Sir John Macdonald crossing the Rockies over the newly constructed Canadian Pacific Railway, 1886.
From a colour drawing by C. W. Jefferys

THE DAY OF
SIR JOHN MACDONALD

A Chronicle of the First Prime Minister
of the Dominion

BY

SIR JOSEPH POPE

K.C.M.G.

TORONTO
GLASGOW, BROOK & COMPANY
1915

Copyright in all Countries subscribing to
the Berne Convention

PREFATORY NOTE

Within a short time will be celebrated the centenary of the birth of the great statesman who, half a century ago, laid the foundations and, for almost twenty years, guided the destinies of the Dominion of Canada.

Nearly a like period has elapsed since the author's Memoirs of Sir John Macdonald was published. That work, appearing as it did little more than three years after his death, was necessarily subject to many limitations and restrictions. As a connected story it did not profess to come down later than the year 1873, nor has the time yet arrived for its continuation and completion on the same lines. That task is probably reserved for other and freer hands than mine. At the same time, it seems desirable that, as Sir John Macdonald's centenary approaches, there should be available, in convenient form, a short résumé of the salient features of his career, which, without going deeply and at length into all the public questions of his time, should present a familiar account of the man and his work as a whole, as well as, in a lesser degree, of those with whom he was intimately associated. It is with such object that this little book has been written.

JOSEPH POPE.
OTTAWA, 1914.

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

CHAPTER I

YOUTH

John Alexander Macdonald, second son of Hugh Macdonald and Helen Shaw, was born in Glasgow on January 11, 1815. His father, originally from Sutherlandshire, removed in early life to Glasgow, where he formed a partnership with one M'Phail, and embarked in business as a cotton manufacturer.