for and complete membership secured. Often substantial sums are granted for education.

The causes of this remarkable success have been several. Chief among them has been the material progress of the working classes, and especially of the upper tier of skilled workmen, during the latter half of the nineteenth century. There followed, along with this material prosperity, a striking development of the trade unions, the friendly societies, and, as has been said, of the co-operative movement. It might have been thought that these large co-operative establishments with their picked agents, cash payments, and the support of the workers, would have driven the petty retail store at once out of business. Probably no economic unit is as inefficient and wasteful as the small retail store. That this has not occurred all along the line is due in part to the conservative tendencies of the British people, and due in part also to poverty. But as the sense of the solidarity of labor grows, so there must be a continued expansion of this movement which has done so much to bring about a more rational and economical organization of retail trade.

The co-operative store movement in Great Britain has been so strong as to go on largely by its own impetus. The traditional rate of dividend on purchase has probably been maintained in part by keeping prices high, and not altogether by savings from ordinary retail prices. The co-operators seem willing to pay a little more in order to get their accustomed dividend. Nevertheless, as has been said, they have not been designed merely as money-making institutions. They have done much to promote the material welfare of the workingmen, and something to train them in ways of common action.

On the continent of Europe, too-particularly in Germany and Belgium-there has been a considerable development of distributive co-operation. Co-operation there also has been partly middle class, and partly working class. It is the latter phase that is significant. In the countries mentioned the growth of workingmen's stores has been allied with the socialistic movement. It should be borne in mind, however, that the co-operative and socialistic ideals differ in essential points. But there is a great opportunity on the Continent to displace wasteful retail trading with efficient co-operative enterprise.

In the United States and Canada co-operation has never had the same sort of growth or importance. Both in the east and the west in Canada there have been some successful experiments in distributive co-operation. But there has been nothing attempted of any large consequence. For this, several reasons may be advanced. Greater mobility of population is an obstacle. The Canadian workingman moves readily from place to place, and many thousands have sought new homes yearly in the great West. The greater ease with which capable persons rise in the social and industrial scale makes for independent action. Greater prosperity makes the workers indifferent to small savings. This is strikingly exemplified in British Columbia, where retail dealers affect a contempt for the one cent piece. And, finally, retail shopkeeping is usually conducted with fair efficiency. The department store has become a characteristic feature of the retail trade of Canada and the United States. Nevertheless, a great deal of wasteful retail shopkeeping remains. It does appear to me that, notwithstanding all the objections given, there is a distinct opportunity in Canada to-day to reduce the cost of living through co-operative enterprise. This is true not only for the city but for the rural districts. And recent events show which way the wind blows. The Ontario Government, for example, is to be most highly commended for the aid given, through the district representatives of the agricultural department, to the farmers in teaching them better methods of marketing through the co-operative process. The province of Saskatchewan has sent a commission to Europe to report upon the best method of furnishing cheap credit facilities to agriculture. A special study in that connection, will be made of the German co-operative credit societies. But the present article is concerned chiefly with co-operation in the retail trade; and the other fields of opportunity must be left for a later study.

In conclusion it may be said that experience has shown that co-operation is not likely to revolutionize the social order. Economists do not now assign it the importance in their scheme for human betterment that they did a generation ago. Other ways of mitigating inequality and widening opportunity are now more widely advocated-labor organization, labor legislation, extension of public management and control, or even

socialism. Yet, when all is said, co-operation is bound to play a great rôle in widening and enlarging the economic opportunities of the working classes of this country.

THE BRITISH POLITICAL SITUATION.

"The worst of being on a pedestal," according to George Meredith, "is that you are liable to fall off it." The British cabinet of all the talents seems at present to be in this peril. The adverse tide of bye-elections has alarmed the most optimistic supporters of the government. It is a curious reversal of the usual situation that the Liberal government is now strongest on its foreign policy and weakest on its home policy. The Insurance Act continues unpopular; the administration appears to have been faulty and unsympathetic in many cases, the general strike of the doctors' trade union has hampered, though it has not blocked, the provision of medical benefits, and unscrupulous opponents who have no faintest intention of doing away with the contributory feature of the measure, yet make capital by criticizing it. The Marconi revelations have revealed a curious levity and indiscretion in a Chancellor of Exchequer and an Attorney-General. To a minister whose chief stock in trade is denunciation of the idle rich they are proving especially damaging but Mr. Lloyd-George's sincerity, sympathy and vision are too well attested to make it possible for his opponents to succeed in their too obviously joyful attempt to drive him out of public life. The Parliament Act, by making it necessary for the government to carry through for three sessions running measures so important as Home Rule and Welsh Disestablishment, has prevented the launching of any new campaign, and for the time has put the Liberals on the defensive.

Sir Edward Grey alone has added to his reputation. Rarely has any foreign minister been so unanimously acclaimed by both friend and foe. It is thanks to his patient tact and straightforward diplomacy that the Balkan war has been confined within its early limits. The promised settlement of the Baghdad Railway question removes the only specific source of friction between Britain and Germany, the issue which first gave rise to the inky war which has waged the past ten years.

Already the reviving power of Russia and the check to Austrian expansion caused by the success of the Balkan Slavs have eased the tension in western Europe. The only criticism voiced is against the concessions made to Russia in Persia.

The chief strength of the present government is the weakness of its opponents. They have not yet found a constructive policy on which all wings of the party can unite, and leaders who can strike the country's imagination are still to seek. Given a constructive land and education programme next session, the Liberals may well restore their falling fortunes. W. W. SWANSON.

Queen's University, Kingston.

Queen's Quarterly.

VOL. XXI.

October, November, December, 1913.

No. 2

BRITISH SUPREMACY AND CANADIAN AUTONOMY: An Examination of Early Victorian Opinion Concerning Canadian Self-government.

THE first fifteen or twenty years of the Victorian era con

stitute one of the really creative periods in British Colonial theory and enterprise. But an examination of early Victorian imperialism demands, as a first condition, the dismissal of such prejudices and misjudgements as are implicit in recent terms like "Little Englander" and "Imperialist." It is, indeed, one of the objects of this essay to show how little modern party cries correspond to the ideas prevalent from 1840 to 1860, and to exhibit as the central movement in imperial matters the gradual, if at times perhaps also chaotic, development of a doctrine for the colonies, and more especially for Canada, not dissimilar to that which dominated the economic theory of the day, under the title of laissez faire.

It is important to limit the scope of the inquiry, for the problem of Canadian autonomy was strictly practical, and very pressing; there is little need to exhibit the otiose or irresponsible opinions of men or groups of men, which had no direct influence on events. Little, for example, need be said of the views of the British populace. No doubt Joseph Hume expressed opinions in which he had many sympathizers throughout the country; but his constituents were too ill-informed on Canadian politics to make their opinions worthy of study; and their heated debates, carried on in mutual improvement societies, had even less influence in controlling the actions of government, than had their leader's speeches in parliament. After the sensational beginning of the reign in Canada, public opinion directed its attention to Canadian affairs, only when fresh sensations offered themselves-and usually exhibited an