THE LATE PREMIER OF CANADA.

Colonist, Volume XXXIV, Issue 7033, 9 June 1891, Page 3

THE LATE PREMIER OF CANADA.

Oub oable news yesterday morning inolnded the announcement of the death of the Hon. Sir John A. Macdonald, G 0.8. and D.O.L. (Oxon) &o. The deceased statesman was born in 1815, and educated at the Rojal Grammar School, Kingston, (Ontario). He was admitted to the bar in 1835, and elected member for Kingston in the conservative interest in 1844, while three years later he beoame a member of the Executive. In 1850 the Cabinet, of which he wa3 a member, resigned, but in 1851 he joined the Coalition Government then formed, and continued to hold office as Attorney General till 1862, and during a portion of those eight years be was also Premier. Till 1861 he was in Opposition, but in that year he once more came into office in Sir E. P Taohe's administration. At this time the proposition to federalize British Amerioa was ezeroisirig the minds of Government and people, and with a view to Beaure the unity of Canada and the Maritime Provinces, a Coalition Ministry was formed. In 1869 he beoame Premier, but from November, 1873, till October, 1878, he was out of office. On the latter date he was called on to form a new Administration. In 1866 he visited London with other delegates to arrange terms of confederation with the Imperial Government, when he was chosen President by his co-delegates. It was in 1867 that the British North American Act was passed which united the Provinces of Canada— Ontario and Que- 1 bee, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, under the title of the Dominion of Canada. This Act also provided for the subsequent admission to the Dominion of other territories and provinces, and in 1870 Manitoba, with the remainder of the Hudson Bay territory (now called the North West Territory) was admitted, while British Columbia and Prince Edward Island subsequently came under the Dominion. In bringing about this federation Sir John, who was knighted the same year his great aim was accomplished, took an active part, and to the wisdom and foresight of this statesman and his colleagues is largely due the fact that "no possession of Great Britain has made greater strides during the last twenty years than the Dominion of Canada, whether in trade, wealth, population, or aught that tends to the material prosperity of a new country." Its total population is estimated at over five millions, and the strides which many of its cities have made within the last 20 yeara are marvellous ; Vancouver, for instance, which had no existence five yearß before, contained 14,000 people in January 1890. The deoeasad statesman was in office daring the greater portion of his long public career, and praotioally died in harness at the good age of 76.