It appears to be understood that President Cleveland's Retaliation Bill
forbidding the transit of Canadian exports through ports in the Union, will be rejected by the Senate, which is Republican. Senator Sherman, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, has advocated this, declaring that the proposal punishes the United States more than Canada —which is true—and proposing that the Dominion should be invited to enter the Union, at first commercially, and after- wards politically. It was a distinct speech for annexation, and was accompanied by an argument that Canadian institu- tions are substantially the same as those of the Republic, and that her people would, from their race, make good citizens. The Senator, however, repudiated any intention of coercion, which would, he said, defeat the very end in view. The speech has been read here with some ex- citement, but it reveals nothing new. The Dominion will do as it likes, and there is no proof that it likes submersion. It would rather be alive though poor, than dead though rich. There is a story that Quebec Province is grieved about a veto on some conversion scheme, and threatens secession if it cannot have its own way ; but the Catholics of French Canada will hardly surrender their privileged position for the sake of American institutions.
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