eyance for twelve years by the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, which
opened up the provincial fisheries to the people of the United States,
on condition of free trade between the provinces and that country in
certain natural products of the mines, fisheries, and farms of the two
peoples. This measure was in itself an acknowledgment of the growing
importance of the provinces, and of the larger measure of
self-government now accorded them. The treaty only became law with the
consent of the provincial legislatures; and, although the Canadian
governments were not directly represented by any of their members, the
governor-general, Lord Elgin, who personally conducted the negotiations
on the part of England at Washington, in this, as in all other matters
touching colonial interests, was assisted by the advice of his
responsible ministers. The treaty lasted until 1866, when it was
repealed by the action of the United States in accordance with the
provision bringing it to a conclusion after one year's notice from one
of the parties interested.

The commercial classes in the Eastern and Western States were, on the
whole, favourable to an enlargement of the treaty, so as to bring in
British Columbia and Vancouver Island, now colonies of the Crown, and
to include certain other articles the produce of both countries, but
the real cause of its repeal was the prejudice in the North against the
provinces for their supposed sympathy for the Confederate States during
the War of the Rebellion. A {377} large body of men in the North had
brought themselves foolishly to believe that the repeal of the treaty
would, sooner or later, force the provinces into annexation. A raid
made by a few rash Confederates who had found refuge in Canada, on the
St. Albans Bank, in the State of Vermont, deeply incensed the people of
the North, though at no time could it be proved that the Canadian
authorities had the least suspicion of the proposed expedition. On the
contrary, they brought the culprits to trial, placed companies of
volunteers along the frontier, and even paid a large sum of money in
acknowledgment of an alleged responsibility when some of the stolen
money was returned to the robbers on their release by a Montreal
magistrate. When we review the history of those times and consider the
difficult position in which Canada was necessarily placed, it is
remarkable how honourably her government discharged its duties of a
neutral between the bellig