But though it seems amusing to the Canadian of to-day, it was by no means a joke forty years ago.

As a matter of fact, the then most uninhabited Territories, cut off from the centres of Canadian activity by a wilderness of over a thousand miles, would have been invaded by Fenians and filibusters but for the fact that they were a part of the British Empire.

An attempt at this was indeed made at a later date.

This possibility was afterwards formulated, evidently as a threat, by Senator Charles Sumner during the "Alabama Claims" discussion, in his astonishing memorandum to Secretary Fish.

"The greatest trouble, if not peril," he said, "is from Fenianism, which is excited by the British flag in Canada.