tionships--all these
things are testimony to the dissolving, penetrating power of the
impulses of 1917.

But the task of attempting political reconstruction in a new world
was not imposed upon Laurier. The signing of the armistice was the
signal for the release of new forces; it was a great turning point
in the world's history. But for Laurier the tale of his years was
told. There was something fitting in the departure of the veteran
with the turning of the tide. He had been a mere survival on the
scene following the elections of 1917 which put into the hands of
the Union government a mandate to "carry on" for the remainder of
the war--which at that time gave promise of stretching out
interminably. That election set bounds to his ambitions, wrote finis
to his political career. "Unarm; the long day's work is o'er." He
continued to hold his rank in a party which waited upon events,
knowing that the task of rebuilding and reconstruction must fall to
younger hands. The serenity of mind which had sustained him in all
the changes of a long and varied life did not desert him; and he
looked forward with fortitude to the end now approaching. He had
come a long way from the humble beginnings in St. Lin, 77 years
before. Childhood; happy, carefree boyhood; a youth of gallant
comradeship with the young swordsmen of a fighting political army;
the ardors of a career in the making full of delights of battle with
his peers; the call to the command; the conquest of the premiership;
the long, crowded, brilliant years of office with their deep
anxieties, crushing responsibilities, great satisfactions,
substantial achievements; the bitterness of unexpected defeat; the
gallant fight to win back to power ending by a stroke of fate in
disaster; the final disruption of his party and the loss of old
friends who had followed him in victory or defeat; these
recollections must have been much in his mind during this year of
afterglow. The end was fitting in its swiftness and dignity. No
lingering, painful illness, but a swift stroke and a happy release.
"Nothing is here for tears; nothing to wail."

The End

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Laurier: A Study in Canadian Politics
by J. W. Dafoe

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