On this point, I
repeat, after all my hon. friends who have already spoken, for one
party to alter a treaty, is, of course, to destroy it. Let us be frank
with each other; you do not like our work, nor do you like us who stand
by it, clause by clause, line by line, and letter by letter. Well, we
believe we have here given to our countrymen of all the Provinces the
possible best--that we have given them an approximation to the right--
their representatives and ours have laboured at it, letter and spirit,
form and substance, until they found this basis of agreement, which we
are all confident will not now, nor for many a day to come, be easily
swept away. And first, I will make a remark to some of the French
Canadian gentlemen who are said to be opposed to our project, on French
Canadian grounds only. I will remind them, I hope not improperly, that
every one of the Colonies we now propose to re-unite under one rule--in
which they shall have a potential voice--were once before united as New
France. Newfoundland, the uttermost, was theirs, and one large section
of its coast is still known as the 'French shore;' Cape Breton was
theirs till the final fall of Louisburgh; Prince Edward Island was
their Island of St. Jean; Charlottetown was their Port Joli; and
Frederickton, the present capital of New Brunswick, their St.
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