Memories of Canada and Scotland, Speeches and Verses | Page 3

reached the snowdrift foam,
As shoots to waves some
meteor ball.
Then homeward, hearing song or tale,
With chime of harness bells we
sped
Above the frozen river bed.
The city, through a misty veil,

Gleamed from her cape, where sunset fire
Touched louvre and
cathedral spire,
Bathed ice and snow a rosy red,
So beautiful that
men's desire
For May-time's rival wonders fled:
What glories hath this gracious land,
Fit home for many a hardy race;

Where liberty has broadest base,
And labour honours every hand!

Throughout her triply thousand miles
The sun upon each season
smiles,
And every man has scope and space,

And kindliness, from
strand to strand,
Alone is born to right of place!

Such were our memories. May they yet
Be shared by others, sent to
be
Signs of the union of the free
And kindred peoples God hath set

O'er famous isles, and fertile zones
Of continents! Or if new
thrones
And mighty States arise, may He
Whose potent hand yon
river owns
Smooth their great future's shrouded Sea!
PROLOGUE.
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, March 1879.
A moment's pause before we play our parts,
To speak the thought that
reigns within your hearts.--
Now from the Future's hours, and
unknown days,
Affection turns, and with the Past delays;
For
countless voices in our mighty land
Speak the fond praises of a
vanished hand;
And shall, to mightier ages yet, proclaim
The happy
memories linked with Dufferin's name.
Missed here is he, to whom each class and creed,
Among our people
lately bade "God speed;"
Missed, when each Winter sees the skater
wheel
In ringing circle on the flashing steel;
Missed in the Spring,
the Summer and the Fall,
In many a hut, as in the Council Hall;

Where'er his wanderings on Duty's hest
Evoked his glowing speech,
his genial jest.
We mourn his absence, though we joy that now
Old
England's honours cluster round his brow,
And that he left us but to
serve again
Our Queen and Empire on the Neva's plain!
Amidst the honoured roll of those whose fate
It was to crown our fair
Canadian State,
And bind in one bright diadem alone,
Each glorious
Province, each resplendent stone,
His name shall last, and his
example give
To all her sons a lesson how to live:
How every task,
if met with heart as bold,
Proves the hard rock is seamed with
precious gold,
And Labour, when with Mirth and Love allied,
Finds
friends far stronger than in Force and Pride,
And Sympathy and
Kindness can be made
The potent weapons by which men are swayed.


He proved a nation's trust can well be won
By loyal work and
constant duty done;
The wit that winged the wisdom of his word

Set forth our glories, till all Europe heard
How wide the room our
Western World can spare
For all who nobly toil and bravely dare.
And while the statesman we revere, we know
In him the friend is
gone, to whom we owe
So much of gaiety, so much which made

Life's duller round to seem in joy repaid.
These little festivals by him
made bright,
With grateful thoughts of him renewed to-night,

Remind no less of her who deigned to grace
This mimic world, and
fill therein her place
With the sweet dignity and gracious mien
The
race of Hamilton has often seen;
But never shown upon the wider
stage
Where the great "cast" is writ on History's page,
More purely,
nobly, than by her, whose voice
Here moved to tears, or made the
heart rejoice,
And who in act and word, at home, or far,
Shone with
calm beauty like the Northern Star!
Green as the Shamrock of their native Isle
Their memory lives, and
babes unborn shall smile
And share in happiness the pride that blends

Our country's name with her beloved friends!
A NATIONAL HYMN.
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, March 1880.
From our Dominion never
Take Thy protecting hand,
United, Lord,
for ever
Keep Thou our fathers' land!
From where Atlantic terrors

Our hardy seamen train,
To where the salt sea mirrors
The vast
Pacific chain.
Aye one with her whose thunder
Keeps world-watch
with the hours,
Guard Freedom's home and wonder,
"This Canada
of ours."
Fair days of fortune send her,
Be Thou her Shield and Sun!
Our
land, our flag's Defender,
Unite our hearts as one!

One flag, one
land, upon her
May every blessing rest I
For loyal faith and honour


Her children's deeds attest
Aye one with her, &c.
No stranger's foot, insulting,
Shall tread our country's soil;
While
stand her sons exulting
For her to live and toil.
She hath the victor's
guerdon,
Her's are the conquering hours,
No foeman's yoke shall
burden
"This Canada of ours."
Aye one with her, &c.
Our sires, when times were sorest,
Asked none but aid Divine,
And
cleared the tangled forest,
And wrought the buried mine.
They
tracked the floods and fountains,
And won, with master-hand,
Far
more than gold in mountains,
The glorious Prairie-land.
Aye one
with her, &c,
O Giver of earth's treasure,
Make Thou our nation strong;
Pour
forth Thine hot displeasure
On all who work our wrong!
To our
remotest border
Let plenty still increase,
Let Liberty and Order,

Bid ancient feuds to cease.
Aye one with her, &c.
May Canada's fair daughters
Keep house for hearts as bold
As
theirs who o'er the waters
Came hither first of old.
The pioneers of
nations!
They showed the world the way;
Tis ours to keep their
stations,
And lead the van to-day.
Aye one with