"1. The government of the North-west, as an 'annexe' to Canada, possesses advantages of contiguity and similarity of ideas on the part of Canadians and the probable settlers. Canada, it will be said, has a good and responsible Government, and why not now extend its machinery to the 1,300 miles between the height of land and the Rocky Mountains? "But will Canada accept the expense and responsibility, and, more especially, is it just now politically possible? Were Canada politically and practically one united country, the answer would be perhaps not difficult. But Canada, for the present, is really two countries, or two halves of one country, united under the same form of government, each half jealous of the mutual balance, and neither half disposed to aggrandize the power or exaggerate the size of the other. "Would Lower Canada, then, submit to see Upper Canada become, at one bound, so immensely her superior? And would Upper Canadian statesmen, however personally anxious to absorb the North-west, risk the consequences of such a discussion as would arise? Would it be possible, in fact, to found a Government based upon the platform of accepting the responsibility of settling, defending, and governing the North-west? If not, then, however desirable, the next best alternative must be chosen. "Assuming that at some period, near or distant, the British North American Provinces, between the Atlantic and the Pacific, unite in a federal or legislative union, and thus become too great and too strong for attack, that next best alternative would point to such arrangements, as respects the North-west, as would lead on to and promote this union, and not stand in its way. Thus, disputes about race and customs should, if possible, be avoided by anticipation, and the constitution and power of the new Colony should foreshadow its connection with the countries to the east and to the west. Future isolation should be forbidden, while present independence should be accorded. "2. The above assumption tends to throw doubt upon the desirability of establishing a Crown Colony, separate in all respects from Canada, and able to shut out or let in Canadian produce and manufactures at its pleasure. This is a danger to be foreseen and avoided. "The new Colony, placed between Canada and the Pacific, must be essentially British, in the sense of its forming one secure link in a chain of British nations, or, in the interests of Canada, it had better never be organized. The power and _prestige_ of the Crown is essential to this end, and a separate Colony, even, would have many advantages _per se_. It would also save Canada the cost of a new Government at a time when financial pressure and political majorities would be in the way. A Crown Colony could not be looked upon with jealousy in Canada, while government by the Hudson's Bay Company would be so regarded.