[boueixot] builders OF NOVA SCOTIA 181 



let them feel that they are to protect their own hearthstones^ ; and my word 

 for it, the heroic blood which beats in their veins will be true to its characteris- 

 tics. How aften have we heard 'that our republican neig-hbours " doiwin south " 

 were going to overrun the Provinces. They have attempted it once or twice, 

 but have always been beaten out and I do not hesitate to say, that the British 

 Americans, over whom the old flag flies, are able to defend every inch o.f their 

 territory, even thoug'h Her Majesty's troops were withdrawn. Indeeid, sir, if 

 theee 500,000 men are not able to defend our country, they deserve to be trodden 

 down and made slaves of for the rest of their natural lives. 



Why, sir, the standing army of Great Britain, charged with the defence 

 of an Empire including provinces in every quarter of the globe, numbers but 

 120,000 men ; in war this force is raised to 380,000 ; so that North America can 

 muster for the defence of our own soil more men than are required to main- 

 tain the honooir of the Croiwn oir the integrity of the Empire at home and 

 abroad. The whole standing army of the United States includes but 10,000 

 men, a number that we could call oult in a day from our Eastern or Western 

 counties. Sir, my honourable friend from Pictou has only to sound the Pibroich 

 In the county he represents, and 10,000 sons of the heather, or their descendants, 

 would start up with musket and claymore, and I am not sure that there woui'd 

 not be bagpipes enough found in the county to cheer on the warriors with 

 the wild music of a martial nation. Why, sir, the old thirteen colonies, sixteen 

 years after their Decoration of Independence, deducting slaves, had but a 

 little over three millions of people ; while at the Declaration of Independence 

 of 1775, they had only two mdllions two hundTed and forty-three thousand 

 all told, or a smaller physical force than we have now. 



My father used to tell m© curious old stories of the colonial army that 

 went to take Louisbourg. The whole New England force fitted out for that 

 expedition was bult 4,070 strong. Just about as many as, upon an emergency, 

 the leader of the Opposition could turn out from the county of Annapolis. I 

 should not like to see him clothed in moire warlike habiliments than those he 

 usually wears ; but if he fancied military command, I am quite sure that 

 he could enroll in his own county 4,000 as darling and gallant warriors as went 

 to the capture of Louisbourg. I do not think that T am mistaken when I say 

 that the women of that connty~àr"è as well worth fighting for as any on this 

 continent, and that they can regale their defenders on the best cheese and 

 apple pies that are to be found on either side of the line. 



But Tve have all heard of another armiament, isome of the wrecks of which, 

 on a calm day, may still be seen reposing at the bottom of Bedford Basin. 

 I mean the grea/t fieet fitted out by France for the conquest of the old col- 

 onies, under the Due d'Anville. That fleet consisted of seventy sail, but it 

 transported across the broad Atlantic but three thousand one hundred and 

 fifty fighting men. An armament that this Province alone should defeat in 

 a single battle. At the battle of Bunker Hill there were but three thousand 

 men on one side ajnd two thiousand on the other. Though there was a fair 

 stand-up fight, the physicaa force engaged was nothing compared with the 

 great political principles which have rendered the conflict immortal. I turn to 

 Scotland agaifi to keep my honourable friend from Pictou from going to sleep. 

 He has heard of Bannockbum. Well, at that great battle which secured the' 

 independence of his country, there were taut thirty thousand Scots engaged ; 

 about half as many men as Nova Scotia could arm to-morrow, if an emergency 

 demanded an appeal to physical force. 



In 1745, 6,000 Scotchmen marched to Derby, in the very heart of Enigiland, 

 " frightening the isle from its" propriety " ; and at the battle of Cullodeai, 

 where the power of the Stuarts was finally stricken down, there were but 

 4,000 Scotchmen engaged, with muskets a great deal worse than thoise whiioh 

 we affect to despise. 



