ng that Laurier with all his prestige and power
could commend conscription to more than a minority of his
compatriots. Sir Robert Borden's proposal meant the foregoing of the
anticipated party victory at the polls, the renouncement of the
premiership, and the loss, certainly for the immediate future and
probably for all time, of the affection and regard of his own people
as a body. The proposition doubtless looked to him weird and
impossible, and not a little impudent. The argument that the
proposed government could better serve the general interests of the
public, or even the cause of the war, than a purely Liberal
government, of which he would be the head, probably struck him as
presumptuous. Three days before Sir Robert Borden made his
announcement of an intention to introduce conscription, Sir Wilfrid,
anticipating the announcement, wrote to Sir Allan Aylesworth his
unalterable opposition to the policy. This being the case, there
never was a chance that Laurier would entertain Borden's offer to
join him in a national government.

THE LIBERAL DISRUPTION

Sir Wilfrid, rejecting Borden's offer, adhered to his plan of an
election on party lines; but he knew that conditions had been
powerfully affected by these developments. His position in Quebec
was now secure and unchallenged--even Bourassa, recognizing the
logic of the situation, commended Laurier's leadership to his
followers. If he could hold his following in the English provinces
substantially intact the result was beyond question. He set himself
resolutely to the task. Thereafter the situation developed with all
the inevitableness of a Greek tragedy to the final catastrophe. Sir
Wilfrid surveyed the field with the wisdom and experience of the
veteran commander, and from the disposition of his forces and the
lay of the land he foresaw victory. But he overlooked the
imponderables. Forces were abroad which he did not understand and
which, when he met them, he could not control. He counted upon the
strength of party feeling, upon his extraordinary position of moral
authority in the party, upon his personal hold upon thousands of
influential Liberals in every section of Canada, upon the lure of a
victory which seemed inevitable, upon the widespread and justified
resentment among the Liberals against the government for things done
and undone to keep the party intact through the ardors of an
election. One thing he would not do; he would not deviate by an inch
from t