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into closer relationship with the Mother Country, in which they can bear their share of the Imperial defences, and have also a share of consultation in Imperial matters, I believe the Liberal party would heartily welcome the proposal.' These are the words of a leading English statesman, the Right Hon. James Bryce. But the fact has to be faced, that when such proposals come to be made, they will nowhere meet with greater composition than in a large portion of French-Canada. That will be the time of great difficulty so far as regards the application to Canada of the 'Imperial idea.' It will be the time also—if, indeed, that time be not already come—to urge with all due consideration and defence, that the great Dominion which we know to-day, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, is not the little comer which Britain absorbed by right of conquest a century and a half ago. The federation of the Empire, if otherwise desirable and possible, will not be blocked by the spirit of racial or religious sectionalism. And in proportion as Canada can achieve solidarity for herself, and bring about the gradual suppression of such elements, whether French or English, as prevent her harmonious and homogeneous development, in like proportion will she fit herself for taking the part which longs of right to her, the leading part in the working out of a system of Imperial consolidation. She is the first of the 'new nations within the Empire.' Can she wish for a higher or a weightier rôle?