I may say, as far as I have known the speaker of to-day, he is a thorough Canadian, and I am sure that the fact that we all listened to what he has said to-day will produce an effect. I am sure he was moved not only because he is a French-Canadian, but because he is a Canadian, to come here and address us on this occasion. It is a very serious question agitating the Province of Ontario, and we English here, as I said a moment ago, cannot understand how such a feeling should arise.
I have some friends in the Province of Ontario, and I must say they are imbued with the same idea as those who passed regulation No. 17. I am sorry for it; I have done my very best to convince them they were wrong, and I knew they wouldn't feel as they did if they had had the experience I have had with French-Canadians.
I need not tell you that I have been a student of Canadian history from the very earliest days. I have read with the greatest interest the history of the old regime, the opening up of the country, and then of the abandonment of the people by their country, so to speak, and of the tremendous efforts they made to keep the country for themselves. I have read the history of the country under the British regime, and how they have fallen in so well with the administration of justice, the administration in our Legislatures and municipalities under the British system. I believe that a certain French-Canadian at Ottawa is one of the greatest parliamentarians under the British Constitution that we have in any part of the Empire.
They have adopted our system, but there are two things they have clung to, their religion and their language. I believe that their national sentiment is even stronger than their religious sentiment—I really believe so. The national feeling among them is intensely strong, but I would ask you English, Irish and Scotch descendants born in this country, and brought up here, supposing a regulation similar to No. 17 were passed in the Province of Quebec, what do you think our duty towards it would be? Supposing Sir Lomer Gouin—I cannot imagine it—but supposing he did have the courage, or the nerve, so to speak, to pass a regulation of that kind. There would be a rebellion in this Province, I think. And here we have our French-Canadian brethren in the sister Province who by constitutional means are trying to obtain the repeal or the modification of the regulation, or some other settlement of the question which would be satisfactory to all concerned.
Gentlemen, you didn't come here to hear me, and I am not going to detain you any longer. I wish to express, on behalf of the members of this club, our sense of pleasure and obligation to Senator Belcourt for coming here to address us on this question. I am delighted to see so many English-Canadians here to-day. Some may have felt it required a little extra courage to appear, but I do not think so. It does not mean that you are all in sympathy with everything that has been said, but it means that you want education and enlightenment on this matter. And I am sure the appeal the Senator has made to us to study the question will have its effect. And I will agree with him, in the hope that they may have our sympathy and co-operation in bringing about a satisfactory settlement of the question in Ontario.
