To our cliff-bound city after our present popular
Vice-Regal rulers."
To the address presented to His Excellency the Governor-General on this
occasion, the following reply was made: -
MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE BOARD OF THE QUEBEC HARBOUR
COMMISSIONERS, - It is with a full sympathy for you in the hopes which
have guided you to the construction of this great work that the
Princess comes to-day to lay this stone, commemorating an important
stage in the completion of your labours. She desires that her name,
graven on this wall, shall serve to remind your citizens, as well as
all who profit by the excellence of the accommodation here given to
vessels of great burden, of her interest in your fortunes, and of her
association with you in the speeding of an undertaking designed to
benefit at once a great port of the new world and many of the
communities of Europe.
Access to Quebec is easy now to the largest ocean-going vessels. Tour
city has the railways far advanced, which will pierce to the heart of
the granary of the world - the great wheat centres of the Canadian
North-West. The very might and grandeur of the stream on which Quebec
is built is in her favour as compared with other centres of commerce,
for her visitors have but little tax to pay when a favouring wind
fails them, while steam must be employed against the strong currents
of the upper river.
