ted the greatness of the honour; on the
contrary, it was his high sense of the responsibilities of the post
that gave him pause. He was not of strong physique, and he knew that
the work meant ceaseless strain and pressure. Though his profession
now gave him an ample income, he was not a rich man, and much if not
most of his law practice would have to be abandoned if he became
leader;[1] and parliament had not yet awakened to the need of paying
the leader of the Opposition a salary.

On political grounds he was still more in doubt. Would Canada, would
the one-time party of George Brown, welcome a leader from the minority?
The fires of sectional passion were still raging. In Ontario he would
be opposed as a French Canadian and a Catholic, the resolute opponent
of the Government on the Riel question. And though it might be {93}
urged that the pendulum was swinging toward the Liberals in Quebec,
while in Ontario they were making little ground, the irony of the
situation was such that in Quebec he was regarded with suspicion, if
not with open hostility, by the most powerful and aggressive leaders of
the Church.

Yet the place he had won in parliament and in the party was undeniable.
His colleagues believed that he had the ability to lead them out of the
wilderness, and for their faith he accepted. At first he insisted that
his acceptance should be tentative, for the session only; but by the
time the session ended the party would not be denied, and his definite
succession to the leadership was announced.

The Canada of 1887, in which Wilfrid Laurier thus came to high and
responsible position, was a Canada very different from the land of
promise familiar to young Canadians of the present generation. It was
a Canada seething with restlessness and discontent. The high hopes of
the Fathers of Confederation had turned to ashes. On every hand men
were saying that federation had failed, that the new nation of their
dream had remained a dream.

{94}

At Confederation men had hoped that the Dominion would take high place
in the Empire and among the nations of the world. Yet, twenty years
later, Canada remained unappreciated and unknown. In Great Britain she
was considered a colony which had ceased to fulfil the principal
functions of the traditional colony, and which would probably some day
go the way of all colonies: in the meantime the country was simply
ignored, alike in official and in private circles. In the U