They are
to govern themselves; and he who comes to them from England is to
sit among them as the silent representative of England's
protection.
If that be true - and I do not think that any who know
the Canadas will deny it - must it not be presumed that they will
soon also desire a faineant minister in Downing Street? Of course
they will so desire. Men do not become milder in their aspirations
for political power the more that political power is extended to
them. Nor would it be well that they should be so humble in their
desires. Nations devoid of political power have never risen high
in the world's esteem. Even when they have been commercially
successful, commerce has not brought to them the greatness which it
has always given when joined with a strong political existence.
The Greeks are commercially rich and active; but "Greece" and
"Greek" are bywords now for all that is mean. Cuba is a colony,
and putting aside the cities of the States, the Havana is the
richest town on the other side of the Atlantic, and commercially
the greatest; but the political villainy of Cuba, her daily
importation of slaves, her breaches of treaty, and the bribery of
her all but royal governor, are known to all men. But Canada is
not dishonest; Canada is no byword for anything evil; Canada eats
her own bread in the sweat of her brow, and fears a bad word from
no man. True. But why does New York, with its suburbs boast a
million of inhabitants, while Montreal has 85,000? Why has that
babe in years, Chicago, 120,000, while Toronto has not half the
number? I do not say that Montreal and Toronto should have gone
ahead abreast with New York and Chicago. In such races one must be
first, and one last. But I do say that the Canadian towns will
have no equal chance till they are actuated by that feeling of
political independence which has created the growth of the towns in
the United States.
I do not think that the time has yet come in which Great Britain
should desire the Canadians to start for themselves. There is the
making of that railroad to be effected, and something done toward
the union of those provinces. Canada could no more stand alone
without New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, than could those latter
colonies without Canada. But I think it would be well to be
prepared for such a coming day; and that it would at any rate be
well to bring home to ourselves and realize the idea of such
secession on the part of our colonies, when the time shall have
come at which such secession may be carried out with profit and
security to them. Great Britain, should she ever send forth her
child alone into the world, must of course guarantee her security.
Such guarantees are given by treaties; and, in the wording of them,
it is presumed that such treaties will last forever. It will be
argued that in starting British North America as a political power
on its own bottom, we should bind ourself to all the expense of its
defense, while we should give up all right to any interference in
its concerns; and that, from a state of things so unprofitable as
this, there would be no prospect of a deliverance. But such
treaties, let them be worded how they will, do not last forever.
For a time, no doubt, Great Britain would be so hampered - if indeed
she would feel herself hampered by extending her name and prestige
to a country bound to her by ties such as those which would then
exist between her and this new nation. Such treaties are not
everlasting, nor can they be made to last even for ages. Those who
word them seem to think that powers and dynasties will never pass
away. But they do pass away, and the balance of power will not
keep itself fixed forever on the same pivot. The time may come -
that it may not come soon we will all desire - but the time may come
when the name and prestige of what we call British North America
will be as serviceable to Great Britain as those of Great Britain
are now serviceable to her colonies.
But what shall be the new form of government for the new kingdom?
That is a speculation very interesting to a politician, though one
which to follow out at great length in these early days would be
rather premature. That it should be a kingdom - that the political
arrangement should be one of which a crowned hereditary king should
form part - nineteen out of every twenty Englishmen would desire;
and, as I fancy, so would also nineteen out of every twenty
Canadians. A king for the United States, when they first
established themselves, was impossible. A total rupture from the
Old World and all its habits was necessary for them. The name of a
king, or monarch, or sovereign had become horrible to their ears.
Even to this day they have not learned the difference between
arbitrary power retained in the hand of one man, such as that now
held by the Emperor over the French, and such hereditary headship
in the State as that which belongs to the Crown in Great Britain.
And this was necessary, seeing that their division from us was
effected by strife, and carried out with war and bitter
animosities. In those days also there was a remnant, though but a
small remnant, of the power of tyranny left within the scope of the
British Crown. That small remnant has been removed; and to me it
seems that no form of existing government, no form of government
that ever did exist, gives or has given so large a measure of
individual freedom to all who live under it as a constitutional
monarchy in which the Crown is divested of direct political power.
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