the ninth article of the Act of Confederation, "acceding to this confederation, and joining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and be entitled to all the advantages of this Union. But no other colony shall be admitted to the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine States." What the Americans desired when this confederation was passed they desire now. I look, therefore, at the apathy of our own statesmen with alarm-seeing clearly that not only is Canada and all North America lost for England, but that these provinces will be added to the United States, unless the public mind of England is roused by having the real state of things exposed-the difficulties laid bare --and also the mode pointed out by which the impending mischief may be avoided. The time for effecting this great object is not yet passed, though the difficulty is greater, and the benefit likely to result from it not so certain as when, in 1838, I pressed the subject upon Lord Durham's consideration. A bitter feeling of animosity has been created among a large portion of the Canadian population, just that portion upon whom England might have placed her chief reliance-viz., the French Canadians. The population speaking English, have among them many persons coming from the United States, and entertaining the opinions, political and social, of the citizens of that republic. The population of Upper Canada, all by degrees assimilate to that of the United States, and they will be the first to seek a union with the republic. The French Canadians are devout catholics-their literature is the old literature of France, and they have no sympathy with the active, stirring, go-a-head American. Had we treated them

with common justice they would have remained contented under our sway; and being as gallant a race of Frenchmen as ever existed, they would, as they have done before, still fight side by side with us to repel American aggression. By care and fairness, the affections of these people, I hope, may be regained; they would form a great item in the federal union I have proposed, and that federal union, by giving dignity and hope to all who form a portion of it, would effectually check the tendency of Upper English Canada to Americanize would knit Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward's Island, and Newfoundland, into one powerful confederation, which would for centuries be a bulwark for England, and to all time a check and counterpoise to the advancing power of the United States.

Such, then, is my plan for British North America. I contemplate an extension of our dominion across the continent; the formation of new States immediately north of Lake Superior, where copper mines of unexampled fertility have, during late years, been discovered. Besides this, the fertile lands which lie on the basins of the rivers which flow into Hudson's Bay, and to which a population is daily hastening, by my proposal would be at once brought under rule as a SETTLEMENT; and thus a new life would be inspired into the premature decrepitude of Canada. Let her statesmen feel themselves the rivals of those of Washington, and able to meet them on equal terms; and then in Nova Scotia, in Lower Canada, in Upper Canada, in the new States that might immediately arise on their long frontier line, and also beyond the Rocky Mountains north of the River Columbia-you would soon see them with expanded

views and daring conceptions, the really formidable opponents of that encroaching republic which is destined to usurp dominion over the whole continent unless checked and circumscribed by a spirit as bold and free as her own. That spirit we may awake, by calling into existence a great NORTHERN CONFEDERATION OF BRITISH AMERICAN PROVINCES.

I have now accomplished the task I proposed at the outset. Australasia and South Africa deserve and require a careful inquiry into their present condition, and might need specific provisions to meet peculiar exigencies. That inquiry at some future period I hope to make, and thus complete the scheme of government I have devised. But our North American provinces must be dealt with at once, if we wish to retain our dominion over them. I therefore now, and without further delay, propose the only plan by which I believe they can be preserved to England.

Q

APPENDIX.

A.

AN ACT TO ESTABLISH THE TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT

OF OREGON.

B.

A BILL FOR THE ADMISSION OF THE STATE OF
WISCONSIN INTO THE UNION.

A GRADUATED TABLE,

C.

SHOWING THE COMPARATIVE AMOUNT OF MONEY APPROPRIATED BY THE DIFFERENT COUNTIES IN THE STATE, FOR THE EDUCATION OF EACH CHILD, BETWEEN THE AGES OF FOUR AND SIXTEEN YEARS, IN EACH COUNTY OF THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS.