It ought to have been accompanied by an imperial tariff; by
securities for the people of England for the enjoyment of the
unappropriated lands which belonged to the sovereign as their
trustee; and by a military code which should have precisely defined
the means, and the responsibilities, by which the colonies should be
defended, and by which, if necessary, this country should call for
aid from the colonies themselves. It ought, further, to have been
accompanied by the institution of some representative council in the
metropolis, which would have brought the colonies into constant and
continuous relations with the home government."

From the day Disraeli uttered these words down to this present time
there has been a persistent, continuous, well-financed and
resourceful movement looking towards the establishment in London of
some kind of a central governing body--parliament, council, cabinet,
call it what you will--which will determine the foreign policies of
the British Empire and command in their support the military and
naval potentialities of all the dominions and dependencies. It fell
to Laurier to hold the pass against this movement; and this he did
for fifteen years with patience, sagacity and imperturbable firmness
against the enraged and embattled imperialists, both of England and
Canada. Laurier, in the comment quoted above, said that in 1897 the
imperialists had looked to him to act as the bell-wether. They had
good reason to be hopeful about his usefulness to them. The imperial
preference just enacted by the Canadian parliament had been hailed
both in Canada and Great Britain as a great concession to
imperialistic sentiment, whereas it was in reality an exceedingly
astute stroke of domestic politics by which the government lowered
the tariff and at the same time spiked the guns of the high
protectionists. In 1897, when Laurier first went to England, the