both provinces,
representation by population, national and non-sectarian education,
and the incorporation of the Hudson Bay Territory. It was resolved
"that the country known as the Hudson Bay Territory ought no longer to
be cut off from civilization, that it is the duty of the legislature
and executive of Canada to open negotiations with the imperial
government for the incorporation of the said territory as Canadian
soil."

The _Globe's_ proposals at this early date provoked the merriment of
some of its contemporaries. The Niagara _Mail_, January 1857, said:
"The Toronto _Globe_ comes out with a new and remarkable platform, one
of the planks of which is the annexation of the frozen regions of the
Hudson Bay Territory to Canada. Lord have mercy on us! Canada has
already a stiff reputation for cold in the world, but it is unfeeling
in the _Globe_ to want to make it deserve the reproach." The _Globe_
advised its contemporary not to commit itself hastily against the
annexation of the North-West, "for it will assuredly be one of the
strongest planks in our platform."

Another sceptic was the Montreal _Transcript_, which declared that the
fertile spots in the territory were small and separated by immense
distances, and described the Red River region as an oasis in the midst
of a desert, "a vast treeless prairie on which scarcely a shrub is to
be seen." The climate was unfavourable to the growth of grain. The
summer, though warm enough, was too short in duration, so that even
the few fertile spots could "with difficulty mature a small potato or
cabbage." The subject seemed to be constantly in Brown's mind, and he
referred to it frequently in public addresses. After the general
election of 1857-8 a banquet was given at Belleville to celebrate the
return of Mr. Wallbridge for Hastings. Mr. Brown there referred to a
proposal to dissolve the union. He was for giving the union a fair
trial. "Who can look at the map of this continent and mark the vast
portion of it acknowledging British sovereignty, without feeling that
union and not separation ought to be the foremost principle with
British American statesmen? Who that examines the condition of the
several provinces which constitute British America, can fail to feel
that with the people of Canada must mainly rest the noble task, at no
distant date, of consolidating these provinces, aye, and of redeeming
to civilization and peopling with new life the vast territories to our
nort