Sir John Macdonald. Sir John Macdonald was appointed, in 1871, one of the British Joint High Commissioners to act for the settlement of certain disputes be tween the United States and Great Britain. The result of the conference was the treaty of Washington. The debate on the treaty in the Mouse of Commons was vehement, and the treaty was violently criticised; but finally, after Sir John Macdonald had delivered what remains perhaps as his greatest speech, the treaty was adopted by a majority of 66. Soon after this the Government entered into negotiations for building a trans-continental railway; but it was defeated in 1873, and gave way to a Liberal administration. Sir John Macdonald was anxious to retire from the party leadership; but his party insisted upon retaining him, and he accordingly consented to act as leader of the opposition. With his keen apprehension of what the country wanted, he inaugurated the National Policy, a policy of protection to native industries; and when the general elections of 1878 took place, he fairly swept the country. He again became Premier of Canada. A protective tariff was at once adopted with satisfactory results, and the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway begun. In 1882 the Govern ment appealed to the country, and came back with a large majority, and five years later another general election took place with a similar result. A few years ago the Liberals adopted a policy of unrestricted reciprocity with the United States. Sir John Macdonald opposed the policy which appeared to him to be antiCanadian and anti-British, and he gave the people of Canada an opportunity of pronouncing upon it by dissolving the House early in the present year. In his eloquent address to the Canadian people in which he outlined the issue, he used the following language, which considered in the light of subsequent events seems prophetic : "As for myself, my course is clear. A British subject I was born, a British subject I will die. With my utmost effort, with my latest breath, will I oppose the ' veiled treason' which attempts by sor
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did means and mercenary proffers to lure our peo ple from their allegiance. During my long public service of nearly half a century, I have been true to my country and its best interests, and I appeal with equal confidence to the men who have trusted me in the past and to the young hope of the country, with whom rest its destinies for the fu ture, to give me their united and strenuous aid in this my last effort for the unity of the Empire and the preservation of our commercial and political freedom." The result of the election was a majority of nearly thirty for the Government. In 1872 he was nominated a member of Her Majesty's Most Honorable Privy Coun cil. — a distinction enjoyed by no other colo nial statesman, — and in 1884 he was created a G.C.B. Such, in brief, are some of the more no table political events of this great man's fruit ful life. His name is associated with every great public measure enacted in Canada for over forty years. Besides his numerous political distinctions, he received various degrees from the universities, among others the degree of D.C.L. from Cambridge in 1865. He married in early life Miss Clark, who died in 1856, by whom he had one son Hugh J. Macdonald, M. P. for Winnipeg. In 1867 he married Miss Bernard, the present Lady Macdonald, a woman of rare intel lectual and social gifts.1 It has been said that it is too soon to pro nounce judgment upon the life and work of Sir John Macdonald. It is not too soon to proclaim his greatness and popularity, for abundant evidence of these is at hand. The emigrant boy who left Glasgow at the age of five years died the other day the Premier of a united Canada, and the greatest, most powerful, and most popular colonial subject of the British Queen. We may be curious to know the secret of his wonderful success as a statesman, and perhaps it is too soon to determine that matter. In Canada there 1 Since the above article was written, Lady Macdonald was raised to the peerage liv Her Majesty the Queen, with the title Baroness Macdonald of liarnscliffe.
