No beneficial decision can be
arrived at without the concurrence of both powers, for each have rights
and ideas in some respects differing, and Canada especially has the
deepest concern in the future organization of the North-west. In
selecting a governing power for such a country, the strength and
influence of that power are the grand essentials. Even with equal
enlightenment, these essentials could not be overlooked. A weak
Government would invite attack, deter investment, and check general
confidence.
"Apart from the government by the Hudson's Bay Company, there appear to
be these alternatives: -
"1. Government by Canada annexing to her territory a tract of country
extending to the limits of British Columbia, under some reasonable
arrangement with the Hudson's Bay Company, fairly protective of their
rights, and which arrangement ought not to be difficult to draw out,
when once the principle of the settlement of the country, and the land
system, and extent of land reserves, are agreed upon.
"2. Government by the Crown, as a separate Crown Colony, totally
independent of Canada.
"3. Government by the Crown as a separate Crown Colony, with
federation, more or less extensive, with Canada, and the establishment
of a customs union between the new and old communities.
"It must always be observed that a decision as to the fate of this
territory must be immediately made. It cannot wait political
necessities elsewhere, or be postponed to suit individual wishes. The
fertile country between Lake Winnipeg and the Rocky Mountains will be
now settled, since that is now a fixed policy, and its plan of
government must be in advance of, and not lag behind, that settlement.
The electric wire, the letter post, and the steamboat, which two years
more will see at work, will totally change the face of things; and as
Minnesota has now 250,000 inhabitants, where, in 1850 there was hardly
a white man, so this vast district may, when once it can be
communicated with from without, with reasonable facility, be flooded
with emigrants, not forgetting a very probable rush of English, Irish,
and Scotch farmers, and settlers from the United States, who here will
find a refuge from conscription and civil war.
"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.
"Assuming that at some period, near or distant, the British North
American Provinces, between the Atlantic and the Pacific, unite in a
federal or legislative union, and thus become too great and too strong
for attack, that next best alternative would point to such
arrangements, as respects the North-west, as would lead on to and
promote this union, and not stand in its way. Thus, disputes about race
and customs should, if possible, be avoided by anticipation, and the
constitution and power of the new Colony should foreshadow its
connection with the countries to the east and to the west. Future
isolation should be forbidden, while present independence should be
accorded.
"2. The above assumption tends to throw doubt upon the desirability of
establishing a Crown Colony, separate in all respects from Canada, and
able to shut out or let in Canadian produce and manufactures at its
pleasure. This is a danger to be foreseen and avoided.
"The new Colony, placed between Canada and the Pacific, must be
essentially British, in the sense of its forming one secure link in a
chain of British nations, or, in the interests of Canada, it had better
never be organized. The power and prestige of the Crown is
essential to this end, and a separate Colony, even, would have many
advantages per se. It would also save Canada the cost of a new
Government at a time when financial pressure and political majorities
would be in the way. A Crown Colony could not be looked upon with
jealousy in Canada, while government by the Hudson's Bay Company would
be so regarded.
"3. But a Crown Colony with such a federation as would not alter the
political balance of Upper and Lower Canada, and with a system of free
trade with Canada, would appear to solve the whole difficulty; and if
so, the scope of the federative principle would be matter to be settled
between Canadian statesmen and the Colonial Office.
