himself firmly entrenched in power, he was far
from the mark. For Sir John went into the elections of 1887 believing
that he would be defeated. The Riel movement in the province of Quebec
had assumed formidable proportions, and the fatuous course of former
Conservative allies, Dalton M'Carthy and the _Mail_ newspaper, in
raising an anti-French and anti-Catholic cry threatened disaster in
Ontario. The friendly provincial Government in Quebec had been
overthrown in October 1886, and in the following {160} December Oliver
Mowat, in the hope of strengthening the hands of Blake, then leading
the Ottawa Opposition, suddenly dissolved the Ontario legislature.
Mowat was successful in his own appeal. But, strange to say, the local
triumph probably injured rather than aided Blake. At least such was
Sir John's opinion. He held that his attitude on the Home Rule
question had alienated a goodly proportion of the Irish vote which
usually went with him, and that these people, having taken the edge off
their resentment by voting Liberal in the provincial elections, felt
free to return to their political allegiance when the Dominion
elections came on two months later. This sounds far-fetched, but it
was the opinion of a man who had been studying political elections in
Ontario all his long life. At any rate, Sir John Macdonald carried
fifty-four out of ninety-two seats in Ontario; and Edward Blake was so
discouraged by the result that on the meeting of the new parliament he
resigned the leadership of the Opposition in favour of Mr Laurier.

Of Sir Wilfrid Laurier and his subsequent career it does not devolve
upon me to speak. I will only say that if his predecessors in the
{161} leadership of the Liberal party, for one cause or another, failed
to realize the hopes of their political followers, he amply made up for
their shortcomings by achieving signal success. Fortune, no doubt, was
kinder to him than to them, but, apart from all other questions, Sir
Wilfrid's personal qualities had no small influence in bringing about
his party triumphs. Alike in Opposition and in power, his unfailing
tact, old-fashioned courtesy, conciliatory methods, urbanity,
moderation, and unvarying good temper evoked the sympathy of thousands
whom Blake's coldly intellectual feats failed to attract and
Mackenzie's rigidity of demeanour served only to repel. Simultaneously
with Mr Laurier's advent to the leadership of the Opposition in 1887, a
moderati