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 to England, would be prepared to back her in making a stand against American pretensions. Similarly, the Commonwealth will be interested to know exactly how the Dominion Government would regard a quarrel with an Asiatic Power over the 'White-Australia' policy. Therefore it seems that the system of the Conference, although open to all manner of hypothetical objections, at least would be an advance upon the present haphazard system, under which it is a mere speculation whether the States will back each other in any particular line of foreign policy.

The relations of Canada with the United States have always been a source of Imperial risk. Whenever the negotiations over Canadian-American questions have been conducted by Englishmen, the result almost invariably has been disastrous to Canada, and therefore to the cause of Imperial alliance. Mr. Chamberlain's period of office was marked by a new departure in this connection. When it appeared in 1898 that certain Canadian-American questions were ripe for settlement, he agreed to an arrangement which practically left the negotiations in the hands of Canadian statesmen. The International Commission was represented on our side by four Canadians and only one Englishman. Consequently the Americans failed to get their way by the methods of bluff and misrepresentation which had answered in dealing with inexperienced Englishmen. The Canadians were greatly elated by the confidence shown on our part in their ability to handle the matter, and for the time being there was great enthusiasm in Canada for the principle of Imperial alliance. Indeed, the eagerness of the English-speaking population to assist worthily in the South African War may be traced largely to the influence of Mr. Chamberlain's new departure. But in the end, after the war, the Americans succeeded in getting the principal question at issue—that of the Alaska boundary—arranged in London over the head of the Dominion Government, by means of obvious trickery. This conclusion of