Document Information

Date: 1864-06-24
By: Montreal Gazette
Citation: “The Lennoxville Demonstration”, Montreal Gazette (24 June, 1864)
Other formats: TBA

THE LENNOXVILLE DEMONSTRATION

THE SPEECHES.

(FROM OUR OWN REPORTER.)

The Chairman, Mr. POPE, M.P.P., briefly addressed the assembly in acknowledgement of the honour done him in selecting him to preside—being no talker himself, he would leave to the honourable and distinguished gentlemen at the principal table the duty of explaining and commenting upon our political relations at the present time. He would bespeak the indulgence and generosity of the meeting in his behalf while endeavouring to fulfil the duties of Chairman. He would remark, however, that the time of this demonstration was as opportune as the place selected was suitable. As to the present, we had reached a period when our old politics were to be dropped, and were all to start anew, and, thank God, that was the case. (Cheers.) In reference to the place we now occupied, none better than one where the youth of the country were being educated for private, and, doubtless, public life, could have been chosen. (Hear, hear.) He might say much as to the occasion that had called them together, and much respecting the gentlemen they proposed honouring. From his personal knowledge of the many weary days and sleepless nights they had given to the country’s service, and of the great amount of valuable and beneficial work both his hon. friend on his right (Mr. Galt) and his hon. friend on his left (Mr. Cartier) had done for the Province; but it would be unnecessary, as everybody was well acquainted with the matter. He would leave to the meeting to testify their knowledge as well as appreciation of the fact. (Cheers.) He had received letters of apology, for absence, from the Hon. Sir N. F. Belleau, the Premier; Hon. Messrs. Langevin, Chapais, Ferguson Blair, Cockburn, and J. A. Macdonald. He had also received a note from one hon. gentleman, as follows:—“I shall be most happy—I may say delighted—to accept the kind invitation given me to be present at the dinner to be given, on the 21st inst., to my most esteemed friend and worthy ex-colleague, Hon. Mr. Galt. Be good enough to thank, for me, the Committee of Management, for this honour to me in the shape of their invitation, and believe me, dear Sir, yours, very truly, Geo. E. Cartier.”

After music by the band,

The CHAIRMAN, in a few warm and befitting words, proposed the first toast of the evening:—

“The Queen.—God bless her.”

Drunk with the usual loyal enthusiasm.

Band : National Anthem.

The CHAIRMAN : The next toast shall be given without preface, none being necessary.

“His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales and the rest of the royal family.”

Received with all the honours, and appropriate music.

The CHAIRMAN next proposed “His Excellency the Administrator of the Government.”

Greeted with loud cheers.

The CHAIRMAN : Gentlemen, I am about to propose a toast in which you will all feel a keen interest. There is not a man among you, wheresoever he may have come, but must feel an interest in this Canada of ours. None of you but must feel that if this Canada be worth living in, it is worth protecting. There is no doubt that, up to the present, Canadians have not taken that interest in the defence of the country they should have felt, and, beyond question, our partners over the water, in the mother country, have been of the same opinion. But it is a mistake to suppose we are not now disposed to take our full share in the defence of our country. I believe the people here are prepared to meet any demand necessary to the proper support of our volunteers. (Cheers.) I believe there is not a man of us but must feel that the maintenance of the credit of the country must depend on the way Canadians are prepared to put their shoulders to the wheel; or, rather, their hands into their pockets, in common with the people of the mother country, for the defence of this, the Canadian portion of the British empire. (Loud cheers.) I am sure the people of this country now do feel they occupy a position necessitating more sacrifice on their part than in the past, and proportionate contributions, with those of the mother country, for the defence of this part of the British empire, of the connection with which we feel justly proud. [Cheers.] I will propose the “Army and Navy and Volunteer Militia of Canada.”

Prolonged and hearty cheering.

Band: Patriotic airs

Lieut Col KING, Brigade Major of the District, in response to calls, rose to respond. He begged on behalf of the army, navy and volunteers to return sincere thanks for the kind manner in which the toast had been proposed and received. He was sure they did not want him to say much on this occasion, and he would only observe that, whenever the services of our gallant volunteers were required for the defence of our beloved country, they would be found at their posts, to a man, ready and able to meet the enemy. [Cheers.] He trusted, however, the worthy gentlemen on both sides of the Chairman [Hon. Messrs Cartier, Galt and other members of Parliament] would not be backward in unloosing the public purse-strings to remunerate properly our brave volunteers. [Immense cheers and laughter.]

The CHAIRMAN: I am about to propose a toast that will call forth ringing cheers from every man in this room. I am going to give you the name of a man whose hand has been connected with every public work in this country for the last quarter of a century, and without whose assistance many of the great public works of Canada might not have existed in completeness to-day. No doubt, many of you will feel at the mention of the gentleman that, on personal as well as public grounds, you will be merely paying him a debt long due in drinking to his health with all the honours. [Cheers.] I may be thought to speak from partiality towards him, when I tell you that I know the many difficulties under which he has laboured as a public man, and the very great personal sacrifices he has made in the interest of this country; but I believe you will all endorse this as but scant justice to the gentleman in question. I believe you all know he has at all times, and in all important public undertakings, not only lent a willing hand in the business of the country, but devoted himself with all the energy at command, to the promotion of the interests of the Province, and, therefore, you will not fail to demonstrate your appreciation of the fact by the manner in which you will receive the toast. (Cheers.) I am sure the small tribute we pay him to-night will be accepted as a token of the feeling of the people in this section towards him. You all know he has had a prominent part in creating that railway system which enables our friends from Montreal to be with us to-night after a few hours’ travel. (Cheers) Among the many things he has accomplished should be noticed one of recent performance, and respecting which he occupied a most difficult and embarrassing position—I mean the education question. I know some of the difficulties he had to encounter, and that there are few men in either section of Canada that could have so fairly overcome them, and settled that question so satisfactorily to the people of this country as my hon. friend on my right—Mr. Galt—has done. [Loud cheers] He succeeded, because he looked on the question with a broad and statesmanlike view, and because he was met by my hon. friend on the left [Mr Cartier], with the same liberal and wise spirit that has always characterized his public policy. (Cheers.) It was because both gentlemen faced the difficulty without knowing creed, origin or language, determined to settle the question on the broad equitable basis of right, that you are met to night to do them honour, and that instead of Protestants feeling that the one gentleman had sacrificed their interests, or the Catholics that theirs had been sacrificed by the other, you can greet both gentlemen, every man of you being satisfied they have done justice to yourselves and justice to the country at the same time. (Loud applause.) I might say much—mine might refer to the passage of the seigniorial tenure Act which secured the payment of so much money to the Eastern Townships, and the credit of which is largely due to my hon. friend (Mr. Galt), who insisted we should have our rights. But this and fifty other benefits must now be passed over for want of time; but the toast I have to propose is “Our guest, the Hon. A. T. Galt.” (Received with tremendous and prolonged cheering.)

Mr. GALT replied and said: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, I certainly feel it very difficult indeed to convey to you in due terms the feelings by which I am animated by the reception you have given this evening to the toast of my health—by this magnificent demonstration from the people of the Eastern Townships to one who at any rate claims to have been at heart their devoted servant. (Hear.) I have to thank my hon. friend, the Chairman, for having referred to me in terms by far too partial: I am quite aware that the kindness of my friends has often exaggerated my virtues and excused my failings, and I am very happy to find that many of you take the same kindly view to-night. (Hear.) I do not accept the presence of so many of the first gentlemen of the Eastern Townships—or so many of the more immediate followers of my friend on the left (Mr. Cartier); I do not accept what may be called this glorious meeting so much as a mark of confidence in myself as an expression of satisfaction with the policy we have been engaged in carrying out, viz., the Union of British North America, and I trust, gentlemen, that the feeling which animates the people of the Eastern Townships in reference to this subject, will be found to be the feeling not only of Canada, but of the Lower Provinces and of all British North America, and that any opposition that is now offered to the fair working of Confederation may speedily pass away. (Cheers)

THE CHAIRMAN ON EDUCATION.

My hon. friend has referred, among other matters, to the question of Education, and as this is the first occasion I have met my constituents since I left Her Majesty’s councils in this Province, I think I may be permitted to say a few words on this subject, which is moreover one that interests not only those within the limits of a single constituency, but also every Protestant and Roman Catholic too in British North America. The education of our children enters into the dearest hopes and fears of every man, and unless our new constitution had provided that whatever a man’s race or whatever his religion, his children should have fair play in this respect, it would have been impossible to work the Union aright. (Hear.) At the time the resolutions on which it is based were before the Legislature at Quebec, certain engagements were entered into between Mr Cartier and myself that the rights of the minority in Lower Canada should be provided for. These pledges were nobly fulfilled by the Government when the bill to secure these rights was introduced at the last session of Parliament, and I am in a position to state that the opposition made to the bill was entirely contrary to the feelings and wishes of Mr Cartier, who never ceased his endeavours to carry it through. [Hear.] Yet it was not possible to carry it then, and certainly if my retirement from the Government at that time could have been understood to mean that I had withdrawn my confidence from my hon. friend and his colleagues, I should have considered myself bound to have stayed with them, but, knowing as I did that their feelings were with me in the matter—that they only sought the proper occasion to carry out their engagements faithfully and well—I felt that by retiring I put them in a better position to do so. I entered by my resignation my protest against the nonconsummation of the Union without the necessary guarantees, and I continued to support the Government in the understanding that they should be given. I did not feel it my duty at that time to oppose the Government, though it was my duty to leave it. I know that it could at a future day do justice to the important interests it had agreed to protect. [Hear.] My hon. friend and his colleagues subsequently invited me to join them in their mission to England, and knowing that the solution of the question of Education must precede my acceptance of that honorable position, they asked me to meet them at Ottawa, and the very words of the settlement now embodied in the Imperial Act were there agreed upon between them and myself, acting for the Protestant population of Lower Canada. It is a proud thing for me to see to-night that the settlement is a satisfactory one. There are occasions when a public man may justly feel some satisfaction—when some real material advantage has been secured for his countrymen—when he becomes conscious that he has not been wanting in strength in beating the vacant air, but has done some good that will last, he hopes, through all ages—and this, Mr Chairman, is one of them for me. [Cheers.] I am glad, Sir, on this occasion to do justice to the course taken by Mr Cartier and his colleagues, and I am only doing my duty as an honest man in saying that the Protestants of Lower Canada own a debt of gratitude to Mr Cartier, Mr Langevin and other L. C. Ministers for their straightforward dealing in getting the Educational question settled. Not at any moment, not on a single occasion, was there on the part of any member of the Government the slightest expression of a wish to depart from the pledges made, from the time they were first entered into at Quebec, now more than two years ago. We felt that in Mr Cartier we had to do with a man who would deal fairly and honourably with us, and I am proud to see to-night that you all agree with me that he has done so. [Cheers]

THE CHANGES IN THE CONFEDERATION MEASURE NOT MATERIAL.

I am afraid, Mr Chairman, that on this occasion I shall have to trespass somewhat on the kindness and patience of the gentlemen who hear me, for it may be expected that I should say a few words on this question of Confederation, and not having upon me the shackles of official restraint, I may say a few words not altogether irrelevant to the occasion. (Hear.) This question, sir, has just come to us from the Imperial Parliament, but if you will reflect, you will at once perceive that with the single and most important exception of the Educational clauses, the changes are but few, and those not material, from the project previously adopted by the Legislature of Canada. These slight changes chiefly concern the Financial arrangements with the Lower Provinces, in which some alterations were rendered necessary by the Financial pressure brought to bear by the agreement entered into at Quebec.

OUR INCREASED PRESTIGE

Any one who has read the debates upon the subject in the Parliament of Great Britain must have observed that Her Majesty’s Imperial Government plainly stated that they regarded the Imperial Act as embodying the wishes of the Colonists, and as a bill which they ought not to change in material particulars because they might think certain clauses could be better. They accepted the Act as being what the colonies wished—as that under which they desired to be governed. And it is highly satisfactory to know that our relations with the Mother Country are on such a footing that the Imperial government do not object to our extending our power, and uniting under one government four millions of people on this side of the Atlantic. (Hear.) View it in what light we may, there is no doubt that the Act which has united three Provinces, which has brought into one Government the vast countries depicted on the map (the map of British North America) which I see before me, and which our kind friends who have taken charge of the arrangements for the evening have most properly and happily placed there,—there is no doubt, I say, that the Act which has united or paved the way for uniting all the Dominions of the British Crown in America has given us a vast increase of power and of prestige. Whether we choose to call ourselves a New Nation or not, it is quite certain that other nations are beginning to think of us as such. We may see this by the anxious even of our neighbours—by what I am afraid I must call the jealousy of the United States towards us. (Hear.) I think, sir, it was States towards us. (Hear.) I think, sir, it was unmanly of that great people, of that great and powerful nation, not to lend us a hand in our forward movement. That would have been far more noble than to attempt to put difficulties in our way. But we may draw this consolation from the facts, that if the Americans, who are one of the astutest people on the earth, now look with some degree of envy upon the Northern portion of the continent, it must be because we have assumed in their eyes a position of more importance than before.

OUR CONSTITUTION MORE FREE THAN THAT OF THE UNITED STATES.

I will not say we have not much that they may in some degree envy. I think, sir, that although our neighbours are continually saying they have the finest and best government in the world, we may without incurring much risk place the institutions we have adopted in comparison with those by which our neighbours are governed. They have in the first place nothing in their Constitution which can at all compare with the beneficent rule of our gracious Queen. [Load cheers.] The President of the United States is for four years, except under certain peculiar circumstances, quite master of the situation. He may take a stand quite in opposition to the popular wish—and we have seen within the last two years a President of the United States take action diametrically in opposition to the views and wishes of the people who made him President—but we know that nothing of the kind can possibly happen under our Constitution. Agin, sir, we never can have under our system a government in opposition to the majority of the representatives you send to Parliament, for no government can exist which is not in harmony with the majority of the House of Commons. Now in the United States this is quite possible, as we have seen it recently occur. Then I say, and I think most justly, that our government is freer, for our people, through their representatives, are stronger in their liberty than the people of the United States. [Hear, hear.]

ADVANTAGE OF HAVING THE LOCAL AND GENERAL GOVERNMENTS DISTINCT.

Adverting still further in this Constitution under which we are to live, I think that while we must all admit that there may be many imperfections in it—imperfections which experience alone will enable us to find out, and which we shall then be able to amend—there is this one great advantage which, in common with the United States, we have been able to secure; we have had the wisdom to divide the control of our local and general affairs. If any one thing more than another can give unity and force to the government which directs the affairs of a great portion of the Continent, it is to keep it out of local parish troubles. In separating the State Government from the General Government the United States have shown a great deal of political wisdom, and I think we have done wisely in copying their Constitution in this respect—in limiting the action of the General Parliament to those subjects which are general in their interest, and in leaving to Nova Scotia matters which concern Nova Scotia alone, to Ontario matters which concern Ontario, to British Columbia (as I hope soon to see British Columbia united to us) matters which concern that part of the country only. [Cheers.]

THE PEOPLE THEMSELVES MUST MAKE THE CONSTITUTION WORK.

I now come, sir, to another and very important consideration. Whether the general scheme of the Government which has been created by the late Imperial Act be wise or not, there is one thing perfectly certain: the people of this country have themselves to test it, themselves to work it. Whatever its imperfections, the best men in British North America (I speak however with humility for my own part in it), have done the utmost in their power, have done the best they could, and the question which arises is: Are we fit for the responsibilities which are now thrown upon us? Whether we like it or not, we are regarded as forming the nucleus of a new nation. It is for you, gentlemen, and for the people of this and the other provinces, to show by actions whether you are able or not to take your part well, to discharge your new duties with credit to yourselves and the country: It is not the public men of the country who can settle the question for you: public men, to be public men, can only act in harmony with the people they represent. If the people are willing—and I think I may take this meeting as an indication that they are willing—to let bygones be by-gones, to bury the old acerbities of the past, to unite in a generous support of the Government of the day, whoever may form it, and help it to carry to their solution the great questions which are arising—then, I say, we may indeed become a nation worthy of the name and of our inheritance. But if we are to have the old faction-fights of Whig and Tory renewed; if French and English, Catholic and Protestant are to be brought up against each other; if, I say, these cries are to become more sounded in our ears, then, gentlemen, our attempt will be a wretched failure. There is no constitution that can give peace to a people who are determined to waste their energies in miserable struggles among themselves. (Loud applause.)

CONFEDERATION AND ANNEXATION THE ONLY ALTERNATIVES.

I speak all the more strongly on this subject on this occasion because the question of Confederation is not with me the question of this hour or of this day. I have long regarded it as the one question which offered a future to this country; for I have long seen that, short of our ability to form a New Nation, there is no future for us except annexation to the United States. It is still more plain now, sir, that unless we can sustain ourselves under our new constitution we must join the United States;—and how should we join them now? It is clear that after we had shown by our acts that we were unable to govern ourselves, so shrewd a people as our neighbours would consider us but hewers of wood and drawers of water. No, sir, even though we have to join them in the end, we must show that we have the ability to govern ourselves; that we are not afraid to undertake responsibilities for ourselves. Then, whether we join them or not, we should show ourselves worthy to be attached to them or any other country in the world, (Hear, hear.)

THE UNION NOT YET ACCOMPLISHED, AND PARTY GOVERNMENT NOT YET DESIRABLE.

The duties that are before our public men—and when I say public men I mean those whom the people are willing to make public men—are of a most onerous character. It is true the Union Act has passed; it is true the Imperial Parliament has declared that Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada are to be united; but it is not the less true that this Union is a mere paper union unless and until we have feelings in common in the common Legislature. It is now only an Act of Parliament permitting us to unite. It remains for you to show whether in asking for that Act of Parliament we truly interpreted the wishes of the country. The feelings of these Provinces are, believe, to a great extent identical—identical in cherishing a common allegiance to the same beloved Sovereign—identical in desiring to remain connected with Great Britain—and we cannot fail to see that if the new Union is properly carried out, it must produce in addition what I may call a national feeling. We have had, it is true, certain ideas of attachment to our country, but not that pride in it which man must have before they will make the sacrifices necessary to sustain it. What we must all desire to see; what we hope to see; what I believe we shall see, is that strong feeling will arise here of ardent love and attachment to our land; and if this should be the case, then, sir, the people would be able to maintain themselves and defend the institutions they possess against any attack, whenever and from whatsoever quarter it may come. (Hear.) I do not intend on this occasion to refer to the current politics of the day, but from the very nature of the subject I must allude to this point, though somewhat mixed up with them, and not being in the Government I can give my opinions without so much embarrassment as possibly my hon. friend on the left (Mr. Cartier) might feel in speaking of it. My view is, sir, that the Government of the new Dominion must practically be a continuation of the Quebec Convention. We have as yet only received permission to unite the Provinces; to carry out that Union we must have the same representation of interests we had at Quebec. If you were to organize pure party government, you might perhaps do it for Canada, but the same party might perhaps not be the governing party in Nova Scotia or New Brunswick. In Canada there was a coalition of parties for the purpose of carrying the Union Resolutions. Can we imagine for a moment that the actual assimilation of the laws, and the many necessary measures, can be carried out by one of those parties alone? I believe, sir, it cannot safely be done, but that the principles which must be kept in view is the representation of all interests; combined with a knowledge of all the local wants of each part of the Dominion; and I think the people of the country at large will feel this to be vitally necessary for the success of the experiment. (Applause.) Of course there must be different opinions on almost all questions of moment, but let not these opinions be formed upon the basis of our old parties. One of the first things to be done is to form the local governments, governments for each of the Lower Provinces as well as for our own. If we constitute them on a party basis such as exists now, we lay the seeds of very great opposition, indeed of constant strife in the country from the very first. But if we form governments which embrace the best men of all opinions, one of two things will happen,—either that their measures will be so wise that no opposition to them can be formed, which is too good a thing to be expected—or the governments will make some mistakes, will display some faults, and so an Opposition will soon be created—will rise up naturally. There are some questions, at least in the general government, which must be dealt with in this spirit. I refer to the assimilation of the Tariffs, to the adoption of the Trade policy which is to prevail. These subjects have very little to do with the policy of the hour, and yet they very nearly touch the whole future policy of the country. They must not be dealt with ignorantly. It will not do for a man in Canada to presume that he knows enough of all the Provinces to be able to decide what rates of duty should prevail; we must have in Council the assistance of men who are familiar with the circumstances of each part of the country, so as to prevent injustice being done to any important district. Let us take, by way of illustration, the case of the Maritime Provinces. We know that some opposition has prevailed in Nova Scotia in regard to Confederation, because the people have been told that their industry would be paralyzed; that the manufactures of Canada would be thrown upon them to such an extent as to damage and destroy theirs; that the Union of the Provinces meant, for them, nothing but disaster. Now, the policy of the Government must be to show, by its acts, that while the common interests of Nova Scotia as well as Canada, while the advancement of the country at large, and the promotion of its material interests, may possibly require the two tariffs to be assimilated as to their duties on manufactured goods, yet, in other respects, their special interests will be considered.

THE COAL TRADE, THE FISHERIES, THE RECIPROCITY TREATY, AND WEST INDIA TRADE.

For instance, the coal trade of Nova Scotia cannot be lost sight of, and it will be wise to consider whether Canada (by which name I mean this part of the Dominion) cannot furnish that market for the coal of Nova Scotia which, in past years, under the Reciprocity Treaty, was provided by the United States. We can also point out to Nova Scotia, in reference to the fisheries, that, so far from her being weaker in respect of that important interest, she will have the aid of a greater and stronger country in protecting and developing it. This point, I take it, is one on which the feeling of the Maritime Provinces has been very strong, and which will find so easy and so early solution in the measures the Government of the Union will adopt. [Hear, hear.] Again, there is the West India trade. We have been shut out from the American markets as regards many articles of our produce, but, Sir, our neighbours have done us, unintentionally I admit, but none the less effectually, what on the whole I think is a great favour, at least in one respect, and that is in the lesson they have taught us. (Hear, hear.) I do not think, I should be very sorry to say I believe it is owing to their kindly intentions towards us; but still it seems to me that but for the American war, and but for the subsequent course of the American Government towards us in repealing the Reciprocity Treaty, it is very doubtful whether we could this night have been toasting the Dominion of Canada, and I humbly recognize a Providential retribution on that great country, in that when, instead of helping us forward, they set themselves to do us an injury and wrong, that injury has recoiled upon themselves. No one can desire more than I do that we should have the kind wishes of the people of the United States, or can be more desirous of extending our business relations with them, but this cannot be, as long as they persevere in their present policy towards us; and I think that the less we find ourselves to be dependent on them, the more willing we shall find them to offer us reciprocal advantages. [Hear, hear.] The abolition of the Reciprocity Treaty has however shown the absolute necessity of our seeking other markets for the produce of the country, and these markets we have to a great extent found within the short space of ten months in the Maritime Provinces with which we are now united, but more than this, we have ascertained that there are other countries with which we can cultivate commercial relations, which will offer us a market just as good, just as extensive as that which we formerly had with the United States, and with which our merchants can do business just as easily and just as profitably as those of the United States. I refer to the markets of the West Indies, especially Cuba, and of Brazil. The Government sent Commissioners to those countries whose very able report has shown most conclusively that they consume of articles which are produced in Canada and have hitherto been exported to the United States more than the whole export of Canada has ever been! Now, Sir, we must bring about direct trade with these countries, we must carry it on ourselves instead of doing it through the merchants and traders of the United States. We could not aim intelligently at obtaining such trade so long as we were without a connection with the Maritime Provinces, so long as in the winter Canada was shut off from the seaboard and the seaboard from Canada, but now that the seaboard and the inland country are united in one Dominion, they can be of the greatest advantage to us and we to them and we should do, through their harbours and in colonial ships, the trade which has hitherto been done by the cities and the vessels of the United States. [Hear, hear.]

FREE TRADE NOT YET POSSIBLE FOR CANADA.

I have said that the development of the trade and commerce of the Union is one of the great points to which we must give our attention, and when I use the word trade I must not be understood as confining its meaning to that which is carried on in ships; for I refer not only to that, but to the great manufacturing interests of the country. I say this because it is well known that my own views are those of a Free Trader. I am a Free Trader, believing that the true views on Political Economy are those embodied in the books of the many able writers on the side of free trade. At the same time it is evident that no country is ready at one moment to adapt its policy to the peculiar theories in which I believe. A state of war is inimical to the best interests of a country, and yet every nation has again and again been obliged to go to war, perhaps upon a point of honour or something else of that nature, with which economy had nothing to do. So also with trade. We must have a revenue; we must raise it in the least burdensome way to the people, and I do not believe it is possible in the present state of Canada greatly to depart from the system we have pursued up to this moment. It is true that at the last session Parliament was able to reduce the duties on manufactured goods. We were glad of that; and I observed in a remark which was made across the house, which I must say was seriously misinterpreted if not misunderstood, and about which more has been said than it deserved, that I should rejoice if we could have no Customs duties. Well, sir, I should rejoice if we could save our people from taxation, but we cannot do so to any great extent and carry out at the same time the policy I desire to see carried out. We must continue to impose duties on manufactured goods, but, at the same time, I believe these ought to be reduced as rapidly as is consistent with the interests of the country, and for this reason; I consider our manufacturing interests must look beyond our own population for a market. You cannot build up a large manufacturing interest to supply only four millions of people, and whenever you go beyond the market of the four millions you have to compete with other countries whose prices are not affected by the duties you impose at home. Now, when you start your manufacturer to compete with the industry of other nations, should you start him carrying the burden of dear articles at home instead of with the lightest burdens possible? Certainly not. I say you must burden him with as light a weight as you can, and this you do when you give him the articles he requires at the lowest rate the exigencies of the country will permit. These are the views I hold, and I do not believe they are inimical to the country. To attempt to introduce the protective system would not be advisable in Canada; it would be to copy from the United States that which is least defensible in their arrangements, and which in Canada—which is as yet a comparatively poor country, with a hard climate, whose people have however that energy which such difficulties often best develop—would destroy our best prospect of becoming a wealthy nation. (Hear, hear.)

THE SETTLEMENT AND SALE OF CROWN LANDS.

Referring once again to the Maritime Provinces, it must be the interest of Canada to see the vacant lands of New Brunswick settled by an industrious population. One of the greatest difficulties we experience here is one which is felt there too; it is the sparseness of the population, and one of the objections made to the Intercolonial Railway is that it must run in part through a sparsely settled country, though nobody who knows the country well will say it is not fit to be settled. Now however, that the building of this railway is secured—for the money is provided and its construction is a condition of entering into the Union, a condition to which it will be the duty of the Government to see fulfilled at the earliest day—I believe that Nova Scotia and New Brunswick will find it instrumental in opening up their lands, adding largely to their population, and so increasing their relative strength as members of the Confederation. Their interest moreover in this particular is ours; it must be for our advantage that the line of communication between them and us should run through a settled country. If there be one thing I regret in the Act of Union it is that the General Government has left to the local legislatures the control of the Crown Lands. (Hear, hear.) There is, however, I am happy to say, both in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, a desire to open up their public lands as much as possible to the poor man and his family, which is due to the belief that the settler is of more value to the country ten times over, even though he had land given him for nothing, then the small sum of money he might be induced to pay for land to occupy. (Cheers.)

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, NEWFOUNDLAND, AND BRITISH COLUMBIA.

I have thus referred, Sir, to some of the subjects which must at the first occupy the General Government of the Confederation. I have shown that the Local Government should be as far as possible at one with the General Government—the whole bearing in mind the interests of the country at large in all its parts—but there are other matters which will necessarily engross the early attention of the people and the Legislature of the new Dominion: I refer to the freedom given us in the Confederation Act of extending our boundaries. It may appear to you that I am sanguine; and that on this occasion when we are only beginning to consider the welding together of the three Provinces now united it is curious I should say that coincidently therewith we should not lose sight of the power granted to extend our dominion further. I do however assert that the including of Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island is essential to the prosperity of the new Dominion. Difficulties which have arisen have prevented their being included at the present moment in the Act, but it is probable that these difficulties may be very easily remedied, and I trust it will be one of the first duties of the new government to arrive at such an understanding with the Legislatures of those colonies, that, before a year has passed, they may be united with ourselves. (Hear, hear.) And while this is our duty in the East, recent events have shown that we cannot close our eyes to what is happening in the West. I agree with much that Mr. McGee has said in a recent letter you have no doubt all seen; and I for one look upon the acquisition of Russian America by the United States as their answer to the arrangements we have been making to unite among ourselves. When we know that British Columbia is at this moment seeking admission into our Government, we should be wanting in our duty to ourselves, wanting in our duty as subjects of the British crown, if we refused to let that country in. There is only one way in which a policy of aggression can be met. If the United States desire to outflank us on the West, we must accept the situation, and lay our hand on British Columbia and the Pacific Ocean. This country cannot be surrounded by the United States—we are gone if we allow it—we should be in their hand when they choose to abut it. We must have our back against the North. The great lines of settlement, the great sources of power, seem on this continent to stretch from the East towards the West. “From the Atlantic to the Pacific” must be the cry in British America as much as it has ever been in the United States. That nation has been willing to spend hundreds of millions of treasure, and hundreds of thousands of lives to keep their country together, and should not we too be ready to make some sacrifices to obtain half a continent which is offered us to-day? Mr. Chairman, I perhaps am going entirely beyond the record, but still, when one does rise to speak on such a subject as British North America now affords, he may perhaps be pardoned if the guard he usually places upon his lips becomes somewhat relaxed. [Enthusiastic applause.]

OUR NAVY AND OUR MILITIA.

We one, sir, what our future may be. We wish to live in harmony with our neighbours. We are far too wise, and, I trust, far too conscientious, to do anything which would give them umbrage, but still if we must regard them as possible antagonists, we must look at what is our strength and is our weakness. We are reminded of our weakness every day, and that even by our best friends: we have constantly been told, even in England, that we have an extended frontier; that the Americans can walk into Upper Canada and over-run it. Now, if they should covet our Naboth’s vineyard, our weakness may indeed be in the West, but our strength is in the East,—in the fisheries, those great training schools for sailors—in the trade the Atlantic colonies are carrying on with all the countries of the earth. We are now next to the United States in point of ships, and if the suicidal policy they are carrying on in matters of marine continues to prevail, we shall in a short time exceed them as a maritime nation. If, then, it is to be a question of strength, it is well we should remember that we may prove the strongest at sea, though we may be the weakest on shore (Hear, hear.) England has never pretended to be able to contend on the land alone with the strong nations of the Continent, but with her ships, colonies and commerce she has contrived to bind the strongest of them as it were with shackles of iron. Looking at the power of Venice, of Genoa, or still further back at that of Carthage, looking at the wonderful history of little Holland, and then at the might of England, towering over all these, we see that now, as it was of old, commerce is the life blood of nations, and the country that boasts of superiority at sea is able to guide and control the rest. We may, I repeat, be weak upon the Western frontier, but as long as we have strength on the East at sea, British North America may not fear in a good cause to face whatever odds may be brought against her. (Loud cheers) No doubt, sir, that to govern these Provinces once more as a whole involves responsibility. We must have an organization for our Militia; we must not continually call on our gallant volunteers to repeat the sacrifices they have so cheerfully been making; the country must have the right to call on every able-bodied man in it if need be to do his duty. (Applause.) If the people of Canada are not prepared to make the sacrifices which every free nation must make, then we are not worthy to have the privileges of a free people. The words of the chairman, however, no doubt found an echo in the breast of every man who heard them. One of the earliest measures which must be proposed to the people must be to have an adequate militia and at the same time to secure the fortification of those weak points in the country which are open to attack. I do not say we must attempt to line our extended frontier with forts, far from it, but there are some points, some perhaps in the East, certainly one or two in the West—which must engage the attention of the Government. It is by bringing Science to the aid of our militia that we must make them efficient. We must not throw them at once into the field to meet armies superior perhaps in numbers if not in discipline, but it will be the duty of government to provide that the odds shall be in their favor in defence of their own homes—to call in the aid of the best military science of the day in the shape of fortifications improved guns and other munitions of war—and I think that in strong fortifications, and the thorough organization of our militia, we shall find our safety much more than in any number of troops Great Britain can afford from her limited military organization. (Hear) It is no wonder people in England say it is no use our keeping 10 or 14,000 troops in a country like Canada, situated beside the United States, for it is plain that the defence of the country cannot be confided to 10 or 12,000 men. It is everybody’s duty to defend the country, if it is attacked, and everybody must attend to that duty. What we can get from England however in the stoutest aid the Mother Country can give us in materials, munitions, &c., and that we have been assured, especially within the last few weeks, will be given to the last extremity. (Cheers.)

ELECTION TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS SOLICITED; TO THE LOCAL LEGISLATURES DECLINED.

I must now apologise for having spoken so long, and for having been so discursive in my remarks. I need not say to you who are my constituents in this assembly, that the views I have advocated to-night are those which, if you are pleased to honour me with your confidence by sending me to the House of Commons, I shall there endeavour to carry out. I have never concealed my views on public affairs, so that every one can judge whether or not I have at all times endeavoured honestly to carry them out. [Hear, hear.] I may take this opportunity of saying that the subjects I have adverted to are such that my friends would not expect me to take any farther share in public life than what may be involved in having a seat in the House of Commons.

UNITY RECOMMENDED TO ALL PARTIES IN THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC.

But, sir, though I do not propose to offer myself for a seat in the Local Legislature, I think the present occasion, on which we meet the honoured leader of the great bulk of the people of Lower Canada, is a fitting one to say that we of the Townships thank him for his straightforward conduct towards us. I think too, we may with propriety resolve that, as inhabitants of the Province of Quebec, we should in future try to avoid having any jealousy or envy or ill-feeling towards each other, whether we be French or English. We have a common country; laws that reach us all, that are good for Frenchmen, good for Englishmen alike, that protect our property, that are administered so as to show no favouritism. Why then should we be kept apart—why should we not show an example of unity to the rest of British North America? The position of Lower Canada is most remarkable; it is the pivot on which the whole representation of the Dominion will turn, the other Colonies having thus made us the point on which the fundamental politics of the whole are to be based. Let us show to the great Province of Ontario, as well as to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the spectacle and the example of French and English, Protestant and Roman Catholic united to carry out the best possible laws, to do all we can for the settlement and the other important interests of our common country. Let us eschew the evil counsels that would lead us to distrust one another. Let us at least have so much faith in each other as to believe good of each other as readily as evil, to put the best construction on each other’s acts, and so, though Lower Canada may be second in population, second in wealth, it will be first in contentment, first in happiness, first in the progress of its people. (Loud and long continued applause.)

The CHAIRMAN: Gentlemen, in regard to the toast I am going to propose, I believe the subject of it will give you perfect satisfaction. You all know we, the English speaking people of Lower Canada, are in a minority, and are, to a considerable extent, and must continue to be, dependent for a considerable time, as far as local matters are concerned, on the French Canadian majority for fair play and straightforward and honourable treatment. Now, it will be fortunate if in the future, as in the past, we shall find gentlemen possessing the confidence of the French Canadians, who will take such broad and liberal views of political questions as will prevent their knowing any difference between French Canadian Catholic and English Protestant. When I tell you the gentleman to respond to this toast has been such a man, one who, whether he gave a pledge to a Protestant or Catholic always deemed it—one who will take a fair just view of every question whether affecting one religion or the other—I merely state what is known to you all. (Hear, hear.) The Chairman, after warmly complimenting the French Canadians, particularly, Mr. Cartier, on their and his fairness of dealing towards British Protestants, eulogised his conduct in joining the Coalition, which was to settle all the great sectional questions between the two provinces, commented on his liberality and wisdom in casting all sectional and national prejudices behind him, for the work of Union, and paid him a warm tribute for his services to the British Protestants of Lower Canada in the matter of the separate school acts, and the respecting of the rights and feelings of the minority in regard to the education question. The toast was: “The Administration and Hon. Mr. Cartier.” (Drank amid loud and long continued cheers.)

Band: “A la Claire Fontaine.”

Hon. Mr. CARTIER, on rising, was again warmly greeted, and after silence had been restored he said: Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I experience a sort of diffidence in rising to attempt an appropriate response to the toast, and a fitting acknowledgement of the manner in which it was proposed and received, both as regards the members of the Government and myself. I suppose it is no use to plead shyness or diffidence before you, however. (Laughter.) Moreover, I feel at a loss, at present, owing to my voice being the worse of speech-making on board the cars this evening or elsewhere. I may say that since I have had the happiness of seeing again the shores of my native land, owing to the great event known to all, the accomplishment of the Confederation of the British North American Provinces, at every place I have set my foot since my return the people have been kind enough to present me with addresses, which I did not deserve, but which they at all events thought I deserved. I have replied to them, and that is why I am so hoarse this evening. (Cheers.) You may not believe in my diffidence, but when I look around this hall and see eloquent men, learned and scientific men, like my friend Dr. Nicholls and his colleagues of this splendid institution of learning, who have for years been engaged in imparting instruction in all the branches of education—in morality and religion—to the fine boys before me, who are yet to play a similar part to our own—speaking for myself alone, I am sure those promising youths will, when their time shall come, play their part in life far better than ever I have done mine.

A voice—It will be well for the country if they do. (Hear, hear)

Hon. Mr. CARTIER.—A great honour was done me in inviting me to this festive board this evening. When the name of Mr. Galt is mentioned it must be not merely in connection with the town of Sherbrooke, but with the whole of the Eastern townships and the Protestant population of Lower Canada. (Loud applause.) Well, you Protestant inhabitants of the Eastern townships ought to feel proud of such an exponent of your views and ideas, who, as an honest and able man, deserves your confidence. (Cheers.) There are few localities so privileged as yours is; because, whether as Protestants or as regards your material interests, you have to represent you one of the ablest men Canada has ever produced. (Renewed applause.) You have as representative a gentleman of not only a Canadian but of an American and an English reputation. (Loud cheers.) As a financier and a statesman, I may say he enjoys even a European reputation acquired by his own ability and transcendent talents. (Reiterated cheers) You must not forget, too, that Mr. Galt’s father was a gentleman of the highest literary ability and accomplishments. In England his works are read to-day with undiminished interest, and will ever continue to be so. (Applause.) On my first political mission to England, in 1858, I was accompanied by Mr. Galt and Mr. John Ross. To every public man we met in that country Mr. Galt was known by himself and through his father. I will never forget the remark of Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer, then Colonial Secretary, now Lord Lytton, on our meeting with him in 1858. “I was delighted to hear that able statesman and great literary genius, on shaking hands with Mr. Galt, observe: ‘I knew your father, he did me service, and he gave me good advice long ago.'” A few days afterwards it was our happiness as delegates from Canada touching that great question of Confederation and the Intercolonial Railway, to meet the present Chancellor of the Exchequer. On his greeting my worthy colleague, he remarked: “Mr. Galt, I am greatly pleased at meeting you, I know your father; he and I were great friends.” Well, I was not myself a constituent of Mr. Galt, but stood, as I said, in the more interesting position of a colleague of his; and though, perhaps, he was too modest to feel proud of the compliment, I felt proud of it myself. [Cheers and merriment.] I was glad to have an opportunity among his constituents to mention these incidents which will, perhaps, not be uninteresting to you. (Hear, hear.) He has been my colleague, except for a few months, since Aug. 1854, and what I have said respecting his ability will bear general application. As a public speaker you have heard him just now. (Loud applause.) As a Financier he stands in this country without a rival. [Renewed cheering.] Nay, I will go beyond this—if he were on the floor of Congress or of the House of Commons, England, he would be a great rival to the best financiers of either Chamber, for I have heard the ablest men in both. (Applause) I will come to another field in which Mr. Galt has particularly distinguished himself—I mean undertakings connected with the development of the country. He was one of our first men who advocated the building of our railroads, and the construction of public works out of which he saw the prosperity of the country would be developed, and the province placed on the road of lasting progress. Well, you know the beginning of his career; he was at one time at the head of the great British American Land Company.

Hon. Mr. GALT: I began as clerk.

Hon. Mr. CARTIER: I stand corrected. My friend began as clerk, but his ability was such that his employers soon placed him at the head of the establishment. [Cheers] I have not said all I know of him; but having been his colleague so long, I can state it has been a great pleasure for me to associate and cooperate with him in the Government. [Applause.] Remember political life is not a bed of roses. [Laughter.] You cannot have roses without thorns, and ministerial life has, perhaps, a greater number of thorns than roses. [Renewed merriment.] But, at the same time, ministerial fellowship with Mr. Galt was a pleasure which might be likened to the springing up of roses among thorns. [Great applause] You Mr Chairman and Mr Galt, too, were kind enough to allude to what you called my liberality in regard to the Protestants or English minority of Lower Canada. I thank both of you for your kind remarks. But as to that I have no merit at all. How could a man pretend to be a statesman in Lower Canada, or aspire to public life, if not willing to do honestly, and act equitably and justly by every race and creed. [Tremendous cheers.] I am speaking now before an audience the majority of which are Protestants, as I would before one the majority of which were French Canadian and Catholic. [Hear and applause.] Wherever and before whosoever I express myself, I have always the same principles. [Cheers.] I am glad that the new constitution contains a provision designed to protect the minorities, Catholic and Protestant from injustice at the hands of the majorities, which contrasts favorably with the American constitution in regard to its bearing on the minority. The Americans, of whom and their constitution I wish to speak with due respect, ignored religion in framing that instrument. It is not ignored, however, in ours, framed 80 years after. [Cheers.] Catholic or Protestant, we must all acknowledge the question of religion is a great one, and I think it is wrong for any country to ignore it in its constitution. [Hear, and cheers.] I am as much interested, living among you, as a Catholic, that you should be good Protestants, at every one of you be in every professed Catholic being an honest and sincere one. (Loud applause) We have to live together. Our rights, our interests and liberties are more or less in each others guardianship. All those sacred interests are occasionally dealt with and adjudicated upon, in a manner concerning one class, by the other. The Catholic has to give evidence and decisions in our Courts, affecting the Protestant, and vice versa, and the feelings and consciences of the one claim the respect and protection of the other. Individual rights, principles and liberty are based on conscience, which no institutions, no laws, nothing in the world, can influence like religion. (Cheers.) I do not speak of either the Catholic or Protestant religion, but religion must be the regulator of conscience. We enact laws, but are not the teachers of conscience. When we enact laws, we are making them for a moral and religious community. But how can we expect to have a moral and religious community, but by religious teaching, Protestant or Catholic. That is why I have no merit in being liberal; I thus consult my own interest, knowing that my individual liberty and interests at some future day may be affected by the principles and views of my Protestant or Catholic fellow citizen. I hope, gentlemen, this great measure of Confederation which happens to have been enacted under more favourable circumstances than any constitution of any other nation will prove both lasting and beneficial. It was not compassed by bloodshed or spoliation of the weak by the strong, but by equity and mutual compromise. (Hear, Hear) The new constitution is based on a spirit of equity, justice and compromise, and may reasonably be expected to endure longer than that of our neighbours which could not reach its hundredth year without being tampered with and even set aside. (Cheers.) I hope that, eighty years hence, if our successors have to amend this new constitution, it will not be in the direction of restraining the rights of others, but of enlarging the rights granted by the instrument and adding to the members of our great Confederacy. [Loud applause]; There was a great question before us at one time which, had it not been settled, would have arrested the progress and settlement of the Eastern Townships—the seigniorial tenure. Before 1854 the laws affecting your real property were so defective and unsatisfactory that no one when purchasing a lot of land knew whether he was not also buying a litigation, and no one knew what would be the result as to his property in the event of death without having made a will. I brought in a bill in 1857 to fix and settle the law in this respect in the townships: one which I called then a law for quiet and repose for the landowners in that district. By that measure the law was fixed, since which time you must have received a greater number of settlers in the Eastern Townships than ever before. Afterwards, seeing the English speaking people of Lower Canada suffering a grievance which they had not pressed upon our attention respecting the non-existence of any English copy of the civil laws which they liked to live under, I brought in the Codification Act in 1857, which gave the text of the law in both languages (Cheers.) It had been predicted the work would not be completed in my day, but there it is only a few years after, 1857. I cannot omit stating in addition to expressing thanks for the honour done me and my colleagues, by the present toast, that, though Mr. Galt no longer a minister, he is entitled to a share of the credit for the acts of Government which you have approved this evening, and in which he took a part, when a colleague. Since we had the misfortune to lose him owing to the education difficulty, he has, however, been my colleague in the most important matters which could be transacted. I insisted that in the consummation of Confederation every interest in Lower Canada ought to be represented—the English Protestant as well as the French Canadian and Catholic (Cheers) I stated to my colleagues that, as far as I was concerned, I would not be satisfied to go to England on that important business unless I had as a colleague, to represent the Lower Canada Protestant interest, my worthy ex-colleague Mr Galt. (Loud applause.) He never solicited the position: It was offered to him first by Lord Monck, unexpectedly. But, remember, gentlemen, it was my opinion that, if there was a man qualified in every respect to represent properly the Protestant interest in the settlement of this great question it was the very gentleman selected, and whose conscience prompted him to take up the interests of his co-religionists who had not been properly dealt with in the rejection of the education bill last session. I reiterate my thanks on behalf of myself and colleagues for the honour done us on this occasion. Allow me again to repeat that no greater honour has been done me—no greater satisfaction afforded, than by enabling me to be present at the dinner to your worthy representatives and my esteemed ex-colleague, Mr. Galt. (Loud cheers.)

The CHAIRMAN now proposed, in a few fitting observations, “The Dominion of Canada,” coupling with the toast the name of the Hon. John Rose. Drank with all the honours.

The band, “Vive la Canadienne.”

Hon. JOHN ROSE, in response to loud and repeated calls, proceeded to address the meeting. He had flattered himself with the hope of being merely a silent guest, but since they had kindly asked him to say something, he would offer a few remarks on the toast. Every thinking man in the country must, at this crisis, see that it now devolves on us to decide whether we are going to make this New Confederation great and prosperous, whether we are going to develop its great and varied material resources, calculated to promote that prosperity, or are at the outset to mar the hopes of the successful and beneficial operation of this great measure by allowing party influence at the beginning of our career. I cordially endorse every feeling to obtain an undue and unwarranted word uttered by the Chairman at the commencement of this festive entertainment, that at the present moment there ought to be no politics. The guest of the evening, who has elaborated this idea with such ability, has rendered it unnecessary for me to enlarge on the subject. But, I will merely observe, that it behoves every man in this country to try and put down the old watchwords of party strife, and our public men should let bygones be bygones, as well with reference to their old personal animosities, as to points of policy, if they are no longer in issue, or do not enter into any new question. (Cheers)

We ought to consider we have now a future, and should dwell no longer on old controversies and questions of the past. What are the old watchwords of “Tory,” “Conservative,” “Radical” and “Reformer”? What have we now to reform? We have a new constitution, which we have got to attempt to work, and in doing so, we have all of us—no matter to what party we have previously belonged—a bounded duty to set aside party prejudice and the spirit of faction with the object of securing its harmonious and beneficial operation; and when the Sovereign shall call to her counsels advisers to put this union into effect, extreme forbearance must be exercised in dealing with their early conduct. They should receive a generous co-operation, and we should overlook every little fault we might think they had committed. (Cheers) When you consider the great difficulties, on some of which your respected guest of this evening, my old friend and colleague, has so ably, though lightly touched—which the Government, or those who may be called upon to form it, will have to encounter both with regard to the formation of the different separate governments, and the various questions of policy that may arise, it behoves every man to say, no matter to what party he belonged, in the interest of our common country, and as we wish to make it a prosperous and a great dominion, instead of a number of petty provinces torn by intestine strife, I will afford the Government at the outset a cordial and generous co-operation and assistance. [Cheers.] And if there is one word or course which, I think, every public man ought to preach to those over whom he may have any influence, it is conciliation. [Loud applause.] I do not believe it is necessary in this community, in this particular locality, that much influence in this direction requires to be used upon the men of the sterling good sense and honesty of purpose I see around me, and whose names are proverbial for those qualities in every part of Canada; but I do grieve to see there are in other parts of this province attempts being made to resuscitate old personal dissensions and party lines. In the name of common sense, in the interest of our common country, what good purpose can the revival of all those old animosities answer! Will they not mar and cripple the power of the men who shall be called on to put in operation the constitution of the new Dominion? Will it not damage the influence and check the prosperity of the country if the old spirit of party is allowed the ascendancy at the outset. Every man ought to be prepared to put down all the dissensions known too well in the past. Our public men, and all men of integrity and sincerity of purpose ought to be prepared to forget the bygones and work together harmoniously for the public weal (Cheers) Do not let me be misunderstood; I have been a party man and may be one again, but it is time enough to form a party when public questions arise; they cannot be long arising. I do not depreciate an intelligent, vigilant party action. On the contrary, such is necessary as a check upon the legislative machine; but this is not the time. Pick out the best men you can to send to Parliament, and exact from them the pledge that they will give whenever the Sovereign calls on her counsels a fair and honest trial to see if they can put the machine in operation, but not mar the destinies of the country by trying to clog the efforts of the Government and supplant them merely because they are not the men they think should be entrusted with the duty of working that new constitution. (Cheers.) Would any of you, if you built a steam engine and put it in a ship to send across the Atlantic on the first voyage when the machinery did not work well or perfectly smoothly, put a new man in charge, leaving aside the constructor himself, who knew the different parts in whom there might be weakness, and where the gearing might not be perfectly smooth and secure? No; on the contrary, you would rather trust the maker of the engine, acquainted with all its parts and peculiarities, in order to test the first working of the machinery. (Applause.) It is time enough when you see the engineer waiting his oil, and not getting proper work out of the engine, or burning too much fuel in proportion to the work done; it is time enough when you find he is not doing his work well to displace him and substitute another. (Applause.) I do not argue for but detest an abject or dependant subserviency to any man or set of men; there must be in every constitutional free government a good, honest, powerful and wholesome opposition. But that will arise as events themselves transpire. You must have necessary legislation in the next session of Parliament in regard to which many of us will differ, and, probably, honestly differ; and when it is necessary to get men to co-operate with one another in one measure or another, then will be the time to form party lines, not with regard to old party likes, dislikes, or animosities, but with reference to future subjects of material interest affecting the great interests of the country. (Hear, hear) We must have legislation on commercial questions; and, although I have the greatest possible regard for your guest of this evening, it is quite possible he and I may differ on commercial topics and fiscal measures that may be brought forward. But that would be an honest difference, and one due to the merits of the questions themselves as they arose. (Hear, hear.) All that I deprecate is the desire to excite old factions cries and party animosities which only mar the influence and detract from the character and usefulness of our public men. I fear I have detained you too long on this subject, however, and must pass to another. I have said many of us may differ on the commercial policy to be applied to the new Dominion. I did not understand when I came here to pay a tribute of respect and friendship to an old friend and colleague, to pledge myself to all his commercial measures in the future—for I suspect he maybe in the official position to submit such measures on future occasions. [Hear, hear.] I reserve to myself the right to oppose them; and if a number of us should think the government were trying to carry wrong measures, we would form a party to try to turn them out. [Applause.] With regard to another question, the defence of the country, we must have no niggardly legislation. It is our duty not to trust to a vicarious defence of the country; but every man must not only be prepared to pay, as a former speaker said, for this necessary duty, but to perform personal service towards that end. This country cannot afford the means to pay others to fight her battles against, possibly, a nation of overwhelming numbers, but must be prepared to fight them herself; and those of us too old to fire our own muskets, can lie down and allow our bodies to be used as breastworks for the use of the younger defenders of the country. (Cheers.) There is no better training for young men than the use of arms with a view to national defence (Renewed applause.) I cannot sit down without saying one word which I trust will not be considered fulsome in presence of Messrs. Galt and Cartier. The community which I have the house to represent, or rather to have represented (for I believe our days are numbered now) did share in no small degree in the public apprehensions with reference to education as affected by Confederation. With reference to the course pursued by Mr. Galt I believe there is now a universal feeling that he was actuated by a sense of the highest honour in the course he took last session of Parliament; and that to his untiring, honest, and manly efforts, the satisfactory position in which the great and difficult question of education, not only as regards Lower Canada, but the whole of the rest of the Dominion, has been placed. [Cheers] Accident gave me the opportunity of seeing how earnestly he pursued the same course on the other side of the Atlantic; and I am happy to have this occasion of personally paying the tribute which I think is due to his manly, and honest, and sincere and determined course on that occasion Not that I shared apprehensions any more than I think he did in consequence of the failure of Mr. Langevin’s bill. None of us who know the causes to which it was due felt in our own minds there was nothing to fear. We had tested before the justice and fair dealing of our French fellow subjects of Lower Canada, and knew there was nothing to fear at their hands. If we went to search for the sources of the failure of that measure, it would be found elsewhere than among the French Catholics of Lower Canada. (Hear, hear, from Mr. Galt and others.) We have to thank others for it whose names will probably all occur to your own minds; and if we bill had to deal simply with the French Catholics of Lower Canada, this bill would have been law to-day (Cheers.) There is one word I have to say regarding my hon. friend Mr. Cartier, from whom on one point of his speech I am very sorry to have to differ. He disclaims all merit for having been always straightforward and manly in dealing with us, the English Protestants of Lower Canada. In that I entirely disagree with him (Loud cheers.) I think he has very great merit and is entitled to the very highest praise for his attitude towards us. I speak as one who has witnessed the difficulties he has had to contend with during the last eight years in raising himself to the proud position he occupies towards the British Protestants of Lower Canada of being now regarded by them as their friend, as one in whom they can as much rely as in one of their own body. (Hearty cheering.) And this point he has reached while he retains the confidence of the great majority of his own countrymen, who are naturally and properly just as jealous of their own rights and interests as we are. (Renewed applause.) It requires some firmness of purpose, and some manliness, and a good deal of integrity and straight-forwardness in any man to hold such a position; and were it not fulsome to say that which the impulse of personal friendship and political regard prompt me to say, I should proceed further on this subject. At this late hour I will not exhaust your patience, but conclude by thanking you sincerely for the honour done the toast and myself in coupling my name with it in this occasion. (The hon. gentlemen resumed his seat amid loud cheering )

in response to loud calls,

Mr. Bennett now favoured the company with a humorous song, entitled “Six dollars a day,” which produced great merriment.

The CHAIRMAN now proposed “The Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly.”

Band: “Jolly Dogs”

Hon. Mr. SANBORN, M.L.C., having been called upon to respond, said: Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, in one respect I find myself most unfortunate; You will easily see the difficulty and embarrassment in which I placed from so many and such valuable ideas having been presented by those who have gone before me that there seems to an indifferent and ordinary mind like mine almost an impossibility of saying anything new. In another respect I am exceedingly fortunate; I find that we are approaching the hour we must depart. Now, if there be any virtue in anything I say, it will be in my brevity. Consequently in this respect I happen to be called on at the right hour of the evening. The tune played by the band just now was very suggestive; but some one cruelly remarked that, instead of playing “Jolly Dogs,” as having reference to the Legislative Council and Assembly, it ought to have been the “Dead March” [Laughter] We do not know at this particular time where we stand or how we are. In fact we have most serious doubts whether we have a Legislative Council at all. [Cheers and laughter.] So far as we are concerned, we might live as do many old men on what they have done, and the virtues of the past. We have nothing to say with regard to the future. Here to-night Mr. Galt has entered upon the subject of the Dominion and the new era on which we are about to enter. His has gone into the subject fully, and I can congratulate you and your member that we have been permitted to listen to a speech of such marked ability as that we have heard from Galt this evening. Whatever may be one’s views as to the particular course adopted by him on this or that question that may arise, there can be but one opinion as to the distinguished ability which he manifested on all occasions—and on the present occasion not less than on any former—and perhaps he has outdone himself. [Loud cheers.] Many of the views he has expressed are statesmanlike and excellent in their character; many we cannot fail to fall in with. You all know that, in regard to the government on which we are about to enter, I have entertained some views different from those of Mr. Galt. I have had apprehensions as to the feasibility of a Confederation of the Provinces. One of those apprehensions, and perhaps the greatest of them ever experienced by me, was the fear that it was not well grounded, well settled in the hearts of the people, and in such a manner that they would enter in it with that enthusiasm that they would be prepared to carry it out. But we have growing evidence of the fact that the community are prepared to venture upon it. (Cheers.) It is at present imperfectly understood. It is to us all a crisis, and, to a certain extent, an experiment upon which we are entering. But we have entered upon, “we have crossed the Rubicon, and we should all enter in it with a heart and will and determination to make the best of it. [Cheers.] I believe what has been expressed heretofore—that patriotism and love of country should rise above political feeling. [Hear, hear.] That there will be parties I have no doubt; I hope there will. I never wish to see a Government formed under the Constitution under which we live without a good wholesome opposition. We never think a man is fully or well considered, or that a judgment is worth much that is rendered in a case that goes by default. It is war, [confer?] and agitation that bring out those principles that are matured and thought upon until you arrive at a satisfactory conclusion, and then can have the best possible result that human ingenuity can attain. This applied to legislation is a truth equally good. If you have a tame, indifferent, dull assembly of men all harmonizing, it does not elicit or develop truth or bring out those principles and develop those which are calculated to secure that kind of legislation require to the best interests of the country. Then, I am desirous to see in the new Dominion as there has been in the old province—parties; but I desire to see them grow out of the circumstances of the time. [Cheers] We are now entering into a different partnership from any that has existed heretofore. We are bringing in those new allies which with us are to form the population of the new Dominion; and they have their local interests. If they dwell on those interests, and continue the parties which have existed in each province respectively each will have a party in its own narrow sphere, and, consequently, there will be a tendency rather to anarchy than union. But the formation of this union must tend to a consolidation, if it tends to a success. We must consider the circumstances in which we are placed. Whatever may have been our views—whether we may have had apprehensions, fears or hopes stronger as regards Confederation, now it is an accomplished fact. If we all enter on it conscientiously, determined to carry it out in good faith, whether we are placed as public men in the discharge of public duties, and, consequently, have resting on us responsibilities of a high character; or whether we are in private life as subjects or citizens, we are bound in all the interests of those circumstances to use our endeavours to make this new Government all we desire it to be. [Cheers.] There is one sentiment put forth is which I heartily concur. There has been in Canada a want which has been felt more than any other—there has been no home feeling, no love for Canada as Canada. The province was divided into separate distinct interests or clans. If the new Government, drawing so many together tends to break up all those small clans or divisions, if it creates a love for the new Dominion and new Government, and a pride in it, which shall make us not only willing but desirous to perpetuate it, and make it great and good, then it will lay the foundations for producing a result of the very highest importance. [Cheers.] We never can expect or hope for a success from Confederation unless we enter upon it with this feeling, unless we desire for it, as has been expressed to-night, the element of worth, efficiency. We must develop our resources in every form. We must not shrink from the burdens necessary to the development of our resources, and whatever our burdens spring from, whether from the support of education, the support of the defences of the country, or the development of its material resources, we must meet them, and not only be willing to sustain them, but desire to work for them. [Cheers.] If we have this feeling, I believe there is hope for us in the future, considering our numbers and resources. While not disposed to be over sanguine in this respect, I am not inclined to anticipate evil. Take it all in all, we have advantages which compensate for our disadvantages, and if we have courage, energy and resolution, and a determination to make our country something, we can do it. [Cheers.] In this way alone shall we render Confederation a success. Having been placed on some occasions in opposition to the Hon. Messrs. Galt and Cartier, I will say I never had any other than a feeling of personal friendship towards both. [Applause.] We should be wanting in common fairness to your guest, did we omit to acknowledge his merits to-night. You have not only heard Mr. Cartier to-night, but have seen his acts and his prominence before the country for the last 20 years. You have known what he has done. No man of determination, who does something, but offends somebody. He has taken his course, and I believe from his own point of view, an honest course; and I believe the country is indebted to him for much honest legislation, and much that is very good. [Cheers.] It is not for me to say whether all his acts were good or bad, or compare them with others; but if there are sincerity, and fairness, and conscientiousness, whether in the Government or out of it, you have the main questions in which men harmonise. It is the minor points on which they differ. But agreement on the former is for the people’s benefit and country’s good. I thank you for the manner in which the Legislative Council and Assembly have been toasted. The latter has always done well, and the Legislative Council have always behaved—If they have had no other virtue—with remarkable propriety. [Cheers and laughter.]

Hon. Mr FERRIER in answer to loud and repeated calls, also rose to respond to the toast. He said: I am afraid we shall cause the Legislative Council to lose its character by sitting up to this trying hour. We have got its character, however, perhaps, thoroughly established by my hon friend just sat down, who credits it with the virtue of propriety. I am sure you would have reason to accuse me of impropriety did I say more than a word or two at this late hour. But as I am up I must express disagreement with the sentiments of my friends Messrs. Cartier and Rose touching Mr Galt’s success. I believe he utterly failed in one thing during his whole term of office as Finance Minister, namely, in forming a customs tariff that would please everybody. [Cheers and laughter.]

Hon Mr CARTER now, in a few appropriate words, proposed the health of Dr Nicholls and the University of Bishops’ College. Drunk amid great applause.

Dr NICHOLLS returned thanks in appropriate terms.

Hon. Mr. GALT next proposed the health of the Chairman, Mr Pope, in most complimentary language, which that gentleman in a few fitting words acknowledged.

The remaining toasts of the “Press,” and the “Ladies” followed, and were duly honoured; after which the party broke up at a late hour, having spent a really pleasant night.