d
agricultural lands of Newfoundland might have been developed. The
French shore question would have ceased to occupy the diplomatic
wiseacres, because the people would have found so much profit in other
employments as to care nothing about French competition in the cod and
lobster fishery. Newfoundland itself would have become an impregnable
arsenal for the British navy, commanding the entrances to the St.
Lawrence, and, in case of war with the United States, giving that navy
the power of practically blockading all the Atlantic coast.

All this has been thrown away, because the British Jingo supports a
Tory cabinet, which, while making theatrical demonstrations of
imperialism, neglects imperial duties and betrays imperial interests.

And look even at sober free trade Manchester, the community which is
supposed to understand the worth of money better than any other in the
world. Has it really gained by its Jingo policy? Professing to be the
stronghold of free trade, it rejected the great free-trader, John
Bright, when in Sir John Bowring's war he asked for justice to China.
It rejected Mr. Gladstone when he sought the suffrages of South-east
Lancashire that he might relieve Ireland from the insolent domination
of an alien church.

And now the great makers of cotton machinery are coming from
Lancashire to establish factories in New England, and her spinning and
weaving mill corporations are losing their markets and their profits.
Of eighteen such corporations whose shares are quoted in the
_Economist_, the highest November prices of common stock show a loss
of $2,553,294 on the paid-up capital. Supposing that, instead of
supporting the Jingoes, Manchester had sent men to Parliament who
would support a wise and conservative policy in the colonies,
Newfoundland included, would it not have been better for her
interests, to say nothing of principle?

The Newfoundlanders in Boston, Mass., held a public meeting there on
the 16th of February, at which the Rev. Frederick Woods, their
chairman, said: "If we could only take our old island, and lay her at
the feet of Uncle Sam! I wish we could." And every suggestion of
annexation to the United States was applauded by the Newfoundlanders
present.

The Newfoundlanders on the island desire annexation just as much, but
they dare not say so, for they are starving; and those who venture to
suggest separation from England would be punished by the withdrawal of
charity, if not by ev