Your editorial admits that Mr. Goldwin Smith "is a sincere advocate of political union." If so, he is a traitor to our constitution and our country. This political-union idea is no new or merely polemic discussion. It was advocated in 1775, and was crushed out by the strength of the Canadian people. It was advocated again in 1812, and again it brought war and bloodshed and misery upon our people, and by the lavish expenditure of Canadian lives our country and institutions were preserved. Again in 1837 it was advocated, and again produced bloodshed, and once more Canadian lives were lost in preventing it. Mr. Goldwin Smith knows this, or ought to, and he is the most potent element to-day in preparing the Yankee mind to take up the question of annexation. A belief in the States that we were favourable to annexation would do more than any possible cause to bring on an attempt to secure annexation by force. This belief led to the attempts in 1775 and 1812. In view of this, Goldwin Smith's conduct is treason of the worst kind. Such persistent hostility to the national life in any other country would not be tolerated for an instant. In Russia, under like circumstances, Goldwin Smith would long since have been consigned to the mines of Siberia. In Germany or Austria he would have been imprisoned. In France he would have been consigned to the same convict settlement as the traitor Dreyfus; while in the United States he would long since have been lynched. In the British Empire alone would he be safe--for he has found here in Canada the freest constitution, and the most tolerant and law-abiding people on earth, and these British institutions, under whose protection he is working against us, our people are determined to uphold at all hazards. I would not object to Mr. Smith appearing at any public function but that I feel it gives aid to him in misrepresenting and injuring our country. In 1812 we had just such men in Willcocks, Mallory, and Marcle, members of the House of Assembly, whose intrigues did much to bring war upon us. These men, as soon as the war broke out, went over to the enemy and fought against us, and Willcocks was killed in action fighting against Canada. Goldwin Smith will not follow his prototypes so far. On the first sign of danger he will escape, and settling in some comfortable retreat, probably among the orange groves on the Riviera, or perhaps in a villa on one of the Italian lakes, he will watch the struggle from afar, while "the overwhelming majority" of the opponents of political union in this country, or in other words the Canadian people, would be engaged in a fearful struggle in the defence of their native land and all that they hold dear. Those who know Mr. Smith best will readily imagine the sardonic smile with which he would read of our losses in action, of our difficulties, and the untold miseries that war always brings upon a people.