She had repeated none of the mistakes of oppression and
greed that had cost her the American colonies, and she had supposed that
her other colonies would be satisfied to belong to the British Crown.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier's hint was enough for her.
She was well aware that the tie which binds Canada to her is so slight
that it might easily be broken, and realizing the danger of the
situation, she determined to throw aside her old foreign policy, and
adopt new measures to bind her colonies more closely to her.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who is a statesman of a very high order, had
foreseen what England's answer would be, and last winter prepared the
way for the breaking of the German and Belgian treaties.
He engineered a tariff law, offering about twelve per cent reduction the
first year, and twenty-five per cent thereafter, of tariff dues to all
countries admitting Canadian goods on certain favorable terms.
It was thoroughly understood at the time that England was the only
country which could benefit by such an arrangement. England, as you
know, believes in free trade, and has now but twenty articles subject to
tariff; the most important of these are beer, wine, spirits, tobacco,
tea, coffee, and soap.
With such a very small list of dutiable imports you can readily see how
easy it is for England to be the country which gives the best terms to
Canadian goods.
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