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We have no native orange groves brimming, each 

 year, with golden and ambrosial fruit. 



Our great forests won't give you the shade of the 

 magnolia, the blossom of the sassafras, and you would 

 look, there, in vain, for the white corolla of the Catalpa. 

 Nor will you find growing wild there, the pine-apple, 

 the citron and the fig-tree. 



Our climate, however, severe at times, is bracing and 

 healthy. No malaria here, rest assured ! 



The sons of the soil, are a sturdy race; like yourselves, 

 a race of free men. 



Our population, a concrete of many nationalities 

 made up, blending the Saxon, the Gaul, the Scot and 

 the Celt ! 



I shall not enlarge on the special claims our storied 

 town may have on your attention. When the ice of 

 reserve will have melted, after a few days of sojourn 

 among us, you will be better able to take in the old 

 " rock city " and its picturesque surroundings, leading 

 you back in the dim past, more than three and a half 

 centuries, to the advent and winter-quarters on our 

 shores of Europeans, as early as 1535. 



May we not thank you in advance for the useful 

 lesson in store for us Canadians ! The tree henceforth 

 will rank as the friend of the tiller of the soil, not as 

 his enemy ; and in the words of a sweet singer of an 

 other land, we shall proclaim, aloud and fearlesly when 

 the occasion may require : 



" Woodman Spare that Tree ! " 



Gentlemen, in the name of the citizens of Quebec, 

 you are welcome, thrice welcome ! " 



