Canada, as the direct
outcome of Confederation, has grown strong, prosperous, energetic.
The unhappy divisions which prevailed at the beginning of the
nineteenth century, and which darkened with actual revolt and
bloodshed the dawn of the Victorian era, are now only a memory. The
links which bind the Dominion to Great Britain may on paper seem
slight, but they are resistless. Imperial Federation has still
great tasks to accomplish within our widely scattered Imperial
domains, but its success in Canada may be accepted as the pledge of
its triumph elsewhere. Canada is a nation within the Empire, and in
Kipling's phrase is 'daughter in her mother's house and mistress in
her own.'"
This is the authentic harvest of freedom.
The "unity" of the old regime which, in a Bismarckian phrase, was like
paper pasted over ever-widening cracks, was abandoned. The Separatist
programme triumphed. And the outcome? The sham unity of government has
been replaced by a real unity of interest, affection and cultural
affinity.
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