I Admit, For My Part,
As An Immigrant, Of No Divided Allegiance To Canada And Her Interest;
But It Would Be Untrue And Paltry To Deny A Divided Affection Between
The Old Country And The New.
Kept within just bounds, such an affection
is reasonable, is right and creditable to those who cherish it.
Why I
refer to this broad fact, which distinguishes the populations of all
the four seaward Provinces, as much as it does Lower Canada herself,
is, to show the fixity and stability of that population; to show that
they are by birth British-Americans; that they can nearly all, of every
origin, use that proud phrase when they look daily from their doors,
'This is my own, my native land.' Let but that population and ours come
together for a generation or two - such are the elements that compose,
such the conditions that surround it - and their mutual descendants will
hear with wonder, when the history of these present transactions is
written, that this plan of union could ever have been seriously opposed
by statesmen in Canada or elsewhere. I am told, however, by one or two
members of this House, and by exclusive-minded Canadians out of it,
that they cannot get up any patriotic feeling about this union with New
Brunswick or Nova Scotia, and that they cannot look with any interest
at those Colonies, with which we have had hitherto so little
association. 'What's Hecuba to me, or I to Hecuba!' Well, I answer to
that, Know them, and my word for it, you will like them. I have made
several journeys there, and I have seen much of the people, and the
more I have seen of them, the more I respected and esteemed them. I
say, then, to these gentlemen, that if you desire any patriotism on the
subject; if you want to stir up a common sentiment of affection between
these people and ourselves, bring us all into closer relation together,
and, having the elements of a vigorous nationality within us, each will
find something to like and respect in the other; mutual confidence and
respect will follow, and the feeling of being engaged in a common cause
for the good of a common nationality will grow up of itself without
being forced by any man's advocacy. The thing who shuts up his heart
against his kindred, his neighbours, and his fellow-subjects, may be a
very pretty fellow at a parish vestry, but do you call such a forked-
radish as that, a man? Don't so abuse the noblest word in the language.
* * * * *
"But there is one special source of wealth to be found in the Maritime
Provinces, which was not in any detail exhibited by my hon. friends - I
allude to the important article of coal. I think there can be no doubt
that, in some parts of Canada, we are fast passing out of the era of
wood as fuel, and entering on that of coal. In my own city every year,
there is great suffering among the poor from the enormous price of
fuel, and large sums are paid away by national societies and benevolent
individuals, to prevent whole families perishing for want of fuel. I
believe we must all concur with Sir William Logan, that we have no coal
in Canada, and I may venture to state, on my own authority, another
fact, that we have - a five months' winter, generally very cold.
"Sir W. E. Logan demonstrated by a laborious survey the thickness or
depth of the whole group in Northern Nova Scotia to be over 2 3/4
miles, an amount which far exceeds anything seen in the coal formation
in other parts of North America; in this group there are seventy-six
coal beds one above the other.
"These exhaustless coal fields will, under our plan - which is in fact
our Reciprocity Treaty with the Lower Provinces - become, hereafter, the
great resource of our towns for fuel. I see the cry is raised below by
the anti-Unionists, that to proceed with Confederation would be to
entail the loss of the New England market for their coals. I do not
quite see how they make this out, but even an anti-Unionist might see
that the population of Canada is within a fraction of that of all New
England put together, that we consume in this country as much fuel per
annum as they do in New England; and, therefore, that we offer them a
market under the Union equal to that which these theorizers want to
persuade their followers they would lose. Sir, another cry raised by
the anti-Unionists below is, that they would have to fight for the
defence of Canada - a very specious argument. What, Sir, three millions
and one million unite, and the one million do the fighting for all! In
proportion to their numbers no doubt these valiant gentlemen will have
to fight, if fighting is to be done, but not one man or one shilling
more than Canada, pro rata, will they have to risk or spend. On
the contrary, the greater community, if she should not happen to be
first attacked, would be obliged to fight for them, and in doing so, I
do not hesitate to say, on far better authority than my own, that the
man who fights for the valley and harbour of St. John, or even for
Halifax, fights for Canada. I will suppose another not impossible case.
I will suppose a hostile American army, on a fishery or any other war,
finding it easier and cheaper to seize the Lower Colonies by land than
by sea, by a march from a convenient rendezvous on Lake Champlain,
through Lower Canada, into the upper part of New Brunswick, and so
downward to the sea - a march like Sherman's march from Knoxville to
Savannah. While we obstructed such a march by every means in our power,
from the Richelieu to Riviere du Loup, whose battles would we be
fighting then?
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