To See Canada A Powerful Auxiliary Of The Empire,
Not, As Now, A Source Of Anxiety, And A Source Of Danger."
Does Her Majesty's Government echo this aspiration?
Thinking people will recognize that the United States become, year by
year, less English and more Cosmopolitan; less conservative and more
socialist; less peaceful and more aggressive. Twice within ten years
the Presidential elections have pushed the Republic to the very brink
of civil war. But for the forbearance of Mr. Tilden and the Democrats,
on one occasion; and the caution of leading Republicans when President
Cleveland was chosen, disturbance must have happened.
We have yet to see whether Provincial Government may not, in the
Dominion, lead towards Separation, rather than towards Union. While one
Custom-house and one general Government is aiding Union, the Province
of Quebec accentuates all that is French; the Province of Ontario
accentuates all that is British: the problem, here, is how, gradually,
to weaken sectional, and how gradually to strengthen Union, ideas.
State rights led to a civil war in the United States: Provincial
Government fifty years hence may lead to conflicts in Canada.
In the United States there was no solution but war. Surely in Canada we
can apply the safety valve of augmenting British aid and influence. Why
not try the re-introduction of the red-coat of the Queen's soldier
- that soldier to be enlisted and officered, let us hope in the early
future, from every portion of the Queen's Dominions - as of the one
Imperial army; - an Imperial army paid for by the whole Empire.
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