UNITED STATES AND CANADA 235 



Australia there are, I think, at least ten millions of 

 what we call our kinsmen and fellow-subjects, but 

 in the United States at this moment there are sixty 

 millions of population, which, by the end of this 

 century, in all probability will reach one hundred 

 millions. (Cheers.) Of these hundred millions I 

 suppose three-fourths will be persons of our own 

 blood. In this country and in Canada and in the 

 United States there are, or soon will be, 150 millions 

 of population, nearly all of which owes its birth and 

 origin to the comparatively small country in which 

 we live. It is a fact which is not paralleled in any 

 past history, and what may come in the future to 

 compare with it or excel it, it is not for us to speak, 

 or even with any show of reason to imagine. We 

 have in all these millions the same language, the 

 same literature, mainly the same laws, and the in- 

 stitutions of freedom. May we not hope for the 

 highest and noblest federation to be established 

 among us } — that is a question to which I would 

 ask your special and sympathetic attention — of 

 the noblest kind of federation amongst us, under 

 different governments it may be, but united by 

 race, by sympathy, by freedom of industry, and 

 by communion of interests ; and by a perpetual 

 peace we may help to lead the world to the better 

 time which we long for, and which we believe in — 

 (cheers) — although it may not be permitted to our 

 mortal eyes to behold it. (Cheers.) Now towards 

 this noblest confederation, that is, of sympathy 

 between us and the Canadians and the United States 

 and the Australians, even this meeting assembled 



