176 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



ness ? If you have not the population you can aspire to no national existence. 

 Let us see. sir, If we have not men enoug-h to assert and maintain any status 

 to whicsh we may aspire. 



Inhabitants. 



Oanaxla oontaine 1,824,264 



New Brunswick 200,000 



Nova ScoUa 300,000 



Newfoundland 100,000 



Prince Edward Island 75,000 



Yet, after all, it may be retorted, what are two millions and a half of people? 

 Not many indeed, but everything must be tested by comparison. What have 

 l-wo millions and a half of people done? That is the question. Take Scotland, 

 for example ; she has but two millions six hundred and twenty thousand now, 

 yet will any man assert, that if Scotland desired a distinct national existence, if 

 the old lion which Punch affects to laugh at were really angry, that Scotsmen 

 w^ould hesitate to unfurl the old flag and draw the broad claymore ? 



True it is, that Scotland has not her separate legislature, but she has what 

 we have not_ — and to this point I shall shortly turn the attention of the 

 Committee,— her flfty-lhree members to represent her interests in the Imperial 

 Parliament. British America, with an equal population, has not one. 



Turn to our own continent, and by way of example, take the State of 

 Ohio. She has but a million and a half of people, yet she has not only her 

 Sta.te Legislature and Government as we have, but sends nineteen members 

 to the National Congress. She is a Sovereign State, but she forms a part of 

 a great confederacy, and her nineteen members guard her interests in the 

 discussions which touch the whole, as oui^ are not guarded in the great 

 Council of the Empire of wlhich we form a part. Will North Americans long 

 be satisfied with less than every State of the Union claims ? 



Turning again to Europe we find Saxony, that centuries ago gave con- 

 querors and kings to England, has but one million seven hundred and fifty- 

 seven thousand inhabitants. Wurtemburg, with about the same population 

 Is a kingdom, with its European potentate at its head, its Court, its standing 

 army, its foreign alllaoiccs. Denmark, which also gave kings and ravagers to 

 England and has retained her national position from the days of Canute to 

 our own, has but two millions two hundred and twelve thousand and seventy- 

 four inhabitants. Yet her Court is respected ; her alliance courted ; she 

 maintains a peace establishment of twenty-five thousand men, which Is 

 raised to seventy-five thousand in time of war. Look at Greece :— 



" The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece ! 

 Where burning Sappho loved and sung." 



Greece that broke the power of Xerxes, and for arts, arms, oratory, poetry 

 and civilization stands pre-eminent among ancient states. Greece, at this 

 moment has her King, who reigns over but nine hundred and thirty-six thous- 

 and subjects. But, sir, does extent of territory make a nation ? Never, 

 Number of people ? No. What then ? The spirit which animates, the dis- 

 cipline that renders them Invincible. There were but three hundred men at 

 the pass of Thermopylse ; yet they stopped an army and their glories stream 

 down the page of history, while millions of slaves have lived and died and 

 are forgotten. Glance at Portugal ; she numbers less than three and a half 

 millions (3,412,000), and yet, when she had a much smaller population, her 

 mariners explored the African coast, found their way around the stomy cape 

 and founded in the East a political and religious ascendancy which lasted 

 for a hundred years. We, North Americans, sit down and read the exploits 

 of Gustavus Va»a, or of Charles XII., of Sweden. We wonder at the prowess 

 of those Normain adventurers who canned out kingdoms with their conquering 



