oint property of the United
States and Canada and be maintained at their joint expense; I was not
willing that the custom and excise duty of Canada should be
assimilated to the prohibitory rates of the United States; and very
especially was I unwilling that any such arrangement should be entered
into with the United States, dependent on the frail tenure of
reciprocal legislation, repealable at any moment at the caprice of
either party." Unless a fair treaty for a definite term of years could
be obtained, he thought it better that each country should take its
own course and that Canada should seek new channels of trade.

The negotiations of 1866 failed, mainly because under the American
offer, "the most important provisions of the expiring treaty, relating
to the free interchange of the products of the two countries, were
entirely set aside, and the duties proposed to be levied were almost
prohibitory in their character." The free-list offered by the United
States reads like a diplomatic joke: "burr-millstones, rags,
fire-wood, grindstones, plaster and gypsum." The real bar in this and
subsequent negotiations, was the unwillingness of the Americans to
enter into any kind of arrangement for extended trade. They did not
want to break in upon their system of protection, and they did not set
a high value on access to the Canadian market. In most of the
negotiations, the Americans are found trying to drive the best
possible bargain in regard to the Canadian fisheries and canals, and
fighting shy of reciprocity in trade. They considered that a free
exchange of natural products would be far more beneficial to Canada
than to the United States. As time went on, they began to perceive the
advantages of the Canadian market for American manufactures. But when
this was apparent, Canadian feeling, which had hitherto been
unanimous for reciprocity, began to show a cleavage, which was sharply
defined in the discussion preceding the election of 1891. Reciprocity
in manufactures was opposed, because of the competition to which it
would expose Canadian industries, and because it was difficult to
arrange it without assimilating the duties of the two countries and
discriminating against British imports into Canada.

In earlier years, however, even the inclusion of manufactures in the
treaty of reciprocity was an inducement by which the Americans set
little store. The rejected offer made by Canada in 1869, about the
exact terms of which dou