He is, as he
said to me, and as all his long series of political actions have
manifested, British in heart and way of political thinking, as indeed
substantially all his French-Canadian compatriots are. British
liberality, not to say liberalism, has attached them to the British
system as firmly as any community originating from the United Kingdom.
It was a French-Canadian statesman who asserted, some fifty years ago,
when many British-Canadians seemed tending toward union with the United
States, "The last shot fired in Canada for British connection will be
from a French-Canadian." That was before the civil war abolished
slavery.
But, even as the Britishism of Old Country liberals is strongly
tinctured by devotion to ideals which Americans are wont to regard as
theirs--ideals making for settled peace, industry, the uplift of the
"common people," fair room and reward for those abilities which
conspicuously serve the general welfare--so Sir Wilfrid and his
compatriots acknowledge their Britishism to be acutely conscious of
political kinship with the American people. The French-Canadian
yearning, like that of many Canadians of British origin, is rather for
English-speaking union--a union of at least thorough understanding and
common designs with the American people--than for the narrower exclusive
British union sought by Canadian imperial federationists.
Pages:
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431