was robbed of what are now the fertile States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, to not one foot of which the thirteen Colonies had the shadow of a claim. But the American representative was the astute and farseeing Benjamin Franklin; the English representative, the weak and ignorant Oswald. The one saw Western America as it is now; the other saw it as it was then, a wilderness of forest and swamp. Since then arbitration has cost Canada the fruits of the war of 1812-14: 4,000,000 acres of land between Lake Superior and the Lake of the Woods; an outlet on the Atlantic coast; Oregon and Washington territory (270,750 square miles); the sea-gate of the West, San Juan; and the sovereignty of the St. Lawrence on the east-to all which her right was as England's to the Isle of Wight. Still more disastrous, in a pecuniary sense, was the privilege granted by Great Britain to the United States --for the most part gratuitously-of fishing in the waters of the North Atlantic coast.' Elsewhere the picture is not more pleasing : 'Arbitration has been trying to settle the fishery dispute in Newfoundland for the past half-century; and it has failed. In South Africa it has deprived the east coast of its only safe harbour, Delagoa Bay, which, like the British Gate of the West, San Juan, was practically given away by statesmen who, while incapable of adding a single rood to the Empire, showed themselves past masters in the art of making it less. Our claim was based on Captain Owen's treaties with native chiefs in '32, and the Dutch settlement of '20. Portugal's claim was based on the Treaty of Monomotapa, 1607, a document not much more authentic than the map in "King Solomon's Mines.”› But Colonial,' who is evidently a Canadian, is bitterest against America. Her plan is to give barren privileges in exchange for substantial advantages; a very little for a great deal. For instance, by the Treaty of Washington, in return for the free navigation of the St. Lawrence for ever she granted to Canada the free navigation of Lake Michigan, and of two Arctic rivers whose very existence may be doubted, for ten years. Again, in return for the privilege of fishing in the inexhaustible grounds of the North Atlantic coast, she gave Canada the privilege of fishing in the exhausted grounds of her own coast down to the Delaware River Bluster is, however, her favourite device for getting what she wants. By its means she has obtained nearly a quarter of the whole United States at the expense of Canada.' When arbitration cases go against her she refuses to pay and sharp practice is her creed. 'Colonial,' indeed, would have no sentimental objection to going to war with America. Why should war with the United States be looked upon as a crime in 1896 when in '12 and '70 it was regarded as a matter of no importance? he asks, and though America is favourably disposed to consider an arbitration treaty, he is all for avoiding a path which has hitherto proved so disastrous. 'Friends of the movement wax eloquent on the titles of kinship. These are strong, but not quite so strong as they would have us believe. Saxon blood may flow in the veins of the average American, but it is a sadly diluted stream. How can it be otherwise when for forty years the breeding-ground has been steadily flooded with aliens, for the most part Germans, Italians, and Irish? . . . More significant still is the fact that some of the New England States would be almost depopulated were it not for a constant influx of Irish. The Australasian is of the purely British type; in the Canadian and South African that type is modified by the original French and Dutch respectively; in the American it is struggling to hold its own against alien forces embodied on a scale unexampled in history. Who can affect to believe that it can endure without the loss of its individuality?' In point of fact, England, he thinks, is cordially hated in America, and is now going the way to alienate her Colonies by testing too much their splendid loyalty." THE SAILING POWERS OF THE U.S. CRUISER, Chicago. In a note in the early part of my book, I referred to the sailing powers of cruisers, and mentioned that I had before me pictures of two celebrated cruisers, the Chicago and the Calliope, and that at any rate they were full-rigged for sailing. I was writing to Captain Mahan at the time, and happened to mention the point. In a letter to hand this morning (March 10, 1897), he says "As regards the Chicago, she could do very little under sail, and I don't believe any twin screw vessel can. I think there was |