces, and this country."

I felt so strongly that great opportunities had been lost owing to the negligence and incapacity of our rulers, that I drew up and widely circulated, various memoranda, intended to inform public opinion in England. I felt convinced that, if once this wise and fraternal treaty were allowed to expire, the future relations of the British Provinces and Canada must gravitate towards antagonism, or towards annexation. My forebodings are, at this moment, justified by the action of the United States Congress in the matter of the fisheries. Because Canada has enforced the provisions of the, still existing, and recognized, Treaty of 1818, the Congress of the United States has, in 1887, by statute, instructed the President to put in operation odious "reprisals" - reprisals which throw the "Milan Decrees" of the first Napoleon into the shade of barbarism. The President, believed to be an enlightened man, threatens to put his powers into strict operation.

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