South Africa stimulated national sentiment more than imperial. The land forces of the dominion came fully under Canadian control. Naval defense, involving greater outlay and more difficult questions of jurisdiction, was not faced until the imminence of war with Germany in 1909' compelled attention. Laurier was averse to seeing Canada drawn into "the vortex of European militarism," but when some measure of naval preparation appeared inevitable, he insisted that it should take national lines. Unfortunately, the agreement reached by all Canadian parties in 1909 to adhere to the policy of a Canadian controlled navy was disrupted by the attempt of the Conservative opposition to appeal at the same time to the ultraimperialists in Ontario, who preferred to make a contribution to a British navy and to the Nationalists in Quebec who repudiated any responsibility whatever for external wars. Time has indisputably proved Laurier right, and few to-day would question that so far as any naval defense for Canada is required, it must take the form of a Canadian navy, not a contribution of ships or men to an imperial force. centralized control of naval forces, for expeditionary land forces to be put at the disposal of the British War Office, all came to naught. In time the great majority of the members of the conference came to agree with Laurier's stand. Louis Boths particularly found in him a sure friend and a safe guide. When the testing of the empire came in the Great War, it was found to be strong, from Australia to South Africa, so far as it was founded on the freedom and equality Laurier had championed, and weak from Ireland to Egypt, where it had failed to find this sure foundation. The professional imperialists who had shouted for centralization were proved wrong, and the man they had so often attacked justified by the event. When Wilfrid Laurier gave up the seals of office after fifteen years of power, he had no reason to fear the accounting. Mistakes of policy had been made, here through careless optimism, there through lack of sufficient faith. The Government had not maintained in power all the principles and ideals it had developed in opposition. Men of doubtful integrity had more than once made their way into the inner councils of the party. Yet these sins of omission and commission were far from offsetting the great achievements of his régime. Canada had been given honest and progressive administration. The tone and temper of the debates of Parliament had been greatly raised by the dignity and tolerance of its leader. The country had developed an economic unity and a widespread prosperity hitherto unknown. It had taken its place among the nations of the world. With the great republic to the South, unceasingly friendly relations had been maintained. A new conception of empire, as a League of Nations, which was to prove a forerunner of the wider League, had been developed. In having at the helm of state in difficult and decisive times a captain so farseeing, prudent, and courageous as Wilfrid Laurier, Canada had been rarely fortunate. (To be concluded) In the colonial conferences held at intervals in London, known after 1907 as imperial conferences, an instrument was developed for consultation between the several governments of the empire. In these conferences each government met on an equality not for executive action, but for discussion and report. Incessant endeavors were made by imperialists to convert them into organs of centralized authority. All the influences of press propaganda and aristocratic social pressure were brought to bear, but in vain. Joseph Chamberlain fought hard to make over the British Empire in the image of the German, but in Laurier he met à man of equal force and greater vision. Australian orators and Round Table devotees urged varying plans of imperial centralization, but Laurier's straight and simple "No" blocked the path. Projects for imperial parliaments, for imperial councils, for |
