Have these sights and sounds no warning addressed to
us? Are we as those who have eyes and see not; ears and hear not;
reason, neither do they understand? If we are true to Canada--if we do
not desire to become part and parcel of this people--we cannot overlook
this, the greatest revolution of our own times. Let us remember this,
that when the three cries among our next neighbours are shoddy,
taxation, blood, it is tune for us to provide for our own security. I
said, in this House, during the session of the year 1861, that the
first gun fired at Fort Sumter had a 'message for us;' I was unheeded
then; I repeat now that every one of the 2,700 great guns in the field,
and every one of the 4,600 guns afloat, whenever it opens its mouth,
repeats the solemn warning of England---Prepare! prepare! prepare! I
think, Sir, I am justified in regarding the American conflict, as one
of the warnings we have received; and the third warning, that things
cannot go on in this country as they are, is a warning voice from
within--a warning voice from our own experience in the government of
these Provinces. On these internal constitutional difficulties existing
among ourselves, which were so fully exposed last evening by my hon.
friend, the President of the Council, I need say little; they are
admitted to have been real, not imaginary, on all hands.
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