UNION-SPEECH BY T. H. HAVILAND.‘ 175»

occupation of the French, under Montcalm. It still pos-i sesses all the qualities of a garden, and its rivers and bays still abound with fish. He desired that those great resources should become as well known now, and in the future, as» they'were in by-gone days; and regarding the advantages which modern improvements and institutions otl'ered as- auxiliaries to the natural resources of the colony, he was satisfied that she could not fail to become very prosperous- and happy under the proposed confederation.”

The Honorable T. H. Haviland—who now holds the:

office of colonial secretary replied to the toast of our sister colonies. “ He desired to draw attention to some peculiar' facts connected with the present movement. They might recollect that this was not the first time that states had met- together to organize a constitution ; for in times gone by the states of Holland had met to resist the tyranny of the Spanish Government; and the old thirteen states of America had also assembled under the cannon’s mouth, and the roarof' artillery ; but the peculiarity of this meeting was, that it was, held in a time of peace, with the approbation, and he: believed, with the sanction of Her Majesty ; that the colonies. might throw aside their svaddling clothes, to put on them-1 selves the garb of manhood, and hand down to posterity the. glorious privileges for which their ancestors contended from age to age in the old country, and which had been brought into these new countries under the protecting shadow of the flag that had braved a thousand years the battle and the» breeze. Although Prince Edward Island had only eighty thousand inhabitants, principally engaged in agriculture, yet, small as it was, it did not come as a beggar to the conference. doors. Its revenue was not certainly ver great, but there was yet a surplus of about four thousand pounds sterling to the credit of the province, over and above the thirty-six