Without them we should fall to pieces in no time. It's as much
as they can keep all tight and snug now; but them skewers nor no
others can tie a greater bulk than we have. Well, I don't think
colonists want to be swamped in our vast republic either. So there
ain't no great danger from that, unless the devil gits into us both,
which, if a favourable chance offered, he is not onlikely to do. So
let that pass. Secondly, as to incorporation. That is a grand idea,
but it is almost too grand for John Bull's head, and a little grain
too large for his pride. There are difficulties, and serious ones, in
the way. It would require participation in the legislature, which
would involve knocking off some of the Irish brigade to make room for
your members; and there would be a hurrush at that, as O'Connell used
to say, that would bang Banaghar. It would also involve an invasion of
the upper house, for colonists won't take half a loaf now, I tell you;
which would make some o' those gouty old lords fly round and scream
like Mother Cary's chickens in a gale of wind; and then there would be
the story of the national debt, and a participation in imperial taxes
to adjust, and so on; but none of these difficulties are insuperable.
"A statesman with a clever head, a sound judgment, and a good heart,
could adjust a scheme that would satisfy all; at least it would
satisfy colonists by its justice, and reconcile the peers and the
people of England by its expediency, for the day Great Britain parts
with these colonies, depend upon it, she descends in the scale of
nations most rapidly.
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