EFFECTS OF ANNEXATION IN CANADA. 345 



simultaneous possession of Cuba. Although, therefore, 

 the States which border upon Canada may long to have 

 this province in the Union and some even of the lead 

 ing men of the Union may have expressed themselves 

 strongly -in favour of it yet a question involving the 

 addition of at least four more free States would prove 

 a very embarrassing one to any Cabinet in Washington 

 which should venture to entertain or encourage it, 

 independent altogether of the disturbance it might create 

 in the international relations with Great Britain. 



Of the two movements towards this object which 

 have been made in Canada, the first was promoted 

 mainly by the Roman Catholic section of the com 

 munity, the second by the Conservative party of Upper 

 Canada chiefly, after their exclusion from the official 

 situations they had held so long. 



But to neither of these classes in Canada would any 

 special good flow from a union with the United States. 

 The Eoman Catholic body, as a whole, would acquire 

 more power in Congress and with a view to this end, 

 as a greater good to the whole, the Romanists in the 

 States may sympathise with and encourage their 

 brethren in Canada, to bring about this annexation 

 but in the province itself they would certainly dis 

 possess themselves of the position they occupy as the 

 church of Canada East, and they would very much 

 endanger the large landed possessions by which they are 

 at present enriched. 



Then, as to the Conservative minority in Upper 

 Canada, they would be driven still further from office by 

 annexation. As was the case in the States when Jeffer 

 son came into power, the democratic element would 

 increase in strength after the change ; and a party which, 

 under British rule, did not know how to yield for a time 

 to the overwhelming force of a popular majority con 

 stitutionally obtained, would be obliged, after the annexa- 



