United Provinces

“ WHEREAS the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick have expressed their desire to be federally united into one Dominion under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a constitution similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom: And whereas such a Union would conduce to the welfare of the Provinces and promote the interests of the British Empire ”

“ It is most honourable to all who were concerned in the subversion of the ancient government of the United Provinces, a government which had subsisted two hundred years, respected in its foreign and domestic relations, and enjoying all the advantages of prescription and long establishment, that not one drop of human blood was judicially shed on its overthrow. ”

“ It is in their power to extend those blessings to their own countrymen in the heart of the South American continent, and to produce a really United Confederation of the Provinces, instead of that which is now little more than nominal, from the vast distances which intervene, and operate as a bar to almost any intercourse between them. ”

“ I thought that it would be the tendency of a federation sanctioned and consolidated by a monarchical Government gradually to become a complete legislative union; and that thus, while conciliating the French of Lower Canada, by leaving them the government of their own Province and their own internal legislation, I might provide for the protection of British interests by the general government, and for the gradual transition of the Provinces into an united and homogeneous community. ”

“ The splendid abilities of the first stadtholders, and their successes in wars and negociations, happily asserted and established with renown the independence of the United Provinces. If their enemies have accused them with justice of uniformly endeavouring to extend their authority at the expence of the liberties of the people, the lustre of their glories threw a veil over their ambition, and the solid benefits they conferred on the state were gratefully acknowledged by the sternest republicans. ”

“ The remaining five provinces, that is to say, the three Lieutenant-Governorships of the United Provinces, the Punjab and Burma and the Chief Commissionerships of the Central Provinces and Assam are under the administration of a single official Head. ”

“ Since the fortune of war has conducted me hither, and it is little probable that business, necessity, or pleasure, should ever lead me again to this part of the continent of Europe, I am resolved, if I can obtain permission, to profit by the occasion, and make the tour of the United Provinces. I say the United Provinces, because the Batavian republic has not yet obtained a place in our maps and gazetters; and to the one I associate something that is great and heroic, whereas the other conveys to my mind no favourable ideas. ”

“ Those of the States asked the others if they were fully instructed (enchargés) to acknowledge the United Provinces to be free Provinces and countries, and to treat with them in that capacity, to which they explicitly (rondement) answered, yes. The Dutch Deputies thereupon asked, why then the Archduke retained the arms and name of the said Provinces? They then replied, that it ought not to seem strange, for that the King of Spain retained the title of King of Jerusalem; the King of France that of King of Navarre, and the King of England retained the arms and title of France. ”

“ Having lately seen the State of the United Provinces, after a prodigious growth in Riches, Beauty, extent of Commerce, and number of Inhabitants, arrived at length to such a height, (by the strength of their Navies, their fortified Towns, and standing-Forces, with a constant Revenue, proportion'd to the support of all this Greatness,) as made them the Envy of some, the Fear of others, and the Wonder of all their Neighbours. ”

“ In respect to the domestic relations between the Provinces and the Dominion, the Federal principle used in Canada is fundamentally the same as that which obtains in the United States and in every true Federation in the world, whether Monarchical or Republican, whether self-contained, like the United States, Germany, and Switzerland, or linked, as in the British Empire, to a supreme and sovereign Government centred in London. Each Province, as in every genuine Federation, is an imperium in imperio, possessing a Constitution of its own, and delegating central powers to a Federal Government. ”

“ Thus the United Provinces became a confederacy of seven independent principalities, called in the aggregate the States General. Several years elapsed before their constitution was finally settled. Then, the supreme sovereignty of the whole was considered to be vested in the people of every province represented by the States. These consisted of deputies appointed to them from the different provinces. Each province might send to the assembly more than one deputy; but, whatever was the number of deputies sent by them, they had one vote only in the proceedings of the assembly. ”

“ That notwithstanding various obstacles and difficulty which the powers and operation of the Constitution, established by the said statute, are gradually removing, the population of the Province has been progressive, in a ratio fully equal to that of the United States of America, without a proportionate increase from emigration; the public revenue has proved nearly sufficient to cover all necessary Colonial expenditure, and Trade and Agriculture, notwithstanding the extraordinary pressure of the present times, have, in the aggregate, greatly improved. ”

“ Canada was the Territory kept in view. Much, sir, said Mr. M., as the United States wanted the southern country, and great as is the convenience of possessing it, I never would have consented to have taken it to have kept them in Territorial government forever. I do not want provinces. I am extremely sorry, sir, that whenever this subject is agitated, we are met by the objection that these people are of French descent. I have before expressed my opinion on this subject, and it is needless to repeat it; but if gentlemen wish them to become our brethren in reality, make them our equals ”

“ The revenue of the United Provinces was estimated at between seven and eight millions of florins.
It is superfluous to call attention again to the wonderful smallness of the means, the minuteness of the physical enginry, as compared with more modern manifestations, especially in our own land and epoch, by which so stupendous a result had been reached. In the midst of an age in which regal and sacerdotal despotism had seemed as omnipotent and irreversible as the elemental laws of the universe, the republic had been reproduced. ”

“ The evils resulting from a confederate system of government, from a league of petty sovereignties which dared not become a nation, were as woefully exemplified in the United Provinces as they were destined to be more than a century and a half later, and in another hemisphere, before that most fortunate and sagacious of written political instruments, the American Constitution of 1787, came to remedy the weakness of the old articles of Union. ”

“ The poor ignorant inhabitants are now wrangling about the Union of the Canadas, when, in fact, those Provinces should be confederated with New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and Newfoundland, for their general good, while each retained its Local Government, as is the case with the United States. ”

“ To their High Mightinesses, the States-General of the United Provinces give respectfully to understand, the undersigned proprietors, and owners of vessels navigating to the Colony of Surinam, owners of plantations, situated there, merchants and others interested in the commerce of the said colony ”

“ Every political movement, both in England and the United States, favors such an issue, and the sooner we acknowledge it, the better it will be for our cause, ourselves individually, and the destiny of our people in this country.
These Provinces have long been burdensome to the British nation, and her statesmen have long since discovered and decided as an indisputable predicate in political economy, that any province as an independent state, is more profitable in a commercial [364] consideration to a country than when depending as one of its colonies. ”

“ The treaty with England still subsisted by the terms of which the Commander of the English auxiliary troops with two colleagues had seats in the Council of State, but the Council of State ceased ere long to have any but executive functions. The conduct of affairs affecting the whole Union was vested in the States-General as representing the States of the seven sovereign provinces from which its authority was derived. A more cumbrous system of government than that under which the United Provinces were now to develop rapidly into a powerful and flourishing State, probably never existed. ”

“ They were a State, but it was of the Dis-united Provinces. Their Towns were without Order; Their Burgers without Obedience; Their Soldiers without Discipline; And all without Heart: Whereas, in all Sieges, The Hearts of Men defend the Walls, and not Walls the Men: And, indeed, it was the Name of England, joyning in the War against them, that broke their Hearts, and contributed more to the loss of so many Towns, and so much Country, than the Armies of Munster, or of France. ”

“ The population of all the provinces may be fairly estimated as numbering 3,500,000. Many of the inhabitants are of French extraction, and a few German settlements exist; but two-thirds of the people of the provinces owe their origin either to the United States or to the British Islands, whose language we speak, and who ‘people the world with men industrious and free.’
“The climate and soil of these Provinces and Possessions, seemingly less indulgent than those of tropical regions, are precisely those by which the skill, energy, and virtues of the human race are best developed. ”

“ It was very important however that the United Provinces should have it thoroughly recognised that they were a free and independent republic, nor could that recognition be complete so long as any human being in the whole world called himself their master, and signed with their seals of state. ”

“ And after the Union, a greater confluence of People falling down into the United Provinces, than could manage their Stock, or find employment at Land; Great multitudes turn'd their endeavours to Sea; and, having lost the Trade of Spain and the Streights, fell not only into That of England, France, and the Northern Seas, but ventur'd upon That of the East-Indies, at first with small Forces and Success ”

“ The rebellion did not last long, but its fruits were the union of Upper and Lower Canada in one province in 1840, and the beginning of true responsible government in Canada. The two Provinces remained united till 1867, when owing to a dead-lock between the two great political parties of the colony, the British North America Act was passed, which established a Federal form of government in British North America, leaving the different Provinces the control of their own local affairs, and establishing a Federal Parliament for the management of the general business of the Dominion of Canada. ”

“ The people under republican organization far outnumber those still acknowledging allegiance to hereditary rulers. The countries self-governed, or forming parts of American republics, embraced in 1900 all of the continental mainland south of the United-States-Canadian boundary, together with Alaska, Cuba, San Domingo and Haiti, and Porto Rico. The provinces, islands, etc., still controlled by European powers are Canada, Newfoundland, Bermuda, and all of the West Indies except the islands just referred to, which are more definitely designated in the table on page 424. ”

“ I confess it appears strange to me, that any person should suppose, after looking attentively over a map of North America, that the British dominions, so extensive and so unconnected with them, could ever become joined in a political union with the present federal states on the continent. There is more reason to imagine that the Floridas, and the Spanish possessions to the east of the Mississippi, will be united therewith ”

“ In short, it is not only size that counts but a combination of great extent with other favoring forces. If we add together the eighteen provinces of China proper, Japan, European Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Denmark, and Great Britain, they equal only about the same geographical area as the United States exclusive of Alaska and our island possessions. ”

“ United, they would form a great nation, possessing a magnificent territory, inhabited by an intelligent and industrious people; formidable to assailants; commanding a measure of respect to which they had hitherto been strangers; with boundless capabilities of increase opening to all their industrial interests.
1866 A.D. Under the growing influence of views such as these, the confederation of the provinces was at length resolved on by the Legislatures of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick ”

“ I intend not here to speak of Religion at all as a Divine, but as a mere Secular Man, when I observe the occasions that seem to have establisht it in the Forms, or with the Liberties, wherewith it is now attended in the United Provinces. I believe, the Reformed Religion was introduced there, as well as in England, and the many other Countries where it is profess'd, by the operation of Divine Will and Providence ”