SHADOWS OF COMING EVENTS.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 17, 27 April 1867, Page 2

SHADOWS OF COMING EVENTS.

“Coming events cast their shadows before them.” Many years ago, when the question of the “'Clergy Reserves ” in Canada was under discussion in the House ot Commons, the present Prime Minister of England, Earl Derby, then Lord Stanley, observed, in passing, that as the time was probably notvery distant when British America would cease to bo a British Colony it became the duty of British Statesmen, who where anxious to maintain that reputation for wisdom and foresight by which they had been distinguished, to adapt their measures in relation to that dependency with a view to such an event. There had been moments, he said, when he indulged the belief that a monarchy might be established in British America, by a younger branch of the reigning family in England, which might eventually serve as a counterpoise to the overgrown power of the neighboring republic. We now learn that a bill is before Parliament having for its object the confederation of the British Provinces in America under one Government. We learn also by the last Panama Mail, that there was a report to the effect that the Duke of Edinburgh, second soa of Queen

Victoria, would be appointed to the first Governor-generalship of the confederacy. Should this report proveto be well-found-ed, it gives to the above remarks of England’s present Prime Minister, an interest and a significance which they would not otherwise possess. The report may prove the shadow of an event, which others, besides Earl Derby, have fondly predicted. But this new-born confederacy may iContain within itself the seeds of its own rarly dissolution. It is only Canada that is favorable to the scheme. New Brunswick, it is true, has given a reluctant consent, but Newfoundland and Prince Edward’s Island, have declined to entertain the question, or to send delegates to England*, while the impoi taut mamtime province of Nova Scotialooks with such dissatisfaction on the scheme a* to condemn it at three successive elections, and to send two gentlemen to England, armed with petitions to the House of Commons, signed by two-thirds ■of the mail adult population, praying that the question be referred to the people at the polls before any action is taken by the Parliament of England. If the hill should pass under such circumstances the wide spread discontent that will follow may shadow forth the time when Nova Scotia, and eventually the whole of British America, will constitute a part •of the United States. This event might have happened ere now had it not been fur the political preponderance of the Southern States in Congress, which, for their own protection, sought for an extension of territory and of their own power, in a Southern direction. It is a pleasant dream to imagine British America and Australasia each some day becoming a powerful monarchy under a decendant of Victoria and Albert, but neither British America nor Australisia possesses those elements which give lustre and stability to a throne. Of the two shadows, the one which indicates the erection of the colonies into republics, •though now less clear and apparently much more distant than the other, will gome day gain the ascendancy. Already .♦ lie proposed union of the American Colonies under one Government is spoken of as a “ fresh power,” a “ new nationality” and it is doubtless intended by England that confederation should ■only prove another name for independence.