c in the presence
of the present King, when he said: "We are reaching the day when our
parliament will claim co-equal rights with the British parliament
and when the only ties binding us together will be a common flag and
a common crown." He was equally explicit two years later when,
addressing the Ontario club in Toronto, he said: "We are under the
suzerainty of the King of England. We are his loyal subjects. We bow
the knee to him. But the King of England has no more rights over us
than are allowed him by our own Canadian parliament. If this is not
a nation, what then is a nation?" Laurier looked forward to the
complete enfranchisement of Canada as a nation under the British
Crown, with a status of complete equality with Great Britain in the
British family. A keen-witted member of the Imperial Conference of
1911, Sir John G. Findlay, Attorney-General for New Zealand, saw the
reality behind the anomalous position which Sir Wilfrid held. "I
recognized," he says, "that Canadian nationalism is beginning to
resent even the appearance--the constitutional forms--of a
sub-ordination to the Mother country." "And," he added, revealing
the clarity of his understanding, "this is not a desire for
separation." But it was not in London that the question of Imperial
relationships presented its most thorny aspect. Laurier could
maintain there a stand-pat, blocking attitude with no more
disagreeable consequences than perhaps a little social chilliness,
the symbolical "gracious duchess" showing a touch of hauteur and
disappointment. It was in the reactions of the issue upon Canadian
politics that Laurier met with his real difficulties. He could not,
by tactics of procrastination or evasion, keep the question out
of the domestic field; the era of abject, passive and unthinking
colonialism was beginning to pass; and the spirit of nationalism was
stirring the sluggish waters of Canadian politics. Sir Wilfrid had
to face the issue and make the best of it. He handled the question
with consummate adroitness and judgment; but ultimately its
complexities baffled him and the Imperialists who wanted everything
done for the Empire and the so-called "Nationalists" of Quebec, who
wanted nothing done, joined forces against him.

THE CANADIAN IMPERIALISTS

It was the Imperialists in the old country and in Canada who gave
the issue no rest; they believed, apparently with good reason, that
a little urgency was all that was needed to make Canada the v