Canada, it will be said, has a
good and responsible Government, and why not now extend its machinery
to the 1,300 miles between the height of land and the Rocky Mountains?
"But will Canada accept the expense and responsibility, and, more
especially, is it just now politically possible? Were Canada
politically and practically one united country, the answer would be
perhaps not difficult. But Canada, for the present, is really two
countries, or two halves of one country, united under the same form of
government, each half jealous of the mutual balance, and neither half
disposed to aggrandize the power or exaggerate the size of the other.
"Would Lower Canada, then, submit to see Upper Canada become, at one
bound, so immensely her superior? And would Upper Canadian statesmen,
however personally anxious to absorb the North-west, risk the
consequences of such a discussion as would arise? Would it be possible,
in fact, to found a Government based upon the platform of accepting the
responsibility of settling, defending, and governing the North-west? If
not, then, however desirable, the next best alternative must be chosen.
"Assuming that at some period, near or distant, the British North
American Provinces, between the Atlantic and the Pacific, unite in a
federal or legislative union, and thus become too great and too strong
for attack, that next best alternative would point to such
arrangements, as respects the North-west, as would lead on to and
promote this union, and not stand in its way.
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