means in its power to administer impartial
justice in all its bounds, to no one part at the expense of another,
would require few boons from Britain, and would advance her interests
much more in a few years than the bare right of possession of a barren,
uncultivated wilderness of lake and forest, with some three or four
inhabitants to the square mile, can do in centuries.

{9} Here we have the whole picture drawn in a few strokes. Mackenzie
had vision and brilliancy. If he had given himself wholly to this
task, posterity would have passed a verdict upon his career different
from that now accepted. As late as in 1833 he declared: 'I have long
desired to see a conference assembled at Quebec, consisting of
delegates freely elected by the people of the six northern colonies, to
express to England the opinion of the whole body on matters of great
general interest.' But instead of pursuing this idea he threw himself
into the mad project of armed rebellion, and the fruits of that folly
were unfavourable for a long time to the dreams of federation. Lord
Durham came. He found 'the leading minds of the various colonies
strongly and generally inclined to a scheme that would elevate their
countries into something like a national existence.' Such a scheme, he
rightly argued, would not weaken the connection with the Empire, and
the closing passages of his Report are memorable for the insight and
statesmanship with which the solid advantages of union are discussed.
If Lord Durham erred, it was in advocating the immediate union of the
two Canadas as the first necessary step, and in announcing as one of
his objects {10} the assimilation to the prevailing British type in
Canada of the French-Canadian race, a thing which, as events proved,
was neither possible nor necessary.

Many of the advocates of union, never blessed with much confidence in
their cause, were made timid by this point of Durham's reasoning. His
arguments, which were intended to urge the advantages of a complete
reform in the system and machinery of government, produced for a time a
contrary effect. Governments might propose and parliaments might
discuss resolutions of an academic kind, while eloquent men with voice
and pen sought to rouse the imaginations of the people. But for twenty
years after the union of the Canadas in 1841 federation remained little
more than a noble aspiration. The statesmen who wielded power looked
over the field and sighed that th