[bourinot] builders OF NOVA SCOTIA 191 



home. Upon ithese ajid other kindred topics I do noit dwell. But there is 

 one to which I must, for a brief space, oraviei your attention. 



Sir, I do not envy our neighbours in the United States, their country, 

 their climate, or their institutions. But what I do envy them is, the bound- 

 less field of honourable emuliation and rival'ry in which the poorest man in 

 the smaJlest State may win, noit mere colomiial rank and position, but the 

 highest national honours. Here lies the marked disitinotion between Repub- 

 lioan and Britiish Amea-ioan. The sons of the rebels were mien full-g-rofwn ; 

 the sons of the Loyalists are not. I do not mean that physically or ment- 

 ally there is any difference ; I sip'eak of the sibandairds and sitamps by which 

 the former are made to pass current in the world, while the latter have the 

 ring of metal as valuablie and as true. This was the thouglht whtich laJboured 

 for utterance in the mind of the member for Annapolis yesterday. Let me 

 aid it in Its illustration. Some years ago I had the honour to dine with the 

 late John Quincy Adams, at Wajshington. Around his hospitable board were 

 asisembled fifteen or eighteen gentlemen of the higlhest distinction in the 

 political circles of that capitaJ. There were, perhaps, two or three, who, Mke 

 Mr. Adams himself, had beien trained from ©arly youth in diplomacy, in Idtera- 

 ture. and in the highest walks of social and public life. These men were 

 superior to any that we have in our Colonies, not because their natural 

 endowments were greater, but because their advantages had been out of all 

 proportion to ours. But ithe rest were just such men as we see every day. 

 Their equals are to be found in the Legislatures and public departments of 

 Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia ; men superior to moist of them 

 have been on this floor every ssssion for twenty years. Their equals are 

 here now. But how diffeDrent are the fields of emuliation ; how dispropor- 

 tioned the incitements to excellence, the distinctions, the rewards. Almost 

 every man wihio sat round me on that night either then enjoyed, or has since 

 won some national distinction. They were, or are now, senators in the 

 National Council, foreign ambassadors. Governors, Secretaries of State, com- 

 mianders of squadronis, or leaders of armieis. 



Sir, my heart rose when I compared these men with those I had left at 

 Ihome, their equals in mind and manners. But it sunk, aye, and it sinks now, 

 wlhien turning to the poor rewards which British America offers to those who 

 run with these men the race of emulation. What national distinction ever lights 

 upon British America ? Has she ever ©upplied a Governor to the Queen's 

 wideily extended Dominions, a Secretary, or an unlder Secretiary of State ? 

 Have we ever had a man to represent us in either House of Parliament, or 

 in any Imperial department ? How long is this state of pupilage to last ? 

 Not long. If British statesmen do not take this matter in hand, we soon shall. 

 I yield to no man in respect for the flag of my fathers, but I will live under no 

 flag with a brand of inferiority to the other British races stamped upon my 

 brow. 



(Mr. Howe here contrasted Mr. Johnston, Mr. Huntingdon, Mr. Wilkins, 

 the Speaker, wilth those who had governed the Colonies within his own obser- 

 vation. He thought the learned leader of the Opposition would make quite as 

 good a Governor as some that had been sent across the Atlantic. He con- 

 vulsed the House with laughter in desoribing the attentions paid at Liver- 

 pool to a whiskered Yankee, who was the bearer of dispatches from Wash- 

 ington, and who, with a huge bag under his anm, that mig'ht have contained 

 his wardrobe, Tvas Insitantly permitted to land, unquestioned and unsearched. 

 "I," said Mr. Howe, "was also the bearer of dispatches from a British 

 Governor to Her Majesty's Secretary of State. I represented the Province of 

 wOiich I am a native, and the government of which I wias a member. I 

 explained my position, and showed my dispatches, more in jest than in earnest, 

 for I knew what the result 'would be. The Yankee was in London long be- 



