e bill
was introduced on the 11th February, and the motion for its second
reading was made on the 3rd March, from which date it was debated
continuously until progress was reported from a committee of the whole
house on the 16th April, after the house had sat steadily from Monday
afternoon at 3 o'clock until 2 o'clock on the following Thursday
morning. It was then that Sir Charles Tupper, leader of the government
in the house, announced that no further attempt would be made to press
the bill that session. He stated that it was absolutely necessary to
vote money for the urgent requirements of the public service and pass
other important legislation during the single week that was left before
parliament would be dissolved by the efflux of time under the
constitutional law, which fixes the duration of the house of commons
"for five years from the day of the return of the writs for choosing the
house and no longer."

In the general election of 1896 the Manitoba school question was an
issue of great importance. From the commencement to the close of the
controversy the opponents of denominational schools combined with the
supporters of provincial rights to defeat the government which had so
determinedly fought for what it considered to be the legal rights of the
Roman Catholic minority of Manitoba. It had looked confidently to the
support of the great majority of the French Canadians, but the result of
the elections was most disappointing to the Conservative party. Whilst
in the provinces, where the Protestants predominated, the Conservatives
held their own to a larger extent than had been expected even by their
sanguine friends, the French province gave a great majority to Mr.
Launer, whose popularity among his countrymen triumphed over all
influences, ecclesiastical and secular, that could be used in favour of
denominational schools in Manitoba.

The majority against Sir Charles Tupper was conclusive, and he did not
attempt to meet parliament as the head of a government. Before his
retirement from office, immediately after his defeat at the elections,
he had some difference of opinion with the governor-general, the Earl of
Aberdeen, who refused, in the exercise of his discretionary power, to
sanction certain appointments to the senate and the judicial bench,
which the prime minister justified by reference to English and Canadian
precedents under similar conditions--notably of 1878 when Mr. Mackenzie
resigned. Soon after th