PREMIER MERCIERS SPEECH

In response to the toast of ‘“ The Province of Quebec,” Premier Mercier appeared on the platform with a maple leaf pinned to his immaculate white. bosom front, and decorated with the cross of Saint Gregory the Great. He was received with thunders of applause, bouquets were poured upon him, and with a sublime pose he commenced his oration. One thought had risen uppermost in his mind, he said, while he had assisted at the solemn sacrifice of the mass by a prince of the Church to-day, on the historical spot of ground where Jacques Cartier had landed, and it was that thought that he wished to elucidate to-night. He had gone back to the date on which that glorious event had taken place, and he had pictured to himself the immortal Jacques Cartier and the heroic Jesuit missionary kneeling at the foot of the cross, and he had felt that if those heroes were with them to-day, their words of greeting and of warning to their compatriots would be : * Cease your fratricidal strifes ; be united.” (Loud applause.) That was what he desired to say to them to-night, and it was this idea that he wished to develop. In the name of their religion, in the name of their country, he would say to them ; “ Cease your fratricidal strifes ; be united.” (Applause.) For the benefit of their religion, for the benefit of their country, and for the benefit of Canada at large, he urged them to

do s0. Standing in the face of a common danger, the present was no time for party divisions and for fratricidal conflicts. To-day the Rouge and the Bleu should give place to the tricolor. (Great applause.) They must be united ifthey wishedte make their nationality great and powerful. To-day they had taken part in one of the most maganificent national demonstrations ever witnessed in their history. It was a great and glorious event, a triumph for the national cause. (Great applause.) But of what benefit would be this triumph if to-morrow they would be divided again in face of the common danger ? If they were to triumph they must be united at all times and on all occasions. Their nationality was insulted, their institutions were decried, their language, their customs, and their laws were abused, and their national honour was dragged in the dust. Too often, he was sorry to say, there were those who were ready to achieve success by the disconfiture of their compatriots. These divisions, these fratricidal struggles, were suicidal and ruinous. The French- Oanadians had need of all their force, of all their energy, in the momentuous issues that were impending, and these should not be wasted on party divisions and quarrels. (Applause.) They were but two millions of people in the midst of the sixty millions, strong and powerful, with vast resources and with armies to defend them. More than that ; those sixty millions were united, because they knew to be strong they must be united. Why should the French- Canadians not be likewise ? (Applause.) They talked of their party divisions, forgetting that a particular government was nothing. It passed away, but the nation remained. (Applause.) He was ready to declare that the government of which he was the oi was ready to disappear if that would be the means of uniting the French-Canadian people for the triumph of their “sacred cause. (Great applause.) For the sake of their nationality, ior the sake of their religion, they must be united. Religion and nationality formed a harmonious union in their midst. The strength of the French-Canadian people lay in the union of the people with the clergy. (Great applause) To the clergy the French-Canadian owed what they were to-day, and if

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they were a great and patriotic people, it was due to the faith of their fathers which they had maintained. (Applause.) For the sake then of their religion, let them cease their fratricidal strifes and be united, but more than that, for the sake of the Dominion at large they must be united. The French-Canadians were a generous people. They were willing to tolerate all races and all creeds, but kow was their generosity repaid? They knew what was passing before their eyes to-day. The agitation which was now being conducted in Ontario, he wished t6 declare boldly, was a baseless and dangerous agitation. (Loud applause.) And he would say further, that if the French-Canadians were to acceptthe provocation that had been offered them they might not be the first victims of this agitation. (Deafening applause.) Profiting by an act of Justice, tbat had been rendered by the Legislature of Quebec, in the full authority of its constitutional powers, those fanatics of Ontario would like to deprive the French Catholics of some of their dearest and most cherished rights by the most insolent and insulting agitation ever indulged in by a people. (Loud cries of ‘“ Shame.”) Who were the men that were conducting this agitation ? They were the same men who were saying that the French-vanadians had no right to teach their children French in the Province of Ontario. (Loud cries of ‘ Shame ” and hoots.) Let them contrast that action with ‘the conduct of the French Catholics of laebec towards the Protestant minority. The Protestants of Quebec were given one-third of the educational grant, and they were not asked what they taught in their schools. They were allowed to teach a different creed and a different language. But these men, who had been treated with so much generosity and liberality, were now joining with the fanatics of Ontario. The Quebec Legis- ; Les had its dccuments translated into English for the benefit of the few English members, and those fanatics would not allow French to be taught in Ontario. (Cries of ‘ Shame.”) The French-Canadian people were too generous to retaliate on the minority. He defied those who were conducting the agitusion in Ontario to show a single instance where Catholics had been treated in as generous a manner by the Protestants as the Protestant

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minority in Quebec had been treated by the French Catholics. He did not make these remarks as a provocation, but as a reply to the insolent fanatics who were now insulting them and abusing their religion and their institutions. (Great applause) He would say to those fanatics, “ You are wrong. We have treated you generously. Treat us as we have treated you.” To-day’s celebration was a glorious answer to those who insulted their race and their religion. (Great applause.) By coupling the name of the Jesuit hero, Brebeuf, with the immortal Jacques-Cartier, they said 10 their insulters : — ‘ It is useless to imagine that we will ever cease to be French and Catholic. This monument declares that after a century ofseparation from our ancient mother, we are still French. (Applause.) More than that, we will remain French and Catholic, and oux children will be French and Catholic.” (Great and long continued cheering.) He said this, not as a provocation, but as a reply. But once more he would say that to render this reply effective they must cease their fratricidal strifes and be united. That was his word of advice to taem on this great occasion. Let them cherish it and act accordingly, and all the actions of the fanatics of Ontario would come to naught. (Long continued applause.)