ect is to Lord Grey, written so early as April
26,1848:--

The question which you raise in your last letter respecting the
military defence of Canada is a large one, and, before irrevocable
steps be taken, it may be well to look at it on all sides.

The first consideration which offers itself in connection with this
subject is this, 'Why does Canada require to be defended, and against
whom?' A very large number of persons in this community believe that
there is only one power from which they have anything to dread, and
that this power would be converted into the fastest friend, bone of
their bone, and flesh of their flesh, if the connection with Great
Britain were abandoned.

In this respect the position of Canada is peculiar. When you say to
any other colony 'England declines to be longer at the expense of
protecting you,' you at once reveal to it the extent of its dependence
and the value of Imperial support. But it is not so here. Withdraw
your protection from Canada, and she has it in her power to obtain the
security against aggression enjoyed by Michigan or Maine: about as
good security, I must allow, as any which is to be obtained at the
present time.

But you may observe in reply to this, 'You cannot get the security
which Michigan and Maine enjoy for nothing; you must purchase it by
the surrender of your custom houses and public lands, the proceeds of
which will be diverted from their present uses and applied to others,
at the discretion of a body in which you will have comparatively
little to say.' The argument is a powerful one, so long as England
consents to bear the cost of the defence of the Colony, but its force
is much lessened when the inhabitants are told that they must look to
their own safety, because the mother-country can no longer afford to
take care of them.

On the other hand very weighty reasons may be adduced in favour of the
policy of requiring the province to bear some portion at least of the
charge of its own protection. The adoption of free-trade, although its
advocates must believe that it tends to make the Colonies in point of
fact less chargeable than heretofore, will doubtless render the
English people more than ever jealous of expenditure incurred on their
behalf. I am, moreover, of opinion, that the system of relieving the
colonists altog