10. ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
Yet even such careless habits do not appear to have weakened his in- 
fluence among the masses, who are apt to be very indulgent when they 
see men far above them in station sometimes show the weaknesses of 
ordinary humanity. One secret of the popularity of the greater man, 
whose monument stands below on the principal square of Hamilton, was 
the fact that there was ever about him that touch of nature which makes 
the whole world kin. Though he was great he was also sometimes weak, 
and men, conscious of their own infirmities, remembered that ‘ to err is 
human,” but “to forgive, divine.” Probably there was much human 
feeling in the complaint of the Athenian, who was tired of hearing 
Aristides always called just and voted to banish him for a while from the 
commonwealth he loved so well. Of course, Sir John Macdonald and 
Sir Allan MacNab can never be mentioned in the same category as states- 
men, and yet they had qualities in common, and above all was their de- 
votion to the Crown and Empire. One cause of Sir Allan’s success with 
the sturdy men of Gore, down to the close of his political career, was the 
fact that he was always a faithful subject!’ of the Queen, whose Ideal 
was that of the loyal class from which he had sprung—‘the Ideal”—to 
quote the eloquent words of Lecky, the English historian—* of one free 
industrial and pacific Empire, holding the richest plains of Asia in sub- 
jection, blending all that was most venerable in ancient civilization with 
the redundant energies of a youthful society, and destined to outstrip 
every competitor and acquire an indisputable ascendancy in the globe.” 
I should like to refer to other men of Gore, and especially to my 
kindly and venerable friend, the friend of all of you, Senator Donald 
Maclnnes, the latest owner of Dundurn, who was so long identified with 
the industrial development and public life of this district,—whose son 
has so highly distinguished himself at the ever memorable siege of Mafe- 
king—but the time allotted to me is already exhausted, and I must give 
place to other speakers, better able than I to delight you by their wit and 
eloquence. 
In conclusion let me once more take you to the Past. As we stand 
in this historic place on this Queen’s Birthday, in this memorable year— 
so memorable for its dominating Imperial spirit—do we not hear the 
voices of the Defenders and Makers of Canada— Pioneers, Soldiers, 
Statesmen—ever whispering in our ears ? Do not the voices of Cham- 
plain, Frontenac, Montcalm and Wolfe, call to us from the old capital of 
New France, where still stands a stately monument, erected in honour of 
a great Frenchman and a great Englishman, united in death, and united 
in fame, and emblematic, let us ever hope, of the perpetual union of the 
two races who own this Dominion ? Do we not hear the voices of the 
Loyalists of 1783 calling to us from the sequestered and beauteous inlets 
