people. The Company had conquered engineering and financial obstacles; Sir Charles Tupper had overpowered political opposition; the people had risen above the fetters of Provincial fear and a certain form of Colonial narrowness which still prevailed.

In 1883, a new phase of public activity came into the life of Sir Charles and he passed for a time from the struggles and successes of the smaller stage of Canada to the wider sphere offered at the seat of Empire to the representative of a great colony. More fortunate than his old-time and brilliant rival in Nova Scotia, he had grasped the national idea for Canada and had passed from a Provincial to a Dominion career without being trammelled by so fatal an error as the previous advocacy of secession, or affected by a late repentance, which in its result of local and personal unpopularity, had broken the spirit of Howe as no intensity of political conflict or party defeat could have done. But, in becoming the High Commissioner of Canada in London, in 1883, Sir Charles Tupper did not at once abandon Canadian politics. He remained for a year in charge of his Department and took the ground then, as he did afterwards, that the representative in London of Canadian interests was not and could not be an ambassador. He was in fact, though not in form, a member of the Canadian Government residing in London-familiar with its plans, in sympathy with its projects, in touch with its policy. As such he was dependent upon his party's retention of power, and it was therefore not antagonistic to the nature of his duties, but rather in necessary relation to them, that he should remain in touch with and re-assume when deemed desirable, his political duties at home.

From 1884, however, to January, 1887, he found the burden of his Imperial position sufficient without the addition of any Canadian home work. But at the latter date, with a general election imminent, and at the request of Sir John Macdonald, he resigned his position, joined the Cabinet again as Minister of Finance, and plunged into the congenial fray as a fighting defender of Protection and of the railway policy of the Government. Until May, 1888, he held his place in the Ministry and then resigned to go During this year he was chiefly responsible before the

again to London. House and the

country for the inauguration of a policy of protection to iron and steel industries, and the passage of a Customs Act to that end. In the midst of these duties he found time to accept the honour of appointment as one of Her Majesty's Plenipotentiaries to Washington in connection with the Fisheries dispute, and, with Mr. Chamberlain and Sir L. S. Sackville-West, was instrumental in negotiating a Treaty approved by President Cleveland and his Administration, but rejected by the United States Senate. He had, meanwhile, returned to Ottawa and carried a Bill, ratifying the Treaty, through the Canadian Parliament. For his Imperial services in these negotiations Sir Charles Tupper was created, in September, 1888, a Baronet of the United Kingdom. Two years previously he had been made a G. C. M. G.

Upon his return to London Sir Charles took up again the threads of a work which he had previously been making of much importance to Canadian interests. In 1885, he had been the Executive Commissioner for Canada at the Antwerp Exhibition, and in 1886 had acted in a similar capacity at the first signal illustration of the new Imperial spirit and development the Indian and Colonial Exhibition. At the latter he was also a Royal British Commissioner, and in both cases had acted with characteristic energy and devotion to the end of making Canada better known; an object which was then the chief function of the High Commissioner. At about this time, and for several following years, he also did a great service to Dominion agricultural interests in preventing the suspicion of American cattle (in connection with the popular dread of pleuropneumonia) from being visited upon Canadian cattle by their inclusion in the embargo against importation alive. In 1888, he arranged the placing of a loan of £4,000,000 upon the market at three per cent. interest, and, despite the fact that this was the first Colonial loan ever issued at that rate, he obtained tenders aggregating £12,000,000. The allotment was finally made at £95.1 per cent. During these years the growing importance of his office was recognized, and the value of his work enhanced, by appointment as a Royal Commissioner in connection with the Scotch Crofter Colonization project, and as a Royal Commissioner for organizing the Imperial Institute,

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

R

and as Canadian representative at the Sub-Marine Cable Conference in Paris, at the International Customs Conference in Brussels, and at the International Postal Union Conference in Vienna.

In 1891, Sir Charles Tupper came out again to Canada at the request of Sir John Macdonald, took an active part in the general elections of that year -the fiercest and perhaps the most important in Canadian history—and held Nova Scotia for his party. After the successful termination of the struggle he returned again to London and was, of course, strongly criticized in the Canadian Parliament for participating in the contest while holding the High Commissionership. His defence was that the Unrestricted Reciprocity issue made the elections turn upon a proposal which would have involved Imperial connection and the national future of Canada, and that he was therefore bound to do his best for the Crown and the Empire. Naturally, these reasons did not commend themselves to the Opposition either then or since. Upon Sir John Macdonald's death, which soon followed, Sir Charles was regarded as his legitimate and natural successor in the Premiership and Conservative leadership; but he was in Vienna and made no sign, and party exigencies brought Sir John Abbott to the front and later Sir John Thompson and Sir Mackenzie Bowell. Meanwhile, the High Commissioner went on with his work in England, delivered innumerable addresses upon Canadian matters, wrote many strong and valuable papers upon Imperial or Dominion affairs, took part in the growing advocacy of closer Imperial unity and the proceedings of the Imperial Federation League, negotiated in conjunction with Lord Dufferin the Franco-Canadian Commercial Treaty of 1893, and attended the International Railway Conference of 1895 as the Canadian delegate. He also secured from the Imperial Government an annual subsidy of $225,000 for the Canadian Steamship Line from Vancouver to China and Japan, and the promise of $375,000 a year for a fast Atlantic line.

The year 1895 saw him again in Canada with a view to furthering the fast Atlantic Steamship project, and it also witnessed his sudden and dramatic plunge into the vortex of a somewhat unpleasant political situation. Troubles were rife regarding the Manitoba School question, parties were in a state of universal disquiet, and the Government of Sir Mackenzie Bowell we