180 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



But, it may be said, if you are going to look like a nation, if you wish to 

 put on the aspect of a great combined people — you must have some revenues 

 to support your pretensions. Well, sir, look at the revenues of these provinces 

 under tariffs remarkably lew : — 



Canada collects £1,053,026 



» Nova Scotia 125,000 



New Brunswick 125,000 



Prince Edward Island 35,345 



Newfoundland 84,323 



£1,477,694 



TV'e raise this amount now without any extraordinary effort, with but a 

 very inefRcient force to collect, without anybody feeling that it is collected ; 

 the sum is not large, but oth^r people, even in trying times, have had less ; 

 and see what they have done with what they had. Take the United States. 

 At the Declaration of Independence the revenue of the thirteen states was 

 but $4.771,000, or £1,200,000, so that when those thirteen colonies entered upon 

 a mighty struggle with the parent state they had less revenue, by $300,000, 

 than these five provinces have now. But, sir, we are told every now and then, 

 that there is something in these northern regions adverse to the increase of 

 population. That the Mayflower may flourish under our snowdrifts but that 

 children will not ; that, compared with the so-created powers of the " sunny 

 south " here they must be " few and far between." I deny the impeachment. 

 In the North marriage is a necessity of nature. In the South a man may do 

 without a wife, but in tl^e long cold nights of our winters he cannot sleep 

 alone. Large, vigorous, healthy families spring from feather beds in which 

 Jack Frost compels people to lie close. The honourable member for Annapolis 

 showed us, yesterday, that the inhabitants of Canada have Increased sixty- 

 eight per cent, in ten years. New Brunswick has advanced in about the same 

 ratio, while Nova Scotia has quintupled her population in fifty years. At 

 the same rate of increase Nova Scotia will count her population by millions 

 before a new century begins and British America — taking every means of 

 calculation Into account — will probably then contain at least ten millions of 

 people. 



If then, Mr. Chairman, the British and colonial statesmen at the present 

 day, cordially co-operating, do not incorporaite this people Into the British 

 empire or make a nation of them, they will, long before their numbers have 

 swelled so much, make a nation of themselves. Let me not be misunderstood, 

 sir, I shall say nothing here that I would not utter in the presence of the 

 Queen. If disposed to declare our independence to-morrow, I do not believe 

 that Her Majesty's Government would attempt to prevent us by force. If 

 they did, they would fail. But what I want them to understand is this, that 

 they lost one-half of this continent from not comprehending it, and that just 

 80 sure as they expect a sentiment of loyalty to attach the other half to 

 England while the people of two small islands divide the distinctions and the 

 Influence of empire among them, they will by and by be awakened by the 

 peaceful organization of a great country, whose inhabitants must be Britons in 

 every sense of the -word, or something more. 



This may seem to be vain and ariogant language, and I may be asked to 

 support it by some reference to the ultima ratio of nations — physical force. 

 Taking our papulation at two millions and a half, every fifth person should 

 be able to draw a trigger, giving 500,000 men able to bear arms. Such a force 

 would be powerless as an invading army, but In dtfence of these provinces. 

 Invincible by any force that might be sent from abroad. Put into these men 

 the spirit which animated the Greek, the Roman, the Dutchman or the Swiss; 



