I Cannot But Think That Such A Confederation Might Be Formed With
Great Advantage To All The Colonies And To Great Britain.
At
present the Canadas are in effect almost more distant from Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick than they are from England.
The
intercourse between them is very slight - so slight that it may
almost be said that there is no intercourse. A few men of science
or of political importance may from time to time make their way
from one colony into the other, but even this is not common.
Beyond that they seldom see each other. Though New Brunswick
borders both with Lower Canada and with Nova Scotia, thus making
one whole of the three colonies, there is neither railroad nor
stage conveyance running from one to the other. And yet their
interests should be similar. From geographical position their
modes of life must be alike, and a close conjunction between them
is essentially necessary to give British North America any
political importance in the world. There can be no such
conjunction, no amalgamation of interests, until a railway shall
have been made joining the Canada Grand Trunk Line with the two
outlying colonies. Upper Canada can feed all England with wheat,
and could do so without any aid of railway through the States, if a
railway were made from Quebec to Halifax. But then comes the
question of the cost. The Canada Grand Trunk is at the present
moment at the lowest ebb of commercial misfortune, and with such a
fact patent to the world, what company will come forward with funds
for making four or five hundred miles of railway, through a
district of which one-half is not yet prepared for population? It
would be, I imagine, out of the question that such a speculation
should for many years give any fair commercial interest on the
money to be expended. But nevertheless to the colonies - that is,
to the enormous regions of British North America - such a railroad
would be invaluable. Under such circumstances it is for the Home
Government and the colonies between them to see how such a measure
may be carried out. As a national expenditure, to be defrayed in
the course of years by the territories interested, the sum of money
required would be very small.
But how would this affect England? And how would England be
affected by a union of the British North American colonies under
one federal government? Before this question can be answered, he
who prepares to answer it must consider what interest England has
in her colonies, and for what purpose she holds them. Does she
hold them for profit, or for glory, or for power; or does she hold
them in order that she may carry out the duty which has devolved
upon her of extending civilization, freedom, and well-being through
the new uprising nations of the world? Does she hold them, in
fact, for her own benefit, or does she hold them for theirs?
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