.."
Again he paused, and his eye ranged over their listening
faces. He had them all with him, his words were vivid in
their minds; the truth of them stood about him like an
atmosphere. Even Bingham looked at him without reproach.
But he had done.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, his voice dropping, with
a hint of tiredness, to another level, "I have the honour
to stand for your suffrages as candidate in the Liberal
interest for the riding of South Fox in the Dominion
House of Commons the day after tomorrow. I solicit your
support, and I hereby pledge myself to justify it by
every means in my power. But it would be idle to disguise
from you that while I attach all importance to the
immediate interests in charge of the Liberal party, and
if elected shall use my best efforts to further them,
the great task before that party, in my opinion, the
overshadowing task to which, I shall hope, in my place
and degree to stand committed from the beginning, is the
one which I have endeavoured to bring before your
consideration this evening."
They gave him a great appreciation, and Mr Cruickshank,
following, spoke in complimentary terms of the eloquent
appeal made by the "young and vigorous protagonist" of
the imperial cause, but proceeded to a number of quite
other and apparently more important grounds why he should
be elected.
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