In conformity with its title, this volume, save for the earlier chapters, is history rather than biography, is of the day , more than of the man. The aim has been to review the more significant events and tendencies in the recent political life of Canada. In a later and larger work it is hoped to present a more personal and intimate biography of Sir Wilfrid Laurier. O. D. SKELTON. KINGSTON, 1915....

Early days at St Lin—Seven years of college—Student at law—Arthabaska days Wilfrid Laurier was born at St Lin, Quebec, on November 20, 1841. His ancestral roots were sunk deep in Canadian soil. For six generations Quebec had been the home of Laurier after Laurier. His kinsmen traced their origin to Anjou, a province that ever bred shrewd and thrifty men. The family name was originally Cottineau. In a marriage covenant entered into at Montreal in 1666 the first representative of the family in Can

Parties in flux—Church and state—The war on the Institute—Le Défricheur The year 1841, when Wilfrid Laurier was born, was the year of the Union of Upper and Lower Canada as a single province. There followed, as he came to manhood, a time of intense political activity, of bitter party and personal rivalry, of constant shift in the lines of political groups and parties. The stage was being set and many of the players were being trained for the greater drama which was to open with Confederation. Ca

In the Provincial Legislature—In federal politics—The Mackenzie government—The Riel question—Protection or free trade—The Catholic programme—Catholic liberalism—The clergy in politics—Political liberalism—In the administration Less than five years had passed after Wilfrid Laurier came to Arthabaskaville, a boyish, unknown lawyer-editor, when he was chosen by an overwhelming majority as member for Drummond-Arthabaska in the provincial legislature. His firmly based Liberalism, his power as a speak

The party leadership—Tariff and railway—Dominion and province—The second Riel rebellion In the general election of September 1878 the Liberal party suffered not merely defeat but utter and overwhelming rout, as unexpected and disastrous as a tropical earthquake. Only five years before, Mackenzie had been swept into power on a wave of moral indignation. The Conservative leaders had appeared hopelessly discredited, and the rank and file dispirited. Now a wave of economic despair swept the Liberals

Dark days—Sectional discontent—Railway monopoly—Exodus and stagnation The outcome of the elections was an intense disappointment to Edward Blake. His health, too, was failing, and this increased his despondency. He decided to give over to other hands the leadership of his party. Early in June 1887, two months after the new parliament assembled, he definitely and firmly refused to hold the post longer. Who was to succeed him? For the moment the leadership was put into commission, a committee of e

Canada and the States—The fisheries dispute—Political union—Commercial union—Unrestricted reciprocity—Jesuits' estates—Unrestricted reciprocity For desperate ills, desperate remedies. It is little wonder that policies looking to revolutionary change in political or commercial relations now came to take strong hold on the public mind. To many it appeared that the experiment in Canadian nationality had failed. Why not, then, frankly admit the failure and seek full political incorporation with eith

The secret of empire—The old colonial system—Partner nations—Achieving self-government—Building up the partnership—The High Commissioner—New foreign problems—First colonial conference—Political federation—Inter-imperial defence—Inter-imperial trade When Canada's problems seemed too great for her to solve unaided, many had looked to Washington for relief, in ways which have been reviewed. Others looked to London. The relations between Canada and the other parts of the Empire did not become the ce

Abbott and Thompson—Tariff reform—Manitoba school question The strain of a winter campaign proved too great for Sir John Macdonald's weakened frame. On June 6, 1891, died the statesman who so long had guided the destinies of Canada. All Canada felt the loss. No one else voiced the common judgment with such discrimination and generosity as did the leader of the Opposition. Speaking in parliament a few days later, Mr Laurier declared: Sir John Macdonald now belongs to the ages, and it can be said

The school settlement—The new tariff The long night of opposition was over. The critics were to be given the opportunity to do constructive work. Under the leader who had served so fitting an apprenticeship they were to guide the political destinies of Canada for over fifteen years. These were to be years of change and progress, years which would bridge the gulf between the stagnant colony of yesterday and the progressive nation of to-day. Mr Laurier gathered round him the ablest group of admini

Laurier in England—Laurier in France—The South African War—The elections of 1900—The conference of 1902—The Alaskan boundary In 1837 a young girl of eighteen had come to the British throne. Many had wished her well, but few had dreamed that, as the best beloved of British sovereigns, she would prove an essential factor in a great imperial movement which was to mark the close of her reign. The extraordinary length of that reign, her homely virtues, and her statesmanlike prudence had made her Quee

The opening of the west—Railway expansion—State aids to production—New provinces and old cries—Party fortunes We have seen that in the early years of the Laurier régime Canada attained a new international status and came to play no small part in the affairs of the Empire. No less notable in the succeeding years was the remarkable industrial expansion at home, the sunrise of prosperity which followed the long night of depression. This expansion touched every corner of the far-flung Dominion, and

Europe and Asia—The United States—Reciprocity The early years of the Laurier régime brought Canada into the visual range of the outside world. During the middle years the business of the country's internal development overshadowed everything else. Then in the later years the relations of Canada with other countries came to occupy an increasingly important place on the political stage. At last, Canada's rising star compelled the attention of foreign countries beyond the seas. Some of these countr

Imperial preferential trade—Political relations—Defence Neither new relations with foreign lands across the sea nor new-old relations with the United States bulked as large in these later years as relations with the other parts of the British Empire. The question of the Empire's future was a constant theme. It was a time of unparalleled progress in each and all the British states. Great Britain's vast strides towards social justice, Canada's growth and economic activity, the similar, if lesser,

The Dominion of Canada's first fifty years have been years of momentous change. The four provinces have grown into nine, covering the whole half-continent. The three million people have grown to eight, and the west of the wandering Indian holds cities greater than the largest of the east at Confederation. From a people overwhelmingly agricultural they have become a people almost equally divided between town and country. The straggling two thousand miles of railways have been multiplied fifteen-f

The primary sources to which any student of the period covered in this work must refer are too numerous to specify here. Foremost come Hansard and the Sessional Papers. Such autobiographies as those of Sir Richard Cartwright, Reminiscences , Sir George Ross, Getting Into Parliament and After , Sir Charles Tupper, Recollections of Sixty Years in Canada , and Charles Langelier, Souvenirs Politiques , are as few as they are valuable. For the years since 1901 see Castell Hopkins, The Canadian Annual