full-fed from the exhaustless glaciers of the Rocky Mountains, and watering "the great lone land"; over illimitable coal measures and deep woods; on to the mountains, which open their gates, more widely than to our wealthier neighbours, to lead us to the Pacific; down deep gorges filled with mighty timber, and rivers whose ancient deposits are gold beds, sands like those of Pactolus and channels choked with fish; on to the many harbours of mainland and island, that look right across to the old Eastern Thule "with its rosy pearls and golden-roofed palaces," and open their arms to welcome the swarming millions of Cathay; over all this we had travelled, and it was all our own.
Where's the coward that would not dare
To fight for such a land?
Thank God, we have a country. It is not our poverty of land or sea, of wood or mine, that shall ever urge us to be traitors. But the destiny of a country depends not on its material resources. It depends on the character of its people. Here, too, is full ground for confidence. We in everything "are sprung of earth's first blood, have titles manifold." We come of a race that never counted the number of its foes, nor the number of its friends, when freedom, loyalty or God was concerned.
Two courses are possible, though it is almost an insult to say there are two, for the one requires us to be false to our traditions and history, to our future and to ourselves. A third course has been hinted at; but only dreamers or emasculated intellects would seriously propose "Independence" to four millions of people, face to face with thirty-eight millions. Some one may have even a fourth to propose. The Abbé Sieyès had a cabinet filled with pigeon-holes, in each of which was a cut-and-dried Constitution for France. Doctrinaires fancy that at any time they can say "Go to, let us make a Constitution," and that they can fit it on a nation as readily as new coats on their backs. There never was a profounder mistake. A nation grows, and its Constitution must grow with it. The nation cannot be pulled up by the roots, cannot be dissociated from its past, without danger to its highest interests. Loyalty is essential to the fulfilment of a distinctive mission—essential to its true glory. Only one course, therefore, is possible for us, consistent with the self-respect that alone gains the respect of others; to seek, in the consolidation of the Empire, a common Imperial citizenship, with common responsibilities and a common inheritance.
[ 51. TARIFF REFORM IN CANADA IN 1876.]
Source.—A Speech by Sir John A. Macdonald, quoted in the Life, by G. R. Parkin, in "The Makers of Canada" series.
We are in favour of a tariff that will incidentally give protection to our manufacturers; that will develop our manufacturing industries. We believe that that can be done, and, if done, it will give a home market to our farmers. The farmers will be satisfied when they know that large bodies of operatives are working in the mills and manufactories in every village and town in the country. They know that every man of them is a consumer, and that he must have pork and flour, beef and all that the farmers raise, and they know that, instead of being obliged to send their grain to a foreign and uncertain market, they will have a market at their own door. And the careful housewife, every farmer's wife, will know that everything that is produced under her care—the poultry, the eggs, the butter and the garden stuff—will find a ready and profitable market in the neighbouring town and village.