Project Gutenberg's Laurier: A Study in Canadian Politics, by J. W. Dafoe

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Title: Laurier: A Study in Canadian Politics

Author: J. W. Dafoe

Release Date: March 30, 2005 [EBook #15509]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAURIER: A STUDY IN CANADIAN ***

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LAURIER: A STUDY IN CANADIAN POLITICS

By J. W. DAFOE

THOMAS ALLEN
PUBLISHER, TORONTO

Copyright, Canada, 1922 by Thomas Allen

Printed in Canada

DEDICATION:
TO E. H. MACKLIN
IN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF A CONSTANT FRIENDSHIP.

PREFACE

The four articles which make up this volume were originally published
in successive issues of the Monthly Book Review of the Manitoba Free
Press and are herewith assembled in book form in response to what
appears to be a somewhat general request that they be made available
in a more permanent form.

J. W. D.
October 13 1922.

CONTENTS

PART 1. LAURIER: A STUDY IN CANADIAN POLITICS
PART 2. LAURIER AND EMPIRE RELATIONSHIPS
Part 3. FIFTEEN YEARS OF PREMIERSHIP

LAURIER: A STUDY IN CANADIAN POLITICS

THE CLIMB TO POWER.

THE life story of Laurier by Oscar D. Skelton is the official
biography of Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Official biographies of public men
have their uses; they supply material for the definitive biography
which in the case of a great man is not likely to be written by one
who knew him in the flesh. An English public man, who was also a
novelist and poet, wrote:

"Ne'er of the living can the living judge,
Too blind the affection or too fresh the grudge."

The limitation is equally true in the case of one like Sir Wilfrid
Laurier who, though dead, will be a factor of moment in our politics
for at least another generation. Professor Skelton's book is
interesting and valuable, but not conclusive. The first volume is a
political history of Canada from the sixties until 1896, with
Laurier in the setting at first inconspicuously but growing to
greatness and leadership. For the fifteen years of premiership the
biographer is concerned lest Sir Wilfrid should not get the fullest
credit for whatever was achieved; while in dealing with the period
after 1911, c