_debacle_
came in 1878.

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CHAPTER IV

IN OPPOSITION, 1878-1887

The party leadership--Tariff and railway--Dominion and province--The
second Riel rebellion

In the general election of September 1878 the Liberal party suffered
not merely defeat but utter and overwhelming rout, as unexpected and
disastrous as a tropical earthquake. Only five years before, Mackenzie
had been swept into power on a wave of moral indignation. The
Conservative leaders had appeared hopelessly discredited, and the rank
and file dispirited. Now a wave of economic despair swept the Liberals
out of power. Their majority of two to one in 1873 was reversed by a
Conservative majority of over two to one in 1878. The defeat was not
local: every province except New Brunswick went against Mackenzie.
Edward Blake, Richard Cartwright, Alfred G. Jones, and other stalwarts
lost their seats, and though Sir John Macdonald suffered the same fate
in Kingston, and though seats were soon found for the fallen leaders,
the blow greatly damaged the prestige of the Liberal party.

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Mackenzie was stunned. To the last he had been confident of victory.
In spite of the warnings of Charlton, Cartwright, Laurier, and others,
he had underestimated the impression which the campaign for protection,
with its lavish promises of work and prosperity for all, made even in
old Liberal strongholds. He could not believe that the people of
Canada would take up the heresies and fallacies which the people of
Great Britain had discarded a generation earlier. He would not believe
that they were prepared to send back to power men found guilty of
corruption only five years before. For these illusions he paid the
penalty, in bitter regrets, in loss of touch with the party, in broken
health, and at last, in April 1880, in resignation of the leadership.
Alexander Mackenzie had deserved well of Canada and of his party; but,
apparently, both wanted more than the dauntless courage and the
unyielding and stainless honour which were all he had to give them.

There was only one possible successor. Edward Blake had for many years
been the choice of a large section of the party in Ontario, and he now
became leader by unanimous vote. The new chief was a man of great
intellectual capacity, of constructive {55} vision, of untiring
thoroughness and industry. He stood easily at the head of the bar in
Canada. His short term of office as prime minister of Ontario had
g