TRIBUTES OF ADMIRATION illness in 1870 that revealed to his friends the fact that the man who had for so many years been giving all the best that was in him to the service of his country was practically penniless, and had made no provision for his family. A sum of about seventy thousand dollars was raised by his friends at the time, but it was wisely placed in the hands of trustees to manage for the benefit of those he might leave behind. To a man of this temper people were ready to forgive that love of power which he never disclaimed. In nearly all the large towns of Canada statues have been erected to transmit to posterity the figure and the fame of the great premier. They are tributes of admiration from a people, sections of whom often differed widely from the public policy of the politician, but who were united in sincere regard and affection for the man and the patriot. Before his death he had become the "Grand Old Man" of Canadian public life. His long experience in public affairs; his unrivalled knowledge of the conditions with which he had to deal; his unequalled skill in manipulating the various factors in the political problem; his freedom from fanaticism ; his high sense of courtesy in political life; his enthusiastic faith in the future of Canada; his consistent loyalty to the great imperial idea, all combined to make him stand out among his fellows as by far the most conspicuous and influential man in the Dominion. Slowly, through more than three centuries of difficulty, conflict and doubt, from painful but picturesque beginnings, the history of Canada has gradually unfolded itself, until there has emerged a nationhood of distinct type, the resultant of many contrasted and often conflicting forces. The romantic daring of the early pioneers in war and commerce; the dauntless courage of the Roman Catholic missionary; the Frenchman's loyalty to creed, race and language; the Puritan zeal for spiritual independence; the mingled love of liberty and devotion to noble tradition which stamped the United Empire Loyalist; the opposing passion of the two more virile and dominant races of the last centuries-Celt and Saxon; these and many other streams of influence have gone to mould Canadian institutions and Canadian character. As a net result of all, the present of the Dominion has become a pride, its future an inspiration, to all its sons. The man who drew together all these complicated threads, who welded the northern half of the North American continent into a united whole, who held it true to its British relationship while retaining an individuality all its own, will always live in the grateful memory not only of his own Canadian people, but of the British race. And if against the greatness of the man history must set the shortcomings which he himself so candidly admitted, Canadians who are just, and who know the conditions, political and moral, THE BURDEN OF BLAME under which their great leader wrought out his life work, will not leave him to bear alone the burden of blame. |