weeks of weary sickness that had brought it to a close; and not till death was the perturbed spirit to find repose. After his constant buffetings with the world; of achievements which brought with them so few of the fruits of victory; of strifes and disappointments; of the sense of possession of great powers, and of their use to the accomplishment of such poor personal results; who shall say that the restful ending of it all, when it came to him was unwelcome? His had been the stormy life of Lear, and at its going out the sympathetic ear might have caught the wailing tones of Kent's refrain: "Vex not his ghost. O, let him pass! he hates him, That would upon the rack of this tough world Stretch him out longer." Followed by Edgar's reflective response: "He is gone, indeed "; and Kent's rejoinder: "The wonder is he hath endured so long." CHAPTER XXIV. THE RIGHT HON. SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD BY DAVID CREIGHTON. Sir John A. Macdonald for fifty years the Leading Parliamentarian in Canada-Of Scotch Parentage-Educated at Kingston-Begins the Study of Law-His Early Associations with Oliver Mowat-His Defence of Von Shoultz-Enters the Political Arena as a Tory— A Life-Long Imperialist-In 1847 Appointed Receiver-General-Opposes Rebellion Losses Bill-Endeavors to Have Seat of Government Moved to Kingston-Mr. Macdonald and Mr. Brown-Attitude of "The Globe "-Introduces a Bill for the Secularization of the Clergy Reserves-Leader in the Assembly-Called on by the Governor-General to Form a Ministry-Ottawa Chosen as the Seat of Government-The "Double Shuffle "-The Trent Affair - A Dead-Lock in the Canadian Parliament-A Federal Union Proposed Preliminary Steps Towards Confederation - John A. Macdonald, a Leader in the Confederation Movement - Receives Knighthood - The Building up of the Great Dominion-Difficulties between the United States and Canada-The Treaty of Washington Ratified-Made an Imperial Privy Councillor-The Canadian Pacific Railway Projected— Mr. L. S. Huntington's Charges against the Government-Sir John out of Office-Once More in Power-His Cabinet-The National Policy-Holds the Confidence of the Canadian People-His Last Great Triumph and His Death-The Empire Mourns Canada's Greatest Statesman. O give a sketch of the career of one who during well-nigh half a century took an active part, and for the greater portion of that time the leading part, in the Parliamentary government of Canada, who exercised a most potent share in moulding the destiny of the Dominion and occupied a more conspicuous position before the public than any other Canadian statesman,-is practically to write the history of Canada during that period. Within the limits to which the present work necessarily confines me only the more prominent features in the career of the Right Hon. Sir John Alexander Macdonald, P. C., G. C. B., can therefore be touched upon. Although of an ancient Highland family, his parents, Hugh Macdonald and Helen Shaw, had removed from Dornoch, in Sutherlandshire, to Glasgow, when John Alexander, their second son, was born on the 11th of January, 1815. Mr. Hugh Macdonald, not thriving in Glasgow, resolved to try his fortune in the then wilderness of Upper Canada, whither he emigrated with his young family in 1820, when the future Prime Minister was but five years of age. After a brief residence in Kingston he removed to Adolphustown, in the county of Lennox, to start shop-keeping, subsequently going across the Bay to the Stone Mills in Prince Edward County, where for some years he kept a gristmill. But ill-success seems to have dogged his footsteps wherever he went and, eventually, he returned to Kingston broken down in health and died there in 1836. Of the early days of young Macdonald little need be said more than that they were spent around the romantic shores of the beautiful Bay of Quinte. At the age of fifteen, after such common-school education as those early days afforded, and a brief career at the Kingston Grammar School, he had to leave school in order to help in the support of the family, and commence to fight his way up to an eminence not hitherto attained by any Colonial statesman. Choosing the profession of law, he entered as a student the office of Mr. George Mackenzie of Kingston, being called to the Bar in 1836 when he was twenty-one. He immediately commenced to practise his profession in Kingston. His office was but a few months opened when there came as a student to him a lad named Oliver Mowat, and subsequently another named Alexander Campbell, and it is often thought of as a remarkable fact that the three young men thus associated in their early days should all have become eminent in Canadian politics, and each be knighted by her Majesty for services to the Empire. Sir Alexander Campbell, after a lengthy career as a member of the Government of Canada, passed away while holding the position of Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario. Sir Oliver Mowat, after the unparalleled record of nearly a quarter of a century, uninterruptedly, in the Premiership of Ontario, contributed largely to the final success of his party in Dominion politics by joining them in that arena, becoming for a brief time Minister of Justice on the formation of the Laurier Cabinet, afterward spending his declining years as Lieutenant-Governor of his native Province Meanwhile the one-time tutor in law of the other two had gone to his rest after a public career of nearly half a century, during which he had achieved a prominence, not only in Canada but in the Empire at large, such as no other British statesman outside the British Isles had ever attained. |