Ours is
the policy of the fields. We stand for the wheat-belt
and the stockyard, the forest and the mine, as the basic
interests of the country. We stand for the principles
that make for nation-building by the slow sweet processes
of the earth, cultivating the individual rooted man who
draws his essence and his tissues from the soil and so,
by unhurried, natural, healthy growth, labour sweating
his vices out of him, forms the character of the
commonwealth, the foundation of the State. So the imperial
idea seeks its Canadian home in Liberal councils. The
imperial idea is far-sighted. England has outlived her
own body. Apart from her heart and her history, England
is an area where certain trades are carried on--still
carried on. In the scrolls of the future it is already
written that the centre of the Empire must shift--and
where, if not to Canada?"
There was a half-comprehending burst of applause, Dr
Drummond's the first clap. It was a curious change from
the simple colloquial manner in which young Murchison
had begun and to which the audience were accustomed; and
on this account probably they stamped the harder. They
applauded Lorne himself; something from him infected
them; they applauded being made to feel like that. They
would clap first and consider afterward.
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