of inhabitants. Accordig to Mr. Wiman polil t.oR d linc. i ? | *
wealth of Canada from ~oe thoamsandk one hundred thousand dolla," audyffit he
told the Senators that it would be ruinous for a public man lla Canada t
political union, and that political union was so far away in tl future as tobe
unworthy of consideration at this time. If the per capita wealth of_rB
and Ireland was one hundred thousaud dollars the total wealth would be ,~800,-
0,000,000, and that of the United States nupon e sae basis would be 61,500,,-
000,000,000.
The Honorable Edward Blake, the peer of Gladstone and the late Mr. Blane,
the late leader of the liberal party of Canada, the greatest, truest and noblest llv-
ing Canadian, and the only llving Canadian who declined knighood at the hands
of Her Majesty, (now a member of the Imprl Parliament, and seleel by Mr.
Gladstone as one of a committee of three to draft the Home Rae bill now before
the House of. Comumons of England) describes tlie result of the present policy of
Canada In the following caustic terms, in hig celebrted Durha ltter of Fb. 6,
1891.
" Its real tendency ha ben, as foretoldtwe ye ago, to rd distgra-
tion and annexation, instead of consolidation and the mantene of- h con
neetion.
It has left us with a small population, a scanty Immigration, and a North-west
empty stll ; with enormous additions to our public debt and yearly charge, an ex-
travagant system of ex,pe ture, and an unjust and oppressive tarif; with re-
stricted markets for our needa, whether to buy or to sell and all t hosti of evis
(greatly intensifled by our pecial conditions) thence arising; with trade divert .
from its natural into forced and therefore less profitable channels; and with un-
frlendly relations and frowning tariff walls, ever more and more estrangng us
from the mighty English spea4kig nation to the South, our neighbors and relations,
with whom we ought td be, as it was promised that we should be, living in gener-
ous amity and liberal intercourse.
Worse; far worse! It bas let us wit.h l?ed.sundads _of public virtue,
and a death-like apathy in public opinion; with ratlal, e]isou, and Provincial
animosities rather inlamed than soothed;, with asuber iet iaent, an auto-
cratic exe?utive, debagched ?ounstuencies ad corr_e an errupting classes;
with , lessened self-reliance and increase d e e on the public chest and on
legislative aids; aud possessed withal by oastful jingo spit, far eno -
moved from true manilless, loudly proclami ng ondins and ge rated
sentiments, while actual facts and genuine,opinions ra pprseod.
It has left us wlith our hands tied; or o tfure pr,o ; and n such a
plighb that, whether we stand or move we must run some riks w hic toh e we
might have etther deined, or encountered wth.eater proise of ss.