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LIFE IN MONTREAL. [Chap. VII. 



Though seriously planning for the future, he seemed in 

 some respects more cheerful than in former years, and glad- 

 dened me by saying, " I shall look forward to your treat of 

 the Alpine ramble with very great pleasure, should circum- 

 stances so open it out." And while, a few years before, he had 

 said that all letters and interviews, etc., on public business, 

 were quite beyond his strength, in no previous winter did he 

 write more to leading men, especially on Temperance — the last, 

 as it was the first, of his public labours. 



He had kept up his interest in the United Kingdom Alliance, 

 and wrote (December 4, 1876) : "I was very glad you were 

 able to attend the U.K. A. meeting. What a galaxy of noble 

 men you have in the temperance cause in England ! If we had 

 only just one here who could rally the elements round him, we 

 should soon succeed. Our hour is come, without the man. 

 For want of a better, I have to move in front, which adds 

 greatly to my overstock of work. Our difficulty is between 

 Federal and Provincial authority. Each Government wants to 

 shirk the temperance question, as it divides parties. The 

 Ontarians, being advanced, want local powers : we, expecting 

 no favour from our Government, want Federal legislation. . . . 

 I have led the policy for a general Dominion Local Option Act, 

 and went up to Ottawa about it last week, Pullmanizing two 

 nights, and spending one day there. The policy is accepted 

 nem. con. : but where is the man to fight the Government and 

 push it through ? . . . Meantime the Ontarians are working the 

 Dunkin Act with great spirit, and carrying county after county ; 

 and even declaring war in the strongholds. In Nova Scotia, 

 as no man can get a licence without the signatures of two-thirds 

 of the neighbours, it amounts to prohibition over a large section 

 of the province." He carried out the advice of his recent visitor, 

 Mr. Raper (of the United Kingdom Alliance) — to establish 

 some centre of Temperance influence for Montreal, by inducing 

 various organizations to combine in the Montreal Temperance 

 Society, with standing Committees for "general purposes, 

 finance, vigilance, electoral work, and Alliance or legislative 

 work:" this was formed on February 19, 1877: and, up till 



