Date Published:
March 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Letter from J. Castell Hopkins to John S. Ewart

(May 21, 1919)

THE EDITOR, The Statesman:

Sir: In your issue of May 17th, there appears an article by Mr. J. S. Ewart, quoting various writers and utterances which apparently prove to his satisfaction, if not to your readers', that Canada has no cause to be grateful to its Motherland. In view of Mr. Ewart's well-known Separatist views, it would, perhaps, not be worth while for me to answer or criticize this particular article, were it not that he quotes from some unstated source.

The quotation is obviously taken from some context which would have given an entirely different point to the statement which I made. My views upon this subject are fairly well-known and have been held and publicly expressed for nearly thirty years past. It is only necessary for me to say here, that the quotation in question refers to the Manchester School of thought and denounces its exponents for holding views Mr. Ewart himself holds and expresses in Canada.

How Mr. Ewart could make such use of a quotation to prove his point, is beyond my comprehension. He is too clever a lawyer not to know what he is doing, and that such action can only injure any propaganda which he may be carrying on.

Yours faithfully,

J. CASTELL HOPKINS.

Toronto, May 21, 1919.

Return to the Controversy between J. S. Ewart and J. Castell Hopkins on the role of Britain in Canada (1919)

Source: John S. EWART, Independence Papers. Reprints principally from the Canadian Nation and the Statesmen, Ottawa, 1921, 176p., p. 43.