close of the session, when it became increasingly
evident that a party split was impending, there were reports that
Laurier proposed to make way for a successor upon some basis which
might make an accommodation between the two wings of the party
possible; and there was an attempt by a small group of Liberal
M.P.'s to bring this about. The treatment of this incident in
Professor Skelton's volume is obscure. In any case it had no
significance and it came to nothing. Laurier alike by choice and
necessity retained the leadership.

Sir Wilfrid misjudged, all through the piece, the temper and purpose
of the Liberals who dissented from his policy. For his own courses
and actions there was a political reason; he looked for the
political reasons behind the actions of those in disagreement with
him. He found what he looked for, not in the actual facts of the
situation but in his imagination. He saw conversion to the Round
Table view of the Imperial problem and the acceptance of dictation
from London--a very wild shot this! He saw political ambition. He
saw unworthy desires to forward personal and business ends. But he
did not see what was plain to view--that the whole movement was
derived from an intense conviction on the part of growing numbers of
Liberals that united national action was necessary if Canada was to
make the maximum contribution to the war. There was very little
feeling against Sir Wilfrid--rather a sympathetic understanding of
the position in which he found himself; but they were wholly out of
agreement with his view that Canada was in the war on a limited
liability basis. In the very height of the controversy Sir Wilfrid
could not be got to go beyond saying that Canada should make
enquiries as to how many men she could afford to spare from her
industries and these she should send if they could be induced
voluntarily to enlist. This was wholly unsatisfactory to those who
held that Canada was a principal in the war, and must shrink from no
sacrifices to make victory possible. Still less satisfactory was the
professed attitude of the Liberal candidates in Quebec; with few
exceptions they embraced the anti-war Nationalist programme. It
became only too evident that a Liberal victory would mean a
government dependent upon and controlled by a Quebec bloc pretty
thoroughly committed to the view that Canada had "done enough." For
those committed to the prosecution of the war to the limit,
conscription became a test an