tested proved worthy of their highest traditions, and I speak of the French race in Canada as well as the British, because no men ever distinguished themselves more splendidly than did the Canadians of French descent fighting in France and Flanders. Within six weeks after the outbreak of war a force of nearly 35,000 men was assembled, thoroughly armed, equipped and organized in every branch of military service. Its journey across the Atlantic in a great armada of steamships began on October 2, 1914. Nearly 100,000 Canadian soldiers have since gone overseas and during the past ten months they have poured across the ocean at the rate of more than 2,000 per week. Our authorized force is now 250,000 and more than 200,000 are already under arms.

Has our national spirit been adequately responsive to the nation's needs? For courage and devotion I point to the Canadians at Ypres, at Festubert, at Givenchy. For selfsacrifice, I see the women yielding their dearest at the country's call and consecrating their lives to all missions of mercy. For the bountiful generosity of our people I need but mention $6,000,000 for the Patriotic Fund, $2,000,000 for the British Red Cross Society, $3,500,000 for our own Red Cross and kindred societies, more than $2,000,000 for the starving and destitute in Belgium, at least $3,000,000 in other patriotic contributions from Provinces and individuals, $5,000,000 in food products and other supplies useful for war purposes placed by the Dominion and the Provinces at the disposal of the British Government. Men of great financial experience believed that subscriptions by the public at large to the recent war loan of $50,000,000 would probably reach $10,000,000 and could not exceed $15,000,000. The public added $70,000,000 to the $15,000,000 and the total subscriptions ran close to $110,000,000.

I have spoken of all these things in order that you may truly comprehend what our course has been in this war, and that you may perhaps believe that Canada has made her loyalty a living principle in a finer way than ever before. And our Empire seems to us something greater than it was

a year ago; when mighty armies from the Dominions and Dependencies arrayed themselves in its battleline, a new and impressive epoch in its history was marked. These pregnant events have already given birth to a new order. It is realized that the great policies and questions which concern and govern the issues of peace and war cannot in future be assumed by the people of the British Islands alone.

Realizing to the full the tragedy of this war we in Canada pray that "the whirring loom of time" may weave the mighty events of the next twelve months into an abiding peace. But there is with us the most intense conviction that the cause for which we fight does truly concern the freedom of the world and that there can be no enduring peace until it fully prevails. Interwoven with this conviction is an equally intense and unalterable determination to spare no effort and shrink from no sacrifice necessary to make so great a cause triumphant. Finally we have faith that this war heralds not the "dies irae" but the regeneration of our civilization, founded as it is upon so many centuries of aspi ration, endeavor and sacrifice; faith also that humanity's struggle against the enthronement of force above right will not be in vain.

PRESIDENT STETSON: Gentlemen: It is my privilege now to call attention to an address that will deserve attention from another son of New England, born not in New England, but from New England ancestry, one who came out of that splendid contribution of Connecticut to the Western Reserve of the State of Ohio. No man has better illustrated the virtues and the wisdom of our New England people than this conscientious legislator who, to our great regret, is to be no longer in the legislative halls at Washington, preparatory perhaps to some other residence, but who, day in and day out, for year in and for year out, has given a conscientious study to the problems of our government, unsurpassed in its fidelity by that of any other legislator. I introduce to you Senator Burton, of the Western Reserve in Ohio.

SPEECH BY THE HONORABLE THEODORE E.

BURTON.

Mr. President, Gentlemen of the New England Society, ladies and gentlemen: I thank you most cordially for this friendly reception.

Premier Borden: I join in congratulations upon the one hundred years of peace and friendly relations between our beloved country and Canada. We desire to live at peace with all nations, and international ties are specially close between us and the country across the border. Similarity of customs and language, proximity and kindred aims all have tended to create good will between us. May that peace and good will increase and be perpetual.

We have the splendid feature of a border of between three thousand and four thousand miles on which there are no frowning fortresses, bodies of water between on which there is a magnificent traffic, but no ships of war. It may be of interest to some of you to know that the one who first suggested this order of things, the absence of fortifications, just before the final treaty with England after the Revolutionary War, was the then foremost citizen of the City of New York, Alexander Hamilton, one of the most far-seeing of statesmen.

The supreme test of the vitality of a nation, race or stock is its capacity to maintain its vigor and distinctive qualities notwithstanding lapse of time or change of environment. Man is the creature of inherited ideals, traditions, and institutions on the one hand, and of physical surround

ings and contemporaneous influences on the other; both these give form and direction to his intellectual and physical type. Two opposing theories have been maintained; one would make of human beings mere reflections of the mountains and the seas which surround them and of the skies which look down upon them; it is alleged that these externals conjoined with the prevalent standards and pursuits of the time create the man; a Napoleon or Washington arises only in response to demands already existing. The other view is that the successive epochs of history center around some towering individuality possessed of force and initiative who becomes a leader and creates new conditions and institutions. The most trustworthy generalization can be obtained by accepting the middle ground between these two opinions. Individuals and peoples experience modifications in their character and aspirations from their enrivonment and the events of the time. No less they find examples and inspiration in the legacies of the past. Patriotism, courage, and lofty moral standards are not the mere result of atmosphere; neither are the conquering spirit and vigorous national life determined by the plane of elevation above the level of the Blood will tell; the influence of ancestry cannot be lost. There is assuredly no more conspicuous illustration of the influence of early ideals than that of the early settlers of New England upon their descendants whether we look upon those now living in the six States comprising that portion of our country or upon that immenser multitude who dwell in other States or countries. The value of such a heritage is illustrated by this celebration of Forefathers' Day, which has been enthusiastically maintained by this Society for more than a century. The twenty-second of December has a certain sacredness which gives it a place as an anniversary beside Independence Day and that other day on which we commemorate the sacrifices of the hosts which took part in the Civil War. And yet, in less than three hundred years since the landing of the Pilgrims the world has been well nigh transformed and changes have occurred

sea.

in our own America which by the most studious comparison can only be imperfectly measured. What are the contrasts and what the similarities between our fathers' days and ours? In an address delivered before this Society seventy-two years ago, Mr. Webster, in imagination, calls up the figure of Elder William Brewster, entering the door at the farther end of the hall; tall and erect in figure, plain in dress, and fancies that he would look upon the scene of festivity and say, with a voice of exultation and yet softened with melancholy, "Are ye our children? Does this scene of refinement, of elegance, of riches, of luxury, does all this come from our labors? Is this magnificent city, the like of which we never saw nor heard of on either continent, is this but an off-shoot from Plymouth Rock?

Quis jam locus.

Quae regio in terris nostris, non plena laboris?

Is this one part of the great reward for which my brethren and myself endured lives of toil and of hardship? We had faith and hope. God granted us the spirit to look forward, and we did look forward. But this scene we never anticipated. Our hopes were on another life. Of earthly gratifications we tasted little; for human honors we had little expectation. Our bones lie on the hill in Plymouth churchyard, obscure, unmarked, secreted, to preserve our graves from the knowledge of savage foes. No stone tells where we lie. And yet, let me say to you who are our descendants, who possess this glorious country and all it contains, who enjoy this hour of prosperity and the thousand blessings showered upon it by the God of your fathers, we envy you not, we reproach you not. Be rich, be Be rich, be prosperous, be enlightened. Live in pleasure, if such be your allotment on earth; but live also, always to God and to duty. Spread yourselves and your children over the continent, accomplish the whole of your great destiny, and if it be that through the whole you carry Puritan hearts with you, if you still cherish an undying love of civil and religious liberty, and mean to enjoy yourselves and are willing to shed your heart's blood