rican
colonies and the United States. Those once attained, he thought the
danger of Annexation past. His activities in his last year of office
prove that a man of ability may be a strictly constitutional governor
and yet preserve a power of initiative, of almost inestimable value.
In 1853 Lord Elgin paid a visit to England, and while there obtained
full powers to negotiate with the United States. For several years
Hincks had been doing his best to induce the American government to
consider the question of reciprocity in natural products with Canada,
but without avail. Bills to this effect had even been introduced into
Congress; but they never got beyond the preliminary stages. New
England was inclined to favour the proposal, for agriculture was
declining there before the growth of {148} manufactures. The South
favoured reciprocity rather than Annexation, for the 'irrepressible
conflict' between the slave states and the free states was every day
coming closer to observant eyes, and including Canada in the Union
meant a great accession of strength to the already populous North.
Opposition came from the farmers of the Northern states, who feared the
competition of a country, as yet, almost entirely devoted to
agriculture. General indifference, the opposition of a section,
combined with the feeling that Canada had nothing adequate to offer in
return for access to the huge American market, removed reciprocity from
the domain of practical politics. The scale was turned by the codfish
question.

Ever since the success of the Revolution the fishermen of New England
had a grievance against the British government and against the colonies
which did not revolt. They thought it most unjust that, as successful
rebels, they could not enjoy the fishing privileges of the North
Atlantic which they had enjoyed as loyal subjects. They wanted to eat
their cake and have their penny too. Of course no power on earth could
exclude them from the Banks, the great shoals in the {149} open sea,
where fish feed by millions; but territorial waters were another
matter. By the law of nations the power of a country extends over the
waters which bound it for three miles, the range of a cannon shot, as
the old phrase runs. Now it is precisely in the territorial waters of
the British American provinces that the vast schools of mackerel and
herring strike. To these waters American fishermen had not a shadow of
a right; but Yankee ingenuity wa