ted, and they fought for years to secure a right to final
revision under Dominion auspices. Twice they pressed their case with
such vigor that the government undertook to pass the requested
legislation but on both occasions resistance in the house by the
Conservatives led to the prompt withdrawal of the measure by Sir
Wilfrid. In both cases Manitoba Liberals knew quite well that the
difficulty was not the opposition of the Conservatives but the
opposition of Laurier. They were advised that Laurier was
apprehensive of the effect of the proposed legislation upon public
opinion in Quebec. He feared the criticism by his opponents that
while Laurier would not interfere with Manitoba when it was a matter
of the educational rights of the minority he was willing to
interfere when it was a matter of obliging his political friends.
There was something too in the charge that the delay in dealing with
the matter of the extension of the Manitoba boundaries arose from
the same feeling. To transfer the Northwest territories, where the
minority had certain constitutional rights in matters of education,
to Manitoba where the minority had none would be to put one more
weapon into the hands of Mr. Bourassa. The extension of Manitoba's
boundaries had to await a change in administration.

THE TALE OF FIFTEEN YEARS.

There is always a temptation to the biographer of a prime minister
to relate his hero to the events of his period as first cause and
controlling spirit--the god of the storm; whereas prime ministers,
like individuals, are the sports of destiny; things happen and they
have to make the best of them. The performances of the Laurier
government may be divided into two classes, those due to its own
initiative and those which were imposed by circumstances. The ratio
between the two classes changed steadily as the administration grew
in age. After the impetus born of the reforming zeal of opposition
and the natural and creditable desire to fulfil express engagements
dies away, the inclination of a government is not to invite trouble
by looking around for difficult tasks to do. "Those who govern,
having much business on their hands," says Benjamin Franklin, "do
not like to take the trouble to consider and carry into execution
new projects." This is a political law to which all governments
conform. Even the great reforming administration of Gladstone which
took office in 1868, had earned five years later the famous jest of
Disraeli: "T