iate the joys of
their own art or profession may not be consciously uncandid, but they
are decidedly perverse. [Laughter and applause.]

WILFRID LAURIER

CANADA

[Speech of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Premier of Canada, at a banquet given by
the Imperial Institute to the Colonial Premiers, London, June 18,
1897, on the occasion of Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee. The Prince of
Wales presided. In introducing Sir Wilfrid Laurier, he said:
"Gentlemen, this is not the time nor is it necessary to allude to the
loyalty of our great colonies. We have heard what has been spoken here
to-night, and we shall hear still more. We know that our colonies look
toward the mother country with affection; and in the hour of need and
danger I feel convinced that they will always come forward to our
assistance. [Cheers.] During the remarkable record reign of Her
Majesty the Queen great changes have occurred. When she came to the
throne, there were only thirty-two colonies; now there are sixty-five.
[Cheers.] As Lord Lansdowne has said we have met here in times of
peace. God grant that it may last, but should the occasion come when
our national flag is endangered I have but little doubt, gentlemen,
that the colonies will unite like one man to maintain what exists and
what I hope will remain forever as integral parts of the British
Empire. It is now my pleasant duty to propose the toast of the
evening: 'Our Guests the Colonial Premiers.' We welcome them as
ourselves. We hope that their stay here may not be made in any way
irksome to them. I feel sure that no one will be more grateful than
the Queen herself to see that these gentlemen have come here on the
invitation of the Colonial Office to do honor to a great epoch in our
history. This toast we connect with the health of the Hon. Wilfrid
Laurier. I now beg you with all the honors to drink this toast--'Our
Guests, I may say, our friends, the Colonial Premiers.'"]

YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN:--The toast which
your Royal Highness has just proposed in such graceful terms is one
which is important at all times and opens a subject which at the present
time perhaps more than at any other engrosses and absorbs the minds of
all thinking men. ["Hear! Hear!"] During the few days in which my
colleagues and myself have had the privilege to be in England, we have
had hourly evidences that the Colonies at the present moment occupied no