y be filling,
in the far harbour of time which will bear their descendants to a
representative share of the duties and responsibilities of Empire in the
capital of the Dominion of Canada?"

It was the boldest proposition, and the Liberal voters of the town of
Elgin blinked a little, looking at it. Still they applauded, hurriedly,
to get it over and hear what more might be coming. Bingham, on the
platform, laughed heartily and conspicuously, as if anybody could see
that it was all an excellent joke. Lorne half-turned to him with a
gesture of protest. Then he went on--

"If that transport ever left the shores of England we would go far, some
of us, to meet it; but for all the purposes that matter most it sailed
long ago. British statesmen could bring us nothing better than the
ideals of British government; and those we have had since we levied our
first tax and made our first law. That precious cargo was our heritage,
and we never threw it overboard, but chose rather to render what impost
it brought; and there are those who say that the impost has been heavy,
though never a dollar was paid."

He paused for an instant and seemed to review and take account of what
he had said. He was hopelessly adrift from the subject he had proposed
to himself, launched for better or for worse upon the theme that was
subliminal in him and had flowed up, on which he was launched, and
almost rudderless, without construction and without control. The speech
of his first intention, orderly, developed, was as far from him as the
history of Liberalism in Fox County. For an instant he hesitated; and
then, under the suggestion, no doubt, of that ancient misbehaviour in
Boston Harbour at which he had hinted, he took up another argument. I
will quote him a little.

"Let us hold," he said simply, "to the Empire. Let us keep this
patrimony that has been ours for three hundred years. Let us not
forget the flag. We believe ourselves, at this moment, in no danger of
forgetting it. The day after Paardeburg, that still winter day, did
not our hearts rise within us to see it shaken out with its message
everywhere, shaken out against the snow? How it spoke to us, and lifted
us, the silent flag in the new fallen snow! Theirs--and ours... That was
but a little while ago, and there is not a man here who will not bear me
out in saying that we were never more loyal, in word and deed, than we
are now. And that very state of things has created for us an undermin