The good, however, men do lives after them. Lord Durham's report, drafted for him by two master hands, those of Charles Buller and Edward Wakefield, could not be disposed of by perfervid orators or ill-informed editors. It passes into the category of historic and illuminating state papers. And, though Lord Durham fell, when, on the first of July, 1867, the British North America Act became operative, it was the handle of his trowel that struck that great cornerstone of liberty and empire, and declared it well and truly laid: the first of the Dominions, now having a population of approximately 8,000,000. Thrown upon their own resources, when Great Britain began to draw in its loans of 1911-12, the people of Canada were temporarily at a loss as to how to meet the situation; the hardships which followed, however, prepared them to meet, with resolute determination, the greater problems that crowded upon them in 1915-16. Canada, through all the past, had been a dependent and a debtor nation; the war made it self-reliant, spurred its people on to the development of natural resources, and assured them, not only that the Dominion could stand alone, but that, throughout all the future, it can be a pillar of strength to the Empire and to democracy. There were times when she was threatened by more than the ordinary difficulties which come to a nation, as when it became necessary in 1917 to pass a Conscription Act, the Province of Quebec threatened to secede. Quebec is a French territory, and it was a matter of world-wide comment that the volunteer enlistments for the Canadian army from the province were insignificant. While the French Canadians were proud of France and their cousins across the seas, they were opposed to being compelled to fight for England, and the proposal to secede was largely advocated by the French-Canadian clergy. RECIPIENTS OF UNSTINTED HONORS. Among the heroic troops that faced the Germans in Flanders none was more honored in all Canada and England than the Princess Patricia's Light Infantry. Out of this battalion, which sailed away from Canada's shores with the first expeditionary force, scarcely one-fourth of the proud number lived through the terrible campaigns of Flanders, in which the Dominion forces participated. The battalion constituted what was regarded as one of the most efficient military units in Canada, and in August, 1914, had been presented with colors wrought by the hand of Princess Patricia, daughter of the Governor General of Canada, the Duke of Connaught. The Princess, standing beside her mother, the Duchess of Connaught, in Lansdowne Park, Ottawa, presented the colors to the little force, wishing them a safe return, while thousands applauded and the spirit of patriotism ran high.