In this 150th anniversary of the creation of Canada, we are looking back at editorials published in our predecessor newspaper in 1867.
This week, the editors returned to their favourite topic that year: the possibility of joining the new Confederation of Canada.
听
The steady progress of negotiations for the transfer to the Crown of the Hudson鈥檚 Bay Company鈥檚 territory lying between Canada and British Columbia is a guarantee that the home government is alive to the importance of speedily adding that vast and rich domain to the Confederation which has begun its course under auspices so favourable to its permanency and prosperity.
At the last session of our legislative council, a resolution asking that this colony be included in the Confederation was carried. That resolution was transmitted to Downing Street, and was referred by the imperial authorities to the government of the Confederation for approval or rejection.
Since the passage of that resolution an honourable member of our Legislative Council 鈥� Amor De Cosmos 鈥� at his own expense, has made the tour of the confederacy, and has everywhere endeavoured to impress upon the minds of our Eastern brethren the importance of at once accepting this colony while 鈥淏arkis is willin鈥�.鈥�
Only last week we had the privilege of perusing a letter from Samuel Leonard Tilley of New Brunswick, who occupies the position of minister of customs in the cabinet of the dominion. Tilley says he is in favour of the admission of British Columbia, scouts the idea of Uncle Sam鈥檚 ability to buy this territory and pledges himself to press for our immediate admission.
We are aware there are those among us who deprecate haste in closing with the 91原创 government. They think our condition would be just as bad if not worse in the confederacy as it is in the union.
These croakers know that the colony is saddled with an expensive and do-nothing government; that it is rushing as fast as it can into bankruptcy; they find themselves degraded politically to the condition of Jamaicans, without a voice in the management of their public affairs or as to how their money shall be spent; and they feel and know that if a radical change in the form of government does not take place within the three years that the Seymour administration has left of life, the country will be reduced to a deplorable state of discontent and poverty.
In the face of this knowledge they cry: Wait!
Who among them, if he saw his house in flames, would not attempt to extinguish them? Or, who if he felt a ship sinking beneath him would not fly to the pumps and make at least one effort to keep it afloat?
The condition of our affairs is not unlike that of a house on fire or a sinking ship.
We want relief, and Confederation with the eastern provinces will bring that relief. It will secure us cheap and responsible Government, an overland road, an energetic colonial man of Tilley鈥檚 type and ability 鈥� a man of the people 鈥� to rule over us in place of men who come among us crammed with the old-country ideas of business.
We are convinced that this country never can prosper under a system like that with which it is burdened. One might as well expect water to run up hill as to look for prosperity in a country where the official element devours three-fourths of the revenue and leaves only the remaining modicum to meet debentures falling due and offset public repairs 鈥� improvements there are none.
Confederation cannot come a day too soon, and so far as 鈥渢erms鈥� are concerned, our people should be content if placed on the same footing with the provinces that are already safely within the Dominion fold.
We ask no advantage that they do not possess, and in return for the magnificent country, the splendid resources, and the key to the 91原创, which we would hand over, would accept nothing less.
Another class of our readers believe that immediate Confederation is highly desirable, yet fear the moment it is proclaimed that the fleet will be withdrawn from our shores. This fear is groundless. So long as the British flag floats over the confederacy, it is still a British colony, and is entitled, and will receive, the full measure of protection that England has always secured to her children.
In the East there has been no withdrawal of either arm of defence. Where there were but 12,000 regulars, before the Confederation delegates went to England, there are 30,000 today; and the number of ships-of-war has trebled.
What reason 鈥� what precedent 鈥� is there for supposing that the interest felt in our security after Confederation will be less than that felt now? Or that the number of ships and men furnished for our protection after Confederation will not exceed these now on the station?
Confederation is but one step towards the accomplishment of the great end which comprises an 鈥渙rganization of the Empire鈥� and the admission of colonial delegates to seats in the imperial parliament, when London shall have become the seat of government of the empire, when 鈥渃olonies鈥� shall have ceased to exist, and when every foot of ground over which the national flag floats shall be comprised under the generic title of 鈥淕reat Britain!鈥�
We repeat that our people will be content with the same terms on which the eastern provinces have been admitted to the confederacy. They can ask nothing more; their interests demand that they should accept nothing less.
The Daily British 91原创 and Victoria Chronicle,Sept. 30, 1867
