CANADA, DOMINION OF. 



89 



Charles Fitzpatrick was to .succeed him as Min- 

 ister of Justice; that Henry George Carroll, K. C., 

 M. P. P., was to replace the last-mentioned as 

 Solicitor-General, without a seat in the Cabinet; 

 and that the Hon. William Templeman, of British 

 Columbia, was to become a member of the Gov- 

 ernment without portfolio. Mr. Fitzpatrick was 

 sworn in on Feb. 22. The Hon. James Sutherland, 

 M. P., who had been a member of the Government 

 since 1899, without portfolio, had already been 

 sworn in as Minister of Marine and Fisheries on 

 Jan. 16, in place of Sir Louis Davies, who had 

 gone to the Supreme Court in the preceding De- 

 cember. 



The most important political event of the year, 

 however, was the retirement of the Hon. J. Israel 

 Tarte from the Government. As he represented a 

 considerable French following in preceding elec- 

 tions, and had old-time Conservative party asso- 

 ciations, his separation from the Liberal minis- 

 try created a sensation. His speeches during 

 some months had been very protectionist and 

 had become more so as the time of Sir Wilfrid 

 Laurier's return from England drew near. On 

 Oct. 20 two days after the Premier's return 

 Mr. Tarte sent in his resignation, and in his let- 

 ter made the following statement : " I shall not dis- 

 cuss with you at the present time the question 

 as to whether I was right or wrong in the course 

 I have followed. You are the leader of the Gov- 

 ernment, and your opinion, as far as my attitude 

 is involved, must prevail. You told me that my 

 utterances are causing trouble. I have no right 

 and no desire to be a source of embarrassment to 

 you or the party with which I have been con- 

 nected since 1892. My views on the tariff are 

 well known to you. I have on several occasions 

 stated them publicly in your presence, and dis- 

 cussed them often privately with you. Enter- 

 taining the opinion that the interests of the Ca- 

 nadian people make it our duty to revise the 

 tariff of 1897, with the view of giving a more ade- 

 quate protection to our industries, to our farming 

 community, and our working men, I can not pos- 

 sibly remain silent. I prefer my freedom of ac- 

 tion and speech under the circumstances, even to 

 the great honor of being your colleague." 



Sir Wilfrid Laurier, in his reply, accepted the 

 resignation upon constitutional grounds and for 

 the following expressed reasons: "If you had 

 reached the conclusion that the interest of the 

 country demanded without delay an increase of 

 the customs duties, the first thing for you to do 

 as a member of the Government, before address- 

 ing y\mr views to the country, would have been 

 to place them before your colleagues, with the 

 the object of obtaining that unanimious action 

 of the Cabinet which is the very foundation of 

 responsible Government. If you had not been 

 able to obtain from your colleagues their con- 

 sent to the course you recommended, you would 

 have been obliged then either to accept their 

 views or sever your connections with them, and 

 then for the first time you would have been free 

 to place your views before the public. Such was 

 the very simple course which was binding upon 

 you ; but to remain a member of the Government, 

 and at the same time to advocate a policy which 

 had not yet been adopted by the Government, was 

 an impediment to the proper working of our con- 

 stitutional system, and implies a disregard for 

 that loyalty which all those who are members 

 of the same administration owe to each other, 

 and have a right to expect from each other." 



A few days later Mr. Tarte assumed editorial 

 charge of La Patrie, a French-Canadian Liberal 

 paper in Montreal, and announced that he would 



entertain an independent attitude toward the 

 Government. After a short delay Raymond Pre- 

 fontaine, K. C., M. P., formerly mayor of Mon- 

 treal, was appointed Minister of Marine and Fish- 

 eries, and the Hon. Mr. Sutherland was trans- 

 ferred to Mr. Tarte's late department Nov. 12. 

 Meanwhile R. L. Borden, M. P., the Conservative 

 leader, had been making a tour of Manitoba, the 

 Northwest Territories, and British Columbia, ac- 

 companied by Messrs. E. F. Clarke, J. Clancy, R. 

 Blain, D. Henderson, and other Conservative 

 members of Parliament. A great many speeches 

 were made, and the ground was taken that Mr. 

 Tarte was coming over to Conservative policy 

 and fiscal principles. Mr. Borden left Winnipeg 

 for his home in Nova Scotia on Oct. 21, and 

 before doing so issued a final appeal to the people 

 of the west to support a policy of adequate pro- 

 tection to Canadian industries and of a national 

 transportation system. Parliament had met and 

 dispersed many months before this. On Feb. 13 

 it was opened by the Earl of Minto, Governor- 

 General, with a speech from the throne, in which 

 he said: 



" Application having been made by the Cana- 

 dian Pacific Railway Company for approval of 

 an increase of its capital, to meet the demand for 

 additional rolling-stock and other improved fa- 

 cilities for handling the growing traffic, my min- 

 isters availed themselves of the opportunity io 

 stipulate that the long-pending question of the 

 power of the Governor in Council to regulate the 

 tolls of the company should be submitted to the 

 courts for a judicial decision. The correspond- 

 ence and others papers will be laid before you. 



" The inventor, Mr. Marconi, having met unex- 

 pected obstacles to the carrying on of his experi- 

 ments in wireless ocean telegrarhy in a sister 

 colony, my ministers deem it expedient to invite 

 him to continue his operations on the coast of 

 Nova Scotia, and they availed themselves of his 

 presence in Canada to enter into negotiations re- 

 sulting in an arrangement through which, should 

 the project prove as successful as is hoped for, 

 the Government and people of Canada will enjoy 

 the benefits of the invention on very favorable 

 terms, including rates for transatlantic messages- 

 very much below those now existing. 



" I am pleased to inform you that the display 

 made by Canada of her products at the several 

 expositions at which they had been exhibited 

 during the last year has attracted much atten- 

 tion, and has already resulted in many inquiries 

 and orders for our goods. I may also congratu- 

 late you on the satisfactory condition of the 

 revenue, and on the steady and continuous ex- 

 pansion of the general business of the country as 

 evidenced by the increased volume of exports and 

 imports. With the view of still further facilita- 

 ting and developing our trade with other coun- 

 tries, it will probably be found expedient to in- 

 crease the number of our commercial agencies; 

 and Parliament will be asked to consider the 

 desirability of making additional provision for 

 that purpose. 



" I have also pleasure in informing you that 

 the governments of Australia and New Zealand 

 have accepted an invitation from my Government 

 to attend a conference in London next June for 

 the consideration of trade, transportation, cable, 

 and other matters of intercolonial concern, and it 

 is hoped that the meeting may lead to an exten- 

 sion of Canadian trade with those important por- 

 tions of his Majesty's dominions. I have further 

 to advise you that my Government, having 

 caused inquiry to be made, has reached the con- 

 clusion that the establishment of direct steam- 



