had been too much for his weakened constitution,
and he died on June 6, 1891. No man had been more hated by his political
opponents, no man more loved by his political followers. Today the
hatred has long since died, and the memory of Sir John Macdonald has
become the common pride of Canadians of every party, race, and creed.
He had done much to lower the level of Canadian politics; but this fault
was forgiven when men remembered his unfailing courage and confidence,
his constructive vision and fertility of resource, his deep and
unquestioned devotion to his country.

The Conservative party had with difficulty survived the last election.
Deprived of the leader who for so long had been half its force, the
party could not long delay its break-up. No one could be found to fill
Macdonald's place. The helm was taken in turn by J. J. C. Abbott, "the
confidential family lawyer of the party," by Sir John Thompson, solid
and efficient though lacking in imagination, and by Sir Mackenzie
Bowell, an Ontario veteran. Abbott was forced to resign because of ill
health; Thompson died in office; and Bowell was forced out by a revolt
within the party. Sir Charles Tupper, then High Commissioner in London,
was summoned to take up the difficult task. But it proved too great for
even his fighting energy. The party was divided. Gross corruption in the
awarding of public contracts had been brought to light. The farmers were
demanding a lower tariff. The leader of the Opposition was proving to
have all the astuteness and the mastery of his party which had marked
Macdonald and a courage in his convictions which promised well. Defeat
seemed inevitable unless a new issue which had invaded federal politics,
the Manitoba school question, should prove more dangerous to the
Opposition than to the forces of the Government.

The Manitoba school question was an echo of the racial and religious
strife which followed the execution of Riel and in which the Jesuits'
Estates controversy was an episode. In the early days of the province,
when it was still uncertain which religion would be dominant among
the settlers, a system of state-aided denominational schools had been
established. In 1890 the Manitoba Government swept this system away
and replaced it by a single system of non-sectarian and state-supported
schools which were practically the same as the old Protestant schools.
Any Roman Catholic who did not wish to send his children to such a
school was th