172 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



of God to take part in the councils of my country, I have now fulfilled a duty 

 I should have been ill-satisfied to have left undone, when my public career 

 should terminate. 



If it be destined that no such Union as that contemplated shall be effected, 

 ajid those who succeed us shall feel the stern alternative of exiling themselves 

 from the land of their birth, because it satisfies not the exigencies of their 

 nature, — or of transferring that land to a foreign nationality— I at least shall 

 have done what In me lies to avert these- consequences ; and if it shall please 

 God to raise up in the northern portion of this great continent a nation of 

 freemen, acknowledging British sovereignty, and advancing with the expan- 

 sive energy of which Britons are capable and the age demands— rivaling— but 

 with no mean jealousy— rather with a friendly and co-operative spirit, the 

 progress of our Republican neighbours— and giving to our children a place 

 among men which their fathers possessed not— then, Sir, will it be reward 

 enough for any man that his memory shall be recalled as having been one, 

 although among the humblest, of the pioneers in so great a work. 



I move. Sir, the adoption of the resolutions which I read at commencing, 

 and which I now present for the deliberation of the Committee. 



