tock which is infallibly destined to be
the predominating force in the future history and civilization of
the world"? Moreover, it gave them a sense of their special
importance here in Canada where the population was not "homogeneous
in blood, language and religion;" it was for them, they felt, to
direct policy and to control events; to take charge and see that
developments were in keeping with suggestions from headquarters
overseas.

What these Canadian parties to the great Imperial drive thought of
Sir Wilfrid's dilatory, evasive and blocking tactics is not a matter
of surmise. Upon this point they did not practise the fine art of
reticence; and their angry expostulations are to be found in the
pages of Hansard, in the editorial pages of the Conservative press,
in the political literature of the time, in heavy condemnatory
articles which found publication through various mediums. Thus Sir
George Foster could see in Laurier's statements to the Ontario club
nothing but "foolish, even mischievous talk." "If," he added, "they
are merely for the sake of rhetorical adornment they are but
foolish. If, however, they are studied and serious they are
revolutionary." And to the extent that they could they made trouble
for Sir Wilfrid, in which labor of love they were energetically
assisted, upon occasion, by high officials from the other side of
the Atlantic. Laurier had five years of more or less continuous
struggle with Lord Minto, a combination of country squire and heavy
dragoon, who was sent to Canada as governor-general in 1898 to
forward by every means in his power the Chamberlain policies. He
busied himself at once and persistently in trying to induce the
Canadian government to commit itself formally to the policy of
supplying Canadian troops for Imperial wars. In the spring of 1899
he wanted an assurance which would justify the war office in
"reckoning officially" upon Canadian troops "in case of war with a
European power;" in July he urged an offer of troops in the event of
war in South Africa which "would be a proof that the component parts
of the Empire are prepared to stand shoulder to shoulder to support
Imperial interests." With the outbreak of the South African war,
Lord Minto regarded himself less as Governor-General than as
Imperial commissioner charged with the vague and shadowy powers
which go with that office; and Sir Wilfrid had, in consequence, to
instruct him on more than one occasion that Canada was st