Well, He Is Known As One Of The First Men In Sagacity, As He Is In
Position, In Any Of
These colonies; that he was for many years the
intimate associate of his late distinguished confrere,
Archbishop Hughes of New
York; that he knows the United States as
thoroughly as he does the Provinces, - and these are his views on this
particular point; the extract is somewhat long, but so excellently put
that I am sure the House will be obliged to me for the whole of it: -
"Instead of cursing, like the boy in the upturned boat, and holding on
until we are fairly on the brink of the cataract, we must at once begin
to pray and strike out for the shore by all means, before we get too
far down on the current. We must at this most critical moment invoke
the Arbiter of nations for wisdom, and abandoning in time our perilous
position, we must strike out boldly, and at some risks, for some rock
on the nearest shore - some resting-place of greater security. A cavalry
raid, or a visit from our Fenian friends on horseback, through the
plains of Canada and the fertile valleys of New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia, may cost more in a single week than Confederation for the next
fifty years; and if we are to believe you, where is the security even
at the present moment against such a disaster? Without the whole power
of the Mother Country by land and sea, and the concentration in a
single hand of all the strength of British America, our condition is
seen at a glance. Whenever the present difficulties will terminate - and
who can tell the moment? - we will be at the mercy of our neighbours;
and, victorious or otherwise, they will be eminently a military people,
and with all their apparent indifference about annexing this country,
and all the friendly feelings that may be talked, they will have the
power to strike when they please; and this is precisely the kernel and
the only touch-point of the whole question. No nation ever had the
power of conquest that did not use it, or abuse it, at the very first
favourable opportunity. All that is said of the magnanimity and
forbearance of mighty nations can be explained on the principle of
sheer inexpediency, as the world knows. The whole face of Europe has
been changed, and the dynasties of many hundred years have been swept
away within our own time, on the principle of might alone - the oldest,
the strongest, and, as some would have it, the most sacred of all
titles. The thirteen original States of America, with all their
professions of self-denial, have been all the time, by money, power,
and by war, and by negociation, extending their frontier until they
more than quadrupled their territory within sixty years; and believe it
who may, are they now of their own accord to come to a full stop? No;
as long as they have the power, they must go on onward:
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