"The Discoveries Of Gold, And The Disturbed State Of The Border Indians
In Minnesota, Are Both Unanswerable Reasons Of Necessity For The
Immediate Establishment Of A Permanent Form Of Government, And Fixed
Laws And Arrangements For The Settlement And Development Of The
Country.
"1. The government of the North-west, as an 'annexe' to Canada,
possesses advantages of contiguity and similarity of ideas on the part
of Canadians and the probable settlers.
Canada, it will be said, has a
good and responsible Government, and why not now extend its machinery
to the 1,300 miles between the height of land and the Rocky Mountains?
"But will Canada accept the expense and responsibility, and, more
especially, is it just now politically possible? Were Canada
politically and practically one united country, the answer would be
perhaps not difficult. But Canada, for the present, is really two
countries, or two halves of one country, united under the same form of
government, each half jealous of the mutual balance, and neither half
disposed to aggrandize the power or exaggerate the size of the other.
"Would Lower Canada, then, submit to see Upper Canada become, at one
bound, so immensely her superior? And would Upper Canadian statesmen,
however personally anxious to absorb the North-west, risk the
consequences of such a discussion as would arise? Would it be possible,
in fact, to found a Government based upon the platform of accepting the
responsibility of settling, defending, and governing the North-west? If
not, then, however desirable, the next best alternative must be chosen.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 163 of 492
Words from 44249 to 44506
of 136421
