N. W. Rowell.

An offer by Sir Robert Borden to Sir Wilfrid Laurier to join him in a
national government would have been unwelcome at any time excepting
perhaps in the first months in the war; but in the form in which it
finally came, in May, 1918, it was trebly unacceptable. Sir Wilfrid
was asked to help in the formation of a national government to put
into effect a policy of conscription, already determined upon.
Although history will no doubt confirm the bona fides of Sir
Robert's offer, it cannot but be lenient to Sir Wilfrid's
interpretation of it as a political stroke intended to disrupt the
Liberal party and rob him of the premiership. From his viewpoint it
must have had exactly that appearance. Laurier's position in Quebec
had been undermined in the years preceding the war by the
Nationalist charge that his naval and military policies implied
unlimited participation, by means of conscription, in future
Imperial wars. He had always denied this; and when Canada entered
the great war he, to keep his record clear, was careful to declare
over and over again that Canadian participation by the people
collectively, and by the individual, was and would remain voluntary.
As the strain of the war increased the feeling in Quebec in its
favor, never very strong, grew less. There began to be echoes of
Bourassa's open anti-war crusade in the Liberal party and press. Sir
Wilfrid, watching with alert patience the development of Quebec
opinion, began cautiously to replace his earlier whole-hearted
recognition of the supreme need of defeating Germany at all costs by
a cooler survey of the situation in which considerations of prudent
national self-interest were deftly suggested. The "We-have-done-enough"
view was beginning to prevail; and Laurier, intent upon the
complete capture of Quebec at the impending elections, while he did
not subscribe to it, found it discreet to hint that it might be
desirable to begin to think about the wisdom of not too greatly
depleting our reserves of national labor. To Laurier, thus engaged
in formulating a cautious war policy against the day of voting, came
the invitation from Borden to join him in a movement to keep the
armies of Canada in the field up to strength by the enforcement of
conscription. Every aspect of the proposition was objectionable to
Laurier. It meant handing back to Bourassa the legions he had won
from him, and with them many of his own followers. No one was
justified in believi