the house of commons. The opposition contested this measure with great
persistency, but Sir John Macdonald pressed it to a successful
conclusion, mainly on the ground that it was necessary in a country like
Canada, composed of such diverse elements, to have for the Dominion
uniformity of suffrage, based on a small property qualification, instead
of having diverse systems of franchise--in some provinces, universal
franchise, to which he and other Conservatives generally were strongly
opposed.

Between 1880 and 1894 Canada was called upon to mourn the loss of a
number of her ablest and brightest statesmen--one of them the most
notable in her political history. It was on a lovely May day of 1880
that the eminent journalist and politician, George Brown, died from the
effects of a bullet wound which he received at the hand of one Bennett,
a printer, who had been discharged by the _Globe_ for drunkenness and
incapacity. The Conservative party in 1888 suffered a great loss by the
sudden decease of Mr. Thomas White, minister of the interior in the
Macdonald ministry, who had been for the greater part of his life a
prominent journalist, and had succeeded in winning a conspicuous and
useful position in public affairs as a writer, speaker, and
administrator. Three years later, the Dominion was startled by the sad
announcement, on the 6th June, 1891, that the voice of the great prime
minister, Sir John Macdonald, who had so long controlled the affairs of
Canada, would never more be heard in that federal parliament of which he
had been one of the fathers. All classes of Canadians vied with one
another in paying a tribute of affection and respect to one who had been
in every sense a true Canadian. Men forgot for the moment his mistakes
and weaknesses, the mistakes of the politician and the weaknesses of
humanity, "only to remember"--to quote the eloquent tribute paid to him
by Mr. Laurier, then leader of the opposition--"that his actions always