We Have None Of Those Influences About Us Which,
Elsewhere, Have Their Effect Upon Government Just As Much As The
Invisible Atmosphere Itself Tends To Influence Life, And Animal And
Vegetable Existence.
This is a new land - a land of young pretensions
because it is new; because classes and systems have not had that time
to grow here naturally.
We have no aristocracy but of virtue and
talent, which is the best aristocracy, and is the old and true meaning
of the term. There is a class of men rising in these Colonies, superior
in many respects to others with whom they might be compared. What I
should like to see, is - that fair representatives of the Canadian and
Acadian aristocracy should be sent to the foot of the Throne with that
scheme, to obtain for it the royal sanction - a scheme not suggested by
others, or imposed upon us, but one the work of ourselves, the creation
of our own intellect and of our own free, unbiassed, and untrammelled
will. I should like to see our best men go there, and endeavour to have
this measure carried through the Imperial Parliament - going into Her
Majesty's presence, and by their manner, if not actually by their
speech, saying - 'During Your Majesty's reign we have had responsible
Government conceded to us: we have administered it for nearly a quarter
of a century, during which we have under it doubled our population, and
more than quadrupled our trade. The small Colonies which your ancestors
could hardly see on the map, have grown into great communities.
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