Knowing my own unfitness for the task, I have hesitated; feeling my own inability, I have shrunk from the duty imposed on me. Deeply conscious as I am of the fact that it requires more eloquence than I possess to do justice to the occasion, or to speak in fitting terms of the great work of the eminent divine and educationist to whose memory this statue has been erected.
No more appropriate place could have been selected for its erection than here on the grounds of the department which is the creation of his genius, and in front of a building which stands a monument to the energy of its founder.
He will be but a poor student of the history of his country who has not yet learned from its pages the deep debt of gratitude which every Canadian owes to the man whose memory is held in most affectionate rememberance by all classes of the community.
He will be a poor judge of mental power or moral worth who has not yet learned to prize the grandeur of his life-work or the versatility of the attainments of the man who was not only a deep thinker and a notable teacher but an earnest and a humble Christian—a happy combination of the scholar and the gentleman.
During a long and eventful career, and at a crucial period in our country's history the active part he played in public affairs has left on the institutions of our province the impress of his vigorous intellect. Prompted by pure motives, and guided by sound judgment, he gave evidences of an uncommon genius, which he devoted to the service of his country and the best interests of the people, and thus he became a leader among men.
In the school system of this province he built for himself a more lasting monument than the granite and bronze we now raise to his memory.
With fluent speech and ready pen he has oft been the defender of our most sacred rights and cherished privileges. A lover of truth, he abhorred falsehood. A lover of freedom, he hated oppression; and the cause of truth and of freedom found in him an able and willing champion. A staunch defender of British connection, he yet manfully battled for equal rights and privileges to all classes of the people.
He loved the land of his birth with no ordinary affection and, during a long and busy life, he helped to mould her destiny and shape her course—guiding her feeble and often erratic steps, leading her into the paths of truth and righteousness which, we are assured, most surely exalteth the nation.
In the pages of Canadian history the "Story of his Life" and labors will ever be instructive reading.