"Where is the Canadian subject who can truly affirm to himself that he has been injured by the government of Great Britain in his person, his {220} liberty or his property? Where is to be found in any part of the world a growth so rapid in wealth and prosperity as this colony exhibits, settled not thirty years ago by a band of veterans exiled from their former possessions on account of their loyalty? Not a descendant of these brave people is to be found who under the fostering liberality of their sovereign has not acquired a property and means of enjoyment superior to what were possessed by his ancestors. This unequalled prosperity could not have been attained by the utmost liberality of the government or the persevering industry of the people, had not the maritime power of the mother country secured for its colonists a safe access to every market where the produce of their labour was in demand. "The unavoidable and immediate consequence of a separation from Great Britain must be the loss of this inestimable advantage. What is offered you in exchange? To become a territory of the United States and share with them that exclusion from the ocean which the policy of their present government enforces. You are not even flattered with a prospect of participation in their boasted independence, and it is but too obvious that once excluded from the powerful protection of the United Kingdom, you must be re-annexed to the Dominion of France, from which the provinces of Canada were wrested by Great Britain, at a vast expense of blood and treasure, from no other motive than to relieve her ungrateful children from the oppression of a cruel {221} neighbour. This restitution to the empire of France was the stipulated reward for the aid afforded to the revolted colonies, now the United States. The debt is still due and there can be no doubt the pledge has been renewed as a consideration for commercial advantages, or rather, as an expected relaxation in the tyranny of France over the commercial world. Are you prepared, inhabitants of Upper Canada, to become willing subjects, or rather, slaves to the despot who rules Europe with a rod of iron? If not, arise in a body, exert your energies to coöperate cordially with the king's regular forces to repel the invader, and do not give cause to your children, when groaning under the oppression of a foreign master, to reproach you with having too easily parted with the richest inheritance on earth--a participation in the name, character and freedom of Britain.