and France, to emphasize the future which all Canadians hold in
common, to urge the men of each race to seek that knowledge of the
other which is the first and longest step towards harmony. In training
and temperament Sir Wilfrid Laurier was uniquely fitted for the task of
interpreting each race to the other, and though it was a task that was
never completed, he had the satisfaction of achieving a marked advance.

The share of Canadian statesmen in working out the unique political
achievement which {329} we call the British Empire has not yet been
fully recognized. When the history of its upbuilding comes to be
written, it may well be that the names of Baldwin and LaFontaine and
Howe, of Brown and Galt, of Tupper and Blake, of Macdonald and Laurier,
will stand, in this regard, higher than those of Peel and Disraeli,
Gladstone and Salisbury, and even Durham and Elgin. Some in England
opposed the grant of self-government, believing that it led to
separation. Some, reconciled to separation, urged it. Canadians,
though not always seeing the path clear, both demanded self-government
and trusted it would make union all the firmer. It fell to Sir Wilfrid
Laurier's lot to carry out this traditional Canadian policy through an
exceptionally critical era of development. He steadfastly asserted
Canada's right to full nationhood, and as steadily faced each new
responsibility that came with added rights. He often incurred the
hostility of ultra-imperialist and of colonialist alike, going too slow
for the one and too fast for the other. Many autonomists failed to
recognize how manfully and how effectively he had stood at the London
Conferences for self-government, until at last practically all the
Dominions {330} swung into line. Many imperialists failed to recognize
how hard he had struggled to bring Quebec into harmony with the rest of
the Dominion on imperial issues and particularly on the naval question.
A wise opportunism, that met each issue as it arose and dealt with it
in the light of long-held principles, kept the nation advancing
steadily and advancing abreast.

{331}

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

The primary sources to which any student of the period covered in this
work must refer are too numerous to specify here. Foremost come
Hansard and the Sessional Papers. Such autobiographies as those of Sir
Richard Cartwright, _Reminiscences_, Sir George Ross, _Getting Into
Parliament and After_, Sir Charles Tupper, _