Bingham, Horace Williams, and Mr Farquharson applauded loudly.  Their young man frowned a little and squared his chin.  He was past hints of that kind.

“And that,” he went on to say, “is, on the surface, a very satisfactory state of things.  No doubt a bargain between the Americans and ourselves could be devised which would be a very good bargain on both sides.  In the absence of certain pressing family affairs, it might be as well worth our consideration as we used to think it before we were invited to the family council.  But if anyone imagines that any degree of reciprocity with the United States could be entered upon without killing the idea of British preference trade for all time, let him consider what Canada’s attitude toward that idea would be today if the Americans had consented to our proposals twenty-five years ago, and we were invited to make an imperial sacrifice of the American trade that had prospered, as it would have prospered, for a quarter of a century!  I doubt whether the proposition would even be made to us...

“But the alternative before Canada is not a mere choice of markets; we are confronted with a much graver issue.  In this matter of dealing with our neighbour our very existence is involved.  If we would preserve ourselves as a nation, it has become our business, not only to reject American overtures in favour of the overtures of our own great England, but to keenly watch and actively resist American influence, as it already threatens us through the common channels of life and energy.  We often say that we fear no invasion from the south, but the armies of the south have already crossed the border.  American enterprise, American capital, is taking rapid possession of our mines and our water power, our oil areas and our timber limits.  In today’s Dominion, one paper alone, you may read of charters granted to five industrial concerns with headquarters in the United States.  The trades unions of the two countries are already international.  American settlers are pouring into the wheat-belt of the Northwest, and when the Dominion of Canada has paid the hundred million dollars she has just voted for a railway to open up the great lone northern lands between Quebec and the Pacific, it will be the American farmer and the American capitalist who will reap the benefit.  They approach us today with all the arts of peace, commercial missionaries to the ungathered harvests of neglected territories; but the day may come when they will menace our coasts to protect their markets—­unless, by firm, resolved, whole-hearted action now, we keep our opportunities for our own people.”

They cheered him promptly, and a gathered intensity came into his face at the note of praise.

“Nothing on earth can hold him now,” said Bingham, as he crossed his arms upon a breast seething with practical politics, and waited for the worst.