tience; and this particular theory, though of golden
promise, was beginning to recoil to some extent, upon the cause which
had been confident enough to adopt it before it could be translated into
action and its hard equivalent. The Elgin Mercury probably overstated
the matter when it said that the Grits were dead sick of the preference
they would never get; but Horace Williams was quite within the mark
when he advised Lorne to stick to old Reform principles--clean
administration, generous railway policy, sympathetic labour legislation,
and freeze himself a little on imperial love and attachment.

"They're not so sweet on it in Ottawa as they were, by a long chalk,"
he said. "Look at the Premier's speech to the Chambers of Commerce
in Montreal. Pretty plain statement that, of a few things the British
Government needn't expect."

"Oh, I don't know," said Lorne. "He was talking to manufacturers, you
know, a pretty skittish lot anywhere. It sounded independent, but if you
look into it you won't find it gave the cause away any."

"The old man's got to think of Quebec, where his fat little majority
lives," remarked Bingham, chairman of the most difficult subdivision in
the town. "The Premier of this country drives a team, you know."

"Yes," said Lorne, "but he drives it tandem, and Johnny Francois is the
second horse."

"Maybe so," returned Mr Williams, "but the organ's singing pretty small,
too. Look at this." He picked up the Dominion from the office table and
read aloud: "'If Great Britain wishes to do a deal with the colonies
she will find them willing to meet her in a spirit of fairness and
enthusiasm. But it is for her to decide, and Canada would be the last
to force her bread down the throat of the British labourer at a higher
price than he can afford to pay for it.' What's that, my boy? Is it
high-mindedness? No, sir, it's lukewarmness."

"The Dominion makes me sick," said young Murchison. "It's so scared of
the Tory source of the scheme in England that it's handing the whole
boom of the biggest chance this country ever had over to the Tories
here. If anything will help us to lose it that will. No Conservative
Government in Canada can put through a cent of preference on English
goods when it comes to the touch, and they know it. They're full of
loyalty just now--baying the moon--but if anybody opens a window they'll
turn tail fast enough."

"I guess the Dominion knows it, too," said Mr Williams. "When Great
Br