THE LATE GREAT CANADIAN.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 February 1919, Page 5

THE LATE GREAT CANADIAN.

HON. W. FIELDING HIS SUCCESSOR.' Ottawa, Feb. 18. The Hon. William S. Fielding, Liberal Leader, in Canada, succeeds the lata Sir Wilfred Laurier. The passing of Sir Wilfred Laurier, ex-Prime Minister of Canada, a position lie held for fifteen years in unbroken succession, removes another of those picturesque figures that will be for ever associated with the birth and development of the great British Empire. Born at St. Lin, Quebec, on the 20th November, 1841, of French parentage, he was educated at L'Assomption College, McGill University, and took hii B.C.L. degree there in 1864. He entered the Bar as a barrister the same year, and was made a Queen's Counsel in 1880. He entered Parliament in 1871, and sat in that assemblage almost continuously up to the date of his dealt, having thus been a member of the Canadian House of Commons for 48 year*. He first accepted office as Minister «f Inland Revenue in the Mackenzie Ministry, 1877, but was defeated at the General Election the following year. He was, however, elected for Quebec East immediately afterwards aind was reelected at the General Elections of 187*, 1802,1857,1891 and 1611. Made leader of the Liberal Party in 1891, he becamt Premier in 1898, being the first Frene* Canadian to hold that post, and retained the office until 1911, when he was dieplaced by the present Prime Minister, Sir Robert Borden. Sir Wilfred Laurier has been spoke* of by a contemporary writer as "the first colonial statesman who touched tb* imagination of the British public," an* who "became something more than • name even to the man in the street.* He first visited London in 1897, and wa* a conspicuous figure in the great Jubilee procession of that year—a processic* that contained "gloriously apparelled princes and potentates from all lauds,* that was "radiant with gems and elotb of gold and shining helmets and glit* Bering swords," but that "next to the (jueen herself," contained no one that was honored with more attention or received with greater enthusiasm than "a plainly dressed gentleman, grey-haired and clean-shaven, seated in ah ; inconspicuous carriage." That genUeman was Sir Wilfred Laurier, then in his Beth' year. Of handsome personal appearance, Sir Wilfred Laurier has been described as "* picture gallery all to himself—a picture gallery that suggests France before the Revolution, but the France of the intellectuals, touched with the great manner of an authentic aristocracy, easy and assured, free alike from boorishneM and simulation He is the most accessible and cordial of men, and talk 3 with great apparent candour—a candour which does not conceal the reserve and astuteness of a wary mind." The same authority describes him as "an opportunist," in which (he proceeds) "he is true to the genius of Canadian polities, which have never turned on principles, but on material problems—railways, tariffs and commercial treaties." He entered politics under the banner of Mackenzie as "a Liberal of the English school, a 'pupil,' as he himself said, 'of Charles James Fox, Daniel O'Connell, and, greatest of them all, William Ewart Gladstone, a gold medallist of the Coßden Club, and one of the most brilliant exponents of Free Trauc. He was supreme in Canada for fifteen years, and in all that time did nothing to redeem the pledges of his party on Free Trade. He opposed the Confederation, and became its chief strength. In opposition, he was the ndvoqate nf unrestricted Reciprocity with the United States. When he came into power he dropped that policy; at the end of fifteen years of office he revived it and fell fighting on its behalf. He assailed the corrupt railway policy of the Macdonalu* Ministry and saw hi 9 own Government become the instrument of new railway interests. A man of the highest quality himself, he allowed his great reputation to be used as a shield for politicians whose standnrd-i were, to say the least, less delicate than his own. A French-Canadian, willi unquestioned devotion to that race and its interests, he lias done more than any other politician to shift the centre of gravity of Canadian politics from French Quebec to (he English-speaking west." With all his opportunism, Sir Wilfred Laurier was a great Imperialist. He it was who "finally established Rnd completed the understanding between the two races of the Dominion, which is the keystone of tho arch of Canadian Confederacy. Perhaps no one (says Mr A. C. Gardiner, whom we quote) but a French-Cana-dian could have dono Hits. Certainly no one could have done it who had not Sir Wilfred's tact and astuteness." For he had to placate his compatriots while they watched the power of the West rising and over-shadowing them. He kept them loyally to the British connection while seemingly to vield a little unwillingly to courses which that connection formed in his country, and there is no doubt of the permanent improvement which Sir Wilfred effected in the relations of the English and FrenchCanadians. He taught the French" that they had won Canada, as well as lost >'• A firm believer in British institutions and the' British connection, Sir Wilfred regarded the Empire as a voluntary confederation of free nations, and while lie was opposed to the Borden schemes of a contribution to the British Navy, believing that the scheme would bo bad for Canada and England, he never doubted the duty of Canada to relieve England of some of her naval burden, but he invariably insisted that the true course was to take over the defence of Canadian shores with a Canadian Navy, built, maintained, and manned by Canada.