[Footnote 2:  In these snobbish days, when rich people are so often ashamed of their fathers and grandfathers, and vainly endeavour to make out their ancient ‘nobility,’ it was honest and manly on the part of Sir Francis Crossley thus publicly to relate these facts; and to share with his mother the honour of conferring his splendid present of the People’s Park on the townsmen of Halifax.]

Sir Francis went on to relate the history of his father (as given above from his own manuscript), until the time when he took the Dean Clough Mill.  “My mother,” he says, “went thither with her usual energy.  As she was going down the yard at four o’clock in the morning, she made this vow:  ’If the Lord does bless us at this place, the poor shall taste of it.’  It is to this vow, given with so much faithfulness, and kept with so much fidelity, that I attribute the great success which my father had in business.  My mother was always looking how she could best keep this vow.  In the days that are gone by, when it was a dreary thing to give employment to a large number of people, the advice that she gave to her sons was, ’Do not sell your goods for less than they cost, for it would ruin you without permanently benefiting any one; but if you can go on giving employment during the winter, do so, for it is a bad thing for a working man to go home and hear his children cry for bread, when he has none to give them.’”

And now with respect to the manner in which Sir Francis Crossley fulfilled the vow of his mother.  “On the 10th of September, 1855,” he said, “I left Quebec early in the morning, for the White Mountains in the United States.  I remember passing through some of the most glorious scenery I had ever seen.  On reaching the hotel at the White Mountains, I went out alone for an evening walk.  It was a beautiful spot.  The sun was just declining behind Mount Washington, amidst all the glorious drapery of an American sunset.  I felt as if I was walking with God.  ‘What,’ said I, ’shall I render for all His benefits to me?  Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?’ The answer came immediately.  It was this:  ’It is true thou canst not bring the many thousands thou has left behind thee in thy native country, to see this beautiful scenery, but thou canst take such scenery to them.  It is possible so to arrange art and nature that they shall be within the reach of every working man in Halifax; that he shall go and take his evening walk there, after his day’s toil has been done.’  Well, that seemed to me a glorious thought!  I walked home, and my prayer that night was, that in the morning I might feel that my thought was justified, and that I might be spared to put it in execution.  I slept soundly that night, and when I awoke my impression was confirmed.  On the 10th of September, when I left Quebec for the White Mountains, I had no more idea of making a park than any one here has of building a city.  On the day I reached home, I felt as convinced that I should carry out my thought, as I was of my own existence.  And from that day to this I have never flinched from the undertaking, whatever difficulties might arise.  It is a happy day for me that I have been permitted to see the result, in the People’s Park that has been opened to-day.”