nadian
politics in those days. In the beginning it seemed to be a case of
Langevin and {143} Caron against Chapleau; later it sometimes looked as
though Langevin and Chapleau were making common cause against Caron;
perhaps most often it resembled a triangular duel. There was
absolutely no difference between those three men in respect of public
policy, but the personal jealousy and suspicion with which they
regarded one another was amusing.

'Langevin,' said Sir John, 'on his way down to Quebec, cannot stop off
for lunch at Montreal, but Chapleau writes me that he is interfering in
his district, and if he leaves his house in Quebec for a walk down John
Street, Caron wires in cypher that a breach in the party is imminent.'
Langevin, on his part, was equally vigilant to resent the
encroachments, real or supposed, of his colleagues upon his domain, and
altogether Sir John had no pleasant time keeping the peace among them.

In the English section of the Cabinet three vacancies had recently
taken place. Immediately after the close of the session of 1885
considerations of health compelled Sir David Macpherson to give up the
portfolio of the Interior. This in no sense interfered with the
personal and political friendship which had long existed between him
and his leader. Sir David, albeit over cautious and deliberate in
{144} his methods, was a man of good judgment, and wholly animated by a
desire for the public good. His administrative record suffered from
his delays in settling the grievances of the half-breeds of the
North-West. This had afforded Riel the pretext for the second rising,
but how far responsibility in this matter properly attached to
Macpherson, I am not prepared to say.

Sir David Macpherson was succeeded in the office of minister of the
Interior by Thomas White, a well-known Conservative journalist of
Montreal, where he and his brother Richard conducted the Montreal
_Gazette_. For many years White had been a faithful exponent of
Conservative principles in the press. In his efforts to enter
parliament he had been singularly unfortunate. In 1867 he had been
defeated in South Wentworth by three votes; in 1874 in Prescott by six
votes; in 1875 in Montreal West by seven votes; and in the following
year in the same constituency by fifty votes. Finally, he was elected
in 1878 for the then existing electoral division of Cardwell, in the
province of Ontario. Seven years later he became a colleague of th