what happened in the case of some of the American
states, there was no repudiation of debts by Canadian municipalities.

The year 1851 is likewise famous for the Great Exhibition. Britain had
adopted free trade, to her great advantage. All the nations of the
world were expected to follow her example and remove the barriers to
commerce to the benefit of all. The freedom of intercourse between
nation and nation was to slay the jealousy and suspicion which lead to
war. To inaugurate the new era of peace and unfettered trade the
Crystal Palace was reared in Hyde Park--'the palace made of windies,'
as Thackeray calls it--and filled with the products of the world. The
idea originated with the Prince Consort, and it was worthy of him. For
the first time the various nations could compare their resources and
manufactures with one another. Canada {146} had her share in it. As a
demonstration of general British superiority in manufactures the Great
Exhibition was a great success; but as heralding an era of universal
peace it was a mournful failure. Three years later England, France,
and Sardinia were fighting Russia to prop the rotten empire of the
Turk. Then came the Great Mutiny; then the four years of fratricidal
strife between the Northern and Southern States; then the war of
Prussia and Austria; then the overthrow of France by Germany. All
these events had their influence on Canada. The 100th Regiment was
raised in Canada for the Crimea. Joseph Howe went to New York on a
desperate recruiting mission. Nova Scotia ordained a public fast on
the news of the massacre of white women and children by the Sepoys.
Thousands of Canadians enlisted in the Northern armies. The Papal
Zouaves went from Quebec to the aid of the Pope against Garibaldi. All
these were symptoms that Canadians were beginning to outgrow their
narrow provincialism and to perceive their relations to the outer
world, and especially towards Britain. The country was reaching out
towards the role which in our own day she has played in the Great War.

{147}

Meanwhile Lord Elgin was playing his part as constitutional governor,
standing by his principle of accepting democracy even when democracy
went wrong. Though inconspicuous, he was always planning for the
benefit of the country he had in charge. He had visions of an Imperial
_zollverein_, but he perceived clearly the immense and immediate
advantages of freer trade relations between the British Ame