SPEECH 
 
 BY TITK 
 
 HON. EDWARD BLAKE 
 
 (M.P. FOR THE SOUTH FTDING OF BRUCE) 
 
 AT AURORA. 
 
 Delivered October ?,r(f. 1RT4, on the occasion of a Meeting of the 
 Reform Party of North York. 
 
 MONTREAL : 
 
 PENNY, WILSON & CO., PUBH8HER8 * GENERAL .fOB PRINTERS, ST. JAMES STREET. 
 
 1874. 
 

SPEECH AT AURORA 
 
 BY MrE 
 
 HON. EDWARD BLAKE 
 
 {M. P. for (he Honlh Iii<linfj of Bruce. ) 
 
 Moil. EowAun liLAKK, Oil rising, was received with heiirty 
 and proloiiired applause. II«> said — 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Oentlemen, — You will allow 
 me to add my (jongratulat'ions to those of the previous 
 speakers upon the happy circumstances under which you are 
 to-day assembled, and to express my own feeling- of rejoicing 
 that the Krst occasion upon which 1 have been permitted to 
 address the electors of this historic ridinj^, should be that ol 
 the celebration of an event not unimportant in your own 
 annals or in those of Canada at large — the victory which has 
 brought back to the stan<hii(l around which it had rallied 
 so many years the united liil)eral party of this riding. \ 
 rt^collect the ])olitical history of this constituency for a good 
 many years. Up to the year 1871, when we made our 
 calculations as to the probable results of a general election, 
 there was never any doubt or hesitation as to what might be 
 the verdict of North York, but from 1*<71 to the late election 
 all this was <'haniied, and I am very glad indeed, that a 
 riding which had in the pas^t played the part North York 
 has played, should have by a very decisive majority restored 
 its fair name and fame, aiul brought itself once more into 
 good standing amongst the Liberal constituencies of Canada. 
 
( '4 ) 
 
 (O.corHj My friend, Mr, Movvut, who has spoken, has 
 j^iven you a very interesting account of the finances, and a 
 terse hut clear statement of the u;eneral course ui' le«j;;islation 
 of the Province since the accession to offica of the liiberal 
 party. I do not propose to touch upon those topics at all. 
 I desire simply to say, (hat having been lor the last tv o 
 years an observer, though not so close j'n observer as 
 before, of the course, administrative and legislative, of the 
 Provincial Clovernment — without pretendintr to be able to 
 form an accurate judgment as to all the petty details in 
 respect of which my friends have been accusinl, being 
 obliged, in fact, to confess to you frankly that I have never 
 had the time to enter into the calculations necessary to come 
 to a conclusion whether or not they paid too much for the 
 fence around the Parliament Buildings— (laughter and ap- 
 plause) — yet, speaking of larger matters, which are lit to 
 occupy the altention of an intelligent people, the general 
 course of administration and legislation has b^:'en such as to 
 commend itself to my poor judument, and in my belief to 
 entitle that Government to the confidence, the respect, the 
 affection, and the continued support of the people of this 
 Province. (Cheers.) With reference to the questions which 
 are Hkely to come before the country at no distant time, some 
 of these, as my friend Mr. Dymond remarked to you, are in 
 such a position that they may not, to the public advantage, 
 be at this instant discussed. There is, for example, a ques- 
 tion which is of extreme importance to the people of this 
 country. 1 refer to the negociation for a Reciprocity Treaty 
 now pending. (Hear, hear.) Without, in the slightest 
 degree, presuming to set up my judgment against that of 
 those who have thought it to the public advantage to discuss 
 the draft Treaty at this time, I confess I never have been able 
 to agree rx that view, and for this reason: — Vou are aware 
 that the question, whether this draft shall be agreed to or 
 
( r, ) 
 
 rpjfcte<l. JH t(j bo (liscu«se<l mid diMposfd of by the Senate of 
 the United Stiites next Dec«!fnb«'r, and it seems to me that 
 every arirnmcnt that may be used just now in Canada in 
 favour of tliat Treiity, by those who do favour it. is an ar^-u- 
 ment calculated more or less to daiuiii^e the chances of its 
 approval by the ^Senate, who will, I lancy, look at it from the 
 exactly opposite point of view. On the other hand, with 
 reJerence to those Canadians whose opinion is aoainst the 
 Treaty, all the arguments they use, all the meetiiiiis they con. 
 vene, all the resolutions they pass, seem to me to be so many 
 invihdions to th«; Hfuate of the United States to pass the 
 Treaty, and take that step at any rate towards the consum- 
 mation which tiicy are deprecatini^- all the time. 
 (Hear, hear.) I'herei'ore it appears to me inexpedient 
 for either side to discuss it now% but I quite agree 
 that it is a question which will, at the proper time, demand 
 at the hands of the representatives of the people the iuUest 
 consideration and the most exhaustive discussion. I think 
 the general principles upon which our judgment is to be 
 formed are not far to seek. We shall have to consider, in 
 case we be given the opportunity of passing upon the ques- 
 tion, whether the document is one whi6h will, as a whole, 
 without doing gross injustice to any important interest, tend 
 to the general advantage of this country. We are to take, 
 not indeed an undistinguishing, but at the same time a broad 
 view of that question, and we are to decide it freely for our- 
 selves. 1 entirely demurred to the line of action taken out- 
 iside and in Parliament with reference to the Treaty of 
 Washington. 1 insisted that Parliament ought to be perfectly 
 free, since the quesiion was remitted to it, to determine 
 whether the acceptance or the rejection of its terms was in 
 the interest of the country. What I said then I now repeat, 
 and I am sure it will be found when Parliament does meet, 
 should this question be brought before us, that the large 
 
 f 
 
( « ) 
 
 triajority which Miistiiiiis tht^ Govornmont will be disposed to 
 (h'ai with it. upon that )r,mn only. I rc.a;wX, under these cir- 
 cuinKtuiKies, that at a recent HRHemhlas^e ol the Liberal- 
 Conservative party, so-called, of this Province, a pjjrty plat- 
 Ibrm was enunciated, a party iin(! taken with relerence to 
 this Treaty, and it suri>rised me not a Httle to see that while 
 their Press earnestly denounced the supposition that it was to 
 be made a party measure on the Ministerial side, they should 
 have been first in solemn conv«'ntion assenibled, to take a 
 party line on the other. Those who have preceded me have 
 referred at some len*rth to the actions ol" the pnst. I desire to 
 say something of the present and the future, ilhistrated, it 
 may be, by the reference to the past ; and I turn to another 
 question of very j^reat practical importance — the present 
 position of the Pacific Railway matter. You will liave ob- 
 served that when the (jovernment, of which I was then a 
 member, undertook to deal wath that question, their policy 
 was enunciated in distinct terms to thj electors before the 
 late appeal, and that policy was most unequivocally ap- 
 proved, first at the polls and subsequently in Parliament. 
 (Hear, hear.) I see that a deputation has been sent to 
 England ; that ihe people of British Columbia — no, not the 
 people of British Columbia, for I do not believe they, as a 
 body, sympathize with these extreme views — that the Gov- 
 ernment of British Columbia has sent a deputation to Eng- 
 land, urging that some measure should be taken to Ibrce the 
 Government and people of this country to do more than has 
 been proposed with reference to that Railway. We (last 
 session) took the unpleasant step of very largely increasing 
 the rate of ypur taxation, in order to provide funds towards 
 the fulfilment, so far as practicable, of this and other obliga- 
 tions imposed on you by the late Grovernment. Every man 
 among us is now paying one-sixth more taxes than before in 
 order to this end. Parliament has agreed that the work shall 
 
 t 
 
( 7 ) 
 
 !»<• (loiif jiiMt lis liwt lis it rjiii Im'()(»ii»' without lurthor hurclpii- 
 iiiy Miepcopln otthiH roiuitry, iiiid I In-liev*' that the step thu« 
 tak»'ii iH a v«'ry lotiif step on th»« part of the poople ol' this 
 couiilrv in re<l»'inption of the pledi*;*' i^iven to British ('oluni- 
 hia. At the period vvlien teririH were proposed to British 
 Columbia, which her rulers did not see lit to accept, I had 
 ceased to be a member of the Canadian GoverMment. Those 
 terms, in my oj)inion, went to the extreme verge, and de- 
 monstrated the existance of an earnest desire to do everytljinf/ 
 which could be — with any show of reason — demanded, i«nd 1 
 should very much re<^ret if any attempt were made to entangle 
 the country further, or arrange for the commencement and prose- 
 cution of the work more rapidly than is involved by the terms 
 so offered, and the large provision which we made by the increase 
 of taxation last session. We are called ivpon to commence the 
 work imme liately. I do not know that I car point out to you 
 more strikingly the rashness — the insanity of the bargain thrust 
 upon you by your late rulers, than by telling you that the aban- 
 doned line of the Fraser — abandoned early because it was thought 
 by the engineers to be so expensive and difficult as to be imprac- 
 ticable — has been returned to, as affording the prospect of a bet- 
 ter line than those upon the exploration of which sut-h large sums 
 have been expended. And this is the state of things long after 
 the railway should, under the bargain, have been begun. We 
 arc asked to begin at once, though we cannot yet find a route, 
 and while a mistake in the choice may involve an extra expendi- 
 ture not only of m iny millions in the first cost, but of annual 
 millions more in the running of the road. (Hear, hear.^ Untill 
 these surveys are thoroughly completed, and until we have found 
 the least impracticable route through that inhospitable country, 
 that "sea of mountains," it is folly to talk of commencing the work 
 of construction. Speaking conjecturally, I am of opinion that the 
 British Columbia section of the railw^ay, even if it turns out to 
 be practicable as an engineering work, will involve an enormous 
 
( 8 ) 
 
 pxprnrlitiiro, fipproximnflnf,' to $'M],()l)i),i)(H), and after its com 
 pletion Avill involve an onortnoufl arimial i•]^»r^^(• on tlio rovrnurs 
 of the country for its rnnnin<j; cxpcnscfl; and I doubt niucli if thtit 
 section can be kept (jpen after it is built. I think the chief 
 advantage the British Columbians will derive from the enterprise 
 will consist in the circulation of money and the profits of mercan- 
 tile operations attendant on the construction, and that Canada 
 will be a frightful loser by the affair. Now, even under these 
 circumstances, the fact that the population of British Columbia id 
 only some 10,000 altogether, representing, perhaps, not so many 
 householders as the audience I now see before me, ought not to 
 disentitle tl)em to say — "You shall fulfil your bargain or release 
 us from our bonds." It is their right to take such a course, if 
 they think fit, but I deny that this is any reason why we should 
 plunge this country into ruin by the attempt. I have some reason 
 to believe that these people are sufficiently sensible and reasonable 
 to recognize and act on the truth of the matter, imless, indeed, 
 they are sustained by agitators in this country, who are willing, 
 for the sake of creating an embarrassment to the Government, to 
 excite false and delusive hopes among them. The temper of 
 Parliament you may judge from the fact that during last session 
 an amendment was moved by one of the British Columbia mem- 
 bers insisting upon an early prosecution of the work in that Pro- 
 vince, but he was sustained by five members only — two or three 
 from his own Province, and a couple of those whom my friend 
 Mr. Mowat delights to call Ontario Tories. (Laughter.) If 
 under all the circumstances the Columbians were to say — "You 
 must go on and finish this railway according to the terms or take 
 the alternative of releasing us from the Confederation," I would 
 — take the alternative ! (Cheers.) I believe that is the view of 
 the people of this country, and it may as well be plainly stated, 
 because such a plain statement, is the very thing which will pre- 
 \'ent the British Columbians from making such extravagant dc- 
 mards. If these 2,000 men understand that the people of Canada 
 
( 9 ) 
 
 arc prepared, in preference to the compliance with tlieir 
 riiinous demands, to let tlietn go, and to leave them to build the 
 Columbia section with their 10,000 people, their tone will be 
 more modcmte, and we shall hear no talk about secession. The 
 principal person indeed who has spoken of it hitherto is Sir John 
 A. Macdonald, who almost invited it in his election speech dur-ng 
 the late contest. They won't secede; they know better. Should 
 they leave the Confederation, the Confederation would survive, 
 and they would lose their money. [Laughter.] With regard to 
 those sections of the railway which involve the communication 
 between our interior ^eaboard and the great North-west, the 
 utmost diligence is being used to put them under contract. ] go 
 heart and soul for the construction of these lines as rapidly as the 
 resources of the country will permit, in conjunction with an ex- 
 tensive scheme of immigration and colonization. The work of 
 construction in itself will afford yary great facilities for the rapid 
 colonization of those territories; the annual cash expenditure in 
 labour will produce attractions enabling us to a considerable 
 extent to people the land. The interejits of Canada at large point 
 very promptly to a speedy settlement of that country. In my 
 own humble belief the future of Canada as a distinct State, the 
 representative ol British power on this continent, largely depends 
 upon our success in colonizing that region, and what is equally 
 important, and perhaps more difllicult, on our success in retaining 
 its symp3thies, its trade, its commerce afterwards. Fertile as is 
 the soil, great as are the resources, glorious as are the prospects 
 with reference to production, it is certain that the distance from* 
 the great markets of the world of the inland portions of that 
 country will form one great difficulty to be overcome. You have 
 read of the war which is going on between the farmers and the 
 railways in the Western States, the attempt which is being made 
 to cut down freights by legislation. But 1 do not find that those 
 railways are getting very rich. The fact is the war is a war 
 against distance; it is a war against time and space ; and that is 
 
( 10 ) 
 
 the war the farmers of the North-west will have to encounter. 
 We ought to help as far as possible the "successful prosecution of 
 that war, and to that end we must do what was so mucli ridiculed 
 during the late campaign — we must imftiove the water communi- 
 cations of the North-west; you can carry by water for one-fifth of 
 the cost by rail, and you may be able to carry at a profit it" you 
 can get water communication when it would not pay you to grow 
 wheat to be shipped by rail. [Hear, hear.] This is the more im- 
 portant because new sources of supply are opening now to England, 
 and it is likely that the price of breadstuiFs will rather fall than 
 rise. 1 look on the success of our enterprises in the settle- 
 ment of the North-west as practically dependent upon the 
 improvement of the water ways. Of course, tbere must 
 be railways at once to connect the sheets of water, and 
 eventually a through line ; but I am coiilident that a 
 bushel of wheat will never go to England over an all-rail 
 route Irom the Saskatchewan to the seaboard, because it would 
 never pay to send it. We must take it in Ihe speediest and 
 cheapest way to the head of Lake Superior, where our splen- 
 did St. Lawrence route commences ; and we must use every 
 effort to avert the threatened danger of a diversion to the 
 States of the trade relations of that country. Let me turn to 
 another question which has been adverted to on several 
 occasions, as one looming in the not very distant future. I 
 refer to the relations of Canada to the Empire. Upon this 
 topic I took, three or four years ago, an opportunity of speak- 
 ing, and ventured to suirgest that an effort should be made to 
 reorganize the Empire upon a Federal basis. 1 repeat what 
 I then said, that the time may be at hand when the i)eople of 
 Canada shall be calh^d on to discniss the (piestion Matters 
 cannot drilt much longer as they have drilled hitherto. 'Ihe 
 Treaty of Was'hiiigton produced a very prolouiid impression 
 throughout Ihis country. It produced a feeling that at no 
 distant period \ho people of Canada would desire that they 
 
( 11 ) 
 
 should have some greater share of control than they now have 
 in the management oi foreign affairs ; that our Government 
 should not present the anomaly which it now presents — a 
 Government the freest, perhaps the most democratic in the 
 world with reference to local and domestic matters, in which 
 you rule yourselves as iuUy as any people in the world, while 
 ill your foreign affairs, your r«dations with other countries, 
 whether peaceful or w^arlike, commercial, hnancial, or other- 
 wise, you may have no more voice than the people of Japan. 
 This, hf»wever, is a state of things of which you have no right 
 to complain, because so long as you do not choose to undertake 
 the resj)onsi])ilities and burdens which attach to some share 
 oj' control hi these affairs, you cannot fairly claim the rights 
 and privileges of free-born Britons in such matters. But how 
 long is this talk in the newspapins and elsewhere — this talk 
 which I lind in very high places, of the desirability, aye, of 
 the necessity of fostering a national spirit among the people 
 of Canada, to be mere talk ? It is impossible to foster a nation- 
 al spirit unless you have mitiomd interests to attend to, or 
 among people who do not choose to undertake the responsi- 
 bilities and to devote themselves to the duties to which 
 national attributes belong We have been invited by Mr. 
 Gladstone and other English statesmen — notably by Mr. 
 Gladstone, in the House of Commons, very shortly before his 
 Government fell, to come lorward, Mr. Gladstone, speaking 
 as Piime MinistjM" of England, expressed the hope he cherished 
 that the Colonies would some day come lorward, and express 
 their readiness and desire to accept their lull share in the 
 privileges and in the responsibilities of Britons, it is for us 
 to determine — not now, not this year, not perhaps during this 
 Parliamentary term, but yet at no distant day — v. hat our line 
 shall be. For my own part I believe that while it was not 
 unnatural, not unreasonable, pending that process of develop- 
 ment which has been going on in our new and sparsely 
 
( 12 ) 
 
 settled country, that we should have been quite willing — we 
 so few in numbers, so busied in our local concerns, so enjfuired in 
 subduing the earth and settling up the country — to leave the cares 
 and privileges to which I have referred in the hands of the parent 
 State; the time will come when that national spiiit, which has 
 been spoken of, will be truly felt amongst us, when we shall 
 realize that we are four millions of Britons who are not free, when 
 we shall be ready to take up that freedom, and to ask what the 
 late Prime Minister of England assured us we should not be 
 denied — our share of national rights. To-morrow, by the policy 
 of England, in which you have no voice or control, this country 
 might be plunged into all .,he horrors of a war. It is but the 
 other day that, without your knowledge or consent, the navigation 
 of the St. Lawrence was ceded forever to the United States. That 
 is a state of tilings of which you may have no right to complain, 
 as long as you choose to say, " We prefer to avoid the cares, the 
 expenses and charges, and we are unequal in point of ability to 
 discharge the duties which appertain to us as free-born Britons;" 
 but while you say this, you may not yet assume the lofty air, or 
 speak in the high-pitched tones which belong to a people wholly 
 free. The future A Canada, I believe, depends very largely upon 
 tlie cultivation of a national spirit. We are engaged in a very 
 difhcult task — the task of welding together seven Provinces, 
 which have been accustomed to regard themselves as isolated from 
 each other, which are full of petty jealojisies, their Provincial 
 (juestions. their local interests. How are we to accomplish our 
 work ? How are we to effect a real union between these Prov- 
 inces? Can we do it by giving a sop now to one, now to another, 
 after the manner of the late Government? By giving British 
 Columbia the extravagant terms which have been referred to; by 
 giving New Brunswick ^150,000 a year for an export duty which 
 cannot bo made out as worth more than ^65,000 a year ? Do you 
 hope to create or to preserve harmony and good feeling upon such 
 a false and sordid and mercenary basis as tliat? Not so I That 
 
( 13 ) 
 
 clay, I hope, is done forever, and we must find some other and 
 truer ground for Union than that by which the late Government 
 sought to buy love and purchase peace. We must find some 
 common ground on which to unite, some common aspiration to be 
 shared, and I think it can be found alone in the cultivation of that 
 national spirit to which I have referred. (Cheers.) I observe 
 that those who say a word on this subject are generally struck at 
 by the cry that they are practically advocating annexation. I 
 believe that the feeling in the neighbouring Republic has mater- 
 ially changed on this subject, and that the rotions which were 
 widely spread there some years ago, and the desires to possess, as 
 one Republic, under one Government, the whole of this conti- 
 nent, from north to south, h?,ve died away. A better and a wiser 
 spirit, I believe, now prevails — largely due, perhaps, to the strug- 
 gles which are unhappily occurring in that country. The attempt 
 to reorganize the South has been going on for some years, and 
 owing, I think, to a very great error in judgment as to the way 
 in which it should be effected, it has been largely a failure. 
 There is great difliculty, and there are frequent disorders in the 
 Soutii. Then tliere are the conflicts of interest between the 
 Eastern and Western States, very great conflicts and heartburn- 
 ings. Then there are the alarming difficulties and complications 
 arising from tlie inordinate political power which has been 
 grasped by great corporations. And I think that the best 
 anil wisest minds in the United States have settled down 
 to the conviction that the management of the United States, 
 with its piesent territory is just as difficult a task as their 
 best men cau accomplish, and that it would not be wise to 
 add to their existing complications and difficulties by any 
 such unwieldy accession or unmanageable increase as this 
 great domain, the larger half of the whole continent, would 
 be. 1 think that among those circles in the United States 
 wliich are to be looked to as influencing the future, there is a 
 great modification of view on this point, and there would be, 
 
• ■( 14 ) 
 
 even were we disposed, as I hope we shall never be dis- 
 posed, to offer to join them, a great reluctance to take us. 
 But i believe we have & I'uture of our own here. My 
 opinion coincides with those to which I have been referring 
 in the United States. I believe that that country is even 
 larger than it ought to be in order to be well governed, and 
 that an extension of its territory would be very unfortunate 
 in the interests of civilization. " Cribbed, cabined and con- 
 fined " as we ourselves are to the South, by the unfortunate 
 acts of English diplomatists in the past, giving up to the 
 United States territory which, if we had it to-day, would 
 make our future absolutely assured, but still retaining as we 
 do the great North- West, 1 believe we can show^ that there is 
 room and verge enough in North America for the mainte- 
 nance of two distinct governments, and that there is nothing 
 to be said in favour, but, on the contrary, everythtng to be 
 said against Ihe notion of annexation. These are the mate- 
 rial reasons, independent altogether of the very strong and 
 justly adverse feeling arising from our affection for and our 
 association with England, and the well settled conviction 
 which I believe exists among the people of this country that 
 a Constitutional Monarchy is preferable to a RepuV>lican 
 Government. The Monarchical Government of England is 
 a truer application of real Republican principles than that of 
 the United States, and 1 have no het^itation in savinir that the 
 Government of Canada is far in advance, in the appliciUion 
 of real Hepublican principles, of the Government of either 
 England or the United States. (Cheers.) But, with the 
 very great advantages which we enjoy over that portion of 
 our fellow-subjects living in England, by reason of our 
 having come into a new country, having settled it for our" 
 selves, and adapted our institutions to modern notions, by 
 reason of our not being cumbered by ihe constitution of a 
 legislative chamber on the hereditary principle, by reason of 
 
( 15 ) .. 
 
 our not being cumbered with an aristocracy, or with the 
 uniortunate principle oi' primogeniture and the aggregation 
 of the land in very few hands, by reason of our not being 
 cumbered with the diflicultios which must always exist 
 where a community is composed of classes differing from 
 one another in worldly circumstances so widely as the 
 classes in England differ, where you can go into one street of 
 the city of London and find the extreme of wealth, and a 
 mile or two away the very extreme of poverty ; living, as 
 we do, in a country where these difficulties do not exist, 
 where we early freed ourselves from the incubus of a State 
 Church, where we early provided for the educational needs of 
 our people, under these happy circumstances, with these 
 great privileges, there are corresponding responsibilities. 
 Much remains to be done even here before we 
 can say that the ideal of true popular Government has been 
 reached; and some mistakes have been made, in my poor judg- 
 ment, in the course already taken. I do not believe it is 
 consistent with the true notion of popular Government that we 
 should have a Senate selected by the Administration of the day, 
 and holding their seats for life. [Cheers.] I am not of those 
 who would be disposed to abolish the Senate at this time. The 
 Senate was supposed by tho.«e who framed the Constitution of the 
 United States — to which we are bound to bok as the framers of 
 our Constitution lookt'd — to be the representative of the various 
 States as States^, in which, being as States equal and co-ordinate 
 sovereignties, they had, however unequal in their population and 
 wealth, equal representation. That was the notion upon which, 
 in the framing of that Constitution and in the frari.ing of ours,, a 
 Senate was introduced. I am not prepared at this time to take 
 the step of dispensing with the Senate. I desire to see a' Senate 
 selected upon truly popular principles, and in a way consistent 
 with popular government, and I am inclined to believe that a 
 Senate to selected would be a useful and influential body, and 
 
 1 / 
 
( 16 ) 
 
 might perhaps accomplish an important object by removing from 
 the House of Commons the notion that the delegation in that body 
 from each Province is to act as an isolated band in defence of 
 Provincial rights and in assertion of Provincial interests. Is it 
 consistent with the notion that the Senators should represent tbe 
 several Provinces that they should be selected by one Govern- 
 ment? We know that under cur form of Government the 
 Governor General has no controlling voice in the selection of 
 these gentlemen, that the Cabinet recommend A or B to him, and 
 he appoints him, or if he does not, his Ministers go out of office. 
 The practical result is that the Ministry of the day name the 
 Senators. They name thenitfor life. They may possibly be very 
 good and efficient men when they are placed in the Senate. But 
 even so, they may become, as, I suppose, most of us will become 
 some day, utterly effete, utterly incapable of discharging the duty 
 for which they were selected, but so long as they can drag 
 their weary limbs to Parliament once every second session, so 
 long as they can he supported there, as I have seen them 
 supported to the halls of Parliament to save their position, and 
 sit for an hour so as to register their names, they hold their seats 
 as Senators, and are supposed to represent the special interests of 
 the Province for which they were selected. That is one evil, 
 supposing the selections to have been such as ought to have been 
 made in the first instance, but we all know they have not been 
 such as a rule, if the members of the Senate are to be the 
 guardians of the interests of tjie Provinces, it is the provincial 
 mind which should be referred to as to their appointment, and my 
 own opinion is that the Senate, besides being very largely reduced 
 in number, should bo composed of men selected either imme- 
 diately or mediately by the Provinces from which they come. 
 I believe in the mediate mode of selection; I think that the 
 selection by the Legislature of the Province, and the appoint- 
 ment for moderate terms, not going out all together, but at 
 different periods, would be a system under which that body 
 
 ^ 
 
 > 
 
( n ) . ;: 
 
 would obtain an importance and a value hardly dreamed of 
 under the present system. You want that body not to change as 
 rapidly as the popular body, not to be composed exactly of the 
 same class of men, but to change from time to tinie. You do 
 not want a set of old gentlemen there with notions of the time 
 when they were appointed perhaps, but which have not advanced 
 with the age, to be dreaming in the Senate, blocking improve- 
 ments in legislation as far as they dare, and only conceding them 
 under an extreme pressure of public opinion. (Hear, hear.) 
 You want a body to which it would be an honor to send any of 
 the principal men of a Province, Mnd wliich would have an 
 importance which the United States Senate once had, and, 
 though the lustre has perhaps diminished, still to some extent 
 retains. (Cheers.) I think, also, that something may still be 
 done towards securing freedom and purity of election. 
 
 I am amongst those members of the Liberal party who are 
 prepared to express their very great regret at the disclosures which 
 have recently taken place in the Election Courts. From the 
 earliest moment of my entrance into public life, I have taken a 
 very earnest part in the effort to bring about freedom and purity 
 of elec;tion. In these struggles I did not say that my friends of 
 the Liberal party had never resorted to improper means for securing 
 their elections — I said that you must not expect a different result 
 when you enacted sham laws, professing to prohibit bribery and 
 corruption, while you refused to provide proper means of enforcing 
 those laws. I said that as long as it was seen that there was no 
 means of carrying out these laws, the situation was worse than if 
 there were no law, and both parties would go on disregarding the 
 law, until it ended in the retirement of honest men as candidates 
 for public life, and in the retirement from any participation in pol- 
 itics of those citizens whose notions of propriety, morality, and re- 
 spect for the laws prohibited them from using such unlawful means. 
 We were resisted both in the Local and Federal Legislatures as 
 
 £. J 
 
( 18 ) 
 
 long as resistance was feasible, but, fortunately for tlie Piovince, 
 we were able to obtain a stringent law in Ontario before the 
 elections of 1871, and the result was that those elections were 
 infinitely purer than before. Though some of the elections were 
 avoided for illegal practices, the sums spent were not large, the 
 corruption was by no means widespread, and the election may be 
 said to have been comparative fair. We were unable to get the 
 law in the Dominion for the election of 1872. The country in 
 that contest was flooded with money and I suppose it was the 
 most corrupt election which ever took place in Canada. But 
 public opinion was so strong on the subject that the Governmfent 
 which had refused to pass the law brought it in during the next 
 session, and that law was in force when the elections ot 1874 
 took place. I rejoice that it was so, and I repeat what I have 
 said before, that I would not as a member of the Government 
 have taken the responsibility of concurring in the dissolution 
 of 1874, if that law had not been on the Statute Book. 
 The result of the elections, as you are aware, was ii very extra- 
 ordinary victory of the Liberal party. A number of petitions 
 have been presented, some on each side, and it has been 
 found that no single election which has been brought before 
 the judges was conducted properly according to the law. 
 Although no candidate has been found guilty of any impro 
 priety, it has been found that many men belonging to the 
 Liberal party, and promin^it in the electoral districts, so far 
 forgot what was due to their country and to their party as to 
 be engaged in the disposition of funds in an illegal manner. 
 My own opinion, founded upon my knowledge of what took 
 place in some cases, upon what has come out befoie the 
 judges, and upon the fact that, though it was competent to 
 each of the petitioners to ask not only that the seat should 
 be voided but that the other candidate should be seated, if 
 his hands were clean, none of them have dared to do so — is 
 
( 19 ) 
 
 
 that there was an equivelent or a larger amount of illegal ex- 
 penditure on the other side. I have no doubt that if these 
 gentleme X who are prosecuting those petitions with such 
 energy — and I rejoice to see that energy displayed — had dared 
 to say not merely — "You have been guilty of corruption," 
 but ''our candidate has not, and he can, therefore, take, and 
 asks, the seat," they would have done so, because it is general- 
 ly conceded that the verdict of the people on the new elec- 
 tions will be, as a rule, in favour of the unseated member ; 
 and these people, understanding that perfectly well, would 
 be very glad t;o have their candidate seated by the decision of 
 the judges rather than undergo a new election to receive an- 
 other adverse verdict. I do not believe th(i result of the elec- 
 tions has been materially affected by the expenditure, but 
 there is no doubt of the gross impropriety of the acts disclosed ; 
 and the only excuse for it that I can see is, that these gentle- 
 men could not have fully realized that we had got the boon we 
 had been struggling for, but thought the old corrupt course 
 would be followed by the other side, and that whosoever won 
 by any means would keep the seat In that case the results of 
 these trials will have disabused the people of this country of 
 any such idea. They will have found that we of the Liberal 
 party who represented you in Parliament were not so re- 
 creant to our trust as to make an appeal to the country with- 
 out a law which would be effective, and that we have got a 
 law which will enable the people to conduct elections purely, 
 and to punish those who are guilty of corruption. 1 have a 
 good hope that what has taken place will produce a beneficial 
 effect upon the men of both parties in the elections for the 
 Local Legislature, and that we may then see an election 
 even purer than that of 1871. I need not, I suppose, repeat 
 to the people ef this Riding the exhortation which I have ad- 
 dressed to other Ridings — the exhortation addressed to the 
 
 1*" 
 
 r 
 
 i 
 
country generally by the Government through the address of 
 Mr. Mackenzie before the late general election. I would point 
 out to you that even a good law by which effective machinery 
 is provided is almost useless unless the popular sense and feel- 
 ing be committed to the support of it, and that the main force 
 and efficiency of any such law is dependent upon the mind, the 
 will, and the determination of the people to sustain the law 
 and frown down those who transgress it. I hope the Liberal 
 party of this Province will take that course 1 believe they 
 will. I have a firm confidence that now, both sides having 
 learned that there is a means by which corruption can be dis- 
 covered, and that the discovery of that corruption practised 
 by those who have acted with the concurrence of the candi- 
 date will destroy the illusory victory which has been 
 gained, the axe has been laid at the root of the 
 tree, and we shall have fair elections for the time to come. 
 There is another improvement on the Statute Book of which 
 we have not received the advantage yet. I mean the ballot. 
 But I think that still further improvements might be achieved. 
 I think every one will agree with me that one of the great diffi- 
 culties in securing freedom of election in the past has been the 
 reluctance of voters to go to the polls, the difficulty that was 
 made about it, the compliment it was supposed to involve, and 
 the attempt — too successful in many cases — to extort money as 
 team-hire for going, when the voter ought to have been proud 
 and happy to drive or wallg, and if he had a team, while his 
 neighbor had none, to take his neighbor as well, so as to strike 
 his blow for the good cause, (Cheers.) I believe it is under 
 the guise of hiring teams that bribery has to the greatest extent 
 permeated the body of the electors. I believe that another 
 system of bribery which has gained ground of late years is that 
 of payirg voters to abstain from voting. That is the system 
 wliich is most likely to be resorted to under the ballot, for this 
 reason ; If you buy a man to stay at home, you can always tell 
 
 l 
 
( 21 ) y 
 
 whether he has kept his baiifaln or not ; but if" you buy him j^ 
 to vote for you, you cannot tell whether he has, because he may 
 have voted against you. I am strongly impressed with the idea 
 that soine provision whereby voters should no longer Imagine 
 that they were to be invited, allured, complimented, attracted to 
 the poll, theii teams paid for, themselves solicited to go, would be 
 a proper provision. Who are we who vote ? Is it a right only 
 that we exercise, or a trust? We are but a very small proportion, 
 perhaps not more than an eighth of the population, male and 
 female, men, women and children. Is it in our own interests or 
 for our own rights only that we vote ? Are our own fates alone 
 affected by our votes ? Not so. The whole population of the . 
 country, our wives, our sisters^ and our children, those male 
 adults who have no votes, — all these are affected by it. There- 
 fore it is a trust — a sacred trust — which the voter holds in the 
 exercise of the franchise. True, it is a right, because the voter, 
 in common with the rest of the community, is affected by the 
 laws which are passed ; but he is bound to vote in the interests of 
 the whole community ; and therefore I do not see why the 
 Legislature sho.uld not point out to him that it is his duty, if he 
 chooses to allow himself to remain on the register, to exercise the 
 trust which he has undertaken. I would not go against any man's 
 conscience. There may be some men, even in this country, of a 
 peculiar persuasion, who hold it wrong to vote, but a provision 
 permitting any man, upon his own application to the County 
 Judge on the revision of the . rolls, to be disfranchised, 
 would get rid of any difficulties on the score of conscience- 
 But if a man chooses that his name shall be retained on the 
 list amongst the electoral body — which is itself a representa- 
 tive body, for these tens of thousands represent the hundreds 
 of thousands for whom they vote and in efTect legislate — 
 then let him be told that it is his duty to exercise the fran- 
 chise. I would not force him to vote for a particular person. 
 He may say, " I do not like either of the men." A man may 
 
( 22 ) 
 
 be so crotchetty and difficult to please that he cannot make a 
 choice between the candidates. We cannot help that ; our 
 ballot is secret ; but let the voter, at all events, go to the booth 
 and deposit his ballot. Whether it be a spoilt ballot or a 
 blank ballot we shall not know, but I think it is likely 
 that every man who goes to the booth will deposit an 
 effective ballot. I think those who remain on the roll 
 should be compelled by law to deposit their ballots, and 
 that a law establishin,^ some penalty lor the breach 
 of this provision, unless they excuse themciielves by proof 
 of illness or absence from the constituency, would be a 
 good law, and as far as this branch of the subject is con- 
 cerned, would tend largely to increase the virtue of our pre. 
 sent electoral system. Besides a moderate penalty to be sued 
 for, I would be disposed to add a provision that the man who 
 had iailed to vote at an election, whether general or special, 
 and who within 30 days did not t'yle a solemn declaration ex- 
 cusing himself upon one ground or the other, should not be 
 entered upon the roll of voters again at any period until after 
 the next general election, so that he should not be counted 
 amongst the trustees of the popular right, for a certain period 
 at any rate. (Cheers.) You know how difficult it is to get 
 men to vote at a special election. Men are busy in their fields 
 or about their affairs, and they forget, I am sorry to say ,' how 
 very few hours in the year they, as self-gov^ernors, devote to 
 the discharge of that highest and noblest privilege — the privi- 
 lege of self-government. Let them understand, if at an elec- 
 tion they prefer their business, their pleasure, or their occupa- 
 tions to the exercise of the franchise, that until after the next 
 general election at any rate, they who have been proved to be 
 unfaithful guardians, and have shown their little regard for 
 the rights and privileges they hold, shall have no further con- 
 cern or part in these matters, and shall leave to the faithful 
 trustees the control which is theirs by right. (Hear, hear.) 
 
\ 
 
 It may be said, " You are proposing a law which will bring 
 forward a number ol persons who do not care about politics, 
 and whom it is better not to have at the polls," bat it- is my 
 object to prevent their beiniv brought forward by improper 
 means. A great many of them are brought forward now. 
 The corrupt man says, "I cannot go, I cannot aflbrd the time." 
 He does it to get a few dollars. The indifferent men — and 
 there are many of them of a highly respectable class — should 
 be ma,d3 to see that it is part of their duty to vote. Once 
 they understand that it is their duty to take p>art in elections, 
 I believe they are moral enough and conscientious enough to 
 take that part, and I believe it will be taken gene- 
 rally for the good of the country. I am sure you 
 W'ill agree with me that a proposal which is calculated to poll 
 out the popular vote to the utmost extent is a proposal in 
 the intej'est of real popular (rovernment. There is much 
 more likely to be a true expression of the people's feelings in 
 that than in any othe- way. I do not intend to detain you 
 with any remarks upon the general abstract question of the 
 iranchise. My own opinions on that subject I may perhaps 
 give some other day. I may say that however little the pre- 
 sent character of our franchise answers the theoretical 
 views and principles of some, there is no doubt that as a 
 practical measure, in its actual working it does give the vote 
 to such a large proportion of the people of this Province that 
 the popular vote fully polled and rightly counted would be a 
 laii'ly accurate exposition of the popular opinion ; but I 
 believe that even without attempting radical changes, with- 
 out attempting to lay down a principle for the franchise 
 more satisfactory than that which now prevails, there may 
 be some practical reforms in the present system. I shall 
 limit myself to two. You are aware that the general fran- 
 chise is based upon the ownership or tenancy or occupation 
 of real property of certain values. Now, it is deeply to be 
 
( 24 ) 
 
 regretted, on many grounds, that the rural communities of 
 this l^rovince dc. not determine, once lor all, to do away with 
 the false and injurious system ot under-assessing property 
 which prevails amongst them. (Cheers.) 1 have said in 
 the Legislature, and I repeat here, that it is a disgrace to the 
 people of Ontario that we should find the vast mass ol our 
 property deliberately under-assessed Ibrty, perhaps fifty, per 
 cent, by officers sworn to assess it up to its lull value — (hear, 
 hear) — and this witfi the concurrence of those whom you 
 place in power. It is done, in fact, because your councillors 
 sanction it, and sometimes even so instruct the assessors It 
 is generally a miserable, short lighted attempt to procure a 
 favorable equahzation of the county rate. A township 
 thinks if its property is under-assessed no other township 
 will get an advantage over it, and so you have a system 
 which is dishonest, which is a fraud on the face of it, and 
 which, apart from its moral degradation, is injurious to the 
 interests of the Province, because it keeps back from the know' 
 ledge of the people of England and of the world what our 
 property is really worth. You tell them it is worth so many 
 millions when tEe yalue might be truly doubled. It is inju- 
 rious because such a system, artiticial as it is, renuers nuich 
 more difficult a fair and equitable adjustment. In my city 
 we are taxed very heavily, and we have found that thi^ true 
 course is to assess the property up to its full value, as that is 
 the way in which every man is most likely to pay his fair 
 share. But when you establish a fictitious basis, theie are 
 immense facilities for fraud and enormous difficulties in the 
 way of a fair adjustment. More, it gives opportunities to 
 partizan assessors which they could not have under a pioper 
 system, because if you bring down the assesment fifty per 
 cent , you may bring it down to the margin of the qualifica- 
 tion, while if you have a fair valuation there would not be a 
 man who would not be entitled to vote on any cottage or plot 
 
 ? 
 
% ( 25 ) 
 
 of lind on which he lives. But when you under-assess you 
 give the opportunity for fraud. I have seen a column of lots 
 assessed at ^190, and another column assessed at ;g210. 
 What did that mean? Why, we all know that it meant 
 simply that the ^190 men were all of one stripe of politics 
 and the ,$'210 men of the other stripe. (Cheers and laughter.) 
 The thing would have been quite out of the question if you 
 had determined to make your assessors assess justly and rightly. 
 There is no use in passing laws if the people will not sup- 
 port them. You have the law, but so long as you instruct or 
 wink at your assessor in doing this, or do not dismiss him for 
 doing it, so long the law will be violated. (Hear, hear.) I 
 mentioned in the Legislative Assembly my feeling of humili- 
 ation at this state of things, my hope that it would be 
 amended, and my view that if so there would be no ground 
 on that score for a change in the franchise. But in the class 
 of householders it might be well to get rid at once of all that 
 difficulty by prescribing that the simple occupation as a 
 householder should give the vote. This is, in fact, a very 
 old franchise in England, and can do no harm but 
 would do some good here. Then there is anotJipr thing. There 
 is a custom in this country, which cannot, I think, be too highly 
 commended — tliere is a custom among those farmers who have 
 raised a family of retaiuing one or two of their sons on the farm. 
 They live there with the expectation that when the inevitable day 
 arrives, the faithful son who has done his duty by his parent, has 
 soothed iiis declining years, has worked for him as he was worked 
 for in the days when he was a child and helpless, and his father 
 was strong, will inherit the farm. That is a state of things which 
 is highly desirable and should be pcrpcfuated. That degree of 
 mutual confidence, that pleasant continuance of the family life 
 after the son has attained to manhood, is a matter of great im- 
 portance to the moral standing an<l virtue of the people at large. 
 It is my opinion, that such adult sons would nuxke as good a class 
 
( 26 ) f 
 
 of voters as you can find in the country. (Hear, hear.) I be- 
 lieve some of them leave the farms and discontinue that state of 
 things, because they desire to wear that badge of manhood — the 
 franchise. I do not see why they sliould not wear that badge. I 
 do not sec why they should be penalized — educated as they arc 
 under our school system, and showing themselves to be alive to 
 one of the highest duties of citizenship — by being excluded from 
 the privilege. It would, I think, be well, when dealing with a 
 system of representation which is not theoretically correct, a sys- 
 ' tem which you cannot logically defend, but which you say works 
 practically, to extend the franchise and give the right to vote to 
 every adult son who is living on the farm of his father. (Cheers.) 
 You know that such votes have been obtained in the past by a 
 process which I regret. By an evasion of the law, fathers have 
 placed their sons on the roll, and they have obtained votes by a 
 side wind. That is unfortunate, because it is against the law, and 
 because such a vote is not held freely; but, to a great extent, at 
 the pleasure of the father. I do not care that a man should have 
 the right to vote if I, or some one else, may tell him how he must 
 vote. Give these itien the right, and their votes will, especially 
 under the ballot, be as free and as Ufieful to the community as any 
 others in the country. Before passing from this subject, I desire 
 to speak of one of the truest tests of the right to the franchise — I 
 mean the educational test. There is no doubt that our future 
 will be largely affected by the course we take with regard to the 
 extension ot education throughout the land. I agree with many 
 of the remarks of Mr. Mowat on that subject. I com- 
 mend heartily the public spirit which has led the people 
 of this country to expend such large sums on educa- 
 tion; but my information leads me to believe that the 
 people have not done all that they ought to have done. It is 
 not only expenditure which is needed, but it is equally im- 
 portant to take care that when you have the schools, you send 
 your children to them tor a proper portion of the year. Then 
 
^ ( 27 ) 
 
 you cannot get good work without reasonable pay. You 
 have improved considerably the rate of pay of your teachers 
 in the last few years. Three or four years ago, after investi- 
 gating that subject, 1 spoke to my own constituents upon it, 
 aiid I say now again, that if you want to make all this ex- 
 penditure effectual, it is a prime duty to consider how much is 
 required in order to obtain a good teacher, and to pay that sum 
 whatever it may be. Without that the whole system is in- 
 effective. The teacher is the key. To what purpose do you 
 build brick school-houses, elect trustees, and send your child- 
 rt^n to school, unless you have an efficient teacher to instruct 
 them ? And you cannot get good teachers at the present 
 rate of pay, increased though it is. Another point is this. 
 In old and well-settled counties, where the farms are cleared 
 and the men have become wealthy, where there is no reason, 
 no necessity for the children being kept at home, how is it 
 that the average period of attendance is so short ? In some 
 parts the shortness of the average attendance is positively 
 alarming. I exhort my fellow-countrymen to see to these 
 thiuffs. You have established free schools and vou have re- 
 solved to tax everyone to maintain them. We are all inter- 
 ested then in this matter, and it is to the general and wide 
 diffusion of instruction and education that we must largely 
 look for the great future that we expect. But, sir, with such 
 a hope for the future before us, I believe we might effect im- 
 mense improvements upon the present system of popular re- 
 presentation. For my own part, I have been for some time 
 dissatisfied with our present mode of popular representation, 
 as furnishing no fair indication of the opinions of the country. 
 I do not think a system under which a majority in one con- 
 stituency elects a member, the minority being hopeless, help- 
 less, without any representation of its own at all, is a good 
 system. I have been collecting some statistics on this subject, 
 and it is extraordinary to what extent the popular voice, as 
 
 #. 
 
( 28 ) ^ 
 
 shown in the popular vote, differs from the expression of that 
 voice in the Legislature. In the State of Maryland you find 
 an election lately in which parties were so divided that two- 
 thirds of the people polled on the one side and one-third on 
 the other. The result of the election was that the Republi- 
 cans, who polled two-thirds elected every member, and the 
 Democrats, who polled one-third, did not elect a single man. 
 That was not a fair or reasonable result. In the State of 
 Maine something of the same kind happened. The Demo- 
 crats had polled one-third of the votes, but only elected 43 out 
 of 247 members. Coming nearer home, for perhaps our Tory 
 friends will object to my taking illustrations from accross the 
 line, in Nova Scotia, in the year 1867, there was a bitterly- 
 fought contest on the question of Union or anti-Union. The 
 result was that only Mr. Tupper was returned from the whole 
 Province, and that by a very narrow majority, as a represent- 
 ative of the Union sentiment. I have analyzed the statistics 
 of that election, and I find that the real strength exhibited p.t 
 the polls, would have given, as nearly as I can estimate, seven 
 to the Union side ii;istead of one, and.only twelve to the anti- 
 Uni'jnists instead of 18. Take Nova Scotia again in 1874. 
 The returns gave 19 to the Government, one Independent, 
 and one Oppo^itio.i — Mr. Tupper again. I will give him the 
 Independent man into the bargain, because I think he be- 
 longs to that quarter. (Laughter.) The popular vote on 
 that occasion w^ould, as nearly as I can judge, have 
 given 8 out of the 21 to that side instead of 2, 
 and but 13 to the Government instead of 19. Our principle 
 of Government is that the majority must decide. Upon 
 what is it founded ? Well, you cannot give a reasoi: except 
 this, that it is necessary. It is the only way in which Govern- 
 ment can be carried on at all. But if the minority must, on this 
 ground of necessity, bow to the voice of tlic majority, the 
 majority is all the more bound to see that the minority has ita 
 
1 
 
 fc ( 29 ) . 
 
 fair share of representation — its fair weight in the councils of 
 the country. The majority must recollect that it may become 
 the minority one day, and that then it would like to have its 
 tair share in those councils, and such disparities as these are not 
 likely to induce a leeling of cheerful submission on the part of 
 the minority. In Ontario, in the election of 1867 — I cannot, of 
 course, be precisely accurate in these matters, because there were 
 some acclamation returns, and there are other difficulties in 
 making an exact calculation — but tiiere were eighty-two members 
 to be returned. The whole popular vote would have resulted in 
 a slight majority for the Liberal party over the Government, but, 
 discarding fractions, the result would give forty-one members to 
 each. The Government, however, carried forty-nine seats to 
 thirty-three, and so the Liberal party did not obtain its fair 
 share in the Government of the country. A turn of 408 votes 
 would have taken seventeen seats from the Government and 
 given them to the Liberal party. We say we have representa- 
 tion by population, but we have not representation by population 
 unless the population has a representation in the Legislature 
 equivalent to its strength at the polls. In the late election of 
 1874, the popular voice, although very strongly in favor of the 
 Government, was by no means so decided as the returns showed. 
 And besides this, 178 votes turned the other way would have 
 chauiied eight seats, making a difference of sixteen on a division. 
 Little more than double that number would have changed six- 
 teen seats, or thirty-two on a divisiin, and this in a Province 
 where over 200,000 votes would, if all the elections were con- 
 tested, have been polled. My own opinion is, that it is not 
 houses, and stocks, and farms that are re])reseiited, but human 
 beings, with immortal souls — these are the true subjects of repre- 
 sentation, the sharers in, the owners of, political power; and I 
 think a scheme ought to be devised, as a scheme has been devised, 
 to give them a fairer representation. In Eni^land, in constitu- 
 encies which return three or four members, a cumbrous mode has 
 been adopted called the "restrictive vote," which I do not recom- 
 mend, by which each man votes for one less than the whole 
 
( 30 ) 
 
 i 
 
 number to be elected. That gives some representation to each 
 side. In the School Board electionp, which have caused the 
 greatest possible interest arid excitement, and have resulted in 
 London in the return of" an Educational Parliament which may 
 vie with the Parliament of the Empire in ability in proportion to 
 its numbers, the cumulative system has been with great advantage 
 adopted. By this, the voter, having as many votes as there are 
 members, may give the whole of his votes to one candidate or 
 divide them as he pleases. That system has been also adopted 
 with the most benelicial results in the State of Illinois, where the 
 returns, under the amended Constitution of 1870, liave been 
 within one of the actual popu'ar voice. I say the system of 
 representation under which we now live is inadequate to the 
 purposes of the age. The complicated interests of society, 
 the various views entertained by various sections of people, 
 the enormous divergencies and the minor shades of diver- 
 gency which exist, the hict that you cannot accurately or 
 reasonably approximate the real strength of popular opinion 
 as evinced at the polls by the return of membeis to Parlia- 
 ment. These considerations are sufficient to condemn the 
 existing system and send us on search for a better. That 
 better can. I believe, be found ; ami if it be reserved lor this Pro- 
 vince or this Dominion to set the example of finding it, a great 
 benefit will have been conferred by us on the cause of" freedom 
 throughout the world. 1 believe Mr. Hare's system or some 
 modification of it — a system by which each voter may vote for any 
 one he pleases, and give his vote, should it not be required for his 
 first choice, to second, third or fourth candidates, in the order of 
 his preference- —would result in the return by unanimous constitu- 
 encies of men having the confidence of those constituencies, and 
 of just so many men on each side as the strength of that side at 
 the polls would justify. What is my position to-day? I have a 
 very large constituency. I represent a constituency in which 
 many more votes were polled against me than sufficed to return 
 Mr. I'ymond. Within nine of two thousand votes were polled 
 against me. Can I say 1 represent those people ? I do not. I 
 do not represent their views. They thought 1 was wrong ; they 
 wished to defeat me; thay wished to condone the Pacific Scandal 
 and to support the late Government. I am bound to consider 
 their individual wants, but i cannot say 1 represent their views. 
 How are they represented? Some will say that people a long way 
 off elected, say, Mr. Cameron, of Cardwell, or Mr. Farrow, of 
 North Huron, to represent them. That is a very peculiar mode 
 of representation, by which the unrepresented minorities of adverse 
 
( 31 ) 
 
 views in different constituencies are, in effect, told that they are 
 to be content because there are others in Hke evil pliajht. Look 
 at home. Turn to tliis Metropolitan district. Take, if you 
 please, the old County of York, including Toronto, Ontario and 
 Peel You have there nine districts, and you have nine members 
 all on one side, and not a single one on the other. The return at 
 the polls gave five to four. The popular vote gave you five and 
 your adversaries four, and upon a proper system of representation, 
 that would have been the proportion of the members. We shall 
 have to settle before long the question of the Parlian . ^'ntary sys- 
 tem of the future. As the late Prince Consort said some 
 years ago. Parliamentary systems are on their trial. When we 
 provide a plan by which every man shall be represented, by 
 which each side of opinion shall be represented, in proportion 
 to its strength, we shall have avoided the difficulties which 
 result from the artificial divisions which w^e make, and which 
 render the expression of opinion by the returns so essentially 
 different from that shown at the polls. There is not time now 
 to give you even a fair summary of the reasons for this re- 
 form, f must bring- my speech to a close. I know, Sir, 
 that I have made a rather disturbing speech, but I am not 
 afraid of that. As far as I can Judge, not much good can be 
 done without disturbing something or somebody, and if that 
 is the only objection to be made to the sentiments I have 
 uttered, 1 am quite ready to meet it. I may be said also to 
 have made an imprudent speech — at least it mio-ht be said if 
 1 were one of those who aspire to lead their fellow-country- 
 men as Ministers. It is the lunction of Ministers — we know 
 it, and I do not quarrel with it — to say nothhig that can be 
 caught hold of — (laughter) — nothing in advance of the popu- 
 lar opinion of the day, to watch the current of that opinion, 
 and when it has gathered strength to crystalize it into Acts of 
 Parliament. That is the function of a l^iberal Minister. The 
 function of a Tory Minister is to wait till he is absolutely 
 forced to swallow his own opinions. (Laughter.) My hon. 
 friend Mr. Mowat will, 1 doubt not, by your suffrages, enjoy 
 a long time in which to perform his high duty, but it may 
 be permitted to one who prefers to be a private in the ad- 
 vanced guard of the army of freedom to a commanding place 
 in the main body— (loud cheers'/ — to run the risk of promul- 
 gating what may be called a political heresy to-day, but may 
 perhaps become a political creed to-morrow. (Cheers.) I am 
 sure that whatever may be your disposition as to the opinions' 
 1 have advanced, and however disinchned you may be to 
 
 '* 
 
( 32 ) 
 
 ■^ 
 
 ^cept my proposals, you will rectdve them with toleration 
 and liberahty. I believe that ieeliiii? which is strongly ex- 
 istent in the ranks of our opponents, oi' intolerance ol any 
 difference of opinion, that determination without argument 
 to write and speak down the man who advances anything 
 new^ as revolutionary and unsafe, is not shared by the Liberal 
 party. I believe you realize the value m the interests of true 
 liberty of a free utterance before his fellow-countrymen ot 
 the distinctive opinions held by a public man. (Cheers.) I 
 am quite sure you sympathize with the eulogy which the 
 poet-iaureate of England conferred upon the old land, and 
 you desire that his words ol" praise should be properly appli- 
 pable to the new, when in immortal verse he sung : — 
 
 r You ask me, why, tho' ill at ease. 
 
 Within this region I subsist, 
 Whose spirits talter in the mist, 
 An<l languish for tlie purple seas ? 
 
 It is the land that freemen till, 
 
 That sober-suited Freedom chose, 
 
 The land, where girt with friends or foes 
 
 A man may speak the thing he will. 
 
 A' land of settled government, 
 
 A land of just and old renown, 
 Where Freedom broadens slowly down 
 
 From precedent to precedent. 
 
 Where faction seldom gathers head, 
 But by degrees to fulness wrought, 
 The strength of some difiFusive thought 
 
 Hath time and space to work and spread. 
 
 Should banded unions persecute 
 
 Opinion, and induce a time 
 
 When single thought is civil crime. 
 And individual freedom mute. 
 
 The' Power shall make from land to land 
 Tlie name of Britain trebly great — 
 Tho' every channel of the Stote 
 . Should almost choke with golden sand — • 
 
 Yet waft me from the harbour mouth, 
 ^ Wild wind ! I seek a warmer sky. 
 
 And 1 will see before I die 
 The palms and temples of the South. 
 
 Uk-it^ .,