The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Day of Sir John Macdonald, by Joseph Pope

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Title: The Day of Sir John Macdonald
A Chronicle of the First Prime Minister of the Dominion

Author: Joseph Pope

Release Date: November 1, 2009 [EBook #30384]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAY OF SIR JOHN MACDONALD ***

Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: Sir John Macdonald crossing the Rockies over the newly
constructed Canadian Pacific Railway, 1886. From a colour drawing by
C. W. Jefferys]

THE DAY OF

SIR JOHN MACDONALD

A Chronicle of the First Prime Minister of the Dominion

BY

SIR JOSEPH POPE

K.C.M.G.

TORONTO

GLASGOW, BROOK & COMPANY

1915

Copyright in all Countries subscribing to
the Berne Convention

{vii}

PREFATORY NOTE

Within a short time will be celebrated the centenary of the birth of
the great statesman who, half a century ago, laid the foundations and,
for almost twenty years, guided the destinies of the Dominion of Canada.

Nearly a like period has elapsed since the author's _Memoirs of Sir
John Macdonald_ was published. That work, appearing as it did little
more than three years after his death, was necessarily subject to many
limitations and restrictions. As a connected story it did not profess
to come down later than the year 1873, nor has the time yet arrived for
its continuation and completion on the same lines. That task is
probably reserved for other and freer hands than mine. At the same
time, it seems desirable that, as Sir John Macdonald's centenary
approaches, there should be available, in convenient form, a short
resume of the salient features of his {viii} career, which, without
going deeply and at length into all the public questions of his time,
should present a familiar account of the man and his work as a whole,
as well as, in a lesser degree, of those with whom he was intimately
associated. It is with such object that this little book has been
written.

JOSEPH POPE.

OTTAWA, 1914.

{ix}

CONTENTS

Page