. . . . . . . . . . 249
XIII. NATION AND EMPIRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
XIV. FIFTY YEARS OF UNION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

{xi}

ILLUSTRATIONS

SIR WILFRID LAURIER IN ACTION . . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_
After an instantaneous photograph taken during
an address in the open air at Sorel, 1911.

SIR ANTOINE AIME DORION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Facing page_ 12
From a photograph.

PRIME MINISTERS OF CANADA, 1867-1915 . . . . . . . . " 36
From photographs.

GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF THE DOMINION . . . . . . . . . " 48
From photographs by Topley.

VICE-REGAL CONSORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 64
From photographs by Topley.

HONORE MERCIER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 90
From a photograph.

SIR WILFRID LAURIER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 128
From a photograph by Topley.

THE LIBERAL GOVERNMENT FORMED BY MR LAURIER IN 1896 " 168-9
From photographs.

SIR ROBERT BORDEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 194
From a photograph by Montminy, Quebec.

SIR WILFRID LAURIER IN ENGLAND, 1911 . . . . . . . . " 294
From a photograph.

{1}

CHAPTER I

THE MAKING OF A CANADIAN

Early days at St Lin--Seven years of college--Student at
law--Arthabaska days

Wilfrid Laurier was born at St Lin, Quebec, on November 20, 1841. His
ancestral roots were sunk deep in Canadian soil. For six generations
Quebec had been the home of Laurier after Laurier. His kinsmen traced
their origin to Anjou, a province that ever bred shrewd and thrifty
men. The family name was originally Cottineau. In a marriage covenant
entered into at Montreal in 1666 the first representative of the family
in Canada is styled 'Francois Cottineau dit Champlauriet.' Evidently
some ancestral field or garden of lauriers or oleanders gave the
descriptive title which in time, as was common, became the sole family
name. The Lauriers came to Canada shortly after Louis XIV took the
colony under his royal wing in 1663, in the first era of real
settlement, and hewed out homes for themselves in the forest, first on
the island of Jesus, at the mouth of the {2} Ottawa, and later in the
parish of Lachena