of
prestige (no slight one I admit) the loss of Canada would be the loss
of little but a source of heavy expense and great anxiety, while to the
Canadians, the loss of our protection, and of our moderating influence
to restrain the excesses of their own factions, would be one of the
greatest that can be conceived."[50] But, apart from these lower loss
and gain calculations, to Grey the British Empire was a potent
instrument, essential to the peace and soundness of the world, and he
expected the {276} provinces to which he had conceded British rights,
to rally to uphold British standards through a united and loyal
imperial federation. Those were still days when Britain counted
herself, and not without justification, a means of grace to the less
fortunate remainder of mankind. "The authority of the British Crown is
at this moment the most powerful instrument, under Providence, of
maintaining peace and order in many extensive regions of the earth, and
thereby assists in diffusing among millions of the human race, the
blessings of Christianity and civilization. Supposing it were clear
(which I am far from admitting) that a reduction of our national
expenditure (otherwise impracticable) to the extent of a few hundred
thousands a year, could be effected by withdrawing our authority and
protection from our numerous Colonies, would we be justified, for the
sake of such a saving, in taking this step, and thus abandoning the
duty which seems to have been cast upon us?"[51]

Such, then, was the imperial policy of Britain under the man who
carried it farthest forward, before the great renaissance at the end of
Queen Victoria's reign. To Grey, Canada was all that it had meant to
Durham--a province peopled by {277} subjects of the Queen, and one
destined by providence to have a great future--a fundamental part of
the Empire, and one without which the imperial whole must be something
meaner and less glorious. Like Durham he planned for it a constitution
on the most generous lines, and conferred great gifts upon it. And, in
exchange, he claimed a loyalty proportionate to the generosity of the
Crown, and a propriety of political behaviour worthy of citizens of so
great a state. In the last resort he held that in abnormal crises, or
in response to great and beneficial policies, Canadians must forget
their provincial outlook, or, if they could not, at least accept the
ruling of an imperial parliament and a crown more enlightened a