The minority desired to preserve
the power and independence which an equal share in parliamentary
government had given them. The majority, mainly English and Scotch, and
largely Protestant and Presbyterian, chafed under what they deemed to
be the yoke of a non-progressive people; a people content to live in
modest comfort, to follow old customs, and obey old laws; to defer to
clerical authority, and to preserve their separate national identity
under the secure protection of a strong Empire. Indeed, it is
difficult, in 1886, to realise the heat, or to estimate the danger, of
the discussion of this question; and more than one "Grit" politician,
whom I could name, would be startled if we reminded him of his opinion
in 1861,--that the question would be "settled by a civil war" if it
"could not be settled peaceably," but that "settled it must be--and
soon."
The cure for this dangerous disease was to provide, for all, a bigger
country--a country large enough to breed large ideas. There is a career
open in the boundless resources of a varied land for every reasonable
ambition, and the young men of Canada, which possesses an excellent
educational machinery, may now look forward to as noble, if not more
noble, an inheritance than their Republican neighbours--an inheritance
where there is room for 100,000,000 of people to live in freedom,
comfort, and happiness.
Pages:
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45