I

It is easy to understand what binds the provinces into a confederation.
They had to bind themselves into a unity with the British North America
Act or see their national existence threatened by any band of settlers
who might rush in and by a perfectly legitimate process of
naturalization and voting set up self-government. At the time of
confederation such eminent Imperial statesmen as Gladstone and
Labouchère seriously considered whether it would not be better to cut
Canada adrift, if she wanted to be cut adrift. The difference between
the Canadian provinces and the isolated Latin republics of South
America illustrates best what the bond of confederation did for the
Dominion. The _why_ and _how_ of confederation is easy to understand,
but what tie binds Canada to the Mother Country? That is a point
almost impossible for an outsider to understand.

England contributes not a farthing to Canada. Canada contributes not a
dime to England. Though a tariff against alien lands and trade
concessions to her colonies would bring such prosperity to those
colonies as Midas could not dream, England confers no trade favor to
her colonial children. There have been times, indeed, when she
discriminated against them by embargoes on cattle or boundary
concessions to cement peace with foreign powers. Except for a slight
trade concession of twenty to twenty-five per cent. on imports from
England--which, of course, helps the Canadian buyer as much as it helps
the British seller--Canada grants no favors to the Mother Country. In
spite of those trade concessions to England, in 1913 for every dollar's
worth Canada bought from England, she bought four dollars' worth from
the United States.