, through the
Marquess of Ripon, then secretary of state for the colonies, that the
"general economic results" of the preferential trade recommended by the
conference "would not be beneficial to the empire." Lord Ripon even
questioned the desirability of denouncing at that time the treaties with
Belgium and Germany--a subject which had engaged the attention of the
Canadian parliament in 1892, when the government, of which Sir John
Abbott was premier, passed an address to the Queen, requesting that
immediate steps be taken to free Canada from treaty restrictions
"incompatible with the rights and powers conferred by the British North
America act of 1867 for the regulation of the trade and commerce of the
Dominion." Any advantages which might be granted by Great Britain to
either Belgium or the German Zollverein under these particular treaties,
would also have to be extended to a number of other countries which had
what is called the "favoured nations clause" in treaties with England.
While these treaty stipulations with regard to import duties did not
prevent differential treatment by the United Kingdom in favour of
British colonies, or differential treatment by British colonies in
favour of each other, they did prevent differential treatment by British
colonies in favour of the United Kingdom. As we shall presently see,
when I come to review the commercial policy of the new Dominion
government three years later, the practical consequence of these
treaties was actually to force Canada to give for some months not only
to Germany and Belgium, but to a number of other countries, the same
commercial privileges which they extended in 1897 to the parent state.

Among the difficult questions, which have agitated the Dominion from
time to time and perplexed both Conservative and Liberal politicians,
are controversies connected with education. By the British North America
act of 1867 the legislature of each province may exclusively make laws
in relation to education, but at the same time protection is afforded
to denominational or dissentient schools by giving authority to the
Dominion government to disallow an act clearly infringing the rights or
privileges of a religious minority, or to obtain remedial legislation
from parliament itself according to the circumstances of the case. From
1871 until 1875 the government of the Dominion was pressed by petitions
from the Roman Catholic inhabitants of New Brunswick to disallow an act
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