He then concluded in these terms:
I thought you would not be sorry to hear something of that corner of the world, the last remnant of French grandeur in North America and as my noble friend, Lord Dufferin, so eloquently says when speaking of Iceland in his "Letters from high latitudes" translated into French by your fellow countryman, Mr. Bedard, the modest archipelago of which I have spoken, "shares with the Dominion of Canada the Aurora's ruby affluence and is wrapped in the same silver mantle." For you, French Canadians in particular, the subject cannot be altogether devoid of interest. Your forefathers, before landing on the shores of the St. Lawrence, all passed close to the rocks of St. Pierre and Miquelon, and they would have then been greatly surprised if they had been told that they would one day be the last and only sentinel of their mother country in these waters, over which sailed all those gallant cavaliers who founded Canada or defended it, Cartier, Champlain, d'Iberville, &c., Sic transit gloria mundi. But another conquest did not arrest in their flight the prolific seeds which were to give birth to a numerous posterity. The 60,000 colonists sent to this country by France multiplied in an almost miraculous manner, and there is every reason to believe that she will one day be represented on the American continent by a great people which will speak her language and be proud to trace back its origin to her.
And how could it be otherwise! Never was a nobler cradle given to a young nation. How can one describe that majestic river, those stately forests, and glorious sites which make of Canada one of the finest countries in the world! Your winters are severe, but they cannot but develop strong constitutions which defy the coldness of the weather. Your dazzling sheets of snow contain no miasma to undermine health and in your extensive fields the lungs inhale the purest air to be found under the sun. In summer, luxuriant vegetation and foliage enable you to breathe your fill of oxygen, while the resinous trees diffuse a health-giving aroma all around them.
Extensive tracts of land well suited for cultivation, await but willing hands to return a hundred-fold what is confided to them. May you therefore grow, youthful branch of the grand Latin race, may you flourish in this land of far-distant horizons and become in turn a powerful tree deep-rooted in a glorious past, whose crown will point to a brilliant future.
