The First Of These Speeches Was Delivered On
The 13th March, 1865; The Second On The 23rd March.
On the second
occasion I was followed by Lord Palmerston; and I commend his speech,
pithy and decisive as it was, to the statesmen who have to deal with
our Imperial relations with Canada, and with her Canadian Pacific
Railway.
"Hansard" reports that, -
"Mr. WATKIN said that having, like the right hon. gentleman the member
for Calne, visited Canada not once but frequently, he felt unable to
corroborate the description given of Quebec; nor could he agree as to
what had been said of other places. The fortifications of Quebec were
not those of the days of Wolfe; they had been systematically enlarged
and strengthened. Quebec, naturally a position of enormous strength,
was now most efficiently fortified, and so far from the nature of the
surrounding country exposing it to attack, that country presented
features enabling the speedy and easy construction of additional works
rendering the fortress impregnable. In fact, it might easily be made
the strongest work upon the continent. Nor was it fair to say, as the
gallant member opposite had declared, that the guns were all antiquated
and the gun-carriages rotten. It was true that many of the guns were
old, but newer ordnance had been supplied; there were abundant stores
of shot, shell, and rockets, and a considerable number of Armstrong
guns had been received at the citadel very recently. Canada could be
made capable of defence, without difficulty, though, of course, not
without cost. No one would contend that the defence of Canada, if an
Imperial duty, was simply an Imperial liability. Every one would admit
that the colony should contribute, both in times of peace and of war,
its fair share of the burden. Independence and defence were co-existent
ideas, and Canada, desiring to be free of foreign control, should, and
he hoped would, be ready to defray her just and honest share of the
burden. He took this as admitted on all hands and on both sides of the
Atlantic. His objection, then, to the proposal of the Government was
that it was not worthy of that emergency which alone could justify the
policy of the fortification of a frontier. But the question really
before the House was not one of the extent of territory to defend, but
plainly this - Was this House, was the country, ready to abandon - to
alienate for ever from the British Crown - the vast expanse of territory
lying between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans? There was no half-way
house between 'cutting the painter,' as one or two hon. gentlemen near
him now and then suggested, in conversation only, as regarded Canada,
and severing all connection, now and for ever, with Prince Edward's
Island, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada, on the
east; British Columbia, one of the most thriving and hopeful of the
British possessions, on the west; and that vast intermediate country
known as the 'Hudson's Bay Territory,' which they were told contained
within itself fertile land enough to sustain 50,000,000 of people - and
holding on to the Queen's possessions.
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