vernor-General working in close
conference with the prevailing Cabinet, or party in power; and a party
on the verge of enacting laws inimical to Imperial interests can be
disciplined by dismissal from office, in which case the party must
appeal to the country for re-election. That means time; and time
allows passion to simmer down; and an entire electorate is not likely
to perpetrate a policy inimical to Imperial interests. In practice,
that represents the whole, sole and entire power of England's
representative in Canada--a power less than the nod of a saloon keeper
or ward boss in the civic politics of the United States. Officially,
yes; the signature of the Governor-General is put to commissions and
appointments of first rank in the army and the Cabinet and the courts.
In reality, it is a question if any Governor in Canada since
confederation has as much as suggested the name of an applicant for
office.

On the other hand, Canada's dependence on England is even more tenuous.
Does a question come up as to the "twilight zone" of provincial and
federal rights, it is settled by an appeal to the Privy Council. Suits
from lower courts reversed by the Supreme Court of Canada can be
appealed to England for decision; and in religious disputes as to
schools--as in the famous Manitoba School Case--this right of appeal to
Imperial decision has really been the door out of dilemma for both
parties in Canada. It is a shifting of the burden of a decision that
must certainly alienate one section of votes--from the shoulders of the
Canadian parties to an impartial Imperial tribunal.

If there be any other evidence of bonds in the tangible holding Canada
to England and England to Canada--I do not know it.

II

What, then, is the tie that binds colony to Mother Country?
Tangible--it is not; but real as life or death, who can doubt, when a
self-governing colony voluntarily equips and despatches sixty thousand
men--the choice sons of the land--to be pounded into pulp in an
Imperial war? Who can doubt the tie is real, when bishops' sons,
bankers', lawyers', doctors', farmers', carpenters', teachers' and
preachers'--the young and picked heritors of the land--clamor a hundred
thousand strong to enlist in defense of England and to face howitzer,
lyddite and shell? Why not rest secure under the Monroe Doctrine that
forever forefends European conquest? It is something the outsider can
not understand. President Taft could not und