MACnnNAl.D, Mi: .H.IIN AU:.\AM>i:U. 



475 



don 



Macdonald administrations. He was Receiver 

 il fniiii Ma\ v!l in Dec. 7, 1*47: Commis- 

 sioner uf Crown I.iniiis fri'in tin' latter date !< 



HI, |s|S; .\lliinir\ tifluTllI for I |>|T 



Canada from Sent. 11, 1N54. t<> July 'J!). |s.>*. 

 when a- I'nme .Minister In; and his Cabinet re- 

 signed, having been defeated on the seat-of-gov- 

 ermiieiu niie-iion. Mi- returned to oilier the 

 same \.-ar a- I'o-t mastei-ticiieral, but he re- 

 signed on the following day, on his reapnoint- 

 in. 'lit as Attorney-lieiieral, I.e., which oilier he 

 held until Ilied. teat of the Administration on the 

 Militia hill. May, ISttt, when he and his colleague- 

 retired from oliice. Ho led the opposition in the 

 A.-sembly until the defeat of the Sandlield Mac- 

 donald-Dorion ministry, when the Tache-Mac- 



>nald (ioverniueiit was for d, March 80, 1804, 



he returned to his old office of Attorney- 

 ilcneral, and was Government leader in the As- 

 inhly from that time until the union of the 

 vinces. 1S<>7. He held the i.lliee of Minister 

 Militia Affairs jointly with that of Attorney- 

 neral from January to May, 1802, and from 

 ugii-t, 1865, until the union. He was requested 

 take the place of Sir E. P. Tache as Prime 

 inister on the death of that gentleman in 1865, 

 t waived his claim in favor of Sir N. F. Bel- 

 He was a delegate to England and other 

 untries on public business on many occasions; 

 a delegate to the conference in Charlotte- 

 wn in 1864, which had been convened for the 

 rpose of effecting a union of the maritime 

 vinces ; also to that which succeeded, in Que- 

 :, the same year, to arrange a basis of union of 

 1 the British North American colonies ; and 

 chairman of the London Colonial Confer- 

 ice in 1866-'67, when the act of union known as 

 e " British North American act" was passed 

 the Imperial Parliament. On July 1, 1867, 

 en the new Constitution came into force, he 

 called upon to form the first Government for 

 e new Dominion, was sworn of the Privy Coun- 

 . and was appointed Minister of Justice and 

 ttorney-General of Canada, an office which he 

 lied until he and his ministry resigned on the 

 ific Railway charges, Nov. 6, 1873. On the 

 filiation of the Mackenzie administration, Oc- 

 >ber, 1878, he formed the Government that he 

 tinued to lead until the day of his death, in 

 hich he at first took the portfolio of Minister 

 " the Interior. He resigned this office and be- 

 e President of the Council and Superintend- 

 t of Indian Affairs on Oct. 17, 1883. He re- 

 ed these portfolios Nov. 28, 1889, and became 

 inister of Railways and Canals, which office he 

 Id until he died. 



Although, in his public career, the name of Sir 

 John sometimes appears as that of an official sub- 

 altern, it is noteworthy that from first to last he 

 was the actual Premier and the inspiring and con- 

 trolling genius in every ministry in which he held 

 I a portfolio, and for over forty years he was vir- 

 tually ruler of Canada. In 1871 Sir John was 

 appointed one of Her Majesty's joint high com- 

 missioners and plenipotentiaries, together with 

 Karl de Grey, Sir Stafford Northcote (afterward 

 Marquis of Ripon), Sir Edward Thornton, and 

 Right Hon. Montague Bernard, to act in connec- 

 tion with five, commissioners named by the Presi- 

 dent of the United States for the settlement of 

 the Alabama claims and of matters in dispute be- 



twecnOrcnt Britain and the United State*, the la- 

 hoisof which commission resulted in I he Treaty of 

 Washington. Tin- follow ing arc among the prin- 

 cipal measures that has. l-ei-n carried through 

 Parliament by him : Scculari/ation of the clergy 

 re-i-rvcs; abolition of the seignorial tenures'; 

 improvement of the criminal law; promotion 

 of public instruction; consolidation of the -Dil- 

 utes; extension of the municipal uyMem ; reor- 

 ganization of the militia; settlement of :!.. 

 of-goveruinent question; establishment of direct 

 sham mail communication with Europe; estab- 

 lishment of additional penitentiaries, criminal 

 lunatic asylums, and reformatory prisons, and 

 providing for the inspection thereof; providing 

 for the internal economy of the House of Com- 

 mons; reorganization of the civil service on a 

 permanent basis ; construction of the Intercolo- 

 nial Railway; enlargement of the canals; enact- 

 ment of a stringent election law; ratification of 

 the Washington Treaty ; confederation of Brit- 

 ish North America and extension and consolida- 

 tion of the Dominion. He also, while leader of 

 the Opposition, on several occasions manfully 

 gave his ministerial opponents the benefit of his 

 ability and long experience in perfecting several 

 of their most important measures, notably the 

 Insolvent act and the act constituting the Su- 

 preme Court of the Dominion. During the sum- 

 mer of 1880, in company with the Ministers of 

 Railways and Agriculture, he visited England and 

 arranged the contract for the construction of the 

 Canadian Pacific Railway, to which Parliament 

 gave effect. He attended the conference held 

 in London on Nov. 18, 1884, at which the Impe- 

 rial Federation League was formed, and he moved 

 the appointment of a general committee to con- 

 duct its affairs. He was a D. C. L. of Oxford 

 University, also of Queen's University. Kingston, 

 and McGill College, Montreal, and Trinity Col- 

 lege, Toronto. 



Sir John A. Macdonald has been compared with 

 Sir Robert Wai pole and Lord Beaconsfield. but 

 with scant justice to the former. In the com- 

 pleteness, length, and durability of his success as 

 a statesman he has had no predecessor in the his- 

 tory of constitutional government. His prestige 

 was the growth of half a century, and at least 

 three generationsof Conservatives had grownup 

 trained to believe in him. He had overcome all 

 his political foes, and again and again led his 

 party to victory. No leader ever surpassed him 

 in inspiring affection among his followers. The 

 love for him of those who knew him well was 

 filial, and unfairness, cruelty, ingratitude were 

 unable to shake their attachment. Yet he was 

 personally liked by his political opponents al- 

 most to a man, and at the last many a life-long 

 political foe sobbed as he passed by the remains 

 of the great chieftain. His very mistakes were 

 taken as Mrokes of genius: and the sinister means, 

 soothing to the envy of the mass, to which he nt 

 times resorted. o. me to he regarded as the neces- 

 sary adjuncts of statesmanship. From his fail- 

 ings his virtues, in the "general censure." took 

 no corruption. Sir John was created a Knight 

 Commander of the Bath (civil) in July. 1^7. 

 and a Knight Grand Cross of the Bath in No- 

 vember, 1884; also a Knight Grand Cross of the 

 Royal Order of Isabel la Catolicn (of Spain) in 

 January. IST'J. He was nominated a member of 



