ΤΟ

Professor Goldwin Smith,

LL.D., D.C.L.,

THE EXPONENT OF

A WHOLESOME AND ENDURING PUBLIC MORALITY,

THE FRIEND AND LEADER OF

THE HIGHER LITERATURE AND OPINION,

WHO HAS PLACED HIS

ADORNING TALENTS AT THE SERVICE OF OUR COUNTRY,

I, as a Canadian,

DEDICATE THIS VOLUME.

The Author.

PREFACE.

N°

O canvass of the country has been made for opinions to put in this book. We have approached our subject in cold blood, banishing sympathy from our heart; neither have we experienced the slightest tinge of remorse for the pain that we must have frequently occasioned through these pages. The historian or the surgeon with a soft heart is not of much benefit to his race. This book may seem to have taken a party trend. Perhaps it has. But the trend was with the Reformer till he turned Tory, and then with the Conservative who had turned Liberal. We most unhesitatingly give our preference to the Conservatives now because of their more vigorous and liberal policy; though we should have for that political body a vastly increased admiration, did it accept Mr. Blake's doctrine concerning treaty-making, and commit itself to an extinction of that legislative scare-crow, the Senate. This volume has been written hastily, so that several clerical errors have crept in; but the opinion of the book must be taken exactly as it is found on the page. Let us here express our gratitude to Mr. G. Mercer Adam for information, guidance and numerous hints while at our work, and for his revision of the sheets as they went through the press; but this assistance, it is proper