=Source.=--Speech by Sir Wilfred Laurier in the Canadian House of
Commons, 13th March, 1900; quoted in J. S. Willison's _Sir Wilfred
Laurier and the Liberal Party_.
We were not forced by England, we were not forced by Mr.
Chamberlain or by Downing Street, to do what we did, and I cannot
conceive what my honourable friend meant when he said that the
future of this country was not to be pledged by this Government.
When and where did we pledge the future of this country? We acted
in the full independence of our sovereign power. What we did we did
of our own free will, but I am not to answer for the consequences
or for what will take place in the future. My honourable friend
says that the consequence is that we will be called on to take
part in other wars. I have only this to answer to my honourable
friend, that, if it should be the will of the people of Canada at
any future stage to take part in any war of England, the people of
Canada will have to have their way. Let me say to my honourable
friend further, the maxim which he has advocated this afternoon,
and which he took from the despatch of Lord Grey to Lord Elgin,
"It must be remembered that the government of the British Colonies
in North America cannot be carried on in opposition to the will of
the people," was the language in 1847, it holds good in 1900, and
will be the language used so long as we have free parliamentary
institutions in Canada. But I have no hesitation in saying to my
honourable friend that if, as a consequence of our action to-day,
the doctrine were to be admitted that Canada should take part
in all the wars of Great Britain and contribute to the military
expenditure of the Empire, I will agree with him that we should
revise the conditions of things existing between us and Great
Britain. If we were to be compelled to take part in all the wars
of Britain, I have no hesitation in saying that I agree with my
honourable friend that, sharing the burden, we should also share
the responsibility. Under that condition of things, which does not
exist, we should have the right to say to Great Britain "If you
want us to help you, you must call us to your councils; if you want
us to take part in wars, let us share not only the burdens, but the
responsibilities as well." But there is no occasion to say that
to-day....
... We were not compelled to do what we did, but if we chose to
be generous, to do a little more than we were bound to do, where
is a man living who would find fault with us for that action? He
dreads the consequences of this action in sending out a military
contingent to South Africa. Let me tell him from the bottom of
my heart that my heart is full of the hopes I entertain of the
beneficial results which will accrue from that action.... When the
telegraph brought us the news that such was the good impression
made by our volunteers that the Commander-in-Chief had placed them
in the post of honour, in the first rank, to share the danger with
that famous corps, the Gordon Highlanders; when we heard that they
had justified fully the confidence placed in them, that they had
charged like veterans, that their conduct was heroic and had won
for them the encomiums of the Commander-in-Chief and the unstinted
admiration of their comrades, who had faced death upon a hundred
battlefields in all parts of the world, is there a man whose bosom
did not swell with pride, that noblest of all pride, that pride
of pure patriotism, the pride of the consciousness of our rising
strength, the pride of the consciousness that on that day it had
been revealed to the world that a new power had arisen in the West?
Nor is that all. The work of union and harmony between the
chief races of this country is not yet complete. We know by the
unfortunate occurrences that took place only last week that there
is much to do in that way. But there is no bond of union so strong
as the bond created by common dangers faced in common. To-day
there are men in South Africa representing the two branches of the
Canadian family fighting side by side for the honour of Canada.
Already some of them have fallen, giving to the country the last
full measure of devotion. Their remains have been laid in the same
grave, there to remain to the end of time in that last fraternal
embrace. Can we not hope, I ask my honourable friend himself,
that in that grave shall be buried the last vestiges of our
former antagonism? If such shall be the result, if we can indulge
that hope, if we can believe that in that grave shall be buried
contentions, the sending of the contingents would be the greatest
service ever rendered Canada since Confederation.