•' -- . .''--. . . ¦¦ '' 'V-V- ,..'9.5

f-.-i'mt-

Hon. Alexander Mackenzie.
(From a. Photograph by Topley, Ottawa, ISSS.)

Mrs. Mackenzie.
(From, a Photograph by TopUy, Ottawa, JS8S.)

THE

HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE

HIS LIFE AND TIMES

BY
WILLIAM BUCKINGHAM
Private Secretary

HON. GEO. W. ROSS, LLD.
Minister of Education, Ontario

" The better I have become acquainted with you, the more I have learned
to respect and honor the straightforward integrity of your character, and the
unmistakable desire to do your duty faithfully by the Queen, the Empire and
the Dominion. .... In my opinion, neither in England nor in Canada has
any public servant of the Crown administered the affairs of the nation with a
purer patriotism, with a more indefatigable industry, or nobler aspirations
than yourself." — ^LoBD Doffebin.
' ' It will be a bright page in the history of Canada that tells that the first
Reform Minister of this great Dominion w.is the noblest workingman in the
land." — Hon. Gborgjs Brown.

FIFTH EDITION.
ROSE PUBLISHING COMPANY (Limited)
C. R. Parish & Company
1882

G

-CL. '^. U

Entered according to the Act of Parliament of Canada, in the year one
thousand eight hundred and ninety-two, by the Rose Publipiting Com
pany (Limited), at the Department of Agriculture.

riUSTED A.ND BOUXD DT
HnxiBR, Rose & Company
ToaoxTO

TO

THE WIDOW AND FAMILY

tibe Xate 1bon. Hlej. /Iftachensie,

THE FIRST LIBERAL PEEMIEE OF THE DOMINION,

CANADAS STAINLESS STATESMAN,

THIS VOLUME

|)(a ^capcctfuiUj UlnacHbeb.

INTRODUCTION.

^ HE history of an individual is often the history of a
nation. The domination of a single mind may
determine for centuries the course of a nation's
life. The mere statement of this proposition calls
up such names as Cromwell, Chatham, Peel.
The writer of biography is not, however, an historian.
He has to do with the forces which make history rather than
with history itself. He has to look from the effect to the
cause — from the cleft sea to the wondrous rod in the leader's
hand. The effect of social environment on the subject of
his narrative, the influence upon him of education, of business,
of wealth or of poverty, he is bound to consider ; but while
doing so he is ever conscious of the fact that many millions of
the race whose biographies, happily, have not been written,
were similarly conditioned. He finds that thousands of Ame
rican citizens toiled upon the farm and split rails as did Abra
ham Lincoln ; yet only one of these thousands became Presi
dent of the United States. Scotland had generations of pea
sant ploughmen ; yet only one was a Eobert Burns. England
produced many novelists and brilliant adventurers; yet only
one ever became Premier. Why this discrimination is what
constantly occurs to the biographer. Is it owing to native

10 INTRODUOTIOY.
talent ? If so, how did that talent flrst express itself ? How
was it first discovered ? Or, was success owing to some adven
titious circumstance, which would be equally effective in secur
ing distinction for the many thousands whose names have
passed into oblivion?
The subject of this memoir was not presented to the world
as an object of admiration, because of ancestral lineage or rank.
No doubt his presence gladdened his Highland home, as such
" sweet pledges of immortality " gladden other homes. At his
father's fireside, or at the parish school, he was like other boys.
It seems no one in early life smoothed down his flaxen curls,
and whispered in his ear, prophetically, the story of his future
greatness. Not even when toiling in the " bothy " with his
fellow masons did any prescient comrade see in him the germs of
statesmanship ; and yet there must have been at work even in
those early days that hidden growth of mind and character,
which afterwards developed into a great leader of public
opinion. How strange is destiny ! See in the humble stone
mason, shaping, with mallet and chisel, the rough granite of
his native country into the stately column or the well-propor
tioned capital, a future Premier of Canada, shaping the policy
of a great country, and giving it an enduring name among
the nations of the world, and explain in advance, if you can,
how it is to be brought about.
Mr. Mackenzie's early days in Canada were as uneventful as
his Scottish life. Like thousands of others, who clambered over
the bulwarks of an emigrant ship to seek subsistence in the
colonies, he came unheralded. His was no well-flUed purse.
He had no letters of introduction to men of wealth or
influence. He bowed at no man's door for preferment.
But though his wealth did not consist in current coin of the
realm, yet he was not poor. He had a trade ; he had health ;

INTRODUCTION. 11
he had self-reliance ; he had energy ; he had character ; and
with such possessions who would call him poor ? Without
waiting for anybody to take him by the hand, he applied him
self to his trade. What he thought of his new home at that
time, no one can now tell. It may be he often longed for his
native hills — for the dreamy twilight of the summer months —
for a sight of his Scottish home — for his friends. Or it may
be, that he saw the great possibilities of the land of his adoption,
although still held by nature in its rugged grasp. Whatever
may have been his thoughts, certain it is, he was no laggard.
" Whatsoever his hand found to do, he did it with his might,"
unobtrusively and unostentatiously. For nearly twenty years
after his arrival in this country, he was, in the strictest sense of
the term, a working-man — all honour to him. But, while toiling
with his hands, his mind was active. He combined with the
dignity of labour, the thoughtfulness of the student. He felt
he was a citizen, not an alien, and that as such his country had
claims upon him.
The questions engaging public attention were, peculiarly
congenial to a man of his temperament. Upper Canada, which
contained the great bulk of the English-speaking population,
had just been united to Lower Canada as a counterpoise to the
influence of the French race. Responsible government, the great
balance-wheel of the British constitution, was on its trial, and,
in spite of partisan governors and cabinets, promised well. The
commercial growth of the country sought freer channels with
the United States in the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854. Reli
gious liberty and equality were clamouring lor the seculariza
tion of the clergy reserves and the abolition of rectories.
The advocates of a broader education were appealing for the
establishment of free schools. Great issues were before the
country — issues which, to Mr. Mackenzie, were fraught with

12 INTRODUCTION.
momentous results, and which, no doubt, gave the direction to
his political career. As a Nonconformist in Scotland, knowing
and feeling the disabilities under which Nonconformists
laboured, not only in the United Kingdom, but in every colony
of the Empire, he could, without reserve, take up the policy of
the Liberal party on that question.
His great leader, Mr. Brown, had said in 1851 : " By means
" of Church Endowments, church has been set against church,
"family against family, sectarian hatred has been fostered,
" religion has been brought into contempt by the scramble for
" public plunder, and infldelity has been in no small degree
" promoted by the sight of men preaching one day the worth-
" lessness of lucre, and battling on the next to clutch a little of
" that same commodity, though gained by the grossest partiality
" and injustice — and all this to serve the cause of religion."
With these sentiments he heartily coincided. To fight the
battles of the Liberal party, then, was simply to express his
own convictions. And every one who heard him speak in
those days felt that he was not the mere champion of liberal
ism, but an embodiment of liberalism itself.
Long before Mr. Mackenzie entered Parliament, his ability
as a debater was recognized by all who knew him. His stun
ning blows and corrosive humour were felt and feared by every
antagonist With a courage that never quailed, with a logic
as inexorable as one of Euclid's demonstrations, and in lan
guage, simple, exact and forcible, none the less effective be
cause of its Scottish accent, he would tear into tatters the
arguments of the enemy. The interruptions of his opponents
but assisted in their discomfiture, for he was a master at
repartee, and no one ever crossed swords with him without
realizing that he had a foeman worthy of his steel.
But these were only the training days of the young athlete ;

INTRODUCTION. 13
he had not reached the maturity of his power, although he
entered Parliament in his thirty-ninth year. The great de
mand upon his time and physical strength by his vocation
made it impossible for him to give much time to public
matters. Hia whole attention was now, however, at least for
a considerable portion of the year, to be given to politics. He
was brought face to face with men who directed the public
opinion of the day. He had a parliamentary library at his elbow,
and it remained to be seen whether the platform champion of
the rural school-house and the dimly-lighted town-hall would
hold his own with the Ruperts of parliamentary debate. His
friends had not long to wait. Modestly, but with an unaf
fected consciousness of power, he took part in the debates ;
and parliament, with its traditional consideration for young
members, heard him with respect.
His advancement was unusually rapid. In 1864, he was
an active member • of the party caucus. In 1865-, he was
asked by Sir John Macdonald to join his Government. In
1867, he was the acknowledged leader of the Liberal party.
And, in 1873, just eleven years after first subscribing to the
roll as a member of parliament, he was Premier of Canada.
Few men, even with the assistance of wealth and social posi
tion, can furnish such a record. Of him it may be truly said :
" We build the ladder by which we rise
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies.
And we mount to the summit round by round."
The writers of Mr. Mackenzie's biography have sought to
show the public what manner of man he was, by simply stating
how he conducted himself in the various positions in which he
was placed. His career from the time he entered parliament
until he ceased to be the leader of his party in 1881 supplies a

14 INTRODUCTION.
sufficient test of every quality of head and heart which our
readers can have any desire to know.
As a private member of parliament he was attentive to his
constituents, considerate towards his friends, and manly and
frank with his opponents. He sought political support be
cause of the principles which he represented. He paid no man
for his franchise. He was under personal obligations to no
man for his vote.
As a representative on the floor of parliament, no one could
have served his constituents better. While he regarded
himself as the representative of the whole country, and not as
a delegate from any section, the records of parliament show
how attentive he was to all matters of local interest. Few
members of parliament were more constant in their attend
ance in the House, and few did more committee work.
Mr. Mackenzie's relations with his fellow members were
generally cordial : although pugnacious, he was not quarrel
some, and seldom, if ever, struck the first blow. He acted on
, the advice given by Polonius to Laertes, his son :
" Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel ; but, being in,
Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee. ''
In some of these encounters it happened that blows were
struck, the stinging effect of which was felt for a few days.
He never allowed, however, the combats of the platform to
degenerate into a personal feud with an opponent. Even in
his bitterest attacks there was no malice. It was apparent
that his object was a public, not a personal one. " To strike
below the waistcoat," to use Lord Dufferin's expression was
a thing he despised.
Mr. Mackenzie was apt in literary quotation, and exceed
ingly well read. The religious discussions of his early davs

INTRODUCTION. 15
in Scotland led to much theological reading on his part, and
few men were better informed as to the differences which
divided the various Protestant denominations of Great Britain
and Canada.
In the political history of the British Empire he was also
well-informed, and could refer with great readiness to the
different administrations of the present century, and to the
views .and sentiments of the great leaders of political thought.
His cast of mind was eminently logical. He would have
made his mark, had he been trained for that purpose, as a
professor of logic, even in a Scotch university. His readiness
to detect a flaw in an opponent's argument was almost pheno
menal, and his skiU in pointing out the inconsistencies and in
compatibilities of the positions taken during a debate was one
of the sources of his great strength. No member of parlia
ment since the Hon. Geo. Brown's time was more effective in
the use of the tu quoque form of argument than Mr. Macken
zie. An opponent might consider himself fortunate if he
escaped being confronted with his previous record, on any
question in which he had been in the slightest degree incon
sistent. In the arrangement of a speech, the same logical power
which shattered an enemy's argument was exercised. His
common expression, " and more than that," would show almost
as on proflle the steps by which he proposed to lead his hear
ers to a climax. With him, the less important invariably pre
ceded the more important, and his conclusion, like the key of
the arch, fastened the whole structure.
As a speaker, Mr. Mackenzie, if not fluent, as that quality
in speaking is ordinarily understood, had no difficulty in
finding the right word by which to express his thoughts,
and he always spoke with apparent deliberation. Indeed

16 INTRODUCTION.
SO accurate and deliberate were his speeches, that he was
one of the few parliamentarians of the day who could with
credit be reported verbatim. In the destructive rattle of his
artillery he had no superior in the House of Commons.
Mr. Mackenzie's power over an audience was very great.
His intensity and earnestness at once rivetted attention, and
his distinct enunciation made it easy to follow him. He was
never vociferous, even under excitement, and never impatient
under criticism. If asked a question or interrupted, his
answer came instantaneously, and one answer was generally
sufficient for most questioners.
His Scottish humor gave him great power. It was often
sarcastic — for his own sake, perhaps too often so. When
turned against an opponent with all the force with which he
could command it, it was destructive as a live electric wire.
When playful, it was as amusing as a chapter from Dean
Ramsay. In conducting election campaigns, although Mr. Mackenzie
had a great deal of confidence in the press and the platform,
he had still greater confidence in organization. His experi
ence in this respect, as secretary of the Hon. Geo. Brown's
committee, before he entered public life, and his subsequent
experience in his own elections, impressed him with the im
portance of this kind of work. In writing to a friend in 1873
he says : " I am sure that a close organization and canvass are
of infinitely more importance than meetings. Meetings do
not accomplish much compared with canvassing and organiz
ing, and a resolute effort to have every man out on polling
day." When meetings were held, however, like Rufus Choate with
the jury, he was bound that, they should be carried in his
favor. The moral effect upon his opponents of a complete

INTRODUCTION. 17
rout upon the platform he valued very highly. It is safe to
say that his large majority in 1867 was owing as much to the
Hon. Wm. MacDougall's weakness in his hands as to party
organization. As leader of his party in Opposition, Mr. Mackenzie was
courageous and aggressive. Whenever he took a position on
any question, he was prepared to defend it with all his force.
He took no pleasure in expediency. What he advocated was
right, because it was right, and not simply expedient ; and
when a certain course was determined upon, he turned neither
to the right hand nor to the left, no matter what obstacles lay
in the way. He never studied, apparently, the modern
methods of "wire pulling" and "pipe-laying," which are so
much depended upon in party warfare. How to evade an
issue or how to appear to be supporting a movement, while he
was in reality opposing it, or how to lead two oppo.si.ng fac
tions to believe that he sympathized with each and opposed
the otlrer, was a political accomplishment which he never
studied. If he moved a resolution, it was so worded as to
mean what it said ; and if he made a speech, it was so ex
pressed as to be incapable of two interpretations. Had he
been less straightforward, he might have coquetted with the
Nova Scotians in 1870, or with Manitoba in 1871, or with
Quebec during the Riel agitation.
To have maintained the confidence of the Liberal party as
acting leader from 1867 to 1873. in the presence of many other
distinguished men, was, in itself, a great achievement. It may
be fairly assumed that men like Holton and Dorion would not
have followed any leader of inferior ability.
Turning to him next, as Premier, there is much in his char
acter to admire. His transfer from one side of the House to
the other made no change in his manner. The First Minister
P.

18 INTRODUCTION.
of Canada directing the legislation of one of England's greatest
colonies was quite as unpretentious as the man who yester
day was the leader of Her Majesty's loyal Opposition.
In his new position his responsibilities were increased.
Leadership now involved much more than managing and di
recting party warfare. He had not only to keep his party in
hand, but he had to maintain the dignity and honor of par
liament. His voice was the most potent voice in British
North America. > How to use the power with which he was
invested, to win the confidence and respect of the people of
Canada, was the problem before him.
The leader of a Government requires to be a man of great
decision of character, firmness, resource, good temper, and
above all, of patience. The latter quality was said by the
younger Pitt to supersede, in importance, all other qualities of
a leader. To occupy the time of the House in protracted
discussions, which could serve no useful purpose, was doubt
less annoying to a man, every moment of whose time was
more than fully occupied. And yet, experience shows that to
resist the disposition of members of parliament to continue a
debate, prolongs rather than shortens it. An Opposition is
apt to do the very thing that is distasteful to the Govern
ment. Though not open to the charge of impatience, Mr. Mac
kenzie sometimes failed in answering questions put to him by
opponents in a conciliatory spirit. The soft answer which
turns away wrath was not always at hand, and instead of
it was used, sometimes to his own disadvantage, the sar
casm which sears and scorches and provokes to enmity and
i-etaliation. To badger and banter a Government is the peculiar privilege
of an Opposition. The Opposition who confronted Mr. Mac-

INTRODUCTION. 19
kenzie were possessed of large powers in this direction. Their
leader, Sir John Macdonald, was an adept at parliamentary
fence, and knowing, as he did, the position of every public
question when the Government came into power, he was able
from year to year, to catechize the Government fully as to
the different phases which such questions assumed. There
were other members of the Opposition who had made a study
of the details of each department of the public service, and
who were most irritating, and very of ten unreasonable, in their
criticisms. That human nature would occasionally resent such
attacks, was not to be wondered at, and if Mr. Mackenzie threw
himself with all his force upon some troublesome Opposition
ists, he might very well be excused.
Notwithstanding these circumstances, Mr. Mackenzie's lead
ership was dignified and judicial. The views of the Govern
ment he always presented with frankness ; and where the
honor of parliament, or any great national interest, was at
stake, his manner plainly indicated the noble instincts of his
nature. He never lowered the tone of the debate by act or
speech ; nor, so far as he could prevent it, did he allow parlia
ment to degenerate into a mob.
Mr. Mackenzie strongly believed that it was greatly to the
advantage of Canada to continue her present connection with
the Empire. So long as the colonial office did not wantonly
interfere in our domestic affairs, we had, in his opinion, all
the advantages practically of self-government, and, in addi
tion, the prestige of sharing in the honor and dignity of the
British Empire. The independence of Canada, even in the
remote future, was a possibility which he seems never to
have entertained ; while annexation to the United States in
volved such considerations of national weakness and faint
heartedness as to be unworthy of a moment's consideration.

20 INTRODUCTION.
" The fierce light that beats upon the throne" allows no dis
tinction to be drawn between the private life of a First Minister
and his public presence under the argus eye of the Press.
The duty of dispensing hospitality, as became the First Minis
ter, was discharged with a liberality which left nothing to be
desired. As a host, he was entertaining and agreeable, and
no one left his table without pleasant recollections of his cour
tesy and his attention.
Mr. Mackenzie's biography, which is in perspective a his
tory of the Liberal party during the last thirty years, con
tains much to inspire and encourage the Young Liberals of
Canada. Though not a Gladstone or a Pitt, or perhaps not in
all respects equal to Mr. Brown, he was nevertheless a Can
adian who.se services to his country should not be forgotten.
" To break his birth's invidious bar, and breast the blows of
circumstance," and to advance step by step until by the favor
of his countrymen he became First Minister of the State,
represent qualities, in his case particularly, worthy of imita
tion. He who wears the white flower of a blameless life
through all the vicissitudes of time and place, he who listens
to the voice of conscience in the midst of temptations, and
pursues the path of honor with heroic self-denial in the dis
charge of every public duty, is too valuable a representative
of the better elements of Canadian politics to be allowed to
pass from memorj'- with the procession which bears him to
his grave.
THE AUTFIORS.
August 31st, 1892.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER L PAGE 33
ALEXANDER MACKENZIE'S YOUTH.
Record of Mr. Mackenzie's Birth — His Paternal Ancestry — His Father's Loss
of Fortune — " Peregrinities " — The Memorial Tablet — The Mother's Faniily
— The Parents' Endowments — Mr. Mackenzie's Birthplace — His "School
ing " — The Old Clockmaker Schoolmaster — His Hard Necessity — He Learns
a Trade. CHAPTER II. PAGE 51
HIS ARRIVAL IN CANADA.
Aspirations not Realised — Hugh Miller's Case Exemplified — Journeyman
Stonecutter Before the Age of Twenty — Works and Muses in the Land of
Burns — Beginning of His Religious Life —Becomes Attached to Helen Neil
—Emigration to Canada — His Deportment on the Voyage — Love for the
Old Songs — Arrival in Kingston — ^A Scottish Scene of '43.
CHAPTER III PAGE 61
TWENTY YEARS OF EXCITEMENT.
Political and Historical Sketch — From his arrival in 1842 to entering Parlia
ment in 1861 — The U. E. Loyalists — The Clergy Reserves— Louis J. Papiu-
eau and Wm. Lyon Mackenzie — Robert Gourlay — Barnabas Bidwell — The
Rebellion — Baldwin, Draper, Morin, Lafontaine — Sir Charles Metcalfe —
Hazy Notions of Responsible Government — Lord Elgin — The Rebellion
Losses — The Governor-General Mobbed — Sacking and Burning of the Par-
. liament Buildings — George Brown — Dr. Rolph and Malcolm Cameron —
Francis Hineks — John A. Macdonald — The Seigniorial Tenure — Representa
tion by Population — The Double Majority — Rapid Growth of Upper Canada
— "French Domination."

22 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV. PAGE 84
LIFE IN AND ABOUT KINGSTON.
Mr. Mackenzie's Contemporaries — Sketch of Mr. Geo. Brown — His Relations
to Mr. Mackenzie — Characteristics of Sir John A. Macdonald — Mr. Helton's
Estimate of Sir Oliver Mowat — The Young Stonecutter meets his Match,
but is not Overcome by it^His Letter from Kingston to Scotland — Plod
ding in the Forests of the Far West — "Home, Sweet Home" — Cheated out
of his Wages — Goes on the Land — A Friend in Need — His Associates and
Surroundings — His Brother Joins Him.
CHAPTER V. PAGE 99
SETTLES IN SARNIA.
Rises in his Position — Sufifers for his Opinions — Goes to the Beauharnois
Canal — An Emeute there — A Painful Accident — Removes to the Welland
Canal — Returns to Kingston — Is Married there — -Builds the Defences of
Canada — Foreman on the Canal Basin, Montreal — Settles in 1847 in Sarnia
— Joined in Sarnia by the other Brothers and their Mother — Death of his
First Wife.
CHAPTER VI. PAGE 107
THE WESTERN DISTRICT.
Politics and Men in the Western District in the Early Days — Clear Grits^
George Brown to the Rescue — His Letters to Alexander Mackenzie — The
" Brownies " — Ancient Sectarian Issues — The "Old Ladies" — Mr. Mackenzie
as Editor — A Rival Paper — A Great Libel Suit — Valedictory — ^Fine Letter
from Wm. Lyon Mackenzie — Growing Political Influence — Friends Once
More — Meets "Leonidas."
CHAPTER VIL page 123
THE BROWN-DORION GOVERNMENT.
The General Election of 1857 — More Brown Letters — Hope Mackenzie — "Lamb-
ton Bricks" — Alexander Mackenzie's Second Marriage — Where He Wor
shipped — The "Double ShufiSe " — George Brown's Colleagues — Their Policy —
Precedents for a Dissolution — Alex. Mackenzie as an Essayist — Advocacy by
the Liberals of a Federal Union. CHAPTER VIII. PAGE 138
ME. MACKENZIE'S FIRST ELECTION.
Dissolution of Parliament and General Election — Return of Mr. Mackenzie
for Lambton — Ministry Sustained — Defeat of the Hon. Geo. Brown — Mr.

CONTENTS. 23
Mackenzie's First Appearance in Parliament— Defeat of the Government
on the Militia Bill.
CHAPTER IX. PAGE 147
A LIBERAL GOVERNMENT.
The Maedonald-Sicotte Administration — Debate on Representation by Popu
lation — The Separate School Law — Return of Mr. Brown for Oxford —
The Double Majority Principle— Reconstruction of the Cabinet^Hon.
Oliver Mowat, Postmaster-General.
CHAPTER X. PAGE l57
WEAKNESS OF SANDFIELD MACDONALD'S ADMINISTRATION.
General Election — ]Mr. Wallbridge, Speaker — Narrow Majority of the Govern
ment — Losses in By-Elections — The Government Unable to Proceed — Re
signed OflBoe 21st March, 1864— Formation of the Tach6-Maodonald Adminis
tration — Promises of the New Government — Committee on Representation.
CHAPTER XL page 165
POLITICAL DEAD-LOCK.
Political Dead-Lock — Hon. Mr. Brown's offer of Assistance — Report of the
Committee on the Federation of the Provinces— Formation of a Coalition —
Mr. Mackenzie's Attitude on this Question — The Policy of the New Cabinet.
CHAPTER XIL page 173
CONFEDERATION IN SIGHT.
Confederation of the Maritime Provinces to be Considered — Delegates Called to
Meet at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, in September — Representa
tives of the Government in Attendance — Quebec Conference — Development
of the Scheme — Draft Agreed upon — Cabinet Changes — Mr. Mackenzie iu
Favor of Confederation.
CHAPTER XIII. PAGE 180
THE CONFEDERATION DEBATES.
Session of 1865 — Discussion of the Scheme of Confederation — Opposition from
Quebec — Mr. Mackenzie's Share in the Discussion — Delegation to England —
Short Session of Parliament — Final Adoption of the Quebec Resolutions.

24 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIV. PAGE 190
MR. BROWN RETIRES FROM THE COALITION.
Death of Sir E. P. TachA- Mr. Brown's Objections to Mr. Macdonald as Pre
mier — Last Parliament in Quebec — Report of the Delegates to England —
Feeling in the Maritime Provinces — Mr. Brown's Retirement from the Gov
ernment—Abolition of the Reciprocity Treaty of '57— The last Session of
the old Parliament of Canada.
CHAPTER XV. PAGE 201
MR. MACKENZIE OFFERED A SEAT IN THE GOVERNMENT.
Mr. MauDougall's Trip to the Indies — Mr. Gait's Financial Policy — Constitu
tion of the Provinces — Retirement of Mr. Gait — Confidence Weakened in
the Coalition.
CHAPTER XVL page 212
CONFEDERATION APPROVED BY THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
Troubles iu the Maritime Provinces — Delegation to England — Amendment to
the Quebec Resolutions — The Education Clause — Additional Subsidies to
Nova Scotia — The Royal Proclamation — The Father of Confederation —
Claims of Mr. Brown to this Honor.
CHAPTER XVIL page 218
THE NEW DOMINION.
Formation of the First Government — Another Coalition — Great Reform Con
vention in Toronto — MacDougall's and Howland's Defence — Speech by Mr.
Mackenzie — Position of the Liberal Party — Mr. Mackenzie's Campaign in
Lambton — Contests with' Mr. MacDougall — Results of the Election.
CHAPTER XVIII PAGE 232
MEETING OF THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF CANADA.
Mr. Joseph Howe and Confederation — The North-West Territories — Intercol
onial Railway — Retirement of Mr. Gait — The Country to be Fortified —
Assassination of Mr. McGee— Conservative Tendencies of the Government.

CONTENTS. 25
CHAPTER XIX. PAGE 244
POLICY OF THE LIBERALS ASSERTED.
Independence of Parliament — Governor-Generals Salary — Reciprocity with
the United States — "Better Terras" with Nova Scotia — Mr. Howe enters
the Government — Changes in the Cabinet — Mr. Mackenzie as Leader.
CHAPTER XX. PAGE 255
REBELLION IN THE NORTH-WEST.
Customs Union^Commercial Treaties — Speech by Mr. Mackenzie — Rebellion
in Manitoba — Alarm of tlie Settlers— MacDougall Refused Admission — Riel,
President — Murder of Scott — Debates in Parliament — Expedition under
Wolseley — Mr. Archibald Appointed Lieutenant-Governor — Reward Ofifered
by Ontario Government — Trial of Lepinc — Discussion in the House of Com
mons — Amnesty Granted — Lord Duflferin's Action.
CHAPTER XXI PAGE 278
RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED STATES.
Fishery Claims — Sir John Macdonald at Washington — The Washington
Treaty — Concessions to the United States — The Fenian and Alabama Claims
— The Manitoba Bill — British Columbia Enters Confederation.
CHAPTER XXII. PAGE 286
MR. MACKENZIE AND PROVINCAL POLITICS.
Mr. Mackenzie Elected for West Middlesex — Defeat of the Sandfield
Macdonald Administration — Mackenzie a Member ot the New Government
— His Position in Local Politics — Speech as Provincial Treasurer — Dual
Representation Abolished — His Choice of the Commons.
CHAPTER XXIII. PAGE 308
THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY.
Conditions for Constructing the Canadian Pacific Railway — Debate in Parlia-
jnent — Burdens Involved — New Brunswick School Bill — Rights of the Min
ority  Mr. Mackenzie's Attitude — First Gerrymander.

26 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXIV. page 319
DOWNFALL OF THE GOVERNMENT.
General Election of 1872— Issues Before the Country— Sir John Meets Mac
kenzie at Sarnia — Appointment of a Leader — Selection of Mr. Mackenzie —
Interesting Letter to his Brother— Irregular Elections— The Pacific Scandal
— Huntington's Charges — Appointment of a Committee — Sir John Mac
donald's Evasions— The Oaths Bill— Prorogation Amidst Great Excitement
— Meeting of Liberals in Railway Committee Room — Memorial to the Gover
nor-General — -Appointment of a Commission — Meeting of Parliament —
Speeches by the Opposition Leaders — Resignation of the Government.
CHAPTER XXV. page 353
THE NEW ADMINISTRATION.
The New Cabinet — Dissolution of the House — Address to the Electors of
Lambton — Meeting of Parliament — Mr. Mackenzie's Difficulties — Discontent
of British Columbia — The Carnarvon Terms — Visit of Lord Dufferin —
Brilliant Speech at Victoria — Irritation Allayed — New Reciprocity Treaty
Considered — Honorable George Brown at Washington — Treaty Agreed upon
Rejected by the Senate — Mr. Mackenzie's Loyalty to Canada — Mr.
Cartwright's First Budget Speech — New Tarifif Bill—Pacific Railway Bill —
Mr. Mackenzie's Military Career — Military College — New Election Bill.
CHAPTER XXVI. page 386
THE SESSION OF 1875.
Mr. Mackenzie's Plan for Preserving the Debates of the House — The Supreme
Court Act — The Constitution of the Senate — Prohibition Discussed — The
Canada Temperance Act — Mr. Mackenzie visits the Eastern Provinces —
Mr. Brown declines the Lieuteuant-Govornorship of Ontario — The Office
Accepted by Mr. D. A. Macdonald.
CHAPTER XXVII. page 403
VISIT TO SCOTLAND IN 1875.
On a Holiday — A Guest at Windsor — Invitation to Perth — Impressions of
England — "Hodge"'— The British Commons — Spurgeon — Farrar — Freedom
of Dundee — Address to the Workingmen — Freedom of Perth — Address at
Dunkeld— The "Home-Coming" atLogierait — ^Freedom of Irvine— Address
at Greenock— The Clyde— The Theology— Lord Dufiferin's Tribute to hia
First Minister — George Brown's Letter on Taste.

CONTENTS. 27
CHA.PTER XXVIII page 418
THE NATIONAL POLICY FIRST DISCUSSED.
Questions of Trade Occupy the House — Industrial Depression — Committee
Appointed for Investigation — Mr. Cartwright's Budget Speech — Dr. Tup-
per's Reply — The National Policy — The Steel Rail Transaction — Election in
South Ontario.
CHAPTER XXIX. page 434
AN IRKSOME SESSION OF PARLIAMENT.
Changes in the Cabinet Since 1873 — Their Effect Upon the Government — New
Appointments Made — Mr. Brown on Laurier — Extradition — Mr. Blake's
Bill — Opening of the House with Prayer — Budget Speech Again — Protection
versus Free Trade — The Agricultural Interests of the Country — The Pacific
Railway — Port Francis Locks — Mr. Mi o leuzie's Defence — Goderioh Harbor
— The Independence of Parliament and Mr. Anglin — Mr. Mills at Washing
ton — Mr. Mackenzie's Sympathy^Two Interesting Letters.
CHAPTER XXX. page 459
LAST SESSION IN POWER.
Bitterness of Parties — Sir John's Attack on Mr. Anglin — The Premier's De
fence — Long and Acrimonious Debate on the Address — The Turning Point
of Depression Reached — Mr. Mowat ofifered a seat in the Government — The
Fighting Ground for the Elections Laid Out — The Protective Policy — The
Auditor-General — Temperance Legislation — Another Stride Towards Self-
Government.
CHAPTER XXXI page 474
GOVERNOR LETELLIER'S COUP D'ETAT.
The Case Before Parliament — Motion to Declare His Action "Unwise" —
How the Premier Met it — The Dominion Government not Privy to the Pro
ceeding — Lord Lome Assailed — Gov. Letellier Dismissed — Address to Lord
Dufiferin — His Excellency's Sense of the Premier's Kindness — Bids Parlia
ment Farewell — Government Policy on the Railway— Legislation With
drawn — Release from a Turbulent Session.
CHAPTER XXXII. page 495
DEFEAT OF THE GOVERNMENT.
Royalty in Canada — Apprehensions Unfounded — Preparations for the Con
test  Mistake in the Time Selected — Should have been June — The Physical

28 CONTENTS.
Strain — What the Government had to Fight Against — A Carnival of Fraud
and Misrepresentation — Defeat of the Government — The Protection Hum
bug Illustrated.
CHAPTER XXXIII. page 514
HOW HE BORE DEFEAT.
Letter to Lord Dufferin— The Governor-General's Reply— His Excellency's
Noble Letter to Mrs. Mackenzie- Letter from the late Chief Justice Rich
ards — Mr. Mackenzie Addresses Mr. Holton — Hatred of Intrigue and
Crookedness — Would Rather go Down than Yield Principle— A Clean Re
cord—The Loss of Good and True Men— The Public Interest First and
Always — "Living in Another Man's House" — Nothing Left save Honor —
Self-Sacrifice— Its Reward — Disciples of Cobden do not Temporise — Answers
to Letters of Reproach — Letter of Resignation and Defence of His Policy —
How He felt the Dismissal of His Former Secretary — Fun Ahead with the
Besom and the Stane. CHAPTER XXXIV. page 537
AGAIN IN OPPOSITION.
Resides in Toronto — Welcomes the Change — "Bracing" Him Up —Sympa
thetic Letter — Parliament Meets — The N. P. " Elephant" — Everybody Pro
tected — A Tarifif of ' ' Corners '' — Canada in Cast-ofif Clothing — The Conse
quences of the Policy — Mr. Blake on its Tendency — Sir Oliver Mowat on
Patriotism — Still a Rainbow of Hope — Mr. Mackenzie Resigns the Leader
ship — Comments Thereupon.
CHAPTER XXXV. page 551
THE OFFERS OF A TITLE.
Death of Mr. Holton and Mr. Brown — Mr. Brown's Biography — The Session
of 1880-1 — A Spice of Humor — The Canadian Exodus — More About Pro
tection — Mr. Mackenzie on Canadian Honors — Bestowal of Titles on Chief
Justices Richards and Dorion — Mr. Mackenzie and Mr. Blake Decline —
Mr. Brown's Declinature in 1874 — What Mr. Holton Thought — Mr. Mac-
lienzie Declines a Second and Third Time — Letter from Lord Lome Ofifer-
ing a Title — Lord Dufferin on Canadian Distinctions.
CHAPTER XXXVI page 563
FROM OCEAN TO OCEAN.
The Winter of 1880-1— Beginning of His Illness— His Appearance in His
Prime — What He Says About Himself — The Canadian Pacific Railway—

CONTENTS. 29
The Government Policy — Policy of the Mackenzie Government — Oflfers of
the Two Companies — Mr. Mackenzie's Fight Against Monopoly — The Con
tract Carried — How the Company Have Fulfilled their Obligations.
CHAPTER XXXVII page 573
GOES TO EUROPE.
His Opinion of Thomas Carlyle — Starched Faces — Husband and Wife — Car-
lyle's Philosophy : What Is It? — Goes to Europe — Paris — How to Make
Oneself Understood — In Switzerland — Mountain Scenery — Return to
England — The House of Commons — John Bright — In Scotland — The Free
dom of Inverness — The Familiar Scenes — Describes Edinburgh — Climbing
Moimtains — Schichallion "By Telescope "—Glasgow — Glencoe — John
O'Groat's — Culloden — Professor Blackie — Back in Canada — The Tories Again
in Luck — Ofil'er of Trusteeship Declined — The Reductio ad Absurdum of
Independence.
CHAPTER XXXVIII p-\ge 587
THE GREAT GERRYMANDER.
Parliament Dissolved — Mr. Mackenzie Retires from Lambton to Accept East
York— The Canvass — During it He is Stricken Down — Redeems the Riding
— Another Tariff Change — The Great Geri-ymander — How the Measure was
Designated in Parliament — Hiving of the Grits —The Process of Manufac
ture of Tory Constituencies — Officials Superseded as Returning Officers —
Sir John A. Macdonald's Own Arguments Against the Measure — Is the
Principle of Gerrymander Constitutional? — Power to Canada to Negotiate
Her Own Treaties — "A British Subject I was Born," etc. — Ringing Speech
from Mr. Mackenzie in Reply — The Flourish of the Flag, and " The Flag
of Common Sense " — " Wasted Opportunities."
CHAPTER XXXIX. page 601
TO EUROPE AGAIN.
A Proposed Shelf in the Senate — ^Testimonial from the Lambton Friends —
Crosses the Atlantic Once More in Search of Health — Fine Letter from Edin
burgh — Graphic Historical Incidents — Knox and Calvin — Poor Queen Mary
— Glimpses of Venice and Milan — Speech at the Empire Club in London
— Lord Dufferin's Estimate of it — Lord Lome — Lord Lansdowne — Lord
Stanley.
CHAPTER XL. page 608
HE DEPICTS HIMSELF.
Goes to the North-West — Again in Search of Health— Splendid Descriptive
Letter to his Daughter — The Rockies — Mount Stephen — Wheat Fields of

30 CONTENTS.
over One Thousand Acres- The Fight with his Disease— A x^ast Visit to
Scotland — Interesting Series of Letters— The Man Revealed — His Pen Pic
tures of Himself.
CHAPTER XLI page 621
RIVETING THE FETTERS.
The Second Rising in the North-West— 111- Treatment Causes Rebellion—
" Old To-Morrow" — Sacrifice of Life and Treasure — The Franchise Iniquity
— The Revising Barrister — The Country Delivered into His Hands — Mr.
Mackenzie on the Outrage— The Indian Vote— The Tory Cries from 1867
to 1891.
CHAPTER XLII page 628
HIS LAST DAYS.
Again Returned for East York — Charles Mackenzie in the Legislature — Death
of Sir John A. Macdonald — Mr. Blake's Retirement — Member for South
Longford, Ireland — Mr. Mackenzie's Last Manifesto— "I Repent It" — Vote
on the Jesuit Bill — His Seventieth Birthday — A Fatal Fall — His Illness —
His Death on Easter Day— The Nation's Sorrow — Touching Tributes — The
Funeral Pageants in Toronto and Sarnia — The Orations,
CHAPTER XLIII page 655
TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY.
Mrs. Mackenzie's Help to Him in His Public Career — His Recognition of It —
Her Devotion in His Long Illness — Personal and Public Tributes — Letter
from Hon. A. G. Jones — Hon. S. H. Blake's Oration — The Pulpit and the
Press — All Unite to do Him Honor.

^Cf0h» (E'dn&nHeii*

"Canada Since the Union of 1841."- Dent.
" The History of the Upper Canada Rebellion. "— Djsnt.
"Parliamentary Government in Canada." — ToDD.
"Parliamentary Government in the British Colonies." — Todd.
" Parliamentry Procedure and Practice. "—BouMNOT.
" Speeches of the Hon. Alex. Mackenzie in Scotland and Canada."
"Constitutional Documents of Canada." — HouSTOU.
" The Earl of Dufferin's Administration in Canada." — Leggo.
" The Canadian Portrait Gallery."
" A Short History of the Canadian People." — Geo. Bryce, M.A., LT .D
" Nova Britannia." — Morris.
"History of Canada " — J. P. Jeffers, B.A.
"Life aud Speeches of the Hon. Geo. Brown." — Alex. Mackenzie.
" Life of Sir John A. Macdonald." — G. Mercer Ad.iM.
" The Canadian North-West." — G. Merger Adam.
"Confederation of Canada." — Gray.
"Canada First ; A Memorial of the late Wm. A. Foster, Q.C."
"History of Canada."— W. H. Withrow, D.D., F R.S.C.
" Canada and the Canadian Question." — Goldwin Smith, D.C.L.
"Reminiscences." — Sir Francis Hincks.
" Canada Under the Administration ot Lord Lome." — Collims.
"Life and Times of the Right Hon. Sir John A. Macdonald." — Collins.
"Canada Under the Administration of the Earl of Dufiferin." — Gjsorgb
Stewart, Jun.
" The Dominion Annual Register." — Morgan.
Debates on Confederation of the Provinces.
Parliamentary Companion.
Journals of the House of Commons, 1867 to date.
Sessional Papers.
Journals of the Legislative Assembly of Canada.
Statutes of Canada.
Debates of the House of Commons.

nsroTiEi.
The authors acknowledge their indebtedness to many persons for the use of
the original letters and papers which appear in this volume. They are under
special obligations in this respect to Mrs. Mackenzie, Mr. Robert Mackenzie,
Mr. Charles Mackenzie, M.P.P., and Rev. Dr. Thompson — the two last named
being the Executors. The literary memorials of the deceased statesman have
been unreservedly placed at their disposal ; and they have proved a mine of
wealth, which has been extensively drawn upon for the enrichment of the
work. Mr. Mackenzie's habit was to preserve all letters and papers which
came into his possession, and they were methodically endorsed. They were
not, however, classified or arranged ; so that it became at once obvious that
there was no preparation of material looking to a record of his life. He was
consulted about a biography some years before he died, but he spoke of it as
a matter to which he had devoted very little thought, and the subject was
one to which he did not revert.

list of 3nu0tration0. PAGE
1. Hon. Alex. Mackenzie  ^
2. Mrs. Mackenzie  3
3. Parish Church and Manse, Logierait  37
4. House at Logierait (Birthplace)  ^^
6. Old Parliament Buildings, Toronto  69
6. Alexander Mackenzie (1870)  79
7. Old Parliament Buildings, Quebec  113
8. Hon. George Brown  166
9. Sir John A. Macdonald  591
10. Hon. Edward Blake  287
11. Hon. Oliver Mowat  305
12. Mr. Mackenzie's Old Home, Sarnia  324
13. The Mackenzie Tower, Ottawa  505
14. Mr. Mackenzie's Residence, Toronto  539
15. Funeral Train, G. T. R. Station, Sarnia  645
16. Interior St. Andrew's Church, Sarnia  649
17. Exterior St. Andrew's Church, Sarnia  649
18. Family Burial Plot  653
19. Mrs. Mackenzie  657

FAC-SIMILE OF HAND-WRITINGS.
Holton, Hon. L. H., fac-simile of his band-writing  90
McGee, Hon. T. D'A., " " «  127
Head, Sir E. W., " " «  130
Brown, Hon. George, " " "  235
Wood, Hon. E. B., " « «  274
Dufferin, Lord, " " "  365
Mackenzie, Hon. Alex., " " »  4]4 .531
Blake, Hon. Edward, " " "  437
Macdonald, Right Hon. Sir J. A., "  457
Letellier, Hon. L., " " "  482
Tupper, Hon. Sir Charles, " " ,  53]

THE

HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE,

HIS LIFE AND TIMES.

CHAPTER I.
ALEXANDER MACKENZIE'S YOUTH.
Record of Mr. Mackenzie's Birth — His Paternal Ancestry — His Father's Loss
of Fortune — "Peregrinities" — The Memorial Tablet — The Mother's Family
— The Parents' Endowments — Mr. Mackenzie's Birthplace — His "School
ing " — The Old Clockmaker Schoolmaster — His Hard Necessity — He Learns
a Trade.

LITTLE over seventy years ago there was born
in a Scottish village, to parents in unpretentious
circumstances, a lad who, like Clive, was destined
in after life to play an important part in a wide
field in another hemisphere — whose destiny it was
to realise in his own person, and in our own day, the
fairy -book romance of " Turn again Whittington, Lord Mayor
of London." This lad was Alexander Mackenzie, Prime Min
ister of Canada. He came to Canada, in 1842, a working
stonecutter ; he returned from Canada, in 1875, at the head of
its Government. In a letter descriptive of the voyage home

Si LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
in the latter year, he himself marks the strange contrast in
his position and fortune. "Leaving Quebec," he says, "we
had a delightful sail down the St. Lawrence, that queen of
rivers. My mind went back to the time when, as a nameless
mason lad, I had sailed up that same river, 33 years before,
the country and future all unknown to me. Little did I
think that I should ever i-eturn, as I did to-day, full of respon
sibility, if not of honor." "His," says the London Times,
"was a remarkable career. He rose from toiling in a stone-
yard to rule the greatest territory in the British Empire."
"To-day," remarked the great French journalist, Paul de
Cazes, when referring to Mr. Mackenzie's visit to the Queen,
" the poor mechanic of the past is welcomed and feasted at the
most aristocratic court in Europe, while, for the proud nobles
who surround him in the gilded salons of St. James, his lowly
origin is disguised under the imprint of ability stamped upon
the Canadian statesman."
He was the third son of Alexander Mackenzie and Mary
Stewart Fleming. As annalist of the family, his father has
methodically recorded in a small book the domestic events as
they occurred. The book is now in possession of the eldest
son, and from it the following extract is taken: "1822, at
Logierait, Monday, 28th day of January. Born to me at a
quarter past twelve, Sunday night, my third son. Baptized on
Friday, Sth of February. Named Alexander." There were
ten children born to these parents — all sons. They were
named Robert, Hope Fleming, Alexander, Thomas, Donald,
John, Adam Stewart, James, Charles and Daniel. Thomas,
Donald and Daniel died in infancy.
The father died at Dunkeld in 1836, aged 62. Six years
after his death, the son, Alexander, came to Canada; he was
followed one year subsequently by Hope, and four years after

ALEXANDER MACKENZIE'S YOUTH. , 35
by the other brothers and their mother. On February 16th,
1861, at the age of 66, the mother, whose maiden name was
Mary Stewart Fleming, died in Sarnia, surrounded by her
seven children. She lies buried in the cemetery there, in the
midst of five of those sons; the only ones now living being the
eldest and the youngest, Robert and Charles.
It is our main purpose in these pages to follow the career of
Alexander, both in Scotland and Canada, and as the starting
place is a little earlier in point of time, let us see what may be
found borne on a couple of the stems of the genealogical tree.
And first, as relates to the ancestry of the father.
The name of the paternal great-grandfather of the Cana
dian Mackenzies was Donald, a Ross-shire Highlander, who
came south to Perthshire, where he married Margaret Fer
guson, and where, in 1742, their grandfather, Malcolm, was
born, on the banks of the Tummel, near its confluence with
the Garry, at the foot of the famous Pass of Killiecrankie. The
families of Donald and of Malcolm, who married Catherine
McDonald, of Strathtay, all remained in Perthshire ; here they
were born, and here they died, and were buried — Donald and
his generation in the churchyard of the parish of Moulin ;
Malcolm and his in Logierait, where the elder Alexander and
his three little children also lie — all of two generations and
part of the third sleeping their peaceful sleep in this most
beautiful part of the Perthshire Highlands.
Malcolm Mackenzie was a millwright and miller, and, as we
learn from the original document now before us, signed by
the Duke, leased from His Grace, John, Duke of Athol, " the
miln, miln-croft, houses, yards, and appurtenances thereto
belonging of Kincraigie, together with the thirlage," the " thir-
lage" being defined by Webster as "the right which the owner
of a mill possesses, by contract or law, to compel the tenants

.•?6 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
of a certain district to bring all their grain to his mill for
grinding." In this old mill of Kincraigie, haunted with all manner of
"spooks," and which we have heard Mr. Mackenzie say he
never went past when a boy except on the run, and then with
a feeling of dread, as one pursued by the sheeted dead, Alex
ander, the miller's son, was born in the year 1784, and he,
like his father, became skilled in the use of tools. He served
an apprenticeship as a carpenter, and during the period of
feverish activity in the fitting and refitting of battleships in
the early part of the century, he found profitable employment<
as ship-joiner at Portsmouth. But he was much more than a
mere mechanic; he was an excellent architectural draughts
man. After Waterloo he returned to the former scenes in
Perthshire, where he superintended the erection of manorial
houses, and took contracts of his own. He was of an adven
turous and enterprising turn of mind, and branched out into
other undertakings. The right to cut, chiefly for the tan
bark, oak timber in the coppices of Scotland, is let by the
landed lairds every twenty-one years. A good deal of employ
ment is given to the people in this way, and before the close of
the French wars large profits were derived from these enter
prises. Alexander, as appears by his diary, engaged in them.
But the war expenditures having now been stopped, great
financial distress came upon the people, and this once prosper
ous man met with such considerable reverses that he never
i-egained his former good fortune. Henceforth, with his
increasing family, life was to him a stern reality, which
impelled him to make frequent movements from place to place
in search for the means of bettering his circumstances.
He married in 1817, when he was living in Logierait. In
the year 1825, the family were in Edinburgh, where, he says.

0
a

V

g

g
p.

ALEXANDER MACKENZIE'S YOUTH. 39
" my sons Robert, Hope F. and Alexander, had the measles.
Robert and Alexander got them easily over, but Hope for sev
eral days was considered dangerous, having been bled, leeched,
and blistered " — from which pleasant and heroic treatment, as
well as the measles, he at length, after a severe struggle, mi
raculously recovered ! On the 10th of March, 1826, it is Writ
ten that the two "sons Robert and Hope Fleming went from
here to Cluny, Strathtay, for some time to attend school and
learn the Gaelic." They had missed acquiring the Gaelic as an
ordinary vehicle of talk, although their father and mother
habitually conversed together in that ancient tongue.
" Perth, Nov. 26, 1827. Arrived here with my wife, and
Alexander, my son." " 1829, May 15. Removed from Perth
to Pitlochry."
In the summer of 1834 they removed to Dunkeld, where, to
borrow an expressive word, Alexander Mackenzie's " peregrini
ties " ended, for here, in 1836, he died. He was buried at Lo
gierait, where Malcolm, his father, who lived to the advanced
age of 94, had already been interred. Like all his race, Alex
ander was a sober-minded. God-fearing man, and the certifi
cate is preserved which gave him warrant for admission to the
Lord's table in Glasgow at the age of 21. We copy from the
original paper now before us the certificate of church mem
bership given to this couple, the father and mother of the
Canadian Mackenzies, by the session clerk of Logierait :
" These do certify that the bearers hereof, Alexander Macken
zie and Mary Fleming, his wife, have been residenters in this
paribh for nearly twenty years, always behaving themselves
regularly, under a fair character, and free from any grounds
of church censure, in full communion with the church, an J may
be freely admitted into any christian congregation, or society,
wherever they may happen to reside. Given by appointment

40 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
of the kirk session of Logierait, the twentj^-seventh day of
March, eighteen hundred and twenty -five j^ears.
" Thomas Menzies, Min.
"Donald Fleming, Session Clerk."
From Kincraigie, where Alexander was born, to Dunkeld,
where he died, the distance is about six miles ; and from Dun
keld to Logerait, where he was buried, and where the younger
Alexander was born, is from eight to nine miles.
Fifteen years after coming to this country, the future Can
adian premier returned for the first time to the scenes of his
earlier days. Wishing to place an inscription while there at
the head of his father's grave, two difficulties presented them
selves. The first was that the family burial plot abutted on
the east wall, near by the main door of the church, leaving no
room for a monument, and thus necessitating the insertion of
a tablet into the wall, and next that the sanction was required
of the heritors or landowners, on whom lay the responsibility
of building and upholding the parish church. To the credit of
the heritors, be it said, the requisite permission, notwithstanding
some objections, was granted as a special favor to the claims
of an exiled parishioner to thus perform a filial duty ; and
the tablet remains there as the only attachment of the kind
possessed by the old church walls. The widow and the family
continued to reside at Dunkeld from the death of the husband
and father until their removal to Canada in 1847.
We now turn to the mother's side of the house. The
mother of the Mackenzies was the daughter of Donald Flem
ing and Jean Stewart, both persons of good social position.
Mr. Fleming was society schoolmaster and session clerk of
Logierait. Society schools were supplementary to parish
schools, and were what mission schools are here ; they were

ALEXANDER MACKENZIE'S YOUTH. 41
maintained by the society for the propagation of christian
knowledge in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Mr.
Fleming acted also for the people in secular matters. Law
yers were unknown in those days in this secluded part of
Scotland, and he was therefore the chief adviser and adminis
trator of the affairs of the people of a very extensive district
— a position which gave him a high standing and great in
fluence. These peaceful occupations he preferred to the more
stirring life of the army, in which in his earlier days his
wife's relatives proposed to purchase for him a commission.
He was not of Celtic origin, and he had of necessity to master
the Gaelic language, which he spoke without the Highland
intonation. He died in 1826, aged 70 years.
Jean, his wife, was the eldest of the four daughters of Adam
Stewart, a regimental captain and a landed proprietor of
Strathtay, owning, as he did, the estates of Blackhill and
Cluny, with their two manorial houses. These estates, which
are about six miles up the Strath or valley of the Tay from
Logierait, are still in the possession of the family, the present
proprietor being Captain Robertson. The manor house of
Cluny and the shooting privileges on the estate are now, or
have been, under lease to Sir Donald Currie, the great ship
owner, and member of the House of Commons for West
Perthshire. It was to this house, then in the possession of
Miss Anne Stewart, their grand aunt, that the two elder boys,
Robert and Hope, went to live in 1826, in order to "attend
school and learn the Gaelic."
Mary Fleming, the mother of the Mackenzies, was the
fourth of seven children, four sons and three daughters. The
eldest son, Thomas, went to Jamaica, and died there of yellow
fever. Another son, Hope Stewart, was bred to the profession
of medicine, and took the degree of M.D. He, however, never

42 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
practised. His family influence procured for him a commis
sion in the service of the East India Company. He attained
high rank in the Madras Presidency, and acquired considerable
wealth. He died in 1874, in London, England, leaving hand
some legacies to his numerous nephews and nieces, and the re
mainder of his fortune to his cousin, the Captain Robertson
already mentioned, who was his executor and residuary legatee.
The Lord Provost of Perth, who presided at the public ban-
(|uet given in Mr. Mackenzie's honor in 1875, and Rev. Dr.
Macdonald, of Leith, a distinguished minister, and an author
of some note, are, like Captain Robertson, cousins of the Mac
kenzies. On both sides of the house, therefore, the Mackenzies came
of good families, as the phrase goes, and their ancestors were
of the best stock, but this they never referred to in any way
whatever. They relied solely on their own merits. Their
creed on the social structure question was based upon the two
celebrated sentences of the Prime Minister in his speech in
1875 before the working men of Dundee: "For my own
part, sir, I never allude to the fact that I have been a working
man as a reason why I should be rejected or why I should be
accepted. I base my entire claim for public confidence upon
the expressions of opinion which I believe command that con
fidence, and upon the strength of those principles of which I
have been a humble advocate for many years."
Having written at some little length of Alexander Macken
zie, tho father, it is proper to say of the mother, not only
whose features, but whose large intellectual endowments the
children inherited in a very marked degree, that she was a wo
man of great insight and wisdom, gentle of manner, though
firm and independent in character, and eminently fitted to
instil those solid principles into the minds and hearts of her

House at Logierait, Scotland (still standing), where Mr. Mackenzie was born.

ALEXANDER MACKENZIE'S YOUTH. 45
sons, which made them the strong-willed, self-reliant, unself
ish, honorable, public-spirited men that they were. They had
a warm attachment for each other, and the greatest aflfection
for their parents, of whom they invariably spoke, not in the
ordinary way of " father," or " mother," but in the more ex
clusive and tender, almost sacred, sense of "our father," and
"our mother."
A well-informed Scottish writer some years ago, in a sketch
of Mr. Mackenzie and his ancestors, said that though his par
ents were in humble life, his father being a country joiner,
the joiner " was so well endowed with brains and information,
and the gift of the tongue, that he was the oracle of the village,
the life and soul of any social organisations which it had.
His mother was daughter of Mr. Fleming, long schoolmaster
at Inver of Tullipourie, whose family talent, intelligence, and
refinement raised them decidedly above the average of their
peers." As we shall in this narrative employ the language of Mr.
Alexander Mackenzie himself, wherever it can be introduced,
so now we give his own brief description of the place where,
" in a blast of Januar' win'," he first saw the light of day, and
where his home was for the earlier four years of his childhood
life. He speaks of his father's house at Logierait as " a stone
cottage prettily situated near the confluence of the rivers Tay
and Tummel — one of the most beautiful spots in the Southern
Highlands, where, within a few miles of the ancient cathedral
city of Dunkeld on the south, and the famous pass of Killie
crankie on the north, a rich cultivation in the broad valleys
contrasts strongly with near mountain scenery, rendering the
spot no less celebrated for natural beauty than it is for its
historic recollections." The house was built by his father
about eighty years ago.

46 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MAOKi-NZIE.
Logierait is a village of ancient fame, even in the crowded
history of Scotland. It has a Gaelic name, signifying " the
hollow of the fortress." In early days it was associated with
royaltj^ and was the seat of the Duke of Athol's regality court,
a tribunal which had extensive jurisdiction in cases criminal
and civil, and, to a lesser extent, in matters ecclesiastical. So
great, indeed, were the criminal powers of the court, that a
" gallows-hill " was a necessary appendage to it. The village
has been the birthplace and home of other distinguished men
than the Prime Minister of Canada, notably Dr. Adam Fer
guson, the historian and philosopher, and Dr. Robert Bisset;
while Major-General Sir Robert H. Dick, Bart., who fell at
Sobraon, in 1846, in the hour of victory, also shared the
honors of the parish.
Pitlochry, where the family lived for a time, after leaving
Logierait, in a comfortable stone house still standing there, is
almost six miles further north, and nearer the entrance to the
famous Pass. It is a delightful spot on the banks of the
Tummel, which a poet might envy. The river at this point
carries both its own waters and the waters of the Garry ; the
Garry joining it a few miles higher up. Both streams. are
celebrated in song, and abound with national reminiscences.
' ' Cam' ye by Athol, lad wi' the philabeg,
Down by the Tummel, or banks of the Garry?
Saw ye our lads wi' their bonnets and white cockades,
Leavmg their mountains to follow Prince Charlie ? "
The old village, with its many and varied attractions, has of
late years grown into quite a summer resort. Probably there
is nothing more beautiful than this favored spot in all Scot
land. Such was the opinion of a warm lover of nature, the
late Charles Kingsley. When dining with Mr. Mackenzie
.some years ago in Ottawa, he said : " I have travelled all over

ALEXANDER MACKENZIES YOUTH. 47
the world, and I know no place more lovely, or a drive more
glorious, than that from Blair- Athol to Pitlochry, through the
Pass of Killiecrankie." In his tour of Scotland in 1883, Mr.
Mackenzie pointed out the old cherry tree at Logierait, from
which when a boy he had fallen when striving to get its fruit,
and for which he narrowly escaped a thrashing, not for the
injury done to himself, but to his jacket.
While residing at Pitlochry the three elder boys went to
the parish school of Moulin, distant a little over a mile. The
schoolhouse was then, and is still, a small, quaint, uncomfort
able building. Writing from Ottawa, over fifty years after he
had received his scanty " schooling " here, to a friend in Dun
keld, Mr. Mackenzie paints a picture of the surroundings,
which recalls Mrs. Gaskell's description of the graveyard and
parsonage at Haworth, where Charlotte Bronte and her weird
sisters nursed their strange genius in the bosom of the wild
Yorkshire moorlands : " What a mistake our grandfathers and
our immediate predecessors made in having church, manse,
graveyard, and schoolmaster's premises all crowded together.
I remember our old schoolhouse in Moulin, like that at
Logierait, had one part in the enclosure of the graveyard. The
vast accumulation of bodies for centuries had raised the
ground in the graveyard some tive or six feet, and the back
windows of our school were half covered by the growing
soil. Let me add that I met an old women here lately whose
husband worked for years with my father at Logierait before
I was born."
When he was at Moulin in 1883, Mr. Mackenzie, pointing
out the old school-house on whose benches he had sat as
a little boy, said : " It still looks as old-fashioned and anti
quated as if it had stood there since the times of the flood — -a
fit place for the education of Noah and his family." He also

48 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
related some interesting anecdotes of the old teacher whose
power in wielding the tawse and authority over his subjects
made him more terrible to them than the Czar of all the
Russias. Robertson was the name of the Moulin dominie, and
he eked out his scanty pay in pedagogy by tinkering old
clocks and watches, upon whose bodies he was accustomed to
work, while driving the arts of reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic
into the minds of the unwilling urchins. It is to be appre
hended that Alexander got little under the ferule of the me
chanical old Robertson, or at either of the two or three other
similar educational establishments which he attended within
the brief compass of his so-called scholastic life. But what
says a great master on this subject, his countryman, who, as
the scholar of the family, had the advantages of a university
education — though his father, too, was but a working mechan
ic — Scholar Tom ? "To him," speaking of John Sterling, "and
to all of us, the expressly-appointed schoolmasters and school
ings we get are as nothing, compared with the unappointed,
incidental, and continual ones, whose school hours are all the
days and nights of our existence, and whose lessons, noticed or
unnoticed, stream in upon us with every breath we draw."
Robert, the eldest brother, has told us that Alexander left
school altogether when he was thirteen, and that from ten to
thirteen he worked in summer with the farmers, and went to
school in the winter. Three winters' schooling at such insti
tutions as ancient Robertson's, the clock-mender, must have
been a poor equipment for a lifetime, and if Thomas Carlyle
himself had been compelled to put up with it, instead of hav
ing entered at the college at Edinburgh, we certainly would
not have had " Sartor Resartus " or " Frederick the Great."
How Mr. Mackenzie throughout his career felt the hampering
influences of his early surroundings, appears in a letter of

ALEXANDER MACKENZIE'S YOUTH. 49
lament, written to his friend, Mr. George Brown, in 1872,
when he had became a great parliamentary leader — a letter so
full of pathos as to evoke sympathy from the strongest, for the
inadequately furnished, if still powerful man : " I know too
well my own deficiencies as a political leader to wonder at
other people seeing them as well. The want of early advan
tages was but ill compensated for by an anxious-enough efibrt
to acquire such in the midst of a laborious life, deeply furrowed
by domestic trials, and it has left me but ill-fitted to grapple
with questions and circumstances constantly coming up in
Parliament. I am quite aware of the advantages possessed
by a leader of men, of high mental culture and having ample
means, especially when these are joined to intellectual power
and personal excellence. Therefore, I do not wonder at, or
complain of, those who see in others possessing such, greater
fitness for the work required of them than myself."
He had at that time, by his own unaided efforts, won a posi
tion which it is the good fortune of but one in millions to
achieve, however gifted or well-trained he may happen to be.
By these efforts Mr. Mackenzie's mind became one of continu
ous development, ever acquiring knowledge, and constantly
expanding and growing upon what it fed. It will be curious
and interesting to mark as we go along, from the outer
rather than from the inner evidences, the progress he made,
often by leaps and bounds, from the period of 1841, when he
struck out for himself as journeyman stonecutter, until he
reached, in 1873, the highest attainable altitude as chief
adviser of the Crown.
But if it was hard for the boys to get a livelihood, much
less an education, while the impoverished father was alive to
struggle for them, it was harder still after his death. There
were seven of them, ranging from the age of two to seven-

60 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
teen, Alexander being fourteen. The three elder boys had
already left school, for stern necessity had driven them to do
something in the way of support for themselves. When he
was but ten years of age, Alexander had been compelled to
start forth in the battle of life by hiring himself out as a herd
lad to various farmers in the neighborhood, with the attend
ant duties of caring for their cows and sheep. When he was
sixteen he held the plough, and did at that honorable em
ployment a man's full work, for he was very strong for his
age, and full of pluck and resource. One who knew him
as a lad has said of him : " He was remarkable for strength
and energy ; always on the alert, and ever ready for fun or
frolic." From his youth he was a born leader, and headed his
companions in their every harmless mischief -making eapedi-
tion. But he was, from first to last, self-respecting, and there
was never anything in him approaching in the slightest degree
to badness. There was a boldness and aggressiveness, an in
dependence of character and thought about him, a habit of
forming his own opinions and of sticking to them when
formed, which all feared, and many liked him for. But
whether they did the one or the other, he chalked out his
own way and kept it. " H«w straight to the line, and the
man's work is not only the better for it in itself, but is more
commendable in the eyes of his fellow men."
As the boys in turn grew to a proper age, each was appren
ticed to a trada The eldest two, Robert and Hope, became
carpenters and cabinetmakers, Alexander a stonecutter, John
a tin and coppersmith, and Adam a druggist. The other two
children were too young to learn trades in Scotland, but after
their arrival in Canada James became associated with the two
elder brothers in building and cabinetmaking, and Charles
joined John in the hardware and tin and coppersmithing busi
ness.

CHAPTER II.

HIS ARRIVAL IN CANADA.
Aspirations not Realised — Hugh Miller's Case Exemplified — Journeyman
Stonecutter Before the Age of Twenty — Works and Muses in the Land of
Burns— Beginning of His Religious Life— Becomes Attached to Helen
Neil — Emigration to Canada — His Deportment on the Voyage — Love for
the Old Songs — Arrival in Kingston— A Scottish Scene of '43.

ROUDE has told us that there is in most Scottish
families a desire that one of the sons shall receive
a liberal education. It seems to have been so in
the family of the Mackenzies. Alexander had
always felt a thirst for knowledge. He was a
greedy reader, and never tired of poring over his
books. In this way, with his prodigious memory, he was con
stantly storing up funds of most valuable information. It
was his own wish and that of his mother and the rest that he
should obtain what is known as " advantages." But this wish
was not to be realised. There were seven children and the
mother to be provided for, and the brave, manly boy resolved
to take his turn at wage-earning with the rest. So at about
the agie of 16, from his hard preparatory school of existence, he
entered life's university by binding himself with a builder of
the name of John Ireland, of Dunkeld, to learn the trade of a
stonecutter. Who does not recall in these circumstances, with
this chosen occupation, but with these desires and aspirations
unfulfilled, the author of " My Schools and Schoolmasters," his
61

32 LIFE OF TIIE HON. ALEXANDER M AC KEN Z III!.
countryman, Hugh Miller? Were not their characters and
their tastes and followjngs almost identical ? One of the most
vivid and widely-read of Hugh Miller's chapters is that in
which he tells the story of his choice of a calling, its impelling
motives, and his unsatisfied early ambition to gratify his tastes
in other ways than that of shaping stone. Though the pas
sage is a little long, and pressed as we are for space in these
crowded chapters of events, it fits the case of Alexander
Mackenzie so well, with the one exception of the reference to
the misspent period of boyhood, as to tempt us to quote it,
with but small abridgment.
Says Hugh Miller: "Finlay was away, my friend of the
Doocot Cave was away ; my other companions were all scat
tered abroad ; my mother, after a long widowhood of more
than eleven years, had entered into a second marriage ; and I
found myself standing face to face with a life of labor and
restraint. The prospect appeared dreary in the extreme. The
necessity of ever toiling from morning till night, and from one
week's end to another, and for a little coarse food and homely
raiment, seemed to be a dire one, and fain would I have
avoided it, but there was no escape ; and so I determined on
being a mason. ... I, however, did look, even at this
time, notwithstanding the antecedents of a sadly misspent
boyhood, to something higher, and daring to believe that
literature and, mayhap, natural science, were, after all, my
proper vocations, I resolved that much of my leisure time
should be given to careful observation, and the study df our
best English authors. Fain would I have avoided going to
school — that best and noblest of all schools, save the Christian
one, in which Labor is the teacher — in which the ability of
being useful is imparted, and the spirit of independence commu
nicated, and the habit of persevering effort acquired, and which

HIS ARRIVAL IN CANADA. 53
is more moral than the schools in which philosophy is taught,
and greatly more happy than the schools which prefer to teach
only the art of enjoyment. Noble, upright, self -relying Toil,
who that knows thy solid worth and value would be ashamed
of thy hard hands and thy soiled vestments, and thy obscure
tasks — thy humble cottage, and hard couch, and homely fare.
Save for thee and thy lessons, man in society would every
where sink into a sad compound of the fiend and the wild
beast, and this fallen world would be as certainly a moral as
a natural wilderness. But I little thought of the excellency
of thy character and of thy teachings when, with a heavy
heart, I set out about this time, on a morning early in springy
to take my first lesson from thee in a sandstone quarry."
The studious herdboy had certainly read Hugh Miller ; and
the elder stonecutter's noble apostrophe to labor must have
influenced him in following his precepts and his example.
Young Mackenzie was a faithful and zealous apprentice ;
he served his master well, acquired a complete knowledge of
his trade, and turned himself out a most competent workman
when he was even yet in the period of his teens. In the few
years that he had passed from the days of mere childhood
until now, the sagacious Scotch lad had learned by heart in a
stern school the true lessons of life, the first of which is to win
" the glorious privilege," that was now his own, " of being
independent," and to acquire those talents of prudence, self-
discipline, industry and sobriety without which it is given to
no one to achieve the best results.
He could not have been more than three years or a little
more under indentures, for he went to Mr. Ireland as appren
tice when he was about 16, and in 1841, before he had
reached 20, he was working at Irvine as a journeyman stone
cutter.

54 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
On being loosed from his indentures the young man began
to look around him for employment ; for through all his days
he hated to be idle. In Dunkeld there was no scope, as
there was little building there of any kind. But in the west
of Scotland the Ayr and Glasgow railroad was being con
structed, and this involved the erection of bridges and culverts.
And so the young lad, when barely nineteen, in the spring of
1841, left home and friends, and went to Irvine, where he at
once got employment as a stonecutter on a bridge over the
river. Before this time he had been an enthusiastic reader
of Burns, and now it was his privilege to be in Burns' country,
and to work in the very place associated with the name of
Burns, who was a craftsman in the Masonic Lodge of Irvine-
Shortly after entering upon work here, Mr. Mackenzie took
an opportunity of visiting the home and haunts of the poet,
examining with a curious eye the auld and new " Brigs of
Ayr," Alloway Kirk, and "Ye banks and braes o' bonnie
Doon ; " fiUing.his mind afresh with many a noble picture, and
warming his heart with some of the richest effusions that ever
welled forth from poet's soul, while working among the stone
and mortar during the day.
Even at this early time he had begun to take a deep interest
in the political history of his country, and to discuss economic
questions. He was a keen observer of the Chartist movement ;
he attended some of the Chartist meetings, and even took part
in the debates. He was well acquainted with the celebrated "six
points," some of which he approved, while hs*detected the
fallacy of others. For though there was a good deal of the
radical in his composition, he could perceive both the strong
and the weak planks of the Chartist platform. He had no
sympathy whatever with the extreme measures the followers
of Ernest Jones were ready to adopt, and so he never asso
ciated himself with them.

HIS ARRIVAL IN CANADA. 55
Up to this time we know nothing of his religious life. He
was always a moral, upright lad, reverential toward Divine
things, and had great respect for all good men. But at this
period of the history of the Church of Scotiand there was
not a little of cold formality in the place where he lived, and
it is probable that during his apprenticeship he had met much
of that open disregard to religion which characterised the
operative mechanics in many parts of the country. All his
life his moral nature craved for reality, and hated pretence ;
he saw through hoUowness on any subject very readily. And
now in Irvine he met some zealous Baptists of the Haldane
school, and, attending their meetings, he came under the
influence of their teaching. He attached himself to the Bap
tist communion, and continued in it ever after. In all things,
however, save baptism, he remained warmly sympathetic with
the Presbyterians, and of late years it was the subject of bap
tism only, and not the mode, that was the dividing line between
him and his former church relations. Hence, as he often said,
he had, in a measure, to make his religious home in both
churches, his old associations and most of his personal friends
being in the Presbyterian Church. When in his former home
in Sarnia he attended, both morning and evening, the Presby
terian church, and in other places often one of its two Sunday
services. He was never charged with being a bigot. So far
from that, he was in religion, as in politics, a large-minded
man, readily acknowledging good wherever he saw it, and
deeply interested in all social, moral, and religious movements.
He was fond of quoting, especially to those who thought
much of forms and creeds, the remark of Robert Hall, the
celebrated English Baptist divine, that he would do a good
deal to make a man a Christian, but would hardly cross the
street merely to make him a Baptist.

56 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
While in Irvine he became acquainted with a family of the
name of Neil. The father and eldest son were stonecutters,
like himself. Into this family he afterwards married. In
addition to the other members of the Neil household, there
were two daughters. The eldest, Agnes, was married to a Mr-
Steed ; the other, Helen, but seventeen years of age — an at
tractive girl of good mental endowments — laid hold of his
heart, and ruled supreme in it.
He spent only a year at Irvine, but the circumstances of
that year determined his life's destiny, the destinies of his
whole family, and was pregnant with influence on the des
tinies of millions of his race in a distant country.
In 1842, when the young stonecutter was twenty years of
age, the Neil family conceived the idea of attempting to better
their fortunes by emigrating to Canada. Alexander Macken
zie, who looked upon himself, and was looked upon by them,
as virtually a member of the family, resolved on accompany
ing them. They sailed in the good ship. Monarch, a passenger
sailing vessel, from Greenock, on 5th of April, and after an
adventurous passage of thirty-two days, encountering icebergs
on the way, by one of which they were nearly wrecked, they
arrived in Montreal on the 6th of May. Mr. and Mrs. Steed
were also of the party. The Monarch carried seventy pas
sengers. The Neil party preferred taking a passenger to an
ordinary emigrant ship, so as to secure greater seclusion and
comfort. On the voyage, worship was daily celebrated by
this family, and Alexander Mackenzie took his part in the
hymns and prayers. A fellow-passenger, who is still living in
Kingston, says that while the other passengers were enjoying
themselves at various games on board the vessel, Alexander
was generally to be found aloof in some corner, reading a
book. " He was retired in manner, but always willing to give
advice if asked."

HIS ARRIVAL IN CANADA. 57
Before embarking for Canada, Alexander was unable for
want of means to visit his family at Dunkeld. They gave
him, however, the best send-off they could afford in the shape
of a substantial chest of clothes and other necessaries, got
ready by his mother, and packed by his elder brothers, Robert
and Hope.
He had much pleasure on the voyage in listening to the sing
ing of Scotch songs, in which some of the younger members
of the party were proficient; for in music, and especially in the
beautiful lyrics of his country, he took pleasure to the end of
his days. During the weeks preceding his last illness nothing
could gratify him more than for his grand-daughter to play
and " sing the auld Scots' songs — the songs he loved so well,"
Just three weeks before his death, letters were received from
two fellow-passengers, who had learned of his illness, and
after a silence of 50 years had written from diflFerent and dis
tant parts of Canada, expressing their sympathy, and recalling
the incidents of their voyage together across the sea. He
remembered both men perfectly, though he had never seen or
heard of them before or after, and gave instructions to reply
to their kind notes, and to be warmly remfembered to them.
Thus, with song and story, book and musing, the time of
the voyage was agreeably spent. When the vessel entered the
gulf, and came in sight of the long, low, dreary-looking island
of Anticosti, densely clothed with spruce that was dwarfed by
the distance, Mr. Mackenzie remarked that he had seen better
heather growing on the Scotch hillsides.
When the Monarch got to Quebec he despatched a long
letter to his mother and family, telling of his safe arrival, and
of the incidents by the way. In that letter, too, he poured
out to the dear ones at home all the love of a tender heart.
He took occasion while in the ancient city to visit the

53 LIFE OF TIIE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Plains of Abraham, where he marked the precipice up which
the British troops had scrambled under cover of that event
ful night, and viewed the scene where the great engagement
was fought in which " fell Wolfe, victorious." By the obser
vations he made to a companion, he showed that he was min
utely acquainted with the incidents of the battle, and of the
history of the country at the time it was fought. On his
return from the plains he introduced himself to a Scotch
soldier who took him through the defences. He was like a
schoolboy let loose on a holiday, and utilised to the utmost
every minute of time he had to spend in this historic and
interesting city.
Next day the vessel sailed up the river to Montreal,
where he made arrangements with a Frenchman, captain of
a battue, to take the family and himself to Kingston. In
after life he reverted with pleasure to the time he spent
in Kingston, and some of the acquaintances he formed there
were his life-long friends ; among them. Dr. Machar, and Rev.
Wm. Gregg, now Professor Gregg, Knox College, Toronto,
whose ministry Mr. Mackenzie often attended. The ties then
formed became stronger as time passed on, and thereafter each
entertained for the other a high measure of respect. Mr.
Mackenzie's family thought it fitting that Dr. Gregg should be
asked to conduct the services at the funeral in Sarnia, and
were much gratified at his consenting to do so.
In 1843, the year after the departure of Mr. Mackenzie for
Canada, a scene of dramatic interest which is illustrative of
the religious life of Scotland, took place in the old town
of Dunkeld. Prior to that date the only church in Scotland
was its National Church. But in 1843 the great Free Church
movement, which was known as the disruption, culminated.
The much-hated matter of patronage was the cause. The

HIS ARRIVAL IN CANADA. 59
lajided proprietors had the church patronage, and appointed
the parish ministers. They were thus designated "intrusion-
ists " — intruders within the sacred domain of religion and of
conscience. The contest was a very bitter one, and was
shared in, not alone by the sires and matrons, but the young
men and maidens, and the very children, whether they under
stood anything about the question or not.
One of the old Kirk ministers to follow the lead of Dr.
Chalmers in this struggle was the Rev. John Mackenzie, who
had up to that time conducted his services in the parish
church — in ancient days the Roman Catholic cathedral church
— of Dunkeld. He left church and manse and everything
behind him for the sake of his cherished principles of religious
freedom. Who of his former hearers in the old town were to
take example from him and continue as his flock was now the
question for these people to determine. As they were divided,
a canvass was necessary. The younger children of the widow
Mackenzie, who remained at home, well remembered the cir
cumstances of the interest excited by the good pastor coming
down their street in Dunkeld, visiting in turn each of the
houses of the parishioners, the earnest reading of the Scrip
tures, the solemn prayer, and then the all-important question:
" intrusion or non-intrusion ?" and how, without having pre
viously given any intimation of her intentions, when their
mother said "non-intrusion," they rushed into the streets,
tossed up their hats and gave the non-intrusionists there
assembled, occasion for another hurrah! Such scenes can
never be forgotten.
" From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs.
That makes her loved at home, revered abroad ;
Princes and lords are but the breath of kings,
' An honest man's the noblest work of God. ' "

60

LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.

We stop in our narrative at this point to give a very brief
sketch of the state of parties and issues when Mr. Mackenzie
came to this country, and what they were from the time
of his coming to Canada in 1842 until he entered Parliament
in 1861.

CHAPTER in.
TWENTY YEARS OF EXCITEMENT.
Political and Historical Sketch — From his arrival in 1842 to entering Parlia
ment in 1861 — The U. E. Loyalists — The Clergy Reserves —Louis J. Papin-
eau and Wm. Lyon Mackenzie — Robert Gourlay — Barnabas Bidwell — The
Rebellion — Baldwin, Draper, Morin, Lafontaine — Sir Charles Metcalfe —
Hazy Notions of Responsible Government — Lord Elgin — The Rebellion
Losses — The Governor-General Mobbed — Sacking and Burning of the Par
liament Buildings — George Brown — Dr. Rolph and Malcolm Cameron —
Francis Hincks — John A. Macdonald — The Seigniorial Tenure — Representa
tion by Population — The Double Majority — Rapid Growth of Upper Canada
— " French Domination."

, ROM the signing of the Treaty of Paris, in 1763, to
the passing of the Quebec Act, in 1774, military
rule prevailed in Canada. In the latter year,
under the Quebec Act, a Council was appointed
by the Crown with the power to make all colonial
laws or ordinances. By the Constitutional Act of
1791, the colony was divided into the Provinces of Upper and
Lower Canada, each having its own Legislature of two Houses
and its own Governor. In each the Legislative Assembly was
made elective. The members .of the Legislative Councils,
however, were practically king-appointed, and held their seats
for life ; and the Governors, who were also king-appointed,
ruled with the help of king-appointed Executive Councillors,
who owed no responsibility to the elective chamber. The
Governor, Legislative Councils, and Cabinet had therefore all
the power — the people's house of parliament, only its shadow.
61

62 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
It is surprising that enlightened statesmen like Pitt and
Burke did not see in their measure creating these Provinces,
on this model, the many evils it was destined to inflict upon
the infant colonies, and the struggle for popular rights which
would be certain to grow out of it. The dangers ahead were
visible enough to the far-piercing eye of Fox. Says Watson,
in his " Constitutional History of Canada : " " Almost every
thing to which he took exception proved, in the after years of
Canadian history, a source of heart-burning to the people, and
of imminent peril to the State. He opposed a Legislative
Council appointed by the Crown ; the appropriation of public
lands for ecclesiastical purposes ; the division of the Province,
and the consequent isolation of the inhabitants of both races.
The first two of these questions was destined, for over half a
century, to be the political plagues of Canada, and the chronic
perplexity of Great Britain. The third question is left to
time." Fitting soil had thus been formed for the reception therein
of so monarchical a body as those who were too loyal to
remain in the thirteen States of the neighboring Union after
they had thrown off their allegiance to Great Britain, and who
then sought refuge in Upper Canada. These persons were
designated " United Empire Loyalists," and through the large
grants that were made to them of the Crown territory, they
became the landed gentry of the Province.
An aristocratic band of rulers would have been wanting in
dignity and exclusiveness had not a state church been pro
vided. This, too, was supplied by the endowment of Anglican
rectories, and the setting apart of the seventh portion of the
ungranted land, or two million five hundred thousand acres,
as reserves for the maintenance of a Protestant clergy in
Upper Canada.

TWENTY YEARS OF EXCITEMENT. 63
We shall see that the establishment of the " Family Com
pact," as the oligarchists were called, the founding of the rec
tories, and the formation of the Clergy Reserves, were the
causes of great trouble to the growing people.
The leaders in the demand for equal rights were, in Upper
Canada, William Lyon Mackenzie, and in Lower Canada,
Louis Joseph Papineau, and in neither Province was any por
tion of these rights wrested from the hands of the colonial
tyrants until the people had risen in rebellion. There were
many painful struggles which led up to this most humiliating
of all the events in Canadian history.
Use and wont had accustomed the first settlers of Upper
Canada to the doles and charities of a paternal government.
The Province in 1791 comprised but 20,000 of a population,
and the people had, of necessity, in order to make a start
in these wilds, to accept aid from the Government in the
shape, not only of implements for subduing and cultivating
the land, but also of food and clothing.
Twenty years later, the census exhibited a considerable
growth, the number of souls in Upper Canada being in 1811,
77,000, and among them were people who were of an enquiring
turn of mind — who asked questions, and who were not wholly
satisfied with the answers given them. That these people,
however, were as loyal as the United Empire Loyalists who
governed them, and as resolute as they to defend their homes
and country, was seen in the measures they cheerfully took
on the outbreak of the war with the United States in 1812.
In both Provinces they trained themselves to the use of arms,
spent their money on munitions of war, and risked their lives
in the service of the King, for whom they were foremost in
achieving the victories of Queenston Heights and Chateau-
guay. Yet the Loyalists par excellence, who fought by their

64 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
side, made issue with these brave men on the question of their
political creed, denying them the most elementary rights per
taining to freemen.
In 1817 the Assembly presumed to enter upon, among other
causes of complaint, the consideration of the grievance so
long borne, which had arisen from the setting apart of the
clergy lands, whereby continuous settlement was prevented ;
but the members were, in CromweUian fashion, summarily
sent about their business by the appearance of the Gover
nor with the mandate of prorogation. Next year, for pre
suming on enforcing the right to petition, Robert Gourlay
was cast into Niagara gaol. In 1821, for the crime charged of
being a United States citizen, and of having committed misde
meanors before coming to the province, Barnabas Bidwell was
expelled from Parliament, and a law was passed requiring a
residence in Canada for seven years, on the part of a foreigner,
before he could qualify for the Legislature. The Upper
Chamber, the same session, denied the right to the Wesleyan
Methodists to perform the ceremony of marriage. In 1825,
the Tories gutted and destroyed the printing office of William
Lyon Mackenzie. In 1831, Mackenzie suffered by expulsion,
the fate, ten years before, of Bidwell. Next year, he was ex
pelled again. In 1834, after he had been elected Mayor of To
ronto, and while in England with a petition for the redress of
grievances, he was a third time expelled. On two occasions
subsequently he was the victim of the same kind of tyranny.
It was by acts like these that the way was paved for the
rebellion of 1837, in which Papineau, as leader of the
" patriots " of Lower Canada, promised his co-operation.
The followers of Papineau were regarded in the West as
anti-British, and consequently the majority of the people of
Upper Canada, who at that time numbered nearly four hun
dred thousand, sided with the Governor, the hare-brained Sir

TWENTY YEARS OF EXCITEMENT. 65
Francis Bond Head, looking upon the combined movement in
Upper and Lower Canada as an attempt to sever the Imperial
connection. Some cause was given for this contention by
appeals from the exasperated Mackenzie to the people to take
up arms, in order to the throwing off of the British yoke,
and the achievement of the independence of the country. The
circumstances attending the actual resort to armed force, both
in Upper and Lower Canada, and the lamentable consequen
ces, ending in the failure of these rash movements, need not
be here repeated.
Of the merits of the insurrection itself much has been said
and written in the fifty odd years which have since elapsed.
One of the latest public writers on the subject, who is least
friendly to Mackenzie, has pronounced the following deliberate
judgment on the movement : " In the face," he says, " of such
facts as are now admitted by persons of every shade of political
opinion, it is impossible to say that the movement was unjusti
fiable. Nor can it truly be said that the price paid for the
benefits it conferred was out of proportion to those benefits.
. . . Public opinion has long since done justice to the men
who struggled to obtain for Canada the advantages of the
English constitution. Everybody now admits that in the
long contest which culminated in the reunion of the provinces
the Reformers were in the right and their opponents in the
wrong. , . , The essential advantages of free government
have long been ours. They would probably have been ours
ere this if there had been no Rebellion, but our fathers would
have had to wait for them, and they had already waited long.
Feeble and rash as the movement undoubtedly was, it hastened
the inevitable end, and the benefits remain to us and to our
children. Doubtless there are those among us who believe
that even such manifold abuses as existed half a century ago

66 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
in Upper Canada were preferable to Rebellion. But even
such persons will hardly deny that great allowance should be
made for those who took up arms. Others, who have less
reverence for authority, will echo the aspiration of Sir John
Falstaff" : ' God be thanked for these rebels ! ' "
Judged by the light of subsequent occurrences, we can well
believe that this spurt of civil war — for such it really was —
hastened the redress of grievances which the agitation of the
people on constitutional lines had utterly failed to secure.
The Home Government became aroused to the dangers of the
situation in the two Canadas, and at once prepared to move
in the direction of the measures which, on the recommenda
tion of Lord Durham, gave the provinces the Act of Union
of 1840.
This great charter of Canadian liberty brought with it re
sponsible government, and the independence of the judiciary.
The clergy reserve and rectories question still, however, re
mained a bone of contention, and continued so until 1854, when
the clergy reserves were secularised, and the rectorial claiips
were commuted.
We are now nearing the period of 1842, when Mr. Alexander
Mackenzie appeared upon the scene.
Kingston, the city chosen by Mr. Mackenzie and his little
party for their place of abode, had become in the previous year
the seat of the Government. Parties were very evenly divided
in the Legislative Assembly of the united Provinces, as the re
sult of the election of 1841, and the Cabinet was a compound
of such diverse elements as Baldwin, SulMvan, Daly and
Draper. If anything, the Reformers had the majority. In
1841, the municipal system was established in spite of the
sneers of the Family Compact faction, that the municipal coun
cils of the country were simply so many " sucking Republics."

TWENTY YEARS OF EXCITEMENT. 67
The waning influence of that faction, as a consequence of the
unipn and the growth of population and public sentiment, now
led them, under the guise of Conservatives, to try milder
measures, and things might have gone on with tolerable smooth
ness under the beneficent influence of Lord Sydenham, but for
his unfortunate death on the 19th September, 1841, and the
death also of Sir Charles Bagot, his successor, in May, 1843,
when the country became afflicted by the evil genius of Sir
Charles Metcalfe.
Sir Charles found in power, and in possession of the confi
dence of the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Baldwin and Mr.
Hincks, with Messrs. Lafontaine, Morin, and Aylwin as their
colleagues. The Governor-General was not long in mani
festing his tendencies, which it was feared from the first would
be to stem the current of popular liberty. He insisted on his pre
rogative to make appointments, without the necessity of seek
ing the advice of his Cabinet, and thereupon the Government
of Mr. Baldwin resigned. Mr. Baldwin was further advanced
in the principles of constitutionalism than either Sir Charles
Metcalfe or the bulk of the Canadian people. The Governor-
General held it to be a degradation of his office to allow party
leaders to make appointments, and maintained that, by taking
these appointments into his own hands, the appeintees would
be higher in character and truer servants of the State. He
also considered that the surrender of the principle he contended
for would be the abnegation of one of the prerogatives of the
Crown. In view of his narrowness of vision, and his inex
perience in the government of a free people, it must be remem
bered that Sir Charles Metcalfe's previous training as an ad
ministrator had been in the civil service of India, and in dis
charge of the functions of Governor of Jamaica.
The generally prevailing ideas of responsible government

68 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
were so hazy that the proposition that public officers should
be servants of the Crown, and not of the Minister, was calcu
lated to make an undue impression upon the popular mind.
In the perplexing circumstances which arose out of a con
flict of a Governor with a Ministry supported by a majority in
the popular House, on a question of patronage, party leaders
did not know how to proceed, but after a long interregnum, dur
ing which nobody but a figure-head could be got to take any
of the various offices, Mr. Draper stepped into the breach; the
Cabinet was filled ; an appeal was made to the people ; and,
aided by the influence of the Crown, Mr. Draper succeeded at
the polls by a narrow majority.
The new Parliament met in Montreal in November of 1844,
with Mr. Baldwin in opposition, and the Government main-J
tained a precarious existence until another appeal was made in
January of 1848, when the Baldwin-Lafontaine Government
took the reins, Mr. Draper, " Sweet William," retiring to the 'i
bench. Meanwhile, Sit Charles Metcalfe, who had been made a
Baron, had been compelled to ask for his recall on account of
ill -health, and the Government was administered by the Earl of
Cathcart, the commander of the forces, until the arrival of :
Lord Elgin, as successor to Lord Metcalfe, in January, 1847.
The elections of 1848 brought in an Assembly and a Govern
ment in accordance with Lord Elgin's own views of what con
stitutionalism really meant.
Dui;ing Mr. Draper's administration, he was placed in a di
lemma by the claims which were made upon the public treas-?J
ury by persons who had suffered losses in both Provinces at the;
time of the rebellion. The difficulty was in determining who
were truly loyal. In this category were naturally placed by-v
Mr. Draper's Ministry most of the sufferers from the rebellionl
in Upper Canada ; and most, of those who had suffered in Lower ¦

TWENTY YEARS OF EXCITEMENT. 71
Canada — a Province full of " rebels " — were as naturally ex
cluded. The consequence was that the indemnity given to the
people of the Eastern Province was regarded by them as so
small and inadequate as not to be worthy their acceptance,
while the Loyalists in the Western Province were dissatisfied
that such a nest of " rebels " should receive any public aid
whatever. In the second session of Mr. Baldwin's Parliament, in 1849,
Mr. Lafontaine, his colleague, introduced and carried, against
much opposition, a measure to pay the balance of the com
pensation claimed to be justly due for the loss of property by
the rebellion in Lower Canada. This gave rise to intense ex
citement in Upper Canada, and also in Montreal, where the
Loyalists raised the cry of " French domination," rather than
submit to which, they declared in their wrath, they would
seek annexation. They trusted to Lord Elgin withholding
his assent, and when this hope was gone, and he left the bill
to its operation, mobs assembled, covered him with every
kind of insult and pelted him with missiles, ending their
orgies by wrecking the furniture of the parliament buildings,
and burning the buildings to the ground. These acts of vio
lence caused the removal of the Government to Toronto,
which, from that time, shared its advantages alternately with
Quebec, until its permanent location in Ottawa. Parliament
sat for many a long, weary day and night in the red-brick
pile of dreary and unhealthy buildings in Front-street, To
ronto, to be now at last abandoned for the magnificent struc
ture nearing completion in the Queen's Park.
The most serious of the agitations for some years to come
was that having for its object the abolition of the rectories
and the secularisation of the Clergy Reserves. The Baldwin-
Lafontaine Government declined to accede to the demand of

72 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
their more advanced outside supporters to deal with this ques
tion, and in 1850, Mr. Brown, with his friends, withdrew from
the Government their support.
The difficulty with the Upper Canadian Liberal leaders in
those days, in legislating on the Clergy Reserves, was in con
verting to their views their Lower Canadian allies. As with
the question of representation by population, which was to
become a burning question a few years later, the two Pro
vinces were unable to reach an agreement; for the Liberals
as well as the Conservatives in that Province were bound to
maintain the endowment, which, in Lower Canada, amounted
to nearly a million of acres. The more fiery spirits in the
Liberal ranks in Upper Canada were impatient, and would
not wait. The question, however, was merely one of time;
for the handwriting was so clearly seen upon the wall that
Dr. Strachan, Bishop of Toronto, warned his clergy, in his
charge delivered to them in May of 1851, that they had to
gird up their loins to meet the impending change. " The
necessity," he said, "is upon us ; there is now no alternative."
" There is nothing of moment left us but the voluntary prin
ciple." The attitude of Mr. Brown on the question is seen in the
position he took before a public audience in Toronto in the
same year. " I contend that the voluntary principle brings a
purer gospel to mankind than national establishments. It
matters not whether you regard the connection of Church and
State under the pomp of prelacy, or the less pernicious form
of clerical stipendiarism, the system raises a barrier between
the pastor and his people. . . . Establishments mak?
religion a matter of party politics — the Church becomes the
source of endless discord — and, perhaps, more infidels are pro
duced by the exhibition of Christian pastors scrambling for

TWENTY YEARS OF EXCITEMENT. 7S
the loaves and fishes, while they are preaching their worth-
lessness, than from any other cause. The very preaching of
an established church is cold and lifeless." He concluded by
declaring that there was no middle ground ; that theirs must
be the resolute determination to uproot the whole fabric— to
leave not a vestige of it in existence ; and that they had to
keep ever before them the goal they must reach : " No re
serves! — no rectories ! — no sectarian education ! — no ecclesias
tical corporations ! — no sectarian money grants ! — no sectarian
preferences whatever ! "
In 1851, Mr. Baldwin met with an adverse vote from Upper
Canadian members on a resolution looking to the abolition of
the Court of Chancery, and rather than rule with a merely
sectional majority — not having a " double majority," which
was held to be essential to the life of a Ministry from the
union of 1841 until the elections of 1857 — he resigned. Mr.
Hincks then took the lead, with, as his colleagues, two ad
vanced Liberals in the persons of Dr. Rolph and Mr. Malcolm
Cameron. In the general election which followed Mr. Bald

win lost his seat. There was at the same election a contest
in Haldimand between two notable men, Mr. George Brown
and Mr. William Lyon Mackenzie, in which Mr. Mackenzie
was the victor. These changes in parties and in the Govern
ment, as may reasonably be supposed, gave rise to much per
sonal rancour.

74 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
The Hincks administration remained in power until 1854.
In the summer of that year it appealed to the country, but
Mr. Hincks was deserted by some of his friends, and the Gov
ernment was defeated on the assembling of the new parlia-
liament in the following September. Mr. Hincks had his
revenge on the deserters by promoting a coalition cabinet,
though he did not himself enter it, with Sir Allan McNab at
its head, and Mr. John A. Macdonald as one of its members.
The Liberals, who liad joined with the Conservatives in de
feating Mr. Hincks, were still more strongly in opposition
to the new combination.
Much of importance transpired during the administration
of Mr. Hincks. The Grand Trunk Railway and other railway
companies were incorporated ; the Municipal Loan Fund was
established, giving the credit of the Government, to a limited
¦extent, to municipalities for borrowings for local works, which,
it is needless to say, led to extravagance and losses ; the par
liamentary representation of each of the provinces was
increased to sixty -five members ; the Reciprocity Treaty with
the United States was negotiated by Lord Elgin; the power
hitherto held by the Imperial Government to deal with the
¦Clergy Reserves was conceded to the Province, but with pro
tection to vested rights ; and an unfruitful attempt was made
to modify the harsh action of the seigniors towards the censi-
taires, or commonalty, in Lower Canada. Persistent attacks
were also made upon Mr. Hincks, as had previously been the
case with Mr. Baldwin, for his refusal to deal with the Clergy
Reserves. Both the Seigniorial Tenure question and^the Clergy Re
serves question were settled by the Government of Sir Allan
McNab. The clergy lands were secularized for educational
purposes, and the claims of the rectors were commuted. Of

TWENTY YEARS OF EXCITEMENT. 75
the semi-agrarian discontent in Lower Canada, caused by a
legacy of the ancient, feudal system, something further may
here be said. Of the old order of things, it was the one that
died hardest ; it even reappeared, like some mediaeval spectre,
to vex the spirit of Mr. George Brown during the fleeting
hours of his premiership.
The feudal system of land tenure, known as the Seigniorial
Tenure, which had been established by the French Crown in
Lower Canada, when the country was first colonized, had long
since lost any virtue it ever possessed. Its pristine goodness
was gone, and the dregs alone remained. Under the French
regime, a functionary called the Intendant, and the local gov
ernor, had compelled the seigniors to deal justly with their
tenants, the censitaires. The Conquest abolished this species
of paternal authority, and in course of time the exactions of
the seigniors became oppressive. The principal complaint was
that the rents charged by the seigniors were excessive, and
should be reduced, and that legislation of some kind was im
perative in the public interest. The grievances of the censi
taires had been fomented by popular agitation in the press and
otherwise ; so much so that the Lafontaine Government was
obliged to consider them. This was done by a committee which
sat in the session of 1851, and of which the Solicitor-General,
Mr. L. T. Drummond, was chairman. Briefly stated, the report
of this committee defined the rights of the seigniors. It pro
posed legislation to fix the maximum of rents which the
seignior should receive, and to compel him to accept it. At
torney-General Lafontaine thought this was objectionable. He
regarded the proposal of the committee as equivalent to con
fiscation, and, in any event, as not striking at the root of the
system. After the general election and the fall of the Lafon
taine Government, Mr. Drummond, who became Attorney-

76 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
General in the Hinoks-Morin Ministry, introduced a bill which
was designed to meet the objections of his old colleague, Mr.
Lafontaine. This new measure provided that the courts should
determine the legality or illegality of the rents then charged
the censitaires, that there should be a certain maximum limit
for all future rents, and that in the event of the courts decid
ing in favor of the old rents, which were on a decidedly lower
scale, the seigniors should receive public compensation. These
were the prominent features of a bill which earned for its
Liberal author " the distinguished honor of having been the
leader in overthrowing the feudal tenure, and endeavoring to
replace it by land tenure more suited to the age." It was
passed by the popular assembly in the session of 1852-8, but
came to grief in the Upper Chamber. The Cabinet, it would
appear, was not thoroughly united on the measure; it was
more or less a measure of compromise. Mr. Hincks, the Upper
Canadian leader, favored total abolition of the real burthens
of the system, such as the lads et ventes, which were admitted
ly legal, and the giving of adequate compensation therefor.
He also favored a continuance of the rents, if the claim to
them was legally established ; if not, that they should be re
duced as the courts might direct. Lord Elgin is said to have
shared these views.
The rejection of the bill by the Legislative Council only
added fuel to the flame of popular agitation. In some of
the more populous districts of Quebec there was a cry for the
abolition of the tenure in toto. In the midst of this ferment
of public feeling, the Hincks-Morin Administration vanished
from the scene. The new Government, the McNab-Morin
coalition, was perplexed with the difficulties of the situation,
but was forced to face and solve them in some fashion. It
did so with a happy-go-lucky piece of legislation. The bill

TWENTY YEARS OF EXCITEMENT- 77
was introduced in the Lower House with a multitudinous lot
of clauses, of which it was almost completely shorn by the
time it had run the gauntlet of the Upper Chamber. Col.
Tach^ had charge of the measure in the Lords. The crucial
difficulty was solved in this way : A reduction was made of.
the maximum rent from two-pence to one penny per arpent,
and a commutation at that rate was forced upon the long-
privileged seigniors. This, with the indemnity which followed,
and which was extinguished in the year 1860, was in effect'
the practical abolition of the Seigniorial Tenure, the most'
vexatious of all Lower Canadian social evils.
Lord Elgin retired in 1854, and Sir Edmund Head took his •
place. During his regime Mr. Cartier came into the Cabinet, i
By an amendment to the Militia Act, the first bodies of'
volunteers were now formed, superseding the sedentary forces.'
Col. Tach^ succeeded Sir Allan McNab as Premier, Mr. John;
A. Macdonald, however, being the sense-carrier of the Admin- 1
istration. The Legislative Council was made elective. The
Queen was asked to select a place as the permanent seat of -
Government.. Mr. John A. Macdonald in turn succeeded CoL'
Tach^ as leader, and at the close of 1857 Parliament was dis
solved, and there was a sharp appeal to the country.
The chief issue in this memorable struggle- had regard to'
the inequalities of the representation. The number of mem
bers given to each Province had been fixed, as already stated,
at sixty-five. But the rapid growth of Upper Canada had
made the demand for representation by population, or Rep. by
Pop., as it was shortly called, irresistible. Mr. Brown came
back with a large following from Upper Canada, so that in
the session of 1858 Mr. Macdonald had to abandon the prin-'
ciple oi the " double majority," and keep himself in power by

78 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
the preponderating votes of the Lower Canadian members.
He resigned the seals of office, however, on the adverse vote of
the Assembly disapproving of the choice of Ottawa as the seat
of government, only to resume his place a few days after by
the grace of the " double shuffle " — a phrase which is more
fully explained hereafter. In 1859 the great Reform Conven
tion was held in Toronto. As the result of its deliberations
Mr. Brown proposed in the session of 1860 resolutions pointing
to the failure of the existing union of the two Provinces, and
declaring that the true remedy for the existing evils would be
the formation of two or more local governments, to which
should be committed all matters of a sectional character, and
the erection of " some joint authority " to dispose of the affairs
common to all. In these resolutions the germ appears of the
existing Confederation. But the concession of the principle
of representation according to population was for the time
being withheld.
As early indeed as 1858, Mr. Brown, with true prescience,
saw that the existing constitution could not continue. Writing
to Mr. Holton on the 29th of January of that year he sug
gested three changes: "A genuine legislative union, with
representation by population, a federation, or a dissolution of
the present union." He discusses each of the three plans, and
rejects dissolution as ruinous and wrong. "A federal union,
it appears to me, cannot be entertained for Canada alone, but
when agitated must include all British America." He de
spaired at the time of the feasibility of so large a scheme, and
predicted that " we will be past caring for politics when that
matter is finally achieved." His powerful advocacy, however,
of representation by population hastened the consummation
of the project at a much earlier day than at that time to any
one seemed at all possible.

W^WfW"'^S:if-. ¦ ^'':W

Alexander Mackenzie.
(From a Photograph by Notman & Fraser, 1870.)

TWENTY YEARS OF EXCITEMENT. si
In 1861, the year in which Alexander Mackenzie came into
Parliament, his namesake, William Lyon Mackenzie, died. Sir
Edmund Head was succeeded as Governor-General by Lord
Monck. The decennial census was taken, and showed an

^^i^L^€.^c^ A,^ ^^^

^

/Sci^^^^'

enormous advance in population in Upper Canada over the
number of the people of the Province in 1851. The popula
tion of Upper Canada in 1841 xvas 465,000 — of Lower Canada,
691,000 ; in 1851 Upper Canada had 952,000— Lower Canada.
«90,000 ; in 1861 Upper Canada numbered 1,396,000— Lower
Canada, 1,111,000.
When Mr. Brown moved in 1857 that representation should
be based upon population, without regard to a separating line
between Upper and Lower Canada, he was able to show that
while Lower Canada doubled her population once in twenty-
five years, Upper Canada doubled hers once in ten years.
Mr. Cartier met this statement by the celebrated argument
that, against the disparity of numbers of the people, the cod
fish of Gaspd Basin should be counted. If he meant by this
that wealth should be an element in the calculation, Mr.
Brown was able to answer him by pointing to the greater
wealth of Upper Canada, whose contributions to the revenue
he estimated to be as three to one. There were at the same
time great inequalities in the population of the respective con
stituencies of Upper Canada — greater even than exist under
F

82

LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.

the gerrymander acts of recent times — and as interference
with any part of the structure would endanger the whole
edifice, these glaring anomalies remained to give additional
force to the contention. In Bruce there were 80,000 people
without representation.
Lower Canadians were all but a unit in opposition to the
principle, and they were joined by some of the members
representing eastern constituencies in Upper Canada, where
the growth of population was not nearly so great as it was
in the western counties. The representative man among the
members from the eastern constituencies of Upper Canada
was Mr. John Sandfield Macdonald, whose constitutional rem

edy was the " double majority," which Mr. John A. Macdon
ald had been compelled to abandon as no longer feasible,
and which was becoming more and more impracticable as
the disparity between the populations of the two Provinces
grew wider and wider. In Lower Canada the cry was raised
of danger to " our language, our laws, and our institutions,"
and, M. Loranger in impassioned words called upon his com
patriots to protit by their advantage : " Nous avons I'avantage ;
profitons-en." They were answered by the old shout of
" French domination." The cure-all came at last in the shape
of Confederation.
With this rapid and imperfect outline of events, in which
Mr. Mackenzie took his part, we shall return to a consideration

TWENTY YEARS OF EXCITEMENT. 83
of his own surroundings; after prefacing it with short sketches
of three men who, like himself, took their start on their
Canadian career in Kingston, and at about the same period,
and whose political lives were destined to produce a profound
impression upon his own — Mr. Brown, Mr. John A. Macdonald
and Mr. Mowat

CHAPTER IV.
LIFE IN AND ABOUT KINGSTON.
Mr. Mackenzie's Contemporaries — Sketch of Mr. Geo. Bf own — His Relations
to Mr. Mackenzie — Characteristics of Sir John A. Macdonald — Mr. Helton's
Estimate of Sir Oliver Mowat — The Young Stonecutter meets his Match,
but is not Overcome by it — His Letter from Kingston to Scotland — Plod
ding in the Forests of the Far West — " Home, Sweet Home " — Cheated out
of his Wages — Goes on the Land — A Friend in Need — His Associates and
Surroundings — His Brother Joins Him.

'R. MACKENZIE and Mr. Brown came to Canada
in the same year — Mr. Mackenzie in the summer
of 1842, to make this his home ; Mr. Brown, late
in 1842, to extend the circulation of the paper
which, with his father, he had recently started in the
city of New York. Mr. Brown was, in age, the sen
ior of Mr. Mackenzie by about a year. Kingston was at that
time the seat of government, and Mr. Brown went to Kings
ton in furtherance of his journalistic mission, but it does not
seem that the two men who, in subsequent years, were to
become such ardent friends, at that time met. The Baldwin-
Hincks Ministry was then in power, with Sir Charles Bagot,
Governor-General. Mr. Brown conferred with various mem
bers of that Government, and the impression produced upon
him by all he had seen and heard caused him to return to
New York and induce his father to remove their newspaper
enterprise to Toronto. They commenced the Banner in Tor
onto in August of 1843, and in the struggle which ensued for
84

LIFE IN AND ABOUT KINGSTON. 85
the maintenance of constitutional government and the estab
lishment of religious equality in Canada, found full scope for
all their energies. The Banner, which was semi-religious,
semi-political in tone, was superseded in 1844 by the Globe,
and this powerful paper from the start became the leading
political journal of the Liberal party. During the many
years that it was conducted by Mr. Brown, the charge was
frequently brought that it was dictatorial in tone and intoler
ant of the views of others. The opinion formed by Mr. Mac
kenzie on this head, and his estimate of the functions of a
great newspaper, were expressed some thirty years afterwards
in reply to a letter of remonstrance addressed to him by a
journalistic friend in another part of the country : " In your
remarks concerning the so-called domineering of Mr. Brown
and the Globe, I have no doubt you represent a large number
of journals. I am bound to say, however, I never knew Mr.
Brown in any way to be so. No one living has had so much to
do with Mr. Brown as myself, and I always found him reason
able, so that I had my say as often as he had his. Since the
formation of this Government, I have not received a single
letter from him asking for or pushing any favor or opinion
upon me. He has been of all politicians, of all men, the most
considerate. When out of public life, he never wrote me, on
public matters, a single letter, if I except congratulatory
letters, on our course in the House. I am aware that he is a
man of strong will and decisive character (and Canada has
reaped the benefit of that trait), and such a man must, in the
possession of a paper having an immense circulation, hold a
decided view on public affairs, and of his own and his paper's
influence, so that it is natural that its utterances may seem, in
its consciousness of power, to be sometimes domineering. But
we must admit that it is generally right, and always actuated

86 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
by high principle. Injudicious often, perhaps, and occasionally
injurious to the Government, as other papers are, still the
Liberals owe much to its integrity, power, and influence, and
when they take up the cry of domineering, they should re
member that this is the Tory complaint, and should be used
sparingly by us, for they will quote it in their own support.
Our papers have to guard against rushing off in pursuit of
hobbies on mere speculation, seeing how calculated the hobbies
are to weaken the central party authority. The English and
Canadian Tories held office for many years in consequence of
such follies, and what has happened already may happen
again. Principles we cannot abandon for any Government ;
speculative political movements we can always let stand to a
convenient season."
The marked individuality of Mr. Brown's character is seen
in this little picture of him and his paper ; the paper being
his exact reflex. In person, Mr. Brown was broad and mus
cular, and of towering height, so that his very powerful pres
ence gave an immense impetus to his platform thunderbolts.
These were forged in a glowing, fiery furnace, and launched,
as they were, with the accompaniments of a voice as from the
clouds, and with great vehemence of action, they were, in spite
of some defects of oratory, always telling in their effects.
After delivery, the reporters' transcripts of Mr. Brown's
speeches were subject to the most careful polishing and
revision at the hands of the master workman in the jour
nalistic craft, and in their strongest and most perfect form
were printed in the Globe, to electrify and inspire the admir
ers of Mr. Brown throughout the country.
Mr. Macdonald practised law in Kingston, and Mr. Mowat
studied for his profession in Mr. Macdonald's office ; Mr. Mac
kenzie was working in Kingston at the same time. It does

LIFE IN AND ABOUT KINGSTON. 87
not seem probable, however, that, while there, he associated
with Mr. Macdonald or Mr. Mowat. Their circumstances and
walk in life were of course different John A. Macdonald
was called to the bar in 1836, and Oliver Mowat in 1841. At
the same age as Mr. Mackenzie, we have no evidence that either
was infected with the fever of politics to the extent of the
young stonemason. With easier social environments, the prob
lems of life were not likely to press so severely upon them as
they did upon him. We have seen that, when a mere boy,
Mr. Mackenzie was what is called an advanced thinker, which
means that at that time he was an advocate of reforms which
it took years of agitation to bring about.
But if Mr. Macdonald was not so much of a politician as a
youth, when he came fairly on the stage, he was found to be a
very active one indeed. His forte as a leader was in manage
ment. He was a clever political chess player, whose pawns
were men. These he moved about the board in a series of ex
traordinary and unlooked-for combinations. Nor was he back
ward in stealing a piece from the adversary ; using it, when he
wanted to do so, as his own, and when it had served his pur
pose, casting it away ; so that it was said of him that his path
through life was strewn with political tombstones. He had
fascinating manners, an epigrammatic, though jerky, style,
both in public speaking and conversation, and an ingenious
faculty of making the worse appear the better cause. He was
also an inventor of bon mots and a reconteur of piquant stories.
These qualities were very attractive, especially to young men,
and, associated as they were with the prestige of almost un
varying success, they constituted Sir John, in spite of his
devious ways, the idol of his party. His letter to Mr.
McGreevy, not long since published, shows the relation in

88 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
which he held both colleagues and followers. He kept them
or detatched them, exactly as it suited his occasion.
"He cast off his friends, as a huntsman his pack,
For he knew, when he pleased, he could whistle them back."
We know of but one exception to his success in the exercise
of his magnetic power — the rebellion at the perpetration of the
Pacific scandal. Then, for the first and last time, the hunts
man's whistle blew in vain. It piped, however, to the old
purpose when he coaxed his forces to follow him again five
years, afterwards, on his newly -invented issue, the N. P. The
claim of Sir John's supporters that he had statesmanship of a
more than usually high order will not be denied, though their
faith in his profundity as a great constitutional lawyer must
have received a severe shock in the unbroken series of defeats
it was his lot to encounter in the courts, after confederation, at
the hands of his old student. Sir Oliver Mowat.
Rarely were two men more the antipodes of each other than
these. Sir Oliver Mowat's bearing and manner, and his habits
and modes of thought and expression, are altogether different.
He is most conscientious in the discharge of public duty, and
high moral principle is part of his nature. Twenty years of
continuous service have given the Province many noble monu
ments of his statesmanship, and have left his character with
out abstain. Honors never sought one more worthy of them
than Sir Oliver Mowat. They were earned by a long and
laborious life of unselfish devotion to his country's cause, by
many a brave and successful defence of the rights committed
to his charge, by the highest attributes of a Christian gentle
man, who was sans peur and sans reproche. The splendid
estimate of him, which we find embodied in a letter addressed
to Mr. Mackenzie by his colleague in the Brown-Dorion

/ /

LIFE IN AND ABOUT KINGSTON. 89'
Government, Mr. Holton, of date 25th Oct, 1872, and hitherto
unpublished, we reproduce. The letter was written on the as
sumption by Mr. Mowat of the office he took at that time, and
which he has since uninterruptedly held : " Mr. Mowat's Pre
miership is a master stroke, and I congratulate you all upon it.
I only wish I could welcome my old friend and colleague
among us at Ottawa. Of none of the many public men with
whom I have been intimately associated do I cherish pleasanter
memories than of Mowat. His high moral qualities — his sen
sitive conscientiousness — his transparent honesty — his perfect
sincerity, united with great logical acumen, with extensive in
formation, and with rare power of continuous and concentrated
labour, led me to regard him as the beau ideal of a public man.
I sincerely rejoice that he has returned to political life. His
assumption of the Ontario leadership, at this juncture, cannot
fail to be of incalculable benefit- to the country." Never were
truer words spoken, as no one can but admit when he reflects
upon what Mr. Mowat has since done for his Province, and
what it might have been without him, in the assaults that were
made upon its rights and liberties. Sir Oliver Mowat has
wonderful power of analysis, an extraordinary faculty of get
ting at the salient points in complicated masses of facts, of
digesting evidence, of quickly reaching the marrow of a case,
and he has a persuasive and argumentative style of speaking
and writing which makes him a hard man to resist. Joined
to these qualities is a truly democratic readiness of approach
to any one 'having a grievance or request, and a patience and
earnestness of attention to representations and appeals that
lead insensibly to the conviction that he has made the cause
of the suppliant his own. In the enjoyment of a close personal
and political friendship with Sir Oliver Mowat, for the thirty-
one years, from the time he entered Parliament until his death.

LIFE OFATHE HON.^ ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.

(Fac-simile of Hon. Luther H. Holton' s hand-writing.)

LIFE IN AND ABOUT KINGSTON. 91
Mr. Mackenzie, to whose early fortunes we must now again
revert, had great comfort and great profit.
Before leaving Montreal., a builder had o*ffered the youthful
stonecutter fair wages to engage with him, but judging that if
wages were so good near the sea, they would be still better
inland, he resolved to push on up the country. But in this he
was mistaken, for the times were dull in the United States,
and many artizans, thrown out of employment there, had
come over to Kingston, so that the place was tilled with alien
laborers. In this case, however, he found work. On the morning
after his arrival in Kingston, he went out to seek employment,
and was at once successful. But in the meantime he discovered
that the tools he had brought from Scotland were too soft to
cut the limestone, and not being in a position to incur the ad
ditional expense of getting a new kit of cast steel, he offered
himself as a builder on a house then being erected on Princess-
street ; a change of employment from stonecutter to builder,
which showed, as much as anything else, the resources and
adaptability of the young artizan. He had only worked six
months in all at the building during his apprenticeship, but,
watching the men on the wall, he thought he could do as well
as they were doing, and he did not overestimate his abilities.
His employer scrutinised him narrowly for a few hours, and
then, without saying anything, went away. But as his wages
at the end of the week were equal to those of the best work
man, he knew that the master regarded him as at least equal
to any of them. In a short time he was as expert at building
as he had been previously at stonecutting.
His experience and expectations as to remuneration, with
the vision, ever before him, of cherished independence, find
expression in a well- written letter, which we have before us,

92 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
in a boyish hand, evidently more accustomed to the use of the
steel hammer and chisel than to the steel pen, addressed, on
the front of two folded quarto pages of the epistles of those
days, to his brother;
"Mr. Robert Maokenzik, Carpenter,
"PiTLOCRY, PbRTHSHIRE, SCOTLAJID.
"Kingston, June 7, 1842.
" Dear Brother, — You will, no doubt, be surprised that I
have not written you before now. I arrived here yesterday
fortnight, but the English mail went off before I could write
you, and I had to wait patiently till the next, which is to be
made up on Friday, so you will see that I could not address
you any sooner. I began work on Thursday after I arrived,
at a house in the principal street in Kingston. I found -the
stone to be much harder than I imagined — all limestone, and
so hard that no tools would work them but the best of cast
steel. Of course I had none of that kind, and had no money
to buy them, and far less had I any inclination to work at
such material. This staggered me a little, but as I had a
hammer and trowel with me I resolved not to be outdone ; so
I commenced builder, and I have built constantly ever since,
and got on pretty well, so that I pass for a regular hand. I
am not exactly certain what wages I am to get yet. He told
me he would give me the current wages, which are 7s. 6d. a day,
or 6s. British money. Some inferior hands are paid with less,
but whether or not I am to be considered among them, I know
not yet."
He then speaks of the labour market in the United States
and Canada, and says he was disappointed in the belief that
there would be more demand for hands further up the country
than at the lower ports. He also gives the cost of living,
deducing the conclusion that the married existence was as

LIFE IN AND ABOUT KINGSTON. 93
economical as a single man's life in a boarding-house — an
evidence of the direction in which his thoughts were turned.
He speaks, too, of meeting with one Robert Urquhart, a car
penter, whom he had known in Scotland, and who had come
to Kingston a while before him ; and he proceeds :
" I may say that Kingston and Montreal are two as hand
some towns as the best in Scotland, with mechanics' institutes,
strong total abstinence societies, and meetings and lectures of
every kind. They are surrounded by the most picturesque
scenery, and front on a majestic river. I only wish mother
and all the rest were out here with me. We could live here
very happily together, and if we had some land (as I expect
soon to have) we might shortly become independent. This, how
ever, is no country for idlers. Hard work for sometime at
least would be required of those beginning to clear and culti
vate the soil. But then we would have the satisfaction of
knowing that we were working for ourselves, and there would
be no tax gatherer standing over us thrusting his hands into
our pockets. The Sabbath appears to be pretty well kept
liere, but there is very little true religion among the great
mass of the population. Altogether I feel very happy until I
begin to think of home and its inmates. Give mother and my
younger brothers the warmest good wishes of an affectionate
son and of a loving brother, and when you are all gathered
together under the maternal roof and see (as the poet says)
' the vacant seat, the empty chair,' forget not that there is
one of your number, who would appreciate the happiness of
the family circle, plodding in the forests of the far west Often
am I in imagination, delusive though it be, transported among
you, enjoying the presence of a fond mother and no less fond
brothers. I hope we may all meet in reality once more on
earth ; but if not, God grant we may meet at last in that

94 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
happy land which is the promised inheritance of all believers,
and the anticipation of which is the greatest happiness given
us on earth.
" I will write Peter Ellis as soon as I can. When you get
this, give him all the information it contains, and my com
pliments. I hope you will write and tell me what is going on
at home, and send me a newspaper if you can get one [the
Government stamp duty making newspapers at that time
very expensive], and you will much oblige,
"Your affectionate brother,
"Alexander Mackenzie.
"P.S. — You will find a newspaper along with this that Robert
Urquhart sends you, and a curious epistle of his. Address to
the care of Mr. Coombs, Baptist minister. Rear-street, Kingston,
Upper Canada. "A. M."
The contractor, under whom he worked the greater part of
this summer — by the name of Schermerhorn — ^paid his men
with goods out of a store owned by the proprietor of the house
in which the contractor was himself financially interested, and
as Mackenzie needed no store pay, and as money Was not
forthcoming, he was put off with fair promises. When the
building was nearing completion, only three masons were re
tained on the job, of whom Mackenzie was one. The others
received their store-pay and left At this juncture, hearing
that his employer was in difficulties, though he had previously
been reputed to be well enough off, he waited upon him for a
settlement, and got for himself and a companion a promissory
note. This piece of worthless paper was all they ever received
for their faithful summer's work. We saw that note only a
short time ago. It had been preserved as a memorial of the
earnings of former days, and was folded and kept with many

LIFE IN AND ABOUT KINGSTON.

95

others of the same nature, representing moneys long past due,
but never paid. The loss of nearly all his first summer's
wages, at a time when every dollar was of consequence, was a
severe blow to the young lad, which he deeply felt and it
made him chary of irresponsible contractors for the rest of his
days. This was the first time Mr. Mackenzie was deceived by
relying on a false promise ; we often wished we were able to
say it was the last.
He speaks in his first Kingston letter home of his intention
to buy land. Like most young Scotchmen coming to America,
he had a desire to secure a place for himself, and so we next
find him negotiating for the purchase of a farm.
The transaction by which he was cheated out of his sum
mer's pay coming to the ears of Mr. Mowat, of Kingston, the
father of the present Premier of Ontario, he kindly offered,
on very easy terms, a farm in the township of Loughbor
ough, distant from Kingston about 22 miles, where, with the
Neil family, he might tide over the winter. They were to pay
for the land when their prospects brightened. Such was the
occasion of the first introduction of Mr. Mackenzie and the
elder Mr. Mowat, two names which, as stated, were destined
to be closely associated in the history of our country for many
years thereafter. The esteem young Mackenzie always cher
ished for the father was in after years given to the son with
tenfold interest.
The farm lay among dense woods, and was the only occu
pied piece of land in the concession. It was located behind the
more settled parts of the township, and had on it a clearing of
two acres and a log house, 18x16, covered with boards, through
wliich, Mr. Mackenzie has since said, he had a fine opportunity
for studying astronomy on clear nights. There was also a
little back shanty, 12x10, which leaned against the larger

95 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
building. Such was the future Premier's palatial residence
during his first winter in Canada.
When he had located the family, he succeeded in getting em-
plojrment for a few months for himself in a small place called
Sydenham, about three miles distant from the farm. Here he
worked at various jobs for an Englishman, the owner of the
flouring and oatmeal mills, in building foundations and chim-
nies for some dwelling houses for his employ($s. But on the
setting in of winter, he went back to the farm, and helped to
eut from six to eight acres of timber, which had been under-
brushed during the previous summer, in order to prepare it
for the spring crops. While thus employed, he narrowly es
caped being killed by a falling tree. In the spring of 1843 he
left the farm for Kingston, and never returned to it again.
The family were ill-fitted for such an enterprise as roughing
it in the bush. Except Mr. Mackenzie, who had held the
plough, and worked on a farm for some time in his schoolboy
days, not one of the company knew any more about farming
than Horace Greeley.
Mr. Steed was a ship carpenter by trade. He was a widely-
read man. He was, however, a dreamy idealist who never
came within a thousand miles of a practical question — a phil
osopher, in fact. As for Hugh N£il, the eldest son of the
family, he had had thoughts of entering the ministry. He
was a sort of prophet; great on the beasts and red dragon of
Revelation, and on the restoration of the Jews. Mr. Mac
kenzie was the politician of the party, and was ever ready to
discuss all phases of economy — domestic and political. We
have heard an old man say, " I knew Mackenzie in Kingston ;
he had an awfu' tongue even then, and was a great speaker
on politics." The women possessed their full share of the
brains and of the intelligence of the family. The mother and

LIFE IN AND ABOUT KINGSTON. 97
two daughters were endowed with fine intellectual and social
qualities, and were well-read. But of farming they knew
nothing, and neither had ever seen a cow milked.
The kind of farming done on this estate by these people can
therefore easily be conceived. But, notwithstanding, they all
.spent a happy winter together, in the long evenings sitting
round the wide, old-fashioned fire-place, cheerful and ruddy
with the blaze of the big logs, reading and discussing literary
subjects and authors, especially Shakespeare and Byron, two
prime favourites of theirs. It was a very interesting group,
and its intellectual life was a fitting preparation for the future
statesman. All who have heard Mr. Mackenzie speak, know
that he could readily quote from the poets, and from current
literature, and that his addresses were invariably pitched on
the high plane of presupposing intelligent hearers. Never
once was he guilty of belittling an audience or trying to mis- ,
lead them by plausible and sophistical arguments. His
hearers knew just where he stood, and readily perceived that
he had faith in their intelligence. He was, again, like Hugh
Miller, who said: "If the writer of these chapters has been
in any degree successful in addressing himself as a journalist
to the Presbyterian people of Scotland, it has always been, not
by writing down to them, but by doing his best on all occas-
sions to write up to them ; and, by addressing to them on
every occasion as good sense and as solid information as he
could possibly muster, he has at times succeeded in catching
their ear, and, perhaps in some degree, in influencing their
judgment." The monotony of farm life in the backwoods was relieved
by occasional pranks of a harmless kind which young Mac
kenzie was continually playing ; the philosopher of the party,
Mr. Steed, being usually the object of these pleasantries. He

98 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
and his wife occupied, during the winter, the shanty or
lean-to. One night Mr. Mackenzie stuffed up the chimney,
and the little place was soon filled with smoke. The philo
sopher thereupon went into an elaborate explanation of air
currents, and showed how draughts are interfered with by a
change of wind, and that, though disagreeable for the time
being, it could not be helped, the shanty being filled with
smoke on philosophical principles, affording a grand illustra
tion of the correlation of forces. All listened with befitting
attention to an exposition so learned ; none more so than he
who had stuffed up the chimney. But next morning the wind
having got back to the old quarter, the trick was discovered,
and the stuffing taken out.
This season, 1843, in Kingston, Mr. Mackenzie tendered for
and obtained the job of cutting stones and building a bomb
proof arch at Fort Henry, and he wrought at this with his
men, and at other public works during the summer. He was
joined, during the summer, by his brother Hope, who had
arrived from Scotland. The brothers had not seen each other
since Alexander left Dunkeld. By enquiry, Hope found his
brother out ; but the two years of separation at that particu
lar time of life had wrought a great change in the half-grown
lad. In his first letter back to the family, Hope tells, them
that Alexander was so changed in appearance that he scarcely
knew him : the youth he had last seen at the end of his
apprenticeship, had developed into a full-grown man, strong
and active, and was now in Kingston, a contractor, though just
turned twenty-one, standing at the head of a number of his
own workmen. Hope obtained work at Kingston at his trade
of carpenter and cabinetmaker, and wrought at it there
for about three years.

CHAPTER V.
SETTLES IN SARNIA.
Rises in his Position — Suffers for his Opinions — Goe9-;to the Beauharnois
Canal— An Emeute there— A Painful Accident- Removes to the Welland
Canal— Keturns to Kingston— Is Married there— Builds the Defences of
Canada — Foreman on the Canal Basin, Montreal— Settles in 1847 in Sarnia
— Jomed in Sarnia by the other Brothers and their Mother- Death of his
First Wife. "!

NE of the stonemasons who worked under Alexander
Mackenzie in Kingston, and who resides still at a
ripe old age at Portsmouth, near that city, says:
"He thoroughly understood his work. As a me
chanic and man of lines, he always had my sincere
gratitude, for I learned much from him. He knew what
he wanted, and expressed his ideas so clearly that I had no diffi
culty in procuring for him what he required. He was always
the same. When I met him in Kingston, in his early days, and
in Ottawa, in the height of his power, he was the same plain,
unaffected, common-sense man. He frequently chatted with
me over his early days in Kingston and elsewhere. Mr. Mac
kenzie was my friend — my true friend ever. Frequently people
would ask me if Mr. Mackenzie was wealthy. I invariably
said, ' No ; his character is against his being wealthy.' I can
truthfully say he was a most benevolent man. He was not a
friend of ' beats,' but when he met needy persons who were
worthy of confidence and in misfortune, he would give his last
99

100 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
dollar to aid them. I know this to be a fact. Mr. Mackenzie
was a clear Scotchman, plain and true. He was reserved
among strangers, but jovial and entertaining with intimates.
He was a real temperance man. He attended the Baptist
church in Kingston, located then as now."
In the same " interview," the narrator stated : — " My first
recollection of Mr. Mackenzie was while he was dressing stone
for the front doors of St. Mary's Cathedral, Kingston. The
clergy reserve question was hotly discussed at that time, and
Mr. Mackenzie, as a Baptist, was in vigorous opposition.
Because of his outspokenness, one morning he went to work
to find his stone damaged and defaced."
So the liberty-of-conscience Tories had degenerated into
cowards since 1837. Then in open day they wrecked the
types and press of William Lyon Mackenzie ; now in meaner
fashion, under cover of the night, they visited their vengeance
on his namesake, Alexander Mackenzie, by destroying the
work with which the youthful stonecutter earned his daily
bread. The chief comments we have heard Mr. Alexander Macken
zie make in connection with his undertakings at this time
were on the evil consequences to the mechanic and working
man of the drinking customs. The canteen stood always
open, as a trap to ensnare them, and many a one fell a victim.
" Well was it for me," we have heard Mr. Mackenzie say,
" that during my apprenticeship, and at this period, I was a
total abstainer, and never on principle let a glass pass my
lips." Hugh Miller tells us of the narrow escape he had from
the evil that ruined so many of his fellow-workmen.
In the spring of 1844, finding that work was likely to be
dull in the city and neighbourhood, Mr. Mackenzie left for
Beauharnois, where the canal was being constructed. Here

SETTLES IN SARNIA. 101
he became acquainted with the late John Redpath, of Mont
real, who was also connected with the public works then being
pushed forward. The general foreman — a Mr. Robert Neil,
but in no way connected with the Kingston Neils — a splen
did specimen of a man, physically and otherwise, being six
feet, four inches in height, and stout in proportion, a frank,
honest, intelligent, fearless Scotchman, who saw corresponding
traits to his own in young Mackenzie, gave him charge of a
gang of men who were laying the large cut stone that formed
the sides of the lock. These stones were swung into their
position by a powerful crane. Almost an army were engaged
at the various locks along the canal, and they were composed
of infiammable national and religious material, which caused
Mr. Mackenzie to divide them into two bands. This, how
ever, did not prevent the outbreak of a fierce faction-fight
that for a time endangered both life and property, and neces
sitated the calling out of the military. A company was sent
up from Montreal, before whose approach the rioters quieted
down. About two months after this a severe accident befell Mr.
Mackenzie, by the descent of a stone more than a ton in weight
on the lower part of the leg and foot. Though his face looked
like death from the pain, not a cry escaped his lips. On the
removal of the stone, it was found that a deep bed of mortar
had partially saved the leg, which, though fearfully crushed,
was not hopelessly hurt. He was carried to his boarding
house, where he lay for weeks and suffered much, but without
complaint. Thanks to his good constitution and temperate
habits, the wound healed, but the limb never regained its for
mer strength.
For a time he was unable to endure much fatigue, or to
labor at building, so Mr. Crawford, the contractor, pro-

102 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
cured for him the position of foreman on work being done
on the enlargement of the Welland Canal In June, 1844,
he went from Kingston to Slabtown, between St. Catharines
and Thorold, as foreman for Messrs. Thomson & Haggart, on
Lock number 12. In the fall of that year, when frost had
stopped further work, he returned to Long Island, opposite
Kingston, where a good quarry had been found, and here he
superintended the men that winter in getting out stone to
be built into the Welland Canal during the coming summer.
On Saturday evenings, when the frozen channel was deemed
safe, he was in the habit of crossing over to spend Sunday
with friends in the city, and especially to visit her who in a
few weeks was to become his wife. On two of these trips
he had a narrow escape from drowning by falling through the
ice. The last time he was warned of his danger, but per
sisted in the perilous enterprise, and, with the aid of a long
pole which he carried, he saved himself by a miracle.
His marriage took place in the spring of 1845. It was
solemnized in St. George's Church, Kingston, by the Rector,
the Rev. George Okill Stuart, LL.D. The groom was twenty-
three years and two months old, and his bride was barely
twenty-one. We have lying before us the marriage certificate :
"Kingston, Canada, March 28th, 1845.
"I do hereby certify that the religious ceremony of marriage was
duly solemnized between Alexander Mackenzie and Helen NeU, both
of the town of Kingston, who were married on Friday, the twenty-
eighth day of March, one thousand and eight hundred and forty-five,
by license from J. M. Higginson, Deputy-Governor, by me.
"George Okill Stuaut, LL.D.,
" Beckn- of U. George's Chmch."
The ritual of the English church sets down the words for
the groom to say, " With this body I thee worship," but this

SETTLES IN SARNIA. 103
groom said nothing of the kind. Whether he objected to the
expression or the sentiment, we cannot tell; but he was
obdurate, and neither the clergyman nor his brother Hope,
who acted as his "best man," could move him; and as a
special dispensation in his case, the officiating minister mar
ried him with that vow omitted.
Three children were born to them. On the reverse side of
the marriage certificate are the following entries in Mr. Mac
kenzie's well-known handwriting :
" Mary, our eldest daughter, was born .Tune 25th, 1846.
, " Maiy, our second daughter, was born August 25th,. 1848.
"Our only son was born April 3rd, 1850.
" Our eldest Mary died on the 29th of May, 1847.
" Our boy died on the 29th of August, 1850."
Thus, of their three children only one grew up to woman
hood — Mary, their second daughter, the wife of Rev. Dr.
Thompson, who has been the minister of the Presbyterian
Church in Sarnia for over twenty -six years.
During a part of the summer of 1845 the newly-married
couple lived at Matilda, but on the close of the works there,
they removed back to Kingston. Early in the year 1846, when
the erection of the martello towers commenced, he again secur
ed a foreman's place under Mr. Matthews, the contractor, and
here he worked once more at Fort Henry in building the ma
terial defences of his country. In the early part of this sea
son, his wife, who had a severe attack of fever and ague the
previous summer, was again taken ill, and under the wrong
treatment of a practitioner, who, because of drink, had not al
ways the command of his faculties, her constitution was
undermined and ruined by excessive doses of calomel.
Leaving his wife in her delicate state of health with her

104 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
mother, he went down to Montreal in the spring of 1847. His
well-known ability was now fully recognised as an expert
builder, and capable manager of men, and so he readily obtain
ed a good position as foreman on the canal-basin works that
were being constructed in that city.
The previous year, Mr. Hope Mackenzie and Mr. Steed went
west in search of a new location. Steed took a notion to Wal-
laceburg, but Hope's choice was Sarnia, and this village they
made their permanent home. Steed and Hope entered into
conti'acts for building ships for Hon. Malcolm Cameron, the
shipping interest being at the time in a prosperous condition^
owing to the rapid development of the country, and to the ex
istence, as yet, of only the execrable common roads which pre
ceded the railway era. They provided at Sarnia household ac
commodations for the rest, and in the summer of 1847 were
joined by Alexander and his wife.
Towards the fall of the same year, Hope was sent home to
Scotland to endeavor to bring to Sarnia the rest of the family
the desire of the young men being that they should all settle
down in Canada together.
Robert at that time was working at Edinburgh. Hope went
to him to that place, and readily got his consent to the under
taking. From there Hope proceeded north to Dunkeld, and
prevailed in the same manner with the rest of the family. A
difficulty arose in regard to John, who was nearing 20, and was
still serving his apprenticeship, under indentures, to the tin
and coppersmithing trade. His good master, however, helped
forward the arrangements by giving John his release, and the
mother and her children shortly afterwards set out from Dun
keld on their journey. Its first stage was Edinburgh, where
Robert joined them. From Edinburgh they went by the
recently-opened railway to Glasgow, whence they took pas-

SETTLES IN SARNIA. 105
sage in a sailing ship for New York, and arrived in Sarnia
in the month of November. One can imagine the joy which
was felt by the reunion of the mother and the seven sons, who
were never again to be parted except by death.
The Mackenzies lived in Sarnia prosperous lives, and lives of
the best example to their fellow-men. The brothers stood un
selfishly one by the other, sympathised with and came to each
other's help, held mutual counsel and gave advice, and kept all
family matters strictly to themselves. Their loyalty one to
another gave the family great influence in the place where they
resided, and this was soon felt and acknowledged in all the
civic and political affairs of both the town and county. A cor
respondent says : " When I came to Sarnia in 1864, 1 found
the influence of the Mackenzie family supreme. They were
the leading, guiding spirits of the place, and their name was
associated with the town in all her affairs." In some cases this
might prove a dangerous combination, but with them it was
most beneficial, for they were public-spirited and disinterested,
and their infiuence was always wisely and conscientiously ex
ercised. Alexander Mackenzie engaged in considerable building en
terprises in Sarnia and the Western district, including the
Sandwich court-house and gaol, and these records will remain ,
with the records of the State, to hold his name in honorable
remembrance. In the words of Carlyle, in speaking of the workmanship of
his mason father : " No one that comes after him will say
' here was the finger of a hollow eye servant' Let me learn of
him. Let me write my works as he built his houses." Young
Mackenzie built fortifications, canals, court-houses, reputation,
the foundation of the State itself, on an enduring basis.

106 LIFE OF TIIE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
In 1852, he was saddened by the death of his wife, as wit
ness this further endorsement on the back of the marriage cer
tificate : " Our earthly separation took place on the fourth
day of January, 1852, at :| to 8 o'clock p.m., when my dear
Helen was taken home by her Heavenly Father. She was
born on the 21st October, 1826. She will meet in heaven her
husband, Alexander Mackenzie."

CHAPTER VL
THE WESTERN DISTRICT.
Politics and Men in the Western District in the Early Days — Clear Grits —
George Brown to the Rescue — His Letters to Alexander Mackenzie — The
"Brownies" — Ancient Sectarian Issues — The "Old Ladies" — Mr. Mackenzie
as Editor — A Rival Paper — A Great Libel Suit — Valedictory — Fine Letter
from Wm. Lyon Mackenzie — Growing Political Lifluence — Friends Once
More — Meets "Leonidas."

ARLY in the fifties the western counties were
ablaze with political fervor and rancor. Hon.
Malcolm Cameron was in the zenith of his power
and influence. In that far-off region, access to which
was easiest by water, he was a sort of Robinson Crusoe
— monarch of all he surveyed, whose right there was
none to dispute. He was a man of great respectability of life
and character, enterprising and energetic in business, an unself
ish helper of other less fortunate men, a strong advocate of
temperance principles, an omniverous reader, and a ready man
at quotation, though he was not accurate or literate with the
pen. He may be said to have been the father of the infant
Sarnia, which owed much of its growth to his public spirit
and energy. He sat in the Legislative Assembly for the
united counties of Kent and Lambton. He had opposed, as an
intense Liberal, the laissez venir policy of the Baldwin-Lafon-
tainfr Government, particularly on the clergy reserves question ;
and, on the fall of that Administration, took office with Dr.
Rolph, under Mr. Hincks, in which, at the instigation of his
107

108 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Lower Canada colleagues, he had to adopt a similar course.
At the elections of 1851 he had signified his intention of going
from Kent and Lambton to Huron. But in the autumn of that
year, a split having previously taken place in the Reform
ranks, Mr. Brown resolved to beard the lion in his den by ac
cepting the nomination of the Dresden convention to contest
the Kent and Lambton constituency. Mr. Brown, through the
Globe, had been a supporter of the Baldwin Ministry at the
time that Mr. Cameron withdrew his confidence from it, and
the Globe thereupon gave the Cameron men the appellation of
" clear grits," a name which was afterwards extended to the
entire Reform party, and which has stuck to that party to this
day. Mr. Cameron brought out Mr. Arthur Rankin on the
Liberal ticket to oppose Mr. Brown, but finding he did not
take well, another Liberal candidate was induced to present
himself, in order to divide the vote ; and four men, Brown,
Rankin, Wilkes and Larwill, the latter a pronounced Tory,
went in December to the polls. The Brown men, however, of
the two counties, were too many for all the rest, and then
forces carried the day. We have before us a handbill issued
by Mr. Cameron, over date Nov. 21st, 1851, in which he calls
Mr. Brown some very unpleasant names.
In this election, as secretary of the Reform Committee, Mr.
Alexander Mackenzie took an active part. A warm intimacy
was, through this relation, established between him and Mr.
Brown, which lasted for a period of over thirty years. The
beginning of the intimacy and its nature we find disclosed in
some hitherto unpublished letters from Mr. Brown to Mr. Mac
kenzie, which are too good to be kept longer buried. They
are exceedingly characteristic of Mr. Brown, who was thus
early what he continued to be through life, immensely ener
getic, uncompromising in character, confident in the righteous-

THE WESTERN DISTRICT. 109
ness of his cause, exuberant of spirit full of self-reliance, and
sometimes wrong. He had, as we have seen, plumed his wing
for Parliament in Haldimand, and had been defeated by Wil
liam Lyon Mackenzie. But his great speeches had drawn all
eyes towards him, and the Liberals of Kent and Lambton
wanted him as their member. Mr. Mackenzie wrote to Mr.
Brown, and received the following .answer, dated :
" Globe Ofpice, Toronto,
" My Dear Sir, 23rd October, 1851.
" I have just received your two letters. I hope you are not too confi
dent of success. There will be great opposition, and unless Lambton goes
almost unanimously for me, it will be all up. Depend upon it, when I
do come out, I will not let the grass grow under my feet. It is war to the
knife. Can you stand all this ? Tou are ' ' regular bricks " if you can put
your faces to it. Look at it fairly, and if you say so, I am with you.
"Yours faithfully, "George Brown."
Mr. Mackenzie seems to have satisfied the warring young
candidate with the knife that they were equal to the work, as a
couple of weeks later Mr. Brown made answer : " I will run
fcr Kent and Lambton. S'catcherd will run for Oxford, and
we will, without a doubt, put out the Hyena." (Old politicians
will readily understand that he refers to Sir Francis Hincks.)
" Put plenty of work on me. I can speak six or eight hours a
day easily."
He was elected, and was able to address the next letter we
find in his writing from Quebec (where, under the perambulat
ing system. Parliament was then sitting) on August 23rd, 1852.
He had previously written, in mistake, to Mr. Mackenzie's
brother, Hope Mackenzie, on some matter of patronage ; " but,"
said he, " I have been turning over my election papers, and I
see you are still the man of the people. However, I suppose

no 'LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
it is all the same thing. Do you Heelanders keep your blood
warm on the banks of the St Qair. I am half a Mackenzie
man myself " (his mother was a Mackenzie), " and I feel my full
right to be as proud as Lucifer."
On the 4th September, 1852, he writes to Alexander Mac
kenzie from Quebec, addressing the latter in his quality as
" Secretary to the Reform Committee, Port Sarnia," on the all-
important matter of the spoils. The sturdy young secretary
appears to have claimed the right for his committee, at least
to advise, if not to direct. Mr. Brown replies that nominations
to office belong to the county member, but he is sure that the
committee and himself will never disagree, " both having con
sciences, and always trying to find the right man." " I go dead
for getting every office for Reformers— especially Brownies.
But we must not forget the public interest. Where another
man is decidedly better for office, even the Brownies should go
to the wall." " Do shoal down petitions about the Reserves,
Rectories, Sectarian Schools, Maine Law, and Sabbath desecra
tion. The more the merrier. You will see me abused in the
papers, of course, like a pickpocket, but don't pronounce against
me until you hear me out. I know you won't. You shan't
have occasion to be ashamed of me unless very much left to
myself. I am sure I try to do right. Remember me to all
our friends. Write often, and speak plain."
It will be seen that the public interest had to be served
before even " the Brownies."
This, to his correspondent in March, 1853, sounds like the
sigh of Mr. Mackenzie himself, in the midst of his cares and
burdens, thirty years later, and describes the order of his work
very much in the same manner. Mr. Brown apologises for
neglecting friends, owing to the mountain of labour which
weighs upon him ; " but," he says, " when I get rich on politics,

THE WESTERN DISTRICT. \\\
perhaps I will be able to pay some one to assist me. Mean
time I do the best I can. I attend to public matters first ; my
private affairs second ; and so much correspondence afterwards
as I can overtake."
On the 19th December, 1853, Mr. Brown finds himself with
a " pile of letters unanswered big enough to stuff a reason
ably sized sofa," but still he steals the time to give a cha
racteristic paragraph about his perpetual torment, William
Lyon Mackenzie : . " That little vagabond, Mackenzie, is going
up to oppose me, at the instigation of the Ministerialists, and
as there is a good deal of dough-faceism up there, it is possible
he may make something of it No one can tell the result of
any public meeting — but this I can promise him, he will not
get off with both ease and honor. The worst of it is, that
one makes nothing by defeating him ; the encounter is a dis
agreeable business — a regular mud-pelting affair — and the end
nothing. But in for a penny, in for a pound — it has got to
be done."
As Lyon Mackenzie and Brown were in 1853, so they
remained to the end. In 1857 the " little vagabond " was the
same porcupine sort of ally, who might not be safely asked to
their meetings, for fear of a rebuff'. The italics are Mr-
Brown's : " I think it of no use trying to conciliate Macken
zie — but you must judge as to the propriety of inviting liim.
It may expose you to an awkward reply."
This glimpse of the inner thoughts of the then younger
champion of reform, in regard to the old Liberal leader of
family compact days, will surprise no one who knew either of
the men and their political relations to each other. Brown,
although careful about criticising Mackenzie openly, never
quite recovered from his defeat by the newly-returned exile, in
Haldimand, while Mackenzie, with his strong individuality

112 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
and uncompromising independence, brooked nothing that
savored of political dictation. He had little regard for party
discipline, whenever he conceived a principle was at stake.
That they were hard hitters in the press, on the platform,
¦and in parliament, goes without saying, and the arcana of the
campaign correspondence of forty years ago only accentuates
the fact. Although here discovered at cross purposes, the goal
of their aims and hopes was the same. Each was a true Lib
eral because he placed the happiness of the many above the
privileges of the few, and because he believed that disastrous
revolutions are best averted by timely reforms. The liberal
ism of each was dominated by intense earnestness ; it was in
tolerant of every obstacle in its path, and unsparing of every
form of opposition ; in the general conflict along the hostile
lines it gave no quarter, and asked none. But in its least
agreeable aspects it was redeemed by qualities that will ever
be gratefully remembered. Its character was not unlike that
ascribed by a noble biographer to a great tribune of the people •
who played his part on a wider arena less than a century be
fore. Writing, in the memoir of Pitt, of Fox's liberalism, as
displayed in his oratory and the vicissitudes of his public ;
career. Lord Rosebery says :
" His nature, apt to extremes, was driven with an excessive
reaction to the most violent negative of what he disapproved.
It is this force of extremes that makes orators, and for them
it is indispensable. Few supreme parliamentary speeches
have, perhaps, ever been delivered by orators who have been
unable to convince themselves, not merely that they are abso
lutely in the right, but that their opponents are absolutely
in the wrong, and the most abandoned of scoundrels, to
boot, for holding a contrary opinion. No less a force, no
feebler a flame than tliis, will sway or incense the mixed

V^*""*^* !. - •>* -a— ..•*¦

.1

H

THE WESTERN DISTRICT. 115
temperaments of mankind. The mastering passion of Fox's
mature life was the love of liberty : it is this which made him
take a vigorous, occasionally an intemperate, part against
every man or measure in which he could trace the taint or
tendency to oppression : it is this which sometimes made him
write and speak with unworthy bitterness: but it is this
which gave him moral power, which has neutralised the errors
of his political career, which makes his faults forgotten, and
his memory sweet."
There is much in this passage, penned by a lover of Liberal
traditions and an impartial critic of those who cherished them,
that is not inapplicable to George Brown and William Lyon
Mackenzie. If sometimes at variance with each other, they
were always at war with public wrongs and injustice ; each
in his day was the petrel of the storms that swept the political
sea. The correspondence discloses the further interesting fact
that in 1853 the Upper House was held a good deal in the same
sort of estimation that has been formed of it ever since. There
is a change, of course, in name, and a difference in political
complexion, but in the contemptuous treatment of public opin
ion, it is in all essential respects to-day what it was forty years
ago. Mr. Brown boasts somewhat exultingly of his successful
efforts in the Legislative Assembly, sitting under the shadow
of the ArchevSch^, in the ancient city, in fighting the religious
Corporation Bill, the Three Rivers Cathedral Bill, and the St
Hyacinthe Bill, designations which bring back recollections of
those too familiar sectarian times. " The St Hyacinthe Bill,"
he remarks, with his peculiar individual characterisation, "was
pitched out in the Lords. I lobbied the Old Ladies for a week
before, and they came up to the scratch like trumps." When
ill, in 1882, it was hinted to Mr. Mackenzie that if he failed in

116 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
his election in consequence of the gerrymander, which was
freely applied to him as well as to other Liberals, he might
possibly be elevated to the Canadian Lords, he asked in his
dry, caustic way, " Don't you think they have too many inva
lids in the Senate already ? "
In support of " the Brownies," in the beginning of 1852, a
printer from Toronto, named Robertson, established in Sarnia a
journal named the Lambton Shield. Mr. Mackenzie assumed
the editorship of the paper, and wrote for it with great vigor
and ability until May 5th, 1854, when Hon. Malcolm Cameron
ended its existence by an action for libel. The publisher was
said to have been a former employee of Mr. Brown on the
Globe. Mr. Mackenzie never seems to have had any pecun
iary interest in the concern, but for all that he set to work
con amove to sustain his leader and down the enemy. The
Shield was a seven-column, four-page sheet, and had. for
its motto a couplet purporting to be Byronic:
" With or without offence to friends or foes,
I sketch your world exactly as it goes. ''
As may be supposed, there was a good deal of individuality ;
of character about it, and being in those days without compe
tition either in- the local field or from outside journals, it must
have wielded a wide influence. In a little while Mr. Cameron
found the fire too hot, and induced the publisher of the
Lanark Observer to move his paper to Sarnia, and to continue
it there as the Lambton Observer, so as to pour in some broad
sides in return. Then it became exceedingly bad for the
people of that neighbourhood. We have had before us files of
one of these papers for the purpose of studying the pohtics of
the place and time, and regard for truth compels us to join
in the opinion expressed by Martin Chuzzlewit to Colonel

TIIE WESTERN DISTRICT. 117
Diver in regard to the writings of Jefferson Brick, that they
were " horribly personal ; " though probably only a little less
so than the platform sentiments of politicians in general in
those degenerate days — so different from our own time !
Both from the platform and the press came very freely and
with the greatest naturalness charges of apostacy on the ques
tions of the secularisation of the clergy reserves and the
abolition of the rectories, and charges also of land and Grand
Trunk jobberies and jobs.
The Lamhton Observer was started on Nov. 16, 1853, and in its
salutatory it declares its mission to be " to promote the great
principles of Reform and Progress, and Civil and Religious
Liberty." Favouring religious equality, it would advocate the
secularisation of the clergy reserves ; cautious^ adding : " And
that forthwith ! — unless other reasons for delay exist that we
are not now aware of. The principal political question at
present engaging the attention of the politicians of our Prov
ince is, ' Are you a supporter of the Government ? ' " It
attempts an answer by the assertion that the struggle was no
longer between Radicalism and Toryism, the Tories being vir
tually defunct, but between two opposing sections of the
Reform party. The smaller of these sections, it said, appeared
to think the Administration the most villanous that ever
cursed the Province, though, strange to say, those who com
posed this section were not long before the warm defenders
of the very policy they now condemned. The present Govern
ment, though following out the same views of their predeces
sors "as close as the nature of the circumstances will permit,"
were set down as "a set of non-progressives, because they
cannot keep pace with the new-bom zeal of those political
Jim Crows ! " " Forward, forward ! blow the whistle — up
with the steam ! The car of progress lingers. The engineer

lis LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
is not to be depended upon. We want another who will be
subject to our dictation, and who will drive ahead just as we
order." "We have private ends to be served," it goes on
sarcastically to observe, " and private animosities to gratify,
and care not by what means we accomplish our purpose." The
Globe had said that the Observer had gone to Lambton as a
" ministerial transplantation," to support the Postmaster-Gen
eral, Hon. Mr. Cameron, its master, and to engage in the " rare
sports of Wabash coon hunts." The Observer parries the
thrust by the retort that Lambton was no longer a hotbed of
Brownism, and that people up there had "become tired of
being dosed all the time with Brown pepper."
The libel suit, from whose consequences the Shield was
powerless to find protection, was contained in a paragraph of
half a dozen lines. A certain newspaper had charged, on
the authority, as alleged, of an ex-minister, that an applica
tion made to Mr. Baldwin's Government in 1848 or 1849 for
the purchase of some seventeen thousand acres of land at a
merely nominal price, had been intercepted by a member of
that Government, who had procured friends of his own to
put in a memorial for the same territory, and that when the
memorial came before the Council the Commissioner of Crown
Lands, Mr. Price, having learned the particulars of the trans
action, threatened his colleague with exposure ; whereupon a
rumpus ensued which resulted in the disruption of Mr.
Baldwin's Cabinet by Mr. Price's enforced retirement.
Another paper asked for the names, which the Shield vol
unteered to indicate so far as to say that the lands were
in Kent, that the minister who applied for them was con
nected with that county, and that it was in all likelihood
Mr. Price himself who told the story.
Mr. Cameron, on this, commenced an action against the

THE WESTERN DISTRICT. 119
Shield, or, as he termed it made his appeal " to God and his
country." The trial of " Cameron vs. Mackenzie, et al.," came
on at Sarnia, on April 27th, 1854, and was quite an affair of
State, the Honorables Messrs. Baldwin, Price and Merritt be
ing present on their subpoenas as witnesses, with Mr. Stephen
Richards as principal counsel for the plaintiff, and Messrs.
Vankoughnet, the ex-chancellor, of Toronto ; Beeher, of Lon
don ; Albert Prince, of Sandwich, and Vidal, of Sarnia, for the
defence. The plaintiff rested his case on the admission of pub
lication, and on proof that Mr. Cameron was member for Kent,
and a member of Mr. Baldwin's Cabinet in 1848 and 1849.
The defendants' plea was justification, on the ground that their
statement was true, and that it would by Mr. Price be proven
to be so. Mr. Price was then called, but claimed his privilege,
as an executive councillor, to decline to divulge the secrets of
the council chamber. Mr. Justice Draper sustained the objec
tion, and the jury found a verdict for the plaintiff for £20 and
costs. The party papers spoke severely of Mr. Price for hav
ing first allowed the statement to find circulation with his sup
posed authority for it, and then left the publishers to bear the
brunt. In its next issue of May 5, the Shield published its valedic
tory. It spoke of the libel prosecution as now " a part of the
political history of Canada;" asserted that "malice was no
part of our motive, and infamy is no portion of our punish
ment, but we suffer pecuniarily for our outspokenness ; " and
stated the costs to be from £120 to £150. "That sum we
can pay, but not without embarrassing seriously the business
upon which we depend for a livelihood. The editorial labor
connected with a weekly journal we have long found a serious
encroachment on our time, robbing us of the enjoyment of
many of the evening hours of rest, after spending the day in

120 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
the exercise of a laborious manual occupation. . . . • . We
leave the profession as we entered it, with clean hands ; and it
was not because we had not the opportunity to follow an evil
practice that we kept our hands clean in the management of
a public journal. We deemed it a sacred duty to seek no
man's favor, and to be regardless of any man's frown."
Said his namesake, William Lyon Mackenzie : " One word
about the man who penned the above noble sentiments. His
name is Alexander Mackenzie, by birth a Scotchman, and by
trade a labouring mason. He is every whit a self-made, self-
educated man. Has large , mental capacity and indomitable
energy." ,In addition to that, William Lyon wrote Alexander a
gratifying letter, which Alexander Mackenzie carefully pre
served with his papers, and which we cannot refrain from pub
lishing. It will be seen that it was written the day following
the dissolution of 1854 : " Quebec, June 23, 1854.
" Mr. Alexander Mackenzie,
"Dear Sir, — I see that you are a Scotsman, and I fear that you have
been sacrificed. For many years the knaves in authority in this infant
colony harassed me almost to death with libel suits. The first grey hair
that I ever saw in my own head was when preparing to defend, without
legal aid, a heavy civil action for libel.
" I merely write, because I cannot call upon you, to convey good-will and
sympathy, and to express a hope that when the elections come you will
stir yourself up to return capable and honest men — so that, tho' working
apart, we may bo working for one and the same good object.
" The Hincks-EIgin-Cameron Government sent us summarily to the
rightabout yesterday. Now is the time to work.
" Your faithful admirer, and I wish
" I might be permitted to add, friend,
"W. L. Mackenzie."
One can imagine how the younger Mackenzie would be sus
tained in his trouble and inspired by a sympathising and

THE WESTERN DISTRICT. ' 121
stirring letter like this from the veteran and persecuted Re
former. It is pleasant to know that subsequently Mr. Cameron was
again working in harmony with his former political allies. '
Alexander Mackenzie did him signal service at the Convention
of Reformers, called at Strathroy in the summer of 1860, to
select a candidate for the St. Clair division of the Legislative
Council, which body had recently been made elective. There
were many aspirants for the position, including Messrs. Glass,
Leonard, Cameron, Campbell, Wilkes, and a gentleman from
Toronto. Mr. John A. Sym, of Strathroy, was chairman, and
Mr. Mackenzie was chosen secretary. It was speedily made
manifest that there were serious sectional differences, and that
a satisfactory choice would be one of difficulty. There was a
wrangle which threatened to end the proceedings, the chair
man being feeble and ineffective, and the duties devolving,
without the power, on the secretary. Mr. Mackenzie is said to
have acquitted himself on the trying occasion with much firm
ness, tact and discretion. The Lambton and Kent men were
mostly Cameronians, but the other members of the convention
were much divided between Mr. Leonard and Mr. Glass. In
the midst of the uproar, Mr. Mackenzie obtained an adjourn
ment for an hour. A caucus was then held, with the result
that Mr. Leonard withdrew, and his supporters turning in for
Mr. Cameron, that gentleman, thanks to Mr. Mackenzie, became
the choice of the convention, and won the seat. Mr. Cameron
published a reply to Mr. Sym and Mr. Mackenzie expressive of
his very warm thanks for the honor that had been done him ;
and he continued friendly with Mr. Mackenzie to the end of
his life.
It is related by old residents in Sarnia that about the first
time Alexander Mackenzie gave evidence there as a public

122 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
speaker of the stuff that was in him, was in a contest with
the redoubtable controversialist " Leonidas," Rev. Dr. Ryerson,
Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada. It was
at a school convention for the County of Lambton, held in
Sarnia, on Wednesday, 2nd February, 1853. Dr. Ryerson ad
dressed the convention at length, in explanation and justifica
tion of his public school policy. While he was speaking, Mr.
Mackenzie sat listening in the body of the hall. All at once
he asked our informant, who sat beside him, for a piece of
paper to enable him to take notes, which he jotted down with
a pencil, the paper resting on the back of a bench. When the
doctor had concluded, Mr. Mackenzie entered upon so severe
a criticism of his statements that he carried the meeting with
him. By request of the doctor, the chairman invited his
doughty opponent to the platform, where the two foemen
shook hands. From the time of this disputation onwards. Dr.
Ryerson was very wary of his antagonist.
Mr. Mackenzie also displayed a good deal of pluck and
ability in his address from a Sarnia balcony to a crowded
street audience, prior to Mr. Brown's election for Lambton and
Kent in 1851.

CHAPTER VIL
THE BROWN-DORION GOVERNMENT.
The General Election of 1857 — More Brown Letters — Hope Mackenzie— "Lamb
ton Bricks " — Alexander Mackenzie's Second Marriage — Where He Wor
shipped—The "Double Shuffle"— George Brown'sColleagues— Their Policy-
Precedents for a Dissolution — Alex. Mackenzie as an Essayist — Advocacy by
the Liberals of a Federal Union.

^R. BROWN sat for Kent and Lambton until the
elections of 1854, when the constituency having
been divided, he was elected for Lambton by a
considerable majority over Mr. Malcolm Cameron,
who had now the temerity to oppose him in person.
The Parliament to which he was elected was dissolved
in 1857, and never did man display greater power, energy and
capability for work, and more endurance, than did Mr. Brown
in the campaign that ensued. He was is fact ubiquitous.
On November 25th, he writes from the Globe office, Toronto,
to Mr. Mackenzie, saying he is unable to give the time he
would like, exclusively, to Lambton, and is willing to retire.
" Keep in mind," he remarks, " that my services here for the
next three weeks may save half a dozdn counties — there is
literally no one else looking after the success of the whole —
and that it is hard for a man to occupy a part he cannot feel
conscientiously he is filling satisfactorily. The prospect," he
adds, " is excellent. I cannot see how we can fail to beat them
in Upper Canada. What they expect to gain by going to the
123

124 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
country I cannot conceive. Only think ! In a Cabinet of
twelve, there are eleven lawyers and one auctioneer. Going !
Going! Gone!"
Notwithstanding, he confesses he has no heart for politics,
" but, like a dog in the traces of his cart, must drag on." He
had intended, he said, to retire from political life, but were he
to leave at the time of the sudden dissolution, it would be
destructive of the cause, and he was determined to go in.
Four counties offered, but he preferred Lambton, if they de
sired it. In that event his address would be out at once ;
" and then for a thorough fight," which nobody loved better
than George Brown.
The desire to win Toronto was so tempting to Mr. Brown
that he decided on retiring from Lambton. He succeeded in
the object of his ambition, beating Hon. J. H. Cameron, but,
for fear of failure there, he was also returned for North Oxford.
He elected to sit for Toronto, and induced North Oxford, with
some hesitation, to return for that riding Mr. William Mc
Dougall. Mr. Brown had advised that a constituency should be
obtained for Mr. Hope Mackenzie, who was a gentle-hearted
man of considerable capacity and great future promise, which
an early death prevented from being realised. When, there
fore, Mr. Brown suddenly left Lambton, a Liberal gathering
was hastily called at the house of Mr. Charles Taylor, in Sarnia,
and Mr. Hope Mackenzie was their choice. He did not con
sent at first, the risk being thought by the brothers to be too
great. However, he was persuaded against his own better
judgment, and at once entered upon a vigorous canvass, in
which he was materially aided by his 'brother Alexander, who
went specially to Toronto for material for a broadsheet that
he got out, giving a vast amount of well-arranged information

TIIE BROWN-DORION GOVERNMENT. 125
for the electorate. A considerable effect was produced in the
country, every polling place declaring for him ; notwithstand
ing, he was defeated by a small majority — his opponent,
Hon. Malcolm Cameron, having secured a strong vote from
the town of Sarnia, through the influence, it is alleged, of
the bogus votes of men who were at that time building the
railway. This was the general election in which, if the Tories were
not actually beaten, they were so terribly shaken up that the
stability of parties was gone, and the constitutional changes
of a later day were the consequence. The Cabinet of the
" eleven lawyers and one auctioneer " suffered by the defeat of
Morrison, Receiver-General, in South Ontario; Spence, Post
master-General, in Wentworth ; and Cayley, Inspector-General,
in Huron and Bruce. Mr. Cayley seems to havo adopted a
different system of bribery from its grosser forms of the pre
sent day. He circulated the Scriptures. This led D'Arcy
McGee to say that, while the people up there accepted the
Bible, they rejected the missionary.
On the retirement of Hon. Malcolm Cameron from Lambton,
in 1860, to become a candidate for the St. Clair division in the
Legislative Council, Mr. Hope Mackenzie was again nominated
by the Liberals for the Lambton seat. He was opposed by
Mr. John Dobbyn, but was elected. Mr. Brown wrote to
Alexander, expressing his pleasure at the result " I cannot
tell you how rejoiced I was at Hope's return. He will be in
valuable in the Lower House. I really expect from his prac
tical way that he will make a mark that few new men have
ever done. Tell him he must take hold from the start or he
will find it tenfold more difficult afterwards. It is just like
' dooking.' " — (A Scotticism for ducking or immersion under
water — literally, a cold plunge.)

126 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
The Lambton men of Mr. Brown's first love he loved yet
He still describes them by his old familiar word — " bricks."
" I have never seen any men like the Lambton bricks."
Hope Mackenzie sat for Lambton until the general election
of 1861, when he declined renomination, and his brother
Alexander was elected for that riding by a substantial majority
over Mr. Alexander Vidal. Hope, however, was not permitted
to remain long in retirement. In 1863, a vacancy having oc
curred in North Oxford, he was unanimously nominated, on
the strong recommendation of Mr. Brown. The resolution was
communicated to him at Sarnia by telegraph. For personal
reasons he declined, until the pressure brought upon him became
so great that he had to give way, and, after a short contest, in
a riding in which he had never before set foot, and where the
people were unknown to him, he was elected by a majority of
291. He was re-elected at the ensuing general election. Had
he lived, there is no doubt he might have continued to repre
sent North Oxford to the present time. He died at Sarnia,
in June of 1866, aged 46, much beloved by all for his un
affected goodness of heart, and honored for his nobility of
mind. He always spoke with affection of Hon. T. D. Mc
Gee, who nursed him tenderly in a sickness in Quebec, caused
by exposure in crossing in the winter time, in an open boat,
from Point Levis — a dreadful passage, which old Parliamen
tarians remember so well.
Mr. Mackenzie married a second time, on I7th June, 1853,
the second wife being Jane, eldest daughter of Mr. Robt. -Sym,
one of the solid farmers of the county of Lambton, and a
prominent man in municipal and political affairs. Mr. Sym
was a member of the Dresden convention in 1851, which
secured Hon. George Brown for the representation of Kent
and Lambton.

THE BROWN-DORION GOVERNMENT. 127
At the time Mr. Mackenzie went to Sarnia, and for many
years thereafter, there was no Baptist place of worship in that
village, and on Sundays it was his habit, accompanied by a
friend belonging to the same church, to walk out a distance
of eight miles to attend a small place of worship, which had
been established by the members of the Baptist denomination
^i,.^^ t//^.^^^ ^^-"^^^^^^

4iZ ^l^Z-^^ ^^-cAt-fl' 7-^v^«- iS-S^X  ^

^

4t*-^

^2:^*i^.

in the township of Sarnia, near Mr. Sym's residence. This house
was the abiding place for the time being of those — chief among
them being Mr. Ebenezer Watson, a farmer, married to a
daughter of Mr. Sym — who went there to conduct the services ;
other friends of the cause were also made welcome by Mr.
Sym, especially such as came from a distance. Mr. Mac
kenzie was one of the number who took part in the devotional

128 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
exercises, a custom which he continued after his removal to
Toronto, and had entered into communion with the Jarvis-
street Baptist church.
Another bond of union between Mr. Mackenzie and Mr. Sym
was that they both came from Perthshire, Scotland, where Mr.
Sym had been engaged in farming. Mr. Sym came to Canada
in 1821, and settled in the first instance in Bathurst township,
county of Lanark, near the town of Perth. In 1837, the
year of the rebellion, Mr. Sym left Perth for the western part
of the province, with his friend, Mr. Malcolm Cameron, and
they both settled in Lambton. While in Perth, Mr. Sym's wife,
Agnes Wylie, died, by which event, Jane, the eldest daughter,
became the head of the household. Some years after Mr. Sym
died, Mr. Mackenzie went with Mrs. Mackenzie to Lanark, and
erected there a monument to Mrs. Sym's memory. Mr. Sym's
mother, Margaret Dick, was a cousin of Sir Robert Dick, the
Baronet of that name, from Logierait, who fought under Lord
Gough, in the war with the Sikhs. Sir Robert Dick was one
of the widely-famed Black Watch, or 42nd Royal Highlanders.
This regiment was at the battle of Quatre Bras, on the 16th
of June, 1815, and was under four commanding officers in the
course of a few minutes. Col. Sir Robert Macara was killed
early in the engagement, and with him also fell Major Men
zies. The command then devolved upon Col. Robert H. Dick,
but he soon was severely wounded. Major Davidson succeeded,
who likewise had almost immediately to retire disabled.
As often as he could make it convenient to do so, Mr. Mac
kenzie continued to worship in the little Sarnia township
church, but after awhile there was a church erected by the
Baptist people in Sarnia town. This edifice was in course of
construction when Lord Elgin made his well-remembered pro
gress of the Province, and in this building His Excellency was

THE BROWN-DORION GOVERNMENT. 129
entertained during his short stay in Sarnia. The services in
the Sarnia Baptist church were conducted every fortnight by
Mr. Watson, and on alternate Sundays by Mr. Mackenzie and
other lay friends. Mr. Watson, however, was not strong
enough in bodily health to continue the duties, and as the
interest could not be kept up, Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie thence
forth regularly attended, so long as they remained in Sarnia,
the Presbyterian church of their son-in-law, Rev. Dr. Thomp
son. With his own voluminous papers, Mr. Mackenzie has pre
served many of those which came into his hands as Mr.
Brown's biographer. Among them are some of the original
communications on the historical subject of the " double shuf
fle," which was perpetrated on the defeat of the Government
in the summer of 1858, including the messages sent to Mr.
Brown by Sir Edmund Head, written and " signed by his own
hand," as the parliamentary phrase goes. On a subsequent
page of this book we print in fac-simile, as a curiosity, the
first portion of the celebrated letter which betrayed the plot,
and presented a Governor-General of Canada in the position
of " keeping the word of promise to the ear, but breaking it
to the hope " of making his invitation to Mr. Brown to form
a Government a mockery and a snare.
A brief description of the circumstances attending the
" double-shuffle" is here given for the information of the gene
ration who have come upon the political stage since that
period ; to those who were contemporaries of Sir Edmund
Head and Mr. John A. Macdonald it is unnecessary; the events
are indelibly fixed upon their minds.
The Macdonald-Cartier ministry suffered defeat on the selec
tion of Ottawa — since called, by Mr. Goldwin Smith, "an
Arctic lumber village " — as the permanent seat of Govern-

130 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.

ut- ^

1^ ^.A^^ (/ZJw<
(Facsimile of Sir Edmund Walker Head's hand-writing.)

THE BROWN-DORION GOVERNMEN 131
emment They resigned, and Mr. Brown was entrusted with
the task of forming a new Administration. Mr. Brown had
full reason to know that he would not be sustained in the
existing House, but he relied upon his undoubted right to
dissolution. Mr. Macdonald was evidently aware that there
would be a denial of this right. Although his Government
had received an adverse vote on the question of the choice of
the capital, on the test motion which immediately followed
for the adjournment of the House they were sustained by
their old-time majority. Mr. Collins, Sir John A. Macdonald's
apologist and biographer, says that notwithstanding the vote
in their favor on the question of adjournment, or of con
fidence, Mr. Macdonald resolved on resigning, in order to
" strike a decisive blow at the Opposition," being " absolutely
certain that he (Mr. Brown) would not be sustained in the
House," and knowing, we may add, that as there was no
chance of a dissolution, he would be effectually " dished."
" The resignation," says Mr. Collins, " was voluntary ; but we
must be frank enough to admit that it was not done out of
any deference to any principle or to the sense of the majority
of the Upper Canada section of the Cabinet. It was simply
done to lure Mr. Brown into a pitfall." " Frank enough," in
deed ! Of course Mr. Brown was defeated by the Macdonald-
Cartier majority in the Assembly, and equally, of course, he
was refused an appeal to the people. The programme for
"luring him into the pitfall" was therefore only too faithfully
carried out. But there was yet another part of it to come.
The path to real power which had been made so difficult for
Mr. Brown was to be made easy for the return of Mr. Mac
donald and Mr. Cartier.
A clause had been inserted in the Independence of Parlia
ment Act the previous year providing that where a member

132 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
of an existing Government resigned one office and accepted an
other, within a month after such resignation he should not be
required to return to his constituents for re-election. This
Act was now strained to enable Mr. Macdonald and his former
colleagues to resume, and avoid going back to their constitu
ents, by being sworn into a double set of offices — by swearing
in one hour that they would administer one set of ministerial
duties, which they had no intention of undertaking, and the
next hour that they would perform others wholly different.
The courts, on being appealed to, interpreted the clause very
strictly, so as to bring the wholesale action of the double
shufflers within its purview, but public opinion was so strong
ly pronounced upon the trick that it was afterwards repealed.
With this digression, we complete the narrative. Mr.
Brown received His Excellency's commands to form a Gov
ernment on July 29th, 1858. On July 31st, which was Sat
urday, he acquainted the Governor-General with his accept
ance of the duty. At ten o'clock on Sunday nighi: — having
no doubt spent the sacred hours of the summer Sabbath day
in its concoction — Sir Edmund Head disclosed to Mr. Brown
the treachery which had previously been hatched, in a memo
randum denying to his new adviser his constitutional right
of dissolving the notoriously adverse and partizan House of
Assembly, knowing that without an appeal to the people, the
commission communicated in the name of Royalty to the
First Minister was a farce, and that through its medium he
had drawn Mr. Brown into a snare. In view of the baseness
of the Governor-General's conduct, well might Mr. Brown
have addressed Sir Edmund Head in the language of his
prototype in enmity with all but those of his own faith, in
the '¦ Merchant of Venice " :

THE BROWN-DORION GOVERNMENT. 133
"Shyloch:
Nay, take my life, pardon not that :
You take my house when you do take the prop
That doth sustain my house ; you take my life
When you do take the means whereby I live."
The prop was taken from Mr. Brown's house ; the house
became a house of cards; his ministerial life was but a breath;
he died the death ordained for him from the first ; and the
" double shuffle " which ensued, with Sir Edmund Head as the
puppet in the hands of the chief conspirator, Bible in hand,
administering the oaths, will be remembered for generations,
to the disgrace of all persons concerned therein.
Put into clear type, the facsimile which we give of the
first sheet of Sir Edmund's covering note is as follows : —
"His Excellency the Governor-General forwards the en
closed memorandum to Mr. Brown to-night, because it may be
convenient for him to have it in his hand in good time to
morrow morning.
" The part which relates to a dissolution is in substance a
repetition of what His Excellency said yesterday."
The man who, according to his biographer, conceived this
outrage on the constitutional rights of the people, with a
Governor-General as his tool, was he who fourteen years
afterwards inaugurated with the " tens of thousands " of Sir
Hugh Allan's money the frightful system of debauchery
which has sapped the institutions of the country.
The Government formed by Mr. Brown possessed elements
of great strength. From Upper Canada he had for his col
leagues such men as John Sandfield Macdonald, Oliver Mowat
and M. H. Foley, and from Lower Canada, A. A. Dorion, L. T.
Drummond and L. H. Holton. Mr. Brown had always been
met with the taunt that he was unable to form a Ministry, and

134 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
it was said there was literal truth in his playful designation of
himself in his earlier career of being " a governmental impos
sibility." The formation of this Administration was his
answer. And it was not merely a combination of men without
a purpose. In their discussions of the old dividing differences,
they had succeeded in laying the ground work for a settlement
Representation by population was to be conceded, but with
adequate protection, either in the shape of a " Canadian bill of
rights, guaranteed by Imperial statute, or by the adoption of
a federal union." The " seigniorial tenure " was to be ar
ranged by the purchase of the rights of the seigniors out of
funds that were to be provided, without infiicting injustice to
Upper Canada. Either by the introduction of some of the
features of the Irish national school system, or by the giving
of religious instruction during certain hours of the day, the
necessity for separate schools was to be obviated. Whether
this programme would have worked out or not, the Liberal
party were not to have the opportunity of trying. As Mr.
Brown stated, at a great public meeting in Toronto, he was
exposed to the mockery of a hollow invitation to form a
Government, and not in a hundred and fifty years of English
history can a single case be found in which men in their position
were refused a dissolution. Going back but half a dozen years
in our own history, he gave all these cases in point: "Mr.
Hincks went to the country in 1851 ; at the opening of his
second session he was defeated, but the Governor-General came
down suddenly and prorogued the House, and gave him one
more chance for life. The McNab Government followed in
September, 1854 ; in 1855 three members retired, and His
Excellency consented to a reconstruction ; in 1856 the Govern
ment was beaten twice, and twice resigned ; but His Excel
lency would not accept, and Ross, Drummond and Cauchon,

THE BROWN-DORION GOVERNMENT. 135
nay, the Premier himself, were all driven out but still a re
construction was allowed, with Colonel Tachd at the head. In
1857, Lemieux, Terrill, Ross and the Premier were all driven
away ; but another reconstruction was at once granted, with
Mr. Macdonald as Prime Minister. Unable to fill up the
vacant offices, suddenly and inconveniently, in the middle of
the financial crisis, Mr. Macdonald demanded a general election,
and at once he obtained it And though three ministers were
beaten in Upper Canada, still His Excellency permitted the
thing to go on by the aid of irresponsible members of the Up
per House, and an office left vacant from pure inability to fill
it up. He permitted a session of five months to be wasted by
the utter incapacity of his advisers ; he submitted to all their
departmental blundering and mismanagement ; but he refused
to the Opposition the only favor they asked, a fair appeal to the
people against the misdeeds of his late ministers. If a designed
intention had existed to get the leaders of the Opposition out
of the House, and then pass the numerous obnoxious bills before
Parliament, no more direct way could have been taken than that
followed by His Excellency."
In the early days, Mr. Mackenzie kept a scrap book, but, to
his credit be it said, it was not with the design of exercising
¦political terrorism on a much-suffering community. He pasted
into the book such good things as struck his fancy in his course
of reading, and such things as more particularly concerned
himself. As he grew into position, he no longer cared for these
performances, and left the pasting in and posting up of his
sayings and doings to the scrap books of smaUer men.
The immediate cause of his starting this considerable volume
of blank sheets of brown paper— this tabula rasa — was the de
livery of a lecture by him, under the auspices of the Sarnia
Mechanics' Institute, on the "Anglo-Saxon race," in April of

136 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
1858. The lecture achieved the dignity of print, and it was
awarded the additional distinction of presentation in the first
pages of the scrap book. Both honors it well deserved. The
lecture is broad, comprehensive, and catholic in treatment and
tone, and it gives evidence of a very acute and observing mind, as
well as more than ordinary literary skill in presenting and mar
shalling the facts of history ; it is followed by Mr. Mackenzie's
own clear and acute deductions from these facts. He considers
our race under three main heads : — " I. Its Origin and History.
II. Its Present Position. III. Its Destiny." There is a good
deal of research, and no small amount of learning manifested
. in the treatment of the first branch of the subject, which, how
ever, centres too narrowly within the ancient realm of Scot
land—in the strifes between the warlike Gael and the hated
Saxon. In this department, also, Mr. Mackenzie shows his ac
quaintance, afterwards so well-known, with the Biblical re
cords. One of the most striking illustrations of the " present
position " of the race, apart from its natural aad moral great
ness, is what it has achieved for the cause of human liberty.
The war waged by Russia for empire was then just over, and
in connection with that the lecturer starts out to consider our
world-wide " destiny." This gives scope for a burst of patri
otic sentiment, and the prediction of a reunion in heart and
feeling of the English and American peoples, when " all lands
will contribute, consciously or unconsciously, to their power and
glory." Speaking of the estrangement caused by the war of
England with the thirteen colonies, he says it is but natural
that the harshness of the bigoted British statesmen and the
king of those days should rankle for some time in the minds
of American citizens, but he protests against their perpetuation
by ignorant and selfish people. He justifies these feelings by
what were his own as a boyish student of the history of Scot-

THE BROWN-DORION GOVERNMENT. 137
land : " I well recollect the feelings I entertained in my boy
hood towards the English, while reading of the exploits of
Wallace and Bruce when opposing the English armies — of the
capture and execution of Scotland's greatest chieftain by Eng
land's king — how I wished for manhood and opportunity to
wreak my vengeance on my country's oppressors ; and how I
gloried in the thought that our land had never been conquered,
and that our kings had finally ascended the English throne."
"Manhood," in due course, came to the glowing youth, but
happily for England's peace, if not her very existence, it did
not bring with it the eager patriot's wished-for " opportunity."
Under the auspices of wiser monarchs than those of Scotland,
she still lives to fulfil, let us hope, in time, the destiny fore
shadowed for her and her race by Mr. Mackenzie in his riper
j^ears.

CHAPTER VIII.

MR. MACKENZIES FIRST ELECTION.
Dissolution of Parliament and General Election — Return of Mr. Mackenzie
for Lambton— Ministry Sustained — Defeat of the Hon. Geo. Brown — Mr.
Mackenzie's First Appearance in Parliament — Defeat of the Government
on the Militia Bill.

I HE session of 1861 opened on the 16th day of March.
The discussion on the address, in reply to the
Governor's speech, shewed plainly that the Liberal
party intended to keep before the country the
platform of 1859. The Hon. John Sandfield Macdonald
divided the House on a motion, declaring that the Car-
tier-Macdonald Government was unworthy of support, because
a majority of the representatives of Upper Canada were op
posed to its policy. The motion was lost on a vote of 49 to 62.
Later in the session, Mr. Ferguson, member for South Simcoe,
introduced a bill for the purpose of equalizing the representa
tion of the people in the Legislative Assembly, which, after
being discussed on several occasions, was finally rejected on
a vote of 67 to 49, Mr. Sandfield Macdonald voting with the
majority. The debates of the session disclosed several irregularities on
the part of the Government, which they feared would tell
against them in the country. Large advances had been made
to the Grand Trunk Railway through the Bank of Upper
Canada. Mr. George E. Cartier had offensively referred to
138

MR. MACKENZIE'S FIRST ELECTION. 139
the preponderance of the population of Upper Canada over
that of Lower Canada as of no greater consequence than
twenty thousand codfish in the bay of Gaspd. Large sums of
money had been expended without the authority of Parlia
ment. The Hon. Joseph Morrison was retained in the Cabi
net, after he had been three times rejected by the people. The
Hon. Colonel Prince was allowed to sit in the Upper House,
although holding a commission as judge of the District of Al
goma. Several members of Parliament held contracts from
the Crown. - And so the Government fearing the agitation
that by delay would result from those disclosures resolved
upon the immediate dissolution of the House.
To the sreat regret of his constituents, Mr. Mackenzie's
brother, Hope, the sitting member for Lambton, declined to be
again a candidate. It did not take the Reformers long, how
ever, to decide upon his successor. A requisition was imme
diately circulated, for there was no time to call a convention,
and Alex. Mackenzie was pressed to be the standard-bearer of
the party. Though not desiring the honor, he f el t it to be his
duty to accept the nomination. On the 13th of June, 1861, he
issued his address to the electors of Lambton, and immediately
entered upon the campaign with Mr. T. B. Pardee as secretary
of his committee.
His address to the electors of Lambton is an excellent sum
mary of the issues before the country ; and naturally gives
the first place to the great question of representation. " Until
the representation is reformed," he said, " sound legislation is
impossible, as Western Canada will not consent to have her
laws made and administered by a sectional majority. This,
therefore, is the great question of the day. If I am returned
as a member for this county, it must be as a determined oppo
nent of a Ministry which has declared its hostility to any

140 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
alteration in the representation, and which has not scrupled
for four years to rule Canada West, in defiance of her own peo
ple, by a sectional majority."
To those who remember the vigor with which Mr. Mackenzie
was capable of denouncing the tyranny of the majority and
the encroachments of power on the rights of the people, the
character of his appeal for redress for Upper Canada will be
readily recalled. Whether by heredity or from his high sense
of justice or his inborn hatred of oppression, it matters not ;
few men are to be found to whom wrong was more repugnant
and the insolence of power moro offensive, and from the brief
reports of his speeches in his first campaign, it was quite evi
dent that wrong-doing was not likely to find an apologist in
him. His views on the position in which Lower Canada would be
placed, provided representation by population were conceded,
are worthy of notice.
When the union of 1841 was accomplished, the two provinces
were represented in the legislature by 42 members each. At
that time, there was the disparity in population already stated.
The people of Lower Canada felt that they had yielded a good
deal in accepting a union on equal terms with Upper Canada,
so far as representation was concerned. The increase in the
population of Upper Canada, in the interval, they alleged,
should not now be made the basis of a change in representation,
as it was a mere transfer of preponderance from one side to
the other ; and as Lower Canada entered the union with the
same number of members as Upper Canada, notwithstanding
the greater number of her population. Upper Canada should
not press at this time for a change because this condition
was since reversed.
Moreover, Lower Canada contended, as the people of Ulster

MR. MACKENZIE'S FIRST ELECTION. 141
now do, and with probably no better cause, that if she were
placed at the mercy of Upper Canada, her educational and
religious institutions would be imperilled. This feature of the
question Mr. Mackenzie at once recognized. In his address,
he says : " The enlightened, sober statesmen of Lower Canada,
under the leadership of such men as Dorion, Sicotte, McGee
and Drummond, concede the justice of the demand (for repre
sentation by population), and express their willingness to yield
to the claim, only asking as a condition that guarantees should
be given that Canada West should not use its increased power
to interfere with the peculiar ecclesiastical privileges and laws
of Canada East. This every intelligent reformer will, of course,
agree to." Mr. Mackenzie thus showed, at the very outset of his
public career, that statesmanship, in its true essence, is frankness
and justice ; that in the advocacy of the rights of his own party,
he was unwilling to take the advantage of his opponents, and
that behind the power which the Government possesses, there
are inalienable rights with which no Act of Parliament should
interfere. In those early days, Mr. Mackenzie proclaimed himself the
advocate of economy and low taxation. He denounced the
Government, because in six years they had increased the debt
from twenty -nine millions to seventy millions, the expenditure
from four millions to nine millions, and the tariff from twelve-
and-a-half per cent, to twenty per cent. He reminded the
electors of the grants paid to Lower Canada for the erection
of piers and public buildings, — as bribes for political support ;
of contracts given to members of parliament for a similar
object ; and of sundry violations of the constitution for the
purpose of retaining power Little did he dream, in 1861,
that the increased expenditure and debt, and high tariff and
constitutional breaches and political bribes, which he then

142 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
denounced would, mutatis mutandis, occupy so much of his
attention for the next thirty years.
Mr. Mackenzie was opposed at the election by Mr. Alexander
Vidal, now a member of the Senate. Mr. Vidal entered the
field as an independent candidate, although a supporter of the
Cartier-Macdonald administration, in its opposition to the
demand of LTpper Canada. The nomination took place on
tho 27th of June, Mr. Sheriff Flintoft being returning officer.
Mr. Mackenzie was nominated by Mr. Simpson Shephard, of
Plympton, seconded by Mr. Robert Rae, of Bosanquet, both
of whom survive him. In order to meet the electors Mr.
Mackenzie held three meetings a-day, speaking at ten o'clock
in the forenoon, and at two o'clock and at seven o'clock in the
afternoon. His extraordinary powers of endurance and
capacity for political labor were thus early tested. After
two days' polling, during which the ministerialists exerted
themselves to the utmost he was returned by a majority of
142. The general results of the election were favorable to the
Government, although some of their strongest supporters were
defeated ; among these were the Hon. Sidney Smith, Post
master-General, and Mr. Ogle R. Gowan, in Upper Canada,
and Solicitor-General Morin and Messrs. Dunkin and Camp
bell, in Lower Canada. The Opposition met with the follow
ing serious defeats : Mr. George Brown in East Toronto, and
Messrs. Dorion, Lemieux, and Thibaudeau in Lower Canada.
The Opposition victories are worthy of note ; in Upper Canada
the most important being the election of Mr. Alex. Mackenzie;
for Lambton, and, in Lower Canada, the election of Messrs.
Joly, Taschereau, and Blanchet.
The seventh Provincial Parliament of Canada assembled in
Quebec on the 26th of March, 1862. and continued in session

MR. MACKENZIE'S FIRST ELECTION.

14S

till the 9th day of June, Lord Monck being Governor-General.
The first division of the session took place over the election of
the Speaker, the Ministerial candidate being Mr. Turcotte, and
the candidate of the Opposition Mr. Sicotte, both from Lower
Canada. The Ministerial candidate was elected by a majority

of thirteen, which was practically the Ministerial majority.
As a result of the general election Mr. Mackenzie's name,
which so frequently appoars on the division lists of parliament
during the last thirty years, was entered on the votes and pro
ceedings of the House on this division for the first time. The
Cabinet changes were unimportant, exceptforone thing, namely,
that by the appointment of Mr. John Beverley Robinson as-
President of the Council, Mr. John Carling as Receiver-General,
and the Hon. Jas. Patton as Solicitor-General West, the great
question of representation by population — ministers being
free to vote as they liked — was left an open one with the
Cabinet, instead of being closed — as it previously was, because
of the opposition of Lower Canada.
The Opposition lost no time in testing the new legislature on
the question of representation, for on the 27th of Mareh, Hon.
William MacDougall moved, seconded by the Hon. M. H. Foley,
that a paragraph be added to the address, expressing regret
that " His Excellency had not been advised to recommend for
the adoption of the House some measure for securing to Upper
Canada its rightful share of parliamentary representation and

144 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
its just influence in the Government." On the 1st of April, the
House divided, forty-two members voting for and seventy-six
against Mr. MacDougall's resolution. Among the prominent
Conservatives who supported Mr. MacDougall, were the Hon.
John Hillyard Cameron, the Hon. M. C. Cameron, Mr. Craw
ford, afterward Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, and Mr. Street
member for Welland. Not a single member for Lower Canada
voted with the Liberals, and only sixteen from Upper Canada
against them. The debate on this question was the most inter
esting of the session, although many of those who took part
in the discussion were, subsequently, found in the Ministerial
ranks ; among these were MacDougall, Foley and McGee. The
representatives from Ontario who voted against Mr. Mac
Dougall's motion were T. A. Bell, of Russell, Benjamin, Jones,
Macbeth, Morton, Portman, Powell, Macdonald, John. A. Mac
donald, J. S. McCann, McLaughlin, Scott, Sherwood, Simpson.
On this question, Mr. Mackenzie made his first speech in
Parliament. It is reported at considerable length in the (jllobe
of the 1st of April. The Parliamentary correspondent, in re
ferring to it, said : " Mr. Mackenzie made a capital maiden effort
causing his hits to tell with great force. Mr. Mackenzie is one
of the ablest of the new members of the House." He began by
denouncing coalitions, and said " he firmly believed that much
of the maladministration we had to complain of was the inev
itable result of an attempt to systematize the coalition princi
ple in our Government, and that no sound, healthy Govern
ment, or Opposition either, could possibly exist where they were
not held together by principles in common. Much as he dif
fered from and disliked old school Tories, he would a thousand
times rather see a Government composed of fossil-Tories in
power than the present one, or any one, formed on the coalition
principle. The present administration had representation

MR. MACKENZIE'S FIRST ELECTION. 145
from every party, or section of a party, in the state. Constant
changes were inevitable and constant corruption a necessary
consequence." He pointed out that every candidate from
Upper Canada, with the exception of the Attorney-General
West (John A. Macdonald), and the member for Cornwall (J.
Sandfield Macdonald), had pledged himself to his constituents to
support a change in the representation of Upper Canada. He
denounced the Government for their want of statesmanship in
dealing with this question, and pointed out that the commis
sioners that settled the representation between Scotland and
England, at the time of the union, regarded the element of
population in adjusting the representation of the two countries
in the House of Commons. He closed his speech by saying
"now he was not rigidly bound down to representation by
population as the only possible measure ; if the opponents of
that measure could suggest another remedy, he was willing to
give it his candid consideration, and he was quite certain that
the large constituency he represented would support him in
considering any measure which would place it out of the power
of the Government of the day to perpetrate sectional injus
tice." As the session advanced, it became quite evident that the
Government were weakening. The formidable attacks upon
their policy and their maladministration of public affairs
disturbed many of their most ardent supporters, and if a
suitable opportunity arose for the withdrawal of that confi
dence, it was quite evident they would be ejected from power.
On the 25th of April, Attorney-General Macdonald introduced
a bill respecting the militia, the object of the bill being to
reorganize the militia for defensive purposes. If accepted
by the House, according to the statement of the mover, the
bill would involve an expenditure of over a million of dollars.

146 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
and the annual training of from thirty thousand to fifty
thousand men. Strong objection was taken to the measure,
partly on the ground of expense, and partly because of the
absurdity of a scheme which, for defensive purposes, though
somewhat ambitious, would be totally inadequate. On the
20th of May the bill was rejected by a vote of 61 to 54, the
main defection in the'Ministerial ranks, by which its defeat
was accomplished, being among the supporters of the Govern
ment from Lower Canada. On the following day the Govern
ment resigned, and the Cartier-Macdonald coalition was no
more.

CHAPTER IX.

A LIBERAL GOVERNMENT.
The Macdonald-Sicotte Administration — Debate on Representation by Popu
lation — The Separate School Law — Return of Mr. Brown for Oxford 
The Double Majority Principle —Reconstruction of the Cabinet— Hon.
Oliver Mowat, Postmaster-General.

HE country was greatly surprised when Mr. Sand
field Macdonald was called upon to form an ad
ministration. Although the defeat of the prev
ious administration took place on the Militia Bill,
the assaults upon their financial policy and particularly
the discontent in Upper Canada with the action of the
Government on the question of representation were the real
cause of its weakness and ultimate defeat. On the great issue
between the two parties — representation by population — Mr.
Sandfield Macdonald had always supported the defunct Car
tier-Macdonald coalition. He was in no sense the leader of
any party in the House, and had, therefore, no claims upon the
notice of His Excellency. However, he accepted the responsi
bility of forming a new Government, and adroitly managed to
secure the co-operation of leading Liberals both from Upper
and Lower Canada. Mr. Foley, who had been formally ap
pointed leader of the Opposition, he made Postmaster-General ;
Mr. Wm. MacDougall, one of the most advanced Liberals of
this House, he made Commissioner of Crown Lands ; Mr. Sic
otte, the candidate of the Liberals for the Speakership at the
147

148 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
opening of the session, and the recognized leader of the party
in Lower Canada, was appointed Attorney-General East
And Mr. D'Arcy McGee, whose attacks upon the coalition
cost them many a vote, he made President of the Council.
The Liberal party throughout the country was greatly disap
pointed at the turn matters had taken. The coalition that had
so long resisted their demand for representation by population
had been ignominiously defeated, and a new Government estab
lished, composed of Liberals, it is true.^but formed on the dis
tinct understanding that the great issue of the last election was
to be set aside, and the old, worn-out principle, known as the
" double majority," substituted. Although Mr. Sandfield Mac
donald had not supported the policy of the Liberal party in
the Assembly, he was evidently deeply impressed with the in
justice done to Upper Canada by the coalition, which kept
itself in power by the Lower Canadian contingent. To refuse,
absolutely, any redress to the wrongs of the Upper Canadians,
was a position which he dare not take and, therefore, instead
of advocating the bold and clear-cut policy, of which the Hoa
Geo. Brown was the exponent, he adopted the double majority
compromise, which simply was, as previously explained, that
no measure specially affecting one province should be forced
upon it without the concurrence cf the majority of its repre
sentatives. The Globe was unsparing in its criticism of the Liberals who
joined Mr. Sandfield Macdonald's Government, as only a year
had elapsed since they had pledged themselves to their constit
uents to insist upon the rights of Upper Canada ; to join an
administration that was pledged not to disturb the equality of
the existing representation during that parliament, was
declared to be a breach of trust, and unworthy of the profes
sions they had made ; and, although the minor measures

A LIBERAL GOVERNMENT. 149
promised by the Government, such as retrenchment, an amend
ment to the militia law, a new insolvent law and a re-adjust
ment of the tariff, were all good enough in themselves, still,
nothing would condone their breach of faith in the great issue
of the previous election. Had these Liberals promised Mr.
Sandfield Macdonald an outside support, instead of joining his
Government, Mr. Brown would not have complained. He
thought the opportunity had thus arisen for redressing the
wrongs of Upper Canada, and the defaulting Liberals were to
blame for the postponement of the desired relief. The weight
of opinion among Liberals, and in this the Globe shared, not
withstanding its denunciations of the individual members of
the Government, was, that Sandfield Macdonald's administra
tion should receive a fair trial.
An attack by Mr. John Hillyard Cameron upon the now
Ministers while they were seeking re-election after accepting
office, brought out an admirable reply from Mr. Mackenzie,
which may be said to represent the views of the party. "He
did not believe that the double majority principle was a remedy
for the grievances of Upper Canada, though it might answer
as a temporary expedient. And he felt deeply grieved when
the new administration announced their formation on that
principle. He thought the proper course was to adhere firmly
to the Liberal policy, and try to force it on every Government
formed. For his own part he could not, on any account,
abandon his advocacy of that policy, although he felt himself
bound to defend those gentlemen who thought themselves
justified in postponing active effort for a time, for the accom
plishment of a present purpose. A change of Government
having been made, he had to choose between the new men who
asserted and believed they had a remedy, and the old men who
did not admit the existence of the evil."

150

LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.

Other leading Liberals, such as Mowat, Connor, McKellar,
Stirton, Rymal and Scatcherd, gave expression to similar
sentiments, and generously awaited the re-election of Ministers
and a fuller exposition of Mr. Sandfield Macdonald's policy,
reserving to themselves the right to deal with the Government
on the question of representation by population, as they might
deem expedient.
Mr. Sandfield Macdonald's position as Premier was beset
with many embarrassments. He had no claim upon the Con
servative party for support, and could not look for help from
that quarter. The Liberals in Upper and Lower Canada were
lacking in enthusiasm, on account of his abandonment of the
principal plank in the Liberal platform ; and in January,
1863, Mr. A. A. Dorion, because of a disagreement with his
chief regarding the Intercolonial Railway, resigned.

When Mr. Macdonald met the House, on the 12th of Febru
ary, it was with misgivings as to how his Government should
fare. He had not long to wait for the first shock. On the
19th of February Mr. M. C. Cameron moved an amendment
to the address in reply, in precisely the same words as the
amendment moved by Mr. MacDougall the year before, when
the Cartier-Macdonald administration was in power. This
amendment was defeated on a vote of 42 to 64. Mr. Macdon-

A LIBERAL GOVERNMENT. 151
aid's majority consisted principally of his Lower Canadian
supporters. The members of the Cabinet from Upper Canada
were, uo doubt, greatly embarrassed at having to vote against
a resolution which they had supported the previous session ;
especially as the other Liberals in the House were united in
their vindicatiqn of the policy of the party.
The debate, which was continued for several days, was a
very Spirited one. The Ministerialists sheltered themselves
behind the policy of a double majority ; while the Opposi
tion endeavoured to show that the Upper Canada section
of the Government was inconsistent in abandoning the
principle of representation by population. Mr. Mackenzie
pointed out that in addition to this great question there were
other issues. He said : " The question of the day was
the ejection from power of the late corrupt, unprincipled
Government ; that accomplished, the question of representa
tion should be considered on broad grounds, free from all sec
tional spirit. It was to be deeply regretted that mere national
feeling should be allowed so to influence separate sections of
the country as to create a desire to maintain a number of
semi-independent nations, while the nation was nominally
one. He desired and trusted to see Scotchmen, Englishmen,
Irishmen and Frenchmen fused into one harmonious whole ;
that Canada might be in reality, as it was nominally, one
great nation, owning and inhabiting, without any distinction
of race or creed, the whole country, from the slopes of the
Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic. Although the principle of
a double majority was inadmissible, as it recognized different
interests in localities divided from each other by imaginary
lines, he felt, however, that in order to secure the blessing of
good government and justice to the west, as far as practicable,
it was their duty to support the present administration,

152 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
reserving to themselves entire liberty to act with reference
to constitutional changes as they thought proper."
This patriotic speech from the new member for Lambton,
during his second session, greatly pleased the Liberals from
Upper Canada. His splendid powers as a debater were becom
ing apparent every day, while his broad views on every ques
tion which he discussed drew out the sympathies even of his
political opponents.
Mr. Brown, who, on account of ill health and the pressure of
private engagements, had refused various constituencies,
consented to run for Oxford ; and, to the delight of his old
colleagues, was returned to parliament by a majority of 275.
The great measure of 1863 was Mr. R. W. Scott's bill respect
ing Separate Schools. Mr. Scott had introduced the bill
several times, and had advanced it so far in the previous ses
sion as to reach a division on its second reading. The principle
of Separate Schools was first introduced into Canada under
an Act of 1841, and was further enlarged by the Act of 1855.
Mr. Scott proposed still further to extend the privileges of
Roman Catholics with regard to Separate Schools. The main
features of Mr. Scott's bill were, extending the facilities for
establishing Separate Schools in rural districts ; permitting
Roman Catholics to give notice of their intention to become
Separate School supporters once for all, instead of annually as
under the former Act ; relieving trustees from certifying the
average attendance of pupils under oath ; providing for
inspection of Separate Schools and their general administration
through the Council of Public Instruction. In the session of
1862 the bill passed its second reading ; but owing to
the defeat of the Government, it stood over. The bill passed
very quickly through all its stages, and was approved by the

A LIBERAL GOVERNMENT. 153
House on the 13th March, the yeas being 74 and the nays 30.
When the second reading of the bill was under consideration,
Mr. Burwell moved, seconded by Mr. Mackenzie, what is com
monly known as the six months' hoist. On that motion Mr.
Mackenzie gave his views on the question of religious instruc
tion. He opposed the bill on three grounds : First, he feared
it would be injurious to the common school system of the
Province ; secondly, he feared it would lead to a demand for
Separate Schools from other denominations ; thirdly, the
establishment of Separate Schools in certain localities would
divide the resources of the people, already very limited, and
thus lower the standard of education.. "He had no desire," he
said, " to make this a religious question, as he was not disposed
to vote against any bill, which even Catholics themselves
deemed necessary to secure perfect freedom in the exercise of
their religious faith ; but as our school system was undenomina
tional, the bill under consideration was therefore unnecessary."
The vote on this bill was the first substantial decision of the
House to which the principle of double majority would apply,
as 31 members from Upper Canada voted against it, while its
supporters numbered only 22. Mr. John A. Macdonald rallied
the Upper Canadian members of the Government — MacDou
gall, Foley, Wilson and Sandfield Macdonald — on their change
of front on the question of Separate Schools, quoting from the
journals how, in previous years, they had voted either against
the principle of Separate Schools or for the repeal of the exist
ing Separate School Act ; while now, they were practically
responsible for a bill extending the scope of Separate Schools.
The Premier was also asked if the measure was to be forced
on Upper Canada in the face of the opposition of a majority
of its representatives. To this Mr. Sandfield Macdonald made
uo reply.

154 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
The agitation which arose in Upper Canada on account
of the Separate School policy of the Government greatly
weakened them in public estimation. Although in their
general policy they were generously supported by the
Liberal party under the leadership of Mr. Brown, the feeling
everywhere prevailed that they were not a representative
Liberal Government This feeling, together with the unfortu
nate condition of the finances of the country, so encouraged
the Opposition that on the first of May Mr. John A. Mac
donald, seconded by Mr. Cartier, moved a direct voteof want
of confidence on going into supply. On the Friday following
the vote was reached, and the Government was defeated by a
majority of five. On the 11th of May, Mr. Sandfield Mac
donald announced his intention of proroguing the House the
following day, and intimated that dissolution would imme
diately follow.
In order to strengthen himself with the Liberal party,
several changes of an important character were made in
the Government. During the session Mr. James Morris re
tired on account of ill-health, and was succeeded by Mr.
Fergusson-Blair as Receiver-General. Mr. Adam Wilson ceased
to be Solicitor-General and accepted a seat on the Bench. His
place was not filled for several months. Mr. Dorion displaced
Mr. Sicotte as leader of the Lower Canada contingent, and
associated with himself L. H. Holton as Minister of Finance,
I. Thibaudeau as President of the Council, Letellier De
Saint-Just as Minister of Agriculture, L. S. Huntington as
Solicitor-General East, and M. Laframboise as Commissioner
of Public Works. The only change in Upper Canada was the
displacement of M. H. Foley by Oliver Mowat as Postmas
ter-General.

A LIBERAL GOVERNMENT. 155
The effect upon the Liberal party of the temporising pol
icy adopted by Mr. Sandfield Macdonald forms one of the
most interesting chapters in Canadian politics. What the
result was likely to be, was clearly foreseen by Mr. Macken
zie, Opposed, as he was, to a coalition of political parties,

he was unable to give his fullest confidence even to a
so-called Liberal Government that accepted power with at
least two Conservative planks in its platform. Its depend
ence upon its opponents, on the two great issues of Repre
sentation by Population and Separate Schools, had a demoral
ising effect on many of its supporters, and the animadversion
which the leaders of the Liberal party were obliged to pro
nounce on its conduct with respect to these two great meas
ures, naturally created some irritation. To be held up to
contempt by one party for treachery, and to be claimed
as political allies by the other party, was the reductio ad
absurdum of political consistency. To a Liberal like Mr.
Mackenzie, whose political convictions were part of his moral
nature, the effect of such entangling associations could only
result, in his opinion, to the injury of the party ; and so it
was. Foley, McGee, and the Lower Canadian members of the
Government who were displaced on the reconstruction of the
Cabinet, became its most pronounced and dangerous oppo
nents, and before many years had elapsed, Mr. Sandfield Mac
donald himself, and all his colleagues from Upper Canada,

156 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENXim.
with fhe exception of Mr. Mowat, were found in the ranks of
the Conservative party. Had the Liberals acted as Mr.
Mackenzie's high sense of duty suggested, there would
have been no abnegation of party policy for the sake of power,
and a Liberal Government, when formed, would have a right
to claim the undivided loyalty of the whole party.

CHAPTER X.

WEAKNESS OF SANDFIELD MACDONALD'S ADMINISTRATION.
General Election — Mr. Wallbridge, Speaker — Narrow Majority of the Govern
ment — Losses in By-Elections — The Government Unable to Proceed — Re-
si ned Office 21st March, 1864 — Formation of the Tach^-Macdonald Adminis
tration — Prcnises of the New Government — Committee on Representation.
EE dissolution of the House immediately followed
prorogation, and the whole country gave itself over
to an election contest of unusual interest Mr.
Sandfield Macdonald had a strong Cabinet, all
capable of defending their chief as well as themselves.
During their brief term of office, they reduced the ex
penditure of the country and administered public affairs with
a due regard to constitutional usages and the will of Parliament. '
Still many Liberals stood aloof from them because of their
attitude on the question of Representation by Population and
Separate Schools.
Mr. Mackenzie, with his usual vigor, lost no time in placing
his views before his constituents. In his address to the elect
ors of Lambton, he says : " The attempt to substitute the Double
Majority principle for Representation by Population, as a
remedy for our natural difficulties, (to which the Liberal party
never assented), has been an entire failure. A policy more
consistent with the demands of Upper Canada has been
adopted, and members of the Cabinet are now at liberty to ad
vocate constitutional questions with perfect freedom. It is
157

158 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
true this is not enough ; but making the representation question
an open one, is a step in the right direction, and although I
cannot rest satisfied with that, I am convinced that nothing
more can be gained in the meantime ; I therefore accept the
full responsibility of giving them a generous support"
Mr. Mackenzie's career during his brief parliamentary term
was not lost sight of by his constituents. Mr. Eobert Rae,
warden of the county, who had seconded his nomination two
years previously, in proposing him as a candidate for a second
term, spoke of him " as having exceeded the most sanguine ex
pectation of his friends, and as entitled to the confidence of
all parties who were in favor of good government." So strong
ly had he impressed himself upon his constituents and the
country, that all opposition was withdrawn, and the return
ing officer declared him elected by acclamation. This mark of
public approval was very much appreciated.
Throughout the whole of Canada, the contest was conducted
with great energy on both sides, twenty-one members only
being elected without opposition. Two of Mr. Sandfield Mac
donald's colleagues, Dorion and Holton, were defeated, but
/"-<.«¦ •¦ — t^ ^*** > " /
found seats in other constituencies. Mr. Drummond, his Com
missioner of Public Works, who was defeated in two constitu
encies, resigned. In summing up the result of the election,
it was claimed that 43 supporters of the Government were
elected for Upper Canada, and 29 for Lower Canada. Eight
of the elected -members from Upper Canada were considered
independent It was claimed by the Liberals, however, that

SANDFIELD MACDONALD'S ADMINISTRATION. 159
one-half of these, at least would support the Government; this
would give Mr. Sandfield Macdonald a fair working majority.
Parliament was summoned for the despatch of business on
the 13th of August, and the Hon. Lewis "Wallbridge was elect
ed Speaker on a vote of sixty-six to fifty-eight, several of
the independent members supporting the Ministerial nominee.
The first substantial test, however, of party strength took
place on the address in reply on an amendment of Mr. Sicotte,
seconded by Mr. Foley, both members of the previous adminis
tration. After a debate, which continued until the 29th of
August, the House divided, sixty members voting for the
amendment, and sixty-three for the Government This was
not a very comfortable outlook for the new administration.
From the beginning of the session, it was quite evident that
the Government would have no quarter. Mr. Sicotte, Mr. Mc
Gee and Mr. Foley were most bitter in their hostility, and lost
no opportunity to attack them in every conceivable manner.
The majority of the Government was so small as practically to
tie their hands, and it was only by the greatest care and fore
thought, that any measure of a comprehensive character could
be carried through the House.
Although supported by a majority from Upper Canada, they
were in the minority in Lower Canada, and of this the Oppo
sition was not slow to take advantage. A vote of want of
confidence, moved by Mr. Gait, drew out a very caustic speech
from Mr. Mackenzie, in which he charged certain opponents
of the Government with the violation of their pledges to their
constituents, and the Opposition, generally, with obstructing
the business of the House. The Government was again sus
tained by the narrow majority of three. The only public
measure of any moment which passed the House was the act
respecting the militia. On the 15th of October the House was

160 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
prorogued. During the recess, Mr. N. A. Richards was ap
pointed to the vacant Solicitor-Generalship, but in appealing
to his constituents, was defeated, and accordingly resigned.
On the 16th of February, 1864, — a year long to be remem
bered in the political history of Canada, — Mr. Sandfield Mac
donald again met Parliament. During his brief term of office
he had practised the most rigid retrenchment ; had conducted
the Government with great energy and prudence, and had cer
tainly strong claims upon the confidence of the country. It
was impossible, however, for any Government to exist on so
narrow a majority, and as he could not again ask for an ap
peal to the country, the only alternative was to strengthen his
position or resign, as the absence through illness or any other
cause of two of his supporters meant defeat. Accordingly, on
the 21st of March, he placed his resignation in the hands of the
Governor-General, and Mr. Fergusson-Blair was called upon to
form a new administration. Being unable to obtain the re
quired support, Mr. Cartier was next called upon. Mr. Cartier
having failed, Sir E. P. Tach^ was then sent for by His Ex
cellency. Sir E. P. Tach^ made overtures to the Liberals, with
a view to the formation of another coalition, but these were
unanimously rejected, the experience of the Liberal party with
the Cartier-Macdonald coalition having satisfied them as to the
dangerous character of political alliances involving the tem
porary suspension, at least, of the policy of each party. After
negotiations, which were not closed until the 31st of March,
Sir E. P. Tachg succeeded at last in forming a Government,
in which McGee and Foley, members of Mr. Sandfield Macdon
ald's first administration, held seats. The Upper Canadian
section of the Government consisted of J. A. Macdonald, Attor
ney-General West, Alex. Campbell, Commissioner of Crown
Lands, M. H. Foley, Postmaster- General, Isaac Buchanan, Pre-

SANDFIELD MACDONALD'S ADMINISTRATION. 161
sident of the Council, John Simpson, Provincial Secretary,
and Jas. Cockburn, Solicitor-General West
Mr. Foley's action in entering what was a purely Conserva
tive Government was a great disappointment to the Liberals
of Upper Canada. Having been formerly leader of the Liber
al party, and an active supporter of the Sandfield Macdonald
administration, his acceptance of an office in the Government
of which Tach^ and J. A. Macdonald were members, was looked
upon with considerable disfavor. Two years before, he had
charged the Cartier-Macdonald administration with the most
reckless, wanton extravagance, and with every other poli
tical offence unworthy of a Government ; now he was one
of their warmest supporters. Mr. McGee had taken similar
ground, and Mr. Cockburn had promised the electors to stand
up for the principle of representation. The indignation of
the people in Mr. Foley's case resulted in his defeat at the
polls by Mr. Isaac Bowman. To this defeat Mr. Mackenzie
contributed no inconsiderable assistance, and met repeatedly
not only Mr. Foley but Mr. McGee during the contest, to the
great discomfort of both gentlemen.
On the 3rd of May the House re-assembled, and on the 4th
J. A. Macdonald announced the policy of the new administra
tion. He declared that they were favorable to the renewal of
the reciprocity treaty with the United States, departmental
reform, retrenchment, the settlement of public lands, and
early communication by railway with the Maritime Provinces.
The question of Representation by Population was to remain
in abeyance.
On the 14th of March, seventeen days before the resigna
tion of Mr. Sandfield Macdonald's Government, Mr. George
Brown moved a resolution, based upon a despatch to the Col-
K

162 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
onial Minister, signed by Cartier, Gait and Ross, members of
the Government of the day, in which they declared " that
great difficulties presented themselves in conducting the gov
ernment of Canada in such a manner as to show due regard
to the wishes of its numerous population ; that the harmonious
working of the constitutional system of Canada was in dan
ger, and that some mode of dealing with the difficulties,
with a view to their removal, was desirable." The
resolution closed with a request for the appointment ol
a select committee of twenty members, to report upon
the best means of remedying the evils set forth in the
said despatch, the committee to be composed of Messrs.
Cameron, Cartier, Cockburn, Chapais, Dickson, Dorion, A A.,
Dunkin, Mowat, Gait, Holton, Joly, Macdonald, John A, Mac
donald, John S., MacDougall, McGee, McKellar, Scoble, Street
and the mover. On the 19th of May, a decision on this motion
was reached, and the appointment of a committee agreed to
on a vote of 59 to 48, although opposed by the leader of the
Government, John A. Macdonald, and his colleague from
Lower Canada, Mr. Cartier.
On the 14th of June, Mr. Brown reported " that the com
mittee had held eight sittings and had endeavored to find some
solution for existing difficulties, likely to receive the assent
of both sections of the Province. A strong feeling was found
to exist among the members of the committee in favor of
changes in the direction of a federative system, applied either
to Canada alone, or to the whole British North American
Provinces ; and such progress had been made as to warrant the
committee in recommending that the subject be again referred
to a committee at the next session of Parliament" The only
members of the committee who opposed the adoption of the

SANDFIELD MACDONALD'S ADMINISTRATION.

163

report were John A. Macdonald, John S. Macdonald and
Scoble. On the same day the Government was defeated on a
vote of censure proposed by Mr. Dorion, because of an advance
of 100,000 dollars for the redemption of Montreal City bonds,
without the authority of Parliament Messrs. Dunkin and
Rankin, who had usually voted with the Conservative party,
voted with Mr. Dorion on this resolution, giving the Opposi
tion a majority of two against the Government
During the session, which closed on the 30th day of June,
Mr. Mackenzie applied himself to his Parliamentary duties
with much diligence. As chairman of the joint committee of
both Houses on printing, he exhibited decided capacity in the
despatch of business, and fairness in dealing with all matters
referred to him. In the House he displayed great aptitude in
debate, and although his speeches did not attract as much
attention as in the previous session, his observations on many
of the questions that came before him impressed the members
with the extent of his general information, his knowledge of
the rules of the House and his ability, when called upon, to
express himself intelligently on all public questions. Had he
been less diffident he might have attracted more notice, but he
regarded himself still as a young member, and in the presence
of the great leaders of the party he deemed it unnecessary to
reiterate opinions that, as a rule, were fully expressed by those
entitled to precedence in debate.
In speaking of the career of the administration, the Globe of
March 22nd contains the following : " The Macdonald-Dorion
administration has not enjoyed a long existence, and a very
brilliant career was not, under the circumstances, within the
scope of possibility. But, in the practical routine of adminis
tering public affairs, it has earned the hearty gratitude of the

164 LIFE OF TEE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
public, and there has been a total absence of the jobbery and
corruption that has disgraced our country for many years.
We had not infrequently to dissent from the policy of the
Government that has just expired, but under all the circum
stances we cannot but feel that the country' has deep cause to
regret that it was not permitted to complete the measures of
reform upon which it had entered."

CHAPTER XI.

POLITICAL DEAD-LOCK.
Political Dead-Look— Hon. Mr. Brown's oflEer of Assistance- Report of the
Committee on the Federation of the Provinces — Formation of a Coalition —
Mr. Mackenzie's attitude on this Qaestion— The Policy of the New Cabinet.
jE are now entering one of the most interesting
periods of Canadian history. The union of 1841,
which was intended to abolish the war of races
in CanadaTand introduce a political millennium,
was on its final trial. That community of action be
tween the two Provinces, which it was expected to pro
duce, seemed to be as remote as ever. Lower Canada, as already
stated, clung to its rights under the Union Act; and Upper
Canada was clamorous for the political influence to which it
was entitled on account of its population and wealth. Each
party had held itself in power at times by alliances with
Lower Canada, and where alliances on strictly political prin
ciples failed, both parties resorted to the vicious principle of
a coalition. Appeals to the electors were made, at brief inter
vals, by a Liberal Government and by a Conservative Gov
ernment, but with no very satisfactory result, and thoughtful
men began to ask the question what the end would be. To
dissolve the union and to restore a puny provincialism was dis
tasteful to all. To continue a union, which fostered faction
rather than patriotism, and whose political honor was at the
mercy of any cabal that chose to plot against it, was not a very
165

166 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
pleasant outlook. The double majority principle had been
tried and proved a failure. What was to be done ? There
seemed to be but one way out of the difficulty, and that was
on the lines of the report submitted by Mr. Brown. But Mr.
John A. Macdonald had voted against the adoption of that
report He was the head of the Upper Canadian section of the
Government, and the leading spirit in his party ; as opposed to
him was Mr. Brown, the leader of the Opposition, with a strong
majority from Upper Canada. Unless some compromise could
be effected between the two parties, the question must be
referred to the people ; and another general election within the
year was not to be desired.
The report of Mr. Brown's committee on constitutional diffi
culties, suggesting a federation either of the Canadas alone, or
of the British American Provinces, had just been laid on the
table. Would this solve the question, is what occurred to
many members of the House. Faction had long been at the
helm of state, why not change the pilot ? The grave character
of the situation was so deeply felt by both sides of the House,
that the smallest hint suggesting relief was eagerly seized
upon. Such a hint came from Mr. Brown himself. He had
by a large majority secured the appointment of his committee.
The committee after duly considering the situation had, by a
vote of twelve to three, expressed a strong feeling in favor of
federation. The Government had the authority of His Excel
lency to dissolve and appeal to the country. In case of such
an appeal, the Liberal party had reason to believe they would
be successful. Should they abandon the prospects of a party
triumph at the polls, or should they settle now, if possible, their
constitutional difficulties by generously offering the Govern
ment their assistance on the lines of the report of Mr. Brown's
committee ? After consulting his political supporters, Mr.

4'

«

> c ^.->.. ' ¦ > V

Hon. George Brown.

POLITICAL DEAD-LOCK. 169-
Brown ascertained that the Liberal party was prepared to
adopt the latter course, and in order that the Government
might be informed of his attitude, he communicated this view
to Messrs. Morris and Pope, who were supporters of the Gov
ernment, and an interview with Mr. John. A. Macdonald and
Mr. Gait was arranged.
Mr. Brown felt great difficulty in approaching his political
opponents, and at his first meeting with Messrs. Macdonald
and Gait frankly confessed " that nothing but the extreme
urgency of the present crisis, and the hope of settling the
sectional troubles of the Province forever, could justify
such a meeting, with a view to common political action."
In this opinion Messrs. Macdonald and Gait concurred and
informed Mr. Brown that they were not meeting him simply as
leading members of the Ministerial party, but as members of
the Government, authorized by their colleagues to invite his
aid in settling the difficulties between Upper and Lower Canada.
He expressed his inability, on personal grounds, to join the ad
ministration, and he even feared that, if he would enter a Cab
inet composed of men to whom he was so long and so strongly
opposed, he would greatly shock the public mind. He addedr
"If the administration would pledge themselves clearly and
publicly to bring in a measure, next session, that would be ac
ceptable to Upper Canada, the basis to be now settled and an
nounced in Parliament, he would heartily co-operate with them
and try to induce his friends (in which he hoped to be success
ful) to sustain them until they had an opportunity of present
ing their measure to the House." Mr. Macdonald urged that
it was necessary that Mr. Brown should enter the Government
as a guarantee of the bona-fides of the Opposition and the Gov
ernment To this Mr. Brown objected for reasons already
stated. After further negotiations, the following memorandum

,170 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
was approved by His Excellency in council with regard to the
situation : " The Government are prepared to state that im
mediately after the prorogation they will address themselves,
in the most earnest manner, to the negotiation for a confeder
ation of all the British North American Provinces. That
failing a successful issue to such negotiations, they are pre
pared to pledge themselves to legislation during the next ses
sion of Parliament, for the purpose of remedying existing dif
ficulties, by introducing the federal principle for Canada alone,
coupled with such provisions as will permit the Maritime Prov
inces and the North-West Territory to be hereafter incorpor
ated into the Canadian system.
" That for the purpose of carrying on the negotiations and
settling the details of the promised legislation, a Royal Com
mission shall be issued, composed of three members of the
Government, and three members of the Opposition, of whom
Mr. Brown shall be one ; and the Government pledge them
selves to give all the influence of the administration to secure
to the said Commission the means of advancing the great
object in view.
" That subject to the House permitting the Government to
carry through the public business, no dissolution of parliament
shall take place, but the administration will again meet the
present House."
Having settled a basis for the suspension of party hostility
with the leaders of the Government, Mr. Brown called a meet
ing of his friends to ascertain how far they were prepared to
support him in the negotiations which he was then carrying
on. At this meeting the feeling of the Liberal party was
expressed in a motion made by Mr. Hope F. Mackenzie, and
seconded by Mr. McGivern : " That we approve of the course
that has been pursued by Mr. Brown in his negotiations with

POLITICAL DEAD-LOCK. 171
the Government, and that we approve of the project of a
federal union of the Canadas, with provision for its extension
to the Maritime Provinces and the North-West Territory, as
one basis on which the constitutional difficulties now existing
could be settled." Four members of the Liberal party declined
to vote either yea or nay on this motion, namely, Messrs.
Biggar, Macdonald, D. A., Macdonald, J. S., Macdonald (Toronto)
and Scatcherd. But with these exceptions the motion met with
the cordial approval of the party. Mr. Sandfield Macdonald
then moved that the proposition for at least three members
of the Opposition entering the Government be accepted. This
was opposed by Mr. A. Mackenzie, who moved in amendment :
" That the proposition for three members entering the Cabinet
be rejected, and that the proposition for the settlement of
sectional difficulties receive an outside support" Mr. Mac
kenzie's amendment was lost on a vote of 26 to 11. Its
supporters were Messrs. Bowman, Brown, Burnett, Cowan,
Dickson, A. Mackenzie, H. F. Mackenzie, McKellar, Mowat,
Scatcherd and Scoble.
Being authorized by the meeting of his friends to continue
the negotiations, it was finally agreed that he should enter the
Government with two colleagues from Upper Canada, and on
the 30th of June, Mr. Brown accepted a seat in the Cabinet
as President of the Council, Mr. Buchanan having resigned to
make way for him. His colleagues were: Mr. Mowat, Post
master General, instead of Mr. Foley, and Mr. MacDougall,
Provincial Secretary, in place of Mr. Simpson, afterwards
appointed Assistant Auditor of Public Accounts.
Mr. Mackenzie had taken strong ground against his friends
and his leader, Mr. Brown, on the formation of this coalition.
Apart from his opposition to coalitions generally, which he
believed could not be formed without the sacrifice of some

172 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
principle, he feared the Liberal party would be used by Mr.
John A. Macdonald to advance his own political interests, and
that object once served, occasion would be found for disagree
ment, which would place the Liberal party at a disadvantage.
He had seen the serious inroads made upon the Liberal party,
through the demoralizing effects of previous coalitions, and he
feared the repetition of such evil results. True, the country
was passing through a great crisis, a crisis so great as to war
rant the application of extraordinary remedies, and although
Mr. Mackenzie no doubt realized this, with that courage which
always characterized him, and that forethought which subse
quent events verified, he warned his political friends of the
danger to which they were exposing themselves, assuring
them at the same time of his cordial support in settling the
constitutional troubles to which the party had committed
itself.

CHAPTER XIL
CONFEDERATION IN SIGHT.
Confederation of the Maritime Provinces to be considered — Delegates called to
meet at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, in September — Representa
tives of the Government in attendance — Quebec Conference — Development
of the Scheme — Draft agreed upon — Cabinet Changes — Mr. Mackenzie in
favor of Confederation. LTHOUGH the federation of the Provinces had now
assumed, for the first time, a practical form, in the
two Canadas, the importance of such a confedera
tion had been considered many years before. Both
Houses of the Imperial Parliament as far back as
1837 adopted a resolution advising the expediency of such a
union of the British North American Provinces as would make
provision for the joint regulation and adjustment of their
common interests. In 1838 Lord Durham, in his admirable
report, suggested the appointment of " some joint legislative
authority " which should preside over all questions of common
interest to the two Provinces, preserving, however, to each
Province its distinct legislature, with authority in all matters
of an exclusively domestic concern. In 1849, the British
American League, composed of many of the leading men of
Upper Canada, advised a union of the British North American
Provinces, on mutually advantageous terms. In 1856, Mr.
Gait called the attention of the House to the necessity of a
confederation of Upper and Lower Canada. In 1859, the
173

174 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Liberals of Lower Canada issued a manifesto recommending
the substitution of a federation for the then so-called legislative
union, and in the same year the great reform convention of
Upper Canada declared " that the best practical remedy for
the evils now encountered in the Government of Canada is to
be found in the formation of two or more local Goverments, to
which shall be committed the control of all matters of a local
or sectional character, and some joint authority charged with
such matters as are necessarily common to both sections of the
Province." The question of a union of the Provinces was brought be
fore the Nova Scotia Assembly in 1854, by the great leaders
of the Conservative and Liberal parties, Messrs. Johnston and
Howe, and in 1857, a deputation consisting of Mr. Johnston
and Mr. Adam G. Archibald went to England to confer with
the Imperial Government on this and other questions. So
strongly were the Maritime Provinces impressed with the
necessity of action on this line, that the legislatures of New
Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island severally
passed resolutions at their sessions in 1864, authorizing their
respective Governments to enter into negotiations and hold a
convention, for the purpose of effecting a union of the Maritime
Provinces, " political, legislative, and fiscal." That convention
was appointed to meet at Charlottetown, Prince Edward
Island, in the month of September.
It is a somewhat strange coincidence that in the different
colonial legislatures of British North America, impelled by the
same purpose, though from different motives and causes, a
simultaneous movement should be taking place in favor of
confederation. In the Maritime Provinces the question
assumed a commercial character, and the union was urged
mainly for commercial reasons. In Canada, as we have seen,

CONFEDERA TION IN SIGHT. 175
the difficulty was political. In both cases, however, there
appeared to be aspirations towards a broader nationality, and
for the consolidation of the different colonial Governments into
a union which, while maintaining its colonial relationship,
would fittingly represent British sentiment on the American
continent. The Government of Canada having now embarked upon a
federation of the two Provinces, quickly perceived the import
ance of ascertaining whether the scheme, which they had pro
jected for themselves might not very fittingly include the
Maritime Provinces as well. Accordingly a deputation consist
ing of John A. Macdonald, Geo. Brown, Geo. E. Cartier, A. T.
Gait, T. D'Arcy McGee, H. L. Langevin, W. MacDougall and A.
Campbell, was appointed to meet the delegates from the Mari
time Provinces, at Charlottetown, at their meeting on the 8th
of September, to submit the case of a union of all the British
North American Provinces, instead of the smaller question of a
union of the Maritime Provinces, then under consideration.
The delegates from Canada were received very cordially, and
listened to with great attention. The constitutional aspects of
such a union were presented by Messrs. John A. Macdonald,
Brown and Cartier ; the commercial aspects of the question
were presented by Mr. Gait in an able speech extending over
three hours. Before withdrawing from the convention, tho
Canadian deputation suggested that the convention should
suspend its deliberations upon the subject for which it was
called, and adjourn to meet at Quebec on a day to be named
by the Governor-General, there to consider the confederation
of all the colonies of British North America.
On their way to the seat of Government, the Canadian
representatives accepted the hospitality of their friends from
the east and delivered several speeches on the new issue in

176 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Canadian politics. From the manner in which the.?e speeches
were received, and from the comments by the press, it was
quite evident the country was anxious that the political
arena within which party warfare had so long been carried
on should be enlarged, and a petty colonialism displaced by a
comprehensive nationality. The incongruity of a number of
petty provinces, contiguous to each other, all owning allegiance
to the same sovereign, all equally interested in the develop
ment of half a continent, and yet acting independently of
€ach other in matters of tariff and the enforcement of law
and order, was so apparent that any reasonable scheme for the
consolidation of their common interests could not fail to be
acceptable. Eager eyes were, therefore, turned towards the
city of Quebec, where delegates from all the colonies were to
meet at the call of the Governor-General. On Monday, the
10th of October, 1864, at 11 a.m., in the Parliament House of
Canada, the great conference out of which confederation was
evolved was opened. The respective Provinces were repre
sented as follows : Canada, Sir E. P. Tach^, J. A. Macdonald,
Geo. E. Cartier, Geo. Brown, A. T. Gait A. Campbell, W. Mac
Dougall, T. D'Arcy McGee, H. L. Langevin, J. Cockburn, 0.
Mowat, J. C. Chapais; Nova Scotia, Chas. Tupper, W. A.
Henry, R. B. Dickey, A. G. Archibald, J. McCarthy ; New
Brunswick, S. L. Tilley, J. M. Johnson, E. B. Chandler, J. A.
Gray, P. Mitchell, C. Fisher, W. H. Steves ; Prince Edward
Island, J. H. Gray, E. Palmer, W. H. Pope, Geo. G. Coles, A.
A. Macdonald, J. H. Haviland, E. Whelan ; Newfoundland, F.
B. J. Carter, Ambrose Shea.
Sir E. P. Tach^, Premier of Canada, was unanimously
chosen president, and Mr. Bernard, secretary. Writing of this
•conference the Hon. John Hamilton Gray — himself an active
member — thus refers to its organization : " There was organ-

CONFEDERATION IN SIGHT. 177
ized a convention whose deliberations were to have a mark
ed bearing upon the future of British North America. The
time, the men, the circumstances were peculiar. The place
of meeting was one of historic interest Beneath the
shadow of Cape Diamond, on the ruins of the old castle of
St. Louis, with the broad St. Lawrence stretching away in
front, the Plains of Abraham in sight, and the St. Charles
winding its silvery course through scenes replete with the
memories of Old France, where scarce a century gone by the
Fleur-de-lis and the Cross of St George had waved in deadly
strife, the descendants of those gallant races — the Saxon and
the Gaul — hand in hand with a common country and a com
mon cause, met with the full sanction of their sovereign and
the Imperial Government, attended by the representatives and
members of the crown, sent from the parliaments chosen by
the people. They were called upon to lay in peace the founda
tion of a state that was to take its place in friendly position
beside the Republic which, wrenched from its parent land in
strife, had laid the foundation of its greatness with the sword,
and baptized its power in blood."
The convention met with closed doors. All voting was
to be by Provinces ; that is on any question touching
the character of the constitution, which was under con
sideration on which there was a difference of opinion,
the representatives of each Province deliberated apart
and reported their decision, through their chairman, to
the convention. The principle of a federal union, as
opposed to a legislative union, was accepted after a very
short discussion, it being quite apparent that Provinces
so widely apart geographically, and accustomed so long to
govern themselves, would find, in local assemblies to which
local matters would be entrusted, simpler machinery for the
L

178 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
administration of local affairs than could be supplied under a
legislative union.
Owing to the war in the United States then going on — a
war entered upon in defence of state,sovereignty- — the confer
ence felt called upon to guard against a similar contingency
by so framing the Canadian constitution as to place beyond
all doubt the question of sovereignty. With this object in
view, while following in many other respects the federal
character of the American constitution, an attempt was made
to apportion the powers necessary to the working of the con
stitution between the Central and Provincial Governments,
preserving to the Central Government all power not specifi
cally delegated to the Provinces. In its attempt, however, to
avoid the question of state-sovereignty, the conflicts which
subsequently arose, notably in Ontario and Manitoba, with
regard to provincial rights, were evidently not foreseen. A
federation purporting to give to the federated provinces cer
tain privileges, which they could only exercise with the con
sent of the central authority, would not have been a federa
tion at all, but a lesjislative union : and as the conference
already rejected this principle, the Provinces that asserted
provincial rights in their own assemblies, or before the Privy
Council, were only insisting upon a privilege which the fram-
ers of the original scheme for confederation must have in
tended they should enjoy. It is impossible for us to conceive
of a small province like Prince Edward Island accepting a
form of government which would place the existence of its
local institutions at the mercy of a parliament composed of
over two hundred members, where its represention was only
five or six members.
After discussions extending until the 28th day of October,
the conference adjourned to the citj' of Montreal, and on the

CONFEDERATION IN SIGHT. 179
31st day of October agreed upon the report to be made to
their respective Governments.
The delegates then made a tour of Upper Canada, outlining
as far as they were at liberty to do so, the constitution agreed
upon at the conference, and receiving wherever they went the
most cordial approval of the work to which they had com
mitted themselves.

CHAPTER XIIL

THE CONFEDERATION DEBATES.
Session of 1865 — Discussion of the Scheme of Confederation— Opposition from
Quebec — Mr. Mackenzie's Share in the Discussion —Delegation to England-
Short Session of Pai liament — ^Final Adoption of the Quebec Resolutions.
[ HILE the country was absorbed in the consider
ation of the scheme for uniting all the British
North American Provinces, the Government was
^^ preparing itself for the opening of parliament
*-*'^ and for discussing the details of the proposed confed
eration. In the meantime, however, Mr. Mowat, who
had rendered the Liberal party substantial service during the
past seven years, both in Opposition and as a Minister of the
Crown, accepted a seat as one of the vice-chancellors of Uppef
Canada. His place in the Government was filled by Mr. W.
P. Howland, Minister of Finance in the Macdonald-Sicotte
Government and Receiver-General in the Macdonald-Dorion
Government. Mr. Howland was known as a man of high
character and financial ability, and his appointment was so
well received by his constituency as to secure for him an elec
tion by acclamation. With the Government thus constituted
and public expectation unusually excited, parliament met on
the 19th of January.
In opening the House the Governor-General alluded to the
resolutions approved by the conference at Quebec, to the im
portant bearing the adoption of such a scheme as was there
180

THE CONFEDERATION DEBATES. 181
outlined would have upon the future of the British colonies,
and observed " in commending to your attention this subject,
the importance of which to yourselves and to your descen
dants it is impossible to exaggerate, I would claim for it your
calm, earnest and impartial consideration. With the public
men of British North America it now rests to decide whether
the vast tract of country which they inhabit shall be consol
idated into a state, combining within its area all the elements
of national greatness, providing for the security of its com
ponent parts and contributing to the strength and stability of
the empire ; or whether the several provinces of which it is
constituted shall- remain in their present fragmentary and
isolated condition, comparatively powerless for mutual aid,
and incapable of undertaking their proper share of imperial
responsibility." The debate was opened' on the 6th of February on a motion
by Attorney-General Macdonald:" That an humble address be
presented to Her Majesty praying that she may be graciously
pleased to cause a measure to be submitted to the Imperial
Parliament for the purpose of uniting the colonies of Canada,
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundlam] , and Prince
Edward Island in one Government, with provisions based on
certain resolutions which were adopted at a conference of
delegates from the said colonies held at the city of Quebec, on
the 10th of October, 1864." Mr. Macdonald supported the
resolution by a clear and comprehensive exposition of the
constitutional bearings of the resolutions agreed upon at
Quebec ; and while expressing his own preference for a legis
lative union, he was nevertheless confident that the scheme
before the House would remove the political complications
which rendered the government of the country so diffi
cult, and, at the same time, give the colonies that importance

182 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
as an integral part of the British Empire, of which they were
deprived by their present isolated condition.
The financial and commercial aspects of the question were
presented with great ability by Mr. Geo. Brown and Mr. A. T.
Gait, Mr. Brown's speech being specially characterized by its
magnanimity towards his opponents and his hopefulness as to
the future of the country. The debate was, in the strictest
sens? of the term, historical. Members of Parliament felt
themselves confronted with the greatest issue ever submitted
to their consideration. It was not the time for squabbling over
personal grievances or about the appropriation of money for
local improvements. Those who took part in the debate felt
called upon to substantiate every position, not by the denun
ciation of their opponents or the rounded periods of the
rhetorician, but by arguments founded on reason, experience
and fact.
It was not until the 23rd of February that Mr. Mackenzie
rose to take his place in the debate. Already many of the
great leaders had spoken at considerable length, and where so
much had been said to the purpose, it was no easy task to
keep the attention of the House. Nevertheless Mr. Mac
kenzie's speech, on that occasion, was one of great merit, both
for its conciseness, its breadth of view and its thoughtfulness.
In his opening remarks he defended his own course and the
course of the Liberal party in Upper Canada against the at
tacks of their former Lower Canadian allies because of alleg
ed political inconsistency. What Upper Canada wanted, in
so many words, was Representation by Population ; what she
wanted in fact was a remedy for her political grievances. He
believed the scheme before the House provided this remedy ;
why, then, quarrel over the form in which it came ? He sup
ported Mr. Sandfield Macdonald's scheme of a double majority ;

THE CONFEDERATION DEBATES. 183
that had failed. Should we stand still and allow tho union
between Upper and Lower Canada to be dissolved ? " That,"
he said, " would be one of the greatest calamities which could
befall these provinces.
Mr. Mackenzie's industry is quite as apparent in his speech
on Confederation as in his later speeches, when Premier ol
Canada. Objection was taken to the Quebec resolutions be
cause the Upper House or Senate to be constituted was to be
nominative and not elective. In dealing with this objection
Mr. Mackenzie expressed his own opposition to an elective
Senate and instanced the example of the other colonies of the
Empire and nearly all the political divisions of Europe, giving
such details as show how fully he had mastered this part of
the subject In answer to the charge that the federal system
was a weak one, he pointed out that in the United States, not
withstanding the large influx of foreign population, the North
was conducting, apparently to a successful issue, one of the great
est wars of modern times without a dollar of foreign capital.
The federal system in Switzerland had worked most satisfac
torily. The union between England and Scotland had added
to the prosperity and comfort of both kingdoms.
In the course of the debate he greatly amused the House by
quoting from a speech delivered by Lord Belhaven in the
Scottish Parliament, when the proposed union with England
was under discussion. His Lordship in depicting the dire
calamity which he imagined would befall Scotland by join
ing her fortunes to England, said : " My Lord Chancellor —
I think I see our learned judges laying aside iheiv practiques
and decisions, studying the common law of England, gravel
led with certioraries, nisi priuses, writs of error, verdicts in
dovar, ejectione firmae, injunctions, demurs, etc., and freighted
with appeals and avocations, because of the new regulations

184 LIFE OF TIIE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
and rectifications they may meet with. I think I see the
valiant and gallant soldiery either sent to learn the plantation
trade abroad, or at home petitioning for a small subsistence as
a reward of their honorable exploits, while their old corps
are broken, the common soldiery left to beg and the youngest
English corps left standing. I think I see the honest indus
trious tradesman loaded with new taxes and impositions, dis
appointed of the equivalents, drinking water instead of ale,
eating his saltless pottage, petitioning for encouragement to
his manufacturer and answered by counter petitions. In
short, I think I see the laborious ploughman with his corn
spoiling upon his hands for want of sale, cursing the day of
his birth, dreading the expense of his burial and uncertain
whether to marry or do worse. I think I see the incur
able difficulties of landed men fettered under the golden
chain of equivalents, their pretty daughters petitioning for
want of husbands and their sons for want of employment I
think I see our mariners delivering up their ships to their
Dutch partners, and what, through presses and necessity earn
ing their bread as underlings in the Royal English Navy."
",And here," said Mr. Mackenzie, "comes the climax, and if I
were asked to point to one of the drainatis personam in our
Canadian House of Assembly fitted to take part in a similar
scene as is here depicted, I should unhesitatingly turn to the
honorable member for Chateauguay (Hon. Mr. Holton), who
could more suitably than anyone else I know personate Lord
Belhaven when he exclaims : ' But above all, my Lord, I
think I see our ancient mother Caledonia, like Csesar, sitting
in the midst of our Senate ruefully looking about her, cover
ing herself with her royal garment, attending to the fatal
blow and breathing out her last with et tu quoque mi fill.'"
In addition to political advantages, Mr. Mackenzie

THE CONFEDERATION DEBATES. 185
claimed that the union would greatly tend to the development
and growth of the country. It would lead to the enlargement
and extension of our canal system. It would lead to the early
construction of a railway connecting Canada with the Mari
time Provinces, audit would stiengthen the position of the
country for defensive purposes. " Altogether," he said, " I re
gard the scheme as a magniCcent ono, and I look forward to
the future expecting to see a country and a Government
possessing great power and respectability, established under
this scheme and of being before I die a citizen of an im
mense empire built upon our part of the North American
continent, where the folds of the British flag will float in
triumph over a people possessing freedom, happiness and
prosperity equal to the people of any other nation on the
earth. If there is anything that I have always felt anxious
about in this country it is to have the British possessions
put in such a position that we could safely repose without
fear of danger from any quarter under the banner which we
believe, after all, covers the greatest amount of personal free
dom and the greatest amount of personal happiness that is
to be found in the world. .And when we look to the vast
territory we have in the North-West ; when we know that
the great rivers which flow through that territory flow
through immense beds of coal and that the whole country is
rich in mineral deposits of all kinds — petroleum, copper, gold
and iron — that the land is teeming with resources of wealth
calculated to build up an extensive and valuable commerce
and support a powerful nation ; that all the.se we can touch
and seize upon the moment we are prepared to open up a
way to reach them and allow the settler to enter ; when we
remember this, I say, I think we can look forward with
hope to a prodigious increase in our population and an im-

1E6 LIFE OF TIIE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
mense development of .strength and power. So far our peo
ple have had to contend with the usual difficulties common
to the people of all new countries ; but now Canada is be
ginning to assume a position of commercial importance, and
in proportion as that importance increases we will be able to
devote ourselves to the opening up and settlement of the
interior, and to the development of a new nationality — to
use the term that has been so sharply criticised — in that
vast western country where there is hardly a white man
living to-day."
As the resolutions were not before the House for considera
tion in detail, and therefore were not capa,ble of amendment
the opponents of Confederation could only move amendments
of a general character. Strong objection was taken to the
adoption of any scheme practically changing the constitution
of the country, without reference to the electors. The parlia
ment, then assembled, had no mandate to draft a new consti
tution for Canada ; and although it was urged in answer that
parliament was authorized to seek some remedy for the con
stitutional difficulties that existed, the answer was not satis
factory or complete. In order to test the House on this ques
tion Mr. John Hillyard Cameron moved, seconded by Mr. M.
C. Cameron: " That in view of the maonitude of the interests

involved in the resolutions for the union of the colonies of
British North America and the entire change of the consti-

TIIE CONFEDERATION DEBATES. 187
tution of this Province, a constitutional appeal should be
made to the people before these resolutions are submitted
for final action thereon to the consideration of the Imperial
Parliament." This resolution was lost on a vote of 35 to 84.
Mr. Holton then moved "that any Act founded on the resolu
tions should not go into operation until approved by the
Parliament of Canada." This was also lost on a vote of 31 to
79. Mr. Sandfield Macdonald, apparently to embarrass the
Liberals from whom he was now alienated, notwithstanding
that the Separate School Act of 1863 was passed during his
premiership, moved an amendment expressing regret that the
entire control and direction of education in Upper Canada
was not entrusted to its own Local Legislature. The vote on
this amendment was yeas, 8 ; nays, 95. Another amendment
by Mr. Bourassa, "that the Roman Catholic minority of Upper
Canada be placed on the same footing, as regards education,
as the Protestant minority of Lower Canada" was also lost
on a vote of 20 to 85. The resolutions were then agreed to
on a vote of 91 to 33, and the great parliamentary debate on
Confederation was brought to a close.
After transacting some other business of a minor character,
the House prorogued on the 18th of Mafch, the coalition
between Messrs. Brown and Macdonald having shown itself
strong enough and honest enough, contrary to the usual pre
cedents of coalitions, to concentrate all the power of the
Legislature on the solution of the constitutional difficulties
which it was originally organized to solve. It is deeply to
be regretted that, with its hold upon the public opinion of
the country and with a scheme so cordially supported by*
Parliament, it lacked the courage to appeal to the country
for a constitutional expression of opinion.
While Parliament is entrusted with a great deal of power,

188 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
and while it is hard sometimes to say whether the electorate
has expressed an opinion on many of the questions which
their representatives are called upon to determine, there can
be no doubt whatsoever that a complete change of the Consti
tution, such as was contemplated by the Quebec resolutions,
should have been submitted to the people at the polls. Had
the Conference at Quebec made this part of their plan of
campaign, many heart-burnings, all of which are not yet
allayed, would have been obviated, and the people would have
been made to feel that the Constitution of which they had ap
proved was a Constitution which they were in duty bound to
preserve in its integrity. Strange to say, Mr. Mackenzie, who
all his life had shown such deference to the popular will,
declared the action of Parliament a sufficient expression of
public opinion.
Immediately after prorogation, a deputation consisting of
Messrs. J. A. Macdonald, Cartier, Brown and Gait went to
England to confer with the Imperial Government respecting
Confederation and other matters of public interest.
On second thought, the Maritime Provinces, which had so
cordially supported Confederation at the outset, became
alarmed as to the consequences of their own acts, and offered
on every hand the most stubborn opposition to the proposed
constitutional changes. Fears were expressed lest the smaller
Provinces should be overwhelmed by the numerical strength
of the larger, and appeals were made to the loyalty of the
people on the ground that our Constitution was an imitation
of the Constitution of the United States, and that its adop
tion would undoubtedly lead to annexation.
A great outcry was also raised on account of the financial
basis of the scheme. The Maritime Provinces had a low rate
of duty, and for ordinary purposes of government, abundant

THE CONFEDERATION DEBATES. 189
revenues. By the new scheme, duties would be increased,
while the income of the Provinces was fixed for all time. The
diversion of the trade of the west to Canadian ports by the
proposed Intercolonial Railway was problematical. Their
trade was with the United States, and there was no guaran
tee that it would be increased by Confederation.
In these and similar ways, an appeal was made to the peo
ple of New Brunswick in the general election which followed
the return of the delegates from Quebec, the result being
that an Assembly hostile to Confederation was returned
with A. J. Smith, afterwards Sir Albert Smith, as premier.
There was no general election in Nova Scotia through which
the popular will could express itself, but kt the meeting of
the Assembly, following the return of the delegates, resolu
tions were adopted in favor of a union of the Maritime Pro
vinces alone. Prince Edward Island not only passed resolu
tions opposed to Confederation, but went so far as to repudi
ate the action of the delegates. Newfoundland left the whole
question in abeyance, and so it remains there at the present
time. To launch the new ship on such a stormy sea appeared
to be a perilous task, but there was no help for it. The Con
stitution of the United States was ratified by the original
thirteen colonies only after great dissension, and, in somo
cases, after the lapse of several years. To shrink from the
decision of the misinformed public mind, or to take counsel
from the timid, was not the duty of the hour. And so with
out any hesitation whatsoever because of the action of the
Maritime Provinces, the delegates from the Parliament of Can
ada proceeded, according to instructions, to England.

CHAPTER XIV.

MR. BROWN RETIRES FROM THE COALITION.
Death of Sir E. P. Tachi — Mr. Brown's Objections to Mr. Macdonald as Pre
mier — Last Parliament in Quebec — Report of the Delegates to England — ^-
Peeling in the Maritime Provinces — Mr. Brown's Retirement from the Gov
ernment — Abolition of the Reciprocity Treaty of '67— The last Session of
the old Parliament of Canada.

N the 30th of July, 1865," eight days before the re
assembling of Parliament, Sir E. P. Tach^, Premier
of the Coalition Government, died, and the ques
tion of selecting a successor gave rise to some
difficulties. Col. Tach^, though not a man of profound
ability or statesmanship, was a devoted Canadian, and
for many years actively identified himself with every measure
submitted to Parliament for the advancement of Canadian
interests. He believed our welfare lay in our continued con
nection with the Empire. His loyalty found expression in
the words long to be remembered ; " The last shot that would
be fired on the American continent, in defence of the British
flag, would be fired by a French Canadian."
Aside altogether from his high character, the part he took
in drafting our present Constitution, and directing, as Premier,
the Government of Canada, while great constitutional prob
lems were being settled, would give him a prominent place in
the annals of his country.
Mr. John A. Macdonald, who was the senior member of the
190

MR. BROWN RETIRES FROM THE COALITION. 19>
Government, was informed of His Excellency's desire that the
Government should be continued as a coalition, at least until
present constitutional difficulties were settled, suggesting at
the same time that Mr. Macdonald should accept the Premier
ship vacated by Mr. Tach^'s death. To this proposition Mr.
Brown strongly objected. Mr. Macdonald had always been his
antagonist. He coalesced with him for a special purpose
when the Liberal party controlled the House, and would con
tinue in the Government only while he could do so on equal
terms. To continue to serve under him as Premier would be
a violation of the conditions of the original compact, and to
this he would not agreie. Already, the Liberals held only three
seats in the Cabinet, while their political opponents held nine.
He advised the selection of some gentleman of good position.
in the Legislative Council, under whom all the parties to the
coalition could act with confidence. Failing this, he would
agree to do what he preferred from the very first — give the
Government an outside support, provided they would apply
themselves to the removal of the existing difficulties between?
Upper and Lower Canada, on the basis of a Federative Union.
Mr Macdonald then suggested the name of Mr. Cartier, who
was the leader of the majority from Lower Canada. This
proposition, Mr. Brown, after consultation with his colleagues
from Upper Canada — Messrs. Howland and MacDougall — de
clined, and by mutual consent Sir Narcisse Belleau was chosen,
who agreed to the terms on which the coalition was organized.
There can be no doubt .whatever as to the propriety of the
course pursued by Mr. Brown under the circumstances. He
was a member of a cabinet formed for a special purpose.
He represented beyond question the feeling of the majority
of the Liberal party. No cabinet could exist, at that time,
without his support It was essential in the interests of the

192 LIFE OF TIIE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
party, and for the proper solution of the constitutional ques
tions with which it was identified, that he should continue
in the cabinet, not as a subordinate of Mr. John A. Macdonald,
who had always opposed the Liberal policy, but as his equal
Under ordinary circumstances, Mr. Macdonald's claims to the
premiership would have been conclusive. That they were
urged at all, was, perhaps, not unnatural ; that they were not
unduly pressed, shows that Mr. Macdonald had accepted, as a
finality, the verdict of the House in favor of constitutional
changes, and that in keeping good faith with Mr. Brown, he
was simply keeping good faith with Parliament, and with the
well-known public opinion of the country.
On the eighth of August, parliament re-assembled to receive
the report of the delegates to England, and to pass the esti
mates in detail, for which they had previously been given a
vote of credit. The report of the delegates was very satisfac
tory. They had a conference on behalf of the Government
with the Duke of Somerset, Earl de Gray, Mr. Gladstone, and
Mr. Cardwell, Colonial Secretary, and received the strongest
assurances that the federation, which they proposed with the
Maritime Provinces, was very acceptable to the Imperial
authorities. Some progress was also made towards the settle
ment of the claims of the Hudson's Bay Company, and a pro
mise received of an Imperial guarantee for the cost of con
structing the Intercolonial Railway. The assurance from the
Colonial Secretary that all legitimate efforts would be made
to reconcile New Brunswick to Confederation, was very ac
ceptable. The session was uneventful, so far as general legislation was
concerned, although many measures of a minor character
were passed. Mr. Mackenzie took an active part in the work
of the House, and was daily strengthening himself by his

MR. BROWN RETIRES FROM THE COALITION. 193
aptitude in debate, and his familiarity with every question
submitted for the consideration of Parliament. When the
House prorogued on the 18th of September, it was on the
understanding that Parliament should next assemble in the
new buildings at Ottawa.
The Government, being now relieved of Parliament, at once
gave its attention to the trade relations of Canada with the
United States. It will be remembered that in 1854, under the
administration of Lord Elgin, a Reciprocity Treaty of a very
comprehensive character was made between Canada and the
United States, valid for ten years, but revokable on notice by
either party. The Americans had become dissatisfied with
the treaty on the alleged ground that Canada benefited more
by its continuance than the United States. They had passed
through a great conflict ; their taxes had become burdensome
particularly their inland revenue imposts, and the admission
of certain Canadian products free into the market of the
United States, it was said, placed the American producer at a
disadvantage. These were the commercial reasons which
national courtesy considered the only ones expedient to put
forth. There were behind these, however, the conviction that
a treaty was an advantage to Canada, and that its repeal
would be a serious injury to Canadian trade. In the long
and worthy struggle which they had made for the Union,
they had come to the conclusion, rightly or wrongly, that
Great Britain and her Colonies would rejoice to see the Union
dismembered. The attempts made by blockade runners, such
as the steamship Alabama, to furnish the South with supplies,
the determined attitude of Great Britain in the Trent affair,
and the raid of St. Albans in Canada intensified this feeling.
That it was unfounded, there can be no doubt. The British
sentiment that abolished the slave trade sixty years before
M

194 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
could have no sympathy with the establishment of a con
federacy, the corner-stone of which, as declared by its Vice-
President, was to be slavery. If, here and there, British trade
suffered as notably, in Lancashire, because its supply' of cotton
from the South was cut off, and in this way a word of sym
pathy was dropped for the rebel States, such intermittent
expressions of sympathy should not have been mistaken for
the real public opinion of Britain. Indeed, it is well known
that had it not been for the action of the British Govern
ment, France would have recognized the Southern Confeder
acy as a new nation, and what would have been the conse
quences of such a recognition, no one can tell.
The sympathies of Canadians were strongly with the North.
The Globe supplied its readers daily with the leading events
of the war, and commented, editorially, from time to time
on the various phases which it assumed, but always fav
orably to the North. Occasionally, in a Conservative news
paper, there would be found the suggestion that a Republican
form of government was essentially weak, and that the strug
gle in which the North was engaged must necessarily be a
failure. Whatever may have been the motive, and this will always
be a matter of speculation, the Americans notified the Imper
ial Government that the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 would
terminate on the l7th day of March, 1866. To Canadians, this
notice was a source of considerable anxiety. The trade rela
tions which our merchants had established with the United
States were to be practically brought to an end, and other
markets had to be found for the surplus products of the
country. The feeling then, was universal, that everything
consistent with the dignity of Canada should be done for the
renewal of the Treaty in some form or other. On the 15th

MR. BROWN RETIRES FROM THE COALITION. 195
day of July, 1865, the Government decided to send two mem
bers of the cabinet to Washington to confer with Sir Fred
erick Bruce, the British Ambassador. By a despatch, dated
the 22nd of July, the British Government suggested the for
mation of a Confederate Council, chosen by the different pro
vinces, and ^presided over by the Governor-General, for the
purpose of expressing. an opinion to Her Majesty's Gc^vern-
ment on the negotiation of Commercial Treaties. Acting on
this suggestion, such a Council was formed at Quebec, early in
September, and called the " Confederate Council on Commer
cial Treaties." The members of the Council from Canada
were Messrs. Brown and Gait ; from Nova Scotia, Mr. Ritchie ;
from New Brunswick, Mr. Wilmot ; from Prince Edward Is
land, Mr. Pope ; and from Newfoundland, Mr. Shea. Messrs.
Macdonald and Cartier were by courtesy admitted on behalf
of Canada to be present at the Council, and take part in the
discussion. At a meeting of the Council on the 18th of September,
1865, resolutions were passed approving of the renewal of the
Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 ; recommending the British North
American Provinces to combine cordially on a common com
mercial policy in the event of the abolition of the old Treaty ;
recommending communication to be opened with the West
India Islands, Spain and her colonies, Brazil and Mexico, for
new channels of trade ; and requesting Her Majesty's Govern
ment to authorize the members of the Council, or a committee
appointed from amongst them, to proceed to Washington in
the event of negotiations being opened up for the renewal of
the Reciprocity Treaty, in order to confer with the British
Ministers there, with respect to the British North American
Provinces. Shortly after the adjournment of the Council,
Mr. MacDouerall went to the West Indies at the head of a com-

196 LIFE OF TIIE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
mission in order to enquire into the facilities which they
afforded for trade with Canada, and Messrs. Gait and How
land went to Washington to discuss with the United States
Government the difficulties in the way of the renewal of the
old Reciprocity Treaty. On the 18th of December, Mr. Gait
submitted to Council his report, in which he expressed his
opinion that there was no reasonable probability that the Con
gress of the United States would adopt any proposal for the
renewal of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, but believed from
his conversations with the Secretary of the Treasury that the
commercial relations with the United States and the British
Provinces could be made the subject of concerted legislatioa
He also found the United States authorities unwilling to give
what he regarded as a fair equivalent for the privilege of
fishing in Canadian waters.
Mr. Brown, who had been absent in the Lower Province in
connection with public matters, was greatly surprised on his
return that Messrs. Gait and Howland had gone to Washing
ton, and had presumed to entertain propositions for the settle
ment of this question without the full authority of their
colleagues. As a member of the Confederate Council on Com
mercial Treaties, he regarded it as an affront to be supplanted
by Mr. Howland, and the proposal, on the part of the two
countries, to accept concerted legislation in lieu of a definite
treaty, was to him very objectionable. He argued that a
treaty depending upon the whim of Congress would be of no
value whatever, that under it the capitalist would have no
assurance that his investments would not be disturbed by
legislation at any morfient, and that the effect of holding the
Canadians "dangling from year to year on the legislation
of the American Congress, looking to Washington, instead of
to Ottawa, as the controller of their commerce and pros-

MR. BRO WN RETIRES FROM THE COALITION. 197
perity, would lead to the absorption of the provinces into
the imion ; " that the action of Mr. Gait was contrary to the
conclusions of the Confederate Council, which represented all
the provinces, and therefore, would give them great offence,
and perhaps imperil the whole scheme of Confederation. His
colleagues having declined to accept his views, he felt it his
duty to withdraw from the Government, and on the 19 th of
December placed his resignation in the hands of the Governor-
General. The wisdom of Mr. Brown's course in leaving the Govern
ment when he did has been the subject of much controversy.
It is quite certain, from the reluctance with which he entered
a Ministry in which Mr. J. A. Macdonald was one of the
ruling spirits, that he anticipated dissension, and perhaps
intrigue. To weaken Mr. Brown's influence in the country
would be the surest passport to political power. To obtain
his retirement from the Government, should the reasons be
insufficient in public estimation, would be a great victory.
Mr. Brown was known to be of an impulsive temperament;
if, in a moment of irritation, he resigned, all the worse for
him. The suspicious attitude of his Conservative colleagues, and
particularly of Mr. John A. Macdonald, was somewhat inten
sified by Mr. Brown's refusal to serve under him as Premier,
on the death of Sir E. P. Tach^, and when Mr. Brown object
ed to Mr. Gait's negotiations with the authorities at Washing
ton, and hinted that those objections, unless removed, would
lead to his resignation, he effectually closed the door against
their removal, although Mr. Cartier and Mr. Campbell, who
were also members of the Government, were anxious he should
not retire.
No doubt the situation was a serious one to the country.

198 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Mr. Gait was proposing to enter into negotiations with the
United States for a Commercial Treaty, which, if adopted,
would be worse than futile. What was Mr. Brown's duty
under these circumstances? In the light of subsequent events,
it is quite clear that the United States Government would not
have passed a Treaty of any kind, and it seems equally clear
that the people of Canada would not have accepted a Treaty
on the conditions offered. At the time Mr. Brown resigned,
however, the Government was not absolutely committed to
any line of action. The report submitted to Council was not
approved until the 22nd day of December, three days after he
resigned. Why did he not remain and fight it out with his
colleagues ? Possibly Mr. Gait's recommendation could have
been modified in Council, or a compromise obtained, or the
question postponed. Evidently Mr. Brown had reached that
frame of mind in which he preferred to take the consequences
of retiring rather than the worry of continuing in office.
Unfortunately for Mr. Brown and the Liberal party, his
colleagues, Messrs. Howland and MacDougall, did not retire
with him. Probably, Mr. Howland felt that he was unwit
tingly the cause of Mr. Brown's annoyance. He was Mr.
Gait's companion at Washington, and had taken part with him
in the negotiations reported to the Council. To retire from
the Government under these circumstances, would be to plead
guilty to the charges made by Mr. Brown, and this could
hardly be expected. Their remaining in the Government
after Mr. Brown's retirement greatly weakened Mr. Brown's
position. By a solemn compact entered into with the Liberal
party, they were called to the Government to settle constitu
tional difficulties. Until their work was completed, they were
bound to remain at their posts. Having entered as a unit, at
the request of the party, the party should have been consulted
before any of them retired.

MR. BROWN RETIRES FROM THE COALITION. 199
Mr. Brown's great mistake was in not consulting the party
before retiring from the cabinet, as he did on entering the
cabinet, and the moment his Liberal colleagues from Upper
Canada showed the least aversion to follow his leadership, he
should have asked the authority of those who made him their
representative in the Government jointly with Messrs. How
land and MacDougall before withdrawing from the Govern
ment, or openly separating himself from his colleagues.
True, he left the Government with an assurance that he
would stand by Confederation. In his letter to Mr. Cartier,
dated December 19th, he said : " If you stick to the compact
you made with me when Sir Narcisse came into the Govern
ment, my being out of the Government will not change my
course in the slightest, and you will have my best aid in car
rying out the constitutional changes we were pledged to."
On the other hand, it may be said that the Conservative sec
tion of the coalition, in pressing a question on which there
was any probability of a division in the cabinet, did not keep
faith with the Liberals, and that on the announcement by Mr.
Brown that he could not accept Legislative Reciprocity the
question should have ended there. In this view, there is much
force. A coalition for a specific purpose has no meaning un
less it involves the abandonment of all other questions on
which there is a difference of opinion. Mr. Brown's views on
Reciprocity were well-known ; he had made the subject a
study for many years. That his colleagues should lay the
foundation for a new treaty, on terms of which it was evident
he could not approve, and do this practically without his
knowledge or consent, was, to say the least, a breach of faith
of the grossest character. Believing as he did, he had no
option but to retire from the Government if such a policy
were insisted upon. Had he called the representatives of the

200 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Liberal party, and in conjunction with his colleagues sub
mitted the difficulty of the situation to their judgment, it is
quite probable the political effect of his action would have
been quite different.
And here it may very properly be asked, should Mr. Browri's
colleagues have left the Government with him ? To that en
quiry there can be but one answer. If it appeared they were
not acting in harmony with the party they represented, they
should have placed their resignation in the hands of His Ex
cellency at once. Under ordinary circumstances, so long as a
Cabinet Minister satisfies the head of the Government, he is
under no obligation to anybody else to resign, on the theory
that the Premier is responsible for the conduct of his col
leagues. A Coalition Government is, however, the creature of
two parties, and may be said, in a certain sense, to have two
heads, each responsible to its own party for its associates. If
the head of one party retires, the leadership naturaUy falls to
the next in command. It is the duty, therefore, of the next
in command to see whether he has the confidence of the party
in discharging the duties from which his predecessor has re
tired. Should it appear that the withdrawal of his leadership
destroys that confidence, then the coalition is destroyed, and
he becomes identified with the party representing the majority
of the Government
This was precisely the position occupied by Messrs. How
land and MacDougall. The leader under whom they entered
the Government, and who was practically, though not theo
retically, their Premier, retired. They were authorized to act
in a certain capacity by the mandate of their party, and
although the mandate was not formally withdrawn until the
great Reform convention of 1867, it was quite evident that
they remained in the Government without the approval of the
Liberal party.

CHAPTER XV.
MR. MACKENZIE OFFERED A SEAT IN THE GOVERNMENT
Mr. MacDougi-iU's Trip to the Indies — Mr. Gait's Financial Policy — Constitu
tion of the Provinces — Retirement of Mr. Gait — Confidence Weakened in
the Coalition. iHE most conclusive evidence that can be furnished
of the position Mr. Mackenzie had taken in the
House, and of his standing in his own party, was
his being offered the seat in the Government va-
ffl"^ cated by Mr. Brown's retirement This offer was made
through Mr. Howland on behalf of his colleagues, and
was fully considered at a confidential meeting of Liberals held
in the town of Guelph, on the 25th of December, 1865. It
does not appear that Mr. Mackenzie •w^as at all anxious for
office, although he might well feel flattered to be chosen as the
successor in the Cabinet of the great Liberal leader. Notwith
standing Mr. Howland's explanations of the reasons for Mr.
Brown's retirement, Mr. Mackenzie felt the step which he
was asked to take was so important as to justify further en
quiry. He therefore reserved his decision until he had con
sulted his leader. On the 27th of December, 1865, having
seen Mr. Brown in the meantime, he addressed the following
letter to Mr. Howland : " Sabnia, December 27th, 1865.
" Hon. "W. p. Howland.
" Mt Dear Sik, — Since our meeting at Guelph, on the 25th inst., when
you were good enough to tender me a seat in the Cabinet, as President of
201

202 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
the Council, I have seen Mr. Brown, and have received from him a full
statement of the causes which led to his resignation. Tou will recollect
that I informed you of my desire to ascertain from himself how he regard
ed his present position. Mr. Brown at first declined giving me any infor
mation, on the ground that he was not authorized by His Excellency, the
Administrator, to do so, and that such information should first be com
municated to Parliament.
" On my informing him that I had already received from you a state
ment of the causes which led to his resignation, he consented to state
minutely the causes which led to his withdrawal from the Government.
Your statement of the reasons which you understood to actuate Mr. Brown
in resigning his position in the Administration — as far as it went — is sub
stantially the same as that given by Mr. Brown himself. I find, however,
that very much of what, in ray opinion, was essential to a proper under
standing of Mr. Brown's position was communicated at the meeting above
referred to. I understood you to say that the issue between Mr. Brown
and the other members of the Government was confined entirely to the
sanction of the minutes of Council relating to the adoption of the Reci
procity Treaty, a copy of which you read to me, although personal feelings
might have increased the dissatisfaction he felt, and which caused him to
resign. I also understood you to say that the Government of the United
States had formally intimated to the Canadian Government their final de
cision, that commercial treaties (aifecting the revenue) between the United
States and foreign countries are unconstitutional, and consequently that
any commercial arrangement between the British North American Pro
vinces and the United States must necessarily be provided by concurrent
legislation in the two countries. Assuming these statements to be per
fectly correct and full, I could see no sufficient reason for Mr. Brown
leaving the Government, or that my entering the Government as his suc
cessor, would be distasteful to the party to whom I would look for sup
port as a member of the Government, or be in any way wrong in itself.
I am now led to believe that the adoption of the minute of Council refer
red to was but the culminating act of a series of circumstances connected
with the pending negotiations against which Mr. Brown protested as im
proper and seriously prejudicial to our interests as a Province.
" Subsequent reflection also convinced me that there could hardly have
been any formal declaration from the Government of the United Staten

OFFERED A SEAT IN THE GOVERNMENT. 203
announcing that commercial treaties were unconstitutional, inasmuch as
that Government have very recently entered into treaties of a similar kind
with other nations. I do not, of course, doubt that this idea of Legislative
Reciprocity has been suggested from official quarters in the United States as
the proper course for the purpose of accomplishing an object, but I have
not heard anything which would lead me to believe that a treaty could
not be obtained, similar to the Treaty of 1854, had that suggestion been
firmly combated by the Canadian Government.
"As I stated at our interview, I regard this proposal of regulating our
commercial intercourse by reciprocal legislation as of little value compared
with a treaty extending over a term of years, and as calculated to keep
the minds of our people engaged in traffic with the United States in a
constant state of doubt and alarm.
" Under these circumstances, I feel that I could not defend the policy
set forth and adopted in the Minute of Council, or justify myself for ac
cepting office with the convictions I entertain. I must therefore decline
the offer of a seat in the Cabinet you offered for my acceptance, with the
concurrence of His Excellency the Administrator and your colleagues.
" I am, my dear sir,
" Yours faithfully, "A. Mackenzie."
Early in the following year the vacant seat was offered to
and accepted by Mr. Fergusson-Blair, and the three places in
the coalition Government held by Liberals were again filled.
In January, 1866, Messrs. Gait and Howland proceeded to
Washington to secure an extension of the Reciprocity Treaty
about to expire ; or, if an extension were not obtainable, to
secure such modifications as would prevent the anticipated in
jury to the trade of Canada. After six weeks spent at the
capital in close intercourse with the United States Govern
ment they returned to Canada without having accomphshed
the object of their mission.
Mr. MacDougall returned in May from his trip to the West
Indies and Brazil, and reported that these tropical countries

204 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
afforded many openings for the enlargement of Canadian com
merce. On the Sth of June, Parliament assembled for the first time
in the new buildings at Ottawa, and passed the Address in
reply to His Excellency's Speech, after a brief debate on
a motion by Mr. Dorion, seconded by Mr. Holton, protesting
against Confederation being agreed to by Parliament without
reference to the popular vote. The Ministerial explanations
with regard to Mr. Brown's retirement, which were anticipated
in the preceding chapter, were then given, and the House at
once settled down to the business of the session.
The Liberal party occupied a very embarrassing position.
Although Mr. Brown had retired from the Cabinet, he still
held his seat in Parliament, and his followers in the House
were sometimes obliged to choose between the policy which he
enunciated, and the policy of the Government in which three
Liberals stiU held office. But while he took strong ground
against the Government on the question of reciprocity, and
on its fiscal and banking policy, he never wavered in his
allegiance to the great scheme of Confederation. The oppo
sition, however, which he felt obliged to offer on much of
their policy, tended greatly to the disturbance of that entente
cordiale which should exist between the members of a party.
Messrs. Howland, MacDougall and Fergusson-Blair could not
help but feel that an attack upon the Government, of which
they were members, was an attack upon them, and naturally
enough those who approved of continuing the coalition, sym
pathised with the Liberal Ministers. The effect upon the
country was equally demoralizing. The Reform party ap
peared to be divided into two camps, and although their dif
ferences were overshadowed by their unanimity on the ques
tion of Confederation, these differences had, nevertheless, a

OFFERED A SEAT IN THE GOVERNMENT. 205
disintagrating effect, the result of which became afterwards
apparent in the general election of 1867. For instance, Mr.
Brown opposed with great force and vigor Mr. Gait's resolu
tions for revising the tariff and in the division which followed
carried many of the most active Liberals with him.
It was impossible for him, in denouncing the policy of the
Government, to refrain from striking blows which would not
be quickly forgotten. His attack on the tariff was peculiarly
disturbing, and called for a remonstrance on the part of Mr.
MacDougall, which clearly indicated that the breach between
the Liberal members inside the Government, and the party
outside the Government, was widening every day. Speaking
for himself and Mr. Howland, Mr. MacDougall said : " They had
made up their mind to stand their ground and defend their
position, no matter by whom attacked. They would fire gun
for gun, even although Mr. Brown had a powerful organ at
his disposal, which he could hold over the heads of men in
the Government and out of it, and coerce them to his views.
He believed it \yas the duty of the Liberals to relieve the
party and the country of the incubus, the terrorism and the
domination exercised by Mr. Brown, who was inserting a
wedge to split the Liberal party."
In the debate in which Mr. Gait's financial policy was so
fully criticised, Mr. Mackenzie took a leading part, protesting
then, as he did in 1878, against a tariff based upon protection
ideas, and pointing out the utter futility of such a tariff to aid
permanently the industries of the country. His reply to Mr.
MacDougall was pointed and vigorous, and elicited the hearty
applause of the Liberal members of the House. Hitherto,
though not a cordial ally of Mr. MacDougall, he had supported
him, as a representative of the Liberal party, in the Adminis
tration. It was evident, from this debate, that their attitude

206 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
towards each eather was fast undergoing a change ; and their
many encounters in parliament and on the public platform,
during the next fourteen years, showed how strongly Mr.
Mackenzie felt that Mr. MacDougall could not be trusted as an
exponent of Liberal principles.
Mr. Mackenzie insisted very strongly that Mr. MacDougall
and his Liberal allies in the Government had not kept faith
with the Liberal party. The Liberals were not consulted
with regard to the proposed change in the tariff. In re
arranging the representation of Upper Canada in the Legis
lative Assembly, new constituencies were formed without
the knowledge or consent of the Liberal party. " It would
have been an easy matter," Mr. Mackenzie said, "for Mr.
MacDougall and his colleagues to consult the Liberals on all
these points. He (MacDougall) was made a member of the
Government in the first instance at the request of the Liberal
party, and he should not presume to represent the Liberals
until he had ascertained their views. Many of the difficulties
and dissensions of the present session were owing to the appa
rent determination of the Liberal members of the Government
to act independently of the party."
The great measure of the session was the adoption by the
House of the provincial constitutions, which were afterwards
incorporated in the British North America Act. Resolu
tions providing for the local government and legislation of
Lower and Upper Canada were introduced by Mr. John A.
Macdonald on the 13th of July, and occupied the attention of
the House for a considerable portion of the remainder of
the session. Mr. Dorion, on behalf of Lower Canada, asked
for a Legislative Assembly with one Chamber, similar to that
proposed for Upper Canada, on the ground of economy and
simplicity. This proposition was negatived on a vote of 31

OFFERED A SEAT IN THE GOVERNMENT. 207
to 69. Mr. John Hillyard Cameron, seconded by Mr. Morris,
asked that the Legislature of Upper Canada should consist of
two Chambers, a Legislative Assembly and a Legislative
Council. This was negatived on a vote of 13 to 86. Mr.
Dorion then asked that the members of the Legislative Coun
cil from Lower Canada be elected by the people; this also
was refused by the House. The resolutions were finally
passed, and an humble address to Her Majesty with respect to
them agreed to on the 11th of August Thus the second step,
so far as Canada was concerned, was taken towards the great
scheme of Confederation.
By the Quebec resolutions, in favor of Confederation, what
ever legislation existed in each Province with regard to
education at the time of Confederation was declared to be
irrevocable, so far as the Local Legislatures were concerned.
There were two bills before the House with respect to separ
ate schools ; one in the hands of Mr. Langevin, Solicitor-Gen
eral East, and one in the hands of Mr. Bell, by which it was
proposed to extend to the Roman Catholic minority in Upper
Canada similar and equal privileges with those granted by the
Legislature to the Protestant minority in Lower Canada. Mr.
Gait supported Mr. Langevin's bill, although it was quite evi
dent that it was not acceptable to the majority of the Roman
Catholics in Lower Canada. In the same way, Mr. Bell's bill
respecting separate schools in Upper Canada was opposed by
every member of the Government from Upper Canada except
Mr. John A. Macdonald. Had these bills gone to a vote, both
would probably have passed, and, as stated by the Attorney-
General, " there would have been the unusual spectacle of a
bill affecting education in Upper Canada carried by a Lower
Canadian majority, and a similar Bill for Lower Canada car
ried against the will of the majority of that section." The

208 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Government having decided to abandon both bills, Mr. Gait
felt it to be his duty to resign. His place was filled by Mr.
Howland, as Minister of Finance.
Mr. Gait's retirement from the Government gave great
satisfaction to the Liberal party. Under him the debt of the
Province had largely increased. Deficits occurred with won
derful regularity, although the tariff had been several times
advanced. His attempt to foist Legislative Reciprocity on
the country, and to change our banking system, showed the
dangerous tendency of his legislation. With his retirement
from office it was expected many of those evils would be
corrected. On the 15th of August the House prorogued, and the last
session of Parliament, under the Act for the union of the two
Canadas, was brought to an end. During the twenty-five
years that passed since Upper and Lower Canada were united
under one Legislature, the country had been singularly pros
perous. Immigrants from the old world, some with consider
able means, others with little capital except a pair of strong
arms, had cleared the forests of Upper Canada, and had made
for themselves comfortable homes in spite of aU the difficulties
incident to new settlements. Although these immigrants
were of mixed nationalities and creeds, they were, in the
main, men and women of great physical vigor and force of
character. The ownership of the soil was to them an extra
ordinary privilege, and added greatly to their attachment
lo their country. The disabilities under which they labored
at home intensified their love of freedom, and with the right
which they possessed, for the first time, of making their own
laws, it was natural that they would resist the transfer to
or the continuation of such disabilities in the land of their
adoption. Under such circumstances, the enjoyment of the

OFFERED A SEAT IN THE GOVERNMENT. 209
fullest social and political liberty should have been the her
itage of every citizen of Canada. That it was not so may be
taken as an evidence of the strange perversity and maladroit
character of human nature. For instance, who would have
thought that the people of Canada, who had escaped from
a system of tithing and church rents in the old land, would
have loaded themselves down with exactions of a similar
character in their new home ?0r, who would, have thought
that to relieve the country of a state church, with its large
endowments and constantly increasing revenues, would have
necessitated years of agitation, and would have aroused reli
gious animosities which the lapse of thirty years have not
entirely abated ? What had Canada to do with a state church
and rectories and sectarian privileges such as the medisevalism
of England had sanctioned and approved ? And yet there
were many patriotic men who believed that only in this way
could religion be fostered and infidelity restrained even in
Canada. The claims for religious supremacy were, however, but the
counterpart of that political pretentiousness which Toryism
invariably asserts wherever it has the power. Within its
favored circle only is to be found, so it believes, the capacity
to govern and the right to rule. The more limited the area of
this right, the more dignified the men who exercise it, and the
more limited the privileges of the ruled, the more perfect the
administration of the rulers. Why should Roman Catholics
sit in Parliament ? said the Tories of Daniel O'Connell's time.
Why should the rotten boroughs be abolished ? said the Tories
of Lord John Russell's time. Why should the masses have free
bread? said the Tories of Robert" Peel's time. Why should
the franchise be extended to counties and to agricultural
laborers ? said the Tories of more recent date. Why should
N

210 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
the Irish Church be disestablished, or Ireland be permitted to
manage its own local affairs ? say the Tories of to-day. Mu
tatis 'mutandis, Canadian Liberals had to answer all these
questions ; and, although their answer was not recognized by
Parliament till after many a long struggle, it came at last,
marred in some instances by restrictions which weakened its
effect, but substantial enough to relieve, even where it did not
remove, the grievance complained of. The Family Compact
was a Tory institution so firmly intrenched in office as to be
removable only by rebellion. The control of Parliament by
placemen and officers of the Government was a Tory manoeu
vre as indefensible as it was mischievous. The opposition to
Upper Canada, in her demands for constitutional changes to
which she was entitled, was in keeping with the traditions of
Toryism from the beginning of the century.
The Liberalism, of which Mr. Mackenzie was such an able
exponent, was diametrically opposed to the Toryism of the day.
He wanted no placeman in Parliament, as he believed it im
possible for Parliament to be a correct exponent of the public
will so long as any of its members were dependent upon the
Executive. The great council of the nation was, to his mind,
a body invested with the gravest responsibilities, and that sen
sitiveness to the call of duty which should pertain to its
decisions, was utterly inconsistent with its organization on
any other than the most independent lines. He had seen too
much of the evils of the Family Compact in Canada, and of the
rotten borough system in the old country, to acquiesce quietly
in a Parliament where officials had the same standing as the
accredited representatives of the people.
Ecclesiastical influence in politics was equally repugnant to
his mind. The sacerdotalism which too often preferred the
fleece to the flock, inevitably followed the connection of church

'M ,.*

OFFERED A SEAT IN THE GOVERNMENT. 21)
and state, and the only way to preserve the one from domina
tion and the other from deterioration, was to insist upon their
absolute divorce. In this way only, he contended, would the
sovereignty of Parliament be impartially maintained, and un
less maintained in its integrity, representative institutions
would degenerate into an oligarchy; and a self-interested
majority would develop into a tyranny no less real than the
autocracy of the Stuart period.
It was this uncompromising character of his political con
victions that led him to oppose a coalition in every shape and
form, and, in later years, to resist commercial combinations,
which experience has shown to b^ as dangerous to our in
stitutions as the ecclesiastical or social privileges of thirty
years ago.

CHAPTER XVL

CONFEDERATION APPROVED BY THE HOUSE OP COMMONS.
Troubles in the Maritime Provinces — Delegation to England — Amendment to
the Quebec Resolutions — The Education Clause — Additional Subsidies to
Nova Scotia — The Royal Proclamation^The Father of Confederation-
Claims of Mr. Brown to this Honor.
T was already pointed out that New Brunswick, by
an overwhelming vote, defeated the party that es
poused Confederation, and that a change of Gov
ernment had taken place. A second appeal to the
people, a year later, resulted in the reversal of the
previous vote, and the acceptance of Confederation by
the people at the polls. In Nova Scotia, there had been no
appeal to the people. The Government stood manfully by the
Quebec resolutions and, with New Brunswick, sent a deputa
tion to London to confer with the Imperial authorities respect
ing the completion of the scheme. Prince Edward Island had
refused to take further part in the negotiations, largely owing
to the irresolute manner in which the delegates to Quebec
dealt with the question in their own Legislature. After some
delay, owing to the Fenian invasion in Canada, delegates from
the four Provinces finally met in London, at the Westminster
Palace hotel, on the 4th of December, to prepare draft bills for
submission to the Imperial Parliament, which was then about
to assemble. The delegates were : From Canada, Messrs. Mac
donald (John A.), Cartier, Gait, Howland, MacDougall, and
Langevin ; from Nova Scotia, Messrs. Tupper, Henry, Archi-
212

CONFEDERA TION A PPRO VED. 213
bald, McCuUy, and Ritchie ; from New Brunswick, Messrs,
Tilley, Fisher, Mitchell, Johnson and Wilmot
It is not our purpose to discuss the necessarily limited au
thority which these delegates possessed in finally dealing with
the Quebec resolutions. They were sent to London not to
legislate, but to advise the Imperial Government with regard
to the provisions of an Act based upon the Quebec reso
lutions. Although devoid of legislative power, they were not
free, however, from responsibility neither were they beyond
the pale of censure by their respective Provinces, provided the
conclusions they reached were ill-advised. Of course, no one
would object to any alteration in the Quebec resolutions that
was immaterial in its effects, or that did not disturb the pohti
cal or financial equipoise of the Constitution as accepted by
the Provinces through their respective Legislatures, and though
the final responsibility for legislation rested with the House of
" Commons, they, -equally with the Imperial Parliament, may
justly be held responsible for every clause in the British North
America Act " '
Only two' amendments of the Quebec resolntions gave rise
afterwards to discussion : First, the provisions of the forty-
third resolution respecting 'education, affecting the rights and
privileges of the Protestant and Catholic minorities in the two
Canadas, were extended ' to the minorities in any Province
having rights or privileges by law as to denominational
schools, ' at ' the time when the Union- went into operation.
An additional provision was made, allowing an appeab to the
Governor-General in Council against any acts or decisions of
the local authorities which may affect the rights - or privileges
of the Protestant or Catholic minority' in the maitter of educa
tion. The second amendment, which gave rise to mu<!;h discus-

214 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
sion, was the " better terms " granted to Nova Scotia and
New Brunswick. By the original resolutions, each Province
was to be allowed an annual grant of eighty cents per head
of the population, according to the census of 1861. By the
terms agreed upon at London, a subsidy, in addition to the per
capita allowance, was to be paid to the different Provinces as
follows : Upper Canada, $80,000 ; Lower Canada, $70,000 ;
Nova Scotia, $60,000 ; New Brunswick, $50,000 ; and the capi
tation subsidy was extended, in the last two mentioned Pro
vinces, until the population reached 400,000. A bill based
upon the Quebec resolutions, thus amended, was finally sub
mitted to the Imperial Parliament, and passed on the 29th of
March, 1867. The Royal Proclamation, declaring that the Act
should come into force on the first of July, 1867, was issued at
Windsor on the 22nd of May.
Now that Confederation had become a substantial fact, it is
worth while to enquire through whose instrumentality was it
specially brought about. Who was the real father of Con
federation ? There seems to be no doubt that George Wash
ington was the founder of the United States; that Prince
Bismarck secured the unification of Germany ; that Count
Cavour re-organized the kingdom of Italy ; that William the
Third gave a new meaning to Responsible Government in
England. But who is the father of Confederation ? is a ques
tion stUl in dispute. With one accord, the Conservative party
claim this honor for Sir John A. Macdonald. This claim is
disputed by the Liberals, and for good reasons.
At no period in the history of Canada, prior to the coalition
of 1864, does it appear that Sir John A. Macdonald favored
the Federal principle. He intrigued against the Brown-
Dorion Administration of 1858, which had pledged itself to
the settiement of the constitutional difficulties between Upper

CONFEDERATION APPROVED. 215
and Lower Canada on the basis of Representation by Popula
tion. He ridiculed the conclusions arrived at by the Reform
Convention of 1859, where a federation of the two Canadas
on the principle of a joint authority over matters common to
the two Provinces was suggested. Speaking of the joint au
thority at London, Mr. Macdonald said : " If we ask ourselves
what this joint authority is, we shall see how crude the idea
is. Is it a legislature, or is it a bench of bishops ? If it means
anything, it means that Canada is to be divided into two, that
there are to be two separate legislatures with a central power.
. . . . To such a consummation I am altogether opposed."
On the question of Representation by Population, he said in
the Legislative Assembly, on the 19th of April, 1861, " to
adopt the measure would be to take a retrograde step." And
he argued at very great length against the bill introduced by
Mr. Ferguson, of South Simcoe, in favor of Representation
by Population. On the 1st of April, 1862, he voted against a
resolution moved by Mr. MacDougall, in which a protest was
made against the inequality in the representation between
Upper and Lower Canada. On the 29th of August, 1863, he
repeated the vote of the previous year. But more important
than any of these was the motion introduced by Mr. Brown,
on the 14th of March, 1864, for the appointment of a select
committee of twenty members to enquire into and report upon
the constitutional difficulties between Upper and Lower Can
ada. Even this motion, Mr. Macdonald resisted, and when on
the 14th of June the committee reported that a strong feeling
was found to exist among the members of the committee in
favor of changes in the direction of a federative system, ap
plied either to Canada alone or to the whole British North
American Provinces, and recommended that the subject be
ai?ain referred to a committee at the next session of Parlia-

216 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
ment, Mr. Macdonald voted with two others against the find
ing of the committee.
Here we have the first expression of opinion in favor of
Confederation, which met with the approval of a majority of
the Assembly, and which became, a week later, the basis of
the Coalition Government of which Mr. Brown was a mem
ber. To this we are indebted for Confederation. We have
no desire to underrate Sir John A. Macdonald's usefulness in
framing the constitution and in enlisting the sympathies of
the Conservative party in its favor. But Sir John A. Macdon
ald never was a Federationist It was the sharp shock of a
defeat in the House, revealing to him the fact that his pohtical
existence depended upon the acceptance of such a scheme,
that changed his views on Federation. Besides, the conditions
on which the coalition was formed were determined by Mr.
Brown, not by Mr. Macdonald, and Sir John was an assenting
party, we need not say from love of office or from any sordid
motive. It is sufficient for the argument that the terms of
the coalition were acquiesced in by him, not originated by him.
It has been contended that because Mr. Brown left the
coalition before Federation was actually completed, that he
has forfeited all his claims to the distinction of being its
originator. Such an objection is absurd. The resolutions
subsequently embodied in the British North America Act were
approved by the Quebec Conference, of which Mr. Brown was
the leading member. They were carried through the Legisla
tive Assembly of Canada while he was still President of the
Council. From his resignation on the 18th of December,
1865, till the Royal Proclamation was issued in May, 1867,
which announced the birth of the Dominion, Mr. Brown never
wavered in his loyalty to Confederation. His retirement
from the Government, though ill-advised as a political move

CONFEDERATION APPROVED. 217
could not imperil a scheme which had been advanced as far as
the Canadian Parliament had power to advance it. To the
man then who first sounded the bugle-call by which the best
men of Canada and afterwards of the Maritime Provinces
were summoned to lay aside their political animosities and
unite together for the present and future prosperity of British
North America, must be awarded the first place in the hearts
of his countrymen as the founder of a new nation, and the
records of Parliament show that that man was the Hon. Geo.
Brown, the leader of the Liberal party.

CHAPTER XVIL

THE NEW DOMINION.
formation of the First Government — Another Coalition — Great Reform Con
vention in Toronto — MacDougall's and Howland's Defence — Speech by Mr.
Mackenzie — Position of the Liberal Party — Mr. Mackenzie's Campaign in
Lambton — Contests with Mr. MacDougall — Results of the Election.
ftllfMONG some of the changes brought about by Con
federation may be mentioned the new nomenclature,
both political and geographical, which now marks its
history. Upper and Lower Canada have disappeared
STv from the map, their places being taken by Ontario and
Quebec. The Dominion of Canada takes the place of British
North America, and the Act of Confederation takes the place
of the Union Act. The national horizon was certainly widened ;
the political horizon, unfortunately, was still very largely
provincial. With the inauguration of the new Dominion came the for
mation of a new Government. Lord Monck, who was sworn
in as Governor-General of the Dominion of Canada, called upon
Sir John A. Macdonald, now knighted in recognition of his
services in connection with Confederation, to form a new
Government. He was accordingly sworn in as Premier, his
colleagues from Ontario being Messrs. Blair, Howland, Mac
Dougall and Campbell; from Quebec, Messrs. Cartier, Gait,
Ghapais and Langevin ; from New Brunswick, Messrs. Tilley
218

TIIE NEW DOMINION. 219
and Mitchell; from Nova Scotia,' Messrs. Archibald and
Kenny. ,
In organizing his Government, Sir John Macdonald evi
dently desired that each of the four Provinces of the Dom
inion should be represented ; and no doubt, in the interests of
Confederation, this was necessary. That he was under the
necessity of regarding provincial boundaries is unfortunate ;
and that his successors, for a quarter of a century now, have
been unable to form a Government on the merits irrespective
of provincial boundaries, is still more unfortunate. That per
fect unity of sentiment, which Confederation originally con
templated, and which, it is fondly hoped, it will yet accom
plish, can never be attained until it is practicable to form a
Cabinet irrespective of provincial boundaries.
It is also evident that Sir John Macdonald had determined
to ignore the party lines which formerly prevailed in Upper
and Lower Canada, and to constitute a Government that could
appeal to the people irrespective of the party issues of the past-
To use his own words : " I do not want it to be felt by any
section of the country that they have no representative in
the Cabinet, and no influence in the Government. And as
there are now no issues to divide parties, and as all that is
required is to have in the Government the men who are best
adapted to put the new machinery in motion, I desire to ask
those to join me who have the confidence and represent the
majorities in the various sections, who were in favor of the
adoption of this system of government, and who wish to see
it satisfactorily carried out"
Accordingly, both political parties, as heretofore known,
were equally represented in the Government ; so that, if its
composition be regarded from the standpoint of ante-Confed
eration times it was, strictly speaking, a coahtion. Sir John

220 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Macdonald insisted, however, that as the old order of things
had passed away and with it old party lines, his Government
had no political significance whatsoever. It was a " No Party "
Government, whose primary object was to put into operation
the British North America Act, and was therefore entitled to a
" fair trial."
To this view the Liberal party objected, claiming that the
Government was a coalition ; that coalitions were essentially
dangerous, except when formed for a specific purpose, and to
solve difficult political problems ; that there was no political
problem now requiring solution, and to announce the dissolu
tion of partyism was merely a pretext for claiming support to
which he was not entitled. It was also urged that the Liberals
who went into the coalition of 1864, having accomplished the
purpose for which they had entered the Government, should
now retire, and that to hold office any longer was an act of
treason to the Liberal party.
To these views, Mr. Brown, Mr. Mackenzie and the Liberal
party generally, committed themselves very strongly, not only
during the last session of the old Parliament of Canada,
but more particularly during the months preceding the general
election of 1867 ; and when it was known that Messrs. How
land and MacDougall had decided to accept positions in the new
Government with Sir John Macdonald as Premier, the indig
nation of the Liberals of Ontario was most intense.
With the view to organize the party in the Province, and to
obtain an expression of opinion, which it was thought would
furnish the key-note to the pending elections, a Convention
was held in Toronto, on the 27th of June, at which over six
hundred delegates from all parts of Ontario were present
This convention was described by the Globe as " magnificent
in number, in influence and in enthusiasm."

THE NEW DOMINION. 221
The Convention was organized by the appointment of Mr.
Wm. Patrick, of Prescott, chairman, and after the appoint
ment of committees of different kinds, the delegates present
proceeded to the consideration of various resolutions bearing
upon the issues before the country. The first four resolutions
referred to the efforts of the Liberal party to reform political
abuses, and particularly to secure to Upper Canada its full
share in the government of the country. The fifth resolution
embodied the views of the Liberal party on coalitions, in these :
words : ." Resolved — That coalitions of opposing political parties,
for ordinary administrative purposes, inevitably result in
the abandonment of principle by one or both parties to the
compact, the lowering of public morality, lavish public ex
penditure and wide-spread corruption. That the coalition of
1864 could only be justified on the ground of imperious
necessity, as the only available mode of obtaining just re
presentation for the people of Upper Canada, and on the
grounds that the compact then made was for a specific
measure and for a stipulated period, and was to come to an
end so soon as the measure was attained. And while this
Convention is thoroughly satisfied that the Reform party has
acted in the best interests of the country by sustaining the
Government until the Confederation measure was secured,
it deems it an imperative duty to declare that the temporary
alliance between the Reform and Conservative parties should
now cease, and that no Government will be satisfactory to
the people of Upper Canada which is formed and maintained
by a coalition of public men holding opposite political prin
ciples." While this resolution was before the Convention, the chair
man announced that Messrs. Howland and MacDougall, who
were present by invitation, were prepared to address the dele-

222 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
gates. Mr. Howland was first called upon, and in the course
of a carefully prepared address admitted " that the object for
which the coalition of 1864 had been formed was effected,
that the conditions on which it was entered into had been
fulfilled, and that the compact came to an end on the first day
of July, 1867." But he contended " that in the interests of
Confederation it would be impossible for him to decline a seat
in the new Government ; particularly as Sir John Macdonald
had declared that the Government which he proposed to form
was one in which party lines would be entirely ignored." Mr.
MacDougall took strong grounds against the resolution, declar
ing himself willing to be bound by the judgment of the
majority at the polls and in no other way. He blamed Mr.
Brown for leaving the coalition of 1864 before Confederation
was completed, and claimed that he had the support of the
Liberal party, in refusing to leave the Government as Mr.
Brown did. In taking a portfolio in the new Government, he
believed he was acting in the interests of the Liberal party,
and that he would be sustained in his action by the Govern
ment. The work which the coalition of 1864 had undertaken
was not yet completed, as other Provinces would be added to
the Dominion, if public affairs were properly managed. He
claimed for the Government the support of all parties, irre
spective of politics ; as it would be unfair to condemn them
until it was seen whether they were true to the new constitu
tion or not.
Mr. MacDougall's address, although an able defence of his
actions, evidently did not meet the views of the Convention,
as the scathing criticism to which it was subjected by Mr.
Brown and Mr. Mackenzie clearly indicated. Mr. Mackenzie
was particularly severe on Mr. MacDougall and ridiculed him
for his fondness for a seat on tlie Treasury benches. He

THE NEW DOMINION. 22S
dissented entirely from Mr. MacDougall's views with regard to
the coalition of which he was now a member, claiming that
old party issues could not be entirely ignored, and that any
Government of which Sir John Macdonald was Premier was a
Tory Government and could not be trusted, and in ringing
terms he asked : " What had been the policy of the Tory party
in this Province ? Had it not been the constart struggle of
the Reform party with the Tories, to fight against their en
croachments on the rights and privileges of the people ? The
policy of the Tories or the Conservatives had been what their
name indicated,^to conserve and preserve all old abuses, — a
policy of restriction and ecclesiastical despotism, which they
would have fastened on us, if they had had the power. The
policy of Reformers, on the other hand, had been to secure
that every man should stand upon perfectly equal terms in
the eye of the law ; that no church or other institution should
receive special privileges from the State. The Conservative
policy was here what it was in England, a restrictive one —
one that cramped the energies of the people. It was the same
policy as that which resisted the repeal of the penal laws
against Roman Catholicism in Great Britain ; which enacted
corn laws to tax the bread of the people ; the policy which
would build up and perpetuate a State Establishment. This
policy had been imported here and we had had the most
deliberate, persistent, and systematic attempts made to en
graft on our system the abuses against which the Liberals of
Great Britain had fought for centuries."
In the course of a speech extending over an hour, he re
viewed the history of the coalition of 1864 and the object for
which it was formed, dissenting in toto from Mr. MacDougall's
views as to the necessity or propriety of its continued existence.
When he declared that Mr. MacDougall was no longer a Liberal

224 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
but a subordinate member of Sir John Macdonald's Govern
ment, he was applauded to the echo. It was quite evident
that next to that of George Brown himself, Mr. Mac
kenzie's speech expressed most aptly the sentiments of the
Convention, as shortly after, when the vote was taken, only
three persons declared themselves opposed to the resolution.
And here it may be profitable to pause in order rightly to
understand the position of the Liberal party at the first gen
eral election under Confederation. It has already been shown
that the greatest political power in the Province of Ontario
was the Hon. George Brown. It was at his instance that the
Reform Convention of 1859 was called and Representation by
Population made the pohtical watchword of the Liberal
party. It was by him also that the Liberals of Ontario were
induced to support Mr. Sandfield Macdonald's Administration
from 1862 till 1863 in order to the removal of political abuses,
by wliich it was thought the way would be prepared for
larger measures of- reform. The personal sacrifices he made
in 1864 and 1865 to bring about Confederation had greatly
strengthened him in public estimation, and at the time he left
the coalition, in December, 1865, he had, beyond doubt, the
undivided confidence of the Liberal party.
His retirement, however, from the Government, or, as Mr.
MacDougall put it, " his desertion of the ship in mid-ocean and
taking to the jolly-boat," greatly weakened his position.
Partly as a result of his own teaching, and partly as a relief
from existing grievances. Confederation was regarded by the
people of Ontario as the consummation of their most sanguine
expectations respecting the future of Canada; and even so
great a leader as Mr. Brown was unable to satisfy his party
fully that his retirement was necessary. Even if Sir John
Macdonald was the embodiment of duplicity and political

THE NEW DOMINION. 225
villainy, which he was represented to be, he was neverthe
less loyal to Confederation ; and although unable to retain his
alliance with Mr. Brown, he was still able to retain his alK-
ance with Mr. Brown's colleagues in the coahtion of 1864.
The appeal, therefore, which the Liberal party made to the
country, was, to a certain extent, a personal one. It was
Brown against MacDougall, Howland and Blair, or, to put it in
other words, it was Mr. Brown and party government against
Sir John Macdonald and a coahtion in which it was said
there were at least six Liberals.
There was still another difficulty. The enlargement of the
political arena by the union of the four provinces, naturally
obscured old party lines. To say that Sir John Macdonald,
the Premier of Canada, at the head of a government, in
which his own party had barely a majority, was as much to
be dreaded as Sir John Macdonald at the head of a Tory
Government, with Tory colleagues, did not appear reasonable.
Then, there was the further conviction that as both political
parties had coalesced for the purpose of accomplishing Con
federation, it was not, to say the least of it, unreasonable that
the coahtion should be continued until Confederation was
fairly launched. " What right," it was asked, " had one party
more than the other to assume the reins of office, and to
say that under it a new nation was to be organized ? Had
George Brown remained in the Government, and had Sir
John Macdonald been preferred to him as the first Prem
ier, he might have good ground for complaint. As it was, he
should have acquiesced in the action of his friends who had
remained in the Goyemment"
No doubt. Sir John Macdonald's appeal for the confidence
of both parties was one of those adroit moves for the reten
tion of office so characteristic of the honorable gentleman. A

226 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
purely Tory Government would certainly have been defeated
in the general election of 1867. The appeal for a " fair trial "
on the ground that party issues had been obliterated, that we
were beginning Confederation, as Mr. MacDougall said, with a
tabula rasa — a clean slate — was very insidious. It enlisted
the support of the Tory party through Sir John Macdonald's
personality as a leader, and it enlisted the support of many
Reformers, not so much because of the Liberals in his Govern
ment, but because of their anxiety not in the slightest degree
to endanger Confederation.
The position in which the Liberals as a party found them
selves in 1867 was most unfortunate, and the more it is ex
amined, the more clearly does the soundness of Mr. Macken
zie's advice in 1864 appear. Had they refused to coalesce
with Sir John Macdonald, and had they given his Govern
ment, as Mr. Mackenzie advised, an outside support, simply,
they would have avoided those entangling alliances, which
resulted in Mr. Brown's retirement from the Government in
1865, and also that division of opinion in their ranks caused
by the action of Messrs. Howland and MacDougall.
Had Sir John Macdonald only acted -with the independence
and frankness of a British statesman, he would have said to
the Governor-General in 1864, when defeated in the House :
I am opposed to the union of the Provinces. I have lost
control of the House. Here is my resignation. Send for Mr.
Brown to form a new Government.
This vantage ground was, however, lost, in spite of Mr.
Mackenzie's advice to the contrary. And when the elections
of 1867 came on, there was only one of two courses open to
the Liberal party — either to oppose the Government out and
out, or to go to the elections without any distinctive political

THE NEW DOMINION. 221
cry, leaving to the future the reorganization of the party, on
such issues as might arise in the natural course of events.
To a man of Mr. Mackenzie's temperament, the conduct of
Messrs. MacDougall and Howland was most objectionable, and
sooner than appear to approve of their course, he took issue
with them boldly on party grounds.
In his address to the electors of Lambton, in the general
election of 1867, he said : " I reluctantly agreed that the two
great political parties should form a Government to carry the
Confederation measure, with the express understanding that
the passage of the bill should witness the termination of the
coalition and that no party measures likely to divide us should
in the meantime be introduced. The members of that Gov
ernment not only violated the latter part of the agreement
by the introduction of their financial scheme and their tariff
arrangements during last session, but they seek to perpetuate
a coalition for no other purpose than the retention of office.
"Under such a coalition we shall be compelled to witness ex
travagance in all our departments, the most unblushing cor
ruption in Parliament, and a low state of public morality in
high places, which must be communicated more or less to all
classes. I shall therefore endeavor, if elected, to prevent the
continued existence of a Government so constituted. Mac
donald and Cartier were the leading spirits of the former
corrupt coalition Government ; they are masters of the present
one, and we must expect a repetition of former evil practices.
The accession to the Tory ranks of MacDougall and Howland
does not change the prospects ; as men who would com
mit such an act of treachery to their own friends are not
likely to stand in the way of their leaders in other mat
ters." This was practically the key-note of the campaign. The

228 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Liberals were called upon to oppose the Government because
it was a coalition, on the ground that coalitions were danger
ous; that this coalition was founded on treachery to the
Liberal party; that its ruling spirits were Tories, in whom
they could have no confidence, and that their continua
tion in office could only result in irfjury to the country. On
this platform Mr. Mackenzie made a successful appeal to
his old constituents in Lambton for support. His stand
ing in Parliament, his extraordinary ability as a debater, the
great confidence with which his judgment was regarded in all
political matters, gave him a tremendous advantage over his
opponents. Mr. MacDougall, who had received such a cas-
tigation at his hands, at the great Convention, endeavored to
turn the tide of public opinion against him by holding meet
ings in his constituency ; but to no purpose. Mr. Mackenzie's
position was impregnable, and the splendid courage with which
he defended it added greatly to his reputation. He was then,
physically and mentally, at his zenith, and the enthusiasm
which he evoked made the campaign of 1867 one long to be
remembered by the electors of Lambton.
The forensic qualities of the two great rivals for public favor
are worthy of a moment's notice. Mr. MacDougall was a man
of good presence, large physique, with a pleasant voice and
easy manner. His style was calm and ordinarily judicial;
his language well chosen, pointed and clear. He was, how
ever, wanting in personal magnetism, in humor, and in that
enthusiasm so essential in popular debate. He was well in
formed — few men better — in the political history of the times ;
had a long experience as a journalist, and had shown consider
able aptitude for public affairs. For many years he was in
the first ranks of parliamentary debaters, and his position in ,
the Government naturally added weight to his utterances. As

THE NEW DOMINION. 229
to his ability, there can be no doubt. He was a man far above
the average in natural endowment, who, by his long experi
ence on the platform, had acquired a literary finish quite per
ceptible in all his speeches ; and when he appeared in Lamb
ton to oppose Mr. Mackenzie, there was exultation in the Tory
camp from one end of Canada to the other.
All these qualities, however, availed nothing ; for -what Mr.
Mackenzie may have wanted in the easy rhythm of his sen
tences, he more than made up by the use of incisive Saxon,
which went directly to the convictions of the people. He ar
raigned Mr. MacDougall for the desertion of his party, for his
fondness for office, for his alliance with Sir John Macdonald,
for his disloyalty to his leader, Mr. Brown, for his support of
Mr. Gait's financial blundering, for his insincerity in the
advocacy of Liberal principles, and, by quotations from his
former speeches, and from his editorials, completely destroyed
the force of his attack. Mr. MacDougall's appeal for the loyal
support of the Liberals, inasmuch as he was still a Liberal,
was met by the statement "that loyalty to a party should not
require us to bow down to its man-servant, its maid-servant,
its ox, or its ass." His appeal for a fair trial for the new Gov
ernment was met by the statement that a Government founded
on treachery was not entitled to a moment's trial. It was
self-condemned in its organization. To all of Mr. MacDougall's
arguments, Mr. Mackenzie made answer in terms so conclusive,
in language so clear, and in a manner so transparently honest,
as to completely overwhelm his opponents. No Benjamite
ever used the sling- and stone with better effect than Mr. Mac-
kenzie. There was no circumlocution in his argument. Every
word had its place. His voice was clear and penetrating, and
his quaint humor, sometimes strengthened by an apt anecdote,
made him a dreaded antagonist.

230 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Mr. MacDougall's defeat on the platform simply meant Mr.
Mackenzie's election for Lambton. The principal athlete of
the coalition party had grappled with him in the presence of
friends and foes and had been worsted. It was only six years
since he laid aside the mallet and the chisel for political life,
and already his enemies flee before him. His majority of
688 over his opponent, Mr. Vidal, shows how completely he
had won the confidence of his constituents.
The dual character of the general election of 1867 added
very much to the obliteration of party lines. Mr. Sandfield
Macdonald, who was chosen Premier for Ontario, and who had
organized his Government on the coalition principle, united
his influence with the Liberal supporters of the Dominion
Government for the purpose of carrying the country. As a
Liberal, he had less claim upon the party than either Mr.
Howland or Mr. MacDougall ; for he had steadily opposed the
wishes of Ontario both in power and out of it. His support
of Mr. Scott's Separate School Bill, however, which was passed
in 1863, during his Premiership, won for him the confidence
of many Roman Catholics ; while the simple fact that he was
chosen by Sir John Macdonald as first Premier of Ontario, and
had called to his Government such well known Tories as Mr.
M. C. Cameron and Mr. John Carling, secured for him the con
fidence of the Conservative party. '
There was no circumstance in connection with the whole
campaign that so greatly annoyed the Liberals as the ap
pointment of Mr. Sandfield Macdonald Premier, and the for
mation of a coalition Government, under him. Ontario had
for many years supported the Liberal party. To foist upon
the Dominion the coalition Government, was bad enough, but
to ask the Liberal party to support a coalition in Ontario, was
intolerable.

THE NEW DOMINION. 231
After a campaign extending almost into autumn, the feeling
of the country with regard to the new Government was ascer
tained. Nova Scotia, led by the Hon. Joseph Howe, returned
only one supporter of the administration — Dr. Tupper. In
New Brunswick, twelve seats out of the fifteen were won by
the administration. In Quebec, only twelve anti-coalition
ists were returned ; and in Ontario the Government's majority
was unexpectedly large. The defeat of Mr. Archibald, Secre
tary of State, and Mr. Chapais, Minister of Agriculture, was
but a trifling compensation for the losses suffered by the
Liberal party. Mr. Brown, who could have had an easy seat,
was pitted against Mr. Gibbs, of South Ontario, and as a
result of his defeat practically retired from active political
service. In the local elections, the results were somewhat similar.
Nova Scotia returned thirty-six anti-unionists to a House
composed of thirty-eight members. New Brunswick sup
ported the Government in the local election as well as in the
Dominion election, and so did Ontario and Quebec. The rep
resentation of the people in their different Parliaments was
now completed, and the new constitution adopted by the
country was soon to have a trial

CHAPTER XVIIL

MEETING OF THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF CANADA.
Mr. Joseph Howe and Confederation — The North-West Territories — Intercol
onial Railway — Retirement of Mr. Gait — The Country to be Fortified —
Assassination of Mr. McGee — Conservative Tendencies of the Government.
[^^ Y the sovereign voice of the people of Canada ex
pressed at the polls. Confederation was at length
ratified, and the advent of a new nation, with a
SI population of about four millions, was inaugurated.
In one instance only was the voice of the agitator
stronger than the demand for a larger national life.
What was expected from the representatives of the people,
and what was to be the spirit with which Parliament should
address itself to the new problems necessarily arising under
the British North America Act, were well expressed by the
late W. A. Foster in an address on " Our New Nationality,"
published in 1871 : " Let but our statesmen do their duty,
with the consciousness that all the elements which constitute
greatness are now awaiting a closer combination ; that all
the requirements of a higher national life are here available
for use ; that nations do not spring, Minerva-like, into exist
ence ; that strength and weakness are relative terms, a few
not being necessarily weak because they are few, nor a mul
titude necessarily strong because they are many; that hes
itating, doubting, fearing, whining over supposed or even
actual weakness, and conjuring up possible dangers, is not
232

MEETING OF THE FIRST PARLIAMENT. 233
the true way to strengthen the foundations of our Domin
ion, or to give confidence to its •continuance. Let each of
us have faith in the rest, and cultivate a broad feeling of
regard for mutual welfare, as being those who are build
ing up a fabric that is destined to endure. Thus stimu
lated and thus strengthened by a common belief in a glori
ous future, and with a common watchword to give unity to
thought and power to endeavor, we shall attain the fruition
of our cherished hopes, and give our beloved country a
proud position among the nations of the earth."
It would be strange, indeed, if the men composing the
first Parliament of Canada were not deeply impressed with
the responsibilities resting upon them. Many of them had
served their country in other Assemblies, and had consider
able experience of the bitterness and hate of sectional strife.
To them, the higher plane of Dominion politics and the wider
arena on which they had entered must have been a great
relief. To others, who saw in Confederation the fruition of
many years of labor and anxiety, the first Parliament must
have been like his arrival in port to the storm-tossed mariner
after months of weary struggle with wind and wave.
Parliament was opened on the 6th of November — Mr. Jas.
Cockburn, Speaker. His Excellency, after congratulating the
members present on the position they occcupied as represent
ing a new Dominion, pointed out some of the duties devolving
upon them under the British North America Act, such as the
assimilation of the laws relating to currency, customs, excise,
the postal service, militia service, Indian affairs, the criminal
law, etc.
While the address was under discussion, Mr. Joseph Howe
made a fierce onslaught upon Confederation, declaring his
belief that it would be a failure, that Nova Scotia would

234 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
never consent to it, and that the Imperial Parliament took
very little interest in Canadian affairs, one way or the other.
Several members of the House undertook to reply to Mr.
Howe, among others. Dr. Tupper. But of all the speeches
delivered, there was none couched in such friendly terms, or
none which shewed as broad a statesmanship, as the speech
delivered by Mr. M-ackenzie. Among other things, he said :
" He felt that it devolved particularly on the people of Ontario
to act the part of hosts towards her Lower Province brethren,
and to extend to them that just consideration which was
most likely to cement their future relations, and to produce
that spirit of harmony which ought to prevail among them,
if they were to live together and prosper as a nation."
Evidently Mr. Mackenzie felt from the outset that Mr.
Howe, who had fought for Responsible Government, had some
ground for complaint because the Quebec Resolutions, on
which Confederation was founded, were not submitted to the
people, and as an ardent supporter of the Confederation Act,
he was most anxious to see it accepted by the people of Nova
Scotia. Two questions of unusual magnitude and importance en
gaged the attention of the first Canadian Parliament. One
was the acquisition of the North-West Territories, and the
other the construction of the Intercolonial Railroad. With
regard to the former, almost every obstacle in the way had
been removed before Mr. Brown retired from the Government
in 1865. There remained now but the settlement of details,
requiring ordinary business attention. A Confederation that
did not embrace the Territories lying to the west of us would
be a poor representative of the British empire on this contin
ent, and would afford a very limited area for the development
of the latent powers of the people. Any person aspiring to

MEETING OF THE FIRST PARLIAMENT. 235

/i^..iAAyQ^ IX JUiAA /i^V

(Facsimile of Hon. Geo. Brown's hand- writing.)

236 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
statesmanship certainly misunderstood his mission if he hesi
tated for one moment in endeavoring to extend our Canadian
empire westward.
Mr. MacDougall, who was concerned in the original negotia
tions for the acquisition by Canada of the North-West
Territories, introduced the resolutions on which it was pro
posed to form a bill for the consideration of Parliament
With the exception of the objections taken by Mr. Howe and
some others not in full sympathy with Confederation, the
resolutions met with universal favor. Speaking of these reso
lutions, Mr. Mackenzie said that " in his opinion, it was neces
sary for the consolidation of British power on this continent,
that we should take a firm hold of the vast country that lay
to the west of Canada. He had an aversion to the Republi
can institutions of the people living alongside of us, and he
had no wish to see this country absorbed by the United
States. He was aware of the grasping, avaricious spirit
that prevailed in the United States, in regard to the acquisi
tion of territory, and he had no doubt many people there
were anxious to lay their hands on the rich and fertile
regions of the North-West. He looked upon the acquisition
of this territory as a necessary outlet for the energies of our
young men, who were now compelled, in consequence of the
limited field for settlement offered in Canada, to seek homes
for themselves in the United States. He believed that a
large portion of the territory would open a wide field for
settlement to emigrants, and become a valuable addition to
the territorial possessions of the Province. He demanded,
however, that before the House was committed to the details
of the scheme. Parliament should be consulted." This was
agreed to by Mr. MacDougall. The bill was finally passed, and
the Government authorized to continue negotiations by which

MEETING OF THE FIRST PARLIAMENT.

237

all the territory between Ontario and British Columbia—
an empire in itself — was placed under the control of the
Dominion. The other great measure, relating to the Intercolonial Rail
way, was part of the original compact entered into between
the Provinces, when the Quebec resolutions were agreed upon.
The only difference between the Opposition and the Govern
ment was with respect to the authority of Parliament in
determining the route of the railway, the Opposition holding
by the sovereignty of Parliament in all such matters, as
against the claim made by the Government to determine the
route without reference to Parliament. Unfortunately, the
Government policy prevailed, and a circuitous route, of com
paratively little value for commercial purposes, was adopted.
It was evidently the policy of the Government to conciliate
Quebec at the expense of the whole Dominion ; otherwise, a
route much shorter would have been adopted. The declara
tions that Imperial interests had to be considered and a rail
way built as far removed as possible from the American
frontier, for military reasons, was a mere pretence. In later
years, no such policy prevailed with regard to the Canada
Pacific Railway, although Imperial interests were as great in
one case as in the other. The fatal consequences of the action
of the Government have become very apparent in recent years.
Not only have the people of Canada paid an excessive sum for
the construction of the road, owing to its engineering difficul
ties as well as its length, but its location is such as to have
rendered the construction of purely commercial lines between
Montreal and the sea coast absolutely necessaiy. Some of
these lines have been liberally subsidized by the Govoi-iiiiicnt,
as their construction was deemed to bo in the public intere.st;
and as a consequence the Iiitercoloiiiul failed, not only to pay

238 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
interest on the original investment, but even to pay running
expenses. Had Mr. Mackenzie's advice been taken, millions
would have been saved on a profitless route and millions more
in subsidies to other routes that were considered necessary for
cominercial purposes.
On the retirement of Mr. Gait, Minister of Finance, the
Hon. John Rose was appointed to the vacancy. And on the
21st of December the House adjourned until the 6th of March,
in the following year.
Speaking of the first Parliament of Canada, Mr. Dent, in his
history of the last forty years, says : " The tone of Parliament
perceptibly improved. Even the discontented members from
Nova Scotia treated questions as they arose, on their merits,
and shewed no disposition to monopolize the debates by long
discourses on the injustice to which their Province had, as
they believed, been subjected. The old obstructive policy
was for the time numbered among the things of the past
and Parliament seemed to be actuated by an honest desire to
test the working qualities of our new constitution."
On the re-assembly of Parliament, the Militia Bill and the
other measures foreshadowed in the address were taken up
and disposed of, Mr. Mackenzie strongly objecting to the
enormous expenditure which the Militia Bill involved, and the
utter futility of attempting to provide for the defence of
¦Canada by fortifications at Montreal and elsewhere, which
would probably cost them millions of money. He took the
ground that there was nothing in our relations with the
United States to justify the expenditure of so much money,
and that in the case of war, should it unfortunately occur, our
main security would be the protection of the Empire.
In the session of 1868 the necessity of maintaining the in
dependence of Parliament was urged upon the House by the

MEETING OF THE FIRST PARLIAMENT. 239
Liberal party. Several protests were made against the occu
pation of seats in the House of Commons by members hold
ing seats in the Provincial Legislature. A formal motion by
Mr. Blake declaring sheriffs, registrars and other persons hold
ing any employment or profit under the Crown, in Canada or
any of the Provinces, ineligible to sit in the House of Com
mons, was rejected by a large majority, notwithstanding the
remonstrance of the Liberals. And thus, unfortunately, the
House of Commons showed a disposition to follow those
vicious tendencies, with regard to the appointment to public
offices, which had created so much irritation in olden times in
Upper Canada.
During the session of 1868 a circumstance occurred which
strongly showed Mr. Mackenzie's tenderness of heart, not
withstanding the vigorous blows which he was disposed to
deal to an opponent. Mr. Thos. D'Arcy McGee, who, in spite
of his political vacillation, had acquired great prominence
in the country on account of his geniality and his won
derful eloquence, was basely assassinated on the 7th of April
while returning to his lodgings after a long session of the
House. On the evening before his death, the House had
been discussing a resolution moved by Dr. Parker, demand
ing that Dr. Tupper, who had gone to England to neutral
ize Mr. Howe's opposition to Confederation, should be re
called. Both Mr. McGee and Mr. Mackenzie had taken part
in this discussion. Mr. McGee vindicated the Government
for its action in sending Dr. Tupper to England, and ex
pressed the hope that time would heal the existing irritation
between Nova Scotia and the Dominion, and that by and
bye the constitution of this Dominion would be as cher
ished in the hearts of the people of all its Provinces as the
British constitution itself. Mr. Mackenzie, replying to Mr.

240 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
McGee, said that " Dr. Tupper's mission to England was ex
ceedingly distasteful to Nova Scotia, and that if his with
drawal would have a conciliatory effect, it should be acted
on at once. He urged that a policy of conciliation should
pervade the whole proceedings of Parliament and the lan
guage of all its members. He was quite sure that in the
course of a very few years we would be able so to harmonize
all interests in our commercial policy and every other por
tion of our national policy, as to promote the prosperity of
Nova Scotia."
Little did the members expect that Mr. McGee's appeal for
the maintenance of the Union, supported by Mr. Mackenzie's
demand for a conciliatory policy towards Nova Scotia, was
the last appeal they would hear from his eloquent lips. When
the House assembled next day, Sir John Macdonald moved
an adjournment for one week out of respect to the memory
of the fallen statesman. In speaking of his deceased col
league. Sir John described hira as " a man of the kindest and
most generous impulses — a man whose hand was open to
every one, whose heart was made for friendship and whose
enmities were written in water — a man with the simplicity
of a child. He might have lived a long and respected life
had he chosen the easy path of popularity rather than the
stern one of duty. He had lived a short life respected and
beloved, and died a heroic death, a martyr to the cause of
his country. He has gone from us, and it will be long ere
we see his like again, long ere we find such a happy mixture
of eloquence, wisdom and impulse." As representing the
Opposition, Mr. Mackenzie said, in rising to second the mo
tion : " I find it almost impossible to proceed. But last night
we were all charmed with the eloquence of our departed
friend who is' now numbered with our honored dead, and

MEETING OF THE FIRST PARLIAMENT. 241
none of us dreamed when we separated last that we should
so very soon be called in this way to record our affection for
him. It was my own lot for many years to work in poli
tical harmony with him, and it was my lot sometimes to
oppose him. But through all the vicissitudes of political
warfare we ever found him possess that generous disposition
characteristic of the man and his country, and it will be
long, as the leader of the Government has said, before we
can see his like amongst us. I think there can be no doubt
he has fallen a victim to the noble and patriotic course
wliich he has pursued in this country with regard to the re
lations between his native land and the Empire, and I can
only hope that the efforts to be made by the Government
will lead to the discovery that to an alien hand is due the
sorrow that now clouds not only this House, but the whole
community." In the course of the session, an interesting debate sprang up
on a motion by Mr. Abbott for closing the Carillon and Gren-
¦ville canals on Sunday. Objection was taken to this motion
by many members of the House, notably by Wm. MacDougall
and J. S. Macdonald. Mr. Mackenzie's early Scotch training
and his well-known inflexibihty of purpose on all moral and
religious questions here asserted themselves. In reply to the
arguments in favor of Sunday traffic on the canals, he urged
with great earnestness that "the observance of the Sabbath
day was a duty incumbent on them as a Christian people, and
that they as legislators ought to do their duty in promoting
the observance of the Sabbath. No good ever came of Sab
bath breaking, whether by individuals or communities. He
believed that the observance of the Sabbath was in the in
terests of all legitimate labor, and that pubhc servants were
entitled to rest on that day. And as many of them desired-

242 LIFE OF TIIE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
to observe the Sabbath day properly, they should not be pre
vented from so doing."
The session closed on 22nd of May, and from the tendency
of legislation and the policy of the Government, it was quite
evident that it ceased to be a coalition, and that Sir John Mac
donald had won over to his way of thinking his Liberal col
leagues for Ontario and the Maritime Provinces. The expen
sive quixotic scheme for reorganizing the militia and fortifying
the country could never have originated except with a Tory
Government; for the scheme, as pointed out by Mr. Mackenzie,
placed a premium upon officialism rather than on loyal service
in the ranks ; and although it was, with very slight modifica
tion, adopted by the House, the vigorous manner in which it
was opposed by the Liberals led to its ultimate abandonment
The action of the Government with respect to the selection
of a route for the Intercolonial Railway, equally savored of
Tory tactics. As we have already pointed out, political ex
igencies were allowed to prevail as against the public interest
and the commercial advantages of the country.
In the management of public works, in the independence of
Parliament, and in regard to many of the changes made in the
tariff, the impress of Conservative policy was quite unmistak
able, and whether the coalition of 1864 may be regarded as
having terminated on the 30th of June, 1867, by agreement, as
Mr. Howland said it had, it is quite certain that, as a matter
of fact, the Reform element in the Government in 1868 had
ceased to exert any influence on the policy of the country. To
Mr. Mackenzie, the session was one of unusual distinction.
Although not formally appointed leader of the Opposition, he
was by universal consent awarded the leader's place and ex
pected to discharge the leader's duties. The Liberal members
from Quebec, such as Messrs. Holton, Dorion and Huntington,

MEETING OF THE FIRST PARLIAMENT. 243
although men of great parliamentary experience and ability,
were evidently not disposed, even were it desirable, to under
take the burdens of leadership. Mr. Blake's professional
duties, and his great interest in the Legislative Assembly of
Ontario, prevented that regular attendance in the House of
Commons which would be necessary in the case of a leader.
It was indispensable that some one should speak for the party
in Opposition, and so by an acquiescence as substantial as could
be expressed in any formal vote, all concurred in giving Mr.
Mackenzie this place. His power as a debater was universally
admitted. His fearlessness in defending his own views, his
frankness and fairness in criticizing his opponents, his
wonderful grasp of details, combined with a memory that
never failed him, entitled him to the honor ; and right well
did he acquit himself, as the debates of Parliament show.
Indeed it is doubtful if there was a single member in the
House or in the Government so well informed in every matter
submitted to the House as Mr. Mackenzie was. Certain it is
that no member of the House could devote himself with
greater diligence to his parliamentary duties then he did, and
it was quite apparent that no member was more anxious to
give Confederation a fair and honest triaL

CHAPTER XIX.

POLICY OF THE LIBERALS ASSERTED.
Independence of Parliament — Governor-General's Salary — Reciprocity with
the United States — " Better Terms " with Nova Scotia — Mr. Howe enters
the Government — Changes in the Cabinet — ^Mr. Mackenzie as Leader.
. HE line of cleavage between the Government and
the Opposition was pretty distinctly drawn during
the session of 1867-8. The session of 1869 left no
room for doubt as to the existence of two political
parties in the Dominion of Canada. That there is
in the political as in the natural world a duality of
force is strikingly apparent. By some occult law of nature,
the citizens of every state divide themselves at least into two
camps. Lord Elgin said " that where there was little, if any
thing, of public principle to divide men, political parties would
shape themselves under the influence of circumstances, and
have a great variety of affections or antipathies, national,
sectarian and personal." In a country like Canada, where
there were so many interests to be considered, there was ample
room for the formation of two parties on broad lines. If they
are organised on any other, it must be due either to the de
pravity of the rank and file, or to the want of statesmanship
in the leaders. No doubt great firmness and integrity are re
quired in dealing with provincial and sectarian demands. The
temptation to barter the public interests for political support
is the besetting sin of the politician, and he who esteems office
244

POLICY OF THE LIBERALS ASSERTED. 245
of greater importance than the good of the country, is sure to
listen to the voice of the tempter.
From the very outset of his career, Mr. Mackenzie took high
ground on all questions of political morality. To be inconsis
tent with himself, which often means nothing in fact, was
something he very much dreaded; but to subordinate the
national interests to the demands of a section, or to wronsr the
nation in order to pacify a class, was most repugnant to his
mind. Party government, as he understood it, was govern
ment by the people, for the people, and through the people; and
his speeches and votes during the session of 1869 illustrated
very fuUy the sincerity of his motives.
The great principle of maintaining the independence of the
House of Commons was a question of policy of the highest
national moment. If dual representation, which was possible
under the Constitution, were allowed to prevail, members of
the Dominion Parliament would find themselves unable to de
cide equitably betweefi Provincial_and Dominion interests. In
the natural order of things, questions arise in which the
interests of the Dominion might conflict with the interests of
a local legislature. The holder of a seat in both Houses, in
such cases, was not an independent man in the parliamentary
sense of the term, as he was practically serving two masters.
Early in the session of 1869 a bill introduced by Mr. Mills for
the abolition of Dual Representation came to a vote, and with
singular unanimity the Government of the day and their
followers voted it down. To allow such a bill to pass would
compel several of their supporters to choose between the Legis
lative Assembly of the Province they represented and the
House of Commons — a choice which in all reason they should
have been obliged to make. A few years later, when to impose
such a choice upon members of the House of Commons was

246 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
likely to embarrass the Liberal Party, a similar bill wa-s intro
duced by a supporter of the Government and carried through
the House. Mr. Mackenzie's defence of the Constitution in
this case, even where the principle urged affected his own seat
in Parliament, was a proof of his unselfishness and his loyalty
to principle.
The next question in which it was sought to vindicate the
supremacy of Parliament was on a motion made by Mr. Oliver
of Oxford for a r;eduetion of the Governor-General's salary
from £10,000 sterling to $32,000 per annum. When the ques
tion came before the House, Sir John Macdonald proposed an
amendment to the effect " that it was undesirable to make any
alteration in the British North America Act which already
fixed the salary the Governor-General should receive." As
the British North America Act was an Imperial Act and not
subject to the approval of Parliament, it was contended that
to accept Sir John Macdonald's amendment, would be to
acquiesce to a certain extent in the control of the revenues of
the Dominion by the British Government. Mr. Mackenzie
opposed this view, claiming that it was the undoubted
privilege of Parliament to fix and determine the amount of
all salaries and expenditure chargeable upon the public funds
of the Dominion, and that the salary of the Governor-General
should therefore be fixed by an Act of the Canadian Parlia
ment. To this the House agreed with one exception, and
the last vestige of an Imperial tax on the people of Can
ada by the Parliament of Great Britain was removed. What
ever salary is now paid the Governor-General as the represen
tative of Her Majesty is therefore the voluntary gift of the
people of Canada, as it ought to be. Subsequently, by a
resolution of the House, the matter was definitely settled and
the sum of £10,000 agreed upon as a reasonable amount on

POLICY OF THE LIBERALS ASSERTED. 24.7
which to maintain the dignity and usefulness of the Governor-
General's position.
A motion introduced by Mr. A. A. Dorion, calling for some
measure of reciprocal trade with the United States, was the
occasion of a vigorous debate on the attitude which Canada
should assume towards that country, and our trade rela
tions generally. The mover of the resolution pointed out the
great advantages to Canada from the treaty of '54, and
claimed that if the Government would only open negotiations
with the authorities at Washington in all probability a new
treaty could be obtained. The question, it was alleged, was
one deeply affecting our agricultural and industrial interests
and should engage the immediate attention of the Government.
Mr. Mackenzie's attitude on this question was a vindication
of the right of Canada to negotiate her own commercial
treaties with the United Stated. It was also among the first
public expressions of opinion in Parliament that we had at
tained to our majority, and should conduct ourselves towards
our neighbors with that self-respect and independence which
our national position warranted. " He had for his own part,"
he said, " an instinctive repugnance to do anything like soli
citing what he considered only a fair trade relationship.
We occupied, in that respect, a position as independent aa
the people of the United States did, inasmuch as whatever
arrangements we might arrive at would undoubtedly be
ratified by treaty by the Mother Country. We were, there
fore, in a position to deal with the United States as a mere
neighbor, whose trade would always be valuable to us, while
our trade would, perhaps, be equal, if not more valuable, to
her. He had no doubt that in the course of a few years the
protectionist theories which now prevailed in the United
States, would, with the mass of the people, lose their force.

248 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
and that they would see that they were in reality losing a
good deal by that system by which they fancied they could
enrich themselves ; and as that feeling gained ground, there
would spring up a desire to renew trade relations that exist
ed for many years with mutual benefit between Canada and
the United States. Under these circumstances he was not
willing to place himself in the position of a supplicant. He
declared himself against a retaliatory policy as one that
would not commend itself to the mind of any statesman."
The views expressed by Mr. Mackenzie commended them
selves to both sides of the House, for, in the division that took
place, Mr. Dorion's motion was supported by only nineteen
members in a tolerably full House.
It must not be supposed that, though Mr. Mackenzie took
such an independent stand with respect to reciprocity, he
undervalued the trade relations of Canada with the United
States. He believed that in maintaining the dignity o' the
country, its position would be strengthened in dealing with
the question whenever the opportunity arose ; that to under
rate our own standing as a people, or to appeal to Washington
as supplicants, would not only be humiliating from a national
standpoint, but would increase the demand which the United
States would make for more than a quid pro quo. To be
self-reliant, without bravado, in the presence of our neighbors,
would win their respect, and the respect of the Mother
Country, and if Canada was ever to be worthy of recognition
as a political factor in the settlement of difficulties on this
continent, it could only attain such a position by a manly con
fidence in its own resources. Statesmanship and subserviency
were not, to his mind, convertible terms.
The attitude of Nova Scotia towards Confederation has al
ready been referred to. At the general election in 1867, Dr.

POLICY OF THE LIBERALS ASSERTED. 249
Tupper was the only Unionist elected to the House of Com
mons from that Province. The opposition to Confederation
was directed, m4inly, by Mr. Howe, whose influence with the
people of his native Province was phenomenal. One is at a
loss to understand how a man of Mr. Howe's breadth of view
on all public questions failed to see the advantages to the
British North American colonies in the union proposed by the
Quebec resolutions. Mr. Howe's chief objections to Confeder
ation were that it was premature, and that in the present
attitude of Great Britain towards the colonies, we were ex
tending our frontier under a new constitution, without any
increase in our facilities for self-defence, but particularly that
the measure had been passed by the Imperial Parliament with
out being submitted to the approval of the people whom it
affected. It was quite evident that Mr. Howe's strength in
Nova Scotia, as a leader, wals a great obstacle to the consolida
tion of the union, and that to conciliate him and his followers,
if such were possible, in a constitutional way, was the duty of
both sides of the House. As a matter of fact, the amendments
made to the Quebec resolutions in London, after they had been
approved by the Provinces, were largely in the interest of
Nova Scotia, and their acquiescence in these changes that were
made without their authority, shewed how anxious the other
Provinces were not to imperil Confederation by any sectional
cry. But Mr. Howe was not to be conciliated by sentimental
reasons. During the Session of 1867-8, on the floor of ParHament,
and on the platform, he expressed the strongest hostility to
Confederation, and even appealed to the Imperial Parliament
to allow Nova Scotia to withdraw entirely from the union. It
was suspected in some quarters that his personal hostility to
Dr. Tupper was largely the basis of his opposition. This,

250 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
however, could scarcely be considered a sufficient motive for a
man of Mr. Howe's political experience.
In the autumn of 1868, Sir John Macdonald visited Halifax
for the purpose of endeavoring to reconcile Mr. Howe to Con
federation ; and as a result of this visit, Mr. Howe took a seat
in the Government as President of the Council, and also came
to an understanding with Sir John that Nova Scotia should
obtain " better terms " than were allowed her under the British
North American Act. There could be no objection to the ac
ceptance by Mr. Howe of a seat in the Government, although
his sudden change of front on a question which he deemed of
such vital importance to his Province, was strangely abrupt.
Even the " better terms," which he obtained, did not remove
the main objection which he urged, namely, that Confederation
was thrust upon the people of Nova Scotia without their con
sent. He was, therefore, open to the triple charge of accepting
a seat in a Government which he declared had inflicted the
great wrong upon Nova Scotia of having abandoned a vital
principle in constitutional Government, and of having bartered
away provincial rights, for a trifling financial consideration.
No doubt the withdrawal of his active opposition weakened
the anti-Unionist cause very greatly, while his acceptance of
a seat in the Government destroyed forever his influence as a
leader. No deserter in the hour of battle ever drew down
upon himself the malediction and contempt of his companions
more completely than did Mr. Howe, by his acceptance of the
conditions offered him by the Dominion Government as the
price of his support.
On the 11th of June, on: a motion by Mr. Blake, seconded
by Mr. Mackenzie, the terms made by the Government with
Nova Scotia were challenged in the House on the grounds,
first, that the British North America Act settled the mutual

POLICY OF THE LIBERALS ASSERTED. 251
liabilities of Canada and of each Province in respect to the
public debt ; second, that the British North America Act did
not empower the Parliament of Canada to change the basis of
union; and third, that any change in such basis of union
would imperil the interests of the several Provinces and im
pair the stability of the Constitution. In the discussion of
these resolutions it was shown that injustice was done to the
other Provinces by increasing the financial advantages of
Nova Scotia under Confederation, while no change was made
in the terms of Confederation so far as they were concerned ;
that the British North America Act was of the nature of a
treaty between all the Provinces, and that if the Parliament
of Canada could increase the subsidies, as was proposed in
the case of Nova Scotia, it could also reduce them, and that
if it could deal with the subsidies it might deal with any
other feature of the Act and practically destroy Confederation.
Perhaps there was no debate of the session that excited
more interest or illustrated better the speaking force of both
sides of the House. The mover of the resolution, Mr. Blake,
in an argument exceedingly clear and forcible, gave the con
stitutional view of the question, and was ably supported by
Mr. Mackenzie. During a later stage of the discussion, Sir
John Macdonald attacked the Liberal party, and particularly
Mr. Mackenzie, for their opposition to the arrangement made
with Mr. Howe. He charged them with disloyalty to Con
federation. " If this motion carried," he said, " there would
be a jubilee among the avowed anti-Confederate rebels and
annexationists of Nova Scotia, and a corresponding depression
among those in that Province who desire the union to be suc
cessful. If honourable gentlemen repudiated this arrange
ment which had been entered into with Nova Scotia they
would o-ive a death-blow to Confederation, and on them, not

252 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
on him, would rest the responsibility of so suicidal an act"
Mr. Mackenzie was greatly incensed by Sir John's imputation,
and replied with great vigor. He contended, "If Sir John
Macdonald was able to set aside the Act of Union by the
subserviency of a Parliament which he had at his command,
the Act of Confederation was not worth the paper it was
written on. . . . By tampering with the Imperial Act he
did away with the only security we had for our rights. What
was it that originated the difficulties they had in the old
Province of Canada ? What but that honourable gentleman's
recklessness and extravagance ? What raised those sectarian
difficulties which compelled them to seek a new state of poli
tical existence ? Was it not the honourable gentleman's mis
conduct and^ maladministration of public affairs ? The hon
ourable gentleman had no right to say that those who voted
for the amendment before the House voted to break down
the Dominion. The real enemies of the Dominion were those
who disregarded the obligations of its Constitution, and thus
outraged every sound principle of statesmanship and party
government." Notwithstanding Mr. Mackenzie's earnest warning to the
House, that to purchase the conciliation of Nova Scotia at the
expense of the Constitution was a most dangerous precedent
the " better terms " were finally agreed upon, every member
from Nova Scotia voting in favour of them.
The political effect of Mr. Mackenzie's attitude upon the
Liberal party in Nova Scotia was certainly unfavorable. He
was no doubt aware at the time that every word said in Par
liament against " better terms " would be represented by his
opponents as expressions of hostility to Nova Scotia, and that
in future election contests the Liberal party would suffer
accordingly. It would have been easy for him, had he been

POLICY OF THE LIBERALS ASSERTED. 253
so inclined, to suggest even better terms than those proposed,
or to promise, should he come into power, to deal with other
grievances then unsettled, but "to do so," to use his own
language, " would be treason to Confederation." Besides, he
was laying down the policy of a great party under a new
order of things, and it was well that the Liberals should,
through their leaders in Parliament, recognise the British
North America Act as a compact too solemn to be set aside,
varied or altered, except by the authority that gave it exist
ence, and then only with the concurrence of all parties
originally concerned.
The pending negotiations with the Imperial Government and
the Hudson Bay Company were closed in 1869, the Dominion
Government agreeing to pay the sum of £300,000 sterling to
the Hudson Bay Company, and also agreeing to certain reser
vations in the interests of the Company. The rights of the In-
dians and half-breeds in the territories were to be respected.
Provision was made for the administration of this vast terri
tory by a Lieutenant-Governor, to be appointed by the Gover
nor-General. All laws in force in the territories, not inconsis
tent with the British North America Act, or terms of admis
sion, were to remain in force until amended or repealed.
Lieutenant-Colonel Dennis was appointed to organise a system
of public surveys of the new territory, and the Hon. William
MacDougall, who was concerned in negotiating the acquisition
of the territory, was appointed Lieutenant-Governor.
The changes made in the Government are worthy of note.
Sir -Francis Hincks succeeded Sir John Rose, as Minister of
Finance, Mr. Dunkin was appointed Minister of Agriculture,
Mr. Alexander Morris, Minister of Inland Revenue, and Mr.
J. C. Aikins, Secretary of State for Canada ; Mr. Howe was
appointed Secretary of State for the Provinces.

254 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
The session of 1869 emphasized, even more than the preced
ing session did, Mr. Mackenzie's usefulness as a member of
Parliament. Even his opponents were obliged to recognise
his ability and fairness. The correspondent of the Montreal
Gazette closed certain observations on the work of the session
by referring to Mr. Mackenzie as follows : " We must regard
the leader of the Opposition as a remarkable man — remark
able for his self-acquirements, his extensive reading, his large
stock of information on all public matters, his power of reason,
and his readiness of speech and strength in debate. As a
leader of the Opposition, he has shewn himself, especially dur
ing the recent session, eminently fitted for the position."

CHAPTER XX.

REBELLION IN THE NORTH-WEST.
Customs Union — Commercial Treaties — Speech by Mr. Mackenzie — Rebellioiv
m Manitoba— Alarm of the Settlers— MacDougall Refused Admission— Riel,
President — Murder of Scott — Debates in Parliament — Expedition under
Wolseley — Mr. Archibald Appointed Lieutenant-Governor— Reward Offeredi
by Ontario Government — Trial of Lepine — Discussion in the House of Com
mons — Amnesty Granted— Lord Dufferin's Action.
^ HE first great debate of the session of 1870 took
place on a motion by Mr. Huntington in favor of
Reciprocity and a Customs Union with all coun
tries trading with the Dominion, and demanding-
the right of making commercial treaties, subject to the
approval of the Imperial Government, with all foreign-
States that might be disposed to negotiate such commercial
treaties upon terms advantageous to Canada. Mr. Hunting
ton, in a speech of much eloquence, called upon Parliament ta
recognize the commercial standing of Canada, its great natural
resources, and the necessity of providing an easy outlet for
its manufactures. To be allowed to negotiate her own treaties
would be a due recognition of her national standing, and so
long as such treaties were subject to the approval of the
Imperial Government there could be no danger of conflict
with Imperial interests. With larger markets for our pro
duce, the enterprise of the people would have more scope.
Foreign capital would be attracted, and employment would
be given to our people at home. 255

256 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
The Government objected to Mr. Huntington's resolution
on the ground, set forth in the amendment moved by Sir
John Macdonald: " that in any attempt to enter into a treaty
with any foreign power without the strong and direct sup
port of the Mother Country, the principal party must fail,
and that a Customs Union with the United States, now so
heavily taxed, would be unfair to the Empire and injurious
to the Dominion, and would shatter the ties now so happily
existing between them."
In the debate which followed, Mr. Mackenzie took a leading
part, expressing at the very outset his opposition to a Customs
Union as proposed by Mr. Huntington. He then, as always,
avowed himself in favor of the freest possible intercourse
with all nations whose markets we seek, and claimed for Can
ada the right of making her own commercial treaties, as she
understood her own wants better than any foreign diploma
tist. He pointed to the blunders of Lord Ashburton in 1846,
by which we lost almost the whole of Minnesota, Michigan
and the States lying to the west, and asserted that we owe
many of our present disorders to the fact that we were not
entrusted with any share in conducting the negotiations so
essential to our own welfare. " I have heard it said that the ,
United States and Great Britain would guarantee our inde
pendence, and then we would be quite safe. Sir, I do not
want any guarantee of our independence. I want no guar
antee of any kind. We are now a part of the British Empire,
and if we are to cut loose from it, I would scorn the posi
tion of a principality having its independence guaranteed by
any country. Remember, however, I am not advocating
the separation of Canada from the Mother Country. Canada
was a British possession when I chose it for my future home,
and I shall regret the occurrence of anything that would tend

REBELLION IN THE NORTH-WEST. 257
in the slightest degree to weaken the ties that I trust will be
perpetuated between the Mother Country and her British
American Colonies.''
The ministerialists, with their natural leanings towards pre
rogative, declined to entertain the idea that Canada should be
a party even to treaties, no matter how greatly she may be
affected by the conclusions arrived at. The great injuries
suffered by British diplomacy in the past, as pointed out by
Mr. Mackenzie, were apparently of no consequence in their
eyes. Although the future of half a continent might be
affected by the blunders of a plenipotentiary ignorant of the
geographical or commercial trend of the country why com
plain ? We were not a nation, but a colony. To affect the
natural instinct of a nation, that is, to look out for ourselves,
would be derogatory of Her Majesty's Government, and col
onists must be careful never to give offence on this score.
Even Mr. Howe, who was ready to defy the Imperial Act
by which Nova Scotia was united to the other Provinces,
could not entertain the idea that Canada should, on her own
motion, make a treaty with any foreign country for the recip
rocal interchange of commodities. It remained for Mr. Mac
kenzie and his Liberal allies, in the earliest days of the his
tory of the Dominion, to express the aspirations of Canadians
for national autonomy, and to proclaim on the floor of the
House of Commons their unbounded confidence in the future
of the country, commercially and politically.
In the previous chapter, reference was made to the BiU for
the establishment of territorial government in the North-West
Territories. The Hon. Wm. MacDougall was appointed the
first Lieutenant-Governor. When it became known to the
settlers at Fort Garry and other points in the Territories
that the Dominion Government was to. assume the control of
¦4

258 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
their affairs, they became greatly alarmed — perhaps without
sufficient reason ; although, had the Government exercised pro
per forethought, it is quite clear the alarm of the inhabitants
would not have assumed the aggressive form which it did.
They felt that to send up a ready-made Government to take
charge of their affairs was a poor compliment to their in
telligence. Many of them, half-breeds as they were, were
well educated and had accumulated considerable property dur
ing their residence in the country. They had been contented
and prosperous under Hudson's Bay rule, and they felt that
their transfer to another power, without consultation, was
treating them somewhat cavalierly. Besides, rumors, no doubt
false, with regard to Mr. MacDougall's treatment of the Indians,
while Commissioner of Public Lands, were promulgated^or
the purpose of arousing the hostility of the half-breeds. And
so, personal opposition to their future ruler was added to their
aversion to the methods by which it was proposed to govern
them. Colonel Dennis, who had been sent up in advance of Mr.
MacDougall to survey the country, was also regarded with
suspicion. The settlers could not understand what the survey
ing of their lands by a band of officers meant, if they had no
sinister object in view, as they believed that their farms were
already sufficiently well defined for their own purposes. To
add to their alarms, Mr. Howe's visit, as Secretary of State,
was inopportune. Instead of pouring oil upon the troubled
waters, and reassuring the discontented that due consideration
would be given to all their complaints, he connived at their
threatened opposition to Mr. MacDougall, should he presume
to enter the country, as Lieutenant-Governor, and in this way
perhaps inadvertently, strengthened their determination to
offer resistance to his authority.

REBELLION IN THE NORTH-WEST. 259
Under these circumstances, a provisional council of the set
tlers was organized, of which Mr. John Bruce was president,
and Louis Riel secretary.
In the meantime, Mr. MacDougall and several gentlemen,
some of whom were to constitute his new council, reached
Pembina on their way to Fort Garry to assume the gov
ernment of the country. They were unexpectedly met by
some French half-breeds, who, in the name of a national
committee, warned them not to enter the country. Mr. Mac
Dougall did not consider it prudent to advance in the face of
such warning. After trying, in vain, for about a month to
communicate with the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company,
and finding the opposition to his entering the country increas
ing, he retired across the boundary line into the United States.
The Government, so soon as it became aware of the distur
bance, declined to pay over to the Hudson's Bay Company the
sum of £300,000 agreed upon, on the ground that they stipu
lated for the peaceable possession of the territory. The trans
fer was fixed for the first of December, and on that date,
according to Mr. MacDougall's commission, he was to be Lieu
tenant-Governor of the territory. He issued a proclamation
commanding the insurgents to disperse and return to their
homes, and threatened the usual penalties in case of disobedi
ence. He also made an attempt, by the assistance of Colonel
Dennis, to raise a force and put down the rebellion. His pro
clamation was treated with contempt, and Colonel Dennis was
unable to raise the force required. Mr. MacDougall had no
choice, therefore, but to return to Ontario, which he did.
The country was now in the hands of the insurgents, with
Louis Riel as dictator. The authority of the Dominion Gov
ernment was defied, and the Hudson's Bay Company seemed
helpless to maintain order. Peaceful citizens were imprisoned

260 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
at the caprice of the leader of the rebel party, and the country
was greatly agitated as to what the end would be.
In order to repair, if possible, the evil effects of their blun
dering, the Government sent a commission to the North-West,
consisting of Vicar-General Thibault, Col. de Sallaberry and
Mr. Donald A. Smith, chief agent of the Hudson's Bay Com
pany at Montreal, " to enquire into the causes of the rebellion
and to explain to the people the intentions of the Canadian
Government." Bishop Tach^, formerly a resident of the coun
try, but then at Rome, was telegraphed for. It was thought
that his ecclesiastical position and his influence with the
French half-breeds would be helpful in restoring tranquillity.
Riel, who seemed to have cast off aU restraint, discharged the
duties of the presidency with the tyranny of an eastern Pasha.
Major Bolton, a Canadian officer of militia, whom he had cap
tured at the head of a little force of loyalists, was put under
sentence of death, and were it not for the interposition of Mr.
Smith, the sentence would have been carried out Mr. Thos-
Scott was not so fortunate. He had, in some way or other,
incurred Riel's displeasure, and in spite of remonstrances
from several influential quarters, Scott was cruelly executed
on the 4th of March, the circumstances attending his execu
tion being most distressing.
At a meeting of a council of the settlers. Judge Black,
Father Richot, and Mr. A. Scott, were appointed delegates to
go to Ottawa to lay their grievances before the Government.
The commissioners had made in the meantime a report as
instructed, and the Government was officially informed as to
all the difficulties of the situation.
Enquiries were made of the Government at different times
with regard to their intentions in deahng with the North-West
troubles. The prevailing feeling of the House appeared to be

REBELLION IN THE NORTH-WEST. 261
that the rebellion must be suppressed at once, and communica
tions were opened with the Imperial Government to find out
how far they were willing to assist in establishing the su
premacy of British law in the Territories. Mr. MacDougall,
who still held his seat in Parliament, was greatly embittered
by the unjust treatment, as he supposed, to which he was sub
jected by the Government, and he lost no opportunity to attack
Mr. Howe for the sinister influence which he believed he ex
erted in fomenting opposition to his entrance into the Terri
tories. When the Manitoba Bill was under discussion, he
went so far as to charge Mr. Howe with being a traitor to the
British Crown, and of doing all he could to , destroy the cha
racter and authority of the Canadian Government in the
Red River settlement.
On the 2nd May, 1870, Sir John Macdonald introduced a
bill for the establishment of a Provincial Government in part
of the territory, the new Province to be called Manitoba, and
in the discussion of this bill an opportunity was afforded for
ventilating fully the complaints of the Opposition with the
Government policy in the North-West Territories. It was
pointed out, in the first place, that had the Government been
liberal enough to trust the settlers the year previous and
given them Responsible Government, as they were now doing,
there would have been no rebellion and no sacrifice of life,
that all the expenses of commissioners and delegates would
have been avoided, and that the distracting effects which the
North-West troubles produced upon the further settlement of
the territory would not have occurred. Attention was also
called to the limited character of the Province about to be
established. In area it did not exceed 11,000 square miles,
and it was so outlined as at first to exclude the large English
settlements at Portage la Prairie, only 60 miles from Winni-

262 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
peg. This was, however, amended at a subsequent stage of
the bill.
The bill, though a great improvement on the oligarchy for
which it was intended as a substitute, was not as liberal in
its provisions as the circumstances of the case required. Mr.
Mackenzie expressed his preference for temporary legislation
respecting the territories, giving the people representation and
the right to manage all local affairs until after the lapse of
a few years the House became better informed with regard
to their wants. But his amendment was rejected. He also
proposed an amendment for the enlargement of the Province.
This also was rejected, as was his amendment in favor of
giving the settler the right to prempt a certain quantity of
land free of charge. It was also proposed to eliminate from
the bill the clause respecting education, which has given rise .
within the last few years to so much trouble.
Before the bill passed its final stage, a motion by Mr.
Masson, affirming the inexpediency of sending Canadian and
Imperial troops to the North-West for suppressing the re
bellion, came up for discussion. Doubts were expressed by
several members of the House as to the wisdom of sending
an armed force into the country, as it might lead to the
loss of many valuable lives, and the people, so overawed,
would look with less favor hereafter upon the relations with
the Dominion. Mr. Mackenzie strongly protested against any
further dilly-dallying with rebels, and insisted that the Gov
ernment should at once take decisive action. " He would like
to see if there was a majority in the House who would refuse
to give protection to the loyal inhabitants of that country in
face of the public opinion of the Dominion. He would like
to see if there were a dozen members in the House with such
a want of manliness and honesty as to allow rebels to drive

REBELLION IN THE NORTH-WEST. 263
loyal men from the Territory, seize their property, endanger
their safety, and even take life where there was no excuse for
it. The first thing to be done by any nation or country pre
tending to have any power or love of law and order was to
enforce its authority and then, if any injustice or grievance
should be found to exist, have the one removed and the other
redressed. But there had been not only a violation of law
and jOrder, but murders had been committed, and the mur
derers must be brought to justice if the arm of British law
could reach them. If we could not punish these men and
restore authority, then it would be better to seek other
political relations where there would be sufficient power to
protect life and property and preserve order. He had but one
view of the matter, either restore order there peremptorily, or
cease to be a nation. If the force proposed to be sent was not
sufficient, send more. They should send five, ten, twenty
thousand men if necessary, but order should be restored. He
would, in that case, support the Government with all his
power and force, though he felt humiliated at the position
they had taken in passing the bill."
On the day on which this speech was delivered, payment
was made to the Hudson's Bay Company of the sum stipu
lated for the transfer of their interests, and the territories
then formally passed to the possession of Canada. Whatever
halting there may have been in the minds of the Government
with regard to the propriety of putting down the rebellion
with a strong hand, there can be no doubt that the public
opinion of Ontario was in favor of decisive measures. The
motion made in the House by Mr. Masson, already referred to,
and the attitude of the French-Canadian press, created the
impression that Riel, even in those early days, had more
sympathisers than his cause deserved, admitting that the

264 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
discontent which his actions represented was not without
foundation. It is due, however, to the ITrench members of
the House of Commons to state that the proposition to strike
out of the Bill of Supply the sum of $1,460,000 for the Red
River expedition, and for opening up the North-West Terri
tories, received only thirteen votes.
The House was prorogued on the 12th of May. On the fol
lowing day, the expedition, which was under preparation for
some time, started by way of Collingwood and Thunder Bay
for the Red River, under the command of Colonel Wolseley,
afterwards Lord Wolseley. The course lay along the well-
known Dawson route, and it was not until the 24th of Aug
ust, after a very fatiguing journey, that they reached Fort
Garry. Riel and his companions took refuge in flight, and
a rebellion which might have been avoided, as Mr. Macken
zie pointed out over and over again, had the Government
paid reasonable deference to the wishes of the people, was at
an end.
On the 2nd of September, 1870, Mr. Adams G. Archibald,
the new Lieutenant-Governor, arrived in the Province and on
the 6th entered upon his official duties, and by so doing Mani
toba was entitled to be recognized as a member of the Sister
hood of Canadian Provinces.
The year following Mr. Archibald's appointment to the
Lieutenant-Governorship of Manitoba, it was rumored that a
considerable body of Fenians were gathering along the south
ern frontier and preparing to invade the country. The leader
of this movement was one O'Donoghue, who had been asso
ciated with Riel in the rebellion of 1869. It was feared
that O'Donoghue was acting in concert with Riel and Lepine
and in that case the loyalty of the French half-breeds could
hardly be depended upon. Mr. Archibald had no adequate

REBELLION IN THE NORTH-WEST. 265
means of defence, and was consequently thrown entirely upon
his own resources. The people of the Province were of dif
ferent nationalities and different religious faith, and as only a
few months before they had arrayed themselves against the
Queen's Government, it was very uncertain what they would
do, should the standard of rebellion be hoisted a second time.
Under those circumstances, it was but natural to suppose that
the Lieut.-Governor should consider the defence of the Pro
vince and the safety of the population to be his first duty.
If the French M^tis and their leaders could be depended upon,
all would be well ; if not, the events of 1869 might be repeat
ed, and probably with greater enormity. Governor Archibald
therefore determined to place himself at once in communica
tion with Riel and Lepine, and, if possible, secure their good
offices for the defence of the country. Riel and Lepine im
mediately organized the inhabitants for defensive purposes.
The Lieut.-Governor showed his confidence in their bona fides,
promising them at least a temporary immunity from molesta
tion on account of the crime of which they were accused,
shook hands with them and complimented them on the loy
alty they had shown, and the services they had rendered. In
his evidence before a committee of the House of Commons
he stated, to use his own language, that " if the Dominion has
at this moment a Province to defend and not one to conquer,
they owe it to the policy of forbearance. If I had driven
the French half-breeds into the hands of the enemy, O'Don
oghue would have been joined by all the population between
the Assiniboine and the frontier. Fort Garry would have
passed into the hands of an armed mob, and the English set
tlers to the north of the Assiniboine would have suffered
horrors it makes me shudder to contemplate."
We next hear of Riel and Lepine on the 11th of April,

266 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
1871, on a motion in the House of Commons by Mr. Rymal,
expressing regret " that the Government had done nothing
towards procuring punishment for the murderers of Thomas
Scott, and that an humble address be presented to His Excel
lency that he would take such steps as would be calculated to
bring these men to justice." The indifference which the
Government manifested in this matter was made the occasion
for a very indignant speech from one of its supporters, Mr.
Bowell, who pointed out that many of those engaged in the
rebellion, who were directly or indirectly concerned in the
murder of Scott, had received recognition at the hands of
the Government or their friends. Mr. Lepine, Riel's Adjutant-
General, was appointed scrutineer on behalf of a Minister
ial candidate. Mr. Bannatyne, who sympathized with the
rebels and tampered with the letters of the loyalists, was also
marked out for favor. Mr. O'Donnell, one of Riel's council,
was appointed to the Legislative Council of the Province, and
Mr. Spence was made clerk of the same. To allow Riel, and
particularly Lepine, to run at large without any effort to
arrest them, or, if they took refuge in the United States, to
make no effort to secure their extradition, was declared to be
a reproach to the administration of justice for which there
was no excuse. Mr. Rymal's motion was, however, voted
down, and for a short time the rebellion in the North-west
passed from the purview of the Dominion Parliament
The establishment of a Provincial Government in Manitoba,
which under the constitution had the right to administer jus
tice, was used as a means of creating greater uncertainty than
ever with regard to the prosecution of the murderers of Scott
When the offence was committed on the 4th of March, 1870,
the Red River settlement was under the control of the
Hudson's Bay Company. From that time till Lord Wolseley

REBELLION IN THE NORTH-WEST. 267
arrived, on the 24th of August, the provisional government,
of which Riel was president, had possession of the country.
When Governor Archibald arrived on the 2nd of September,
the provincial constitution took effect and with it rested the
enforcement of law and order. When complaint was made
against the Dominion Government for its inaction, the plea
was advanced that the Dominion Government had no jurisdic
tion, at least after the establishment of the Provincial Gov
ernment, and therefore could not be held responsible for the
prosecution of Riel and his associates.
This defence did not, however, satisfy the people of Ontario.
The inaction of the Dominion Government was attributed to
Quebec influence in the Cabinet. For, as it was put hy Lord
Dufferin in one of his official despatches : " The French sec
tion of Her Majesty's subjects (although in Canada, most of
them regret the death of Scott) are united to a man in the
opinion that the part played by Riel in the North-West was
that of a brave and spirited patriot ; that it is principally to
him and to those who acted with him that Manitoba owes her
present privileges of self-government and her parity of rank
and standing with our sister Provinces." It was well known,
as we have already pointed out, that the Metis of Manitoba
were considered to have rights which were not duly respected,
and that Riel, in stirring up rebellion, was merely asserting
his political standing as a citizen of the Territories.
On the other hand, in Ontario, Riel was looked upon as a
rebel against constituted authority, who, in the assertion of
his power, had cruelly and wantonly shed innocent blood, and
that any Government that condoned or palliated such an
offence was unworthy of public confidence. So strong was
the feeling in Ontario, that the proposal to offer a reward of

208 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
So, 000 for the arrest of the murderers of Scott, received the
unanimous support of both sides of the House.
In the meantime, the general election of 1872 took place,
and during the session of 1873 the North-West troubles were
allowed to slumber. Owing to the death of Sir Geo. Cartier,
who was elected in 1872 for Provencher, on his defeat in
Montreal, that constituency became vacant and Riel was
elected by acclamation. Although a warrant was out for his
arrest, he went to Ottawa and signed the roll as a member of
Parliament. His election took place on the 11th of February,
On the 30th of March, 1874, H. J. Clark, Attorney-Gen
eral of Manitoba, was examined at the bar of the House
with regard to the action taken by Manitoba for the prose
cution of Riel and Lepine. He explained that the reason,
so far as he knew, for the delay in arresting Riel was that
no information had been laid before a magistrate for his arrest
at an earlier date, that it was not until September, 1873, that
such information was laid, that in November of the same year
a bench-warrant was issued from the Court of Queen's Bench
to the Sheriff of Manitoba, commanding him to bring Riel
before the said court to answer upon an indictment found
against him for the murder of Thos. Scott, and that so far the
Sheriff had made no return to the bench-warrant. A warrant
was also issued by the police magistrate of Ottawa for the
apprehension of Riel, when it became known that he had
signed the members' roll, but to no avail. On the 31st of
March, Mr. Bowell moved that Mr. Riel be ordered to attend
in his place in the House on the following day, and as he did
not appear he was, on the 16th of April, by a vote of 124 to
68, expelled from the House, and a new writ issued for the
constituency which he represented. A special committee was,
at the same session, appointed to enquire into the causes of

REBELLION IN THE NORTH-WEST. 269
the difficulties in the North-West in 1869-70, and to report
from time to time. The report of the committee was not
submitted till the 22nd of May, and as the House was pro
rogued on the 25th, it was impossible to take any action with
regard to it that session.
The battle royal, in which the whole of the North-West
troubles were reviewed from beginning to end, opened in the
House of Commons on the 11th of February, 1875, on a
motion by Mr. Mackenzie to grant a full amnesty to all per
sons concerned in the North-West troubles, excepting Riel,
Lepine and O'Donoghue. In the case of Riel and Lepine, it
was proposed to grant an amnesty, conditional upon five
years' banishment from the Queen's dominions. As O'Don
oghue had placed himself at the head of a Fenian invasion,
it was not considered that he should come under the same
conditions as Riel and Lepine.
The question with which Mr. Mackenzie had to deal now
was beset with many difficulties, and was one of the many
legacies of maladministration which had come down to him
from the previous Government. It was further complicated
by the fact that Lepine, who was equally involved with Riel,
had been arrested and convicted as a principal in the murder
of Scott, and was lying in the Winnipeg gaol under sen
tence of death. Public opinion, too, had been greatly excited,
and both creed and nationality were appealed to with con
siderable success. On behalf of Riel, it was claimed that he
had been promised an amnesty without reservation, if he
would withdraw his opposition to Her Majesty's Government,
and recognize the authority of the Dominion in the North-
West Per contra, it was urged that he was a murderer and
a fugitive from justice, and that he should pay with his life
the penalty of his crimes.

270 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
From the evidence submitted to the special committee,
already referred to, the promise of an absolute amnesty was
not, however, conclusive, although the evidence bore strongly
in that direction. It was shewn that Riel had rendered sub
stantial service in resisting the Fenian invasion under O'Don
oghue, and that this circumstance should be taken into con
sideration in dealing with his case. It was on these grounds
that Mr. Mackenzie took the middle course of recommending
to the House the resolution already referred to. In the course
of the debate, several interesting circumstances were alluded
to. First, it was shewn that Sir John Macdonald acknowledged
the insurrectionary party in Manitoba by the recognition of
their delegates, Father Richot, Mr. Black and Mr. Scott — a
letter from Joseph Howe, Provincial Secretary, fixing the time
and place at which they could meet Sir John Macdonald and
Sir George Cartier in confidence, being proof of this. It was
also shewn, on the evidence of Archbishop Tach€, that the
authority of Riel, as Provisional President of the settlement,
was recognized by Sir George Cartier, during the interval be
tween the formation of the Provisional Government and the
arrival of the Lieutenant-Governor. Both of these circum
stances occurred after the murder of Scott.
The main question, however, before the House was, did the
evidence submitted warrant the conclusion that an amnesty
had been promised by the previous Government, and if so,
was it binding on the present House. In a very able state
paper addressed to the Earl of Carnarvon, Lord Dufferin
discusses, very fully, this question. First, he states, that in
his opinion, no claim for amnesty would lie on the plea that
Archbishop Tach^ was empowered by the Imperial and the
Dominion Governments to secure the tranquillity of the
country by the issues of such assurances of immunity to

REBELLION IN THE NORTH-WEST. 271
those concerned in the recent disturbances as he should deem
fit Neither the written instructions he received from Lord
Lisgar nor Sir John Macdonald gave him such authority.
Second, in the interviews between Sir George Cartier and
the delegates from the North-West, particularly Abb^ Richot,
the weight of testimony appears to be that when Sir George
Cartier spoke of an amnesty, he intended that term to apply
to political offenders, not to those concerned in the murder of
Scott. To quote Lord Dufferin's words : " The tenor of his
language implied that if only matters were peaceably settled
in Red River and the population quietly submitted to the new
order of things, a settlement would ultimately be arrived at,
satisfactory to all parties.'' Third, to grant an amnesty on
the ground that the Provisional Government established by
Riel was a lawfully constituted government, was out of the
question. The execution of Scott could only be a judicial
execution, when ordered by a legitimately constituted author
ity. The fourth plea for an amnesty, namely, that Governor
jirchibald availed himself of the services of Riel and Lepine
in repelling the Fenian invasion of 1871, his Lordship con
sidered worthy of careful consideration. His Lordship re
marks : " The acceptance of such service might be held, I im
agine, to bar the prosecution of the offender, for, undesirable
as it may be that a great criminal should go unpunished, it
would be still more pernicious that the Government of the
country should show a want of fidelity to its engagements, or
exhibit a narrow spirit in its interpretation of them."
In replying to Lord Dufferin's despatch, from which we
have already quoted, Earl Carnarvon recognizes the claim on
the clemency of the Crown which Riel and Lepine established
for them.selves- because of their services in 1871. He said:.

272 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
" Although a murder, such as that of Scott, cannot be allowed
to go unpunished on the ground that it was connected with
political disturbances, yet in so far as it did result from politi
cal circumstances, those who were guilty of it may be deemed
to have earned a merciful consideration through their subse
quent good service to the State, and that for these services
their lives should be spared. While this is no doubt the judicial
construction of evidence reported by the special committee, it
is quite evident that it was not the sense in which the Govern
ment was understood either by Archbishop Tachd or by the dele
gates from the Provisional Government. That the impression
was left upon their minds, that a full and unconditional am
nesty would be granted if they recognized the authority of
the Dominion Government, there cannot be the slightest
doubt on reading the evidence."
The third point of note is the duplicity practised by the
Government on the people of Canada with regard to the arrest
of Riel. We have already pointed out that until a local Gov
ernment was organized in Manitoba, there may have been some
difficulties in the way of arresting Riel and Lepine. After
that, however, there should have been no difficulty whatever.
Instead of exercising his influence with the Manitoba Govern
ment for enforcing, through the Attorney-General, the Criminal
Law of the Province, Sir John Macdonald entered into ne
gotiations with Archbishop Tach6 for the retirement of Riel
from the Province of Manitoba, for the space of one year, and
for his maintenance during expatriation out of the public
funds of Canada ; and later on. Sir George Cartier arranged,
in the same way, for the retirement of Lepine and the pay
ment to him and his family of their maintenance abroad. To
meet this expenditure, the sum of $1,000 was taken out of the
secret service fund, and the sum of £600 was advanced by the

REBELLION IN THE NORTH-WEST. 273
Hudson's Bay Company. Notwithstanding that these arrange
ments were made by Sir John Macdonald himself, and, perhaps
in some respect, Riel's absence from the country was an ad
vantage. Sir John contended, at a meeting in Peterboro', in
the general election of '72, that Riel retired because of the
reward offered by the Ontario Government, under Blake's
premiership, for his arrest. "Anxious," Sir John said, "to
vindicate the sacred cause of justice, Mr. Blake issued a pro
clamation offering a reward for the capture of Riel, and now
this murderer is no longer in the country. He no longer
pollutes the soil of Canada by his presence. He is now liv
ing in peace, prosperity and comfort across the border, and,
like men of his stamp, ready to stir up another row should
opportunity offer. He knows he is safe, thanks to Mr. Blake."
In light of the fact that Riel was living in the United States
on money paid out of the secret service fund on Sir John
Macdonald's own authority and at his request, this was cer
tainly an extraordinary speech to make.
There remains but one other point to be considered — and
that a somewhat technical one^in this perplexing case ;
that is, fourth : How should the clemency of the Crown be
exercised ? The Government was taking its fuU share of re
sponsibility by the course which, through Mr. Mackenzie's
resolution, Parliament was advised to take. Usually, the
Governor-General can act only according to the directions of
his constitutional advisers. In the instructions from the Col
onial Office up to this time, however, the right to exercise the
clemency of the Crown in the case of capital offences was one
solely vested in the Governor-General. For the manner in
which that right was exercised, his ministers were not respon
sible as the Governor-General, under his commission from the
Crown, was vested with independent authority. In the state
R

274 , LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
despatch, already referred to. Lord Dufferin informed t
Colonial Office he intended to act on his own authority.
In communicating this view to the Minister of Justice, Lc
Dufferin said that " the case had passed beyond the provir
of departmental administration, and in his opinion could
best dealt with under the Royal instructions which auth(
ized the Governor-General, in certain capital cases, to disper
with the advice of his ministers, and to exercise the prerc
ative of the Crown according to his independent judgme
and on his own personal responsibility.'' He according
commuted the sentence of death pronounced upon Lepine
two years' imprisonment and the permanent forfeiture of 1
political rights. An amendment by Mr. Mousseau, proposi
an unconditional amnesty to all concerned in the North- W(
troubles, received only 23 votes. Mr. Mackenzie's motion w
finally carried on a vote of 126 to 50.
It has, already been mentioned that on the 16th of April, 1 81
Riel was formally expelled from the House. On a new electi
being called, he was re-elected in September of the same yei
On the 24th of February, 1875, Mr. Mackenzie caused to
read before the House the exemplification of the judgment r(
of outlawry pronounced in open court at Winnipeg, by E.
Wood, and then moved that Riel be declared an outlaw, t

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jA-''*^ ''^^</-<-A^~- -^^^cE/ iCt^-^Q^^ £X..^^2L,-<^ ^

effect of which would be, of course, to vacate his seat On t
adoption of this motion, the Speaker was directed to issue 1

REBELLION IN THE NORTH-WEST. 275
warrant for a new election in Provencher. In the session of
1876, Mr. Costigan moved that O'Donoghue be included in the
amnesty granted to Riel and Lepine. Mr. Costigan renewed
his motion in the session of 1877, but to no purpose.
The later events in Riel's career are dealt with in their
proper place. Suffice it here to say that after fomenting a
rebelhon in 1885, and putting the country to an expense of
nearly $10,000,000, and causing the loss of several valuable
lives, he was arrested, tried and executed at Regina on the
16th of November, 1885. His execution was the occasion of
a long debate in the House, and of many vapid appeals to
race and religious prejudices, Mr. Mackenzie voting that, in
his opinion, the execution of this restless and adventurous
spirit was justifiable.
Now that he has passed from the scene, and that his con
duct and career have furnished so much political capital for
party purposes in the Parliaments of two Provinces, as well
as in the House of Commons, we might reasonably enquire
what were the impelling motives in the agitation of which he
was the central figure. So far as he was concerned himself,
he was in the first instance but the embodiment of the feeling
of the settlers of Red River which he represented, and al
though ¦ armed opposition to constitutional authority is not
recognized in modern times as the proper way to remedy poli
tical grievances, yet the history of the world shews that it is
by no means exceptional. More than once, even on this con
tinent, leaders of public opinion have become restless with the
" law's delay," and have adopted decisive remedies. More than
one gordian knot has been cut with a sword.
When Riel organized against Mr. MacDougall's entrance into
the Province, he had probably no intention of shedding blood ;
but like the other settlers he felt that if a new government

276 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
took possession of the country and became installed in power,
their grievances might be treated with contempt. He and his
followers were in possession, and before that possession was
surrendered was the time to press their claims. Unfortunately
for himself and for the peace of Canada, as in the case of many
others, he abused the power which the settlers gave him, and
forfeited the sympathy of aU well-thinking men.
The outrages which he committed took place under a Con
servative Government. To proceed boldly and fearlessly to
punish him would be to condemn themselves. The sympathy
existing between the French in Lower Canada and the French
in Manitoba — for both were of the same stock — restrained
Sir John Macdonald no doubt from acting with the prompti
tude which the case required, and particularly in dealing with
the chief offenders as their crimes warranted. This hesi
tancy was at once seized upon by many in Ontario, and by
none more sternly at first than by the Orange party, as a
ground for attack upon the Government. To some, Riel's
offence was simply the murder of a Protestant Orangeman
by a Roman Catholic. To others, the tardiness of justice was
attributed to Sir John Macdonald's desire to conciliate the
French, and the gauge of battle once formed on this line, a
quasi war of race and creed was the inevitable result. Even
in a very recent campaign in the Province of Quebec, the gal
lows on which Riel was hung was as much a party cry as
the " bloody shirt " in American politics fifteen years ago.
But while this circumscribed view of the question was the
prevailing one for a time, when the committee appointed by
the House of Commons in 1874 presented their report to the
House a larger view of the question was presented. By
redressing many of the grievances complained of, the Govern
ment admitted they were in the wrong. By using Riel's

REBELLION IN THE NORTH-WEST. 277
services in repelling a Fenian invasion, they admitted, murderer
though he was, his power in the State. By directing, in terms
too diplomatic perhaps to be conclusive in a court of law,
the men they employed to pacify the settlers, to promise an
amnesty to all offenders, they admitted the necessity for con
ciliation. By securing Riel's retirement in '72 from his can
didacy in Provencher in favor of Sir George Cartier, they
admitted his political services to the Conservative party, and
by providing and paying for his retirement from the country,
they admitted the right of the authorities to arrest him so
long as he remained in Manitoba.
All these circumstances gave a factitious prominence to Riel,
which, ordinarily, he could not have obtained. It was not his
fault, so much as the fault of the Government, that Canada
was so long politically vexed by his conduct and his presence.
With the report of the committee before him, Mr. Mackenzie
had but one course open to him, and that was to take the line
best calculated to heal the national and pohtical sores caused
by his predecessors, and with strange ingratitude, it appears
this course was not supported by the Conservative party.
To pacify the whole Dominion, was the task to which Mr.
Mackenzie addressed himself, and that he did it courageously
and successfully, no one will deny. Following the precedent
of the rebellion of 1837, in Upper and Lower Canada, and act
ing with that regard for the intentions, however vaguely ex
pressed, of the previous Government towards the rebels in the
North-West, he asked Parliament to interpose between those
who were so ill-advised as to precipitate a rebellion, and who,
in their recklessness, sacrificed human life.

CHAPTER XXI.

RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED STATES.
Fishery Claims — Sir John Macdonald at Washington — The Washington
Treaty — Concessions to the United States — The Fenian and Alabama Claims
—The Manitoba Bill — British Columbia Enters Confederation.
HE first question of any importance that engaged
the attention of the House in the session of 1871
was the settlement of the fisheries disputes be
tween Canada and the United States. By the
termination of the Reciprocity Treaty in 1866, the
privileges of the Americans to fish in Canadian waters
ceased, and the treaty of 1818 was revived. In order to avoid
irritation with the fishermen of the United States, and pend
ing some settlement of other questions in dispute, it was
agreed between Canada and the Imperial authorities that
Americans, on payment of a license fee of one dollar, should
be allowed to fish in Canadian waters. For a few years the
license fee was paid, but was gradually discontinued, and the
Canadian fisheries came to be used as freely by Americans as
by the people of Canada.
While the fishery question was under the consideration of
the Imperial authorities, attempts were also being made to
settle with the Government e,t Washington for the depre
dations committed by the Alabama during the war which
had closed a few years before ; and acting on the sugges
tion of the British Ambassador at Washington, the Imperial
278

RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED STATES. 279
Government appointed a commission consisting of Earl de
Grey, Sir Edward Thornton, Sir Stafford Northcote. Pro
fessor Bernard and Sir John Macdonald, to whom were re
ferred the Alabama claims and the fisheries disputes. The
whole question was brought before the House on the 24th of
February, 1871, on a motion of Mr. Gait affirming the import
ance of the Canadian fisheries per se, and particularly their
importance as a leverage in obtaining a modification of the
United States commercial system in any negotiations that
might be entered into for better trade relations between the
two countries. In the discussion which followed, Mr. Mac
kenzie urged upon the Government very strongly the propriety
of securing compensation for the losses caused by the Fenian
raids, inasmuch as such losses were on a par with the alleged
injury done to the United States by the Alabama. He also
endeavored to protect the countrj' against any compromise
that would prejudice the rights of Canada. British diploma
tists, as he pointed out in a former debate, were too apt to
sacrifice, either from ignorance or indifference, Canadian
interests to Imperial policy. No doubt it was an advantage
to the whole empire to avoid war with the United States, and
reasonable concessions were legitimate to avert such a calamity.
At the same time, the value of her fisheries to Canada could
not be over-estimated. They were the nurseries of her
seamen ; they formed a large part of her natural wealth ; and
gave employment to thousands of her people. To surrender
the advantages they afforded without a full equivalent must
ubt be thoug-ht of.
Sir John Macdonald left for Washington on the 27th of
February as a member of the joint high commission, and on
the 8th of May the agreement known as the Washington
Treaty was signed by the representatives of Great Britain and

280 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
the United States. Although Sir John Macdonald was r
doubt appointed because of his position as Premier of Canadi
and of his distinction as a leading statesman, he was in realit
an Imperial Commissioner ; and although he may have bee
intended as the interpreter of Canadian opinion, he was liabl
to be overborne by his colleagues representing Great Britaii
At all events, the Washington Treaty as finally agreed upo
was a surrender of many Canadian interests for which Si
John Macdonald was responsible — as the debate in the Hous
clearly showed.
The first point on which the Government was challenged i:
connection with the treaty was the abandonment of the Cana
dian claims in regard to the Fenian raids, and an Imperia
guarantee of an uncertain loan to Canada accepted in lie
thereof. In the discussion which took place on this phase c
the question, the words used by Mr. Blake as being exceed
ingly apt may be quoted. He said : " Shall we allow America:
citizens to drill, organise, parade, and call for subscription
and to arrange for the invasion of a friendly power ? Thes
were questions which in their magnitude entirely overbor
the simple question of money-loss in the past ; and to sa;
that it was not to be settled at the same time and under th
same circumstances in which the United States were present
ing their claims with reference to the Alabama was certainl;
most extraordinary."
The defence of the Government to Mr. Blake's argumen
was exceedingly weak. Even at the time the treaty wa
under discussion the Fenian organisation had not been dis
banded. To admit practically that the United State
Government was not responsible for their depredation
was, in effect, to encourage their continuation, and wa
very different from the provisions of the treaty wit!

RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED STATES. 281
reference to the Alabama claims. Who was responsible for
the surrender of Canadian rights? was the question asked. If
Sir John Macdonald was in any sense the guardian of Canadian
interests, then why did he not carry out the wishes of the
Canadian people ? If it was Imperial policy that Canada
should be sacrificed, where was the evidence that he had
protested against such a sacrifice ? To these questions the
answers were very unsatisfactory.
Objection was also taken to the inequality of advantage in
conceding to the Americans the free navigation of the St.
Lawrence in perpetuity for the navigation of Lake Michigan
for a period of ten years. It was also pointed out that the mode
of providing compensation to Canada for the use of her fish
eries by the Americans was uncertain ; and that, judging from
the past, it might result in very little advantage to Canada.
Then, questions that would naturally arise in the future were
left unsettled. No definition was given of what was intended
by the Treaty of 1818, with regard to headlands, and no effort
appeared to have been made to obtain any equivalent in mat
ters of trade for the concessions contained in the Treaty. The
settlement of the San Juan boundary, so long in dispute, was
left to the arbitrament of the Emperor of Germany, who,
unfortunately, as was expected, decided against Canada.
The debate was carried on from the 8th till the 16 th of May,
and was closed by an able speech from Mr. Mackenzie, in which
he reviewed the arguments of the preceding speakers, and in
summing up the whole question, appealed to the House to
vindicate the honor of the country and to insist upon a due
recognition of Canadian rights. But, in spite of all the efforts
of the Opposition, the Treaty was agreed to on a vote of
121 to 55.
An important discussion took place with regard to the

282 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
power which the British Nurth America Act conferred upon
the House of Commons in the establishment of new provinces
in the North-West Territories. When the Manitoba bill was
before the House, the previous session, Mr. Mills expressed the
view that a new provincial government could only be organised
by Imperial Act, and therefore the bill establishing the Province
of Manitoba was ultra vires of the Parliament of Canada. The
question was considered by the Government during recess, and
the conclusion reached that Mr. Mills was sound in his conten
tion. Accordingly, in the session of 1871, the House was
asked to approve of a draft bill for Manitoba, preliminary
to its submission to the Imperial Parliament, and further to
amend the British North America Act so as to empower the
Canadian Parliament to make such provisions for the organi
sation of other provinces thereafter, as they might deem
expedient Confederation is growing apace. In 1870, Manitoba was
carved out of the great North-West Territories ; and now in
1871, Parliament is asked to consider a bill for the admission
of Biitish Columbia into the union. To the Liberal party, the
extension of Confederation was always a source of pleasure.
They were, however, bound to see that the enlargement of the
Dominion was not accompanied by such conditions as would be
unjust to the other provinces or involve financial obligations
burdensome to the treasury. The terms made with British
Columbia were even more objectionable in many respects than
the concessions of the Washington Treaty. Although the
white population of the colony was estimated at only 10,000,
they were to be allowed six representatives in the House of
Commons and three in the Senate. The Government of the
Dominion was to commence within two years of the date of the
union, and to complete within ten years of the same period, a

RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED STATES. 283
railroad from the Pacific coast to connect with the Canadinn
system of railroads. They were to maintain an efficient mail
service fortnightly between Victoria and San Francisco. They
Wire to pay $100,000 a year for lands to be ceded to the
Crown in aid of tho construction of the Canadian Pacific
Railway. And they were to guarantee the interest on £100,000
sterling, for ten years after its completion, for an efficient
graving-dock at Esquimalt, and also to provide pensions for
such officers in the service of the British Columbia Govern
ment as might lose their positions on account of the Union.
When the resolutions were submitted to the House it was
pointed out with great force by Mr. Mackenzie that they
imposed burdens far beyond the resources of the Dominion,
particularly the obligations assumed with respect to the con
struction of the Canadian Pacific Rail way. He proposed an
amendment to the Government's scheme that so far as the
railway was concerned, " Canada should not be pledged to do
more than proceed at once with the necessary survey, and
after the route is determined, to prosecute the work as rapidly
as the state of the finances would justify." Various other
amendments to the same effect were proposed, but to no avail.
The scheme had to be accepted in its entirety or rejected ; and
accepted it was, with all the tremendous obligations which it
involved. In dealing with the admission of British Columbia to Con
federation, the Liberal party was placed in the same dilemma
as when dealing with the " better terms " for- Nova Scotia.
On the one hand, they were confronted with an agreement
made by the Government, of a startling character— an agree
ment which has added nearly $100,000,000 to the national
debt ; or an annual outlay of interest alone of $4,000,000.
On the other hand, it was all but certain that the supporters

284 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
of the Government would assume the responsibilities of the
terms proposed with British Columbia if the opposite course
would involve the defeat of the Government. To oppose
the terms of admission would be construed by the British
Columbians as opposition to themselves ; and they would
therefore, as a matter of course, ally themselves with the
party in power. It was in vain that Mr. Mackenzie avowed
himself, both in the resolutions he moved and in the speeches
he delivered, a supporter of the admission of British Col
umbia on reasonable terms. The sentimental appeal which
the Ministerialists made to the House for the extension of the
Union from the Atlantic to the Pacific was stronger than the
voice of reason. To say that the Union would be imperilled
by the weighty burdens which it was about to assume was
construed into want of confidence in the Dominion ; although
when the Committee rose and reported the resolutions to the
Speaker of the House, every one felt that a serious step had
been taken, the consequences of which were not fully realised.
The Liberal party made very strenuous efforts during the
session of 1871 to reform the election laws. The old practice
of holding the elections first, in constituencies favorable
to the party in power, with a view to influence doubtful con
stituencies, was very objectionable. It was proposed that
there should be one polling day for the whole Dominion, except
in a few outlying districts ; but this was rejected. Then it was
proposed that the elections should be held on the same day
in each of the provinces. This also was rejected. An effort
to introduce vote by ballot was successfully resisted by the
Government, as was also a proposition to try contested elections
before the judges.
Mr. Mackenzie's efforts on behalf of the Liberal party during
the session of 1871 greatly increased the confidence of the

RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED STATES. 285
country in his ability as a leader. His intimate knowledge of
the extent of our trade with the United States and of the
manner in which our trade relations would be affected by the
Washington Treaty showed how thoroughly he had studied the
whole question, while his determination not to sacrifice the
rights of Canada for a mere temporary adjustment of our
difficulties was a proof of those qualities of statesmanship
which have made England strong in the Councils of Europe.
The surest way, he contended, by which to establish permanent
friendly relations with the United States, or with any people,
was to insist firmly, but reasonably, on the rights of Canada.
Any other course was an invitation to encroachment in the
future, should any difficulties arise. The true spirit of nation
ality, he said, could never be developed by a craven sub
mission to injustice.

CHAPTER XXII.

MR. MACKENZIE AND PROVINCIAL POLITICS.
Mr. Mackenzie Elected for West Middlesex.— Defeat of the Sandfield-
MacJonald Administration. — Mackenzie a Member of the Ne-w Government.
—His Position in Local Politics. — Speech as Provincial Treasurer. — Dual
Eepresentation Abolished.— His Choice of the Commons.
^N order to give color to the " no-party " cry on which
Sir John Macdonald was appealing to the country
in 1867, he secured for the Hon. John Sandfield
'^ Macdonald, a well-known Liberal, the appointment
of Premier of Ontario, it being well understood be
tween them that a coalition Government would be
formed for the Province of Ontario, and that both should
appeal for support on the same " no-party " cry. The object
of this arrangement was to divide the Liberal party, Mr.
Sandfield Macdonald expecting that with the aid of his Liberal
colleagues. Wood and Richards, he would carry the Liberals of
the Province ; while his'Conservative colleagues, Carling and
Cameron, would swing the Conservatives into line. This
move which was to benefit himself, was also to be of service to
Sir John Macdonald.
For a time, the leadership of the Opposition was entrusted
to Mr. Archibald McKellar, the sturdy member for Kent
But before the first session expired, it became quite evi
dent that Mr. Edward Blake, who represented West Durham in
the House of Commons, and South Bruce in the Leo-islative
Assembly, was the foremost member of the House on either
206

AT-^-O,

Hon. Edward Blake.

MR. MACKENZIE AND PROVINCIAL POLITICS

289

side, and entitled to the first place in the Liberal ranks. He
was accordingly elected leader, and entered with great energy
on the discharge of his duties. It is but fair to the Govern
ment to say that it was economical and progressive. Mr.
Sandfield Macdonald was not a statesman, althouo-h a good
administrator. He was a man of quick business habits, tenaci
ous and aggressive, and always repelled, with great vigor, the
attacks of his opponents. By his economy, he accumulated a
large surplus. How to invest this surplus in such a way as to
meet the necessities of the people, and develop the resources of
the Province, was, apparently, the worthy purpose to which he
applied himself. With the character of these investments no
fault can be found ; for instance, the establishment of the Agri
cultural College, the Institute for the Blind, the Institute for
the Deaf and Dumb, the Central Prison, the erection of new
asylums, and the granting of aid to railroads were all com
mendable, and in harmony with Liberal ideas. But, when it
appeared that these institutions were distributed as rewards
for pulitical support, that his scheme for aiding railroads was
likely to be used for a similar purpose, and when, above all,
it appeared that his influence as a Liberal was used to keep
Sir John Macdonald in power, the revolt of the Liberal party
against his Government was complete.
Although Mr. Sandfield Macdonald claimed to be a Reform
er, except in one or two instances he conducted the Govern
ment of Ontario after the most approved Tory methods. When
it was pointed out that several members of Parliament held
offices which necessarily affected their independence, he
declined to make a change, and called upon his supporters
to vote down any resolution having that object in view.
When Mr. Blake's resolutions respecting the " better terms "
to Nova Scotia were before the House, his tactics remind
s

290

LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.

one forcibly of Sir John Macdonald's course with regard
to the report of Mr. Brown's committee recommendino- a
O
federation of the Provinces. The resolutions were thirteen
in number. What is called in Parliamentary practice the
six months' hoist was moved by the Government to
each of them. On coming to the thirteenth, the House re
fused to follow the leader of the Government and the six
months' hoist was voted down. The House then divided as to
whether the resolutions should be adopted ; and Mr. Sandfield
Macdonald and his Government who a few moments before
had voted for the six months' hoist supported this resolution,
which was to the effect that, " in the opinion of this House,
the interests of the country require such legislation as may
remove all color for the assumption by the Parliament of
Canada of the power to disturb the financial relations estab
lished by the Union Act as between Canada and the several
Provinces." The murder of Scott which had occurred the year before was
also made to do duty in the Local election. Mr. Thos. Scott
was a citizen of Ontario. A year had passed since the sad
event of his death, and little or nothing had been done to
bring the offenders to justice. To ask a Legislature to express
an opinion upon a question beyond its own constitutional lim
itation is, as a rule, inadvisable. The House of Commons has
on several occasions volunteered its advice to the Imperial
Parliament notably on Home Rule, and on the Disestablish
ment of the Irish church ; but the tendering of such advice
neither added to its infiuence with the Imperial Government
nor to its usefulness as a deliberative body. Both parties in
the House of Commons and Local Legislature have occasion
ally indulged in similar kite-fiying with very indifferent results.
Mr. Blake's resolution with regard to the murder of Scott

MR MACKENZIE AND PROVINCIAL POLITICS. 291
vras largely sentimental. He asked the House simply to say
that " the cold-blooded murder for his out-spoken loyalty to
the Queen of Thos. Scott, lately a resident of this Province,
and an emigrant thence to the North-West, has impressed this
House with a deep feeling of sorrow and indignation ; and in
the opinion of this House, every effort should be made to
bring to trial the perpetrators of this great crime, who as yet
go unwhipped of justice ; and that an humble address be pre
sented to His Honor, the Lieutenant-Governor, embodying
this resolution, and praying him to take such steps as may be
best calculated to forward its views." The Government, in
resisting Mr. Blake's resolution, took the ground, while ex
pressing their sympathy with the untimely fate of their
countryman, " that it would be unwise and inexpedient to in
terfere with the prerogative which properly belongs to another
Government, and to discuss a question over which this House
has no control." This was the only ground which the
Government could take. To accept Mr. Blake's motion would
be to act contrary to the course of the Dominion Government ;
and this Mr. Sandfield Macdonald and his Tory allies could not
conveniently do, as they were looking to Ottawa for support in
the general election, then pending. How far Mr. Blake's reso
lution was helpful to the Liberal party, it is hard to say. It is
possible in some counties it secured for the Liberal candidate
a few votes. But its effect over the whole field of Ontario
politics is believed to have been trifling.
Objection was taken to Mr. Sandfield Macdonald's Govern
ment because it frequently asked Parliameat to place in its
hands, unconditionally, the expenditure of public moneys.
More than once the estimates contained a large item for the
erection of public buildings and asylums ; and when the House
enquired where such buildings were to be located, the Govern-

292 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
ment invariably refused an answer. The Liberals saw in this
attitude of the Government two very objectionable features —
First, Parliament and not the Executive should determine,
finally, the location of public buildings. Secondly, trading in
the location of public buildings for political purposes tended to
the debasement of constituencies. This was clearly seen from
some of Mr. Sandfield Macdonald's speeches, as well as from
the speeches of some of his colleagues. Speaking in South
Ontario, he said : " We promised them that the next session
there would be the biggest fight they ever saw in this country
when they came to expend $2,000,000 at the credit of the
Government, and no doubt South Ontario would like to get
some of that money.'' At Hamilton he suggested that if the
people had any " axes to grind," they had better support the
Government Mr. M. C. Cameron, his Provincial Secretary,
assured the people of Belleville that they obtained the Deaf
and Dumb Institute as a reward for their political support In
the same way, counties were divided for registration purposes
and new registry offices opened with a view to aid the Govern
ment candidates. The imitation of Ottawa methods was per
fect, as far as it went. Happily for the people of Ontario, as
Mr. Mackenzie said in one of his speeches, " such miserable,
pettifogging, peddling practices " were checked by the defeat
of the Sandfield Macdonald Government.
The main issue of the election, however, turned on a resolu
tion, moved by Mr. Blake, with regard to the distribution of
the surplus and the mode of aiding railways. Under an Act
of the old Legislative Assembly of Canada, municipalities were
allowed to borrow money from a fund called the Municipal
Loan Fund, set apart by the Government for public improve
ments, such as roads, bridges, harbors, and public buildings.
The facility which this fund afforded for obtaining money at

MR. MACKENZIE AND PROVINCIAL POLITICS. 293
a loKv rate of interest, and the influence used with the Govern
ment of the day to postpone the payment of principal or
interest, in some cases involved many municipalities in debt
far beyond their ability to repay the amount borrowed. The
Liberal party contended that any scheme for the distribution
of the surplus which did not consider the condition of the
indebted municipalities, would not meet with the approval of
the country. As will be seen, the resolution also struck a
death-blow at the distribution of railway aid on the authority
of the Executive, as to the railways proposed to be aided.
The Liberal party called upon the country to vindicate the
right of Parliament to be consulted with regard to the great
public interests involved, and particularly to restrain the
Government from using the tremendous influence which the
granting of railway subsidies on its own authority would
place in its hands for political purposes.
When the Liberal policy was placed before the electors,
and when it was shown that Mr. Sandfield Macdonald's
Government was in practice, at all events, no longer a coalition,
but a feeble imitation of its Ottawa prototype, the Liberals
bad no difficulty in deciding what course to take. And
with Mr. Blake as leader, they entered upon the campaign
with unbounded enthusiasm.
The west riding of Middlesex is geographically, contiguous
to Lambton, the county represented by Mr. Mackenzie
in the House of Commons, and the electors of that riding were
intimately acquainted with Mr. Mackenzie's parliamentary
career. Many of them had heard him on the platform in his
own county as he defended the policy of his party, or as he
exposed the weaknesses of his opponents, and were deeply
impressed with his courage, honesty and ability. When his
name was mentioned, therefore, as a possible candidate, the

294 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE:
general enquiry was, would he accept the nomination? To
insure his doing so, a convention was called and a requisi
tion immediately circulated inviting him to take the field. In
the course of a few days, 1,300 signatures were obtained
to the requisition, and if he would only allow himself to be
placed in the field, the Liberal party were assured of an
easy victory. Although much gratified, as he said in his ad
dress, by their appreciation of his public services so amply
sustained by such a large requisition, he was by no means
anxious to be a candidate. The House of Commons was in
session, and his duties as leader of the Opposition demanded
all his time and strength. To the great delight, however, of
the Liberal party in the west riding of Middlesex, and under
a deep sense of his duty to his country, he waived all personal
considerations, and entered upon the contest with an energy
which evoked the heartiest co-operation of his friends. In
his address to the electors he said : " Having no personal
object to gratify, I engage in this contest solely for public
and political reasons, and to assist as far as my humble
efforts can do a return to sound constitutional principles of
government The present Government of Ontario has been
from the first the mere creature of the Dominion Govern
ment, existing by its sufferance and subject to its control.
Formed on the same pretended " no-party " principle as the
Ottawa Government, it has established its right to be classed
with it in its status of political morality. The Government
openly avows its intention to locate public buildings and
public works where it received the greatest amount of
parliamentary support Such practices and such avowals
are, however, the natural result of a coalition of men in a
Government holding different political opinions and having
no common object in view but their retention of office. In

MR. MACKENZIE AND PROVINCIAL POLITICS.

295

my opinion, no more shameless admission could be made
by any Government and this alone should secure its con
demnation by the electors of the country. It shall be my
earnest endeavor and desire to secure a return to a correct
a':lministrative system and the supremacy of parliamentary
purity and control."
Mr. Sandfield Macdonald was determined that the country
should not be allowed much time in which to criticise the policy
of his Administration ; and so without warning, and contrary
to expectation, the House was dissolved and the general elec
tion fixed for the 21st day of March, 1871. Mr. Mackenzie
accepted the nomination on the 5th of March, and the task of
making himself known to his new constituents was limited
to fifteen days. Under ordinary circumstances, to canvass a
large constituency in two weeks is no easy matter. Owing to
the early breaking up of winter and the unimproved condition
of mfiny of the roads at that time, the task was doubly diffi
cult Nevertheless, mounted on horseback, with a trusty
Liberal as his guide, he canvassed the riding from one end to
the other, holding two meetings a day, organising the party
and making havoc of his opponents wherever he met them.
Never was he more vigorous, more buoyant or perhaps more
successful. He was received everywhere with the greatest
enthusiasm. His straightforwardness, his wonderful grasp of
every question discussed, his incisiveness and lucidity as a
speaker, impressed the electors as they were never impressed
before. In vain did his opponent, Mr. Currie, struggle to stem
the tide of excitement. He called meetings in order to vin
dicate his course in Parliament ; but his own meetings were
turned ao-ainst him by Mr. Mackenzie, and many Tories
"Who came to scoff remained to pray."

296 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
His victory was decisive, and was both a personal and a party
triumph. To the party, it was a constituency wrested from
the enemy. To Mr. Mackenzie, himself, it was an expression
of confidence in the integrity of his career and his usefulness
in the public service.
The result of the general election was very satisfactory to
the Liberal party. The estimate made by the Globe on the
day following the election was as follows :
Ministerial members returned, 32.
Opposition members, 41.
Independents, 7, with Addington and Algoma to hear from.
Many of the leading Liberals were returned b.y large ma
jorities, and it was quite evident that the sentiment of the
country was against the Administration.
Parliament was called for the despatch of business on
the 7th of December, 1871, Mr. R. W. Scott being elected
Speaker. It was quite evident from the excitement in the
lobbies and the anxiety depicted on the faces of the members
of the Government, that a great political struggle was pending.
On the 11th, the battle began on a motion by Mr. Blake,
expressing regret at the action taken by the Legislative
Assembly, during the previous session, under the guidance of
the Government, with reference to the large powers given the
Executive as to the disposition of the railway aid fund. This
motion was resisted on the ground, as stated in the Govern
ments amendment to Mr. Blake's motion, that one-tenth of
the constituencies of the Province were unrepresented in the
House, and that it was inexpedient to consider the question
involved in Mr. Blake's motion until all the constituencies
were duly represented in Parliament. To this plea of the Gov
ernment, the Opposition made answer that the House was
called for the despatch of business, that the Government pro-

MR. MACKENZIE AND PROVINCIAL POLITICS. 297
posed to go on with business, as they asked the House to
consider the Lieutenant-Governor's address, that if the House
was competent to do business, at all, it was equally competent
to sit in judgment on the Government ; and that the appeal for
a postponement of its action was an acknowledgment of
weakness which the House was not bound to respect
On a vote being taken, the Government was defeated by a
majority of eight. Mr. Blake's resolution was then carried on
a vote of 30 to 40. This was on the 14th of December. On
the same day Mr. Mackenzie moved : " That we have no con
fidence in a Ministry which is attempting to carry out in
reference to the railway fund of $1,500,000, an usurpation
fraught with danger to public liberty and constitutional
government." On this motion, Mr. Mackenzie delivered his
first address " which both for the material it contained," said
the Globe of the following day, " and the manner of its delivery,
was a model of aggressive parliamentary warfare." He
reviewed Mr. Sandfield Macdonald's policy in the old Parlia
ment of Canada, and contrasted his conduct as a Liberal then
with his well-known Conservative tendencies now. He
exposed his treachery to the Liberal party in combining with
Sir John Macdonald for the defeat of the Liberals in 1867, and
raUied. him severely for his want of independence 'in not
resigning when he saw clearly that the feeling of the House
was against him. After a brief reply from Mr. Sandfield
Macdonald, a vote was taken, and Mr. Mackenzie's resolution
was carried by a majority of one.
When the House re-assembled on the 18th, Mr. Blake
determined to show the Government that he was master of the
situation by moving a direct vote of want of confidence.
Among other things, he said " that the continuance in office of
the Government of the day is, under existing circumstances,

298 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
at variance with the spirit of the constitution." The Govern
ment met this resolution by a motion to adjourn the House
until the 9th of January. This was lost on a vote of 26 to 43 ;
and Mr. Blake's resolution was carried on a vote of 44 to 25.
With this vote, the Sandfield Macdonald Administration was at
an end ; and on the following day Mr. Blake was called by His
Honor the Lieutenant-Governor to form a new Administration.
Mr. Blake was not long in forming his new Government
His arrangement of Cabinet seats was as follows :
Mr. Edward Blake, Premier of the Council ; Adam Crooks,
Attorney-General ; Peter Gow, Provincial Secretary ; Alex.
Mackenzie, Provincial Treasurer ; R. W. Scott, Commissioner
of Crown Lands ; A. McKellar, Commissioner of Agriculture
and Public Works.
According to constitutional usage, the new Ministers had to
appeal to their constituents for re-election.
The 5th of January was the day mentioned in the writ for
the nomination of candidates in West Middlesex, and Mr. Mac
kenzie had of course to appear before his constituents. In
asking for a renewal of their confidence, he pointed out
that the policy of the new Government embraced measures to
better secure the independence of Parliament and to make it
impossible for a Government to purchase the support of mem
bers by gifts of office and emolument. The railway act of last
session was to be amended so that no railway could obtain one
cent of aid without the previous assent of the House of
Assembly. The location of public buildings would be made
known to the House before the estimate for their construction
was voted. Dual representation would be abolished, and the
Government of Ontario would no longer be subordinated to
the party in power at Ottawa. He repelled the charge that
they had formed a coalition with Mr. Scott, by stating that Mr.

MR. MACKENZIE AND PROVINCIAL POLITICS. 299
Scott had accepted every plank in their platform and was
prepared to join them in giving their principles effect in
legislation. How, then, could it be a coalition ? "The Admin
istration," he said, "was formed of men that would work
in harmony together, of men who would give effect to those
principles of public policy which lay at the foundation of
good government, and would put an end to the scandal of a
Minister of the Crown perambulating the country, offering
his principles and the patronage of the Government for
public competition. They intended to carry their principles
fully into operation and to administer the Government not
only without reference to the political opinion of any par
ticular quarter, but in the interests of the whole country. It
had been his proud privilege since he entered public life to
adhere closely to those principles which he had imbibed in
his early years. It had been his privilege to obtain some
measure of moral support and influence throughout the
country, and that support and influence he prized infinitely
higher than he did any official position in the land, and he
would not sacrifice it for the best gift in the power of the
Briti.sh or the Canadian Government He hoped at the close
of his career to be able to look back without a single pang of
regret at the course he had taken in the public affairs of the
country." In the face of the large majority obtained the previous year,
all opposition was withdrawn, and for the second time the
electors of West Middlesex expressed their confidence in the
future leader of the Liberal party.
The House met pursuant to adjournment, on the 18th of
January. Mr. Sandfield Macdonald declined to accept the
leadership of the Opposition, and at a caucus of the party,
Mr. M. C. Cameron was appointed to that position. The early

300 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
days of the session were taken up in the discussion of a num
ber of paltry charges against the new Government. Mr. Scott,
who resigned the Speakership to which he was appointed
under Mr. Sandfield Macdonald, to accept the portfolio of
Commissioner of Crown Lands, was singled out for special
attack. He was charged with being in the pay of the lumber
men and consequently unfit for the duties of his office. Being
elected, it was claimed, as a supporter of Mr. Sandfield Mac
donald, he could not take office under Mr. Blake except either
by a sacrifice of his political principles or on the understanding
that the Government which he entered was a coalition. All
these charges were, however, repelled both by Mr. Scott and
Mr. Blake in the most vigorous terms. As Mr. Mackenzie
said, " Mr. Scott accepted every plank in the Liberal platform ; "
and Mr. Blake, in his defence of his Governpnent, stated that
there were no " open questions " left over for future consid
eration. The Opposition next attacked Mr, Blake on the ground that
he had offered a corrupt inducement to Hon. E. B. Wood, a
member of Mr. Sandfield Macdonald's Administration, to resign
his seat in the Government and support the Liberal party.
The charge, briefly summarised, is as follows : While Mr.
Sandfield Macdonald's Government was being arraigned by
the Opposition for its misdeeds, a page conveyed a message
from Mr. Blake to Mr. Wood ; that subsequent to the receipt of
that message Mr. Wood arose and moved from -his usual
place in the House to a seat on the back benches ; that in doing
so he received an approving nod from Mr. Blake, which he
returned ; and that these circumstances indicated a corrupt
collusion between Mr. Blake and Mr. Wood. On the strength
of this suspicion, Mr. Cameron asked for a special committee
of investigation. His motion was amended in the usual

MR. MACKENZIE AND PROVINCIAL P0LITI08. 301
parliamentary way in the case of charges by one member
against another so as to make him responsible as a member of
the House for the complaint which he had previously formu
lated in general terms. Mr. Cameron refused to appear before
the committee. Both Mr Wood and Mr. Blake denied the
charge, and so the matter ended.
Mr. McKellar. who was Commissioner of Public Works, had
also transgressed the proprieties of Parliament — so the
Opposition said — and a special committee was called for to
inquire into his conduct It was alleged, in his case, that he
had commissioned one Lewis, a Government inspector of
lands, while an election was pending in the south riding of
Grey, to say that if the electors voted against Mr. Lauder, the
Opposition candidate, " they should have the full benefit of the
low estimate which had been made of the value of their lands,
but not otherwise." The investigation into this scandal was a
complete vindication of Mr. McKellar and a sore disappoint
ment to the Opposition.
Mr. Mackenzie, who had taken an active part in the discus
sions of the House, was now called upon to show his knowledge
of the financial affairs of the province and to unfold the policy
of the Government in all matters affecting his department It
is needless to say that, although sworn in as Treasurer but two
months before, he showed a marvellous grasp of the details of
his office ; and his budget speech is in no sense inferior to the
budget speeches of many worthy successors, who had the
advantage of experience in their favor. He opened his remarks
by a running commentary on the privileges enjoyed by
Ontario, under the Union Act. " It was the constant complaint
prior to 1867, that we were subjected, as a people, to unfair
influences. We were placed in the position of contributing
from two-thirds to three-fourths of the revenue of the

302 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
country, while we were always unable to obtain for any
local purposes, such as we tax ourselves for under the present
system, the half of the actual revenue of the united provinces.
In this respect, he believed the change effected by the confed
eration of the provinces was extremely beneficial to us as a
province; and he hoped to the Province of Quebec also, by
stimulating people to greater exertions in regard to local
affairs, instead of depending upon the general resources."
He then pointed out the benefits accruing to Ontario from
her admirable municipal system and the consequent rehef
which it afforded to the Treasury. " Our surplus," he said,
" was not owing so much to the accumulation of balances in
the Treasurer's hands as to the relief to the Treasury of
Ontario from charges for a variety of public works which in
the other provinces were paid by the Provincial Government"
He advocated the free education of indigent pupils at the
Belleville Institute for the Deaf and Dumb and the Brantford
Institute for the Blind, using the expressive words : " It was
the bounden duty of the country to see that such children
were properly educated."
In proposing an increased grant for education, he said:
"The education of the people was one of the very first con
siderations that should actuate a Government in preparing
estimates of public expenditure." Speaking of the teachers,
he said : " It was extremely desirable to raise the profession of
teachers as much as possible. They were a most important
class of persons, and much of the future prosperity of the
country depended on the class of teachers that were employed
in our public schools. When, under the late school act
higher qualifications were demanded of teachers, it would
be quite unfair to demand these qualifications without
demanding a remuneration somewhat larger than before."

MR. MACKENZIE AND PROVINCIAL POLITICS. 303
He also advocated a vigorous immigration policy, and the
settlement of the dispute between Ontario and Quebec as to
our Western boundaries.
The promised legislation with regard to Dual Representation
was brought down by Mr. Blake, by which members of the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario were thereafter disqualified
from sitting and voting in the House of Commons. The
Railway Aid resolutions were also submitted to the House for
approval, as promised by the Liberals when in Opposition, and
amendments were made to the Registry Act providing for the
distribution, among the municipalities, of certain portions of
the income of registrars in excess of the sums mentioned in
the Act.
A sum of $5,000 was placed in the estimates as a reward
for the apprehension of the murderers of Scott ; and on the
2nd of March, the House prorogued.
The great services rendered the Province of Ontario by Mr.
Mackenzie, as a meinbsr of the Local Legislature, should not
be overlooked. Had he declined the nomination in the west
riding of Middlesex, it is more than probable its former Tory
representative would have been re-elected, and this, on a
division, would have counted two votes for Mr. Sandfield
Macdonald. Besides winning a seat for his party, his courage
aud devotion in entering the field against the Sandfield Mac
donald Administration stimulated the party to greater exertions
all over the province. Success at the elections meant the
formation of a new Government, of which Mr. Mackenzie
would necessarily be a member, and the hope of this consoli
dated the party in many counties. In the struggle in the
House, also, with the Administration, Mr. Mackenzie's counsel
was of great value, as well as his pertinacity and destructive-
ness as a debater. Had he reposed on his laurels as leader of

304 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
the Opposition, at Ottawa, or had he been less devoted to his
party, he would never have aissumed the additional burdens of
a seat in the Legislative Assembly. What Ontario owes to him
for the sacrifices he made, and to those who acted with him, is
it not written in the Books of the Chronicles of the Liberal
party during the last twenty years?
When the members of the Local Legislature who held seats
in the House of Commons were relieved from the discharge
of their duties as provincial legislators, they were almost
immediateh' called to meet at Ottawa ; and during the session
of that year (1872) were told that they must resign their seats
as members of the Local Legislature befoie they could be
elected members of the Dominion Parliament. Both Mr.
Mackenzie and Mr. Blake, the only two members concerned,
chose the House of Commons ; but before doing so, had agreed
wisely and fortunately for the people of Ontario upon Mr.
Oliver Mowat, as leader of the Government Objection was
taken to this appointment on account of Mr. Mowat's position
as vice-chancellor for the province ; and it was many years
before the country was relieved from the pitiful reiteration of
the Tory press, that in accepting the Premiership he descended
from the bench regardless of his judicial ermine. "That no
mistake was made in his appointment is abundantly proven
by his record as the Liberal leader for twenty years. Those
who were associated with him in the old Parliament of Canada
i-ecognised the great ability which he po.«SGSsed ; and among
the many letters of congratulation received by Mr. Mackenzie
on account of this appointment, the one already quoted from
the Hon. L. H. Holton may be taken as expressing the views
of all his old associates in the Parliament of Canada.
The following letter also from the same writer is worthy of
note :

^.¦-fr-Ce.

Sir Oliver Mowat.

MR. MACKENZIE AND PROVINCIAL POLITICS. 307
"Montreal, .Jan. 7th, 1872.
" My Dear Mackenzie,
"I need not say that I have followed your movements in Ontario with
intense interest. The vigor of the onset that brought the crisis, and the
sound judgment with which the crisis itself was dealt with, were equally
admirable. I confess, however, to some concern at finding both you and
Blake yoked to the local car. Am I right in the inference that this is
merely a temporary arrangement rendered necessary, or at least expedi
ent, by the newness of public life of some of your colleagues, and that
after getting the machine in good running order, you and Blake will
withdraw, and beyond preserving your seats in the Assembly coiiGne
yourselves to the Dominion service. This has been my theory from the
start. The only debatable point in your proceedings is the appointment
of Scott, but that I am prepared not only to defend but to commend.
Our great need as a party is a conviction in the public mind that we can
govern, and to have formed a Provincial Cabinet without an eastern man
and without a Roman Catholic in it would have been nearly tantamount
to a confession that you could not form what used to be 'a broad-bot
tomed administration,' and any other must be ephemeral. Now Scott
fulfils both these essential conditions, and is in all other respects, saving
of course his Tory antecedents, which he necessarily abandons in joining
you, not merely an unobjectionable, but a most desirable colleague with
reference to the efficiency of your Provincial Administration.
" Truly yours, " L. H. Holton.
" Hon. Alex Mackenzie, "Toronto.'-

CHAPTER XXIIL

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY.
C mditions for constructing the Canadian Pacific Railway — Debate in Parlia
ment — Burdens involved — New Brunswick School Bill — Rights of the Min
ority — Mr. Mackenzie's Attitude— First Gerrymander.
HE great event of the session of 1872 was the formal
proposition of the Government for the construction
of a trans-continental railway. As we have seen,
by the terms of union with British Columbia,
Parliament was pledged to commence such a road
within two years of the date of union, and complete it
within ten years of the same date. The Eastern terminus of
the road was to ba some point on or near Lake Nipissing; the
Western terminus, the shore of the Pacific Ocean. The course
and line of the road was to be subject to the approval of the
Governor in Council. The railway was to be constructed' by
a Company, to be approved by the Governor-in-Council.
The Company was to receive a grant of 50,000,000 acres of
land in blocks of twenty miles in depth, on each side of the
line, alternating with similar blocks reserved for the Govern
ment. In case the 50,000,000 acres of land were not avail
able contiguous to the railway, the deficiency was to be
made up out of other lands held by tho Government A
subsidy, not exceeding $30,000,000 was to be paid the
Company as the work progressed, and the Governor in
Council was to be authorised to raise by loan this amount,
308

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAIL WA Y. 309
if necessary. Provision was also made to construct a branch
line from Manitoba to some point on the American frontier,
and another branch line to some point on Lake Superior.
The Opposition had, in a general way, expressed their opinion
with regard to the construction of such a railway, when the
terms for the admission of British Columbia were before the
House; and there remained little to do except to formulate their
objections. They first protested against investing the Governor-
in-Council with the power of approving of the route along which
the railway should be built, claiming that to place 50,000,000
acres of land and $30,000,000 of money at the disposition of
the Government for a railway, wherever they might choose to
locate it, was an abnegation of the functions of Parliament.
The country had suffered severely from the unwise choice the
Government had made with regard to the route of the Inter
colonial Railway, not more than one-fourth the length of the
proposed Canadian Pacific Railway. If they were faithless in
the shorter road, how could they be trusted in the larger one ?
Sandfield Macdonald's Government, in Ontario, had suffered
defeat largely because it had taken to itself the power of
paying over $1,500,000 to railways without first submitting to
Parliament the allocation of the roads to be so aided. The
public opinion of Ontario was, therefore, against granting the
Government the extraordinary powers asked for. Their
second protest was against the power claimed by the resolution
to charter a company without first submitting to Parliament
for its approval the conditions on which such charter was to
be granted. Their third protest was against the assumption
by the Government of handing over 50,000,000 acres of land
— equal in extent to six provinces of the size of Manitoba —
without reference to Parliament Their fourth protest was

310 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
against chartering a railway company of which any member
of Parliament might be a shareholder.
Never did a Government, in the history of any colony, under
the British Crown, ask for such extraordinary power. No won
der, with the prospect of getting the authority which was asked
for in the resolutions respecting this railway, that Sir George
Cartier exclaimed, " The Governor-in-Council is a great insti
tution." When Mr. Mackenzie protested against the usurpa
tion of the authority of Parliament by the Executive, an
appeal to the majority of the House was almost the only
answer made. No evidence was produced even that the case
was urgent, that any public interest would suffer by reasonable
delay, or that public opinion was in favor of immediate action
Even so strong a supporter of the Government as Senator
Macpherson objected to the immediate construction of the
whole line of railway. On April 3, 1871, when the British
Columbia resolutions were before the Senate, he said : " I do
not yield to any honorable gentleman in the desire to see an
interoceanic railway through British territory; but we
should advance prudently, using the American lines to our
South-Western frontier ; then, build our railway westward
through the prairie lands which are so attractive to settlers,
and carefully explore the country between Fort Garry and
Lake Nipissing before undertaking to build a railway through
it. It is absurd to say that the exchequer of the Dominion
is to be burdened with an expenditure of $100,000,000 for the
proposed railway. No one can seriously believe that there
is any such design in contemplation. Would any Govern
ment be insane enough to propose such a thing ? Would the
country sanction such a policy ; or would it be possible to
borrow such a sum of money ? " It is feared, however, that
prospective contractors and others, whose influence with the

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAIL WA Y. 311
Government was so potent, had given assurances of substantial
support of such a character as would enable the Governor in
Council to act in defiance of public opinion ; and before the
close of the year it was pretty well known that this was really
the case. The futility of an appeal to a purchased jury is well
known. For the first time since Confederation, the House was called
upon to consider a question likely to arouse religious prejudices,
and to lead to a misunderstanding between Catholics and
Protestants as to the attitude of the two political parties with
regard to the rights of minorities. In 1871, the Legislative
Assembly of New Brunswick passed a new school act, with
drawing from Roman Catholics the privilege of establishing
separate schools, and providing for the support of public schools
by general taxation without distinction of persons or creeds.
The Roman Catholics of New Brunswick strongly protested
against the passage of the bill, demanding the same privileges
as were conceded to the minority in Ontario and Quebec. Their
views being rejected by the Legislative Assembly, the Roman
Catholics petitioned the Governor-General to disallow the Act,
urging that if the Act went into operation, they would be
compelled to contribute to the support of a school system of
which they conscientiously disapproved. They contended that
under the 93rd clause of the British North America Act, they
had a right to the educational privileges which they claimed
and of which, in their opinion, they were unlawfully deprived
by the Legislative Assembly.
Their petition was referred to the Minister of Justice, Sir
John Macdonald, who held that the Legislative Assembly had
not exceeded its power, and that therefore he could not advise
His Excellency to disallow the Act to which objection was
taken. On May 20th, Mr. Costigan moved a resolution setting

312 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
forth the views of the Roman Catholics on this question and
asking His Excellency in consequence, "to disallow the New
Brunswick school law " at the earhest possible period. The
debate extended over several days. It was plainly seen that
both sides of the House were anxious not to interfere with the
control of Local Legislatures over matters within their constitu
tional limitations, so Mr. Costigan's motion was lost, as were
also several amendments. First, the amendment by Colonel
Gray, affirming that the law passed by the Local Legislature in
New Brunswick respecting common schools was strictly within
the limits of its constitutional powers. Second, the amend
ment by Mr. Chauveau, proposing that the Imperial Govern
ment should amend the British North America Act of 1867i
so as to secure to every religious denomination in New
Brunswick and Nova Scotia all such rights, advantages, and
privileges with regard to their schools as they enjoyed at the
time of the passage of the British North America Act Third,
an amendment expressing regret that His Excellency had not
been advised to disallow the New Brunswick School Act A
motion by Mr. Colby, expressing regret that the New Bruns
wick School Act was unsatisfactory to a portion of the inhabi
tants of that Province, and expressing the hope that the
Legislature of New Brunswick, at its next session, would
remove all just grounds of discontent, was carried, together with
a motion moved by Mr. Mackenzie : " That the opinion of the
law officers of the Crown and, if possible, the opinion of the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council should be obtained as
to the right of the New Brunswick Legislature to make such
changes in the school law as deprived the Roman Catholics of
the privileges they enjoyed at the time of the union, in respect
of religious education in the common schools, with the view of
ascertaining whether the case coines within the terms of the

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 313
93rd clause of the British North America Act 1867." On
November 29, 1872, the law officers of the Crown concuried
in the opinion previously expressed by Sir John Macdonald ;
namely, " that the New Brunswick School Bill was within the
jurisdiction of the Legislative Assembly." The Judicial Com
mittee of the Privy Council declined to express any opinion
on the question, on the ground that the power of allowing or
disallowing provincial acts is vested by statute in the Governor-
General of the Dominion of Canada, acting under the advice
of his constitutional advisers.
An attempt was made to bring the question before the
Privy Council on appeal from the Supreme Court of New
Brunswick, in which it was decided that the Provincial Act
Wfs valid; but the law officers of the Crown determined
that such an appeal should not be submitted, as they still
adhered to the previous opinion.
On the 6th of May, 1874, Mr. Costigan moved a resolution
calling upon the Imperial Parliament to amend the British
North America A ct in the direction desired by the Roman Catho
lics of New Brunswick, which, with the permission of the
House, he afterwards withdrew. Again, in 1875, on the 8th
of March, he renewed his demand for an amendment to the
British North America Act by which the Roman Catholic
inhabitants of New Brunswick would be set on the same
footing as the Roman Catholic minority in Ontario or the
Protestant minority in Quebec.
The proposal to amend the Constitution of the Dominion in
order to allow the establishment of Separate schools in New
Brunswick, contrary to the expressed wishes of the people,
was strongly deprecated by leading members of the House.
Even those who sympathised with the contention of the
Roman Catholics believed that to vote for the resolution

314 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
before the House would be subversive of the principles upon
which the Constitution was founded. To destroy the local
independence of one province would practically be to destroy
the independence of all. If the Dominion Government began
the practice of coercing one province, where was it to stop ?
Might it not lead to the transfer of the subject of education
from the Local Legislatures to the Parliament of Canada, or
to the abolition of any or all the privileges enjoyed by the
provinces under the British North America Act?
In speaking of Mr. Costigan's resolution, Mr. Mackenzie said :
" I believe in free schools and iu the non-denominational system,
and if I could persuade my fellow-countrymen in Ontario or
Quebec or any other province to adopt that principle, it is the
one I would give preference to above all others ; but I cannot
shut my eyes to the fact that in all the provinces, there is a
very considerable number of people — in the Province of Que
bec, indeed a large majority — who believe that the dogmas
of religion should be taught in the public schools ; that it has
an intimate relationship with the morality of the people, that
it is essential to their welfare as a people, that the doctrines
of their church should be taught and religious principle,
according to their theory of religious principle, be instilled
into the minds of their children at School. For many years
after I held a seat iu the Parliament of Canada I waged war
against the principle of Separate schools. I hoped to be able
— young and inexperienced as I was — to establish a system to
which all would ultimately yield their assent. Sir, it was
found to be impracticable in operation and impossible in
political contingencies; and consequently when the Confed
eration Act was passed in 1867, or rather when the Quebec
resolutions were adopted in 1864-65, which embodied the
principle that should be the law of the land. Confederation

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 315
took place under the compact then entered upon. I heartily
assented to that proposition, and supported it by speech and
vote in the Confederation debate. And, Sir, the same ground
which led me on that occasion to give loyal assistance to the
Confederation project, embracing as it did a scheme of having
Separate Schools for Catholics in Ontario and Protestants in
Quebec, caused me to feel bound to extend, at all events, my
sympathy, if I could not give my active assistance to those
in other provinces who believed they were lq,boring under
the same disability and suffering from the same grievances
that the Catholics of Ontario complained of for many years.
But, Sir, there is a higher principle still which we have to
adhere to, and that is to preserve in their integrity the
principles of the Constitution under which we live. If any
personal act of mine, if anything I could do would assist to
relieve those who believe they are living under a grievance
in the Province of New Brunswick, that act would be gladly
undertaken and zealously performed ; but I have no right,
this House has no right, to interfere with the legislation of a
Province when that legislation is secured by Imperial com
pact, to which all the parties submitted in the Act of Con
federation. ^ ,^ ^ ^ 1 may point this out to honorable
gentlemen in this House and to the country that, if it were
competent for this House directly or indirectly to set aside
the Constitution as regards one of the smaller Provinces, it
would be equally competent for this House to set it aside as
regards the privileges which the Catholics enjoy at this
.moment in Ontario. It is not desirable that we should make
the way open for such purpose, and it is not desirable that
anything should be done which would excite religious discus
sions and promote religious animosities." Mr. Mackenzie
closed his speech by proposing an amendment declaring that

316 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
legislation by the Imperial Parliament encroaching on any of
the powers reserved to any of the provinces by the British
North America Act would be an infraction of the British
Constitution and that it would be inexpedient and fraught
with danger to each of the provinces for the House to invite
such legislation."
After considerable discussion, it was proposed to add to Mr.
Mackenzie's motion an expression of regret that the New
Brunswick Legislature had not modified the School Act of 1871
in such a way as to remove all just ground of dissatisfaction,
and that an humble address be presented to Her Majesty,
praying her to use such influence with the Legislature of New
Brunswick as would secure such modifications. The divisions
in the House showed a very curious change of front on the
part of the Conservatives. In 1872 they unanimously voted
for a resolution expressing regret at the action of the Legis
lative Assembly of New Brunswick ; and Sir John Macdonald,
who was then Premier, expressed, on behalf of the Government,
his willingness to bear the expenses of appeal to the Privy
Council. They also voted down, assisted by Mr. Mackenzie,
Mr. Blake, and other leading Liberals, an amendment by Mr.
Dorion, embodying the view that the bill should be disallowed.
They then voted down another amendment proposed by Mr.
Chauveau, calling upon the Imperial Government for such a
modification of the British North America Act as would meet
the complaints of the Roman Catholics in New Brunswick ;
while in 1875, they were unwilling to express regret at the
action of the Legislature of New Brunswick in not repealing,
the obnoxious School Act, but were quite ready to ask the
Imperial Parliament to amend the British North America Act,
1867, as desired. Even such a doughty champion of Protest
antism as Mr. Bowell was prepared to amend the constitution

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 317
of New Brunswick nolens volens on the lines advocated by
Mr. Costigan.
The action of the Liberal party on the New Brunswick
School Bill is worthy of the highest praise. The real question
at issue was not whether the Roman Catholics of New Bruns
wick should be granted Separate Schools or not ; the question
was, should the Dominion Parliament override the Constitu
tion in order to redress a grievance which came within the
province of the Local Legislature. No doubt many Roman
Catholics in their conscientious zeal for Separate-Schools, felt
that in resisting the demand made by Mr. Costigan for the
relief they desired, the Liberals were actuated by hostility
to Separate Schools. They failed to see that the exercise
of the power which would give them Separate Schools
iu New Brunswick might, in the hands of an unscrupulous
leader, deprive them of Separate Schools in the Province of
Ontario, or even in Quebec. The sections of the British North
America Act which deal with education were specially intended
for the protection of minorities. If the Parliament of Canada
could so far forget itself as to ignore its own Constitution, then
every safeguard provided for the protection of the minority
in the Province of Ontario, would be swept away.
The session of 1872 will a-lso be remembered as the session
in which the first Redistribution bill of a Conservative Gov
ernment was introduced containing the very objectionable
features of the later measures of 1882 and 1892 , for instance,
the old borough of Niagara, with a population of 3,963, and
Cornwall town and township, with a population of 7,114, were
each allowed a representative in Parliament or a member for
5 500 inhabitants, although the mean average was 18,315
persons per iriomber. North Simcoe, South Bruce, Essex and
Lambton were only allowed one member each, or at the rate of

318 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
32,485 persons per member. The electoral district of Monek
was carved out as a Tory preserve, and the county of Huron
was adjusted for the purpose of sacrificing its Liberal repre
sentative, Mr. M. C. Cameron. It was also provided that the
cities of Ottawa and Hamilton should not be divided into elec
toral districts the same as Montreal and Toronto. The bill, as
submitted by the Government, passed the House — the first of
a series of wrongs of a similar kind adopted for the purpose of
stifling the free expression of the public opinion of Canada at
the polls.

CHAPTER XXIV.

DOWNF.A.LL OF THE GOVEKNMENT.

General Election of 1872— Issues Before the Country— Sir John Meets Mac
kenzie at Sarnia — Appointment of a Leader — Selection of Mr. Mackenzie^
Interesting Letter to his Biother — Irregular Elections — The Pacific Scandal
— Huntington's Charges — Appointment of a Committee — Sir John Mac
donald's Evasions — The Oaths Bill — Prorogation Amidst Great Excitement
— Meeting of Liberals in Railway Committee Room — Memorial to the Gover
nor-General — Appointment of a Commission — Meeting of Parliament —
Speeches by the Opposition Leaders — Resignation of the Government.
HE country had now five years' experience of " no-
party " Government under Sir John Macdonald,
and the electors were called upon to consider how
far he had fulfilled the promises made at the in
ception of Confederation. Certainly it was impossible
for him, from the complexion of his Cabinet, and from
the character of the legislation of the pa^t five years, to raise
the " no-party " cry a second time. Mr. Howland and Mr.
MacDougall, his Liberal allies from Ontario in 1867, were no
longer members of his Government ; Mr. Fergusson-Blair had
passed over to the majority ; and the men called to fill their
places from Ontario, whatever may have been their previous
party antecedents, were everywhere regarded by Liberals as
his most devoted followers. Sir Francis Hincks, his Minister
of Finance, had forfeited all claims upon the Liberal party
many years ago, and neither Mr. Aikins nor Mr. Morris could
boast of a Liberal following. As, therefore, the "no-party"
319

320 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
cry could no longer be relied upon, a gigantic scheme for pur
chasing the election was inaugurated.
The questions to be considered by the electors were large
enough for an empire, let alone a colony. Since 1867, Canada
had acquired the North-West Territories, had given a pro
vincial constitution to part of these Territories, and had placed
the remainder under a Territorial Government For the peo
ple of Canada to consider whether the project of " nation-
building " on which they had now embarked was a wise one,
and whether the constitution under which their borders were
being extended was consistent with the interests of the other
Provinces, were issues of no ordinary magnitude. If the
foundations were well and truly laid, the prosperity of the
country, as a whole, would be advanced. If, on the other
hand, popular rights were disregarded, dangerous concessions
made, or bad precedents established, then, like the union of
Ireland with Great Britain under Pitt, the extension of her
boundaries would have been effected at the expense of the
future comfort and well-being of the Dominion.
Mr. Mackenzie and his Liberal allies found ample material
in the blundering of the Government in connection with the
North-West Territories, and in the organisation of the Pro
vince of Manitoba, by which to censure the Government and
to array public feeling against them, and so the whole train
of circumstances — the expulsion of MacDougall in 1869, the
murder of Scott in 1870, the uprising of the people, rendering
Colonel Wolseley's expedition necessary, and the suspected
truculence of the Administration to Sir George Cartier — were
the subjects of discussion on every platform. It is to be
feared that in the prominence given to details the larger ques
tions affecting the constitutional issues involved were lost
sight of.

DOWNFALL OF THE GOVERNMENT. 321
The terms made with British Columbia were also before
the electors. Were these terms just to the other Provinces ?
Did they give British Columbia more influence in Parliament
than she was fairly entitled to ? The covenant to complete a
line of railway, connecting her with the older Provinces, in
twelve years, without an estimate of the cost of such an un
dertaking, was a fit subject for discussion. And here, too, it
is possible that the rhapsodies of the Conservative stump-
orator over the extension of our Dominion, from the Atlantic
to the Pacific, impressed the electors more than the risks they
were taking in endorsing the policy of the Government.
Then, there was the power taken by the Government to
charter a company for the construction of the Canada Pacific
Railway, and, of its own will and pleasure, to grant such a
charter to whomsoever it pleased — capitalists, members of the
Senate, members of the House of Commons, contractors or
speculators, all of whom might have a financial interest in see
ing the Government sustained. There was also the power of
handing over to such a company 50,000,000 acres of land and
$30,000,000 of hard cash. Would the country approve of such
prodigality ? Could the country stand such a burden ? Were
we not going too fast ? Was there any necessity for such an
expenditure ? And here again every attempt to obtain a sober
answer to these questions, or to get the deliberate judgment of
the people on an undertaking so vast, was interrupted by ap
peals to the imagination. It was said : " If the union is to be
complete, permanent, and strong. West and East must be
bound together by an iron band. The teeming millions of
Europe must be invited to settle upon our fertile prairies, and
the manufacturers of Ontario must be allowed an easy en
trance to the markets of the West England will lend us all
U

322 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
the money we want. Let us not be faint-hearted. Let us
borrow freely."
The selection of the long route for the Intercolonial Railway
regardless of the commercial interests of the whole Dominion ;
the granting of " better terms " to Nova Scotia, without con
sidering the rights of the other Provinces to a readjustment
at the same time of the financial basis on which they entered
the union ; the abandonment of the Fenian claims under the
Washington Treaty ; the surrender of Canadian rights on the
St. Lawrence, had all to be pronounced upon by the electors
of Canada. Seldom, indeed, have the people of any country
been called upon to express an opinion upon greater questions
constitutional, commercial, or financial. That such questions
could arise in the government of a country, suggests the
responsibility which representative institutions impose upon
those who, in the last analysis, hold its destiny in their hands.
The Liberal party entered upon the campaign of 1872 with
great energy. They felt they had a strong case against the
Government, and were determined to make the most of it
through the press and on the platform. Sir John Macdonald
and his colleagues were equally active ; and Ontario, as usual,
was the scene of many conflicts between leaders on each side.
Mr. Mackenzie, who had charge of the campaign for the Liberal
party, placed himself at the disposal of his friends throughout
the Province, and in addition to the burdens of his own
election, did valiant service for the Liberal cause in many
other constituencies.
One of the most interesting episodes in the campaign was
the visit paid by Sir John Macdonald to the county of Lamb
ton, and his complete discomfiture by Mr. Mackenzie at a pub
lic meeting in the town of Sarnia. The Conservative party
was very anxious that Sir John Macdonald should address

DOWNFALL OF THE GOVERNMENT. 323
the electors. If he could only be prevailed upon to give
them but one meeting, Mr. Mackenzie's defeat was assured.
As in the case of Rhoderick Dhu, they believed " one blast
upon his bugle horn were worth a thousand men."
The Liberals were equally anxious for his appearance, as
they believed their untitled champion was more than a match
for the knighted chieftain of the Conservatives. Public ex
citement with regard to this great meeting, which was to take
place at Sarnia on the 21st of August — the day fixed for the
nomination of candidates — became more intense as the time
approached. By special trains and vehicles of all descrip
tions, the people of the country gathered in thousands. Sir
John arrived early in the day in a gun boat which had been
chartered to bring him from Goderich, and at twelve o'clock
the proceedings were opened by the returning officer calling
for nominations. Mr. Mackenzie was in the best of form,
and appeared to be determined not to be misunderstood from
want of plainness in speech — Sir John's presence arousing his
best energies. He first expressed his great pleasure at being
confronted by the leader of the Conservative party, in his
own riding, as it gave him the opportunity of saying in his
presence, as fearlessly as ever he did in his absence, what he
thought of his policy and his party. During the course of
Mr. Mackenzie's speech he was frequently interrupted by
remarks from Sir John Macdonald. " I was going to call him
my honorable friend," Mr. Mackenzie said, in alluding to Sir
John, "but till he retracts a statement he made on the King
ston hustings I cannot call him that."
Sir John — I certainly won't retract it.
Mr. Mackenzie — He says he won't retract it I defy him
to prove it Until he does prove it, I shall tre*t hiin as a
slanderer.

324 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Later on, Mr. Mackenzie, referring to the desire expressed
by Sir John Macdonald that he (Mr. Mackenzie) should join
his Government, said it was the old story, " walk into my par
lour said the spider to the fly." The " honorable gentleman's
parlour was a very dangerous place for anyone with a political
character to enter, and no one ever came out of it clean."
Sir John — How about Brown ? How about Brown ?
Mr. Mackenzie — Mr. Brown never entered your parlour.
Mr. Brown and you sat in the Cabinet on equal terms.
Mr. Mackenzie then charged Sir John Macdonald's Govern
ment with deceit in dealing with the troubles in the^North-
West Territory, quoting from a letter addressed by Mr.
MacDougall to Mr. Howe in 1870, as follows : " Enough has
transpired to satisfy every q,ttentive observer that it never
was your policy or the policy of a majority of your colleagueS'|;
to send any expedition whatever to the North-West. The in
dignant expression of public opinion, chiefly from Ontario, and
the bold and determined attitude of the leaders of the Oppo
sition in Parliament compelled you to organize the force and
put it in motion, and the same public opinion prevented you
from recalling it after it had reached Thunder Bay. But you
did the next best thing for the rebel president — Riel ; you de
prived the commander of the expedition of the power to
arrest him or to invoke the aid of any magistrate for that
purpose." Speaking of the "better terms" granted to Nova Scotia, he
pointed out the dangerous effect of the Government's course,
and called upon Sir John Macdonald to say what he would do
with reference to the " better terms" to New Brunswick.
Sir John — What would you do ?
Mr. Mackenzie — Wait till my Government is formed ; then
I will tell you.

DOWNFALL OF THE GOVERNMENT. 327
Sir John — God help New Brunswick then.
Mr. Mackenzie — I say, God help Sir John Macdonald then.
Mr. Mackenzie closed his speech by a review of the finan
cial condition of the couhtry, and expressed the hope, judging
from the result of the elections thus far, that the Liberal
party would not be much longer in opposition.
Sir John Macdonald's reply to Mr. Mackenzie was a great
disappointment to his friends, and, instead of helping, materially
injured the prospects of the Conservative candidate, Mr. Vidal.
A few of the contests of this election deserve special notice.
Sir George Cartier, so long dictator in his own Province, was
defeated in Montreal by an immense majority, and had to look
elsewhere for a seat. As the elections in Manitoba had not
then taken place, it was arranged that Attorney-General Clark
and Riel, who were the candidates for Provencher, should re
tire in his favor. Sir Francis Hincks, Minister of Finance,
who expected such an easy victory over Mr. Paterson in South
Brant, was also defeated. A seat was found for him in Bri
tish Columbia. The Hon. William MacDougall again offered
himself as a candidate in the North Riding of Lanark in the
Conservative interest; but his criticism of the Government
after his return from the North-West, and his letters to Joseph
Howe, had so alienated the affections of his old constituents as
to render his defeat a comparatively easy matter. Mr. Aquila
Walsh, Commissioner on the Intercolonial Railway, was de
feated in North Norfolk, and Mr. A. P. Macdonald, a noted
railway contractor, in West Middlesex.
The elections of 1872 were a great triumph for the Liberal
party, and for the policy advocated by Mr. Mackenzie, as
leader. Had he been permitted to grapple with his opponents
on equal terms, the Government would have certainly been
defeated.

328 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
The Conservatives from the beginning to the end of the
campaign were put upon the defensive, and their defence of
the mal-administration of the past five years was completely
broken down by the crushing attacks of the Liberal leader.
There were several circumstances, however, which operated
to their advantage. First, as the elections were not held on
one and the same day, they were able to manufacture a cer
tain amount of public opinion in their favor by first open
ing those constituencies in which they were most likely to be
successful. Second, they used the power which it was always
felt open voting gave to the Government of the day, and that
not only in the ordinary sense understood by undue influence,
but in a far more questionable sense. Third, as will be after
wards shewn through the influence of Sir Hugh Allan and
others, they had at their disposal an election fund suffi
ciently large to demoralize thousands of the electors; and
there is no doubt that many constituencies were affected by
the corrupt use made of this fund. Fourth, the position
taken by the Liberal party with regard to the admission of
British Columbia, and the "better terms" to Nova Scotia,
was represented as one of hostility to these Provinces, gen
erally, and not as a defence of the Constitution, which it really
was. In spite of all these circumstances. Sir John Macdonald's
strength was considerably reduced, and in the Province of
Ontario, particularly, the feeling was so decided as to leave
him again largely in the minority.
The Liberal party assembled at the opening of Parliament
in 1873 in good spirits. Although not successful in the elec
tion, their ranks were greatly strengthened, and they were con
fident that even if the Government could not be overthrown
at once, its tenure of office would be of short duration.

DOWNFALL OF THE GOVERNMENT. 329
The House was duly constituted by the election of Mr. Jas.
Cockburn Speaker, after which His Excellency the Earl of
Dufferin was pleased to make his first speech to both Houses
of ParKament
For five years Mr. Mackenzie had acted as leader of the
Liberal party, although not formally appointed to that posi
tion. The time had now come, in his opinion, for the formal
election of a leader. The record of the steps taken to this
end is fully contained in a letter to his brother Charles,
written from Ottawa on Thursday, March 6th, the day after
the House met.
"We had a meeting of the Ontario members on Tuesday
afternoon. I gave them my reasons for calling them together,
and told them that Dorion had also called a meeting of the
Quebec members, both meetings being with a view of forming
a complete organization under one leader ; that I had hitherto
acted as leader, although not elected to that office ; that I was
now resolved to retire from the position ; that we should
have a friendly, open discussion on the subject, advising them
to come to no decision until we could all meet together. I
urged them to consider whether it would most advance the
general interests of the party to make the choice from Quebec
rather than from Ontario. I then said that my own impres
sion was that the preponderating power Ontario held, would
probably induce members from all sections to select one of
the members from that Province, and in that case I thought
Mr. Blake should be chosen, as his splendid abilities and his
standing in the country gave him many advantages, while his
legal knowledge gave him additional power, placing him
ahead of all others in the House. Blake then spoke, agreeing
in the general plans I suggested, but protesting against my
conclusions. He spoke of my success during the last five

S30 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
years, and said the local Government was defeated through
my efforts, and the late elections w^ere carried by my influ
ence and exertions, and consequently if an Ontario man were
chosen, it must be me ; and at any rate he could not hsten to
any proposal. One or two expressed themselves in favor of
Blake in preference to me, all the others avoided any com
parison, but discussed the matter fully. Finally it was dele
gated to a committee to consider. This committee was previ
ously appointed to confer with a committee from Quebec,
respecting the speakership and other matters. Our committer
were Rymal, Young, Blake, Richards and myself, the others,
Dorion, Holton, Letellier, Huntington and John Young. We
had three long meetings, during which we arrived first at the
conclusion that it was advisable to have the leader from
Ontario, Blake and I agreeing that all Ontario would take
Dorion freely if they considered that step advisable. They
were unanimous against it. I then proposed to agree on
Blake, each of us promising our utmost efforts to support
him. He would not listen to it I also declined. The gen
eral meeting was adjourned till 4 o'clock this afternoon.
The committee met again at 10, and I was pressed to yield
which I reluctantly did. Dorion reported the result of the
general meeting. Holton moved and Geoffrion seconded the
motion to adopt the committee's report and declare me leader
of the whole party. This was at once put by the chairman
(John Young) and carried unanimously, seventy members
being present. I was extremely unwilling to accept the post
again, as I told you, but at last I saw no escape. Of course
the honor is a great one, especially when accompanied by
such speeches as Holton's, Dorion's and Blake's, and conferred
with entire unanimity. I, however, feel oppressed with the
work ahead and my inability to do such work as one in my

DOWNFALL OF THE GOVERNMENT. 331
position should do. Political leadership should also exist
where circumstances are easy. The absence of that condition
caused me to determine on refusing it, and even now I fear I
have made a mistake on that as well as on other grounds."
Nothing could show to better advantage the entire absence
of selfishness in Mr. Mackenzie than the simple narrative
above given. He could not be unconscious of his own
strength, as he had already crossed swords with every Con
servative of any standing in the House. Neither could he
be oblivious to the influence which he exerted as a public
man upon the country, and the appreciation with which his
services were regarded by his party, and yet in the face of all
those circumstances, he is more than willing to forego the
honor of the leadership in favor of any person on whom the
party may agree, and when there was no escape, he says, " I
reluctantly accepted, perhaps I made a mistake." There is no
elbowing of his way to the front, no supercilious disregard of
others' claims, no arrogant assertion of his own fitness for
the position, but, on the contrary, a humility and reticence
worthy of the highest admiration.
The first few days of the session of 1873 were occupied in
dealing with fraudulent election returns. • The Liberal candi
date for West Peterborough, Mr. John Bertram, received 745
votes at the general election. His opponent received 705
votes. Notwithstanding this, the returning officer declared the
Conservative candidate duly elected. This irregularity was
brought before the House on a motion by Mr. Blake, in which
the gross invasion of the rights of Parliament and the flag
rant violation of duty by the returning officer were exposed in
a scathing speech.
Sir John Macdonald asked the House to refer the whole
matter to the Committee on Privileges and Elections, instead of

332 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
following the precedents of previous Parliaments, allowing the
candidate having the majority of votes to take the seat. This
was agreed to in a vote of 79 to 95, or a Government majority
of 16.
In the election in Muskoka, it appears that Mr. Cockburn,
the Liberal candidate, had a majority of the votes cast, but
that the Returning Officer declined to return Mr. Cockburn on
account of certain irregularities in the election, thus leaving
Muskoka unrepresented. From their narrow majority in the
previous vote, the Government declined a division on this
case, although the grounds for reference to a committee were
much stronger. The Clerk of the Crown in Chancery was
directed to amend the return, and Mr. Cockburn took the seat,
of which he would have been deprived during the whole ses
sion, were it not for the bold step taken by the Opposition.
There were disputes, also, with regard to other seats in On
tario and in the Maritime Provinces, and in each case the
Government used its majority to strengthen itself in the
House. After the disputes with regard to contested seats were dis
posed of, the House was called upon by Mr. Huntington to
consider a motion, out of which grew the disclosures known as
the Pacific Scandal, which, to the regret of every Canadian,
has been a reproach to the country from that day till now.
By the Act passed the preceding year respecting the Can
adian Pacific Railway, the Government, as before stated, was
authorized to charter a company having a subscribed capital
of at least $10,000,000, for the construction of this road. If
more than one company should be formed, power was given
for their amalgamation. Two other Acts were passed during
the same session with regard to the same railway. One was
an Act to incorporate the Inter-Oceanic Railway Company of

DOWNFALL OF THE GOVERNMENT. 333
Canada, at the head of which was the Hon. David MacPher-
son. The other was an Act to incorporate the C. P. R. Com
pany, at the head of which was Sir Hugh Allan. These three
Acts completed the scheme for the building of the road. The
Government found considerable difficulty in proceeding on

account of the strength of the rival companies. Mr. Mac-
Pherson's company was composed largely of capitalists from
Ontario ; Sir Hugh Allan's, of capitalists from Quebec. To
amalgamate the two companies seemed to be impossible, as
Mr. Macpherson insisted upon the chairmanship of the com
panies, if amalgamated, and to this Sir Hugh objected.
Sir John Macdonald, finding it impossible to effect a union
of the two companies, announced the intention of the Gov
ernment to promote the formation of a new one out of the
strongest men in the different Provinces, and a short time be
fore the meeting of the House, in March, 1873, such an organi
zation was completed, of which Sir Hugh Allan was elected
chairman. The large subsidy of land and money to be granted to the
railway excited the cupidity of Sir Hugh Allan and his
friends, and as during 1872 it rested with the Government to
say which of the companies chartered should be allowed to
construct the railway, Sir Hugh Allan proceeded at once to
ingratiate himself with the Government by providing Sir
John Macdonald liberally with funds for the elections. This
becoming known, Mr. Huntington, on the 2nd of April, moved
the following resolution :

334 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
"That Mr Huntington, a member of the House, having
stated in his place that he is credibly informed and believes
that he can establish by satisfactory evidence ;
" That, in anticipation of the legislation of last session, as
to the Pacific Railway, an agreement was made between Sir
Huo-h Allan, acting for himself, and certain other Canadian
promoters, and G. W. McMullen, acting for certain United
States capitalists, whereby the latter agreed to furnish all the
funds necessary for the construction of the contemplated rail
way, and to give the former a certain per cent, of interest, in
consideration of their interest and position, the scheme agreed
on being ostensibly that of a Canadian company with Sir
Hugh Allan at its head ;
" That the Government were aware that negotiations were
pending between these parties ;
" That subsequently an understanding was come to between
the Government and Sir Hugh Allan and Mr. Abbott, M.P., —
that Sir Hugh Allan and his friends should advance a large
sum of money for the purpose of aiding the elections of the
Ministers and their supporters at the ensuing general election,
and that he and his friends should receive the contract for the
construction of the railway,
" That accordingly Sir Hugh Allan did advance a large sum
of money for the purpose mentioned, and at the solicitation,
and under the pressing instances, of Ministers ;
" That part of the moneys expended by Sir Hugh Allan in
connection with the obtaining of the Act of incorporation and
charter was paid >to him by the said United States capitalists
under the agreement with him. It is
" Ordered, that a committee of seven members be appointed
to enquire into all the circumstances connected with the nego
tiations for the construction of the Pacific Railway, with the

DOWNFALL OF THE GOVERNMENT. 335
legislation of last session on the subject, and with the grant
ing of the charter to Sir Hugh Allan and others ; with power
to send for persons, papers and records ; and with instructions
to report in full the evidence taken before, and all proceedings
of, said Committee."
In moving, Mr. Huntington contented himself with saying
that " He felt compelled by a deep sense of duty to place the
motion he was about to make before the House at the earliest
possible moment, in view of the very grave question raised.
He had already stated in his place that he was credibly in
formed that arrangements had been made by Sir Hugh Allan
and an American gentleman representing certain American
capitalists for the construction of the Pacific Railway, in anti
cipation of the legislation of last session ; that the Government
were aware of this, and that subsequently arrangements were
"made between the Government and Sir Hugh Allan, by which
a large sum of money was to be paid to the Government for
the purpose of influencing the recent elections, in return for
which Sir Hugh Allan and his friends were free to receive the
contract for the construction of the railway, and that this
was done."
This motion was regarded by the Government as a vote of
want of confidence, which no doubt it was, and without reply
or explanation, or even denial, a vote was taken and the Gov
ernment sustained by a majority of 31.
On the next day, Sir John Macdonald gave notice that he
would ask the House to appoint a special committee to inquire
into, and report upon, the several matters contained and stated
in Mr. Huntington's resolutions just voted down, the com
mittee to consist of Messrs. Blanchet, Blake, A. A. Dorion,
John Hillyard Cameron, and James Macdonald, of Pictou.
Mr. Mackenzie suggested that a short Act should be passed,

336 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
giving power to the committee to sit during recess and to take
evidence under oath. To this, Sir John Macdonald agreed, in
timating at the same time that he had doubts as to the power .
of the House to pass such an Act.
The committee met on the I7th of April, appointed John
Hillyard Cameron, chairman, and recommended, as their first
report, that an Act be passed to enable them to examine wit
nesses on oath. A Bill for this purpose passed speedily
through both Houses, but on account of the doubt raised by
Sir John Macdonald, His Excellency referred it to the home
authorities. On the 3rd of May, it was transmitted to Eng
land, and on the 27th of June the Earl of Kimberley tele- '
graphed the Governor-General that the Act was disallowed.
Immediately on the passing of the Oaths Bill, a meeting of
the committee was called, apparently for the purpose of ex
amining Sir Francis Hincks, who had been summoned as a
witness. At the same time Sir John Macdonald appeared
before the committee and stated that as Sir Hugh Allan and
Mr. Abbott were absent from the country the committee ha,d
better ask the House for the pri-vilege of adjourning to some
day to be named on which these two gentlemen could be pre
sent. The committee concurred in Sir John's suggestion, and
reported to the House accordingly. Mr. Huntington and the
other members of the Liberal party objected to the proposed
adjournment. Mr. Huntington said : " He had been prepared
for days to proceed upon his own responsibility with the in
vestigation. He had given the committee a list of his wit
nesses; that if the committee adjourned for two or three
months he might not be in the same position as he was now,
as in the interval there might be a manipulation of the wit
nesses by whom the charges could be proven. If the public
men of this country who were charged with this crime were

DOWNFALL OF THE GOVERNMENT. 337
innocent, then, by all means, it was in the interests of the
House and the country that their innocence should be estab
lished as early as possible. If, on the other hand, the charges
were true, they had all a deep interest that the proof should
be forthcoming and that they should wash their hands of this
terrible corruption which had fastened itself upon a great
enterprise likely to exercise immense influence in the coun
try." Sir John Macdonald replied to Mr. Huntington in a very -vio
lent speech, charging him with taking undue advantage of
the Government He said : " The charge was a foul calumny.
The Government denied in toto the charge. On behalf of the
members of the Government, he told the honorable gentleman,
Mr. Huntington, that he had been most woefully deceived, for
neither by word, thought, deed nor action had the Govern
ment done anything of which they could or ought to be
ashamed in the carrjdng out or the entering into, from the
beginning to the ending of the charter."
Mr. Mackenzie replied at considerable length to Sir John
Macdonald, pointing out that in various ways the investigation
which the committee was appointed to conduct had been de
layed, that the Government appeared to fear the proposed in
vestigation, and that now the postponement of further enquiry
until the 2nd of July was trifling with the House.
The postponement asked for, however, was granted in a
vote of 107 yeas to 76 nays.
In order that the committee might take evidence during
the recess, the House was not prorogued at the end of the
session as is usual but simply adjourned till the 13th of
August, at which time it was expected that the committee
would be ready to make a report On the 2nd of July, the
committee met in Montreal;- but as it was found they could

338 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
not examine witnesses under oath, they adjourned until the
day fixed for the prorogation of Parliament.
Sir John Macdonald proposed to issue a royal commission to
the members of the committee, which would give them the
power to examine witnesses as was desired. Messrs. Dorion
and Blake both declined to accept a commission. Mr. Blake's
answer to Sir John Macdonald was most spirited :
" I believe that it would be of evil consequences to create
the precedent of a Government issuing a Commission of en
quiry into matters of a charge against itself, the Commission
ers being, as they are, subject to the direction and control of the
accused. I believe that the acceptance of such a Commission
would be opposed to the sense of the House of Commons, as
manifested by its action last session, and would, under present
circumstances, be calculated to prejudice the enquiry ordered
by the House, and to impair the full and efficient exercise of
its most ancient and important powers. The House of Com
mons does not, I think, expect that the Crown, or any one
else, least of all the members of its own committee, will inter
pose between itself and the great enquiry which it has under
taken. Apart from these and other difficulties, you have your
self interposed a barrier to my acceptance of your offer. Dur
ing my absence from the House of Commons last session, you
stated in your place that I had done wrong in not declining to
fulfil the duty of Committeeman, which had been imposed on
me by the House, that English statesmen in my position —
which, however, you misstated — would have scorned to do as
I had done, and that my speeches during the session shewed
that your Government could not expect fair play from me on
the enquiry. I shall not condescend to reply to these state
ments, but I have to say that although I reluctantly came to
the conclusion that I was not free to decline to serve the

DOWNFALL OF THE GOVERNMENT. 339
House, of which I am a member, I do not think it consistent
with my self-respect to accept the commission here offered by
a Minister who has chosen to characterize my conduct. I have
sent a copy of this letter to Mr. Cameron for his information,
as chairman of the committee."
The country was greatly excited on account of the appar
ently studied efforts of the Government to burke an in
vestigation, and the evident desire of some members of the
committee to encourage such delays.
Whatever powers the committee had, they certainly ceased
on the 13th of August. But public opinion had become so
excited, that although the Government had got rid of the
committee, they could not get rid of the investigation.
His Excellency the Governor-General, who was summering
in the Maritime Provinces, considered the situation sufficiently
grave to warrant his return to the capital and to insist that
Parliament should be called in six or eight weeks, so that
cognizance might be taken of the charges made by Mr.
Huntington. The Liberal party, having been deceived so often by one
excuse after another for delay, determined to make a strong
effort, when the Speaker took the chair to receive the usual
summons to the Senate chamber to hear His Excellency's pro
rogation speech, to place a resolution in the Speaker's hands,
and force the discussion of the question at issue. They feared
that if the House was prorogued even the promised Commis
sion would not be appointed ; but what they were most anxious
for was that the investigation should not be taken out of the
hands of Parliament. The government was, however, prepared
for any action of this kind. The usher of the black rod,
whose duty it is, with many bows and genuflexions, to sum
mon the faithful Commons to the Senate chamber on such

340 LIFE OF THE HON. AJLEXANDER MACKENZIE.
occasions, was directed to stand at the main entrance of the
Commons, so that the moment the Speaker took the chair he
could deliver his message before a motion from any member
of the House could be put in the Speaker's hands. Mr.
Mackenzie, who had prepared a motion which embodied the
views of the Opposition, was on his feet before the Speaker
had scarcely ascended to his place, and began to address the
House amid shouts and jeers from the Government benches.
The usher of the black rod, apparently greatly alarmed at the
stormy scene on which he had intruded himself, stammered
out his usual orders : " I am commanded by His Excellency
the Governor-General to acquaint this Honorable House that
it is the pleasure of His Excellency that the members thereof
do forthwith attend him in the Senate chamber." This sum
mons the Speaker obeyed with the utmost alacrity, and left
the chair while Mr. Mackenzie was vainly endeavoring to
vindicate the honor of Parliament.
This coup d'etat, by which Parliament was got rid of, greatly
delighted the Conservative party. The committee which had
been appointed by a series of evasions was not permitted to
do anything ; Parliament was not permitted to do anything,
and it seemed to the Liberal party as if every means for bring
ing the offenders to justice had failed.
Having failed with Parliament, they next appealed to His
Excellency the Governor-General, submitting a memorial as
follows, signed by ninety members :
" The undersigned, members of the House of Commons of
Canada, desire to respectfully approach Your Excellency and
humbly to represent that more than four months have already
elapsed since the Honorable Mr. Huntington made, from his
place in the House, grave charges of corruption against Your
Excellency's constitutional advisers in reference to the Pacific

DOWNFALL OF THE GOVERNMENT. 341
Railway contract ; that although the House has appointed a
committee to enquire into the said charges, the proceedings of
this committee have, on various grounds, been postponed, and
the enquiry has not yet taken place ; that the honor of the
country imperatively requires that no further delay should take
place in the investigation of charges of so grave a character,
and which it is the duty and undoubted right and privilege of
the Commons to prosecute.
" The undersigned are deeply impressed with the conviction
that any attempt to postpone this enquiry, or to remove it
from the jurisdiction of the Commons, would create the most
intense dissatisfaction ; and they therefore pray Your Excel
lency not to prorogue Parliament until the House of Commons
shall have an opportunity of taking such steps as it may deem
necessary and expedient with reference to this important
matter. " The names signed to this document were as follow :
"Opposition. — Anglin, Archibald, Bain, Bechard, Bergin,
Biain, Blake, Bodwell, Bourassa, Bowman, Boyer, Brouse, BuelL
Burpee (Sunbury), Cameron (Huron), Cartwright, Casey, Cas
grain, Cauchon, Charlton, Church, Cockburn (Muskoka), Cook,
Cutler, Delorme, St George, Dorion, A. A., Dorion, H. P., Edgar,
Ferris, Findlay, Fiset, Fleming, Fournier, Galbraith, Geoffrion,
Gibson, Gillies, Goudge, Hagar, Harvey, Higginbotham, Holton,
Horton, Huntington, Jett^, Laflamme, Landerkin, Macdonald
(Glengarry), Mackenzie, Mercier, Metcalfe, Mills, Oliver, Paquet,
Paterson, Pearson, Pelletier, Pickard, Poser, Prevost, Richard,
Richards, Ross (Prince Edward), Ross (Durham), Ross (Wel
lington), Ross (Middlesex), Rymal, Smith (Peel), Snyder
Stirton, Taschereau, Thompson, Thomson, Tremblay, Trow,
White (Halton), Wilkes, Wood, Young (Waterloo), Young
(Montreal).

342 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
" Ministerialists. — Burpee (St John), Coffin, Cunningham,
Forbes, Glass, Macdonell (Inverness), Ray, Schultz, Scriver,
Shibley, D. A. Smith (Selkirk), A. J. Smith (Westmoreland)."
In his reply to this memorial, the Governor-General said
that " To accept the advice tendered him would be simply to
dismiss from his councils his responsible Ministers. It is
true, grave charges have been preferred against these gentle
men — charges which I admit require the most searching in
vestigation, but, as you yourselves remarked in your memo
randum, the truth of these accusations still remains untested.
" Under these circumstances, what right has the Governor-
General, on his personal responsibility, to proclaim to Canada,
nay, not only to Canada, but to America and Europe, as such
a proceeding on his part must necessarily do, that he believes
his Ministers guilty of the crimes alleged against them ?
Were it possible at the present time to make a call of the
House, and place myself in a direct communication with the
Parliament of the Dominion, my present embarrassment
would disappear, but this is a physical impossibility. I am
assured by my Prime Minister, and the report of the proceed
ings at the time bears out his statements, that when Parlia
ment adjourned it was announced by him, as the leader of the
House, that the meeting on the 13th of August would be
immediately followed by prorogation; that no substantive
objection was taken to this aimouncement, and that, as a con
sequence, a considerable portion of your fellow members are
dispersed in various directions. I should, therefore, only
deceive myself were I to regard the present Assembly as a
full Parliament"
He then stated that a Royal Commission would be issued
at once to three gentlemen of high legal standing, and that
Parliament would be assembled within two months or ten

DOWNFALL OF THE GOVERNMENT. 343
weeks of the date of prorogation, "to take supreme and final
cognizance of the case now pending between his ministers and
their accusers."
The members of Parliament who had signed the remon
strance to His Excellency and their friends then assembled
in the railway committee' room of the House, to protest
against the prorogation of Parliament while grave charges
were hanging over the ministers. Vigorous speeches were
delivered by various members. Mr. Mackenzie said that " in
this country which was governed by Parliament, a cry would
go out from end to end of the land against the indignity
which had been put upon it, and if the Government sought to
escape from the consequences of their crime, they would find
that their action would only tend to intensify the feeling. It
now became the members, as rulers of the country, to do
nothing unseemly, but to take every step to maintain their
dignity, and at the same time to use every legitimate and
lawful means to obtain the opinion of the country."
Mr. Blake was specially vigorous in his demand for inves
tigation. " Parliament," he said, " was the proper court of
enquiry for charges against ministers. To prorogue Parlia
ment when such charges were pending, and to substitute a
Commission appointed by the accused for a committee of the
House, was trifling with the prerogatives of Parliament. He
hoped there would be an investigation, not by gentlemen in
the dock, but by those who should be chosen by Parliament in
differently to try the question of innocence or guilt, and make
an exhaustive examination of the evidence."
Speeches were delivered by Mr. Huntington and other mem
bers of Parliament, in defence of the right of the House to
determine how its honor should be protected against a cor
rupt Government.

344 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
On the 14th of August, a Royal Commission was issued to
Judge Day, of the city of Montreal; Judge Polette, of the city
of Three Rivers, and Judge Gowan, of the town of Barrie, with
instructions to make enquiry into Mr. Huntington's charges
against the Government.
The Commission was summoned to meet on the 4th day of
September, and Mr. Huntington was invited to submit a list
of witnesses and to proceed with the prosecution. Mr. Hunt
ington declined to appear before the Commissioners. He said :
" I deem it inconsistent with my duty as a member of Par
liament, and a breach of the undoubted privileges of the
House, to recognize any inferior or exceptional tribunal cre
ated to enquire into the charges still pending before the Com
mons, and so essential to the privileges, dignity and independ
ence of Parliament. I believe that it is a breach of those
privileges that a Royal Commission, issued without the
special sanction of the House, should take any cognizance of,
or should assume to call on me to justify words which I have
spoken on the floor of the Commons, and for which I am
responsible to them, and to them only. I feel that I should
do no act which may be construed into an acquiescence in the
attempt to remove from the Commons the conduct and con
trol of the enquiry. I believe that the creation of a Com
mission involves a breach of that fundamental principle of
the Constitution which preserves to the Commons the right
and duty of initiating and controlling enquiries into high
political offences ; that it involves also a breach of that funda
mental principle of justice which prevents the accused from
creating the tribunal and controlling the procedure for their
trial, and that it is a Commission without precedent, unknown
to the common law, unsanctioned by the statute law, provid
ing by an exercise of the prerogative for an enquiry, out of

DOWNFALL OF THE GOVERNMENT. 345
the ordinary course of justice, into misdemeanors cognizable
to the courts, and consequently illegal and void."
The Commission reported to His Excellency the Governor-
General on the I7th of October, and on the 23rd Parliament
re-assembled. On the 27th, His Excellency's speech came up
for consideration. On the second paragraph having been
submitted to the House, Mr. Mackenzie moved an amendment
as follows : " We have to acquaint His Excellency that by
their course in reference to the investigation of the charges
preferred by Mr. Huntington in his place in this House, and
under the facts disclosed in the evidence laid before us. His
Excellency's advisers have merited the severest censure of the
House." On this motion, the Opposition challenged the Govern
ment to a discussion of the charges made by Mr. Huntington,
and to a trial of strength on a division, if the Government
would allow the matter to go so far.
The ministers were now at bay. There was no escaping
from the judgment of the House. Mr. Mackenzie's motion
had to be discussed and voted upon, and it was for the House
to say whether the CAddence submitted by the Commissioners
would justify the condemnation of the Government.
The opening speech of the debate was made by Mr. Macken
zie. He reviewed the evidence submitted by the Commission
ers, making copious extracts from Sir Hugh Allan's letters
and from the correspondence between Sir John Macdonald
and Sir Geo. E. Cartier.
It is impossible to do more than to quote some of the aptest
passages from a few of these letters. For instance, " I think
we will have to go it blind in the matter of money — cash
payments. I have already paid $8,500 and have not a voucher,
and cannot get one." — (Signed, Sir Hugh Allan.)
" We yesterday signed an agreement by which on certain

346 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
monetary conditions the Government agrees to form a com
pany of which I am to be President to suit my views, to give
me and my friends a majority of the stock, and to give the
company so formed the contract to build the Canadian Pacific
Railway. " The friends of the Government will expect to be assisted
with funds on the pending elections, and any amount which
you or your company shall advance for that purpose shall be
recouped to you. A memorandum of the immediate require
ment is below : —
"now wanted.
"Sir John A. Macdonald, $25,000; Hon. Mr. Langevin,
$15,000 ; Sir George E. Cartier, $20,000 ; Sir J. A. Macdonald,
additional, $10,000 ; Hon. Mr. Langevin, additional, $10,000 ;
Sir George E. Cartier, $30,000."— fGeorge E. Cartier to Sir H.
Allan.) " Immediate ; private. I must have another $10,000 ; will
be the last time of calling. Do not fail me. Answer to-day."
— (John A. Macdonald to Abbott.)
"Draw on me for %10, 000. "—(Abbott to John A. Macdcnald.)
" In the absence of Sir Hugh Allan, I shall be obliged by
your supplying the central committee with a further sum of
$20,000 upon the same conditions as the amount written by
me at the foot of my letter to Sir Hugh Allan of the 30th
ultimo. "P. S. — Please also send Sir John Macdonald $10,000 more
on the same terms." — (Mr. Cartier to Mr. Abbott.)
Mr. Mackenzie waS followed by Dr. Tupper, who claimed
that the Government had done nothing wrong, and that a vote
of want of confldence, proposed hy Mr. Mackenzie, was entire
ly uncalled for. Dr. Tupper's speech called Mr. Huntington
to his feet who, in the most scathing terms denounced the

DO WNFALL OF THE GO VERNMENT. 347
Government for trafficking in public contracts, with the view
of keeping themselves in power. He appealed to the members
to the House not to allow the honor of Parliament to be tram
pled in the dust by men so regardless of the great trust com
mitted to them. He shewed how jealous the English House
of Commons has always been of its honor, and appealed to in
dependent members of the House to make themselves heard
in this great crisis.
Mr. Macdonald, of Pictou, a member of the committee ap
pointed by the House to investigate the charges, replied to
Mr. Huntington.
On the fourth day of the debate. Sir John Macdonald rose
to make his defence, and occupied for that purpose a period
of about five hours. He was evidently impressed with the
gravity of the situation, and determined that the opinion
of the House, which was daily becoming stronger against him,
should be turned in his favor, if it lay in his power so to do.
In the course of his speech he reviewed the whole history of
the Canadian Pacific Railway, the charters to different com
panies, and the progress of legislation for the purpose of
connecting the East with the West. He enlarged upon the
desirability of obtaining a Canadian company for a Canadian
enterprise, and pointed out the necessity for supporting a
Government that was favorable to the development of thei
country in this way. He concluded his speech by a fervent
appeal for the support of the House :
" But, sir, I commit myself, the Government commits itself
to the hands of this House, and far beyond the House, it
commits itself to the country at large. We have faithfully
done our duty. We have fought the battle of Confederation.
We have fought the battle, of union. We have had party
strife, setting Province against Province ; and, more than all,

348 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
we have had in the greatest Province, the preponderating
Province of the Dominion, every prejudice and sectional feel
ing that could be arrayed against us. I have been the victim
of that conduct to a gi-eat extent, but I have fought the
battle of Confederation, the battle of union, the battle of the
Dominion of Canada. I throw myself upon this House ; I
throw myself upon this country ; I throw myself upon pos
terity, and I believe that I know that, notwithstanding the
many failings in my life, I shall have the voice of this country
and this House rallying round me. And, sir, if I am mis
taken in that, I can confidently appeal to a higher court — to
the court of my own conscience, and to the court of posterity.
I leave it with this House with every confidence. I am equal
to either fortune. I can see past the decision of this House,
either for or against me, but whether it be for or against me,
I know, and it is no vain boast for me to say so, for even my
enemies will admit that I am no boaster — that there does not
exist in Canada a man who has given more of his time, more
of his heart, more of his wealth, or more of his intellect and
power, such as they may be, for the good of this Dominion of
Canada." Mr. Blake rose at a quarter past two in the morning to
reply to Sir John Macdonald. The opening sentences of his
address were particularly apt. Referring to Sir John Mac
donald's appeal to the intelligent judgment of the House, the
country and posterity in vindication of his conduct, he said :
" When he (Sir John Macdonald), was called upon by reason
and argument to sustain his course at the last general election,
and to prove his title to the confidence of his country, it was
not to these high and elevating sentiments he appealed, it
was not upon the intelligent judgment of the people he relied,
but it was upon Sir Hugh Allan's money which he obtained

DOWNFALL OF THE GOVERNMENT. .S49
by the sale of the rights of the Canadian people which he
held in trust."
Mr. Blake's speech -was, throughout, a masterly argument
in favor of Mr. Mackenzie's vote of want of confidence. " Let
us not be carried away by the absurd notion," he said, " that
there is a distinction between the standards of public and
private virtue ; let us not be carried away by the notion that
that may be done in secret, which it is a shame to be known
in public. Let our transactions be open, and, as the shame
exists as it has been discovered, as it has been conclusively
established, as it has been confessed, let us by our vote, re
gretfully it may be, give the perpetrators of it their just
reward. Influence, I am aware, may be used to prevent this
result, but, I am loath to suppose that it should ever be said
of a Canadian Parliament, what a poet in the neighboring
republic has said of the representative body of that country,
when he described it thus :
" Underneath yon dome, whose coping
Springs above them, vast and tall,
Grave men in the dust are groping
For the largess, mean and small,
Which the hand of power is scattering ;
Crumbs that from the table fall.
"Base of heart, they vilely barter
Honors, wealth, for party, place ;
Step by step, in freedom's charter,
Leaving foot-prints of disgrace.
For the day's poor pittance.
Turning from the great hope of their race. "
Notwithstanding the vigorous onslaught made by the Op
position on the Government, it was not until some of the
independent members of the House declared themselves that
it became evident their days were numbered. Many of their

350 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
supporters had carried the elections by the aid of Sir Hugh
Allan's money. That they should stand by the Government,
was quite natural. There were others, however, who were
not bound to the Conservative party by any particular obliga
tion. On the support of these they could not count with so
much confidence.
Mr. Laird, of Prince Edward Island, was the first independ
ent member to speak. He was foUowed by Mr. Donald A.
Smith, of Manitoba, whose speech created great excitement in
the House. Neither party knew what course Mr. Smith was
going to take, although both sides looked for his support, and
as a vote, one way or the other, might decide the fate of the
Government, every word he uttered was listened to with the
greatest anxiety. His exordium appeared favorable to the
Government, and was loudly applauded from the ministerial
benches. " With respect to the transaction between the Gov
ernment and Sir Hugh Allan, he did not consider that the
First Minister took the money with any corrupt motive. He
. felt that the leader of the Government was incapable of tak
ing money from Sir Hugh Allan for corrupt purposes. Ha
would be most willing to vote confidence in the Government —
(Loud cheers from the Government side) — could he do so con
scientiously. (Opposition cheers and laughter.) It was with
very great regret that he felt he could not do so. For the
honor of the country, no Government should exist that has a
shadow of suspicion of this kind resting on them, and for that
reason he could not support them." (Renewed opposition
cheers.) Mr. Smith's speech was delivered shortly before the ad
journment of the House, about one o'clock in the morning of
the 5th of Nov., and with it the confidence of the ministerial
party vanished. That afternoon, at three o'clock, on the reas-

DOWNFALL OF THE GOVERNMENT. 351
eembling of the members. Sir John Macdonald announced that
he had placed his resignation in His Excellency's hands and
that Mr. Mackenzie was called upon to form a new adminis
tration.

The political corruption disclosed by the Pacific scandal
was a great shock to the country. It was long suspected that
Sir John Macdonald, either by himself or by his authorized
agents, had frequently drawn upon Government contractors-
for election purposes. Never before, however, had it been
known the extent to which such drafts were made, and never
before was it thought that ministers would become so em
boldened in corruption as to ask over their own signatures for
such large amounts of money. The press of the country
was loud in its denunciations of what had taken place, and
the almost universal feeling was that the honor of Canada
was irreparably compromised.
To those who looked upon the public morality of Canada
as a matter of pride, the humiliation was great indeed. Com
parisons formerly made with politicians in the United States
had now to be dropped. The Tammany ring and boss Tweed
were duplicated on Canadian soil.
With the defeat of the Government, the power of Parlia
ment was to a certain extent vindicated. That Sir John

352 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Macdonald ever regained the confidence which he had for
feited by the sale of the Pacific Railway charter to Sir Hugh
Allan, is one of the most extraordinary circumstances in his
career. To retain office by a double shuffle, in connivance
with the Governor-General, was comparatively a small matter.
To form a coalition with the Liberals, and then, by a series of
cunning manipulations, to use it for his own party purposes,
was but an illustration of the art of a clever, though unprinci
pled, tactician. But to sell to a common stock-jobber, almost
on the open market, a railway charter, in order to supply him
self with election funds, is an offence which one would have
thought the country would not soon forgive or forget, and yet
a few days after his defeat in the House his friends elected
him leader of the Conservative party, and five years later
the country returned him at the head of an overwhelming
majority. When the Government was on its trial, and when its defeat
was all but certain, Mr. E. B. Wood expressed the universal
opinion of the House when he said : " Before many days the
Government will have fallen like Lucifer, never to rise again."
Dr. Tupper interjected, "but we shall rise." Mr. Wood re
plied : " Yes, but not till the resurrection morn, when the
last trump shall sound." Mr. Wood's prophecies, unfortun
ately, were not fulfilled. The Government did arise long be
fore the time specified, to repeat, we fear, on several occasions,
the corrupt practices for which they were condemned in 1873,
and to discredit in many ways the honor and dignity of
Canada.

CHAPTER XXV.
THE NEW administration.
The Wew Cabinet — Dissolution of the House — Address to the Electors of
Lambton — Meeting of Parliament — Mr. Mackenzie's Difficulties — Discontent
of British Columbia — The Carnarvon Terras — Visit of Lord Dufiferin —
Brilliant Speech at Victoria — Irritation Allayed — New Reciprocity Treaty
Considered —Honorable George Brown at Washington — Treaty agreed upon
— Rejected by the Senate — Mr. Mackenzie's Loyalty to Canada — Mr.
Cartwright's First Budget Speech— New Tariff Bill— Pacific Railway Bill-
Mr. Mackenzie's Military Career — Military College — New Election Bill.
N the resignation of Sir John Macdonald and his
Government, His Excellency the Governor-Gen
eral called upon Mr. Mackenzie to form a new
administration. The task assigned him was not
an easy one, particularly as it was necessary that the
Government should not only represent the strongest men
in the Liberal ranks, from a Dominion standpoint, but that
it should also be composed of men most acceptable to the
party. To make such a choice as would enable him to place
at the head of the various departments of state, men qualified
for the special work assigned them and who would at the
same time bring hira the political strength in each pro
vince which he required, was the basis on which his choice
had to be made. His own experience warranted him in
taking the department of Public Works. To Mr. Cartwright
was assigned the department of Finance. Mr. David Christie,
a member of the Senate, was made Secretary of State ; Mr.
w 353

354 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
D. A. Macdonald, Postmaster-General; and Mr. Blake and
the Hon. R. W. Scott were appointed members of the
Executive without portfolio. The Province of Quebec was
represented by Mr. A. A. Dorion, Minister of Justice ; Letellier
St. Just, as Minister of Agriculture ; and Telesphore Fournier,
Minister of Inland Revenue. New Brunswick was repre
sented by Mr. A. J. Smith, as Minister of Marine and Fisheries,
and Mr. Isaac Burpee, as Minister of Customs. Nova Scotia
was represented by Mr. Thomas Coffin, as Receiver-General,
and Mr. Wm. Ross, as Minister of Militia and Defence. Mr.
David Laird represented the Province of Prince Edward
Island, now a member of Confederation, as Minister of the
Interior. The personnel of the new administration was, on the whole,
satisfactory to the party. As between the House of Commons
and the Senate the number of Ministers was eleven to three,
and although Ontario held six seats in the Cabinet, two of
them were without portfolio. Quebec held three, Nova Scotia
and New Brunswick two each, and Prince Edward Island one.
In speaking of his Government to his constituents, Mr
Mackenzie said : " I may with feelings of pride refer to the
standing of the members of the Cabinet. No one will deny
it has a large amount of ability. No debater in public life in
our day can take rank with Mr. Blake, formerly Premier of
Ontario. Mr. Smith and Mr. Laird were also respectively
Premiers of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, and
no man stood higher in his own province than Mr. Dorion,
Minister of Justice. In the matter of religious faith, there are
five Catholics, three members of the Church of England, three
Presbyterians, two Methodists, one Gongregationalist and one
Baptist." The electors of Lambton, were, as might be expected, greatly

THE NEW ADMINISTRATION. 355
delighted with the elevation of the man whom for so many
years they had elected to Parliament, and on his return to
his county for the constitutional approval which his accept
ance of a seat in the Government required, he was tendered a
banquet by his old friends and admirers. The kind references
to his public career, and to the great energy he had shown in
overcoming obstacles which would bave overwhelmed a weaker
man, showed the esteem in which he was held by his constit
uents, while the response on his part, " You made me what I
am, I owe my position to the confidence of the jieople of
Lambton," indicated his appreciation of the support they .had
given him since he entered public life.
The Hon. Mr. Brown was unable to attend the banquet, but
sent a ringing letter to the secretary. " In the midst of
venality and corruption, Mr. Mackenzie's hands have never
been defiled. It is such counties as Lambton that make such
representatives as Alexander Mackenzie. It will be a bright
page in the history of Canada that tells that the first Reform
Minister of this great Dominion was the noblest working-man
in the land, and the representative of one of the truest con
stituencies that ever upheld a great cause."
The Ministers having appealed to their constituencies aud
being constitutionally confirmed in their places, were now
prepared to grapple with the political problems peculiar to the
situation. Parliament was to be called for the transaction of
business before many months, and the question very naturally
suggested itself to their minds : " Shall we trust ourselves to a
Parliament elected under our predecessors largely by Sir Hugh
Allan's gold and $10,000 drafts from Mr. Abbott ? Sir John
Macdonald had resigned without dividing the House. How
many members were prepared to condemn him was unknown.
Even if his condemnation had been secured by the registration

350 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
of their names in the Votes and Proceedings, could men whose
seats were purchased for them be depended upon ? Besides,
was it not the duty of the new administration to give the
people of Canada an opportunity of expressing their disap
proval of both Ministers and members connected with or
implicated in the Pacific Scandal, and how could this be done
except by dissolution ? So without any hesitation the Par
liament of 1873 was dissolved on the 2nd of January, 1874,
and a new election ordered. The elections were held as nearly
as possible on the same day ; although Mr. Mackenzie was not
obliged by statute to deprive himself of the advantage of
holding elections at such times as would best contribute to
his political strength.
The issues before the country were very clearly and ably
put in the address by Mr. Mackenzie to the electors of Lamb
ton. " It was due," he said, " to the electors of Canada to give
them the opportunity of pronouncing between ourselves and
our opponents, and it was essential to a fair representation of
the people and to the enactment of good laws that the House
should be purged of members elected by the corrupt use of Sir
Hugh Allen's money. Canada is asked to send to Ottawa a
House of Commons free to do its duty to the State, chosen by
the unbiased voice of the people, instead of men bound hand
and foot to those to whom they owe their seats."
" We shall strive," he said, " to elevate the standard of
public morality which our opponents have done so much to
debase, and to conduct public affairs upon principles of which
honest men can approve, and by practices which will bear the
light of day."
" We shall endeavor to remove those sectional jealousies and
local prejudices which were aggravated by our predecessors
and to effect a genuine consolidation of the Union."

THE NEW ADMINISTRA TION. 357
He then goes on to promise legislation for taking the votes
of the people by ballot, an Insolvency Act a Supreme Court
Act, the revision of the Militia System, etc. With regard to
the Pacific Railway, his address was very significant. Mr.
Mackenzie frequently pointed out, in Opposition, the tremen
dous burdens which the terms with British Columbia imposed
upon Canadians. And now, as leader of the Government, the
necessity for a readjustment of these terms pressed itself upon
his attention. In his address, he said : " We must endeavor
to arrange with British Columbia for such a relaxation of the
terms of Union as may give time for the completion of the
surveys of the Pacific Railway, and the acquisition of the infor
mation necessary to an intelligent apprehension of the work
and for its subsequent prosecution with such speed and under
such arrangements as the resources of the country will permit
without too largely increasing the taxation of the people."
As a temporary means for entering the North-West Terri
tories, he proposed utilizing the water stretches between the
Rocky Mountains and Fort Garry, and from Fort Garry to
Lake Superior ; and also to connect, by way of Pembina, the
Province of Manitoba with the American system of Railways.
" Our endeavor will be in all these and other matters requiring
the attention of the administration to promote such an honest,
vigorous, just and economical policy as may redound to the
true welfare of the people of Canada."
The elections which followed were a great victory for the
new administration. Many Conservative candidates, who were
considered all but invincible, fell in the fray ; and Mr. Mac
kenzie could confidently say that the country had approved of
his policy.
Parliament was called for the despatch of business on March
26th, and was opened with great pomp and ceremony by His

358 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Excellency, Lord Dufferin, with Mr. T. W. Anglin as Speaker
Mr. Moss, afterwards Chief Justice, "who was entrusted with
moving the address in reply to His Excellency's speech, in
adverting to the great changes made in the representation of the
House by the recent elections, said : "A great national crisis had
occurred. Popular feeling and sentiment were keenly alive to
the importance of the present and the coming time, and he
believed the people of Canada had made their choice wisely
and well, and he ventured to assure the Ministry that if they
did, as they would do, their very best to administer the affairs
of the country with a single eye to the public welfare, and if
they exhibited that sagacity and statesmanship which Canada
had the right to expect from her foremost men, they would
receive the earnest support, sympathy and co-operation of the
House of Commons." Sir John Macdonald, in his place as
leader of the Opposition, questioned the propriety of the
dissolution which had just taken place, and doubted very much
if Mr. Mackenzie was supported in his course by English
practice. He also expressed doubt with regard to the feasibility
of readjusting the terms of union with British Columbia, and,
after reiterating his objections to the ballot which the Govern
ment proposed, he informed the House that so far as he was
concerned the address would be allowed to pass without
amendment. The first difficulty which confronted Mr. Mackenzie was the
troubles in the North-West and the appearance of Riel before
the Clerk of the House to sign the roll as member for Pro
vencher. In order to ascertain the real causes of the griev
ances in the North-West and the extent to which the previous
Government had committed themselves either to redress those
grievances or to grant an amnesty to the offenders, a special
committee was appointed, composed of Mr. Donald A. Smith,

THE NEW A DMINISTRA TION. 359
John Hillyard Cameron, Mr. Bowell, Mr J. J. C. Abbott, Mr.
Blake, Mr. Moss, Mr. Geoffrion, Mr. Masson and Mr Jones, of
Halifax ; the result of their investigation has been fully con
sidered elsewhere. Riel was expelled from the House and a
new election ordered in Provencher.
Mr. Mackenzie's second difficulty grew out of the terms
made with British Columbia at the time of her admission to the
Union. Four years had already elapsed since the terms were
settled and little substantial progress was made towards their
fulfilment. It was agreed that the construction of the Pacific
Railway, by which that Province was to be connected with
the East, should be commenced in two years from the date of
Union and completed in ten. The Province was disappointed
and indignant at the delay, and her representatives frequently
called the attention of Parliament and the Government to
their neglect of duty. On July 26, 1873, an official complaint
by the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, Mr. Trutch, was
addressed to the Hon. Mr. Aikins, then Secretary of State for
Canada, enclosing a minute of the Executive Council of the
Province strongly protesting against the violation of the terms
of Union. Owing, probably, to the difficulties in which the
Government was involved by the Pacific scandal, no notice
was taken of this remonstrance. The Lieutenant-Governor
renewed his complaints, and on December 23, 1873, he was
assured by Mr. Mackenzie's Government " that their grievance
was receiving their most earnest consideration, and that a
scheme would be devised as soon as possible which it was
hoped would be acceptable to British Columbia and to the
whole Dominion." These assurances, however, did not allay
the discontent, and early in 1874, Mr. Jas. D. Edgar was sent
as the agent of the Dominion Government to Victoria " for the
purpose of ascertaining the state of feeling in the Province

330 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
with regard to certain changes which were deemed necessary
in the mode and in the limit of time for the construction of
the Canadian Pacific Railway, and to bring about some such
feasible arrangement as might meet the general approval of
the Local Government and the people of British Columbia,
in place of the original conditions respecting the commence
ment and completion of the railway contained iu the origi
nal terms of the Union." On June 16th, Mr. Edgar submitted
an elaborate report showing the intense feeling existing in the
Province on account of the delay which had already occurred
and the want of energy apparently shewn in making the
necessary surveys. So high did public feeling run that the
Local Legislature of the Province adopted a resolution to the
effect " that no alteration in the terms of Union with Canada
shall be permitted by the Government of this Province until
the same has been submitted to the people for endorsation."
In order to prepare the way for a settlement, Mr. Edgar, acting
under instructions from the Government at Ottawa, suggested
the postponement of the construction of the road until proper
surveys were made, but that in the meantime a waggon-road
should be constructed along the route of the railway in
the Province and a telegraph line across the continent. In
this way the interior of the country would be opened up and
communication established with the Eastern Provinces. It
was also proposed, as soon as the surveys were completed, to
expend annually in construction proper the sum of $1,500,000.
These alternative proposals were spurned by the British
Columbians, and Mr. Edgar, finding himself unable to make
further progress, returned to Ottawa.
Having failed in coming to an understanding with the
Dominion Government, the British Columbians authorized the
Attorney-General of the Province, the Hon. Geo. A. Walkem,

THE NEW ADMINISTRATION. 361
to proceed to England to lay the complaints of the Province
before the Colonial Secretary. The Colonial Office apparently
became alarmed at the aggressive action of the British Colum
bians, and immediately communicated with the Dominion
Government with regard to the matters in dispute.
In his anxiety to bring about a reconciliation. Earl Carnar
von addressed a despatch to the Governor-General of Canada,
in which he intimated his regret that any difficulty should
exist between the Dominion and the Province, and proposed
" that if both Governments should unite in desiring to refer to
me any arbitration of the matters in controversy, binding them
selves to accept such decision as I may think fair and just, I
would not decline to undertake the service." Mr. Mackenzie's
Government did not apparently relish this interference of
Downing Street in a matter of colonial concern. Accord
ingly, on the Sth of July, 1874, they replied to Earl
Carnarvon's despatch in a long paper setting forth the whole
case from the Dominion standpoint. It was pointed out that
the terms with British Columbia were agreed to by the House
by the small majority of ten, and that this majority was
obtained on the condition " that the public aid to be given to
secure the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway should
consist of such liberal grants of land and such subsidy in money
or other aid, not increasing the present rate of taxation, as the
Parliament of Canada shall hereafter determine." It was also
pointed out that the terms made with British Columbia were
most extravagant and in excess of the terms originally
demanded by the Province. A coach road across the Rocky
Mountains was all that was asked for in the first instance, with
an expenditure of $1,000,000 after three years from the date
of Union, on the railway proper. It was also pointed out
that the company chartered under Sir Hugh Allan to proceed

362 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
with the construction of the road had relinquished their charter,
as they were unable to obtain the necessary funds from Eng
lish capitalists. The Government had not been indifferent, it
was alleged, to their obligations, as they had sent Mr. Edgar
to British Columbia in order to ascertain if some relaxation of
the terms of Union could not be arrived at which would be
mutually acceptable. They had shown their desire to help
the people of British Columbia by advancing a quarter of a
million for the construction of the graving-dock at Esquimalt,
although not required by the terms of treaty to do more than
pay five per cent interest on the cost of construction for ten
years after the work was completed, and also by their offer to
build a railway from Esquimalt to Nanaimo, a distance of
about sixty-five miles.
To the Canadian case, Mr. Walkem, who for the time being
remained in London, sent a very strong reply protesting
against the proposed modifications of the treaty with British
Columbia, and insisting on the interference of the Imperial
authorities in behalf of the Province. On the receipt of Mr
Walkem's paper. Earl Carnarvon proceeded to give his final
decision, which was afterwards known as the Carnarvon
terms. These were as follows : (1), that the railway from
Esquimalt to Nanaimo shall be commenced and completed as
soon as possible ; (2), that the surveys on the main land shall
be pushed with the utmost vigor ; (3), that the waggon road
and telegraph lines eastward should be immediately con
structed ; (4), that two millions a year should be the minimum
expenditure on railways within the Province from the date at
which the surveys are sufficiently completed to enable that
amount to be expended on construction ; (5), that the railway
shall be completed on or before the 31st of December, 1890, at
least so far as to connect with the American railways at the

THE NEW ADMINISTRATION. 363
west end of Lake Superior. By a minute of Council dated
the 18th of December, the Carnarvon terms were formally
accepted by the Dominion Government, and on the 15th
of March, 1875, Mr. Mackenzie introduced a bill into the
House of Commons to provide for the construction of a line of
railway from Esquimalt to Nanaimo in British Columbia.
The feeling in the House of Commons was none too favor
able to this proposal. The Liberal party had from the
very first regarded the terms with British Columbia as
onerous in the extreme, and to be obliged now to implement
an agreement made by their predecessors, and which they had
opposed at the time with all their power, was certainly asking
a great deal. They were, however, between two fires. On
the one haad, was a treaty of a most solemn character entered
into with a sister Province. The honour of the country was
pledged to carry out the terms of this treaty, subject to this
one reservation, that in carrying out these terms, the general
taxation of Canada should not be increased On the other
hand, was the Colonial Office, to which British Columbia
had appealed, as it had a right, no doubt, against the
laches of the Canadian Government. To repeal the terms of
the Union, or so deal with British Columbia as to lead to its
withdrawal from the Union, would, it was felt, discredit the
Government in the eyes of all the people of Canada. To carry
out- the terms literally, or nearly so, as British Columbia
insisted, would be to increase enormously the burdens of
taxation. That the Liberal party was disinclined to go further
in its concessions to British Columbia was evident from the
fact that Mr. Blake and several leading Liberals voted against
the proposal to construct the Esquimalt and Nanaimo railway
for purposes of conciliation, and when the Senate rejected the

364 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
bill entirely, it was also evident that parliamentary sanction
to any concession to British Columbia was not easily obtain
able. The irritation in Canada was further increased by the action
of the Biitish Columbian representatives in the House of
Commons. On the 28th of March, 1876, Mr. De Cosmos pro
posed a vote of censure upon the Government for their
delay in proceeding with the railway ; and in the debate which
followed, the mover of the resolution, as well as all the other
members for British Columbia, were most censorious in their
observations. In the meantime, the Colonial Office was kept
busy with despatches from the Executive Council of British
Columbia, and with replies from Canada. But no solution of
the difficulty seemed to be suggested to which both parties
could agree. A proposition that the Columbians should be
paid $750,000 for the delay in beginning the road was uncere
moniously rejected by the Executive.
Diplomacy having all but exhausted itself, it occurred to
Lord Dufferin, Governor- General, that if he paid a visit to the
Province and had an opportunity of conversing with its lead
ing citizens, he would be in a better position, as an Imperial
officer, to advise the Colonial Office as to the true condition of
affairs, and he might possibly be able to say something, without
assuming to act in any ambassadorial position, that would
mollify the discontent so unhappily existing. Mr. Mackenzie,
who was greatly impressed with Lord Dufferin's affability and
tact, concurred in the proposed visit. Moreover, he was
anxious that His Excellency, during his stay in Canada, should
acquaint himself with all parts of the Dominion. A visit,
therefore, to British Columbia would not only be a source of
pleasure to His Excellency, but would also give him an oppor
tunity of acquiring information which might be of value to

THE NEW A DMINISTRA TION. 365

Ar'7~2.^t<rC ^

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.^y*^ «s.^^«

(Facsimile of Lord Dufierins hand- writing.)

366 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
the whole Dominion hereafter ; and if he should succeed even
in ever so small a measure in allaying the discontent, he might
thereby possibly pave the way for some settlement of existing
difficulties. Lord Dufferin set out for British Columbia on the 31st
of July, 1876, and arrived at Victoria on the 18th of August.
He was received with the utmost enthusiasm by the people,
was presented with numberless addresses and afforded every
opportunity of visiting both the island and the mainland.
Before leaving the Province, however, he very wisely deter
mined to address a public meeting on the great railway question,
which he found to be the all-absorbing one. Perhaps never
did the Governor of any colony undertake a more difficult
task or one requiring greater tact, judgment and prudence than
the task that his Lordship assigned to himself on that occasion.
As the head of the Government, he was debarred from uttering
a single word derogatory of the conduct of his advisers in
dealing with the Pacific Railway. To appear to be a counsel
in their behalf would be sure to excite the animosity of his
audience. How was he then to steer between Scylla and
Charybdis ? It was for himself to show how this was to be
done, and the admirable skill with which he performed his
task showed his genius as a diplomatist and tactician.
In plain and simple> language, he recapitulated the various ¦
steps which had been taken to settle the difficulties of British
Columbia since the first complaint was made to the Government
at Ottawa. He showed how surveys were begun almost as soon
as she entered the Union, and how these surveying parties had
been strengthened, from time to time, with a view to the ulti
mate location of the road. He shewed the anxiety of the
Government to find some modification of the treaty that would
be acceptable, in proof of which Mr. Edgar had been sent on

THE NEW ADMINISTRA TION. 367
a special mission to confer with the Local Government ; and
more recently a bill had been introduced into the Dominion
Parliament for the construction of a railway from Esquimalt
to Nanaimo. He shewed that this bill received the almost
unanimous support of the Liberal party in the House of Com
mons, and that its defeat was owing to the action of the Senate
— a body which Mr. Mackenzie could not be expected to
control. In the strongest language, he exonerated Mr. Mac
kenzie from all blame for the rejection of the Esquimalt Bill by
the Senate. He frankly told them that the feeling in Canada
was becoming daily more opposed to the demands which they
were making upon the Dominion Treasury, that it was doubt
ful if such a bill as that rejected by the Senate could now be
even passed by the House of Commons, and if a money com
pensation could be agreed upon for losses and delays in
proceeding with the railway, it would be, perhaps, the best
solution of the difficulty. He assured them in eloquent terms
that, although they were but few numerically, no advantage
would be taken of their weakness. " Woe betide the Govern
ment," he said, '' or the statesmen who, because its inhabitants
are few in number and, politically, of small account, should
disregard the wishes or carelessly dismiss the representations,
however rough, boisterous, or downright of the feeblest of our
distant colonies."
His Excellency's speech greatly pacified the people of
British Columbia. Never before had they considered the
question so calmly from a national standpoint, and never
before was the impression so strong that Canada would do
justly by them, even if it could not fulfil the letter of the
bond. From this date forward, the grievances of British
Columbia were daily becoming a source of less anxiety
to the Government Mr. Mackenzie, they plainly saw, was push-

368 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
ing the surveys of the road with vigour. Contracts were being
let at different points for construction purposes. Rails were
purchased in England to be in readiness when required ; and
long before Mr. Mackenzie had retired from office all substan
tial cause of complaint had been removed. Thus does time,
the healer of national and political sores, accomplish, without
any display of his surgical skill, what Parliament and diplo
mats and colonial secretaries fail to accomplish, even by the
most sweetened and temperate despatches.
Early in 1874, Mr. Mackenzie learned that the United States
Government was disposed to consider favorably either the
renewal of the old Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 or such modi
fications thereof as would remove some of the commercial
barriers in the way of a larger trade between Canada and the
United States. In order to ascertain the extent of this feeling,
the Hon. Geo. Brown visited Washington at the request of the
Government, and found the authorities in such a frame of
mind as, in his opinion, would warrant action on the part of
Canada and Great Britain. Mr. Mackenzie had previously
declared, on many public occasions, that he had no confidence
in British ambassadors when dealing with Canadian affairs.
He was anxious, therefore, in opening negotiations for a new
treaty with the United States, to secure the appointment
of a Canadian representative whose ability and knowledge
of public affairs would be equal to the great responsibilities of
such an undertaking. After some correspondence with the
Colonial Office, Mr. Brown and Sir Edward Thornton were, on
the I7th of March, appointed joint plenipotentiaries for the
purpose named.
So far as . Canada was concerned, the appointment of Mr.
Brown was eminently satisfactory. He had given the closest
attention for many years to the development of Canadian

THE NEW ADMINISTRATION. 309
trade and commerce, and, as a publicist, had discussed every
phase of the question.
Mr. Brown immediately proceeded to Washington and found
Mr. Secretary Fish and President Grant alive to the import
ance of removing, as far as possible, every obstacle likely to
impede the commerce of the two countries. The Washington
Treaty of 1871 had settled some international difficulties, but
had left the great question of Reciprocity as it was in 1866.
By article twenty-two of the Washington Treaty, provision
was made, on the appointment of commissioners, to appraise
the advantages derived by the people of the United States
for the use of the in-shore fisheries of Canada. If some
interchange in commercial products could be agreed upon, as
an equivalent for the compensation to which Canada would be
entitled for the use of her fisheries by the citizens of the United
States, the appointment of commissioners would be unnecessary
and a settlement of the fishery question, in this indirect way,
might be obtained even more satisfactory to both parties than
that proposed by the Washington Treaty. As Mr. Brown said
in his speech in the Senate, in 1875, " To merge the matter in
a general measure of mutual commercial concessions for the
mutual advantage of both parties and with injury or injus
tice to neither, seemed the fitting conclusion to be arrived at
by the Governments of two great nations." It was on this
line that Mr. Brown proceeded with the authorities at Wash
ington ; and in order to crystalize the opinions of the repre
sentatives of Canada and Great Britain, the following
propositions were submitted: 1. That the duration of the
treaty should be twenty-one years. 2. That all the conditions
of the old treaty of 1854 should be renewed. 3. That the
following additional articles should be added to the free list of
the old treaty : Agricultural implements, to be defined ; bark,
X

370 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
extracts of, for tanning purposes ; bath bricks ; bricks for
building purposes ; earth ochres, ground or unground ; hay ;
lime ; malt ; manufactures of iron and steel, to be defined ;
manufactures of iron or steel and wood, jointly, to be defined ;
manufactures of wood, to be defined ; mineral and other oils ;
plaster, raw or calcined ; salt ; straw ; stone, marble or granite,
partly or wholly cut, or wrought. 4. That the fishery arbitra
tion provision of the Washington Treaty should be abandoned.
5. That the entire coasting trade of the United States and
Canada should be thrown open to the shipping of both
countries. 6. That the Welland and St. Lawrence canals
should be enlarged forthwith, so as to admit of the passage of
vessels 260 feet long, 45 feet beam, and a depth equal to that
of the lake harbors. 7. That the Canadian, New York and
Michigan canals should be thrown open to the vessels of both
countries on terms of complete equality, and with full power
to tranship cargo at the entrance or outlet of any of the said
canals. 8. That the free navigation of Lake Michigan should
be conceded forever to Great Britain, as the free navigation of
the St Lawrence had been conceded to the United States by
the High Joint Commission in 1871. 9. That vessels of all
kinds built in the United States or Canada should be entitled
to registry in either country with all the advantages pertain
ing to home-built vessels. 10. That a joint commission should
be formed and continued, charged with the deepening and
maintaining in efficient condition, the navigation of the St.
Clair and Detroit Rivers and Lake St. Clair. 11. That a
similar joint commission should be formed and maintained for
securing the erection and proper regulation of lighthouses on
the great lakes. 12. That a similar joint commission should
be formed and maintained to promote the protection and pro
pagation of fish in the inland waters common to both countries.

THE NEW ADMINISTRATION. 371
13. That the citizens of either country should be entitled to
letters patent for new discoveries in the other country, and on
the same terms as the citizens of that country enjoyed. 14.
That joint action for the prevention of smuggling along the
lines should be a subject of consideration and co-operation by
the custom authorities of both countries.
In his memorandum to the Washington Government, Mr.
Brown shewed that the trade between the United States and
Canada in 1853 — the year prior to the old Reciprocity Treaty
— amounted to $20,000,000 only ; whereas in 1866 — the year
the treaty came to an end — the trade amounted to no less than
$84,000,000. During the thirteen years of the treaty, the
memorandum showed a gross trade between Canada and the
United States of $630,000,000, and that during the same
period the British American Provinces purchased from the
United States more goods than from (>hina, Italy, Hayti,
Russia, Austria, Denmark, Turkey, Portugal, South America,
Central America and Japan all put together.
After negotiations extending beyond the middle of June, a
draft treaty was agreed upon and was transmitted by Secre
tary Fish to the Senate of the United States. It is greatly to
be regretted that negotiations which had proceeded so success
fully were not terminated at an earlier date, as the Senate
was within two days of adjournment before the treaty agreed
upon came up for consideration. This furnished those
opposed to the treaty the opportunity they wanted of recom
mending a postponement of the whole question for another
year, with the result that during the recess the protectionists
of the United States were able so to influence public opinion
as to prevent the Senate from entertaining the treaty at a
future session.
As these negotiations for a new treaty, apparently entered

372 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
upon in good faith by both parties failed, it became the duty of
the Canadian Government to demand the arbitration agreed
upon by the Washington Treaty. It was not, however, till
1877 that the Commission was organized. Canada was repre
sented by Sir Alexander Gait, and the United States by the
Hon. Judge Kellogg. Monsieur Maurice Delfosse, Belgian
Minister at Washington, was appointed conjointly by the two
Governments as umpire.
After many days' discussion and consideration of the issues
involved, the arbitrators awarded that Canada should be paid
$5,500,000. The Americans were greatly disappointed with
the result of the arbitration ; but after a few months' delay
the amount was duly paid as provided by the treaty for the
right to our in-shore fisheries for twelve years.
Mr. Mackenzie's management of this case throughout was
highly creditable. The appointment of Mr. Gait as Commis
sioner on behalf of Great Britain was a recognition of the
right of Canadians to be consulted in matters affecting their
own interests, and the award was a substantial proof that a
Canadian Commissioner is quite able to protect Canadian
interests against the over-reaching tendencies of American
diplomacy. Although Mr. Mackenzie continued throughout his life a
staunch advocate of British connections, and gloried in having
been born a Briton, he was first and always a Canadian.
Imperial Confederation he regarded as a chimera, impossible
of attainment and subversive of colonial independence. He
had unbounded confidence in the capacity of Canadians for
self-government, and was always inclined to resent the need
less interference of Downing Street in colonial affairs. When
Earl Carnarvon proffered his services to settle the difficulties
between Canada and British Columbia, he declined his arbitra-

THE NEW ADMINISTRATION. 373
ment as a judge, while willing to accept his friendly inter
position to allay irritation.
In the Fish-Brown Treaty of 1874, and in the Halifax
award of 1877, he obtained the appointment of a Canadian
Commissioner of equal status with his fellow commissioners.
When Sir John Macdonald, on one occasion, attempted to
rally his followers by waving the old flag, Mr. Mackenzie
retorted, " It is an easy matter to raise the fiag, but let us
raise the flag of common sense for a little while, and consider
not those high-flown sentiments of extreme devotion and
loyalty which the honorable gentleman dealt in so greatly to
night, but soberly and reasonably, what is best for Canada
as Canada, and what is best for Canada as part of the British
Empire. I have no doubt, whatever, our true policy is to
obtain self-action in almost everything which relates to our
own business. I, for one, give my cordial support to any
thing that will extend our liberty of action and make us
entirely equal in all respects to other legislatures and the
Ministers of the mother country itself."
Again, in 1882, when Mr. Blake made his motion to demand
for Canada the right to deal with the United States or any
other country in matters of commerce as an independent coun
try he was vigorously seconded by Mr. Mackenzie. Mr. Mac
kenzie said, " that there was no man in Canada who would
sooner than he reject party obligations rather than lift a hand
or a finger, by motion or otherwise, to disturb the relations
that exist between Britain and her colonies. But he had lived
long enough in Canada to know that it has been the policy
of the Tory party, almost from the beginning of our history,
whenever a movement was made tending to expand the
liberties of the people, to cry out there was danger of the
connection with Great Britain, and that he'was surprised and

374 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
pained to find leading statesmen still resorting to that paltry
policy." Sir John Macdonald's speech, he said, had failed to
convince him that there was "the slightest danger of what he
pretended to fear. Everything that extends the liberties of
Canadians, everything that accords to Canada and her states
men greater breadth of view in the management of their own
affairs, is more likely to conduce to the management of Imper
ial interests and greatness than any curbing policy that keeps
us down to the grindstone. It has been the policy of English
statesmen who have had the management of our affairs from
the first to consider colonists as inferior to themselves. I
can recall the words even of such men as Lord Grey, Lord
Russell and Lord Metcalfe, every one of whom had placed on
record their belief that full self-government was not well
suited to colonists, and I have read the despatches of Lord
Russell and Lord Glenelg to the Governor- General frequently;
warning them not to extend the principle of responsible
government to Canadians further than so far as might be con
sistent with the maintenance of the colonial relation. I believe
we are really as capable of managing our own political affairs
as the House of Commons in England."
In the session of 1874, Mr. Cartwright, Minister of Finance,
delivered his first budget speech. He reviewed the financial

^^^:2^-^i2I3^I^^^^^S7

obligations of the country, tlie falling off in the revenue and
the necessity for additional taxation if the country was to
meet the obligations imposed upon it by the previous administra
tion. It was somewhat unfortunate that in the first year of

THE NEW ADMINISTRA TION. 375
tbe Government's existence the necessity arose for this course.
To convince the people that the increase of taxation was the
natural consequence of the extravagance of their predecessors
and not a covert attack upon the ratepayers in order to ju.stify
expenditures which they proposed to incur themselves, was one
of the difficulties of the situation.
The general character of the increases proposed by Mr.
Cartwright was most reasonable. No attempt was made to
bolster up any industry at the expense of the consumer. As
far as possible, the necessaries of life were not burdened with
any additional rate, the luxuries being made to supply, mainly,
the necessary revenue.
Sir Charles Tupper, who acted as the Opposition critic of the
budget speech, inveighed strongly against the increased taxa
tion proposed by the Minister of Finance, and charged Mr.
Mackenzie with infidelity to his free trade principles in the
increase of the tariff from 15 to Vl\ per cent. The obligations
incurred by the previous Government, he claimed, could be
discharged without any difficulty, as the increased revenue
from an increased population and from the development of
the Northwest Territories would more than meet the extra
expenditure. The Maritime Provinces entered Confederation
with a very low tariff. What would be their indignation, he
asked, when they became aware of the policy of the Govern
ment. Mr. Mackenzie, in reply to Mr. Tupper, claimed that the
Government had no option ; that the manly and the honest
way was to state to Parliament and to the country their true
financial condition, and to provide the only remedy within
their power, namely, a reasonable increase of the tariff.
Although a free trader in principle, as head of the Government
he must find sufficient money with which to carry on the

376 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
business of the country ; and while it was impossible to apply
the principles of free trade, he did the next best thing — he
increased the tariff for revenue purposes only.
Owing to the failure of Sir John Macdonald's scheme for
the construction of the Canadian Pacific railway, it was neces
sary, in order to keep faith with British Columbia, that some
other means should be adopted for the construction of this
road. Mr. Mackenzie lost no time in submitting to the House
a bill embodying the policy of the Government. He proposed,
first, to divide the road into four sections two east of Winni
peg, and two west, with branches from Winnipeg to Pembina,
and. from Lake Nipissing to Georgian Bay. A line of telegraph
was to be constructed along the whole extent of the railway
in advance of the construction of the road, and as soon as the
route had been determined. Each sectio-. was to be worked
by the contractors who constructed the section, on terms to
be settled by the Governor in Council. The bill provided for
the construction of the road by private enterprise or as a
Government work. In this respect it was different from Sir
John Macdonald's bill, which provided for the construction of
the road by private enterprise only. Instead of giving a subsidy
of money and lands en bloc to the company, Mr. Mackenzie
proposed a subsidy of $10,000 per mile and a land grant of
20,000 acres per mile, with a guarantee of four per cent, for a
given number of years on a sum to be stated in the contract
for each mile tendered for, all contracts for any portion of the
main line to be submitted to Parliament for approval. The
Government reserved to itself the right to assume possession
of the whole or any section of the railway on payment of ten
per cent, in addition to the original cost, less the value of the
land and money subsidies received. No time was fixed by the
bill absolutely, for the completion of the road. The branch

THE NEW ADMINISTRATION. 377
line at Fort Garry was to be pushed forward as fast as would
be necessary to connect with the American system of railways.
Although this bill was not satisfactory to the British
Columbians, particularly as it did not guarantee the com
pletion of the road according to the exact terms of union with
the Province, it was, nevertheless, an honest attempt to fulfil
the obligations of the Government. Indeed, it contemplated
more than Parliament had absolutely promised in the first
instance, as the terms of union with British Columbia, so far
as the Pacific Railway was concerned, required that the road
should be constructed out of the revenues of the Dominion
without increasing the rate of taxation.
To those who had committed themselves to the construction
of a trans-continental railway immediately on Canadian
territory, the bill was unsatisfactory, inasmuch as it designed
to utilize the American .system of railways for access to Mani
toba by way of Pembina, leaving the eastern section along the
north shore of Lake Superior to be constructed at a later
period. But while the construction of the eastern section
remained in abeyance, it was proposed to utilize the water
stretches to the north of Lake Superior as far as possible, for
the purpose of furnishing immediate access through Canadian
territory to the North-West.
On this latter proposition much ridicule was cast by the
Conservative party. No doubt there were disadvantages for
commercial purposes in the conveyance of freight and pas
sengers by a combination of rail and water, and were it not
for the financial obligations it involved, it is quite certain Mr.
Mackenzie himself would never have entertained such a
project. The country was suffering from great commercial
depression. The revenue of the Dominion was accordingly
impaired. A considerable addition had been made to the

378 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
tariff, and Mr. Mackenzie felt that any reasonable means by
which he could avoid adding to the burdens of the country
demanded consideration. If he was obliged to adopt any
measure of a temporary character in order to tide over present
financial difficulties, it was not his fault, but the fault of his pre
decessors by whom the country was placed under such heavy
obligations to British Columbia. Whatever objection may be
taken to the measure proposed by Mr. Mackenzie, no excep
tion can be taken to the sincerity of his efforts to carry out the
intention of Parliament in agreeing to the construction of the
railway. Mr. Mackenzie's speech on the introduction of this bill was
one of the most remarkable of the session, and in some respects
one of the ablest speeches ever delivered in a Canadian Parlia
ment. It occupied between three and four hours in delivery
and shewed the most intimate knowledge of the surveys of the
road and of the engineering difficulties to be overcome. When
pointing out the different routes that had been considered and
examined in the eastern section, one would have thought he
had travelled every mile of the road and had examined,
personally, every gulch and elevation which stood in the way
of the contractor. When discussing the western section with
its different gradients and alignments, one would have thought
he was an engineer who had studied with a Brunei or a
Stephenson. When he launched out into comparisons with
other railways of a similar kind in the United States and South
America, one would have thought he was the author of a com
pendium of the railway systems of the world. When he came
to discuss the financial obligation which this gigantic scheme
involved, the difficulty of obtaining the requisite amount of
money and the burdens it would impose upon the taxpayer,
one would have thought he was the Chancellor of the Exchequer

THE NE W A DMINISTRA TION. 379
addressing the House in Committee of Ways and Means. The
fact that in addition to his many other duties as Premier, and
as Minister of Public Works, he was able to master the details
of such a great enterprise, shews his wonderful industry and
grasp of mind.
It is not generally known that Mr. Mackenzie took great
interest in military matters, and had served his country as an
officer in the volunteers, ranking as Major of the 27th Batta
lion of Lambton. During the Fenian invasion of 1866 he was
for several months under canvas at the head of his company,
and won the admiration of every man in the service by the
faithful manner in which he discharged his duties.
He always took part in the discussions of the House
on military matters, and frequently expressed doubts with
regard to the results obtained from the methods usually
adopted for the training of the volunteers. To have a stand
ing army on paper, no matter how strong, would be, in his
opinion, of little use unless such an army were well officered ;
and the limited training provided under the Militia Act,
valuable though it might be, was not sufficient, he feared, for
active service in time of trouble.
To overcome the difficulties referred to, the Minister of
Militia introduced a bill for the establishment of a Military
College somewhat on the basis of West Point in the United
States. The course of study would involve instruction in all
matters relating to cavalry, infantry, artillery and engineer
ing. The college was to be placed under well-trained military
officers of experience, and cadets in training were to be sub
jected to examinations at the close of the college course.
By the establishment of this college, Mr. Mackenzie expected
to supply officers thoroughly competent to train the volunteer
forces of the country, as well as in the event of an emergency

380 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
to have in command men well versed in military tactics, who
could render valuable aid to the officers in command.
As the result of this legislation, a military college was
established at Kingston, and though it may not have met to
the full the expectations of its founder, its record has been
¦creditable to the staff, and the course of instruction equal to
the best military schools of the continent.
For many years the Liberal party complained of the election
law as being framed in the interest of the Government, and
designed as if from malice of forethought to prevent a free
expression of public opinion. As was seen in the elections of
1872, by issuing the writs in constituencies favorable to the
Government undue advantage was taken of the Liberal party.
For this state of affairs, Mr. Mackenzie in his address to the
electors of Lambton had promised a remedy when he assumed
office ; and the Election Bill introduced by the Minister of
J ustice, Mr. Dorion, was the fulfilment of that promise ; for by
clause two, it was provided that at every general election, the
Governor-General should fix one and the same day for the
nominations of candidates in all the electoral districts of the
Dominion, with the exception of a few cases which the writs
might possibly not reach in the usual time, between the disso
lution of the House and polling day, on account of the distance.
The writs for an election were to be addressed to the sheriff or
to the registrar of the electoral district, and in the event of
there being no sheriff or registrar, to such person as the Gov
ernment might appoint
The basis of the franchise was to be that used in the
Provincial elections. Candidates were to be nominated by a
written nomination paper, signed by twenty-five electors, and
a deposit of fifty dollars was to be made with the returning
officer as a guarantee of the bona fides of the nomination-

, THE NEW ADMINISTRATION. 381
The property qualification required of candidates was abolished
and for the open system of voting was substituted the more
modern system of vote by ballot Very stringent provisions
were adopted with respect to corrupt practices ; and for the
first time in the history of Canada, it may be said that an
honest effort was made to obtain a pure election. Since Mr.
Mackenzie retired from office, several attempts have been made
to neutralize its beneficial tendencies ; notably, by amending
the clause which provided that the sheriff or the registrar
should be ex officio returning officer. The appointment of a
returning officer who is the creature of the administration of
the day, and who considers that he can best drscWrge his
duties by promoting the election of the Government candi
date, or if the Government candidate fails in getting the
majority of the votes, by making such a return to the Clerk
of the Crown in Chancery as will give him a right, for the
time being, to a seat in Parliament, has of late years been a
matter of frequent occurrence. No such abuse of party power
was possible under Mr. Dorion's Election Bill, and that such
an abuse has been tolerated by the majority in Parliament on
several occasions, and encouraged, if not advised, by the
leaders of the party, is very much to be deplored.
The application of the ballot to Dominion el^ections was
strongly resisted by Sir John Macdonald, the leader of the
Opposition, and by many of his followers as well. Sir John
Macdonald wanted the country to adhere to the good old
system of open voting, as being the manlier form of declaring
one's political preference. The ballot was American, was
un-British, would lead to fraud and deception, and should not
be entertained. Following the same line, one of his supporters
naively expressed his objection to the ballot in these terms :
" Elections cannot be carried without money. Under an open

382 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
system of voting, you can readily ascertain whether the voter
has deceived you. Under vote by ballot, an elector may take
your money and vote as he likes, without detection."
The adoption of the franchise, established by the different
Provinces for their respective Legislatures, was another feature
of the liberal character of the Election Bill, and is also an
evidence of Mr. Mackenzie's confidence in the federal principle.
To say that the Local Legislatures cannot be trusted in prepar
ing voters' lists which will fairly represent public opinion, is to
reflect upon their loyalty to Confederation. To deny them
this privilege, no doubt intended by the Union Act, is to dis
turb very materially the area of representation in the different
Provinces. In addition to this there is the question of expense,
the impartial character of the voters' lists, the simplicity of
procedure, all of which are important in dealing with a
question, somewhat complex, but of supreme importance to the
country. To place the franchise of a constituency in the
hands of a revising barrister, who is the nominee of the party
in power, is like placing the deeds of your estate in the hands
of a rival claimant. A Government which can thus tamper
with the free expression of the people stands self-condemned.
Either its course has been unworthy of confidence and, there
fore, the jury must be packed, or the electors as a whole can
not be trusted, and as a consequence doubtful ones must be
deprived of their power of expressing themselves. Such
doctrines, either openly avowed or covertly carried out in the
name of law, would destroy more governments in Britain
than ever perished or are likely to perish by the Nemesis of
Irish Home Rule.

CHAPTER XXVL

THE SESSION OF 1875.
Mr. Mackenzie's Plan for Preserving the Debates of the House— The Supreme
Court Act — The Constitution of the Senate — Prohibition Discussed — The
Canada Temperance Act — Mr. Mackenzie -visits the Eastern Provinces —
Mr. Brown declines the Lieutenant-Governorship of Ontario — The Office
Accepted by Mr. D. A. Macdonald.
OR the first time in the history of the Canadian
Parliament, arrangements were made for offi
cially reporting the debates of the House. The
questions occupying the attention of the people's
epresentatives were considered to be of such import
ance as to justify the preservation of the debates for
future reference. An attempt had been made during the last
three years of the previous Parliament to secure the same
object by private enterprise, but the speeches were reported
with such partiality, either for the speaker or the party to
which he belonged, as to make the volume valueless for future
reference. To refer to files of a newspaper for the discus
sion of any question to which the House had given its con
sideration was becoming more and more difficult. A concise
report by well- trained stenographers was therefore almost a
necessity, if the debates were to be available for public pur
poses. Parliament is evidently satisfied with the policy wliich
Mr. Mackenzie introduced in 1875, and it is doubtful if any
383

384 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
deliberative body in the world is furnished with a more satis
factory report of its debates than is the Parliament of Canada.
For many years. Sir John Macdonald had been promising
the country an act for the establishment of a general Court of
Appeal for Cana,da, as provided by section 101 of the British
North America Act. That such an act was necessary on
account of the union of Provinces with different systems of
legal procedure was self-evident. The Supreme Court of the
United States was established in order to preserve, particu
larly in constitutional questions, harmony of action in the
difterent States of the Union.
Mr. Mackenzie saw that confusion would soon arise in the
interpretation of the laws of the different Provinces, unless
the intentions of the Union Act were carried out. He there
fore lost no time in bringing in a bill for the establishment
of a court to which appeals could be made from the judg
ments of the highest court of final resort in any Province of
Canada in all civil matters. In criminal matters, it was pro
posed to allow appeals within certain limitations in the case
of any person convicted of treason, felony or misdemeanour,
and also in cases of extradition. Authority was given the
Governor in Council to refer to the Supreme Court, for
heai-ing or consideration, any matter whatsoever he may
think fit, and, under certain conditions, jurisdiction was given
to the Supreme Court in the case: (1), Of controversies
between the Dominion of Canada and any Province. (2),
Of controversies between Provinces. (3), When the validity
of an act of the Parliament of Canada was questioned in the
proceedings. (4), When the validity of an act of one of the
Provinces was questioned in the proceedings.
The court was to be composed of a chief justice and five
puisne judges. The sittings of the court were to be held at

THE SESSION OF 1875. 385
Ottawa, and the jiidges were empowered to make such rules
and orders for regulating the procedure of the Supreme Court
as they might deem expedient.
Many of the French members of the House were strongly
opposed to the Supreme Court Bill, claiming that it interfered
with the dignity of the Provincial courts, and would expose
litigants from Quebec to the danger of being misunderstood in a
court presided over by a majority of English-speaking judges.
There seemed to be considerable difference of opinion in the
House with regard to the ultimate sovereignty of the Supreme
Court. By some members it was held that its decisions should
be final and conclusive, and without appeal to Her Majesty's
Privy Council in any case. By others it was held that Par
liament had no power to prohibit an appeal to Her Majesty's
Pri-vy Council, and even if there was the power, it should
not be exercised. The -views of the Government, and of a
majority of the House, were, after a pretty vigorous debate,
expressed in the following section which was inserted in the
bill on its third reading: "The judgment of the Supreme
Court shall in all cases be final and conclusive, and no error
or appeal shall be brought from any judgment or order of
the Supreme Court, to any Court of Appeal established by
the Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland, to which appeals
or petitions to Her Majesty in Council may be ordered to be
heard, saving any right which Her Majesty may be graciously
pleased to exercise as a royal prerogative."
Various amendments were made to the Act the following
ses-sion, the most worth}?- of note, perhaps, being the abolition
of a right of appeal to the Supreme Court in extradition
cases. The amendments made to the Supreme Court Act in
subsequent years do not come within the scope of our nar
rative. Y

386 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Mr. Mackenzie's action in constituting a Court of Appeal
for Canada, and his impartiality in establishing it in the
first instance, are in striking contrast to the vacillating policy
of his predecessors. The influence of a powerful court in
steadying legislation and in protecting the Constitution
against the inroads of partisan majorities can hardly be over
estimated. The Supreme Court of the United States has
more than once overthrown the plans of unscrupulous leaders
in Congress by its reasonable and well-sustained judgments.
To know that there is an appeal from Philip drunk to Philip
sober, from the knave who would make merchandise of the
public interests for his own selfish purposes, to the calm judg
ment of disinterested men, is a substantial check upon those
who are indifferent to the constitutional rights of their op
ponents. The cry raised by Sir John Macdonald that the restraint
imposed by the Bill upon indiscriminate appeals to the Pri-vy
Council, on the ground that it would lead to the severance of
Canada from the British Empire, was a sample of "jingoism"
in a small way which has been the bane of Canadian poHtics,
and which, happily for the country, had no influence with
Parliament. To admit the doctrine that in the management
of purely domestic affairs Canada is not free to exercise the
powers of self-government conferred on her by the Imperial
Parliament would be inimical to her independence and seK-
respect Nothing is more subversive of either personal or
national strength than the suppression of a spirit of self-
reliance. To be in perpetual fear of treading on Imperial
corns, or of being castigated by a Downing-street martinet,
involves a c^egree of self-debasement incompatible with the
most elementary principles of constitutional liberty.
It is easy, however, to recall periods in Canadian history

THE SESSION OF 1875. 387
where the terrorism of the Colonial Office so overawed the
people as to suppress the assertion of even the feeblest aspira
tion of a national spirit. When, forty years ago, it was proposed
to establish municipal institutions under the old Parliament of
Canada, the fetich of Imperialism was invoked, and the loyalty
of all who advocated their establishment was impugned.
" Place here and there (it was said) throughout the country,
independent local boards for the construction of roads and
bridges and the management of local affairs, and what are you
doing ? You are creating so many sucking republics to be a
menace to Imperial connection." Indeed, so jealous was Par
liament of its prerogative or so fearful that the power thus
conferred would be abused, that the wardens of counties
were originally appointed by the Crown, and all by-laws of
local municipalities, with one or two trifling exceptions, were
invalid until approved by the Lieutenant-Governor in Council.
And so the proposal made during the present generation to
adopt a decimal currency, or the system of voting by ballot,
or a union of the Pro-vinces on the Federal principle, caused a
paroxyism of affected loyalty which, if taken in all seriousness,
would have checked irreparably the development of self-
go-vemment To accept, in the administration of Canadian
affairs, any well-known principle or practice of the neighbor
ing states, was' to endanger Imperial connection ; and to
establish a Supreme Court in Canada, from which, under
certain circumstances, there would be no appeal was, using the
words of Sir John Macdonald, "to sever the last link that
bound Canada to the British Empire." Vain fear ! The ties
which bind Canada to the Empire happily do not depend upon
Courts of Appeal, or upon the courtesies of a Colonial Office,
or the presence of a Governor-General, or the pomp of a -vice
regal court. Canada finds in that connection the prestige of

388 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
a constitution that has " broadened down from precedent to
precedent." She finds a history of heroic deeds, in which she
has herself borne an humble part, and which it is her pride
and glory, to some extent, to imitate. She finds in the
literature of the Empire the best exposition of her aspira
tions, and she believes for the present, at least, that she can
best work out her own destiny in alliance with an Empire
whose honor and dignity her loyal subjects are prepared now,
as in the brave days of yore, to defend by land and by sea.
The attention of the House was again called by Mr. MiUs to
the constitution of the Senate in the following resolution :
" That the present mode of constituting the Senate is inconsis
tent with the Federal principle in our system of government,
makes the Senate alike independent of the people and the
Crown, and is in other material respects defective ; and that
our constitution ought to be so amended as to confer upon
each Province the power of selecting its own Senators, and to
define the mode of their selection."
Mr. Mills introduced a similar resolution in the previous
session ; but, owing to the pressure of business, he was unable
to proceed with it beyond the first stage. In an able speech,
he discussed the functions of a Senate in a Federal system,
pointing out, first, that under our constitution its primary
purpose was to protect the Provinces against the encroachment
of the House of Commons. It would logically follow, then,
that it should derive its existence from the Provinces and not
from the Crown. This was the main purpose of the Senate of
the United States, and although not constituted with any re
ference to the population of the different states, it has been
regarded by the people, even of the larger states, as affording
them ample protection ; second, the centralisation of power in

THE SESSION OF 1875. 389
the Crown is contrary to the modern trend of constitutional
government growth.
Canada happily lives almost beyond the shadow of pre
rogative in matters of legislation, except in this particular
instance. To invest a small body of men, appointed usually
because of their political service to their party, with legislative
power, is to give a partisan complexion to an estate of the
realm called upon to exercise judicial functions mainly. Let
a Government remain in office long enough, and in the natural
order of events, the Senate, to which a minority may be called
upon to appeal, may be, politically, more intensely partisan
than the House of Commons from which the appeal has been
taken. How then can it serve the purpose of protecting the
weak against the strong, while it is itself the creature of the
oppressor ? The Senate has had many opportunities in recent
years to discharge this duty, notably in connection with Redis
tribution Bills and Franchise Acts. But no voice came from
its emblazoned halls against the political brigandage of the
Government, whose fiat gave it existence. So strongly did
Mr. Mackenzie feel the danger to which he was exposed from
a. partisan Senate, that ih December, 1873, he advised that an
application should be made to Her Majesty to add six mem
bers to the Senate, in the public interest, as he was authorised
to do by the 26th section of the British North America Act.
The Earl of Kimberley, Colonial Secretary, in a despatch dated
February 18th, 1874, stated in reply that after a carefid ex
amination of the question, he was satisfied that it was intend
ed that the power vested in Her Majesty, under section 26,
should be exercised in order to provide a means of bringing
the Senate into accord with the House of Commons, in the
event of an actual collision of opinion between the two Houses;
and that Her Majesty could not be advised to take the respon-

390 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
sibility of interfering with the constitution of the Senate, ex
cept upon an occasion where it had been made apparent that
a difference had come between the two Houses of so serious
and permanent a character that the Government could not be
carried on without her intervention, and when it could be
shown that the limited creation of Senators allowed by the
Act v/ould apply an adequate remedy. Third, Mr. Mills con
tended that the Government of Sir John Macdonald had
broken faith with the Liberal party in the matter of Senator
ial appointments. The Senate was at first constituted in the
palmy days of the coalition of 1867, and represented pretty
fairly both political parties. Since that time, appointments
have, with very few exceptions, been made from the ranks of
the Conservative party, and thus what might have been a de
liberative body, representing the two great elements in Can
adian politics, has been converted into a Conservative club, the
members of which were duly balloted for at a meeting of the
Pri-vy Council, and afterwards introduced pro for'ina by some
other member in good standing.
It is useless to urge, as Mr. Mills pointed out, that Senators
forego their party politics on receiving their commission. To
admit this would be a contradiction of the practice of the
Conservative party for many years. If they are not poli
ticians in any party sense, why is it that they have been
selected, as a rule, from the dominant party ? Is it possible
that those members of the House of Commons who, up to the
time of a general election, were most active in propagating
the doctrine of their party, should, on entering the Senate, a
few weeks afterwards, divest themselves of all party feeling ?
Such an assumption is absurd, and contrary to experience.
Fourth, Mr. Mills objected to the appointment of Senators
for life. There could be no defence, he contended, for invest-

THE SESSION OF 1875. 391
ing men with power to shape the legislation of the country
who were practically irresponsible to any one for the conclu
sions they arrived at. If they were an echo of the House of
Commons, they were of no constitutional value. If they were
to be a check upon the House of Commons, or if by ripe ex
perience, and by calmness of judgment, they were to aid the
House of Commons in perfecting legislation, they could only
do this by receiving instructions at intervals from the people
of the country, either by direct election or nomination in
some other way.
In the course of the debate, which was a very interesting
one, it was clearly seen that the House was not in favor of the
abolition of the Senate. Some such constitutional safeguard
under our federal system was considered necessary. It was
also clearly the opinion of the House that if the Senate was
to serve the purpose for which, under our constitution, it was
intended, a change in the mode of appointment was necessary ;
and although the House by its action did not commit itself to
any particular scheme, the general expression of opinion was
evidently in favor of investing in the Legislative Assemblies
of the different Provinces the power to make appointments to
the Senate. The reference of the whole question to a commit
tee was adopted by a small majority, the vote standing 77 to
74. The sessions of 1874 and 1875 were remarkable for the
number of petitions presented in favor of prohibition. The
temperance men of Canada had stirred up the public opinion
of the country to a very unusual degree during these two years.
As a result of that sentiment, they looked towards the House
of Commons in the hope of obtaining stringent legislation for
restraining the liquor traffic. The petitions were referred to
a special committee for consideration, and in the report made

392 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
towards the close of the session, the opinion was expressed
" that it would be expedient to take such steps as would put
the House in possession of full information as to the opera
tion and results of prohibitory liquor laws in those States of
the American Union where they are or have been in force,
with a view to show their probable working and effect if in
troduced into Canada."
In response to this expression of opinion by the committee,
the Government appointed a commission consisting of E. J.
Davis of the County of Lambton, a barrister in high standing,
and the Rev. J. W. Manning of the county of ianark, a
gen!tleinan whp had given great attention to the Temperance
question. The Commissioners reported early in 1875, after
having visited several of the New England States where
prohibitory legislation was in force, and from the evidence
of state governors, senators, members of Congress, judges,
pohce courts, jailers, etc., which they submitted, it was quite
evident that prohibitory legislation tended to the reduction of
intemperance. It was therefore proposed that the House
should resolve itself into committee to consider a resolution de
claring " that a prohibitory Uquor law fully carried out is the
only effectual remedy for the e-vils inflicted upon society by in
temperance, and that Parliament is prepared, as soon as public
opinion will efficiently sustain stringent measures, to promote
such legislation as will prohibit the manufacture, importation
and sale of intoxicating Kquors as far as the same is within
the competency of this House."
The Temperance men of the House and of the country were
of the opinion that a geaeral resolution such as the above,
approving the principle of prohibition, if carried by the
House, would greatly aid the Temperance cause, and would
assist in moulding public opinion for further action.

THE SESSION OF 1875. 393
An attempt was made, however, to take political advantage
of this resolution by an amendment declaring that it is the
duty of the Government to submit a prohibitory liquor law
for the approval of Parliament at the earliest possible
moment After considerable debate, at different periods dur
ing the session, the House rose without giving any definite
expression of opinion.
In the session of 1876, further progress was made by the
adoption of a resolution for bringing down the decisions of
the courts of the different Provinces with regard to prohibi
tion. The courts appeared to be undecided as to where juris
diction lay with regard to prohibition. A learned judge in
the east contended that the Dominion Parliament alone could
prohibit the liquor traffic, and a learned judge in the west of
equal standing advanced the view that the Local Legislature
alone could prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquors.
In 1877, on motion of Mr. Schultz, the Government was
again called upon to pass a prohibitory liquor law at the earli
est moment practicable. To this motion objection was taken
that the question of jurisdiction had not been settled, that
there was a case before the Supreme Court which would
probably determine the relative jui-isdiction of the Provincial
and Dominion Legislatures, and, under the circumstances,
while not receding from any declaration previously made, it
was inexpedient to express any opinion regarding the action
to be taken by the Government in dealing with this matter.
The debate which grew out of this resolution was, in some
respects, very unsatisfactory. To change the current of pub
lic opinion with regard to habits established during many
generations, is not the work of a day. The Temperance men
of Canada, for thirty or forty years, had done a great deal to
create a Temperance sentiment, and were supported by a very

394 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
active public opinion entitled to the greatest respect The
practical question, however, before the House, was: Could
such a law, if passed, be enforced ? and many members who
were supporters of the Temperance cause had grave doubts on
this point The Government felt, besides that they were un
fairly treated by their opponents. What was in its incep
tion and development a purely moral question, supported out
side tl\e House irrespective of party line.y, was now turned
into a political question, and if the motion made by Mr.
Schultz prevailed, the Government would be obliged to take
action, whether public opinion would warrant it or not
Mr. Mackenzie defended the attitude of the Government
with a great deal of spirit " He always held, although an
advocate of prohibition for nearly thirty years, that it was
useless to give legislation on this or any other question until
the public was ready for it He quite admitted that public
men of standing and ability might lead the public mind to a
considerable extent. To legislate in advance of public opinion
was merely to produce anarchy instead . of maintaining law
and order. He did not believe that public opinion was ripe
for a prohibitory liquor law, even if the power was located.
He believed a great advance had been made towards it. He
quite admitted that ordinary pohtical Hfe, ordinary political
affairs, and ordinary political questions were quite secondary
to a condition of such vast importance as would be produced
by a reform in the drinking habits of the country. But
abundant evidence was furnished in the shape of the Inland
Revenue returns, in the figures presented every year, that,
while there had been more intelligent appreciation on the part
of the public generally of the views of Temperance men, and a
nearer approach to that state of public opinion which would
justify a not very remote Legislature in enacting a somewhat

THE SESSION OF 1875. 395
stringent measure in that direction, it was quite evident from
these returns that the drinking habits of the people had not
to any extent been affected as to the quantity used, by the
agitation which had prevailed and had been useful in its way.
There were more ardent spirits consumed this moment than
ten years ago. It was quite true that there had been a dimi
nution in the amount last year. Whether this resulted from
an improved public opinion, from the greater advance of tem
perance views with the people generally, or produced to some
or to the entire extent by the inabihty to purchase, as com
pared with former years, he would not venture to say. He
was bound to take a fair and reasonable view of the difficul
ties in the way, and believed at this moment if the Legis
lature had the power, and in the exercise of that power should
enact a Prohibitory Liquor Law, it would be impossible, with
the support which was to be obtained at present from public
opinion, to carry it practically into effect. He believed that
they would run great danger of vastly increasing the oppor
tunities for the illegal sale of intoxicating liquors, instead of
having it controlled by some sort of license system, as at
present. Any backward step in this movement would be a
fatal calamity to the prosperity of the Temperance cause and
of the country generally."
As a proof of Mr. Mackenzie's sincerity as a prohibitionist,
in 1878 he gave to the country the Canada Temperance Act,
which will be considered in connection with the legislation of
that year.
Mr. Mackenzie for a long time cherished the desire to make
a personal inspection of the Intercolonial Railway in order to
get further knowledge of its physical features, its equipment
and its management. He wished, also, to inspect other pubHc
works in the Eastern Provinces. He gave effect to this desire

396 LIFE OF TIIE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
in the latter part of 1875, and although it was a hurried busi
ness visit, he could not decline the hospitalities so generously
proffered him by his many friends in the Maritime Provinces.
In the city of St. John, he was tendered a banquet to which
the Hon. J. G. Blaine, then travelling in the Maritime Pro
vinces, was invited to meet him. Besides leading citizens of
the town, there was present also the Uiuted States Consul,
who, in addressing the guests, spoke of himself as an Ameri
can. Mr. Mackenzie, in reply to the toast of his health, re
ferred in a very felicitous manner to the claim made by the
Consul of the United States to the title American :
" The United States Consul — I call him the United States
Consul because, claiming to be an American myself, I do not
care to see one nation of this continent monopolise that name
— spoke just now of the friendly feelings the people of Can
ada and the United States should entertain towards each
other. I was an early friend to the union of the Provinces,
because I regarded it as necessary to their proper growth and
development ; and I believe that here we have the germ of a
great and powerful nation, and that we can best serve the
cause of liberty and of human progress by being faithful to
our union, which I trust will last as long as freedom and pro
gress live on earth. I am also and always have been a friend
of the United States. During the war I entertained a strong
aud warm feeling for the Northern cause, because I knew that
it meant the destruction of slavery and the removal of the
fetters of the oppressed. I hope the day will never come
when any other than friendly feelings will prevail between
the people of Canada and the United States. I believe the
people of Canada and the United States, though forming two
distinct nations, will in the future be so thoroughly united in
sentiment as to be able to carry the influence of the British

THE SES.SION OF 1875. 397
race and the principles of British liberty into all countries.
The people of the United States have a great destiny before
them, and although it is not, I believe, their manifest destiny
to be any larger in territory than they are at present — I be
lieve my friend, Mr. Blaine, beside me, will agree with me that
it is quite large enough now — they and we have a common
task, more than the mere support of a particular Government,
or the securing of ' a third term,' or the realisation of any of
those small political issues which enter more or less into the
domestic politics of nations. We have, of course, to give some
attention to these questions, and to the keeping of certain
machinery in running order ; but these are the secondary
elements of statecraft, and are not comparable in point of
importance to those higher principles which move nations, and
on which Canada and the United States and Britain may
occupy a common ground. The United States have pursued
generally a policy of non-intervention in the affairs of other
nations, and Great Britain of late years seems to have largely
adopted this principle. No doubt, non-intervention is the
proper policy in most cases, and perhaps ^it is in every case the
easiest policy to pursue ; but it may sometimes be carried too
far, and produce very disastrous results. I do not think that
the doctrine of non-intervention should be pursued to such an
extent as never to permit a nation to lift a hand on behalf of
human liberty, or to grant aid and comfort to the struggling
an(J oppressed. On some great occasions it may be necessary
in the future for America and Britain to send more than a
mere word to aid the efforts of the oppressed ; and should
such a necessity occur, it would surely be a glorious sight to
see these English-speaking nations banded together to aid less
fortunate people to obtain that measure of human liberty
which we have had the happiness to enjoy for so long a period

398 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
ourselves. As a Canadian and a Briton, if I have had an
ambition, it has been to have my country play a part in the
liberation of nations from the fetters which ignorance and
bad government have imposed upon them ; and while desirous
always^ to see peace on earth and good- will towards men pre
vail, I know that these blessings can sometimes only be main
tained at the cannon's mouth. I hope that the people of the
United States and of Great Britain will always remain true
to those great principles on which their institutions are
founded, and that their flags may wave together in beauty
and harmony in many a distant land, the one bearing on it
that emblem of the might of the Creator, the starry heavens,
which express His infinite power, and the other emblazoned
with the emblem of God's greatest work, the redemption of
man." He dwelt upon the influence of Canada as a maritime
power " with its broad-armed ports, where, laughing at the
storm, proud navies ride," and as a complement to these ad
vantages, he referred to the agricultural resources of the
North-West, " a land where boundless prairies stretch towards
the s,etting sun, a land where millions of our race from be
yond the sea can find for themselves a peaceful habitation, a
land to which we can apply the words of Whittier :
' I hear the tread of pioneers
Of nations yet to be.
The iirst low wash of waves where soon
Shall roll a human sea. ' "
There were also addresses at Carleton, Amherst, Halifax,
Dorchester, Moncton and Rimouski. At the last named place
Mr. Mackenzie took occasion to refer to the policy of his
Administration in affording protection to men employed on
public works, by so giving effect to contracts that those who

THE SESSION OF 1875. 399
labored were not deprived of their hard-earned wages. The
French Canadians were much pleased with other portions of
his speech, and especially with those passages in which he
referred to them as the first explorers of the country that had
been given to all nationalities to inhabit in common. " I have
myself travelled over the route traversed by Pere Marquette
and his noble companions. Many of the Jesuit Fathers
sought out the shores of Lake Superior and discovered the
sources of the Mississippi long before any English ioot had
traversed these wilds, and I cordially acknowledge that we
owe much to the hardy and patriotic French adventurers of
Canada's early days, from Jacques Cartier down to the latest
descendant of that highly distinguished traveller and dis
coverer." He made a felicitous allusion also to Rimouski as the
county which had given Robert Baldwin, the great Liberal
leader of Upper Canada, a seat when he was denied a con
stituency in his own Province, an enlightened and courteous
privilege which was reciprocated by the election of the French
Canadian Liberal leader, Mr. Lafontaine, Mr. Baldwin's col
league for the County of York. " And still more to the
credit of Lower Canada be it said that before the union of
the Provinces when there was no outside influence to produce
such a result, the fine old French people, pervaded as they
always have been by the feeling to do justly and liberally to
all men, gave to the Jew those privileges in common with the
rest of the community which he was unable till years after
wards of struggle and agitation to wring even from the Eng
lish people themselves."
Governor Crawford's illness in the early summer of 1875,
necessitated the appointment of an administrator. A com
mission was issued to Hon. David Christie, but he never exer-

400

LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.

cised the function, Mr. Crawford dying before he could enter
upon his duties, and the British North America Act making
provision merely for an administrator during the absence
or illness of the Lieutenant-Governor. The duty was then
forced upon the Government of making an immediate appoint
ment, and Mr. Mackenzie offered it to Mr. Brown with the
unanimous desire of the council that he should accept it : "I
will forbear expressing my own opinion of your acceptance
of it, not being willing to say a word calculated to interfere
in the least degree with your own good judgment. I will
only say that I shall be glad if your decision is in accordance
with my views."
After giving Mr. Mackenzie's offer a night's very serious
consideration, and looking at it from all points of view per
sonal, domestic and political, he came to the conclusion that
he could better serve the country and his party by pursuing
the line he had already chalked out for himself, than by
accepting the great honor which was so generously tendered
him. The place was next offered to Mr. D. A. Macdonald,

Postmaster General. Mr. Macdonald accepted, and entered
upon his duties at once. By this appointment, Mr. Mackenzie
lost an able colleague and a good councillor, and the Province
of Ontario obtained a Lieutenant-Governor who, during a
full term, discharged the duties of his office with ability and
impartiality.

THE SESSION OF 1875. 401
On St Andrew's day Mr. Mackenzie delivered a speech at
the annual banquet of the Caledonian Society of Ottawa,
which, as might have been expected, was worthy of the occa
sion. It was a noble appeal in favor of British connection and
national union. " A few years ago," he said, " a very insigni
ficant proportion of the people of Canada, and he hoped as
insignificant a proportion of the people on the other side of the
Atlantic, were looking to the severance of the Mother Country
from the colonies as a matter of course and only as matter of
time. But within the last year or two there had been a great
change of opinion in England upon that subject. He could
scarcely call the extinction in Canada of the theory a great
change; there were so few who ever entertained it. They
might now hope that no further doubt could exist as to the in
timacy of the relationship to be maintained between the Eng
lish-speaking people, now forming the British Empire, and the
Crown and person of Her Majesty and Her successors to the
end of time."
He declared his conviction that it was " the proudest posi
tion Great Britain could occupy that the overshadowing power
and infiuence which she has so long possessed in giving shape
to the destinies and relations of nations are always exercised
with a view to the amelioration of the condition of mankind ;
that she has the will as well as the power to maintain, in a
great measure, the peace of the rest of the world, and that
prosperity, peace and contentment have followed her fiag all
over the earth, upon whatever soil it has ever been planted.
May its march of triumph never be interrupted, until it shall
become the one absorbing and powerful instrumentality in the
hands of Providence for the prevention of war, the extension
of commerce, and the promotion of the arts of peace. To the
full extent of their power. Her Majesty's Government in Can-
z

402 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
a :1a, of which he was a member, would contribute to the
development and maintenance of this sentiment At the same
time he wished his hearers always to remember that Canada
is our home ; that while we think with gratitude of the land
of our birth, while our hearts are filled with the warmest
patriotism when its history and its heroes are recalled to
mind, we should not forget that we have great duties and
responsibilities, not of a sectional, but of a national character
to discharge, and that we ought to devote ourselves faithfully
and honestly to the task of creating and upholding a Can
adian spirit, Canadian sentiment and Canadian enthusiasm ;
in a word, a spirit of nationality always British, but still
Canadian. The patriotism of the British people and Govern
ment will ever be with us, and we in turn hope always to
reside under the shadow of the grand old fiag of England, at
once the symbol of power aud of ci^¦ilization. He knew these
sentiments to be the expression of the aspirations which
animate the great body ; might he not say the whole of the
Canadian people. He had had the pleasure of visiting his
native country during the year and of conversing personally
with Her Majesty the Queen. It was with a feeling of rever
ence he enjoyed that privilege, for of all the monarchs who
have ever reigned ovei- this or any other people, none had
better deserved that loyalty and love so heartily manifested
by all her subjects than our good Queen Victoria."
For this speech Mr. Mackenzie received, through His Excel
lency the Governor-General, k very kind congratulatory note
from Her Majesty.

CHAPTER XXVII.
VISIT TO SCOTLAND IN 1875.

On a Holiday — A Guest at Windsor — Invitation to Perth — Impressions of
England — "Hodge'' — The British Commons — Spurgeon — Farrar — Freedom
of Dundee — Address to the Workingmen — Freedom of Perth — Address at
Dunkeld — The "Home-Coming" atLogierait — Freedom of Irvine — Address
at Greenock— The Clyde — The Theology — Lord Dufferin's Tribute to his
First Minister — George Brown's Letter on Taste.

3HE summer of 1875 was onore of a holiday for the
Premier than he had enjoyed for years before ;
yet, perhaps at no period of his life did he do bet
ter service for his country than by his speeches
in June and July of that year in Scotland, whither he
was accompanied by Mrs. Mackenzie. The " nameless
mason lad " of 1842, had now returned to his native land to
receive the highest honors, municipally, which it was in the
power of the people of that country to bestow, and to receive
the higher distinction stiU of being the guest of Her Majesty
the Queen, at Windsor. Freedoms of boroughs were showered
upon him, banquets were given for his entertainment, meet
ings were held for the purpose of hearing addresses from him,
and he was sought out and f6ted everywhere. But who can
doubt that the demonstration from which he derived the
greatest pride and pleasure, next to his reception by his Sov
ereign, was that which awaited him in his native village of
Logierait ? 403

404 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
The forecast of the Scottish welcome is contained in the fol
lowing letter from the Lord Provost of Perth :
" City Chambers,
" Perth, 30th June, 1875.
" To the Honorable Alexmider Mackenzie, Prime Minister of Canada.
"Sir, — The Town Council of the Royal Burgh of Perth, having observed
from the public prints that you are at present in this country, and will,
in all probability, re-visit your native county, are desirous of showing
the utmost respect to one who, by his merits, has risen to such eminence
as you have done, and I am to ask whether it wiU suit your pleasure to
receive at the hands of the Council the freedom of the burgh.
"I have the honor to be, etc.,
"Arch'd. McDoNAiD, " Lord Provost."
Before, however, making what the London Times has fitly
called this "involuntary triumphant progress through his
early haunts in Scotland," Mr. Mackenzie spent considerable
time in England, chiefly in London, in the discharge there of
public duties. While in Great Britain, he addressed many in
teresting letters to his Secretary. We print here a portion of
the first, written from the Westminster Palace Hotel, London,
June 22nd :
"I meant to have written you by last mail, but I had so much other
correspondence, and so much of my time was taken up seeing callers that
I had none left.
" It seems we were singularly fortunate in our voyage, as the steamers
before, and behind, and beside us were in the ice and fog. Where the
Vicksburg sunk on the 2nd we were in clear water and a clear atmosr
phere with gorgeous icebergs as a grand sight to admire. On the evening
of the 1st I retired to bed half dressed, with everything in readiness for
a quick start in case of a fog and a smash. I was in a ship once that
struck, and understood the danger. I am informed here by  ¦
that the Sarmatian really did have a narrow escape. I told him their

VISIT TO SCOTLAND IN 1875. 405
danger and our safety were sufficiently accounted for by his presence and
mine in the respective ships.
"WeU, we have seen little bits of London and England. First, beauti
ful Wales ; then the horrible black country during a rainy day. It was
like the environs of the pit. Wolverhampton, Birmingham, and other
towns there looked like dirty encampments, with red brick tents. No
doubt they aU have fine buildings, decent streets, and clean shirts some
where — only we didn't see them. After passing this quarter we went
through a charming country via Banbury (buns), Oxford and Reading.
The profusion of trees, hedges and flowers made the country most pleas
ing. The humblest cottages seemed to have an abundance of choice
flowers. I stayed three days at  , where I heard a good sermon
from an 86 -year-old vicar, and prayers read by a curate whom I judged
by his conversation to have little knowledge of prayer in any other form.
He told me frankly in the evening, when noticing my absence from the
second service, that he would have been absent also if he were not com
pelled to go, as ' no fellow should go more than once a day.'
" Rural England is pretty. ' Hodge ' is degraded, however, and with
11 shillings to 13 shillings a week (where I was) how could he be other
wise ? "
" Society here is ' classified'. Ministers even, of plebeian origin, bow
lowly enough to the Dukes in the Cabinet. The rule is for everybody to
know his station and keep it. At a dinner given yesterday, by a state
dignitary, to the Duke of Cambridge, none but the heads of noble fam
ilies were asked, except his own son. For my own part, I called on no
ministers who had not previously called on me. All the ministers have
done that now, except the Duke of Richmond.
" I spent some of my evenings in the Commons, and rather liked the
ways of the House — not materially dififerent from ourselves in Canada,
except in minor matters, chiefly divisions, 'isot only do they go into
lobbies when sitting as a House, but all the divisions in committee are
the same as when the Speaker is in the chair. One night  acted Tom
Ferguson and  . He went to the utmost verge of endurance with
coarse language. I heard no better speaking than in our own House. I
was in the Lords one evening, but heard nothing of consequence.
" I was deeply interested in visiting historic spots. I was bloody-minded
enough to go first where the king was executed, and I wished that all

406 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
the Stuarts had taken their proper and obvious lesson from the dreadful
scene on that memorable day.
' ' We heard Spurgeon, and tried to hear Dean Stanley on Sunday, but
another (Archdeacon Farrar) preached for the dean. Spurgeon's congrega
tion packed the edifice completely, and so did the dean's. I liked both
the preachers very much. Mr. Farrar's sermon was fine in language
and sentiment ; Spurgeon's also correct— nearly pure Saxon. Farrar's
excelled in literary finish ; Spurgeon's excelled as an appeal to the heart
and as a sound statement of doctrine. Farrar's description of Saul in
his last extremity, when uniting with the woman to call up Samuel, and
the prophet's appearance, or supposed appearance, was remarkably fine.
Spurgeon's dissection of human nature was a complete specimen of moral
anatomy. ' The great cathedral vast and dim,' with the fine organ and
the surpliced choir, and the towering monuments of the mighty dead all
round, seemed, while the beautiful English service was being read, not of
this earth. The ' tabernacle ' looked like business. There appeared to
be nothing there but what was wanted, and not one idle or superfluous
word was said."
Next month the freedom of Dundee was conferred upon
him by the Provost, in the midst of a great assemblage of
ladies and gentlemen. In making the presentation, the Pro
vost said the distinction was one which was conferred but
rarely now, and was reserved for those who had rendered im
portant political services, so that on the honorary burgess roll
of Dundee were recorded the names of eminent statesmen,
legislators and men of science. The casket containing the
burgess ticket was of solid silver, with the arms of Dundee
and Canada encircled in wreaths.
Mr. Mackenzie spoke ably and feelingly in acknowledg
ment, referring to the greatness of Canada, as the country
occupying the third rank in the world, after Great Britain,
her mother, in shipping and in commercial and mercantile
enterprise, and possessing a revenue nearly twenty -five times.
the amount of the national revenue of Scotland immediately

VISIT TO SCOTLAND IN 1875. 407
before the unioft. He spoke of the vastness of her cultivable
land; of the value of her other great natural resources; of
the elasticity and freedom of her social life ; of her educa
tional advantages ; of the instincts of her people for constitu
tional government, but showed a warm side for "Scotland
still." " While," he said, '' I shall continue to reside for the
remaining days of my life in Canada, I cannot, if I would,
and would not, if I could, throw off all allegiance to my own
proud nationality of Scotland. And, sir, it is not necessary
that any one should do so. The children of Israel, when they
were taken captive by the great Eastern monarch, were asked
by their Babylonian captors to sing them a song of Zion.
They replied : ' How can we sing the songs of Zion in a
strange land ? May my right hand forget its cunning, if I
forget thee, 0, Jerusalem ! ' We can, as Scotchmen, sing our
national songs — songs of freedom or affection, whether placed
in Canada or Australia ; whether in the Arctic or Antarctic
zones, and feel our national anthem to be as dear to us in one
place as in another ; for the broad banner of British liberty
floats alike over every country of the British Empire."
The presentation was followed by a magnificent banquet, at
which Mr. Mackenzie took occasion to advocate the free-trade
principles of Richard Cobden, as the real principles of civili
zation the world over, and to rejoice — without a knowledge
then of what should come after — that the days of class legis
lation and monopolies were no more.
Next evening, a large meeting was convened in Dundee,
when an address was presented him by the working men.
Passages from his speech in reply will ever live in the people's
hearts. "Sir," he said, "I was exceedingly pleased to hear the expressions of
the two gentlemen who have spoken here to-night, and I have merely to

408 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
say with reference to that part of their speeches which alluded to the
possibility, the practicability, the certainty of those who are diligent and
energetic rising in the colonies to occupy political positions of distinction,
that I think the workingmen in Britain, as well as in the colonies, do not
do themselves justice when they believe that the highest political posi
tions are shut out from them by reason of social distinctions. For my
own part, I never allude to the fact that I have been a workingman as a
reason why I should be rejected, or why I should be accepted. I base
my entire claim to public confidence upon the expression of the opinions
which I hold, and which I believe command public confidence, and upon
the worth of those principles of which I have been an humble advocate
for many years. I am quite sure when I address so enlightened a body
of men as the workingmen of Dundee, who comprise the greater part of
this meeting, I can do so believing that I shall find a full response in
their hearts to the opinions I utter when I press upon them the necessity
— the absolute necessity as a first measure, as the very foundation, in
fact, of success in life — that they shall assume an erect position ; that
they shall respect their owsx manhood ; knowing that if they possess self
respect, they will soon compel all other people to respect them. It is
quite true that you have in this country a class who are elevated above
the rest by reason of the favor of the Sovereign ; but do not from that
imagine for a moment that class distinctions are pecuKar to this country.
Go to the Republic of the United States of America, and you wUl find
there, I venture to say, more class distinctions created by wealth than
you will find in this country by titular distinctions founded on the landed
property of the country. And it is a matter of moonshine to you and to
me whether the influence which separates the great body of the people
from the few is, as in the United States of America, the possession of
enormous wealth and the erection of peculiar social barriers which shut
out all but a favored few, or whether it is, as in most other countries, the
barriers erected by a long process of law, and by the exercise of the
Sovereign's favor. In your case, you have in this country, as we have in
Canada, and as there is in aU other British colonies and in the RepubUo
of the United States, the most ample field for the operation of your in-
teUects and powers ; and it is the fault of the individual and not of the
political system if he faUs to attain to some reasonable success in life, and
some comfort in social existence, "

VISIT TO SCOTLAND IN 1875. 400
Again, In Perth, there was a distinguished company when
he entered the city hall, on July 16th, and received there the
freedom of that city, at the hands of the Lord Provost, for
his ser-vices and in proof of Perthshire pride in him as a
native of the county. The Lord Provost expressed the grati
fication he felt, and which the cheering showed was shared by
all present, on receiving the first letter from Mr. Mackenzie, to
find that he had not discarded the Gaelic, as it had on the top
the motto, " Cuidich au righ," or " The King's People." Mr.
Mackenzie's reply was very apposite and happy. The longing
of many years was realised, of being again among his own
people of Perthshire — of being able once more to place his
foot upon her soil and to tread her heathery hills. His motto
had been interpreted to be "the King's People," and his family,
or race, or clan, had always endeavored to act up to it by
helping the monarch in every time of need. The British Em
pire was worthy of every sacrifice, and in the United States,
alienated politically from us as they were, there was a large
and powerful section of the people who appreciated and ad
mired the greatness, the power, and the generosity of the
British nation. " They boast, sir," he said, " that their flag,
with its stars, contains an emblem of God's greatness, as
representing the most wonderful works of creation, extending
over what Chalmers calls ' the immensity of space ; ' we, on
the other hand, can say that our flag is the token of a still
greater work — the greatest indeed of God's works — the Cross,
the emblem of the redemption of man."
As at Dundee, the interesting ceremony was followed by a
banquet, and on the following evening an address was pre
sented at Dunkeld at a public meeting of the inhabitants,
Mr. Mackenzie replying thereto in an affecting speech, recall
ing the incidents of his early days in a place where he said

410 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
he almost remembered every turn of the road, every rock and
every boulder.
When he reached Logierait, his native village, on the 20th,
Mr. Mackenzie found the house which had been built by his
father, and in which he was born, covered by the union jack,
and a splendidly decorated marquee of large size pitched in a
field for a banquet This was presided over by Sir Alex. Muir
Mackenzie, Bart., of Delvine, in place of the Duke of Athol,
whose previous engagements prevented him from being present
to receive the distinguished descendant of the lessee of his an
cestor's mill at Kincraigie. Such a company had probably
never before gathered within that grand amphitheatre of
nature, lying between some of the most magnificent of Scot
land's mountains, and they ga^-e their honored son the warm
est of " hame-comings."
To an address read by Rev. James Fraser, M.A., minister of
Logierait, in which it wa.s stated that the illustrious career of
their distinguished son would be an incentive to their children
to " trust in God and do the right," Mr. Mackenzie made a
feeling reply. He said, that of all the pleasant gatherings he
had had the pleasure of attending since his arrival in Scot
land, this was in many respects the most touching. He was
now standing where fifty years ago he had played as a child,
within sight of the house where he first saw the light. Ten
der recollections of father, mother, brethren and friends -vvelled
up in his memory and almost deprived him of utterance.
Within a few hundred yards was the burial place of his an
cestors, which he had visited to-day, after a long, long absence.
Could all the dear ones of his family who had departed, and
whom he had known, have met him, the gathering would have
been divested of a tinge of sadness which he could not pre
vent stealing over and oppressing his spirit. He recognised

VISIT TO SCOTLAND IN 1875. 411
few faces at the table, though their names were familiar, but
among them he gladly saw some old friends of his father's,
whose names and lineaments would never be forgotten. He
recalled the lines of Sir Walter Scott in the " Lady of the
Lake " : " These fertile plains, that softened dale,
Were once the birthright of the Gael ;
The Saxon came with ruthless hand,
And from our fathers reft the land.
" Pent in this fortress of the North,
Think'st thou we will not sally forth
To spoil the spoiler as we may.
And from the robbers rend the prey ? "
He was proud that one of his clansmen had succeeded in
wresting so many of these fertile vales from those intruders,
and bringing them back to his own people. He spoke proudly,
too, of Canada, the country to which he owed so much, and
especially of the service it had rendered to human liberty
when it was the sole city of refuge in America for the poor,
hunted negro. " Thank God," he said, " the era of human
slavery in the United States has now passed away, but I can
not forget the beneficent part played by Canada in terminat
ing the slave-masters' power. In Britain you cannot so well
realise as we can how much there is in your own proud
boast, that ' Slaves cannot Ijreathe in England ; if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free ;
They touch our country, and their shackles fall. '
For in Canada I have often at the frontier met the wretched
slave escaping from his taskmaster, after a perilous journey
of hundreds of miles, with nothing to guide him in his night
wanderings but the north star ; but once there, he was under

412 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
the protection of the red cross flag, the sight of which stopped
the pursuit and proclaimed the negro fugitive a free man."
The third Scottish freedom presented to Mr. Mackenzie was
that of the borough of Irvine, a town attached to him, as he
said it was, by a native of that place who had stood in the
nearest relationship to him. He regretted the signs he had
witnessed of the depopulation of the rural districts, for " a
brave peasantry " were peculiarly " the country's pride " in
Scotland, and felt thankful that no such changes could take
place in Canada, where almost everyone was a proprietor, or
could become one. The magnificent and powerful British
settlements, such as Canada, were growing in strength with
unexampled rapidity in every quarter of the globe, so that the
days of serious danger to the mother country were fast draw
ing to a close. The dependencies were gigantic limbs of the
parent state through which pulsated the blood from the
heart of the empire. Aiding the parent state, the enormous
populations which these colonies were soon destined to possess,
would be able in arms to set the world at defiance, and in
peace exercise a moral influence of incalculable benefit to the
well-being of humanity.
In the Council Hall at Greenock, Mr. Mackenzie was wel
comed by an address from the Chamber of Commerce, and he
availed himself of the opportunity, as he had done elsewhere,
of dwelling upon the great physical features of his own coun
try and the expenditures she had made in providing facilities
for extending her own commerce and the commerce of the
world. Within a period of thirty years, he reminded his
hearers, Canada had spent the large sum of ten millions of
pounds sterling in improving the navigable waters connecting
the great lakes with each other and with the waters of the
St. Lawrence, and the people of the Dominion believed that

VISIT TO SCOTLAND IN 1875. 413
the same spirit, the same enterprise and the same expenditure
of money which had made the Clyde one of the greatest rivers
of the world, would, within the time of the present generation,
make the St. Lawrence the great highway to the interior of
the continent of America — a highway which could not pos
sibly have a rival. He referred also to the Canadian Pacific
Railway, bringing Canada a thousand miles nearer Japan than
San Francisco, the great seaport of the United States on the
Pacific Coast.
Mr. Mackenzie spoke of the Clyde. About the same time
he wrote as follows regarding it :
' ' Cobbett complained of the state of the Rhine after passing Cologne.
He should come back and see the Clyde after passing Glasgow. It is of
the consistency of stiff gruel, but the constituent parts are not so savoury.
You can feel the smell on the bridges and the steamers so strong that it
is most oflfensive. The air is filled with smoke and noxious gases, the
water with sewage, the streets with tobacco smoke, and the people with
whiskey, but — the theology is sound. I feel a burning desire to white
wash the whole valley, and get the gulf stream or some stream of the
same size emptied in above the Bromielaw. If it should sweep away a
good deal of the two-legged street refuse, no great harm would be done."
Want of time prevented Mr. Mackenzie from accepting fur
ther courtesies, with their attendant public addresses, in Scot
land and in England, and for this reason he particularly
regretted being compelled to decline a luncheon from the Lord
Provost, Magistrates and Council of Glasgow, and an invita
tion to meet the Chamber of Commerce of Manchester. The
Scottish papers were full of his visit. On his return to
Ottawa, a right royal reception awaited him, and a cordial
" welcome home," as the inscription on the arch at the railway
station truthfully assured him, awaited him. People for once

[Notes like these, written on the back of a foolscap envelope, or on any other
scrap of paper readily at hand, were all that Mr. Mackenzie usually prepared for
his longest speeches.]

vSfe^^^z^ /^f^ ;^^^?^ ^^i^

^/rr.

[Notes lik3 these, written on the back of a foolscap envelone or on a.nv nfhpr
K„t?tVeTht]^^* '''"'• ^''' ^^''^^*^^- MaV^J^^^u^ua^/p^eTLtfrr
C^^Uy^^tjf't^^c*^ yye^^>g,y*.y<Urzyi-.- __
<?'^^^^, /^aui^ ^rei^^

^cyeyu2^ yi t.^ (fac^
ffaA^^jc^oi^ y^^2^^7

416 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
merged their politics, and all parties and classes united in
expressions towards him of praise and good will.
During Mr. Mackenzie's tour in Scotland, the Governor-Gen
eral was in England and Ireland. In a letter from His Excel
lency, July 26, 1875, inviting the Prime Minister to Clande-
boye, the Earl of Dufferin paid a tribute to him for the ad
mirable address he was then delivering. " You must have no
misgivings about your speeches. They are really excellent —
sober, spirited and practical, and full of earnestness and dig
nity. If you speak like that without preparation, it only
shows how much you eould do in that line if you could find
time to do what I imagine all good speakers have found it
necessary to do."
Mr. Brown was in Scotland when Mr. Mackenzie was there.
Writing to Mr. Mackenzie from Edinburgh, Mr. Brown made
complaint of one of the speeches by which Mr. Mackenzie
had been greeted, wherein reference was made to Mr. Macken
zie's early position. Mr. Brown asked, what had Mr. Mac
kenzie's entertainer to do with that ? " Suffice it," he went
on to say, " that you are the first man in your own country,
and ruler over half a continent Fancy how insulting it
would be were the foremost statesman of France, or Russia,
or Germany to be met on a visit to England with such sub
jects of laudation, or what would be thought of you or me in
Canada were we to welcome some great man from England,
Scotland, or Ireland with patronising references ? We would
be condemned by the good taste and good feeling of nine-
tenths of the people of Canada. True, neither you nor I
have any other feeling in our composition but that of pride
of our origin, our education and our whole career, but when
we have, as Canadian statesmen, to meet English and foreign

VISIT TO SCOTLAND IN 1875. 417
statesmen who have feelings on these matters so different
from ours, and when we come to England asking no favors or
popular applause, it not only seems the height of rudeness to
keep dragging up such matters, but, what is worse, it is
directly calculated to affect our relations with the men whom
we encounter in high political matters."

AA

CHAPTER XXVIIL
THE NATIONAL POLICY FIRST DISCUSSED.
Questions of Trade Occupy the House — Industrial Depression — Committee
Appointed for Investigation — Mr. Cartwright's Budget Speech — Dr. Tup
per's Reply — The National Policy — The Steel Rail Transaction — Election in
South Ontario. jITH the session of 1876 opened the discussion on
the subject of Protection, which has occupied so
much of the attention of Parliament and the
country from that day till now. In his speech
on the opening of the House, His Excellency referred
"to the great depression which prevailed throughout
the neighboring countries for several years, and which has
more recently been felt in the old world, causing a general
stagnation of business. This depression had now extended
to Canada, and seriously affected its trade."
There was great difference of opinion as to the cause of the
depression. Even those engaged in industrial pursuits, who
came frequently in contact with business men from other
countries, were unsettled as to the real source of the commer
cial difficulties in which the whole country seemed to be in
volved. As soon as the address was passed, Mr. Mills proposed that
a committee should be appointed " to enquire into the causes
of the present financial difficulties," with power to take evi
dence and conduct such an examination of the whole question
418

THE NATIONAL POLICY FIRST DISCUSSED. 419
as would be useful to the House in determining what remedies
to apply. This resolution gave rise to the first discussion
which took place in the House of Commons involving an ex
pression of opinion in favor of Protection or Free Trade
Following the wise example of the mother country, the
fiscal policy of Canada, though not absolutely free trade, was
regulated on free trade theories, and whether the tariff was
increased or adjusted, it was always for the purpose of raising
a revenue, the protection which it afibrded being purely inci
dental. The alleged prosperity in the United States under a high
tarifl', and the facilities which a low tariff in Canada afforded
for the admission of American goods into the Canadian
market; aroused the jealousy of the manufacturers of the
Dominion, and this, coupled with financial stringency of an
unusual character, led many to look for a remedy for present
grievances in the theories of the Protectionist. The question
was a new one to the House, it was a large question on which
a great deal could be said, it was a practical question on which
the opinions of experts would be invaluable, and Mr. Mills
believed that as it was forcing itself on public attention, it
could not be intelligently discussed without more information
than was then available.
At the request of several members, the original scope of
the committee was very much enlarged, the resolution finaUy
adopted being as follows — Resolved : " That a select com
mittee composed of Messrs. Baby, Burpee (Sunbury), Car
michael, McDougall (Renfrew), Charlton, Delorme, Dymond,
Platt, Sinclair, Workman and Mills be appointed to enquire
into the cause of the present depression of the manufacturing,
mining, commercial, shipping, lumber and fishing interests,
with power to send for persons, papers and records."

420 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
The investigation occupied the attention of the committee
during the greater part of the session, and a great deal of valu
able evidence was obtained with regard to all the industries
of the country. As to the fact of a depression, there seemed
to be no doubt. The causes, in the opinion of the committee,
were beyond the legislative control of Parliament
No sooner was Mr. Mills' committee granted by the House,
than the special necessities of the mining interests of the
country were brought up for discussion. The Maritime Pro
vinces had their coal-fields, which had been a source of wealth
to their owners and of employment to thousands of people
for many years. The United States was their natural market.
In that market they were confronted with a duty of seventy-
five cents a ton, while American coal was admitted to the
Canadian market free. The demand from Nova Scotia, that
American coal should be excluded, in order that they might
supply the Canadian market, at least as far west as Toronto,
might cost the people of Ontario something, but then, they
said, it would be encouraging inter-provincial trade, binding
the different Provinces together, and giving employment to
people who were dependent on this industry for a livelihood.
The budget speech by Mr. Cartwright was an able review
of the financial situation, and for the first time the Minister
of Finance entered very fully into a defence of the trade
policy of the Government. He pointed out that the depres
sion complained of was all but universal ; that it prevailed in
the United States, with a high protection tariff; in continental
countries, irrespective of a tariff. Even England, with a
commerce that extended over the whole world, felt the effects
of this depression. The trouble, therefore, could not be in
the tariff. He pointed out that Protection led to the forma
tion of rings and combines, the creation of colossal fortunes

THE NATIONAL POLICY FIRST DISCUSSED. 421
which could be used, ahd no doubt were used, to keep the
means in operation by which they were acquired. He
pointed out that the agricultural industry, on which so much
depended, was one the tariff could not reach, and therefore,
that at best, it would be but a means of extracting money
from one class of the community in order to enrich the other.
The case for the Protectionists was put by Dr. Tupper in
reply to the budget speech. He declined to admit that mat
ters of trade and commerce are beyond the control of the
Government. " That the country may prosper or sink into
decay, and that the Government is helpless to promote the one
or avert the other, is a principle to which I cannot give my
concurrence." He blamed the Government for the depression
which existed, and demanded that immediate action should
be taken to avert impending financial ruin. " What Canada
wants," he said, " is a National Policy — a policy that shall be
in the interests of Canada, apart from the principles of Free
Trade, apart from the principles of Protection." In the course
of his speech. Dr. Tupper charged Mr. Mackenzie with incon
sistency as a Free Trader, because he increased the tariff from
15 to 17^ per cent. He also charged him with being a Pro
tectionist in one part of the country and a Free Trader in
another, and quoted from Mr. Mackenzie's speeches to support
this view. Mr. Mackenzie was not long, however, in exposing
Dr. Tupper's unfairness, as the moment he sat down he gave
the Honse the correct reading of what he had stated. He
expressed himself emphatically a Free Trader still, so far
as the circumstances of the country would allow. "I say,
frankly, I would inaugurate at once a Free Trade policy if
the circumstances of the country and the position of our
manufacturers would admit of it, because I believe that
a free interchange of thought and of commodities is the

422 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
true means of enriching a country or making a people great ;
while the system of Protection, as it exists in the United
States, is altogether evil. But as we have a boundary co-ter
minus with the United States for thousands of miles, it ls
utterly impossible to adopt a fiscal policy for this country
without reference to what is passing in that country. As
Canadian statesmen, we should endeavor to legislate in the
interests of our own people, irrespective of any foreign views
or influences."
The debate continued, with occasional interruptions for other
business, from the 26th of February till the 16th of March,
and called forth many able speeches on both sides of the
House. Mr. Irving, of Hamilton, moved a resolution : " That a
rate of not less than ten per cent, should be added to the exist
ing importation tariff against such articles of foreign manufac
ture of which the same classes are manufactured in the Dom
inion." Mr. Workman, of Montreal, called for protection to
all our manufacturing industries, in order to restore them to a
condition of prosperity.
On the 16th of March, Sir John Macdonald gave notice of
the resolution, which came to a vote on the 15th, and which
was the first form in which was presented to the House the
famous National Policy of the Conservative party. Resolved,
" That this House regrets that His Excellency the Governor-
General has not been advised to recommend to Parliament a
measure for the re-adjustment of the tariff' which will not
only tend to alleviate the stagnation of business deplored in
the speech from the throne, but also afford encouragement
and protection to the struggling manufacturers and industries,
as well as to the agricultural productions of the country."
The division of parties in the House on Sir John Mac
donald's motion was 70 to 116,

THE NATIONAL POLICY FIRST DISCUSSED. 423
Another phase was given to the debate on a motion asking
for a committee to enquire into the salt interests of the coun
try, which was agreed to ; and at another stage of the session,
a select committee was appointed to consider the agricultural
interests of the country. Mr. Ortoii, who had charge of the
resolution, had moved in a similar way the previous session,
but after discussion, the motion was withdrawn.
The Protectionists had laid out for themselves an ambitious
campaign, and were working heroically to direct public
opinion towards the adoption of what was to be hereafter
known as the National Policy. They had a committee on the
salt interest and on the agricultural interest, by which they
expected to make considerable capital. They had appealed to
the cupidity of the miners in the discussion we have already
referred to. They were pushing their case vigorously before
the committee on financial depression, of which Mr. Mills was
chairman. The leader of the Opposition, Sir John Macdonald,
had espoused their cause, and was calling loudly for the en
couragement and protection of the struggling industries of
the country. Appeals were made to the working-man that
his wages would be increased ; to the farmer, that his produce
would command a better price, because of the home market to
be provided. Whenever a manufacturer failed, or, laggard in
the race for wealth, fell behind, he was asked to support the
Conservative party, and all his troubles would be at an end.
Mr. Mackenzie and his colleagues, confident in the sound
ness and honesty of their policy, looked upon the agitation in
favor of Protection with apparent indifference. They could
not believe that Canada, so thoroughly indoctrinated with
Free Trade, would be beguiled into the adoption of a Protec
tionist policy, and when they met their opponents and an
swered, as they believed, their arguments, they concluded that

424 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
the virus of such a policy was effectually neutrahsed. Mr.
Mackenzie's friends, particularly since his defeat, have made
complaint against the course pursued in 1876 on two grounds.
First, they complain that he under-estimated the strength of
the movement in favor of Protection then inaugurated, and
followed up during the next two years with so much energy.
Such a complaint is, to say the least of it, exceedingly unrea
sonable. Mr. Mackenzie had no means at that time of ascer
taining public opinion excepting through the members of Par
liament and the public press. As to the former, who were his
supporters, they were all but unanimous in believing that he
was pursuing the right course in resisting Protection. Every
time the question came up in the House the weight of argu
ment appeared to be on the side of Free Trade, and the convic
tion that this view would be sustained by the country was
strongly the conviction of every supporter of the Govern
ment, as it was of Mr. Mackenzie himself.
Second, it has been said that if he had agreed to an increase
of the tariff from 17^ to 20 per cent, the manufacturers
would not have supported the agitation in favor of Protection,
and that without their support Sir John Macdonald would not
have carried the country. As to this complaint, several obser
vations must be made.
When the Maritime Provinces entered Confederation, they
found themselves subjected to a much higher rate of duty
than they were previously accustomed to, and, although not
demonstrative in their opposition to the increase made by
Mr. Mackenzie, it was generally considered that an advance on
that increase would be very unpopular and perhaps irritating.
To create discontent because of high duties would have weak
ened the Government, and this was undesirable.
Again, it is to be remembered that what the manufacturers

THE NATIONAL POLICY FIRST DISCUSSED. 425
demanded was not a horizontal increase in the tariff, but a
differential increase on the basis of the American tariff'. Of
course 20 per cent, from their standpoint would be better than
17^, but 40 or 50 would be better still, and as the Conserva
tive party had accepted the American theory of Protection,
the manufacturers were confident that they would carry it
into practice.
For Mr. Mackenzie to agree to an advance in the tariff for
purposes of Protection would be to deny the professions of a
life-time. So long as the revenue required a high rate of
duty in order to balance the Dominion expenditure, there was
no abnegation of principle, but the moment an advance was
made beyond the necessities of the revenue, either for actual
or incidental Protection, then the doctrine of Free Trade, of
which he was such a sturdy champion, would have been cast
to the winds, and he would stand condemned before the world
for his recreancy of principle. That position he was not pre
pared to take on principle, and principle he was not prepared
to sacrifice for party exigencies.
Speaking on this same topic in 1885, nine years later, he
said : " I have been told repeatedly, sometimes by friends, or
by people who were more or less friendly, that I committed a
great mistake in 1878 in adhering too rigidly to my prin
ciples — that if I had adopted another course I could have
kept the Reform party in power a few years longer. Such is
not the feeling under which I conduct myself in public life.
My notion of the duty of a public man is that he should
maintain sound principles, advocate them honestly, and trust
to such principles working out a right solution. The Con
servatives have had a lease of power, but they have had it by
means which no honest man can justify."
On the 31st of March, Mr. Bowell placed in the hands of the

426 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Speaker, on going into Committee of Sup'ply, the following
motion :
Resolved, " That the purchase by the Government of 50,000
tons of steel rails, without the previous consent of Parliament,
was an unconstitutional exercise of the executive power, and
that such purchase was premature and unwise and has caused
great pecuniary loss to the country."
The resolution was supported by a long speech from Mr.
Bowell, in which he tried to fasten on the Government the
charge of exceeding their power as an executive in expend
ing nearly $3,000,000 for the purchase of steel rails for the
Canadian Pacific Railway, and also the charge that the rails
were purchased in a falling market, and therefore at a loss to
the counti-y, and that Mr. Mackenzie's brother Charles was a
partner in the firm to which the contract was finally awarded,
and, as a consequence, Mr. Mackenzie had a personal motive
in the transaction.
In his speech in reply, Mr. Mackenzie had no difficulty in
shewing that the purchase of steel rails was a purely business
transaction, advised in the first instance by the chief engineer,
and carried out in perfect good faith. In a memorandum to
the Government dated March 24th, 1876, the chief engineer,
Mr. Sandford Fleming, said : " During the summer of 1874,
advices from England shewed a great decline in the price of
steel rails. It was generally considered that they had all but
reached the lowest rate, and that an excellent opportunity
presented itself of providing a quantity of rails at lower
prices than that for which, in all probability, they could be
obtained at any future period." Early in August, 1874, the
chief engineer mentioned the matter to Mr. Mackeni:ie and
advised that steps should be taken to secure such quantity
as might be deemed necessary.

THE NA TIONAL POLICY FIRST. DISCUSSED. 427
Notices calling for tenders were given in the usual way, and
the lowest were accepted.
In building railways a degree of foresight is indispensable.
This is especially the case in a railway situated like the Pacific
line. If the purchase of the rails was put off until the road
bed was ready for them, a much larger price would almost
certainly have to be paid, not only for the rails but also for
the transportation.
There can be no doubt but that the mode and time of
purchase of the rails was by all considered most judicious.
In the public interest nothing could have been more carefully
considered. At the time Mr. Mackenzie contracted for the purchase in
question he was being severely pressed by the British Col
umbians for the early completion of the Canadian Pacific Rail
way. The surveyors were at work locating the western sec
tion of the road, in the expectation that a certain portion of
it could be placed under contract at once.
Mr. Mackenzie pointed out that the purchase of rails was
necessary, that what would not be required in British Col
umbia would be required on the eastern section of the road,
as the grading on part of it had already advanced so far as to
be ready for the laying of the rails.
So satisfactory were his explanations that Sir Charles Tup
per, whose observations were not usually too friendly, said :
" Nor do I intend to detain the committee with any com
ments respecting the purchase of two and a half millions
worth of rails. I think the committee will agree with me
that this purchase was rather premature, that considering
the enormous price which iron went up to not long ago, and
considering also the fact that before these rails are required
the price of iron may be reduced, the Government has not

428 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
made so good a bargain as they would lead us to suppose,
although I shall be willing to allow them every latitude in a
case of this kind. But that is an accomplished fact, and I
shall say no more about it. I have no doubt but that the
Government were acting with the utmost desire for the public
good, and I am always ready to give them credit for good in
tentions when I can."
On the constitutional phase of the question there was no
need for discussion. Contracts for railway supplies on the
Intercolonial railway, and contracts for all other supplies re
quired in the different departments of the public service, were
made over and over again without reference to Parliament.
Mr. Mackenzie's answer to the charge that his brother was
interested in the steel rail contract is fully contained in a
speech delivered at Unionville on the 3rd of July, 1878 :
" It was insinuated that I had let the contracts to favorites,
that a brother of mine was interested in one of them. I might
let such an insinuation go for what it is worth. I have hved
thirty years in my own county, and, whatever may be said of
my political opinions, there are not twelve men in that coun
ty who would suspect me of moral wrong. And I hope the
people of Ontario, before whom I have stood for sixteen years
in Parliament, will not readily believe that I could be guilty
of political wrong intentionally. As I said, I might have
passed that insinuation over, but I prefer to meet it directly,
and state that no brother or other relative of mine received,
directly or indirectly, nearly or remotely, in any kind of way,
good, bad or indifferent, a single cent of profit in that or any
other transaction. While I characterised this as a base false
hood, as I do now, I said that my brother or any relative of
any member of the Government has a perfect right to be a
contractor, provided there was nothing wrong in the issue

THE NA TIONAL POLICY FIRST DISCUSSED. 420
of the contract But the entire story was made out of whole-
cloth; there was not a particle of truth in it. A firm in
Montreal, in which my brother was at one time a sleeping
partner, were agents of one of the firms in England who were
tendering ; but my brother withdrew from the firm rather than
have the slightest doubt cast upon my position in the matter.
Supposing he had been a member of the firm who acted as
agents for the Enghsh firm, it does not follow that there was
any wrong-doing ; but as it is, there never was a more shame
lessly untrue accusation brought against a public man in this
country. " And why do they not proceed to the proof if there is any
thing wrong ? Why do they not take a committee and in
vestigate the matter ? I offered them a committee for two
years in Parliament, so that they might call their witnesses
and put them on oath, and so ascertain what foundation there
was for the story. The reason they do not do so, is because
that would spoil their little game and stamp them as a set of
calumniators. So, instead of coming forward boldly and
making a charge in proper form, they go through the country
saying to the people: ' Well things look bad ; he may not be
guilty, but well, the thing has a bad look about it' "
The following letter was written by Mr. Mackenzie to a
friend at the time the charge respecting steel rails was made ;
" Ottawa, Oct. 25th, 1875.
" Mt Dear Sir, — I suppose you have read all about the steel rail con
spiracy. The scoundrels thought I was open to attack, and did nob
scruple to run the risk of making a charge, hoping it would accomplish
tho purpose before the lie could be stopped. I resolved on a prompt
denial over my own signature, which you no doubt saw.
" The facts as they came out have been copied into most of the papers,
and nearly all the papers have denounced the slander in proper terms. I

4.30 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
notice, however, that the  has chosen to keep a dead silence
about the matter.
"As I never write to any newspaper, friendly or unfriendly, I have
not written to this. I confess, however, I do think they might have said
something in my defence, unless indeed, which is incredible, they think
I am blamable.
' ' I have been very scrupulous about the use of public moneys in small
as well as great affairs, and I think this journal might have supported me
when so unjustly assailed. " Yours faithfully, "A. Mackenzie."
The gentleman to whom this communication was addressed
in forwarding it for publication, remarks : " You know how
deeply Mr. Mackenzie felt this base aspersion. I met Mr.
Fairman, of the firm of Cooper, Fairman & Co., at the Russell
House, and I remember his complaint that Mr. Mackenzie —
for what cause, he did not know — would not see him : abso
lutely declined."
The reason why the Minister refused to see Mr. Fairman,
we may say, was because it was his habit not to hold inter
course with contractors. His attitude was that of a judge
who avoids personal contact with those upon whose cases he
is required to decide.
In a letter dated the 20th of October, 1876, to Mr Charles
Mackenzie, he wrote :
" I have given up all hope of obtaining fair play from Opposition leaders
and papers. I have often determined not to notice some coarse false
hood, but have shortly afterwards found it doing service in a remote re
gion, and have found also friends surprised that it was not contradicted.
The Tories were always addicted to this vUlainous policy of slandering
their opponents, and, no doubt, will continue" to do so."
In a letter of a later date he says :

THE NATIONAL POLICY FIRST DISCUSSED. 431
' ' I am waiting for a suitable chance to make a- demand on Macdonald
about his statements in his stump speeches. So far, they have all been
[in Parliament] as silent as the grave on every one of the personal charges.
I am having complete statements made up regarding contracts, in
anticipation of a debate on this subject, which will show, I am sure, won
derfully well for me. * * * * John A. and his supporters are, how
ever, bent on a policy of detraction and slander, and it is amazmg with
how many an evil impression will remain, if the lies are allowed to run to
any length unchecked, and yet I loathe touching such a business This,
and my natural disinclination to deal in personal charges or insinuations,
almost sicken me of public life.''
Following up this policy of detraction, to which Mr. Mac
kenzie here refers, certain newspapers charged him with be
ing interested in lands at Fort William, which place was chosen
as the Lake Superior terminus of the railway, and also with
giving information to his brother's firm in advance in regard
to the increase of the tariff" on iron tubing. An action for
libel, which he brought against the propagators of this slan
der, resulted in the amplest apology and the complete with
drawal of the charges.
Those who were concerned in the elections of 1878 will re
member that the steel rail transaction, as it was called, was
used by the Conservative party most dishonorably for the
purpose of discrediting Mr. Mackenzie and the Government.
lie Avas in duty bound as the head of his department to see
that no delays occurred in the construction of the railway.
Why should he not have on hand a quantity of rails in order
that delay might be avoided ? To purchase in a falling
market when steel rails had dropped from $80 to $50 a ton,
and while the best advices that could be obtained went to
show that prices were more likety to advance than decline,
was just what any business man would have done. Had it
been his good fortune to find himself with 50,000 tons of rails

432 LIFE OF TUE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
on hand, the market value of which had increased since the
time of purchase, the transaction itself as to its motive would
on that account have been no better and no more business
Uke. When Mr. Mackenzie, through failing health, was no longer
in active politics, his accusers did him the justice of saying
that he was an honest man. The words of George Gilfillan
apply admirably to him, as well as to his detractors : "A good
character aspersed soon rights itself ; the dirt dries and disap
pears by a sure and swift process. A bad character, defended
and deified, is often allowed to slip into the Pantheon. Men
are more interested— and it says something for them — in de
fending the unjustly assailed, than in pulling down the graven
images of the guilty."
Owing to the death of the Hon. Malcolm Cameron, a
vacancy was created in the representation of the south riding
of Ontario, and both parties threw themselves -vigorously into
the contest.
In the course of the election, the Conservatives called Dr.
Tupper to the rescue of the party, and Mr. Mackenzie with his
usual readiness responded to the earnest request of his friends
to address the electors. The meeting between these two
champions of their respective views, at the town of Whitby,
is thus graphically described in a communication to a leading
paper :
" There was a vast audience fairly divided in its poUtical sympathies.
Dr. Tupper was then but little known in Ontario. He had a great repu
tation as a stump speaker in Nova Scotia. He was in the prime of life
and vigor. He had to meet the high expectations of a campaign meet
ing. He was inspired by the recollections of a partial triumph over Mr.
Huntington at Oshawa on the previous night. Whatever opinions one
may entertain as to the merits of the Conservative programme, there can

THE NATIONAL POLICY FIRST DISCUSSED. 433
be no question but that Sir John Macdonald, Dr. Tupper and their asso
ciates did magnificent fighting against the Mackenzie Administration.
On this occasion Mr. Mackenzie addressed a clear, powerful, argumenta
tive speech to the great meeting. He roused his supporters to a high
pitch of enthusiasm, silenced every symptom of hostile criticism among
his opponents, and seemed to compel a unanimous verdict for his candi
date and his Government. Dr. Tupper followed, and by his sounding
volume of words, physical vigor and intrepid assaults on the Liberal
Premier's positions, seemed not less completely to draw the meeting to his
side, and to establish that dishonesty, unwisdom and reckless indifference
to the public well-being marked and marred every act and motive of
the Mackenzie Administration. He even charged, with grim humor,
that the weevil and the potato bug had come in with the Liberals, and
that the dry summer was due to Mr. Mackenzie's neglect. These were
the days when the exaltation of the exodus and the cry of hard times
were the highest efforts of patriotism. Hardly had Dr. Tupper spoken
his last word when Mr. Mackenzie stepped before the chairman, and
with stem eyes faced the exultant Conservatives and the downcast Liber
als. He stood calm and unsmiUng whUe a whirlwind of Tory cheering
swept through the building. The Liberals answered feebly at first, then
with growing strength and confidence, and, as the Liberal leader dropped
his opening sentences, with a rising enthusiasm that soon grew into a
volume of triumphant shouting. There was a swift, almost a fierce vigor
in Mr. Mackenzie's words. There were teeth in every sentence. There
was a blow in every utterance. He seemed to take Dr. Tupper's speech
and rend it and throw the rags down to his triumphant followers.
Hundreds of Liberals in the great audience leaped from their seats in
positive delight ; even many Conservatives, carried away by the thorough
ness of the performance, chuckled in a quiet way over the terrible flog
ging administered to their representative, and a frenzy of cheering marked
the close of Mr. Mackenzie's wonderful fifteen minutes' work.''

BB

CHAPTER XXIX.
t AN IRKSOME SESSION OF PARLIAMENT.
Changes in the Cabinet Since 1873 — Their Effect Upon the Government — New
Appointments Made — Mr. Brown on Laurier — Extradition — Mr. Blake's
Bill — Opening of the House with Prayer — Budget Speech Again — Protection
versus Free Trade — The Agricultural Interests of the Country — The Pacific
Railway — ^Port Francis Locks — Mr. Mackenzie's Defence — Goderich Harbor
— The Independence of Parliament and Mr. Anglin — Mr. MUls at Washing
ton- Mr. Mackenzie's Sympathy — Two Interesting Letters.
EFORE entering upon the consideration of the pro
ceedings of 1877, it may be well to notice some
^^ of the changes made in the Administration since
:H) ' its formation in November, 1873.
In 1874, a vacancy having occurred in the Chief
Justiceship of Quebec, it was necessary that an ap
pointment should be made at once. The qualification for such
an office required the selection of a man of the highest legal
standing available, and in making the selection it was but
natural that Mr. Mackenzie should first look among his friends
for a person fitted to fill such an office.
The Hon. A. A. Dorion, then Minister of Justice, was leader
of the bar of his own province, and was, beyond doubt, one of
the ablest lawyers in the country. Mr. Mackenzie at once
concluded to offer Mr. Dorion the position. " Concerning Mr.
Dorion," he said, in writing to a friend, " I felt bound to make
him the offer of the Chief Justiceship, when I found that the
state of the courts required an immediate appointment. He
434

AN IRKSOME SESSION OF PARLIAMENT. 435
had not contemplated leaving the Government, and mentioned
a name to me for the vacancy. I then told him that I had in
tended offering it to him, and that, sorry as I was to part with
him, I thought the time had come when he should act in his
own interest."
The removal of Mr. Dorion from the Government was a
great loss to Mr. Mackenzie, and any leader less anxious to
maintain the high standing of the court, before weakening
his cabinet, as Mr. Mackenzie did in this case, would have
found some other way of filling the vacancy. For twenty
years, Mr. Dorion was regarded as the leader of the French
Liberals. He had the fullest confidence of his own followers
in Quebec, and was greatly admired and beloved as well, by
the Liberals of Ontario. Mr. Brown chose him for a colleague
when he organised his ill-fated Government in 1858, and from
that day to his retirement from the Cabinet, Mr. Dorion never
lost a friend or a follower.
We have already referred to the appointment of Mr. D. A.
Macdonald, Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, in 1875. In
Eastern Ontario, Mr. Macdonald was a tower of strength to
his party. Among Roman Catholics, he was regarded as a
leader. Among Liberals, he was regarded as the most uncom
promising opponent of Tory misrule. So resolute was he in
defence of his principles, that he frequently opposed his
brother, John Sandfield Macdonald, in his efforts to settle the
political differences of the country by submitting to the dic
tation of the Conservative party.
The - appointment of Mr. David Laird, Lieutenant-Gover
nor of the North-West in 1876, was a loss to Mr. Mackenzie
in the Maritime Provinces. Mr. Laird was a man of wide
expferience in public life, an able journalist and a successful
politician. As Premier of Prince Edward Island, he impress-

436 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
ed himself on that province, and as a platform speaker he
was of great service to the party. In a letter addressed to
Governor Laird at Battleford, four months after the defeat of
his Government, Mr. Mackenzie gives the reason for making
this appointment.
" I was very sorry to lose you when you went to the North-
West, but it was so essential to the public welfare to have a
fast friend and an upright man in a position of such vast
importance, that I felt myself compelled to submit to the sac
rifice." Mr. Laird replied : " I appreciate your assurance that you
were sorry to lose me as a colleague. Well, the truth is I
did not want to leave the Government at that time. My
friends, too; on the L<iland, were opposed to my accepting the
new post, and I was loth to desert those with whom I had
fought so many hard battles. But you urged me to accept,
and, like a loyal supporter, I yielded, supposing that you,
somehow, thought it would be in the interest of the country."
Another loss to his Government was the appointment of
Mr. Letellier de St. Just, Lieut.-Governor of Quebec, in Decem
ber, 1876. Mr. Letellier had been for many years the comrade-
in-arms of Mr. Dorion. He was a Radical of the Radicals,
courageous in the defence of his party, and, on account of his
personal magnetism, well calculated to be a leader of men.
Mr. Fournier, who had served with ability as Minister of
Justice and-Postmaster-General, was appointed to the Supreme
Court. His retirement from the Government was also a loss
to the party.
So far as the Province of Ontario was concerned, fewer
changes had taken place in the personnel of the Government.
Although Mr. Blake was sworn in as a member of the Privy
Council in 1873, he had not accepted a portfolio. But his

^T-^^^^e^^t^

<^^S-^fCc^,

(Facsimile of Hon. Edward Blake's hand-writing.)

438 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
presence in the cabinet was regarded by his friends as a fitting
tribute to his eminent abilities and his services to the party.
His resignation in February, 1874, called forth expressions of
regret from all parts of the Dominion. Had his health per
mitted him to accept office, and to discharge the full duties of
a cabinet minister, there is no doubt he would have greatly
lightened Mr. Mackenzie's cares in dealing with the many
complicated questions that arose in the course of his Adminis
tration. Mr. Blake became Minister of Justice in 1875. His
retirement in 1877 was greatly felt by Mr. Mackenzie. Speak
ing of this matter in the House, in reply to enquiries made by
Sir John Macdonald with regard to ministerial changes, Mr.
Mackenzie said :
" I cannot but express my extreme regret that I should be
compelled to part with a colleague with whom- 1 have acted
all my political life, under whom I once served when he acted
as Premier of Ontario, and who acted so cordially with the
present Administration, since its advent to office 
There was no difference in any matter of policy between my
honorable friend and his colleagues, and I am quite sure that
the restoration of his wonted health will give pleasure to al
most every one in Canada who takes an interest in the re
tention of men of great ability and high personal character in
the councils of the country."
The appointment of Mr. Cauchon, Lieutenant-Governor of
Manitoba, was a change in the Government regretted by few.
Mr. Cauchon was no doubt a man of great ability and per
severance. He was a journalist of some distinction, and as a
pamphleteer had rendered valuable service to the country in
promoting Confederation among his French compatriots in
Qu,ebec. But his connection with the Beauport asylum had
greatly weakened his infiuence, and had given the opponents

AN IRKSOME SESSION OF PARLIAMENT. 439
of the Government an opportunity for indulging in sundry
disagreeable taunts and jeers.
The flanges in the Government, however, were, in many
instances, compensated for by the accession to ihe Cabinet of
men of marked ability and parliamentary experience.
Summarising these changes, it may be stated that the De
partment of Justice was, during the five years of Mr. Mac
kenzie's Administration, under four different Ministers, Messrs.
Dorion, Fournier, Blake and Laflamme ; the Department of
Agriculture under two Ministers, Messrs. Letellier and Mr.
Pelletier ; the Department of the Interior under two Minis
ters, Messrs. Laird and Mills ; the Department of Secretary of
State under two Ministers, Messrs. Christie and Scott ; the
Department of Postmaster-General under three Ministers,
Messrs. Macdonald, Fournier and Huntington ; the Depart
ment of Inland Revenue under five Ministers, Messrs. Four
nier, Geoffrion, Cauchon, Laflamme and Laurier; the Militia
Department under three Ministers, Messrs. Ross, Vail and
Jones. The Presidency of the Privy Council was changed
three times. Of the fourteen Ministers who took office with
Mr. Mackenzie on the 17th of November, 1873, only four con
tinued with him to the close of his Administration, namely,
Messrs. Cartwright, Smith, A. J., Coffin and Scott, and only
three of these retained the same portfolio during the whole
term. The Department of Agriculture, vacated by the retirement
of Mr. Letellier, was ably filled by Mr Pelletier Mr La
flamme, as Minister of Justice, showed himself a worthy suc
cessor to previous occupants of that Department. In the
Maritime Provinces, Mr. A. G. Jones was called to take charge
of the Militia Department.
The Maritime Provinces have given to Canada many men

440 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
of great ability and worth, but few among them deserve a
higher position for their integrity, their breadth of mind, and
their sense of honor than the Hon. Alfred G. Jones.
The choice made of a successor to Mr. Cauchon was pecu
liarly happy. Mr. Wilfrid Laurier had for some time attract

ed the favorable notice of the Liberals of Ontario, and was
rapidly establishing himself in the esteem of his fellow-mem
bers in the House. Two years before Mr. Laurier was called
to the Government, Mr. Brown, who had evidently been con
sulted with regard to the flUing of some Cabinet vacancy,
wrote to Mr. Mackenzie : " Should you be led to the convic
tion that  could not safely or wisely be ventured
upon, then I have no doubt between the old, respectable gen
tleman in question and the young, -vigorous, popular and elo
quent man of the present moment — Laurier, I think, is his
name. A new, fresh man, is more in harmony with the spirit
of your Government than any other. His elevation would be
hailed by aU his young compatriots, and he has no antece
dents to fetter his action. Of course, I speak entirely from
what I have heard from you and others as to Laurier, for I
have not the advantage of knowing him personally."
Mr. Laurier's record since that time fully justifies the esti
mate made of his talents and character by the great journalist
of Canada.

AN IRKSOME SESSION OF PARLIAMENT. 44)
The portfolio vacated by Mr. Laird was accepted by Mr.
David Mills in October, 1876. He brought to his department
a full knowledge of its duties, and a ripe judgment for the con
sideration of such matters as affected its administration. Mr.
Mills was certainly a worthy ally of his great leader, and, by
his diligence and energy, discharged very ably the obligations
of a Cabinet Minister.
Changes so great and affecting so many departments, even
were the new Ministers in every respect equal to the old or
even superior, could not be otherwise than injurious to the
Government. The routine of an office is not to be learned in
a day, and the habit of looking at public questions with all
the responsibility of a Minister, cannot be assumed by sub
scribing simply to the oaths of office.
That Mr. Mackenzie had chosen his Ministers wisely and
well, is generally admitted, having regard to the fact that the
claims of the different provinces had to be recognised. But,
while no question is raised as to the selection under the cir
cumstances, it was quite apparent to those who watched the
proceedings of the House, that some of his Ministers were not
as ready to repel the attacks of the Opposition as would be
desired. A Cabinet of all the talents is not Hkely to be found
in a new country. But a Cabinet, every member of which
thoroughly understands the working of his own department,
and who is able to defend it with vigor, greatly relieves a
Prime Minister of care and responsibility.
Had Mr. Mackenzie thrown more of the responsibilities of
administration upon his colleagues, it is probable that even
those who appeared to lack in strength would have been more
helpful than they were. He had felt it his duty, however, not
only to know the details of his own department, but also the
course of proceeding in some of the other departments ; and

442 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
the explanations which devolved upon the Minister in charge
were often undertaken by the Prime Minister. The effect of
this upon the House and the country was unfavorable to his
Cabinet as a whole, as it deprived his Government of that
political confidence which the well-known individual ability of
each Minister necessarily produces.
The B. N. A. Act of 1867 enacted that the Parliament and
Government of Canada should have all power necessary or
proper for performing the obligations of Canada, or any
province thereof, as part of the British Empire, towards
foreign countries under treaties between the Empire and such
foreign countries. By this clause of the Confederation Act
the Dominion Parliament was authorised to exercise the
powers formerly exercised by the several provinces of Canada
with regard to extradition, and although there was an Im
perial statute on the subject, the adoption by Canada of any
legislation with respect to extradition had the effect of sus
pending, for the time being, such Imperial statute. As re
spects foreign countries, other than the United States of
America, any extradition treaty which applied to Canada
came into operation under an Imperial Act It was claimed
by the Privy Council of Canada that this limitation of the
Dominion Parliament was unreasonable, and that the pro
visions of all extradition treaties entered into by Great Brit
ain with foreign powers should be carried into effect in Canada
by means of Canadian legislation. In December, 1875, the
Dominion Government deputed Mr. Blake, Minister of Justice,
to confer with Her Majesty's Government on this point, and
especially to consider the expediency of negotiating a more
comprehensive extradition treaty. Owing to a misunder
standing between the British and United States Govern
ments as to the interpretation of the Ashburton Treaty (the

AN IRKSOME SESSION OF PARLIA MENT. 443
only extradition treaty applicable to Canada), the treaty
was suspended for one year. The matter in dispute hav
ing been settled, the treaty was revived. The point con
tended for by Great Britain in this dispute was that the
treaty of 1842 contemplated that a person surrendered .should
not be tried for any crime or offence committed in the other
country before the extradition, other than the crime for which
the surrender had been granted. The Canadian Government
was most anxious, in the matter of extradition with the
United States, at least, that they should be allowed the full
authority to legislate as they might deem expedient, or that
the sanction of the Imperial Government should be given to
such legislation as they might adopt. In 1877 a Bill was
passed and afterwards approved by the Governor-General,
making provision by our Canadian law for the execution, as
respects Canada, of all arrangements made between Her
Majesty and foreign states for the extradition of fugitive
criminals. They also submitted a joint address of the Senate
and the House of Commons, asking Her Majesty by Order-in-
Council to suspend the operation of Imperial legislation on
this subject, in order that the Canadian statute might take
effect. The Imperial Government declined to entertain this
request, and, as a consequence of this, the Canadian Act of
1877, to which the Minister of Justice, Mr. Blake, had given
a great deal of attention, still remains in abeyance.
The attempt to settle this important question on lines more
comprehensive and better adapted to the present relations of
Canada with the United States than was the Ashburton
Treaty of 1842, shews the great watchfulness which Mr. Mac
kenzie exercised over Canadian interests. It also shews his
desire that the Parliament of Canada, in all purely Canadian
matters, should be relieved entirely from the control of the

444 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Golonial office. And although the dispute in which the Im
perial Government became involved with the United States
frustrated his attempts, he was able to place upon the statute
book an extradition treaty, which, if allowed to go into oper
ation, will be an efl'ective restraint upon the migration of
"fugitives from justice between the two countries.
The scape of this Act is much wider than the Ashburton
Treaty. It includes a number of offences for which extradi
tion is at present not allowed, such as " larceny, embezzlement,
fraud by a banker, agent, factor or trustee, or by a director or
member or officer of any company, when such fraud is crim
inal by any Act for the time being in force," and many other
ofl'ences of a similar character. It is to be hoped that a treaty
allowing extradition for such offences as are herein mentioned
will come into effect at an early day. Canada should not be
made the camping ground of embezzlers and defaulting cash
iers, or run-away treasurers of large corporations in the
United States. The facility of transportation between the two
countries is no doubt often counted upon by those who medi
tate the appropriation to their own use of moneys coming into
their possession by virtue of their office. To allow such per
sons to escape the punishment they deserve by law, or per
haps, more correctly speaking, by the absence of law, is to
place a premium upon dishonesty.
On motion by Mr. John Macdonald, of Toronto, the House
was asked to consider the propriety of opening its proceedings
by prayer, as was done in the Senate, and for that purpose
either to appoint a chaplain or in the absence of the chaplain
that prayers should be read by the Clerk of the House. Mr.
Macdonald pointed out that a form of prayer agreed upon by
the Roman Catholic bishop of Quebec and the Protestant
rector was used in tlie opening of the Council of that pro-

AN IRKSOME SE.SSION OF PARLIAMENT. 44&
vince, from 1792 down to 1841, and that from 1841 till 1866,
the form now used in the Senate prevailed. In Upper Canada
the proceedings of the Legislative Council were opened by
prayer, for many years, by a chaplain of the Church of Eng
land appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor, and subsequently
by the ministers of the town of York. After some observations
from both sides of the House, a committee was appointed aud
a report agreed upon to the effect, that prayers should be read
by the Speaker of the House in the language most familiar to _
him, and that members should stand during such service. Out
of deference to the French-speaking members of the House, the
practice has been established of reading the prayers in French
and in English on altei'iiate days.
The budget speech, as in the session of 1876, was the signal
for a long discussion of the financial condition of the country,
and particularly of the remedy which, in the opinion of the
Conservative party, should be applied to the financial strin
gency which for several years existed. To begin with, there
was a deficit of $1,980,000, with very large obligations in-
connection with the public works, requiring immediate atten
tion. The revenue was not showing much evidence of buoy
ancy, notwithstanding the increase in the duties, and the Op
position made the most of these circumstances. Dr. Tupper,
as in the previous session, played the part of financial critic,
and in a speech nearly three hours in length dealt with the
alleged extravagance of the Government and their inability
to find a remedy for the commercial depression of the country.
Mr. Mackenzie replied to Dr. Tupper, defending the policy
of the Government, and ridiculing the National Policy as a.
remedy for its financial troubles :
" The prosperity of the country depends on the industry of
its people. It does not depend upon party claquers or upon

446 LIFE OF TIIE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
political nostrums, but it depends upon the industrial power
of the people ; and the day will never come when either the
honorable gentleman or I will be missed when we take our
departure from these legislative halls, because other men will
rise in our places and the country will go on, never heeding
the time when a Tupper pronounced as the sole remedy for
the ills of Canada the imposition of a duty on sugar and coal.
John Bright said in a very recent speech that he could not
compare the absurdities of some people who waited on him
desiring protection, to anything except a person who had got
a box on the right ear, and turned round desiring a corres
ponding one on the other ear. And this is the sole remedy of
these honorable gentlemen for the sorrows of the country, the
3ole remedy for a depressed people and for depressed indus
tries. Their sole remedy is to tax the people more ; make the
people pay more, say these honorable gentlemen, and that will
surely bring a general era of prosperity."
The debate on the budget speech followed very nearly the
same lines as the debate of the previous session. The oppon
ents of the Government were as loud in their praises of pro
tection as they were fierce in their attacks upon the Govern
ment. Sir John Macdonald proposed his usual motion, slight
ly altered from the preceding year, as follows : " That this
House regrets that the financial policy submitted by the
Government increases our burden of taxation on the people
without any compensating advantage to Canadian interests,
and further, that this House is of the opinion that the defi
ciency in the revenue should be met by a diminution of ex
penditure, aided by such a readjustment of the tariff as will
benefit and foster the agricultural, mining and manufacturing
interests of the Dominion."

AN IRKSOME SESSION OF PARLIAMENT. 447
The division, in a House of 189 members, gave the Govern
ment 49 of a majority.
Dr. Orton, who had made himself the special champion of
the agricultural interests of the country, also submitted a re
solution in favor of protection to the farmers, " expressing re
gret that the Government had not seen fit, with a due regard
to aU other industries, so to arrange the customs tariff as
to relieve the farmers of Canada from the unjust effects of the
one-sided and unfair tariff relations which exist between Can
ada and the United States, in reference to the interchange of
agricultural products, as well as animals and their products,
and at the same time place this country in a better position to
negotiate a fair and just reciprocity in the interchange of such
products between Canada and the United States."
In a House of 187 members, Dr. Orion's motion was defeat
ed by a majority of 39.
These two resolutions occupied ihe almost undivided atten
tion of the House for over three weeks, during which time
protection was discussed from almost every possible stand
point. When Mr. Mackenzie announced in 1874 to ihe electors of
Lambton the Government policy with regard to the Pacific
Railway, he signified his intention to use ihe water stretches
between Lake Superior and Winnipeg as a temporary substi
tute for a railway for a part of the distance between these
two points. He showed that the obligation under which the
country had been placed to British Columbia for the con
struction of a railway across the continent in ten years in
volved financial burdens vastly greater than ihe country could
bear, and to reduce these burdens, or to distribute them over a
greater period, was desirable. The scheme finally agreed upon
would involve the construction of 65 miles of railway from

448 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Lake Superior to Lac des Milles Lacs ; thence there would be
276 miles of navigable water to the north-west angle of the
Lake of the Woods. A railway 113 riiiles in length from the
last-mentioned point would reach Red River. In ihe distance
covered by these water stretches there would be in all six
portages, the longest 6| miles, and the shortest about an eighth
of a mile. The portage at Fori Francis was the one that
inost seriously impeded navigation. If the waterways be
tween Rainy Lake and Lake of the Woods could be connected
by a canal, ihe transportation of passengers and freight would
be greatly facilitated, and with that object in view Mr. Mac
kenzie had taken a vote from Parliament of $150,000, and
subsequently an additional vote of $600,000 for works of
navigation in connection with the Pacific Railway. No formal
contract was lei for the construction of the work, as ii was
considered it could be better managed under the department
of public works by time labor.
The Opposition took great pains to show that the construc
tion of this lock was a waste of public money, thai the de
sired navigation could not be obtained by ihe means proposed,
and that the transfer of freight, rendered necessary by ihe
numerous portages, would be very expensive. Moreover, they
alleged that Mr. Mackenzie exceeded his authority, as Minister
of Public Works, in proceeding by time labor and not by ten
der, and thai the whole transaction was one for which the
Government should be condemned.
Mr. Mackenzie's defence was simply a clear statement of
ihe policy of the Government, as previously announced. If
communication with the North-West were in ihe meantime
obtained by the construction of a small lock at a trifling cost,
ihe immediate necessities of ihe settlers would be mei, and
the construction of the continuous rail-route could be under-

AN IRKSOME SESSION OF PARLIAMENT. 449
taken as soon as the finances of the country would permit.
It was no small matter, he urged, to proceed at once with the
construction of 276 miles of railway — the distance proposed
to be covered by water. Communication once opened in this
way, operations in the West would be greatly aided, as sup
plies of all kinds for railway purposes could more readily be
conveyed to the interior of the country. There was no con
stitutional objection to the construction of the lock by time-
labor. The Dawson route, which cost nearly one million and
a, half, was built by the previous Government in the same
way. If the country could afford an all- line of railway at
•once it would be preferable, but this was out of the question.
Another attack was made upon the Department of Public
Works in what was called the " Goderich Harbor Job." The
gravamen of this attack was that Mr. Mackenzie in letting a
•contract for ihe improvement of the Goderich harbor had
passed over the lowest tenderer (a Mr. Tolton) for insufficient
reasons, and awarded the contract to Moore & Co., whose ten
der was about $30,000 higher, mainly because he was a friend
-of the Government and a supporter of Mr. Blake in South
Bruce. In his reply to this attack, Mr. Mackenzie showed that the
policy of the Public Works Department was invariably to
accept the lowest tender unless it was shewn that the person
tendering had failed to carry out some previous contract with
the Government, or was likely io fail from want of experi
ence or financial ability. He proved from the records of
the department that his Government had awarded a much
larger number of contracts to the lowest tenderers than the
previous Government. The reason why Mr. Tolton was passed
-over was that he was not known to the Public Works Depart
ment as a man of experience in the kind of work for which
CO

450 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
he had tendered ; that his tender was an exceedingly low one,
and that there was great danger that the Government might
be put to a loss if obliged io take the work off his hands
before completed. The security he offered was not satisfac
tory, which was a most important consideration, and under
the circumstances the Government had no choice but to pro
ceed on ihe advice of the chief engineer, Mr Page, a man of
the highest integrity, and who would not be biassed by any
political or personal reason. As in all similar cases, Mr. Blake's
letter introducing Mr. Moore to him, as Minister of Public
Works, was such a letter as anj^ member of Parliament might
give one of his constituents, and as was said by Sir John Mac
donald afterwards, in speaking of it : " Mr. Moore had a right
to receive such a letter from the Minister of Justice (Mr.
Blake). Mr. Moore had a right io ask such a letter from the
Minister of Justice (Mr. Blake), and to give such a letter was
highly creditable to Mr. Blake."
We have placed side by side these two attacks upon the
Public Works Department io show the flimsy nature of the
charges brought by the Opposition against Mr. Mackenzie as
the head of that department, and also to shew the material
out of which later on, they intended to make an election cry.
In neither of these charges was there the slightest malversa
tion proven. The alleged favoritism, with respect to the God
erich Harbor contract, was founded in a letter of introduction,
given by Mr. Blake to one of his constituents, in these words :
"My Deab Mackenzie,
" David Moore, of Walkerton, asks me to inform you that he is about
to tender for the Goderich works, and I do so accordingly. I told my
friend Moore that an introduction was unnecessary, as you would let the
works fairly, without respect to persons. "Yours, etc., Edward Blakb."

^A' IRKSOME SESSION OF PARLIAMENT. 451
Had it been shewn that this was the only instance in which
the lowest tender was passed over, or had ii been shewn even
thai there was no good and sufficient reason for passing over
the lowest tender in this case, the charge of political favoritism
would have some foundation. On neither of these points was
ihe evidence worthy of a moment's consideration.
No wonder that Mr. M.ackenzie resented these attacks on
his department with ihe greatest vigor, and no wonder that
he cited by the score instances in which his predecessors, for
public reasons, as ihe House ai least was led to believe, had
acted in a similar way.
About the close of ihe session objection was taken to the
right of Mr. Anglin, Speaker of the House of Commons, to
hold a seat in Parliament, on the ground that he had violated
the Independence of Parliament Act by taking a contract
from the Government. It appears that under the previous
administration ihe printing required for the Post Office De
partment, so far as the Maritime Provinces were concerned,
was placed in the hands of local newspapers in Halifax and
St. John. On the change of administration, ihe Postmaster
General instructed ihe officers of the department to transfer
such work to the newspapers supporting the Liberal party.
The work was to be done according to schedule rates agreed
upon by the department, and the accounts were sent in for pay
ment in the usual way. Mr. Anglin was ai that time editor
and proprietor of ihe St. John Freeman, a journal favorable
to the Government. Printing io the extent of about $10,000
was done at his office, for which he had received the prices
fixed by ihe Post Office Department
The Committee on Privileges and Elections, io which the
matter was referred, held two or three meetings, bui as they
were appointed late in the session, they simply examined Mr.

452 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Anglin as to the nature of the contract, and at the close of
the session reported thai they were unable to proceed any
farther with the inquiries submitted to their consideration.
The violation of the Independence of Parliament Act, with
which Mr. Anglin was charged, was of a very venial character.
He had not solicited any cwiitract from the Government, nor
had he even arranged with the Post Office Department as to
the prices to be paid, and although the cheques for the work
done were issued in his favor, a large part of it was done at
other offices. Even his opponents did not charge him with
any corrupt motives in obtaining the work. It was also shown
before the Committee that so soon as the Government, as a
whole, became aware of the relations which he occupied to the
department, the work was stopped ; so that for nearly a year
before the matter came up in the House he had ceased to be,
in any sense of ihe term, a Government contractor.
Although Mr. Anglin had violated the Act only in the
letter, he was prepared to take the consequences, and so im
mediately after prorogation he resigned his seat His con
stituents, feeling that he had committed no mistake, returned
him again to Parliament.
Mr. Vail, Minister of Militia, because a stockholder in a
firm having a contract with the Government, also resigned
during the recess. He, however, was less fortunate than Mr.
Anglin, as he failed to secure re-election.
While Lord Dufferin was in the North-West, Mr. Mackenzie
made the grave diplomatic departure of sending Minister Mills
to Washington, without the intervention of the circumlocution
office, to endeavor to arrange with the authorities there for the
return of Sitting Bull, who, in equal disregard of proper usage
had crossed with his braves into Canadian territory so as to
escape the United States troops. One does not know which

AN IRKSOME .SESSION OF PARLIAMENT. 453
movement was the greater menace to the peace of nations.
But, as ihe Indian warrior had taken the shortest cut out
of his difficulty, the Canadian Minister took the shortest
way to escape the dilemma he was placed in by Sitting Bull's
action. Notwithstanding the lack of form, against which
there was a mild protest at the White House, and one much
stronger from Downing-street, Mr. Mills found the Pi-esideut
and his Ministers very willing to adopt the suggestion he was
charged informally to make. This was that a Commission
should be sent by the Government of the United States to Sit
ting Bull's camp and arrange for his peaceful return to his
own country. This Commission was intended to be backed up
by a little pressure on the Canadian side. Col. McLeod, com
mander of the mounted police in ihe North-West, hinting to
the dusky visitor and his followers that non-coinpliance would
be likely to result in permission being given the American
troops to cross ihe line and take them prisoners. General
Sherman, the officer in charge in the West, pointed out the
urgency of prompt action on our part, so as to prevent Can
adian soil being made a base of operations by hostile Indians
which he regarded as inevitable if the Sioux were to be allow
ed to remain with their horses and arms. It was a pressing
emergency, and it was felt that if the representation made to
Washington had to pass through the Colonial office, winter
might come and serious complications result The strangers
would, while here, have to be kept in order — a most difficult
matter, or be delivered over to the United States authorities —
a more difficult matter still ; and international law would
make Canada liable for any raiding into the adjacent territory
of which they might be guilty. It was, in fact one of those
cases in which Mr. Mackenzie had to act promptly, and in

454 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
spite of the wrench, constitutionally, the difficulty was satis
factorily overcome.
To those who knew little of Mr. Mackenzie's disposition-, ex
cept from observing him in ihe House as leader of the Govern
ment, it would never occur that the man who repelled the
attacks of his opponents with so much vigor, who returned
blow for blow with fire-flashing eye, who even hesitated not
when the occasion warranted, to uncover the past and expose
inconsistencies that most men had forgotten, was a man of the
deepest sensibility and kindliness of heart
Neither the engrossing cares of his office, nor the bitterness
of an unreasoning press could suppress that still small voice of
sympathy with his fellow men, which io those who knew him
best was so substantial an element of his character.
We have before us two letters — ihe first to a faithful servant
of the State, an engineer engaged on the Pacific Railway ex
ploration, the second io a widow of a clergyman who had
died on ihe field of duty, which are among the tenderest and
most touching, as in their tone they are the most elevating,
communications that the head of a political department ever
penned. He " allures to brighter worlds and points the way."
The first from the Public Works Department, under date Dec.
10th, 1877, is as follows:
" It is a matter of great sorrow to all the departmental oflBcers with
whom you came in contact to hear of your serious illness. To myself it
is peculiarly distressing, as I had formed a very high opinion of your pro
fessional ability and your personal integrity while acting for the Govern
ment in a very difficult and responsible position. I regret much being
unable to spare the time necessary to go to say good-bye to you in person,
and therefore do so by letter.
" I earnestly trust that if your earthly days are nearly numbered you
may enjoy the hope of a blessed immortality through the merits of our

AN IRKSOME SESSION OF PARLIAMENT. ' 455
Saviour. This, after all, is more than earthly honor, or long life, as our
utmost length of days is too brief to be noticed in the light of eternity.
"Yours very faithfully, A. Mackenzie."
The second letter, written a few weeks afterwards, is to the
widow of the Rev. Geo. M. McDougall, the devoted Methodist
missionary in the North-West Mr. McDougall was a man
of great force of character, whose whole life was heroically
consecrated to missionary work among the Indians, who
greatly loved and trusted him. He rendered valuable services
to ihe Indian Treaty Commissioners in their dealing with the
Indians in ihe North-West Territories in 1874. The manner
of his death wag peculiarly sad and affecting. He became
separated from his company, and missed his way on the prairie
. in a blinding snow storm. Subsequently he was found calmly
sleeping the sleep of death in the drifting snow. Mr. Mac
kenzie caused a gratuity of $500 to be paid to his widow.
The expressions of her acknowledgments drew from the
Premier this beautiful reply : " Ottawa, Feb. 26th, 1878.
"Dear Madam, — Mr. Macdonald [the ex-Senator of Toronto] has in
formed me of your letter to him of the 22nd inst. , in which you convey
to the Government your acknowledgments for the payment of $500 on
account of your late husband's services. I will communicate to my
colleagues your message.
"I assure you that nothing could be more grateful to my own feelings
than to have it in my power to do something for the family of one who
was so devoted to God and his country as your late lamented husband.
The tragic story of Mr. McDougall's death, on his chosen field of labor,
where he had done so much to elevate the character of the uncivilized
natives, is one of the saddest incidents connected with the history of our
western possessions. It drew forth the sympathies of all true men to
j-ourself under your deep affliction. It is but little that outsiders can do
under such circumstances, as the stricken heart prefers its own loneliness
to the intrusive sympathy of strangers. You have, however, the coiiso-

456 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
lation of knowing that your late husband died nobly at his post after a,
laborious and self-denying life. I little thought when I had my last long
interview with him concerning our far-off land, that in so short a time he
would pass from that land to a still further off inheritance, where he
would see the King in His beauty, whom in common with his earthly
sovereign he had served so faithfully here. Permit me to add that I shall
always take an interest in your welfare, though I have not the honor of
your personal acquaintance. I am, dear madam,
' ' Y^'ours faithfully, A. Mackenzie.
" Mrs. McDougall, Thornbury, Ont."
Kindnesses like these were continual with Mr. Mackenzie, ,
and they were like the gentle rain from heaven " which bles-
seth him that gives, and him that takes." Writing to his
daughter when he was in the North-West Territories in August
of 1884, Mr. Mackenzie says : " I met a priest here to whom I
once rendered some service, who was very grateful and very
kind. A message was also sent me by the widow of the Rev.
George McDougall, a devoted Methodist Missionary, whom I
had employed on Indian work, who was lost in a sto.rm. I
called to see the old lady. It seems thai I had written her
after an event of so much sadness, especially to her, though I
had forgotten it She had the letter with her, and wept freely
when she saw me. I was much touched by her unaffected and
feeling words and manner in referring io the great sorrow of
her life, and was glad to think that any poor words of mine
might have alleviated her distress.''
Mr. Mackenzie had friends in pastors of all ihe churches.
One of ihe good deeds brought to light for ihe first time when
he died had reference io a minister of ihe Presbyterian
Church, whose name has been given us, and who evidently
himself prints the statement. The minister, now a learned
doctor, was driving to the station at Sarnia, when his horse
ran away, and he was badly hurt. He was brought back to

AN IRKSOME' SESSION OF PARLIAMENT. 457

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yA^-r^rc^ '^ y-^:Sf<^<^'^<s^y/

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(Facsimile of Sir John A. Macdonald's hand-writing.)

458 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Mr. Mackenzie's house, where he lay for some weeks, nursed
with the tenderest care. During that time Mr. Mackenzie
was appointed a minister in the Cabinet of Ontario. " One
day," continues the narrator, " Mrs. Mackenzie was sitting by
the sick bed, when a letter was handed to her. She read it
in silence, while a quiet tear stole down her cheek. The
patient asked if there was any bad news. Without a word
she handed him the letter. It was from her husband, telling
her of his appointment, recalling all the ways by which they
had been led through life, and asking her io pray for him
now, that he might be kept right amid ihe temptations and
difficulties of his responsible position."
This letter with many others, which Mrs. Mackenzie highly
valued, it may be here mentioned, was destroyed by a fire in
Ottawa during Mr. Mackenzie's adininisiraiion.

CHAPTER XXX.

LAST SESSION IN POWER.
Bittern es=i of Parlies — Sir .Tohn's Attack on Mr. Anglin — The Premier's De
fence — Long and Acrimonious Debate on the Address — The Turning Point
of Depression Reached — Mr. Mowat offered a seat in the Government — The
Fighting Ground for the Elections Laid Out— The Protective Policy— The
Auditor-General — Temperance Legislation — Another Stride Towards Selt-
Government.

, HE fifth session of Parliament, the last with Mr.
Mackenzie as Premier, commenced, continued, and
ended amidst feelings of bitterness. Few parlia
mentary records are more painful than the last six
pages of Hansard for ihe year 1878, when, even while
Black Rod was knocking at the door to summon the
members of the House of Commons io meet His Excellency
in the Senate, a scene was being enacted such as those who
witnessed it will never forget Bad as it appears on ihe face
of the official debates, it was far worse than the picture pre
sented there.
Owing io the resignation of Mr. Anglin, as member for
Gloucester, the Speakership which he held was vacated also,
and it became the first duty of the House on the re-assembling
of Parliament, on ihe 7th of February, to elect a Speaker.
Mr. Anglin, for the previous four years, had presided with
marked ability and impartiality. By his long experience in
Parliament he had become familiar with the routine of ihe
House, and by his study of parliamentary procedure he was
459

400 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
able, as a rule, to give decisions on points of order with great
promptness. By placing him. in the chair in the first instance,
Mr. Mackenzie lost an able ally on the floor of the House.
But as Mr. Anglin had sustained so well the dignity of his
position, and as his constituents had shown by their returning
him to Parliament that, notwithstanding the attacks of his
opponents, they still maintained their confidence in him, it
was due both to his record as a member of the House and as
Speaker, that he should be continued during the full Parlia
mentary term.
Sir John A. Macdonald objected to Mr. Anglin's re-nomina
tion, chiefly on technical grounds. He said that the member
for Gloucester was a new member, and, according to the prac
tice of the English House of Commons, he could not be known
to the House until introduced by two members, and not being
introduced, he was not eligible as Speaker.
Mr. Mackenzie quietly replied by asking the House to note
that Sir John Macdonald himself had never been introduced.
They had therefore been listening to a speech of nearly an
hour from a person who, according to his own showing, had
no business there and was not a member. The same honorable
gentleman rose in his place last session to excuse an honorable
member who entered the House not only without being intro
duced, but without taking the oaths. Sir John A. Macdonald
had appealed to the English practice, but the rule in Great
Britain required a member to be sworn before the Speaker.
necessitating the appointment of a Speaker before he could be
sworn, while here he was sworn, as Mr. Anglin had been sworn,
before the clerk, upon producing his certificate of election.
In the British House of Commons the Speaker is elected by
the members before any of them takes the oath. Then the
Speaker alone, " standing on the upper step of the chair, takes

LAST SESSION IN PO WER. 461
the oath of allegiance and supremacy, and takes and subscribes
the oath of abjuration, and also delivers to the clerk of the
House a statement of his qualification, and makes and sub
scribes a declaration that he is duly qualified, in which cere
mony he is followed by the other members who are present."
Here the practice was wholly different, and the rule of the
Imperial House of Commons could not be made by any possi
bility to apply. There was no power to exclude a duly-elected
member from this House, whatever might be the manner of
his entrance into it.
Sir John, however, pressed his objection, and unsuccessfully
divided the House.
The speech from the Throne was an excellent summary of
the work of the past year, and contained an outline of suffi
cient legislation for a session of ordinary length. His Excel
lency referred to the settlement of the fishery claims under
the Washington Treaty, and the award of five and a half mil
lion dollars in favor of Canada and Newfoundland, for the use
of their fisheries during the treaty ; to the exhibition of Can
adian manufactures in New South Wales, as likely to open a
wider market for the products of the country ; to treaties
made with the Indians, by which the whole of the territory
I'rom Lake Superior to the Rocky Mountains had been acquir
ed by peaceful negotiations from the native tribes ; to the re
tirement of Sitting Bull from British territory, thus relieving
Canada of a cause of uneasiness, and possibly of a heavy ex-
pt?.nditure ; to the practical completion of ihe survey of the
Canadian Pacific Railway, and to the increase in the revenues
of the country from a partial revival of trade. Legislation was
promised with regard to ihe independence of Parliament, the
office of Auditor-General, and the regulation of the traffic in
spirituous liquors.

462 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
The address was discussed with gi-eat vigor during five con
secutive days, in which ihe Ministers were attacked by dif
ferent members of the Opposition, on almost every detail of
their administration of public affairs since they assumed office.
The air of the Commons Chamber was redolent of censure.
Mr. Mackenzie had purchased constituencies by money ex
tracted from contractors. He had violated ihe Independence
of Parliament Act in the person of many of his supporters.
He had recommended an amnesty for Riel and Lepine, but not
for O'Donoghue, thus discriminating against the Irish race.
He had not secured the repea.l of the New Brunswick School
Bill, and in this way had done an injustice to the Catholics.
He had not completed the surveys of the Canadian Pacific Rail
way, as he should have done, so that injury was inflicted upon
the British Columbians. The tariff had not been advanced,
and the struggling industries of the country were still lan-
g-uishing. Such was the indictment of the Government, and
speeches to sustain it were for flve days poured into the ears
of the official reporters with great fluency and due emphasis.
Several encounters of a personal character took place be
tween members on opposite sides of the House, one of ihe mo.st
interesting of which was the duel between Hon. Dr. Tupper
and the Hon. A. G. Jones, who was then Minister of Militia.
They were old antagonists. They had met on many a platform
in their own province, bui this was the first time when they
practically stepped out into the political ring at Ottawa in
mortal combat. Dr. Tupper had just been indulging in effu
sive self- congratulations on the success of ihe elections that
had taken place during the recess, and particularly over the
defeat of Hon. W. B. Vail, formerly Minister of Militia. The
fate which overtook Mr. Vail, was just the fate, he said, which
Mr. Jones deserved, for he was not. loyal to the Empire.

LAST SESSION IN POWER. 463
Mr. Jones replied with marked effect The parliamentary
style of his speech, its dignity and force, won for him the ad
miration of both sides of the House, and the applause with
which his remarks were received must have convinced Dr.
Tupper that to attack Mr. Jones was not the best way to im
prove his position in the House.
It may not be generally known that when Mr. Blake sent
in his resignation as Minister of Justice, Mr. Mackenzie was
anxious that the portfolio should go to some representative of
ihe Province of Ontario.
The legislation with which the House of Commons has to
deal follows, in the main, English precedent, and a lawyer
trained in a province where English law is followed is, other
things being equal, better qualified to discharge the duties of
the department of justice than lawyers accustomed simply to
the French code which prevails in Quebec. Mr. Mackenzie
was, however, very fortunate in obtaining the services of such
distinguished men as Messrs. Dorion and Fournier, as their
general knowledge of law beyond the range of the courts in
which they usually practised, enabled them to deal successfully
with all matters pertaining to ihe administration of justice.
If, in the Province of Ontario, a man of political experience
could be found whose legal training would command the con
fidence of ihe country, Mr. Mackenzie felt that it would
strengthen his Cabinet not only for purposes of legislation,
but also for the general election which was to follow proroga
tion. With this object in view, he offered the portfolio ren
dered vacant by the retirement of Mr. Blake, to the Hon. Oliver
Mowat, now Sir Oliver Mowat, Premier of Ontario. The offer
was, no doubt, a tempting one. By a man less impressed with
the great issues, constitutional and otherwise, for which he
was responsible as Premier of the greatest Province of the

464 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Dominion, such a proposal would have been immediately
accepted. Mr. Mowats refusal adds another to the many obli
gations under which he has placed his native province.
" Toronto, Jan. 15th, 1877.
"My Dear Mackenzie,- I continue to think that I should not consider
the question of leaving the local House, until after our general election.
Should you then propose it to me, it would be my duty to weigh well the
considerations, political and personal, which might then bear on such a
change, and either for it or against it. If a decision before our local
elections should be necessary, my present impression is that I ought to
remain where I am, in order to perform my part in securing for the pro
vince a good Reform majority for another term ; and I have not con
.sidered the matter further. "Yours ever, 0. Mowat."
In his budget speech, the Minister of Finance pointed to a
•considerable reduction in the expenditures per capita, as con
trasted with ihe period before ihe Government took office, and
to the probability that the dangers which at that time beset
the country would soon be removed. Under these circum
stances he said :
"It appears to me to be our wisest policy, to adhere strictly to a
revenue tariff, and to advance steadily but continuously with those im
portant public works which cannot be delayed without grave public
injury ; also to fulfil, as far as we can, all the engagements we have
entered into, with this proviso, however, that those engagements must not
be allowed to imperil our general position, or to endanger the future of
the whole population of this country. I do not pretend to say that all
risks are past, but I think I am justified in asserting that the risks, at
any rate, have been considerably lessened. I do not look for any sudden
expansion. I can hardly say that I desire any very sudden expansion ;
but I do believe that we may fairly count on a steady and gradual pro
gress, such as we know by past experience has rarely failed to exist in
Canada, even under circumstances quite as disadvantageous as those with
which we are now confronted."

LAST SESSION IN PO WER. 46a
As leader of ihe Opposition, Sir John A. Macdonald pre
sented his annual resolution upon the policy of his 'party on
the trade question. These resolutions have already been
noticed in their proper place. The resolution of 1878 was, no
doubt, expanded for election purposes, as in its enlarged form
it covers several points not embraced in the previous resolu
tions. It was as follows : " This House is of ihe opinion that
the welfare of Canada requires ihe adoption of a national
policy, which, by a judicious readjustment of the tariff, will
benefit and foster the agricultural, the mining, the manufactur
ing and other interests of the Dominion ; that such a policy
will retain in Canada thousands of our fellow countrymen
now obliged to expatriate themselves in search of the employ
ment denied them at home; will restore prosperity to the
struggling industries, now so sadly depressed; will prevent
Canada from being made a sacrifice market ; will encourage
and develop an active interprovincial trade, and moving (as it
ought to do) in the direction of a reciprocity of tariffs with
our neighbors, so far as ihe varied interests of Canada may
demand, will greatly tend to procure for this country, eventu
ally, a reciprocity of trade."
It will be observed that in this resolution it is stated for the
first time that a protective tariff would prevent Canadians
from expatriating themselves in search of employment denied
them at home, and that in addition to preventing Canada from
being made a sacrifice market, a protective tariff would ulti
mately lead to reciprocity with the United States.
The virtues of protection were evidently growing upon the
imagination of the Conservatives ihe longer the question was
discussed. A system that in 1876 was calculated to foster the
" struggling manufactures and industries, as well as the agri
cultural products of the country," in 1877 would also benefit
DD

466 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
the mining interests of the Dominion, and, in 1878, would, in
addition to all this, keep Canadians at home, furnish them
with abundant employment, increase inter-provincial trade,
and eventually secure reciprocity with ihe United States.
How much of what was then expected has been realised need
not be here discussed. The last decennial census and the
McKinley Bill may be consulted by those interested in further
investigations. The debate, which commenced on the 22nd of February
and lasted until the 12th of March, was, of course, ihe chief
feature of ihe session, laying out, as it did, the fighting ground
for the forthcoming elections. Sir John A. Macdonald's
amendment was lost by a majority of 114 to 77. Ai other
periods of the session, the agricultural interests and the coal
interests of ihe country were discussed in specific resolutions,
asking for the interference of the Government in their behalf,
the vote in each case being much smaller than the vote on the
general policy of protection.
During this session, the House was so much occupied with
ihe discussion of the trade question as to be unable to give
but little attention to legislation. Two or three of the most
important measures may, however, be mentioned.
In order to secure a more careful audit of the pubhc ac
counts, and to provide for the expenditure of public moneys
in strict compliance with the Supply Bill, it was thought
necessary, following the practice of England, to provide for
the appointment of an Auditor-General, who should hold
office during good behavior, but removable by the Governor-
General on an address by the Senate and the House of Com
mons. The Auditor-General is vested with a good deal of
power in the examination of accounts, and the office is found
to be an important public safeguard.

LAST SESSION IN POWER. 467
The Temperance Act of 1878 is another of the measures of
the session worthy of notice. Reference has been made to
the numerous petitions presented in 1874-5 in favor of pro
hibition, and to the appointment of a special commission to
enquire into the results of legislation for the prohibition of
ihe liquor traffic in the United States. Mr. Mackenzie had
declared himself in favor of absolute prohibition whenever he
believed public opinion was sufficiently well educated to make
such legislation eff'ective. As we had not reached that condi
tion yet, and as it was desirable that every possible restraint
should be placed upon the liquor traffic, his colleague, Mr.
Scott, introduced into the Senate a bill, since known as the
Scott Act, for applying the principle of local option io the
regulation of the liquor traffic. The provisions of the bill
are very simple.
On the petition of one-fourth of the electors qualified to
vote for a member of the House of Commons in any county or
city, submitted to the Governor-General, and publicly announ
ced in the official Gazette of the province in which such
county or city is situated, a vote by ballot is to be taken as to
whether on the day on which the Act takes effect, any person
shall be allowed to sell intoxicating liquors as a beverage, so
long as the Act continues in force.
When the bill was before ihe House of Commons, Mr. Mac
kenzie, who had it in charge, went very fully into a discussion
of what he expected it would accomplish, and of the machin
ery which ii provided for restraining the liquor traffic.
" He had always felt that while the people had an absolute right to such
legislation as would practically prohibit the sale and manufacture of in
toxicating liquors, yet it was one of those moral questions which must
ultimately be determined by the general voice of the people, by the gen
eral sympathies of the population, and that however righteous such an Act

468 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
might be, however beneficial in the general results to the nation, yet it
was one that interfered in a certain manner — in the opinion of some to a
great extent — with the liberties of the people in reference to the trade in,
and use of, intoxicating liquors of all kinds. But a very large propor
tion of the people of this country — a large majority of them, indeed — be
lieved that the limitation of this traffic was almost essentially necessary
for the prosperity of the country. This bill liad been proposed with a
view of having an effective permissive measure placed in the hands of the
people of all the provinces, with its machinery adapted to a quick and
prompt response to public opinion, when it should declare itself by a ma
jority in favor of this measure. It was a matter of serious import to this
country, it was one of the greatest possible importance in its social and
political aspects, and there could be no doubt whatever, apart from ques
tions of taxation and other questions which arose, that it was one of the
greatest possible importance to this country that we should be able in
some way or other lo check the torrents of intoxication, which for many
years had been increasing and pouring in, in an unlimited stream over the
land. No one, he thought, could doubt that, and any one who had ob
served the course of proceedings at great public gatherings must have
been satisfied that the temperance agitation had already resulted, even
without the enactment of any law, in materially producing the desire to
abstain from the excessive use of stimulants in the shape of spirits. It
was the duty of every one who loved his country, and who wished well to
our institutions and to our churches, to endeavor to aid those who had
been devoting their voluntary efforts to the accomplishment of this end,
and he was sure this House, in common with the other branch of the
Legislature, would cordially respond to the invitation given by the intro
duction of this Bill, in aiding to the extent of their power in repressing a
traffic which had produced so much disaster of every kind, and which
threatened, if left uncontrolled, to exercise a still more disastrous and
permanent evil infiuence on the destinies of this country.''
But very little objection was taken to the bill in its passage
through the House of Commons. The Speaker, who, while the
House IS in Committee of the Whole, has the same privi
leges as any other member, objected to the measure as tyran
nical. A prohibitory law in the Province of New Brunswick

LAST SESSION IN POWER. 469
from which he came was repealed as being inoperative, and
the Government which introduced the measure and carried it
through the Legislative Assembly of that province was de
feated at the polls by an overwhelming majority.
Mr. Mackenzie's courage in supporting prohibitory legisla
tion is worthy of the highest praise, and should have brought
to him more political support than it did. He had a right to
expect, if he looked at the matter from purely selfish consider
ations, thai where about a half a million of people of both
sides of politics petitioned Parliament for certain legislation,
a reasonable number of these would follow up their request
by their political support, particularly when their request was
granted. A temperance man who would demand legislation
such as the Scott Act provided, and who would strike down at
the polls the man who granted his request, was in his opinion
an inconceivable specimen of duplicity. He was not, however,
bidding for political support ; he was legislating as he said
himself for the suppression of crime and for the protection of
the public morals, and if by so doing he suffered politically, he
felt the cause was ^\¦ortlly of some sacrifice.
The opponents of ihe Government allowed the bill to pass
with very little discussion. The liquor interests of the coun
try, as a rule, supported them in the past, and as the respon-
.sibility of all legislation rested upon the Government, they
felt they had a party excuse for not opposing what it was
quite evident they could not prevent.
Very important modifications were, on the suggestion of
Mr. Blake, made in the commission issued by the Imperial
Government io the Governor-General of Canada, by which
the Governor-General is obliged to take the advice of his
Ministers now, where he formerly was empowered to act on
his own responsibility. It was held by Mi-. Blake and his

470 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
colleagues thai Canada could not be said io possess in its ful
ness responsible government, so long as the Governor-General
could act in matters aff'ecting Canadian interests independ
ently of his Cabinet. By ihe British North America Act,
Canada is invested with a constitution similar in principle to
that of the United States. She is, therefore, undoubtedly en
titled to the fullest freedom of self-government, and her rights
in this respect should be recognised and embodied in ihe com
mission and instructions from the Crown io the Governor-
General. Mr. Blake contended that, " as a rule, the Governor
does and must act through the agency and on the advice of
Ministers, and Ministers must be responsible for such action,
save only in the rare instance in which, owing to the exist
ence of substantial Imperial as distinguished from Canadian
interests, it is considered that full freedom of action is not
vested in the Canadian people."
After some correspondence with the Earl of Carnarvon,
Mr. Blake, at the request of the Colonial Office, was deputed
to visit England for the purpose of submitting in person the
views of the Canadian Government. The result of his inter
view is thus described by Mr. Todd in his " Parliamentary
Government of the Colonies " :
"Certain portions of the Governor's commission and instruction.s,
heretofore inserted in documents of this description, were omitted from
the revised draft agreed upon for use in Canada, on the ground that they
were obsolete, or superfluous and unnecessary. Of this character we'
may refer to the directions concerning the meetings of the Executive or
Privy Council, and the transaction of business by that body ; the clause
which authorised the Governor, in certain contingencies, to act in oppo
sition to the advice of his Ministers ; the clause which prescribes the
classes of bills to be reserved by the Governor-General for Imperial con
sideration, and certain clauses dealing with matters which now come
within the province of the Provincial Governments and are dealt with by

LAST SESSION IN POWER. 471
local legislation, over which the Governor-General and his advisers prac
tically exercise no control.
" All such questions, it was wisely contended by Mr. Blake, should be
left to be determined by the application to them, as they might arise, of
the constitutional principles involved in the establishment in Canada ot
parliamentary government. The authority of the Crown in every colony
is suitably and undeniably vested in the Governor. He possesses the full
constitutional powers which Her Majesty, if she were ruling personally
instead of through his agency, could exercise. The Governor-General
has an undoubted right to refuse compliance with the advice of his Minis
ters, whereupon the latter must either adopt and become responsible for
his views, or leave their places to be filled by others prepared to take that
course. "Even in respect to questions which may involve Imperial as distinct
from Canadian interests, it appeared to Mr. Blake inadvisable, if not im
possible, to formulate any rule of limitation for the conduct of the Gov
ernor-General. ' The truth is,' he observes, 'that Imperial interests are,
under our present system of government, to be secured in matters of
Canadian executive policy, not by any such clause in a Governor's in
structions (which would be practically inoperative, and if it can be sup
posed to be operative would be mischievous), .but by mutual good feeling
and by proper consideration on the part of Her Majesty's Canadian ad
visers, the Crown necessarily retaining all its constitutional rights and
powers which would be exercisable in any emergency in which the indi
cated securities might be found to fail.' He therefore suggested the
omission of all clauses in the Royal instructions to Governors of Canada
which were of this nature. The sections of the British North America
Act defining and regulating the exercise of the powers which appertain
to the office of Governor-General in a system of government expressly
declared by that statute to be ' similar in principle to that of the United
Kingdom, ' were, in Mr. Blake's judgment, amply sufficient to determine
the constitutional status and authority of that officer, subject, of course,
' to any further instructions, special or general, which the Crown may
carefully give, should circumstance render that course desirable.' "
The effect of these changes is io relieve Canada from the
interference of the Colonial Office on all matters not purely

472 LITE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Imperial in their character. As was said by the Earl of Carnar-
von : " When interests outside the Dominion are directly affect
ed there is no authority except the Imperial authority which
is in a position to decide, and those are the only matters now
remaining for the Colonial Office to direct"
It is the habit of some who know little of Mr. Mackenzie's
zeal for his country to depreciate his services during the five
years of his Administration. Any person, however, who
studies with a candid mind his Administration from his ac
ceptance of office in 1873 until his retirement in 1878, will
find that he was not only an executive officer of great ability
and force, but that he was a man of broader statesmanship
than is usually recognised even by many of his friends. What
Sir Oliver Mowat has done for Ontario in maintaining her
constitution and her provincial rights, Mr. Mackenzie has done
for the Dominion of Canada in her relations with the Colonial
Office. In ihe troubles with British Columbia ; in the commission
to negotiate a treaty at Washington in 1874 ; in the appoint
ment of a commissioner io determine the amount to be paid
under the Washington Treaty in 1877 ; and in the relief from
ihe interference of the Colonial Office, secured in the amended
instructions io the GovernOr-General of Canada, Mr. Macken
zie proved himself a persistent and successful advocate of
colonial rights. Had he given more of his time io the redis
tribution of constituencies, or io the preparation of Franchise
Acts, by which things would be made comfortable for his
friends ; or had he studied how to distribute custom houses,
post offices, light houses and piers, so as to influence elections,
or had he accepted contributions from contractors or rings of
protected manufacturers in order to aid struggling candidates;
or had he set aside a secret service fund on which he could

LAST SESSION IN POWER. 473
draw on his own warrant, he might have been a greater
statesman, as statesmanship is by some regarded, but he would
not have been so true a Canadian nor so worthy of thai high
place among the noblest of her sons which he now occupies.
To have given her a larger measure of freedom in the manage- '
ment of her own affairs, to have forced upon the Colonial Office
the recognition of her absolute independence, except when
Imperial interests were concerned, are acts of statesmanship
io which every student of history will refer with pleasure.

CHAPTER XXXI.

GOVERNOR LETELLIER S COUP D ETAT.
The Case Before Parliament — Motion to Declare His Action "Unwise" —
How the Premier Met it — The Dominion Government not Privy to the Pro
ceeding — Lord Lome Assailed — Gov. Letellier Dismissed — Address to Lord
Dufferin — His Excellency's Sense of the Premier's Kindness — Bids Parlia
ment Farewell — Government Policy on the Railway — Legislation With
drawn — Release from a Turbulent Session.

r the beginning of March, 1878, Canada was startled
by an extraordinary act on the part of one of its
mimic kings. On the 1st of that month, Mr. Le
tellier, the Liberal Lieutenant-Governor, performed
the coup d'etat of dismissing his constitutional ad
visers, the Conservative De Boucherville Government,
giving chiefly as his reason for. so doing that his prerogatives
had been slighted by the submission of measures to the Legis
lature without prior consultation with and sanction by him as
the executive head. Other grounds of complaint were that
the Attorney-General, through misrepresentation, had placed
him in an equivocal position by causing him to make the ap
pointment of a municipal councillor in Montmagny, under the
pretext that there had been no election, when an election had
actually been held and a candidate returned, so that the ques
tion to be decided was one for the courts ; that his name had
been appended to proclamations and other instruments of
which he had received no previous knowledge ; and that the
treatment of him generally by his Ministers had been of a
4*74

GOVERNOR LETELLIER'S COUP D'ETAT. 475
most unceremonious, not to say contumelious character. For
all these reasons the Lieutenant-Governor expressed to the
Premier the regret he felt in being no longer able to retain
him and his colleagues in their positions, " contrary to the
rights and prerogatives of the Crown."
The Hon. Luc Letellier de St. Just was the descendant of a
good French family. He was proud and high-spirited, but
courteous in manner and stately of appearance and bearing.
"Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel," he was
neither a meddlesome man nor a man to be meddled with. In

.--s «_-^

Mr. Sandfield Macdonald's Administration, as well as in Mr.
Mackenzie's Government, he held the portfolio of Minister of
Agriculture. Towards the close of the year 1876, he was sent
down to Spencer Wood to fill the vacancy caused by ihe death
of Mr. Caron, as Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec. Shortly
afterwards Mr. Mackenzie described him, in writing to a
friend, as " always a moderate man in the expression of very
decided views, and not personally objectionable to any one."
He was glad, he said, to find that the appointment had given
very general satisfaction.
The contracted, prejudiced, parochial character of ihe Que
bec Government was manifested in a manner that a village
politician would be ashamed of. One would search for a long
time without finding a narrower spirit of intolerance than is

476 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
depicted in ihe following passage in a letter from Mr. Macken
zie to Mrs. Mackenzie, from Quebec, in the latter part of June,
1876: "The public dinner to the Governor- General was a grand affair ; on the
whole, the best I have seen in Canada. The Local Government, on the
morning of the day, withdrew their acceptances, because the Federal
Government were to be represented there and toasted. I at once went
to the Mayor, and offered to remain away, but he refused his assent, and
insisted that I should go and speak. He was backed up by the unani
mous voice of the committee, Tory and Liberal. I then informed Lord
Dufferin of what had happened. He also insisted so strongly on my
going that I relinquished my intention of staying away. The littleness
and bad taste of the Quebec Government in showing ill feeling to me
had the' effect of making my reception by the audience most enthusiastic.
Prominent Conservatives were very much ashamed of their leaders, and
hastened to assure me they had no sympathy with them. The Mayor
behaved very handsomely, as indeed did every one else."
When the Confederation Act conferred upon the Central
Government the power of appointing Lieutenant-Governors of
the provinces, many were apprehensive of just such collisions
between them and their advisers as we have since witnessed
in the neighboring province. A governorship is too great a
prize to be given by a Dominion Premier to men, however dis
tinguished, who have no political claims. Retired judges and
persons of position and attainments iu the purely intellectual
sphere, who, because they have no politics, are naturally the
most fitted for holding evenly the balance of power between
contending parties, are therefore passed over for others of pro
minence who are pronounced in their party views and strong
in their party allegiance. Diverse elements are often thus
brought into conflict, and if self-restraint is wanting on the
pari of either the Lieutenant-Governor or the Ministry, there
is at all times a lurking danger lest serious differences should

GOVERNOR LETELLIER'S COUP D'ETAT. ill
arise between them. In the case under consideration, ancient
political feuds were fanned and kept alive, and the Quebec
Government, by their insulting and contemptuous treatment
of their old adversary made the position of the too sensitive
Lieutenant-Governor intolerable. Had his Ministry treated
him with common courtesy, he might have been content to-
follow the example of Lord Dufferin, who said that the ordin
ary duties of a Governor were merely to drop a little oil here
and there, so as to relieve the friction of the governmental
machinery. But he did not understand the modern theory of
the function of a constitutional Governor to go quite so far as
to require him to deaden his nature to every feeling of resent
ment of personal wrong, or to have no care for the dignity of
his office. He had the high authority and calm judgment of
Todd for the assurance that he was in a "most real sense" the
representative of the Sovereign, and consequently " no mere
automaton or ornamental appendage to the body politic, but a
person whose consent is necessary to every act of state, and
who possesses full discretionary powers to deliberate and de-f
termine upon every recommendation which is tendered for the
Royal sanction by the Ministers of the Crown." So that
when the Government tried to make a nullity of him and to
bring upon him derision, he asserted his undoubted right of
dismissal. Responsibility for the exercise of the prerogative
was at once assumed by a new set of Ministers. There was
thus an adherence to the strict letter of the Constitution and
a full compliance with constitutional usage, even though the
spirit of the unwritten law, as interpreted by some advocates
of the sovereignty of parliament, would seem to require the
retirement of an insulted Governor, instead of the dismissal of
the men at whose hands the insult is received. If this doc
trine be accepted, it follows that a Governor with a hostile

478 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Ministry must hold his office on a precarious tenure. His
Ministers have but to provoke him to the point of retaliation,
and at once " his usefulness is gone."
This dictum, at any rate, was made to do service in the case
of Mr. Letellier. Sir John A. Macdonald brought the matter
up in the House of Commons on Thursday, ihe 11th of April,
1878, by moving as an amendment to the motion for going
into committee of supply : " That the recent dismissal by the
Lieut.-Governor of Quebec of his Ministers was, under the
circumstances, unwise and subversive of the position accorded
to the advisers of the Crown since the concession of the
principle of responsible government io the British North
American colonies."
Mr. Mackenzie retorted that the mover was not the man to
lecture the Liberals on this question, the Liberal party having
had a long struggle with him and his friends in their fi'ght for
the establishment in Canada of the principle of responsible
government. He maintained that the Provincial Governments
occupied the same position towards ihe Crown as colonies
having Lieut.-Governors appointed immediately by the Crown
occupied in relation to the Imperial authorities. The resolu
tion, he said, was very mild. It characterised the action of
the Lieut.-Governor simply as unwise. The question of its
wisdom was not one for this House to decide, but the Pro
vince of Quebec,' and the Ministry of Mr. Joly had assumed
ihe full responsibility of His Honor's action. It would be an
unwarranted use of the powers of this House to pass a vote
of censure or approval* of either party in Quebec. The mat
ter was left with the responsible administration and ihe Pro
vince, and nothing could be more fatal to the Provincial
autonomy existing under the Act of Confederation than this
proposed interference. He read, in support of his contention,

GOVERNOR LETELLIER'S COUP D'ETAT. 479
Sir Join -A.. Macdonald's own argument in the case of the
Orange Incorporation Bills, which were reserved by the Lieut.-
Governor of Ontario five years before It was not for this
House to say whether Mr. Letellier was right or wrong, for if
the people of Quebec sustained the Administration who had
made themselves accountable for his proceeding, ihe constitu
tional requirement was met. Of the action of ihe Lieut.-
Governor personally he knew nothing. The ground he took
was this : " That I propose not to interfere ; that I have not
interfered ; that nothing shall be done by the Government of
the Dominion which would in any way place us in the posi
tion of having taken part in a political controversy which
affects the Province, and the Province alone."
In a communication on this subject about the same time,
Mr. Mackenzie said that the Dominion Government had no
business io interfere, and that to meddle in the affairs of a
Province would be to do it a constitutional wrong. He argued
that if they undertook to supervise the action of Governor
Letellier they might finally be called upon to interfere in the
, action of any one of the Provinces when a Ministerial crisis
arose. Such a course would be fatal to responsible govern
ment, and would reduce the Provinces to the status of irre
sponsible municipal corporations. He therefore felt it his
duty to prevent such serious interference with the working of
the federal system. He neither attacked nor defended the
action of the Lieut-Governor, though he did express his
opinion, en passant, that the attempt to interpose the legisla
tive authority between the aggrieved municipality and the
judicial courts was such an exercise of Ministerial power as
would justify the adoption of the strongest measures, if con
stitutional in their character. Sir John A. Macdonald's mo
tion, he held, went either too far or not far enough. If there

480 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
was any right of interference, the motion should have con
demned Mr. Letellier's course, and demanded his recall; it
should have declared his action unconstitutional. Instead, it
merely said it was unwise. What right had the Dominion
Parliament io pass judgment upon the course taken by a
Provincial Legislature, its administration, and its chief execu
tive officer ? If they declared Governor Letellier's action
unwise, might they not also declare unwise the action of Mr.
De Boucherville, or ihe action of the Quebec Legislature ? In
this way a blow might be struck at all local authority.
The Ministerial speeches were short, as the ground assumed
by the Government rendered elaborate argument unnecessary.
The Liberals regarded the motion as one calculated to produce
mischief by making a most dangerous precedent, and they
wished to throttle it at its birth. The speeches on the other
side were long, labored and irrelevant. The debate at a late
hour was adjourned until the following day, when there was
a disgraceful scene at an all-night session, the House meeting
at three o'clock on Friday afternoon, and sitting continuously
from that hour until five minutes past six on Saturday even
ing. On the Monday ensuing the question was voted on, the
division standing 112 to 70.
The statement was recklessly made that the Dominion
Government were privy io the "conspiracy," and that Mr.
Mackenzie aitled, counselled and abetted the Lieutenant-Gov
ernor in his high-handed proceedings. Collins, in his " Life
of Sir John A. Macdonald," says : " It is useless to deny that
M. Letellier came to the administration \i. e.. Governorship of
Quebec], with an exaggerated sense of his functions and
powers ; but, what was worse still, he believed that he had,
and he really did have, the countenance of ihe Mackenzie
Ministry in his feeling and attitude towards his Cabinet."

GOVERNOR LETELLIER'S COUP D'ETAT. 481
Let us see how this compares with the lecture which Mr.
Mackenzie took occasion to read his appointee sometime after
wards: "It would be idle to deny that ihe dismissal of a
Ministry supported by such a vote in the Legislature was
looked upon by many of your friends as a very grave step,
which, even though it were constitutional in itself, no party
.advantage would justify, and which indeed could not be justi
fied on any ground unless it were capable of being supported
by the strongest reasons. Liberals are always properly jealous
•of the arbitrary exercise of power. What a friendly Gover
nor does to-day may be done by an unfriendly Governor to
morrow. Besides, all gubernatorial actions must be assumed
to grow out of a sense of duty and to be done in the public
interest," leaving clearly the inference that justification is not
readily to be found in a resort to extreme measures for the
personal wrongs suffered by a Governor, however galling these
may be.
His opinion of the danger to the constitution of Governor
Letellier's coup was not changed by the fact that the new
adviser, Mr. Joly, had with his well-known chivalry assumed
the responsibility, and on an appeal had been sustained by the
electorate of the Province, though by the narrow majority of
•one. After the successful elections in Quebec under Liberal
auspices, Mr. Mackenzie wrote thus to an influential political
friend in another Province :
"Mr. Letellier's action was no doubt within the scope of his powers,
but it was a most dangerous step. I was sorry he did not assign better
reasons for it. The action of the electors saves him from popular con
demnation, and having acted strictly within the scope of his powers, we
could not recall him. I took the line in the House that we had no right
to interfere with a Governor in the exercise of his constitutional func
tions by declaring his action to be either wise or unwise."
EE

462 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
The address was discussed with great vigor during flve con
secutive days, in which the Ministers were attacked by dif
ferent members of the Opposition, on almost every detail of
their administration of public affairs since they assumed office.
The air of the Commons Chamber was redolent of censure.
Mr. Mackenzie had purchased constituencies by money ex
tracted from contractors. He had violated the Independence
of Parliament Act in the person of many of his supporters.
He had recommended an amnesty for Riel and Lepine, but not
for O'Donoghue, thus discriminating against the Irish race.
He had not secured the repeal of the New Brunswick School
Bill, and in this way had done an injustice to the Catholics.
He had not completed the surveys of the Canadian Pacific Rail
way, as he should have done, so that injury was inflicted upon
the British Columbians. The tariff had not been advanced,
and the struggling industries of ihe country were still lan-
cTiishinsr. Such was the indictment of the Government, and
speeches to sustain it were for five days poured into the ears
of the official reporters with great fluency and due emphasis.
Several encounters of a personal character took place be
tween members on opposite sides of the House, one of the most
interesting of which was the duel between Hon. Dr. Tupper
and the Hon. A. G. Jones, who was then Minister of Militia.
They were old antagonists. They had met on many a platform
in their own province, but this was the first time when they
practically stepped out into the political ring at Ottawa in
mortal combat. Dr. Tupper had just been indulging in effu
sive self- congratulations on the success of ihe elections that
had taken place during the recess, and particularly over the
defeat of Hon. W. B. Vail, formerly Minister of Militia. The
fate which overtook Mr. Vail, was just the fate, he said, which
Mr. Jones deserved, for he was notjoyal to the Empire.

LAST SESSION IN POWER. 463
Mr Jones replied with marked effect. The parliamentary
style of his speech, its dignity and force, won for him the ad
miration of both sides of the House, and the applause with
which his remarks were received must have convinced Dr.
Tupper that to attack Mr. Jones was not the best way to im
prove his position in the House.
It may not be generally known that when Mr. Blake sent
in his resignation as Minister of Justice, Mr. Mackenzie was
anxious that the portfolio should go to some representative of
ihe Province of Ontario.
The legislation with which the House of Commons has to
deal follows, in the main, English precedent, and a lawyer
trained in a province where English law is followed is, other
things being equal, better qualified to discharge the duties of
the department of justice than lawyers accustomed simply to
the French code which prevails in Quebec. Mr. Mackenzie
was, however, very fortunate in obtaining the services of such
distinguished men as Messrs. Dorion and Fournier, as their
general knowledge of law beyond the range of the courts in
which they usually practised, enabled them to deal successfully
with all matters pertaining to the administration of justice.
If, in ihe Province of Ontario, a man of political experience
could be found whose legal training would command ihe con
fidence of ihe country, Mr. Mackenzie felt that it would
strengthen his Cabinet not only for purposes of legislation,
but also for the general election which was to follow proroga
tion. With this object in view, he offered the portfolio ren
dered vacant by the retirement of Mr. Blake, to the Hon. Oliver
Mowat, now Sir Oliver Mowat, Premier of Ontario. The offer
was, no doubt, a tempting one. By a man less impressed with
the great issues, constitutional and otherwise, for which he
was responsible as Premier of the greatest Province of the

484 LIFM OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Mr. Mackenzie's warning to Mr. Letellier of the consequence
of the establishment of a dangerous precedent was prophetic.
A similar scene has recently been produced on the same boards
and by many of the same actors.
Mr. Joly's Government was returned by so slender a ma
jority that they were unable for any long period to maintain
themselves in power. On ihe ground of the weakness of
Governor Letellier's new advisers, as tested in the Legislative
Assembly, Mr. Mackenzie was asked by a gentleman in Quebec
to demand Mr. LeteUier's resignation. Mr. Mackenzie gave the
same answer that he had given throughout, that the Ottawa
authorities had no right to interfere. As to the attitude of
ihe Quebec Jlouse, he said :
"On the merits of the exact question you raise, I do not think that
the vote of the Assembly was conclusive in the condemnation of the Gov
ernor's action. There were 32 to 32, Mr. Price not voting. He cannot
be counted on either side, but it is known he is a supporter of Mr. Joly.
If he were not a supporter, he had only to vote on that occasion against
him, and a resignation would have followed at once. Mr. Joly has more
over succeeded in getting his supplies voted so far very well, and there
can be no surer test of the power of a Minister than this."
On the defeat of his Administration, Mr. Mackenzie had
prevision of what was likely io be the Tory course of action.
In a letter before us of the 31st of January, 1879, he said he
thought that Sir John A. Macdonald, when Parliament met,
would put some one up to move a resolution so as to foment
an agitation with the design of driving Mr. Letellier into
resignation. He did not believe, however, that the Conserva
tives would proceed io the extremity of dismissal. True, the
new House was very hostile to the Liberals, and the dominant
party were flushed with their victory ; but the question had
already been voted upon, and Sir John's inotion had been re-

GOVERNOR LETELLIER'S COUP D'ETAT. 4S5
jected. Moreover, the resolution did not deny that however
high-handed, in Sir John's opinion, the proceeding of the Lieu
tenant-Governor might have been, Mr. Letellier was strictly
within his rights ; nor did Sir John ever assert the contrary.
It was likely enough that the Tories might not desire to have
Mr. Letellier in office, thinking that they could better trust
one of their own party. But their case in this respect was
exactly similar to that of Mr. Mackenzie, who, when he took
office, found Conservatives Lieutenant-Governors of Provinces.
The case of Mr. Morris, Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba, a
functionary with whom ai that time it was essential in the
public interest the central authorities should have frequent
and intimate intercourse, was a very striking one. What did
Mr. Mackenzie do in regard to him ? He tells us in these
words : " No sooner did we take office, than I wrote to Mr.
Morris telling him that I intended trusting him implicitly in
ihe grave matters connected with that country, and thai in
my opinion ihe most cordial confidence was necessary while he
and I held our respective positions. He at once responded in
ihe same spirit. On one occasion I defended him from asper
sions in the House, and certain of his political friends as
sumed that there was some reason for my so doing, and even
acted in this spirit I dare say this gentleman is now satisfied
that Mr. Morris has abundantly vindicated his party proclivi
ties since he left the gubernatorial chair."
Mr. Mackenzie had not long to wait for the fulfilment of
his prediction in regard to the Tory policy of agitation on ihe
Letellier question ; though it was made the pretext for action
which he and other eminent constitutionalists never dreamt
of. Certainly ihe Governor-General and the Colonial Secre
tary, who are far removed from ihe sphere of party passion,
did not, nor a mind so unprejudiced and acute as that of Sir

486 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Francis Hincks, Sir John's old political colleague, as we shall
presently see.
As anticipated by Mr. Mackenzie, early in the session of
1879, Sir John A. Macdonald's motion of the year before, in
precisely ihe same language, came up again, but this time in
the hands of Mr. Mousseau, and, in order io preclude amend
ment, Mr. Ouimet moved the previous question. Mr. Mac
kenzie severely criticised the Government for shirking their
duty by putting up members from ihe back benches io do the
work for them, and to do it in so cowardly a fashion. At the
close of his speech he said : " I feel quite certain thai every
member of this House, when he considers the position of the
Provinces relatively to each other and io ihe Dominion, must
come to the conclusion that our federal system is a fraud, if
this Parliament is to constantly exercise surveillance over the
actions of the local Legislatures and local Governors, which
are subject to the usual approval or disapproval of the people
of such Province. We may as well at once revert io our
former system of government, however inconvenient it may be.
A legislative union with all its evils, in a country diversi
fied as ours is, would be infinitely preferable to a federal sys
tem which vests all the power in ihe federal authorities,
where the federal authorities are disposed to use that power
tyrannically towards the Provinces." After debate, ihe mo
tion was carried by 136 votes to 51.
Shortly afterwards Sir John A. Macdonald stated io the
House that he had advised His Excellency thai, in the opinion
of the Government, Mr. Letellier's usefulness was gone, and
that he should be removed from office. He went on io say :
" His Excellency was thereupon pleased io state that, as the
federal system introduced by the Constitutional Act of 1867
was, until then, unknown in Great Britain or her colonies,

GOVERNOR LETELLIER'S COUP D'ETAT. 487
there were no precedents to guide him to a decision in the
present case, and as the decision in this case would settle for
ihe future the relations between the Dominion and the Provin
cial Governments, so far as the office of the Lieutenant-Gover
nor was concerned, he therefore deemed it expedient to submit
ihe advice offered him, and the whole case, and the attendant
circumstances, io Her Majesty's Government for their con
sideration and instructions."
On this " startling statement," as it was called a few hours
afterwards, Mr. Ouimet exonerated the Government from
blame, but furiously assailed the Governor-General for having
thus trampled on the constitutional rights of the people. Sir
John blandly replied that with his honorable friend he could
not agree. There was nothing unconstitutional in the Gov
ernor-General's course. " He, the representative of the» Sov
ereign, says that he will ask for specific instructions from his
and our Sovereign." Nevertheless, Mr. Cockburn, of West
Northumberland, "felt humiliated by the course" taken by
the Governor-General in making this reference to England.
Mr. Valine said that His Excellency's course was unconstitu
tional and without precedent, and thai he had heard of the
refusal of the Governor-General io follow the advice of his
Ministers " with sorrow and surprise." In regard io such con
duct, Mr. Desjardins " felt ihe bitterest grief," and were such
conduct repeated there would be no other alternative than
io " provide for ihe appointment of a regency " — in fact to
compel Lord Lome to abdicate. Mr. Mousseau "entirely
repudiated " the doctrine that a Governor-General could disre
gard the advice of his responsible Ministers in Canada and
seek the advice of ihe colonial office instead, and compared
Lord Lome to Lord Metcalfe. In this painful position the
Government left the Governor-General to bear the attacks of

488 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
their Tory supporters without a word of explanation or de
fence. The tergiversation of Sir John on this question, Mr. Mac
kenzie exposed in an able speech, on the 27th of April, 1880.
He recited the proceedings taken in the session of 1878, to
censure Mr. Letellier for his action in dismissing his Ministers.
The motion then made was negatived by the House of Com
mons, but a resolution somewhat similar in terms was adopted
by the Senate. His (Mr. Mackenzie's) Government declined
to take action, for the reason that they held the matter to be
one not coming within their purview. He was glad to know
that such also was the opinion of the Governor-General and the
Colonial Secretary. For, subsequently to the change of Gov
ernment, on the passing of a resolution in the House for Mr.
Letellier's dismissal. Lord Lome told Sir John A. Macdonald
that he could not agree with him in his policy, and Sir M. Hicks-
Beach, in a despatch from London, asserted the constitutional
right of Mr. Letellier to dismiss his Ministers, and pointed out
that it was ihe spirit and intention of the British North Amer
ica Act that the high office of the Lieutenant-Governor of a
Province should, as a rule, endure for the term of years specifi
cally mentioned, and that the power of removal should never
be exercised except for grave cause.
Sir John A. Macdonald had been requested by Lord Lome
to put his reasons in writing, ihe Governor-General undertak
ing to reply to them in the same way. Whether Sir John did
so or not, there was nothing to show. But a message was sub
sequently brought down to ihe House which was of a very
serious character, for it led members on both sides to come to
the conclusion that His Excellency had not only refused ihe
advice of his Ministers, but contrary to their advice had de
termined to remit the matter to England, causing Mr. Ouimet,

GOVERNOR LETELLIER'S COUP D'ETAT. 489
Mr. Mousseau and other prominent Government supporters, to
denounce His Excellency in strong terms as violating the lib
erties of the people, as trampling upon responsible govern
ment, and as setting at defiance the principles under which we
are governed. All this denunciation of His Excellency by
Government supporters was listened io by Sir John A. Macdon
ald and his colleagues, without a word to shew that the refer
ence io England was not, as in truth it was not, made at His
Excellency's suggestion, but upon the suggestion of the Gov
ernment themselves. Even four days afterwards, when it was
pointed out by Sir John that the fact of the Government con
tinuing to retain their offices, shewed that they held them
selves responsible for the Governor-General's action, the im
pression was suffered still to remain that this was a generous
act on their part in order to shield His Excellency from blame.
The whole thing was an entire deception. The Government
had advised ihe reference, and had left His Excellency to bear
the odium.
Mr. Mackenzie's motion to place the responsibility upon the
proper shoulders by recording the true facts upon the journals
of the House, and by asserting it as the opinion of the House
that the submission for review to England of advice given by
the Privy Council here in a matter which was purely of an
administrative character, was subversive of the principles of
responsible government, was rejected on a division by a vote
of 119 to 49.
The views held by Sir Francis Hincks on the constitutional
aspect of the question we find set forth by him in a letter to
Mr. Mackenzie of ihe 24th of July, 1879 :
" I have had reason to think for some days that the decapitation of
Mr. Letellier was agreed to, but there has been a fight as to the suc
cessor — Robitaille has triumphed. I imagine that he had Sir John's pro-

490 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
mise at the time of the formation of the Government, and I am inclined
to think that the last visit of his to Ottawa was to endeavor to get him to
give way, and that he refused. It may be that  was the rival
candidate. It was certainly some one of British origin. I had hoped
that Lord Lome would have insisted on carrying out the spirit of the
understanding arrived at and communicated to Parliament, which was
that the Government had admitted that the question was a new one, and
that there being no precedent, it was expedient to ask advice. This
would have justified His Excellency in claiming that both parties should
seek the advice of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which
might have been obtained on the case, as presented by the complauit of
the ex-Ministers, for having been dismissed, the reply, rejoinder, and
surrejoinder : Was there a cause made out for dismissal within the mean
ing of the British North America Act ? I do not see how this could have
been refused, especially as the Governor-General was master of the posi
tion after the elections. I had a postal card from Mr. Gladstone to the
following effect : ' I agree with you in your main proposition, and think
it plainly desirable that the controversy should be disposed of not as a
political, but as a judicial issue.' "
A disposition having been at last made of poor Mr. Letel
lier, who did not long survive the malignity of his pursuers,
we turn for a brief moment to a more pleasant incident —
about the only one that occurred in the turbulent session of
1878. In the midst of ihe jarring, warring elements in the
House, there was a truce. It was called on ihe 11th of April,
on the occasion of a motion by the First Minister for an ad
dress to His Excellency the Governor-General, expressing ihe
deep feeling of regret of the people of Canada at his ap
proaching departure from the country, and assuring him of
the high appreciation entertained of ihe service done to the
Dominion by his visits to each of the Provinces and ihe Terri
tories, as well as by his able and eloquent speeches, and of the
marked degree in which literature and art and the industrial
pursuits had received encouragement from his efforts and lib-

GOVERNOR LETELLIER'S COUP D'ETAT. 491
erality ; and further, " assuring His Excellency and his distin
guished consort thai they would bear with them on leaving us
our warmest wishes for their future welfare and happiness ;
that we rejoice in the conviction that, though Canai^a may no
longer possess the advantage of His Excellency's experience
and knowledge of public affairs in so exclusive a degree as she
has enjoyed them in the past, she will continue to have in His
Excellency a friend and advocate ; and that it is our heartfelt
wish that, for many years, the Empire at large may have the
benefit of His Excellency's ripe wisdom, experience, and emin
ent abilities."
Mr. Mackenzie moved the resolution In graceful lan^age,
and it was seconded in a fitting speech by Sir John A. Mac
donald, and supported by Mr. Laurier and Mr. Langevin. An
address founded on the resolution was cordially adopted,
the country parting with sincere regret with ihe ablest and
most generous and hospitable of Viceroys, and his highly ac
complished and popular consort Lord and Lady Dufferin will
always be regarded by people of all ranks in Canada with a
feeling of affection.
On the day following the passing of ihe address. His Excel
lency thus wrote his First Minister to thank him for his
speech : " Government House,
"Ottawa, April 12, 1878.
" My Dbab Mackenzie, —I cannot help writing you a line to e:^res3
my very great sense of your kindness and courtesy in proposing the ad
dress to me in the House of Commons yesterday, in such handsome terms.
It is indeed gratifying to my feelings to leave Canada under such agree
able auspices, and the address will be a source of pride, not only to my
self, but to my descendants.
" 1 was particularly touched at the pleasant way in which you alluded
to our personal relations. For my own part, I can say that I have
derived nothing but unalloyed pleasure from them. The better I have

492 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
become acquainted with you, the more I have learned to respect and
honor the straightforward integrity of your character, and the unmistak
able desire to do your duty faithfully by the Queen, the Empire and the
Dominion. " Yours faithfully, " DUEFEBIN."
The Governor-General took leave of the two Houses in his
speech proroguing Parliament, in the following words :
" Nothing could have given me more gratification than the joint address
with which you have honored me on the eve of my departure.
"My interest in Canada shall not cease when my mission as Her
Majesty's Viceroy shall have terminated, and I am glad to know that you
have taken so favorable a view of my efforts to fittingly represent our
most gracious Queen in this the most important of Her Majesty's colonial
possessions. '
" I now bid you farewell, and earnestly trust that you may find in the
future the manifold blessings which I shall ever pray may continue to be
showered upon you.''
Towards the close of the session, on the question for going
into Committee of Supply, the Premier took occasion, for the
information of the House, to give a very interesting resume of
the policy and action of the Government in respect of the
Canadian Pacific Railway. The onerous obligation to con
struct the road was incurred in 1871 ; the work to be completed
in 1881. But, at the time his own Government took power, two
years and a half had elapsed without a mile of the line being
located. The plan of his Government was to complete the
surveys as rapidly as possible and construct initial portions of
the railway so as to gain access to the prairie region. He gave
an idea of the magnitude of ihe work of surveying, when he
said that already the various parties sent out for that purpose
had traversed 47,000 miles of route, under circumstances of the
greatest difficulty and danger, involving the loss of about forty

GOVERNOR LETELLIER'S COUP D'ETAT. 493
men. Some were surrounded by forest fires and burnt io
death, others lost their lives in endeavoring to cross dangerous
rivers and In descending the tumultuous rapids to the Fraser
and other rivers but little known. In addition to the actual
travelling of forty-seven thousand miles of routes in search of
the best way whereon to build the railway, there were actual
instrumental surveys, laboriously measured, yard by yard, of
not less than twelve thousand miles, or very nearly five times
the length of the road when completed, from Lake Nipissing
to the Pacific Ocean. In these surveys, to June 1st, 1877, the
large sum of $3,411,895 was expended, or at the rate of $1,300
per mile of road from Lake Nipissing to the seaboard.
In the year 1877, there was a great deal of lawlessness in
the city of Montreal, resulting mainly from sectarian feelings,
and on the 12th of July, blood was shed. Mr. Blake, with
a view to checking such crimes of violence, introduced a bill
(May Ist, 1878), which was to be operative for a year, and
which the Government adopted, at his request, as a measure of
their own, rendering it unlawful, on proclamation applicable
to any particular district, for any person, not being an officer
of the peace, or a soldier or a sailor in Her Majesty's service,
to have therein, elsewhere than in his own dwelling-house,
dangerous and deadly weapons, particularly the smaller de
scriptions of fire-arms. The wisdom of the measure was con
curred In by the entire House, and the leading members on
both sides, deploring the necessity which had called it forth,
united in their efforts to render it as perfect as possible.
Writing to his brother Charles, on the 12th of May, 1878,
Mr. Mackenzie says ;
"I got my release on Friday from the worst session I was ever in,
either as private or officer. From first to last it was a policy of deliberate
obstruction in both Houses. The Senate was simply a Tory committee.

494 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
" We were compelled to abandon half our legislation at last, and what
we did get through was ruined in the Senate. I was, at the end, for the
first time, completely used up, but I took care to let no one know it. I
do not think I could have sat another week.
"Well, it is all over. Five years of the Premiership have leen suc
cessfully accomplished under great disadvantages. For many reasons I
would be glad to stop there ; but I must try again, as there is now no
escape, though I know the election will be keenly contested."
Among the bills that the Government was compelled to
abandon was one of importance designed to facilitate the
colonization of the Dominion lands in the North-West It
was introduced by the Hon. Mr. Mills. Any number of per
sons might form themselves into an association for the pur
pose of constructing railways between designated points,
under agreements, and, subject io ihe approval of Parliament,
receive public lands, or aid from the proceeds of the sale of
lands lying alongside the line of railway, not exceeding in
amount ihe sum of $10,000. There were many clauses for
the protection of the public interest The bill was read the
second time on the 28th of March, but was withdrawn during
the closing days of the session.
Parliament was prorogued on ihe 10th of May. Next day,
Mr. Mackenzie wrote about " ihe frightful scene," io which we
have already made reference, that marked ihe close of the
session. Having gone io ihe Senate to receive the Governor-
General, he did not witness it, bui ihe leaders of the Oppo
sition had been represented io him as " pictures of demoniac
humanity." It was in this spirit of party hostility that members left
Ottawa to enter upon the elections.

CHAPTER XXXIL

DEFEAT OP THE GOVERNMENT.
Royalty in Canada — Apprehensions Unfounded — Preparations for the Con
test — Mistake in the Time Selected — Should have been June— The
Physical Strain— What the Government had to Fight Against — A Carnival
of Fraud and Misrepresentation— Defeat of the Government — The Protection
Humbug Illustrated. 'R. MACKENZIE was advised by a cable from
England as early as July, 1878, of the nomination
of ihe Marquis of Lome as Lord Dufferin's
successor. He confessed himself as being
surprised. He knew such a thing had been mooted,
but never looked upon the appointment as possible.
He feared very much about ihe effect So far as the intentions
of the Queen and the Imperial Government were concerned,
he was on behalf of Canada very grateful ; still more grateful
to Her Royal Highness for consenting to come here. He was,
however, very doubtful about the wisdom of the step taken.
He had no apprehension about getting along very well .
with Lord Lome, who understood the constitutional relations
he would bear to his Ministers well enough. But what
would be Her Royal Highness' relations towards the Canadian
public ? Any attempt io keep up a Royal Court in Canada
would be absurd. Any attempt of the Governor-General's
Royal Consort io form a limited exclusive circle, mostly com
posed of English attaches, would be unpopular. On the other
495

496 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
hand, no doubt Her Majesty would expect to see maintained
by her daughter a kind of Court in Canada, which, as a
Canadian, he knew would be impossible.
The reading of Theodore Martin's Life (the Queen's Life) of
the Prince Consort, had given Mr. Mackenzie an uneasy
impression concerning the tendency of the Royal family to
manage their own and State affairs, instead of leaving this to
Ministers. Any attempt of that kind in Canada would be, in
his opinion, unfortunate. It would speedily undo all that he,
with many others of all shades of political opinion, had been
doing for years to rivet and secure our position as a portion of
the Empire. He would never, on any consideration, have per
mitted the surveillance of a Baron Stockmar. Nothing was
more astonishing in recent history than the fact that proud,
independent English Ministers submitted so long or at all, to the
intolerable supervision of great State affairs by this pretentious,
stuffy German doctor, except the fact that it did not occasion
more indignation in England when it became known. Lord
and Lady Dufferin managed to maintain the dignity of their
position, and at the same time were the most accessible of all
rulers. Her Royal Highness, he feared, would find it extremely
difficult to do this. Of course, every reasonable person would
understand that it was by no means au easy task for her to
to be a Royal Princess, after the manner of England, while
acting the part of the consort of the Governor-General of
Canada, and would be ready to make every allowance for
her position. At the same time, he feared that the great
personages concerned had not fully considered the difficulties
of the situation. The die was, however, cast, and we had to
make the best of it He would himself use every possible
effort to make it a success, with the sincere hope that it mio-ht
be found to be so. If Lord Lome and the Princess understood

DEFEAT OF THE GOVERNMENT. 497
the difficulties, they would be the more easily surmounted.
The political possibilities would have to be dealt with as they
arose. The House of Argyle was well trained in constitutional
usage, and he had great faith in Lord Lome's undoubted good
sense. Everybody in Canada received the appointment as a
marked compliment to the Dominion, and as specially indicat
ing the great personal interest taken by Her Majesty in this
country. In October of 1878, Mr. Mackenzie wrote io a friend in
Scotland :
" There is a fear in Canada that there may be an attempt at playing Court
here when the Princess arrives. I think, however, the Queen's daughter has
more good sense than to do this. We have no landed aristocracy in Canada,
and never will have. Titles do not suit our people. I made recommendations
for only two knighthoods while I was in office — to Sir A. A. Dorion and to
Sir William B. Bichards, aud they are both distinguished judges of the Superior
Courts. I refused a, title in my own case, and this made it easier for me to
decline overtures in the case of other people. Canada will receive the Princess
well, without doubt, but any attempt to put on the ceremonial of State usual
to Royalty in Britain would be a failure here."
Mr. Alackenzie's appreheneions were happily groundless.
The good sense he had attributed to Lord Lome was justly
merited, and was shared in by the Princess Louise. The
Governor-General and his Royal Consort understood ihe
Canadian situation. There was less of ceremonial and State
display during their regime than under that of Lord and Lady
Dufferin. It is singular that while Mr Mackenzie, who held
these views, was at the head of the Administration, there was
a much greater degree of social brilliancy in Ottawa than ever
dazzled the eyes and depleted ihe pockets of Canadians
either before or since that period.
The summer of 1878 was not only metaphorically but liter
ally a season of heat and dust. Mr. Mackenzie's own desire
FF

498 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
for the elections in June was not carried into effect It had
been decided that they should be postponed until after harvest
and there were many months of hard work to be faced. The
statements made after the defeat that the Premier had not
informed himself of the vigilance of the enemy are not borne
out by facts. His correspondence for over a year prior to the
event is indicative of a perfect knowledge on his part that he
had .to face an active opposition, and he made preparations
accordingly. There is, however, no sign anywhere that he
apprehended defeat, and no signals of alarm appear to have
been either given or received. It is quite true that he had not
anticipated the result, but the defeat was caused by the unex
pected and unlooked-for conversion of the country to protection.
So early as October of 1877, he wrote many letters to
various friends, urging the forwarding of arrangements and
preparations for the fight On the 2nd of February, 1878, he
wrote the Reform Association in Toronto to say that he could
not attend their annual meeting on the 5th of that month, as
Parliament was summoned io meet on the 7th, but he was
impressed with the conviction that active measures should be
at once taken to effectually organise the respective constituen
cies. He went on to say :
"We must not forget that we have unscrupulous foes in the Opposition
leaders and in the Opposition press. It seems almost impossible to stem the
current of falsehood and misrepresentation wiih which the country is flooded,
and the object of which is but too apparent. It is to endeavor by any and
every means to poison the minds of the people— with the knowledge that the
whole of them cannot be reached with the ample refutations that we have at
hand. As Liberals we cannot resort to such dishonorable tactics, but we can
adopt effective measures, if our friends are active enough, to counteract, by
published statements of the facts and figures, the misrepresentation of our
opponents in this regard. The late election at Ha'ifax furnished an illustra
tion of the system. It would be difficult to name a more upright, high-miuded

DEFEAT OF THE GOVERNMENT. 499
man than Mr. Jones, the new Minister of Militia. It would be equally difficult
to suppose anything more gross than the accusations that were brought against
him to do duty at that election.
" The large majority obtained by the Liberals in 1874 represented not merely
the Liberal party proper, but many discontented Conservatives aa well, who
felt that their party chiefs had disgraced themselves and the country, and wh»
in consequence withdrew from them their allegiance. It was not therefore
surprising, when the Tories concluded to re-elect the hero of the Pacific Scandal
as their leader, and resolved to forget the past, that Liberals should lose some
constituencies. At the same time, the great majority possessed by the Gov
ernment in the House of Commons gave a sense of strength and security to the
party generally, which caused it to relax the efforts which might otherwise have
been put forth at some of the special elections.
' ' Many of the difficulties which the Reform Administration have encountered
since their advent to power have been in consequence of the acts of the late
Government in imposing weighty obligations upon the Dominion. The expen
diture upon great works has been objected to by our opponents ; but the
present Goveniment have not initiated a single public work involving heavy
capital charges, while they have greatly limited some of the schemes of the
late Administration.
"The expenditure on the Pacific Railway has of course been caused wholly
by the obligations entered into by the late Administration, aud considerable
as these expenditures have been, the Government have failed to satisfy the
people of British Columbia. The early construction of the works on that part
of the Pacific Railway lying between Lake Superior and the prairie region was
undertaken with a view to open up the vast fertile belt for immediate settle
ment, aud thus to extend the trade of the Dominion and so facilitate the
construction of the western portion of the line.
" Although the population has largely increased within the last four years,
tke expenditure has been materially reduced when the sums required for pay
ment of interest, the extinguishment of the Indian titles, and the outlay of the
Government in the North-West and Prince Edward Island are deducted. But
details on this point are furnished so copiously by the Finance Minister in hia
speeches, that it is needless to do more than to thus briefly refer to the fact.
" I have further to urge upon the members of the Association the necessity
of looking closely after the voters' lists of this year, in order to prevent frauds
in the introduction of names whioh have no right to be recorded, and the
omission of names which by right should be on those lists. This is i eally one
of the principal points of the battle to be closely attended to.

500 LIFE OF TIIE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
" The wicked attempts whioh have been made in various quarters to start
religious strife and disunion, particularly in the Province of Quebec, have, I
am glad to say, entirely failed. It is the duty of Reformers, while giving fair
play to all, to frown down attempts to introduce religious strife in political
contests. It has always been our policy to secure entire equality to all classes
of Her Majesty's subjects, and if they now enjoy the rights which are inherently
theirs, it is because of the zealous efforts of the Liberal party in their behalf.''
A serious mistake was made regarding the time for holding
the elections. The Liberals generally throughout the
Dominion, with the exception of some in the Province of
Quebec, were in favor of bringing on the contest in ihe early
summer, and Mr. Mackenzie himself shared that view. But
in response to pleadings from Quebec supporters, it was post
poned until the l7th of September. The day after Parliament
rose, early in May, Mr. Mackenzie wrote to a friend that several
telegrams had already come in from members since they had
reached home, urging an immediate election ; thai his own
opinion was in the same direction, and that the Government
were having the printing done, so as to be ready. On the I7th
of May he wrote his brother Charles : " Opinions are most con
flicting about the time for holding the elections. I am very
anxious for June, but I find several counties (10) in Quebec
cannot be ready, and many are in a bad position in Ontario.
I am wholly in favor of Immediate action, but we cannot
afford to risk so much, and therefore I fear we must make up
our minds to a three months' campaign of speaking. But for
ihe cowardice implied, I declare I would sooner forego the
position than undertake this task."
Mr. Mackenzie's own opinion, favorable io an early flection,
was shared in by men of sound judgment. Mr. Holton wrote
him on 3rd of June, after the decision for September had been
reached : " I have no desire to re-open or re-argue the closed
question between an early and a late election. I am willing to

DEFEAT OF THE COVERS MENT. 501
hope, though I cannot believe, that the decision arrived at is
the soundest in the interest of the party. But in vindication
of my own opinion, and for your information, I may state that
our friends whom I saw recently at Kingston and Belleville,
and at the latter place I met a great many, were, without a
solitary exception, in favor of an early election."
This, also on the same subject, is from Mr. Mackenzie's pen :
" Not only is Holton urgent for an early election, but Cart
wright, Smith, Burpee, Mills, Jones, Scott, Laurier and Hunt
ington are very strong in ihe same direction. So also are
McGregor, W. Ross, G. W. Ross, Wood, Biggar, Galbraith,
Archibald, Casey, Walker, Scatcherd, Trow, Metcalfe, Ber
tram, Irving, Landerkin, Colin Macdougall, Brouse, Paterson,
Fleming, Bowman, Brown, of Hastings, John Macdonald, and
many more. It is urged that delay will give the Tories
another start in lie-makincr."
In deference, as already stated, to the unreadiness of friends
in Quebec, the elections were postponed. Bat almost the last
words the writers of this biography heard from Mr. Macken
zie's lips, when they were with him on his seventieth birthday,
a few weeks before he died, were these : " I made a mistake,
I should have dissolved in June."
Mr. Mackenzie was physically unable to bear the strain of
ihe contest. He had jusi passed through a severe session, and
he felt the effects in bodily weakness and loss of sleep. Lust
of power was occasionally attributed to him. But proofs mul
tiply to the contrary. This is from a letter to Mrs. Mackenzie :
" Do not believe the Tory papers when they describe me as eaten up with
ambition. I think I know myself, and I can honestly say that my only am
bition is to succeed in governing the country well and without reproach. Be
yond that, my desires are of a very humble kind. But I think I have am
bition enough to be aroused to fight in, I hope, a manly way, the base scribes
who would for political gain write away a man's good name and character.

502 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
" Regarding the slanders by which I am assailed, I may say I met a minis
ter on the steamer the other day. We had some conversation, and as he was
lea^^ng he said to me : 'I trust, Mr. Mackenzie, you will not allow yourself to
falter in your work through detraction. You do not know, as I do, how many
of God's children priy for you and sympathise with you. You have the
great heart of the country with you. Only be strong in the Lord. ' He con
tinued : ' I am not using my own words, but those I have often heard from
others, and I only repeat them now because I have the same feelings, but did
not write to you, as it might seem presumptuous in me, who am so much
younger, to do so. ' I was greatly touched with the remarks, as I might some
times have referred a little slightingly to the speaker. How often we do an
injustice unwittingly to some one, and how rare a thing is pure minded charity
in estimating each others' excellences or defects."
This Is from another letter of a different date : " 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 I mention this to illus
trate and substantiate what I now say."
Another term at this time was believed to be certain, but
Mr. Mackenzie thought it dear at the cost of a campaign. The
fear of the charge of cowardice alone kept him to the task.
The Premier was unable to take the field in person until
some time after the House had risen. He ought to
have had immediate rest from the labors of ihe session, to
recuperate his energies. Instead, there was a period of severe
departmental work before him. The other Ministers were
attending to their constituencies, and the duties of admin
istration pressed upon the First Minister to a very trying
degree. " I must have a little rest or break down," he wrote in
June. " I must go to some place at the sea.side where I cannot

DEFEAT OF TIIE GOVERNMENT. 503
be found out. I shall leave this evening for Rimouski, and
shall cross over io Mr. Gilmour's summer residence for a week.
There I will have neither mails nor telegrams."
He came back much the better for his holiday, the contrast in
the temperature down the Gulf of St Lawrence and in Ottawa
being marked. On the 2nd of July he tells what the temper
ature was in Ottawa. " We are having a regular heated term.
Glass over 90 now for five days. When I was at Gilmour's
river the temperature w;as 53 ashore and 40 in the sea." The
heat continued. Seven days later he says: "The weather is
still very hot here. I have cast off all dignity, and work all
day long in my shirt sleeves. But I hope the Tory papers
won't hear of conduct in every way so shocking." One can
further judge of his environments by the following, written
about the same time : '¦ There is great room for the exercise of
charity and meekness in this department at present. The
stock on hand is not large, but I hope it will hold out until
about the 15th of September proximo" — the date of polling
not having at that period been definitely fixed.
During the election Mr. Mackenzie's own department was
made the subject of constant attack, and his friends knew that
no one could defend it like himself. The Conservative leaders
were holding meetings in almost %wery county, and timid
Liberals became alarmed at the probable effects. As a con
sequence, great drafts were made upon Mr. Mackenzie's time
and energies. Speeches were requested at large meetings, in
the open air, drill sheds and skating rinks. The strain upon
nerve and muscle was tremendous, and the wonder is, not that
he broke down ultimately, but that he did not break down
many years earlier.
To the Liberal candidates and the party, the summer cam
paign was very depressing. Business was dull ; prices were

504 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
low ; the harvest was poor, and the financial outlook, generally,
was discouraging. " The whole head was sick, and the whole
heart was faint," and the electors were prepared for any
change that promised them relief from their present embar
rassments. If promises were of value, they must have been
reassured, for everything from tall chimneys io a reciprocity
treaty with the United States was said io be within their reach
if they would but defeat Mr. Mackenzie's Government.
Then, it is to be feared, the Liberal candidates trusted more to
their platform speeches than to a personal canvass of the
electors. The sophistry that fails in a public debate is often
successful with ihe farmer at his own fireside. The assurance
of an advance in the price of barley or in ihe products of the
dairy or the poultry yard may be believed when fortified by
statements unchallenged by the other side, and no doubt many
victories are won bj' individual appeals made in this way.
Captain Bobadit was always willing to undertake the defeat
of the greatest army, if he were required to fight only one man
at a time.
Notwithstanding the discouraging circumstances, his delicate
health, the vastness of the field and the intense bitterness of
the contest, Mr. Mackenzie entered upon the campaign with
spirit No amount of labor daunted him. If two meetings a
day were, in the opinion of his friends, necessary, he held two
meetings. If, io keep an appointment, he had to travel all
night, he did so, and with his usual clearness of statement and
force of speech satisfied his friends as to the wisdom of his
Administration. But what did argument avail in the face of
avarice and prospective combines and monopolies ? The
pettiest manufacturer in the land was vain enough io believe
that if he only had the home market for the sale of his goods,
his future welfare was assured. Why should he trouble him-

The Mackenzie Tower— Western Block, Ottawa.

DEFEAT OF THE GOVERNMENT. 507
self about responsible government and the independence of
Parliament and purity of elections, if there was money to be
made by voting the other way ?
The larger manufacturer saw in a high tariff the oppor
tunity for a combine which would shut off the little trader
aforementioned, whose vote he was obtaining under false
pretences, and which would enable him to rank with the
proprietors of iron works, sugar refineries, and cotton factories
in the United States. That there were millions in it, provided
he was on the ground floor, there was no doubt He was
therefore anxious to know what to do to help on the good
cause, and so he went about preaching: "Lei there be no
slaughter market in this country for American goods. Canada
for the Canadians."
The agriculturist was also unsettled in his mind. He had
voted on the old homestead on which his father and grand
father for fifty years had voted as Liberals. He believed the
Liberal party was honest and worthy of confidence ; still there
was something, he thought. In this new doctrine. Americans
taxed the produce of his farm if exported to their markets.
There was no tax on the products of the American farm while
crossing the border to ihe Canadian markets. Was this fair ?
he asked. If they tax us, should we not tax them ? If they
keep us out of their markets, should we not keep them out of
ours ? The Tory candidates ' said : " Certainly ; keep them
out by all means. If you only had your own markets, prices
would be better, and a few cents a bushel for your grain,
or a few dollars per head for your cattle would not come
amiss at any time, particularly in such depressing times as
the present" And so, forgetting that he was selling his birth
right for a mess of pGttage, which he never got, he too voted
for protection.

508 LIFE OF TIIE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
The election of 1878 was a carnival of fraud and misrepre
sentation. Every industry in the country was to be benefited
by a protection which could only be substantial by reducing
the profits of some other industry ; yei thousands of electors <
went to the polls believing that the votes they were about, to
give were as good as a handsome dividend, payable so soon
as the Conservative party came into power.
Speaking broadly, as we have said, there waS a contrast in
the manner in which the two parties carried on ihe campaign.
The Liberals trusted too much io ihe educative infiuences of
public speaking, while the Conservatives were quietly and
persuasively working upon the cupidity of the various in
terests. A reference to a speech delivered by Mr. Mackenzie at a
meeting in Glengarry, in the latter part of August, enables
one to see the general line of the Liberal argument. He
describes the promulgation of protectionist principles by the
Tory party in Canada, as a return to barbarism. What that
policy really meant he illustrates by a citation from Sir John
A. Macdonald at Hamilton, where he was bidding for the vote
of the manufacturers. When asked by a manufacturer what
protection he was prepared to give, he said : " I cannot tell
what protection you require, but let each manufacturer tell
us what he wants, and we will try to give him what he
needs." Mr. Mackenzie pointed out that while Sir John
was making these shameless bids by an avowal of ultra-
protectionism in the west, he was deceiving the people in the
Maritime Provinces, to whom even a mild form of protection
was repugnant, by declaring that what was contemplated was
not an increase but merely a readjustment of the tarifl'.
"Now," said the Premier to the Glengarry men, " Protection
must make you pay more for the goods you use than you pay

DEFEAT OF THE GOVERNMENT. 509
now, or else it is no protection. Protection to manufacturers
— protection to ihe ' struggling industries ' — is protection
against the laboring man and the farmer, the great producing
men of the country." He went on io say that he did not
mean to make war on the manufacturing classes. The tariff
was for the purpose of raising a revenue. Manufacturers got
some benefit incidentally from that, wiih which they ought
to be satisfied ; if they were not, and insisted on protection
for protection sake, they would get large dividends first, and
ruin afterwards.
The nominations took place on Tuesday, the 10th of Septem
ber, in all ihe Provinces, with the exception of Manitoba and
a few outlying constituencies elsewhere. Six candidates were
elected by acclamation, four of whom were supporters of the
Government, and two in Opposition, so that there was still no
forewarning to the Liberals of the disastrous defeat of the week
following. Writing, however, to his secretary two or three days before
the election, Mr. Mackenzie mentioned, as a somewhat ominous
sign, the fact that a Tory ofiicial of some little prominence had
been heard to speak in abusive language of the Government,
from which Mr. Mackenzie drew this inference : '' It is clear he
thinks we will be beaten." He adds : " I find the Tories every
where confident. Why, I cannot understand ; my meetings are
everywhere successful — could hardly be more sa"
As there is a natural curiosity in the case of great battles to
know something of the surroundings of the generals, we may
say further on this head that Mr. Mackenzie addressed a public
meeting on the 16 th of September in the West, and on the day
of the polling, the work having now been done, he travelled by
train from Toronto to Ottawa, reaching his home in the evening.
The first return was of good omen to the Liberals, for it brought

510 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
the news of Sir John A. Macdonald's defeat in Kingston at the
hands of Mr. Gunn. Presently, however, a change came over
the spirit of the dream, telegrams coming in from all the other
cities declaring the election of Tory candidates. Protection,
it was seen, had too surely done its work in the manufacturing
centres, but there was hope yet for the counties. The people
in ihe urban constituencies had been fooled ; the farmers,
never ! A few hours suiiiced to remove this further delusion.
The spread of the contagion had been general, and there was
disaster all along the lines. To adequately depict the scene, it
is necessary again to quote the well-known words of Lord
Beaconsfield In a speech which described au equally sudden
and unexpected breakdown of the Liberal party in England ;
only a single word being changed : " It was like a convulsion
of nature rather than any ordinary transaction of human
life. I can only liken it to one of those earthquakes which
take place in Calabria or Peru. There was a rambling mur
mur, a groan, a shriek, a sound of distant thunder. There
was a rent, a fissure in the ground, and then a village disap
peared ; then a tall tower toppled down ; and the whole
of the Ministerial benches became one great dissolving view of
anarchy." The " old flag " waved triumphantly at the head of the
columns of the Conservative journals of the 18th of September,
though there was a subdued tone in their references to the
defeat of the Conservative chieftain and his lieutenants, Messrs.
Langevin, T. N. Gibbs, Mitchell and Plumb. But against
these the Tories could point to the downfall of three Ministers-
Mr. Cartwright, in Lennox, Mr. Jones, in Halifax, and Mr.
Coffin, in Shelburne, while Mr. Blake had lost his seat in
South Bruce, and Mr. Mackenzie had come back from Lumb-

DEFEAT OF THE GOVERNMENT.

51J

ton by the reduced majority of 146. The list of the fallen wa&
paraded thus :

Blake,

Blain,

Young,

Barthe,

Caktwright,

Devlin,

Dymond,

Appleby,

Jones,

CorriN,

Goudge,

Forbes,

Wood,

Church,

Irving,

Cook.

Bertram,

Macdonald,

Jno.

In Hamilton, which was called " the cradle of the national
policy,'' a Reform majority of over four hundred was converted
into a Conservative majority at this election of 246 ; while East
Toronto was carried by the Conservatives by 700 ; Centre
Toronto, by 490 ; and West Toronto, by 639 ; or an aggregate
majority of nearly 2,000. Montreal excelled it by an aggregate
vote of over 3,000. Of the other cities, the Conservatives
carried both seats in Halifax, both seats in Ottawa, and
London and St John. The Liberals came back from the
election of 1874 with a majority of about two to one ; the
Conservatives at this election did somewhat better even than
that The chief Conservative organ bore testimony to the admir
able spirit in which the Liberals received the verdict In its-
issue of the 19th of September, it said : " The Ministerialists,
as they may still in courtesy be termed, have, on the whole,
received an unexpected and overwhelming defeat with calmness
and philosophical resignation." It went on to remark : " The
national policy, as we have often said, was long since adopted
as the economical creed of the people. Whether ' a handful of
manufacturers ' ought or ought not to grow wealthy under it,
was a matter of infinitesimal 'concern to them ; all the people
demanded was fair and equal play with their neighbors in the
struggle for existence."
It had previously to the elections declared it to be " a policy

512 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
which would infuse vicjor and robust health into this young
nationality." " Friends of the National Policy " ! it exclijiined
in Napoleonic fashion, " to you we appeal to stamp out the
starvationists, and bring back a rich prosperity to Toronto and
ihe Dominion at large." Read in the cold, clear, relentless
light of history, how fiat, stale, and unprofitable words like
these appear.
The Globe rejoiced in the fact that " poetic justice " had been
done by the defeat of Dr. Orton, the inventor of the most
gigantic of all humbugs, which he designated by the name of
agricultural protection. "The causes," it said, "that contri
buted to the startling change of public sentiment are not
diflBcult to discover. The commercial depression still existing
on the North American continent, and ihe restless desire for
some undefined change that would bring about better times,
had no doubt very much to do with it The seductive delu
sion held out to the weaker sort of acquiring wealth quickly
by shutting out foreign commodities and increasing largely the
consumption and price of home mannfactures, di-ew many
victims after it And the thorough party organization of the
Tory party for propagating their sentiments and bringing out
their men, did the rest."
The elections over, the forthcoming Ministers set themselves
to the unlooked-for task which now lay before them of
preparation for the N.P. We find from the pen of Mr. Brown,
under date of the 1st of October, 1878, a little picture of an
interesting street scene, which was witnessed about that time
in Toronto. Mr. Brown says that a well-known Conservative,
on friendly terms with him, one who was entirely informed of
what was going on within the charmed circle, though not a
prominent Parliamentarian, came up to him with the evident
design of pumping him in regard to the time Mr. Mackenzie

DEFEAT OF THE GOVERNMENT. 513
was likely to let ihe new men Into power. Mr Brown
answered, " he presumed, almost immediately, in order that the
new Ministers might be sworn in, so as at once to prepare their
measure." " Prepare their measure ! " exclaimed the other,
" why, it will take months and months — aye, a year and more
to do it. Every interest in the country will have to be
specially consulted, and the result of the whole must be
judiciously worked up before it is submitted." " For ihe good
of the country ? " suggested Mr. Brown. " Certainly," replied
the other. They looked at each other, laughed pleasantly, and
went on their several ways. They understood each other per-
fercetly. Great, indeed had b^en the effect upon the people
of the power of humbug.

GG

CHAPTER XXXIIL

HOW HE BORE DEFEAT.
Letter to Lord Dufferin— The Governor-General's Reply — His Excellency'!
Noble Letter to Mrs. Mackenzie— Letter from the late Chief Justice Rich
ards — Mr. Mackenzie Addresses Mr. Holton — Hatred of Intrigue and
Crookedness— Would Rather go Down than Yield Principle— A Clean Re
cord—The Loss of Good and True Men— The Public Interest First and
Alvays — "Living in Another Man's House" — Nothing Left save Honor—
Self-Sacrifioe — Its Reward — Disciples of Cobden do not Temporise — Answers
to Letters of Reproach — Letter of Resignation and Defence of His Policy-
How He felt the Dismissal of His Former Secretary — Fun Ahead with the
Besom and the Stane.

iHERE Is no better test of a man's character than
the manner in which he bears defeat," wrote one
who knew him well, shortly after Mr. Macken
zie's death. "Judged by that test, the Honorable
Alexander Mackenzie stands on the top rung of the
ladder. When his hlsiorj?^ is written, its best chap
ter will begin immediately after the I7th of September, 1878."
The best chapter it really is. And fortunately for his bio
graphers, he wrote (unconsciously, of course, for this purpose),
the chapter himself, as if in anticipation and fulfilment of the
prediction. After he had recovered from the shock of the de
feat, and his grief for the loss of so many faithful friends was
somewhat assuaged, he penned his fiu-st letter. In honor and
duty, ii was to His Excellency ihe Governor-General :
"Private. "Ottawa, Sept. 19, 1878.
" Deaii Lord DurEBRiN, — The elections are mostly over, and sufficient
ly so to be conclusive as to the defeat of the Government. The proteo
514

HOW HE BORE DEFEAT. 515
tion fallacy has taken deeper root than we had thought, especially with
the farming community. I have nothing to regret in looking back at my
course. Even had I known of the tendency of the public mind I would
not for the sake of office yield up my convictions on that or any other
subject. I tried to keep Canada in line with England and in harmony
with enlightened modern though^ on commercial subjects, and I have
failed, as better men have failed before me. I will not advert to the
extraordinary and dishonest system of electioneering resorted to, nor to
the impossibility of carrying into effect the promised protection, for the
electors have accepted the one and believed in the other, and so far as I
am concerned that ends the matter.
" I shall endeavor to get my colleagues here as soon as possible to finish
up what business we have in hand, after which I propose to wait upon
Your Excellency at Quebec to tender you my resignation, I shall not
initiate any new business here, but I propose filling a few vacancies wh'ioh
occurred within the last few weeks. I propose, also, dealing with several
English despatches, whioh have been unattended to during the heat of
the election contest, and were under discussion before.
******** " I have marked this letter private, though I have referred to some
public matters, because I have given my views frankly, as I usually do,
but I will, of course, address a formal letter to Your Excellency when I
have a final interview, in which I will probably refer more fuUy to the
condition of afiairs.
" In the meantime I have to express my deep gratitude to you for your
unvarying kindness to me, and the constant anxiety you have shown to
aid me in every way in carrying on the Government. This I shall never
forget. I will only say for myself that I have endeavored to do what was
right in the interests of the Crown and the people, and I can now look
back with the pleasure which a clear conscience, political and personal,
necessarily gives. I am, dear Lord Dufierin,
"Yours very faithfully, "A. Mackenzie.
"His Excellency the Earl of Dufierin, Gov. -Gen."
He was gratified by the receipt of the following reply :

516 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
"Private.
" Quebec, Sept. 20th, 1878.
" My Dear Mackenzie,— I have received your letter of Sept. 19th,
and have only time to acknowlege it, and to thank you for it. It is like
yourself, and written entirely in the spirit in which I expected.
"Whatever my personal convictions may be upon the general policy of
your Government, it would noi;, I suppose, be proper that I should ex
press them, even in a private letter, but no consideration need preclude
me from assuring you, that in my opinion, neither in England nor in
Canada has any public servant of the Crown administered the affairs of
the nation with a stricter integrity, with a purer patriotism, with a more
indefatigable industry, or nobler aspirations than yourself, .and though
the chances of war have gone against you at the polls, you have the satis
faction of knowing that your single-minded simplicity of purpose, firm
ness, and upright conduct have won for you alike the respect and good
will of friends and foes.
" As for myself, I can only say that I shall ever retain a feeling of warm
friendship for you. Erom first to last you have treated me not only with
great kindness and consideration, but with a frankness, truthfulness, and
openness of dealing for which I am grateful. You have still before you a
long, useful, and honorable career, and I should not be surprised to hear
that in some ways you were disposed to welcome the impending change.
" Believe me, my dear Mackenzie.
" Yours sincerely, "DUFPEBnf."
This more than kind letter was written at the same time by
His Excellency to Mrs. Mackenzie : " Quebec, Sept. 20th, 1878.
" Dear Mrs. Mackenzie, — I have written to your husband, but I can
not help wishing to let you have a little line as well.
" Of course you must have been disappointed at the result of the elec
tions, but no feeling of mortification need mingle with the surprise the
result has occasioned, for there has been nothing in your husband's con
duct or character that has contributed to the defeat of his party. It has
simply been the consequence of the chances of war, and I am sure you

HOW HE BORE DEFEAT. 517
will meet the change with the same equability of temper that character
ised your accession to power.
" Though I lose Mr. Mackenzie as a Minister, I shall still have the
happiness of keeping him as a valued and honored friend, and his career
as leader of the Opposition wUl, I have no doubt, prove as useful, and in
finitely more agreeable, and less injurious to his health, than his life as a
Minister. "Ever yours sincerely, " Dufferin."
Mr. Mackenzie's next letter was to his friend, Mr. Holton.
From this some extracts are taken :"Ottawa, Sept. 21st, 1878.
" My Dear Holton, —I scarcely know how or what to write to you.
The disaster in Ontario was by me totally unexpected. CJp to the day of
polling I was quite satisfied we would hold our own. I wish now to get
your view about the future. I propose so soon as our friends can be got
together to resign my leadership and give them an opportunity of select
ing one who may be more successful.
* * * * * ** *
" Our disaster was evidently the result of some deceit, under cover of
the ballot, by prominent previous friends, but principally it was caused
by the working classes going against ua. With them there ia often a de
sire for change, aud it was dinned into their ears at this time that a
change would bring good times. I was not able to discern signs of any
serious defections while on my tour, and on Tuesday morning was as
confident of success aa ever I was.
" I am glad to see your people were not very seriously influenced by
your opponents' appeal to class feelings.
" I am, my dear Holton,
" Yours very faithfully, " A. Mackenzie."
Before rising from his desk he wrote as follows to the
friend who, after he died, on the evidence of this letter and
the knowledge he otherwise possessed of Mr. Mackenzie's

518 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
character during a period of from thirty to forty years, penned
the prediction which heads this chapter :
• Ottawa, Sept. 21st, 1878.
" My Dear Sir, — lam exceedingly grateful for your kind letter. I
have many such letters from all quarters. While I do not pretend to be
insensible to the disaster which has overtaken the party and myself, I am
delighted to know that I have the sympathy and support of so many good
men. I also feel some pride in being able to say that I know of no kind
of transaction by my Government that is indefensible. I may have made
some mistakes of a minor kind, but I did devote myself to the adminis
tration of public affairs with a desire and determination to do right, I
can therefore look with complacency on the adverse popular verdict with
a firm conviction that I have not deserved it. Some people have a theory
that a successful politician must necessarily depend on intrigue and doing
crooked things to countermine the enemy. My mind has revolted at such
proposals. I determined to rule in broad daylight or not at all, but I am
aware that there are some people in our ranks who think I might have
' schemed ' more, and who now urge me to do things while power remains,
which I do not consider right. Although I do not think this class is
numerous, I have resolved, when the members meet, to tender my resig
nation of the leadership of the Liberals , to enable them to select one who
may be more fortunate or successful. In the meantime, pray accept my
thanks for your kind words. Such letters as are piled upon my table
to-day far more than compensate me for the misfortune to. myself per
sonally. I am, my dear sir, " Yours faithfully, ,1
"A. Mackenzie "
In due course the following very appreciative letter reached
him from his warm personal friend, the late highly-honored
Chief Justice, Sir William Buell Richards :
" Hotel Campbell, 61, Avenue de Friedland,
"Paeis, 20th Sep., 1878.
"My Dear Premier,— I see by the London Times of yesterday that
the elections in Canada have been unfavorable to your Government, and

HOW HE BORE DEFEAT. 619
that it is probable that the majority against you will be about 70. I
doubt if the majority will be so great, but if that number indicates the
true result, no one will be more astonished at it than Sir John himself.
" The fact that the policy of your Government has not been sustained
by the people of the country will be a great disappointment to you, but
I think that you are sufficiently philosophical to bear this defeat with
becoming equanimity. To a man of your ardent temperament, it will be
disheartening ; but the past history of Canada shows too clearly the want
of steadiness on the part of the people in the support of their public men,
and whenever the latter are disappointed as to the political results they
must fall back on their own convictions that they have honestly endeavored
to serve their country, and that they have done something to aid its on
ward progress.
" I think you have this consolation, and though you may for a time
occupy a less prominent position than that which you have filled for the last
five years, you are not ao old but the future may be looked to as placing
you again in a position where your talents and political experience may
aid in shaping the destinies of Canada.
"I have, I think, said to you more than once that Canada requires the
services of men of ability and experience in greater numbers than she
has as yet been able to produce them, and that our public men possessing
these qualities, no matter to what political party they may be attached,
need not despair that the time and the occasion will arise when their
knowledge and ability to serve the State will command positions of
prominence and power.
"If I may be said to have any political opinions, I think you were
right as to protection, which is said to be the question on which the elec
tion turned, but I sympathise with you and several of your colleagues
more on personal than on political grounds, as men toward whom a more
intimate acquaintance has engendered feelings of respect and regard.
" It really must be a great boon to you personally to be relieved from
the tremendous pressure under which you have labored for the past five
years, and your health wiU undoubtedly be benefited by your retirement
from office.
" Often what seems to us at the time to be a great misfortune turns out
to be a great benefit, and this may be the case in reference to your posi
tion.

520 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
" With kind regards to Mrs. Mackenzie, and, whether you are Premier
or not, believe me, •' Yours sincerely, "Wm. B. Richards."
This letter Is from Mr. Mackenzie io the late Senator Hope:
" Ottawa, Sept. 23rd, 1878.
"My Dear Mr. Hope, — I am exceedingly gratified by your kind
letter to Mrs. Mackenzie and myself. The disaster to the party was
wholly unexpected by me. I do not know, however, that I could have
adopted any other course were the battle to be fought over again. I
would rather a thousand times go down with my principles than swim by
yielding any. In ordinary party movements I have no objection to
sharp tactics, but in what is the life-blood of a public man and a great
political party, I would rather die politically and literally than yield our
opinions were I assured of success.
" It may be, however, that some friends may take another view, and
although I could not change my own, I will feel bound to respect that of
others. I propose therefore as soon as the members of both Housea can
be got together to resign my poaition aa leader, and leave them free to
select another who may be more auccessf ul. I need hardly say that I will
follow with as much zeal and devotion as I led myself, as far aa it ia pos
sible for me to do ao without a violation of principle.
'* I have had a noble band sustaining me in the last Parliament, very
few of whom, eapeoially in Ontario, ever presaed me ia a wrong direc
tion, and to them all I give my warmest thanks, I have, however, been
sometimes presaed to consider personal interests in advance of the pubUo
interests. I lost several friends because I refused. At this moment I am
able to look back with much satisfaction upon all such refusals as having
been right in themselves, and right to the party also, if party govern
ment is to be maintained in its purity in Canada.
" The recent verdict has shaken my confidence in the general sound-
neaa of public opinion, and has given cause to fear that an upright ad
ministration of public affairs will not be appreciated by the maas of the
people. If political criminals and political chicanery are to be preferred
to such a course aa we pursued, the outlook is an alarming one. I can
hardly believe that this is the deliberate opinion of ihe people, and there-

HO W HE BORE DEFEA T. 521
fore incline to the conclusion that the leader must bs in their opinion in
fault. " With kind regards, yours sincerely, "A. Mackenzie.''
To the late Mayor Waller, of Ottawa :
" Ottawa, Sept. 23rd, 1878.
" My Dear Mr. Walier, — I am exceedingly pleased at the receipt of
your very kind letter, and beg to thank you very warmly for your good
wishes and kind words. I regret our defeat very much on many grounds,
but looking back I cannot see that I would have taken any other course
were it to be done over again. I would rather be defeated than retain
office by accepting or defending views which I believed adverse to the
public interests. I was convinced that I was defending the cause of the
mass of the people, but it seems they think their interests lay in believ
ing their hereditary enemiea, and I bow to their deoiaion.
" We will go out feeling that our record ia a clean one, and that none
of my friends wiQ blame me for my action to make them ashamed as a
party or as individuals.
" I am also glad to find that there is in the letters to me a general
concurrence of opinion in the wiadom of the courae pursued during the
canvasa. There might, of course, be an honest difference of opinion on
that score, but so far, I have seen none.
" I am not at all disposed to lay down my arms and ' study war no
more.' I will as soon as possible get our men into line again, and see
what our beat tactics can effect. " Yours faithfully, "A. Mackenzie."
To Mr. J. D. Edgar, Toronto : " Ottawa, Sept. 24th, 1878.
"My Dear Edgar, — It would do you little good to condole with you,
and I am sure that you and Mrs. Edgar wiU accept the situation philo
sophically as usual. Nothing has happened in my time so astonishing.
It is impossible to understand how ao wide a defection existed among
our own frienda, without our knowing it. You adviae that we should
make uo appointments. This I think we can hardly accept as aound ad
vice. Ordinary vaoanciea should be filled up. Of theae there are a
number, some of them exiating for weeka. I do think that we ought not

522 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
to make any new appointments, or create vacancies by any process, in
order to get our frienda offices. It is quite constitutional for us to do
even that, but the ground I took in 1873-4, was that I did not object,
even after the motion of no confidence was moved, to the Ministry
filling vacancies required in the public interest.
" The Oppoaition promised everything during the canvass. They will
have a fine time fulfilling the promiaea then made. We have already
men and women coming to the departments wanting work, who say
they were told there would be plenty of work if the Government
were beaten.
" la it not a woful commentary on the intelligence of the people to
have to state that the Government was defeated because it refused to
levy more taxes, and make commodities dearer 1 The Tories said, and
the people believed, that it was possible to make all classes rich by
pasaing an Act of Parliament. This is not much in advance of the super
stitions of Central Africa, yet Canadians are auppoaed to be a fairly
educated people. They will accept next Da Quincey'a essay ' On murder
as a fine art,' aa written in earneat and good faith.
" Well, we will, aa one paper says, contemplate with interest the
spectacle of a nation lifting itself by the boot straps out of the mud, and
increasing its wealth by changing its money from one pocket to the other.
We will decide in a few days what courae we will take as to time of
resigning. "Believe me, yours faithfully, "A. Mackenzie. "
To Hon. James Young, Gait : "Ottawa, Sept. 26th, 1878.
" My Dear Youno, — I suppose you have hardly got over your shock
of disappointment at your local, aa well aa the general, result of the fight.
For my own part, I never was ao much astonished at the revolution. It
is evident that the feeling for protection got a stronger hold than we sup
posed on people's minda. My own county waa no exception. I should
have had 600 on a straight party vote, and only got 146. Every Province
exoapt one went in the same way. I was not able in my long tour to de
tect any signs of defection anywhere, or any lack of enthusiasm, and I re
turned here on the day of polling satisfied that our Ontario majority
would be aa large as before. I quite counted on the leas of a few coun-

HO W HE BORE DEFEA T. 523-
ties, but considered I would gain others. We did gain four out of eleven I
counted on winning.
" All my schemes for the future are cut short. Ministerial and other
arrangements, to be gone into after elections, are all nipped. The result
is not very encouraging to Liberal leaders. We resisted a policy which'
would be deeply inj urious to the masses, and the masses have turned upon
ua and rent us. I suppose the German element was a principal element
with you, judging from the majoritiea, but the trouble elae where was really
the fact that a large proportion of the people had become desirous of a
change, believing that a change would bring prosperous times, plenty of
work, and money. New Brunswick alone amid the faithless stood faith
ful. ' Among the faithless, faithful only it. '
"I feel it ia a tremendous task to begin again the work of reorganisa
tion, and quite shrink from it, Perhapa the party will find aome one more
likely to command success.
" It is intensely discouraging to lose so many true men. McGregor,
J. L. McDougall, Blake, Snider, Landerkin, Cartwright, Norris, Wood ,
Irving, McCraney, Dymond, Smith, Metcalfe, Blain, John Macdonald,
Cook, Kerr, Biggar, Archibald, Buell, McNab, A. F. McDonald, Black
burn, L. Ross — all gone. What a splendid lot of men, in addition to those
from Waterloo. There are hardly enough left to form a skeleton battalion.
'• I am at present considering whether to move this fall or not back to
Sarnia. It is expensive to keep my house here, and yet the time is awk
ward for moving. " Yours very sincerely, " A. Mackunzie."
Sir Richard Cartwright, who was defeated in Lennox, It
may here be mentioned, was elected for Centre Huron, Mr.
Horace Horton generously vacating ihe seat for him, and Mr.
Blake, who was defeated iu South Bruce during his absence
in Europe at the time of the elections, was elected for West
Durham on the l7th of November, 1879, on the resigucition
of Mr. Burk.
To a Cornwall friend Mr. Mackenzie wrote : " I have been
beaten, but lei us retire in good order, and able to defy our
opponents to point to a single wrong action."

524 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
To another friend, who urged him to meet Parliament, he
gave as a weighty reason why he should not act upon this
advice, that not only did he consider himself bound in honor
to follow the English precedents (which, however. Lord Salis
bury lately disregarded), but thai it was his duty as a faithful
public servant to act in the true interest of the country :
" You will remember that both of the great political parties in Eng
land, in the crises of 1867 and 1874, set an example which I think I am
bound to follow. Though the recommendation you make ia perfectly
constitutional, yet on other grounds I think it is not tenable. I have
also to remember that very serious financial complications would result
in that case. We have no less then twelve millions of dollars of obliga
tions falling due ou the 1st January, and aa we could not possibly pro
vide for these in any way but in negotiating a new loan, it is essential
that this should be in the hands of the incoming Ministers. My object
in the first place is to do what is dignified and right, and in the second
place to take no course which will throw blame on the Liberal party,
which I ara bound to maintain in a proper attitude, at all hazards."
To a distinguished Judge, since deceased, he wrote:
" The result of the elections I do not, at all on personal grounds, regret .
however I may feel regarding it on political grounda. as the strain of the
work for the last five years was something more than I could very long
continue, and I look forward in a short time to obtaining a good rest.
The experience of the campaign assured me that I had trifled with my
physical strength quite too long, and I got over my labor in connection
with the elections with the very greatest difficulty. Now that it is over,
I am glad I am able to go out on terms of continuous personal friend
ship, if not of political sympathy, with many gentlemen who, like your
self, have not in recent years taken a part iu public affairs "
To another correspondent he wrote that were the Govern
ment to meet in November it would lead to great public in
convenience in another important respect. There would, of
course, be ai once a resignation. A new Ministry would be

HO W HE BORE DEFEA T. 525
formed. ' Ministers would require to go to their constituents.
Parliament would not again be summoned until after the new
year, and ihe interests of the Dominion, which must be con
sidered before any individual interest, would suflFer. He
added : " I want as soon as I am out to get rest for a time.
The campaign affected me physically more than I expected ; I
am as thin as a slate." Another sentence might be pondered
over with possible advantage by a so-called representative in
the Commons for a constituency which he knows to be not his
own : " I have, too, ihe uncomfortable feeling that I am living
in another man's house."
This is to a Judge who has since retired :
" In a few days I shall be again a private citizen, but though I will not
continue to have the direction of public affairs, so long aa I live it will be
a pleasure to know that I have had and will retain the good will and
moral support of such men as yourself and the Chief Justice."
Extracts follow from other letters :
"lam still writing at my old desk, but expect daily, I should say
hourly, to hear the footsteps of the new tenants of these buildings."
" We must not be downhearted. I will be blamed in some quarters.
You and the committee will also be blamed. Never mind that. We
have the interests of the Liberals in our hands, and must attend to them.
Pray lose no time in getting the committee together. I will be up
shortly." " I assure you I shall never forget your devotion to our party inter
ests, nor your confidence in myself as its leader during the past five years.
I was not anxious to undertake the leadership, and only consented after
Mr. Dorion, Mr. Blake and Mr. Holton declined. I am now and alwaya
have been more willing to follow than to lead."
Resolved to " go out clean : "
" We have not superannuated one man," he wrote to a member he at
onetime contemplated inviting to join his Ministry, " except where it

-526 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
was urgently sought, and ample reasons were given — and theae caaes were
three in all, I think.
"As the election went against ua, I could not do in the matter you
mentiou as I intended. It would be creating a new office, and this would
be contrary to our own avowal of principle and our convictions. My
doctrine was that I was bound as the trustee and guardian of the Liberal
party to do nothing that could be held up as a reproach against us ; in
short, to go out clean. It was not only right in itself, but it leaves the
Liberals right, and their interests must take precedence of favor to in
dividuals. "I am now awaiting the arrival of the future occupants. I feel, of
course, greatly disappointed. We had got the worst over, and could look
forward with hope ; but I will have what I longed for, but saw no pros
pect of obtaining in office, some rest.
" I am deeply indebted to you for your constant and zealous efforts to
help me, and I regret much that I have no means of manifesting my feel-
.ings save by empty thanks."
To a gentleman who, in Micawber fashion, had been wait
ing for something to turn up, in answer to another reminder
at this time, Mr. Mackenzie said he was sorry he could do
nothing for him. He added : " I can quite understand you
have considered me omnipotent in such matters. There could
¦not be a greater mistake. It is all over now. I have no
more power to make appointments.'' like Wolsey, he might
say: " My integrity to heaven is all
I dare now call mine own."
The twenty-two days which elapsed between ihe great
overthrow and ihe resignation of the Ministry was a period
to try the hearts and characters of men. The Reform party
stood the ordeal of defeat nobly, and firmly upheld their chief
in his determination to do no act which should sully the
record. Regarding the reproach of one that he had not been
sufficiently self-sacrificing, he says : " I need not tell you that

HO W HE BORE DEFEA T. 527
I hterally worked day and night, and so far from being able
to save any monej'- while I was at the head of the Govern
ment, I find I have spent about $2,600 per annum more than
my entire official income. Yet these parties speak so. I am
delighted, however, to be able to add that nothing could be
more gratifying than the letters I have received from the
great bulk of our friends from all quarters."
This is the Premier's letter of resignation of himself and
his colleagues, with the causes he gives for the defeat of his
Government : "Ottawa, Oot. 9th, 1878.
"Dear Lord Dufferin, — The elections for the House of Commona
are not yet all concluded ; nor ia it at all certain what may be the final
determination of many disputed returns, but enough is known to induce
me to take decided action with reference to the general result. In my
proposed course my colleagues all concur.
" It ia unnecessary to discuss the various minor and unimportant mat
ters presented at the electoral contest against the Administration, as they
had no appreciable effect in reaching the final result. The one broad
issue between the ministerial and opposition parties was the question of
a protectionist system as against a moderate revenue tariff, as maintained
by the Government.
" The Government felt that this was a question of such vast importance,
that- nothing, not even the existence of a ministry, would justify a tem
porising policy regarding it. It seemed incredible that it could be neces
sary in Canada to fight the battle over again in favor of sound commercial
legislation which had been fought in the motherland more than thirty
years ago, and in whioh protectionist views had been annihilated.
"The commercial depreaaion whioh had been felt for the last four
years, though much less severely felt here than in the United States,
which ia under a protection system, had predisposed many minds to look
to aome change as a possible relief. This, added to the selfish efforts of
claas interests, which had been aroused by the prospect of gain at the ex
pense of others, led to the concluaion that was reached.
" I believed that if, unfortunately, protectionist views should prevail,
grave political dangers would arise, which might seriously affect the ex-

528 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
isting relations of Canada to the Britiah Empire. It aeemed inevitable
that a serious departure from the accepted policy of the Empire, and the
acceptance of the policy of the powerful and jealous Republic on our
southern border, would seriously disturb relations which otherwise would
continue indefinitely. ' How ahall two walk together unless they are
agreed 3 '
" Hitherto Victoria alone, of all the British colonies, had deliberately
adopted a protection system, and thereby marred the general harmony.
The geographical position of Victoria, surrounded as she is by more en
lightened colonial states, renders the jar created by her action com
paratively harmless. Canada, on the contrary, is face to face on this con
tinent with an English colony politically severed from Great Britain,
having a population ten times aa numerous as her own, with a general
political policy largely founded on the hostile feelings and prejudices
engendered during the struggle for independence and the subsequent
war ; while their commercial policy is of a narrow and restricted
character, appealing to and upheld by the most odious clan's interests.
Attempts, more or less direct, have been frequently made in the United
States to enlist the sympathy and co-operation of Canada in a 'policy
which would, soon extinguish British influence on this continent. Any
action which will to any extent assimilate the commercial system of Can
ada to that of the United States, will, to that extent, weaken the ties
which bind her to the Empire, and which it was the aim of my Adminis
tration to strengthen and perpetuate. We already find that the advocates
of a customs union or zollverein in the United States (which system really
means a political alliance with that country) are greatly encouraged by
the result of the elections.
" These views we endeavored to impress on the public mind during the
electoral contest as earnestly as we did the serious injury to our general
prosperity, which we believe to be the inevitable result of the adoption
of the principle of protection. Two years of continuous agitation of the
question had, it seems, produced iu the public mind an impression that
it was possible to enrich all classes by protection without impoverishing
any. In other words, a certain number of the people believed in the •
possibility of making everybody rich, of increasing values by Act of
Parliament. I do not, of course, propose here to discuss the principles
involved, but merely to deal with results.

HO W HE BORE DEFEA T. 629
"The protectionist principle undoubtedly obtained a victory at the
polls. The knowledge of the wonderful success of Great Britain in de
veloping her trade and commerce under the opposite system, and the sad
results of the attempt by the United States to carry out a protectionist
policy, as exhibited in the ruinous state of their shipping and manufac
tures, and the growth of a communistic feeling, were alike disregarded.
" Under these circumstances the proper course would probably be for the
Government to meet Parliament at the earliest possible moment, in order
that no time should be lost in giving effect to a policy the country had
approved of. We felt, however, that it would be unpleasant to remain
in office after asserting that there was no probability of the policy of the
Government being sustained by the new House. The other course would
doubtless be the one in accordance with English practice, but there are
two precedents of a recent date in favor of a resignation before the meet
ing of Parliament, these precedents being made by the leaders of both
political parties in England. Feeling that we are justified in pursuing
that course, I have resolve 3, with tho concurrence of my colleagues, to
close up all the business in the departments at tho earliest possible mo
ment, with the view of enabling our successors to meet Parliament at an
early day, with measures for carrying into effect the policy to whioh they
committed themselves at the election.
" I have now, therefore, the honor of. placing in your Excellency's
hands my own resignation, and that of my colleagues of our ministerial
offices. I have the honor to be, " Your obedient servant, " A . Mackenzie.
"His Excellency the Earl of Dufierin, Gov. Gen."
After Mr. Mackenzie had bidden Lord DuflTerln good-bye.
His Excellency sent him the following kind note :
"Montreal, Oct. 9th, 1878.
" My Dear Mackenzie, — I assure you I felt a very bitter pang in
shaking you by the hand yesterday.
" We have been associated for so many years together in promoting the
interests of the Dominion, and I have such a sincere personal esteem for
you, that it felt like parting with one of my oldest friends.
HH

^y^te^ccf I

M^ '

f^ ^74^ /kyuz,t:ihiiky ^g^^:^

^^^'^'^^l^^^«^''^i^««;/'

(Facsimile of Hon. A.^Mackenzie's hand-writing, slightly reduced.)]]

y^ - ' -y

(Facsimile of Br. Tupper's hand-writing.)

HO W HE BORE DEFEA T. 531
" I have told them to send you a portrait of Lady Dufferin and one of
myself, which I hope you will allow a place upon your walls. Believe
me, my dear Mackenzie, " Yours sincerely, " Dufferin."
In answer to an ungenerous letter written from a distant
Province by the recipient of a full share of what was honestly
his in former days, Mr. Mackenzie writes :
" I duly received your letter giving me your opinion of myself, my
political views, and my leadership of the Liberal party, and informing me
also that I was never able to look beyond Ontario. I am a sufficient judge
of human nature to know that I might expect, in an hour of disaster, to
receive unjust criticism from some people, but T must say I did not ex
pect to find you among that claas. Well, we learn as we grow in years.
I do not pretend that your letter has not pained me, but a consciousness
that your charges are not true, amply sustains me under your attack. No
section of Canada had a greater influence in moulding the policy of the
Government than yours. All the Liberal members came to tell me that
if the Government yielded to the demand for higher duties, they could
not support us. The Province also had more than its full share of
Government patronage and Government works. I am not conscious,
therefore, of any neglect whatever of its interests, and certain I am that
Ontario did not receive the attention which was paid to it.
"You complain of not being consulted, and declare that it was my busi
ness to go to you and all others. Well, perhaps so ; I think not. I gave
my whole time and my whole fortune to the position, and I saw every
one that came, including yourself. I do not believe any public man in
Canada ever worked harder than I did, and were I writing to what I once
supposed you to be, a friendly person, I would have added, more unself
ishly. I have nothing to regret, and I retire with a consciousness of hav
ing honestly and laboriously done my duty. You say you could make a
post office plan for ten dollars betfer than the one we sent. Well, that
simply shows what a clever man you are, compared with smaller archi
tects such as we have to put up with in the Dominion service. I spent
many years of my life in the endeavor to acquire some of the theoretical
and practical knowledge of the science, but I have to confess my entire in-

532 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
ability to accomplish what to you ia so easy ; or, indeed, to discuss the
matter with one so much superior to ordinary men. I have little to say
to your reference to my course in opposition. But whether in opposition
or in power, my principles are always the same. It does not matter to
me whether I am one of a party of sixty or of a hundred and forty. I
am always willing to work for my party and with my party, without look
ing to any sectional or personal interest, and when 1 find myself placed in
circumstances which make that course impossible, or even difficult, you
may be consoled by the assurance that I will retire from public life."
This is io a friend in Scotland :
" Ottawa, October 14th, 1878.
"My Dear  , I am today winding up my busiaess as the late
Premier of Canada. My resignation has been in His Excellency's hands
for some days. The result of the elections was so decidedly against me
that I resolved not to await the meeting of Parliament, as I might have
done, but to resign immediately. Our election turned on the question of
protection. I might have temporised with it, and retained power without
difficulty, but I determined to fight it as an unmixed political evil, even
if I should be beaten,
" The commercial depression which affected Canada in common with
other countries for some years, predisposed the people to look for any
change as a relief. I could not conscientiously go back on my English
Liberalism. As a disciple of Cobden, I attached much importance, in a
higher sense than mere office-holding, to the trade question. I there
fore risked office on the contest, and, like many better men, was beaten.
Personally, I am not sorry, as I was much in need of a good rest. In a
party sense, of course, I regret the defeat. In a few more years it will
all come right. I have endeavored to sow good seed which will bear
fruit in good time. The enemy has sown the wind, and will reap the
whirlwind. " Yours faithfully, "A. Mackenzie."
Principle before party: "Ottawa, Oct. 31, 1878.
" My Dear Sir, — On my return to town last night, 1 received your let
ter of the IStli inst. I need hardly say how much I am obliged for your
kind and encouraging remarks.

HO W HE BORE DEFEA T. 533
- "I know very well that certain Reformers, well-meaning people, too,
think I might have so managed aa to retain power. These people think
a ministry ought not to maintain itself so much to give effect to principles
aa to administer affairs for the benefit of the party. Neither my col
leagues nor myself could accept such a view. Of course, we were bound
to look to the interest of the Liberal party ; but we considered that we
were best doing this by giving effect to their principles. I could not
dream of pretending to adopt a policy, to any extent whatever, which I
believed to be clearly wrong. We had all the pressure of what are called
'hard times' to combat. This gave an impulse to protectionist princi
ples, surprising enough in an enlightened country. The protection the
ory ia easily stated ; with uninformed or prej adiced people it takes at
once. Revenge on the Yankees, seems also to be the idea uppermost in
many minds. The proposition : ' They put 20% on our wheat, why
don't we put the same on theirs 1 ' looks so plausable that some people
do not stop to reason. Demagoguea made many believe that if we put
20 centa on foreign wheat, the price of our own would be enhanced by
that amount. It is true that it was almost entirely among the more
ignorant that such nonsense prevailed. I found very few indeed of the
leading men indoctrinated with such absurdities ; but one vote is as good
as another. To manufacturers we could give further protection for a
time, but not without doing a wrong to other classes, and destroying our
revenue. "
An opinion frankly given, and as frankly combated:
" Ottawa, Nov. 9th, 1878.
" My Dear Sir, — I duly received your letter a few days ago. I am
obliged to you for giving me your opinion concerning the cause of the
election going adversely to the late Government. You say I should
have yielded to the views of the people, when we would by so doing re
tain power. In the first place, I did not know the views of the people
were in favor of protection until the election proved it ; and in the second
place, I certainly would not yield, even to a majority of the people,
principles whioh I believed to be right.
" I fear you take a very low estimate of public morality in suggesting
that a Minister might or should adopt any principles which would keep
him in power. Such a doctrine as that would be subversive of all upright

534 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
government and personal honesty. Every Government must have certain
ideas of public policy which will govern their action, or they are un
principled in the largest sense of that word. My Government believed
that the doctrine of protection waa wrong — waa calculated to bring
diaaster to the country, and we acted on that belief. The country de
cided that we were in a minority in that belief, and we at once re
signed, in order to give those who entertain or profess to entertain a con
trary view a chance of carrying out their professions. Your idea is that
we should, for the sake of power, adopt a policy we considered ruinous
to the country. I trust nothing will ever induce me to act the hypocrite
in public, any more than in private affairs. If I take a place in a Govern
ment, it will only be to give effect to my own views of public policy.
Better far be in opposition conscientiously, and advocating our own
principles, than be in power without a belief in the principles we are
carrying out.
" You are good enough to inform me that I did much harm in small
things — in passing over my own friends ; in appointments, I suppose you
mean, i am not aware of any reason for making that charge. I always
gave our friends the preference. It is possible that some members of
Parliament supporting the Government did sometimes recommend politi
cal opponents without our knowledge. That will happen to any Govern
ment. It will also happen that friends of the Government will ask very
Improper things ; but no upright Qovernmant will yield to such de
mands." He then goes on to combat specific cases of grievances, one
of which was thai a Minister had resisted payment of a dis
honest account. He concludes :
"It is always an unpleasant duty to oppose payment of accounts, but
upright Ministers must sometimes do it. I often did it, and I hope I
did it impartially to friend and foe alike when they were wrong. Now I
dare say all the cases you could cite would vanish on examination, as
these do. I am very sorry you take the adverse view you do of our
course j but your opinion does not in the least affect mine. I took my
stand on principle. I fell in its defence. I am satisfied I was right, and
that time will show this. I would rather my present feeling, out of

HO W HE BORE DEFEA T. 535
power, than be in power with a consciousness of trying to do what I could
not approve of. With good wishes to all,
" I am, yours faithfully, "A. Mackenzie.'"
In a letter to Mr. Huntington he says :
"I am glad now that we made no exceptional appointments before
leaving office. Had we done so, aU would have been dismissed and more
or less odium would have attached to ua. Aa it stands, the scandalous
dismissal of Mr. Buckingham and aome others of our friends throws the
blame on our opponents."
There are many letters showing thai he felt keenly the
action of ihe new Ministers in this respect.
To a friend in Nova Scotia, Mr. Mackenzie wrote :
" You ask what were the causes of the political reverse. The main cause
was no doubt the general depression which prevailed, and the belief in
stilled into the minds of the poorer classes that the Government were
more or less concerned in the existence of so serious a state of affairs.
Again, many of the manufacturers, for purely selfish reasons, fought
hard, believing they would be enriched by the imposition of higher
duties. The protection theory had taken a deeper ho!d of the popular
mind than we had supposed. It is also certain that the temperance legis
lation of the Government injured us in Ontario, as it arrayed the whole
liquor interest against us, and that interest ia a very powerful one. How
ever, we have nothing to regret. We fought our battle on principle. We
did what was right, and it is better to be right and defeated, than be
wrong and successful."
To a former colleague :
" In view even of all this, I am unable to see what otiier course I could
have pursued, were it all to be done over again. I alwaya had a horror
of the policy of carrying on a Government by compromises of views on
great questions. I could understand the expediency of accepting a part
of some reform we were struggling for, if the whole could not readily be
obtained, and could submit to it, but in this case we were struggling for a
principle established already, and could not abandon it, even if it saved

536 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
the Government to do so. In the session of 1877, the caucus meetings
were very strong against any increase in the tariff. The Islanders and
New Brunswickers, and also the Nova Scotians, were most determined of
all. They waited upon me to warn me that an increase would be fatal to
them, and, indeed, said that they would not promise to support the Gov
ernment if such an increase should be proposed. In the face of such
views, the Island and Nova Scotia elected members to support an ultra
protectionist party. Ontario deceived me quite as much. I knew that in
the cities we should have a hard struggle, but I never dreamed that the
farmers could have imbibed the protectionist humbug, as they foolishly
did. " It is now tolerably clear that Sir John did not expect to get a major
ity at the elections. He only hoped they would be very close, so as to
enable him to win by some movement or chance at the second session.
He and his friends were, therefore, very reckless in promising every claas
all they wanted. These promises are now waiting at every Cabinet Min
ister's door at Ottawa, and will not be put off.
" The desperate attempt to behead Letellier has apparently failed. I
suspect Sir John has arranged with some one to briiig a motion before
Parliament condemning him, and asking for his removal. I do not, how
ever, believe Lord Lome will agree to dismiss a Governor who acted
within his authority."
Writing from Toronto, November 11th, 1878, to an intimate
friend residing at Ottawa, the emancipated Minister rejoices
in his freedom, and ihe fun ahead of him on ihe ice : " I
shall have more time this coming session to devote to curling
wiih you than I was able to get for the past five years."
At ihe age of nearly fifty-seven, and after all ihe wear and
tear of such a life as has been traced in these pages, there
was a good deal of ihe schoolboy spirit left in him still.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

AGAIN IN OPPOSITION.
Resides in Toronto — Welcomes the Change — "Bracing" Him Up -Sympa
thetic Letter — Parliament Meets — The N. P. " Elephant" — Everybody Pro
tected — A Tai^ff of " Corners" — Canada in Cast-off Clothing — The Conse
quences of the Policy— Mr. Blake on its Tendency — Sir Oliver Mowat on
Patriotism — Still a Rainbow of Hope — Mr. Mackenzie Resigns the Leader
ship — Comments Thereupon.
FTER. resigning oflace in October, 1878, Mr. Mac
kenzie left Ottawa to take up his permanent resi
dence in Toronto, where leading incorporated com
panies availed themselves of his knowledge and
experience on their directorates. In January, 1881,
ihe North American Life Assurance Company started
on its career, with Mr. Mackenzie as president.
His Excellency the Earl of Dufferin was correct in his sup
position that in many respects Mr. Mackenzie welcomed the
change. No man had less ambition than he io shine in a
courtly sphere, or io be prominent In the councils of ihe
nation, and he gives repeated evidences that leadership had
been undertaken by him as a matter of duty rather than
of choice. He had no feeling of elation in oflSce ; in opposi
tion he was not cast down. Throughout his life he had ihe
courage and serenity which enabled him to rise superior to
surrounding worldly circumstances.
The following bright letter, which he wrote before the as
sembling of Parliament was in acknowledgment of an equally
537

538 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
acceptable note from an estimable young lady, now Mrs.
George R. PattuUo, with the present of a pair of suspenders
(he calls them " braces ") on his fifty-seventh birthday :
" Ottawa, Jan. 28th, 1379.
" My Dear Miss BiQGAR, — The postman has just left your package,
enclosing your kind note and your contribution towards ' bracing ' me up
for coming duties.
"My wife looked anxiously over my shoulder at the mysterious
package as I opened it, observing, no doubt, the lady's haudwriting, and
fearing probably that it was a love-philter which might chain me to the
fair correspondent, as was often done some centuries ago, according to the
old ballads.
" At the first glance, she said ' garters ! ' what can it mean 1 I replied
in the words of the motto of the Order of the Garter, aa well as of the
Sovereigns of England: 'Evil be to him that evil thinks' — 'Honisoit
qui mal y pense. ' But when the whole was unfolded, and your note
dropped out, I think all her fears vanished, and I was graciously per
mitted to acknowledge the present myself.
"It was very kind of you to remember a day in my history which I
had myself forgotten until I read your note, and I return you my
warmest thanks, Rideau Hall sends me an invitation, with the words
' full dress. ' I shall grace my Windsor uniform with the new braces,
when I can say that the unseen is perhaps better than the seen portion of
the Court garb.
"1 shall feel very dejected this winter at Ottawa, not so much at being
on the Opposition benches, as at the loss of so many of my old Ontario
friends. I will especially miss your father, who was not merely a political
friend but a personal friend of the stamp I take to most. I hope we
shall soon hear of an improvement in his health. Mrs. Mackenzie and
I join in sending you all good wishes for him and yourself.
" I am, dear Miss Biggar,
" Yours very sincerely, "A. Mackenzie.
" Miss Biggar, Murray P. 0."
This, written a few months afterwards, to the same corres-

Hon. Mr. Mackenzie's Eesldence,LToronto.

AGAIN IN OPPOSITION. 5^1
pondent, on the death of her father, illustrates the other phase
of his character, of which his pen gives us so many beautiful
examples : " Toronto, June 20th, 1879.
" My Dear Miss Biggar,— The very greatness of your domestic cala
mity prevented us hitherto intruding upon you, even with our sympathy.
There are events with which a stranger should not intermeddle ; one oi
these is the death of a very near relative. I have myself felt on such.
occasions that I wanted to be let alone for a time. I am sure, however,
that you will allow us to express our deep sympathy with you in so un
expected a calamity. At the time of your father's death we were hoping
to see him, on his way home in restored health. We little dreamed when.
we saw him last we were never to meet him again in this Ufe. He and 1
entered Parliament together eighteen years ago, and during all these
years we were fast friends. Indeed no one could help being friends with
James Biggar, unless he were a worthless man, for he was a model of
personal kindness and courtesy, as he was also a pattern of the Chriatiai&
gentleman. He waa one of the few with whom I could always hold unre
strained converse iu a social and religious sense. There are few left behind)
to whom I can speak as I could speak to him, and after middle life ona
does not make many new friends. Altogether I feel the blank his depar
ture has caused very much, though there was no tie of kindred by blood
between us. I can easily imagine how much you must, of all the family,
feel the loss of your honored father.
" Although no amount of sympathy can make up in any perceptible
degree for the great blank in your family circle, still it may and should
be gratifying to know how universal was the respect felt for him, and.
how general is the feeling of sympathy with you. The greatest consola
tion of all is, however, that he has entered into the ' rest which remaineth
for the people of God.' While we mourn his departure, he has ' seen the
King in His beauty, and the land that is far off.' We mourn, but he re
joices. I sometimes think, when such as he departs, that their lot is
much better than that of those who remain here to battle with the selfish
ness, coldness and injustice of the world. We do not know what ia
escaped by an early departure. Besides, we always know that all rhinga
are ordered well, and for the best, by our Heavenly Father, who cannot
commit any mistake. We may not be able to see that there is a provi-

542 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
dence in such visitations, but we will understand all when we follow those
who have gone before. We both send our kindest regards.
"I am, my dear Miss Biggar,
" Yours very sincerely,
"A. MA(;K^:^Z1E."
Parliament met on 13th of February, 1879, and Mr Mac
kenzie made a pleasant speech on the election of Mr. Blanchet
as Speaker. He playfully twitted the leader of the Gov
ernment on having departed from his own precedent in 1873,
when he proposed the continuance, as the custom has been for
fifty years in England, of the Speaker of the previous Parlia
ment. But as Sir John had taken a diflFerent course, Mr. Mac
kenzie said it would be difficult for any honorable gentleman
to be named on the Ministerial side who would give greater
satisfaction io the Opposition than Mr. Blanchet. He had no
doubt Mr. Blanchet would discharge the high and onerous
duties devolving upon him wiih faithfulness and conscienti
ousness, and he .might rely upon the Opposition giving him
every support consistent with due regard for Parliamentary
privileges. On ihe 14th of March, Mr. Tilley unfolded his budget and
with it came the great Canadian cure-all, so widely advertised
under the name of " N. P." Mr. Mackenzie described it as
"ihe elephant." Writing the day after ii appeared, to his for
mer secretary, he says :
•' So the Elephant has come laden with ' rings,' and covered with the
most dazzling of trappings, for which the poor Caradian people will have
sweetly to pay. Tilley has surrendered himself to every class of manufac
turers, and has given each class all they supposed they wanted, but we
find already that some of them feel their toes trod upon by the indulgence
he has bestowed on others. Let me illustrate. A firm in Hamilton build
bridges ; they had before 17|- per cent., and they paid 5 per cent, on iron
bars. Now they get 20 per cent. , but they have to pay 17^ per cent, on

AGAIN IN OPPOSITION. 543
iron bars. In other words, they previously had 12J per cent, in their
favor, now ihey have 2\ per cent. Another case is this : An electro-plate
company in Toronto asked for protection, and they got 30 per cent. ; but
the German silver, of which three pounds are required for one pound of
the finished product, is put at 10 per cent. They write me that this kind
of protection they really cannot understand. There is much excitement,
and not a little fun, to- day over it all."
The design was io give every manufacturer all he wanted
of this panacea, but the chief difficulty was in carrying the
design into efiiect The Finance Minister's dilemma was well
illustrated by Mr. Mackenzie in the foregoing letter, and was
amplified by him a hundred times afterwards. It lay in the
solution of ihe problem of giving protection io one man's
finished product without doing Injustice to the raw material
of his neighbor. Agreement there might be in ihe resolution
to spoil the enemy. The quarrel arose as to the mode in
which the spoils should be divided.
The tariff" provided a tax on things innumerable, and filled
thirteen pages of Hansard. Mr. Tilley professed his desire
to be as much as possible to substitute the specific for ihe
ad valorem system of duties, and to make those duties so high
as to give encouragement io Canadian manufacturers, while
preventing the country from being made a " slaughter mar
ket" for United States products. Two millions additional
revenue were required from customs, and he asserted that the
duties were to be so imposed as to draw the chief part of that
money from the imports of foreign countries, and not from
those of England. He also stated that countervailing duties
would be imposed on foreign sugar, in order to protect our
own refineries from the bounty systems of other countries.
Sir Richard Cartwright likened the tariff" to ihe tariff intro
duced into the United States in the early part of the century.

544 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
and which was largely instrumental In causing the civil war.
That tariff" was familiar io ihe students of American history
as " the iariflF of abominations." " I do not know," he said,
" that this rises to the dignity of the American tariff" I have
named, but the Canadian student may, perhaps, fairly describe
it as a tariff" of corners. There is scarcely one single pro
posal in which men accustomed to deal with such questions
will fail to see concessions io some particular clique, to some
particular interest, to some prominent political partisan, or to
some particular class whom it is desirable, for pohtical rea
sons, to conciliate." There were privileges here, concessions
there, and injustice everywhere. There was an attempt at
what Carlyle declared io be ihe impossible problem, namely,
out of the united action of a community of dishonest men to
evolve an honest policy. The predominating principle had
been : Get political influence — revenue, if you can, but politi
cal influence any how. It was another illustration of the
Scripture doctrine : " To bim that hath, shall be given, and
from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which
he hath." It was unjustly discriminative, taxing the articles
consumed by ihe poor at a higher rate than those consumed
by ihe rich — ihe proportion being on some goods as 30 per
cent, is io 6. Regarding the sugar duties, ihe people would
be taxed one million of dollars per annum for the benefit of
half a dozen persons engaged in refining.
Dr. Tupper defended ihe protective policy, and maintained
it was through protection that Great Britain had reached the
position of prominence and distinction she occupies as a
manufacturing country.
Mr. Mackenzie said : " It is io me a most humiliating spec
tacle io find a large majority of the representatives of the
people rejoicing at ihe prospect of an immediate and large

AGAIN IN OPPOSITION. 545
increase in the taxation of the country. It Is a humiliating
spectacle io find so large a body of intelligent gentlemen as
are now assembled, representing Canada, taking up the cast-
oflf clothing of older nations and wearing it, in adopting a
policy that has ruined other nations, and rejecting a policy
thai has made the Mother Country great and prosperous be
yond all precedent And, sir, it is amazing thai such an exhi
bition could have been presented in an intelligent country in a
position of observing, as we are in a position of observing,
the results of protection in the neighboring country." Pro
tection was no cure for trade depression. Trade had often
been stagnant Witness the years from 1856 to 1859. What
was ihe policy then of the Liberal party ? No one could
point to a single speech of himself or any other Liberal mem
ber in that much severer crisis, charging the responsibility
upon the Government. He said the tariff" was unjust in its
operation, being a tariff" favorable io ihe higher classes as
against the interests of ihe people. On ihe l7th of April he
, moved an amendment in that sense, and declaratory also of
the tendency of ihe iariflF io render " futile ihe costly and
persistent eflForts of this country to secure a share of ihe im
mense and growing carrying trade of this continent, and tend
ing to create an antagonism between the commercial policy of
the Empire and thai of Canada thai might lead to conse
quences deeply to be deplored." The amendment was nega
tived by a vote of 53 io 136, and after a long debate the iariflF
went into eflFect with but very little change.
In his well-known letter, at ihe general election of 1891,
when he took leave of his West Durham constituents, Mr.
Blake drew this alarming but too truthful picture of ihe
eflfects produced upon ihe Dominion by ihe Conservative
policy : n

646 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
" The Canadian Conservative policy has failed to accomplish the pre
dictions of its promoters.
" Its real tendency has been, as foretold twelve years ago, towards dis
integration and annexation, instead of consolidation and the maintenance
of that British connection of which they claim to be the special guardians.
" It has left us with a small population, a scanty immigration, and a
North-West empty still ; with enormous additions to our public debt and
yearly charges, an extravagant system of expenditure, and an unjust and
oppressive tariff, with restricted markets for our needs, whether to buy or
to sell, and all the host of evils (greatly intensified by our special condi
tions) thence arising ; with trade diverted from its natural into forced and
therefore less profitable channels, and with unfriendly relations and frown
ing tarift' walls, ever more and more estranging us from the mighty Eng
lish-speaking nation to the south, our neighbors and relations, with whom
we ought to be, as it was promised we should be, living in generous amity
and liberal intercourse.
" Worse, far worse ! It has left us with lowered standards of public
virtue and a deathlike apathy in public opinion ; with racial, religious
and provincial animosities rather inflamed thau soothed ; with a subser
vient Parliament, an autocratic Executive, debauched constituencies, and
corrupted and corrupting classes ; with lesaened aelf-reliance and increased
dependence on the public chest and on legislative aids, and possessed withal
by a boastful jingo spirit far enough removed from true manliness, loudly
proclaiming unreal conditions and exaggerated sentiments, while actual
facts and genuine opinions are suppressed.
" It has left us with our hands tied, our future compromised, and in
such a plight that, whether we stand or move, we must run some risks
which we might have either declined or encountered with greater promise
of success." But amid the gloom there remains a ray of light :
" Yet let us never despair of our country. It is a goodly land, endowed
with great recuperative powers and vast resources as yet undeveloped ;
inhabited by populations moral and religious, sober and industrious, vir
tuous and thrifty, capable and instructed — the descendants of a choice
immigration, of men of mark and courage, energy and enterprise, in the
breasts of whose children still glow the sparks of those ancestral fires.

AGAIN IN OPPOSITION. 547
" Under such conditions -all is not lost. ' Though much be taken, much
abides.' And if we do but awake from our delusive dreams, face the sharp
facta in time, repair our errors and amend our ways, there may stUl re
main for us, despite the irrevocable past, a future, if not so clear and
bright as we might once have hoped, yet fair and honorable, dignified and
secure. "
Sir Oliver Mowat also pointed, not long since, to the rain
bow of hope still to be seen in Canadian skies. He was pre
sent at the celebration, at Niagara-on-the-Lake, on the 16th of
July, 1892, of ihe one-hundredth anniversary of the establish
ment of representative government in the Province of Upper
Canada, when he made a patriotic appeal to the people to
•oppose annexation and cultivate a Canadian spirit. With a
firm, though light and graceful touch, the Ontario Premier
gave the true reason why we have fallen back in the race with
the United States during the past ten years. We quote the
paragraph, and follow Sir Oliver Mowat's example, by leaving
^ii as it stands :
" It is pleasant to know that until the last ten years of its history Can
ada advanced faster in proportion than the States of the American Union
as a whole, or than most of the individual States did. As to the causes of
there not having been like progress during the last decade, we Reformers
ascribe the falling off to the N. P., or so-called National Policy, and the
high taxation. CJonservatives argue for other causes ; but this is not an
occasion for discussing the question between us.''
Of the British connection of which Mr. Blake and Sir Oliver
Mowat spoke, there was no more faithful guardian throughout
his life than Mr. Mackenzie. There are examples in all history
of the fall of nations through the oppression of the people by
party for party purposes, for if, as a great writer says, " Lib
erty and equality of civil rights are brave, spirit-stirring
things," so the denial of those rights inevitably produces divi
sions, dissatisfaction, destruction.

548 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
When Parliament met on the 13th of February, 1880, Mr
Mackenzie took occasion io speak of what the iariflF had
already done. He said he believed thai bui for the bountiful
harvest in Canada last summer, and the serious deficiency in
Great Britain and Ireland, ihe state of the Dominion this
winter would have been the most deplorable ever known.
Tbe speech from the Throne asserted that ihe eflFect of the
iariflF of last session in the development of ihe varied indus
tries of the country had, on the whole, been very satisfac
tory. But so far from this being the case, Mr. Mackenzie
was able io show thai, notwithstanding the good harvest here
and the bad harvest in Great Britain, ihe failures in Canada,
representing manufacturers as well as traders, showed liabili
ties during the year past of $29,347,000, as against $23,908,-
000 in 1878. The Finance Minister had not created wealth
by protection, but he had redistributed it by placing it in the
hands of a few monopolists who had been built up by his
policy ; the sugar monopolists alone having had a million of
dollars given them at ihe expense of ihe whole country, while
another eflFect of ihe same policy had been to palm off inferior
articles ai enhanced prices upon the consuming population.
The House had continued to sit into ihe early hours of
Wednesday, the 28th of April, 1880. We take the following
from the " Debates " of an important occurrence immediately
before ihe adjournment at two a.m. :
" The Opposition Leadership.
" Mr. Mackenzie : I desire to say a word or two with regard to my
personal relations to the House. I, yesterday, determined to withdraw
from the position as leader of the Opposition, and from this time forth I
will speak and act for no person but myself.
" Sir John A. Macdonald : Of course we, on this side of the House,
have nothing to say to such a decision. But all I can say is that I hope

AGAIN IN OPPOSITION. 549
the hon. gentleman who takes the place of the hon. member for Lambton,
and his party, will display the same ability, earnestness and zeal for
what he thinks and believes to be for the good of the country as have
been displayed by my hon. friend who has just taken his seat."
The inner life of Mr. Mackenzie, as revealed In these pages,
proves that public care sat by no means as lightly upon him
at any time in his career as his outward demeanor would seem
to imply. The leading positions he was placed in came to him
unsought, and not in response io a desire on his own part,
however slight, to obtain them ; much less to a craving for
personal distinction, or for ihe satisfaction of personal ambi
tion. From these weaknesses of human nature he was freer
than most other men. When, however, responsibility presented
itseK in ihe shape of duty, he did not shrink from iis obliga
tions, and he strenuously strove to show himself equal to
them. Whatever the strain, there was no sign to ihe world of
a sinking beneath its pressure. As he said in the letter we
have quoted from, to his brother, at the close of the harassing
session of 1878, he " took care to let no one know of it" A
way was now open io him to retire, and, he was " glad io
stop." An influential journal voiced ihe public sentiment with ad
mirable perspicacity and knowledge when it said thai Mr.
Mackenzie served his party with zeal, fidelity, and courage,
and led it with a clear head and ripe judgment. He did not
enter its high places when all was pleasant with ii, and retreat
when it looked gloomy. From the time when he became
leader in 1867, to the day of his retirement, he held ihe helm
wiih unwavering constancy, and the Liberal party and the
country were deeply his debtors.
We condense from another of the many appreciative articles
on Mr. Mackenzie, published ai that time, the following :

650 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
" Mr. Mackenzie stands out among the men of his time a representative
of a class of statesmen who are the glory of constitutional government,
and who give character to the best thought of their times. Under his
leadership the Liberal party rose from almost utter extinction at the time
of Confederation to the highest power and greatness. Mr. Mackenzie
has given proofs of wisdom and patriotism that will add lustre to the
history of our time. Throughout a career remarkable for steadiness of
purpose, he has never consulted the promptings of expediency in order to
avoid a disagreeable duty. To this fact, perhaps, he owes the loss of
some measure of personal popularity, while he has gained in those ele
ments of character which strengthen a statesman for the highest if not the
ultimate purposes of life. The Liberal party may now be said to be pass
ing through a period of tribulation almost unexampled. The lamented
death of Mr. Holton, the prostration of Mr. Brown, and the resignation
of Mr. Mackenzie, are events that must deeply affect the position of par
ties and the men who compose them."
On his retirement from the leadership a resolution was
unanimously adopted by the Liberal party, assuring him of
their respect, confidence and aff"ection, and these feelings were
as cordially shared outside the walls of Parhament as by the
members of ihe two Houses who mei to give them formal
expression. Mr. Blake was elected Mr. Mackenzie's successor
as leader of the Liberal party.

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE OFFERS OF A TITLE.
Death of Mr. Holton and Mr. Brown— Mr. Brown's Biography — The Session
of 1880-1 — A Spice of Humor — The Canadian Exodus — More About Pro
tection — Mr. Mackenzie on Canadian Honors — Bestowal of Titles on Chief
Justices Bichards and Dorion — Mr. Mackenzie and Mr. Blake Decline —
Mr. Brown's Declinature in 1874 — What Mr. Holton Thought — Mr. Mac
kenzie Declines a Second and Third Time — Letter from Lord Lome Offer
ing a Title — Lord Dufferin on Canadian Distinctions.
,W0 great griefs came upon Mr. Mackenzie, close
upon each other, in the death of Mr. Holton and
Mr. Brown. Mr. Holton died suddenly at Ottawa,
about the middle of March, 1880. Mr. Mackenzie
had scarcely begun io recover from this calamity when
there was added to it ihe shock, a few days after
wards, of a still greater sorrow at the murder in Toronto of
Mr. Brown.
Writing io Mrs. Mackenzie on ihe 15th of March, he spoke
of Mr. Holton's death as a terrible blow to himself. " Poor
fellow," he says, " he was so solicitous about my own health,
knowing it is by no means good, and was always trying to
arrange some little plan to relieve me of some work. He was
as cheery as ever on Saturday, when last seen by Pelletier,
a little before midnight Every morning came his inquiry :
' How are you to-day, Mackenzie ? ' We had a sad midnight
procession to the station."
Sir John A. Macdonald, on the day on which this letter was
551

552 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
written, moved ihe adjournment of the House as a mark of
respect to the deceased member. Mr. Mackenzie, perhaps for
the only time in his life, in attempting to second the resolu
tion, utterly broke down. He had addressed two sentences
io his fellow-members, and was commencing a third, when he
was overcome by an emotion which was more eloquent than
words, and resumed his seat
Mr. Brown lingered for many weeks, and died in May.
Later, Mr. Mackenzie, then himself in failing health, became
his biographer, and made ihe work a loving and faithful tri
bute to the memory of his friend ; though to our mind, agree
ing, as we do wiih Thackeray in " Henry Esmond," that
" history should be familiar, rather than heroic," it is a little
too unbending.
The Petrolia Reform Association, on the occasion of its first
meeting after the change of ihe Liberal leadership, adopted an
address, approving of Mr. Mackenzie's course while at the
head of the Liberal party.
In his reply on the 14th of July, 1880, Mr. Mackenzie
referred to ihe calumnies by which he had been persistently
assailed, and declared that he had, to the best of his judgment,
done what was just and right. On the trade question, he
wrote as follows :
"After the election was lost in 1878, some Liberals were found to
express a regret that my Administration did not countenance the protec
tive movement to such an extent as would, in their opinion, have secured
us from defeat. Protection, as a political principle, is either right or
wrong. If wrong, it should be resisted. We believed that it was wrong,
and therefore could not accept it, even if we had known that resistance
would cost us the loss of office. The success of that principle means the
promotion of the interests of a small class at the expense of the whole
community. A majority of our people evidently thought otherwise in
September, 1878, as they returned a majority of protectionist candidates.

THE OFFERS OF A TITLE. 553
Two years' experience has satisfied the country ot the truth of the
aphorism. " The farmers, who constitute a large majority of our people, now know,
what they then refused to believe, that protection means an increase in
price in all that they buy, and no increase in price for what they have to
sell. The mechanic and laborer, by painful experience, now know that
the cost of living is much higher than during previous years, and there has I
been no increase of wages. They earn no more money than before, and
the money buys less of the goods necessary to life.
" Somo political writers affect to see some difference between the appli
cation of the laws of commerce in Canada and England, in order, apparently,
to cover their own inconsistency. There may be local inequalities in both
countries, hut moral principles are not affected by a higher or lower
latitude, and they have the same weight with all just men, whether they
live east or west of Greenwich.
" Conservative leaders and candidates promised an immediate return of
prosperity, as the sure result of a defeat of the Liberal Government ;
abundance of work and high wages were promised to the laborer and
artisan ; the farmer was to receive higher prices for all the products of the
farm ; an immediate rise in bank and other stocks was to take place as the
first sign of the coming commercial millenium, and it was to be a sure
indication of the confidence of the monied world in the new doctrines.
What was the actual result ? An unprecedented fall in all securities
greeted the advent of Tory reactionaries. Such a scarcity of work pre
vailed that a most alarming exodus of our people to the United States
seemed to be the only relief, and this exodus continues until this hour.
A deeper gloom settled down on the commercial classes, illustrated by the
extraordinary rush to the Insolvent Courts. The price of farm produce
went down lower than before, a temporary improvement being only
reached because of our good harvest and the deplorable failure of the har
vest in the motherland. An enormous increase in taxation has taken
place, but heavy deficits in the revenue still continue, showing that the
additional taxes are for the benefit of individuals, not for the deliverance
of the State."
There was a spice of humor in Mr. Mackenzie's remarks
on the address on ihe 10th of December, 1880 : " The Hon.

554 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
First Minister complains that a Ministerial paper printed some
garbled extracts from the speech of the honorable member
for Durham (Mr. Blake), and placed a portrait of the hon
orable member at the head of ihe speech to prevent emigrants
from coming into the country. The First Minister should get
out a counter fly-sheet, and put his portrait at the head of it so
as to attract emigrants into the country. That would be a
just method of retaliation, and no one who might see the
portraits side by side could hesitate for a moment"
In the course of the same debate, Mr. Blake was able to
point to some of the fruits of the Government policy. In
the five lean years, as they were called, of Mr. Mackenzie's
Administration, the exodus to the United States numbered
120,000 persons ; but in only fifteen months since then, the
exodus amounted to 137,000. There was a total emigration
into ihe United States in the year 1879 of 450,000 people, and
of that total, Canada contributed five-ninths. The quality
of ihe emigration from Canada was described by the First
Minister (Sir John Macdonald) when, addressing a meeting
of Manchester merchants, he said : " The men who thus leave
our country are of ihe brightest, wisest, ablest, most ingen
ious." This session, there was, of course, a further tinkering with
the iariflF. It was operated on a few weeks later, when Mr
Mackenzie again criticised ihe Government policy. In tbe
course of his speech he said :
"I believe no country having commercial relations with the world can
avoid having a foreign trade, because the moment a country ceases to
have a foreign trade, it sinks in the scale of nations, goes behind the age,
and has no means in common with the rest of the world to exchange
commodities. The idea of the honorable gentlemen opposite seems to be
based upon the opinion that every one who buys from them can be made
to pay their own price, while they are able to sell at their own prices also.

THE OFFERS OF A TITLE. 555
I believe, and all commercial authorities believe, that the true method of
conducting trade is for every people to sell what they produce most easily
to those who possess some other commodity which such people require,
but cannot easily produce. One of the most disastrous results of a
protective policy is that it destroys the freedom of exchange, and tends
to build up monopolies at the expense ot the people. To be sure, the
remedy will come. The honorable gentlemen opposite seem to think that
there can be no change of government in this country until every one ir^
it becomes a protectionist. I believe their policy has already proved a
disastrous failure. The melancholy statement that the Minister of
Finance made to-night was one that any Government might be ashamed
of, especially they who proclaimed so loudly that the moment a change of
Government took place, returning prosperity would appear ; that everyone
would be employed, that bank stocks would rise in value, and that every
thing would show increased prosperity. Prom that day to the present,
increased depression has taken place. Stocks fell, failures increased, and
there was very soon the deepest distress that could possibly be imagined,
and the honorable gentlemen opposite were only saved, for the moment,
by the good crop of last year. Even that good crop would not have done
much, but for the fact that there was a sad failure of crops in Europe,
which necessitated the purchase of very large amounts of produce at high
rates on this side of the Atlantic. And yet the honorable gentlemen
opposite spoak as if they produced the high price of wheat. They pro
duced the high price in manufactured articles, and everything they
touched, with the rod of the tax-gatherer. They taxed the coal and flour
and fojd of the poor— everything they could lay their hands on consumed
by the poor— and thereby increased the cost of living ; but, although they
put a tax on wheat, that had no influence on the price of wheat in this
country, though it injured trade in that article. Every person knows it
could not have had any influence on prices, because the ultimate market
was England, and we were only carriers of wheat from one end of the
country to the other. The result of the policy of the honorable gentlemen
opposite has been disastrous, eveu to the revenue, which has shown great
deficiency.'' Mr Mackenzie, Mr. Blake, Mr Brown and Mr. Holton were
all averse to transplanting to ihe democratic soil of this coun-

556 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
try those aristocratic distinctions which are so highly prized
in England. It would surprise very many if they knew how
much of Mr. Mackenzie's time and energy were spent in re
sisting those who, without conspicuous merit, clamoured for
such distinctions, and abso in resisting those in England who
were only too anxious to bestow them.
He insisted thai the Canadian Prime Minister was a better
judge of what was suitable for Canadians in matters of title,
as well as matters of trade, than ihe Colonial Minister in
London. He had usually good reasons for whatever position
be took, and his general argument on this head may be thus
stated. He admitted ii to have been a long-standing custom for the
Imperial Government of its own mere motion to select such
persons in the various colonies as appeared to it most suitable
to be the recipients of honors, without any reference to the
Colonial Administration, and that it might seem natural for
the home authorities to follow that practice in Canada at the
present time. He had, however, a strong conviction that a .
custom which possibly seemed to be convenient in small col
onies, was wholly unsuitable in Canada. Her Majesty's
Canadian Government had functions to perform which no other
Colonial Government was called upon to discharge.
Our population had now reached over four millions — more
than that of Scotland, and almost as large as the population of
Ireland. We appointed the Lieutenant-Governors of the Pro
vinces, and supervised the legislation of ihe Provincial Legis
latures. The Canadian Government alone could be cognisant
of the merits or demerits of the several classes of state offi
cials connected with the Provincial Governments, such as Lieu
tenant-Governors and local Ministers, as well as of judges in
the Provincial Courts.

THE OFFERS OF A TITLE. 537
Regarded politically, Canada was a difficult country to
govern. While there were here no social class interests to
consult, there were more complex interests always cropping up
in ihe forms of race and creed. It was difficult to do anything
for an English-speaking Canadian without giving a corres
ponding benefit to a French Canadian. A preponderance of
Catholic or Protestant appointees to honors was instantly
detected. Sectional interests were also very strong, and must
be considered by the Government, no matter how desirable it
might be as a matter of principle to avoid so doing. He
yielded to no one in his anxiety to perpetuate the powers and
prestige of Britain on this continent, but was satisfied
these could best be maintained — he might say could only be
maintained — by Canadians.
It was quite impossible for an English Minister to under
stand Canadian affairs so well as to be able safely to undertake
without Canadian advice to act in the bestowal of honors.
The conclusion was that it was essential to the free and
unfettered working of our governmental system that the
Canadian Minister should be asked io advise before the
Imperial Government recommended titles for the Canadian
people, and especially for Canadian officials.
He was sure that no one more than the Colonial Secretary
desired to aid the Canadian Government in executing a very
delicate and onerous task, and that it had never occurred to
him thai any possible harm could result to ihe administration of
aff"airs here from adherence to an old-time practice which
changed circumstances had, in his opinion, rendered it no longer
advisable to continue. He felt it his duty to urge thai its con
tinuance would weaken the hands of Canadian Ministers in
conducting the aff"airs of the country, and also that it was out of
harmony with our constitutional system.

558 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
In pursuance of these views, he had been so exceedingly
sparing in his recommendations for a title as io limit them to
two persons, and these occupying life-long positions of dignity
as judges of the Superior Courts. In making these recom
mendations the principle he had laid down came into play at
once as respects the selection, one being of the English-speak
ing race. Chief Justice Richards ; the other French-Canadian,
in the person of Chief Justice Dorion. He pressed acceptance
upon ihe latter in the following communication :
" Ottawa, Sept. 12, 1877.
" My Dear Sir Antoine, — I write a note, not so much to congratulate
you as to ask you. not on any account to decline the title. Lord Carnarvon
promised me to name you some months ago. I told him that though I
declined the honor myself, I considered it eminently suitable to gentle
men who, having once filled high State offices, now occupied the chief
positions on the Bench. I also told him that even if disposed to accept
the title, I could not do so unless a similar honor were extended to one of
the French-Canadian gentlemen who were now, or had been, my
colleagues, and that I could do no other than name you as the most
prominent of them all. He then very kindly telegraphed that he would
submit your name later in the year. He has done so sooner than I
expected. I always meant to write you before it came. I know your
nomination will give unbounded pleasure even to those who do not attach
much importance to the title in Canada, because all have felt that justice
has not been done in this respect to the Liberals in Quebec. Many of
our French supporters also rejoice, not merely on account of their per
sonal regard, but because they desired that one of their own undoubted
friends should be the possessor of rank. It is useless to deny that a
certain influence attaches to it, and our people felt that this was hitherto
wanting. '• Allow me in closing to offer my hearty congratulations and my earnest
wish that you may live long to enjoy so well earned a distinction.
" I am, my dear Sir Antoine,
" Yours faithfully, " A. Mackenzie.
" The Hon. Sir A. A. Dorion."

THE OFFERS OF A TITLE. 559
Mr Mackenzie's reference to the offer to himself takes us
back to a period a few months earlier in the same year, when
Lord Carnarvon sent over a cable message intimating a desire
to submit Mr Mackenzie's and Mr Blake's names for the
honor of Knight Commander of St. Michael and St George.
Mr. Mackenzie, in reply, said he thought Imperial titles could
only be worn with dignity by such persons as the principal
judges of our higher courts, whose official position was such as
to remove them from many of the social obligations of society,
or by those persons who had not only a distinguished position
in a public sense, but whose private fortune would justify
them in assuming a higher social status than what generally
prevails in Canada. As he did not belong io the former class,
and his private fortune was not, in his estimation, sufficient to
maintain the dignity of a title and sustain obligations which
its assumption would necessarily involve, he felt that he could
not avoid the apparently ungracious duty of respectfully
declining Lord Carnarvon's very fiattering offer.
Mr. Blake wrote on another occasion as follows :
" My Dear Mackenzie, — I have a note from Mr.  , about a C. M. G.
I have written him to say that my own opinions were that these marks of
distinction were unsuited to our social condition, and that it was a mistake
to introduce them here ; that you were aware of these opinions, and that
consistently with them I could not advise you to recommend anybody for
such honors ; but that I would say to you that if you do recommend any
one, I know no one better entitled to a C. M. G. than — — , or whom I
should like better to see have the honor, if he cared for it.
" Yours truly, " Edward Blake.
" Hon. Alex. Mackenzie."
Writing Mr. Blake in May, 1877, Mr Mackenzie said : " I
suppose Col. Littleton conveyed to you the oflFer of Lord
Carnarvon ? It is important as showing their good will in
England." Mr. Blake replied : " I got Col. Littleton's note

660 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
about the K.C.M.G. Lord Carnarvon is very kind, but I am,
as you may conceive, less disposed towards these trappings
than ever."
Already in 1874, as Mr. Mackenzie has publicly stated, Mr.
Brown might have been knighted had he given his consent
He was actually gazetted as a knight commander in 1879, and
an arrangement was made for the formal investiture in
Montreal. Mr. Mackenzie says Mr. Brown went io that city
to meet His Excellency, but only to thank him in person and
io give a formal declination in writing. Mr. Mackenzie dryly
remarks that all ihe influences brought to bear upon Mr
Brown failed to convince him that the circumstances would
justify him in accepting the title " which some men are so
anxious to obtain and honor so little." What Mr. Holton
thought about " ihe knighthood business " may be seen in the
following extract from a letter written by him to Mr. Mac
kenzie in 1879 :
" John A. has jockeyed us as usual in the knighthood business. I am
delighted that Brown refused peremptorily. It was little short of an
affront to make him the offer under the circumstances. He is undoubtedly
the foremost figure in public life in this country, and if he were to be
oiFered any mark of distinction, it should not have been second to any
other conferred on a Canadian. But a petty knighthood with a crowd of
nobodies, or worse, at this time of day, would have been anything but a
Compliment. Besides, it would have been difficult to show that he had
not accepted it from John A."
Mr. Mackenzie was anxious not io be misunderstood either
in declining on his own behalf, or in resisting backstairs
influence used by and on behalf of others — mostly, as may
well be supposed in such a matter as this, of those of the
opposite political faith. Thus he writes : " I should not like it
io be thought that I am narrow or small in the consideration
of such things. My repeated recommendations of political

THE OFFERS OF A TITLE. 561
opponents for Imperial missions, such as Col. Gzowski for
British Columbia, Mr. Howland for ihe Bay Verte Commission,
Sir Alexander Gait for the Fisheries Commission, and latterly
Sir Francis Hincks for the Boundary Commission, will, I have
no doubt, relieve me from such a reproach."
To complete this part of the narrative, the following letter
from His Excellency the Marquis of Lome, is given by per
mission. It shows that the honor of a title was pressed upon
Mr. Mackenzie a second and a third time :
" Government House, Ottawa, April 26, 1881.
"My Dear Mr. Mackenzie, — On a former occasion I expressed the
hope that you would allow me to ask Her Majesty to confer a mark of honor
upon you, and you told me that there were circumstances of a private
nature which induced you to decline my proposal at that time. You
will, I know, not take it ill that I wish to repeat my request, and to men
tion the reasons why it is that I trust you will now consent.
"A large private fortune is, in this country, possessed by, I may say, no
public man, and any Title cannot in any sense be said to be 'supported'
(as the phrase runs in England) by any qualification other than the part
which has been borne in public life by the bearer. The dignity here,
being personal, and not hereditary, can only be the recognition by the
Sovereign of the position occupied by a man amongst his fellow country
men, and is thus only a recognition by the First and abiding Representa
tive of the people, of that people's election.
" I need not say, what all feel, that a proper regulation of honors is
better than the wholesale appropriation of them so conspicuously seen in
the United States, the assumption of distinguishing titles there being the
result of the impossibility of a Party-Head, such as a President, becoming
the impart;ial channel for the rendering on the part of the nation of
honors where they are due to leaders of both political camps.
"Our people have never broken with the custom that men should be so
honored, and I think you will agree that it is not to one political party
alone that such appointments should be made. I am desirous to have
very few men designated for titles in Canada, but that these should be
indubitably men who have been raised by their party to foremost places.
JJ

562 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
"Although you may be disposed to take some exception to my pleading
for this custom of our people, I am perfectly certain that you alone of all
men in Canada, no matter to what party they belong, will disagree with
me if you would remove yourself from the number of those whom they
would wish to see distinguished by the Sovereign. It is because I know
it would be universally approved that I ask you to let me forward my
request to Her Majesty that you become my brother in knighthood.
' ' Besides the satisfaction your acquiescence would give to young
members of the Order, I should like to remind you how gladly Lord
Dufferin and older friends of yours in Scotland would hear that you had
accepted ai^ Honor from the Queen.
" Believe me, yours sincerely, " LORNE.
" The Hon. Alexander Mackenzie, M.P."
Mr. Mackenzie replied on the 30th that he felt deeply
gratified for His Excellency's very kind expression regarding
his position in Canada, and also for affording him another
opportunity of having his name submitted to Her Majesty
for some mark of the Royal favor. Although when the letter
reached him he had not changed his mind on the subject, he
felt it due to His Excellency that he should again fully and
carefully consider ihe proposition before replying, and for this
reason he had delayed writing for a few days. After giving
the subject the fullest thought, he still remained convinced that
he should not accept the distinction ofl'ered, flattering though
he felt it to be.
In a letter of the 4th of August, 1875, to Mr. Mackenzie, in
Scotland, inviting him to Clandeboye, Lord Dufferin, referring
to candidates for honors, said : "I think if you could arrange for
a few scientific and professional men, unconnected with politics,
to receive these distinctions, it would be good policy. What we
have to fight against in a new country like Canada is to pre
vent mere wealth being the sole title to social consideration,
and this is best done by rewarding intellectual merit"

CHAPTER XXXVL

FROM OCEAN TO OCEAN.
The Winter of 1880-1— Beginning of His Illness— His Appearance in His
Prime— What He Says About Himself— The Canadian Pacific Railway—
The Government Policy — Policy of the Mackenzie Government — Offers of
the Two Companies — Mr. Mackenzie's Fight Against Monopoly — The Con
tract Carried — How the Company Have Fulfilled their Obligations.
.HE mysterious illness which had been Insldlou.sly
for many months undermining Mr. Mackenzie's
constitution, produced serious weakening effects
in the winter of 1880-1. He continued, however,
until the very last session preceding his death, io at
tend to his Parliamentary duties, invariably feeling
better in health in Ottawa than anywhere else, except, per
haps, on his Perthshire hills. As he stood before us in his
prime, we saw a figure of medium height, well-proportioned,
yet tending towards slenderness of build, but wiry and tough
of fibre and alert and lithe in movement, with a fine head well
poised, a noble forehead, fair hair, large blue eyes that have a
facility for reading character, bui that, beaming with kind
ness, honest men can trust ; a nose, the feature which in almost
every face is ihe evidence of power, or the lack of it, long
and aquiline ; a firm but mobile mouth, around whose lines a
little sternness is ever struggling wiih a larger fund of mirth —
a strong, vigorous, well-trained and well-disciplined man, who
will undertake whatever work, of whatever kind, his hand
may find to do, and will do it with his might. "He possesses,
563

564 LIFE OF TIIE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
with many gifts, the often rarer gift of the power to use
them." But now, at the age of nearly 59, a constitutional flaw — a
strain of weakness — has manifested itself in this well-con
structed and seemingly absolutely perfect framework. Mr
Mackenzie thus speaks of it in a letter to his former secretary,
written from Ottawa, on January 26th, 1881 :
" I kept on my feet as long as I could stand. For months I felt some
thing continuously wrong, and when I came here two doctors examined
me thoroughly. A specialist in Montreal afterwards did the same. Each
agreed that all the vital organs were sound, but said that I had for years
over-exerted a not overstrong frame, indisposing it to resist attacks. "
And then, after describing the malaAse from fever whicli
came upon him during the previous summer, he says :
"I have sufficiently recovered to be able to rise from bed, and am now
writing my first letter. It takes quite an effort to walk through the house,
but I have a feeling of hopefulness that I have got down to hard pan wherj
a sound foundation can be laid ; that is, as sound as can be hoped for at
the age of 58 yean."
The following is an extract from a letter to Hon. James
Young, Gait, at whose house he was often a visitor, written
about the same time :
" I was very unwilling to own myself beat, but at last had to do so
and abstain from work. I have not felt right for over a year, never
sleeping well, never hungry, and often sick, but during all December I
got so much worse that I had to obtain the best medical assistance. Three
weeks of active treatment has resulted in some improvement. The im
mediate cause of the illness seems to have been malarial poison in the
system, but there was a lack of strength to resist the attack, which I had
¦ felt gradually stealing over me since 1878. I lost in that time 22 lbs. in
weight, and had hard work sometimes in keeping even the spirit up to
the mark. There is no organic disease of any sort, but I am like the ox

FROM. OCEAN TO OCEAN. 553
in the story of that animal of which poor D'Arcy McGee used to tell, ' a
kind o' gien out.' The doctors say I must go away as soon as possible for
two months. If I feel well enough I will be off after the session on a
visit to Sitting Bull, the Mormons, Turks, or that minor African king,
who is now making so much bother, with tho unpronouncable name, and
try to restore my fighting weight and keep intact my moral constitution."
In another note io his secretary, of March 5th, 1881, he still
speaks despondingly of the vis inertice. " I am afraid that
my usefulness is gone for this session. I will, however, stay
until the middle of the month, in the hope that I may be of
some service yet with the estimates. I cannot tell you how
galling it is to me, accustomed as I have always been to a
stirring life, to be forced hy sheer weakness to abstain from
active eff'ort"
To Mr. James Young, also, he wrote expressing regret that
he was not " in good fighting condition, " if only for the sake
of being able to take his part in ihe debate on " the Pacific
Railway Iniquity," on which, he said, " every Tory is ready io
damn himself, in order io uphold Sir John. Not ten men,"
he added, " outside of the Ministry approved of the bill, but
they all swallowed it with a wry face. "
The letter, from which we have quoted, to Mr. Young was
written at the close of the prolonged Parliamentary struggle
ill ihe mid-winter of 1880-1 against the proposals of the new
Goverhincnt for ihe construction of the Canadian Pacific
Railway. ' But to understand the ministerial policy from its
inception, we must go back to the session of 1879, when Sir
Charles Tupper, as Minister of Public Works, brought in a
series of resolutions embodying their views on this question.
These resolutions declared ihe selection of the Burrard
Inlet route premature, although it was the route adopted in
the end, and asserted that before beginning the work in

566 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
British Columbia, further explorations were necessary. For
ihe construction of the road, an appropriation was made of
one hundred millions of acres of land.
There were subsequently grave departures from ihe course
of the previous Government, such as the change of the Lake
Superior terminus from the mouth of the Kaminlstiqua river ;
the deflection of the line from the narrows of Lake Manitoba
to the south of that lake ; and the adoption of a route nearer
the 49th parallel of latitude. These changes cannot be called
improvements ; time is surely vindicating the wisdom of Mr.
Mackenzie's policy.
On concurrence in ihe resolutions, Mr. Mackenzie moved an
amendment reciting the agreements made at various times to
commence construction within two years from the date of the
union with Briiish Columbia, and to complete ihe road within
ten years of ihe date of such union, but stating that there was
to be no increase for that purpose in the rates of taxation that
existed in 1876. The amendment was negatived, as was also
an amendment declaratory of the advantages of ihe Thomp
son and Lower Fraser routes over ihe Bute Inlet route.
On the question of a ratification of a contract, In 1880, for
the construction of 100 miles of tho road, commencing near
ihe western boundary of Manitoba, Mr. Blake moved that ihe
public interests required that the work in British Columbia
should be postponed. This, on the 20th of April, was negatived^
by 49 to 131.
A resolution was also lost, declaring thai ihe one hundred
million acres of land for ihe construction of the road should
be selected and reserved by order-in-council and sold.
On the 21st of October, 1880, the Government entered into
a contract with Sir George Stephen and his associates for
building the road, and Parliament was summoned on the 9th

FROM OCEAN TO OCEAN. 567
of December of that year, two months in advance of the
usual time, for ihe purpose of its ratification. Next day. Sir
John A. Macdonald laid the contract on ihe table of the
House. Mr. Mackenzie moved on the 13th of December for a return
of other off"ers made for the work, which Sir John refusing,
Mr. Mackenzie divided the House on the question, character
ising the attempt as one to forestall public opinion and pre
vent iis expression. The vote was 112 to 52.
The contract provided for ihe completion of ihe undertak
ing on or before the 1st of May, 1891. The consideration to
be given embraced 25,000,000 acres of land, a subsidy in
money of $25,000,000 to the Lake Superior section, those por
tions of the British Columbia section between Kamloops a£id
Port Moody, and the sixty -five miles of road from Winnipeg
southward io ihe boundary of ihe United States, known as
the Winnipeg branch, the lands required for ihe roadbed,
stations, station grounds, workshops and other purposes of the
main lines and the branch lines, the admission free of duty of
all material needed for ihe road and telegraph lines, the right
to locate ihe line where ihe company saw fit, preserving cer
tain terminal points, ihe right to lay out and maintain branch
roads, ihe exemption for ever from municipal, provincial and
dominion taxation of ihe company's lands and all other pro
perty, and for twenty years no line of railway was " to be
constructed south of the Canadian Pacific Railway, from any
given point, at or near the Canadian Pacific Railway, except
such line as shall run south-west, or to the westward of south
west ; nor to within fifteen miles of latitude 49."
The debate on ihe resolutions and on ihe bill founded there
upon commenced on the 14th of December, 1880, and continued
every day during the sittings of Parliament for a period of

568 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
six weeks. Illness prevented Mr. Mackenzie from taking part
in the debate until the 12th of January, 1881. He then ad
dressed the House at some length.
" It has been to me, sir," he commenced, by saying, " a matter of deep
regret that, from indisposition, I have not been able up to this time to
take a part in one of the most important discussions, if not the most im
portant of all the discussions, which has taken place in Parliament since
I have had the honor of a seat here. I have observed, sir, that during
my enforced silence some of my opponents, in the press and at pubhc
meetings, have ventured the expression of an opinion that I was afraid
to meet the redoubtable warriors on the other side of the House. I think
that after twenty sessions of Parliament, in which I never failed to have
the courage of my convictions, or to take my full share in public life, it
might have been taken for granted that, whatever happened, I should at
least not be afraid to meet my opponents in debate. There is one thing,
sir, I admit I am afraid of ; I am always afraid — I have never had the
courage — to misrepresent the opinions of my opponents, or misquote
their speeches."
He particularly complained of the unfairness of Sir Charles
Tupper, being reminded by him of what was said of an Eng
lish statesman : " Nature designed him in her rage
To be the Grafton of his age ;
But after using all the sin.
Forgot to put the virtues in."
Mr. Mackenzie referred to the very active interest he had
taken in support of the Liberal party before he entered politi
cal life, in rescuing the North-West from the hands of the
Hudson's Bay Company at a time when it was the policy
of several gentlemen, " as ii was that of the leader of the
Tory party in Canada, Sir Edmund Head," to make the
country appear worthless, and io oppose all eff"ort3 io obtain a
righteous settlement The obligations regarding the railway

FROM OCEAN TO OCEAN. 569
imposed upon him as a Minister and as a member of Parlia
ment, he had faithfully observed so far as he was able, with
ihe means the nation placed at his command, to carry these
obligations practically into eflFect by legislation. In pursuance
of that policy he was almost unanimously opposed in the
House by ihe Conservative members. This contract was said
to be not in the nature of a monopoly, notwithstanding that
the Act provided a special reserve of fifteen miles along the
' entire boundary of the Dominion, where no hostile company
could place a rail. The Minister of Railways said there was
a way io evade the monopolists ; it was io carry the wheat of
the country down by the route of the Nelson river and ship
it through the Hudson's Bay to England. The honorable
gentleman was far too modest. He should have remembered
thai there was another way of escape — by the Mackenzie
river, and it was said that the Arctic ocean round Behring's
straits was open for as long as three weeks in the year.
Comparing the present land grant with thai proposed by his
own Act of 1874, he pointed out, as he had done on the reso
lutions of 1879, that only one-third of 20,000 acres of land
per mile was to pass into the hands of the contractors abso
lutely ; the other two-thirds of ihe land being retained to be
dealt with by the Government of the day, and the proceeds
of the sales paid over io ihe company, and instead of a cash
subsidy of $25,000,000, there was to be a grant of $10,000 per
mile. The cost of the works already constructed and in pro
cess of construction by the Government — In pursuance of their
policy for the early settlement of the country — between Lake
Superior and the Red River and Pembina and Selkirk was
to be deducted from ihe amount of the mileage grant Here,
on the contrary, was a bargain, which, by their own showing,
involved an expenditure of $53,000,000. Then, the 25,000,000-

570 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
^cres of lands were selected lands, and those the honorable
gentleman himself placed in 1875 at $5 per acre. Another
feature which struck him with astonishment was the secresy
observed. Was the thing so good that they were afraid of a
multitude of offers if they published the terms ? Why afraid
of Parliament ? Why afraid of the people ?
Mr. Mackenzie was very severe on ihe fifteen mile reserve
on either side of the road. " The syndicate," he said, " are
able to make connection with United States roads wherever
they please. There is no hindrance to them. I am prepared
to discuss the principle, that no Canadian road should have
any connection with any road in ihe United States. I am
prepared io discuss this phase of know-nothingism, this phase
of protectionism, this phase of international stupidity, if it is
brought before us in a proper shape. Bui I am not prepared,
because I cannot conceive why it is so, to discuss the question
why a certain body of men should be privileged to make the
•connection, and all others refused. Why is ibis ? There must
be a reason. What is the reason ? Why has Parliament not
been favored with the reason ? Are hon. gentlemen afraid
io take Parliament into their confidence, or do they believe
that in this Parliament they are able to carry any measure
they like, no matter how repugnant it may be io common
sense and morality ? "
While the debate was proceeding, a new oflFer was made ou
the 14th of January, for the construction and operation of
the work by a strong syndicate, with Sir W. P. Howland at
its head, and three days afterwards Sir Charles Tuppei-
brought the proposal down to the House. The conditions were
much more favorable than those embodied in the contract
Twenty-two millions of dollars, and twenty-two millions of
acres were substituted for the twenty -five millions of doUai's

FROM OCEAN TO OCEAN. 571
and ihe twenty-five millions of acres, and large reductions were
made in ihe tender in respect of the railway works then in pro
gress, with a practical abandonment of all the monopoly fea
tures, and no claim for remission of duties. The sum of $1,-
400,000, was deposited with the banks, as earnest for the one
million of deposit by way of security for the due fulfilment
of the contract
On the 18th of January, Mr. Blake moved a very elaborate
amendment io Sir Charles Tupper's resolutions, reciting the
changes of policy on the part of the Government on this
question, the grave departures of the terms of the contract
from ihe Canadian Pacific Railway Act, and the far more fav
orable conditions of the Howland Company ; concluding with
ihe assertion : " thai it is not In ihe public interest that ihe
contract, according to the terms of which ihe $25,000,000, and
25,000,000, acres are purposed to be granted, should be leg
alised." In accordance with the resolution of Sir John A.
Macdonald, on 7ih January, the debate proceeded thereafter,
de die in dievi, and on a vote being taken upon Mr. Blake's
amendment, on ihe morning of the 26th of January, it was
negatived by 140 to 54.
Dozens of pages of the journals were filled with divisions on
every kind of amendment, and a whole volume of Hansard
was occupied with the speeches, before ihe fight ended on 1st
of February, when the measure of the Government was passed
by a vote of 128 io 49.
Whatever may be said of the extraordinary nature of the
privileges conferred upon the company, we must admire the
wonderful energy they brought to bear in the prosecution of
their vast undertaking, which they completed so early as the
autumn of 1885. Mr. Mackenzie had feared thai the road
might be degraded into an inferior line — an apprehension

572 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
which happily was not realised, the railway, both in point of
stability of construction and excellence of management, being
among the best, as It is one of the greatest in the world. The
company have established lines and connections throughout
ihe older portions of Canada and in ihe United States, and
have magnificent steamboats of their own oil the upper lakes
and between the western terminus of ihe road and ihe orient,
and they have in contemplation a line io span ihe Atlantic as
well. After a few years, there was a relaxation of the fifteen-
mile limitation. Further, it must in justice be said, that the
railway service in the North- W^est is marked by great eflS-
ciency. It is pleasant io know that, in the discharge of duty, the .
severe criticism by Mr. Mackenzie of ihe concessions of ihe
Government weakened in no manner whatever ihe feelings of
personal friendship and esteem which had long been main
tained between him and ihe leading members of the Canadian
Pacific Railway Company, and which continued until Mr. Mac
kenzie's death.

CHAPTER XXXVIL

GOES TO EUROPE.
His Opinion of Thomas Carlyle— Starched Faces— Husband and Wife— Car.
lyle's Philosophy = What Is It?— Goes to Europe— Paris— How to Make
Oneself Understood — In Switzerland — Mountain Scenery — Return to
England — The House of Commons — John Bright— In Scotland- The Free
dom of Inverness — The Familiar Scenes — Describes Edinburgh — Climbing
Mountains — Schichallion " By Telescope " — Glasgow — Glencoe — John
O'Groat's — Culloden — Professor Blackie — Back in Canada — The lories Again
in Luck — Offer of Trusteeship Declined — The Reductio ad Absurdum of
Independence. J HEN Mr. Mackenzie returned to Toronto at the
close of the session of 1881 his correspondent
thought he would try him with a bit of Carlyle,
so he sent him a copy of the life by Froude,
then recently published. He was curious to learn
what one Scotchman who had risen from lowliness to
eminence thought of a contemporaneous countryman, very
similar in his life's circumstances, and with many of the same
mental characteristics. The ever-growing school of Carlyle's
disciples may be interested, as the writer was, in reading
Mr. Mackenzie's estimate of their philosopher in domesticity,
as pourtrayed by Carlyle himself in the pages of his quite
too candid friend and biographer. This is his reply :
" Toronto, April 4, 1881.
" Mt Dear Buckingham, — I received your letter, and also ' Carlyle.'
I read him, but I cannot say with great admiration. He and his father
were too much inclined to worship themselves individually, and each
573

574 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
other. I don't like men who keep their faces stiffly starched in their
own families, and assume a sternness that is not human. Carlyle is very
censorious as respects every one but his own relatives. There never was
such a woman before or since as ' his Goodie,' his ' Jane,' his ' Jeannie
mine.' I suspected when reading what he here says about her, that he
showed a good deal of his griraness to her while she lived with him, and
that now since he had lost her he was striving to make amends by play
ing the part of weeping philosopher behind her monument. And to-day
I see Mrs. Oliphant states that this really is the case. But I always
liked the terseness of Carlyle's style and the directness and force of his
reasoning. His manners, of course, were not always of the best, as wit
ness his rudeness to a visitor to his own house whose views he did not
like : ' Man, you're a puir creetur ; a meeserable puir creetur.'
" James Carlyle and his son Thomas were types of the stern — always
stern — covenanters, who believed it a mortal sin to kiss one's sweet
heart, or even one's wedded wife, ou Sunday ; who only saw the Judg
ment Seat, never the Redeemer ; who looked to Mount Sinai, not to the
Mount of Olives. Noble men in their way, but who could be improved
upon very much. And then Carlyle's philosophy — what of it 1 — what
was it ?
" I enjoyed very much his sketch of the great critic, Jeffrey.
" 1 am ever, yours faithfully, "A. Mackenzie."
Mr. Mackenzie's criticism Is now generally acknowledged to
be truthful of Carlyle in what may be called one of his for
bidding aspects, but there is certainly another side to a pic
ture whose exquisitely firm and beautiful touches are to be
admired in all Carlyle's works, and especially so in his French
Revolution. Trevelyan regretted that even Macaulay should
never have cared for Carlyle — should never have tasted of the
pleasures growing out of ihe description he gives of Cole
ridge's talk. In the " Life of John Sterling ; " a regret we
fear we must feel for a man much less widely read, of course,
than Lord Macaulay, but still a man so very widely read as
Alexander Mackenzie.

GOES TO EUROPE. 57.'>
About the same time Mr. Mackenzie wrote : " I have felt
better this last week, but still symptoms remain which I do
not like. In consequence I have concluded to take a run to
Europe, where there will be a complete change of air, and
climate io suit by moving south or north. Mrs. Mackenzie
goes with me. Won't you go too ? Our kind regards to you
and all your family, and in case I do not see you again before
we leave, I will also say good-bye."
Accordingly, ihe next letter is from Paris, and bears the
date of May 31, 1881 :
" My Deab BucKiNGH.4jyi, — I know it will interest you to hear from us
while we are in Europe, and I shall have much pleasure in writing to you
from time to time. We had an exceptionally good voyage, and of course
we reached London to find rain. Consequently we came to Paris tO'
enjoy the sunny climate. We arrived here on the 20th, and leave to
morrow or the day after for Geneva. We will spend three days in Swit
zerland and two in Brussels, reaching London about 10th June, and
Edinburgh about 18th — and then for the heather for six good weeks ! . . .
"France seems prosperous. The Hepublic, like the Empire, 'is peace,'
but Gambetta is as much dictator as was Napoleon. The city and weather
are alike delightful. I walk aU I can, then ride — mostly on the top of
the omnibuses, the best way to see the city. I vary my pleasures now
and then by a row with a cabman. My French vocabulary is neither
large nor select, but what I have I freely use. I know some powerful
adjectives and nouns, but being in the minority, and therefore weak, I
cannot always reheve my mind. When utterly perplexed, I sometimes
try the Gaelic, especially as I can express myself in the original with
greater force and freedom, and without offence.
" The language of signs is very useful to those who can talk, as well as
to those who are dumb. Yesterday I had an intelligent cabby for two
or three hours. He had not one word of English, but we kept up a
most interesting conversation, nevertheless. He showed me all the ob
jects of interest, and made me understand what they were. But we both
stuck at the mint, until, at last, he took out of his pocket a coin, pointed
to it, and then to the building. In turn, I went through the pantomime

576 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
of stamping money, and showed him my stock of gold, silver and copper.
He shouted, ' oui, oui,' delighted to know that he had succeeded in im
parting useful information.
"Mrs. Mackenzie joins me in sending you both all good wishes, and
trusting you are well, I am, "Ever faithfully yours, "A. Mackenzie."
This is part of a letter from Mr. Mackenzie to his brother
Robert, dated : " Inteklaken, June 3rd, 1881.
" We are here in the very centre of the Switzerland and the Bernese
Alps, a position of inconceivable grandeur. Interlaken is a little like
Dunkeld. If the latter had a hill at Murthly, and it, as well as Birnam,
Craig- Vinean, and Craigie-y-Barns, were five times their present height,
with the Tay as a lake twelve miles by three wide, it would resemble In
terlaken. We drove out to-day to Grindelwald, fifteen miles. The drive
was exhilarating for its grandeur. The lower hills were clad with wood,
spruce mainly, but the tops were bare of woods of all kinds, with more or
less snow. Now and then we got glimpses of the Jungfrau, Wetterhom,
Straushorn, Matterhorn, and other mountains, all clad with deep snow,
glistening in the bright sunshine. The whole way out was seemingly by
a grand pass made for a road. You can imagine Killiecrankie multiplied
fifty times, and you would not exaggerate the proportions. One of the
Free Church ministers we met at Paris said he was six days at Geneva
and Ohamouny waiting to get a look at Mount Blanc, and never got it ;
the surly beggar, he said, kept on his night- cap and great coat tbe whole
time. We were more fortunate. We saw this monarch of mountains all
the time we were in Geneva, and on our way to Lausanne, as well as his
associates in that Alpine range."
Here is a portion of another letter to Mr. Buckingham from
London, June 14th, 1881 :
" We have now got back to London after a tour of Switzerland, Prussia,
Baden and Belgium. I am certainly in a general sense better. True, my
strength has not returned, as I had hoped, but I am, I dare say, a httle
impatient. (I wish some one would confound this pen). We had ten days

¦GOES TO EUROPE. 577
in Paris (this a better pen), two days in Geneva, the cradle of Calvinism,
some hours in Berne, two days in Interlaken, viewing the mountains and
glaciers, and one day, between the towns of Lucerne and Interlaken,
crossing what is called the Briinig Pass.
"Wo had a grand sight of many prominent points, ascending the
mountain face, zig-zag ways, and looking into the valley below. Our five-
horse team went up slowly and well, but the rascal who was driving
dashed down an awfully unprotected road as if Satan were after him, as he
probably was. I admit I was myself a little nervous at times, looking from
my top seat down a perpendicular rock or bank for many hundreds of
feet. We went from Lucerne to see the sun rise on the mountain tops of
the Rigi. A railway ascends the hill, rising 1000 feet to the mile. I wanted,
as time was short and the evening wet, to pass this, but Mrs. Mackenzie
seemed strangely determined to go up — and up we went. Of course,
we soon had a great view beneath our feet, and we passed along some
really frightful places where a very little movement would have sent us
head foremost into valleys and gorges seemingly without a bottom. Mrs.
Mackenzie slept none that night, as she had to traverse the same road in
the morning, and she informed me she was more than satisfied I Discom
fort added to our apprehensions, the fine Summit Hotel being extremely
cold, as seven inches of snow had fallen during this June night, and the
morning on the mountains looked as if the sun would rise no more.
" From there we went to Zurich, thence to Shaufhausen, Basle, Heidel
berg, Mayence, Cologne, and Brussels, and from there to Ostend and
Dover, where we spent Sunday, and heard an English preacher speak of
' the sparrows that skim through our Tiair ! ' I will tell you more of our
tourist experience and refiections some night when you come to Toronto.
We leave for Scotland on Friday.
"I was in the House of Commons last night, and witnessed some hours
wasted in verbal criticism on the land bill — criticism so small that I won
dered at Mr. Gladstone's patience. The conduct of the obstructionists
was scandalous in the extreme. We would never stand it at all in Ottawa.
I talked with John Bright, whom I found not so enthusiastic as he used to
be about the^ause of Ireland. " Yours faithfully, "A. Mackenzie."
KK

578 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
He was among the old haunts later in the month, climbing
the hills, but still physically weak. He writes from Dunkeld
on the 26th June :
' ' I got to this old Roman Catholic Cathedral town on Friday. Already
I have climbed some of the beautiful hills, and visited all the famUiai
scenes of my boyhood days. So far I have met but one of my former
schoolfellows. Nearly every one of my near relatives is gone ; so that,
while enjoying the scenery, it is associated with a feeling of sadness
which I cannot shake off. I cannot say my strength is much greater than
when I left home."
Towards the close of July they went north to Wick and to
Inverness, where the freedom of the Roj^al Burgh, the capital
of the Highlands, was conferred upon Mr. Mackenzie, and at
the same time a handsomely-bound book of beautifully photo
graphed Scottish scenery, embellished with ihe borough arms,
was presented to Mrs. Mackenzie, accompanied by ihe follow
ing pleasant little note :
' ' From the Provost, Magistrates and Town Council of Inverness to
Mrs. Alexander Mackenzie, on the occasion of the presentation of the
freedom of the Royal Burgh of Inverness to her husband, the Honorable
Alexander Mackenzie, ex-Premier of Canada, as a small memento of
their visit to the capital of the Highlands. " Alex. Fbasek, Provost.
" Town Hall, Inverness, 29th July, 1881. "«
There are several interesting gossipy letters from Mr. Mac
kenzie to his brothers, written while he was in Scotland,
mainly descriptive of the old familiar places and persons. He
was very indignant at the tyranny which was stiU exercised
by the landed interest against the tenants, on political grounds,
and gave instances of it where refusals had been made to
re-lease to good Liberal holders ; compliant Tory voters hav
ing been preferred, even at a loss in rents, in one case of as

GOES TO EUROPE. 579
much as £40 per annum. The correspondence In the news
papers, he said, gave evidence of a not-distant struggle for a
Scottish land bill. He observed, too, in some religious circles,
much continued bitterness towards the Free Church.
In a letter to his brother Charles there is one of the many
pleasant glimpses which his correspondence gives of Edin
burgh :
"We are lodged in the splendid house of our kind host and hostess on
the margin of Arthur's Seat. Though we see only the hill, on looking out
at the window, yet we are close to the populous city. No place we have
seen will for a moment compare with Edinburgh for natural beauty, chaste
architecture, wide streets, or places of resort for the people. Paris has its
grand park, the Bois de Boulogne, but it is miles away from the city popu
lation. It has also its Tuileries, and Elys^e Gardens and Luxembourg,
but Arthur's Seat has more natural beauty than all combined. And be
sides being close at hand, you can get good walks either high or low. The
view from every point is marvellous in its picturesqueness. Mr.  and
I went out after dinner last night, and walked on the hill nearly two hours .
It was swarming with human beings, but room remained for thousands
more. The sweet Scottish dialect was heard on every side. We passed
the well Scott immortalised in his ' Heart of Mid Lothian ' as the tryst-
ing place. Mr.  told me that he took Henry Ward Beecher to the
top, having exacted a promise that he would not look up until told to do
so. When they got to the right place, the sun burst out from the clouds
and lighted up the whole city. Beecher was in raptures. He raised both
hands, exclaiming : ' Magnificent queen of cities !' He also took him to
KJnox's house. When about to write his name in the visitors' book, no
chair was to be found, and as the table was low, he knelt down to it. He
rose, and while brushing off the dust, he said : ' Well, Knox is the only
man I would go on my knees to. ' While many of the great English cities
are chiefly hives of human beings, quartered in rows of poor brick houses,
seemingly built by the mile for temporary occupancy, Edinburgh is buUt
of stone— ^nearly all cut stone — and looks as if designed to last for ever.
Except Princes-street, Edinburgh, there are finer streets than any here
in Brussels and Paris ; but these cities are disfigured by many very nar-

580 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
row thoroughfares, while in this city the streets are nearly all wide and
handsome. London, Brussels and Paris have no sea view ; last night I
saw here the whole Forth well up to Stirling on one side to the Bass Rock,
and Berwick on the other, forming a magnificent frame work for the grand
old city, while the view landward for some miles is the perfection of land
scape. The Palais of .Justice at Brussels is finer than anything here.
Paris has two buildings, the beautiful Madeleine Church and the Opera
House, which this city cannot match. London has the Parliament buUd
ings and many others equal to anything in Edinburgh, but not any better.
Paris and Brussels are not smoky, like London and Edinburgh. London,
in this respect is, of course, the worst. The new English Cathedral here
is a grand building."
From Pitlochry he wrote to Charles :
" It seems Ann Sorimgeour was 80 when she died, or as Sandy (her son)
put it, 'only 80.'
" We climbed Schichallion, but, like Mark Twain, 'by telescope.' Il
rains every day as regularly as possible, but in detached showers. Some
times it comes from Strathtay, sometimes from Blair, and sometimes from
the South. From Ren-Vrackie's summit we could see four distinct show
ers going on at once — one from the sides of Ben-y-Gloe. down Strathardle ;
one in Glengarry ; one in Strath Tummel, and one in Strathtay. We
were all the time dry and in sunshine. The people here (Pitlochry) sym
pathised with us on account of the rain, not knowing that we were above
the clouds looking down upon the drenched districts."
To ihe same, from Glasgow, Aug. 7th :
" We arrived in this begrimed city on Tuesday evening. On that morn
ing we left Ballachulish and drove through Glencoe. Glencoe is a gloomy,
narrow glen. We had a bright, sunny day, but even with that, the deso
late look of the valley was all but depressing. The mountains are grand,
almost awful. We passed the ruins of the Macdonald's houses, which
were thrown down after the massacre of Glencoe. The driver pointed out
the house, or rather the ruins, of the brave and chivalrous chief, Mclan.
(The Englishman on the coach made a syllable of the I, and laid the em
phasis on it, sounding it Mac I an). I recalled all the incidents of that
shocking crime, and many of the succeeding evictions during the next cen-

GOES TO EUROPE. 581
tury, and wondered at the patience of the suffering people. The treat
ment was worse than anything that happened in Ireland. We had already
seen Fingal's Cave, in Staffa. We now found in this valley Ossian's Cave
and his shower bath. The latter is a pretty waterfall, some thousand feet
up the hillside ; the cave is at least two thousand feet up, with a large
open door, probably thirty feet high. Three of the mountains stand here
together, each with a tremendous, frowning, precipitous rocky face. They
are called ' The Sisters.' It needed no effort of the imagination to pic
ture in them the three witches in the weird scene of Macbeth, and the
valley itself as the cauldron in which they stirred their hell broth. The
road constantly ascended, but sometimes so quickly that the passengers
had to walk, so as to relieve our four good horses, until we reached an al
titude of one thousand six hundred feet, at about thirty miles from Bal
lachulish. In these thirty miles we saw — two houses 1 — one of them an
inn, where horses were kept to change teams. The hills of Glenorchy and
t
Glenlyon, so far as we could see them, are the most shapely we have met
with ; green to the top, and very steep, but no precipices. About ten
mUes from Tyndrum we came upon a few buildings. One of them was a
Free Churoh edifice, about eighteen by thirty at the outside, built of cor
rugated iron. Another was the Established Church, a stone structure,
with one window in the walls and two sky-lights on the side next to us.
The Tyndrum innkeeper told us we were the first party that got the ride
this season without rain.
" Glasgow is the most dirty city with soot to be found on the face ot
the earth. The atmosphere is laden with it, dry or wet. One sees noth
ing but oceans of smoke. There are many fine buildings here, but the
finest architectural work in the city is ruined in appearance by the sooty
incrustations, which hide alike mouldings and foliage. One cannot breathe
in the streets without coating stomach and lungs with soot. Mr. 
declares that even at his place, if he expectorates, it seems as if he had
drunk ink.
" If One, to get rid of the atmosphere, looks at the water, the improve
ment is not apparent. The Clyde is most offensive. When I worked here,
42 years ago, the Kelvin was a pretty little river ; now it is as bad as the
Clyde. Then it was a charming rural district ; now the city extends a
mUe beyond it down the river.
" Now, let me say with Paul : 'See how large a letter I have written
with my own hand,' and conclude."

582 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
The visit to Scotland was beneficial towards the last, and
was attended with temporary relief. Writing to his former
secretary on Sept. 7th, after his return to Toronto, he says:
" Thanks for your ' welcome home.' I gained nearly 20 lbs.
before I left Scotland, and I never lose anything in weight
at sea. I feel as lively and as free from complaint as I ever
did in my life. In Scotland, I kepi as quiet as possible, only
appearing in public at Inverness, at an hour's notice, and very
unwillingly, but I could not avoid it with proper courtesy to
a kind people. I was obliged also, for the same reason, to go
to a few formal dinners at Glasgow a,nd Greenock, but, though
they were semi-public, there were no reporters."
There is a breezy, buoyant, heathery tone in a letter to Mr.
James Young, written at about the same time. He was 33 lbs.
below his normal weight when he left home, but only 15 lbs.
below it when he returned. " We had two full months among
the heather. There is no place in summer days like the
Scottish hills. We went to John O'Groat's house, the north
ern jumping-off place, saw the fishing fleet at Wick, and
visited the battle field at Culloden. I am no Jacobite, but
that field, thickly peopled by the graves of the clans, and
ihe recollections of Cumberland's barbarities to the poor but
loyal Highlanders, roused in my mind a feeling of deep indig
nation towards that brutal man, and of deep sympathy for ihe
devoted but mistaken Celts. The bed the prince lay on the
night before in Culloden House is still there, exactly as it was
on that day. We visited Staff"a and lona, passing . through
the land of Morven, on our way. I believe in Ossian all ihe
more, after seeing that country. Professor Blackie was with
us one of ihe days. The magnificent grey-haired old ftian
said io me : ' Look at these glorious hills ! How could any
one live here, and not be a poet ? ' In passing through the

GOES TO EUROPE. 583
Cameron country, where the prince raised his standard, I saw
one well-peopled churchyard containing none but Camerons.
I don't know where they buried the Christians ! Altogether,
we had a very pleasant time, and a complete rest. "
He was never " down on his luck," as the phrase goes, but
he might be pardoned if he were a trifle envious of the
luck of his rivals. Do or do not two little paragraphs from
a letter of the 23rd of September betray this feeling ? " Be-
tv/een good harvests here in Canada for three years, and very
bad ones in England, these rascals have the deil's own luck.
You never designate that personage, do you, with the dignity
of a capital D ? "
Said Mr. Goldwin Smith at that time in the Bystander:
"The causes of commercial improvement and of the present rise, not
to say inflation, of all stocks and securities, are two good harvests and
the revival of the lumber trade, in connection with the general termina
tion of the crisis in the United States and over the world at large. The
cause is not increased taxation, however skilfully the new taxes may have
been adjusted."
At this same period — several years, of course, after he had
retired from oflBce, and at a time when money which he could
honestly earn was very welcome — Sir George Stephen, with
out consulting him, named him as one of the trustees for the
holders of the land grant bonds of the Canadian Pacific Rail
way, with a fair amount of emolument attached. The motives
of President Stephen and his associates were most delicate and
honorable, and the acceptance of the position involved no sur
render of principle. Mr. Mackenzie, feared, however, that his
future action might be fettered ; that he might be misunder
stood by the country ; that the Liberal party might suffer ;
and he therefore declined.
There is no question that on every moral ground Mr. Mac-

584 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER M.4.CKENi,£E.
kenzie would have been fully justified in accepting this
trusteeship. It was an outside, independent transaction, and
the trust was created for the security of the bondholders
rather than for the benefit of the members of ihe syndicate.
As io ihe way the Liberal party might be aflFected, had not
Mr. Mackenzie sacrificed enough for it already ? Moreover,
ihe quarrel of the Liberals was wiih ihe Government, on their
railway policy, not with the company themselves, and the
company had no control over ihe trustees, once their appoint
ment was made. It was an irrevocable appointment for life,
or during the currency of ihe bonds. The sole object of ihe
syndicate was to secure the services of men in whom the
bondholders would have confidence. They were disappointed
at Mr. Mackenzie's refusal, and said it seemed as though in
their national undertaking they were doomed to be alienated
from every prominent Liberal with whom they had political
or personal friendships. The matter of the propriety of the
thing was not regarded by some other people in the same light
as it appeared to Mr. Mackenzie, for a Minister of ihe Crown
had already signified his acceptance as co-trustee.
His reasons for declining may be learned from the following
extract from a letter : " You will have observed that the
syndicate nominated me as a trustee a few days ago. I do not
think I can accept I will be much obliged if you will tell
me what you think. Morally and legally I have a perfect
right to do so. But is it expedient ? Will ii not be su.spected
that it may affect me, perhaps imperceptibly, in my judgment?
Maj? it not injure my influence, and, through me, our friends ?
Tell me what you think. The honorarium, I believe, is $2,000
per annum. If I could earn that with perfect propriety, I
would not object to such an increase to my income, bui I need
hardly say to you I would not for all the thousands thai could

GOES TO EUROPE. 585-
be oflFered place myself in an equivocal position, in which it
would be possible to impugn my integrity, or through which
ihe standing of ihe Liberal party could be weakened."
He was tried, too, by ihe offer of dignified and lucrative
employment elsewhere than in ihe Dominion, but it was no
temptation io him ; he had given his life and his fortunes ta
Canada. In pursuance of his cherished Independence of spirit, Mr.
Mackenzie was punctilious to an absurd degree. It was the
happiness of himself and Mrs. Mackenzie during his term of
office to celebrate their silver wedding. The I7th of June,
1878, was the anniversary. Nothing was said about it until
the day of days came round, when they gave a small party to-
ihe Mimsters, who happened to be then in town, and to a
very few of their other more intimate friends. Two or three
of ihe invited sent during the day little appropriate presents
with their congratulations. Ridiculous as it may seem, it is
nevertheless true that the gifts gave Mr. Mackenzie real miserj?
for 'a time. He thought that in some way they compromised
him ; thai he could not afterwards be as free as he was before
wiih ihe givers. Perhaps he thought ii an attack upon his
independence. He besought one of ihe number to get the rest
to take ihe presents away, and he treated the matter so seri
ously and sorrowfully and severely that nobody had ihe heart
or the courage to laugh his scruples oui of countenance.
" My evening's enjoyment with a few friends," he wrote, " is utterly
destroyed by the sending of presents. I must beg of you to take your
own back, and ask (naming the delinquents), to do the same. This is th&
greatest favor you can do me. I never felt so mortified in my life. It
looks as if we had got the little evening party up on purpose. Pray let
nothing deter you from yielding to my wishes."
Of course, ihe Individual to whom this imploring request

586 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIH.
was made did nothing of the kind. A little banter was tried
instead, but it was found not to work. The evening passed
ofiT as well as could be expected under such circumstances,
with the contraband goods on the premises, but stowed care
fully out of sight It was thought that the nightmare had
passed away, but it evidently continued to trouble the good
man, for next morning the wretched individual already re
ferred to had at last his dormant conscience pricked by re
ceiving from a departmental messenger an envelope covering
the following : " Mbmokandum.
" I understand the 'donors' last night were (naming the delinquents
again). I told Mrs. Mackenzie to have all the articles wrapped up and
returned, taking it for granted, that as requested, you spoke to them all.
If you missed any, I wish you would write each one a note to say that
while we felt exceedingly obliged for their mindfulness, we, at the same
time, have personal objections to the practice, which compels uato decline
an adherence to it in our own case. " A. M."
All this may seem to the reader to be ihe excess of scrupu
lousness, but it was not in the least degree aff'ected ; it was
very honest and very sincere.

CHAPTER XXXVIIL

THE GREAT GERRYMANDER.
Parliament Dissolved — Mr. Mackenzie Retires from Lambton to Accept East
York — The Canvass — During it He is Stricken Down — Redeems the Riding
— Another Tariff Change — The Great Gerrymander — How the Measure was
Designated in Pariiament — Hiving of the Grits— The Process of Manufac
ture of Tory Constituencies — Officials Superseded as Returning Officers —
Sir John A. Macdonald's Own Arguments Against the Measure — Is the
Principle of Gerrymander Constitutional ? — Power to Canada to Negotiate
Her Own Treaties — " A British Subject I was Born," etc. — Ringing Speech
from Mr. Mackenzie iu Reply— The Flourish of the Flag, and " The Flag
of Common Sense '' — " Wasted Opportunities. "
, HE life of the first Parliament of Sir John A. Mac
donald, after his return to power, was shortened by
a year for the ostensible purpose of reaffirming
the principle of protection. The speech proro
guing Parliament on ihe 17th of May, 1882, was a pro
fession of congratulation on the alleged success of the
N. P. during ihe previous four years, accompanied by ihe ex
pression of a belief that it would be yet more marked could
assurance be given that the trade and fiscal policy was to re
main unchanged. In order to a confirmation of that policy,
and to bring into operation the Representation Bill, which had
been recently passed, prorogation was but the precursor of an
early dissolution. The polling took place on the 20th of June,
1882. The resolution to dissolve did not take the country by sur
prise. It had been very generally reported for a considerable
587

588 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
time previously that such was Sir John A. Macdonald's in
tention. The political forces had therefore buckled on their
armour, and were prepared to take the, field.
Before Parliament assembled in 1882, an invitation had been
given to Mr. Mackenzie to contest East York. A Reform
convention was held at Unionville, on 1st December, 1881,
and was the largest known in the riding. Mr. Mackenzie was
the unanimous choice. He had not then been consulted.
His permanent residence was in Toronto, and he naturally
preferred, as his health was shattered, to sit for a constituency
of which the city he lived in formed a part, io ihe distant
county of Lambton, warmly as he was attached to it for its
earlier home and for its unwavering and generous fidelity. He
therefore decided to accept the invitation from the friends in
East York, who stood by him to the last with a loyalty which
has never been surpassed in political warfare.
On January 30th, the President of ihe East York Associa
tion received Mr. Mackenzie's acceptance; and though the
riding was among ihe constituencies that were shamefully
" gerrymandered " by the Dominion Act, passed in the session
of thai year, so as io secure Mr. Mackenzie's defeat, he won
the seat On the 19th of May he made his first appearance as
a candidate in ihe riding. He was met at W^oburn by the oflS
cers of the association and a great array of his admirers, who
formed a procession and, headed by two bands, marched to
Malvern, where an overflow public meeting was held, the chair
being taken by the late Mr. J. P. Wheler. In reply to an ad
dress of welcome, Mr. Mackenzie delivered a spirited speech,
almost his last, as a few days afterwards he was stricken down
at Gormley's Corners, while canvassing the riding, and never
afterwards fully recovered ihe use of his voice. He closed his
Malvern speech by saying that this was ihe tenth campaign

THE GREAT GERRYMANDER. 58t)
in which he had been engaged. He had never lost an election,
and he did not mean to lose this. And he did not He defeated
his opponent, Mr. Alfred Boultbee, by a majority of 108 votes.
He retained the seat to the day of his death. Among his sup
porters were many of the better class of Conservatives, who
admired him for his honesty and ability, and who rallied io
his standard throughout. He highly appreciated these tokens
of esteem and confidence, which he had won by his upright
conduct. In ihe session of 1882 there was a still further change In
the iariflF, which gave occasion for a review once more of the
protection policy of the Government. We refer to the mat
ter simply in order to make a quotation from the speech of
Sir Richard Cartwright, illustrative of the position to which
ihe country had already been brought. Speaking of the Gov
ernment, he said : " They are, from day to day, interfering
wiih every liberty which we yei continue to possess. They
talk of Canada still being a free country ! Why, sir, I tell
them to-day thai Canada is a country in which no man is free
to buy or to sell, to eat or io drink, to travel or to stand still,
without paying to some extortioner a toll."
When ihe gerrymander bill was being debated in April,
1882, Mr. Mackenzie scathingly criticised the conduct of Sir
John A. Macdonald, for introducing " so villainous a measure,"
declaring that it ought to bring io his cheeks the blush of
shame. He spoke also of the sinister influences at work to
so manipulate ihe electoral districts as to turn them into Tory
preserves, and to rob the people of their liberties. In his
own case, he heard ihe Tory candidate for the riding say
thai ihe municipalities of ihe county had been so arranged
at Ottawa thai neither Mackenzie nor Widdifield would have
the slightest chance of success, and the arrangements described

590 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
were precisely those which were embodied in the bill then
before the House. And it was by such infamous schemes that
ihe Premier proposed to destroy a large political party in his
own Province — he who as head of the Government was sup
posed to administer the affairs of the country with some
regard to fair play, and to respect the interests of the whole
Dominion more than the interests of a portion of it. It was
the duty of Ministers, with their large majority, to pay some
respect to the principles of justice and equality to all classes,,
but instead of this they were the authors of a measure which
could be characterised in no milder language than that it was
a masterpiece of political trickery.
Never did measure more richly deserve the designation.
Mr. Blake called it a cowardly measure — Sir Richard Cart
wright, a dishonest and treacherous measure — Mr. Mills, the
measure of an irresponsible Mexican chief or a lawmaker of
Peru. It was a measure which laid the axe to every principle
lying at the base of the constitution. The Government had
borrowed the Idea, with ihe name by which ihe operation was
designated, from the United States, but had made It more
odious than any gerrymander ever attempted in thai country.
In a great number of ihe constituencies, as they at that time
existed, the votes of the two parties were evenly balanced, only
a few being required to turn the scale to the one side or the
other, so that both parties had what is called a fighting
chance. The bill was framed so as in all possible cases not
only io turn ihe scale of doubtful ridings to the Tory side, but
io make hitherto reasonably safe Reform constituencies secure
for Tory candidates. This was accomplished by what was
known as " hiving the Grits " — throwing into counties which
had already majorities of several hundreds of Reformers,
many hundreds of Reform votes in addition, so as io leave the

l<^M-a'-

Right Hon, Sir John A. Macdonald, G.C.B.

THE GREAT GERRYMANDER. 593
field clear in ihe adjoining counties for Tory nominees. To
effect this, among ihe other purposes of the scheme, county,
riding, township, town and village boundaries were ruthlessly
invaded, municipal lines were broken down In every direction,
communities municipally united were politically torn asunder,
voters who, since they had first received the suflFrage were ac
customed to poll with their friends and associates in business
or in the election of councillors or in school matters, were now
sent across the borders to mingle with those who had hitherto
been strangers to them, and, except at election times, were io
remain so still. The only causes that could be assigned for these
violent and far-extending changes were the necessity to secure
seats for four new members, which the census gave io Ontario,
and to arrange for two readjustments of seats, respectively in
Lincoln and Stormont, making available two members more,
by eliminating the town of Niagara as a separate constituency,
and adding it to Lincoln, and wiping out the town of Corn
wall, in the same manner, and incorporating it with Stormont.
Each one of ihe six members thus to be provided for was
capable of being seated by the minimum of disturbance. But
instead of adopting a simple and just method, a measure was
forced upon the country which Mr. Blake rightly designated
as revolutionary, seeing that it reconstructed the entire poli
tical map of the Province.
To add to ihe iniquity of the bill, it also took out of the
hands of officials of character and standing their functions as
returning officers, so as to enable the Government io place
these important judicial and administrative duties in the
hands of irresponsible partisans of their own choosing, thus
reversing the legislation which was successful after a long and
severe struggle of ihe Mackenzie Government in 1874.
In the various divisions on the measure, the Government
LL

594 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
had their normal vote of over two to one. The Opposition,
through the influences already set in operation against them.
were unable to muster more than a little over 50 votes, and it
was ihe design of this cowardly legislation, at the hands of
a brute majority, to further reduce that vote io the number of
ihe hived constituencies.
Perhaps ihe strongest arguments against the principle of the
bill were furnished by Sir John A. Macdonald himself, when he
brought in his measure for readjustment in 1872. " The de
sire of the Government," he then said, " has been io preserve
the representations for counties and sub-divisions of counties
as much as possible. It is considered objectionable io make
representation a mere geographical term. It is desired as much
as possible to keep the representation within the county, so
that each county that is a municipality of Ontario shall be re
presented, and if it becomes large enough, divide it into ridings.
Thai principle is carried out in the suggestions I am about to
make. That rule was broken in 1867, in three constituencies,
viz., Bothwell, Cardwell, Monck ; and I do not think on the
whole that the experiment has proved a successful one." He
then proceeded to show how it was unsuccessful. A young man
of administrative capacity commenced by being elected by his
neighbors to ihe township council ; then, as reeve or deputy
reeve, he became a member of ihe county council ; in due course,
if of approved ability, the representative of that constituency in
Parliament. " It is, I think, a grand system that fhe people
of Canada should have the opportunity of choosing for poli
tical promotion the men in whom they have ihe most confi
dence, and of whose abilities they are fully assured. All that
great advantage is lost by cutting off" a portion of two separate
counties and adding them together for electoral purposes only.
Those portions so cut off' have no common interest ; they do

THE GREAT GERRYMANDER. 595
not meet together, and they have no common feeling except
that once in five years they go io the polls in their own town
ship to vote for a man who may be known in one section and
not in ihe other. This tends towards the introduction and de
velopment of the American .system of caucuses, by which wire
pullers take adventurers for their political ability only, and
not for any personal respect for them. So thai, as much as
possible, from any point of view, it is advisable that counties
should refuse men whom they do not know, and when the re
presentation Is increased, ii should be by sub-dividing the coun
ties into ridings."
¦ The constitutionality of ihe manipulation of ihe constitu
encies by the process of gerrymander has recently been tested
in some of ihe states of the neighboring union, where the
practice had Its origin, and the courts have decided against it
In ihe Supreme Court of Michigan the judges concurred in
declaring that it was never contemplated to give an elector
two or three times more influence in one district than an
elector in another district, equality in such matters lying at
the base of ihe free governmental system. The case was ad
mirably put by Justice McGrath, when he said : " The pur
pose of ihe constitutional enactment is to secure as nearly as
possible equality of representation. Any apportionment
which defeats that purpose is vicious, contrary not only io ihe
letter, but to the spirit of our Institutions, and subversive of
popular government Power secured or perpetuated by un
constitutional methods is power usurped, and usurpation of
power is a menace to free institutions."
By giving eflFect io the demand for the transference In Can
ada of ihe trial of election petitions from ihe committees of
Parliament to the courts, we have already had acknowledg
ment of the fact thai partisan majorities cannot be trusted to

596 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
do justice io minorities, and there is still greater cause for the
removal from the party arena of the decennial readjustments
of the electoral districts.
On April 21st, 1882, on a resolution for going into committee
of supply, Mr. Blake, in pursuance of a principle which had long
been contended for by the Liberal party, and supported by
some Conservatives, moved that it is expedient to obtain the
necessary powers for Canada to make direct her commercial
arrangements with any Briiish possessions or foreign state.
He supported the contention in a splendid argument, illustrat
ing ihe continued growth and development of the constitu
tion in the direction of the popular principle of government,
both as respects Great Britain herself and her colonies. Sir
John A Macdonald met the proposition by ihe ancient cry of
danger to ihe constitution, and the repetition of his familiar
formula : " A British subject I was born, and a Briiish subject
I will die." The super-loyalty gu.sh was too much for Mr
Mackenzie. He was speedily on his feet with a ringing
speech. " There is no man in Canada, Sir," said he, "who holds party obliga
tions stronger than I do, and no man in Canada who would sooner reject
party obligations than lift a hand or a finger, by motion or otherwise, to
disturb the relations that exist between Britain and her colonies ; and al
though something very like threats may be used occasionally in order to
compel an argument that is otherwise devoid of force to be presented to
some persons' minds in a forcible way, we must look at the facts in the
case, and consider for ourselves whether the policy propc unded by my
honorable friend from Durham (Mr. Blake) is one that would have a ten
dency in the direction I have indicated. I have lived long enough. Sir,
in Canada, to know that it has been the policy of the Tory party, almost
from the beginning of our history, whenever a movement was made tend
ing to expand the liberties of the people, to cry out that there was danger
of the connection with Great Britain. I have found from the earliest

THE GREAT GERRYMANDER. 597
period of our parliamentary history that this has been the case ; and I am
surprised and pained to find that, at this advanced period of our history,
leading statesmen in the country can still resort to that paltry policy. I
listened. Sir, to-day, with the greatest possible care, to every word that
fell from the honorable leader of the Government in his somewhat im
petuous declamatory reply to the member for Durham. I can only say
he failed entirely to convince me that there was the slightest danger of
what he pretended to fear. The honorable gentleman usuaUy makes a
much better appearance in argument than he did to-day. What position
are we in ? The Minister of Public Works (Sir Hector Langevin) spoke
with great contempt of the number of our population, our paltry four or
five mUlions, and asked, were they to be compared with the interests of
the Empire ? I believe, on the other hand, that everything that extends
the liberties of Canadians, everything that accords to Canada and her
statesmen greater breadth of view in the management of their own affairs,
is more likely to conduce to the advancement of Imperial interests and
greatness than any curbing policy that keeps us down to the grindstone.
It has been the policy of English statesmen, who have the management
of our affairs, from the first, to consider colonists inferior to themselves.
I can recall the words even of such men as Lord Grey, of Lord Russell,
and of Lord Metcalfe, each one of whom has placed on record his belief
that full responsible government is not well suited to colonists, and I
have read the despatches of Lord Russell and Lord Glenelg to the Gover
nor-General, frequently warning him not to extend the principle of respon
sible government to Canadians further than so far as might be consistent
with the maintenance of the colonial relation. I believe we are really
as capable of managing our own political affairs as the House of Commons
in England." So late, said Mr Mackenzie, as 1854 or 1855, Lord Derby
had expressed a fear thai if a measure of domestic concern to
the Dominion — he believed it was a change in the constitution
of the Upper Chamber — became law, we might say farewell to
British connection with Canada, and only six or seven years
ago Lord Kimberley had sent the Earl of Dufferin a despatch
instructing him that it was not necessary to consult his minis-

59S LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
ters except when It suited his purpose to do so. A specimen
this of the modern Whig statesman. But Sir John A. Mac
donald himself had made some progress on the road to direct
intercourse by the appointment of Sir Alexander Gait as a
quasi-ambassador io Europe. Sir Alexander Gait was an ad
vocate of the principle io the full extent, and not being con
tent to sit in an outer room until his opinion might be requir
ed, or to go in at the back door while ihe other ambassador
went in by the front, he was indisposed to submit longer to
the humiliation. Mr. Mackenzie went on to show how insin
cere was the pretence that the course proposed would weaken
the connection, coming as it did from those who had struck a
mortal blow at Great Britain by their policy of protection.
He repudiated ihe doctrine enunciated by Sir John of recipro
cal legislation in the interchange of products, as lacking in the
essential element of permanence of purpose, and, reverting
again to ihe main issue, said he could not recall a single treaty
with the United States, managed by British statesmen, in which
Canada and British America were not worsted, and the only
time when the Dominion got fair play was in the fishery arbi
tration at Halifax, which was managed by his own Govern
ment Regarding ihe flourish of ihe flag, he said :
" I have sat, I think, two sessions opposite the right honorable gentle
man, and I am sure that during that time I have often heard the same
threat, and many a time I have seen gentlemen like the Honorable Min
ister of Public Works (Sir Hector Langevin) raising the British flag with
the greatest enthusiasm, in order to rally his dispirited followers. It is
an easy matter, Sir, to raise the flag ; but let us raise the flag of common
sense for a little while, and consider, not those high-flown sentiments of
extreme devotion and loyalty which the honorable gentleman dealt in
so greatly to-night, but let us consider soberly and reasonably what is
best for Canada as Canada, and what is best for Canada as part of the

THE GREAT GERRYMANDER. 599
British Empire. I have no doubt whatever our true policy is to obtain
self-action in almost everything which relates to our own business."
He laughed ai the idea of a training school being necessary
for Canadian diplomats, rightly contending thai every re
quirement was met in the persons of statesmen with a know
ledge of commercial and business aff"airs. "I, for one," he
said, in conclusion, " will give my cordial support io anything
that will extend our liberty of action, and make us entirely
equal in all respects to other Legislatures, and the Ministers
of ihe mother country itself."
On the division, Mr. Blake's proposition was negatived by
58 votes io 101, the usual Opposition vote being increased by
an adherence of some of the Government supporters io the
principle of allowing Canada io make her own commercial
treaties. During ihe summer of this year Mr Mackenzie went to
Portland for ihe benefit of his health. Writing from Cush-
ing's Island, he says :
" I walked this forenoon to the end of the island, and sat for an hour
on the top of the cliff enjoying the deUcious breeze and the expanse of
ocean covered with a fleet of fishing schooners. Byron's beautiful lines
rose involuntarily to my lips as I gazed upon the waste of waters :
' Time, writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow ;
Such as creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now.'
" And a=rain :
' By the deep sea, and music in its roar ;
I love not Man the less, but Nature more.'
" I wished I could, as of yore, climb about the cliffs and get on rough
places, but instead, I had to walk slowly and carefully with the steps of
a decrepit old man, though in spirit I feel young yet. lam hardly a
moment free from pain, but if it is very depressing, it is not intolerable,
and I am thankful it is no worse.

600 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
" I have been recalling the events of the last fifty years, and have come
to the conclusion that I might have done more work and better work
than I have actually accomplished. I see wasted opportunities which
cannot be recalled, and disregard of personal welfare which now bears
fruit in an enfeebled physical system. But how precious is the know
ledge of a sure and certain resurrection of the glorified body, free from
all vestige of decay and disease through the redemption wrought in and
by our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. And, after aU, what matters
a few more years here, when such a sure and happy prospect is in store ! "

CHAPTER XXXIX.

TO KUROPE AGAIN.
A Proposed Shelf in the Senate — Testimonial from the Lambton Friends —
Their Address — Mr. Mackenzie's Reply — Crosses the Atlantic Once More in
Search of Health — Fine Letter from Edinburgh — Graphic Historical Inci
dents — Knox and Calvin — Poor Queen Mary — Glimpses of Venice and Milan
— Speech at the Empire Club in London — Lord Dufferin's Estimate of it —
Lord Lome — Lord Lansdowne — Lord Stanley.
ONSERVATIVES felt that in Mr. Mackenzie's
ease, at least, the action of their chief in endea
voring to gerrymander Mr. Mackenzie out of a
seat required apology. They found it in the
suggestion thai if Sir John's gerrymander had accom
plished its purpose in killing Mr. Mackenzie for a
seat in the Commons, Sir John might be graciously moved to
supply him with a shelf in the Senate. It was on this occasion
that Mr. Mackenzie asked the question : Had they not too
many invalids in ihe Senate already ? Sir John A. Mac-
dou aid's benevolent purpose might have been the gift of a
place in this stately receptacle for the dead — although he
never showed signs in this or in any other instance of gener
osity towards a political foe — bui be that as it may, he did
his best, both by the gerrymander and the political warfare
that followed, and by taking the field against Mr. Mackenzie
in person, to provide for the mausoleum ihe suitable subject to
be a sharer of iis solitude.
The people of Lambton were more appreciative of public
601

«02 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
and private worth. They did not part with their representa
tive without a signal token of their esteem and friendship
the like of which, as was at ihe time remarked, had rarely
been bestowed on any Canadian statesman, however eminent
his rank or distinguished his career. Mr. Mackenzie was
waited upon in Toronto by a deputation from his old
constituency, consisting of Mr. Fairbank, M.P. for East Lamb
ton ; Mr. Leys, Sarnia ; Mr. Hugh Mackenzie, Warwick ; and
Mr. A. Rawlings, Forest ; and, with ihe Hon. Oliver Mowat
in the chair, in the presence of a large assemblage of ladies
and gentlemen, among whom was the brother of the ex-
Premier, Mr. Charles Mackenzie, the presentation was made.
It consisted of an addres.s and a cheque for $5,500.
Four years before this a wealthy and very intimate friend
pressed upon him the acceptance of a testimonial. He replied
that he had given a good deal of thought io the proposal since
ihe matter was submitted io him, and though he saw no objec
tion on principle to what was done in the case of Richard
Cobden, he felt a difficulty and delicacy in his own case, which
he believed could not be overcome. He was free io confess to
large expenditures of money and time involved in leadership
in Opposition as well as in Government, such as many very
good friends did not comprehend, and also that .while he was
at the head of the Government, all his official income and more
had been swallowed up by the exigencies of the position ; still
he had an extreme dislike to what was here proposed, and he
was unable io encourage the movement.
In the summer of 1882, before the Lambton people made
their presentation, a gift was in a manner forced upon him.
It was at ihe general election of that year, when he was taken
suddenly ill while pursuing his canvass in Markham, of which
previous mention ha? been made. The sickness was serious,

TO EUROPE AGAIN. 603
and convalescence was slow. Friends in Montreal, who were
wairaly attached, wrote to urge him to take another voyage
with Mrs. Mackenzie across the Atlantic ; and that he might
not decline for want of means, they generously but quietly
resolved io provide them. The matter was known io but a
few persons, representing whom Mr. Hugh Mackay and Mr.
Thibaudeau were delegated from Montreal to Toronto to person
ally insist upon the trip being taken, and to press upon Mr.
Mackenzie for this purpose a purse of about $4',000. It was
so much a surprise thai Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie were away
on a short visit to Hamilton, and the servants did not know
where they had gone. The disappointed delegation had
consequently to content themselves with leaving a letter and a
cheque. '
The speech on ihe Gerrymander Bill of 1882 was Mr.
Mackenzie's last sustained effort in Parliament, on account of
his failing voice, though the pages of Hansard show that he
continued to vigilantly watch the legislation ; for the old spirit
and insight remained to the end.
In 1883 Mr. Mackenzie applied the gift of his Montreal
friends to ihe gracious purpose for which it was intended.
Accompanied by Mrs. Mackenzie and his son-in-law and
daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, he again went to Scotland
in search of health, his last flight across the Atlantic in ihe vain
attempt io escape the pursuing angel, death. Though marred
by increasing bodily feebleness, it was, on the whole, a delight
ful visit There are many memorials of it ; we are permitted
to publish the following letter to Miss Carmichael, New
Glasgow, N.S., as one of ihe most striking. It is an interest
ing sketch of what, in historical lore, is the richest and the
loveliest of all Scottish cities :

604 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
"Edinburgh, July 17, 1883.
" Mt Dear Miss Carmichael,— Mrs. Mackenzie received your welcome
letter on Saturday last, before we left London. We reached this wonder
ful old city in time to see it the same evening.
" We have seen Paris, Turin, Genoa, Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan,
and Brussels. Each of these cities has peculiar attractions, but to my mind
' Fair Edina,' for natural beauty and for artistic excellence, bears the
palm. Calton Hill, Arthur's Seat, the Castle, Princes-street and its
Gardens, the Meadows Park, the suburban villas, the views — all are splen
did ; while the stirring reminiscences which crowd upon one's attention
give a zest to every visit he makes to historic spots.
"Who, when visiting Greyfriars' churchyard, the prison of the Cov
enanters, can resist a flood of indignation at the prelatic despots who
misgoverned Scotland ? Who can grudge the fullest measure ot praise to
the noble men to whom the world owes so much, when visiting the Grass-
market, where so many were executed because of their adherence to God's
worship ? We tried to sit where Jenny Geddes sat when she hurled her
stool at the bigoted churchman — the stool which we saw in the museum.
In walking in the now fine Princes-street Gardens, once deep bog and lake,
one remembered the auld wife, who, late one night, in crossing the treach
erous ground, found David Hume firmly bogged, and sternly refused her
help to the cultured infidel until he had repeated the Creed and the Lord's
Prayer. We examined the Castle Bock where Maitland and his troops
scaled the apparently impregnable fortress in the night time. We looked
out of the window of the room where James the Sixth was born, and
recalled the fact that the young king was let down by a rope to the ground,
two hundred feet below. I could not repress a pious wish that that rope
had broken, so as to have saved the nation the long years of misery it had
to suffer at the hands of one fool and two rascals, each called a British
Sovereign. We marched down and up the Canongate, and through the
High street and Lawnmarket, and recalled the gorgeous Stateprocessions
which for a thousand years had periodically traversed the back-bone of
that old city. We looked at the town banner whioh was carried in front
of the Scottish army at the battle of Flodden Field, won as it was by
Scottish men, as is now known, but at Ihe cost of king and nobles, and
many thousands of Scotland's greatest heroes, though of less renown ; and

TO EUROPE AGAIN. 605
we recalled Scott's description of the battle, and the account which Pro
fessor Aytoun gives of the dismay of Edinburgh when the tidings reached
the city.
"The battlements and walls of the city are now all gone. There alone
remains the grim Castle. Some parts of it are 800 years old ; but the
memories associated with the glories of ten centuries of time will never
pass away. Scotland's sons have much to be proud of in their struggles
for independence and popular rights, and in recalling them to mind we
will refrain from mention of some of the other things of which we may
rather bu ashamed.
"A word about one man, and for the time being I am done with this
subject. I visited no place with more reverence than John Knox's house
and his grave. Scotland, aye, the world, owes more to John Knox than
to any other man. He educated Scotland for the home of freemen. He
established her school system three hundred years before England had
any national system whatever. He had all the power of a despot, but he
never persecuted. He was a statesman of the broadest type, and as such
excelled even more than as a preacher of Gospel truths. But for Knox
there would have been no Cromwell, and Britain would have been a
hundred years behind, or more. In such ways does one man sometimes
influence the destinies of nations. Luther was a great man — so was
Calvin ; but neither had the liberality ot thought nor the practical abUity of
John Knox. In Geneva I sat in Calvin's chair, and worshipped in his
church. What a pity he did not save Servetus ! StUl, he was a noble
man and a good man ; but in toleration he was behind Knox. He w.ts one
of the grandest of good men for a' that.
" Poor Queen Mary— we cross her steps everywhere in Edinburgh. Was
she a bad woman ? is the question that comes up for answer when looking
on her frank, full eyes and lovely face. I fear she was not pure either as
a sovereign or as a woman, but she was in a wretched school, with very
inferior councillors, and was shockingly Ul used. Naturally, she was
amiable and kind, and up to that time she had all the bravery of her race.
I confess to a lingering feeling ot sympathy which makes me blame others
more than her.
" But I ara afraid I have wearied you with my cogitations of Scottish
history, and therefore quit.

606 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
" We send our kindest regards to your father, and particularly to
yourself, and I remain, " My dear Miss Carmichael, yours sincerely, " A. Mackenzie,
" Carrie Carmichael, New Glasgow, N.S."
Here, in a letter to his brother Charles, are bits of views of
Venice and Milan :
" The public buildings in Florence, Venice, and Milan, are wonderful
in their extent, construction, and richness of decoration. It was an odd
experience at Venice to go to the hotel by the canal in a gondola, and
step from the boat on to the hotel door-step. The main avenues ot the
city are all canal ; the minor ones are dry, but there are no vehicles of
any sort. .Some of the streets of this class are about six feet wide ; none
over eighteen feet ; yet they had good shops. The great square is prob
ably about 900 feet by 400 feet, with the thirteen-hundred-year-old
cathedral filling one end, and the palace one side. Of course, we saw the
Doge's palace also — and the prison ; standing where Childe Harold stood,
on the Bridge ot Sighs, whioh connects the two. -Let me quote from
Byron — it is a little hackneyed, but, as a greater bard than Byron says,
' 't will pass :' ' I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs ;
A palace and a prison on each hand ;
I saw from out the wave her structure rise
As from a stroke ot the enchanter's wand :
A thousand years their cloudy wings expand
Around me, and a dying Glory smUes
O'er the far times when many a subject land
Looked at the winged Lion's marble pHes,
Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles ! '
" Milan is a splendid city, with many wide, handsome streets and a grand
arcade, the finest in Europe. The great square is at one side ot the
arcade. The glorious cathedral stands on this square. It is next to
St. Paul's in size in Europe, and therefore, of course, third in size to
St. Peter's. It is built wholly of white marble, and is a marvel of carving
and moulding in stone. There must be hundreds of human figures

TO EUROPE AGAIN. 607
carved into tho building. It is, in fact, poetry in stone. The floor, Hk&
the floor of the cathedral at Venice, is also very fine — much finer as to
workmanship even than St. Peter's at Rome.''
When in London, Mr. Mackenzie was a guest at a banquet
given by the Empire Club. The Earl of Duff'erin, in a note ta>
Mrs. Mackenzie, declared his to be the best speech delivered
on that occasion :
"28 Chapel St., Park St., London, July 19th, 1883.
" My Dear Mrs. Mackenzie, — As I am sure your husband won't tell
you, I think it is right to let you know that he made by far the best
speech of any at the Empire Club— fuU of weight, good sense, force acd
effect. I was sitting next to a very able man. Lord Thurlow, who is- a
judge of such matters, and he was very much struck by the power it
displayed. " Yours ever,
^ " Dufferin.
In this same year the Marquis of Lome and Princess Louise
left Canada, after an administration which will ever be asso
ciated in the minds of the people of this country wiih pleasant
recollections. The appointment fell upon Lord Lansdowne,
and on his retirement, io follow the Marquis of Duff"erin and
Ava, as Viceroy of India, he was succeeded by the present
Governor-General, Lord Stanley of Preston.

CHAPTER XL.
HE DEPICTS HIMSELF.
Goes to the North West — Again in Search of Health — Splendid Descriptive
Letter to his Daughter — The Rockies — Mount Stephen — Wheat Fields of
over One Thousand Acres — The Fight with his Disease — A Last Visit to
Scotland — Interesting Series of Letters — The Man Bevealed — His Pen Pic
tures of Himself.

rN the summer of 1884, Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie, in
response to a pressing invitation from Sir George
Stephen (now Lord Mountstephen), Sir D. A
Smith, and Mr. Van Horne, went to the Rocky
Mountains. " It is of tbe utmost consequence," wrote
Sir George, " that the people of Canada should have a
better knowledge of the value of their new heritage, and I
know of no one whose opinion would have the weight of
yours." Like the Scottish trips, the visit was attended with
temporary beneflt, but ii was saddened io Mrs. Mackenzie,
notwithstanding these appearances of improvement, by ihe
intimation given her at Qu'Appelle by Dr. Edwards, who was
practising at Indian Head, that her husband's malady was a
nervous trouble for which there was no cure. On returning
to Silver Heights, near Winnipeg, ihe splendid Manitoba
residence of Sir Donald A. Smith, which he had placed at their
disposal, with his customary princely generosity, Mr. Macken
zie wrote thus, inter alia, to Mrs. Thompson :
608

, HE DEPICTS HIMSELF. 609
" Silver Heights House, Winnipeg, Aug. 31, 1884.
" Mt Dear Mary, — We are here on our return journey from the
mountains, and as I am too tired to-day to go into town, I thought I
would write you a short letter. We sighted the mountains first about 130
miles from the entrance to the pass, and at dusk reached the magnificent
portal. We saw the beautiful Bow river and its splendid scenery for over
100 miles. Nothing could be finer than its perfectly-planned terraces and
carefully-formed escarpments, finished as by a gigantic gardener, covered
with rich grass and fiowers, and dotted with clumps of trees. From this
point, the Kicking Horse River is most turbulent. The road winds and
twists, striving to avoid the river ; in vain — for it must be spanned in two
places by bridges, one at an elevation of 100 feet. In five mUes the river
falls about 1,200 feet, the railway having nearly the same fall. About a mile
below the high bridge a river joins the Kicking Horse from the north.
The eye embraces both valleys. The growth of spruce and tamarind is so
dense below that both rivers are hidden almost completely, and but one
or two glimpses of the white, maddened streams are to be had.
" The picture here, looking north, east, and south is most beautiful and
sublime. Mount Stephen, 11,000 feet high, was at our back, and this
glorious mountain valley in our front and right.
"The water was clear aa crystal, and exactly of the color of the Rhone,
as we saw it in Switzerland, with a continuous current of, say, ten miles an
hour, and broken by one fall.
"From the place called the entrance to the pass, to the water shed, is
about sixty miles. The Bow river, or one of its tributaries, flows nearly
all this distance, while the immense ranges of hills stand like a prodigious
army, presenting arms and welcoming the visitor into the sublime vestibule.
The pass is 5,297 feet above the sea, and a number of the mountains rise
a little more than 5,000 above rail level. Everlasting snow covers them
all, and from various points immense glaciers raise their glistening peaks.
There are no finely-shaped cones, as shown by Mount Blanc, Mount Rosa,
or the Jungfrau, but there is otherwise more rugged beauty and pictur
esqueness than in the Alps.
" The rocks are generally of the primitive classes ; therefore there is no
regular stratification ; but some of the mountains seem to have been built
by tremendous agencies, and show a castellated appearance very like a
monster ruin.
MM

610 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
" Weare informed that snow avalanches often descend with tremendous
weight and power, sweeping the hill face clear of timber and loose rocks,
a»l smashing everything into a vast mixture of snow, wood and stone at
the foot. We saw a large number of such places. They resembled
exactly a large mow taken down with a scythe in the fields. If one of
these avalanches should descend on the road, no protection man could find
would prevent a complete wreck of road, bridge, or train. Only a few
places are, however, so exposed.
" When we reached the Bell farm, we saw two fields of wheat, one of
1,280 acres, and one of 1,000 acres, and a fiax field of 500 acres. They
have 25 reapers, 170 horses and other farm ' rolling stock ' in proportion.
Late in the evening we got to our car again, after a very pleasant ten
days' ride, part of which the heat spoiled, and part was rendered almost
intolerable by a cloud of winged ants, which enveloped us and found a
lodging in our clothes and down our necks. They sting exactly like a
newly-kindled match applied to the skin.
" I have insensibly fallen into a narrative style, while I meant only to
give a general view of our journey. To-day ' I add no more.'
" There is little or no difference in my voice ; though yesterday I spoke
better than I have done yet. I dread a meeting in Winnipeg on Tuesday,
but the people insisted on it, and I will do my best.
" 1 am, dear Mary,
"Your affectionate father,
"A. Mackenzie.''
From this time onward, there are few incidents in ihe life
of Alexander Mackenzie to record. His henceforth was a con
stant battle with ihe disease that had taken too deep hold
upon him to be shaken off. In 1886 he found alleviation,
merely, in a visit he paid with Mrs. Mackenzie once more, and
for the last time, to Scotland.
How he felt at about this period, we find described by himself
in a letter now before us, of June, 1885. It is one only of an
interesting series of letters to an intimate friend, running from
1869 to 1888. We have preferred to give ihe series unbroken,
with some abridgment, and have kepi it for insertion here.

HE DEPICTS HIMSELF. 611
With this friend, whose acquaintance was formed in ihe early
days, the correspondence was frequent and without reserve.
However reticent Mr. Mackenzie might appear io be io strang
ers, here was one congenial soul, at any rate, who received the
outpourings of a full heart In sunshine and shadow he found
relief in telling how, at ihe moment, he was pleased or how
perplexed and cast down : " Sarnia, Feb. 15th, 1869.
" Dear Charles, — I owe you a letter, and should have paid you long
ago j but now for it. What are you doing 1 And how many are there now
to ask for ? My memory faUs me in the count of some of our own
Mackenzie famUies here, and how can I be expected to remember much of
others ?
" 1 am beginning to be in terror of the coming session's work. How
useless it all is 1 I feel like one walking the weary circle of a horse-power
machine, no end visible, and begin to wish I were well out of it for good.
Nothing but an extreme dislike to do a cowardly thing prevents me resign
ing now. I recollect when first elected that I felt quite elated, and some
what proud, I suppose. That feeling is all gone now, as clean gone as the
starch is from a muslin dress on a wet day.
" We had grand rejoicings over Parker's victory in the old valley.
Harry ran out when I opened the paper with the news, and told every
body on the streets, just as if they were all from Perthshire 1 We threw
up our hats in the shop and found full vent for our joyful feelings.
" Yours faithfully, "A. Mackenzie.''
The realisation of the session's work was no better than the
anticipation : " Ottawa, May 10, 1869.
" Dear Charles, — I purposed writing you soon after my arrival here,
but was unable to give it effect. I cannot command my own time, and
consequently personal friends are only attended to by fits and starts, as I
happen to be able to snatch the opportunity. People write me from all
quarters, giving or asking for information or advice, and each one thinks
there should be no delay in regard to him, not knowing that there are

612 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
a dozen such daily, besides no end of persons seeking some benefit, ot
urging some crotchet. It is true that I have not during this session
laboured as hard as I have in some others, in what I may call mere House
work, but nevertheless my time is occupied early and lato.
" I was sorry to hear of your serious financial loss. It is certainly very
hard to have one's means snatched away in that manner, but you must
not be discouraged. Pluck and perseverance are the characteristics of
true Scotchmen, and I have no doubt you will show yourself a good speci
men in the time of trial. We need that quality very much in this region,
for the general disposition to go with the powers that be in all evil was
never so strong as at present. It is very disheartening. I feel literally
ill, and wish with all my heart I was clear of an intolerable life. My
present intention is not to come back again.
" The newspapers call me the leader of the Opposition. I am nothing
of the kind. I would not allow the party to pass a vote naming me such
when they proposed to do it last session. But at the same time, I am
doing the work which devolves on the leader, until some one fit to be a
political prophet shall arise to be a judge over them. Still, I feel a kind
of obligation not to leave, without it is so agreed. The  newspaper
seems willing enough to do me and the Western Reformers an injury
whenever it can. It gave rise to a senseless, malicious rumor some time
ago, that I was to join John A.'s Government ! Nothing could be more
opportune for the Tory papers, so they all copied it. ' Of course there
must be some ground for it when the  , a Grit organ, gave out the
rumor. ' Such was the general remark among the Tory press, and latterly
letters began to arrive informing me of people's views regarding the pro
posed step. How funny, to be sure ! I might long ago have done that —
might do it at any time — but having from the start resolved to keep my
hands clean, it is mortifying to find even one friend willing to believe
that I could do the like. "I am, dear Charles, yours faithfully, "A. Mackenzie."
The Insolvency Act had been tried and found wanting. It
offered too great facilities for whitewashing. The concluding
clause of the following letter gives expression to Mr. Macken
zie's conviction regarding it :

HE DEPICTS HIMSELF. 613
" Ottawa, May 25th, 1872.
" Dear Charles, — I duly received your two letters, and would have
written you before now, but my time will not permit me to give that
attention I would like to my friends. I feel the toil of eternal letter-
writing as much as I used to feel the task of trying to learn the ' Effectual
Calling ' and all the rest of the school study of Divinity.
" You will see that the Senate killed Colby's Bill, so that the Insolvent
Law remains in force in spite of the Commons. I was opposed to its con
tinuance as a portion of our commercial system. A few years of this kind
of legislation now and then might do good by meeting special cases deserv
ing of relief, but the continued operation of the Act has been very evil in
its consequences. As it is, the statute has now but one year to run, and
then it cannot be reenacted. " Yours faithfully, "A. Mackenzie."
This letter was written after Mr. Mackenzie had been called
to office: "Ottawa, Nov. 10, 1873.
" Dear Charles, — I duly received your congratulatory letter. lam
much obliged for your kind expressions and good wishes. I have as yet
no secretary to help me, and as letters come in bushels, I have to answer
them as fast as I can drive the pen. You will therefore excuse brevity.
" But besides writing letters, I have a great deal of work on hand,
as there are vast arrears, little or nothing having been done by the out
going Ministers for the last three weeks, except creating and giving offices,
and there are so few in the service that we can trust.
" Difficulties crowd around on every hand, and brain and temper will
be alike tried. However, I will put a stout heart to a stae brae.
"Yours faithfully, "A. Mackenzie."
Here is an Invitation io Ottawa in the summer time, and
the inducements ihe Prime Minister was able io ofl'er to his
friend to visit him. In explanation of the last paragraph of
ihe letter, it may be stated thai at that time Mr Mackenzie
lived on a somewhat public street, and attached to the second
story of the house there was a large verandah :

614 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
"Ottawa, May 27, 1876.
" Dear Charles, — I have not heard from you for a long time, and
having a few minutes without anything on my hands, I concluded to spend
them with you. Do not think from this that I am disposed to give you
only the scraps and shreds of my time. I have made it an invariable rule
to put off no public, matter, to write even to my wife. I find that when
the public are served, very little time is left for private distribution. I
determined not to do any work I could avoid after going home at six o'clock,
but I make up for that by generally writing family letters on Sabbath
afternoon. My sight has failed so greatly that writing much by gas light
injures my eyes seriously, and it is practically impossible.
" We got through the session very well. All the bogus charges
amounted to very little when discussed by the light of Parliamentary
responsibility. I knew that this would be the case, because, so far as lam
capable of doing so, I have taken good care that it shall be past the power
ot even malicious enemies to accuse me of any moral wrong. Political
wisdom may be found wanting, but not moral rectitude.
" I mount guard here for the summer, and mean to get a 'dust sieve'
for my head, and a musquito net and a cooler for the whole corpus, and so
fight heat, dust, and pests. Can't you run up for a few days ? I can turn
you into the yard to smoke, as it is just cleaned. You can use the tank as
a cuspidor, as we have no further use for it now ; and you can sit in the
upper verandah and see the circus pass. "Yours faithfully, "A. Mackenzie.''
Pious frauds, and Quaker guns : " Ottawa, May 22, 1878.
" Mt Dear Charles, — Many thanks for your kind letter. I have
managed by fraudulent means to keep up appearances of bodily and
mental vigor all through the session, and thus deceived the enemy, much
as Bruce deceived the English at Bannockburn, by the flanking division,
composed of women and camp sutlers, but, between ourselves, the session
nearly killed me.''
He then recounts the proceedings of ihe session, and
describes the Senate as " simply a Tory Committee."

HE DEPICTS HIMSELF. 615
"I am now fast recruiting my strength. I believe I have the country
at my back. But even if I should fail to carry the country with me, I
know, first, that I have no reproach on my conscience as lo public affairs,
and, second, that we have established a mode of conducting the business
of the country that no coming Government, however bad, can wholly
destroy. I would gladly be relieved, for all that, if this were possible, but
I cannot honorably step out at present ; so I must grind on as best 1 can.
" Many of our friends are ill pleased that I refused Imperial honors, as
they thought a party headed by Sir Alexander Mackenzie, K.C.M.G., if
you please, would be much stronger than one led by plain me. I do not
so think ; but even if I thought otherwise, I could not yield that much to
party exigencies.
" I shall leave the Government when my time comes, and public life
when my time comes, with the same clear conscience that I brought in,
but poorer in pocket than when I commenced. I shall at any rate retire
with the knowledge that no improper act can be laid to my charge.
' ' Yours faithfully, "A. Mackenzie."
This letter was written a short time after the defeat :
" Ottawa, Oct. 15, 1878.
" My Dear Charles, — I duly received your long and kind letter. The
result of the election was undoubtedly a surprise, as I had no reason to
expect such a change.
"I can only say that I am not conscious of having done anything but
what I should have done. In other words, if I had to go over the ground
again I would adopt the same course. There might have been minor
changes in certain things, but nothing to materially affect the general
course of the Government. We formed a policy which I firmly believed
would have led to national prosperity, and I could not retain office and
have to carry into practice an opposite line of action.
" Our opponents have an immense advantage under such circumstances
as have existed lately. They can promise anything. The genuine Tories
will support their leaders under any conditions, and a few Reformers are
ever ready to be led away by a false cry. This was the case this time.
Still, I thought we had broken the back of the cry by our speeches ; it
seemed so at the meetings.

616 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
" I never worked so hard before in my life. Well, it is all over, and
we have now to moralise on the result. Canada does not care for a rigid
adhesion to principle in the Government. I administered her affairs even
with a more scrupulous regard to economy and justice than my own, but
one who shamefully and shamelessly abused the trust has been preferred
before me. It is an instance of the fickleness of opinion and the ingrati
tude of the public.
" I am going to Toronto to-morrow to see what arrangements I can
make regarding my own affairs. I do not wish to live here, even untU
Parliament meets. " Believe me, yours sincerely, "A. Mackenzie."
This Is how he mourns the death of his best political and
very warm personal friend, George Brown. It has already
been seen that Alexander Mackenzie and George Brown were
as Saul and Jonathan : "Toronto, May 20, 1880.
" My Dear Friend, — Many thanks for your two letters. I should
have replied to the first long ago.
" Mr. Brown's death is indeed to me a great personal and political loss.
An intimacy of 30 years made me love him as a brother. Holton was a
true, good man and friend ; Brown was more than that to me. I never
was under any obligation to him of any sort. Our friendship was an un
selfish one. He was a man ot true greatness of soul ; impulsive, almost
rash, now and then ; but his impulses were dictated by great intelligence,
honest purpose, and a noble generosity. We did not always agree, but
we never quarrelled. He was said by some to control my Government,
but so scrupulous was he about not trying to influence me, that he never
wrote me on public affairs unless I addressed him on some special case,
such as the Washington Treaty, which I sent him to endeavor to get agreed
to. His death is a sad loss to the country. His place wUl not be filled
in this generation. " Yours faithfully, "A. Mackenzie."
The beginning of his long illness, which after eleven weary
years ended his life, is traceable in this letter :

HE DEPICTS HIMSELF. 617
" Ottawa, Dec. 20, 1880.
" My Dear Charles, — I am glad you made a move for a meeting in
Montreal. I think Mr. Blake wUl go down to it it asked. For myself I
am not able to go to any meeting. I am quite unable to take any part in
the discussions so far. I was not in good health all last summer, and I
got worse towards the fall. After being here some days, I called in medi
cal help, and since Tuesday last I have been taking more medicine than
food. The doctor says I am suffering from malarial poisoning of long
standing, but that I am otherwise healthy. Whatever it is, I am miser
able enough, and useless enough.
" With kind regards, I am, yours faithfully, "A. Mackenzie."
This is his description of his fatal malady :
"Ottawa, June 18, 1885.
"My Dear Charles, — I thank you for your letter. I have often
thought of writing you, but one of my physical failings is manifested in
incapacity to write, with my old power of getting over the ground. I
have, of course, much correspondence and business writing to do that
must be done, and that I keep up as usual, but private letters, sven to
friends like yourself, have to wait.
" My complaint, stripped of all technical disguises, is partial paralysis
of the left arm, throat, and some little in the leg and thigh. I have no
pain — only a feeling of tiredness and want of power. I do everything
usually done with my left arm, but it is slow work, as the muscles do not
obey without much coaxing. The New York physician said it was all
caused by an. enlargement of one of the blood vessels on the brain, and by
pressure on some nerve. It has existed now for three years, and is not
much worse than it was a year ago. The doctors have done all they could
for effecting a cure, but without success. I am able to eat and sleep well,
though I am not as able to stand fatigue as I should be, and my walking
is affected by the trouble in the head. For some years I drew on my
reserve strength until it was used up, and now the treasure is gone. So
much about myself. I don't often say so much about so insignificant a
subject. '
" It is quite uncertain when we will get away from Ottawa. I am

618 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
really quite sick of it. The incapacity of the Government is most extra
ordinary. They are totally unable to grapple with the business, and not
one-third of it is now done. " Yours faithfully, "A. Mackenzie."
If Mr. Mackenzie had not himself told the sad story of his
failing health, it was only too clearly visible in the change in
his style of writing. The firm, straight, clean-cut characters,
plain and neat as print, grow feeble in the letter of 188.5, and
become feebler still in that which follows, written eleven
months later : " Ottawa, May 18th, 1886.
"My Dear Charles, — I duly received your letter some weeks ago. I
would have answered you sooner but for the difficulty I have in writing.
" I note what you say about our political life. It has got very low, and
'like priests, like people.' The Government have run a long career of
corruption. Unhappily the country has got used to it, and the people
have become careless. As Jeremiah exclaimed under a similar state of
circumstances, ' The people will have it so.' Unfortunately I am totally
unable to speak, or I would try and contrast our way and theirs. I am
continuing to hold my seat (only able to vote), in the hope that I may re
cover. Of that, however, there is little chance, I fear, at my age.
"I need hardly say I am much obliged for your good opinion. I
derive much satisfaction from knowing that many of the best of our people
approve of my course. " Yours faithfully, "A. Mackenzie."
The last letter penned by himself to this friend Is on a half
sheet of small note, and is in a very cramped and thin but per
fectly distinct and easily-read hand, almost microscopic though
it is in its reduced size : " Ottawa, March 17th, 1888.
" My Dear Charles, — I must first explain that I have almost lost the
power of writing, so that you will not conclude I am on the spree.
" I got your letter about WiUie, and a few days afterwards I saw our

HE DEPICTS HIMSELF. 619
friend and spoke to him on the subject. There is no engagement avail
able as yet. It is probable that I wiU see our friend again on his return.
However, I have said all 1 could, and I gave him the address.
" My wife is in good health, and I am ' as well as could be expected.'
I have to lean on her now ; however, it might be worse ; so I am thankful.
' ' Remember us both to your wife, and accept for yourself our kindest
wishes. " I am, yours faithfully, " A. Mackenzie.''
Before this date was reached the once potent voice, ihe
vehicle of words freighted with great thoughts — great thoughts
which never left him — which was accustomed " the applause of
listening senates to command," — had sunk into a whisper.
In the later days, io ihe extent of its more limited capacity,
the pen had been used as ihe only means which remained to
enable him to supply, as best it could, this, his greatest of all
losses. Infiuence over the pen now, too, had gone. From
this time forth the intellect was imprisoned, without power of
deliverance, in the dome of thought, where ii had its seat and
still shone in undimmed lustre — where it still had full domin
ion. The impulses of one of the truest and gentlest hearts
that ever breathed were now incapable of manifestation
to any of his friends, except the lessening circle who came
within ihe sphere of his personal infiuence, and to them rather
by looks and signs than bywords. What sadder thing than
for the keen Intellect, the sound judgment, the strong memory,
to remain, when the power of expression had gone. In the
pathetic words of Thackeray : " What preacher need moralise
on this story ; what words save the simplest are requisite to
tell it ? It is too terrible for tears. The thought of such a
calamity smites me down in submission before the Ruler of
kino's and men, the Monarch Supreme over empires and
republics, the inscrutable Dispenser of life, death, happiness.

620 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
victory." The words Macaulay quoted of Hallam under similar
circumstances, when he was unable io walk and unable to
write, but with the old intellect undimmed, Mr. Mackenzie
must often have applied to himself :
"Let me not live
After my fiame lacks oil, to be the scoff
Of meaner spirits."
We are sure he was never a scoff" io ihe meanest spirit, but
a grand example io all mankind in his patience and fortitude
under ihe saddest of human infirmities. He was a brave man
still, whose work in this world's sphere was nearly done, for
the time was approaching when he should be honorably
released from his labors. It had not quite come yet For
some four years more ii was his lot, with increasing feebleness,
io continue to drag his pained steps over the burning marle.
And then at length — rest.

CHAPTER XLL
RIVETING THE FETTERS.
The Second Rising in the North-West — Ill-Treatment Causes Rebellion —
" Old To-Morrow" — Sacrifice of Life and Treasure — The Franchise Iniquity
— The Revising Barrister — The Country Delivered into His Hands — Mr.
Mackenzie on the Outrage — The Indian Vote — The Tory Cries from 1867
to 1891. jHILE, In 1885, Mr. Mackenzie was in a state of
physical weakness, which prevented him from
taking part in debate, a double struggle was go
ing on at points so widely apart as the banks of
the Saskatchewan and ihe city of Ottawa. In the
North-West, Riel, Dumont, and their sympathisers were
in revolt against the Government for a redress of grievances ;
at Ottawa, the Liberal party were strenuous in resistance to
ihe Franchise Act
Friendly journals were unable to justify the treatment of
the Government towards the half-breed settlers in ihe North-
West. The Mail, a Government paper at that time, com
plained thai "scaly ward politicians from' Eastern Canada,"
who were an oflFence to the M^tis, had been appointed to posi
tions of trust in that country, and that the Lieut-Governor
had "become interested in town sites and bonanza farms."
It further said : " The vis inertice of the department was
Immovable. Had they had votes, hke white men, or if, like
the Indians, they had been numerous enough io command re
spect and overcome the red tape, without doubt ihe wheels
621

622 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
of oflBce would have revolved for them ; bui being only half-
breeds, they were put off with eternal promises, until patience
ceased to be a virtue." Another, then Minisierial, paper, the
Montreal Herald, said : " It is now as clear as daylight that
this rising in the North-West, which has cost so much in blood
and money, was no sudden freak, and was not without warn
ing. On the contrary, it was the climax of a gradually grow
ing discontent. Every step was brought before ihe Govern
ment, reported upon by their officers, and told them, with
damnable iteration, by bishops, priests, lieuienani-govemors,
surveyors, and apparently everyone who had a right to hold
communication with them. Still, Mr. Blake has shown that
the only thing done by the Government io prevent ihe out
break was io bribe the rebel leaders, Dumont, Schmidt,
Dumas, Isbister, and others, with Government offices." It is
proper to add thai ihe Mail laid ihe blame at ihe doors of
both parties ; but what the Liberal party, who went out in
1878, had to do wiih ihe rising of 1885, it is not easy to see.
Petition after petition went to Ottawa, bui they evoked
no response. Deputations, the resolutions of public meetings^
all were disregarded. Documents received ai Ottawa, in 1879,
were never noticed until ihe unhappy natives had risen in
arms, in March, 1885. It was the habit of putting things ofiF
which won for Sir John A. Macdonald his well-known Indian
designation of " Old To-morrow."
Bui there was a tremendous awakening when the news came
of the slaughter at Duck Lake. This was followed by the
calling oui of ihe volunteers (who were hastily despatched to
the scene of conflict), the Frog Lake massacre, ihe aflfair at Cut
Knife Hill, the engagement at Fish Creek, and the fight at
Batoche. While we must condemn the conduct of Riel and
his associates in again rising in rebellion, ihe Government can-

RIVETING THE FETTERS 623
not be allowed to escape the severest censure for the loss of
scores of precious lives, and ihe expenditure of many millions
of treasure in suppressing an outbreak which was so largely
caused by their supercilious treatment of the half-breed and
Indian claims.
Towards ihe close of the session of 1885, Sir John A. Mac
donald completed the political servitude of the people, who
were already in bondage under the Gerrymander Act of 1882.
What was then done was, at an estimated cost of half a
million a year, to create some hundreds of new government of
ficials, called revising barristers, who were charged with the
function of preparing the lists of voters for the House of
Commons. The municipal officers throughout the country
had hitherto discharged this important duty fairly, and with
but few complaints from any source. The Government now
placed It in ihe hands of their own partisans. The revising
officers were not only io revise the lists ; they were also to
make them. Upon every voter in the land was thereby
thrown the burden of watching these privileged political foes,
and of protecting his rights against their assaults. Again,
under the previous system, not only was the making of the
lists fair ; it was automatic. Names of those who had ceased
to have a right io the franchise were dropped as a matter
of course. Under the new plan, where the revising bar
risters were not strict in the performance of duty, such
names were continually carried on, and kept on, unless
moved against by private persons, not specially charged with
such duties, at enormous trouble and expense. Every move
ment in ihe direction of a list. If it was to be reasonably fair
io Liberal candidates, was made costly and difficult to them.
The Government candidates, on the other hand, had the
great advantage, without labour or charge on their part, of

€24 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
lists made to their order, ai the expense of ihe country, the
setting and keeping right of which involved a perpetual battle
to their opponents. Sir John A. Macdonald would not even
consent to the request of the Opposition, that the revising
officers should be his own appointed judges, who have a status
and a character to maintain, who hold their offices for life, and
who are removed from the political arena. He insisted on the
power to choose as his men those who, after making the lists,
usually take their full pari in the election fights under
them. By this act, the election of ihe representatives waa
removed from the hands of the people, and placed in the hands
of Tory lawyers.
Writing on ihe 1st June, 1885, to Hon. James Young, Gait
Mr. Mackenzie said :
"The Opposition members undertook a heavy job when they resolved
to prevent the Franchise BiU going through, and they have shown much
ability and pluck in carrying on the fight.
"Nothing but a grave issue would justify the course it has been found
necessary to take. The measure is, however, of such a nature as to war
rant the exhaustion of every constitutional means bo secure its defeat.
Only imagine a dominant party coolly legislating to secure themselves in
power ! Not content with the advantages over their opponents that they
already possess, they deliberately resolve to take the making of the
electoral lists into their own hands, and they name their own officials
with the most complete power and authority to cook them ! Nothing
like it has ever been tried in any constitutionally-governed country in the
world ; even the Stuarts and the Napoleons left the voting free.
"And to make doubly sure of success, they are going to give the poor
ignorant savages votes. The Indians wUl, of course, vote as directed by
the Government agents.
"These scandalous provisions will enable the Government to carry some
twenty more of the counties which have been wrested from them in spite
of the Gerrymander Act of three years ago.
" The published debates give an inadequate account of the excellence

Rl I ETING THE FETTERS. 625
of the speaking. The Opposition debating has been very able, and has
been engaged in by men who usually do not take part in the discussions.
Blake, Charlton, Cartwright, Paterson, M. C. Cameron, MiUs, Davis,
Weldon and Laurier are always to be counted upon, but this time Cam
eron (Middlesex;, VaU, Fisher, Armstrong, GUmour, Dr. WUson, Trow,
Bain, Fleming, Kirk, Platt, Burpee, Cook, Jackson, Mulock, Lister,
Cockburn and others have borne a full share of a very difficult task, and
nearly aU the speeches dealt with the bUl on its merits, or, more properly
speaking, demerits. I was unable myself to take part in the fight, as my
voice and nervous disability still stand as an insuperable obstacle in my
way." When ihe measure was under discussion, a memorable con
versation took place across the House relative io the admis
sion to ihe franchise of Indians who had been caught red-
handed in the murders in the North-West Territories :
" Mr. Mills — What we are anxious to know is whether the hon. gen
tleman proposes to give other than enfranchised Indians votes.
" Sir John Macdonald — Yes.
" Mr. Mills — Indians residing on a reservation ?
' ' Sir John Macdonald — Yes, if they have the necessary property
qualification. " Mr. Mills — An Indian who cannot make a contract for himself, who
can neither buy nor sell, without the consent of the Superintendent-Gen
eral, an Indian who is not enfranchised ?
" Sir John Macdonald — Whether he is enfranchised or not.
"Mr. Mills— This wiU include Indians in Manitoba and British Co
lumbia ?
" Sir John Macdonald — Yes.
" Mr. Mills — Poundmaker and Big Bear ?
" Sir John Macdonald— Yes.
" Mr. Mills— So that they can go from a scalping party to the polls."
Through the efforts of ihe Opposition, some objectionable
features of the bill were mitigated.
Indians in British Columbia, Manitoba and the Territories,
KN

626 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
Including Poundmaker, Big Bear and Piapot, were at last ex
cluded ; those in. ihe other provinces, however, being allowed io
remain. The income franchise and the property qualification
were reduced. Wage earners were given the franchise. The
right of appeal was allowed from revising barristers io the
judges of the courts. The bill, as it originally stood, gave the
revising officer absolute and final power to place names on and
io strike names off" the lists at will, and parties aggrieved were
left without redress. The Government also gave way in re
spect to such decisions of the revising officer as were appealed
against, but not decided upon, pending an election. Accord
ing to their original plan, a list stuffed by the revising barris
ter was a valid list ; but by the change voters who appeal can
vote, without, however, their ballots being counted until their
right to the franchise is established by the tribunal appealed
io by them. The enormous cost to candidates of the proceed
ings under the act as it stands would have been vastly greater
under the bill as it was introduced, but for the strenuous fight
of the Opposition. One of the most outrageous provisions of
all in the bill, as drafted, was to enable the revising barris
ter to make the lists to suit himself, without appeal, and then
to get himself elected to Parliament under them. This was
changed, but the right to ihe franchise of the white free
man who pays his taxes, equally wiih the tribal Indian who
lives on government reserves, who pays no taxes, who has no
civil rights or duties, remains. Shorn of many of its evil fea
tures, it is still a very baneful measure, and in spite of the vast
expenditures in money and labor It has occasioned ihe friends
of the Liberal cause, it is still the means of inflicting upon
them great political injustice. The gerrymander act and the
franchise act combined may be said to constitute politically
" the sum of all the villainies.''

RIVETING THE FETTERS. 627
The manner In which ihe gerrymander and the franchise
ap*s and the Indian vote operated, was illustrated by Sir
Richard Cartwright in 1889. In Ontario twelve of ihe mani
pulated seats returned a collective Tory majority of 383 votes,
^against a collective Liberal majority of ten times the num
ber, existing in ihe three hived constituencies of Brant and
North and South Oxford. Reverse these 383 votes, by putting
back ihe municipalities which gave them, to where they be
longed, and the Government would be in the hands of the
Liberals. How the Tories have won their elections since Confedera
tion may be told in a few sentences : In 1867, by ihe cry of
" union and progress, " the luring of susceptible Reformers
into the belief that political issues were dead, and afterwards
unceremoniously setting them aside. In 1872, by Sir Hugh
Allan's money. In 1878, by the N. P. fraud. In 1882, by the
gerrymander of ihe constituencies. In 1885, by ihe cooking
of the voters' lists through the franchise act In 1891, by the
combinations of monopolists, and ihe money contributed by
them and contractors to the funds of the red parlor.

CHAPTEE XLIL

HIS LAST DAYS.
Again Returned for East York — Charles Mackenzie in the Legislature— Death
of Sir John A. Macdonald — Mr. Blake's Retirement — Member for South
Longford, Ireland— Mr. Mackenzie's Last Manifesto— "I Repent It"— Vote
on the Jesuit Bill — His Seventieth Birthday — A Fatal Fall — His Illness —
His Death on Easter Day — The Nation's Sorrow — Touching Tributes — The
Funeral Pageants in Toronto and Sarnia — The Orations.
LTHOUGH Mr. Mackenzie was not able io take
much part in ihe election of 1887, he was, by
reason of his high character, and ihe exertions of
his attached supporters. Liberal and Conservative,
again returned for East York against Mr. Boultbee,
by a majority of 160 votes ; and in 1891, he was suc
cessful once more, but by a reduced majority, being too ill to
appear in ihe constituency.
In 1887 Mr. Blake resigned ihe position of leader of the
Opposition and was succeeded by the present leader, Mr.
Laurier. Mr. Mackenzie was gratified by ihe entrance of his young
est brother Charles upon a promising political career at the
by-election for the Ontario Legislature in West Lambton, In
the autumn of 1889, io fill ihe vacancy caused by the death
of ihe Commissioner of Crown Lands, Hon. T. B. Pardee.
On the meeting of the Legislature, a few months thereafter,
Mr. Charles Mackenzie moved ihe Address in an able maiden
speech, and it was felt that he was well fitted to maintain the
628

HIS LAST DA YS. 629
family record. He was re-elected at the general election in
the summer of 1890.
Sir John A. Macdonald died the 6th of June, 1891, at the
age of seventy-six. On his death, ihe position of First Min
ister was taken, and is still retained, by Senator Abbott with
Sir John Thompson as leader in the House of Commons.
On ihe 5th of March, 1891, Mr. Blake, in a celebrated mani
festo, from which we have already quoted, to the members of
the West Durham Reform Convention, bade farewell to his
constituents, and retired from Parliament. At the general
election In Great Britain, in the summer of the present year
(1892), Mr. Blake responded to a call from over the sea, and
gave fresh Impetus and a new inspiration to the cause of Home
Rule in Ireland by enrolling himself as one of its champions —
as he had already shown himself to be in Canada — under the
banner of its great advocate, Mr. Gladstone. Mr. Blake was
elected for South Longford by almost an unanimous vote, with
Mr. Justin McCarthy, the great historian and parliamentarian,
and the able leader of the Nationalist party, as his colleague
in North Longford. The position filled by Mr. Blake as a dis
tinguished colonist of Irish extraction, advocating in the Bri
tish House of Commons those principles of government for
the land of his ancestors which prevail in the land of his birth,
is unique, and forms the opening of a career in Imperial poli
tics which will be followed by observing men everywhere
with the deepest interest and especially by Canadians, apart
from their party proclivities.
It has been remarked that the name of the Liberal ex-Pre
mier does not appear in the Parliamentary debates of 1890 or
1891, but this arose from his inability to make himself heard
in that chamber. He spoke at considerable length to a depu
tation of the leading Reformers of his riding who waited

630 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
upon him in Toronto early in January, 1891, with a resolution
of sympathy and confidence. This may be said io be his
dying manifesto to his countrymen, and it would be well for
them were they to take his earnest words of warning and
wisdom io heart. He said :
" There never was a time when judicious speech and action were so
much ill demand. Tbe country is passing through a crisis brought about
by an injudicious and unwise commercial policy. In 1878, I took some
pains to show that no Government or Parliament can create wealth, but
they may redistribute either wisely or unwisely. Promises of coming
wealth on a change of policy were lavished freely, in order to defeat my
Administration. These promises, we all knew, could not be fulfilled, and
now we are reaping the fruits of an unwise policy. Our wealth is aU to
be taken from the soU, the woods, and the mines. The farmers are a
great wealth-producing class, and any fiscal policy which presses hard
upon them ensures a commercial crisis sooner or later. Every effort
should be made by us to avert such a crisis. The natural course to pur
sue would be to return to the policy of 1878, and in doing so the Liberals
and Conservatives ought to accept any scheme which does not perpetrate
further injustice.
" It has been said by some of the Ministerial papers that Great Britain
would not consent to any extension of a free trade policy. I can only
Bay that in the negotiations of 1874 at Washington, conducted by Mr.
George Brown, the Government were in active communication with the
Colonial Office, and a list of the articles proposed to be embodied in the
new treaty was transmitted for consideration to Downing-street. The
general spirit whioh pervaded these communications was simply that
Canada and Canadians knew best what suited themselves. No doubt
they were also aware of the fact that anything which benefited Canadian
trade would be grateful to the statesmen of the Mother Country. I could
never consent to the zollverein policy, for obvious reasons, but I cannot
conceive why anyone should object to reciprocal free trade secured by
treaty, and not inimical to the interests of Great Britain as the heart of
the Empire.
" The! utter failure of the National Policy and the enormous increase

HIS LAST DA YS. 631
in the national debt are reasons why the present Administration should
not be supported any longer. Thousands of Reform votes were lost in
the general election in 1878 because they thought I was wrong in my
free trade pohcy. No doubt, they acted conscientiously. Surely it is
not asking too much that these should fall into liiie again, and carry with
them a large num'oer of hitherto Conservative votes."
Mr Mackenzie further remarked that he would like to dis
cuss the whole subject at greater length, if he felt equal to it
but he must content himself, unless there was an improvement
in his health, with voting in his place In Parliament He
added, with a touch of pride at his continued fidelity to duty,
that during ihe last two years he was absent only three days
from his seat in the House.
He continued io attend with his customary regularity dur
ing the session of 1891. He was neyer able again, however, to
join in debate, bui with stilly silence, and with a patience
almost superhuman, says a correspondent," he sat through the
tedious, weary hours. On one occasion only did he speak.
His voice was heard as an echo of the past. He spoke only
three woj ds, but they came with startling effect, and will not
soon be forgotten by those who were present. The cost of the
maintenance of the Canadian agency at Paris was under dis
cussion. The Agent-General had been generally credited with
having sent out one Parisian milliner as the result of many
years' expenditure. The representative of the Dominion at
ihe French capital was at one time on the Liberal side of
politics, and as a French-Canadian litterateur was raised by
Mr. Mackenzie, in February of 1875, to the Senate ; from there
he was some years subsequently transferred by the Govern
ment of Sir John A. Macdonald to Paris. The Liberals warm
ly attacked ihe vote for the continuance of the agency, and
the Conservatives, closely pressed, retorted that the agent was

632 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
one of Mr. Mackenzie's own appointees io ihe Senate. All
eyes were at once turned towards the seat where the ex-Prem
ier sat rigid and immovable, and as the unexpected words, " I
repent it," came forth quickly and distinctly from his lips, to
fall on ihe ears of ihe now hushed assembly, an impression
was produced, which, for the moment, was electrical. He had
not spoken before that session, or the whole of ihe previous
session, and these were the last words he was to utter in this
scene of his many conflicts, his discomfitures, and his triumphs.
The doctor had forbidden Mr. Mackenzie's attendance in
Parliament at the night sittings, and for the divisions that
took place after six o'clock he was careful to see thai a pair
was provided for him. There was one notable exception,
when he was most anxious to appear in person in his place
and vote. This was in March of 1889, when the much-cher
ished right of ihe Provinces to control their own aflFairs with
out interference from the central authority was again in
question. A motion had been made, in amendment to the
resolution for going into committee of supply, to call upon
the Government to advise the disallowance of the Act of the
Quebec Legislature for the settlement of the Jesuit estates.
The passing of this statute by the sister Province had stirred
up a hurricane of passion, particularly in Ontario, as much by
reason of its phraseology as of its purpose In the application
of public moneys. Mr. Mackenzie held firmly to ihe oid doc
trine, in the Letellier and other cases, that ihe matter was one
wholly within the purview of the Province, and that federal
intervention would be destructive of Provincial autonomy.
As the agitation had for the time being made the question a
somewhat ticklish one, the whips on both sides were anxious
io see the members stand shoulder to shoulder, and a strono-
vote as the outcome. The division took place about two in

HIS LAST DAYS. 633
the morning of the 29th of March. During the preceding
evening, Mr. Trow, the chief Opposition whip, went to Mr.
Mackenzie to ask him to go to the House and state in a few
words how he would vote were the division io take place at a
seasonable hour. Mr. Mackenzie said, " No ; that would look
like acting," ai which he was not good. Bui he was so strong
in his desire to share the responsibility with his fellow mem
bers, that he did not wish to be paired, and he said thai if the
vote came on before midnight, he would try to keep up and
go down. Two hours after midnight, when ihe division bells
rang, Mr. Trow found him still ready, and he accompanied ihe
whip to the House and voted with the majority.
Mr. Mackenzie was during the session of 1891, on the
whole, better than he had been for a long time previously,
very much enjoying the summer drives in the neighborhood
of the city, which he said io Mrs. Mackenzie, his Invariable
companion, he had never known so much about until then, the
earlier years of his life in Ottawa having been too closely oc
cupied in the serious affairs of his position. He looked re
markably well on his return io Toronto in September, and
continued so until the middle of the winter. The 28th of Jan
uary, 1892, was his seventieth birthday, and they, to whom the
now almost completed duty has fallen of writing this biogra
phy, were together with him in his house, one as a visitor, the
other as his guest and were surprised at his lively conversa
tional powers, his old flashes of intellect and humor, his faculty
for recalling bygone events, with the never-failing exactitude
of name, and place, and date. It was the last time they were
to hold converse with him.
Five days afterwards he fell in walking from his house to
the coup^, which had come as usual to take him to the duties
he continued to discharge In the city. He was carried Into ihe

«34 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
house, and remained from that hour in a helpless state, until
Sunday, the I7th of April, when he died. Never was more
conspicuously seen than then the deep hold he had taken on
ihe affections of ihe entire people. Most men when no longer
able (to use the phrase of Disraeli) to " bustle about," are for
gotten. But it was not so with him. Throughout his many
years of constantly growing paralysis of limbs and speech, the
popular interest in him had continued with but little abate
ment, and when the people learnt of his accident, their enqnir-
ies were constant about his varying condition, and they were
not satisfied with the meagre accounts which the reticent fam
ily permitted to go forth with the stamp of authority.
During all this time Mr. Mackenzie was attended by his de
voted wife and daughter, and his brother Charles, who scarcely
¦ever left him, and was constantly visited by his friend and
physician. Dr. Thorburn.
At first he was restless, frequently changing from his sleep
ing room to the library, and never continuing for more than a
little while in one place, or in one position — the restlessness
and wearuiess which presaged the end. The last three weeks
were more painful yet to the anxious watchers, for then he
lay still and motionless, beyond the reach of aid. For many
days before ihe close, he took nothing ; his lips were moisten
ed, but no nourishment whatever passed them. He was a
week in the throes of death, whose hand was stayed only by
ihe wonderful inherent strength of an iron constitution.
His last words of assurance, before he sunk into final insen
sibility, were very beautiful : " Oh, take me home." On the
calm and lovely Easter morning following, the wish was rea
lised ; for, as ihe glad sunshine was about io visit the earth
again on that delightful Sabbath day, he " fell on sleep." It
was literally so. The mysterious change which was observed

HIS LAST DAYS. 635
to come over him, and which was felt i) be death, scarcely
disturbed a feature of the face. The long slumber that could
know no wakening was as the unconscious and tranquil sleep
of a little child. Truly may be applied io that hallowed scene
the tender words of Hood, which Mr. Mackgnzie himself made
the setting of the picture of ihe death-chamber of his friend,
George Brown : " Our very hopes belied our fears.
Our fears, our hopes belied ;
We thought him dying when he slept.
And sleeping when he died."
He died at ten minutes to one, and in a few hours the
sun shone through an unclouded sky to kiss the buds and
blossoms thai were beginning to open out to catch his glory,
and to Inspire the robins, whose songs the lost one had loved
so well, as they chanted their morning litany from the
branches of the trees that surround the house. As was said
by the two sisters who came over at the bidding of the good
mother of St. Joseph's convent, across the way, to express
sympathy and condolence, " it was a beautiful morning to die
on." The bedside watchers had wished — it may be a mere
sentiment, but they had wished — all through the Saturday
evening that he might live till the Easter Sabbath morn, and
till then his departure was delayed ; so that while all Christ
endom was celebrating the resurrection of the Saviour as the
.¦first fruits of them that sleep, he was received into the inner
temple of Christ's glory, io see the King in His beauty, and
io join in that gladsome Easter anthem that fills the universe
of God with the melody of the redeemed.
The wires soon fiashed ihe intelligence to near and distant
places, and in churches of all denominations throughout the
land it was told thai ihe spirit of Alexander Mackenzie, the

636 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
tried and faithful servant of his country, was no longer of
this earth, for, like his Master, he had risen. From Halifax
to Victoria, in the temples dedicated to God's worship, beauti
ful tributes were paid io his memory, and the lessons of his
life were preached as an incentive to other men io follow in
his footsteps and learn of him.
In many cities and towns, in the early days of ihe week,
memorial meetings were held, and people of all creeds and
classes, and especially those of ihe sister nationaliiy in the
Province of Quebec, united in expressions of sorrow at the
loss which had fallen upon the country. Resolutions of sad
ness poured in from municipal councils, and other organisa
tions and societies, mingled with words of condolence from
private persons and high dignitaries of state in this and dis
tant lands. Flags flew at half-mast throughout the Dominion,
bells were tolled, the columns of the newspapers were draped
in mourning, and there was, for once, harmony in their utter
ances, for they were the manifestations, which none could
doubt were heartfelt and genuine, of a common grief. The
British, Australian and United States journals joined in the
lamentations, bemoaning the loss of one so truly great and
good, and each of ihe English-speaking nations of the world
did reverence to the " grand old man " who was now, alas ! no
more. The Governor-General of the Dominion; the Secretary of
State for the Colonies ; the British Ambassador, the Marquis
of DuflTerin and Ava, from Paris, for himself and the March
ioness; the Marquis of Lome, on his own behalf and on behalf
of His Royal Consort, the Queen's daughter; the great leaders
of political parties in the Dominion Parliament ; the Lieut-
Governors and Ministers of Provinces; the Judges of the Can
adian courts ; friends and admirers across the sea ; Municipal

HIS LAST DAYS. 637
Councils, and other public bodies, social and political, at home,
communicated io Mrs. Mackenzie the tokens of their own and
the all-pervading grief. The House of Commons, which was
sitting at the time, ceased its business until after the funeral,
and the Conservative as well as ihe Liberal members of that
body mei in their respective quarters and marked the occa
sion by fitting resolutions.
Sir John Thompson, the leader of the Government in ihe
Commons, in moving the adjournment of the House, paid a
fine tribute to Mr. Mackenzie's worth and io ihe value of his
public services. Hon. Wilfrid Laurier, leader of the Opposi
tion, seconded the resolution, and said that the qualities united
in Mr. Mackenzie — qualities seldom combined — made him one
cf ihe truest and strongest characters to be met with in Can
adian history. He was endowed with a warm heart and a
copious and rich fancy, though veiled by a somewhat reticent
exterior, and he was of friends the most tender and true.
Above all, living in an age which was not particularly distin-
quished for adherence to principle, he never wavered from
what he thought io be right, as God gave him the faculty to
see the right And ai a time when success was held to be a
primary condition, success with him was not even a first or
secondary consideration. He might when in office have con
ciliated public opinion, and perhaps continued to enjoy power
by consenting to deviate ever so little from those principles
of political economy, which principles alone he held to be
true ; but his stern and upright character asserted itself, as It
always did ; he risked everything, he lost all, and he bore ihe
loss cheerfully, for conscience sake. Such examples were
rarely seen in our day, and to find their parallel it would be
necessary io go back io the days of Puritan England, when
men fought and bled for their convictions of duty — qualities

638 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
which distinguished above all others Mr. Mackenzie's career.
Hon. David Mills supplemented ihe remarks of the Parlia
mentary leaders with some fitting observations, in which he
bore testimony to the extraordinary merits of his deceased
friend and former governmental chief.
The Senate had previously taken a long recess. On resum
ing on 27th April, Senator Scott, the Secretary of State in
Mr. Mackenzie's Government, directed attention to his loss.
He dwelt particularly on Mr. Mackenzie's sympathetic feeling
for ihe toiling masses, and his familiarity with the work of
all the departments of the Government. The Premier, Sen
ator Abbott, who had sat with Mr. Mackenzie for a number
of years in the House of Commons, although opposed in poli
tics, said he always commanded his respect and the respect of
every one else. He also bore testimony to the great esteem
entertained for Mrs. Mackenzie, as the lady highest in social
position in the Dominion while her husband was Premier, and
said he was sure he expressed the sentiments of every one in
the House when he said they felt an intense and earnest
sympathy for her. Senator Allan, who, since Mr. Mackenzie's
residence in Toronto, had been associated with him in other
duties, said that those who knew and appreciated him In for
mer days, when in health and in office, would have their
respect even more Increased if they knew as well as he knew
how bravely he had borne up during the many subsequent
years of physical suflfering, and how assiduously, honestly
and earnestly, in spite of all drawbacks, he had continued io
fight ihe battle of his life io the end. He likewise paid a
tribute to Mrs. Mackenzie for the admirable manner in which
she had filled her position of dignity, as well as for her forti
tude and cheerfulness in assisting and sustaining her husband
in his many years of sickness,

HIS LAST DA YS. 630.
The arrangements for the funeral were placed In the hands
of Mr Robert Jaffi-ay and Mr. T. C. Irving, warm friends and
trusted advisers of the deceased statesman, and they were
most admirably carried out Services were arranged for each
of two days — Wednesday, in Toronto, his later home, and
Thursday, in his former home, in Sarnia.
It is said thai a suggestion for a state funeral had been
made by a leading man, who admired him for his virtues and
shared in his greatness. But it was not so ordered. And,
perhaps, on the whole, it was better that it was not to be, as
more befitting ihe simplicity of the character of ihe deceased,
and giving larger scope for the spontaneous outburst of ihe
nation's sorrow.
" There are," said the Chancellor of the English Exchequer,
on one occasion, " rare instances when the sympathy of a na
tion approaches those tenderer feelings which are generally
supposed io be peculiar to the individual, and to be the happy
privilege of private life ; and this Is one." The words of the
wise statesman point their own moral. There may be little of
the pomp of history investing these recent occurrences. They
may not touch ihe heart of nations, but ihe faithful and afflict
ed servant of the state never appeals in vain for sympathy to
the domestic sentiment of mankind.
The wasted form, bui with the light on ihe countenance
" that never was on sea or land, " that was more than happi
ness — blessedness ; the blessedness of ihe home he had longed
for and had now entered, rested in the drawing-room. To
him who had battled so long and courageously most appropri
ately might be applied the words of Charles Kingsley : " His
face bore a sweetness which had been ripened by storm as
well as by sunshine : which this world had not -given and
could not take away." The room was heaped with lovely

640 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
floral tributes in exquisite designs, and bearing touching mot
toes, the gifts of friends in Canada and in other lands ; among
them being a wreath of calla lilies and roses from the Gov
ernor-General and Lady Stanley of Preston. The beautiful
casket bore the simple inscription :
ALEXANDER MACKENZIE,
DIED
17Tii April, 1892,
Aged 70 Yeaks.
The weather on the day of the funeral was as delightful as
on the day he died. " Bright sunshine, the healthful breath
of spring, the singing of birds and the return of verdure led
ihe onlooker almost imperceptibly to look upon the better
side, and io remember that he in whose honor thousands were '
assembled had done a brave and noble life-work, rather than
to grieve that at length he had passed down into ihe silence
of death. And in all the services and exercises of the day
there was almost as much a note of triumph over ihe noble
career of the departed statesman as of sorrow over his death."
On Wednesday, delegations from all parts of the country
and other personal friends and admirers, clad in deep mourn
ing, and with the political line obliterated, poured into Toronto
and filled the city. There were strong bodies alike from the
Conservative and Liberal members of the House of Commons.
The Dominion Cabinet was represented by Sir John Thomp
son, leader of ihe Government in ihe House of Commons;
Hon. J. C. Patterson, Secretary of State ; Hon. Mackenzie
Bowell, Minister of Militia, and Hon. Frank Smith, Acting
Minister of Public Works. Hon. Wilfrid Laurier, leader of
the Opposition, and Hon. David Mills, had been formally
chosen to represent the Liberal party in Parliament.

HIS LAST DA YS. 641
Wiih the exception of Hon. C. F. Fraser, who was in the
Southern States for his health, all the members of the Ontario
Cabinet attended ; and there were few absentees from the en
tire body of ihe Legislature.
There was a short servioe at the house, conducted by Rev.
Dr. Thomas and Rev. James Grant. The funeral cortege was
then formed for ihe services in the Jarvis-street Baptist
Church, ihe route, which was crowded with sorrowing people,
being by Si. Albans and Wellesley-streets.
After a poss^ of mounted police, came the first carriage, oc
cupied by Rev. Dr. Thomas, Rev. Professor McLaren, Rev. G.
M. Milligan, and Rev. James Grant, officiating clergymen.'
Then followed a carriage containing Rev. Father Walsh, repre
senting ihe Archbishop of Toronto. And next three carriages
with the pall-bearers, all close personal friends of Mr. Macken
zie, in ihe following order :
Hon. Edward Blake, Hon. Oliver Mowat, Hon. G. W. Allan,
Mr. Justice Burton,
Hon. Sir Richard Cartwright, Hon. T. W. Anglin,
Mr. Justice McLennan, Hon. G. W. Ross,
Robert Jaffray, T. C. Irving, Major Greig, J. L. Blaikie.
Behind the pall-bearers' carriages was the funeral car dra'wn
by four black horses, and accompanied by a carriage contain
ing the floral offerings. The chief mourners followed.
In ihe first carriage were -Mr. Charles Mackenzie, M.P.P.,
brother ; Rev. Dr. Thompson, son-in-law, and Mr W. Macken
zie, nephew of ihe deceased.
In the second were Mr. W. Buckingham, late Private Secre
tary ; Mr. Henry Beatty, Toronto ; Mr. Thomas Hodgins, Q.C,
Masier-in-Ordinary ; and Hon. A. McKellar, SheriflF of Went-
worth. oo

642 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
The carriages of Colonel Dawson, A.D.C., representing the
Governor-General, and of Captain Greville Harston, A.D.C.,
representing the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, came next
Then followed carriages bearing Sir John Thompson, Hon.
Wilfrid Laurier, Hon. Mackenzie Bowell, Hon. J. C. Patterson,
Hon. Frank Smith, Hon. L. H. Davies, Hon. David Mills, Hon.
Speaker Ballantyne, Hon. A. S. Hardy, Hon. J. M. Gibson,
Hon. R. Harcourt, and many other Liberal and Conservative
leaders. The Parliamentary delegation proper formed the next sec
tion of the funeral cortege, some in carriages, including Hon.
R. W. Scott and Sir Donald A. Smith; the rest, forming a
large contingent of the House of Commons, on foot, headed
by Mr. D' Alton McCarthy. Other carriages contained :
The Board of the North American Lite, of which deceased was President.
The Mayor and City CouncU,
East Tork Liberal Association.
East Tork Conservative Association.
The Toronto Reform Association.
The Young Men's Liberal Club.
The Tork County Council.
The Public Library Board.
The St. Andrew's Society.
The Caledonian Society.
Citizens of Toronto and friends from a distance.
The procession was large and imposing, and as it slowly
passed along the streets, the people who filled them io the
roadway stood with uncovered heads.
The mounted police guarded the entrance to ihe church,
which, except ihe seats reserved, was already crowded with
citizens. Presently, Parliament may be said to have assem
bled within that fane, under whose roof never before were

HIS LAST DAYS. 643
¦gathered together so many distinguished men. The Dead
March in Saul was played by Mr. Vogt, the organist, as the
pall-bearers entered the church, and placed their precious bur
den, surrounded by flowers, in front of the choir rails. The
pall-bearers filed off" io the left, the central front seats were
taken up by the chief mourners, the Parliamentary delegation
occupying those immediately behind, the leaders of the Gov
ernment and of the Opposition in the House of Commons still
sitting side by side.
Rev. G. M. Milligan offered the opening prayer ; the hymn,
"Jerusalem the Golden," was sung to the swelling organ notes ;
Rev. Dr. Johnston read selected passages of scripture ; Rev.
Joshua Denovan engaged in prayer ; and after another hymn,
"Asleep in Jesus," Rev. Dr. Thomas delivered a magnificent
eulogy on the career and splendid services of the statesman
they had come to mourn. He compared him to the Roman
soldier sentinel who was forgotten, and was buried under the
lava of Vesuvius rather than desert his post, and to Welling
ton, standing like a tower of strength, " four square, to all the
winds that blow." Alexander Mackenzie's was the highest
type of statesmanship, which was not so common, even here,
but that it stirred the nation's veneration and enthusiasm
when a life like his was brought under review. He recited
the leading incidents in that life, and, after telling of the
greatness he had achieved, said the best feature in his char
acter was that he was a sincere Christian. He thus concluded
the panegyric :
" How inestimable is an honest man 1 His price is above rubies. He
is the keystone in the mighty superstructure of society. He is the
.streno-th of every great financial institution. Society is a heap of sand,
and government a gUded swindle without honest men. Oh, how Alex
ander Mackenzie loved Canada ! And if he could speak to us to-day

644 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
with lips unsealed, it would be to urge us to fidelity m all that would tend
to develop her resources and enhance her glory. Methinks I hear the
grand old patriot sending back a shout from the everlasting hills bearing
the message ' Defend Canada from her enemies ; be true to her interests ;
lay yourselves upon the altar of her service ; preserve the fair heritage
which God has given you ; rest not until her brow is wreathed with
purity, her loins girded with righteousness, her feet unshackled, holding
in her right hand the volume of eternal truth, and its laws written on her
heart.' Thou grand old veteran of thy country's liberties, farewell."
Professor McLaren, of Knox College, followed with an elo
quent and touching tribute, dwelling upon the loss the country
had sustained in the removal of one of its most trusted states
men, who occupied a conspicuous place in our history, and
who, living the life of an honest man, an honest politician,
true to his convictions, more anxious io maintain right than
power and position, had left a mark upon ihe country, and a
mark for the country's good. His history, his memory, was a
heritage for the people, many of whom, he trusted, would
rise up and devote themselves wiih similar integrity and self-
sacrifice to promote ihe nation's welfare. To him we might
address the words spoken of a great statesman in by-gone
ages, one who, in equally trying circumstances, kept his name
unsullied to the end : " Go thou thy way until the end be,
for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the
days." Another hymn was sung — " Nothing in My Hand I Bring "
— and Rev. Dr. Potts closed the solemn services with prayer.
From the church the remains were borne to the railway
station by Wilton-avenue, through Yonge-street, in which, by
request of the Mayor, business was suspended while the fun
eral passed, and many of the leading stores were draped in
mourning. The respect paid to the cortege was most marked.
It needed little effort on the part of the mounted police tO'

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HIS LAST DA YS. 647
clear the way, and obtain a suspension of traffic. The Union
Station was reached shortly after 3 o'clock, and here the ar
rangements were most complete. Mr. C. W. Taylor brought
down Mrs. Mackenzie and Mrs. Thompson, both ladies bearing
up well under their heavy affliction. When the cortege ar
rived at the station, the ladies had retired to their private car,
which, with the Balmoral sleeper for guests, was attached to
ihe special train. The pall-bearers formed a double line on the
platform, and the casket was carried through their ranks, and
deposited in the car next the engine. In a few minutes all
was ready. Mr. Taylor gave the signal, and the train of
several cars, laden with friends, pulled out of the depQt at 3.32
on the melancholy journey across the Province, in every corner
of which the departed statesman was so well loved. The train
was draped in black, and was scheduled to run forty -five miles
an hour. At some of the stations, especially at London, a brief
halt was made, and the people crowded round, many joining in
ihe onward joumey.
Sarnia, the destination, was reached at 9.10, and a dense,
surging mass was in waiting at ihe dep6t, but the most com
plete order and respectful silence were maintained as ihe train
drew up. Six nephews of the late Mr. Mackenzie were in
waiting to officiate as pall-bearers, two sons of each of his three
brothers, John, James, and Charles. These young men slowly
bore the body of their uncle out into the inky darkness to the
hearse. Mr. Robert Mackenzie, whose age prevented him from
going to Toronto, and other relatives, were also present, and
accompanied the casket. With only a few moments necessary
delay, and without the slightest ostentation or display, the cor
tege moved up Front-street to Mr Charles Mackenzie's resi
dence on Christina-street where the remains were to rest until
the morning. Many hundreds followed the procession through

648 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
the quiet streets, their saddened and subdued voices testifying
most unmistakably to ihe real sense of loss which each and all
so keenly felt.
Thursday broke dull and sombre in Sarnia, and the rain
fell steadily. The houses were draped in black. Every train
that came in was filled with mourners. Rev. Dr. McLaren
conducted a private service, commencing at 10:30, at Mr.
Charles Mackenzie's residence, the members of the family
and one or two others present being Mrs. A. Mackenzie, the
widow, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Mackenzie, Rev. Dr. and Mrs.
Thompson, Mrs. John Mackenzie, Mrs. James Mackenzie, Mrs.
Wm. Roy (Detroit), Mrs. John Wallis (Brantford), Mr Robt
Mackenzie, Misses Maggie Mackenzie, Nellie Mackenzie, Susie
Mackenzie, Grace Mackenzie, Helen Thompson, Ella Mac
kenzie, Marion Mackenzie, Messrs. Robert Mackenzie, jun.,
David Mackenzie, John Mackenzie, Charles Mackenzie, jun,
Wm. Mackenzie, Malcolm Mackenzie, Gordon Mackenzie,
and Masters Stewart Mackenzie, Kenneth Mackenzie, Alex.
Mackenzie, Alex. Thompson and Robert Thompson ; Mrs. A.
Young (Toronto), Miss Steed, Dr. Thorburn (Toronto), and
Mr. D. S. McBean (Chicago.) At ihe conclusion of the
service an interval of half an hour elapsed, during which
a few intimate friends called, after which the hearse was
drawn up io the door and ihe casket deposited therein and
conveyed in the quietest possible manner io St. Andrew's
Presbyterian Church, accompanied by only the male relatives.
The pall-bearers were again the six nephews of ihe deceased :
Robert and David, sons of the late James Mackenzie ; John
and Gordon, sons of ihe late John Mackenzie ; Charles and
Malcolm, sons of Charles Mackenzie.
The body lay in state at ihe church — the bier with freshest
garlands newly strewn, the gifts of loving Lambton hands —

1i..ti'<iigS.

The Casket in St. Andrew's Presbyterian Churoli, Sarnia.

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. Sarnia." photo bv q- r, lanoefield.

HIS LAST DAYS. 651
until two o'clock, when the casket was closed and the services
commenced. In the interval, people poured steadily past to
take a last look at the familiar features, so placid and pleasing
in their expression. The galleries, with ihe pulpit, from which
the son-in-law of ihe deceased Premier has ministered these
twenty-six years, were heavily draped. The organist, Mr. W.
Philp, played the Dead March ; the hymn, " Rock of Ages,"
was sung ; Rev. Professor McLaren read a passage from Reve
lations ; Rev. Professor Gregg offered prayer ; another hymn
was sung, " Nearer My God to Thee ; " and Rev. Professor Gregg
delivered the oration. He began with an appropriate allusion
to the likeness between the life-long friends, Alexander Mac
kenzie and George .Brown, Lambton's earlier representative.
He traced the march of events in which they both took lead
ing parts. He pointed to the dauntless spirit, the upright
conduct, the loyalty to principle of their deceased friend, com
paring him to Edmund Burke, to Samuel, the last but the
best judge of Israel. He said he bore to the grave a stainless.
name, and his whole life, especially to the young, was a noble
inspiration. The services closed with the hymn, "The Sands of Time are
Sinking ; " prayer, by Rev. Professor McLaren ; the anthem,
" Come unto Me all ye that Labor ; " and an organ dirge ; the
remains meanwhile being borne from the church.
As ihe worshippers emerged from the edifice, the rain-clouds
dispersed, and the bright sunshine fell again upon the scene.
The streets were lined by thousands, with bowed heads and
sorrowful faces. Many of those who were present at the
obsequies in Toronto were in the proces.sion, joined by multi
tudes who gathered from the western district Lakeview
cemetery, the place of Interment is two miles distant, and all
the vehicles that could be obtained were wholly inadequate to

652 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
the purposes of ihe occasion, but those who could not ride, in
cluding many women and children, walked ihe entire way, in
order io see all that was mortal of Alexander Mackenzie, the
beloved, consigned to ihe tomb.
The grave had been beautifully draped in white, and ihe
pure folds of the hanging cloth were caught up at intervals
with clustera of white lilies, smilax and roses, the edge of the
grave being bordered with green laurel leaves and cocoa mat
ting laid on either side. The coffin having been lowered, the
many lovely floral offerings were grouped around on the mat
ting, and the bystanders looked upon that peaceful resting-
place, bathed in a rich flood of generous sunlight, aad embedded
in snow-white flowers, the perfume from which hung heavily
on the air. Then the Rev. Dr. Gregg engaged in earnest
prayer, ihe benediction was pronounced, and the veteran states-
man,after the many vicissitudes of his early days, the struggles
and triumphs of his mature age, ihe ever-increasing physical
weakness of his declining years — " life's fitful fever " over —
was left to his repose.

Family Burial Plot in Lakeview Cemetery, Sarnia, photo by a. „ lanoefjelo,

CHAPTER XLIII.

TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY.
Mrs. Mackenzie's Help to Hira in His Public Career —His Recognition of It—
Her Devotion in His Long Illness— Personal and Public Tributes— Letter
from Hon. A. G. Jones— Hon. S. H. Blake's Oration— The Pulpit and the
Press— All Unite to do Him Honor.

^ HE wealth of affection and devotion bestowed by
aiW the wife upon the stricken husband for the ten
years before his death has i-arely been surpassed.
She was his devoted companion everywhere. She
had already in ihe sunshine of the world won golden
opinions from all sorts of persons, and these were in
vested with Increased lustre by what was observed of her yet
higher womanly qualities when the shadows fell and deepen
ed. We but i-epeai the estimate universally formed of Mrs.
Mackenzie, when we say that she was a tower of strength to
her husband throughout his official life, adding to his prestige
and his influence. As was remarked of her, while Mr. Mac
kenzie was Premier, she won all hearts by her frankness, her
geniality, her kindly spirit, and unassuming manners. She
moved with all the grace of one born in the circle of polished
life. She met with ease and dignity personages the most dis
tinguished, and received on the same footing and witliout an
air of condescension, the lowliest in the land. She was as
much above worldly pride as her distinguished husband. She
had the same unaffected goodness of heart and the same herit-
C55

656 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
age of good, sound sense. A charming hostess, in those days
of magnificent hospitality, alike ai Government House and the
residence of ihe Prime Minister, she was of all the favorite.
We are sorely tempted here to violate the proprieties, if in
deed it be a transgression, by quoting from the correspondence
so unreservedly placed in our hands, a passage from a letter
addressed by her husband to Mrs. Mackenzie, from Ottawa,
on the 2nd of March, 1880 :
" It is a pleasure to me to be able to count the days, now happUy few
in number, until I shall see you again. I am just as keen and enthusias
tic as I was twenty -seven years ago to be with you. Then I liked you
for what I believed you to be — now I love you for what I know you are.
Then I had no doubt you would make my life happy — now, I can say you
have more than realised all my hopes and expectations ; so that we can
look back upon more than a quarter of a century of- the happiest of mar
ried existence, and can look forward with cheerfulness and hopefulness to
what may remain to us of life on earth. In trying circumstances, you
nobly did your share in maintaining my position and your own. My
warmest love you had before, but this commanded my greatest admira
tion. I continue daily to receive the strongest evidence that no one ever
had a closer hold on all hearts than you commanded here. I am not
good, as you know, in the use of language of a demonstrative kind, and
will only say further, what I always feel, that I have the best of wives--
God bless her."
The intimacy of Mr. Mackenzie with his colleagues was a
very trustful and cordial Intimacy. He had in an especial
measure a warm attachment for the leading members of his
Cabinet down by the sea. The reader has already been able
io judge of the tender nature of the friendship which existed
between Mr. Mackenzie and Mr. Laird, of Prince Edward Island,
from the evidence they have themselves furnished of it In
these pages. His reliance upon the sound judgment and leal-
heartedness of Mr. Jones, of Nova Scotia, and Sir Albert

Mrs. 'Mackenzie.

PP

TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. 659
Smith and Mr. Burpee, of New Brunswick, was equally great
He has carefully preserved ihe many valued letters he received
from each of them. Sir Albert Smith and Mr. Burpee are no
more; but Mr, Jones remains of his Maritime Ministers to
hold him in aflfectionate remembrance. Of ihe numerous kind
letters received by Mrs. Mackenzie since her husband's death,
none has given her greater solace in her sorrow than a touch
ing letter from Mr. Jones. We can, however, find space but
for the one paragraph, which gives expression to his grateful
acknowledgment of Mr. Mackenzie's ever -helpful assistance:
" Perhaps no one had more cause to speak well of him than I
had. From the day I entered Parliament, in 1867, to the time
we resigned, in 1878, he was always my warmest friend and
counsellor, and I cannot hope to make anyone adequately un
derstand how much I owed to him for any measure of success
I may have had in public life." And this, too, which Is but
confirmatory of the universal testimony to his unwavering
loyalty : " He was a man, of whom it may truly be said, that
when you had won his confidence, there were no more doubts
to be cleared away." These sentiments find an echo in the
hearts of all those who knew him best
At a meeting in East York, shortly after the funeral, Hon.
S. H. Blake delivered an oration, which he commenced by a
touching allusion to the death of Mr. Mackenzie, a man who,
he said, stood out as a stalwart among men throughout the
world, a man who struck for the right regardless of conse
quences: " Consequences had to go to pieces before Alexander
Mackenzie. God give us more such as he was, honest and
true." He liked to think that he could follow him yet ; that
the Influence of Alexander Mackenzie still hved. "Men may
say what shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue ; but
I," said Mr. Blake, impressively, " like to say what a grand
reaHty he was, and what a noble man we may pursue."

060 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
The tributes paid to the revered statesman, boih by pulpit
and press, were generous and unstinted. They were not
labored eulogies, but heartfelt and spontaneous, for, as has
been well said by the Sarnia Observer, neither orators nor
writers had to pick their way among ihe pages of his life-
work to separate the good he did from that which should be
covered by ihe mantle of silence. He proved incorruptible
when tried in the fire of temptation that surrounds a public
m'an with vast patronage at his disposal, and no blemish mars
the record he hands down to posterity.
"Like Caesar," said the Philadelphia Record, "who twice refused a
kingly crown, Hon. Alexander Mackenzie refused the honor of knight
hood three times ; but, unlike Csesar, he owed his political overthrow to
his incorruptible honesty and unswerving integrity.''
Remarked the Christian Guardian, he was a dUigent public servant,
faithful to the trust reposed in him, of inexorable adherence to convic
tions of duty. Though great in point of inteUectual endowment, he was
greater still in his recognition of the moral and religious principles which
concern true statesmanship, and towards which its best endeavors aspire
and tend. His name and fame wUl have a sure and honorable place in
the history of his country.
The New Tork Herald dwelt upon his great force of character, and
pointed to his spotless reputation. It said that his was probably the only
instance in the history of England or her colonies where a workingman
had risen to the high office of its First Minister.
Said the Presbyterian Review, the rise of Mr. Mackenzie from tho
humble position of a handicraftsman to be the Premier of Canada, is a
magnificent object lesson to the young men of this country. In his death
we have lost a most faithful and upright public servant.
The St. John Telegraph said he was loved by the people, and his politi
cal opponents were compeUed to respect him even above their own chosen
leader. The verdict of history wiU be that as a statesman he has had few
equals in Canada. He has enriched Canadian annals, and set a shining
example for years to come. His death is a national loss, which can only
be retrieved by applying in national affairs the lessons taught by his life.

TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. 661
The Toronto MaU observed that he was in his ideas a direct antithesis
of Sir John Macdonald. He declined the ribbon he might have worn,
but as plain Alexander Mackenzie he was none the less respected, and
the country will long honor his memory as that of a man who ruled it
conscientiously and gave it of his best.
The Canadian Presbyterian said that few leaders of men were freer
from demagogic arts than he. His death is sincerely mourned by the
Canadian people, and all who knew him will sympathise deeply with those
near and dear to him who are left behind— those who saw in its complete
ness that beautiful, unselfish life which he lived for seventy years. His
will be an honored place in the history of the Dominion of Canada, and
his example will be an incentive to the younger generation to pursue
generous, unselfish aims.
It is one of the very foremost architects of the Canadian nationality,
said the Montreal Star, that we mourn. Few men will stand out so pro
minently as an example to the Canadian youth of probity, honesty, in
tegrity and high honor. He began life as an artizan, with no advantages
of birth or wealth behind him, and with his own toughened right hand
won his way to the highest ofiice in the Dominion. In the dark days ot
'73, Canadians were in a state of panic, distrusting the stability of their
newly -built Dominion ; and no one can teU what would have happened
had not the stalwart form^ of Alexander Mackenzie lifted itself above the
screaming, vociferating and denying mass of politicians, and all Canada
felt at once that there ivas a man who could be trusted.
Said the Toronto Globe, he was a man who loved the people, and
who, as long as health and strength were vouchsafed to him, fought for
their rights ag.ainst privUege and monopoly in every form. As remarked
by Rev. Dr. Thomas, he was loyal to the Queen and to the institutions of
the country, but, above all, loyal to the manhood for which governments
and institutions of whatever sort "are made. Canadians of all shades ot
political belief have long since come to the conclusion that for five years
Canada was ruled by an honest man ; honest not only in his lofty scorn
of making profit out of his high place, or allowing others to profit at the
expense of the people, but in the faithfulness with which he devoted aU
his energy and talent to the service of the country.
Said the Toronto Empire, during the recent years of his silent politi
cal service and the weeks of his fatal Ulness, the minds of men have turned

6G2 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
sympathetically to the career and character of the old statesman, and the
verdict has been almost unanimous that in Alexander Mackenzie the
qualities of steadfast devotion to principle, of shrewd judgment and prac
tical sense, of vigorous mental power, of sturdy national pride, were
strongly and happUy united. On one or two of the really great issues
which have arisen since his retirement he took a silent though, naturally,
a significant stand, which heightened the respect of » majority of his
countrymen for his judgment and his patriotism, and thus it comes about
that to-day not a jarring note will be heard in the chorus of kindly
tributes to his name and fame that will arise all over Canada. We pre
fer to remember Mr. Mackenzie in these later years when he loyally stood
by his party, even at inconvenience to himself, and showed that he could
as faithfully and unselfishly serve them in defeat as he could lead them
in the days of victory. We prefer to remember that, when unhappy re
bellion broke out in the land, Mr. Mackenzie stood firm, as became a man
of worth and loyalty, for the cause of law and order, and how, even in
the most recent discussions, when physically far from well, his strong and
active mind grasped the hardest political problems, and took a sounder,
shrewder view of Canadian interests than many younger, bolder, but lesFs
sagacious, men.
Said the Markhana Econom.ist, he watched and carefuUy studied tiie
policies of enlightened nations in Europe and America. He loved his
adopted country, and gave it his life. He saw that ils farming and lum
bering interests were what sustained it, and that on their success de
pended the success of its merchants and manufacturers. His policy was
to give them the markets of the world to buy and sell in, with the least
possible restrictions to their efi'orts.
Said the Charlottetown (P.E.I.), Patriot, (Hon. D. Laird, editor), in
all that constitutes the real man, the honest statesman, the true patriot,
the w;arm friend, and the sincere Christian, he had few equals. Possessed
of a clear intellect, a retentive memory, and a ready command of appro
priate words, he was one of the most logical and powerful speakers we
have ever heard. But high as were his mental endowments, he was
equally noted for his robustness of character. He frowned from his pre
sence the individual who would dare make dishonorable proposals to him,
and no little of the opposition from old supporters which he encountered
in the electoral campaign of 1878, arose from the sternness with which he

TRIBU'IES TO HIS MEMORY. 663
had refused to use public funds for the private or party advantage of
men who claimed to be friends of his Government.
Said Paul de Cazes in the Paris Monde, when describing him many
years ago : "Dry, nervous, of a stature very little over the average,
modest in his manners and simple in his attire, without carelessness, the
Prime Minister has nothing about him that smacks of the parvenu. Not
withstanding his deep blue eye, his well-developed brow, and energetic
mouth, the ensemble of his physiognomy lacks, perhaps, somewhat of that
undefinable air of distinction commonly attributed to high birth ; but, on
the other hand, it bears the more to be appreciated stamp which talent
and inteUigent and sustained labor occasionally place upon the counten
ances of men of the most lowly origin. Cool, methodical, correct, the
speeches of the leader of the Canadian Cabinet, free from all attempt at
literary effect, nevertheless habitually impress the hearers by the power
of their reasoning. It is not to the Hon. Prime Minister of Canada that
we desire to pay homage, but to Mr. Alexander Mackenzie, the stone
mason of twenty years ago, who, by perseverance and hard study, has
raised himself to the highest round of the social ladder of his adopted
country." Said the London Times: "Modest by disposition, he, nevertheless,
enjoyed controversy, and was quite at home in the heat of debate either
in the House or on the hustings. Better stUl — the untiring energy, the
business-like accuracy, the keen perception and reliable judgment, and
above all the inflexible integrity which marked his private life, he carried
without abatement of one'jot into his public career. His name has been
regarded as a symbol of honesty among friends and foes alike."
We must conclude these tributes, which might be indefi
nitely extended, by the few following lines at the close of a
monograph in Grip :
" He was a Christian of that old-time sort-
Unfashionable now and growing rare —
Who knew no sacred barr'd from secular,
But worshipped God by doing honest work."
Nobody now pretends to say thai in Mr Mackenzie's time
there was no virtue in Dominion politics. It is certain that in

664 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
him, as Prime Minister, there was a high, sense of personal
honor which was very effectual in accomplishing what he
promised in the way of raising the standard of public moral
ity. Since then, unfortunately, the standard has again been
lowered ; there has been distinct debasement. And we see no
reason to hope for substantial improvement — for a purification
of the political atmosphere — so long as the hypocritical pre
tence exists, that, ex necessitate, as the convenient phrase goes,
by way of attempted excuse for ihe toleration of e\'il of what
ever kind, whenever It is brought to light, " one party is as
bad as the other." So long as proven dishonesty on the part
of one man, or one set of men, is palliated and suffered to go
unpunished, on the easy assumption that his or their oppon
ents are "just like them ; " so long as men of high character
and truthfulness are measured by the same standard as those
who are debased and are unfaithful to their trust ; so long, we
say, as these views prevail, rectitude of life and action, on the
part of Canadian statesman, will not be potential as an agency
in improving the morale. The country will be kept down io
the level of the conduct and behavior of the degenerate. In
stead of being raised io ihe higher altitude of those who are
still capable, we are thankful to be able to believe, of carrying
the exemplary principles of private life into the discharge of
public duty. It will be a bad day for Canada when her sons,
in order to save themselves from contamination, will have to
abandon politics as an unclean and unholy thing. There is too
much reason to fear that to this condition we have been drift
ing for many years past, and thai many professional teachers
of morality, blinded by ihe exigencies of ihe party fray, have
helped to sow the seeds of the nation's degradation.
It happened to the writer of this notice, (says the Toronto Monetary
Times), to be made aware, about 1885, of an incident which shows the

TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. 665
high view Mr. Mackenzie entertained of his functions as a Minister of
the Crown, as weU as the contempt in which he held the claims of mere
self-seeking politicians when they might seem to interfere with a public
trust. A manufacturer whose works wefe situated near the Intercolonial
Railway, who was a supporter of Mr. Mackenzie's Government, and who
had a very complacent notion of his own influence and importance, made
a pilgrimage to Ottawa. His object was to get a spur of the raUway built
to his factory, .and ho obtained an interview with the Premier. He made
a proposition which seemed quite legitimate as a business venture, but he
proceeded to spoil his case by descanting upon the services he had ren
dered the party, and he closed with something very like a demand upon
the Government that his desire should be complied with as a reward of
party fealty. He got an answer without delay. To use his own words :
"The Premier of Canada stood up, and placing his hands behind his
back, said, ' Sir, the Government declines to entertain your proposition,'
and without another word turned his back upon me and left the room."
During Mr. Mackenzie's Premiership an incident occurred
which illustrates in a strikingly pleasant way the stern hon
esty of the man and his kindliness of heart :
' ' A minister, a warm, personal and political friend of his, broke down
in health, and wished to go to the seaside. Funds were scarce, and, under
the impression that ministers had special rates over the Intercolonial, he
wrote to the department asking for information. Mr. Mackenzie replied
through a friend in substance as follows : ' Tell Mr. •  that special
rates cannot be made, but I shall gladly pay his fare out of my own
pocket.' "
A characteristic experience of Mr. Mackenzie's sterling
determination to avoid even the appearance of evil, though it
might profit him, was related by Rev. Dr. Clark, in Zion taber-
' nacle, Hamilton, at the time Mr. Mackenzie died :
" From 1865 to 1868, whUe stationed at Sarnia, I had the privUege of
being intimately acquainted with the late ex-Premier. I remember on
one occasion having charge of a missionary enterprise, and applying to
Mr. Mackenzie for a donation. It happened to be just prior to the disso-

«66 LIFE OF TIIE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
dution of Parliament, and Mr. Mackenzie's reply to my request was :
¦* We are expecting an election before long, and it is a rule with me never
to give, or promise to give, for charitable or other purposes when we are
mear an election.' After the election was over we were surprised to re
ceive from Mr. Mackenzie a substantial cheque for our missionary scheme.
He was a man of broad sympathies. He was not connected with our
denomination. In fact, no one branch of the Church of Jesus Christ has
a. right to claim the entire of such a man."
As official agent of the Liberal party in 1877-8, Mr. G. R.
Pattullo suggested to the Premier that he might strengthen
the hands of ihe Liberal candidates in the Niagara peninsula
in the 1878 contest by taking the opportunity of visiting
them, and at the same time making a personal inspection of
ihe large works then In p^-ogress on the Welland canal. But
he did not act upon the advice. He thought it wrong to put
in an appearance upon public works at such a time, and he
would trust, he said, to the people to do him justice on his
policy. There were four seats in the district, and three of
them went against him — a righteous policy to guide them,
and the considerable benefits derivable from the prosecution of
the public works,~ notwithstanding. Cynics of to-day may say
that this was bad politics on the part of the Premier. Per
haps it was ; but beyond bad politics, he trusted, if too often
in vain, to the infiuence of good principles.
A letter written by Mr. Mackenzie to a gentleman In one of
the Lower Provinces, a few months before his Government
went out of office, truthfully indicates ihe position, pecuni
arily and politically, of his Ministers towards public con
tractors, and is prophetic of ihe glaring corruptions which
have been attendant upon the return of the old set to power :
" For two years past the whole energies of the Opposition press and
the leaders have been devoted to a system of misrepresentation and cal-

TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. 667
umny never before resorted to. Under these circumstances it is of great
consequence that our leading newspapers should take a firm stand, not on
my behalf, for no man is so important that his individual interests should
be considered, but on behalf of good government. PersonaUy, I am not
desirous to continue in office, but I am extremely anxious to prevent such
men as we have had from again having the control of the afiairs of the
country, for they have on their side the great army of speculative con
tractors who undoubtedly have furnished them with money for election
purposes, and wUl do so again. The Pacific Railway offers large prospec
tive advantages to lure this class into making immense efforts to get back
again to the old kind of work.
" For ourselves, I am glad to be able with a clear conscience to say
that not one contractor has ever been asked to pay a cent for political
purposes for any member of this Government ; and that no contractor has
in the remotest way had a favor. The men who can now openly defend
tho Pacific RaUway scandal, and say, ' it was, perhaps, a mistake, but it
was not a crime,' are quite capable of repeating the offence, if an oppor
tunity is allowed them of so doing."
* The remark that Mr. Mackenzie neither gave favors to con
tractors nor received favors from them, is so literally correct
that we have before us copy of a letter written at the same
period by Mr. Mackenzie's secretary, in the Minister's absence,
to a person of influence, who desired to see a great public
work pushed more rapidly forward, and temporary structures
erected to facilitate the operations ; reminding him that to in
terfere with a contractor In this way was to give him a claim
for extras, and " against extras to contractors Mr. Mackenzie
has ever set his face as it were a flint." The spoils system
was not in vogue in those days, and no one got rich out of the
pickings and stealings.
Among the tributes paid to Mr. Mackenzie is that of a
clergyman In New Brunswick who had heard him say on a
platform In St John : " I do not want any one to be in doubt
as to the policy of my Government, and our reasons for it If

668 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
you can support us in that policy, I will be glad, but If you
pronounce against it, then I am prepared to leave. But we will
stand by our principles, come what may." The clergyman
was opposed to the Government policy ; " but," he said, '' I
could not as a Canadian help feeling proud of a countryman
who put principle before his very official existence, and Avhom
the love, Inherent in most men, of power and position, could
not swerve the breadth of a single hair."
Mr. Mackenzie had a genuine relish for good literature. He
liked history, and kept himself au courant with the leading
events in other countries than his own. He was no mean
scientist, and had a close acquaintance with .Darwin, Huxley,
Tyndall and Spencer. Hugh Miller's books he carried in his
brain. Ruskin, De Quincey and Carlyle he read with an under
standing mind. Thackeray he did not seem to care much for.
His greatest delight was in Scott, Dickens, George Eliot, and
George Macdonald — and first and foremost, Scott. In his
declining years, when he could no longer hold a book in his
hand, he would sit for hours, and late into the evening, listen
ing with intense relish to ihe recital of the quaint remarks of
Davie Deans, the oddities of Saddletree and Cuddie Headrigg,
or the pedantries of the Antiquary, whose conceits and whim
sicalities would cause him to shake with uncontrollable merri
ment. During the past Christmas holidays, when visiting his
son-in-law in Sarnia, he had read to him again Darwin's
" Journal of a Voyage round the World," with which he was
always much delighted. The last book which was read io
him before he died was " Stalker's Life of Christ," by his
granddaughter, in Toronto. Several pages before its close, one
night, his hour for retiring had arrived, bui he could not with
draw till the book was finished, when he expressed himself

TRIBUTES TO BIS MEMORY. 669
highly gratified with its plan, its racy and beautiful English,
and its clear presentation of facts.
He thought deeply on religious subjects, and was a theo
logian qualified to discuss with specialists many of the more
knotty points of doctrine, whose foundations he had disco
vered not only in Butler, Paley, Blunt and Chalmers, but in
Calvin, Cunningham, Flint, and the massive work of Hodge.
Many a young minister he has recommended io read such
works as " Thomson's Land and the Book," " Porter's Giant
Cities," " Fairbairn's Revelation of Law in Scripture," and ihe
" Bampton Lectures." He was much gratified with " Drum
mond's Natural Law in the Spiritual World," which he pur
chased in Glasgow directly it was issued from the press, and
read in crossing the ocean, before ihe work had got into the
hands of ihe booksellers on this side the Atlantic.
Rev. Professor George Paxton Young used io tell that he
found him versed in metaphysics and philosophy, with an
acquaintance with Hume, Mcintosh, Reid, Stewart and Locke,
and a memory to retain their principles which surprised him.
Letters he wrote with his own hand, and dictated, by the
hundred, and on all kinds of subjects, and with the greatest
ease and rapidity. The country is full of them. We have
before us so many of force and beauty, from his correspond
ents everywhere, thai it has been a difficult matter to make
selections. They are models of pure, idiomatic Enghsh, with
a high degree of literary grace, and are marked also by his
well-known directness, condensation, and correctness of ex
pression. These qualities so much characterised his speaking that
every sentence, every word, came freighted with its exact
meaning. The reporters were united in the opinion thai he
was one of the few men in parliament who could be " taken

670 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
down " and " written out " fully and literally. A few years
ago, " Knoxonian," who knew him well, and had observed him
closely, wrote thus of him in his admirable gallery of " Promi
nent Canadians : "
" He buUds a speech just as he used to build a st jne wall— clear, clean-
cut, concise ; sentences are laid one upon another in an orderly and com
pact manner, and when the speech is finished you can no more knock a
word or sentence out of it than you can knock stones out of a well-buUt
wall. His accurate knowledge, never -failing memory, and quick percep
tive powers make him specially formidable in reply. Running through
many of his speeches, especially those delivered in hot debates, there is a
mingled vein of mild sarcasm and dry, pawky, Scotch humor that is very
effective. The effect is greatly increased by the manner in which the
work is done. You see the bolt cross the House, and you see quite easily
that it has struck. You look to the spot from which it was thrown, and
you see a serious, almost solemn-looking, man, going on with his work as
if nothing had occurred. The plainness and apparent simplicity of the
spea'ier give the humor and sarcasm a great effect."
When he was at the zenith of his power he needed no one
io apologise for him because of lack of early training, much
as he himself felt it in every stage of his career. As a man
of mental power, of grasp of his subject in all its details, of
capacity to marshal facts and make every word tell, of wide
and accurate knowledge, of trained and cultured mind — self-
cultured and trained though it was — Mr. Mackenzie held no
second place io any representative who ever stood on ihe floor
of Parliament. And well might he, in ihe words of another,
have asked his small critics who sought either to apologise for
or to detract from him : " Is it fair for you to call me un
educated pr illiterate in prose so much worse than my own ? "
To ihe opinion of these small critics and their hke, Mr Mac
kenzie was scornfully indifferent, leaving his mental endow-

TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. 071!
ments, as he left his moral nature and his birth and lineage,.
to speak for themselves..
He was seldom or never worsted in debate, or found in error
on matters of fact^for when once the facts got within hi&
grasp they were held with the power of planet over planet —
or found wrong in his quotation or application of precedents,
or mistaken In his judgment of the character and aptitudes of"
inen. It has been alreadj'' stated that in a certain sense Mr. Mac
kenzie was not fluent. That is, in the sense of not being wordy,
merely, but he never hesitated for the most fitting expressions-
in which to clothe his thoughts, and his language was exact-
Men will differ, too, in regard to what constitutes oratory and
literary finish, and some may say that Mr. Mackenzie's style-
was not that of an orator or artist In these respects his-
speeches and letters may be left to the judgment of the
reader. Style in writing or speaking has been defined to be-
" proper words in their proper places." We will search else
where in vain for better examples of this style than we find
in Mr Mackenzie. For effective work, through the use of
language which leaves no one in doubt of his meaning, few
excelled him. Every word came from him full freighted on
its proper mission, firm, compact and forceful. He seldom.
constructed sentences for their beauty, though some passagas-
in his speeches are truly eloquent, and the practical work he
had always in hand may have helped to make his language
less rhetorical ; yet, If the grand function of the orator is to
cause ihe truth and the mind to impinge on each other, with
out caring so much for the medium, his oratory was of the
best But, whatever difference there may be on these mat
ters all are united in bearing testimony to his power as a great.
leader in the House — to his wonderful knowledge of Parlia-

672 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
mentary practice and precedent, and to his readiness at once,
and at all times, In bringing it to bear.
There was visible throughout Mr. Mackenzie's public career
a silver thread of right and honest action. We see it ai the
beginning of his official life, we see it in its progress, we see
it at ihe end. We have before us a letter written by him
when he was treasurer of Ontario, in 1872, in answer to the
reproach that a preference had been shown to a rival city, in
which he says :
' ' I am quite willing to go out of office to-morrow, or out of public life,
for that matter, but I am not willing while here to form a judgment on
questions coming to me on any but public grounds, and no abuse, pro
mises, or threats of any kind will have a feather's weight to shake my
determination. If the Government were capable of yielding to influence
from any particular place, members would not be fit for official life. I
need not say that the reproaches of your people who have written me
have wounded me deeply. The imputation of evil motives is new to me,
coming from such a quarter, but while feeling keenly the attempt to im
peach our honor, the consciousness of having acted with the single desire
to do right enables me to bear it with equanimity. I wish to say further
that while I feel it a high privUege to represent the people in the Gov
ernment, it is no favor. I accepted the position with reluctance, and wiU
resign it at the first opportunity. If, as one person complaining says, lie
sacrificed much for the party, I can fairly say, in the language of Paul, ' I
more ' Business, health, and domestic comfort have suffered irreparable
injury. Let me add that if you consider our alleged error of judgment a
sufficient excuse for turning Tory, I wash my hands of the blame, and
shall stand prepared to defend myself wherever assailed."
After he had become Minister of Public Works for the Do
minion, in answer io the complaint of some Quebec Liberal
members that they did not get the full patronage in railway
matters in their counties, he said :
"You must recollect that I have started a reformation of the railway
system in the Lower Provinces, by absolutely refusing patronage to mem-

TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. 673
bers through whose counties the railway runs. I am bound at all hazards
to exclude political considerations from railway management, except they
are quite consistent with efficiency. I shall always be ready to receive
ahd consider any recommendations our friends may make, though I can
not hold myself bound to carry them into effect, unless in accordance with
the satisfactory working of the system."
This letter to Mrs. Mackenzie was written while ihe Premier
was the guest of Lord Dufferin in Quebec :
" Citadel, Quebec, June 17th, 1876.
" I am fairly ensconced in this old British stronghold of North America,
I looked down this morning from the battlements on the wharf, where
I landed more than thirty-four years ago with some sixteen shillings in
my pocket. I had no dream then that I would one day tread the ram
parts I gazed upon at that time with so much awe, as the virtual head of
the country. This thirty years' struggle has as much interest to me as
the thirty years' war was to the potentates of Europe, and on recalling
some of the incidents I wonder at the outcome. When I think of other
events, and I remember friends who have fallen by the way, particularly
poor Hope, I am very sad. I cannot help feeling that my age and the
kind of labor I have to endure entitle me to be the next to go. God
only knows how soon. Well, I trust I shall not fear when the time
comes ; and I dare say, if it is permitted to those who leave this life to
know what transpires here after they are gone, I shall care as little for
post-mortem eulogies as I care for the ante-mortem censures of malevolent
men." A lady on terms of closest intimacy with the family, and who
had often been their guest called to see him not long before
he died. He was taking some tea, so she sought io excuse
herself for the momentary intrusion, and was about to leave.
" Nay, don't go," he said, with a twinkle of the eye, " I would
rather have you than the tea." It was, as in this case, the
quiet happy faculty he had of setting everybody at their ease
in the domestic circle, of giving them an unaffected welcome
to the generous hospitality of ihe household ; better still, of
QQ

674 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
entertaining them with the inexhaustible resources of his
mind and heart ; that made him io his intimates so great a
social favorite. But he hated false show and sham, and no
one took a greater delight than he in putting his foot through
the lath and plaster of mere pretence.
We have said thai " Knoxonian" knew him well — how well,
let this most charming domestic scene from his pen truly tell :
"About twenty -five years ago it was our good fortune to spend a few
days in Sarnia under the hospitable roof of Alexander Mackenzie. We
saw the manly, upright statesman in his own house, the right place to see
and measure anybody. The impressions then made have not been dim
med by a quarter of a century. We left that home feeling that Alex.
Mackenzie was a noble man, and now as the grave closes over all that is
mortal of our old friend, the impression becomes stronger and more vivid
than ever.
" At the time we had the honor and privUege of being Alex. Mac
kenzie's guest, we had never been brought into contact with many Can
adian public men. Nearly all we knew, or thought we knew, about Can-
andian politicians had been learned from party newspapers. We were as
much surprised to find that Alex. Mackenzie had famUy worship regularly
in his home as we had been during college days to see George Brown in
Cooke's Church twice every Sabbath, listening devoutly to Mr. Gregg's
admirable sermons. A youth who forms his estimate of the public men
of this country by what he reads in the party newspapers is not likely to
conclude that many of them worship either in public or private. Judge
then of our surprise when we saw the future Premier take the famUy
Bible and conduct worship in a manner that might put many a minister
of the Gospel to shame.
" Dr. WiUis used to say that too many ministers read the twelfth chap
ter of Isaiah at famUy worship. Mr. Mackenzie always read a fairly long
and a rich suitable passage, manifestly not taken at random. His reading
was as good as a commentary — much better than some commentaries we
know. His prayers were direct, comprehensive, and chUd-like in their
trust. There was not one worn-out platitude in them from beginning to

TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. 675
t
end. In worship, as in everything else, Alex. Mackenzie was honest,
sincere and earnest."
The statesman who could make Impressions like these upon
the youth of our land is as highly to be valued for his moral
infiuence upon the world as his political.
He Impresses men of mature mind in ihe same manner.
This is from ihe pen of Rev. Dr. Dewart, the scholarly editor
of ihe Christian Guardian :
" Having known Mr. Mackenzie more intimately than any of our other
public men, we may say, altogether apart from his political views, he im
pressed us as a true man and a sincere Christian patriot. At one time,
while he was Premier, in company with the late Dr. Ryerson, the writer
spent several days at his house. In the close intercourse of that visit we
were impressed with his genial humor, the broad range of his reading in
literature and history, the unpretending simplicity of character which he
preserved in the high office which he filled, the intensity of his purpose
to do what was right, and the truly Christian spirit in which he regarded
the work of life. The cares of State did not prevent him faithfully ob
serving family worship, he himself in turn devoutly leading our devotions.
The judgments he expressed of men from whom he differed widely were
always tempered with charity. He was no time-serving politician. When
he was convinced that a course was right, he never sacrificed his convic
tions to current expediency."
We will not multiply quotations, but only refer further on
this head io the remark which has often been made, that
prayer and politics. do not often go together, by saying that
when on one occasion, at the request of a minister present,
Mr. Mackenzie opened a public meeting in Brucefield with
prayer, we are sure he did not look upon it at all as so re
markable an occurrence as it appeared to those who after
wards made it the subject of comment
It had been reported to Mr. Mackenzie that a prominent
Government official had so far forgotten what was due to his

676 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
position as to join in the demonstrations at ihe defeat of the
Liberal Administration, and ihe return to power of Sir John
A. Macdonald. This was happily incorrect. When the com
plaint reached him, Mr. Mackenzie wrote the gentleman com
plained of, asking If what was charged was true. In reply to
his letter of denial, Mr. Mackenzie responded in a communica
tion which correctly states the principles that guided him in
his relations to the civil service throughout, and the kind of
reward he too often got in return : " Ottawa, Oct. 31st, 1878.
" My Deak Sir, — I am much obliged by your letter on the subject of
the party illuminations after the recent election. I was very much pleased
indeed, to find that the statement concerning you was incorrect. Of
course, every person must have his own opinion on political men, parties,
and principles, and I would be sorry to try to coerce anyone, but I do not
think that civil servants should be demonstrative against the Ministry of
the day. On the other hand, I think the Ministry should not coerce the
civil servants. In the five years I spent in the Public Works Depart
ment, I never opened my mouth to one of my subordinates on politics,
or asked one to vote.
" I am sorry to say that some of them rewarded me very Ul for this
reticence. I knew that some of them were in constant communication
with my opponents and the press, misrepresenting everything out of
which political capital could be made.
" It gives me pleasure to say that I never had the slightest cause of
complaint against you. "I am, my dear sir,
" Yours very sincerely, "A. Mackenzie.''
His Excellency ihe Earl of Dufferin, in one of his com
munications, thus wrote to Mr. Mackenzie on the delicate and
difficult matter of ihe relation of civil servants to political
parties : " Our endeavor should be io stretch political free
dom to the utmost, to restrain it with regret, and then only at

TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. 677
the bidding of an absolute necessity ; and io raise ihe tone of
the Canadian civil service, not by assuming that strong politi
cal convictions in favor of this or thai party are incompatible
with a loyal devotion to their official chiefs for the time being,
but by taking for granted that a sense of honor would pre
vent their theoretical opinions from influencing or interfering
wiih their zeal and fidelity to their professional superiors."
Proposals were informally made by ihe Government of a
public pension to Mrs. Mackenzie, for which there are pre
cedents, one being the pension granted to Lady Cartier after
the death of her husband. Sir George E. Cartier. The oflFer,
however, was not favorably received. A State pension was
not in accordance wiih Mrs. Mackenzie's own views, the senti
ments of the family, or of the Liberal party, and ii was quite
opposed to Mr. Mackenzie's own spirit of cherished independ
ence. When this was declined, leading Liberals of Toronto,
acting upon a suggestion which had been made by Mr. A. T.
Wood, of Hamilton, quietly met on ihe Invitation of Mr.
Robert Jaflfray, and established the nucleus of a memorial
fund, the interest of which should be paid to the widow of ihe
deceased statesman during her lifetime, and be devoted after
her death io the establishment of fellowships and scholarships
in the science of political economy in the University of To
ronto. Mr. Jaflfray was appointed chairman, Hon. S. H. Blake
treasurer, and Hon. J. M. Gibson secretary of a committee to
receive subscriptions for this purpose, and by a few of Mr.
Mackenzie's admirers and friends in Toronto over $10,000 was
at once subscribed. The matter was taken up warmly by
Sir D. A. Smith, Mr. Duncan Mclntyre and others in Mont
real, ihe Interest of the fund to be devoted in the same way,
after Mrs. Mackenzie's death, for the benefit of McGill Uni
versity in thai city.

678 LIFE OF THE HON. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
The distinguished son of Scotland was not forgotten in his
native land. On the 12th of May last a public meeting was
held In Logierait Inn, near Ballingluig, to consider of a memo
rial to his memory. The chairman was the same thai presided
at the demonstration at Logierait when Mr. Mackenzie visited
it in 1885 — Sir Alexander Muir Mackenzie, Bart, of Delvine.
There was again an influential gathering. The chairman
showed an Intimate knowledge of the life-work of Loglerali's
noblest son, and an appreciative letter was read from Lord
Mountstephen, of Canada, who took his title from ihe emi
nence in the Rocky Mountains described by Mr. Mackenzie in
his letter of 1884. A committee was formed to decide upon a
suitable memorial to perpetuate Mr. Mackenzie's name in the
Athol district, where he was regarded with pride, and the
feeling inclined towards the erection of a handsome bridge
across the Tay, near the place of his birth.
It remains for the people he served so well to erect a na
tional monument io Mr. Mackenzie's memory. Such a tribute
has already been paid io Sir George E. Cartier; a vote of
Parliament has been taken for a similar memorial to Sir John
A. Macdonald ; and no less an honor is due from the Dominion
to its first Liberal Premier, whose noble character has been
imperfectly sketched in the foregoing pages.

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