it was timely and necessary, if the
colonies and the mother country were to preserve their connection with
each other. It is safe to say that, if confederation had not taken place
in 1867, British interests on this continent would have suffered, and
possibly some of the colonies would now have been a part of the United
States. The policy of separating the colonies from England, which has
been so much advocated by many leading public men in the great republic,
would have found free scope, and by balancing the interests of one
colony against those of another, promoting dissensions and favouring
those provinces which were disposed to a closer union with the United
States, something might have been done to weaken their connection with
the British empire, which is now the glory and the strength of the
Dominion of Canada.

The question of the union of the several colonies of British North
America was by no means a new one when it came up for final settlement.
It had been discussed at a very early period in the history of the
provinces, and indeed it was a question which it was quite natural to
discuss, for it seemed but reasonable that colonies of the same origin,
owing the same allegiance, inhabited by people who differed but little
from each other in any respect, and with many commercial interests in
common, should form a political union. No doubt it might have been
brought earlier to the front as a vital political question but for the
fact that the British government, which was most interested in promoting
the union of the colonies, took no step towards that end until almost
compelled by necessity to move in the matter. The colonial policy of
England, as represented by the colonial office and in the royal
instructions to colonial governors, has seldom been wise or far-seeing,
and the British colonies which now girdle the world, have been built up
mainly as the result of private enterprise; for the part taken by the
government has, in most cases, been merely to give official sanction to
what private individuals have already done, and to assist in protecting
British interests when they have become important, especially in new
regions of the world.

{CONFEDERATION FORESHADOWED}

When the Earl of Durham was sent out as governor-general of Canada after
the rebellion there in 1838, he suggested in his report that the union
of the colonies of British North America was one of the remedies which
ought to be resorted to for the p