Another
motive to union, or rather a phase of the last motive spoken of, is
this, that the policy of our neighbours to the south of us has always
been aggressive. There has always been a desire amongst them for the
acquisition of new territory, and the inexorable law of democratic
existence seems to be its absorption. They coveted Florida, and seized
it; they coveted Louisiana, and purchased it; they coveted Texas, and
stole it; and then they picked a quarrel with Mexico, which ended by
their getting California. They sometimes pretend to despise these our
colonies as prizes beneath their ambition; but had we not had the
strong arm of England over us we should not now have had a separate
existence. The acquisition of Canada was the first ambition of the
American Confederacy, and never ceased to be so, when her troops were a
handful and her navy scarce a squadron. Is it likely to be stopped now,
when she counts her guns afloat by thousands and her troops by hundreds
of thousands? On this motive a very powerful expression of opinion has
lately appeared in a published letter of the Archbishop of Halifax, Dr.
Connolly. Who is the Archbishop of Halifax? In either of the coast
colonies, where he has laboured in his high vocation for nearly a third
of a century, it would be absurd to ask the question; but in Canada he
may not be equally well known.
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