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CHAPTER VII.

EVENTS, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL-1883.

HEN the 8th of February arrived, the date fixed for

opening the last session of parliament in Lord Lorne's administration, the politicians from all parts of the country had assembled at the capital and with these, or close-following their heels, had also arrived flocks of men in quest of government favours, lobbyists, representatives of companies with projects of questionable public propriety on hand, and divers others which might aptly come under the classification of "log rollers." There was the accustomed commotion and impecunious anxiety amongst those at the capital who live for months in expectancy of the addition to be made to their purses through the advent of the session, with its accompanying train of boarders and buyers. Every house in Ottawa, with the exception of Rideau Hall, and three or four others, the wag will tell you, as the sessional millennium draws near relegates the denizens of the mid-way flat to the windy garrets, tears the double blanket in two, collects the cast-off clothing of the year with which to make comfortable the sleeping berths of parents and children, and holds the middle of the dwelling in tempting and conspicuous readiness for " boarders."

This particular 8th of February was a gloomful day, but the military instalment marched out to the braying of its band;

the mediaval ceremony proceeded, and thunder came from Nepean point that shook the lumber piles and the sawmills of the city. It being the first session of parliament, according to the Canadian custom, it was necessary to choose a new speaker, and the prime minister rising in his place addressed Mr. J. G. Bourinot, clerk of the house, proposing for the chair Mr. George Airy Kirkpatrick, and bestowing much graceful and unexaggerated eulogy upon the character of that gentleman. Mr. Blake followed and reminded the house that, on a former occasion, Sir John had expressed himself in favour of the English practice, giving exact embodiment to his views in the declaration that" after a Speaker had served well he should not be changed capriciously at the beginning of each parliament." If the right honourable the prime minister had not changed his view on that question, then Mr. Blake was at a loss to understand why the gentleman who had presided satisfactorily over the late parliament should be passed over in favour of another. There was no reply to this save the echo: Why? Mr. Mackenzie asked Mr. Bourinot's pardon for causing any delay of the business on hand, but he had, he said, one observation to make. He had the highest personal regard for Mr. Kirkpatrick, and his relations with him as a member had always been satisfactory and cordial. But the person chosen to preside over the deliberations of two opposing bodies ought to be impartial; and he regretted that in trying to convince himself that Mr. Kirkpatrick would be impartial, there arose a recollection of a time when a stranger listening to a debate in the house of commons had offered gross personal insult to an honourable member who was speaking. Unfortunately the gentleman who was now proposed for

the speakership of this house, was one of those who, for reasons that were but too plain, "did every thing but excuse" the offender.

Mr. Kirkpatrick was then elected and conducted to his seat by Sir John Macdonald and Sir Hector Langevin. Standing upon the upper step of his place of eminence, in a few happy sentences he returned thanks to the house, then putting on his hat he seated himself and took the reins.

There was much that was entertaining to those who frequented the galleries, if there was not much that was of momentous public importance, said during the debate on the address; and for Canadians who see the country full of acrimony during the reign of the politicians at the hustings, it was a relief and a pleasure to note the courteous and friendly tone that pervaded most of the speeches. At the late election Mr. Tupper, a son of Sir Charles Tupper, who is the political béte noir of Reformers not excluding Mr. Blake, had been chosen for the house of commons, and as is customary with newly elected members delivered his maiden speech on the address. Referring to this member, Mr. Blake said, when his time came to address the house: "And the honourable member for Pictou, Mr. Tupper, will allow me to say that I rejoiced to welcome in his advent to the house a man young in years, but who gives promise of making his mark in parliament, and in the country at some future day. We may not agree, we do not agree, in his politics; we may not agree with the distinguished person whose name he bears, but it must, notwithstanding, be a matter of unfeigned interest to observe the conjunction of the two persons at one time in the same chamber.

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The honourable gentleman, Mr. Speaker, as he proceeded reminded me a little of the climate that we hear of in some

charming countries. There is enduring balmy weather, but we who belong to the old country on the other side of the Atlantic weary of the perpetual sunshine and the perennial blueness of the skies. There was no shadow in the picture, no relief to the glare of brightness, of beauty, of glory, of magnificence with which for the past few hours we have been enchanted. It is my duty to present portions of the other side of the picture, to complete the sky in which the honourable gentleman has left no clouds, and to say something which may render the climate, if not quite so bright, a little more tolerable to frail humanity like ours."

Mr. Blake is a dangerous opponent, for he sits ever on the watch for a weakness in opposing argument, and his perception of the methods of discussion is keen and far-reaching; but of subtle insight into character, of tact in manipulating men he knows little better than nothing, and this is why, that, in his wrestles with Sir John Macdonald, his almost unique gifts as a speaker, and his commanding ability as a statesman avail him not, and he is uniformly overthrown. Tact would not have. permitted the utterance of such a sentiment as that expressed in the latter portion of the extract just made; and the prime minister was not slow to avail himself of the error. This is what that adroit gladiator said in reply: "The honourable gentleman has said that the prospect held out is too bright; that the sunshine is too strong. He is dazzled with excess of light. I do not say that the honourable gentleman loves darkness rather than light; I do not wish to say so, but he has complained

that there are no shadows. Well, Mr. Speaker, the shadows may come by-and-bye. We have brilliant sunshine now, the light of prosperity shines over us; but political and financial difficulties are sure to come. The honourable gentleman's æsthetic tastes will be satisfied to the fullest extent; for light and shadow will then be properly mingled, and Rembrandt will be infinitely more than Turner, in the picture. My honourable friend puts me much in mind of Marryatt's sailor, who after a visit of seven years to the West Indies, returned to England. When his ship was approaching the land, and when he felt the familiar sleet and storm, and saw the old-time clouds, he put on his sou'-wester and pea-jacket, and said: "This is something like weather; none of your damned blue skies for me.' We will be satisfied however to bask in the sunshine and leave the storm and the clouds to my honourable friend."

But in everything that Mr. Blake said on the address, he did not leave himself open to a rejoinder so sufficient as this quoted utterance of Sir John. It will be remembered that there was brought over to St. John, New Brunswick, an antique and soggy war corvette the Charybdis, which was to be turned into a training school for such of the youth of our country as had a desire to fight on the seas and lakes of Canada, in a navy that was in the moon; that the said old war-ship was moored with appropriate trumpet-flourishes in her allotted waters, that there was much official writing and tying with red-tape respecting her officers, and the range of the instruction and discipline that she was to impart; that the members of our government were profuse in their thanks and profound