Source.—Speech by Sir Wilfred Laurier in the Canadian House of Commons, 13th March, 1900; quoted in J. S. Willison's Sir Wilfred Laurier and the Liberal Party.

We were not forced by England, we were not forced by Mr. Chamberlain or by Downing Street, to do what we did, and I cannot conceive what my honourable friend meant when he said that the future of this country was not to be pledged by this Government. When and where did we pledge the future of this country? We acted in the full independence of our sovereign power. What we did we did of our own free will, but I am not to answer for the consequences or for what will take place in the future. My honourable friend says that the consequence is that we will be called on to take part in other wars. I have only this to answer to my honourable friend, that, if it should be the will of the people of Canada at any future stage to take part in any war of England, the people of Canada will have to have their way. Let me say to my honourable friend further, the maxim which he has advocated this afternoon, and which he took from the despatch of Lord Grey to Lord Elgin, "It must be remembered that the government of the British Colonies in North America cannot be carried on in opposition to the will of the people," was the language in 1847, it holds good in 1900, and will be the language used so long as we have free parliamentary institutions in Canada. But I have no hesitation in saying to my honourable friend that if, as a consequence of our action to-day, the doctrine were to be admitted that Canada should take part in all the wars of Great Britain and contribute to the military expenditure of the Empire, I will agree with him that we should revise the conditions of things existing between us and Great Britain. If we were to be compelled to take part in all the wars of Britain, I have no hesitation in saying that I agree with my honourable friend that, sharing the burden, we should also share the responsibility. Under that condition of things, which does not exist, we should have the right to say to Great Britain "If you want us to help you, you must call us to your councils; if you want us to take part in wars, let us share not only the burdens, but the responsibilities as well." But there is no occasion to say that to-day....

... We were not compelled to do what we did, but if we chose to be generous, to do a little more than we were bound to do, where is a man living who would find fault with us for that action? He dreads the consequences of this action in sending out a military contingent to South Africa. Let me tell him from the bottom of my heart that my heart is full of the hopes I entertain of the beneficial results which will accrue from that action.... When the telegraph brought us the news that such was the good impression made by our volunteers that the Commander-in-Chief had placed them in the post of honour, in the first rank, to share the danger with that famous corps, the Gordon Highlanders; when we heard that they had justified fully the confidence placed in them, that they had charged like veterans, that their conduct was heroic and had won for them the encomiums of the Commander-in-Chief and the unstinted admiration of their comrades, who had faced death upon a hundred battlefields in all parts of the world, is there a man whose bosom did not swell with pride, that noblest of all pride, that pride of pure patriotism, the pride of the consciousness of our rising strength, the pride of the consciousness that on that day it had been revealed to the world that a new power had arisen in the West?

Nor is that all. The work of union and harmony between the chief races of this country is not yet complete. We know by the unfortunate occurrences that took place only last week that there is much to do in that way. But there is no bond of union so strong as the bond created by common dangers faced in common. To-day there are men in South Africa representing the two branches of the Canadian family fighting side by side for the honour of Canada. Already some of them have fallen, giving to the country the last full measure of devotion. Their remains have been laid in the same grave, there to remain to the end of time in that last fraternal embrace. Can we not hope, I ask my honourable friend himself, that in that grave shall be buried the last vestiges of our former antagonism? If such shall be the result, if we can indulge that hope, if we can believe that in that grave shall be buried contentions, the sending of the contingents would be the greatest service ever rendered Canada since Confederation.