326 LABRADOR 



served us from national crippling or from absolute deletion 

 from the roll of great nations, is in danger of being lost by 

 the general increase of wealth and luxury. 



I shall here only suggest the debt that the Catholics of 

 Europe owe the codfish. The vast amount they consume 

 is. the best proof of the value at which they estimate him. 

 But I can suppose that the family circle on many a Friday 

 night would sit around the table with blank faces if it were 

 not for this additional virtue of our friend, viz. his gratify- 

 ing faculty for passing muster as eligible for dinner before 

 an ecclesiastical inquisition which has placed all our staple 

 articles under the ban. And for this discernment the world 

 in return owes the authorities of the Church a very real 

 debt, inasmuch as they so directly encourage in this way a 

 calling so invaluable to mankind. 



Thus it cannot be said that, in praising the codfish, we 

 have exaggerated his virtues. Not only has he bred a 

 healthy race; he has invigorated a weak one. His oil 

 has enabled us to battle successfully with the subtlest en- 

 emy of our race, the tubercle bacillus, even in the face of 

 all the wonderful discoveries of modern science and the 

 hoards of money lavished on other methods. A couple of 

 years ago, when the supply of cod-liver oil was short, the 

 crude article rose in value in a couple of months from forty 

 cents a gallon to $4 a gallon direct from the barrel. 



May the men of Labrador never need the emasculating 

 paternal legislation of our neighbours in Europe, or the 

 bounty system of " presents for good boys that venture out 

 to sea" ! When the world beholds the spectacle of the Eng- 

 lish, as a race that will not venture forth on the mighty 

 waters without being stimulated by such adventitious aid, 



