th November, 1873, Sir John Macdonald placed his resignation in
the hands of the governor-general, the Earl of Dufferin; and the first
ministry of the Dominion came to an end after six years of office. The
circumstances of this resignation were regrettable in the extreme. In
1872 two companies received charters for the construction of the
Canadian Pacific railway--one of them under the direction of probably
the wealthiest man in Canada, Sir Hugh Allan of Montreal, and the other
under the presidency of the Honourable David Macpherson, a capitalist of
Toronto. The government was unwilling for political reasons to give the
preference to either of these companies, and tried to bring about an
amalgamation. While negotiations were proceeding with this object in
view, the general elections of 1872 came on, and Sir Hugh Allan made
large contributions to the funds of the Conservative party. The facts
were disclosed in 1873 before a royal commission appointed by the
governor-general to inquire into charges made in the Canadian house of
commons by a prominent Liberal, Mr. Huntington. An investigation ordered
by the house when the charges were first brought forward, had failed
chiefly on account of the legal inability of the committee to take
evidence under oath; and the government then advised the appointment of
the commission in question. Parliament was called together in October,
1873, to receive the report of the commissioners, and after a long and
vehement debate Sir John Macdonald, not daring to test the opinion of
the house by a vote, immediately resigned. In justice to Sir John
Macdonald it must be stated that Sir Hugh Allan knew, before he
subscribed a single farthing, that the privilege of building the railway
could be conceded only to an amalgamated company. When it was shown some
months after the elections that the proposed amalgamation could not be
effected, the government issued a royal charter to a new company in
which all the provinces were fairly represented, and in which Sir Hugh
Allan appears at first to have had no special influence, although the
directors of their own motion, subsequently selected him as president on
account of his wealth and business standing in Canada. Despite Sir John
Macdonald's plausible explanations to the governor-general, and his
vigorous and even pathetic appeal to the house before he resigned, the
whole transaction was unequivocally condemned by sound public opinion.
His own confidentia