that these minutes
had been destroyed and could not be procured, and much of the labour
he had been allowed to go to by Mr. Brown for that purpose would now
be thrown away; the whole manner of giving evidence, etc., would now
be altered."

The graver charges of subornation of perjury etc., were abandoned, and
Macdonald's friends confined themselves to an attempt to prove that
the inquiry had been unfairly conducted, that the warden had been
harshly treated, and the testimony not fairly reported. It was a
political committee with a Conservative majority, and the majority,
giving up all hope of injuring Brown, bent its energies to saving
Macdonald from the consequences of his reckless violence. The Liberal
members asked for a complete exoneration of Mr. Brown. A supporter of
the government was willing to exonerate Brown if Macdonald were
allowed to escape without censure. A majority of the committee,
however, took refuge in a rambling deliverance, which was sharply
attacked in the legislature. Sir Allan MacNab bluntly declared that
the charge had been completely disproved, and that the committee ought
to have had the manliness to say so. Drummond, a member of the
government, also said that the attack had failed. The accusers were
willing to allow the matter to drop, and as a matter of fact the
report was never put to a vote. But Mr. Brown would not allow them to
escape so easily. Near the close of the session he made a speech which
gave a new character to the discussion. Up to this time it had been a
personal question between Brown and his assailants. Brown dealt with
this aspect of the matter briefly but forcibly. He declared that not
only his conduct but the character of the other commissioners was
fully vindicated, and that a conspiracy to drive him from public life
had signally failed. Conservative members had met him and admitted
that there was no truth in the charges, but had pleaded that they must
go with the party. Members had actually been asked to "pair" off on
the question of upholding or destroying his character, before they had
heard his defence.

From these personal matters he returned to the abuses that had been
discovered by the commission. A terrible story of neglect and cruelty
was told. These charges did not rest on the testimony of prisoners.
They were sustained by the evidence of officers and by the records of
the institution. "If," said the speaker, "every word of the witnesses
called by the comm