“If that transport ever left the shores of England we would go far, some of us, to meet it; but for all the purposes that matter most it sailed long ago.  British statesmen could bring us nothing better than the ideals of British government; and those we have had since we levied our first tax and made our first law.  That precious cargo was our heritage, and we never threw it overboard, but chose rather to render what impost it brought; and there are those who say that the impost has been heavy, though never a dollar was paid.”

He paused for an instant and seemed to review and take account of what he had said.  He was hopelessly adrift from the subject he had proposed to himself, launched for better or for worse upon the theme that was subliminal in him and had flowed up, on which he was launched, and almost rudderless, without construction and without control.  The speech of his first intention, orderly, developed, was as far from him as the history of Liberalism in Fox County.  For an instant he hesitated; and then, under the suggestion, no doubt, of that ancient misbehaviour in Boston Harbour at which he had hinted, he took up another argument.  I will quote him a little.

“Let us hold,” he said simply, “to the Empire.  Let us keep this patrimony that has been ours for three hundred years.  Let us not forget the flag.  We believe ourselves, at this moment, in no danger of forgetting it.  The day after Paardeburg, that still winter day, did not our hearts rise within us to see it shaken out with its message everywhere, shaken out against the snow?  How it spoke to us. and lifted us, the silent flag in the new fallen snow!  Theirs—­and ours...  That was but a little while ago, and there is not a man here who will not bear me out in saying that we were never more loyal, in word and deed, than we are now.  And that very state of things has created for us an undermining alternative...

“So long as no force appeared to improve the trade relations between England and this country Canada sought in vain to make commercial bargains with the United States.  They would have none of us or our produce; they kept their wall just as high against us as against the rest of the world:  not a pine plank or a bushel of barley could we get over under a reciprocal arrangement.  But the imperial trade idea has changed the attitude of our friends to the south.  They have small liking for any scheme which will improve trade between Great Britain and Canada, because trade between Great Britain and Canada must be improved at their expense.  And now you cannot take up an American paper without finding the report of some commercial association demanding closer trade relations with Canada, or an American magazine in which some far-sighted economist is not urging the same thing.  They see us thinking about keeping the business in the family; with that hard American common sense that has made them what they are, they accept the situation; and at this moment they are ready to offer us better terms to keep our trade.”