38 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



determined to put down corruption in whatever form it may show itself, 

 and to cultivate a sound public opinion, Canadians may tranquilly, 

 patientl}' , and determinedly face the problem of the future. 



When Canadians review the trials and struggles of the past in the 

 interesting story of their country, they may well gain from them lessons 

 of confidence for the future, and cannot forget to ]my a tribute to the 

 men who laid the foundations of these communities, still on the threshold 

 of their development, and on whom the great burden fell ; to the French 

 Canadians who, amid toil and privation, amid war and famine, built up 

 a province Avhich they had made their own by their patience and 

 industry, and who should, differ as we may from them, evoke our respect 

 for their fidelity to the institutions of their origin, and for their apprecia- 

 tion of the advantages of English self-government, and for their coopera- 

 tion in all great measures essential to the unity of the Federation ; to the 

 Loj'alists of last century who left their homes for the sake of "king and 

 country " and laid the foundations of prosjjerous and loyal English 

 communities by the sea and by the great lakes, and Avhose descendants 

 have ever stood true to the principles of the institutions which have made 

 England free and great ; to the unknown body of Pioneers, some of whose 

 names, perhaps, still linger on a headland or river, or on a neglected 

 gravestone, who brought the sunlight year by 3'ear to the dense forests, 

 and built up by their industry the large and thriving provinces of the 

 Dominion ; to the Statesmen who laid deep and firm, beneath the political 

 structure of this Federation, those principles of self-government which 

 give harmony to the constitutional system and bring out the best quali- 

 ties of an intelligent people. And above all, let Canadians of all classes 

 and nationalities unite with heart and soul, in this remarkable month of 

 this remarkable 5'ear, to pay a just tribute to the Great Queen, during 

 whose beneficent reign Canadians have received such large political 

 privileges, and whose virtues as a woman and sovereign have j^laced her 

 in the estimation of her subjects in every part of the J^^mpire, on an 

 eminence of love and respect which none of her royal predecessors, not 

 even " Good Queen Bess," have ever been able to reach in the brightest 

 eras of English history. 



