It is not
their hostile feelings, therefore, but it is their power, and only
their power, I dread; and I now state it as my solemn conviction, that
it becomes the duty of every British subject in these Provinces to
control that power, not by the insane policy of attacking or weakening
them, but by strengthening ourselves--rising, with the whole power of
Britain at our back, to their level, and so be prepared for any
emergency. There is no sensible or unprejudiced man in the community
who does not see that vigorous and timely preparation is the only
possible means of saving us from the horrors of a war such as the world
has never seen. To be fully prepared is the only practical argument
that can have weight with a powerful enemy, and make him pause
beforehand and count the cost. And as the sort of preparation I speak
of is utterly hopeless without the union of the Provinces, so at a
moment when public opinion is being formed on this vital point, as one
deeply concerned, I feel it a duty to declare myself unequivocally in
favour of Confederation as cheaply and as honourably as possible--but
Confederation at all hazards and at all reasonable sacrifices.
"'After the most mature consideration, and all the arguments I have
heard on both sides for the last month, these are my inmost convictions
on the necessity and merits of a measure which alone, under Providence,
can secure to us social order and peace, and rational liberty, and all
the blessings we now enjoy, under the mildest Government and the
hallowed institutions of the freest and happiest country in the world.
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