LAURIER 



3346 



LAURIER 



lay a great stretch of shallow water. The Lau- 

 rentian shield was originally much higher than 

 it is to-day, but heat and cold, rain and snow 

 and the great glaciers which once covered the 

 region all had effect, and the highlands were 

 gradually worn down. The Laurentian shield 

 thus supplied the greater part of the material 

 which formed the great central plains of the 

 continent. A.P.C. 



For further details, consult CANADA, subtitle 

 Physical Characteristics of the Dominion; LABRA- 

 DOR ; QUEBEC. 



LAURIER, lo'ria, SIR WILFRID (1841-1919), 

 a Canadian statesman, Premier of the Domin- 

 ion from 1896 to 1911, the first French-Cana- 

 dian to hold this office. His Premiership was 

 not merely the longest, but in some respects 



SIR WILFRID LAURIER 



the most important, since Confederation. 

 During those fifteen years Canada passed 

 through a period of growth and development 

 which left a nation scarcely recognizable as 

 the Dominion of 1867. Conspicuous has been 

 the expansion of Canadian railways, of agri- 

 culture and manufactures. More significant is 

 the growth of Canadian nationality within the 

 broad field of British imperialism, a greater 

 national consciousness allied with a stronger 

 feeling of kinship for all other parts of the 

 British Empire. Of the many features of those 

 fifteen years the outstanding ones are the en- 

 actment of special tariffs for goods imported 

 from Great Britain, the participation of Cana- 

 dian troops in the South African War, the 

 contract for the construction of the Grand 

 Trunk Pacific Railway, the adoption of two- 



cent postage for letters between Canada, Great 

 Britain and the United States, the organization 

 of the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, 

 and finally, the failure of the reciprocity 

 agreement between the United States and the 

 Dominion. This agreement, opposed by a 

 majority of the Canadian people, ended the 

 Laurier Ministry's lease of power. 



Laurier was born at Saint Lin, Que., on 

 November 20, 1841. Like all the children of 

 the neighborhood the boy attended parish ele- 

 mentary school, but he had the added advan- 

 tage of nine months' study in a Presbyterian 

 school, where he learned to speak English. 

 Association with English-speaking Presbyte- 

 rians, moreover, seems to have. had a perma- 

 nent influence on his religious and racial views. 

 At twelve he entered L' Assomption College, 

 and at nineteen began to study law at McGill 

 University. At graduation he was class vale- 

 dictorian, an honor which he grasped to appeal 

 for sympathy and understanding between the 

 French and the English in Canada. This ap- 

 peal was no less characteristic of him as 

 Premier of the Dominion than as class vale- 

 dictorian. When he had power, he did as he 

 urged others to do many years before. 



Early Political Career. For about six years 

 after his call to the bar in 1864, Laurier di- 

 vided his time between journalism and law. 

 He edited a newspaper of extreme French 

 sentiment, and at the same time associated 

 with persons who were not in favor with the 

 Roman Catholic Church. Like all the Quebec 

 Liberals, Laurier opposed Confederation, be- 

 cause it would "prove the tomb of the French 

 race and the ruin of Lower Canada." These 

 fears were groundless, and a few years later 

 Laurier himself was conspicuous in Dominion 

 politics. After three years in the Quebec 

 assembly, he entered the House of Commons 

 in 1874, and in 1877 became Minister of Inland 

 Revenue in the Mackenzie Cabinet. 



In 1878 began the long period of Liberal 

 opposition, which ended in 1896 with the ele- 

 vation of Laurier to the Premiership. During 

 the first half of the intervening eighteen years 

 Laurier was Edward Blake's first lieutenant, 

 and during the latter half he was the acknowl- 

 edged leader of the Liberals. In 1887, when 

 Laurier succeeded Blake, the memory of Riel's 

 execution and the militant nationalism of the 

 French-Canadians, added to Laurier's race and 

 religion, made his task doubly difficult, yet 

 from the first he won the favor of the English- 

 speaking Liberals. The Liberals lost the gen- 



