in which Quebec took a keen interest, Sir Wilfrid sided with that province, notably in the debates over the Bill for extending the boundaries of Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, a controversy which involved the question of the school rights of minorities. In all the provinces between the Ottawa River and the Rocky Mountains the school question has been a bone of contention between English and French. It was the controversy over the educational rights of the Roman Catholic minority in Manitoba which opened the door of office to Sir Wilfrid Laurier in 1896. He then got the support of a large proportion of English-speaking Canadians because he agreed to terms of settlement that were acceptable to the Manitoba government of the day, a government in the hands of his own party friends. At the same time, French-speaking Canada strongly supported him upon the understanding that he would be at least as favourable to the separate schools in Manitoba as the Conservative government had been. But the Manitoba school question did not disappear. From time to time it has since vexed the relations between Protestants and Roman Catholics, but especially between English-speaking and French-speaking sections of Manitoba, and when the bounds of Manitoba were extended to Hudson Bay a strong stand was made by Quebec members for the granting of special school rights to the minority throughout the annexed territory. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, as leader of the Opposition, gave his countenance to these demands.

Years before the Manitoba school controversy sprang up the question of language rights in the north-west territories had been fiercely debated in parliament, the French-Canadian members taking strong ground in favour of their mother tongue as an official language in that part of Canada, a great part of which has since been organized into the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. When those two provinces were set up in 1905, Sir Wilfrid Laurier then being in power, he inserted in their constitutions (which are Acts of the Dominion parliament) a provision which had the effect of tying the hands of the legislatures of the two new provinces, and securing the continuance of language rights to such separate schools as existed in the north-west territories under the Ordinances passed in 1901. This was very agreeable to Quebec, and was made acceptable to the two new provinces

by the handsome subsidies provided in their Autonomy Acts. By thus perpetuating in Saskatchewan and Alberta the separate school rights established in these territories before they became provinces Sir Wilfrid Laurier made himself answerable for a bad state of educational affairs over which public opinion is strongly agitated to-day in Saskatchewan.

In the ten years preceding the war immigrants were swarming into the Canadian west, especially into Saskatchewan. The immigrants coming from the various countries of continental Europe in most cases settled in colonies of their respective nationalities. Thus they sought to preserve the language and customs of the land of their birth. The newcomers were soon made to perceive that the government held their fortunes in the hollow of its hand. If they failed to carry out the conditions of their land grants, the lands could be taken away from them. It was the duty of party workers to see that the settlers from foreign countries were duly impressed with the difference between basking in the sunshine of the provincial government's favour and incurring its displeasure. These aliens were generally induced to make haste to become naturalized, three years being the term of probation. The German, Austrian, Bulgarian, and other groups of ex-aliens became a tower of strength to the provincial government, the more so because of the study of that government to attach their support. Its school regulations were well designed to that end. These provided that the school board of any district might employ teachers to give instruction in any language other than the English language to all pupils whose parents or guardians desired such instruction for them. It has therefore come about that many languages are being taught in the public schools of Saskatchewan, and that in many districts the children of English-speaking parents are unable to receive a proper schooling in their mother tongue.

The fruit of this educational policy has been ripening since the war began. Truckling to voters born in enemy countries has tended to keep alive their pride of original nationality and to pass it on in full strength to their Canadian-born children. Many of the naturalized Germans and Austrians of Saskatchewan and Alberta did not, at least early in the war, dissemble the coldness of their British allegiance. Sir Robert Borden's War-time Elections Act suspended during

the period of the war the suffrage in the case of all persons born in enemy countries who had been naturalized after March 31, 1902. But for this legislation the showing of the three Prairie Provinces in the recent election would have been far less favourable to union government and to compulsory service than it was. The English-speaking people of Saskatchewan are now coming to the rescue of their language. Towards the end of February, 1918, a great meeting of the school trustees from all districts of the province was held in the town of Saskatoon, and resolutions were passed calling upon the provincial government to take steps to ensure that every child in the province receive adequate instruction in the English language; that no language but English be used as the language of instruction in any school in the province; and that no language except English be taught during the school hours in any school which comes under the provisions of the School Act. These resolutions are, of course, no more to the liking of French-speaking Canada than of the alien races in Saskatchewan.

About the time the war broke out the quarrel between Quebec and Ontario over the use of the French language in the schools of the latter province was at its height, and the Quebec feeling generated in that quarrel was skilfully used by unscrupulous men to turn the French-Canadian people against recruiting. For many years there has been a drifting of population from the north side of the Ottawa river to the south side, from the French-speaking province of Quebec to the English-speaking province of Ontario. As the trek continued, the border counties of Ontario acquired more and more the character of an extension of Quebec. The French settlers established themselves in knots and the areas they gained were gradually consolidated. Even if the new-comers had shown a disposition to maintain cordial social and commercial intercourse with the English-speaking people, among whom they had thrust themselves, their strict adherence to the French language would have kept a gulf between the two races in the one neighbourhood. The control of public schools is a matter largely of d strict government. It gradually came about that there were few English-speaking pupils to attend the schools in the French block. Courses that were acceptable to the religious authorities were taken up, and the French language was VOL. 228. NO. 4 5.

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practically the only language taught and the only language used for purposes of instruction. From time to time protests were made in the legislature against this state of affairs, and regulations were issued to correct it-regulations, however, which were indulgent in so far as the use of French as the language of instruction was concerned.

At last the Ontario government under Sir James Whitney was constrained to take a stand in support of English as the one language of instruction in the public schools of Ontario. What is known as Regulation 17 provided that in all schools, the so-called 'bilingual' schools included, the one language of instruction should be the English language, save in the case of very young pupils whose mother tongue is not English. An English-speaking inspector was appointed to see that teachers competent to use the English language as a medium of instruction were placed in the bilingual' schools and performed their duties in accordance with the law. Training courses were provided in which French teachers could qualify themselves for the work. There was provision too for school instruction in the use of the French language. A storm of protest followed, not so much from the French-speaking sections of Eastern, South-western, and Northern Ontario, as from Quebec. Regulation 17 was denounced as a measure of intolerance and persecution, and as a violation of the constitution. Particularly inflammatory was the campaign carried on by Le Devoir and other Quebec newspapers. They denounced the Regulation as an outburst of hatred directed against the French language and the Roman Catholic religion. These statements are quite unjustifiable. French is more largely taught in the secondary schools of Ontario than any other language except English; no element in the Province of Ontario was more strongly opposed to the use of French as a language of instruction and as a second official language than was the body of English-speaking Roman Catholics.

While Sir Wilfrid conspicuously associated himself with the Quebec side in this question, he was careful never to accept avowedly the racial, religious, sectional, or anti-British basis of the Quebec movement. He pleaded that Regulation 17 should be modified in the interest of French-Canadians, but he put his plea on the large ground of Canadian unity and harmony. He did not defend Quebec's stand against either

voluntary or compulsory service in the overseas forces, but he said much about personal liberty and the right of the people to decide. Canadian unity' and ' the liberty of the subject' are phrases that sound well to English-speaking Liberals, and Sir Wilfrid evidently convinced himself that he could win in the last general election by taking the French side in Quebec and using catchwords of Liberalism in English-speaking Canada.

Even if political incendiaries in Quebec had been less busy for the last twenty years, French-Canadian war feeling might still not have risen by this time to the same pitch as EnglishCanadian war feeling. More than any other body of people in the Dominion, the habitants order their lives in accordance with the counsels of their spiritual guides, who make a point of concerning themselves with the personal, family, and social affairs of their flocks. This is conducive to the happiness of the simple life and to the maintenance of law and order; but it keeps French-Canadians aloof from the general movements of opinion and disqualifies them from sharing with the same zest as English-speaking Canadians in the study of matters pertaining to the larger citizenship of the Dominion. From the best of motives it has been the policy of the Church to keep Quebec a pent-up Utica, and by using its influence to retain the young people at home, to get them married and attached to domestic duties early in life the Church has promoted the growth of the French-Canadian population, which is the most prolific in Canada. It is only by immigration that English-speaking Canada has been able to gain ground in the national legislature in the race with Quebec fecundity. Ontario and the maritime provinces are portions of Englishspeaking Canada in which ground has been lost, their representation in the new House being lower than it was in the old. As the west is likely to keep on growing by immigration from the United States, the balance of political power in the Dominion parliament tends to settle to that side of the country. Of the 235 members who constitute the new House of Commons fifty-seven come from Western Canada, including Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon. That is to say, Western Canada has a representation in the new House that comes short of Quebec's representation by only eight members.