Accept our thanks for meeting us here, on behalf of your city, and for the genial reception tendered to us. I should indeed have considered our first survey of our Dominion most incomplete had we been unable to stay awhile among you.
Much we have been unable to see; many places in which we should wish to spend some days, and where we might observe mining and other industries successfully followed, we must hope to visit another year. In St. John we arrive at once at one of the centres of life and activity on these our eastern coasts. We observe with the greatest satisfaction the evidences of the energy you bring to the aid of our common country, and the important place you fill in promoting the welfare of our Federation. The British people and foreign countries alike look upon the Dominion as our Empire's eldest son, in whose life and character the nature which has made the mother country stronger, the older it has grown, is seen and recognised by all. You are entering on a glorious manhood, which will, in future ages, stand forth in the beauty of strength and pride of freedom, to be known in history as asserting a place among the mighty of the earth.
The district is the scene of events wherein widely different actors have played their parts, and interesting, indeed, is the development of the story of which your harbour and town have been the theatre. Two centuries ago the adventurer only knew this place—his company stealing along the coast in small and battered craft, seeking a settlement, obliged to guard against the savages of the forest, yet full of visions of a great future for his new home, and endeavouring, almost in vain, to interest Europe in his schemes. But the years peopled the shores with sturdy colonists, who pushed their way, although held down by difficulties of transport, by distance from other settlements, by wars of race and by mutual jealousies. Now we see a land whose natural loveliness and fertility is turned to the best account, connected with all the life of Europe and America by countless channels of communication, and using the arts of modern civilisation to make the utmost of its political and geographical position.
In expressing to you our gratitude for the welcome you now give us, accept our best wishes for your welfare, and let us utter a fervent hope that the energy here exhibited, which no depression in trade can master, and which even the ruin of fire has only been able, temporarily, to affect, may receive full reward in the future prosperity of your loyal and flourishing city.
During His Excellency's visit to Fredericton, the capital of the
Province of New Brunswick, he replied as follows to an address:—
TO THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FREDERICTON:—Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen,—This is not the first time, as you remind me, that the Queen's children have visited your people, and have received at their hands the proofs of an affection for our Sovereign which animates all Her Majesty's subjects. The Queen has now reigned for a longer period than has been vouchsafed to most of our monarchs, over a prosperous and united nation, whose strength has, during her life, been greatly increased by development and consolidation of this her great Dominion. Her Majesty possesses here the love of a people more numerous than was the English nation when it achieved the glories which the trumpet of fame, moved by Shakespeare's breath, made a household word among all nations.
In Canada, I am able to receive with pride testimonials of respect, reverence, and love for her rule, from men whose Government represents a force, if population and material resources be taken into account, far greater than that possessed of old by England, even in those days which ring with the deeds of her heroes, and have been called the "spacious times of great Elizabeth."
And while we must look upon this country as rapidly becoming one of the moving influences of the world, we cannot forget what an advantageous variety of position and power, within the sphere of the Dominion, is possessed by the various Provinces. Here, in the Province of which this city is the capital, you have the great ocean and highways so near you that your brave and hardy maritime population can furnish your mercantile marine with many of the best sailors in America. In the territory, comprised within your limits, you occupy a central position through which much of the land traffic of this part of the American continent is likely to be conducted, and your climate gives to all who cultivate your soil abundance of agricultural resources in corn and pasture land.
It may not be unappropriate now, when you give us your kindly and hospitable welcome to the capital of your Province, to ask you to receive with our thanks the expression of our hope that the members selected as the representatives of the Province, and who assemble here, may be granted wisdom by the Most High to further the welfare and promote the best interests of a true and loyal people.
During this visit to New Brunswick, he said, in reply to the Warden and
Members of the Municipality of Kings County:—