ffending France
by making Port aux Basques, which is less than eighty miles south-west
of Bay St. George and beyond the French treaty limits, the terminus of
the line.

There must, then, have been some concealed reason behind the pretended
one. It is absolutely certain that there were two influences at work
in London which were directly antagonistic to the true interest both
of Great Britain and Newfoundland. One was that of the Canadian party,
who are determined to boycott every scheme that would make any
Newfoundland port a rival of Halifax. The other is the British, or
mercantile, party, who for two hundred years past have consistently
and successfully opposed the introduction of any industry into the
island that would enable the fishermen to escape from their present
bondage.

If either Beaconsfield or Salisbury had really cared for England's
interests, they must have foreseen that, even if they were willing to
sacrifice Newfoundland, the position they took in this matter must in
the highest degree be damaging to the European prestige of Great
Britain. When republican France was threatened by all the tyrants of
Europe, the terrible Danton said, "Il nous faut de l'audace, et encore
de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace." To-day the Frenchman requires
no Danton to teach him the lesson; for the extraordinary confession of
weakness made by the Jingo government of 1878 in refusing to sanction
a line that could have been built without touching the French shore
question at all was a direct encouragement to the French to persevere
in that policy which they have since so successfully pursued in
Madagascar, in Siam, in Africa, and in Newfoundland.

No matter whether the French claims in Newfoundland be right or wrong,
the Beaconsfield-Salisbury government have practically surrendered the
matter; and the only thing left for the British government is to
compensate Newfoundland for its loss, as America was compensated for
the "Alabama" damages. But they will not do it.

Mr. Whiteway had to find another means of helping the colony. He was
obliged to choose between two alternatives,--either to build no
railway at all or only one which would avoid the very districts which,
for the benefit of the settler, ought to opened for settlement.

So the line to Harbor Grace was built. But even this the wealthy
British did not build. It was left to an American syndicate. P.T.
McG., writing of this line to the New York _Weekly Post_ of Ja