List of Illustrations. Sir John A. Macdonald Sir John A. Macdonald's Early Home Sir John A. Macdonald. (From a Painting in the City Hall, Kingston) City Hall, Kingston, where the Body lay in State The Funeral, Princess Street, Kingston PAGE Frontispiece 24 56 96 Sir John A. Macdonald's Grave, Cataraqui Cemetery, Kingston CANADA'S PATRIOT STATESMAN. LIFE AND CAREER OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LATE SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD, G.C.B. CONTIER CHAPTER I. EARLY LIFE. ONTEMPORARY judgment of the several acts of even so great a life as that of John Alexander Macdonald may be sound. But the general tendency and broad effects of such a life must be left to be estimated by posterity, for only in the future will the results at which the Statesman aimed be made manifest. It is the office and duty of the contemporary historian, however, to record the facts as he finds them, together with such comments as are necessary to their due interpretation. The great fact to be made known, either in so many words or by wise compiling of the records, or both, is the estimation in which the man whose history is being written is held by people of his own time. Viewed from this point, the subject of this memoir takes rank among perhaps the smallest class known to history. Carlyle remarks of Goethe, that if certain qualities, which he is alleged to possess, were really his, then Goethe "must rank with Homer and Shakespeare as one of the only three men of genius who ever lived." That genius which enables him who possesses it to embody fictitious persons before our imagination as clearly as those we meet are made clear to our senses, may be, as Carlyle suggests, the only genius worthy of the name. But if the limit is to be extended in the least, it must be made to include that few who are born leaders of men. Some are the leaders of a time, some lead only a class, and the deeds they do are worthy of all praise and emulation. But the born leader of men shows his power, not only through his works but in his personal contact with those about him. Men have made or unmade empires, they have commanded victorious armies or directed mighty movements, and yet have remained themselves but little known to all, save the few whom they used as their means of communication with the people at large. Their leadership is essentially the product of circumstance, and some of the men who have apparently had the most to do with making history are leaders of this class. "No man is great to his valet," according to a saying which has almost become a proverb. But it is not true; the man who is truly great will be recognized as such by his valet as by others. John A. Macdonald carried on his life work in the limited sphere of a Colony even now far from populous, and having a history little longer than his own life. But such as his opportunities were, he made the most of them. He became the greatest man in the community in which he lived; he achieved, with the elements at his command, results which those who knew not his powers declared to be impossible, and, through it all, he moved daily with the people, and not one of the thousands with whom he came in contact but recognized him as truly great. John Alexander Macdonald was by birth a clansman, descendant in direct line of Donald Lord of Kintyre and Islay, a mighty man of valor in his day, who, in his old age, relinquishing his claymore to his son, Angus, spent in devotion and in benefactions to the church the closing days of a life which up to that time had seen its "dearest action in the tented field." From Angus descended a line of chiefs who, so long as force opposed them, not only held their own, but increased their borders and actually opposed in arms the power of all Scotland rallied about the king. But when James the First came to the throne, craft and treachery were employed, and by these the power of the warlike chiefs was broken. Invited by the king to meet and discuss in brotherly fashion the differences between them, Alexander, Earl Macdonald, accompanied by his mother and a few of his leading warriors and advisers, left the security of his island fortress and went confidingly to Inverness-and to the dungeon. James treacherously seized the man whom he had asked to parley with him and, though sparing his life, deprived him of liberty. The effect upon the clansmen was disastrous. Left without their chief and leader, jealousy, distrust and apprehension played havoc with the strength which in the united clan Macdonald had been unconquerable, and, learning a lesson from his perfidious lord, Alexander vowed to the king a fealty which he had no intention of observing, and, on being released in consequence of his vow, at once sought his home to prepare his men for such a war as would teach tyranny and treachery a lesson. But the clan was not as he had left it, united and confident, but torn with dissensions, and the war resulted in disastrous defeat. On again taking a vow of fealty and undergoing a banishment from his own land, Alexander Macdonald was again given liberty and control of his family's dominions. The time came, however, when the Macdonalds became divided into smaller groups, and from this fact arises the difference in the spelling of the name in different localities, for "Macdonnell" and "Macdonald,” as is suggested by their similarity, are in origin the same name. Mr. Hugh Macdonald of the parish of Dornoch, Sutherlandshire, was a true descendant of the head and founder of the clan. In early life he moved to Glasgow and there he married Helen Shaw, of Badenoch, Inverness. The children of these two were five in number, the second son being John Alexander Macdonald, the subject of this memoir, who was born on the |