VALE UNIVERSITY I

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AND
WILLIAM INGLIS MORSE
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Canadiana

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CONFEDERATION

CONSIDERED

IN RELATION TO THE INTERESTS

OP

THE EMPIRE,

Bit
THE HON. JOSEPH HOWE.

LONDON;
EDWARD STANFORD, 6, CHARING CROSS, S.W.
1866.

CONFEDERATION.

"When Prussia overrun Sehleswig Holstein all Europe cried
shame, and the moral sense of England was deeply wounded.
When the Emperor of the Erench took Nice, in return for the
service rendered to Italy, the Press of England indignantly pro
tested against that appropriation of territory. However anxious
the Emperor may be at the present moment to extend his do
minion and rectify his frontiers he wisely spares Belgium, and
does not advance his boundaries to the Rhine. If he did a
bloody war would convulse the Continent, and we all breathe
more freely when he yields to the dictates of prudence and
moderation. The public sentiment of England ought as religiously to re
spect the boundaries and rights of large communities on the other
side of the Atlantic as on this ; and yet, strange to say, a mea
sure of spoliation and appropriation, on a more gigantic scale
than any that has startled Europe, and which for two years
has convulsed society in British America, seems to have advo
cates and defenders here.
The Province of Canada is as large as Q-reat Britain, Erance
and Prussia put together, and will, if ever peopled, sustain a
population of 50,000,000. If her territories were compact,
and her frontiers defensible, she might develope into an Empire
large enough to tax the administrative talents of a Bismark or
of a Louis Napoleon. On such a territory one would naturally
suppose that there was work enough to exhaust the energies
of statesmen for the next two centuries, without their co
veting more land, or desiring to interfere with neighbouring
communities, developing their industry in a peaceful and legal
manner on either side.
But Canada is not compact. She has yet only 3,000,000 of
inhabitants, or about 8 to every square mile of territory. She
has an exposed frontier of 1000 miles, with no natural defences
for 800 miles above Quebec. Along the whole of this frontier
a 2

4
line she is menaced or overlapped by the great Republic, with
thirty-four millions of inhabitants and a million of trained
soldiers who have been under fire. Those troops, accustomed
to obey officers of great ability, familiar with the art of war,
could, by means of twenty railroads, pointing to the Canadian
frontier, be massed in a week, and thrown into the Province.
Whether, when they got there, the Canadians could drive them
out, with their comparatively small force of Volunteers and
Militia, even when assisted by the troops this country could
spare, is a military question which I will not undertake to
decide. Distinguished Members of Parliament declare they
could not : and that if Canada, thus overrun, is ever recovered
to the British Crown, it must be after campaigns in other direc
tions, and a successful naval war, in which it is evident that that
Province, being frozen up for five months of the year, and
having no ships or sailors to spare, can render no assistance.
One would suppose that the public men of a country so
placed — so entirely at the mercy of the chapter of accidents,
so unimproved and sparsely populated — would not be over anxi
ous to enlarge their territory or increase their responsibilities,
even if they had displayed, in the past, a fair average acquaint
ance with the science of government. Let us see if they can
claim credit for much more. Prom the conquest by Wolfe in
1759 to the flight of Papineau and McKenzie in 1837-8, with
the exception of the two periods when the fear of invasion stilled
the voice of faction, the history of Canada is but the history
of internal strife between parties more or less acrimonious
and uncompromising. In the Lower Province the French and
English parties divided the legislature and society, and in the
Upper, to the ordinary rivalries between Liberals and Con
servatives, common to the Mother Country and to all the
Colonies, interminable strife between the Orange and the Irish
factions has been added. So bitterly have these feuds been
maintained that Toronto has sometimes been disturbed by armed
organizations, while at Kingston the Prince of Wales was pre
vented from landing by an uncompromising assertion of Protes
tant ascendancy. In 1837 and 1838 both Provinces were con
vulsed by open insurrections, which were only put down by the
shedding of blood, the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act and

of the local constitutions, and by the expenditure, at the cost
of the British Government, of more than a million sterling.
In 1841 the two Provinces were united, and it was hoped
that the severe lessons of the past would not be lost upon the
public men of Canada ; but, eight years afterwards, their
national antipathies and personal rivalries culminated again
in acts of open violence. The Parliament House at Montreal
was burnt down, the library containing the archives of the
Province and a choice collection of Colonial literature con
sumed — the Governor General and his Lady were pelted
through the streets — a Society was formed to promote annexa
tion to the United States, and American flags were ostenta
tiously displayed from the windows.
The Maritime Provinces of British America are chargeable
with no such excesses. Eor a hundred years some of them
have worked representative Institutions in peaceful subordi
nation and devoted loyalty to the Crown and Parliament of
England ; and, for a quarter of a century, since Responsible
Government was wisely conceded to them by the Mother
Country, they have developed that system with skill and ability
worthy of all praise. Had those Provinces been under the
control of Canada in 1837, or had they been imbued with the
spirit of disaffection, they would have cut off the troops
marching through them in mid winter ; and, in a month, fifty
thousand sympathizers would have crossed the American
frontier, and British America, in all human probability, would
have been wrested from the Crown. Had they sympathized
with those who, with the settled purpose of throwing off their
allegiance in 1849, got up the emeute at Montreal, the com
plications would have been serious, and the ultimate results
extremely doubtful.
Those Provinces stood firm to their allegiance on both
occasions. They counselled and laughed at the Canadians, till
the spirit of violence, was laid, and a more loyal disposition
gained the ascendency. But, as burnt children dread the fire,
it is not to be wondered at that their inhabitants, sincerely
attached to the Mother Country, and desiring, above all things,
the unity of the Empire of which she forms the centre, should
not be very anxious to place themselves under the domination

6
and control of a people whose conduct for the last quarter of
a century, not to put too fine a point upon it, has been a little
eccentric at all times, and occasionally perilous in the
extreme. The history of Canada, since the passage of the Union Act,
has developed a strange antagonism between the Upper and
Lower Province, with which the population beside the sea
may be pardoned if they desire to have nothing whatever to
do. There is warning in the antagonism of races arbitrarily
bound together, shaken by incompatibility of temper, till the
moment of separation, as in the case of Belgium and Holland ;
and history is full of examples to prove how indelible are the
lines which divide large masses of men speaking different
languages, and springing from sources whose original water
shed (to borrow a figure from the geographers) has been
marked by impassable barriers. The history of Canada, for
the last twenty years, is but the history of one long struggle
between the two nationalities of which the Province is com
posed. At the start the Erench section had the largest popu
lation, but the other had the most influence in this country ;
and succeeded in securing an equal number of representatives,
which, if representation should be regulated by population, was
manifestly unfair. But no sooner had immigration reinforced
the Western section, and given it the preponderance, than the
cry of " representation by population" was raised by the Upper
Canadians, who insisted, in violation of their own stipulation
at the time of the Union, upon having a share of representa
tion proportioned to their numbers, to be readjusted and in
creased after each decennial census. It was apparent to the
Erench that, if this demand were once conceded, they would
be swamped by the votes of the Upper Province, that the
ascendancy which they had ever maintained by unity of action
would be swept away, and that thenceforward their language,
their institutions, their educational establishments, would be
completely at the mercy of the majority. Eor ten or fifteen
years this question has convulsed the entire country ; and while
in the Maritime Provinces representation has been quietly ad
justed to meet the wants of growing communities without re
gard to religion or origin, in Canada neither party would give

way, and the battle has been fought with a bitterness and tena
city peculiarly characteristic of the country.
The conflict has been aggravated by another anomalous con
trivance which is a pure Canadian invention. In England, and
in all the other colonies where her institutions have been
copied, a Cabinet is formed by a gentleman who leads the
Government and directs the policy of the country for the time
being, but this simple mode rarely satisfies the conflicting races
and rival sectionalism of Canada. Eor many years they have
had two leaders, resting on double majorities, each side of the
Cabinet responsible to its own division of the Province ; and, as
might readily be supposed, the consequences have been inter
minable deadlocks, a great obstruction to business, and an ex
asperation of the ordinary conflicts incident to a representa
tive system of government, often ludicrous and vexatious in
the extreme.
Prom all these complications and difficulties the Maritime
Provinces are now free, and surely they may be pardoned if
they have no desire to be mixed up with them. Their system
is very simple. They govern themselves as completely as any
other British Provinces, or any States of the American Union,
in perfect subordination to the Government and Parliament of
the Empire. They owe no allegiance to Canada, are free from
her antagonism of races — from her sectional rivalries— from
her dual leaderships and double majorities — from her ever re
curring political crises and deadlocks ; and, being free from
them, they naturally desire to preserve the great privileges
they enjoy, and to develop their resources without being in
volved in entanglements difficult to unravel, and from which,
when once enthralled, there may be no easy means of escape.
There is no reason why Canada should not, whenever she
desires more territory, extend herself to the North. She may
want breadth, but is too long already. It is thought that she
is indefensible — to extend her line of frontier is to multiply
her difficulties — and surely it is not wise, looking to her past
history, turbid and unquiet as it has been, to extend the area
of her distractions ; or to allow her to disturb the peaceful
progress of neighbours with whom she has no natural connec
tion, and over whom she should be permitted to exercise no

control. Her proper mission would seem to be to cultivate
amicable relations with her neighbours — to fill up her sparsely
populated territory — to eliminate from her political system the
anachronisms of dual leaderships and double majorities, to con
trol her Irish and Orange factions, and to fuse into one race,
by patient tact and mutual forbearance, her Saxon, Celtic, and
Norman elements. If she can do all this, and if controlled
by the moral strength and physical resources of the Empire,
the United States can be induced to let her alone for another
half century, she may grow into a nation of some respecta
bility, although, in presence of her powerful neighbour, and with
her long defenceless frontier, she can never be anything more.
That she can ever protect, or successfully govern the other great
Provinces, already organized, or that may be formed out of the
boundless territory still subject to the authority of the Crown,
on the American Continent, is an idea too preposterous to re
quire serious discussion.
Let us examine it for a moment by the light of history.
The builders of Babel were only a little more ambitious than
these Canadian politicians, but the Almighty scattered their
confederacy, and set His seal upon the policy which bounds
human ambition by lines of natural defence and homogeneous
populations. Charlemagne and Napoleon aspired to universal
dominion, but their experiments are not worth repeating. The
British Empire has grown out of the energies of a superior
race, asserted by slow degrees on all the fields of human exer
tion with marvellous persistence and success ; but the English
did not aspire to govern subject communities when they were
only three millions of people — when they were without a Navy,
and while their own frontiers were so insecure that they had
not a regiment to spare for foreign service. Many people be
lieve that the British Empire is too large. This may or may
not be true, but there seems only too much reason to fear that
it must collapse whenever the dominion of the sea is lost, and
how to retain it would seem to be the question for us all to
consider at the present time.
The example of the United States is often quoted in these
discussions, and misleads a good many people on both sides of
the Atlantic. But how long would the American Confederacy

have been kept together had one State been large enough to
dominate over all the others — to appoint their Governors and
Senators as these gentlemen at Ottawa propose to do for
us, or had the Constitution not grown naturally out of mutual
sympathies and sacrifices, but had been forced upon the popu
lation by the unfair exercise of the prerogative or by an arbi
trary Act of Parliament ?
The common perils and gallant achievements of an eight
years war had welded the old thirteen States together— had
created for them a new ancestry — had detached them from the
Mother Country, and given them a body of administrators,
trained into respect for each other's rights and reputations.
They had a boundless continent to occupy. They had no for
midable neighbours to disturb them, and they went about the
task of organizing the great republic with an earnestness and
a deliberation worthy of all praise. Their work was a great
success. So long as the Eathers lived, and while the second
generation who had known and loved them, were inspired by
their spirit and animated by their example, the Constitution
bore the strain of annually expanding numbers and new
organizations. Railroads, Canals, Steamers and Telegraphs,
then came in and assisted to bind the country together ; but
in eighty years, with all these aids and appliances, the game was
played out ; and the same causes, which in every quarter of the
old world, and in almost every age, have asserted themselves,
came distinctly into view, marking the subjection even of the
Great Republic to the laws which the Creator, for some wise
purpose, has established for the government of the universe.
It is true that, by the expenditure of a million of lives and
of nearly four thousand millions of dollars, the country is still
nominally kept together ; but when hearts are estranged and in
terests are adverse, when communities, baptized in blood
and tears, find in a great calamity ever recurring elements of
discord and reproach, the time is rapidly drawing on when
separation is inevitable, and when new combinations will grow
out of the play of the passionate ambitions which the wit of
man has hitherto been found powerless to control. Any body
who spends an hour on Pennsylvania Avenue will see as many

10
varieties of human beings as in Constantinople. A Kentuckian
is no more like a Bostonian than a Virginian is like a man
from Maine; and every year the distinctions are becoming
more marked, and interests are growing up which, while pos
sessed of political power, one section or another is ever
tempted to override. Providence may calm the tempest of
angry passions which the late Civil war threw up, and the
Republic may stagger on for some years ; but the signs of the
times do not encourage us to break down a system of govern
ment which is working well, that we may try another experi
ment on a grand scale, without being driven by the necessity
that coerced, or encouraged by the accessories that aided, the
founders of the great Republic.
Let us see what these Canadians desire to do. They are
not, as we have shewn, a very harmonious or homogeneous
community. Two-fifths of the population are Erench and
three-fifths English. They are therefore perplexed with an
internal antagonism which was fatal to the unity of Belgium
and Holland, and which, unless the fusion of races becomes
rapid and complete, must ever be a source of weakness. They
are shut in by frost from the outer world for five months of
the year. They are at the mercy of a powerful neighbour
whose population already outnumbers them by more than eight
to one, and who a quarter of a century hence will probably
present sixty-eight millions to six millions on the opposite
side of a naturally defenceless frontier. Surely such con
ditions as these ought to repress inordinate ambition or lust of
territory on the part of the public men of Canada. The wisdom
of Solomon and the energy and strategy of Erederick the
Great would seem to be required to preserve and strengthen
such a people, if formed, as it appears they desire to form
themselves, into " a new Nationality." While they discharge
their duties as unobtrusive good neighbours to the surround
ing populations, and of loyal subjects of the Empire, Great
Britain will protect them by her energy in other fields should
the Province become untenable ; but it is evident that a more
unpromising nucleus of a new nation can hardly be found on
the face of the earth, and that any organized communities,

11
having a reasonable chance to do any thing better, would be
politically insane to give up their distinct formations and
subject themselves to the domination of Canada,
Thus situated, and borne down by a public debt of
$75,000,000, or about $25 in gold per head of their population,
the public men of Canada propose to purchase the territories
of the Hudson's Bay Company, larger than half of Europe.
They propose to assume the Government of British Oregon
and Vancouver's Island, Provinces divided from them by an
interminable wilderness, and by the natural barrier of the
Rocky Mountains ; and
They propose to govern Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,
Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland — countries severally
as large as Switzerland, Sardinia, Greece, and Great Britain,
appointing their Governors, Senators, and Judges, and ex
ercising over them unlimited powers of internal and external
taxation. Truly the public men of Canada are ambitious. Bismark
and Louis Napoleon are pigmies in comparison. Presenting to
the world their quarter of a century of internal turbulence
and strSe — their double majorities and interminable dead
locks — their unpeopled territory — their conflicting races —
their high tariffs and heavy debt, and their long defenceless
frontier, they have the hardihood, in the presence of the
civilized world, to put forward these pretensions — to ask their
fellow subjects in America to quietly submit to their domina
tion, and expect the British Government to become responsible
for this hopeful policy by embodying it in an Act of Parlia
ment. Some of them even go further, and desire to see a
Prince of the Blood come out and preside over this New
Nation. Let us examine the last proposition first, as it involves not
only the peace, of the Empire, but the happiness and dignity of
the Royal circle which all are bound to preserve. Erom the
Peace of Paris to the present time the boundaries of the British
possessions on the American continent, when once defined,
have been respected by the Government and people of the
United States ; and although, when war arose upon other issues,
the conquest of the Provinces was attempted, with peace came

12
the statu quo, and every year the growing commerce of the two
countries offers additional securities for its preservation. In
thus respecting our rights the American Government have had
to withstand pressure at all times from those who adhere to
the Monro doctrine. Of late this party has been, reinforced in
two directions, by the financiers who see in a long line of fron
tier a certain loss of revenue while high duties prevail, and by
the Fenians who affect to have discovered in the Provinces the
shortest road to Ireland. Hitherto the Government of the
United States has loyally resisted this pressure. If matters
remain as they are I think they will loyally resist it still ; and
will not, in the face of the world, assume the responsibility of
provoking a great war by any attempt to rectify boundaries,
or interfere with political arrangements which they have for
eighty years solemnly recognized.
But if we begin, in a spirit of menace (which has been too
prevalent throughout these Confederation discussions) to build
up new nationalities, and to plant Crown Princes beside them,
who can tell what may happen ? How long will the American
people, thus challenged, be indifferent, and how long will their
Government be able to withstand the pressure ? Jtfo sooner
is the Quebec scheme launched than we are met by another, far
more comprehensive and seductive, to incorporate the Provinces
into the Republic, and by a proposition sustained by an unani
mous vote of the House of Representatives for a repeal of the
Neutrality laws. These propositions are naturally born of the
other, and those who desire to see the two countries united in
the bonds of peace should pray that all may be thrown into
the fire.
Before we seriously entertain the policy of making one of
our Royal Princes Viceroy or King of Canada, let us ponder
what is passing in Mexico at the present time. Louis Napo
leon, in America's hour of sore distress, thought to build up
a " New Nationality," and Maximilian accepted the throne.
He has worn what one of the newspapers aptly describes as a
" Crown of Thorns " for a few brief years — his Empress is now
in France — and the Emperor can only sustain him on his tot
tering throne by risking an expensive and bloody war with a
very doubtful issue. Will he do this ? We shall see. But

13
come what will, enough is already known to warn us from re
peating the Imperial blunder at the instance of certain purblind
Canadian politicians, who certainly have an original way of
manifesting their attachment to the Sovereign by proposing to
overwhelm her family with humiliation and disgrace.
Turning to the equally absurd proposition that Canada
should be aided by a British guarantee, to enable her to pur
chase and govern the Hudson's Bay Company's territory, and
that she should be permitted to extend her authority over the
organised Provinces on the Pacific, with power to assume their
revenues, appoint their Governors, Judges, and Senators, and
tax them internally and externally, the idea is simply prepos
terous and absurd. Suppose that France, with her thirty-
seven millions of people, were to propose to extend her frontier
line and her responsibilities over two thousand additional miles.
Suppose the people at the Cape were to propose to govern
half of Africa, or that New Zealand, having enough to do with
her Maories, were to develop the not very laudable ambition
to control the revenues, appointments, and public affairs of
Mauritius and Ceylon. Either of these suggestions would
be received by an universal burst of ridicule in Europe, and
yet strange to say, the Canadian proposition, in gross ignorance
of its monstrosity or in utter indifference to the subject, was
received with general favour.
Anybody who looks at the Map of British America, and in
telligently searches its geographical features in connection with
its past record and present political condition, will perceive
that it naturally divides itself into four great centres of poli
tical power and radiating intelligence. The Maritime Provinces,
surrounded by the sea : three of them insular, with unchange
able boundaries, with open harbours, rich fisheries, abundance
of coal, a homogeneous population, and within a week's sail of
the British Islands, form the first division; and the Ashburton
Treaty, which nearly severed them from Canada, defines its out
lines and proportions. These Provinces now govern themselves,
and do it well, and Canada has no more right to control or in
terfere with them than she has to control the Windward
Islands or Jamaica. These Provinces have developed com
mercial enterprize and maritime capabilities with marvellous

14
rapidity. Three of them can be held while Great Britain
keeps the sea. Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island are
surrounded by it, and the narrow isthmus of fourteen miles
which connects Nova Scotia with the mainland can be easily
fortified, and can be enfiladed by gunboats on either side. But
what is more, these Provinces can help Great Britain to pre
serve her ascendancy on the ocean. While far seeing Members
of the House of Commons are inquiring into the causes which
diminish the number of her sailors and increase the difficulty
of manning her fleet, is it not strange that the great nursery
for seamen, which our Maritime Provinces present, should be
entirely overlooked, and that flippant writers should desire to
teach 60,000 hardy seafaring people to turn their backs upon
England and fix their thoughts upon Ottawa ; and should deli
berately propose to disgust them by breaking down their
institutions and subjecting them to the arbitrary control of an
inland population, frozen up nearly half the year, and who are
incapable of protecting them by land or sea ?
Referring to the Statistics of Trade and Commerce, it will be
found that Nova Scotia employs 19,637 Mariners and Fisher
men; Newfoundland, 38,578, and Prince Edward's Island,
2,113. Nova Scotia alone owns 400,000 tons of Shipping.
Here are Colonies within seven days' steaming of these
shores, floating the flag of England over a noble mercantile
marine, and training 60,000 seamen and fishermen to defend
it, and yet the House of Commons is to be asked to allow some
gentlemen in Ottawa to draw these people away from the
ocean, which for their own and the general security of the
Empire they are required to protect, that their hearts may
be broken and their lives wasted on interminable frontiers
incapable of defence. Parliament, it is hoped, will think twice
about this proposition, and of the scheme for launching a
Prince of the Blood into a sea of troubles for the glorifica
tion of the Canadians.
Canada forms the second division of British America, in
order of sequence as we ascend from the Atlantic. It is a fine
country, with great natural resources, and may develop into
some such nation as Poland or Hungary. Hemmed in by icy

15
barriers at the North, and by a powerful Nation on the South,
shut out from deep sea navigation for nearly half the year,
with two nationalities to reconcile, and no coal, who will pre
dict for her a very brilliant destiny, at least, for many years to
come ? The best she can do is to be quiet, unobtrusive, thrifty,
provoking no enmities, and not making herself disagreeable to
her neighbours, or increasing the hazards which her defence
involves, by any premature aspirations to become a nation, for
which status at present she is totally unprepared.
Between Canada and the Rocky Mountains, and divided from
her by a belt of comparatively sterile country, lies a magnificent
region, which is a standing reproach to the British Govern
ment, and a blot upon our civilization. The Republicans have
shown their appreciation of the value of this territory by
providing, in General Banks's Bill, that it shall be organized
at once into two Territories, and presently into two States of
the Union. What has England ever done with it ? While
the Government of the United States has, within the past
half century, formed out of their great West one noble State
after another, which have become the granaries of Europe,
the Government of England, having a West, of great extent
and fertility, have done nothing national or statesmanlike
with it ; but have allowed it to be locked up as a hunting
ground, for the exclusive benefit of a Fur Company, who, mo
nopolizing the consumption of Indian tribes reduced to a state
of subjection akin to slavery, have maintained to this hour, in
the face of the free ideas and advancing civilization of Europe
and America, a job so gigantic that men stand aghast, when
they contrast the unpeopled wilderness which these persons
have got to show with the noble States, populous cities and
waving cornfields, on the other side of the line.
Two or three years ago, when attention was sternly called to
the condition of this country, there was a movement among the
dry bones about Fenchurch Street, and we heard of roads to
be opened, telegraphs to be built and colonization to be pro
moted. But what was done ? The stock was watered, and
some 361,500,000, added to the nominal capital of the Company,
by which some persons made and others probably lost a large

16
sum of money ; some telegraph wire was sent out which rusts
in the wilderness, and there the matter ended — the few active
spirits, within the Company, who already see the advancing
wave of public indignation which is to sweep away their mono
poly, and desire to people the land, being controlled by those
who are determined to do nothing but kill wild animals and
make enormous profits out of poor Indians.
The Canadian remedy for all this is characteristic of the
country. Some of her public men say this territory belongs
to us because our fathers hunted in it long since, but this plea
would but confirm the Indian's title who hunted in it long
before, or the Hudson's Bay Company's title, who have been
hunting in it ever since. This plea is untenable, and though
often challenged by the Company the Canadians have shrunk
from attempting to make it good in any Court of Justice or
before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Failing
to establish a title, the Canadians at one time proposed to buy
the Company out, with the consent and under the guarantee
of the British Government, and to annex the country to
Canada. Fortunately this policy also failed for two good rea
sons — that the Canadians had no money, and that the parties
could not agree about the price. So far the country has been
saved for wiser and better purposes than to be transferred
from one description of thraldom to another. If it is to be
ruled and governed by a distant authority, it does not much
matter whether the seat of government is in London or in Ot
tawa. If the territory is not to be treated as national property
and the people it contains as British subjects, then let it remain
as a hunting ground, till the people of Minnesota and Montana
break in and take it from us, which they will do, if it is not
speedily organized. Above all things, do not let it be annexed
to Canada, to weaken that Province by another thousand miles
of frontier, and to multiply her perplexities an hundred fold.
Fancy a country in Europe as large as England, France and
Prussia, with only eight people to the square mile, and a debt
of $25 per head, wanting to purchase another country as large
as Russia, and then guage if you can the measure of scorn and
ridicule with which the proposition would be received.
Now, what ought to be done with this noble country ? What,

17
if we remember right, Lord Lytton proposed to do with it
long since, it should be organized and opened for occupation
without delay. There are 10,000 people in the settlements
around Selkirk, many of them intelligent, public spirited and
experienced. A Governor and Council, responsible to the Co
lonial Office and not to the Company, should be appointed, and
the Queen's authority should be established as a protection to
the spirit of development which would be at once evolved. Let
ample boundaries be assigned to the new Province, and freedom
of trade and of settlement be at once established, the Governor
being empowered whenever it contains 100,000 inhabitants to
call a Representative Assembly, and allow the people to govern
themselves. If these measures are adopted, there will be
more life, improvement and activity, infused into this country
in a single year than the Hudson's Bay Company have infused
into it in a century. In less than ten years Selkirk will
probably be a Province as populous as New Brunswick, with
its own legislature, and its own revenues amply sufficient to
maintain it ; and by that time we may organise another, as popu
lation passes westward, attracted by a virgin soil, fine timber,
and mines, the value of which, at the present moment, no man
can estimate. But it may be asked who is to protect these
new Provinces ? They will protect themselves if their people
are wise and prudent. A just and generous policy will make
the Indian tribes their friends and customers ; and if they
make no raids across the frontier, harbour no enemies, and
give no offence, the neighbouring states of Minnesota and
Montana, secure of a large participation in their growing trade,
will rejoice in their prosperity, and gladly establish with them
the same sound commercial intercourse which now make
Massachusetts and Nova Scotia, Maine and New Brunswick,
almost one : though nowhere, perhaps, are love of country, and
loyalty to the institutions the populations prefer, more dis
tinctly marked.
The Provinces on the Pacific side of the Rocky Mountains
form the fourth great natural division of British America.
They are full of resources, and with a healthy climate, coal
in abundance, gold mines, rich fisheries, fine timber, and a fer
tile soil, they must prosper with any kind of good manage-

18
ment. They will remain British so long as England can keep
the sea. They have no Datural connection with Canada, or the
Eocky Mountains were a mistake : but the " vaulting ambition "
of certain people about Ottawa easily overleaps a couple of
thousand miles of wilderness or a range of mountains, and
would disregard the natural outlines of Creation with an
audacity which in Europe would be denounced as a wilful
temptation of Providence. Fortunately their power is not
equal to their ambition ; and the Pacific Provinces, like all the
others, will be left to govern themselves within the orbits as
signed to them by British interests and Imperial regulations,
until the period arrives for a general break up, when the British
Provinces and the American States on the Pacific will perhaps
unite and form one great English community, preserving
friendly relations, it is to be hoped, with the nations from which
they sprung.
Turning again to the Maritime Provinces on the Atlantic
seaboard, we discern the nearest and most available allies that
these Islands have, whenever (and may the time be very re
mote) they are forced into a great naval war. France knows
the value of the North Atlantic as a training school for seamen,
and for three hundred years she has cultivated it with a per
sistent and enlightened national policy. Even after her hold
upon the continent was severed by the fall of Louisburg and
Quebec, she stipulated for the occupancy of St. Pierre and
Miquelon, and for certain rights of fishery upon the west coast
of Newfoundland. By a liberal expenditure in bounties, and
a rigid system of enrolment, she has now built up on two
barren islands a prosperous mercantile community. Without
raising the legal question of exclusive occupancy she maintains,
by the frequent visits of her men-of-war, and by the passive
resistance of numbers, something like an ascendancy on what
is called " the French shore," while the Banks swarm with her
fishing craft whose bultows stretch for many hundreds of miles.
By these means France employs every summer 10,000 men on
the Banks and shores of Newfoundland : this is the naval re
serve which makes her formidable upon the ocean. Looking
to the apparent decline in the number and efficiency of seamen
in these Islauds which some Members of Parliament have

19
recently pointed out, she would indeed be .formidable had not
our noble Provinces in the North Atlantic, without bounties
or encouragement of any kind, developed maritime capabilities
that excite " our special wonder," and out of all proportion to
any interest, strange to say, which the subject has ever excited
in the Mother Country. In the event of a war with France,
either Nova Scotia with her 20,000, or Newfoundland with her
38,000 hardy seamen, would, if furnished with gun- boats, sweep
these 10,000 Frenchmen off the ocean in a single summer, and
then come home to guard the coasts of England till the war
was over. And yet we are asked to break down the institu
tions which have fostered this naval reserve, and animated it
with a spirit of loyalty and devotion not to be surpassed on the
coasts of Hampshire or of Sussex. Whatever the colonists
feel, this is a question of vital Imperial policy ; and when Her
Majesty's Ministers are asked to transfer the government of
these 60,000 mariners from England to Canada — from the sea
board where it may be guarded to Ottawa where it cannot —
from the open harbours that our ironclads can enter at all
seasons of the year, to an icy region hundreds of miles above
tide water, inaccessible by our navy in summer, and in winter
sealed by frost, the question should be answered by the Cabinet
with a firmness commensurate with its magnitude and import
ance. But is there any necessity for a hasty and unwise decision of
this question ? None whatever. If judiciously treated in this
country it would have settled itself long since. What are the
facts ? In 1862 a Conference was held at Quebec to discuss
various topics of intercolonial interest, and at that Conference,
representatives from the Governments of Nova Scotia and
New Brunswick being present with the whole Canadian Cabi
net, it was decided unanimously, in presence of the great diffi
culties which beset the question of Colonial Union, that any
discussion of the subject was premature and could be followed
by no good result.
In 1864 a Conference was held at Charlotte Town to con
sider the smaller and much less complicated question of a Legis
lative Union of the Maritime Provinces only. If permitted to
continue and close their deliberations, without intrusion, that
b 2

20
Conference would probably have simplified the commercial and
financial arrangements of those Provinces, though it is not at
all probable that they would have consented to give up the
independent governments and legislatures under which they
had so long lived and prospered in harmony and good neigh
bourhood. In an evil hour certain Canadian gentlemen ap
peared upon the scene, and from that time to the present all
British America has been thrown into admired disorder.
It appears that the antagonism of races, of dual leaderships
and double majorities, already described, had about this time
produced a deadlock of unexampled tenacity. Dissolutions
and reconstructions had been tried, and still the House was
nearly divided, and the rival politicians were at their wit's end.
Neither would give way, or yield any thing for the good of
the country, but at last they bethought them that the Mari
time Provinces might be used as make weights to relieve
their embarrassments. When Herod and Pilate coalesced
there was a sacrifice, and when Mr. Gait and Mr. Brown, after
years of personal bitterness and malignant vituperation con
sented to clasp hands, it was with the understanding that the
Lower Provinces, which had had nothing to do with their dis
putes, were to be sacrificed to illustrate their reconciliation.
But we are avenged. Swift retribution has overtaken those
who formed that coalition. Mr. Brown was wedged out of the
Cabinet last winter, and now, it appears, that Mr. Gait has been
compelled to resign by a new manifestation of the religious
rivalry and national antagonisms which are the peculiar ele
ments of -discord in that unquiet region.
The coalition once formed, no time was lost in carrying out
the policy upon which it was based. Delegates were sent to
Charlotte Town, and the quiet Conference going on there was
broken up. A new one, on a larger scale, was initiated under the
auspices of the Governor General at Quebec. After three weeks
of light labour and " exhaustive festivities," what is called " the
Quebec Scheme" of Confederation was produced. So far the
Imperial Government had had nothing to do with the matter,
but, in accepting this new scheme of Confederation, growing
out of nothing but the political necessities of a single Province,
and before it had been ratified by tlie Legislatures or people of

21
any of the others, they committed a grave indiscretion, with
the best intentions, no doubt, and naturally misled by the ap
parent unanimity of the Conference. The Press and Parliament,
and public men of England, knowing little of the question, and
perhaps caring less, were also for a time misled by the action of
the Government, and by the plausible statements of some of
the Canadian Ministers, who rushed over here to forestall
public opinion. It is time that all parties were undeceived.
The case of the Maritime Provinces has never been presented
to the Parliament and people of England, nor has this question
ever been discussed except from the Canadian stand point, and
never in relation to the great interests which should largely
influence its decision, the good faith of the Crown, and the
dignity and security of the Empire.
There were in this country two or three classes of persons
prepared to receive this proposition with special favour. There
were first, the Anti- Colonial school of politicians, who desire
to pollard the British oak — who believe that England would be
richer, stronger, happier, if all her outlying Provinces were
given away. If Australia belonged to France — India to Russia ;
if the West Indies were black republics ; if the other half
of the American Continent were quietly handed over to the
United States, and if the milions of people who now feed their
commerce were permitted to drift about into new political
alliances and hostile commercial combinations. These people
thought that confederation meant separation, and were disposed,
like Moore's French Cupid, " to pilot us off and then bid us
good bye."
Then certain persons in the Manufacturing towns had been
disgusted with the high duties which Canada had imposed on
British productions. They were angry, and did not stay to
reflect that if Canada were in error the Maritime Provinces
ought not to be punished for her fault, seeing that they had
never followed her example. British manufactures are admitted
into them all, under light revenue duties. They all have an
interest in fostering equitable commercial relations with the
whole Empire, and with foreign countries, far transcending any
interest they may have in the consumption of three millions of

22
people in a mere inland country, which their vessels cannot
approach for nearly half the year.
But the English manufacturers did not stay to reflect that by
handing over nearly a million of good customers to the Cana
dians they were doing a palpable injustice to themselves, and
to the colonists besides. Up to this hour it is doubtful whether
a Canadian can be found who has invested a pound in Nova
Scotia, cleared a farm, built a ship, opened a mine, or expended
sixpence in the defence of the country. The expenses of its
early colonization, and of its protection, have been paid by
England ; and from this country, and not from Canada, came the
emigrants, the capital and the credit, which from time to time
have stimulated its enterprize, and quickened its industry.
Why then should Nova Scotia take blankets, broad cloth,
crockery ware, or cutlery from Canada duty free, but tax the
manufactures of Lancashire, Staffordshire, and Yorkshire?
and yet this is just what these cunning Canadians are at ; and,
strange to say, the Free Traders of England, who abhor discri
minating duties, and will not permit any of the Colonies to
impose them, even for their own advantage, are quietly permit
ting one British colony to swing four others out of the fiscal
system and common obligations of the Empire, that they
may monopolise their consumption, and discriminate against
the manufacturing industry of England and in favour of their
own. Again, after a struggle of unexampled energy and duration
the Corn Laws of England were abolished. In the wisdom of
that policy, at the present moment, perhaps all parties in this
country concur ; and the American Commissioners, appointed
by the Secretary of the Treasury to revise the revenue system
of the United States, acknowledge its soundness when they
say, that to give the producer his food free of duty is to give him
the benefit of the most subtle form of protection which can
be devised. He would be a bold man who would stand up in
the English Parliament and move to impose a duty on the
importation of flour. Yet the Parliament of Canada, at the
suggestion of Mr. Gait, has just imposed a duty of half a dollar
per barrel upon flour, nominally to punish the Americans for

23
impositions equally absurd, but in reality to quietly establish
a Corn Law for the benefit of Canada at the expense of the
Maritime Provinces. Those Provinces, having a large portion
of their population employed in lumbering, mining, ship
building, and navigation, annually import 800,000 barrels of
flour more than they produce. They pay for this with fish,
lumber, coal, gypsum, grindstones, new ships, and other
exports, for which they find a market abroad, a very small
proportion of the whole being purchased by the Canadians ;
and yet, if the people of England do not stamp the policy with
indignant reprobation, and protect the Maritime Provinces
from these retrograde politicians in the rear, they will probably
be taxed to the extent of $400,000 a year, which tax must fall
upon our shipwrights and our freights before we can send a
vessel to England, and increase the cost of living to our fisher-
men,gallantly making their way, by hardihood and thrift, against
the unfair competition produced by the bounties of Me United
States and France. These questions have never been under
stood over here, but they shall be ; and when they are, there
is not a manufacturer, a free trader, or a sound thinking
lover of fair play, in either of the three kingdoms, who will
not interfere to protect the Maritime Provinces from this
Canadian Corn Law.
Unfortunately there is a third class of persons in England,
not numerous perhaps, but highly respectable and sufficiently
influential, who, paiufully interested in the throes and eccen
tricities of Canada, are too much inclined to favour any thing
which may be calculated to restore her to financial soundness
and give buoyancy to stocks fearfully depreciated. Meetings
are annually held in London at which a body of very worthy
persons, who have invested 5610,000,000 or =615,000,000 in
certain enterprizes connected with Canada, debate for a whole
afternoon the very interesting question of how they can get
their money back again. Judging by the share list, this is
still an interesting question : and it is to be feared that,
despairing of relief from other quarters, it is sometimes
assumed that if the productive revenues of the Maritime
Provinces could be flung into the empty treasury of Canada, in
which, for ten years, there has been but one surplus, and that

24
if the British Government would throw three or four millions
into the country, for any object and at anybody's expense, their
prospect of dividends might be improved. There are high-
minded men, connected with those organizations, too discrimi
nating and too just to be swayed by such considerations ; but
there are probably others suffering from that sickness of the
heart which hope deferred produces who would gladly make the
Maritime Provinces, that have had nothing to do with their
disappointments and their sufferings, pay the penalty of their
own want of foresight. But this would be most unfair. Those
Provinces have honestly borrowed, on the credit of their
general revenues, all the money required for their public
works. They pay the interest promptly every half year, and
just as fast as capital accumulates, seeking permanent invest
ment, their Bonds are purchased by their own people, and
will speedily disappear from the English market, unless there
be some financial blundering from which it is hoped they may
be guarded by ordinary sagacity and circumspection.
The Noblemen and Gentlemen who were members of the last
Administration are of course committed to this scheme. But
let us hope that they are not too old to unlearn errors, or
so unpatriotic as to persist in a line of policy that can no
longer be defended ; and that they will not lightly value the
pledged faith of England to loyal and devoted communities,
who have done no wrong ; nor, in the face of such petitions
as have been sent here from Nova Scotia and Newfoundland,
attempt to sacrifice those Provinces at the shrine of Canadian
ambition, without regard to the forms which in all free coun
tries protect from rash innovation Institutions which the
people value.
But, it may be asked, do not the Maritime Provinces desire
this Union ? and, if the question includes the Quebec Scheme
of Confederation, it is soon answered. Every one of them re
jected it with a unanimity and decision not to be misunderstood.
In Prince Edward Island, both branches of the Legislature
being elective, but five members could be got to vote for it.
In Newfoundland it was condemned by the people at the
polls. In Nova Scotia the leader of the Government was com
pelled to come down to the House and declare it " imprac-

25
ticable;" and in New Brunswick the electors, animated by the
instinct of self preservation, rushed to the polls, swept the
delegates aside, and trampled it under their feet. Here the
matter would have rested, had all the Provinces been treated
with the justice and impartiality to which they were entitled.
It is the pride and boast of Englishmen that in their pure
Courts the humblest persons and the most exalted stand on
an equal footing. A Judge would be disgraced and a Juror
perjured, if the number of acres or the rank or position of
individuals were to influence the verdict. Between Corpo
rate Bodies in this country the rigid rule of strict and im
partial justice is invariably preserved. London cannot op
press York, or Manchester Oldham, and hence it is that while
every man's personal rights are secure, every man's Corporate
privileges, till laches, corruption, or abuse works forfeiture,
are respected. If asked to-morrow what it is that binds this
Empire together by bands stronger than Ironclads, the prompt
answer would be the all pervading reliance of the people
every where upon the pledged faith of the Crown, and on the
justice and impartiality of the Imperial Parliament. When
franchises were conferred upon the people of the Maritime
Provinces and Legislatures given to them, these could only be
yielded up by voluntary consent, or be forfeited by miscon
duct. When self government was conceded it could never
afterwards be withdrawn, unless upon ample proof, elicited by
legal forms or deliberate Parliamentary enquiry, that it had
been grossly abused. Even the Colonial legislators themselves,
intrusted for a definite time, with limited powers, and sacred
trusts, could not strip the people of their rights without their
own consent, or transfer to others the power of legislation, any
more than the Aldermen of London could annihilate the con
stitution which limits their sphere of action, or than the
Common Councillors of Bath could transfer the government
of that City to Bristol.
If these rules guard securely every petty Corporation in the
kingdom, surely they should be applied with equal stringency
to the protection of great Provinces, exercising, in due subor
dination to Imperial authority, and with all loyalty and

26
affection to their Mother Country, the high powers of
legislation and internal self government. Until the people
of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland,
forfeit, by corruption or abuse, the privileges conferred, or
voluntarily relinquish them, they cannot be reclaimed by the
Crown or swept away by Parliament without a breach of faith :
nor can they be transferred by the local legislatures, any more
than an estate can be transferred by Trustees whose powers
are limited in the Deed by which the trust has been created.
Unfortunately these plain principles of legal construction
and constitutional law have, in dealing with the Maritime Pro
vinces, been strangely overlooked. When all the parties to the
Quebec scheme of Confederation found that they had made an
egregious blunder, they should have abandoned the project and
left the Provinces in peace ; and above all, the Government of
England should have withdrawn from a controversy, into
which, for no Imperial objects, as has been clearly proved, they
had been artfully drawn. They should have held the scales even
and treated all Her Majesty's subjects in British America
alike. This was not done. The policy, long after it had been
condemned by public opinion, was not, as it should have been,
abandoned ; but, inspired by Canadian influences, a system of
Imperial pressure was brought to bear upon the Maritime
Provinces for the first time in their history, which has roused a
very indignant feeling.
Thus countenanced in this country all boundaries were over
stepped by certain parties on the other side. Governors be
came partizans. In one Province, while the Fenians were
upon the frontier, the Cabinet was wedged out of office, the
House dissolved, and the whole population precipitated into
the turmoil of a general election just when every man should
have been standing shoulder to shoulder ; and, what was worse,
one half of an entirely loyal population were taught to brand
the other half as disloyal, and permitted to threaten them with
the loss of the Queen's favour and protection, if they did not
accept Confederation, and forswear the opinions which only a
year before, left to their unbiassed judgments, they had ex
pressed. The same arts were practised with ludicrous exag-

27
geration in another Province, and the result is that two
out of the four were induced to pass a resolution, authorizing a
new Convention, to be held in England, to be composed of an
equal number of delegates from all the Provinces, (Upper and
Lower Canada to count as two,) who are to frame a new
scheme of Union, which it is fondly hoped the Cabinet will
sanction and the Imperial Parliament adopt before it has been
submitted to the Legislatures whose powers it is to transfer,
or to the electors whose rights and revenues it is proposed
thus summarily to sweep away. Two " bodies of Dele
gates," as the papers inform us, came over here from New
Brunswick and Nova Scotia a month ago. They were twelve
in number, and it is presumed that they have been puzzled
to know what to do with themselves, and Lord Carnarvon
quite as much puzzled to know what to do with them, seeing
that Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island have refused
to take part in the Conference ; and that the Canadians, busy
with sectional, national, and religious disputes, as usual, have
as yet had nobody to spare, and do not, it is said, propose to send
over their contingent till October. If all the Colonies were to
be represented by equal numbers there would be just thirty-
six of these Delegates here, costing a pretty round sum of
money, and doing what might more becomingly be done at
home. It is impossible to tell what the Colonial Secretary
may say to these gentlemen when they all assemble, but if he
were to say this, he would probably be sustained by enlightened
public opinion : " Gentlemen, it is unfair for you to come here
and attempt to mix the Government and Parliament of Eng
land up in your disputes. You possess ample powers to ma
ture a scheme of government. Go home and hold your Con
ference in some public hall, where the people to be affected by
your decision can hear your debates and be influenced by your
arguments. If you can agree upon a plan of Union pub
lish it for three months and then dissolve your Legislatures.
If the people accept it the Parliament of England, unless
controlled by Imperial policy and interests, will probably
ratify their decision ; but, as the people may not, it -would be
unfair to compromise me, as you did Mr. Cardwell, by
getting me to pledge myself to a measure, which, until it is

28
ratified by the suffrages of those it is to affect, must ob
viously be too crude and immature to require serious atten
tion." All this might be said, with great truth and propriety, and
nobody ought to complain if the Secretary of State were to
add, that it was very inconvenient to have both the Crown
Officers of Nova Scotia on pleasure trips in England at the
same time, that there was barely a quorum in either Colony to
surround the Governor of Nova Scotia or New Brunswick at
the present moment — that, as the Fenians threatened a second
visit to the Provinces this autumn rather more serious than the
last, it might be as well for them all to hurry home and look
to their defences.
This subject might be discussed more at large, and might be
placed in many ludicrous points of view. It is a serious one,
however, and it has been treated seriously. What the people
of Nova Scotia think of the mission to this country may be
gathered from the addresses to the Queen passed in eight of
the most populous and wealthy counties, and by their petitions
to the House of Commons. What the people of Newfoundland
think of it may be gathered from their petitions to both Houses,
while the opinions of the people of Prince Edward Island are
expressed in their resolutions adopted last April.
But it is said, in the case of Nova Scotia, petitions cannot
contravene a resolution of the Legislature. No, provided it be
such a resolution as, uninstructed by the electors, the Legisla
ture had a right to pass. In this case it strikes at the Consti
tution of the country which the representatives were chosen to
guard and not to violate ; and besides, the present House are
sitting upon a franchise which expired a year ago, and had not,
according to British usage, the right to pass any resolution at
all. Parliament in this country is invariably dissolved when
a new franchise is adopted. That of Nova Scotia should
and would have been, had the prerogative been exercised
with firmness and impartiality. However, the law dissolves
our Parliament next May, and we shall not have long to
wait for an unmistakeable expression of the opinions of the
people.

29
By the last mail Lord Monck's speech on closing the Session
of the Canadian Parliament reached England. Referring to
the proposed Confederacy, His Lordship describes it as " that
new nationality of which you will form a part, and the dimen
sions of which will entitle it to a fresh place amongst the
Powers of the world." If I remember right this is the
second or third time that this phrase has been used by Lord
Monck, acting of course under the advice of his Canadian
Ministers. The " dimensions" of the " new nationality" will certainly
be formidable enough, seeing that it is to comprize a territory
of 4,000,000 of square miles. The United States have not so
much. All Europe, with its family of nations, is smaller by
ninety-two thousand square miles. When all the absorptions
and reconstructions arising out of Prussia's great success are
made, there will still remain at least sixteen Sovereign States
in Europe, on a territory smaller than that which these aspiring
political speculators at Ottawa seek to control. The " dimen
sions" of the new nation will certainly be sufficiently imposing,
very nearly realizing Sam Slick's comprehensive phrase of " all
out doors." When we survey it, with one human being stand
ing on every square mile, its strength in proportion to its
dimensions can be rightly estimated.
The Northern States, with 24,000,000 of people, by great
exertions and at enormous cost were at last able to put into
the field a million of soldiers. With 4,000,000 of people this
" fresh Power," by exertions of the same character, after
expending money in the like proportion, may be able to equip
and pay an army of 166,000, and should the troops be ex
tended along the land frontier facing the United States, they
will be only 37 yards apart, and may occasionally catch a
glimpse of each other where the country is not thickly
wooded. If massed on several points they would certainly
not be much more than a match for the 200,000 men who
marched past the White House at Washington in May, 1865,
and who numbered about one-fifth of the disciplined soldiers
of the Eepublic.
Let us now look at the new nation from the naval point of

30
view. It has to defend a coast line on the North Atlantic
of about five thousand miles, with a long seaboard on the
Pacific side. It has to guard the shores of the great lakes,
and it has no navy. But it may be said that Great Britain is
to defend the coasts and the lakes, and to throw in an odd
half million of troops to make the land defences perfect. Is
she indeed ? Where the ships and the men are to come from
would perhaps be puzzling questions at the Admiralty and the
Horse Guards just now ; but let us suppose that they could
be furnished, who is to pay for them ? If the people of
England, then let there be an end of this buncombe about a
new nationality, and of pretensions utterly irreconcileable
with the resistless logic that must decide this question. If
the people of England are to defend those Provinces with the
whole force of the Empire, then let them think well of what
they are about, for by disturbing old currents of thought, and
multiplying the difficulties of the Conservative element in the
United States, sorely pressed at all times by the turbulent and
aggressive, they are increasing the hazards of a war ten-fold.
The attitude of the British Provinces on the American Con
tinent is at this moment one eminently peaceful and sedative.
But let this Guy of a " New Nationality" be set up, which
other people are to pay for and are expected to protect, and
every young fellow who has had a taste of the license of camp
life in the United States will be sorely tempted to have a fling
at it. Let the Provinces resume their accustomed role of
peaceful developement as outlying portions of a great empire,
with which the United States cannot afford to quarrel. She
cannot then disturb them without a violation of the diplomatic
recognitions of three parts of a century, and without a war,
causelessly provoked, and on which neither the civilized world
nor the great God of Battles can be expected to smile. Let
us then fling into the fire the paper constitution, manufactured
at Quebec, and Governor Banks's Bill will probably be con
signed to the flames immediately after ; and then we shall
begin to breathe freely again, and can set about adjusting the
one or two questions that remain as causes of national irri
tation, and may look forward to peace for a century, with

31
industrial developement, on a scale so vast as to make war
between the two great branches of the family impossible
thenceforward and for ever.
It is strange that in the Quebec resolutions Lord Monck can
find no warrant for using the term " New Nationality." It is
strange also that in the Maritime Provinces not one of the
Delegates will ever admit that any such thing is to be created.
The prevailing idea with these people is a large country,
defended by Great Britain. That she is to furnish 364,000,000
for the Intercolonial Eailroad; £2,000,000 to buy up the
Hudson Bay Company's Territory; £3,000,000 for fortifi
cations along the line of the St. Lawrence ; to provide
gun-boats for the lakes ; and that by and bye, when money is
plenty and John Bull in a marvellous good humour, an ad
vance of £5,000,000 to deepen and enlarge Canals may be
reasonably expected. To the unsophisticated Confederate
mind, in all the Provinces, this is pretty nearly what confede
ration means ; but as to assuming the duties of a, nation —
selecting a King — electing a President — maintaining a standing
army — building and keeping a navy afloat, ana managing
foreign affairs, there is not one man in five hundred who has
the slightest idea of assuming any such responsibilities, or
of committing himself to any such expenditure.
The people of England have been made to believe that these
Confederates mean the very reverse of what they intend,
but the time for mystification and self-delusion has gohe by.
Before a single step is taken to disturb the existing order of
things, let us know what we are to have in stead. If we are
to be Colonies, and Great Britain is to protect and defend us,
then let us put on no airs, and create no divided allegiance or
authority. If we are to be a nation, then let us set about the
serious work we are assuming with a full sense of its perilous
obligations. We cannot begin to make a nation without a
King, or a President residing within our territory, armed with
executive powers, narrowed and restrained by no external
force, and responsible for the conduct of our Foreign Affairs.
These are the first simple but indispensable elements of
national life. We could not stagger on two years without
them ; nay the first Session of the Confederate Legislature

32
would not "have closed before the logical results of the false
step we are asked to take would be apparent, and the Colonial
Secretary would be informed that he might withdraw his
Viceroy, and the Foreign Secretary that we had sent our
own Minister to Washington.
If when all this were done, . " 'twere well done," then those
who are for dismembering the Empire might exclaim, " 'twere
well it were done quickly," and those who are not might still
accept the new responsibilities in consideration of the some
what questionable increase of dignity arising from the fact,
that thenceforward they would be called citizens and not
subjects. If British America, organized into a nation, could
stand alone, free to cherish and to act upon her hereditary
attachment to these Islands, and if the Parliament of Great
Britain, with the consent of the Crown, after full review of
the interests of the Empire, were to absolve us from our
allegiance, we might with cheerful spirits set about the task,
however unwisely and prematurely imposed. We might have
attempted this with a chance or two of success in our favour
ten years ago, when the United States presented the aspect
of a great industrial community, indisposed to war, with whom
we had diplomatically adjusted every irritating question, and
whose standing army numbered but ten thousand men. But
now the whole chequer-board has changed. The United
States have suddenly become a great Military and Naval
Power. When the Union is reconstructed and the Southern
States are brought again within the fold, there will be a million
and a half of disciplined soldiers and a powerful navy for
Lord Monck's new nationality to confront ; and what is more,
the Reciprocity Treaty has expired, the Alabama claims are
unsettled, and a million of Fenians have sprung up to give
an aggressive turn to American diplomacy, and to hang like a
war-cloud over the frontier. By organizing the whole Empire,
by standing upon long recognized rights, by firmness, tact, and
moderation, peace may be preserved, and friendly commercial
arrangements may be revived and strengthened; but any
attempt to prematurely construct a rival Confederacy, too large
for a Colony and too weak for a Nation, will but increase our
difficulties an hundred-fold. When once organized, even if

33
every man in the Provinces .was a consenting party, it must
be obvious that the New Nation could not stand alone ; and it
is equally certain that the people of England would expect to
be relieved from the responsibility and burthen of its defence.
Inevitably it must succumb to the growing power of the
Eepublic. A treaty offensive and defensive with the United
States, involving ultimate participation in a war with England,
would be the hard terms of its recognition as a separate but
not independent State ; and if this were refused, one of two
things would happen, either the New Nationality would be
overrun and annexed, or harassed by Fenian raids and
menaced by superior numbers till their revenues were wasted,
and their industry was paralyzed, the Provinces would volun
tarily consent to rub out the long frontier that they could
not defend, and seek admission to the Eepublic on the best
terms they could obtain.
When this was done, the parties in this country who take
un-English views of everything might be satisfied and consoled.
But how would it stand with these Islands ? When their only
formidable commercial rival ruled the whole Continent of
America, from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson's Bay, — when
her Mercantile Marine was increased by a million of tons of
shipping, — when England was left without a harbour of
refuge, a spar, or a ton of coal on the whole Continent of
America, — when four millions of British subjects had been
drawn behind the Morrill Tariff, and every loyal Irishman in
British America had been converted into a Fenian, — when the
outposts of the enemy had been advanced 800 miles nearer to
England by the possession of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland,
— does anybody believe that American diplomacy would be any
the less aggressive, or that the coasts of this great centre of
our civilization would be any. the more secure ? No ! England
that now fights for Empire would be compelled to fight for
existence ; and Ireland, now tolerably steady, impressed by the
odds against England, might become a doubtful ally ; and what
would be worse, millions of loyal subjects, trained in love and
devotion to the Mother Country, would be coerced into a
contest in which victory would be even more heart-rending and
degrading than defeat.

34
In view of these consequences, certain to flow from this or
from any scheme for dismembering the British Empire, with
all respect I would implore the Cabinet to put them all aside,
and set seriously about the much more hopeful and rational
task of so combining its intellectual and physical resources, as
to make defence easy and the burthen light.
Having shown, with sufficient clearness, that any attempt
prematurely to set up a ' fresh Power' on the American Con
tinent, even if our people were united upon the policy, and
anxious to sustain it, would be a blunder worse than a crime,
it is scarcely worth while to show that all the difficulties and
chances of failure would be multiplied ten-fold if the people
of the Maritime Provinces were carried into such a Confederacy
by an arbitrary Act of Parliament. The people of Scotland
were only reconciled to the Union by the lapse of time ; and
the people of Ireland can hardly be said to be reconciled yet.
But in both these cases the measures matured, however
questionable the means employed, were adopted after full dis
cussion by the Parliaments to be swept away ; and in neither
case, let it be borne in mind, was there a powerful neighbour
close at hand to sympathize with those whose independence
had been purchased, or to foment the bitter feelings which in
both countries disturbed society for long periods, and often
broke into open rebellion.
Beside the Provinces there is a powerful neighbour, armed
to the teeth, wary and watchful, bold and enterprising, ready
to profit by divisions and perturbations, which now fortunately
do not exist. That neighbour now respects the union of
sentiment which pervades our territory, and which has been
fostered by the institutions we are asked to overturn, that
leave to the Maritime Provinces nothing to envy in the
privileges enjoyed by the smaller States of the Union. But
let those Provinces be arbitrarily annexed to Canada by an
Act of Parliament which had never been laid before their
Legislatures or sanctioned by their people, how long then will
he be indifferent or inactive? When our people go into
mourning, as I believe they will, and wear their flags at half-
mast on every sea as an expression of their sorrow and in
dignation, our neighbours will not be slow to perceive that this

35
forced union has brought strength as a forced marriage brings
happiness; and when Canada is blessed with hundreds of
thousands of unquiet subjects, who hate her rule and will not
be too prompt to fight for a domination which they repudiate
and for a nationality they despise, the Republicans will promptly
avail themselves of errors in policy which every loyal subject
of the Queen should pray Her Majesty's Ministers to avoid.'
When the American Republic was formed the smaller States,
which entered it, had many guarantees for protection and
fair play which this Quebec scheme of government does not
give to us. In the first place, no one large State could domi
nate over all the others. There were, even at that time,
Virginia, the Carolinas, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New
York to balance and control each other ; and, as some of these
grew in wealth and population, there came Ohio, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Illinois, and many others, which precluded the
possibility of any permanent and invidious centralization of
power, and so the smaller States grew and prospered, and were
protected, In our case we are to have a Confederacy in name,
but in reality the centre of power and of influence will always be
in Canada. It can be no where else. When divided the eastern
and western sections may quarrel as they have always done upon
sectional questions, but they may be trusted to combine against
us whenever our interests clash, and having no other large state
to lean upon we will be about as powerless as Hanover or
Brunswick in the grasp of Bismark. Had the Maritime
Provinces been permitted to organize themselves first and then
to unite with Canada, they might have acted together and had
a chance to guard their interests ; but, disunited, it is plain that
they must be a prey to the spoiler ; and having but forty-seven
representatives, all told, it is apparent that the Government of
the Confederacy will always rest upon the overwhelming ma
jority of 147, and that even when close divisions and Ministerial
crises occur the minority can easily be split up and played off
against each other for purely Canadian purposes.
Again, the smaller States of the Union secured an equal
representation in the Senate, and without this protection they
could not be induced to enter the Confederacy at all. We
are asked to accept a proportional representation in the Upper

36
Chamber, and can always be outvoted by the Canadians, even
when, which is very unlikely, we all act together. Then the
American Senate, in which these small States are equally
represented, share with the President executive duties, and
have a veto on all Treaties and on important appointments.
The Senate is, therefore, in the American system, the body in
which largely resides not merely the dignity but the real
substantial power of the Government ; and thus to the smaller
States is secured a fair share of influence over the administra
tion, that we, by no provision which the Quebec scheme includes,
can ever hope to obtain. The people of the United States
elect their own Senators. Ours are to be selected by the
Canadian Minister, resting upon a permanent Parliamentary
majority which we may occasionally hope to influence but can
never control.
The Colonial Minister in former times selected Colonial
Judges, and the Canadians liked that system.so little that they
broke into open insurrection in order to get rid of it. When
they appoint ours, they must not be surprized if we follow
their example, and even sigh for the American system of
electing them which is now universally condemned. Then the
Canadians are to select our Governors. The single " golden
link," as it is sometimes called, which binds us to the Mother
country, is to be rudely severed, and the only piece of patron
age reserved to the Crown in return for the protection which
the " New Nationality" cannot do without, is to be wrenched
from the Sovereign and dispensed from some bureau at Ottawa.
The pretension is modest. Looking down the long line of
Governors who have been sent to us from England, there may
have been one or two not overwise, or who were indiscreet,
but at all events they were gentlemen, and many brought
with them ladies trained in the accomplishments and pure
domestic life of this country. I can remember Lord Dal-
housie, Sir James Kempt, Sir Peregrine Maitland, Sir
John Harvey, Sir Gaspard Le Marchant, Lord Normanby
and others, who had acquired experience or won distinction in
the service of the Crown. The example set by such people
and their families is to be traced in the social cultivation and
gentle manners diffused from our capital to the shire towns,

37
and all over the country. But all this is to be changed. Of
course no such people will be eligible under Confederation.
No nobleman or gentleman, who has served his Sovereign by
land or sea, need apply. Even the Victoria Cross would be
no recommendation. No patriotic lover of his country — no
defender of the rights and interests of the Maritime Pro
vinces need hope for this promotion; but if there is any
pliant and subservient tool of the Canadian Minister, who has
never won distinction any where, and is heartily despised by
his own countrymen, any body may safely bet the odds in his
favour. But how long will the system last? Just till the
men beside the sea trample it under their feet ; and, driven
by the instinct of self-preservation to protect themselves,
elect their own Governors, and set their Canadian masters at
defiance. Instead of wasting precious time with schemes to dis
member the Empire, I wish the Government and people of
England would seriously consider how it can be organized so
as to draw around the Throne its vast intellectual and physical
resources, and lift us above the atmosphere of doubt and
apprehension in which, in these latter days, it appears we live.
The people of these Islands surveyed with wonder, a few years
ago, the wealth of their Provinces combined in the Crystal
Palace. A happy thought, developed by some organization,
enabled the people of each to become better acquainted with
the others, and the people of England to become familiar with
them all. But how little is known here of the undeveloped
strength which lies in those great British communities, whose
thoughts ever turn to the Mother Country — whose stout arms
would willingly defend her ; and whose resources, pecuniary,
physical, and intellectual, might, by simple arrangements, be
drawn into the service of the State. But this subject is too
important to be treated at the close of a paper, which I fear
those who do me the honour to read it may consider already
too long.London, 25, Saville Row.