here on the occasion of the defeat of the Militia Bill of 1862.
The American Civil War emphasized the necessity for measures of
defence. At the time of the _Trent_ seizure, Great Britain and the
United States were on the verge of war, of which Canada would have
been the battleground. As the war progressed, the world was astonished
by the development of the military power of the republic. It seemed
not improbable, at that time, that when the success of the North was
assured, its great armies would be used for the subjugation of Canada.
The North had come to regard Canada as a home of Southern sympathizers
and a place in which conspiracies against the republic were hatched by
Southerners. Though Canada was not to blame for the use that was made
of its soil, yet some ill-feeling was aroused, and public men were
warranted in regarding the peril as real.

Canada was also about to lose a large part of its trade. For ten years
that trade had been built up largely on the basis of reciprocity with
the United States, and the war had largely increased the American
demand for Canadian products. It was generally expected, and that
expectation was fulfilled, that the treaty would be abrogated by the
United States. It was feared that the policy of commercial
non-intercourse would be carried even farther, the bonding system
abolished, and Canada cut off from access to the seaboard during the
winter.[14]

If we add to these difficulties the domestic dissensions of Canada, we
must recognize that the outlook was dark. Canada was then a fringe of
settlement, extending from the Detroit River to the Gulf of St.
Lawrence, having no independent access to the Atlantic except during
the summer. She had been depending largely upon Great Britain for
defence, and upon the United States for trade. She had received
warning that both these supports were to be weakened, and that she
must rely more on her own resources, find new channels of trade and
new means of defence. The country lay in the midst of the continent,
isolated from the west, isolated in part from the east, with a
powerful and not too friendly neighbour to the south. Upper and Lower
Canada, with their racial differences as sharply defined as in the
days of Lord Durham, regarded each other with distrust; one political
combination after another had failed to obtain a working majority of
the legislature, and domestic government was paralyzed. Such a
combination of danger and difficulty, w