Scarcely three years had elapsed since
Mr. Cobden declared that if there had not been a plentiful harvest in
America he did not know where food could have been procured for the
people of this country.
"Now, the corn-growing fields of Upper Canada alone ranked fifth in
point of productiveness. Did England not wish to preserve this vast
storehouse? Suppose that Canada belonged to America: in the event of a
quarrel with England there was nothing to prevent the United States
from declaring that not an ounce of food should leave its territories,
which would then extend from the Arctic regions to the Gulf of Mexico.
He had hoped that upon this Bill, not only both sides of the House, but
every section of the House, might have been found in unison.
"It was no use blinking the question. This would not be a decision
affecting Canada merely. We had sympathies alike with Australia and the
other Colonies. If it were seriously proposed that England should
denude herself of her possessions - give up India, Australia, North
America, and retire strictly within the confines of her own Islands, to
make herself happy there, - the same result might be brought about much
more easily by those who wished it. They might become citizens of some
small country like Holland, and realize their ideas of happiness in a
moment. But he hesitated to believe that the people of England did
really favour any such policy.
"If any one were to hoist the motto, 'Severance of the Colonies from
the Crown,' he did not believe that one per cent. of the people would
adopt it. He believed that the people of England felt a deep attachment
to their Empire, and that not a barren rock over which the flag of
England had ever waved would be abandoned by them without a cogent and
sufficient reason. Every argument used in support of the necessity of
giving up the Provinces, which lay within eight days of our own shores,
would apply with equal force in the case of Ireland, if the people of
the United States chose to demand possession.
"Was this country prepared to give up Gibraltar, Malta, Heligoland, all
its outlying stations, merely because some strong power took a fancy to
them? He did not believe that the people of England would ever act in
such a spirit.
"As to the argument of expense, if Canada chose to pick a quarrel on
her own account, clearly she ought to pay the bill; but if she were
involved in war on Imperial considerations, then he maintained that the
Imperial revenues might properly be resorted to.
"The British Empire was one and indivisible, or it was nothing.
