the people of the country to their heart's
content. The appointment of the Marquess of Lorne, now the Duke of
Argyll, gave to Canada the honour of the presence of a Princess of the
reigning family. He showed tact and discretion in some difficult
political situations that arose during his administration, and succeeded
above all his predecessors in stimulating the study of art, science and
literature within the Dominion. The Marquess of Lansdowne and Lord
Stanley of Preston--both inheritors of historic names, trained in the
great school of English administration--also acquired the confidence and
respect of the Canadian people. On the conclusion of Lord Aberdeen's
term of office in 1898, he was succeeded by the Earl of Minto, who had
been military secretary to the Marquess of Lansdowne, when
governor-general, from the autumn of 1883 until the end of May, 1888,
and had also acted as chief of staff to General Middleton during the
North-west disturbances of 1885.

Since its coming into office, the Laurier administration has been called
upon to deal with many questions of Canadian as well as imperial
concern. One of its first measures--to refer first to those of Canadian
importance--was the repeal of the franchise act of 1885, which had been
found so expensive in its operation that the Conservative government had
for years taken no steps to prepare new electoral lists for the Dominion
under its own law, but had allowed elections to be held on old lists
which necessarily left out large numbers of persons entitled to vote. In
accordance with the policy to which they had always pledged themselves
as a party, the Liberal majority in parliament passed an act which
returned to the electoral lists of the provinces. An attempt was also
made in 1899 and 1900 to amend the redistribution acts of 1882 and 1892,
and to restore so far as practicable the old county lines which had been
deranged by those measures. The bill was noteworthy for the feature,
novel in Canada, of leaving to the determination of a judicial
commission the rearrangement of electoral divisions, but it was rejected
in the senate on the ground that the British North America act provides
only for the readjustment of the representation after the taking of each
Decennial census, and that it is "a violation of the spirit of the act"
to deal with the question until 1901, when the official figures of the
whole population will be before parliament. The government was also
calle