larly against Goldwin Smith, the Oxford professor who had recently, after a temporary sojourn in Cornell, made Toronto his home, and who was a particularly shining and vulnerable mark because of his well-known belief that Canada must find her future in union with the United States, as Scotland had found her opportunity in union with England.

The "Globe" poured scorn upon the "sucking politicians," "the Canada First mischievous little snake in the grass," "the diseased self-consciousness and absurd pretensions of these praters of Nationalism," and upon their program, of which "every plank was calculated to inspire sensible men with wonder if not with ridicule and contempt," and the whole was likened to Milton's "asinine feast of sow thistles and brambles." The Toronto "Mail," the leading Conservative organ, gave no more sympathy; the Canada First group were "beardless boys," and their proposals "the innocent work of bumptious lads who have not cut their eyeteeth in politics." But the "Globe" was the more fierce and pertinacious, for it was its camp that was threatened; "it is the shades, not the colors, that fight," as the French proverb has it.

Even on the question of the construction of the Canadian Pacific, Blake could not continue to follow his leader. When the handful of settlers in British Columbia insisted upon the precise fulfilment of the rash promise made by the Macdonald government to complete the building of a road to the Pacific by 1881, Mackenzie, for the sake of peace, was prepared to accept the compromise suggested by Earl Carnarvon, then colonial secretary, extending the term to 1890, providing for vigorous pushing of surveys, wagon-roads, and telegraph lines, and adding the construction of a road on Vancouver Island from Esquimalt to Nanaimo. Blake, convinced that the plan was folly and the demands of the British-Columbians preposterous, opposed even this concession. Mackenzie's resolution passed the Commons, but was rejected in the Senate by a majority of two. Undoubtedly Blake's criticism had contributed to its defeat and to the further postponement of a settlement of this troublesome issue.

For two years Blake served as minister of justice. The post was particularly congenial in that it gave scope for his mastery of constitutional principles and his policy of extending Canada's national powers. In a series of controversies with the Colonial Office, Blake stood firmly for carrying the principles of responsible government to their logical conclusion. He protested vigorously against a revision of the governorgeneral's instructions to conform with those designed for crown colonies, making the governor-general once more what he had long ceased to be, a member of the working executive, and authorizing him to act independently of his advisers. He pressed for the abandonment of the instructions requiring the governor-general to reserve for the consideration of the British Government bills on certain subjects enacted by the Canadian Parliament. He contended that the prerogative of pardon should be exercised by the governor-general, as in the case of other powers, on ministerial advice. He insisted that the power of disallowing provincial statutes was vested by the British North America Act in the governor-general-in-council, that is, the cabinet, not in the governorgeneral acting on his own discretion or under London advice. In each and all he won his point, and contributed materially to the recognition of Canada's national status. In all these measures he had the warm support of Mackenzie, though when it came to discussions of a more sweeping change in imperial relations, Mackenzie had little sympathy with Blake's tentative acceptance of imperial federation.

In June, 1877, once more on the ground of ill health, Blake resigned his portfolio and took the nominal post of president of the council. Six months later he retired from the cabinet altogether. Mackenzie repeatedly offered to make way for him. In 1877 he wrote:

From the first I was more willing to serve than to reign, and would even now be gladly relieved from a position the toils of which no man can appreciate who has not had the experience. I pressed Mr. Blake in November, 1874, to take the lead, and last winter I

again urged him to do so, and this summer I offered to go out altogether, or serve under him, as he might deem best in the general interest.

But Blake would neither consent to displace Mackenzie nor rest content as his follower. In the election of 1878 he took no part, visiting Europe while Mackenzie was straining every nerve to combat the influences of commercial depression and the specious promises of protectionist soothsayers. He stood again for Bruce, but was defeated. For one session he was absent from Parliament. Then the resignation of the member for West Durham opened a way for him. With Blake's return to Parliament in November, 1879, the question of the leadership of the party again became urgent.

Mackenzie had committed the crime of being defeated. Many were ready to lay the blame for the party's failure upon his unbending rigidity, his lack of conciliatory manners, his over-caution. As a matter of fact, Mackenzie had been prepared, in 1876, to compromise on the tariff issue to the extent of a slight increase in the general rates for additional revenue, with any protection effects that might be incidental, but had been prevented by the opposition of the Maritime Liberals, and the Maritime Provinces in 1878 had gone sweepingly protectionist. He had been anxious, when he saw the tide going against him, to bring on the elections in June instead of in September; Cartwright, Mills, Burpee, Jones, as well as Laurier and Huntington, urged the same course, but some Quebec and Maritime members were not ready, and against his better judgment Mackenzie yielded. Yet when all allow ance was made, it was clear that he had not kept in touch with the country, too absorbed in the administrative work of the heaviest department to have adequate leisure for party leadership or general guidance of policy. Laurier came back after a speaking tour in Ontario convinced that the Government was going to be defeated, but Mackenzie scouted his forecast and insisted to the last that they would have a sweeping majority.

During the week after the election

Mackenzie announced to several friends his intention to resign and to let the members choose a leader who might be more successful. But as the year went on and his fighting spirit revived, he thought better of it, and no resignation was offered. A second session came, with Blake once again in his seat, but still there was no hint of withdrawal. Through the whole session Mackenzie did not once summon a caucus of the party, an omission unprecedented for many years. The death of Holton and Brown during the session robbed him of two of his closest personal and political friends, Holton dying in March, and Brown, shot by a drunken, discharged workman in the same month, lingering on in pain until May. Still the lonely and austere leader gave no sign. Discontent mounted, until finally the chairman of the caucus, "Joe" Rymal, called a meeting on his own initiative. A resolution was passed, asking Mackenzie to consider the question of the leadership. Five of his late colleagues, Cartwright, Burpee, Smith, Pelletier, and Laurier, were asked to put the matter before him. Laurier was ill, and not present at the caucus. Smith, Burpee, and Cartwright called at his rooms at the Russell House and asked him to go with them to Mackenzie's office. He could not go that day. Next morning the five went to Mackenzie's room in the Commons. Pelletier did not enter. The others greeted Mackenzie, then stood ill at ease. Burpee mentioned that the party had held a caucus.

"Yes, I heard about that," was Mackenzie's gruff response. A pause followed, then Pelletier entered. Mackenzie turned to him. "Pelletier," he said, "is not this simply a conspiracy of Mills and Rymal to put Blake in?"

"No, Mr. Mackenzie," Pelletier stammered; "we thought that in your state of health

"There is nothing the matter with my health. It is all a conspiracy of a few men." Then came another pause, more lengthy and more painful. At last, seeing the older men mute, Laurier spoke out:

"As a sincere friend of yours, Mr. Mackenzie, I must tell you that it is not There is a general movement. We

So.

have been defeated; you have been defeated; it is only human nature that a defeated army should seek another general. There is not a man who has not high regard for your services, but there is a general feeling-"

"Very well," Mackenzie broke in; "if that is so, I shall very soon cease to lead the Liberal party."

Late that night, just as the House was about to adjourn at two A.M., Mr. Mackenzie rose.

"I desire to say a word or two with regard to my personal relations to the House. I yesterday determined to withdraw from my position as leader of the opposition, and from this time forth I will speak and act for no person but myself." That was all. For twelve years more Mackenzie sat on the Liberal benches, slowly worn down by a fatal paralytic malady, taking less and less part in the proceedings of the House, ntil in his last sessions he appeared a mere ghost of the fighter he once had been. With grim lips he saw his successor

too much even for his great powers of intellect to master.

The Macdonald government, elected on a policy of readjusting the tariff to favor Canadian industries, lost no time in giving the producers of textiles, furniture, boots and shoes, sugar, foodstuffs, and iron and steel products from pig-iron to farm implements, the protection they demanded. At the same time the long depression which had shadowed the whole continent came to an end; trade revived in the United States, and

come and go; with mellowing comprehension he watched Macdonald manage men; and then, in 1892, a year after his great rival, he passed from the scene.

Edward Blake became the leader of the Liberal party in May, 1880. He continued to lead it for seven years and through two general elections. He and his followers alike were filled with hope and enthusiasm when the pilgrimage began; he was wearied and disappointed when it ended. The Fates, his own temperament, the adroitness of his opponent, the renewal of dissension in his own party, the influence of protected manufacturers, and the loading of the dice in electoral redistribution, proved

gave a fillip to industry in its Northern neighbor; soon Canada had passed from bankruptcy and soup-kitchens to rising chimneys and feverish speculation. Naturally, the public gave credit for the betterment to the change in fiscal policy. The national policy seemed justified and firmly rooted.

Even had the chances of attack on the "N. P." seemed fair, Blake was reluctant to make the tariff the issue. He had no small sympathy with protection on its national side, and was prepared to give the

on cottons and woolens as discriminating against the poor; and Burpee of St. John the duties on pig and bar and sheet iron as hampering manufacturers, to whom these wares were raw materials. One and all, these amendments were of course voted down, but the opposition had prepared its fighting ground.

If divided on the tariff, the Liberal party was a unit on another issue that took much time and roused much temper in the session of 1882. The re-allotment of seats in the Federal Parliament to each province, in accordance with the changes in relative population revealed by the decennial census of 1881, was made the occasion of a wholesale gerrymander. To give Ontario four additional representatives, the boundaries of fifty electoral divisions were redrawn, with complete disregard of county boundaries or consistent policy. There was no dispute that the purpose was, in Macdonald's phrase, "to hive the Grits,' and snatch for the party in power an unfair advantage at the polls. Blake

the House. Quebec continued to be the chief Conservative stronghold, returning three Conservatives to one Liberal; whereas in Ontario, even with the gerrymander and with the popular vote evenly divided, the seats were divided three to two. The Government's majority had fallen slightly, but none of its leaders were defeated. Among the Liberals destruction had been widespread: Cartwright, Mills, Huntington, and Anglin had fallen, and Smith, Jones, Laird, and Laflamme had failed to re

But

enter. In Ontario the gerrymander played its part. In Quebec the Rouges were still suspect by the church. everywhere it was chiefly prosperity that told for the Government-prosperity which the manufacturer would not expose to peril from alleged freetraders, prosperity that good Liberal shareholders in a speculative Northwest colonization company did not wish to see disturbed by a less lavish land and railway policy. As for the Canadian Pacific contract, the country wanted the road, and cared little for the fine print in the contract. Depression had killed the Mackenzie government; prosperity gave the Macdonald government a new lease of life.

riddled the inconsistencies and denounced the injustices of the project, but the majority paid no heed to logic or to justice. The gerrymander was carried through; Macdonald had won, and Blake had lost. What was more serious, parliament and the country had suffered deeply; for many a year the level of political life in Canada was lowered by this triumph of unscrupulous partizanship.

The general elections were held on June 20, 1882. The result was an overwhelming victory for the Government, which had a majority in every province except Prince Edward Island and Manitoba, and a majority of over sixty in

Blake was disappointed, but not yet discouraged. The swing of the pendulum would be slower in coming than had been hoped, but come it must. One thorn in the flesh was removed when the proprietors of the "Globe," now in the same financial straits to which all its Toronto contemporaries had succumbed, ended the old dynasty and put John Cameron in Gordon Brown's chair, David Mills succeeding Cameron on the London "Advertiser." Henceforth the "Globe" might go its own way, but

even if its way was not that of the leaders, it no longer committed them or lectured them.

In the Fifth Parliament of Canada, the outstanding issue was the Northwest Rebellion of 1885, and the racial and sectional controversies which followed in its wake. How the tide of settlement reached the Saskatchewan, as fifteen years before it had reached the Red River; how discontent grew among the half-breeds, deprived of the buffalo herds they had hunted, threatened with dispossession from their narrow river-front holdings, unable to secure the land grants they claimed; how discontent was fanned into flames by the neglect and procrastination of Ottawa and the agitation of Louis Riel, brought back from exile to champion the Métis once more; how the rebellion was quickly put down by Canadian volunteers; how Ontario called for the hanging of Riel, murderer of Scott and rebel against his country; how Quebec rallied to the defense of the man who had defended a weak people against scorn and oppression; how the Government let Riel go to the scaffold; how the upheaval that followed shook the Conservative hold on Quebec in federal politics, swept the Liberals into power in the provincial field, and split the Liberal party in Ontario and in parliament will be noted elsewhere.

Earlier in the life of the Fifth Parliament Blake had pressed other questions. The flood of settlement into the Northwest had ebbed, and the Liberal criticisms of railway monopoly and thriftless land policy were found to have weight. Macdonald's constant endeavor to restrict and override the provincial governments, partly because of a theoretical preference for a more centralized government, but more because of a very practical and human desire to clip the wings of the troublesome "little tyrant" who controlled Ontario, gave the Liberals an opportunity, admirably suited to their traditions and to Blake's mastery of constitutional lore, to raise the cry of provincial rights. The enactment of a distinct federal franchise, to take the place of the provincial franchise hitherto accepted for dominion elections, and to be

administered by officials appointed by the Federal Government, brought on a prolonged struggle in which the opposition used every device of obstruction and delay. By his strong advocacy of home rule, and incidentally his hostility to the incorporation of the Orange order, Blake expressed his genuine convictions, though he could not escape the criticism that he was angling for the Irish Catholic vote. If so, he was not so successful in his efforts as Mowat, whose long lease of power rested on his skill in yoking together Scotch Presbyterian and Irish Catholic; or as Macdonald, who for many a year held the ultramontane of Quebec and the Orangeman of Ontario in a common fold. With the slackening of prosperity, the tariff issue was reviving, but Blake, while attacking the extreme manifestations of protectionism, was not yet prepared to attack all along the line. "Free trade," he declared in his Malvern address, "is out of the domain of practical politics." Not so Cartwright, who had been convinced by the steady exodus of Canadians seeking a livelihood in the United States of the failure of the attempt to make a people of five millions selfsufficient and self-contained, and who was rapidly verging toward a policy of commercial union with the United States. In the campaign of 1887 Cartwright continued to pour all the vials of his scorn and satire on the tariff and tariff profiteers, discounting his leader's studied moderation and providing the Conservatives with a useful bogie to frighten the manufacturers.

The general elections, held in February, 1887, resulted once more in a victory for Macdonald. The Government's majority was cut by over twenty, but it still had forty votes to the good in the House. Every province except Prince Edward Island returned a Conservative majority. In Ontario the Government lost only two seats. In Quebec the Riel agitation cost Macdonald a dozen seats; but scarcely had the session opened when the Quebec bolters who had denounced the Government loudly on the hustings were seen tamely lining up behind the premier again, drawn by his magnetic personality or by the fleshpots of patron