speaking nations. The course
of the war, the intrigues of European courts to secure intervention on
behalf of Spain, and the lining up of a British squadron beside Dewey
in Manila Bay when a German Admiral blustered, revealed Great Britain
as the one trustworthy friend the United States possessed abroad. The
annexation of the Philippines and the definite entry of the United
States upon world politics broke down the irresponsible isolation
which British ministers had found so much of a barrier to diplomatic
accommodations. With John Hay and later Elihu Root at the State
Department, and Lansdowne and Grey at the Foreign Office in London,
there began an era of good feeling between the two countries.

* See "The Path of Empire".

Ottawa and Washington were somewhat slower in coming to terms. Many
difficulties can arise along a three thousand mile border, and with a
people so sure of themselves as the Americans were at this period and a
people so sensitive to any infringements of their national rights as
the Canadians were, petty differences often loomed large. The Laurier
Government, therefore, proposed shortly after its accession to power in
1896 that an attempt should be made to clear away all outstanding issues
and to effect a trade agreement. A Joint High Commission was constituted
in 1898. The members from the United States were Senator Fairbanks,
Senator Gray, Representative Nelson Dingley, General Foster, J.A.
Kasson, and T.J. Coolidge of the State Department. Great Britain was
represented by Lord Herschell, who acted as chairman, Newfoundland
by Sir James Winter, and Canada by Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Sir Richard
Cartwright, Sir Louis Davies, and John Charlton, M.P.

The Commission held prolonged sittings, first at Quebec and later
at Washington, and reached tentative agreement on nearly all of the
troublesome questions at issue. The bonding privileges on both sides the
border were to be given an assured basis; the unneighborly alien labor
laws were to be relaxed; the Rush-Bagot Convention regarding armament
on the Great Lakes was to be revised; Canadian vessels were to
abandon pelagic sealing in Bering Sea for a money compensation; and a
reciprocity treaty covering natural products and some manufactures was
sketched out. Yet no agreement followed. One issue, the Alaska boundary,
proved insoluble, and as no agreement was acceptable which did not
cover every difference, the Commission never again assembled after i