the Secretary of State.

[Sidenote: Discontent due to Imperial legislation.]

I do not think that you are blind to the hardships which Canada is now
enduring; but, I must own, I doubt much whether you fully appreciate
their magnitude, or are aware of how directly they are chargeable on
Imperial legislation. Stanley's Bill of 1843 attracted all the produce
of the West to the St. Lawrence, and fixed all the disposable capital
of the province in grinding mills, warehouses, and forwarding
establishments. Peel's Bill of 1846 drives the whole of the produce
down the New York channels of communication, destroying the revenue
which Canada expected to derive from canal dues, and ruining at once
mill-owners, forwarders, and merchants. The consequence is, that
private property is unsaleable in Canada, and not a shilling can be
raised on the credit of the province. We are actually reduced to the
disagreeable necessity of paying all public officers, from the
Governor-General downwards, in debentures, which are not exchangeable
at par. What makes it more serious is, that all the prosperity of
which Canada is thus robbed is transplanted to the other side of the
lines, as if to make Canadians feel more bitterly how much kinder
England is to the children who desert her, than to those who remain
faithful. For I care not whether you be a Protectionist or a
Free-trader, it is the inconsistency of Imperial legislation, and not
the adoption of one policy rather than another, which is the bane of
the colonies. I believe that the conviction that they would be better
off if they were 'annexed' is almost universal among the commercial
classes at present, and the peaceful condition of the province under
all the circumstances of the time is, I must confess, often a matter
of great astonishment to myself.