He
Should Deplore To See This Country Commencing And Carrying On A
Competition Of Expenditure On Fortifications With The United
States.
The results must be, as he warned the House, excessive votes of money,
of which this one was only
The small beginning, and an entire change in
the nature of those relations which had so happily subsisted between
the United States and the British North American possessions. Let the
House remember the case of France. England and France had for years
been running a race of competition of this kind. If France raised a new
regiment, or added a new ship of war, or built an ironclad, or erected
a fortress, we must do the same. And thus it had been that the forces
still remained on a measure of some sort of equality, notwithstanding a
vast outlay, which had crippled the resources of both countries, and
here at home had delayed fiscal reform and retarded, nay even
prevented, the most obvious measures for the elevation and education of
our people. Were we to play the same game over again with the States?
Now, as regards the great lakes and water ways of America, possessing a
coast line of above 3,000 miles, we had since 1817 neutralized these
waters as regards armaments. Under that truly blessed arrangement, the
sound of a hostile shot, or even of a shot fired for practice, had
never been heard now for nearly half a century. Here was a precedent of
happy history and worthy of all gratitude and of all imitation.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 409 of 492
Words from 113424 to 113682
of 136421
