New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-06-07
cTP John MACDONALD.


However hostile the point of view from which
| Sir John Macdonald's public services are re-
| garded it cannot be denied that he possessed
positive genius for the conduct of govern
ment, that he was creative statesman, that he
accomplished policies and enacted measures OF
vast public utility, and that the country to
whose interests he devoted practically the whole
of an unusually long life has sustained by his
death a greater loss than would be felt in any
other community by the removal of any indi-
yidual This is rot wholly because of Sir
Johns mental stature, though he compared with
the most successful statesmen who were con-
| temporaneous with him. Nor does it imply that
| Canada is deficient in cultivated public men.
! IL is primarily the result of the situation there
| and of the extraordinary confidence which the
people of the Dominion reposed in him. For
nearly fifty years he has been conspicuously
before them. For the greater part of the time
he has held a Ministerial office and generally
has directed as the Premier the policies of the
Government. With all its amazing inconsis-
tences, its inherent tendency to compromise,
and its lack of that moral principle and moral
courage which Mr.. Mackenzie vainly strove to
substitute for tact and artifce, there still has
reflected in his public works certain vein of
British loyalty. 1t has stood for something In
the minds of the Canadian electorate. How Sir
John would govern nobody could ever predict
but that he would govern and in the Queens
name, never failing and never vacllating In
his duty to the Crown of England has been the
sure faith of his people. And in that, at all
events. they have reckOned well.
Long before Confederation Sir John was the
leader of Conservative party, and whether in
office or in Opposition his peculiar talent as an
opportunist has always shone brilliantly. His
early experiences were full of vicissitudes. He
was down and up and up and down so abruptly
and so quickly that almost in self-defence he
had to learn the trick of judgment which in
popularity governed countries is essential to
successful career. He was fitted to learn it.
His powers of discernment were great, and they
operated easily. BY the very absence of that
unbending devotion to principle which so often
bars the way to worldly success, he was enabled
to lump nimbly wherever he saw public senti-
ment tending and, master as he was OF all the
arts of leadership, it was easy for him to place
himself at the head of popular movement even
though in the past it had been the especial OBJ
iect of his ridicule and enmity, and direct it to
a conclusion which satisfied the public and at
the same time enabled him to claim consistent
record This is not as noble as it is wonder
full, but it supplies the secret of his long chain
of successes. He was the foe of Confederation,
but presently its greatest champion and soon its
efficient creator. lie was the enemy OF sub
sidy, but presently the protector OF great con-
tinental railroad, and soon Of a vast system
stretching from sea to sea, every separate rail OF
which was forged from public taxes. lie was
the enemy of Protection, and talked piteousy OF
the hardships such a policy imposed on con-
sumers and farmers, but in time he became the
builder of the most intricate tariff wall ever de-
vised to cherish home industries. He laughed
at Reciprocity, denounced it as fraud and
menace to his National Policy, but at the fitting
moment he went to the country on scheme to
secure its benefits. This is an astonishing rec
ord but Sir John was never at loss for eo-
quent sentences to prove its consistency and its
logical development out of his earlier opinions.
Certainly he gave Canada a position in the
councils of Europe and America which five
millions of people, so strangely connected, could
never have achieved except Through personal
ruler of commanding strength and extraordinary
adroitneSs. In all emergencies he had pol
icy, for all ills cure, in every crisis way OF
escape, and whatever may be said of the meth
DDS he adopted, the fact that they succeeded
and that they rarely failed to receive the ap
proval of an electorate as intelligent and high
minded as any in the world must be their
justification. Canada to-day is great coun-
try, and however great it would have been
ie rnHo Sir nhn
and through measures which his brain conceived
and his hand executed. In its Judicial system,
it's military organization, its superior ocean
carrying trade, its municipal home rule, it's eX
celent civil service, its efficient postofiice, its
admirable election laws, and its benefcent sys-
tenn Of public charities, Canada is second to no
community in the civilized world, and all these
are the product of Sir Johns masterful states
manship. Partisanship should not seek to dim
the lustre of fame that has for its jewels so
rare an array of worthy public services.
Sir John has successor. Even were there
among his associates any other comparable with
the dead Premier it would still have to be said
that he leaves no successor. The situation in
Canada admits of no such personal government
as he has carried on. Tho great problem that
has SO long been impending even he did not
touch. lie realized that it marked the limita-
ton of his power to control the people. He
postponed it. He moved it from time to time
into the future, and largely because the public
attitude toward it was still underlined and doubt
ful, he was permitted to avoid an attempt at
its solution. But now it must come on. 1t
will not be settled by one voice. Leaders will
play small part in its settlement. It's post
ponement until now is to be taken not so much
as proof that Sir John lacked the high genius
which builds empires and writes enduring con-
situations as that the day is near when these are
ceasing to be the acts of individuals and are
coming to be the unchallenged right of the
whole people.
4 PRACTICAL REFORM