THE year 1867 saw Cartier at the climax of his glory and power. He was one of the delegation sent to London to watch the progress of the British North America Act through parliament. During his sojourn in the metropolis he was lionized, and had the honour of being the Queen's guest. People fond of contrasts could not help noticing the presence at Windsor Castle of the ex-rebel of 1837, now a stalwart supporter of British institutions. The contrast was not as glaring as some people would have it; the insurgent youth had been transformed into a loyal subject by the liberal policy of the government. When he returned to Canada in the summer to take his part in setting the new constitution in motion, he had practically no opposition in the electoral contest which followed the union proclamation. Both the local and federal elections returned large ministerial majorities. John A. Macdonald was called to form the first administration under the new regime as having the largest number of supporters., It was a reversal of the former state of things; from 1858 to 1862 Cartier was the premier of Canada. After the defeat of the Macdonald-Dorion administration in 1864, Cartier was sent for, but he advised Lord Monck to entrust Sir E. P. Tachd with the duty of forming a cabinet. He feared that his presence at the head of the goyernment would injure the prospects of his friends in Upper Canada, as he had taken such an uncompromising stand against George Brown's aggressiveness. In spite of the change he was the real premier of the short-lived administration of 1864. In the Province of Quebec Mr. Chauveau was selected as premier; no better choice could have been made. Of sterling honour, and of very moderate views in politics, to which he had been a stranger since 1859, he was well fitted to open the new era which was to be at first one of peace and harmony.

Lower Canada acclaimed Cartier as a conqueror, and public demonstrations were organized in his honour in all leading cities and towns. In 1869 the government entrusted him and Hon. William McDougall with the mission of negotiating the purchase from the Hudson's Bay Company of their land in the North-West Territories. The negotiations were protracted on account of the exorbitant price placed on their rights by the possessors of those vast regions, who asked for them as much as $5,000,000. Finally, under great pressure at the hands of the colonial secretary, Lord Grey, they accepted £300,000. At a dinner given to our delegates, Mr. Gladstone, then prime minister, eulogized the Canadian statesmen. It was on this occasion that Cartier used the expression for which he was so often taken to task by some of his opponents: "We French Canadians are British subjects like the others, but British subjects speaking French." These words, it seems, represent correctly the position of the French Canadians, and when other public men of the same nationality have pledged their loyalty to the British crown, have they not proclaimed themselves British subjects ? Cartier's sentence is apt and to the point.

In the midst of these successes a terrible storm burst upon Canada. While the government was preparing to establish authority in the North-West, and before the annexation of these regions became a fait accompli, a party of engineers under Colonel Dennis had been sent to Fort Garry, and without a word of warning, and also without any leave from the Hudson's Bay Company, began to make surveys on the lands occupied by the half-breeds. These naturally took offence at what seemed to them high-handed proceedings. At first discontent remained inactive, then it flamed into open rebellion when Hon. Wm. McDougall attempted to enter the newly acquired territory as lieutenant-governor of the North-West. It would be unnecessary to dilate on what followed: Riel's revolt, the establishment of a provisional government, the murder of Scott, General Wolseley's expedition, and Bishop Tachd's mission of peace to his people, who, at his earnest request, laid down their' arms.

All these facts are well known but it will not be out of place to recall here the timely warning which was given by Bishop Taché of the trouble that was brewing, and which, if it had been heeded, would have spared the country a vast expenditure of money and the turmoil of a petty revolution. In 1869, the venerable prelate, a personal friend of Cartier, had come to Ottawa to warn the government that Colonel Dennis's action would cause mischief, and that the half-breeds were in a great state of agitation. The secretary of state refused to hear him. Cartier received the warning with indifference, and finally told him that he knew all that was going on, and that the agitation was not serious. The bishop insisted, and pointed to the signs of a coming storm, but to no avail. He then set out on his voyage to Rome, which he had hardly reached when a cablegram from the Canadian government begged him to return at once to Canada to appease the trouble. It was Cartier's boast that he was always better informed than everyone else, but in this instance he and his colleagues were singularly at fault.

Thanks to Bishop Tachd's interference, the insurgent half-breeds laid down their arms and many of them went forward to welcome General Wolseley at the Lake of the Woods. Upon his return to England, the commander of the North-West expedition, striking the attitude of a conqueror, related his experience in Canada in Blackwood's Magazine, abusing the minister of militia, whom he likened to Moli&re's Bourgeois gentilhomme, and belittling the Canadian volunteers and voyageurs, whose services he was, a few years after, anxious to secure for his Khartoum expedition.

During the session of 1871, the task of presenting the bill creating the Province of Manitoba devolved upon Cartier. He conducted the debates on this subject with his usual skill, and with mastery of all the details of the measure, prefacing his speech on the second reading of the bill with this remark: "The name of the new province will be Manitoba, a very euphonious word meaning: The God that speaks. Well, let Canada's latest addition always speak to the inhabitants of the North-West the language of reason, truth and justice." He did not live long enough to see how his good wishes were realized. Cartier, with his impulsive and generous nature and his extreme liberal ideas, presumed too greatly on the large-mindedness of others. Still in order to spare to Manitoba the troubles which were then agitating New Brunswick over a school difficulty, he went the length of surrounding the rights of the Catholics of Manitoba with all kinds of safeguards, to protect them against all possible encroachments. In New Brunswick, there was no law before confederation conferring upon Roman Catholics any rights to the separate schools which existed there only on sufferance. Therefore, the British North America Act, which guaranteed the educational rights which minorities enjoyed before the passage of that act, could not be appealed to. In order to avoid any difficulty in Manitoba, Cartier inserted a clause which, to his mind would protect the cause of the minority against all possible attacks. He caused it to be enacted that all schools existing by law or practice previous to the union of Manitoba with Canada, would have the right to exist conjointly with other schools to be established hereafter, to share equally for their support in the distribution of public monies. We now know what a feeble rampart this was ; it was blown down at the first word of a government opposed to separate schools, and the decision of these adverse legislators was supported by all the Manitoba courts whose judgment was, in turn, reversed by the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court. The findings of judges often look like the obiter dicta of laymen when laws are so diversely interpreted. The fate of this Manitoba law, so cleverly designed in Cartier's mind to defeat any attempt to deprive the Catholics of their schools, recalls O'Connell's opinion that he could drive a coach and four through any act of parliament. On the other hand, in view of this particular clause of the Manitoba Act, one is tempted to ponder this problem, whether it is better to have a defective constitution worked by liberal minded men or a perfect constitution applied by men wanting that spirit.

To sum up the whole matter it may be said that, in general, laws have but little force when they are met adversely by an overwhelming public opinion, and in this special instance, Cartier's measure, loyally conceived and carried out in the interest of contemporary Roman Catholics and their posterity to the furthest generation, was called upon to weather a storm of popular prejudice which it was powerless to withstand. It foundered, but the wreck remains to bear witness that Cartier and his colleagues were just in their day, and endeavoured to perpetuate justice.

The matter, however, that gave most concern to Cartier was the New Brunswick school embroglio. When, in 1871, the news spread that the Catholics of that province had been deprived of their system of separate schools which had existed up to that time, and previous to confederation, the press of Quebec at once took sides with the Catholics of New Brunswick. Without stopping to inquire what was the true legal position, the editors cried out that the minority was suffering persecution. Thus influenced, public opinion very soon followed in the same track and the government was at once importuned to interfere and protect the down-trodden minority. When parliament met in the winter of 1872, Messrs. Costigan, Anglin, and Renaud, brought up the grievance of their New Brunswick friends and protested against the proposed change which denied to the Catholics any share of the educational fund so long as their schools remained sectional. They requested the disallowance of the obnoxious law; but the government resisted that request on the ground that educational legislation was vested solely in the provincial legislature; that although sympathy went out towards the aggrieved citizens of that province, it was out of the question to advise the governor-general to veto the act. It was set forth by Sir John A. Macdonald, to make the situation clear, that when the confederation scheme was under discussion, an attempt had been made to place education under federal control, which attempt the delegates from Quebec had entirely objected to, going so far as to declare that they could not accept any scheme of union in which education would pass from provincial control. It was, however, decided that, in order to protect existing rights in Ontario and Quebec, an appeal should lie to the central government if these rights were interfered with by their respective local legislatures. The government was sustained in this position, and Cartier, feeling the great responsibility attached to his conduct in this matter, made a decided effort to convince his co-religionists .how wrong they were in pressing the government to interfere. The members were of one mind with him, but outside of parliament the debate was waged between sentimental reasons and legal arguments and, with the masses, the latter seldom gain a victory. Cartier, with his usual vim and high spirit, when he was seeking Lower Canada's concurrence, led the public to expect from confederation more than it could give as a protection to minorities. Had he not stated in the House at Quebec that any attempt upon the rights of the minorities would be visited by the interference of the federal power? "Is it possible to imagine that the general government or that the local administration would be guilty of arbitrary acts? What would be the consequence, supposing the latter should do any unjust action? Measures of this sort would certainly be repudiated by the majority of the people. It is not probable, therefore, that a minority will ever be deprived of its rights. Under this system of federation which places in the hands of the central government all matters of general interest, and to whom question of races will be indifferent, religious or national rights will not be ignored."

When confronted with the stern fact of the New Brunswick grievance, he took another stand, the only one justifiable in law, but not expected by his fellow-religionists of Quebec. After having demonstrated in the clearest manner possible that disallowance was not in this case within the province of the central power, he appealed to the egotism and self-interest of the French Canadians, who, of all the peoples united in confederation, should be the last to ask for federal interference in local affairs. It was altogether contrary to the maintenance of their autonomy to create a precedent which might be used against them later on. It was simply setting before the Protestant minority of Quebec an example which they might imitate if any measure passed by the Quebec legislature caused discontent among them. Certainly all this was sound advice, and went far to strengthen the provincial rights, but at the time it did not convince very many. Of course his sympathies, like those of Sir John Macdonald, went openly with the aggrieved, but he gave them to understand that they had in their own hands the means of obtaining redress. They were an important minority, and if, with united efforts, they persisted in claiming their rights, these would, before long, be conceded to them. The government was sustained in this course, and Cartier's suggestion that the opinion of the law officers of the crown in England be obtained on the contention of the Catholics was accepted. With this ended Cartier's parliamentary connection with the matter, but the agitation waxed terribly strong against him in Quebec. Scarcely anything else was discussed in the electoral campaign of 1872; great questions like the tariff, protection to native industries, the Canadian Pacific Railway—questions of vast import to the advancement of the country—were scarcely mentioned. Matters of sentiment always take the lead in the Province of Quebec, and become the all-absorbing topics of the day.

Let us give the sequel of that unfortunate incident, in order to draw from it a valuable moral lesson. It was again brought up at the session of 1873, when Mr. Costigan, not being satisfied with the decision adverse to his views given by the law officers of the crown in England, again asked for the disallowance of the obnoxious legislation. He carried his point against the power of the government. All the Catholic members of Quebec save four, two of whom were ministers, voted for the Costigan motion; many did so reluctantly, simply obeying the dictates of public opinion and of the clergy, but thinking probably in their own minds that they were pursuing a dangerous course. When the Liberals came into power another effort was made to obtain redress of the long standing grievance; but the new administration was averse to anything which would look like high-handed proceedings. At the session of 1874, Mr. Costigan forced it again upon the attention of the Commons, with the help of the Quebec Conservatives, who, having suffered so much at the hands of their opponents from the agitation raised by this controversy, were bound now to use it against them to the fullest extent. The object of the new Costigan motion was to have the constitution amended so as to secure to his co-religionists the privilege they claimed, and a violent debate ensued. Judge of the astonishment of the Quebec members, when the rumour became current that the bishop of New Brunswick had made a compromise with the local government by which the Catholic children could receive, under certain conditions, religious instruction in the public schools. What offended the supporters of the Costigan motion was that the bishop allowed them to continue this long standing fight after he had brought the difficulty to an end, without giving them even a word of warning, and without consulting them, after all the trouble they had taken to obtain redress for his flock. The fact of the matter is that for nearly five years, all the energies of Quebec had gravitated around this New Brunswick local affair, to the exclusion of all other interests. It was inferred from this want of consideration that this active and sympathetic support was little appreciated when the need for it had passed. The Quebec friends of the New Brunswick Catholics seemed then to have played a rather Quixotic part in this battle for redress of other people's grievances. They received an unmerited lesson, but one which was lost upon them. They were again found on several occasions to be more Catholic than the Pope and more aggrieved than the real sufferer of the wrong.