So
Winter and his supporters asked the farmers of South Fox
if they were prepared to believe all they heard of the
good will of England to the colonies, with the flattering
assumption that they were by no means prepared to believe
it. Was it a likely thing, Mr Winter inquired, that the
people of Great Britain were going to pay more for their
flour and their bacon, their butter and their cheese,
than they had any need to do, simply out of a desire to
benefit countries which most of them had never seen, and
never would see? No, said Mr Winter, they might take it
from him, that was not the idea. But Mr Winter thought
there was an idea, and that they and he together would
not have much trouble in deciphering it. He did not claim
to be longer-sighted in politics than any other man, but
he thought the present British idea was pretty plain. It
was, in two words, to secure the Canadian market for
British goods, and a handsome contribution from the
Canadian taxpayer toward the expense of the British army
and navy, in return for the offer of favours to food
supplies from Canada. But this, as they all knew, was
not the first time favours had been offered by the British
Government to food supplies from Canada. Just sixty years
ago the British Government had felt one of these spasms
of benevolence to Canada, and there were men sitting
before him who could remember the good will and the
gratitude, the hope and the confidence, that greeted
Stanley's bill of that year, which admitted Canadian
wheat and flour at a nominal duty.
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