pleasantly recalled my defeat of that "darling of Radicalism in Nova Scotia," the Hon. Joseph Howe.

"I am almost overwhelmed by the kindness of your reception and the all too flattering references made to myself. Your Grace has spoken of the Hon. Joseph Howe. I almost feel that I owe you an apology for having defeated so distinguished a gentleman (laughter)—but it is right that I should also tell you that nothing gave me greater pleasure than to be able to promote the entrance of Mr. Howe, my antagonist of earlier days, into the Cabinet of Sir John Macdonald, and on a subsequent occasion to name him for the Governorship of Nova Scotia. (Cheers.) I should, however, explain -in view of what has been said-that there is no Tory party in Canada. There is a party of LiberalConservatives, who, while holding the value of Conservative principles, believe that by carrying them out in a broad and liberal spirit, they are best serving the interests of the country.

"Now, it occurs to me that, considering the great interest felt in this country in regard to Canada, I may profitably use the present occasion by giving my views of the relative position of parties in that country. No one, I suppose, could feel greater delight at the great change which has occurred there than myself, because I think I may venture to say that the recent election returned to power that party to which Canada owes its great position to-day. The Confederation of Canada embraced, in the first instance, only the Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Upper and Lower Canada. But the Act very wisely provided

means for bringing in the whole of British North America; and after we had obtained possession, by purchase, of the great Hudson Bay territory, which carried us to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, Sir John Macdonald believed that it was vitally important for the future of Canada that the Province of British Columbia should be included. British Columbia was separated from the rest of Canada by an impassable range of mountains, and the only terms by which we could negotiate with British Columbia was to give it means of access to the rest of Canada. There was not even an Indian trail, and no communication by sea except round the Cape. The only measure by which British Columbia could be secured as a part of the Confederation was by giving it means of communication with ourselves by rail. The result was that the Liberal party raised a hue and cry that we were utterly ruining the country by undertaking an impossible work. Sir John Macdonald was defeated. We went into opposition, and Mr. Mackenzie, the leader of the Liberals, became Prime Minister of Canada. From Confederation right down to 1875 Canada was fairly prosperous, because she had a very low tariff, and the disorganisation of the industries of the United States, owing to the terrible Civil War, gave us most ample protection. But when, happily for them but unhappily for Mr. Mackenzie, the war was concluded and the industries of the United States were reorganised, the effect on Canada of the high protective tariff of the United States was very bad, and her industries were paralysed. Boston and New York became the commercial capitals of Canada. The country was

depopulated, and for five years Mr. Mackenzie carried out a Free Trade policy, five years which were ever to be deplored in our history. In 1878 we went to the country on the policy of protection in favour of Canadian industries, and Sir John Macdonald was brought back to power by one of the most overwhelming majorities which has ever taken place in any country.

"Having thus secured a policy which raised Canadians from being mere hewers of wood and drawers of water, we proceeded with the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. But as late as 1880 Mr. Blake, the leader of the Liberal party, moved a resolution to compel us to suspend operations and not go beyond the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains on the ground that we were sacrificing the rest of the country for 12,000 people in British Columbia. The entire Liberal party voted for that motion. In the following year we were able to arrange with the Canadian Pacific Railway to take over that work, but a combination between the North Pacific Railway of the United States in New York and, I am sorry I must say, the Grand Trunk Railway in Canada, broke down the credit of the company and comparatively paralysed them. It became my duty, as Minister of Railways, to offer a resolution to lend them, in addition to the subsidies which they had had, $30,000,000 at 4 per cent. for four years; and when I did so, Mr. Blake called out, 'Don't call it a loan-you know you will never see a penny.' That money was returned with the 4 per cent. interest within the four years, and the company completed the contract in five years' less time than

the contract required. That project that drove Sir John Macdonald out of public life on the ground that it could not earn enough money to pay for the grease of the axle wheels is to-day the greatest railway in the world. (Cheers.) Its revenue last year was twenty-four millions, it has a fleet of seventy-six steamers, and the hundred-dollar shares are being floated in the neighbourhood of two hundred and fifty dollars.

"I mention this to show that it is the LiberalConservative party of Canada which has carried out the great measures which have made Canada what it is. When people speak of the prosperity of the last fifteen years I want to know what the position would have been if British Columbia had not been a part of Canada. I say, therefore, that the completion of Confederation, and of that great inter-oceanic line of railway, and the adoption of a protective policy are the three great measures by which Canada stands to-day in the proud position which she occupies. And when I tell you that all these measures were carried in the teeth of the most bitter opposition of the Liberal party, I think I am not speaking extravagantly when I say that Canada's great position to-day is due to the fact that the Liberal-Conservative party was able to carry out these great measures.

"The policy of protecting the industries of the country adopted in 1878 was reaffirmed by the general election of 1891; and the Liberal party, defeated on all these occasions, came into power in 1896 on a question of race and religion. In Manitoba the right of the French Catholics to separate schools was taken away by the local legis

lature. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England declared that the rights of the French Catholics had been interfered with, and that it now devolved upon the Parliament of Canada to restore them. When, however, I moved the second reading of the Bill to give the French Catholics the rights to which they were entitled, although I had a decided majority, Sir Wilfrid Laurier joined in the most violent obstruction to prevent anything being done. I was driven to the country, and it was not surprising in those circumstances that I was defeated. But while Sir Wilfrid Laurier obtained office, he did not obtain power; and, going in on a question of race and religion, the first thing the Liberals were compelled to do was to swallow their eighteen years' denunciation of the protective policy, and adopt it as their own. These are the circumstances in which they have the modesty to claim that all this progress is due entirely to their efforts.

"I pass now to the reciprocity question. On a recent occasion, as you know, a banquet was given to Earl Grey, and no person can speak too highly of the manner in which that gentleman distinguished himself in discharging his duties as GovernorGeneral. I draw your attention to a single sentence he used in the course of his able address at the Royal Colonial Institute. He said that the people of Canada sniffed danger in the reciprocity proposals, and thousands and thousands of Liberals feared that their adoption might start their country on an incline which might eventually land them in the lap of the United States. That is perfectly true, and they had good reason for sniffing danger. In 1891 Sir Wilfrid Laurier went into the contest