liament then passed a loyal resolution with the consent of
both parties. In 1910 these parties began to differ. The Liberals, who
were then in power, started a distinctively Canadian navy on a very small
scale. In 1911 naval policy was, for the first time, one of the vexed
questions in a general election. In 1912 the new Conservative government
passed through the House of Commons an act authorizing an appropriation
of thirty-five million dollars for three first-class Dreadnought
battleships. This happened to be the exact sum paid by the Imperial
government for the fortification of Quebec in 1832, and considerably less
than one-thirtieth part of what the Imperial government had paid for the
naval and military protection of Canada during the British regime. The
Senate reversed the decision of the Commons in 1913, with the result that
Canada's total naval contribution {188} up to date consisted of five
years' discussion and a little three-year-old navy which had far less
than half the fighting power of New Zealand's single Dreadnought.

The two great parliamentary parties agreed on the general proposition
that Canada ought to do something for her own defence at sea, and that,
within the British Empire, she enjoyed naval advantages which were
unobtainable elsewhere. But they differed radically on the vexed
question of ways and means. The Conservatives said there was a naval
emergency and proposed to give three Dreadnoughts to the Imperial
government on certain conditions. The principal condition was that
Canada could take them back at any time if she wished to use them for a
navy of her own. The Liberals objected that there was no naval
emergency, and that it was wrong to let any force of any kind pass out of
the control of the Canadian government. Nothing, of course, could be
done without the consent of parliament; and the consent of parliament
means the consent of both Houses, the Senate and the Commons of Canada.
There was a Conservative majority in the Commons and a Liberal majority
in the Senate. The voting went by parties, and a complete deadlock
ensued.

{189}

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

ALL AFLOAT seems to be the only book of its kind. Not only this, but
no other book seems to have been written on the special subject of any
one of its eleven chapters. There are many books in which canoes
figure largely, but none which gives the history of the canoe in
Canada. Books on sailing craft, on steamers,