St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-08-14
The French Conservative Min
lister Of Works Tells His
Story.
Sir Hector Resigned His Po-
sition the Better to De-
fend Himself.
Maryland Farmers Are in No
Way Opposed to Senator
German.
Piek-Ups Of General Interest
From the Political
Drift.


every day that cabinet minister comes
down along the path of resignation
from his high place to the ground,
where he may have more room to turn
upon his accuSers. Such, however, is
the spectacle presented before Canada
to-day by Sir Hector Langevin. He has
determined to make a fight for his
reputation, though he prefaced the at
tempt by resigning his place at the head
of public works. To-day he was given
a hearing and cross-eXamination and
the interest of the people is proportion
ate to the extraordinary spectacle of
cabinet minister defending him
self against sharp, definite charges
that he had been bribed
with money and gifts by those whose
business interests it was in his power
to further. Before the senate railway
committee to-day Mr.. Gaboury, presl-
dent of the Banque Rationale. of Que
bee, was the only witness who threw
any light on the disposition of the
UnaccOunted for 100000.
of the Quebec governments subsidy to
the Bale DIES ChaleurS railway. His
bank had manipulated part of the sub
sidy, and of that part $4,000 was used
to guarantee discounts of Ernest Pa
caud. the editOr-in-chief of L'Electeur,
the chief organ of the MERCER gov
eminent. The evidence of Sena-
tor RObitaille, president of the
railway company, was read to the
committees on privileges and elections
at the opening of the meeting this morn
ID .t,. l.,
early i'll the last session Robert Me
GreevY came to him, and, after asking
if he was on good terms with the gov
eminent and Sir Hector Langevin,
showed him certain documents dam
aging to Thomas McGreevy which he de-
sired witness to lay before the govern
ment. Witness told Robert that this
was a very serious matter, that he (Mc-
Greevy) was the father of large fam
lily of children, who had to be provided
for, but Robert replied that he
and o. Z. Murphy, of New
York fame, had fully considered
the matter and were determined
to go on. Witness asked him: Then
what doyou want? Dc you want the law
suit abandoned? Do you want money!"
Robert McGreeYY answered that he did
not care about the law suit and did not
want money, but that Thomas should
resign his seat in parliament and on
the harbOr committee, because" he
said, $50 long as he is there
we cannot get the contract, l said even
if you make him resign he will be re-
turned. Robert answered: eve will
check him at that" The result of the
conversation was that he showed the
papers to Sir Hector, McGreeYy and
Sir John Macdonald, but they
Declined to Take Action
and he communicated the fact to Rob-
ert when he came back to him. Mr..
Davies then resumed his crOSS-eXamina-
ton of Sir Hector with respect to the
testimonial. Sir Hector said he did not
want to know the names of the con-
tributOrs, because there was no
doubt some of his friends who
subscribed would wish to pay
more it names and amounts
were known. He did not wish them to
he embarrassed. 1t was not because he
thought it wrong to contribute to the
fund. The fund was raised openly in
all parts of the dominion, and there was
to his mind nothing wrong about it.
Asked if he had received any money
from Thomas McGreevy, he said he
had not, either for his own or any
other election. No such money ever
passed through his hands. AS to his
contribution to "Le Monde" he never
took any shares in the paper and never
had any interest in it except a political
one. He had paid the money ASA loan
rather than as gift, because he wanted
to have some claim against the paper in
case it should turn against the party.
The matter of the cross wall contract
was next taken into consideration, and
Cir HantOf Qn hiG Ct1fnOannt oil
ready MADE that the nature of the ten
ders had not been communicated to him
when McGreevy wrote the information
from Ottawa. AS to the Esquimault
contract and the payment, on Chief
Engineer Perley's authority, of rebate
of $4,000 on the plant, he thought that
this was the only case in which such
Unauthorized Payment
had been made in mis- department To
Sir John Thompson, Sir Hector said
that as he had already mentio ned,
Peters had claim against the harbor
commissioners at the time when, in
1882, he gave money to Sir Hector for
the election fund. This claim had
never been settled and was at the
present time in litigation before
the supreme court and only a
few weeks ago, when he was in Ottawa,
PeterS complalneQ bitterly tnat tnere
had been no settlement. To Mr.. Ger
man. Sir Hector said he did not remem-
Der that there were any other notes be-
tween him and Thomas McGreevy since
1877, but those he had mentioned.
There might have been. how
ever; for instance LIE Canadian
sometimes required money, as news
papers often did, and he would give his
note. provided it would be Endorsed by
another party, who might be Sir n.
Belleau. or Thomas McCreevy. He re-
membered that he had to pay his pOr-
ton of a note given for some
political purpose, and on which
Sir n. Belleau's name was Endorsed,
but he did not want to say this
note was for lie Canadien. Thomas Nc
Greevy had not given him any notes for
his own use since 1872 To Mr.. Ouimet
Sir Hector said it was not to his kRowl
edge that Thomas MeGreevy had re-
ceiYed any money from contractors for
any purpose, and Thomas certainly new
err admitted receiving such money.
Thomas had complete control of the
campaign funds. Witness had been
told by some dissatisfied parties that
during the last few years Thomas Nc
Greevy had been supporting the local
government Of MERCER, but of this he
had no knowledge.