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.