d tongue can never make
fully known to us or our posterity the extent of the misery and
suffering of most of the early colonial settlers.[11]

[Footnote 11: For a vivid account of the sufferings and hardships of the
early Colonial settlers, I would refer the reader to Ryerson's excellent
work, The Loyalists of America and their times. Vol. II. Chap. XLI.]

We know enough, however, to admire the heroism of our ancestors and
their firm attachment to the mother land. Our hearts should warm with
gratitude for what they have done for our happiness. And as we consider
the unflinching determination of the founders of these British colonies
to make this land a British home, we feel that we should as
unflinchingly carry on their work and expand their views. Deeply rooted
in the hearts of our ancestors was a love of the old land, and their
desire in the new was to build upon the foundations of the old.

We, under Providence, are commissioned to carry forward the work they
left unfinished.

This land was the home of our fathers and shall be the heritage of our
children. The provincial spirit of our ancestors is being merged into a
great national one. A grand idea of nationality is being deeply rooted
in the hearts of the present generation. We are preparing for all the
responsibilities and all the works of a nation, and whether our
political union with the mother country becomes weaker or stronger as
the years pass by, our love for the old land will never cease. We are
proud of our parentage. Proud of the Celtic and Saxon blood that courses
through our veins.

As our country expands, and as we continue to build, may our love of
country widen, and the light of patriotism that brightened and cheered
the hearts of our ancestors as they toiled on, brighten and deeper burn
in all our hearts, and one grand illumination throw its rays upon the
surface of two oceans.

A neighbouring nation may envy our progress and seek our union, but this
will only stimulate our energy and strengthen the bonds that bind
British Americans together.

Our fathers left us a few disunited provinces, our children will inherit
a vast dominion, bounded east and west by the world's two great seas.

In even less time than it took our ancestors a century ago to travel
from Halifax to the mouth of the St John, we can plant our feet on the
shore of the Pacific.

The stars and stripes may wave along our Southern boundary, and there
shall their proud waves b