from their connection with Great Britain, shall have passed away from
their memories, there will not be wanting those who will remind them
that, on this solemn occasion, the Prime Minister of England, amid the
plaudits of a full senate, declared that he looked forward to the day
when the ties which he was endeavouring to render so easy and mutually
advantageous would be severed. And wherefore this foreboding? or,
perhaps, I ought not to use the term foreboding, for really to judge
by the comments of the press on this declaration of Lord John's, I
should be led to imagine that the prospect of these sucking
democracies, after they have drained their old mother's life-blood,
leaving her in the lurch, and setting up as rivals, just at the time
when their increasing strength might render them a support instead of
a burden, is one of the most cheering which has of late presented
itself to the English imagination. But wherefore then this
anticipation--if foreboding be not the correct term? Because Lord John
and the people of England persist in assuming that the Colonial
relation is incompatible with maturity and full development. And is
this really so incontestable a truth that it is a duty not only to
hold but to proclaim it? Consider for a moment what is the effect of
proclaiming it in our case. We have on this continent two great
empires in presence, or rather, I should say, two great Imperial
systems. In many respects there is much similarity between them. In so
far as powers of self-government are concerned it is certain that our
colonists in America have no reason to envy the citizens of any state
in the Union. The forms differ, but it may be shown that practically
the inhabitants of Canada have a greater power in controlling their
own destiny than those of Michigan or New York, who must tolerate a
tariff imposed by twenty other states, and pay the expenses of war
undertaken for objects which they profess to abhor. And yet there is a
difference between the two cases; a difference, in my humble judgment,
of sentiment rather than substance, which renders the one a system of
life and strength, and the other a system of death and decay. No
matter how raw and rude a territory may be when it is admitted as a
state into the Union of the United States, it is at once, by the
popular belief, investe