Page:Brock centenary 2nd ed. 1913.djvu/73

 THE SPEECHES

The preliminaries over, the gathering was ad- dressed by a number of well known gentlemen whose speeches follow:

COLONEL G. STERLING RYERSON

Chairman of the General Committee

This meeting to-day is held to commemorate the death of a brave and wise man who died in the de- fence of his country. It is not a pean of victory we sing but a requiem. We are not here to glorify war ; nor is our object to exult over our brave but defeated adversary. Rather is it an occasion when Canadians should pause and look back over the past and give praise to God that in the days of stress and storm He raised up great, good and brave men who were willing and able to fight for their king and country in order that they might enjoy civil and religious liberty under the British flag, and that they might hand down to their poster- ity a fair and goodly heritage which they had won from the primeval forests by their labour and sac- rifices. The United Empire Loyalists came to this country not as those who desired to better their condition in life, nor were they possessed by land hunger, nor by ideas of political and social aggran- disement. They came solely because of their devo- tion to the British Crown and Constitution, and because they preferred to live in peace and poverty under a monarchical Government rather than in wealth and discord under republican institutions. It was to these men that Brock appealed, nor did he appeal in vain when war was declared. It was

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