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for the benefit of the Canadian people; they are conceived altogether for the benefit of the firm of Mackenzie and Mann and of the Canadian Northern Railway Company. Sir, we have no objection to helping them. We have helped them in the past. I for my part have been an admirer of their energy and enterprise. I have not much in common with them; I cannot claim them as friends; but I admire energy, enterprise, and pluck wherever it is found. At the same time, there is this consideration to be borne in mind by the prime minister, that there are interests which are transcendent, and the primary of those transcendent interests is that of the country. I have to repeat that the interest of the country is not served by the present resolutions, and as they stand it will become the duty of the Opposition to oppose them from first to last.

More uncompromising opposition came from within the ranks of the Conservatives themselves. The crisis had stirred an independence as unusual as it was promising for the future and futile for the present. Mr. Herbert Ames found the Canadian Northern guilty of past offences, but saw no alternative to the present proposals. Two other government supporters went much farther. Mr. W. F. Nickle of Kingston gave an incisive and clear-cut analysis of the development of the company and the colossal aid received from federal and provincial governments, exposed the inadequacy and inconsistency of the data upon which parliament was asked to act, referred to Sir William Mackenzie's attempts to browbeat him, and called for immediate government assumption of the Canadian Northern as well as the National Transcontinental. "I am opposed," he declared, "to going into partnership with

Mackenzie and Mann, just the same as I am opposed to going into partnership commercially with people I do not trust. I think they will do the government in the long run." Mr. R. B. Bennett of Calgary drew upon his intimate knowledge of Canadian railways, gained from a C, P. R. angle, and upon all the resources of a rich vocabulary and a two-hundred-word-a-minute delivery to carry his hearers up and down the Canadian Northern line, to probe the organization of subsidiary companies, particularly the "notorious and nefarious equipment trust," to trace the relations of the Canadian Northern Railway, Mackenzie and Mann Company, Limited, and William Mackenzie and Donald Mann, to attack the physical condition of the road ("certain parts of it between Kamloops and the Fraser River that do not slip into the river this spring will get there in the fall"), to investigate the bogus surpluses and false accounts, to pay his respects to the "boundless ambition" and " shameless mendicancy" of the two promoters, the colossal but misdirected intellect of their legal adviser, the "impertinent interruptions of this young man" who had framed the resolutions, "the gramaphone of Mackenzie and Mann," and, in short, to play the bull in the china shop of party expediency and individual caution. The vigour of these two Conservative members stiffened Liberal opposition. Demands followed for a thorough, not a sham, analysis of the past financing and present situation of the road; for the pledge of the great private fortunes of the promoters; and for further squeezing or bailing out of the

water in the stock. But all opposition was in vain, the government was committed, and the resolutions were voted early in June. The Senate, which now had been reformed, at once approved, nearly half the Liberals voting with the majority.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE GREAT WAR

A Summer in Arthabaska-War in Europe-The Strain of the War-A United Country-Election Preparations-Laurier and Recruiting Rising Discontent-The Decline of the Government -Quebec in the War-Botha and Bourassa-The Bilingual Question in Ontario-The Issue in Parliament-Liberal Divisions-Laurier's Proffered Resignation.

ITH the close of the third session of parliament in mid-June, Sir Wilfrid and Lady Laurier turned to their old Arthabaska home. It had not been possible for some years to spend a summer there, and after a tiring session they looked forward with keen anticipation to its friendly quiet. They spent July in the pleasant Eastern Township village. Cradled among green hills, with white roads winding through the valleys, the little river running shallow in the heat of an inland summer, the great church and the substantial court buildings dominating all the neighbourhood, Arthabaska brought back the simple joys and the healing peace of days long gone. Sir Wilfrid enjoyed it to the full. Walking in the deep, unstudied garden; reading some of the new books for which time had not been found during the year, and going back to the old ones; answering, usually in his own bold, angular and now slightly shaking hand, the letters which came from Canadians of all degrees; giving to a few visitors the delights of a perfect and spon

taneous hospitality; sharing in the lively game of bridge and the livelier flow of words when old friends came with the evening; drawing the youngsters about him in unrelenting raillery, he was himself again.

Suddenly, over this idyllic village scene and over hundreds of equally unrecking Canadian communities, the clouds of European war lowered black and threatening. With the end of July it had become clear that not merely another Balkan war but a catastrophe involving all European civilization was imminent. When it became apparent that Britain was likely to be involved, and that the struggle would be of life and death, there was no difference of opinion and no hesitation in any quarter in Canada. The war was none of Canada's making. Canada had had no share in the rivalries and the diplomacy which had brought Europe to this pass. Canada was no more directly concerned in the outcome than any other New World state. Yet for Canada there was in all men's thoughts only one course and one measure of effort. With Britain at war, Canada was technically at war. With Britain in danger, Canada would be emphatically at war. The government on August 1 cabled a firm assurance of Canada's resolve "to put forth every effort and to make every sacrifice necessary to ensure the integrity and maintain the honour of our Empire," and asking for suggestions as to the form of an expeditionary force. On the morning of the fourth, the governor-general and the leader of the Opposition returned to Ottawa. Sir Wilfrid at once issued the following statement:

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