Part 1 (1/2)

The Day of Sir Wilfrid Laurier

by Oscar D Skelton

PREFATORY NOTE

In conformity with its title, this voluraphy, is of the _day_, nificant events and tendencies in the recent political life of Canada In a later and larger work it is hoped to present a raphy of Sir Wilfrid Laurier

O D SKELTON

KINGSTON, 1915

CHAPTER I

THE MAKING OF A CANADIAN

Early days at St Lin--Seven years of college--Student at law--Arthabaska days

Wilfrid Laurier was born at St Lin, Quebec, on November 20, 1841 His ancestral roots were sunk deep in Canadian soil For six generations Quebec had been the hoin to Anjou, a province that ever bred shrewd and thrifty e covenant entered into at Montreal in 1666 the first representative of the family in Canada is styled 'Francois Cottineau dit Chaarden of lauriers or oleanders gave the descriptive title which in time, as was common, became the sole family name The Lauriers came to Canada shortly after Louis XIV took the colony under his royal wing in 1663, in the first era of real settlement, and hewed out homes for themselves in the forest, first on the island of Jesus, at the mouth of the {2} Ottawa, and later in the parish of Lachenaie, on the north bank of the sarew in numbers until Lauriers, with Rochons and Matthieus, randfather of Wilfrid Laurier, was acharacter and marked ability In face of many difficulties he ht land surveyor, so that he was able to neury at Lachenaie Early in the nineteenth century he settled his son Carolus on a fare of St Lin, a frontier settle at the foot of the Laurentian hills north of Montreal He himself continued to reside at Lachenaie until far on in years, when he went to live with his son at St Lin

Carolus Laurier followed in his father's footsteps, surveying and far by turns as opportunity offered He had not his father's rugged individuality, but his handsoenerous nature h all the French and Scottish settle of his father's progressiveness {3} is shown by the fact that he was the first far machine in his barn, to take the place of the old-tiave the first bent to his son's syive the brilliant lad the education needed for professional success, and far-seeing and broad-h knowledge of English speech and English ould be

Yet it was rather to his mother that Wilfrid Laurier, like so many other notable men, owed his abilities and his temperament Marcelle Martineau, kin to the th of character, of fine mind and artistic talents She lived only five years after her son was born, but in those few years she had so knit herself into his being that the warm and tender memory of her never faded from his ie, a daughter, Malvina, died in infancy Carolus LaurierAdeline Ethier She was much attached to his children and they to her Of this second e three sons were born: {4} Ubalde, who becane, a merchant in St Lin and later member for the county at Ottaho lived until 1907; and Henri, the prothonotary at Arthabaska, who passed away in 1906 Carolus Laurier hie home forty years after the birth of his eldest son, and his wife lived nearly twenty years longer

It was a quiet, strength-shaping country home in which the future statese was off the beaten track of travel; not yet had the railway joined it to the river front

There were few distractions to excite or dissipate youthful energies

Roa for trout, hunting partridges and rabbits, and joining in the siames, the boy took his boyish pleasures and built for his manhood's calm and power His home had an intellectual atmosphere quite out of the ordinary, and it enjoyed a full race or native courtesy which is not least a Quebec's contributions to the co in the elementary parish school of St Lin, where the boys learned their _A-B-C_, their _two-times-two_, and their {5} catechisive hi of the way of life and to learn the tongue of his English-speaking coan river lay the village of New Glasgow It had been settled about 1820 by Scottish Protestants belonging to various British regiments Carolus Laurier had carried on surveys there, knew the people well, and was thoroughly at home with them The affinity so often noted between Scottish and French has doubtless more than a mere historical basis At any rate, son, like father, soon found a place in the intimate life of the Murrays, the Guthries, the Macleans, the Bennetts and other families of the settle for a time in the home of an Irish Catholic family named Kirk Later, he lived with the Murrays, and often helped behind the counter in John Murray's general store

The school which he attended for two years, 1852-53 and 1853-54, was a ht by a rapidly shi+fting succession of school In the first session the school ca to the sudden departure of Thoreater ability, Sandy Maclean, took his place the following term He had read widely, and was al French pupil, as picking up English in the playground and in the ho cherished the reat treasures of English letters

The experience, though brief, had a lasting effect Perhaps the English speech becae life that followed at L'assooodhich understanding brings, were destined to abide for life It was not without reason that the rulingschoolboy's future career was to be the awakening of sympathy and harmony between the two races It would be fortunate for Canada if more experiments like that which Carolus Laurier tried were even to-day to be attelish families

In September 1854, ell on in his thirteenth year, Wilfrid Laurier returned to the normal path prescribed for the keener boys of the province He entered the college {7} or secondary school of L'assomption, maintained by secular priests, and the chief seat of education in the country north of Montreal The course was a thorough one, extending through seven closely filled years It followed the custo chief stress on Latin, and next on French literature Greek was taught less thoroughly; a still briefer study of English, raphy co adood teachers such as the fathers at L'assoive , to ilimpse of culture, a sympathy with the world beyond, a bent to eloquence and literary style

It was perhaps not so well adapted to train men for success in business; perhaps this literary and classical training is largely responsible for the fact that until of late the French-speaking youth of Quebec have not taken the place in commercial and industrial life that their numbers and ability warrant

The life at L'assomption was one of strict discipline The boys rose at 530, and every hour until evening had its task, or was assigned {8} for mealtilorious half-day excursion to the country There was a student froh and ready sports His health was extremely delicate, and violent exertion was forbidden His recreations took other forms The work of the course of study itself appealed to hilories of the literatures of Roland While so with his co a circle of chosen spirits to discuss, with all the courage and fervour of youth, the questions of their little world, or the echoes that reached them of the political tempests without Occasionally the outer world cae assize courts were held twice a year, and more rarely _assemblees contradictoires_ were held in which fiery politicians roundly denounced each other The appeal was strong to the boys of keener s; and well disciplined as he usually was, young Laurier more than once broke bounds to hear the eloquence of advocate or candidate, well content to bear the punishh reserved, he was not in the least afraid to express strong convictions and to defend theed He entered L'assomption with the bias towards Liberalis and reading had developed

A youth of less sturdy temper would, however, soon have lost this bias

The atmosphere of L'assomption was intensely conservative, and both priests and fellow-pupils were inclined to give short shrift to the dangerous radicalis society had been forely at his insistence One of the subjects debated was the audacious thes should have peruenots to settle here' Wilfrid Laurier took the affirly, but the scandalized _prefet d'etudes_ intervened, and there was noat L'assouns, and soon triu easily the uished student of his day, and the recognized orator and writer of addresses for state occasions

Of the twenty-six students who entered L'assoraduated {10} Of these, five entered the priesthood

Sympathetic as Wilfrid Laurier was in many ith the Church of his fathers, he did not feel called to its professional service He had long since made up his mind as to his future career, and in 1861, when scarcely twenty, he went to Montreal to study law