UNITED STATES AND CANADA 227 



been returned to and might have sat in the English 

 Parliament. So that whatever great glory and re- 

 putation — reputation I would rather say — is to be 

 given to them, we have at least a kind of share in it. 

 Look at their names. They are great men, Wash- 

 ington and Hamilton and Jefferson and the family 

 of Adamses, which furnished two Presidents of the 

 United States and three Ministers for the United 

 States to the English Government and Crown. 

 You may add to them Benjamin Franklin, and pro- 

 bably several others. Well, all these are the great 

 men of the American history of the last 120 years, 

 and all these men were at that time our countrymen, 

 and therefore I think we may hold ourselves to be 

 their kinsmen and they our kinsmen. Now, if 

 these names which I have mentioned, these great 

 men were our kinsmen, then I take it that their 

 descendants may be considered our kinsmen ; and 

 if the people of the United States are akin to us the 

 people of Canada are even more nearly so, for they 

 have at a more recent period emigrated from this 

 country to Canada, and therefore they are our 

 kinsmen. Although this great question, this irri- 

 tating question, which for the whole of this century 

 almost has troubled the condition of things between 

 Great Britain and the United States — although 

 that question is apparently on the verge of being 

 permanently and honourably adjusted, still there 

 are other questions that are before us, and before 

 the people of the United States and Canada, of 

 considerable difficulty. But I hope they will not 

 be forced to be questions of danger. Take, for 



