to the plow, will prove in the long run a weakness.  If you knew the poverty and misery that exists among the factory operatives of the Old World you would not entertain a project to bribe them to come here and reproduce the same conditions.  Today you have not a beggar on Toronto’s streets; adopt Protection and you will have thousands of paupers.  This is a new country and our aim should be to make it one where honest industry can find a sure reward in its forests and not be creating factories by artificial means.  As an Old Countryman, I take exception to the land I came from being treated as foreign and a ban placed on the goods it has to export.  When I go into a store I like to think what I am buying is helping those I left behind, and when I pay for the cloth and other goods they made, do they not in return buy the grain, the butter and cheese, and the pork I have to sell?  I protest against our government abusing its power to tax the farmers to benefit the manufacturers.  That is tyranny, and when farmers understand that Protection is one of the meanest forms of despotism, they will revolt.  This must be a free country, with no favor shown to any class.

We saw gentlemen on the platform urging the chairman to stop the master; he seemed reluctant to make a scene.  Finally he did pull him down, stating he was not speaking to the subject before the meeting.  The best reply to the disloyal outpouring to which they had listened he considered was contemptuous silence.  After votes of thanks the meeting ended.  The master advanced towards Mr Snellgrove to renew his acquaintance.  Mr Snellgrove turned his back upon him and left with a group of gentlemen.  I learned he held a government office.

I have a more unexpected meeting to relate.  The sixth year after my marriage, it had been arranged Christmas should be celebrated at Allan’s and New Year’s at the master’s.  We had been looking for what people in Scotland dread, a Green Yule, for the ground was bare.  When we rose the morning before Christmas we were pleased to see it white, and a gentle sifting of snow falling.  Allan came for us early in the afternoon and we filled his big sleigh with children and parcels.  We had just got into the house when the clouds lowered and it became suddenly dark.  You have seen in summer a gentle rain prevail, until, all at once, a plump came that covered the ground with streams of water.  Once in a number of years the like happens with snow, and a gentle fall turns into a smothering stream of snowflakes.  In an hour the ground was so cumbered that it reached to the knees of those who ventured out.  Supper was over and the romping of the children was in full swing when Robbie cried he thought he heard somebody shouting outside.  There was a pause in the merriment as he flung open the door.  The snow had ceased to fall and the air was calm and soft.  A black object was seen on the road to the left, from which came cries for help.  Allan and Robbie dashed