exiles that was ever driven from fireside and country would have found
no place on the continent to make new homes for themselves. This would
have placed them in infinitely worse circumstances than that body of
noble men and women of another race that twenty-eight years earlier in
the century had been driven out as exiles to wander in hardship and
want on that same New England coast. These Loyalists brought to Canada
the sterling principle, the experience in local Government, the sturdy,
independent manhood and business experience and energy which this
northern land needed to make it one of the most prosperous and best
governed countries in the world. To think what Canada would have been
without the Loyalists helps one to see more clearly how fortunate it
was that the Eddy rebellion was crushed.

The British Empire may owe more to the loyal Yorkshire emigrants than
has ever been fairly accorded to them. Canada as a coterie of colonies
furnished Great Britain with a training school for her statesmen that
she did not otherwise possess. In this way British North America has
been the prime factor in placing Great Britain first among the nations
of the world in the government of colonies. It is true English
ministers and English governors made mistakes and had much to learn
before the present system was fully adopted, but the descendants of the
Loyalists and those who remained true to the Crown during the stormy
years of the Revolution were not likely to stir up strife without a
just cause. And is it claiming too much to say that to Canada's
remaining loyal in 1776 is due to a very large extent the proud
position Great Britain holds to-day as the mother of nations, the
founder of the greatest colonial empire the world has yet seen?

There are those who believe that the principle of equality and
fraternity, of government by the people and for the people, the freedom