dangerous one for any man endowed with less keenness and general versatility of talent than Wilfrid Laurier. His reputation, which had preceded him abroad; his position as official representative of the most important Colony of the Empire; and above all the fact of his being a French-Canadian by blood and education, naturally made him the centre of attentions, exceedingly difficult to face calmly-especially by one who had crossed the Atlantic for the first time in his life. But the test was a successful one. Not only was he equal to the task, but all his public utterances, all his political moves, all his appearances before the curtain, increased his popularity and contributed to make him the lion of the day.

In his first speech on landing in England, Sir Wilfrid predicted that the time was approaching "when Canadian pride and aspiration would develop a claim to demand, as a right, their share in that broader citizenship which embraces the whole Empire, and whose Legislative centre is the Palace of Westminster." While on British soil Sir Wilfrid did not lose sight of the practical and material interests of Canada. He succeeded in having the commercial treaties between Great Britain and Germany and Belgium denounced, with a view to freeing Canada from the restraint which prevented her from granting to Great Britain trade favours denied to the treaty powers; and for this new departure in Imperial policy, with "the marvellous goal to which it leads," the London Times declared that "Laurier's name must live in the annals of the British Empire." As a natural consequence of all this, the most distinguished honors were lavished upon the Canadian statesman: he was made a member of the Imperial Privy Council and appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge conferred honourary degrees upon him, while the Cobden Club admitted him to honourary membership and awarded him its gold medal, "in recognition of his exceptional and distinguished services to the cause of international and free exchange.'

Proceeding to France, he visited President Faure at Havre and was appointed by him a Grand Office of the Legion of Honour. At last, after three months of absence which could only be compared to a triumphal march

from the first to the last day, he returned home to be the recipient, with Lady Laurier, of an ovation as general and enthusiastic as ever a royal victor could expect at the hands of fanatically devoted subjects.

He made Imperial pretensions* while in England and was soon to be called upon to prove that his utterances then were not mere idle words. In 1898 war broke out in South Africa and he was found loyal to the Empire, and with his sanction and approval the first body of troops ever sent abroad by the Canadian parliament to fight in England's wars journeyed to far Africa to do valorous deeds on kopje and veldt.

Once more, in the present year (1902), he journeyed to England to take part in the coronation of King Edward VII., and by his powerful addresses on Imperial affairs, again proved himself the ablest of Canadian orators and statesmen, and showed the motherland that Canada had within her borders brilliant parliamentarians, as able as the leaders in the British House of Commons to deal with questions affecting the interests of the Empire.

After his return from the Diamond Jubilee the Premier received from the Toronto University and from the Queen's University, Kingston, the honourary degree of LL. D. He was also elected an honourary life member of the National Liberal Club, London, England. While in Opposition Sir Wilfrid Laurier is stated to have been engaged during some years in writing a History of Canada, from the Union of 1841, but this has not yet been published. A collection of his principal speeches appeared under the editorship of M. Ulric Barthe in 1890. In his younger days he served in the volunteers, having been Ensign in the Art. .baskaville Infantry Company from 1869 to 1878. He was married on May 13, 1868, to Miss Lafontaine, of Montreal.

As a Parliamentary leader the Canadian Premier has been eminently successful. Thoroughly equipped with information on many subjects; endowed with a presence of mind which makes him always ready at repartee and seldom permits him to be caught off his guard; displaying prudence at every step, leaving nothing to chance, charming his friends by his self-confidence and boldness; he disarms his opponents by his courteous

See Appendix

fairness no less than he confounds them by his sudden and brilliant attacks. He is seldom guilty of a false move, and rarely permits himself to be taken by surprise. And, although he may not inflict a crushing defeat upon the enemy at every encounter, nobody can boast of ever having seen him driven from the field. It is, however, on occasions when some vital question has to be disposed of, when the supreme and critical blow which is to decide the fate of a campaign must be dealt, that Laurier rises to the full height of his political stature, and is able to spread the wings of his mind to their fullest stretch. As an orator, Sir Wilfrid Laurier does not indulge in rounded periods and striking metaphors which aim solely at literary effect. He does. not labour to find witty phrases and sonorous sentences; nor does he appeal often to the sentiments or passions of his audience. He deals mainly in good sense, fairness and logic. The truth is enough for him; the truth in all its beauty and purity, couched in language that is accurate, scholarly, copious, and as melodious as language can be, yet full of virile energy, which one divines rather than feels, under the nervous pungency of an elocution which gushes out as limpid as the water from a rocky spring. You cannot listen to him for five minutes without saying to yourself: speaking "-Vir bonus dicendi peritus. Alluding to his talent as a public speaker, the London Daily Mail compared him with some of the foremost British statesmen, and expressed a wish that it were possible to place him side by side with them in the Imperial Parliament.

"An honest man is

While Laurier is not by any means an idealist in the narrow sense of the word, he may be said to be under the domination of one germinal and originative idea, which I regard as the synthesis, so to speak, of an intellect as diversified in its qualities as it is free from confusion and complexity. This dominating idea may be summed up in the phrase "Liberalism in the service of patriotism." An advanced patriotism and a temperate Liberalism. By an advanced patriotism must be understood one which is broad and enlightened and dares to look the future in the face; while temperate Liberalism means that kind of Liberalism which has shaken off all the hyperbolism and utopian dreams in which its so-called principles are so often wrapped in some of the countries of Europe. Yes, Sir Wilfrid Laurier is an