=Source.=--Sir Wilfred Laurier's Speech in the Canadian House of
Commons on the death of Sir John Macdonald: Canadian Hansard, 8th
June, 1891, quoted in part in J. S. Willison's _Sir Wilfred Laurier
and the Liberal Party_; and in part also in G. R. Parkin's _Sir
John A. Macdonald_.
The place of Sir John Macdonald in this country was so large and
so absorbing that it is almost impossible to conceive that the
political life of this country, the fate of this country, can
continue without him.... I think it can be asserted that, for
the supreme art of governing men, Sir John Macdonald was gifted
as few men in any land or in any age were gifted--gifted with the
highest of all qualities, qualities which would have made him
famous wherever exercised, and which would have shone all the
more conspicuously the larger the theatre. The fact that he could
congregate together elements the most heterogeneous and blend
them into one compact party, and to the end of his life keep them
steadily under his hand, is perhaps altogether unprecedented.
The fact that during all those years he retained unimpaired not
only the confidence, but the devotion--the ardent devotion--and
affection of his party, is evidence that, besides those higher
qualities of statesmanship to which we were daily witnesses, he was
also endowed with those inner, subtle, undefinable graces of soul
which win and keep the hearts of men....
He was fond of power and he never made any secret of it. Many times
we have heard him avow it on the floor of this Parliament, and his
ambition in this respect was gratified as perhaps no other man's
ambition ever was. In my judgment even the career of William Pitt
can hardly compare with that of Sir John Macdonald in this respect;
for although William Pitt, moving in a higher sphere, had to deal
with problems greater than our problems, yet I doubt if in the
intricate management of a party William Pitt had to contend with
difficulties equal to those that Sir John Macdonald had to contend
with.
As to his statesmanship, it is written in the history of Canada.
It may be said without any exaggeration whatever, that the life of
Sir John Macdonald, from the date he entered Parliament, is the
history of Canada: for he was connected and associated with all the
events, all the facts which brought Canada from the position it
then occupied--the position of two small provinces, having nothing
in common but their common allegiance, united by a bond of paper,
and united by nothing else--to the present state of development
which Canada has reached. Although my political views compel me to
say that, in my judgment, his actions were not always the best
that could have been taken in the interest of Canada, although my
conscience compels me to say that of late he has imputed to his
opponents motives which I must say in my heart he has misconceived,
yet I am only too glad here to sink these differences, and
to remember only the great services he has performed for our
country--to remember that his actions always displayed great
originality of view, unbounded fertility of resource, a high level
of intellectual conception, and, above all, a far-reaching vision
beyond the event of the day, and still higher, permeating the
whole, a broad patriotism--a devotion to Canada's welfare, Canada's
advancement, and Canada's glory.