CHAPTER XXX

BACK THROUGH OTTAWA

It was just before sunrise that I first saw Ottawa. I was on my way back from Vancouver, and had spent four successive days in the train, getting out only for minutes at a time to stamp about platforms where the train waited long enough to permit of such exercise.

Such days, varied only by meals for which one is always looking, but never hungry, tend to become monotonous, even though one spends them mostly in the observation car. The fact is, observation pure and simple is one of the most difficult things possible to a member of the human tribe--as hard as doing compulsory jig-saws; and reading humorous American magazines, one after the other, is an alternative that also requires the strong mind. If I must travel long distances by train, I want to be the engine-driver.

The country, I thought, looked less attractive {283} as I repassed it now than it looked before, and I put this down to the freeze-up, which had come unusually early, people kept saying, and gave to the land a black and ruffled look, like a sick bird's. Later it would be beautiful again in snow, and the life and work of the season of snow would begin. Meanwhile, people in the little northerly stations we passed had the appearance of having stopped work. You saw them standing about--always with their backs to buildings to get out of the shrivelling wind. I suppose in most of these places there is a between-time in which nobody can work.

Nothing much was doing in Ottawa when I got out there, but that of course was due to the earliness of the hour. It was so early that when I reached a hotel they told me breakfast was not to be had for some time yet, and so, since I was too wide-awake to go to sleep again, I thought I would spend the hour looking at the Dominion Parliament Buildings. Perhaps it was the too early hour, perhaps it was the coldness of the wind blowing round that bluff above the river on which the famous buildings stand--but I could feel none of that satisfaction, when I looked at them, which great architecture gives. The {284} situation is fine, but not the buildings. Anthony Trollope has written of them:--'As regards purity of art and manliness of conception, the work is entitled to the very highest praise.... I know no modern Gothic purer of its kind or less sullied with fictitious ornamentation'--but I think he must have breakfasted handsomely first. Some one else, but I forget who, and it does not matter, has described the buildings as 'a noble pile,' which seems to hit the mark, if, as I fancy, that mid-Victorian expression suggests something on so large a scale, which has obviously cost such a lot of money, that vague admiration is the least of the emotions which should be produced by a sight of it. 'A noble pile,' then, let them remain, especially since, seen from some distance, with the beautiful river below and a spacious country stretched before them, they possess a certain imposing appearance. Closer up, one is less impressed. There is a long-backed unmeaning set to the buildings, as though the architects had found concentration a vexation, and had decided to extend instead. Still, they might have elaborated painfully, and they did not--except for those little turrets on the side-buildings, surmounted by railings which one associates chiefly with {285} the London area. Area railings are meant, I suppose, to prevent errand-boys from falling into the areas, but there can be few errands to the roof of the Parliament Buildings. In passing, I did not like those hundreds of silly little windows that peep all round: one, as it were, for every official to peep from.

Reflection should serve to temper criticism, however. The year 1867, in which the Dominion Parliament required its Houses, was not one of brilliant achievement in the architectural world; and when it is remembered that Canada itself was also a new country, the wonder is that nothing worse was built. Only a few years before, we in England had been transfixed with admiration of the Crystal Palace; Royal Academicians were above criticism, and 'almost too great to live'; bright in the sun gleamed the Albert Memorial. We ruled the waves, but not the arts; and 'our daughter of the snows' took over our large ideas and our little taste in building.

Whether she took over our political ideas is another matter, upon which I pondered as I contemplated those Parliament Buildings. There stood the House in which Sir John Macdonald evolved that east-and-west policy which seemed such an empire-cementing thing; {286} where Sir Wilfrid Laurier teaches the world how to lead a party; where not as yet had been ratified that Reciprocity Agreement with America which has been agitating our statesmen so much this year, though, even as I gazed, it must have been in course of construction. Would an Imperial Parliament sit there some day, I wondered, and direct the affairs of the British Empire from what would be, not so long hence, a far more central and important spot than Westminster? I could not quite imagine it. I could not even like the idea, as some Imperialists at any price can. Home Rule for England is one of the policies I shall always stand for, I believe; even when Canadians have that grasp of Imperial affairs which we in England impute to them--by comparison, we generally mean, with our own English political opponents--that grasp which, as a matter of fact, is much less common among them at present than it is among us, whether we be Liberals or Conservatives.

I wish our party political system allowed of our minimising the zeal and intelligence of the side opposed to us without magnifying those qualities in a third party which, in strict reality, it scarcely possesses. I wish, for example, that Tariff Reformers could deride {287} the Imperialistic attitude of Free Traders (and vice versa) without declaring that Canadians could in this matter teach us all lessons. For the truth is that Canadians could not give lessons to either in this matter. They have an Imperial sentiment all right, but they do not worry over it as we do. Take that question of Preference which has been making us all so hot for several years now. It never troubled Canadians at all. They thought that there was a good deal in it from a business point of view, and they were prepared to try it--and did so. But they never for a moment fancied or perturbed themselves with thinking that, either with or without it, the Empire would totter to its fall. Our fervours left them entirely cool; and in that business-like state of coolness, after duly granting us Preference, they have, equally duly in their opinion, set out to establish reciprocity with the States. The only thing likely to make them hot in this matter is the suggestion that they have been lacking in Imperial spirit. Of course they had been lacking in that early, romantic, self-immolating and fantastically quaint, Imperial spirit which we attributed to them--just to make our own Little Englanders try and feel ashamed; but, equally again, they {288} never had it, and would not dream of claiming it even if they could be made to understand what our devotees meant by it. To forgo trade in order to uphold the flag would not appeal to a Canadian--mainly for the reason that the idea would strike him as grotesque.

In the matter of this Reciprocity Agreement, then, I think it is we who are wrong if we make it a reproach to the Canadians. It may or may not be a sound economic proceeding, but it is entered upon without prejudice to Imperial sentiment. Only if we first assume that all Canadians have been burning for years past with the same zeal for an Imperial Zollverein that has animated our own Tariff Reformers, can we now credit them with cooling off and backsliding. But such an assumption would be a very great mistake. All assumptions that Canadians view our political problems from our point of view are great mistakes. They no more do so than we view theirs from their point of view. We do not. Nothing struck me more forcibly than the fact that what causes us political turmoil in Great Britain is viewed with complete coolness in Canada, and that what Canadians are keen after remains unknown to us. While I was there, I kept seeing letters {289} in English papers (reproduced sometimes--but very briefly--in Canadian papers) saying that Canada was whole-hearted for Tariff Reform, or that Canadian Free Traders were sweeping the country; whereas the fact was and is, that these two terms (whatever might in reality be the state of Canadian parties) never conveyed in the least in Canada what we mean by them, and therefore conveyed no truth that could be understood of both peoples equally.

Does this inter-Imperial lack of comprehension threaten the future of the Empire? It might seem so at first. Lack of understanding between fellow-citizens cannot be a good thing in itself. But it has this merit, that it makes real interference on either side a rare thing. If we understood--or believed we understood--what was for the future welfare of Canada, it is doubtful if we could refrain from pointing it out, even if we could refrain from insisting upon it. If the Canadians thought themselves capable of directing us in the right way--say in the management of India--they would feel urged to give their opinion, and Anglo-Indian officials, having this last straw added to their backs, would strike _en masse_. As it is, we let each other's real problems {290} alone, and are satisfied with our own solutions of them. Imperial Conferences are necessary because in some matters the Empire must work together, having the same interests. Cables and Dreadnoughts are cases in point. That Great Britain still bears the main expenditure in all such matters is proof, if proof be needed, that what American papers somewhat unkindly call 'British Island Politics' are, still, more Imperial than the politics of any other part of the Empire. We pay and we ask for little in return, and the Empire will go on, even now that Canada has become a nation. Only some mistake could, I think, part us--a mistake as big as that which parted us from the United States--and we are not likely to make it; nor is Canada likely to wish for it, however great she may picture and make her own destiny. But that she will want to rule entirely in her own house is certain. Canadians themselves--the voters I mean--are not likely for a long time to wish for much more than they have in the way of national liberty. I do not think they would much worry as to whether their ambassador at Washington, for example, was appointed from Ottawa or from London. The results in either case would be likely to be very similar, {291} and in any case, as I have said, Canadians are not obsessed at present with politics. But it has to be remembered that besides Canadian voters, there are Canadian politicians, and since it is in the nature of politicians to be at least as ambitious as other people, it is natural that Canadian politicians should want in their own hands all the important posts that are to be had. Just at present Canadians take such a disrespectful view of politicians in general--which is unfair no doubt to their own political representatives, but natural perhaps in a new country which has not too much time to reflect upon the real benefactions politicians may confer, and rather fancies, from isolated examples, that 'graft' is what they are usually after--that they are not likely to demand of their own accord more power to the hand of their own statesmen. But the accord of voters depends in due course upon the persuasive powers of candidates, and I foresee the candidates persuading pretty hard in the near future: all of which will make work for Imperial Conferences of the near future, but not, it is to be hoped, impossible work.

I find that having represented myself as reflecting upon Canadian politics outside the {292} Dominion Parliament Buildings, I have altogether omitted Canadian politics in favour of Imperial considerations. Beyond showing, or rather trying to show, that Canadian politics--the things that really interest Canadians--are not in the least what we are accustomed to think them, I have got no further at all. Still, that--if I have shown it--is something, for it may suggest to some gentle reader that an Empire is not a simple, extended Great Britain, in which every one thinks precisely the same things to be of the same immediate importance; of which all the emotions and reflections may be realised in full by a perusal, let us say, of the Standard of Empire.

And so I remove myself from that bluff above the river at Ottawa to my hotel, and thence to divers parts of that charming town, which looked then--for Parliament was not sitting--something like Oxford out of term; and thence to the train carrying me back to Montreal and Quebec.

Afterwards came the return across the Atlantic to a country smaller than Canada--(less than a week of steaming, my friends), in company with Canadians who were returning to see what the old place was like after many years. I think they would not be {293} ill-pleased with it, small as it is by comparison. I hope they found behind it some of the qualities which, as it seems to me, are to be found also in THE FAIR DOMINION, making it to my eyes yet more fair.

{294}

INDEX

ABBOTT, MOUNT, 215.

Alaska, 274.

Alberta, 13, 138, 141, 142, 143, 164, 165, 217.

Alps, the, 177, 180, 199.

Angell, Norman, 68.

Annunzio, Gabriel d', 178.

Anticosti, 16.

Archangel, 13.

Athelmer, 233, 238.

BAIE ST. PAUL, 40.

Banff, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 183.

Beacon Hill, 276.

Beaupré, 47, 48, 49, 50.

Beaupré, Ste. Anne de, 48, 51, 53.

Bears, Grizzly, 246-50.

Belle Isle, 16.

Birmingham, 156.

Blondin, 90.

Bourassa, Mr., 30, 31, 33, 85, 86.

Bourne, Archbishop, 17.

Bow River, 141, 144, 179.

Bradley, A. G., 31.

British Columbia, 188, 216, 237, 238, 256, 274, 279.

Bruce, Randolph, 221, 222, 225.

Brussels, 88.

CADBORO' BAY, 276.

Calgary, 141, 143, 144, 145, 163, 164, 170, 195.

Canadian Pacific Railway, 18, 141, 142, 152, 162, 182, 261.

Cartier, 40.

Ceylon, 267.

Champlain, 35, 42.

Chicago, 159.

Chicoutimi, 39, 43.

Chuzzlewit, Martin, 128.

Colonial Intelligence for Educated Women, Committee of, 195.

Columbia River, 218, 219, 222, 224, 230, 233.

Columbia Valley, 215, 216, 225, 234, 238.

Cooper, Fenimore, 92.

Covent Garden, 117.

DICKENS, CHARLES, 29, 90.

Dufferin Terrace, 26, 27, 28.

Duncans, 267, 268, 270.

EDEN CITY, 129.

Edmonton, 268.

Eliott, Professor, 163.

Emerald Lake, 206.

_Empress of Britain_, S.S., 1.

Eucharistic Congress, the, 17, 77, 78, 79.

FARNHAM, MOUNT, 229.

Fort William, 114.

Fraser River, 257.

Free Trade, 29, 149, 287.

French River, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99, 101, 102.

GLACIER HOUSE, 215.

Glasgow, 73.

Golden, 215, 216, 217, 218, 224, 232, 236, 237, 238, 239, 241, 244.

Gordon, Adam, 252.

Grand Trunk Railway, 261.

Grasmere, 268.

HAMMERSMITH, 94.

Hampstead Heath, 117.

Heights of Abraham, 34.

Hennepin, Father Louis, 89.

Hesse, Landgraf of, 226.

Hewlett, Maurice, 250.

Higgsville, 128.

Himalayas, the, 177, 227.

Home Rule, 31.

Hoogly, the, 44.

Howells, W. D., 90.

Hudson Bay Company, 115.

IMPERIALISM, 33, 36, 287, 290.

Illecillewaet Glacier, the Great, 215.

Iron Top Mountain, 224.

Irrigation Company, Columbia Valley, 237.

Irrigation Works, Columbia Valley, 221.

KAMLOOPS, 216, 229.

Keats, John, 200.

Kildonan, 123, 124.

Kinchinjunga, 177.

Kipling, Rudyard, 105, 106, 253.

LACHINE RAPIDS, 77.

Laggan, 200.

Laurentian Mountains, 27.

Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, 278, 286.

Liverpool, 1.

LONDON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, 152.

London, 73, 86, 117, 118, 119, 285.

Loti, Pierre, 110, 111.

Louise, Lake, 198, 199, 200, 206.

Lourdes, 47.

MACDONALD, SIR JOHN, 285.

Manchester, 156.

Manitoba, 114, 144.

Marseilles, 77.

Maskinongé, 93, 96, 99, 100.

M'Bride, Richard, 275, 278, 279.

Meredith, George, 130.

Montmorency Falls, 38, 39, 49, 50.

Montreal, 17, 34, 45, 56, 64, 66, 67, 68, 69, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 79, 80, 81, 84, 292.

Moosejaw, 126, 156.

Moraine Lake, 201, 204.

Murray Bay, 40.

Muskoka Lakes, 92.

NAPOLEON, 120.

National Park, 179, 181.

New Brunswick, 32, 237, 238, 242.

New York, 39, 51, 154, 159.

Niagara Falls, 38, 89, 90.

Nightingale, 163, 165, 166.

North Pole, 136.

Nottingham, 28.

Nova Scotia, 32.

OJIBWAY, AN, 96, 97, 99, 100.

Okanagan, 216, 219.

Olympian Mountains, 276.

Ontario, 8, 13, 32, 33, 45, 85, 109, 111, 112, 113, 141, 151.

Orléans, Ile d', 40.

Ottawa, 84, 282, 283, 292.

Oxford, 77, 292.

PANAMA CANAL, 261, 274.

Paris, 77, 117, 158.

Parkman, Francis, 41, 42.

Parnell, Charles Stewart, 31.

Peterborough, 8, 81.

Pickerel, 95, 98.

Pitt, William, 265.

Police, North-West Mounted, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136.

Port Arthur, 114.

QUAMICHAN LAKE, 268.

Quebec, 18, 20, 22, 26, 28, 31, 32, 34, 37, 38, 39, 45, 49, 50, 53, 56, 60, 61, 64, 111, 112, 292.

REVELSTOKE, 253.

Red River, 123, 144.

'Reddy,' 265.

Regina, 82, 126, 131, 132, 136, 156, 218.

Remittance Men, 161.

Rockefeller, 23.

Rockies, the, 170, 171, 177, 181, 198, 209, 215, 216, 230.

Rome, 34, 79.

Roosevelt, Theodore, 45.

Russia, 135.

SAGUENAY, 37, 39, 41, 43, 44, 46.

San Francisco, 258.

St. Irénée, 40.

St. John, Reversible Falls of, 237.

St. Laurent, 67, 68.

St. Lawrence, 16, 26, 34, 39, 40, 44, 57.

St. Malo, 41.

Saskatchewan, 144.

Seattle, 260, 264, 274.

Selkirk, Lord, 123.

Selkirks, the, 215, 216, 224, 225, 253.

Siegfried, André, 18, 147.

Sir Donald, Mount, 215.

Spain, 156.

Spillamacheen, 232, 234, 237.

Strathmore, 163, 164.

Sudbury, 102, 107.

Superior, Lake, 114.

TADOUSAC, 40, 41, 42, 44.

Tariff Reform, 149, 286, 288.

Thames, 94.

Thebes, 127, 128, 129.

Toronto, 29, 65, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 91, 92, 93.

Town Planning Bill, 140.

Trachoma, 3.

Trinité, Cap, 43, 44.

Trollope, Anthony, 284.

ULSTER, 33.

VALLEY OF THE TEN PEAKS, 201, 202, 204.

Vancouver, 196, 236, 258, 259, 261, 262, 263, 264, 265, 267, 273, 274, 282.

Vancouver Island, 266-71, 274.

Vannutelli, Cardinal, 78.

Victoria, 196, 267, 273, 275, 277, 280.

WALKER, BRUCE, 119, 120.

Webb, Captain, 90.

Wilmer, 216, 220, 221, 224, 232, 236.

Windermere, Lake, 222, 223.

Winnipeg, 8, 84, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 123, 124, 127, 128, 130, 144.

Wolfe, General, 34, 35, 39.

Wood, Major, 34.

World's Fair, the, 82, 83, 87, 88.

YOHO VALLEY, 206, 207, 209, 210.

Young Women's Christian Association, 196.

Yukon, 188, 250, 251, 252.

Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty at the Edinburgh University Press