in Auntdom has taken place since the passage of the new law.*

On the 17th of May parliament was prorogued, and only four sessions of the term having expired, the following paragraph in the closing Speech from the throne was significant. But it only confirmed the rumours which had for some weeks previous been afloat: "I heartily congratulate you on the rapid and successful development of our manufacturing, agricultural and other industries. I am, however, advised that their progress would have been still greater were it not that capitalists hesitate to embark their means in undertakings which would be injured, if not destroyed, by a change in the trade and fiscal policy adopted by you in 1879. In order, therefore, to give the people, without further delay, an opportunity of expressing their deliberate opinion on this policy, and at the same time to bring into operation the measure for the readjustment of the representation in the house of commons, it is my intention to cause this parliament to be dissolved at an early day."

If this paragraph was not justifiable, it was certainly skilful. Hezekiah had the dial turned back, and was given fifteen years to his life: Sir John and Sir Leonard would have it understood through the second sentence in the above quotation that they

* Naturally the question of permitting these marriages gave rise to a stream of discussion. The Right Reverend J. T. Lewis, bishop of Ontario, employed his pen zealously, but with more ability than effect, in opposition to the proposed law. His lordship proved that he was a very able controversialist, but he did not succeed in convincing the legislature that what is justifiable is wrong. There are some things, it was made plain, in the field of theological discussion, that even a clever bishop can not prove. Gunhilda," an Ottawa lady, replied to his lordship in a series of articles which shewed much research and thought, and a just and enlightened view of the question.

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desired to add five years to the mercantile life of the traders. If they could have added as many years as were given to Hezekiah, the writer would have no difficulty in writing that he believed they were justified in dissolving parliament for this reason alone. But four years to a business man with a good appetite and a sound constitution is not a very long lease of life; and this is the probable limit: for will the manufacturer, and his factory, and the national policy not be in the same position with respect to their existence in 1887 in which they were in 1882 ?-unless it turn out, indeed, that the great Authors of Commercial Life, with similar justification in their mouths, dissolve in 1886. In the principal clause of the closing sentence, however, it is easier to find a sort of justification: namely, the inadequate and disproportionate state of representation in the house of commons. The members hardly waited for the governor-general to finish the last word before they were hieing back to their constituencies; and thereafter till the 20th of June (polling day) the country was seething with excitement. The Conservatives stood together as a man under the banner of National Policy, and the orators of the party, great and worthless, drew comparisons, on every platform, between the prosperity promised four years before and the prosperity attained. They coolly took entire credit to the ministry for the happy change: and after building these breast works around themselves, they went out against the enemy. They declared that the Grits were bad-weather birds; Sir John put into Mr. Blake's mouth the words of Marryatt's Channel sailor, "None of your damned blue skies for me"; it was shown, and with deadly and deserved effect, that in 1878 every utterance of Sir

Richard and his colleagues, when hungry men clamoured about their ears, was a croak of predicted woe; that the ex-finance minister had declared that he was only a fly on the wheel, that the Tories were only deluding the people by false lights, and that if the national policy were adopted it would break the commercial back of the country without producing sufficient revenue. These predictions were now held up against results, and Sir Richard's reputation as a prophet was lost. The speech-makers loaded the fallen finance minister with the most amusing abuse. One orator whom the writer heard at the Conservative "Amphitheatre" in Toronto, described him as a political Jonah. "And if," said this gentleman,* " the whale had swallowed him, the animal would have gone on having annual deficits till nothing was left but its skin." Upon the other hand the demon of discord had entered into the Grit party family. There were the modified free-trade Reformers, and those who admired the political rectitude of Mr. Blake, but who were in favour of a tariff protective to the extent of revenue needs. Mr. Blake went out to Durham and told the people that "free-trade is for us impossible"; Mr. Mackenzie raised his voice in East York and assured the electors that any doctrine but that of free-trade was pernicious, retrogressive and a relic of commercial barbarism. And so an era of Reform speech-collisions began all over the country, and the enemy made the most of the clashing declarations. Thus it came to pass that the leader of the opposition could scarcely make utterance on any question that a counter statement made somewhere else by Mr. Mackenzie, by Mr. Mills, or the Toronto Globe did not rise like the ghost of

* Mr. Rose, Q.C.

Each party pressed

Banquo to confront him; and vice versa. into service everything that could do duty as a conjurer of religious or provincial prejudice: the Reformers carried through the land a huge Bleu Frenchman, who they said was at once the master of the ministry and the ministry itself; and this Bete Bleue they affirmed to be jealous of the growth of Ontario, and bent on preventing her further development. It was at his dictation, they declared, that the ministry refused to ratify the boundary award,* and they called upon the "men of Ontario" to come to the polls and defend their province from the jealousy of "these domineering Frenchmen." Another important opposition cry was the alleged tendency of the premier to a centralization of all important political power at Ottawa; and proof of this allegation, they averred, was found in the disallowance by the federal parliament of certain provincial acts of purely local importance. It was pointed out, too, that Sir John, at a meeting of Conservatives held in Toronto, had spoken with marked contempt of the functions of local legislatures, and described Mr. Mowat the premier of the most important province in the confederation, as being engaged in "whittling at little provincial bills," and had threatened to strip him of some of the authority with which he then was clothed. These were two strong cries against the government in Ontario; yet, owing to a more zealous and coherent party loyalty, to superior organization, and a more marked unanimity of opinion than that of their opponents, added to the advantages always possessed by the party who holds the reins, the Conservatives were re-chosen by a majority of about seventy over their opponents. The

See chapter vii.

only provinces that did not send conspicuous majorities to support the government were Manitoba and Prince Edward Island. Previous to the election, it may be said, several changes were made in the personnel of the cabinet: on the 2nd of May the honourable John Carling, M.P. for London, Ontario, became postmaster-general in the place of Mr. O'Connor who retired from public life; the honourable John Costigan, M.P. for Victoria, New Brunswick, succeeded as minister of inland revenue Mr. J. C. Aikins who was appointed lieutenant-governor of Manitoba; on the 10th of July the honourable James Colledge Pope, whose ill-health had for two years rendered the performance of his duty impossible, resigned his portfolio of minister of marine and fisheries, and was succeeded by the honourable Archibald W. McLelan, who now found himself sitting in the same cabinet with Sir Charles Tupper, whom, when Dr. Tupper, he characterized as "the high priest of corruption." The fisheries department was in an inefficient, if not demoralized, condition, owing chiefly to the ill-health of Mr. Pope, when the new minister assumed its control, and many who had heard Mr. McLelan described as an active business man rejoiced in a change which they hoped would bring skilful and energetic management in an office connected with so important an industry; but it is not unfair to say the result has proved that to some extent those who looked for this improvement have been disappointed. On entering the department, Mr. McLelan fell into the traces of routine, and he has not since got out of them; he has not acquired the knowledge of the details of his office-nor does he possess the special fitness-to enable him to be a successful administrator; and those who are interest