the future, and the need of all the help that could be
had from them, were coming to be the leading articles in the creed of
many fervent thinkers. The Imperial Federation League, founded in
London in 1884, gave {140} vigorous expression to these views; and its
Canadian branch, formed at Montreal in the next year, to be followed by
local branches from sea to sea, exercised a strong influence on the
current of Canadian thought.

The new desire to bind the colonies closer was largely due to the
revival of protection and of imperialism both in the United Kingdom and
in foreign countries. Alike in trade and in defence, colonial aid was
by many coming to be felt essential. Abroad, protection was in the
ascendant. Cobden's prophecy of the world following Britain's example
in free trade had not been fulfilled. France, Germany,
Austria-Hungary, Italy, Russia, the United States, were rearing higher
tariffs, threatening to shut out British goods. Even Canada and
Victoria had done likewise. Moreover, France and Germany and the
United States were becoming formidable rivals to Britain, as they
turned more and more from farming to manufacturing. It was little
wonder that a section of English opinion began to sigh for protected
markets, for retaliatory tariffs to force down bars abroad, and for a
revival of the old preference or monopoly in the markets of the
colonies.

Defence, too, assumed a more anxious {141} aspect. The nations of
Europe were entering on a mad scramble for empire, for colonial
possessions overseas. Russia pushed steadily westward to the Pacific
and south to the gates of India. France sought territory in Africa and
in Asia, Germany in Africa and the Pacific, Italy in Africa.
Nationalism had gone to seed in imperialism. Long prevented by
internal dissensions from competing with England in the acquisition of
territory, the nations of Europe, now that national consolidation had
been largely effected, turned to follow her example. England could not
logically object to their desire for territory or to their plans for
larger navies. Her Palmerstons and Disraelis had boasted of the might
of the empire on which the sun never set; her Froudes and Seeleys were
singing the glories of the 'expansion of England'; the man in the
street felt the manifest destiny of the Anglo-Saxon to rule the 'lesser
breeds'; while the American Mahan had made clear the importance of
sea-power and had pointed the means to the end s