should form two separate fleet-units, one on the Atlantic and one on the Pacific Coast. Sir Wilfred Laurier also took occasion to reiterate a view formerly expressed that Dominion ships should not take part in any Imperial war except upon a vote of the Canadian Parliament.... It would, however, be leaving the most significant part of the event untold not to record the profound impression which it has created throughout the Empire. The gift of the Malay States had already roused a strong wave of Imperial sentiment when Mr. Borden delivered his speech. It is no exaggeration to say that the Canadian initiative was hailed with fervid enthusiasm everywhere. Opinions differed in regard to the details of control, but there was only one voice regarding the main proposal of three first-class ships. Great attention was, moreover, given to the announcement that a Canadian Minister should in future be regularly summoned to the Committee of Defence, and the opinion was freely expressed that in the proposal lay the germ of a much closer future union in foreign policy and defence. 57. CANADIAN STREAMS. By CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS. O rivers rolling to the sea From lands that bear the maple tree, How swell your voices with the strain Of loyalty and liberty! A holy music heard in vain By coward heart and sordid brain, To whom this strenuous being seems Naught but a greedy race for gain. O unsung streams--not splendid themes You lack to fire your patriot dreams! Annals of glory gild your waves, Hope freights your tides, Canadian streams! St. Lawrence, whose wide water laves The shores that ne'er have nourished slaves! Swift Richelieu of lilied fame! Niagara of glorious graves! Thy rapids, Ottawa, proclaim Where Daulac and his heroes came! Thy tides, St. John, declare La Tour, And, later, many a loyal name! Thou inland stream, whose vales, secure From storm, Tecumseh's death made poor! And thou, small water, red with war, 'Twixt Beaubassin and Beauséjour! Dread Saguenay, where eagles soar, What voice shall from the bastioned shore The tale of Roberval reveal Or his mysterious fate deplore? Annapolis, do thy floods yet feel Faint memories of Champlain's keel, Thy pulses yet the deed repeat Of Poutrincourt and D'Iberville. And thou far tide, whose plains now beat With march of myriad westering feet, Saskatchewan, whose virgin sod So late Canadian blood made sweet? Your bulwark hills, your valleys broad, Streams where De Salaberry trod, Where Wolfe achieved, where Brock was slain, Their voices are the voice of God! O sacred waters! not in vain, Across Canadian height and plain, Ye sound us in triumphant tone The summons of your high refrain. NOTES