m of church polity, but a
deep love of divine truth; so Canadian loyalty is a firm attachment to
that British Constitution and those British laws, adopted or enacted by
ourselves, which best secure life, liberty, and prosperity, and which
prompt us to Christian and patriotic deeds by linking us with all that
is grand and noble in the traditions of our national history.

"In the war of 1812 to 1815--one of the last and hardest-fought battles
was that of Lundy's Lane, which we meet this day, on this historic
ground, to celebrate--both the loyalty and courage of the Canadian
people were put to the severest test, and both came out of the fiery
ordeal as refined gold. Nothing could be more disgraceful and
unprincipled than the Madison (I will not say American) declaration of
war against Great Britain, which was at that moment employing her utmost
strength and resources in defence of European nations and the liberties
of mankind. That scourge of modern Europe--the heartless tyrant, but
great soldier, Napoleon--had laid prostrate at his feet all the
Governments of Western and Central Europe, England alone excepted. To
destroy British power, he issued decrees first at Berlin, in 1806, and
afterwards at Milan, excluding all British merchandize from French
ports, and prohibiting the use of British commodities throughout France
and her dependencies, under severe penalties; searching neutral vessels
for British goods, and confiscating them when found, with the vessels
carrying them; interdicting all neutral vessels from trading with any
British port; declaring all the ports of Great Britain and of her
dependencies to be in a state of blockade, though at the very moment the
English fleet commanded the seas. These Napoleon decrees violated the
laws of nations, and affected the national rights and independence of
the United States, as well as of the European nations; and had not
President Madison and his war faction been in league with Napoleon, they
would have resented it, instead of silently submitting, and thus
becoming a party to it. In self-defence and retaliation upon the tyrant
Napoleon, Great Britain, in January, 1807, issued Decrees of Council,
declaring all French ports in a state of blockade, and declaring all
vessels of neutrals liable to seizure which should engage in trade with
France; and as the Napoleon decrees had declared all vessels of any
nation liable to seizure which had touched at any British port, the
English O