192 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



fare I could get my portmanteau through the Ca&tom House, being com- 

 pelled to pay duty on half a dozen books and plans necessary to the success 

 of the mLseiooi with which I was charged. Imagine what five and twenty 

 Britl.'-h Americans on board the steamer \\iould feel at this practical com- 

 mentary on the respect commandeid in England by successful rebellion, but 

 denied to deAoted loyalty. Equally animated was Mr. Howe's description 

 of Massachusetts cutton spinners and backwoodsmen from the Tve-st, snugly 

 ensconced in the diplomatie box In the body of the House of Lords, when 

 I*arliament was opened by the Queen, while Colonists looked down upon them 

 from the galleries, to which, not as a right, but as a favour, they had been 

 admitted.") 



Mr. Chairman, the time will come— nay, sir, it has come — when these 

 degrading distinctions must no longer peril our allegiance. WÎ11 any man say 

 that North America does not produce men ajs fit to govern States and Prov- 

 inces as those who rule over Maine or Massachusetts at this hour ? — as 

 most of those who are sent to govern the forty Provinces of the Empire ? — 

 as many that we have seen sent to darken counsel and perplex us in the 

 west ? How long will North Amoiicans be content to see their sons sys- 

 tematically e'xciluded from the gubematoriaj chairs, not only of the Prov- 

 inces that we occupy, but of every other in the empire ? Not long. If 

 monarchial institutions are to be presetted and the power of the Crown 

 maintained, the leading spirils of the empire must be chosen to govern Prov- 

 inces ; and the selection must not be confined to the circle of two small 

 islands,— to old officers or broken-down members of Parliament. 



Look aA the organizatiom of the Colonial Office ; that department Which 

 is especially charged with the government of forty Colonies and yet has not one 

 Colonist in it! How long are we to have this play of Hamlet with Hamlet him- 

 self omitted? Sir, I do not share in the vulgar prejudices about the ignorance 

 and incapacity of Downing Street. No man caji now be elevated to the office 

 of Secretary of State for the Colonies who is not a man of business habits, 

 holding high rank in either House of Parliament. There is, perhaps, not a 

 man in the department who is not able or adroit in the performance of duties 

 which are admiral>ly subdivided. The under secretaries are men of genial 

 nianners, hlg-h artitainanents and varied information. They are something 

 moi-f ; they are thoroughly well disposed to serve, and to stand well with 

 the Provinces committed to their charge. But what then ? They have no 

 personal knowledge of Colonial public or social life ; no hold upon the con- 

 fidence or the affections of the outlying portions of the empire. Comjyared 

 with the men who might, and ought, and must be there, if the empire is to be 

 kept together they are what the clever secretaries of the old board of trade 

 we-re in 1750, compared with such men as Franklin, Washington and Ado-ms. 

 What the.=e last were then, the Baldwins, Lafontaines, Chandlers and Wilmots 

 of Norlh America are now. I speak not of Nova Scotia, although I know 

 tihat her slater Provinces accord to her the intellectual rank to which she is 

 entitled. I know the men wtoo sit around me here ; already I can hear the 

 be«Lrt-beat of the generation which is si»ringing up to take our places ; and 

 I do not hesitate to say that room must be made on the floors of Parliament, 

 and withJn the departmental offices of England, for the aspiring and energetic 

 spirits of this continent ; or they will, by and bye, assert their superiority 

 in the intellectual conflict with those who attempt systematically to exclude 

 them must provoke. Talk of annexation, sir ! what we want Is annexation 

 to our mother country. Talk of a union of the Provinces, which, if unac- 

 companied with other provisions, would lead to separation ! What we require 

 is union with the empire ; an investiture with the rights and dignity of 

 British citizenship. 



In the United States!, every forty thousand people send a member to Con- 



