former policy; so
they rejected the Borden Naval Bill on the ground that it ought to have
been submitted to the electorate. The vote in the Senate was fifty-one
to twenty-seven. In the Senate were fifty-four Liberals--or supporters
of Laurier--and thirty-two Conservatives, or supporters of Borden. In
other words, so remote did the possible need of defense seem that both
parties played politics with it.

For a hundred years Canada had been at peace. The Rebellion of 1837
can hardly be called a war. In 1870 the Indian unrest known as the
First Riel Rebellion had occurred, but this amounted to little more
than a joy jaunt for the troops under Lord Wolseley to Red River. The
Riel Uprising of 1885 was more serious; but every Canadian who gave the
matter any thought at all knew there had been genuine cause for
grievance among the half-breeds; and fewer lives were lost in this
rebellion than in many a train or mine accident. Canada sent to the
South African War troops who distinguished themselves to such an extent
as to give a feeling of almost false security to the Dominion. On
every frontier are men born to the rifle and the saddle--ready-made
troopers; but as the frontier shrinks, this class deteriorates and
softens.

For a hundred years Canada has been at peace with the outside world.
For three thousand miles along her southern border dwells a neighbor
who has often been a rival in trade and with whom Canada has had many a
dispute as to fisheries and boundaries and tariff, but along this
borderland of three thousand miles exists not a single fort, points not
a single gun, watches not a single soldier. It is a question if
another such example of international friendship without international
pact exists in the history of the world. Where international
boundaries in Europe bristle with forts and cannon, international
boundaries in America are a shuttle of traffic back and forth of great
migrations of population, of great waves of friendship and good feeling
which all the trade rivalries and hostile tariffs of a half century
have failed to stem. The pot shot of some fishery patrol across the
nets of a poacher on the wrong side of the international line fails to
excite anybody. Even if some flag lunatic full of whisky climbs a
flagstaff and tears down the other country's national emblem--the
boundary does not go on fire. The authorities cool such alcoholic
patriotism with a water hose, or ten days in the lock-up