Prologue. Government House, March 1879.

A moment's pause before we play our parts,     To speak the thought that reigns within your hearts.--     Now from the Future's hours, and unknown days,     Affection turns, and with the Past delays;     For countless voices in our mighty land     Speak the fond praises of a vanished hand;     And shall, to mightier ages yet, proclaim     The happy memories linked with Dufferin's name.     Missed here is he, to whom each class and creed,     Among our people lately bade "God speed;"     Missed, when each Winter sees the skater wheel     In ringing circle on the flashing steel;     Missed in the Spring, the Summer and the Fall,     In many a hut, as in the Council Hall;     Where'er his wanderings on Duty's hest     Evoked his glowing speech, his genial jest.     We mourn his absence, though we joy that now     Old England's honours cluster round his brow,     And that he left us but to serve again     Our Queen and Empire on the Neva's plain!     Amidst the honoured roll of those whose fate     It was to crown our fair Canadian State,     And bind in one bright diadem alone,     Each glorious Province, each resplendent stone,     His name shall last, and his example give     To all her sons a lesson how to live:     How every task, if met with heart as bold,     Proves the hard rock is seamed with precious gold,     And Labour, when with Mirth and Love allied,     Finds friends far stronger than in Force and Pride,     And Sympathy and Kindness can be made     The potent weapons by which men are swayed.     He proved a nation's trust can well be won     By loyal work and constant duty done;     The wit that winged the wisdom of his word     Set forth our glories, till all Europe heard     How wide the room our Western World can spare     For all who nobly toil and bravely dare.     And while the statesman we revere, we know     In him the friend is gone, to whom we owe     So much of gaiety, so much which made     Life's duller round to seem in joy repaid.     These little festivals by him made bright,     With grateful thoughts of him renewed to-night,     Remind no less of her who deigned to grace     This mimic world, and fill therein her place     With the sweet dignity and gracious mien     The race of Hamilton has often seen;     But never shown upon the wider stage     Where the great "cast" is writ on History's page,     More purely, nobly, than by her, whose voice     Here moved to tears, or made the heart rejoice,     And who in act and word, at home, or far,     Shone with calm beauty like the Northern Star!     Green as the Shamrock of their native Isle     Their memory lives, and babes unborn shall smile     And share in happiness the pride that blends     Our country's name with her beloved friends!