Reminiscences of a Canadian Pioneer for the last Fifty Years: An AutobiographyThompson, Samuel
History
Reminiscences of a Canadian Pioneer for the last Fifty Years: An Autobiography
Thompson, Samuel
Frontier and pioneer life -- Ontario; Thompson, Samuel, 1810-1886; Toronto (Ont.) -- Biography; Toronto (Ont.) -- History
That the diversities of opinion which exist among you, on
questions connected with the political condition of the
Province, should be attended with much excitement, is greatly to
be regretted, and I fully appreciate the motives which induce
you at the present time, to call my attention to the fact. I am
willing, nevertheless, to believe that however warmly the
citizens of Toronto may feel on such subjects, they will be
prepared, on all occasions, to demonstrate their high
appreciation of the blessings of the British Constitution, by
according to the Governor-General that respect and consideration
which are no less due to his position than to their own
well-tried loyalty and decorum.
It is my firm conviction, moreover, that the inhabitants of
Canada, generally, are averse to agitation, and that all
communities as well as individuals, who aspire to take a lead in
the affairs of the Province, will best fit themselves for that
high avocation, by exhibiting habitually in their demeanour, the
love of order and of peaceful progress.
I have observed with much anxiety and concern the commercial
depression from which the City of Toronto, in common with other
important towns in the Province, has of late so seriously
suffered. I trust, however, with you, that the crisis is now
past, and that the abundant harvest, with which a kind
Providence has blessed the country, will ere long restore its
commerce to a healthy tone.
The completion of your water communications with the ocean must
indeed be watched with a lively interest by all who have at
heart the welfare of Canada and the continuance of the
connection so happily subsisting between the Province and the
Parent State. These great works have undoubtedly been costly,
and the occasion of some financial embarrassment while in
progress. But I firmly believe that the investment you have made
in them has been judicious, and that you have secured thereby
for your children, and your children's children, an inheritance
that will not fail them so long as the law of nature endures
which causes the waters of your vast inland seas to seek an
outlet to the ocean.
I am truly obliged to you for the congratulations which you
offer me on the birth of my son, and for the kind interest which
you express in Lady Elgin's health: I am happy to be able to
inform you, that she has already derived much benefit from her
sojourn in Upper Canada.
As not a little fictitious history has been woven out of these events, I
shall call in evidence here the _Globe_ newspaper of the 11th, the
following day, in which I find this editorial paragraph:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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