Contrast for a moment with our own, the status after more than a hundred years of the still remaining Provinces of the British Crown, in the estimation of the civilized world. With territory almost boundless in extent, with inexhaustible resources of natural wealth in forest, mine, and vast expanse of fertile soil ; with ocean, lakes and navigable streams illimitable; with the armed forces and unequalled military power of the Mother Country to defend them against

'

i8

MONUMENT DEDICATION.

all foes; with almost unrestricted personal liberties; -- they are stinted in population, avoided by immigration -- 'cabined, cribbed, confined,' in the elements and triumphs of human progress.

Seemingly content they lie asleep on the breast of the mightiest, most liberal, and most excellent Sovereign of the earth.

But with our own America, independent and free in her national life, the reverse of all these things is the truth. In every quarter of the globe her influence is felt and recognized in all the impulses of liberty ; in all the progress of commerce; in every national question of finance ; in the marches of education ; the products of art ; in the inventions of genius ; in the achievements of skill and science ; in the circles of education and learning ; in the missions of Christian mercy ; in the hopefulness of emigration ; and, best of all, in the solution of national controversies by the arbitration of justice and peace, instead of the sword and cannon of war.