"LONDON,
"3rd August, 1867.
"DEAR SIR,
"On my return from Scotland yesterday I learnt, confidentially, that
you had been good enough to propose to present my name to the Queen for
the honour of knighthood, in consideration of my services in connection
with the union of the British North American Provinces under the Crown,
and with their Intercolonial Railway. And I see that a semi-official
statement to that effect is in some of the papers. Will you permit me
to thank you very sincerely for such a recognition of the services of a
political opponent whose known opinions will protect him from the
suspicion of receiving, and you from that of giving, an unworthy
reward.
"But the mail brings me tidings from Canada which convince me that the
French Canadian population at large look upon the course pursued
towards Messrs. Cartier and Langevin in the recent distribution of
honors as an act of indifference towards themselves. It might be
possible, therefore - but you will be the best judge - that the honor now
proposed for me might lead to an aggravation of this feeling of
dissatisfaction, which arises at the very inopportune moment of the
birth of the 'new Dominion.'
"I think, therefore, that I should be as deficient in public duty as in
generosity, if I did not evince my gratitude for your unsolicited
remembrance by saying that, should the difficulty I allude to be found
really to exist, I shall not feel myself slighted or aggrieved should
your kindness proceed no further, pending such an unfortunate state of
feeling.
