rm of the Irish Parliament which might
have united the races and averted all the disasters to come, and in this
very year (1791) he was pressing forward the Catholic franchise in
Ireland. The French in Canada must, he said, be represented in a popular
Assembly equally with the British, and on the broadest possible
franchise, and they were.

2. The next question was that of the union or separation of Upper and
Lower Canada. Here, and from the same underlying motive, the British
minority in Lower Canada were for the Union, partly on commercial
grounds, but mainly as a step in the direction of overcoming French
influence. Upper Canada, wholly British, was, on the whole, neutral.
Pitt, on high principle, again took correct ground. He did not, indeed,
foresee that separation, for geographical reasons, would cause certain
inconveniences; but he did understand--and experience in both Provinces
ultimately proved him right--that it was absolutely hopeless to try and
avert social and racial discord by artificially swamping the French
element. He declared, then, for the separation of the two Canadas into
two distinct Provinces. Note the beginnings of another, though a
distant, analogy with the relations of Ireland and Great Britain,
distant because the French at this time largely outnumbered the British
of both Provinces, and in after-years maintained something very near a
numerical equality. But the same underlying principle was involved.
Pitt, in the Legislative Union of Ireland and Great Britain nine years
later, constructed without geographical necessity, indeed, in defiance
of geography and humanity, the very system which, in a form by
comparison almost innocuous, he had condemned for Canada; but not, we
must in fairness remember, before doing his part at an earlier date to
arrive at a solution which, given a fair chance, would have rendered the
Union of Ireland and England unnecessary.

3. So far, good. But there still remained a further question far
transcending the other in importance--What was to be the relation
between the Home Government and the new Colonies? Here all British
intellects, that of Fox alone excepted, were as much at a loss as ever.
One simple deduction was made from what had happened in America, namely,
that the new Colonies must not be forced to contribute to Imperial funds
by taxes levied from London. That claim had already been abandoned in
1778 by the Colonial Tax Repeal Act, which nevertheless expre