Chapter I: Preface

Some fifteen years ago the late Dr. James Bain, Librarian of the Toronto Public Library, urged me to write my reminiscences. He knew that, as one of the founders of the Canada First party, as Chairman of the Organising Committee of the Imperial Federation League in Canada, then President of it, and after its reorganisation, under the name of the British Empire League in Canada, still President, I had much private information, in connection with the struggle for Imperial Unity, that would be of interest to the public. He was therefore continually urging me to put down my recollections in order that they should be preserved.

I put the matter off until the year 1899, when I was retired from the command of my regiment on reaching the age limit. I then wrote my military recollections under the title _Soldiering in Canada_. This was so well received by the Press and by the public that, being still urged to prepare my political reminiscences, I began some years ago to write them, and soon had them finished. In the early part of 1908 Dr. Bain read the manuscript, and then asked me not to delay, as I had intended, but to publish at once. Shortly before his death last spring, he again expressed this wish. I have consulted several of my friends, and in view of their advice now publish this book.

I have not attempted to write a history of the Imperial Unity movement, but only my personal recollections of the work which I have been doing in connection with it for so many years. I still feel, as I did when I was writing my military recollections, that I should follow the view laid down by the critic who said that reminiscences should be written just in the style in which a man would relate them to an old friend while smoking a pipe in front of a fire. I have tried to write the following pages in that spirit, and if the personal pronoun appears too often, it will be because, being recollections of work done, it can hardly be avoided.

GEORGE T. DENISON.
HEYDON VILLA, TORONTO,
_January, 1909_.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
CONDITION OF AFFAIRS IN CANADA BEFORE CONFEDERATION 7

CHAPTER II
CANADA FIRST PARTY AND HUDSON'S BAY TERRITORY 10

CHAPTER III
THE RED RIVER REBELLION 17

CHAPTER IV
THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION 33

CHAPTER V
NATIONAL SENTIMENT 49

CHAPTER VI
ABORTIVE POLITICAL MOVEMENT 56

CHAPTER VII
THE INDEPENDENCE FLURRY 62

CHAPTER VIII
THE O'BRIEN EPISODE 69

CHAPTER IX
THE IMPERIAL FEDERATION LEAGUE 77

CHAPTER X
COMMERCIAL UNION 81

CHAPTER XI
IMPERIAL FEDERATION LEAGUE IN CANADA 85

CHAPTER XII
COMMERCIAL UNION A TREASONABLE CONSPIRACY 98

CHAPTER XIII
THE YEARS 1888 AND 1889, WORK OF THE IMPERIAL FEDERATION LEAGUE 117

CHAPTER XIV
THE YEAR 1890 130

CHAPTER XV
VISIT TO ENGLAND, 1890 138

CHAPTER XVI
THE GREAT ELECTION OF 1891 155

CHAPTER XVII
CONTEST WITH GOLDWIN SMITH 168

CHAPTER XVIII
DISSOLUTION OF THE IMPERIAL FEDERATION LEAGUE IN ENGLAND 194

CHAPTER XIX
ORGANISATION OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE LEAGUE 206

CHAPTER XX
MISSION TO ENGLAND, 1897 225

CHAPTER XXI
THE WEST INDIAN PREFERENCE 242

CHAPTER XXII
1899: ESTABLISHMENT OF EMPIRE DAY 248

CHAPTER XXIII
THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 258

CHAPTER XXIV
1900: BRITISH EMPIRE LEAGUE BANQUET IN LONDON 271

CHAPTER XXV
WORK IN CANADA IN 1901 285

CHAPTER XXVI
MISSION TO ENGLAND IN 1902 291

CHAPTER XXVII
CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. CHAMBERLAIN 338

CHAPTER XXVIII
CONGRESS OF CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE OF THE EMPIRE, 1906 356

APPENDIX _A_
SPEECH IN REPLY TO SIR C. DILKE 371