UNITED STATES AND CANADA 93 



of the Dominion in 1867. He was one of the five 

 British Commissioners who negotiated and signed the 

 historical Treaty of Washington in 1871 ; in recogni- 

 tion of which service he was made an EngHsh Privy 

 Councillor the following year. He became Prime 

 Minister in 1878, and two years later signed the 

 contract for the Canadian Pacific Railway, which was 

 opened in 1886. He was always a strong opponent of 

 commercial union with the United States, holding 

 that, if once effected, it was bound to end in political 

 union. He used to say, ** A British subject I was 

 born and a British subject I will die," as in fact he 

 did at Ottawa in 1891, within three months of an 

 election which had returned the Conservatives into 

 power with himself once again as Prime Minister. 

 His remains lay in the Senate Chamber at Ottawa 

 till they were transferred to Kingston, where he was 

 honoured with a public funeral, and buried with 

 his parents, sister, first wife, and child under a plain 

 Scotch granite shaft inscribed with the single word 

 "Macdonald." All the stations on the C.P.R. 

 from Ottawa to Kingston, 128 miles, were draped in 

 black when his remains passed through them, and a 

 memorial service in his honour was held on June 12 

 at Westminster Abbey. He was twice married, and 

 his widow survived him. He had a fine mansion 



