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The celebration by Canada of the Sixtieth Anniversary of Confederation has done much to awaken a new interest in our country. I hope that a desire to further the spirit of good-will, which the celebration, has done so much to foster, will be accepted as sufficient justification for bringing together in the pages of a book some addresses of my own which are related to the year’s events, and which seek to record the historic significance of these events. In the present volume there have been added addresses or extracts of speeches of other years, which owe their origin to a like purpose.

The selections have been made from among a number of public speeches of which the record has been sufficiently adequate to permit of their publication. It need scarcely be said that there was, at the time of their delivery, but little opportunity for careful preparation, and that there has been since even less in the way of opportunity of revision. For the most part, they are the fruit of an endeavour to be faithful to a tradition of British public life which aims at an association of letters with politics, and an interpretation on the part of public men of events in which they may be called upon to participate.

I have been careful not to include speeches dealing with controversial politics. This of necessity has limited considerably my field of choice. On the other hand, it has enabled me to make clear my views on some matters of national interest in a form which I hope may prove acceptable to the public.

The message of the carillon is a message of peace and good-will. Some of its notes will, I believe, be found in each of the selections which go to make up the pages of this book. The speeches themselves are on a variety of topics, and have been made in different countries, and at different times. The motif of all is, however, the same. In the circumstances it will, I trust, not seem inappropriate that they should appear collectively under a title which belongs more exclusively to the first address.

W. L. Mackenzie King.

Laurier House, Ottawa,

11th November, 1927.