In Manitoba also there were evidences of Sir Wilfrid’s preoccupation with the business of never getting himself out of touch with Quebec public opinion.  For years he sought by private and semi-public negotiations to get the Winnipeg school board to come to a modus vivendi with the church by which Catholic children would be segregated in their own schools within the orbit of the public school system, but failed, partly owing to the non possumus attitude of Archbishop Langevin, who was not prepared to be deprived of a grievance which enabled him to mix in Quebec and Manitoba politics.  The Liberal policy of accepting provincial electoral lists for Dominion purposes resulted in the Manitoba lists being compiled under conditions to which the Liberals of this province strongly objected, and they fought for years to secure a right to final revision under Dominion auspices.  Twice they pressed their case with such vigor that the government undertook to pass the requested legislation but on both occasions resistance in the house by the Conservatives led to the prompt withdrawal of the measure by Sir Wilfrid.  In both cases Manitoba Liberals knew quite well that the difficulty was not the opposition of the Conservatives but the opposition of Laurier.  They were advised that Laurier was apprehensive of the effect of the proposed legislation upon public opinion in Quebec.  He feared the criticism by his opponents that while Laurier would not interfere with Manitoba when it was a matter of the educational rights of the minority he was willing to interfere when it was a matter of obliging his political friends.  There was something too in the charge that the delay in dealing with the matter of the extension of the Manitoba boundaries arose from the same feeling.  To transfer the Northwest territories, where the minority had certain constitutional rights in matters of education, to Manitoba where the minority had none would be to put one more weapon into the hands of Mr. Bourassa.  The extension of Manitoba’s boundaries had to await a change in administration.

The tale of fifteen years.

There is always a temptation to the biographer of a prime minister to relate his hero to the events of his period as first cause and controlling spirit—­the god of the storm; whereas prime ministers, like individuals, are the sports of destiny; things happen and they have to make the best of them.  The performances of the Laurier government may be divided into two classes, those due to its own initiative and those which were imposed by circumstances.  The ratio between the two classes changed steadily as the administration grew in age.  After the impetus born of the reforming zeal of opposition and the natural and creditable desire to fulfil express engagements dies away, the inclination of a government is not to invite trouble by looking around for difficult tasks to do.  “Those who govern, having much business on their hands,”