174 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



blllties of various kinds. I feel that, for me at least the occasion of this 

 discussion is Inauspicious. Believe, me. Sir, that my obligations to iny Sov- 

 ereign as her sworn Counsellor to the head of the Goverament, as his con- 

 stitutional adviser, and to the party with which 1 act, press heavily upon me. 

 But yet. rising with the magnitude of this great theme, I shall endeavour to 

 catch Us Inspiration ; remembering only that I am a Nova Scotian, the son 

 of a loyalist, a North American, a true subject of the Queen ; but one whose 

 allegiance, to the perfect, must include every attribute of manhood, every privi- 

 lege of Empire. 



Sir — I wish that my leisure had been greater, that I might have brought 

 before you the ripened truths of meditation, the illustrative stores of history, 

 which research only can accumulate. In no vain spirit do I wish also that 

 the sentiments which I am abooit to utter, might be heard and pondered, not 

 only as they will be by those who Inhabit half this continent, but by members 

 of the British Parliament, by Imperial statesmen, by the Counsellors who 

 sitand around, and by the graciou.s sovereign ^^•lho sits upon the throne. 

 Perhaps this may not be. Yet I believe that thie day is not distant when our 

 sons, standing in our places, trained in the enjoyment of public liberty by 

 those -who have gone before them, and compellied to be statesmen by the 

 throbbing of their British blood, and by the necessities of their position, will 

 be heard across the Atlantic ; and will utter to each other, and to all the 

 world, sentiments which to-day. Mr. Chairman, may fall with an air of novelty 

 upon your ear, I am not sure, sir, that even out of this discussion may not 

 arise the spirit of union and elevation of thought that may lead North America 

 to cast aside her Colonial habiliments, to put on national aspects, to assert 

 national claims, and prepare to assume national obligations. Come what may, 

 I do not hesitate to express the hope that from this date she will aspire to 

 consolida,Uon a^ an integral portion of the realm of England, or assert her 

 claims to a national existence. 



Sir, the first question which we men of the North must put to ourselves, 

 Is, Have we a territory broad enough of which to make a nation ? at the 

 risk of travelling over some of the ground trodden yesterday by the learned 

 member for Annapolis, I think it can be showTi that we have. Beneath, around 

 and behind us. stretching artvay from the Atlantic to the Pacific, are four 

 million square miles of territory. All Europe with its family of nations, con- 

 tains but three million seven hundred and eighty thousand or two hundred 

 and ninety-two thousand less. The United States include 3,330,572 square 

 miles, or 769,128 less than BritlsOb. America. Sir, I often smile when I hear 

 some vain-glorious republic exclaim : — 



" No pent-up Utlca contracts our powers, 

 The whole unbounded continent is ours ; " 



forgetting that the largest portion does not belong to him at all, but to us, the 

 men of the North, whose descendants will control its destinies for ever. Sir, the 

 whole globe contains but 37,000,000 square miles, we North Americans living 

 under the Briti.sh flag have one-ninth of the whole, and this ought to give us 

 "ample room and verge enough" for the accommodation and support of a count- 

 less population. It is true that all this territory is not yet politically organized, 

 but 



Square Miles. 



Canada includes 400;000 



New Brunswick 28,000 



Nova Scotia 19,000 



Prince Edward Island 2,000 



Newfoundland 37,000 



Making in all 486,000 



