THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 



15 



lation, mutual warning and correction, mutual 

 supplementation of defects, they might have 

 helped each other in the race and steadied each 

 other's steps ; a balance of opinion might have 

 been established on the continent, though a bal- 

 ance of power cannot ; and the wave of domi- 

 nant sentiment which spreads over that vast 

 democracy like the tide running in over a flat, 

 might have been usefully restricted in its sweep 

 by the dividing line. Nor was there any insur- 

 mountable obstacle in the way. Canada is want- 

 ing in unity of race ; but not more so than Switz- 

 erland, whose three races have been thoroughly 

 welded together by the force of nationality. She 

 is wanting in compactness of territory, but not 

 more so, perhaps, than some other nations — 

 Prussia, for instance — have been. In this latter 

 respect, however, the situation has been seriously 

 altered by the annexation of Manitoba and Brit- 

 ish Columbia, which in their present raw condi- 

 tion have no influence beyond that of distant pos- 

 sessions, but which, when peopled and awakened 

 to commercial life, will be almost irresistibly 

 attracted by the economical forces to the States I 

 which adjoin them on the south, and will thus 

 endanger the cohesion of the whole confederacy. 

 The very form of the Dominion indeed, drawn 

 out and attenuated as it is by these unnatural 

 additions, apart from the attractive influence of 

 Minnesota and California, would seriously imperil 

 its political unity, as will be seen, if, instead of 

 taking Canada as it is presented by the political 

 map, the boundary-line is drawn between the 

 habitable portion and that which belongs only to 

 ai'ctic frosts. In the debate on confederation it 

 was urged by the advocates of the measure that 

 seven sticks, though separately weak, when bound 

 together in a fagot would be strong. " Yes," 

 was the reply, " but not so seven fishing-rods tied 

 together by the ends." 



As to the expense of a national government, 

 it would probably not be greater than that of the 

 governor-generalship and the seven lieutenant- 

 governorships is at present. Diplomacy in these 

 days of rapid communication may be cheaply 

 done, and Canada would not need much of it : 

 she has no Eastern question. 



The question of military security has refer- 

 ence solely to the danger to be apprehended on 

 the side of the United States ; and danger on the 

 side of the United States, supposing Canada dis- 

 entangled from English quarrels, we believe that 

 there is none. The Americans, as has been 

 repeatedly observed, have since the fall of slavery 

 given every proof of an unambitious disposition. 



They disbanded their vast armaments immedi- 

 ately on the close of the civil war, without wait- 

 ing even for the Alabama question to be settled ; 

 they have refused to annex St. Domingo ; they 

 have observed a policy of strict non-intervention 

 in the case of Cuba, which they might have made 

 their own with the greatest ease ; they have de- 

 clined to take advantage of the pretexts fur- 

 nished them in abundance, by border outrages, 

 of conquering Mexico ; it is very doubtful whether 

 they would even have purchased Alaska, if Mr. 

 Seward had not drawn them by secret negotia- 

 tions into a position from which they could not 

 well retreat. Slavery wanted conquest for the 

 creation of new slave States, but with slavery the 

 spirit of aggression appears to have died. Wel- 

 come Canada into the Union, if she came of her 

 own accord, the Americans no doubt would. 

 They would be strangely wanting in wisdom if 

 they did not ; for she would bring them as her 

 dower not only complete immunity from attack 

 and great economical advantages, but a political 

 accession of the most valuable kind in the shape 

 of a population, not like that of St. Domingo, 

 Cuba, or Mexico, but trained to self-government, 

 and capable of lending fresh strength and vitality 

 to republican institutions. It is true that, slavery 

 having been abolished, the urgent need of adding 

 to the number of the free States in order to 

 counterbalance the extension of slavery in the 

 councils of the Union no longer exists ; but there 

 are still in the population of the United States 

 large elements essentially non-republican — the 

 Irish, the emigrants from Southern Germany, the 

 negroes — to which, perhaps, may be added a con- 

 siderable portion of Southern society itself, which 

 can hardly fail to retain something of its old 

 character while it continues to be composed of a 

 superior and inferior race. Against these non- 

 republican elements, the really republican ele- 

 ment still needs to be fortified by all the rein- 

 forcements which it can obtain. Welcome Can- 

 ada, therefore, into the Union the Americans no 

 doubt would. But that they have the slightest 

 inclination to lay violent hands upon her, that 

 such a thought ever enters their minds, no one 

 who has lived among them, and heard the daily 

 utterances of a by no means reticent people, can 

 believe. Apart from moral principle, they know- 

 that, though a despotic government may simply 

 annex, a republic must incorporate, and that to 

 incorporate four millions of unwilling citizens 

 would be to introduce into the republic a most 

 dangerous mass of disaffection and disunion. 

 That the Americans have been litigious in their 



