ed was: whether England should
retain Guadaloupe or Canada. She had conquered both, but it seemed to
be admitted that she must restore one. It was even then a comical bit of
political mathematics to establish anything like an equation between the
two, nor could it possibly have been done with reference to intrinsic
values. It was all very well to dilate upon the sugar crop of the
island, its trade, its fertility, its harborage. Every one knew that
Canada could outweigh all these things fifty times over. But into the
Guadaloupe scale was dropped a weighty consideration, which was clearly
stated in an anonymous pamphlet attributed to William Burke. This writer
said:--

"If the people of our colonies find no check from Canada, they will
extend themselves almost without bound into the inland parts. They
will increase infinitely from all causes. What the consequence will
be, to have a numerous, hardy, independent people, possessed of a
strong country, communicating little or not at all with England, I
leave to your own reflections. By eagerly grasping at extensive
territory we may run the risk, and in no very distant period, of
losing what we now possess. A neighbor that keeps us in some awe is
not always the worst of neighbors. So that, far from sacrificing
Guadaloupe to Canada, perhaps, if we might have Canada without any
sacrifice at all, we ought not to desire it. There should be a
balance of power in America.... The islands, from their weakness,
can never revolt; but, if we acquire all Canada, we shall soon find
North America itself too powerful and too populous to be governed
by us at a distance."

From many other quarters came the same warning predictions.[9]

[Note 9: Bancroft, _Hist. U. S._ iv. 363-365.]

Franklin watched the controversy with deep interest and no small
anxiety. As the argument grew heated he could no longer hold his hand;
he cast into the Canadian scale an able pamphlet, ingenuous in the main
if not in all the details. It is not worth while to rehearse what he had
to say upon mercantile points, or even concerning the future growth of a
great American empire. What he had really to encounter was the argument
that it was sound policy to leave Canada in possession of the French.
Those who pretended to want Guadaloupe did not so much really want it as
they did wish to have Canada remain French. To make good this latter
point t