Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 5.djvu/35

 to her majesty was unanimous. Not a single suggestion was made that it could by any possibility be for the interest of the Colonies, or of any section or portion of them, that there should be a severance of our connection. Altho we knew it to be possible that Canada, from her position, might be exposed to all the horrors of war by reason of causes of hostility arising between Great Britain and the United States—causes over which we had no control and which we had no hand in bringing about—yet there was a unanimous feeling of willingness to run all the hazards of war, if war must come, rather than lose the connection between the mother country and these Colonies.

We provide that "the executive authority shall be administered by the sovereign personally, or by the representative of the sovereign duly authorized." It is too much to expect that the queen should vouchsafe us her personal governance or presence except to pay us—as the heir-apparent to the throne, our future sovereign, has already paid us—the graceful compliment of a visit. The executive authority must therefore be administered by her majesty's representative. We place no restriction on her majesty's prerogative in the selection of her representative. As it is now, so it will be if this Constitution is adopted. The sovereign has unrestricted freedom of choice. Whether in making her selection, she may send us one of her own family, a royal prince, as a viceroy to rule over us, or one of the