England expects every man to do his duty! I am going to do my duty, not
only by Canada, but by the Empire. Britain, thank God, does not require
help from anybody, but if ever the occasion should arise when Britain is
summoned to stand against the whole world in arms, she can depend upon
the loyal support of Canada and the Canadian people. The Canadian people
are free and loyal; loyal because they are free.
The “Old Chief” as he was familiarly, and lovingly called by his
followers, occupied a very large place in the affections of the British
people. There was something romantic about this French-Canadian Prime
Minister, who took the premier place at Imperial Conferences, and who
argued that formal treaties, and hard and fast agreements were not
necessary to bind the Empire together.
* * * * *
“What do you think of the English people?” Sir Wilfrid was once asked.
“The English are all right; they are good sports, good losers, and on
the whole I have no reason to complain of their treatment during my long
term of public life.”
“Are they not somewhat arrogant?”
“All strong people are somewhat arrogant, but they are fair to a great
degree,” he replied.
“I was born a Catholic,” he declared, “and I will die, of course, in
that faith,” and when I replied that he had had a pretty hard row to hoe
in his lifetime with certain priests and prelates, he replied: “Yes,
that is true, but others of the same cloth have shown me much kindness
that it sweetens the bitterness of the pill which a few of them have
administered. Here,” he added, in the most earnest tones and expression,
“is the whole situation. Without taking as gospel everything that a curé
may say, or even a bishop, I firmly believe in the principles of the
Roman Catholic Church, and, as I have stated, I will die in the faith.
In reply to your remark as to the difficulties which have from time to
time beset me during the past thirty-five years, I may say that there
are a good many people who have tried to drive me out of the Catholic
Church, and the means which they have used have not at all times been
fair and above board, but, thank God, they have not succeeded up to the
present time, and they will have quite as little success in the future
as in the past.”
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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