Читать книгу The Message of the Carillon And Other Addresses - William Lyon Mackenzie King - Страница 9
ОглавлениеAt the Dinner Given by the Government of Canada, The Houses of Parliament, Ottawa
2nd August, 1927
While it has been our privilege on former occasions to welcome His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, we are deeply sensible to-day of the honour which he has done us in making a special visit to Canada for the purpose of expressing, in the year of the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation, the deep personal interest which the Royal Family has always evinced in the welfare of the Canadian people. We are delighted also to welcome His Royal Highness as one who brings to us at this historic time greetings from our beloved Sovereign, towards whom, on the part of His Majesty’s Canadian subjects, there is entertained, from one end of the Dominion to the other a sentiment of devoted attachment.
We are greatly honoured, also, in having as a guest of our country at this time His Royal Highness Prince George, who was recently in Canada on his return to England from the Orient. We are glad to know that he is to accompany his royal brother on his journey across the Dominion, and hope that the remembrance of the present tour will be such as to cause him to re-visit Canada in the near future. May I venture to express the wish, in the presence of Their Royal Highnesses, that on some future occasion, some future birthday of the Dominion, Canada may be honoured by the presence of Their Majesties the King and Queen!
Your Royal Highness will be pleased to know that there never was a time in the history of Canada when its citizens were more conscious of their unity, or enjoyed a greater pride in their native land. At no time has Canada been happier in her relations with all other parts of the British Empire and with foreign countries, or more loyal to the Crown. We believe that this pride in our country and the Empire will be enhanced by your present visit, which brings to mind an allegiance to the Crown, a devotion to British institutions and British ideals enjoyed in common by the peoples of the Empire in all parts of the world. We shall be grateful if, on your return to England, you will convey to His Majesty the assurance of our continued loyalty and fidelity, and of our readiness heartily to co-operate in all that may best serve to safeguard and promote the interests of the community of free British nations of which His Majesty is King.
There is something especially appropriate in honouring the toast to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales within the walls of our Houses of Parliament. No association with the Parliament of Canada has been so long and unbroken as that of the Royal Family.
About seventy years ago, what is now the City of Ottawa was selected by Queen Victoria as the site of the future capital of Canada. The choice was made with reference to what was then a Canada of but two Provinces, united as one from 1841. In 1860, the corner stone of the new Houses of Parliament was laid by King Edward VII, at the time, Prince of Wales. In 1867 came Confederation, the Diamond Jubilee of which we are celebrating this year. The Canada of the two united Provinces became, by Confederation, a Canada of four Provinces extending from the Great Lakes to the sea.
The era of Confederation was followed by an era of expansion in settlement and in government. From 1878 to 1883, during the regime of her husband the Marquis of Lorne as Governor General, Her Royal Highness the Princess Louise, another member of the Royal Family, resided in Canada, and honoured with her presence the formal ceremonies of Parliament. By that time, Canada had become a Dominion of seven Provinces. Such was the Canada as seen by Their Majesties the King and Queen when, in 1901, as Duke and Duchess of York, they visited the Parliament Buildings at Ottawa and made a tour of the Dominion from coast to coast. In 1908, Canada was revisited by His Majesty the King, at that time, as Prince of Wales. Meanwhile, in 1905, the Canada of 1867 had become a Dominion, not of four Provinces restricted to the areas adjacent to the Atlantic, St. Lawrence, and the Great Lakes, nor of seven Provinces, with vast territories separating one province by the Pacific from all the rest, but a Dominion of nine connected Provinces occupying the northern half of this great continent, and stretching from sea to sea.
Following the era of expansion in settlement and in government came the epoch of the Great War, and the destruction, in 1916, of the old Parliament Buildings, a destruction which at the time, seemed to symbolize the devastation of the War. The Duke of Connaught was then our distinguished Governor General. With His Royal Highness in Canada were the Duchess of Connaught and Her Royal Highness the Princess Patricia. In September of 1916, the Duke of Connaught laid the corner stone of the new Parliament Buildings. The new corner stone is placed immediately above that of the old, and the two are united by a marble slab, the inscription on which records their association. The War was over when, in 1919, the present Prince of Wales paid his first visit to Canada. On the occasion of this visit His Royal Highness accepted the invitation of the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Borden, to lay the corner stone of the tower of these Parliament Buildings, which, as a Memorial Tower, was to stand thereafter as a symbol of Peace with Victory.
To-morrow, His Royal Highness, as a first official act on the occasion of his present visit to Canada, will dedicate the Altar in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower. On this Altar will be placed the Book of Remembrance, containing the names of sixty thousand members of the Canadian forces who made the supreme sacrifice in the Great War. How fitting, I repeat, that within the walls of these Houses of Parliament we should be privileged to honour the toast to His Royal Highness who, in the year of our Diamond Jubilee, has again honoured Canada with his distinguished presence.
The few words I have spoken are, I trust, sufficient to disclose how rapidly, in the course of years, our Dominion has grown, and how many of its memorable associations cluster about the Throne, represented to-night, in these halls of Parliament, by the Heir Apparent.
May I speak of another expansion and growth which finds its common centre also in the Throne, and which is brought to mind by the presence of the Prince of Wales! The visit of His Royal Highness to Canada in 1919 was his first to any of the British Dominions. We in Canada have since been honoured by two other visits. The present one is doubly significant in that it completes the circle of a series of visits which His Royal Highness has made to the British Dominions and India, and to British Colonies and Possessions, and which may be said to have embraced the British Empire as a whole. Each and all of the Dominions have been proud to honour the representative of His Majesty the King, and to express to him and through him their common allegiance to the Crown. Wherever he has gone, throughout the Empire, the Prince of Wales has been an ambassador of good-will. He has strengthened the bonds of sympathy and interest between all parts, and has evoked feelings of deeper loyalty and affection towards the Throne. In seeking to-night to honour His Royal Highness, we feel that we are honouring one who has helped to unite us all; one who through his personality has done much to knit together all parts of the British Empire, already so largely united by common memories, and traditions, by common ideals and aspirations.
Confederation in Canada grew out of a desire for union which sought and found its expression in the British Crown. From 1867 to this day the Crown has remained the symbol of our unity. In the name of the Crown are performed all the functions of government, legislative, executive, and judicial, whether belonging to the several Provinces or to the Dominion. It is the same throughout all other parts of the British Empire, whether it be Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Irish Free State or India. Just as our Dominion has grown from isolated and scattered settlements to colonies, and from isolated colonies to a nation, so the British Empire has grown from isolated and scattered communities, knowing but little of government, to a community of free nations enjoying the fullest measure of self-government and united by a common allegiance to the Crown. Upon the Crown in the person of the Sovereign, more, perhaps, than on all else, rests the maintenance of this unity. Towards one called to inherit a responsibility so vast, a responsibility never before equalled in the history of the world, our hearts fill with a warmth it would be impossible to express in words. We can only pray that, with so great a responsibility, a kind and wise Providence, in fullest measure, may bless and protect and guide our Prince of Wales.
