Canada's Late Premier/ 
 
 by the 
 
 Countess of Aberdeen. 
 
 ILVl' manner of man \V'as this whose death has stirred the heart 
 of an Empire, whose memory was crowned with laurels by his 
 Sovereign's own hand, and whose remains were borne across 
 the ocean by one of Britain's proudest war ships, and followed to the 
 grave by the representatives of army and navy, church and state, and 
 of every party, class and creed, amidst the mourning of a people ? 
 
 THE RICHT HON. SIR JOHN THOMPSON, K. C. M. G. 
 
 Some will attribute the feeling which has been evoked to the dramatic 
 character of his deatli — and truly ail )the circumstances surrounding it 
 were such as to leave an indelible impression. Here was a man, still 
 in the prime of life, who had risen by steady and successive steps, to the 
 highest post of honor in his own counti'y, at the liead of a powerful party, 
 and enjoying the respect of both friend and foe, calleil by his Queen to 
 her palace to receive from herself, a signal mark of recognition of services 
 which he had rendered to the Empire. And scarcely had he left her pres- 
 
 * Reprinted from Thr Ol ii.ook of January 26th, i8y5. 
 
 / 
 
ence when the startling^ news came that a higher summons had called 
 him to the presence of the King of kings, and his sorrowing family and 
 country were left to realize all the greatness of their loss. 
 
 All that queenly thoughtfulness and womanly sympathy could do to 
 soothe the grief of those who loved him and the country which trusted 
 him, was done by Queen Victoria who, in her respect for the religious 
 persuasion of the dead, in her motherly tenderness towards the young 
 daughter left fatherless far from her own home, and in her beautiful 
 iict of royal recognition of faithful service, in herself laying the victor's 
 wreath of laurels on the coffin of the departed statesman, showed once 
 more the secret of the power by which she has strengthened her throne 
 and the British Constitution for well nigh sixty years. 
 
 Her government and her ])eople caught up the note and honour 
 after honour was offered to the remains of the late premier, and not 
 only his own country, but every British colony throbbed responsively to 
 th's demonstration of the oneness of the British Empire and of the reality 
 of the ties which unite all its component parts. 
 
 But when all this is said, and more than fully granted, can it be 
 asserted that it was merely the accident of Sir John Thompson's death 
 at Windsor Castle, and the consequences resulting therefrom, which 
 occasioned the deep feeling perceptible amongst the crowds who attended 
 his funeral, and which has left such a keen sense of bereavement from 
 East to West in the wide Dominion, even after the first outburst of sorrow 
 has spent itself ? 
 
 What is the secret which has made the clergy of all denominations 
 not only voice the sorrow of their people but hold up Sir John's life as 
 a message to those who are left ; and this, although in early manhood he 
 had left the church of his fathers to join the Roman Catholic Communion ? 
 
 What is it that makes his political foes speak as if they too have sus- 
 tained a personal loss ? 
 
 What is it that makes all patriotic citizens feel that they have been 
 suddenly deprived of a national bulwark on w'hich they depended for 
 many years to come ? 
 
 Why do those who were privileged to call him friend feel that a bright 
 light has gone out and that a great darkness has overspread their lives ? 
 
 There is but one answer to these questionings. The heart of the 
 jieople is true to higher instincts when it gets a chance, and never has a 
 man's career more exemplified the power of character, strong, elevated, 
 trained character, than Sir John Thompson's. 
 
 He began life as a boy at Halifax, with but few advantages, saving 
 those which lie in a public school education and in the influences of a cult- 
 ured home, where all the proud traditions of mingled Irish and Scottish 
 descent were cherished and made a means of inducing love and loyalty to 
 the new country as well as to the old. His father, a literary man of no mean 
 capacity, and a co-editor with Joseph Howe, was the reverse of wealthy, 
 
and the youth had to work his way upwards by his own personal exertions. 
 From the outset a distinguishing feature of his character was a marvellous 
 power of concentration and habit of industry, and it was the cultivation 
 of these (jualities which enabled him by degrees to give proof of his more 
 brilliant intellectual qualities and which insured his rise from the reporters' 
 chair to the lawyer's office, and thence to be Alderman of his city. Member 
 of the Provincial Legislature, Premier of his Province, Judge, Minister of 
 Justice for the Dominion, Premier of Canada, representative of Great 
 Britain during the International Arbitration Conferences, and at last. 
 Privy Councillor of Great Britian. 
 
 In each and all of these capacities he has left a record which any man 
 may well envy, and one founded not on mere brilliancy of eloquence, or 
 ability to evoke popular sympathies, or cleverness in manipulating party 
 politics. 
 
 Search through his life, ask those who knew him best, and there is 
 but one testimony. Thoroughness of work, intensity of purpose, single- 
 ness of aim, unflinching conscientiousness and a prevailing sense of the 
 Presence of God marked all he did or said. The poorest clients might 
 depend on their case being gone into with the same thoroughness as was 
 given in after years to a great legislative measure, or to the adjustment of 
 an international question. Whether the matter was great or small which 
 he had in hand, he considered it worthy of his best and his whole atten- 
 tion, and thus it has come about that during his comparatively brief tenure 
 of office as Minister of Justice, he left the stamp of enduring work on the 
 laws of the country, as for example, in the splendid accomplishment of 
 the codifying of the criminal law, which he carried through with infinite 
 pains and wiiich has placed Canada ahead, in this respect, of many older 
 countries. When listening to the details of a case, he would often sit 
 looking immovable and irresponsive, but when the moment came for 
 summing up, or charging the jury, it was found that not a point had 
 escaped him, and that the just proportion and weight of all the facts were 
 given with extraordinary precision and lucidity, and his arguments were so 
 forcible as to carry all before them. His public speaking was eloquent, 
 because of the matter which it contained and the strength of his reason- 
 ing, mingled with a quiet by-play of humour and kindliness. There was 
 never any of that straining after effect, or the saying of words for the sake 
 of saying them, which mark the utterances of weaker men. And in this, 
 his speaking was after all, only typical of the man, who showed his great- 
 ness in his simplicity, humility, and entire absence of egotism or self- 
 consciousness. 
 
 The success which he won in all that he undertook never spoilt him — to 
 the end he was as a child — willing to learn from all and never so full of 
 his own opinions as not to be able to listen to what others had to say. But 
 when his turn came to spea'.;, there was no hesitation, and he could hold 
 his own with the best of them. 
 
1 
 
 The leading men who were engaged with him in the Behring 
 Sea arbitration, and on other public o:casions, whether in Canada, or in 
 London, Paris or Washington -such as Lord Ripon, Lord Hannen, Lord 
 Russell, Sir Richard Webster, Baronde Courcel, and Mr. Bayard, have all 
 given their witness concerning the great influence exercised by Sir John's 
 ability and strength, and calm judicial powers, and it was impossible 
 for anyone to come into close contact witli him without being impressed with 
 his exceptional (jualities. 
 
 But not all knew that beneath the calm, almost impassive exterior 
 there raged a volcano, and that it was only by stern self-government that 
 he had obtained the mastery which stood him m such good stead. 
 
 Many who knew him only as the inflexible judge, whose severity 
 in cases where there was the slightest deviation from honesty and 
 uprightness was proverbial, could scarcely credit the tenderness of his 
 heart when he had to deal with the erring, the poor and the afflicted 
 in a private capacity, or know what he was as a husband, father and friend 
 in the midst of his own home circle. 
 
 Of his personal scrupulous honesty and incorruptibility many instances 
 could be given, but it is en(Uigh to point to the fact that he died a very 
 poor man, although he had been in a position where he could have grasped 
 at wealth, and that not his bitterest enemy can whisper a word against his 
 memory. But even to mention the fact seems to insult him. What else 
 could be expected from one of whom it is told that, when a woman whose 
 savings he had invested for her many years ago, in what was considered a 
 good investment, came to tell him that she had lost her money, he 
 actually contrived with great inconvenience to himself, to give her back 
 the money, conceiving himself in a measure responsible for the loss. 
 
 And when his change of religion threatened to wreck his worldly 
 prospects, he faced the worst and was willing to endure poverty and tcnl 
 for himself and his family rather than not be true to his convictions. 
 And once again, only a few weeks before his death, he was warned that 
 continuance in the public service might — nay would probably mean death 
 to him, whereas rest and change of climate would probably restore him 
 to health. But to his mind his duty was clear. " It would be cowardly 
 to resign now," he said. And so he remained at his post, and at his post 
 he died, and to few has it been given to work so much good for their 
 country by their death. 
 
 Is it then matter for wonder that C^anada and the British Empire 
 mourn, and that his country and his friends can only yield him to the great 
 beyond with resignation when they meditate on the abiding influence of 
 his life and character and believe that it will surely inspire many young 
 lives in the future to devote themselves thus also gloriously to the service 
 of their country and their God ?