32 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



" ponsibilities of such subjects : if having sought the protection of Britain 

 " to grow strong, we were, when strong enough, to attempt to stab the 

 '' friendly hand, and refuse to cast in our lot with those who are fellow- 

 " countrymen of ours, and whose birthright we claim as our inheritance, 

 " When confederation was established it was not intended that it should 

 " be based upon the humiliation of any one race ; that any one should 

 " give up its characteristics ; but it was expected that though every 

 " nationality might retain its individuality, j^et that all would be actuated 

 " by one aspiration and would endeavour to form one nation." 



At times when the French Canadians press their national prejudices 

 to extremes, a spirit of antagonism is at once evoked between them and 

 the English classes, but the unfortunate state of things that existed before 

 1837 no longer shows itself with its original intensity, and whatever 

 jealousies or rivalries break out now and then above the surface are 

 sooner or later carried away by the current of sound public opinion, 

 anxious for the harmony of all classes and creeds and only solicitous for 

 the safe working of the Union. A certain rivalry will always exist 

 between the two nationalities, but as long as moderate and conciliatory 

 counsels prevail, it will be, let us hope, the rivalry of peoples animated 

 by the same patriotic impulses and engaged in the same great work of 

 building up a new nation on this continent. At all events a great deal 

 has been gained since 1837 in the direction of creating a friendly and 

 harmonious feeling between distinct races who, at one time in their 

 history, seemed on the point of engaging in an internecine conflict like 

 that which convulsed the North and South for years. 



XIV. 



Every one who is at all conversant with Canadian political history 

 for the past sixty years will recognize the fact that Canada owes much 

 to men like Sir Louis Lafontaine, who successfully inaugurated respon- 

 sible government after the Union of 1841, and did a great deal to allay 

 sectional jealousies and antagonisms. It was Sir George Cartier, a 

 French Canadian statesman, who carried the province of Quebec with 

 little or no friction into the federal union. In Mr. Pope's biography of 

 Sir John Macdonald, which appeared some time ago, justice is done to the 

 broad statesmanship and imperial conceptions of that great Canadian 

 Premier, whose name must be always associated with the political devel- 

 opment of Canada since 1844 ; but, while we may commend the natural 

 effort of a devoted private secretary to eulogise and emphasise the ser- 

 vices of his chief, it is apparent that he has been too forgetful of the 

 claims of Sir George Cartier, and of his followers from French Canada 

 to recognition. Canadians, at all events, know full well that, without 



