on was just and
expedient, a reasonable compromise between seriously conflicting
claims. Nor would he listen to those who called upon the Liberals to
emulate the Liberals of continental Europe in their anti-clerical
campaigns. He preferred to take tolerant Britain as his model rather
than intolerant France or Germany. Once more he declared, as he had
declared in Quebec twelve years before, that he was a Liberal of the
English school, not of the French.

Outvoted in parliament, the champions of militant Protestantism found
strong support in the country. An Equal Rights Association was formed
to resist the danger of Catholic domination which many believed
imminent. It had less influence in the politics of the Dominion than
in the politics of Ontario, where Oliver Mowat was solemnly accused of
having conspired with Honore Mercier to raise the Jesuits to power. It
contained many able and sincere men, yet its influence soon ceased. By
1894 its place was taken by the Protestant Protective Association, or
P.P.A., a boycotting organization imported from the United States,
which had a deservedly short {118} life. But, while the fires burned
low in the East, the torch had been passed on to the far West--from
D'Alton M'Carthy to Joseph Martin. Of the conflagration which ensued
we shall learn in a later chapter.

Men will sometimes pray, or may try to prevent others from praying as
they list; but they must always eat. The pendulum of public interest
swung back to trade relations with the United States. Depression still
pervaded farming and manufacturing centres alike, though the
abandonment of the policy of federal coercion had lessened political
discontent. The return of the Republicans to power in 1888, it has
been seen, appeared to put freer trade relations out of the question.
The M'Kinley tariff of 1890 slammed the door in Canada's face, for in
order to delude the American farmer into believing that protection was
in his interest, this tariff imposed high and often prohibitive duties
on farm products.

Should Canada retaliate, or make still another effort at a reasonable
arrangement with its unneighbourly neighbour? The possibility of
adjustment was not as remote as might have seemed probable. After all,
reciprocity is as much a protective as a {119} free-trade doctrine,
since, as usually interpreted, it implies that the reduction in duties
is a detriment to the country making it, only to be balanced by the