New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-05-31
CANADA AFTER SIR JOHN.

From the very nature OF the SITUATION Ill
Canada it has been inevitable that the people
should look forward to the death of Sir John
Macdonald with apprehension or otherwise as
the beginning of momentous changes. Ony
his strong personality, with its many popular
qualities its ready adaptability to the fuctua-
tons of sentiment, its ooncilat0ry methods, It's
tremendous will power at critical moments, and
its freedom from any too embarrassing pr1n-
ciples. has been able or could have been able
TO hold together party so homogeneous as that
which has maintained his ascendancy for SO
many years. The Tory party is not IN the
usual sense party at all. 1t has no ascer-
tanned principles. 1t stands for nothing except
expedients. 1t is perfect reflection OF its
master builders character, 1t is as he has made
it, and in his hands it has been a perfect tool.
The upholder of the English Church, he has
been the constant ally of Roman Catholicism and
has had the stanch support of the priests. The
representative of extreme British tendencies,
he has held the constant devotion of the most
extreme of French nationahsts. The enemy of
intimate trade relations with America, he has
always carried those Provinces which would
have the most to gain and the least to lose by
commercial union. 1t is impossible to under
stand such contradictions until it is realized
that Sir Johns policy has been one OF constant
compromises with class and sectional desire and
prejudice and that he has never hesitated to
employ the public funds under the thin guise
of national policy" to attract the votes OF
particular bodies of the electors as he needed
them.
These methods are possible to no man, how
ever great, however creative and however elo-
quent, unless he possesses also those qualities
of audacity and personal magnetism which OPP
crate so strongly to blind and restrain the pub
lie, and there is no other man in Canada who
can command either these or the native ability
necessary to their successful operation. With
out them all, or, to express it in concrete, with
out Just that combination which is Sir John
Macdonald, the Tory party must fall to pieces
It's inharmonious parts cannot be joined. 1t is
only possible to hold them together by the
clamps of self-nterest and the clamps will 60
with the clever hand that forged them. IL their
manipulation were matter of audacity merely,
Sir Charles Upper could undoubtedly meet the
emergency, as most likely he will try to do
Between him and Sir John Thompson the
struggle for leadership is not likely to be long
Such of the arts of Tory management as
pupil not burdened with scruples but surcharged
with ambition could learn from a long and close
study of the great professor Sir Charles has
apty mastered, and they include subserviency
to the requirements of the Canadian Pacific
Backed by that controlling influence, his pro-
motion, if not Immediately at least in the early
future, is scarcely matter Of doubt, and then
the movement toward Canada's destiny will be
swift enough 10 satisfy the most eager. Sir
John himself has lived to appreciate some of
the horrors and perplexities of the wretch who
made Franlenstein, and the condition of those
who have themselves been made by Franken-
stems is not so novel as to excite much spec
uahon.
Whatever may be the opinion of those who
believe, as we do, that Sir Johns policies have
been founded in prejudice and corruption to
an extent which has shockingly demoralized
public sentiment in the Dominion, it must
still be admitted that he has called out the
power and pride of his people in wonderful
degree, and has employed their resources, if
improvidently, at least with material results Of
most impressive kind. In a popular govern
ment and in a sense purely political, success
justifes everything, since it presumes that what
the people have got is what they desired to
get, and it is therefore appropriate that states
man who has so greatly demonstrated the re-
sources of his country and has so long expressed
its will, who has made its influence felt abroad
in measure so much greater than by its wealth
and population it would naturally be entitled
to, should die in Office, and at the crowning
point of his extraordinary career. Whatever
the changes that his absence will bring about,
and they must be radical, his fame will endure
as that of strong and capable man. Historians
may record his faults and his mistakes, but
these are not likely to impress posterity. 1t
will see him as the creator of Canadian nation
atty. and as the genius who realized consoli-
dated and expressed the power of competent
naopla