magnanimously take the initiative in this matter, before clamor and discontent" arise.

Much as the Colonists seem to expect from a delegation to the imperial legislature, we confess that we can imagine no disability that will be removed, no calamity which will be averted, no positive good that will be accomplished, by the measure. The means now adopted to prevent legislation hostile to their interests, and to promote that intended for their certain benefit, seem to us far better than any which they can employ; and since there are members of Parliament who have either been governors of Colonies, or have made themselves familiar with the course of Colonial industry, and since British merchants who have branch-houses in the American possessions, or deal extensively with the Colonists, keep a watchful eye upon the questions of policy which affect them, and exert an influence with persons of their own class who hold seats at the Board of Trade, we regard the plan of Colonial representation as a delusion. When suggested by Franklin, nearly a century ago, it would have been of infinite service; for then Colonial disabilities and grievances were monstrous. But its revival now — when hardly a vestige of the old system for the government of Colonies remains, and when, as is allowed by both Liberals and Conservatives, the continental possessions of England in this hemisphere are almost free, and can hardly tell in what their dependence consists shows conclusively that the question is agitated by the Liberals more to imitate the "successful rebels" of the "Old Thirteen," than from the hope or the necessity of success.

We turn from Mr. Howe to Mr. Wilmot. In the Speech of the latter is the following passage, which illustrates another cause of complaint.

"I will bring," said he, “one example to show the effect of shutting out Colonial produce from the British markets. There is a hatter in St. John's, who manufactures 3,000 hats a year, these are all he can sell; open to him the British market, and he could compete with the British hat-manufacturer, and export 30,000. Let him cross the river which divides this Province from the State of Maine, and a market would be opened for him from Maine to Florida. Were I in the councils of the United States and wished to annex these Colonies to their great Union, I would counsel the government to free trade with the

British Colonies. Let uninterrupted intercourse be had with the United States, and restrictions imposed in England, and these Colonies would fall without the firing of a single shot. Let it not be said that I am disloyal when I give utterance to these sentiments. I utter them because I believe them, and I believe them because their truth is forced upon us by the experience of all ages. Let the people of this country be forced from the home market, and their interests, of necessity, will be interwoven with those of the neighbouring States."

What will Mr. Wilmot say, when we tell him, that when his ancestors fled from the old Colonies, the hatters were restricted to two apprentices, and hats made in one Colony could not be transported to, or be sold in, another? Iron could not be manufactured, iron-works were abatable nuisances, and Lord Chatham was bold enough to say, that his fellow-subjects in America "had no right to make so much as a nail for a horseshoe." Mr. Wilmot, we have more than once said, is of Loyalist descent. Compare his language with that of a Whig in 1754, when it was the opinion of Franklin, that, as far as the interest of the empire was concerned, it was of no consequence whether "a merchant, a smith, or a hatter grew rich in Old or New England." The grievance of the artisan of St. John's, alluded to by Mr. Wilmot, is wholly imaginary. Unless we mistake, this hatter is descended from a Tory of New York, and went to Boston within a very recent period, where the market was "opened for him from Maine to Florida," but where, unable to compete with the Yankees, or from some other cause, he broke up his establishment, and returned to New Brunswick.

We are thus minute in our examination of this case, because it is adduced by Mr. Wilmot to show the extent of the disabilities of Colonial mechanics at the present time, and because it affords us another illustration of the truth of the position which we have endeavoured to maintain. throughout, namely, that the children of the opposers of the Revolution demand privileges and immunities which should not only cause them to cease blaming the conduct of the Whigs of 1776, but to admit in express terms, what is true in fact, that they have themselves adopted, and are now acting upon, the principles of Otis, Franklin, and others of the same political school. Ten years ago, to make pub

lic reference to the United States, to prove that the citizens of the republic enjoy rights and liberties which Colonists do not, would have been humiliating even to a Liberal not of French origin; but from the extracts which we have made, it has been seen that the subject is now freely discussed in documents and speeches intended for general circulation. Indeed, the confession, that we are far in advance, and that our progress is to be attributed to our institutions, has become nearly universal.

То

There are still those in the Colonies, who, remembering only that they are descended from the exiled losers in the Revolutionary strife, would keep alive, and perpetuate for generations to come, the dissensions of the past; but their number, we rejoice to believe, is rapidly diminishing. extend and strengthen the sympathies of human brotherhood is a Christian duty; and to unite kinsmen, who were severed by events which dismembered an empire, is a work in which all may now engage, without incurring the reproach of disloyalty on the one hand, or of the want of patriotism on the other.

We have now to consider for a moment the scheme of a union of the Colonies in America, which has been proposed within two or three years. This plan will remind our readers of the one submitted by Franklin to the Congress at Albany, in 1754, which, though adopted by that body, was rejected, in England, because it gave too much power to the representatives of the people, and by the Colonial Assemblies, because it gave too great authority to the President-General. But the project now presented differs from that matured by Franklin, as two kinds of union are now suggested,

the one contemplating the abolition of the Assemblies that now exist, and the substitution of a single Assembly or Parliament, the other proposing to leave to each Colony its present legislative body, and to form a confederacy, with Parliament composed of delegates of the people, and a viceroy to be appointed by the queen. We believe that neither would satisfy the Colonists for a single year, since neither would afford them a complete form of government, and both would continue them in a state of dependence, with the popular will coming in constant collision with the representatives of the crown. It is possible that a system of federal union may be devised which will meet their views; but such a plan

must embrace features so like our own, that the mother country would hardly possess the shadow of authority over them, and might as well concede their entire independence at once. With regard to the plan of governing British America by a single legislative body, it is sufficient to remark that it is impracticable. It has been already said that the union of the Canadas since 1840 has proved a failure, and Mr. Papineau, in his Address, demands its repeal. Without dwelling upon the reasons which he urges, or assenting to the denunciatory tone of his appeal to his constituents, we may still admit, that, whether the act was consummated by intrigue and corruption, as he alleges, or was produced by the free consent of the freeholders of the two Colonies, it has not accomplished, and never can accomplish, the ends proposed.

The truth is, a large proportion of the Colonists have become weary of restraints, and will be contented with nothing short of self-government. Mr. Howe thus speaks, Massachusetts being never absent from his thoughts: "The cabinet called to select a governor for a North American Province, under existing circumstances, should never forget that there are twenty millions of Anglo-Saxons electing their own governors across the border, and they should endeavour to prevent the contrasts not unfrequently drawn. They should invariably act upon the policy, that, in order to repress the tendency to follow a practice incompatible with monarchical institutions, nothing should be left for the Colonists to desire." He further remarks, that, "as a general rule, every bad governor sent to a Province makes a certain number of republicans." Having said that the selection of proper governors is no easy task, he refers Lord John Russell to Massachusetts for the sort of training and education necessary for the exigencies of the times. "Born within the State, he is essentially a citizen, bound to her by filial and patriotic feelings; his early studies, not less than the active pursuits of manhood, make him familiar with her people and their diversified interests. The struggles by which he ascends through the hustings to the House of Representatives, and thence to the Senate, presiding, it may be, at times, over one branch or the other, give him a training and experience eminently calculated to prepare him for the gubernatorial chair."

In the present condition of things in British America, the

situation of a Colonial governor is by no means enviable. Every official act displeases somebody. He is not a free agent in any thing. If he attempts to govern without a party, he incurs the hostility of both Liberals and Conservatives. If he selects his advisers from one, and excludes the other, he is sure to create an opposition. If he form a coalition cabinet, it does not hold together for a single year. If he quarrels with the Assembly, he is abandoned by the government at home. Meantime, his domestic comfort is destroyed, since custom renders it a duty which he cannot dispense with to practise indiscriminate hospitality, and to open his house to all classes of Colonial society, without cessation and without regard to his own inclination or the situation of his family.* This description of his difficulties is far from being exaggerated.

Many

None of the governors are natives of America. are officers of the army or navy, and have "been accustomed to see masses of men moved by the sound of a bugle or the boatswain's whistle." Some have been ready and correct in the performance of every duty, while others were mere schemers and intriguers. The appointment of persons born in the Colonies, some have supposed, would serve to heal many of the dissensions which now prevail, and to increase the confidence of the people in the integrity of the government. We think that the very reverse would happen.

*The following anecdote, taken from "The Old Judge; or Life in a Colony," by Judge Haliburton, will serve to illustrate this remark. When Sir John Sherbrooke was in command, says the Judge, "he gave permission to his house-steward and butler-two of the tallest and largest men in Halifax - to give an entertainment to their friends, and invite as many as they thought proper in their own apartment at his house. A day or two after the party, a diminutive but irascible barber, who was in the habit of attending upon Sir John, complained, in the course of his professional duty, that his feelings were greatly hurt by his exclusion from the festivities of Government House by the steward and butler, as it had a tendency to lower him in the estimation of his acquaintances; and that, if it had not been for the respect he owed his Excellency, he would most assuredly have horsewhipped them both. Would you?' said Sir John, who was excessively amused at the pugnacious little man, would you? By Jove! then I give you leave. Horsewhip them as long as you can stand over them.'

“This is the manner," said Sir John to the Judge, "in which the good people here censure me. It appears that I occasionally omit to ask some person who thinks he is entitled to a card as a matter of right. I really thought at first the fellow was going to complain of me, for in fact he has just as good a cause as some others who are admitted."