quite so sure and uniform in their results as to smother for thirteen years the convictions of a people. It is an indubitable fact that Sir John Macdonald captivated the imaginations of the Canadians by a policy conceived on broad, patriotic principles, and appealing as strongly to national sentiment as it seemed to appeal to material interests. His 'National Policy' was the protest against absorption into the United States. Looking back at the past, we are able to see how almost irresistible would have been by this time the forces making for absorption, had not the National Policy checked them in their beginnings. Even Canadian Federation, of which Sir John Macdonald was the foremost promoter, if not the originator, would have been powerless to stem the tide had not the provinces and territories of British North America been braced together by something more solid than an Act of Parliament. The Canadian Pacific Railway will be Sir John Macdonald's enduring monument. From one point of view it was the corollary of Canada's protective tariff—this last a bulwark against American encroachment, which, however natural, we at home cannot regard with unmixed feelings. But if the prime purpose of the Canadian Pacific was to knit together the Provinces of Canada, it has incidentally given the Empire an inestimable commercial and strategic advantage, and has imparted a colour of actuality to aspirations after Imperial Federation. No wonder that the National Policy' took root in the instincts of Canadians. In their own province the electors of Ontario and Quebec might indulge themselves with Radical Legislatures; but in regard to the broader interests of Canada they were faithful to what is commonly called Conservatism for want of a better name. It is extremely creditable to the good sense of the Canadians that they should have mastered the temptation to fickleness, and having once made their choice, should over and over again have renewed their mandate to Sir John Macdonald to carry it out courageously and consistently.

"In the midst of the mourning which attends the death of the great Canadian statesman, men cannot postpone asking-Who is to be his successor, and what will become of his party? Sir John Macdonald's personal popularity has so long been regarded as the most important factor in the success of the Conservatives that there was a temporary tendency to see in his impending death the signal for a general breaking of old ties and reconstruction of parties. People are now beginning to discover that the ideas of which Sir John Macdonald was the champion cannot be buried with him. They are his children; but it remains to be seen whether a majority of Canadians have adopted them for their own sakes, and not merely out of regard for the statesman who gave them birth. At the same time there is no use in denying that the disappearance of 'the Chieftain's ' commanding personality is a heavy blow to the Conservative and Imperialist party. In the Dominion and, perhaps, other colonial Legislatures, it is perhaps easier to secure a majority than to keep it together. That is

where the tact and personal popularity of Sir John Macdonald were so signally displayed. From the death of Canada's great Premier we must date a new period of doubt and danger during which Sir John Macdonald's successors will have to depend upon the intrinsic worth of the ideas he has bequeathed without the magic aid of his great personality."

"As a Parliamentary leader, Sir John Macdonald exhibited great abilities in debate, in general affairs, and political tactics. He was very frequently a delegate to England and to other countries on public business, and he always executed his delicate diplomatic missions with singular tact and skill. He bore so strong a facial resemblance to Lord Beaconsfield that he was styled "the Canadian Disraeli," and there was likewise a considerable similarity between their views of statesmanship. An "old Parliamentary hand" unmatched in Dominion politics, he excited among his followers a devotion which was invaluable to the Conservative party in keeping together the various groups of which it was composed. In the course of his long political career he carried to a successful issue many measures of the highest importance, in addition to those already enumerated in this article. Conspicuous amongst these measures may be cited the improvement of the criminal laws of Canada; the consolidation of the statutes; the extension of the municipal s stem; military organization; the establishment of a direct steam mail communication with Europe; the inspection of reformatories, prisons, penitentaries, and asylums; the reorganization of the Civil Service on a permanent basis; the construction of the Intercolonial and the Canadian Pacific railways; the enlargement of the canals; the enactment of a stringent election law; the extension of the franchise; the ratification of the Washington treaty; and the extension and consolidation of the Dominion."

THE SATURDAY REVIEW.

"It may be permitted to an Englishman-using the word in its widest sense as the name of all the white subjects of Her Majesty to begin a notice of the late Sir John Macdonald by noting that he held a position which no man not born under the ruler of England could have held in any past time, or could hold now. He won himself the position of a statesman in a great community which was yet a colony of this Empire. The State which he governed has the resources and extent of many independent nations; but it was, of its own free will, only a part of a greater whole. * As a Parliamentary politician there is no reason to suppose that his capacity would have failed of its reward in any constitutionally governed country. The methods by which elections are won and parties are held together are not always free from smirch; but a ruler must, in the main, be judged by what he does in power, even though, in

*

*

Bacon's phrase, he has risen to dignities through indignities. It was intrinsically honourable to Choiseul that he rose by the help of La Pompadour, though it may be to his honour that he refused to retain his position at the price of an alliance with Mme. Du Barry. Yet nobody has denied that Choiseul was a great minister, and sincere in his efforts to secure what he believed to be the good of France. The Gerrymander and bribery of the constituencies by which Sir John Macdonald fortified, if he did not secure, his long tenure of office, are the modern democratic equivalent for the old-fashioned alliance with the king's mistress. Essentially, they are about as honourable as, though less agreeable than, their predecessor. Still, they are the conditions of the fight, and they must be conformed to by him who would win. After all, the great question concerning every fighter is, What did he do with his power when he had obtained it?

"To that question an answer can be given which is almost wholly honourable to Sir John Macdonald. His Commercial Policy was entirely wrong according to the principles which have been accepted in the Mother Country. He had no scruples in imposing duties on imports from England for the purpose of protecting Canadian industries. In this respect he shared the views of those English politicians who protected England against the competition of Irish woollen goods and cattle. But he had no more intention than they that these commercial taxes should lead to disruption of the Empire. There is absolutely no ground for supposing tfiat he was other than perfectly honest in his declaration made during the late general election that he would die as he had lived, a subject of the Queen. Whatever measures he might introduce in Canada were meint to make the continuity of the Empire more and not less stable. It cannot be denied that during his life he succeeded triumphantly. The party which he led for so many years is still in power in Canada, and it is committed heartily to the policy which he had always defended. Sir John Macdonald was no mere 'machine' politician of the latest and worst American stamp. If he was not, as he has been called, the founder of the Canadian Federation, he at least helped materially to found it; and it was largely his doing that it has hitherto worked smoothly. The whole extent of the credit due to him for his management is not easily realizable by Englishmen. Yet it requires no great effort to understand in the main what a feat it has been to keep a community in which a large minority is French, Roman Catholic, and united, while a not overwhelming majority is English, Scotch, Irish, partly Roman Catholic, partly Protestant, and by no means united together, so that it has worked with some uniformity of aim and national sentiment. By the confession of his Parlimentary enemies themselves Sir John Macdonald did this. On their showing, then, he proved himself the greatest master of his weapons in that field on which it was his fortune to fight. After all, a man can