The Nineteenth Century , No 182, Apr 1892 [‎77r] (158/244)

1892 IMPRESSIONS OF NORTH-WEST 643
now determine whether or not it shall be cultivated or allowed to lie
useless. And if economic rent accrues, all the better for the Com
munity.
But that day is not yet. In the meantime, the lot of the land
less agricultural labour excites the active sympathy of reformers and
demands the attention of the Legislature. He is also a disturber of
the labour market in industrial centres. He is virtually driven off
the land, by low wages and a cheerless prospect, into the towns and
cities, or he voluntarily goes there in search of a more varied exist
ence ; and in the struggle to obtain his desires he brings down the
wages of other workers, adds to the congestion of city life, and creates
the social problem.
A great Imperial purpose would likewise be promoted by colonising
the North-West by such a class as that indicated. Canada, of itself,
cannot develop this extensive region of rich soil. She has neither
the means nor the population to do so. She has done her best, but
that, much as it is when her limited resources are considered, counts
for very little compared with what the vastness of the territory
hungering for population requires, if it is to remain a part of the
Do mini on, and its boundless possibilities are to be opened up to
labour and enterprise.
Annexation may or may not be the best solution of the Canadian
question. I found comparatively few in the North-West who favoured
incorporation with the United States. Next to a desire to remain
within the Empire was a feeling for independence ; which sentiment,
however, was held as a preference to annexation, and as contingent
upon the Dominion and Imperial Governments failing to do for the
North-West what the United States would undoubtedly perform, if
the Stars and Stripes were permitted to supplant the Union Jack
north of the international boundary line. Much as there is to admire
in the government of the United States, I confess I would not wish
to see it extend its sway across the St. Lawrence to the North Pole.
It possesses quite enough of territory already. The further it is ex
tended, the weaker will become the central influence which is ruling
so wisely and so well so vast a continent, embracing communities
including people of every European race, by the simple but efficient
method of allowing the citizens of the Kepublic to manage their own
affairs in their own way. No friend of free institutions would wish
to see the federal system of the United States weakened. Its great
object-lesson of government by the people will ultimately help to
democratise all European Governments; and upon international
grounds alone the acquisition of Canada by the United States would
be a misfortune. Independent, Canada may become. She has the
chance if she wills it, along with territory enough to form a heritage
fit for an empire. But such independence, if established in defiance
of the Imperial Government, would always be menaced by the