Empire are suffering from the effects of
free-trade, and that Canadians must take their chance with others. But
I must be permitted to remark, that the Canadian case differs from
others, both as respects the immediate cause of the suffering, and
still more as respects the means which the sufferers possess of
finding for themselves a way of escape. As to the former point I have
only to say that, however severe the pressure in other cases attendant
on the transition from protection to free-trade, there is none which
presents so peculiar a specimen of legislative legerdemain as the
Canadian, where an interest was created in 1843 by a Parliament in
which the parties affected had no voice, only to be knocked down by
the same Parliament in 1846. But it is the latter consideration which
constitutes the specialty of the Canadian case. What in point of fact
_can_ the other suffering interests, of which the _Times_
writes, do? There may be a great deal of grumbling, and a gradual
move towards republicanism, or even communism; but this is an operose
and empirical process, the parties engaged in it are full of
misgivings, and their ranks at every step in advance are thinned by
desertion. Not so with the Canadians. The remedy offered to them, such
as it is, is perfectly definite and intelligible. They are invited to
form a part of a community, which is neither suffering nor free-
trading, which never makes a bargain without getting at least twice as
much as it gives; a community, the members of which have been within
the last few weeks pouring into their multifarious places of worship,
to thank God that they are exempt from the ills which afflict other
men, from those more especially which afflict their despised
neighbours, the inhabitants of North America, who have remained
faithful to the country which planted them.

Now, I believe, that if these facts be ignored, it is quite impossible
to understand rightly the present state of opinion in Canada, or to
determine wisely the course which the British Government and
Parliament ought to pursue. It may suit the policy of the English
free-trade press to represent the difficulties of Canada as the
consequence of having a fool for a Governor-General; but, if it be
permitted me to express an opinion on a matter of so much delicacy, I
venture to doubt wh