they not?'

{172}

During the period between 1887 and 1891 the Opposition developed the
policy of unrestricted reciprocity with the United States, which they
made the chief feature of their policy in the general elections of the
latter year. Sir John Macdonald opposed this policy with all the
energy at his command. He held that it would inevitably lead to the
absorption of Canada by the United States, though he did not believe
that this was the desire or the intention of its chief promoters. Sir
John feared too that the cry would prove seductive. In the hope of
arresting the movement before it had more fully advanced, he dissolved
parliament prematurely and appealed to the people in mid-winter. In
this resolve he was perhaps influenced by a growing consciousness of
his failing physical strength. He was less pessimistic as to the
result of the election than in 1887, yet he considered his chances of
success not more than even. As on previous occasions, he had recourse
to Sir Charles Tupper, to whom he cabled on January 21, 1891: 'Your
presence during election contest in Maritime Provinces essential to
encourage our friends. Please come. Answer.'

The old war-horse, who doubtless had {173} scented the battle from
afar, was not slow in responding to his leader's appeal. The contest
was severe, and on Sir John's part was fought almost single-handed.
His Ontario colleagues were too busy in defending their own seats to
render him much assistance in the province at large. It was on this
occasion that he issued his famous manifesto to the people of Canada
containing the well-known phrase: 'A British subject I was born, a
British subject I will die.' In this manifesto he earnestly exhorted
the electors to reject a policy which, he was persuaded, would imperil
their British allegiance. The people who had so often sustained him in
the past responded to his fervent appeal, and again he was victorious.
Nor had he to wait long for a signal confirmation of his estimate of
the policy of his opponents. On the day after the polling Edward Blake
published a letter to his constituents in West Durham, unsparingly
condemning unrestricted reciprocity as tending towards annexation to
the United States--'a precursor of political Union'--of which he was
unable to approve, and in consequence of which he retired from public
life.

Macdonald had won, but it was his last triumph. The wheel had gone
full circle, {174} and he, who i