XLIV ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
Ocean to the Pacific, was the task of the late Sir John A. Macdonald, a 
Canadian man of the hardy British race that leads the world. He could 
deal with men, suggest plans of co-operation for those of opposite views, 
grapple successfully with bitter prejudices and if not able always to 
settle questions, at least could propose and carry out a modus vivendi. 
To accomplish all this, preserve a balance between east and west, and 
yet develop the west, was a mighty achievement. 
Sir John was leader under Confederation for some nineteen years. 
The other leader, likewise a Canadian, who caught the “vision splendid” 
of a great west, belonged to the other renowned race of Europe that of 
“La belle France,” celebrated earlier than Britain in Art, Science, 
Literature and War—and which has made in Canada the thrifty, peace- 
ful and religious French Canadian element of our country—we refer to 
the Premier of to-day—distinguished and beloved in Britain as well as 
in his native Canadian land—Sir Wilfrid Laurier. His principle, like 
that of his great predecessor, is “Conciliation”—not a conciliation of 
apathy and Lethean repose, but Conciliation with Progress. 
He, too, will have a great Transcontinental railway to his credit and 
the formation of two great Canadian provinces—Saskatchewan and 
Alberta—each of them as large as an European Kingdom; and these, 
with the love of a great young nation from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
will be to him a Crown of Honor. Canadian harmony must be the 
cardinal principle of any great leader who will rule Canada successfully. 
Sir Wilfrid Laurier has been our national leader for fourteen years, and 
is with us still. 
LAW AND ORDER. 
One true test of government is its firm administration of law and 
success in preserving order. The Hudson’s Bay Company had an 
unexceptional record for the high character of its officers and men, and 
for a noble desire to deal fairly and justly with all classes. But they 
did not rest on the will of the people. They were autocrats; although 
they had not the necessary weapons of the successful autocrat—a force 
to carry out the autocratic will and a police organization to maintain 
order. The last twenty years of the Company’s administration of 
justice in Assiniboia was a miserable succession of tumults, illegal im- 
prisonments, forced jail delivery, and a consequent distrust of authority 
among all the people. 
With this state of things western Canada had to deal immediately 
in 1870. 
In the lawlessness of the period of the gold fever in British Columbia 
in 1858 Judge Begbie had bravely grappled with disorder. He was a 
terror to evil-doers and he won the day. 
