our control.

Colonies are of value to the mother-country in two ways. The first is
already mentioned, and in that way, the present advantage of the Canadas
as colonies is abandoned. The other great importance of colonies is,
that they may be considered as outports, as stepping-stones, as it were,
over the whole world; and for the present I shall examine into the value
of these possessions merely in this point of view. We have many islands
or colonies under our subjection which are in themselves not only
valueless, but, moreover, extremely expensive to us; and if every colony
or island is to be valued merely according to the produce and advantage
derived from it by the mother-country, we must abandon Heligoland,
Ascension, St Helena, Malta, and, even Gibraltar itself. All these,
and some others, are, in point of commerce, valueless; yet they add much
to the security of the country and to our dominion of the seas. This
will be admitted, and we must therefore now examine how far the Canadas
may be considered as valuable under this second point of view.

I have already shewn that the ambition for territory is one of the
diseases, if I may use the term, of the American people. On that point
they are insatiable, and that they covet the Canadas is undeniable. Let
us inquire into the reasons why the Americans are so anxious to possess
the Canadas.

There are many. In the first place, they do not like to have a people
subjected to a monarchial form of government as their neighbours; they
do not like that security of person and property, and a just
administration of the law, should be found in a thinly-peopled province,
while they cannot obtain those advantages under their own institutions.
It is a reproach to them. They continually taunt the Canadians that
they are the only portion of the New World who have not thrown off the
yoke--the only portion who are not yet free; and this taunt has not been
without its effect upon the unthinking portion of the community. What
is the cause of this unusual sympathy? The question is already
answered.

Another important reason which the Americans have for the possession of
the Canadas is, that they are the means of easy retaliation on the part
of England in case of aggression. They render them weak and assailable
in case of war. Had they possession of the Canadas, and our other
provinces, the United States would be almost invulnerable. As it is,
they become defenceless to