A CHAPTER ON CANADIAN NOBILITY. 



" The names and memories of great men are the dowery of 

 a nation. They are the salt of the earth, in death as well as 

 in life. What they did once, their descendants have still and 

 always a right to do after them. " — Blackwood. 



A Quebec barrister, snatched too soon from fame and 

 friends, thus embodied in verse Canada's motto : 



" Sur cette terre encor' sauvage, 

 Les vieux titres sont inconnus ; 

 La noblesse est dans le courage, 

 Dans les talents, dans les vertus." 



F. R. Angers." 



True nobility must consist, for us, in courage, talent 

 and virtue ; such we consider the genuine guinea's 

 stamp : the rest is all plated ware, which once tarnished 

 by vile acts or unworthy sentiments, not all the blue 

 blood of all the Howards could rescue from contempt. 



On one point the Latin and the Teuton of Canada 

 do seem to understand one another thoroughly, viz., 

 in their estimate of monarchical ideas. They respect 

 the sovereign and honor his chief men, the nobles — 

 not the men of pleasure such as those with whom 

 Louis XV, surrounded his throne and oppressed his 

 subjects, but honorable men such as Victoria and the 

 English people are proud of ; well represented by that 

 aristocracy of merit " specially charged to perpetuate 

 traditions of chivalry and honor ; " whose door is open 

 to the people, as their highest recognition of popular 

 merit; whose worth is testified to by the English as 

 well as by the French ; who is eulogized in high terms 

 by men of commanding intellect, such as Montesquieu, 



