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.

When this Canadian tariff was first made the other nations smiled at it
as a meaningless piece of legislation, but as they thought over it they
saw its true meaning, and at once denounced it as an attempt to make
England false to her agreement with Germany and Belgium.

England saw the force of this herself, and did not attempt to take
advantage of the reduced rates of the Canadian tariff.

This did not disconcert Sir Wilfrid Laurier in the least. He had put the