Читать книгу The Struggle for Imperial Unity: Recollections & Experiences - George T. Denison - Страница 29

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The progress the Commercial Union movement was making, and the great danger arising from it, led my brother and me to discuss it with a number of loyal men, and on all sides the opinion seemed to be that active steps should be taken at once to work against it. The principal active workers at first were officers of my regiment and a few other personal friends, and small meetings were held in my brother’s office to discuss the matter, and it was decided that the best policy was to advocate a Commercial Union of the British Empire as the alternative to the proposition of a Commercial Union with the United States, and that a scheme of Imperial Federation based upon a Commercial Union of the various parts of the Empire would be the best method of advocating our views. By advocating Imperial Federation it enabled us to appeal to the old dream of the United Empire Loyalists of the Revolution. It gave the opportunity of appealing to our history, to the sacrifices of our fathers, to all the traditions of race, and the ties of blood and kindred, to the sacrifices and the victories of the war of 1812, and to the national spirit of our people, to preserve our status as a part of the British Empire. G. R. R. Cockburn, J. M. Clark, D’Alton McCarthy, John Beverley Robinson, Wm. Hamilton Merritt, Lt.-Colonel Fred C. Denison, Casimir Dickson, Commander Law, John T. Small, D. R. Wilkie, John A. Worrell, Henry Wickham, and James L. Hughes were the moving spirits in organising the Toronto Branch of the Imperial Federation League, and it was accomplished during the last two or three months of 1887 and the beginning of 1888.

In October, 1887, Erastus Wiman sent a circular to the Members of the House of Commons, asking them for their views upon his scheme. Lt.-Col. F. C. Denison sent the following reply, and forwarded a copy to the newspapers:

Toronto, 12th Oct., 1887.

Sir,

I have received your circular of Sept. 17th sent to me as a member of the House of Commons, enclosing a copy of a speech delivered by you on Commercial Union and asking an opinion upon it.

I must tell you that I am utterly opposed to it, as in my mind Commercial Union simply means annexation, a result to be deplored by every true Canadian, and unlikely to happen without the shedding of a lot of Canadian blood. We are now, despite what the advocates of Commercial Union say, a happy, prosperous, and contented people. I am positive no pecuniary advantage would accrue to Canada from Commercial Union, but even granting all that you say as to the increased prosperity it would bring to us, I would still be opposed to it. We do not in Canada place so high a value upon the “Almighty Dollar” as do the Yankees, and we hope always to be Canadians. Why should we sever our connection with the Mother Country, which has in the past done so much for us, for the sake of throwing in our lot with a people who produce more bank thieves and embezzlers than any other country in the world; who care so little for the sanctity of the marriage tie that one hundred divorces a day have been granted in one city? To do so would be national suicide. No pecuniary advantage can ever outweigh our national life, or our national honour. The appeals made in favour of Commercial Union are all addressed to the pocket, but I have confidence in my fellow countrymen that they will place our national honour and our independence above all pecuniary considerations. A man worthy of the name will not sell his own honour, or his wife’s or his daughter’s, for money. Such a proposal could not for a moment be considered from a financial standpoint, and no people worthy of the name would ever sacrifice their national honour for material advantages. There is no sentiment that produces such sacrifices as national sentiment, and you gentlemen who advocate Commercial Union, argue as if my countrymen would sell everything dear to them for money. You entirely misunderstand our people.

Believe me,

Yours truly,

Fred C. Denison.

Erastus Wiman, Esq.,

New York, U.S.A.

The late Mrs. S. A. Curzon paraphrased this letter in the following lines, which appeared in the Toronto World of the 18th October, 1887:

Well spoken, Denison! a heart beats there Loyal to more than selfish minds can grasp; Not gold our nation’s wealth, or lavish ease, Nor sordid aim her rod of destiny. No! Canada hath ends beyond a life Fed by loose license, luxury, and pelf. She hath inherited through noble sires Of ancient blood, and lineage straight and clean, Great riches. A renown unequalled yet; A liberty hard won on many a field; A country wide and large, and fair and full; A loyalty as self-denying as a vow; An honour high as heaven and pure as light; A heroism that bleeds, but blenches not; An industry of muscle true as steel; A self-restraint that binds a world in bonds; An honesty contented with its own. Shall she sell these for gold? “What can gold give Better than she hath?—a nation’s life A nation’s liberty, a nation’s self-respect.” Brave words—my Denison—brave words and true! Take thou this tribute from a patriot heart. As thee our legislators ever be; Men whose whole aim is for the nation’s weal And for safekeeping of her name intact.

On the 30th December, 1887, the Toronto Board of Trade gave a banquet in honour of the Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain. It was a very large and influential gathering. I then fired my first public shot against Commercial Union. Colonel Otter was put down to respond to the toast of the Army, Navy, and Active Militia, but the Chairman in proposing the toast, added my name also, without having given me any intimation whatever that I would be called upon to speak. I quote the report which appeared in the World the next morning of my three minutes’ speech: