without taking care that they shall be able to properly assimilate it, which is impossible if the organs of mastication are allowed to fall into decay; and it seems scarcely less absurd to provide mental training without, at the same time, preventing, so far as may be, physical disabilities from making study irksome and robbing education of half its fruits.

With regard to the kind of dental treatment that should be given, it seems still necessary to point out, both to dentists and to the public, that teeth-drawing is not dentistry, and that the supply of artificial dentures should no more be regarded as the chief aim of dentistry than the supplying of wooden legs is looked upon as the ideal of surgery. Indeed, the extraction of teeth that could, by means of reasonable precautions, have been saved ought to be regarded as malpractice on the part of the dental surgeon who performs the operation, and ought to be punishable by law, just as much as would be the amputation of a limb in like circumstances.

E. COLLINS, Editor of The Dentist.

THE OUTLOOK AT OTTAWA.

A FEW years ago it seemed that a sharp dividing line might be drawn between the two political parties in Canada, and that the electors would group themselves naturally round the banners of Free Trade or Protection. In 1893, before a great gathering of his followers, Sir Wilfrid Laurier said:

I submit to you that the system of Protection which is maintained by the Government that is to say, of levying tribute upon the people, not for the legitimate expenses of the Government, but for a private and privileged class-should be condemned without qualification. Let it be well understood that from this moment we have a distinct issue with the party in power. Their ideal is Protection, our ideal is Free Trade. Their immediate object is Protection, ours a tariff for revenue only.

When Sir Wilfrid Laurier took office he brought with him the traditions of a party which had always sought the freest and friendliest trade relations with the people of the United States. The ideal of the Canadian Liberals might be Free Trade as it exists in England, but it was understood that in practice their anticipations fell far short of that, and that they would be well content with an instalment which should give them freedom of trade all over the North American continent. Unrestricted reciprocity with the United States was avowedly the aim of many of the foremost men in the party. Sir Richard Cartwright, now Minister of Trade, said in 1895: 'Free Trade with the United States is vastly more valuable to Canada than Free Trade with all the rest of the world with the United States left out.' When it was pointed out that a system of unrestricted commercial intercourse with the United States must necessarily involve a policy of discrimination against Great Britain, it was intimated that the Liberal party was ready to acquiesce, as in an evil incidental to the good of Canada.

It is hard to realise the many changes wrought by the few years, and yet it is necessary to do so if we are to do full justice to the men who to-day are ruling the Dominion with such resplendent success. That the ideal of Free Trade is still worshipped from afar is perhaps not surprising. It is one of the worst evils of Protection that it strikes roots which cannot at once be torn up without the appearance of cruelty and injustice. Interests which have been fostered and

encouraged by the direct action of the State cannot be sacrificed in a moment without suffering, and, in view of the large expenditure upon public works vital to the welfare of the trade of Canada which has been undertaken by Sir Wilfrid Laurier's Government, it is not wonderful that the revision of the tariff lists has been approached with great caution. Still, the party in power are entitled to claim that in fixing the duties they have thought more of revenue than of protection, and have already effected a saving in the taxation of the people through the customs by a sum which is estimated for the current year at three million dollars.

The question of reciprocity with the United States no longer stands where it did. It has been profoundly affected by a shifting of both economical and political conditions. It may be said to be at once less desirable and less possible. The Liberal party when they assumed the responsibilities of office saw an industrial revolution working itself out before their eyes, and have had to adjust their attitude accordingly. A few years ago it seemed that no market in the world, nor all the markets of all the world put together, could compensate Canada for the loss of trade facilities with the United States. The seventy millions of people spread out over a frontier of 3,000 miles, and separated only by an imaginary line, seemed to represent for Canadians not so much a natural as a necessary market. The great cities of the Union were the only possible outlet for the perishable or heavy products of the fields and forests of the Dominion. The extraordinary development which has recently taken place in the cold storage system, and new facilities of transport, have suddenly opened up a whole vista of new possibilities for Canadian products in the markets of the Old World. The American market, while it continues to be desirable, has ceased to be indispensable. Then, too, side by side with this economic revolution there have been political changes which have made any commercial arrangement with the United States one of exceeding difficulty. It was the lot of the Liberal party to come to power when the star of Mr. Dingley was in the ascendant, and that of itself involved a reconsideration of their position. If the Government of the United States had years ago adopted a more generous and conciliatory policy towards her weaker neighbour, and had encouraged unrestricted trade between the two countries, it is possible and even probable that Canada would have come to look upon the American market as essential to her prosperity. Perhaps nothing but actual experience would have convinced the people of the Dominion that they were strong enough to stand alone. Successive American Governments have preferred another policy, and have sought, in accordance with strict Protectionist theories, to harass and hamper Canadian trade in every possible way. That policy might have resulted in so worrying and coercing a community of six millions that they would have been

ready to welcome a political union with one of seventy millions as the price of commercial prosperity. That was a possible issue, but it was not what happened. The hostile legislation of which their trade has been the object has simply fired the spirit of Canada and made her people a nation. She has seen a Chinese wall of exclusion built up against her along a frontier of more than 3,000 miles, and the markets of her great neighbour denied her; but her spirit has risen, and her heart has hardened within her, and she has set herself to find new openings for her industrial activity. Canada to-day has made the memorable discovery that she is dependent on none, and rejoices with a new joy in the knowledge of her freedom and strength. At the outset Sir Wilfrid Laurier's Government was met by a tarifi which penalised the importation of almost every kind of Canadian produce except the few articles which the necessities of certain American manufacturers required should remain on the free list. Except in the case of logs, ice, pulp-wood, turnips, and a few other things, the wall of exclusion was built higher than ever. The old policy of the Liberal party was made impossible, and they saw the door slammed in their faces. Evidently Free Trade was not to come that way; and so without a moment's hesitation Sir Wilfrid Laurier and his colleagues turned their eyes over seas, and resolved to call in the Old World to redress the balance of the New. The temper of Canada made everything else easy, and in quick succession a commercial preference was given to Great Britain, the treaties with Germany and Belgium were denounced, Imperial Penny Postage was established, and negotiations opened for the laying of a British cable upon the floor of the Pacific.

Frustrated in their desire to throw open to the people of Canada the markets of their only neighbours, the Liberal statesmen have strained every nerve at once to develop the national industries and to encourage commerce with Great Britain. How well they have succeeded may be seen at a glance by comparing the volume of the foreign trade, per head of the population, in the Dominion and in the United States respectively. The total foreign trade of the American Republic, exclusive of coin and bullion, amounts to 24.66 dollars per head, while the corresponding figures for Canada come to no less than 56 29 dollars. It need hardly be pointed out that, with their greater diversity of soil and climate and greater variety of products, the States of the American Union are far less dependent on foreign trade than Canada is; but, when all allowance is made, these figures are a splendid testimony to the energy with which the people of the Dominion have sought abroad markets which are denied them on their own continent.

If the work of a Government is to be judged by results, the long series of successes which the by-elections have given to Sir Wilfrid Laurier have been well deserved. The record of prosperity runs all

along the line. The volume of the foreign trade of Canada, which between the years 1878 and 1896 increased by 57,660,993 dollars, in the two years from 1896 to 1898 has increased by 66,362,022 dollars. So that in the last two years the trade of Canada under the present administration has shown a larger increase by 8,701,029 dollars than in the whole eighteen years in which their political opponents were in power. Even this does not tell the full tale, for it is estimated that the close of the current financial year will see an addition to the total volume of the foreign trade of the country since 1896 of not less than 80,000,000 dollars. The old story of deficit after deficit has become ancient history now, and in spite of less taxation the Government was able last year to declare a surplus of 1,722,000 dollars, and there is reason to believe that the current year will show a surplus of over 3,000,000 dollars. To these evidences of successful administration must be added another of a still more gratifying kind. The weak spot in the armour of Canada is the slow rate at which the population increases. The census of 1891 showed that the previous ten years had added only half a million to the numbers of the people. There is reason to believe the tide has turned at last, and that many of the French Canadians who had migrated to the manufacturing centres in the New England States are now finding their way back to Canada, and that many American families are going out to settle in the North-West. Apart from the large emigration which has been attracted from all countries to the mines of British Columbia and of the Yukon, the returns of sales of land to actual settlers by the agents of the Canadian Pacific Railway show a large increase. The homesteads taken up from Government lands in Manitoba and the NorthWest were 4,848 in 1898, as against 2,406 in the previous year. It is interesting also to note that while the number of emigrants from the British Isles to all other countries decreased last year by from 1 to 10 per cent., the number who went to Canada increased by 20 per cent. This new trend of emigration towards Canada must be attributed in part to the attention which has been drawn to that country in consequence of the policy of the Preferential Tariff.

It is significant of the advantages which its geographical position gives to the American Republic in its commercial intercourse with Canada that last year, in spite of the preferential tariff in favour of England, no less than 72 per cent. of the imports of the Dominion came from the United States. Of the rest 17.10 per cent. came from Great Britain, and some 10 per cent. from other countries. On the other hand, the Dingley tariff has so killed Canadian exports to the States that, in spite of the thousands of miles of frontier along which international commerce means only transport from one homestead to another, the United States took only 28 per cent. of the exported produce of Canada, as compared with 66 per cent. sent across the Atlantic to Great Britain and 6 per cent. to the rest of

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