Canada and the StatesWatkin, E. W. (Edward William), Sir
History
Canada and the States
Watkin, E. W. (Edward William), Sir
Canada -- Description and travel; Canada -- History; United States -- Description and travel
"SEC. 3. _And be it further enacted_, That if Prince Edward Island
and Newfoundland, or either of those provinces, shall decline union
with the United States, and the remaining provinces, with the consent
of Great Britain, shall accept the proposition of the United States,
the foregoing stipulations in favour of Prince Edward Island and
Newfoundland, or either of them, will be omitted; but in all other
respects the United States will give full effect to the plan of union.
If Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick
shall decline the proposition, but Canada, British Columbia, and
Vancouver Island shall, with the consent of Great Britain, accept the
same, the construction of a railway from Truro to Riviere du Loup, with
all stipulations relating to the maritime provinces, will form no part
of the proposed plan of union, but the same will be consummated in all
other respects. If Canada shall decline the proposition, then the
stipulations in regard to the Saint Lawrence canals and a railway from
Ottawa to Sault Ste. Marie, with the Canadian clause of debt and
revenue indemnity, will be relinquished. If the plan of union shall
only be accepted in regard to the north western territory and the
Pacific Provinces, the United States will aid the construction, on the
terms named, of a railway from the western extremity of Lake Superior,
in the State of Minnesota, by way of Pembina, Fort Garry, and the
valley of the Saskatchewan, to the Pacific coast, north of latitude
forty-nine degrees, besides securing all the rights and privileges of
an American territory to the proposed territories of Selkirk,
Saskatchewan, and Columbia."
So much for an outrage of a character unheard of and unparalleled. It
was the result of "uncertain sounds;" of "duffer" government.
Let me give some illustrations. Before we began the, finally
successful, movement for the Intercolonial Railway, the confederation
of the Provinces of North America, and the final completion of a
railway binding the coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific together, the
Right Hon. C. B. Adderley, M.P., wrote a "letter to the Right Hon. B.
Disraeli, M.P., on the present relations of England with the Colonies."
It was a skinflint document, and here are a couple of quotations:--
Page 57.--"I would have the Canadian Government, in the right time and
manner, informed that after a. certain date, unless war were going on,
they would have to provide for their own garrisons, as well as all
their requisite peace establishments, as they might deem fit; and that
they should be prepared to hold their own in case of foreign attack, at
least till the forces of the Empire could come to their aid."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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