A Nobleman's View of the North-West. 549 



With you the word ' annexation ' has in the last years only been 

 heard in connection with the annexation of more territory to Mani- 

 toba. I must apologize to a Canadian audience for mentioning the 

 word at all in any other connection. In America the annexation of 

 this country is disavowed by all responsible writers. As it was 

 well expressed to me lately, the best men in the States desire only 

 to annex the friendship and good will of Canada. To be sure it 

 may be otherwise with the camp followers ; they often talk as if the 

 swallowing and digestion of Canada by them were only a question 

 of time, and of rising reason amongst us. How far the power of the 

 camp followers extends it is not for us to determine. They have, 

 however, shown that they are powerful enough to capture a few 

 English writers, our modern minor prophets who, in little magazine 

 articles, are fond of teaching the nations how to behave, and whose 

 words preach the superiority of other countries to their own, and the 

 proximate dismemberment of that British Empire which has the 

 honour to acknowledge them as citizens. They have wiih our 

 American friends of whom I speak at all events one virtue in 

 common, they are great speculators. In the case of our southern 

 friends this is not a matter to be deplored by us, for American 

 speculation has been of direct material benefit to Canada, and we 

 must regret that our American citizens are not coming over to us 

 so fast as are the French, the Scotch, the Irish, the Germans, and 

 the Scandinavians. Morally, also, it is not to be deplored that such 

 speculations are made, for they show that it is thought that Can- 

 adians would form a useful though an unimportant wing for one of 

 the great parties ; and, moreover such prophecies clothe with amuse- 

 ment ' the dry bones ' of discussion. But it is best always to take 

 men as we find them, and not to believe that they will be different 

 even if a kindly feeling, first for ourselves, and afterwards for them, 

 should make us desire to change them. 



" Let us rather judge from the past and from the present than 

 take flights, unguided by experience, into the imaginary regions of 

 the future. What do we find has been, and is, the tendency of the 

 peoples of this continent. Does not history show, and do not 

 modern and existing tendencies declare, that the lines of cleavage 



