Miserabler theory than that of money on the ledger being the primary rule for Empires,or for any higher entity than City owls and their mice-catching,can well be propounded.And I would by means advise Felicissimus,ill at ease on his high-trotting and justly impatient Sleswicker,to let the poor horse in its desperation go in that direction for a momentary solace.If by lumber-log Govers,by Godfrey's cordial Constitutions or otherwise,be contrived to cut off the Colonies or any real right the big British Empire has in her Colonies,both he and the British Empire will bitterly repent it one day!The Sleswicker,relieved in ledger for a moment,will find that it is wounded in heart and ho forever;and the turning of its wild forehoofs upon Felicissimus as he lies in the ditch combed off,is a thing I like to think of!Britain,whether it be kn to Felicissimus or ,has other tasks appointed her in God's Universe than the making of money;and woe will betide her if she forget those other withal.Tasks,colonial and domestic,which are of an eternally divine nature,and compared with which all money,and all that is procurable by money,are in strict arithmetic an imponderable quantity,have been assigned this Nation;and they also at last are coming upon her again,clamorous,abstruse,inevitable,much to her bewilderment just !
This poor Nation,painfully dark about said tasks and the way of doing them,means to keep its Colonies nevertheless,as things which somehow or other must have a value,were it better seen into.They are portions of the general Earth,where the children of Britain dwell;where the gods have so far sanctioned their endeavor,as to say that they have a right to dwell.England will readily admit that her own children are worth hing but to be flung out of doors!England looking on her Colonies can say:"Here are lands and seas,spice-lands,corn-lands,timber-lands,overarched by zodiacs and stars,clasped by many-sounding seas;wide spaces of the Maker's building,fit for the cradle yet of mighty Nations and their Sciences and Heroisms.
Fertile continents still inhabited by wild beasts are mine,into which all the distressed populations of Europe might pour themselves,and make at once an Old World and a New World human.
By the eternal fiat of the gods,this must yet one day be;this,by all the Divine Silences that rule this Universe,silent to fools,eloquent and awful to the hearts of the wise,is incessantly at this moment,and at all moments,commanded to begin to be.Unspeakable deliverance,and new destiny of thousand-fold expanded manfulness for all men,dawns out of the Future here.To me has fallen the godlike task of initiating all that:of me and of my Colonies,the abstruse Future asks,Are you wise egh for so sublime a destiny?Are you too foolish?"That you ask advice of whatever wisdom is to be had in the Colony,and even take e of what un wisdom is in it,and record that too as an existing fact,will certainly be very advantageous.But I suspect the kind of Parliament that will suit a Colony is much of a secret just !Mr.Wakefield,a democratic man in all fibres of him,and acquainted with Colonial Socialities as few are,judges that the franchise for your Colonial Parliament should be decidedly select,and advises a high money-qualification;as there is in all Colonies a fluctuating migratory mass,destitute of money,but very much so of loyalty,permanency,or civic availability;whom it is extremely advantageous to consult on what you are about attempting for the Colony or Mother Country.This I can well believe;--and also that a "high money-qualification,"in the present sad state of human affairs,might be some help to you in selecting;though whether even that would quite certainly bring "wisdom,"the one thing indispensable,is much a question with me.It might help,it might help!And if by any means you could (which you can)exclude the Fourth Estate,and indicate decisively that Wise Advice was the thing wanted here,and Parliamentary Eloquence was the thing wanted anywhere just ,--there might really some light of experience and human foresight,and a truly valuable benefit,be found for you in such assemblies.
And there is one thing,too apt to be forgotten,which it much behooves us to remember:In the Colonies,as everywhere else in this world,the vital point is who decides,but what is decided on!That measures tending really to the best advantage temporal and spiritual of the Colony be adopted,and strenuously put in execution;there lies the grand interest of every good citizen British and Colonial.Such measures,whosoever have originated and prescribed them,will gradually be sanctioned by all men and gods;and clamors of every kind in reference to them may safely to a great extent be neglected,as clamorous merely,and sure to be transient.Colonial Gover,Colonial Parliament,whoever or whatever does an injustice,or resolves on an un wisdom,he is the pernicious object,however parliamentary he be!
I have kn things done,in this or the other Colony,in the most parliamentary way before ,which carried written on the brow of them sad symptoms of eternal reprobation;to be mistaken,had you painted an inch thick.In Montreal,for example,at this moment,standing amid the ruins of the "Elgin Marbles"(as they call the burnt walls of the Parliament House there),what rational British soul but is forced to institute the mournfulest constitutional reflection?Some years ago the Canadas,probably without materials for discontent,and blown upon by skilful artists,blazed up into crackling of musketry,open flame of rebellion;a thing smacking of the gallows in all countries that pretend to have any "Government."Which flame of rebellion,had there been loyal population to fling themselves upon it at peril of their life,might have ended we k how.
