onto, every troopship down the St. Lawrence, was a nail in the
coffin of Quebec's potentiality in the war?

Yes, Sir Robert Borden knew that. He knew that Laurier was sulking
like Cassius in his tent; that he was gnawing himself over the failure
of his own predictions about the peace welfare of the world as well as
for his own defeat in the election of 1911; that the man of the "sunny
ways" was becoming a reactionary and a cynic, an old leader of great
power, which he was willing to use to the utmost for the prosecution of
the war had he been in office, but in opposition was manacled by a
sense of futility against forces in Quebec which he understood and
feared far more than did the Premier.

No doubt the Premier traversed all this, many a time and in great
concern. And it may be that he saw so sharply into the sad
hopelessness of it all that he decided not to ask Laurier for advice,
or even suggestion. Such is lack of imagination.

Laurier had his day in the grand expansion of the country. Borden
would have his, in the sacrifices and moral energies of the dark days
to come. It was a greater thing to be Premier in war than ever it had
been in peace. Canada was a greater land in action on the West front
than ever she had been stringing railways, settling farms and building
towns on the frontiers. The more Canada went to the front of her own
free will, the greater she seemed abroad. The credit of this nation at
war went up in London and Paris much faster than its investment credit
had ever gone on the exchanges. The further one got from Ottawa the
greater the country seemed. A Canadian Cabinet Minister meeting a
British Minister in London could talk for an hour on the wonderful war
character of this country. London was the centre of gravity of the
west front, and of Canadian Ministers. The Premier spent almost half
his time in or near London, whenever summoned, or whenever politic to
go--to a place where the rancours of Ottawa were all buried in the
grand cause. The Premier of Canada sometimes went to London when he
would rather have stayed at home; more often when he felt that it was
emotionally bigger to be Premier in London than in Ottawa. He was more
honoured in war than Laurier had been in peace. He would have been a
better Canadian had he stayed in Ottawa more. But there were many
Canadians who were more concerned about how to help Foch and Lloyd
George win the war in Europe than about how to knuck