ABSTRACT
If political motives are to be imputed because the welfare of one class or one race is especially advocated, it ought to be borne in mind, that it is among that class alone, that lies the deep and inveterate evil I would fain remedy. If, in fine, by claiming for my flock, and for the French Canadian inhabitants of Lower Canada, some reparation for the neglect or the injustice of the Colonial administration during half a century, I am to be impeached with betraying the interests of my own countrymen at large,—I must not submit in silence to the accusation. Were it a crime in the eyes of Irishmen for an Irish priest, to promote the welfare of his flock, I should blush to bear an Irish name. And, if it be a sin to foster kindly feeling, and brotherly affection among Irishmen and Canadians, and - as I shall ever do among Irishmen and men of every other origin, with whom they live - then do I plead guilty. But certain I am, there is not a truly Irish heart, a truly noble soul here present, that does not acquit me of the charge.
