ght be of his own rectitude, it was setting a
dangerous precedent for a weaker man, who might be placed in his
position, to follow. No doubt, too, he would have {101} done better
not to have mixed himself up with money matters at all, though in
acting as he did he only followed the usual practice. In that day the
leaders of political parties in Canada personally solicited campaign
funds.[16] Macdonald took contributions from the rich men of his
party--among others from Sir Hugh Allan--to fight that party's battles.
But there was no barter. Sir Hugh Allan was, of course, playing his
own game. His motive is quite apparent. He wanted to build the
Pacific Railway, and was naturally interested in preventing the
accession to power of men opposed to the whole scheme as premature and
beyond the resources of the country.

What seems plain now was not so apparent forty years ago. The current
set in strongly {102} against the Ministry. As Mr S. H. Blake would
say, 'There was the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry
trees.' There was a general feeling that the days of the Government
were numbered. The country was ripe for a change. The Conservatives
had been in office for nearly ten years consecutively, and people were
beginning to get a little tired of them. Men began to think that it
was time to give the other side a chance. Long periods of exclusion
from office of the representatives of nearly one-half the community is
not good for the Opposition, for the state, nor for the dominant party
itself. Sir John Macdonald, at a later period, seems to have
recognized this, for one of his letters, written to a friend on the eve
of the contest of 1887, contains the significant words, 'the Government
is too old.' It was not as old as was his Government at its
resignation in 1873. However that may be, amid shrieks of 'corruption'
the Administration of Sir John Macdonald bowed to public opinion, and
the Liberals at last got their chance.

In the general elections, which took place in the month of January
1874, the newly formed Mackenzie Government swept the country,
returning with a majority of {103} seventy-five or upwards. Among the
new members was Mr (now Sir Wilfrid) Laurier.

Alexander Mackenzie, the prime minister, like his predecessor, was a
Scotsman by birth. Like Sir John Macdonald, too, he had emigrated to
Canada at an early age and had settled first at Kingston, subsequently
removing to Sarnia. In 1861