erents.

No doubt the position of Canada was made more difficult at that
critical time by the fact that she was a colony of Great Britain,
against whom both North and South entertained bitter feelings by the
close of the war; the former mainly on account of the escape of
Confederate cruisers from English ports, and the latter because she did
not receive active support from England. The North had also been much
excited by the promptness with which Lord Palmerston had sent troops to
Canada when Mason and Slidell were seized on an English packet on the
high seas, and the bold tone held by some Canadian {378} papers when it
was doubtful if the prisoners would be released.

Contemporaneously with the repeal of the Reciprocity Treaty came the
raids of the Fenians--bands of men who did dishonour to the cause of
Ireland, under the pretence of striking a blow at England through
Canada, where their countrymen have always found happy homes, free
government, and honourable positions. For months before the invasion
American newspapers were full of accounts of the assembling and arming
of these bands on the frontiers of Canada. They invaded the Dominion
in 1866, property was destroyed, and a number of Canadian youth lost
their lives near Ridgeway, in the Niagara district, but one O'Neil and
his collection of disbanded soldiers and fugitives from justice were
forced back by the Canadian forces to the country whose neutrality they
had outraged. The United States authorities had calmly looked on while
all the preparations for these raids were in progress. Proclamations
were at last issued by the government when the damage had been done,
and a few raiders were arrested; but the House of Representatives
immediately sent a resolution to the President, requesting him "to
cause the prosecutions, instituted in the United States courts against
the Fenians, to be discontinued if compatible with the public
interest"--a request which was complied with. In 1870 another raid[2]
was attempted on the {379} Lower Canadian frontier, but it was easily
repulsed, and the authorities of the United States did their duty with
promptitude. For all the losses, however, that Canada sustained
through these invasions of her territory, she has never received any
compensation whatever.

Out of the very circumstances which were apparently calculated to do
much injury to Canada, her people learned lessons of wisdom and
self-reliance, and were stimulated to