Los Angeles herald., 1891-06-03
A GREAT LEADER IN ExrREMIs.

Sir John Macdonald, the premier of
the dominion of Canada, whose death
may be looked for at any moment, is one
of the remarkable men of his epoch. He
was born in Scotland, but went with his
parents to Canada when he was six years
old. He started out in life as lawyer;
but he soon entered the political arena,
and has been for nearly half century
conspicuous in the government of Can
ada. Sir John proved himself to he
politician and statesman of the highest
order. He possessed great tact, and was
a profound Judge of character. In his
contact with men he was gifted with the
invaluable quality of drawing them
towards him, and impressing them with
his exceptional powers of leadership.
His industry was astonishing, and, like
Gladstone, he attended personally to
nearly all his correspondence.
But Sir John was not only profound
statesman; he was what writer in the
Review of Reviews happily terms d
builder of empires. No man was ever
able to conciliate more discordant ele-
ments than he had to deal with in Canada.
The race and religious antagonisms have
been so rife and bitter in that country
that there was hardly any common
ground upon which a leading public
man could stand. Yet, in spite of these
discordant elements, he succeeded in
holding himself at the head of the gov
ernment through all the storms of fac
tion, party and denominational animos-
tiles for over quarter of century.
He felt keenly the want of unity in the
Canadian institutions, and was con-
vinced that nothing but consolidation
of the separated provinces under one
government would enable Canada to en-
ter upon the path of progress. He bent
all his energies to the accomplishment
of this great purpose. After years OF
effort, conciliating here, adjusting
grievances there, and bringing the
diverse and divergent elements to a
grave and serious consideration of the
advantages of harmony, he finally found
his life-work crowned with success.
No leader ever passed through long
succession of more difficult and exasper-
ating controversies, each of which
threatened the existence OF his
government, than Sir John. The
Riel rebellion was a very
serious affair. The government
was faced with formidable uprising in
which the great French element of the
people sympathized. He was called
upon to act promptly and vigorously.
He did SO. The storm arose, but he
faced it with unfinching- nerve and rode
it out. The General Middleton scandal
again threatened to swamp his admins
tration; but he treated it with tact and
timely energy, and it blew over. The
government guarantee loan to the Can
adian Pacific was another danger which
he met and overcame.
As a statesman Sir John stands in the
hesitate to say that ne has given proof
time and again that if ne were in the
more conspicuous field of high politics
in the home government, he would have
taken rank second to no statesman
England has produced during his time.
His death will create void in the gov
ernment OF the dominion which none of
his contemporaries can hope to fill with
the forceful power, the far-seeing sagac-
ity, the courage, self-poise and magnet
ism which he signalized throughout his
long and successful leadership.