I : 



! i 



12 



They can, if they have any capital to spare, bring 

 it here now and take the places of those who, by 

 the incompetent and reckless administration of the 

 Government, have been either ruined or driven 

 with their capital from the country ; and also of 

 those who, for the same cause, are preparing to 

 quit it as soon as they can, as also of the numerous 

 fishermen, mechanics and other able-bodied men, 

 on whose class the revenue of this Colony depends 

 for its prosperity. But how, I would again ask, 

 are the Canadians to find money to work our mines, 

 when they go to England and the United States 

 for capital to work their own ? — That they do so is 

 beyond question. 



The third argument is that ** Union is strength." 

 Now I deny that union is always strength — it is as 

 frequently a rope of sand. I contend that there 

 would be no natural bond of union between this 

 Colony and Canada, inasmuch as our commerce 

 with that country, in comparison with our commerce 

 with Great Britain, with the other European 

 markets, with the United States of America, the 

 West Indies and Brazil, is a mere nonentity ; and 

 the Confederates may just as well and with equal 

 force say, that the tacking this Colony to China 

 with its three hundred millions of souls, its immense 

 and splendid territory and vast natural resources, 

 would be a source of strength ! It should not be 

 forgotten, for it is a material and very important 

 argument in this question, that at the present 

 moment this Colony forms part of the great Empire 

 of Great Britain — the strongest power on the face 

 of the globe — of whose flag, of whose political 

 Constitution, of whose many admirable philanthro- 

 pic institutions, and of whose direct alliance with 

 us, we have felt and have still just cause to fe«l 



^v, 



