the Havana is the richest town on the other side of the Atlantic, and commercially the greatest; but the political villainy of Cuba, her daily importation of slaves, her breaches of treaty, and the bribery of her all but royal governor, are known to all men.  But Canada is not dishonest; Canada is no byword for anything evil; Canada eats her own bread in the sweat of her brow, and fears a bad word from no man.  True.  But why does New York, with its suburbs boast a million of inhabitants, while Montreal has 85,000?  Why has that babe in years, Chicago, 120,000, while Toronto has not half the number?  I do not say that Montreal and Toronto should have gone ahead abreast with New York and Chicago.  In such races one must be first, and one last.  But I do say that the Canadian towns will have no equal chance till they are actuated by that feeling of political independence which has created the growth of the towns in the United States.

I do not think that the time has yet come in which Great Britain should desire the Canadians to start for themselves.  There is the making of that railroad to be effected, and something done toward the union of those provinces.  Canada could no more stand alone without New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, than could those latter colonies without Canada.  But I think it would be well to be prepared for such a coming day; and that it would at any rate be well to bring home to ourselves and realize the idea of such secession on the part of our colonies, when the time shall have come at which such secession may be carried out with profit and security to them.  Great Britain, should she ever send forth her child alone into the world, must of course guarantee her security.  Such guarantees are given by treaties; and, in the wording of them, it is presumed that such treaties will last forever.  It will be argued that in starting British North America as a political power on its own bottom, we should bind ourself to all the expense of its defense, while we should give up all right to any interference in its concerns; and that, from a state of things so unprofitable as this, there would be no prospect of a deliverance.  But such treaties, let them be worded how they will, do not last forever.  For a time, no doubt, Great Britain would be so hampered—­if indeed she would feel herself hampered by extending her name and prestige to a country bound to her by ties such as those which would then exist between her and this new nation.  Such treaties are not everlasting, nor can they be made to last even for ages.  Those who word them seem to think that powers and dynasties will never pass away.  But they do pass away, and the balance of power will not keep itself fixed forever on the same pivot.  The time may come—­ that it may not come soon we will all desire—­but the time may come when the name and prestige of what we call British North America will be as serviceable to Great Britain as those of Great Britain are now serviceable to her colonies.