Document Information
Date: 1864-11-25
By: Perth Courier
Citation: “The Ottawa Union on Confederation”, Perth Courier (25 November, 1864)
Other formats: TBA
THE OTTAWA UNION ON CONFEDERATION.
The Ottawa Union in commenting on the article contained in last week’s Courier on the “cost of the Confederation,” makes the following very sensible remarks on the same subject:
The question of expense is indeed a serious one. While we are on the threshold of the discussion of these constitutional changes, it is well to calculate the cost. A heavily taxed people are always discontented, if not miserable. Foreign capital is a sensitive plant, and withdraws abruptly from the touch of the tax-gatherer. The [emigrant?] avoids as he would a plague-spot that locality which affords no field for enterprise, where labor is levied upon to support extravagant systems of government, and where freehold is mortgaged by the costly institutions that surround it.
The possesions of Great Britain on this continent are not adapted to costly systems of government. Their progress must be slow, if they should aim at securing solidity. The climate is not favorable to rapid advancement, and the lands are not easily made productive. Gradually and carefully, with economy and thrift, must this country work out its destiny. If now, in its struggles to go ahead, it steps into the gulf of debt, without prudent foresight and calculation, the end it aims at will never be achieved. Nations, as well as individuals, can rush to ruin.