influence
far out of proportion to the contemporary judgment of the event; beyond,
perhaps, what the Queen and Prince Consort in their wise and patriotic
policy of the time hoped to achieve. It was, in reality, the first break
in the hitherto steady progress of the Manchester school theory
regarding ultimate Empire disruption; the first check given to the
widely accepted doctrine that the Colonies were of no use except for
trade and, in any case, were like the fruit which ripens only to fall
from the parent stem.

Mr. Bright, Lord John Russell, Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Mr. Cobden,
Lord Ashburton, Lord Ellenborough, Lord Derby, and many others, were at
this time touched with the blight of these theories and to them there
was no sense, and nothing but expense, in trying to cultivate Colonial
loyalty or promote Colonial co-operation.

IMPERIAL CONDITIONS IN 1860

To this school--and it was one embracing many able men and
thinkers--trade was more important than any other consideration, and the
greatest object of external policy was the development of friendly
relations with the United States. American extension of territory was
not looked upon with alarm even when it took a slice of the Maine
boundary and threatened trouble over that of Oregon. The Republic had
not yet gone in seriously for high protection and did not, therefore,
vitally touch the pockets of patriots who could not foresee, even in
their keen regard for commerce and its development, that trade and
territory were in the future to be most intimately related.

The Queen and Prince Consort did, however, understand something of the
future of the Empire--dimly it might be but still effectively. It had
been announced during the progress of the Crimean War that a Royal tour
of British America might be arranged within a few years, and the
Canadian Legislature, on May 14th, 1859, took advantage of the coming
completion of the great Victoria Bridge across the St. Lawrence, at
Montreal, to tender a formal invitation to the Sovereign herself to be
present at the opening ceremonies; to receive a personal tribute of the
unwavering attachment of her subjects; and to more closely unite the
bonds which attached the Province to the Empire. This unanimously-passed
address was taken to London by Mr. Speaker Henry Smith, and the response
elicited was most favourable to the indirect request of the Assembly and
Legislative Council--the initiative in the matter being due to