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 BEING AN 
 
 INAUGURAL ADDEESS 
 
 DELIVERED BY 
 
 SIR RICHARD GARTWRIGHT, 
 
 HONORARY PRESIDENT, 
 
 TO THE 
 
 lottttg liberal (£lub, of ^eafortk, (Dttt., 
 
 ON THE 27tli OCTOBER, 1886 
 
 HUNTER, ROSE & CO., PRINTERS. 
 
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 •; 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 SIR RICHARD CARTWRIGHT, 
 
 . sit the Inaugural of the Young Liberal Cluh of Sea- 
 
 forth, on 27th of October, 1886. ; 
 
 Sir Richard Cartwright, on rising to respond to the address 
 presented to him, was received with enthusiastic cheering. After 
 alluding to his length of service, he said : — Since I received the 
 invitation to address you, I have thought a good deal of the 
 prospects and future of Young Liberalism, and, if. in the remarks 
 I may make, I should chance to say some things that at first sight , 
 may seem startling, and some things that may at first even offend 
 some of you, all I can say is this, that during my whole political 
 life, though there have been occasions when I have felt it my 
 duty to hold my tongue and say nothing, I have never yet said 
 anything which I did not mean. I speak to-night as a man, and not 
 as a politician. My words bind nobody but myself alone, and I 
 say to you as Themistocles said to the War Council of the ; 
 Greeks : " Strike, but hear me." Wait until you have heard 
 the reasons I have to advance, and I am not without hope that 
 on this, as on other occasions, full consideration will bring us to 
 feel as one as to the future of our party and the course to be 
 adopted to promote the best interest of Canada. Mr. Chairman, 
 I am heartily glad the young men of Seaforth have decided to 
 establish this Club. Man is a social, gregarious, and clubable 
 animal, and there is no doubt that the present is eminently an 
 era of associations. You will hardly find any single important 
 movement, social, moral, or political, in which 'the members do 
 not find it necessary at an early day in the history of that 
 movement to unite themselves together in some such shape as you 
 are adopting. Every trade, every important profession, has its 
 own council in some shape or form. Every great movement finds 
 it necessary to form itself into 
 
 AN ASSOCIATION OR CLUB. 
 
 You know very well, all through this country, go where you like, 
 you can hardly move without striking a Temperance Association, 
 or a Licensed V^ictuallers' Association, or an Orange Lodge, or 
 Catholic League, or a Knights of Labour Association; and if you 
 cross the water, I believe the most important factor in the 
 
campaign which dethroned Mr. Gladstone from his position as 
 Prime Minister of England was really the Primrose League, a 
 very notable instance of the enormoud power the ladies can 
 exercise when they put forth their strength ; in fact, it is notori- 
 ous that the lady canvassers of the Primrose League were more 
 audacious and more ingenious in their electioneering devices (not 
 to say their electioneering fibs), than all the men put together. 
 (Laughter). Don't be above learning from the enemy. This is a 
 new departure; profit by it. Get the ladies on your side at the 
 very earliest moment, if you wish to win. A[)art from this, you 
 find in England that the two contending parties depend for 
 organization and guidance to a very great extent upon the great 
 political clubs, the Carlton and the Reform Clubs. Coming again 
 to Canada, you know that during the election of 1878 the United 
 Empire Club did a very considerable deal of service to Sir John 
 Macdonald and a very considerable deal of mischief to us. And 
 I hope to be able to inform you at a later day that in the 
 campaign of 1886 or 1887, whichever it may chance to be, the 
 recently organized Reform Club will do equally good service to 
 the Reform cause throughout the country. (Great applause). 
 Therefore I say that I am exceedingly glad, indeed, to see Young 
 Liberal Clubs and what are called mock f)arliaments, though I 
 rather object to that title, springing up from one end of the 
 country to the other. Now, sir, I think it is very important, 
 inde. ', that young men, of whatever political persuasion they 
 may be, should meet together, and tiat they should discuss the 
 great questions presented to the peopiC for consideration, and that 
 they should endeavour to form an intelligent judgment on these 
 matters while yet their feelings are fresh and their minds are not 
 so much occupied and tilled with the ordinary cares of businesa- • 
 that they are unable to give the necessary attention which all 
 men must give to political matters if they wish to form an honest ' 
 and lair judgment about them. Moreover, our opponents have 
 alleged that we Liberals or Reformers were 
 
 ' AN UNSOCIABLE BACE OF BEINGS. < - 
 
 With respect to the leaders, there may have been a grain of 
 truth in that assertion. It is possible that gi*ave statesmen, who ; 
 see clearly the dangers and difficulties which beset the future of 
 this country, may sometimes be a little more serious than is quite 
 desirable for political leaders to be. It is difficult for any states- 
 man who really appreciates the position of Canada at this present 
 timeto a void being serious. Itmay beeasy enough for ancientmoun- 
 tebanks to be gay, men whose creed is let us eat and drink — (but 
 particularly let us drink) — for to-moirow we die, or has the Greek 
 
text has it, " for to-morrow we pass into nothingness." (Loud 
 applause and laughter.) And peradventure — though it is not for 
 me to pry into the future — it might be the best thing for " Old 
 To-morrow " if he could pass into noohingness. (Applause.) Sir, 
 you have heard that Nero fiddled while Rome was burning. I do 
 not mean to say that Sir John Macdonald fiddled, but I do mean to 
 say that to my own certain knowledge, when the Fenian raiders 
 menacel our frontiers he was very considerably fuddled. (Cheers.) 
 And, indeed, a year ago, when his own culpable mismanagement 
 and corruption had got the Morth-West in a blaze, Sir John could 
 find no better amusement than the introduction of the famous — 
 or, rather I should say, infamous — Franchise Bill by which he de- 
 signed to make himself a Parliamentary dictator, to deal with our 
 whole representative system as he saw fit, and to gerrymander the 
 whole electorate of the Dominion just as in 1882, four years ago, 
 he had gerrymandered Centre Huron out of existence, and 54 other 
 constituencies out of all fair and reasonable proportion. (Loud 
 applause.) Now, I have always felt that the gallant young volun- 
 teers who came to the rescue of the State in 1885, deserved well 
 of their country ; I have always contended that they freed Canada 
 from a great danger, which, perhaps, har.lly any of us sufficiently 
 appreciated at the time. They protected the lives and liberties 
 of our scattered settlers from the onset of a savage foe, and they 
 did well ! But permit me to say that, while I believe our young 
 men did their duty nobly, I believe the old members of the Re- 
 form party, like my friend Mr. M. C. Cameron here, also had 
 
 A DUTY TO PERFORM, ' 
 
 quite as difficult and almost as perilous to health and life, when 
 they fought for their and your political lives and liberties all 
 throuofh the lonjj session of 1885 afjainst the tricks, and treasons, 
 and stratagems, and wiles, and ambuscades of a worse and big- 
 ger Indian than Big Bear, or Pound maker, or Piapot, or Strike- 
 him-on-the-back, or rtab-him-under-the-tifth-rib, or any other of 
 those distinguished savages whom the Superintendent-General of 
 Indian Aflfairs designed to make the arbiters of the fate of at 
 least a dozen constituencies in the Province of Ontario. (Loud 
 and prolonged applause.) And, moreover, I must say this, so far 
 as my own personal tastes and inclinations are concerned I would 
 far rather have marched along with my son and his brave 3'oung 
 comrades to the banks of the Saskatchewan than have helped to 
 lead the third brigade of the Reform army into action through 
 one hundred tedious days and one hundred still niore tedious 
 nights in the Parliament at Ottawa. Now, gentlemen, the Presi- 
 dent of the Club said, and I believe it is the intention, that this 
 
Club is to devote itself to two objects, the one political, and the 
 other social. I think that is a matter of great importance. It is 
 very desirable that all the Young Liberals, not merely of Seaforth, 
 but of all the other parts of the Dominion, should ask themselves 
 why they are Liberals ? Let them ask themselves : Are we Lib- 
 erals by accident of birth, because we have had the good fortune 
 to be born in Liberal families, and to be brought up surrounded 
 by the influence of Liberal traditions, or are we Liberals because, 
 having thought over the matter to the best of the powers God has 
 given us, we believe that in the progress and success of the Liberal 
 party lies the best guarantee for the progress andsucccss of Canada? 
 (Applause.) But in order that you may do that profitably, you 
 must ask 3-ourselves, my young friends, what Liberalism means. 
 It is not precisely the same thing as Reform. As I understand 
 the matter, Liberalism means the desire for fieedom in the widest 
 possible sense, all tho fro(,dora that men can exercise with due re- 
 spect for the rights of others. (Cheers.) Liberalism means the 
 desire and determination to maintain the right of free inquiry, 
 and free action, and hence it is that prima facie, as I might al- 
 most say, by the law of their existence, 
 
 ' 'y . ' ■' ALL TRUE LIBERALS 
 
 are, of necessity, foes of restraint ; they are, of necessity, foes of 
 mono[)olies, which can hardly exist without injustice to some 
 class or other in the community ; they are, of necessity, foes to 
 privileged classes who are permitted t.o live under a different law 
 from that which governs the rest of their fellow-subjects ; they 
 are necessarily foes of centralization ; also they are, of necessity, 
 foes of corruption or any other means of interfering with the free- 
 dom of action of the Canadian citizen. (Cheers.) I recollect, a 
 good many years ago, having to pass through the city of New 
 York at the time of a great Presidential election contest, on going 
 out on the street — it was before the abolition of slavery — being 
 struck by a banner displayed on that occasion, I think in the in- 
 terest of Col. Fremont, bearing the then motto of the Republican 
 party : " Free Soil, Free Trade, Free Speech, Free Men." If you 
 want a terse and comprehensive platform I would recommend 
 you, on the whole, to adopt something like that. (Cheers.) If you 
 are true Liberals you have faith in human progress — that is, you 
 believe that, on the whole, the human race is bound to grow 
 better as the world advances, and that the Maker of the human 
 race intends that it should so do. (Loud applause). I grant that 
 looking round upon Canada to-day it requires a good deal of faith 
 to believe that hopeful principle, but I have faith and I have hope, 
 and I believe that after all said and done, an uprising is likely to 
 
take place (of which the formation of just such clubs as yours is 
 one most hopeful symptom) which will purge and purify our 
 politics from the stains which have rested upon them so long. 
 Now, Sir, I come to a subject of some little difficulty, but one on 
 which I may say I am, from circumstances, rather peculiarly fitted 
 to speak. I want to say a few words to you on the proper rela- 
 tions which should subsist between Liberals and Conservatives. 
 I want you to understand distinctly that in my opinion there is 
 not necessarily, and ought not to be, any conflict between true 
 Liberals and true Conservatives. According to my view of the 
 situation Liberalism and Conservatism are rather the complement 
 and supplement of each other than the necessary opposites. So 
 to speak, I would say that Liberalism represents the masculine 
 element, and 
 
 CONSERVATISM THE FEMININE ELEMENT 
 
 in politics, all the world over. Don't let my Conservative friends 
 here — if any such be present — for one moment suppose that with 
 my views of the rights and functions and future place of women, 
 when I , speak of Conservatism as the feminine principle in 
 politics, I do anything else than pay Conservatives an extremely 
 high compliment. Neither let my friends in the gallery, 
 
 THE LADIES, • 
 
 suppose for one moment that, however Liberal they may be, they 
 have cause to take umbrage, for every lady knows that every good 
 housekeeper must be extremely Conservative in many matters. 
 (Applause.) It has b 3en made a charge against me, a most un- 
 fair charge, a charge which I utterly repudiate, that it has been 
 part of my policy, part of the policy of the Liberal leaders, to set 
 Liberals and Conservatives by the ears. I say I repudiate that 
 calumny altogether. Let my Liberal friends embrace their Con- 
 servative brothers, and, at all proper times and occasions, their Con- 
 servative sisters as well, and I'm sure none of my young friends 
 here would hesitate to volunteer for that service, should occasion 
 arise. (Laughter and applause.) We must recollect that it is the 
 duty of the stronger to respect the weaker vessel. Both are 
 wanted in a well ordered state if you can get them of the right 
 sort. So I say to my young friends, be Conservative or Liberal, 
 as you please ; still I say also : Be one thing or the other. (Cheers.) 
 Let there be no halting between two opinions. If there be one ' 
 thing I do abhor and detest, it is those laodiceans of the common- 
 wealth, those political mulattos who inherit the vices of both 
 parties, and the virtues of neither ; who seek to hunt with the 
 hounds and run with the hare ; who blow now hot and now cold ; 
 
■ " . 8 
 
 who, when political exigencies require it are ready to swear that 
 black is white, that orange is green, that a circle is scjuare, or a 
 square is round ; who are prepared to call themselves Catholic- 
 Protestants or Protestant-Catholics, if they may thereby get a 
 note ; whose principles are to have no principles ; those men whose 
 name is a lie in terms, which the other title of the animal is — 
 " Liberal-Conservative." (Loud and prolonged laughter and ap- 
 plause.) If any of that particular description of gentry object, sir, 
 I am willing to indulge them Avith another comparison. I revert 
 to my original metaphor. If it be true, as I have intimated above, 
 that Conservatism is the feminine and Liberalism the masculine 
 element in politics, it follows, as a matter of course, that" Liberal- 
 Conservative " represent 
 
 THE NEUTER GENDER 
 
 — (great applause and laughter) — a barren, sterile, unfruitful 
 generation, productive only of debts, of taxes, and of scandals. 
 (Renewed applause.) Mr. Chairman, ladies, and gentlemen, as you 
 all know a few years ago the people of the United States were 
 divided into two contending factions, as indeed they are now, one 
 called Republican and the other Democratic. Now, the Demo- 
 cratic party at that time were at a considerable discount in most 
 parts of the Union, on account of their action in reference to the 
 Civil War, then raging. Well, sir, in this state of things certain of 
 the more astute ot the Democratic politicians decided that it was 
 time to change their name, and laid their heads together and con- 
 cluded to start a new party, to be called the "Republican-Demo- 
 crats." It so happened that one of these gentlemen was running 
 for an important office in a certain State. In the course of his 
 canvass he chanced to meet with a very staunch old Republican 
 farmer, a man whose opinion had great weight with the majority 
 of his neighbours, and, as a matter of course, he set to work to 
 canvass him for his vote. Naturally the farmer inquired what 
 were the gentleman's politics ; whereupon the candidate told him 
 that he was dissatisfied with both the great parties, and that he 
 was neither Republican nor Democratic, but a Republican-Demo- 
 crat. " Stranger," quoth the f aimer, " Stranger, I guess I'm 
 mighty fond of turkeys ; but, stranger, I'm kinder cool on turkey - 
 buzzards." (Great laughter and applause.) Now, I'm credibly 
 informed that the turkey-buzzard is a carrion-devouring vulture 
 of peculiarly filthy habits, just the sort of creature, ladies and 
 gentlemen, into which, if there be, as some wise men have be- 
 lieved, any truth in the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, 
 you might expect one of these days to see the souls of those poli- 
 ticians who in their lifetime have been grabbers of timber limits, 
 
9 
 
 holders of blind shares in colonization companies, or members of 
 printing corporations which were allowed to charge fourteen times 
 the legitimate prices, translated hereafter, (Loud applause.) Mr. 
 Chairman, I observe that the Mail and divers other well-paid 
 Minsterial journals are wont to describe Sir John Macdonald as 
 the "natural born," heaven-sent leader of the Liberal-Conservative 
 party. Now, as Lord Chesterfield once remarked to the Duchess 
 of Kingston on a certain notable occasion, I make it a rule never 
 to believe more than half of what I hear or see in print, and not 
 always that ; but in the present instance I am willing to meet 
 these gentlemen half way. I cannot quite accept their statement 
 that John A. is the "heaven-sent" leader of any party, having 
 reason to believe that his commission will be found. to have been 
 dated elsewhere — (loud laughter) — but, on the whole, and in the 
 light of my previous observation, I will compound by admitting 
 that he appears to me to have made good his claim to be regarded 
 as the " natural born " . 
 
 LEADER OF THE LIBERAL-CONSERVATIVE PARTY 
 
 of the Dominion of Canada. (Cheers and laughter.) Gentlemen, 
 I welcome you gladly. The ho|)e of the Reform party has always 
 laid to a very great extent in the young men of the country, and 
 perhaps it is a fault with us in Canada that wo do not encourage 
 and bring forward our young men enough. Many complain, and 
 . it may be with reason, that the fact of anyone being a young 
 man is too often a positive barrier to his appointment to any place 
 of political or municipal trust or honour, and some have gone so 
 far as to assert that the much greater liberality in this respect 
 which is displayed in dealing with young men in the United 
 States is one important factor in the continuous exodus of many 
 of the very best of our young men to that country — as likewise 
 it is, they say, one cause of the rapid progress of the Americans. 
 This craves consideration, but of one thing I am sure, and that is 
 that it is one of the very best "notes" in the character of a poli- 
 tical leader that he should be able to gather round him a school 
 of fervent young disciples, whom he may imbue with his own 
 ideas, and who may live to put into execution many a project 
 which he may indeed conceive, but which in the course of nature 
 he cannot hope to live long enough to put into execution. And 
 now, sir, I have something to say touching the sort of subjects 
 you may find it worth your while to discuss, and, so to speak, to 
 
 • '■■'''' CUT YOUR INTELLECTUAL TEETH UPON. ^^^^ " -v' ; - 
 
 Here the difiiculty is which to choose. I will run over briefly a 
 few problems of interest at this moment, all ripe for discussion 
 

 • 10 
 
 and most of which may very soon become ripe for action, too. 
 Of these, the first is the working of our legislative system. Now, 
 we are all, I believe, agreed in the propriety of abolishing or re- 
 constructing the Senate; so I will not waste words upon that. 
 But, besides, 1 am of opinion that our system of representation in 
 the Commons needs reconsidering. I will not try to bias you in 
 favour of my own views, and, moreover, the subject has its difh- 
 culties, but I will ])oiL.t out to you two fact!-:. First — At the 
 election of 1882, in Ontario, we Reformers certainly cast as many 
 votes at the polls as the Ministerialists did, within a few hun- 
 dreds, and yet we have only about one-third * nd tl;ey have two- 
 thirds of the members from Ontario in the Dominion House. 
 Second — At the same election in Quebec four rural Quebec con- 
 stituencies, with a total population of 153,000, sent four members 
 to Ottawa, and twelve other rural constitut3neies, with a total 
 population of 14!),00(), sent twelve members. (Applause.) This 
 needs reconsideration and redress. Next, the time lias come for 
 very serious discussion of the great problem of the right distribu- 
 tion of ' :'o(its and wage.^, and of the true relation between 
 
 LABOIU AND CAPITAL, 
 
 and you cannot too soon begin to inform yourscslves on that point. 
 Then follows the very important ([uestion of the .social and 
 political rights of women. Yoii probably are not quite as well up 
 in this suhject as you will be — when you get m rried^ — (applaus<;) 
 — hut you will hear more about it then, if I am not greatly mis- 
 taken — (laughter) — and will find that it opens a very extended 
 field for discussion. Then the time is coming fast when you may 
 have to consider the relation which (.jinada is to lu^ar to the i-est 
 of the Biitish Empire. (Ap])lause.) Many [>rojects are in the air, 
 as to which 1 will only say this, that I am well convinced of one 
 thing, that our present arrangement is one of an essentially tem- 
 porary character and cannot last, at least without very serious 
 modifications. Behind this comes another and larger ([uestion — 
 the relation of (Janada to all English-speaking conununities, and 
 the pos.sibility or desirability of a closer alliance hetween theju. 
 You know my opinion on this matter, inheiited, I may fairly 
 say, in j)art, from my United Empire Loyalist ancestors. J do 
 believe that it would be not only for otn* interest, but for the true 
 interest of liberty and civilization all over the world, if the 
 scattered bianches of the Anglo-Saxon family, but ehielly ( 'atuida, 
 Australa.sia, Oreat liritain, and the United States, could see their 
 way to associate them.selves in a firm, close, and friendly alliance, 
 which should make war among those kindred peoples hunumly 
 speaking, impossible any more. 1 cherish no ii'le vision of uniting 
 
them under one form of government, nor do I desire it. What I 
 do dream of (if you like to describe ray aspirations thus) is a 
 genuine friendly alliance, not in the least for purposes of warlike 
 aggression on weaker States, but simply to ensure peace and 
 goodwill among themselves. More might follow in good time, 
 but I will not pursue the subject any further. I know there are 
 many obstacles in the way, but I know, too, that some of the 
 most serious of them are in a fair way to be remedied ; and, even 
 if the difficulties be great, the prize is great also. Our system of 
 education, its needs, and (possibly) its sliort-comings, is a theme 
 you may very well discuss, and, indeed, on thrt head I will have 
 something to say myself, very shortly. So also you will do well 
 to consider our system of taxation, not only on its own account, 
 but with an especial reference to its bearing on the problem of 
 
 THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 
 
 Lastly, I recommend to you a very careful consideration of the 
 knott}' problem, how far the State is justified in interfering with' 
 the freedom of action of the individual. This is a point on which 
 Liberals and Refoi mers may not impossibly be found to differ con- 
 siderably. Their ends aro the same, but there is room for an 
 honest difference of opinion as to the best moans to attain them. 
 As Liberals you are bound to be cautious in rospocting right of 
 private judgment, and cautious to avoid crushing out individu- 
 ality, and as Reformers, while you an; bound to remedy aV)Uses,you 
 will do well to remember that there are cases known to all })hysi- 
 cians where the remedy is sometimes worse than the disease. I 
 might add largely to this list, but I pause here. Discussion of these 
 (juestions will undoubtedly bring up others, and I may add that 
 if you come to have clear and distinct ideas on these eight sub- 
 jects, you will, I think, have found the keys to a great many 
 others of more or less practical importance. And now I have to 
 direct your attention to a grave and\lelicato subject. 
 
 You will all, 1 think, agree that it is the clear function and duty 
 of Lib(;ralism to encourage individuality and independence of 
 thought. This is the very essence of true Liberalism, and for thia 
 doctrine in all ages many good men have suffered, many have been 
 martyrs. But it is a necessary conse(pience, which all of you may 
 not have perceived, that this doctrine may involve collision with 
 
 THE WILL OF THE MAJORITY. 
 
 Hero I perceive two directly opposite dangers. One is the danger 
 of servile submission to the will of a majority simply because it 
 is a majority, anl the other is the ecjually great danger of rebel- 
 
12 
 
 lion and insubordination. Now, majorities are not infallible, as 
 we Canadian Liberals have had very ^ood reason to know. I am 
 no believer in the divine right of majorities to do evil any more 
 than in the divine right of kings, I recognize the fact that a 
 tyrant may have many heads as well as one, and I wholly repudi- 
 ate the damnable heresy (cheers) 
 
 *' That we aro a higjjer nation, 
 And so our rights are bigger," 
 
 in all its shapes. Yet, withal, 1 am bound to say that I also be- 
 lieve that the calm, deliberate decision — perhaps I should say 
 rather the natural, un perverted instinct — of the majority is very 
 much oftenest right, and 1 need not say that it is always entitled 
 to high respect, and that you must think often and pause long 
 before you make up your mind to disregard it. Still, even that 
 may be sometimes wrong, and there is no doubt that the hasty 
 decision of the majority is very often wrong. Sir, theie is a sense 
 in which it is quite true that " Vox populiestvox Dei" There is 
 also a sense in wiiich " Vox diaboli" may become " Vox jwputi," 
 as, for instance, where artful demagogues and crafty wiie-pullers 
 have persuaded a people tiiat it is for their interest to double and 
 treble their taxes, and to fine themselves all round, that thereby 
 they may enrich a few millionaires. There is no positive rule. 
 Even the Spiritualists will tell you that they cannot always dis- 
 criminate between good spirits and bad. You must try the spir- 
 its to see what nature they are of. Now, sometimes it may bo 
 your clear duty as Liberals to oppose the popular will. This 
 needs moral backbone, and it is here the great value of such a 
 Club as yours may come in. It is very hard, nay, it is all but im- 
 possible for one man to brace himself uj> to oppose, singhi-handed, 
 an evil which everyone else supports. But if 
 
 HE FINDS A SINCiLK b'l{IEND 
 
 who thinks as he does, it strengthens him wonderfully, and they 
 two can make a good fight back to back. If, besides, he finds 
 enough men who think alike to form a club, and constitute a ral- 
 lying s([uare, against which hostile forcis may charge in vain — 
 why, sir, all history is full of the great things that have been done 
 by a determined few, who knew their own minds and were not 
 afraid to die. I speak under a sense of grave re8|)onsibility, and I 
 speak now of extreme cases only, yet none the less do 1 tell you 
 deliberately that cases may arise in wluch it may become the clear 
 duty of free men to suffer and to die, and it may be to fight 
 to the death, sooner than |)ermit their rights to be trampled on. 
 
18 
 
 Our civilization, it seems to me, runs a risk of malcing ua too 
 efFeminsite. It admits the right of passive resistance, but it shud- 
 ders overmuch at any man advocating the right (and sometimes 
 the duty) of armed resistance to grievous wrong. Sir, I believe 
 that war is a very terrible thing. I believe, as the Duke of Wel- 
 lington once said, that the saddest thing on earth is a great vic- 
 tory — except a oreat defeat — and I know well that civil war is 
 a hundred-fold more horrible than foreign war. I know that not 
 only must the wrong be extreme, and one that cannot be re- 
 dressed by any other means, but that it is criminal to rebel unless 
 there is a fair chance of success, which I take to be the true mean- 
 ing of the lines, » 
 
 Treason doth ne'er succeed, and what's the reason ? 
 When it succeeds it is no longer trousuu. 
 
 But I know, also, that there have been cases (there was one great 
 instance very recently on this continent) when wise men, and good 
 men and kind-hearted men have insisted that it was not only a 
 right but a dut}'^ to plunge into civil war; and I know, too, that 
 in many cases but for dread of this the world would run the 
 risk of 
 
 FALLING A PREY TO KNAVES 
 
 entrenched behind legal forms and constitutional subtleties, and I 
 was right glad to hear the ablest jurist iu (.anada, if not in North 
 America (need I say I refer to Kdwanl Blake ?) — (loud applause) 
 express his views on this matter in the following very explicit 
 fashion : "God forbid that we Canadians should forget for a moment 
 that the corner-stone of our liberty is the sacred right of resi.stunce. 
 Some, through their blind /oal, foiget this. They forget that the 
 sacred right of resistancfi was exempli tied in the events which 
 preceded the Great (Charter and is (Mubodied in that instrument 
 itself; they forget that the pious and immortal memory of Wil- 
 liam is the memory of an intruder who rose to the throne through 
 the people's resistance to their king; they forget that the battle 
 of the lioyne was the triumph of the insurgents over the mon- 
 archy ; they forget that the glorious revolution wjus the consecra- 
 tion of the right to resist, and that the piesent settlement of the 
 British Crown is the visible embodiment of that right. Let me 
 read you just a passage on that point, to show that i am not ex- 
 treme in those views. And take Brougham's Political Philoso^jhy: — 
 
 " The natiotuil resistance was not only in point of historical fact the cause 
 of the revolutionary Botl.lenient; it was the nriin foundation of that settle- 
 ment. The structure of the Uovevntnent was made to rest upon the people's 
 right of resistauoe, as upon its curner-stone, and it is of incalculable impur- 
 
14 / , ^ 
 
 tance that this never should be lost sight of ; but it is of equal importance 
 that we should bear in mind how essential to the preservation of the 
 constitution, thus established and secured, this priuciple of resistance is ; 
 how necessary both for the governors and the governed it ever must be to 
 regard this recourse to that extremity as always possible — an extremity, no 
 doubt, and to be cautiously embraced as such, but still an extremity within 
 the people's roach, a protection to which they can and will resort as often as 
 their rulers make such a recourse necessary for self-defence." 
 
 It is a hard thing to say, but it might (in extreme cases) 
 become your duty to die, as did the Spartans at Thermopylse, and 
 
 to say ■' ■' ■'' '•'■ -?"-•'■■ ■.■/ 
 
 TO A TYRANNICAL MAJORITY, 
 
 « 
 
 " Well, then, so be it, but over our dead bodies first." (Loud 
 applause). It is a grim duty for a man to take his life (and the 
 lives of others) in his hand, and I can give you but this one 
 consolation. Few and rare are the cases in which a resolute 
 minority have really made up their minds to die sooner than 
 yield their just rights, in which the majority have not thought 
 better of it, and offeied terms of honourable capitulation. You 
 may ask me for illustrations. I will give you two. One of a 
 case in which had the outrage been pushed only a little further, it 
 would have justified, if not actually demanded, armed resistance ; 
 and another of a case which has not occurred, but which might 
 conceivably occur, in which there could be no doubt whatever, it 
 would be your bounden duty to appeal to arms. Sir, the Act of 
 Parliament passed in 1882, by which one-sixth of all the Re- 
 formers of Ontario were virtually disfranchised, may well serve 
 as an illustration of the first case, and it is quite conceivable, had 
 that outiage been pushed to an extreme limit, that armed re- 
 sistance (if all other means failed), might have been justified, and 
 might even have been called for. For the other case, let us 
 suppose that this present Parliament (and it is bad enough, though 
 not bold enough for anything), should pass an Act declaring that 
 it would not dissolve, but would prolong its existence for a 
 further term of five or ten years, and that this Act became 
 techincally and legally the law of the land, would you submit 
 without armed resistance to such an outrage as that ? If you 
 did, you would approve yourselves . 
 
 COWARDS AND SLAVES, 
 
 and would deserve to be treated as such. (Great cheers.) Of 
 course I am aware that the British North America Act stands in 
 the way of any such manoeuvre, and perhaps it is just as well it 
 does, but it will answer for an illustration, the more so as the Act 
 itself, if it were passed, would be, morally speaking, very little 
 
worse than the attempt fraudulently to control the whole elector- 
 ate through the original Franchise Bill of 1885, had it passed in 
 the form it was originally introduced. Therefore, I tell you that 
 occasion raay arise on which it may become your duty to resist 
 unjust laws to the death if need be. There are times and places 
 in which it may be a man's duty to be silent on such points — and 
 there are times and places at which it may be his duty to speak 
 out. (Applause). I do the latter now, because I think that the 
 people of Canada, as a rule, are apt to be far too patient with 
 wrong-doing ; — partly from a law-abiding disposition, which is a 
 fault on the right side certainly ; partly from too great easiness of 
 tempera, and very largely perhaps because, if dissatisfied with the 
 state of things here, escape to another country is too easy. Still, 
 I grant it is your duty to exhaust all other means first, only as 
 Emerson has it, let us remember that in the last resort " the rifle 
 must guard the ballot-box." For myself,! hope two things: — 
 First, that the day may never arise when j'^ou may be called on 
 for such extreme proof of your devotion to liberty ; but, secondly, 
 that if such necessity should occur, you will show yourselves no 
 dastards, but true descendants of those true Englishmen who 
 have never flinched from resistance to tyranny, no matter by 
 whom, or in what name soever, such tyranny was attempted. 
 (Loud applause). Strong medicine this, perhaps some of you will 
 sa}'. Yes, it is strong medicine, and like all good medicine and 
 good doctrine too, it has a savour of life or of death. Such 
 medicines are for physicians and not for quacks to handle, and it is 
 most true that these are medicines of which a wrong dose at the 
 wrong time or even in wrong proportions may mean death, 
 though the right dose at the right time may bring life to the 
 patient. But I am not here to-night altogether to prophesy 
 smooth things, and I hold it my duty to take this opportunity to 
 call your attention to certain 
 
 '^ GRAVE NATIONAL FAULTS 
 
 in the Canadian character, which I would have you guard against 
 in yourselves and endeavour to amend in others. And here let me 
 say this one word : — Whatever else I may be, I am Canadian to 
 the very end of my finger-tips, as the French have it. In Canada 
 I was born, in Canada I have lived, and in Canada I hope to die, 
 and I hope my children and my children's children may do so, too. 
 (Cheers.) I prefer Canada to all other countries by instinct and 
 by choice, and I have given my proofs. Twice over, once in early 
 life and once in later years, I have had oflTers made to me, holding 
 out hope of high advancement and prospects of greater wealth by 
 far than I ever expect to attain here, and twice over I have de- 
 
■■ ' ■■'■'■ ' ; '^ ■ IG ■ ■• - 
 
 ■ " . ' vv . '■,■■■■,':.■:,,-■ ■•. - 
 
 clined to entertain any proposals which involved protracted and 
 perhaps permanent absence from my native country. (Loud 
 cheering.) If, therefore, I take on myself to speak to you of cer- 
 tain national faults, which 1 hope you will join in striving to cor- 
 rect, understand that I am in my right, and only speak as a Cana- 
 dian fairly may who desires to see his countrymen free them- 
 selves from errors wiiich gravely prejudice their future |)rospect8 
 as a nation, and who speaks with that object in view, and not 
 in any paltry or Pharisaical spirit of fault-finding. Now, one 
 of tiiese faults is that Canadians as a rule are far 
 
 TOO TOLEK ANT OF FRAUD AND FALSEHOOD, 
 
 both in public and in private life. Understand well. I have 
 nothing but praise for the true, genial, catholic tolerance which 
 respects all honest differences of opinion, which refuses to make 
 a fuss about trifles, and which recognizes fully that there is no 
 accounting for tastes, and that, as the old English saw has it, 
 " what is one man's meat (and, perhaps, what is one man's drink) 
 may be another man's poison," and that you need not quarrel 
 about it, either. But, as human atiairs go, you need more than 
 this ; you need, besides, to have, deep down, well under control, 
 but ready in case of emergency, an honest, wholesome capacity 
 for a stern and righteous indignation with evil-doers, and I tell 
 you that it is not only your right but your duty to despise, and 
 if you can, to punish all cheats, thieves and liars, wheresoever 
 you may find them, but trebly so if they have crept into high 
 places. Sir, it seems to me that we are apt to be guilty of two 
 very mean things. No doubt the same thing occurs more or less 
 everywhere, but it does appear to me that there has very rarely 
 been any country in which so much honour has been paid to 
 successful scoundrelism in high position as is paid in Canada to- 
 day. No doubt there are exceptional cases, but the fact remains. 
 The standard of political morality and the character of public 
 men in Canada is infinitely below that which prevails in England 
 or in the United States, or any English-speaking community I 
 know of. Reformers are in part themselves to blame for this, 
 and it is very much to their discredit that many of them, after 
 denouncing curtain leading opponents as grossly and personally cor- 
 rupt,and as guilty of infamous falsehood, have afterwards dealt with 
 these men as if they stood on the same level as themselves. Such is 
 not my creed, nor my practice either. I say, if you must sj-mpathize 
 with scoundrels, sympathize with those who are placed where they 
 can do the least, rather than with those who are placed where 
 they can do the most harm to society. (Applause.) Of the 
 two I had much rather see you "hail fellow, well met," with 
 

 
 men whom you know to have lied and robbed their way into 
 the Dominion Penitentiary, th£(,n with men who have lied and 
 robbed their way into the Dominion Privy Council ; — though I 
 don't recommend the association in either case. (Applause and 
 laughter.) This is one of our faults, and the other is of kin to 
 it, though it is one in regard to which we are no worse, per- 
 haps not quite so bad, as our neighbours, and one which is com- 
 mon, I know, to all English nations. This is the time-honoured 
 
 WORSHIP OF THE GOLDEN CALF. .' . • " 
 
 There is a great disposition among us to envy, and almost to wor- 
 ship, iiny man who has got together a big pile of money, no matter 
 how, and to think in our secret hearts that the greatest man after 
 all is the man who has the most dollars. Well, money is a very 
 potent thing, and I don't deny that you will find among the ranks 
 of the millionaires, both in Canada and elsewhere, many very 
 able and fine fellows, men of very great ability, who owe their 
 wealth to their energy and enterprise, and in fair degree do de- 
 serve respect and admiration. But you will find also many who 
 are not one whit better than successful robbers, and I have known 
 many of both, and have found society, outwardly, at least, make 
 very little difference in the reception it accorded to either. Of 
 all idolatries the worship of mere wealth is the most debasing and 
 enervating. (Applause.) It is worse than the worship of rank 
 or of power, and it seems to be on the increase. You can hardly 
 take up a newspaper, in the United States more particularly, 
 without noticing that an ever-increasing space is devoted to de- 
 tails of the costly follies and extravagancies or lavish outlay of 
 rich men, or computations of the amount? they are sever- 
 ally supposed to be worth. All this involves a most debasing 
 vulgarism of speech and thought which finds an apt expression 
 in the now very common statement that, on such and such an oc- 
 casion, " so many millions of dollars sat down to dinner." Why, 
 sir, but the other day I saw it stated that five hundred million 
 dollars (each one, I suppose, revolving on its own separate axis) 
 were present at a certain wedding breakfast in the city of New 
 York. Set your faces, my young friends, against this baseness. 
 Honour a man for what he is, not for what he has, or never dare 
 to call yourselves true Liberals again. (Cheers.) Why, if your 
 real ideal be but to scrape money together anyhow, and your true 
 hero the man who has amassed the biggest pile of dollars by fair 
 means or foul, all I can say to you is that, judged by that stand- 
 ard, Alexander Mackenzie is an utter fool — Edward Blake is an 
 utter fool — I am an utter fool, for we hat^e had in our time the con- 
 trol of hundreds of millions of the people's money, and yet not only 
 
■■■■ ' ' 18 
 
 has not one cent ever stuck to our hands, but it is the simple fact, 
 to my own certain knowle(J;.;e, that each one of us left office poorer 
 by thousands of dollars than he entered it, or than he would have 
 been if he had never accepted it, and the same is true, 1 believe, 
 of every one of Mr, Mackenzie's other colleagues. (Loud ap- 
 plause.) Gentlemen, if you do not like this way of doing public 
 business and if you want other models — " smart" men, who under- 
 stand how to make politics pay, you have not far to seek. You 
 will find them ready to your hand in great plenty among the 
 Langevins, and the Popes, and the Chapleaus, and the Tom Whites, 
 and the Rykerts, and the Boultbees, and the Beatys, and the 
 Hickeys, and all the rest of the horde of creeping things that 
 buzz, and crawl, and sting round the portals of Ottawa, ready to 
 play pander and parasite to any man who has grasped the reins 
 of power, and who is willing to gorge their greed with timber 
 leases, and coal areas, and "testimonials," and railway grants, and 
 permits to plunder the lands and minerals of the territory form- 
 ally awarded to Ontario. (Loud applause.) 
 
 Now, I certainly do not wish to deter you from taking part in 
 politics. I have no sort of sympathy with the cowardice which 
 keeps some men out of the ring, and still less with the mock pre- 
 tence of superior purity which would let all sorts of infamies 
 go unpunished, because, forsooth, active politics are too rough and 
 coarse and unpleasant for 
 
 THOSE DAINTY GENTRY * 
 
 to meddle with; On the contrary, I am emphatically of opinion 
 that it is the plain and clear duty of every man wlio can do so to 
 take his fair share of political work, and that it is just as much 
 his duty, and (rightly understood) just as high a duty to devote 
 a reasonable proportion of his time and means to the service of 
 his country in this way , as to give of his time and means in sup- 
 port of the particular religious body to which he belongs. 
 
 Politics, Mr. Chairman, if honourably practised, is one of the 
 noblest vocations, just as, and for the same reason as, it is rightly 
 held, one of the vilest of trades, if originally engaged in or subse- 
 quently carried on for the purpose of making money. That is the 
 true meaning of Dr. Johnson's famou.s saying that " patriotism is 
 the last refuge of a scoundrel." What the good doctor (who was 
 a genuine patriot himself, according to his lights) really meant is 
 that patriotism is so high and sacred a thing that the false profes- 
 sion of patriotic motives from a sordid desire of gain, marks the 
 man who does that thing as an unutterable rascal, and I am very 
 much of Dr. Johnson's opinion, especially in the case of those who 
 are commonly known as "professional" politicians. Now, it is 
 
19 
 
 right that those of you who may turn out to have the gift of 
 leading and influencing your fellow-men should use it, and should 
 cultivate it, and this Club of yours is intended to be a means to 
 that end. Moreover, good and true men are very much wanted in 
 Canadian polities, and I certainly have no right to repulse any 
 man who feels called to come and help us. But at the same time 
 I would have you know what you are doing. Count the cost be- 
 fore you devote yourselves to a purely political life. You will 
 have to encounter much loss, much labour, and to undergo much 
 self-sacrifice, and may seem to accomy)lish but little after all. 
 Sir, there are many uncertainties in politics. But there is one 
 fixed fact. No honest man ever yet took office poor and left it 
 rich — (cheers) — though the converse is not equally true, for, in all 
 countries, many honourable men have entered office rich and left 
 it poor — on all sides of politics. Sir, your Walpoles may leave 
 office better off than when they entered the public service, but 
 your Pitts,aye — and let us be just to departed adversaries, who had 
 their faults, but who had a mind above filthy lucre) your Pitts 
 and your Cartiers had to be buried at the public expense because 
 they had scarce left money enough in their coffers to defray the 
 charge of a decent funeral. (Loud applause.) You will do me 
 wrong if you think I mean to speak of one party alone. I would 
 have you honour all worthy opponents. Next to a worthy 
 friend, 
 
 HONOUR A WORTHY FOE. ^ 
 
 '■'■',■ ft ' 
 
 There are Abdiels everywhere — except, perhaps, on the present 
 Treasury benches — and I would caution you to be slow to believe 
 charges against public men. Also, I would say to the gentlemen 
 of the press, that they need to be very cautious in preferring 
 charges, if for no other reason than this, that to prefer false 
 charges, or charges based on insufficient evidence, is of all ways 
 the best way to provide knaves with a strong shield of defence 
 against true charges. But if the guilt of a public man be clear 
 beyond doubt, established by unanswerable evidence, and by his 
 own confession, then jmrdon to such an one is treason to the State 
 — (cheers) — and the party which for party purposes condones the 
 ^uilt of a leader proved clearly guilty of falsehood and corruption, 
 commits a crime against society, almost exactly analogous to that 
 which King Arthur describes when he says to his penitent Queen : 
 
 ' "1 hold that man the worst of public foes, 
 
 ' Who, either for his own or children's sake, >: ' >: *^ 
 
 . -To save his blood from scandal, lets his wife 
 
 Whom he knows false, abide and rule his house. 
 
 ,"•■■ • • • • • • • • •■■-. 
 
 Better the king's waste hearth and aching heart, 
 •' ' ■ Than thou reseated in thy place of light, 
 
 . The mockery of thy people and their bane. " 
 
You must learn to mark your sense of rascality by sternly with- 
 holding from men guilty of mean and corrupt acts, those marks of 
 honourable courtesy which you will always, I trust, be ready to 
 show to worthy opponents. No fear but rogues can be made to 
 feel. I can testify to that, for I practice what I preach, and mean 
 to. (Loud applause). Gentlemen, I am neither a purist nor a 
 Puritan. I recogfnize the fact that politics are war, and many 
 things are lawful, or at least excusable in war, which have to be 
 sharply dealt with in time of peace. Neither do I pretend to be 
 righteous over much. The labourer is worthy of his hire, and it 
 is good, sound, practical economy to pay public men in high posts 
 liberally and woU ; also, 1 believe, that men who have worked 
 hard and faithfully for their party, deserve all that their [)arty 
 can honourably give them. But such men do not work for hire, 
 ' but for love, as a general rule. I am bound to tell you, also, that 
 there is a brighter side to the medal. We politicians certainly do 
 see a great deal of the baser side of human nature, but we see a 
 great deal of the nobler side also, and I think all men who know 
 politics will bear me out in saying that there is 
 
 ' MUCH GOLD AMID THE MUD. 
 
 I have been often surprised at the great sacrifices many men will 
 continually make for their party, and these, commonly, ask noth- 
 ing. Many, it is true, are perfect children of the horse leech, and 
 here it is the case, very often, that the worst get the most. In 
 politics, as in war, it is not the men who lead the forlorn hope, 
 but the contractors who tarry by the baggage, who make most 
 money out of it. (Cheers.) You may ask why do I say this to 
 you. For two very excellent reasons : 1. You propose to be poli- 
 ticians ? Then it is right you should know what political life 
 means. 2. You young men are generally the salt of the party. 
 (Hear, hear.) You have your faults, no doubt. You art apt to be 
 rash. Unreasonable, sometimes. To expect too much in too short 
 a time, and to decline to realize the fact that there are always two, 
 and often a great many more, sides to every question. But you 
 are also, for the most part, honest, unselfish, and patriotic, and we 
 of the older generation are apt tt) lose enthusiasm as we advance 
 in years. Some of us grow schemers, and some cynics. Some get 
 worn out. All are more or less disillusioned, and need to be spur- 
 red on occasionally. Let me give you one warning. If you hope 
 to achieve anything really great, you will need patience and dis- 
 cipline, and method and organization. There is no contradiction 
 here. Debate and discuss as freely as you like, but when time for 
 action comes, close your ranks, choose your leader, and obey him 
 faithfully. It is said to be a crying fault of the Liberal party that 
 
21 
 
 it is always splitting up into sections. Our enemies count on this, 
 trade on this, and they are trying to do it now and here in Canada 
 to-day. You will have to be on your guard, and remember, 
 
 THE BATTLEFIED IS NOT THE PLACE 
 
 for polemical discussions. Moreover, society is a slow entity. It 
 has great via inerticv, and is always stubborn about moving. 
 Then the powers of evil arc very strong, much stronger than you 
 may suspect, and they are genorall}'^ very well combined. We of 
 the nineteenth centurv -don't like to believe that retrogression is 
 possible, but you will do well to ponder on the weighty remarks 
 of Mr. J. S. Mill on this point in his " Representative Govern- 
 ment," a book which I very specially recommend to your careful 
 perusal, as also Mr. Bagehot's two books on similar subjects. I 
 have only time to give you a mere fragment, but you should study 
 the whole context carefully. Mr. Mills says : — 
 
 " We ought not to forget that there is an incessant and ever-flowing 
 current of human affairs towards the worse, consisting of all the tollies — all 
 the vices — all the negligences, indolences and supinenesses of mankind, 
 which is only controlled and kept from sweeping all before it by the exertions 
 which some persons constantly, and others by fits and starts, put forth in the 
 direction of good and worthy objecfs. It gives a very insufficient idea of the 
 importance of the strivings which take place to improve and elevate human 
 life and nature, to suppose that tlieir chief value consists in the amount of 
 actual improvement realized by their means, and that the consequence of 
 their cessation would be merely that we should remain as we are. A very 
 small diminution of those exertions would not only put a stop to improve- 
 ment, but would turn the general tendency of things towards deterioration, 
 which, once begun, would proceed with increasing rapidity, and become more 
 and more difficult to check, until it reached a state often seen in history, and 
 in which many large portions of mankind now grovel ; when hardly anything 
 short of superhuman power seems sufficient to turn the tide and give a fresh 
 commencement to the upward movement." 
 
 And indeed this contains the very root idea of such clubs as 
 yours. Then I must also point out to you that there are serious 
 difficulties in the position of Canada itself We have to contend 
 with 
 
 POLITICAL DIFFICULTIES 
 
 consequent upon our .singular semi-dependent position as a small 
 State between two very gVeat ones, with both of which we have 
 very close relations ; with geographical difficulties caused by the 
 great stretches of barren wilderness interposed between the three 
 great divisions of our territory — which have often caused me to 
 wish we lived rather in three islands, with the sea as a means of 
 connection and communication ; with national or race difficulties. 
 
22 
 
 arising from the circumstances of our early settlement, and lastly 
 with economical clifHculties, partly natural and partly of our own 
 making, bat none the less real notwithstanding. As yet we are 
 but in the chrysalis state, better able to crawl than to fly, and 
 altogether more cater[)illar than butterfly. What we need, and 
 we need it very badly, is more public spirit — a larger share of the 
 true instinct of patriotism — and to become thoroughly impreg- 
 nated with the feelings which inspired that well-known passage 
 in Sir Walter Scott — 
 
 *' Breathes there a man with soul so dead 
 Who never to himself hath said, 
 This is my own — my native land ? 
 If such there bo, go mark hiiii well, . 
 
 ^ For him no minstrel numbers swell : 
 
 ,; High though his title, proud his name, 
 ^ , , '^ \ Boundless his wealth as wish can claim, 
 '• ' ^ '. ' The wretch concentred all in self, 
 Li vin>^ shall forfeit fair renown, 
 And doubly dying shall go down — 
 !.>.! : ' .; Down to the dust from which he sprung — 
 
 m'':,\;i'' ' Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung." 
 
 That is the temper which has made Scotland great ; that is the 
 temper which alone can make any country really great, and that 
 is the temper which we must one and all try to cultivate and 
 foster among our people if we ever expect to make Canada a great 
 country. So I say, be Canadians above all, and before all, what- 
 ever else you are. (Applause.) It may well be that there are 
 some among you whom I address to-night who m ly be destined 
 to climb high, to whom it may be given to see clearly what we 
 see oidy through a glass darkly, and who may come to enter into 
 and possess the land we are only permitted to gaze upon from 
 afar. To such I can only say that I hope they will cherish an 
 honourable ambition. Such an ambition is perhaps 
 
 THE BEST SAFEGUARD AGAINST POLITICAL CORRUPTION, 
 
 almost as good in its way as an honourable love is to defend you 
 against vulgar profligacy, and how great a defence that is you 
 may learn from Tennyson's splendid description of its effects in 
 elevating the character, especially in youth and early manhood, 
 where he bids you — , 
 
 " To speak no slander — no, nor listen to it, 
 To lead sweet lives in purest chastity, 
 To love one maiden only — cleave to her, 
 And worship her by years of noble deeds 
 Until you win her. For, indeed I know 
 Of no moro subtle mrster under Heaven v , 
 
23 
 
 Than is the maiden passion for a maid. 
 
 Not only to subdue the base in man, 
 
 But teach high thoughts, and amiable words, 
 
 And courtliness — and the desire of fame 
 
 And love of truth — and all that makes a man." 
 
 These are nob only very noble words, but they are also pro- 
 foundly true — true, physiologically, and true psychologically as 
 well. They are words every young Canadian man and every 
 young Canadian woman would do well to learn by heart ; and to 
 study and ponder over. They breathe the very essen,ce of chival- 
 ry and Christianity, so far as the relation of the sexes are con- 
 cerned ; and they appeal to one of the loftiest instincts we have 
 inherited from our Teutonic forefathers ; that inborn and remark- 
 able reverence and esteem for woman which Tacitus noted 1800 
 years ago as one of the qualities most to be admired in nations of 
 the Germanic race ; and as one of those virtues which have their 
 reward in this life as well as in that which is to come, or as he 
 puts it, " Sera Venus ideoque puhevtas iiiexhiusta." And I would 
 say to my young friends, that as I wish them all possible success 
 in life, so I can find no two better wishes for their welfare than 
 these : First, that you should entertain an honourable amlntion 
 to succeed (honourably) in whatever walk in life you may select, 
 and that you may prosper in your ambition. And secondly, that 
 you may each and every one of you form an honourable attach- 
 ment in good time, and may prosper in your love likewise. (Loud 
 applause.) And now, gentlemen, for 
 
 A FEW PRACTICAL HINTS. 
 
 You mean, I take it, to propagandise ! Then you will need to 
 train yourselves. You must be ready to give a reason for the 
 faith which is in you. You must be prepared to preach and to 
 teach, and to do that effectively and to good purpose you must 
 first of all teach and inform yourselves. To this end you must 
 read and study, and criticise and think over what you read. You 
 will require a library containing some of the standard works on 
 history and political ecoriomy, and on social science generally. It 
 need not be large, but it should be well selected. If I can be of 
 any service in assisting you in the selection I will be very, glad 
 to confer with you, but I would advise you, on the whole, to ap- 
 ply for information on these matters to Mr. Goldwin Smith, than 
 whom you can get no more competent g,dviser on literary ques- 
 tions in North America, or probably in Europe. For the rest, you 
 spoke just now, Mr. President, of the desire of the members to 
 make use of their club for social as well as political objects. I 
 am entirely in accord with you there too. There is great truth 
 
in the old maxim, " All work and no play makes Jack a dull 
 boy ;" but what is not perhaps sufficiently insisted upon is, that 
 if Jack be a lad of any spirit, all work and no play is very apt ta 
 make him entirely dissatisfied with his position, and very much 
 inclined to make a bad use of his holiday when he does get one. 
 (Loud applause.) Sir, I tell you that rational amusement is a 
 necessity, rather than a luxury. More than that, a fair share of 
 it is the very best possible defence against profligacy. Now, this 
 cardinal fact has got to be recognised and provided for in any 
 complete scheme of education. Much depends upon it. Much 
 more than any one would suspect at first sight. In Canada, I am 
 glad to say, we are making a very good beginning in our scheme 
 of national education. We are justly proud of what has been 
 done, but we must remember that, after all, it is but a beginning. 
 Much has been done. Much remains to be done, and in other 
 ways. Education is a very big word. It is doubtful if the pro- 
 cess should ever stop in a rightly constituted human being till he 
 or she is at rest in their grave, and not a few good and wise men 
 have thought that the true explanation of many of the difficulties, 
 that perplex and oppress us in considering the scheme of the uni- 
 verse is to be found in the fact that our life here is only a train- 
 ing-school for a higher and better state of existence. Be that as 
 it may, I know that • 
 
 TRAINING A FEW FACULTIES 
 
 is not enough — and that over-training some to the practical ex- 
 clusion of others is distinctly bad. Sir, if there is any one thing 
 more than another which the study of the classics ought to teach 
 us it is this. True education develops all the faculties, mental, 
 physical and social as well. 
 
 The old Greeks (and no race of human beings have surpassed, 
 if, indeed, any have equalled them, in the high and harmonious 
 development of the human mind and body) always taught that 
 every man should not only learn " philosophy " (i.e., should train 
 his mind with care), but that he must also complete his physical 
 education in the gyrana.sium, and in athletic contests (for success 
 in which men were held in high honour), and likewise that the 
 perfect man must be " musical " in the large sense, by which 
 they meant that he must carefully cultivate his social faculties 
 as well. Now, I would have you recognize these natural wants 
 boldly, and make due provision for them. Let mens aana in cor- 
 pore 8(ino be your motto, and recognize the great fact that a per- 
 fectly healthy mind in a perfectly healthy body is one of the great- 
 est blessings, as it is also, unhappily, one of the rarest gifts which 
 can fall to the lot of any man. Don't be ashamed to avow that 
 
25 
 
 you like to be amused. As Dr. Martin Luther puts it in the 
 famous song which bears his name : — ■ ^ 
 
 " Who loves not woman, dance and song, 
 He is a fool his whole life lonsr." 
 
 'o* 
 
 I believe there is a trifling difference in my version, but it conveys 
 Dr. Luther's real meaning anyway as well as the original. Now, 
 here I must interpose a caution. Don't mistake or misunderstand 
 me. I have no sympathy with .idlers. Canada is a bad place for 
 them, whether they are rich or poor. (Loud applause.) I hold 
 firmly to the good old doctrine, " Learn and labour truly to get 
 your own living," even if I don't insist on the latter part of the 
 clause, " to be content in the station you happen to be placed in,' 
 at least in the sense of dissuading you from trying to rise higher 
 if you can do so honestly. To maintain yourselves honestly 
 is your first duty, no doubt ; but that done, you have a rit^ht 
 (and it is in one sense your duty to yourselves) to go in for 
 
 A FAIR SHARE OF HONEST AMUSEMENT. 
 
 Sir, I spoke a little while ago of two errors which I conceive 
 to have attained to the magnitude of national faults. This other, 
 the incapacity to amuse ourselves, or the neglect to provide proper 
 opportunities for amusement, appears, in some quarters, to ap- 
 proach to a national want. Perhaps our inaptitude is inherited ? 
 I partly think itls. Centuries ago Froissart observed of the Eng- 
 lish " that they took their pleasure sadly after the custom of 
 their nation," and our French friends are always twitting us that 
 we John Bulls know how to make money, but (sacrebleu) we 
 don't know how to spend it or enjoy ourselves. I have heard a 
 good many of my country friends complain of the double exodus 
 which they say is going on in Canada, from the farm to the city, 
 and from the city to the United States, and hint broadly that 
 too much education was the cause. Now, my view is that the real 
 cause is not too much education, but too little. We are educat- 
 ing our people enough to create a craving for a wider and larger 
 life than Canada, in farm or city, at present affords, and we are 
 not educating them quite perfectly enough to enable them to sat- 
 isfy those natural cravings at home. (Applause.) Then there 
 is another side to it. Our temnerance friends just now are en- 
 gaged in a sort of crusade, having for its object to make the 
 people of Canada a sober and temperate people. The object is a 
 noble one. I commend their zeal, but to their zeal let them add 
 knowledge also. It may be that their object will be better at- 
 tained by a tiank movement than by an attack in front. They f 
 
26 . •■ : 
 
 say that if they succeed the people of Canada will save an un- 
 told number of millions of dollars every year. No doubt they 
 will save a great deal ; so my advice is, out of all these millions 
 we are to save, let us devote a fair proportion to providing rational 
 and legitimate amusements for all, but especially for the younger 
 members of society. Recognize the fact that men need amuse- 
 ment, excitement and society, and that ; 
 
 MORE THAN HALF THE DESIRE FOli DRINK 
 
 arises from the fact that in a bad and coarse way it gratifies these 
 natural and (in one sense) reasonable instincts, — nor are there any 
 greater foes to the tavern and worse places still than the gym- 
 nasium, and the glee club, and the debating room. (Applause.) 
 And so I add to the list of my suggestions of proper subjects of 
 discussion this other, How best to organize and provide for a fair 
 share of rational amusement. True, it will cost money. I don't 
 deny it. But it is wonderful how easy and how cheap it is to 
 provide a great deal of amusement by a little forethought and 
 united action where there are a good many of you. I dare say 
 the cost of a cigar a day or a drink a day (only you are in a 
 Scott Act county, and of course there are no drinks here) — (laugh- 
 ter) — would provide the annual cost of keeping up a good gym- 
 nasium and half a dozen kindred amusements besides. And here 
 let me put in one word to my elder hearers. They may say that this 
 will cost too much money. I will admit it will cost money. But 
 mark this. There is a danger in holding young folk too tightly, and 
 many and many a father has found, to his loss and grief, that the 
 cost of one day's profligate dissipation outweighs the cost of a 
 month's, aye, or a year's outlay for pur{)oses of honest recreation. 
 (Loud applause.) Again I say it is your own fault if you choose 
 to pervert my meaning. I am a sworn foe to extravvt^^ance. But 
 wise outlay is really true economy. Now, as to the charges made 
 against me. I am accused of wishing to make Canada a cheap 
 country to live in. Sir, I admit that charge. (Hear, hear.) I do 
 ■want to make Canada a cheap country to live in, in the sense that 
 I wish to see Canada a country in which an honest man's daily 
 earnings can purchase enough to enable himself and his family to 
 live in comfort and decency. But I want something more. I 
 want to see Canada a pleasant country to live in — (applause) — 
 a country which men will be loathe to leave and glad to come 
 back to. I would like to see Canadians justify 
 
 THE NOBLE PANEGYRIC 
 
 pronounced upon Cann la by Mr. David Wells, which I have 
 quoted more than once before, and which I will not hesitate to 
 
27 
 
 quote again to you to-night, seeing that it contains the testimony 
 of an eminent man to certain facts which every true Canadian, 
 young or old, must always peruse with pleasure and with pride. 
 Mr. Wells speaks thus : — 
 
 *' North of Lakes Erie and Ontario, and of the River St. Lawrence, and 
 east of Lake Huron, south of the 45th parallel of latitiide, and included 
 mainly in the present Dominion of Canada, there is as fair a country as 
 exists on the American continent — nearly as large in area as New York, 
 Pennsylvania, and Ohio combined, and equal, if nut siiperior, as a whole, to 
 those States, in agricultural capability. It is the natural habitat on this con- 
 tinent of t^e combing-wool sheep. It is the land where grows the finest 
 barley, which the brewing interest of the United States must have if it ever 
 expects to rival Great Britain in its annual export of eleven millions sterling 
 of malt products. It raises and grazes the finest of cattle, with qualities 
 specially desirable to make good the deterioration of stock in other sections, 
 and its climatic conditions, created by an almost encirclement of the great 
 lakes, especially fit it to grow men. Such a country is one of the greatest 
 gifts of Providence to the human race ; better than bonanzas of silver or 
 rivers whose sands run gold." 
 
 (Loud and prolonged applause.) 
 
 Sir, for my part, 1 do not think the people who possess such a 
 country need much artificial protection, but let that pass. Mr. 
 Chairman, it may be that I want too many things. I want to see 
 Canada a cheap country ; I want to see Canada a pleasant country 
 to live in ; I want to see my countrymen use their great advan- 
 tages to develop themselves into the finest men, and my country- 
 women into the fairest women, not only in North America, but in 
 the whole world. (Great cheering.) If wo canno': have quantity, 
 let us make up for it in quality, and so I would like to see every 
 young Canadian not only able to do a good day's work, but also 
 able to think and speak and act for himself, 
 
 ABLE TO SHOOT AND TO SWIM, 
 
 and to ride, and to enjoy camp life in the open air. (Renewed 
 cheers.) At home equally on the farm or in the workshoi)S ; in 
 the library and the debating room ; in the gymnasium and in 
 the glee club — and in my lady's parlour. (Applause.) Briefiy, I 
 would have my young Canadian countrymen so train and educate 
 themselves as to grow into men worthy of inhabiting the land 
 Mr. Wells so eloquently describes ; and my young Canadian 
 countrywomen so train and educate themselves as to fit them- 
 selves to be helpmates and guardian and household angels for such 
 men, and yet^ withal, continue to be true women still — ^ 
 
 *' Creatures not too bright and good 
 ^ , For l.uman nature's daily food ; 
 
 But perfect women, nobly planned, 
 To warn, to comfort, to command." 
 
(Applause.) Young gentlemen, and young ladies, too, I wish you 
 well ; from the" very bottom of my heart I wish you well ; but I 
 have to say to you that you have both of you much to do and 
 much to learn before you attain to such a standard as I have 
 indicated. Now, I am very well aware that in saying this I am ex- 
 posing myself very freely to hostile criticism. Men of small hearts 
 and smaller intelligence will always be ready to cry down any 
 project which aims at large improvements in human life as Utopian 
 and impracticable. Others of a better class who know the diffi- 
 culties which beset such schemes will be apt to pronounce this a 
 " devout imagination," as Murray said to John Knox when the 
 great reformer proposed to wrest the Church lands from the grasp 
 of the greedy Scottish nobles for the purpose of educating and 
 civilizing the Scottish people, and carrying out the real object 
 of the original donors. To such I say. Pause and consider. We are 
 living in a period of transition. Forces are at work around us and in 
 society of which we do not as yet half realize the real force. Within 
 these last fifty years we have advanced by leaps and bounds in all 
 matters pertaining to mechanical science. We have done more in 
 that direction in the last half century than had been effected in 
 the preceding two thousand years, or twice two thousand. We 
 have actually and . • 
 
 LITERALLY REALIZED THE WILDEST FANCIES 
 
 • 
 
 of our poets. We have almost annihilated time and space. We 
 can go in six days a distance which would have required many 
 months of painful travel a few years ago. We can literally put a 
 (telegraphic) girdle round the earth in forty minutes. News of 
 the result of a famous boat race which took place in London at 
 three in the afternoon was once known in New Yortc before ten 
 o'clock in the morning of the same day. The telegraph, you see, 
 came up with Time and passed him on the ocean. Nay, it is 
 scientifically possible (and it may, one of these days, become an 
 accomplished fact) that I, speaking in this very hall as I do now, 
 might at the self -same moment of time make my words heard by 
 a hundred other Youtig Liberal Clubs sitting in a hundred different 
 places hundreds of miles apart throughout the Dominion, as, in- 
 deed, I probably will in a sense through the press. Sir, I believe 
 it is true that in some departments of industry one man, with the 
 aid of machinery, can do the work which a thousand men would 
 fail to do without, and it is comjmted by Mr. J. S. Mill that to-day 
 three hours' intelligent labour on the part of each adult would pro- , 
 vide the whole popul.iiion of most civilized countries with all 
 the necessaries and most of the comforts of life. It is true Mr. 
 Mill adds this — the saddest of all possible reflections — th' not- 
 withstanding, it is doubtful if, so far, all these wonderful mven- 
 
29 
 
 tions have lightened the toil of one single human being ; but I 
 speak of what might be, not of what is. Why, my friends, at this 
 moment what is the complaint with which the whole industrial 
 world is ringing ? Surely an extraordinary one, for the complaint 
 is that everywhere men are producing too much and too fast ; that 
 prices are too low and things are too cheap, and, in a sense, there 
 is some truth in it. And yet it is equally too true, unhappily, 
 that all the world over at this hour, especially in all great cities, 
 there are multitudes of men, women, and little children 
 
 DRAGGING OUT EXISTENCE, 
 
 fed with an insufficient quantity of unwholesome food, and lodg- 
 ing in dens in which you would be ashamed to kennel a dog. 
 Think of this — while there is time. Reflect on it and remember 
 that the end is not yet. Rather we are at the beginning. Each 
 new invention and discovery but paves the way for more. Every- 
 where there are two new and tremendous forces now at work, 
 gathering power all the time in a greatly increasing ratio. We 
 have already attained such mastery over the forces of nature as 
 no previous generation even dreamt of, and we are educating (more 
 or less) great bodies of men in all civilized countries to an extent 
 heretofore unknown^ — and arming them also with supreme politi- 
 cal powers. Here is your problem : — How to use these new 
 powers and forces, and combine them for the' general good ? All 
 over the world to-day a great movement towards equalization is 
 taking place in all directions — save one. Everywhere prices, 
 hours of labour, wages, and co.st of production, tend (often very 
 rapidly) to equalize themselves. Only the distribution of proflts 
 remains unequal, and the vast accumulation of immense and ut- 
 terly disproportionate fortunes, in the hands of a few individuals, 
 forms the one startling exception to the general rule. This must 
 be seen to. It is no part of my policy, nor can it ever consist 
 with the policy of true Liberals, to see Canada become the habi- 
 tation of 
 
 A FEW SCORE MILLIONAIRES 
 
 and a few millions of half-pauperized dependents. That way 
 madness lies. That way lie Jacqueries, and French Revolutions, 
 and Nihilistic conspiracies, and Cum munist uprisings. (Applause.) 
 But 
 
 THERE IS A BETTER WAY, 
 
 and thay way lies, T believe, in the higher education and more 
 perfect development (in all ways, mental, physical and social) of 
 each individual man and woman. I, for my part, agree with Mr 
 George Combe, that as a rule the great majority of human beings 
 are employed, or employ themselves, in ways very far below their 
 
natural capacity, and in that 'fact lies both reproach for the pre- 
 sent and much encouragement for the future. Now, what I say 
 is feasible, if only you have faith to believe it is. It can be done, 
 and it hcs been done, in many individual cases at any rate, and I 
 decline to believe that the high individual development which in 
 past ages was attained by many a heathen Greek, aye, and by 
 many a pagan Norseman, even, may not be attained in far greater 
 numbers, and on a far larger scale, by Canadian Christians, espe- 
 cially if they be of the muscular description. (Applause.) I 
 admit it will cost something. What good thing was ever yet got 
 which did not cost thought, and time, and labour, which is money ? 
 Now, it is always best you should, for the most part, help your- 
 selves, but still a little assistance at starting may not be amiss. It 
 was the custom of our Indian predecessors, whenever an orator 
 wished to impress a matter deeply on the minds of his audience, 
 that he presented their representative in council with a belt of 
 wampum. I have got no wampum left, I am sorry to say. Among 
 my juvenile indiscretions, the one I have always regretted most 
 (save, perhaps, having once in my green youth supported Sir John 
 Macdonald) — was this, that very long ago, before I had any idea 
 of their historical or antiquarian value, I feloniously abstracted 
 and divided among my schoolfellows certain strings of wampum 
 given to my grandfather, Richard Cartwright, by his ancient 
 friend and battle comrade, Joseph Brant, Tyendinaga — (cheers) — in 
 memory of many a hot encounter, in which the two had braved 
 Yankee bullets side by side. The offence was great, and the retri- 
 bution, when I was found out, was swift and great also, almost 
 severe enough to have appeased the grim shade of the departed 
 Indian hero, but the upshot is I have no more wampum, but 
 
 IF A CHEQUE WILL DO AS WELL, 
 
 •t y 
 
 Mr. President, the cheque is very heartily at your service. (Tre- 
 mendous applause.) And now, ^my young friends, in conclusion, 
 I have but a few words to say. I have digressed a little to dwell 
 on the social possibilities of your club, but recollect that at this 
 especial moment your main duties are political, and that you are 
 first of all a political association, who have enrolled yourselves as 
 volunteers in the good cause of freedom and liberty. 
 
 Sir, there is work enough ahead just now for all Canadian Lib- 
 erals, young or old. We have fallen on very evil days. I do 
 not deny that there has been some considerable material progress 
 in Canada in the last few years, however much I may repudiate 
 the impudent falsehood that such progress is due to the policy of 
 doubling or trebling your debt and your taxes. It is impossible 
 but that a good deal of progress should be made in any given 
 term of years in a country such as ours, inhabited by a fairly in- 
 
telligent people. But I think that that progress will be found on 
 examination to be far less than it should have been and to be in 
 many ways one-sided and partial, and very often that sort of pro- 
 gress (?) in which what is one man's gain is another man's loss. 
 What, unhappily, there is no doubt at all about is that in that 
 interval there has been a tremendous moral and political back- 
 shdingin Canada. (Applause.) The people of Canada saw fit in 
 1878, and again in 1882, to institute a series of very remarkable 
 experiments. In defiance of reason, and experience, and Scripture, 
 and common sense, they concluded that it was possible for a popu- 
 lar majority to , ,■ 
 
 WASH CERTAIN POLITICAL ETHIOPIANS WHITE. • ' 
 
 (Laughter.) They undertook to make the leopard change his 
 spots, and to grow grapes from thorns and figs from thistles, and 
 honest men out of the heroes of the first Canadian Pacific scandal 
 with results such as might have been expected. (Applause.) Sir, 
 it is not for us to set bounds to the powers of Omnipotence. It is 
 narrated of an eminent Scotch divine that after having partaken 
 of a dish of excellent strawberries he piously expressed his con- 
 viction, " That, doubtless. Providence, if it chose, could create a 
 better berry, but that, also. Providence had never seen fit to do 
 so." Gentlemen, I am of the opinion of this worthy divine. I 
 also believe that Providence, if he saw fit, could wash those poli- 
 tical black-a-moors white ; but also I know that Providence has 
 not done so, and it is my private opinion that it never will. 
 (Cheers.) Now the moral to be drawn whenever Pj evidence does 
 not see fit to interfere in human affairs — and it is obvious that in- 
 terference from some quarter is very desirable — is that Providence 
 has decided that it is for your good that you should be taught to 
 help yourselves ; and this is just what I want you to do. In al- 
 most all cases the issue depends largely on the younger population. 
 The old don't change easily, and in the ordinary course of nature 
 there are now an immense number of young men, who did not 
 vote in 1878 nor in 1882, about to vote for the first time. Then, 
 whatever else it has done, the Franchise Bill (in the shape in which 
 we finally compelled Sir John to pass it) has added greatly to the 
 number of young men who have votes. So you see how much 
 , depends on you. Mr. Blake, or I myself, or other Reform leaders, 
 may, perhaps, point the way, — we may even lead the van — but it 
 is for you to secure the victory. Now, some of you have been 
 asking for a " cry." You want some watchword to rally under. 
 Well, sir, as Irish stock is up in the political market, and as I am 
 half an Irishman myself in right of my mother, and as the better 
 half of me is Irish in right of my wife — which makes three-quar- 
 ters any way — I will give you a watchword. Charge and charge 
 all along the line to the war-cry of 
 
82 
 
 " CANADA GO BRAQH ! " 
 
 And let us show to all and sundry that Canadians can fight as 
 valiantly to that cheering sound as ever did the son of Erin past 
 or present from the days when " Malachi wore the collar of gold " 
 to the time of Charles Stuart Parnell. (Cheers.) Specially do I 
 exhort those of you who like myself are native-born Canadians 
 with the right to wear the maple leaf in your bonnets — an em- 
 blem I trust we may all live to see as truly and as widely honoured 
 as rose or thistle or shamrock either. Sir, two years ago, address- 
 ing the young men of Lower Canada at Montreal, I called for 
 volunteers, and well and nobly (whether in response to my appeal 
 or not matters nothing) has the call been responded to. Now 
 again I call for volunteers. Our Canadian Armageddon is at hand. 
 Nay, already the vanguards of the two armies have joined battle 
 and you may hear the cheers of our comrades who have torn 
 down the black flag in Quebec and are now chasing the pirate 
 horde to its last stronghold in Ottawa. (Cheers.) Help us to 
 purge and purify and regenerate Canadian public life. Help us 
 to extricate Canada from the slough of corruption into which she 
 has been plunged. Help us to exorcise the evil spirits which 
 have held possession of her and maltreated her and plundered 
 her inheritance since 1878, and if it should so happen that when 
 you have exorcised them, some of them (as of old) should enter 
 in and take possession of the herd of swine who have been feed- 
 ing at the public trough at Ottawa, and should impel them to 
 jump over the Parliament Cliff or plunge down a steep place into 
 the Chaudiere, why, gentlemen, Canada can very well afford to, 
 spare the evil spirits — and the pigs too. (Great cheering and 
 laughter.) 
 
 THE FORMAL INAUGURATION. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen : — By virtue of ray office, I 
 hereby declare the Young Liberal Club of Seaforth duly opened 
 and inaugurated. May it wax and flourish. May it grow and blos- 
 som into a liberalizing and civilizing and humanizing influence, not 
 only for the South Riding, but for all the ridings of Huron — and 
 not only for Huron, but for all the adjacent ridings and counties 
 far and near. And when next I have the pleasure of meeting 
 you, may I be able to congratulate you on having helped in the 
 good work — on having aided to cleanse the shield of Canada from 
 the foul stains which now dishonour and disfigure it, and on hav- 
 ing cleared away some at least of the obstacles which now block 
 our path and prevent us from taking that place in the common- 
 wealth of nations, which our natural advantages should enable us 
 to do — a place worthy of ourselves and of the great races from 
 which we severally derive our descent. (Loud and prolonged ap- 
 plause.)