the Canadian forces--a change which was subsequently effected.

These controversies and conflicts of opinion became factors in
Canadian politics. The Conservatives sought in the general elections
of 1900 to make an issue out of the government's hesitation in
taking part in the South African war in advance of the meeting of
parliament; this, plus injudicious and provocative speeches by the
incalculable Mr. Tarte and the general indictment of Laurier as
lukewarm towards the cause of a "united Empire" weakened the
Liberals in Ontario; but this loss was easily off-set by gains
elsewhere. Again in 1904 the Dundonald issue was effective only in
Ontario which, in keeping with what appears to be an instinctive
political process, was beginning to consolidate itself as a
make-weight against the overwhelming predominance of Liberalism in
Quebec. In the 1908 elections the Imperial question was almost
quiescent in the English provinces; but it was beginning to emerge
in a different guise and with aspects distinctly threatening to
Laurier in his own province.

"COLONIALISM INGRAINED AND IMMITIGABLE"

Laurier in resisting the Chamberlain push knew that even English-Canada,
long somnolent under a colonial regime, was not in the mood
to accept the radical innovations that were being planned in
Whitehall; and he knew, still better, that his own people would be
against the programme to a man. The colonialism of the French-Canadians
was immitigable and ingrained. They had secured from the
British parliament in 1774 special immunities and privileges as the
result of Sir Guy Carleton's hallucination that given these the
French-Canadian habitant would assist the British authorities in