Speeches on the public expenditure of the Dominion.

was in Opposition.I believed economy to be, with him, an instinct.I felt persuaded that any Government, of which Mr. Mackenzie was the head, would be distinguished for political purity and financial economy ; and it was with satisfaction I saw him succeed to power at a time when the country was about to enter upon the construction of great public works, involving enormous expenditure j confident that, with his practical knowledge, in addition to the other and higher qualities he possessed, he would take no step without due deliberation, and, especially, would not commit the country to engage- ments inconsistent with its perfect financial safety, or which would require the imposition of new taxes upon the people.With respect to Mr. Blake, for a long time I looked upon him as one from whom Canada had much to hope.He had inherited a name and station ; was endowed with talents of a very high order ; he had had the opportunity of culti- vating those talents, aided by the highest educational advantages, and his studies were guided as were those of few men in this country.He stepped, it may be said, at one stride, from the law-student's desk to a high place in the first rank of his profession, and then rapidly rose to distinction and fortune.He entered public life while still a young man, and displayed rare aptitude for its work.He professed the loftiest and purest patriotism.His denunciations of political corruption, especially of anything savouring of Coalition, (which he stigmatized as corruption in its most obnoxious form,) are among the most eloquent utterances ever delivered in Canada.Self-seeking and meanness he denounced with withering scorn.Who could doubt that Canada had much to hope from so highly gifted a son ?Mr. Blake entered public life when many of the active public men of the day-who have since passed away-were descending in the vale of years.I confess that I placed implicit trust in all Mr. Blake's early professions-I believe, even now, they were made, at the time, in all sincerity.I cannot imagine, circumstanced as he was, that he could have any motive for entering the Government, other than a pure desire to serve his country.It is true there were incidents connected with the overthrow of the Government of the late honest Sandfield Macdonald, that surprised and startled the observing and thinking among the friends and admirers of Mr.Blake.His share in that episode was, however, forgotten, and he retained the high place he had won with the general public.When Mr. Mackenzie and Mr. Blake became the leaders in the Govern- ment of the Dominion-although some of the means by which they attained power were of a character that can never receive the approval of honourable men, but will be regarded as more and more unfortunate as time carries us away further from the events-still, I say, when Mr. Mackenzie and Mr. Blake became the leaders of the new Government in 1873, the feeling in the country was almost universal that their administration would be con- ducted upon the principles of political purity, departmental retrenchment, and financial prudence, which they had for so many years persistently and eloquently professed.POLITICAL.5 I shared in this opinion, and they had my independent support, until I became satisfied that they were violating the pledges of purity, reform ;md economy which, when in opposition, they had given to the people.Canada is difficult to govern.Tne variety of races and creeds, the newly formed union of Provinces formerly separate and independent, the want of homogeneity, unavoidable in a new country, where many of the inhabitants are immigrants of comparatively recent arrival, are among the most apparent sources of difficulty in the administration of affairs, and much allowance INTRODUCTORY REFLECTIONS.the public service.Was not this a rare and humbling exhibition of strain- ing at a gnat and swallowing a camel ?The Government were not only necessarily active participators in these scandals, but, by the course they pursued in burking the inquiry and otherwise, they compelled all their supporters in Parliament to become morally partici- pators with them.When Messrs. Mackenzie and Blake, who for so long a time professed to keep vigilant watch over the people's money, who arrogated to themselves the places ofTribunesof the people, -when they proved not only faithless to their pledges generally, but participators in political offences of the heinous character brought to light last session, it became the duty of every man who was in any position to do it, to call attention to them and point out that those offences were in their nature more debasing, and in their evil tendencies more wide spreading, than any previously known to this country.It is painful to me to write in these terms of the Government of our country, and especially of Messrs. Mackenzie and Blake, two gentlemen for whom I had entertained great respect and in whose professions of political integrity I at one time placed confidence.It was not pleasant to discover that I had been deceived by them, but so it was, and I declared it from my place in the Senate more than a year ago.Many were deceived as I was, and I know that what I am now proclaiming, as from the house-top,thousands are confessing at their firesides in friendly interchange of confidence with their neighbours.When men set themselves up as leaders of their fellow-men, basing their claims mainly upon their pretended higher political morality and purity, as Messrs. Mackenzie and Blake did, and when it is discovered that the chief difference between them and those they assailed was in the garment the assailers wore-the cloak of political hypocrisy-it becomes a duty to exhibit them to the people in their true character.Mr. Mackenzie and Mr. Blake took their stand, as it were, in the political market-places and thanked heaven that they were not like other men, especially not like that vile offender, Cauchon ; and when he came between the wind and their purity, they, with averted and upturned heads, went away, saying that his sins were " rank and smelt to heaven."But they are now the colleagues and bosom friends of Mr. Cauchon, and thus show that they are more guilty than he, by, at least, one sin, -the odious sin of hypocrisy.Again, we can picture them in the same market-places, beating their breasts and, with real eloquence, pouring out their expressions of gratitude that they were not only better than mankind in general, but especially better than that irreclaimable sinner, John A. Macdonald, who, in addition to habitually com- mitting all the sins forbidden by the Decalogue, was a " Political Coalitionist,"an offence for which, according to their code, there was no pardon.Now, look at their own Government-a Coalition !Yes, the most hetero- geneous and unprincipled Coalition that ever existed in this country, chiefly

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