This simple, kindly, unaffected, modest gentleman; this man, with his
sweet calm smile, who met us every day, passing in and out with a
certain reticence of modesty, was himself but the type of the age in
which he lived and of the people from whom he sprang. All modest as he
was, he had given up everything at the call of duty. All simple and
kindly as he seemed to be, he had at the head of charging squadrons
captured cannon, and with more heroic endurance had lain without
complaint in the cell of solitary confinement. He carried about with him
in the simple modesty of his everyday life the heart that at a moment's
notice was ready to still its beating at the call of duty; and with the
same simplicity, with the same freedom from ostentation, with the same
delicious smile, he would have walked into the jaws of death if it had
become him as a gentleman to do so.

To live in such an age, to be associated with such men--and, thank God,
they are not uncommon amongst us--the bar at which I practice, the
tables at which I sit in the kindliness of social intercourse, the men
with whom I have been blessed enough to be called into contact, the very
strangers who call on business at my house, rank among them men just
like unto him. I say to live in such an age, to be associated with such
men, to play a part, however obscure, in such drama, make life worth the
living; make the hereafter nobler for him who has been so blessed.

Mr. Speaker, to-day, in the midst of this the ending of the nineteenth
century, we who will soon pass away, we who are but the remnants of a
generation of war, can proudly hand over to those who shall come after
us the example of lives that in war feared nothing but God, in peace
strove for nothing but the good of the people.