in transportation affairs, and had been too generous to the party which Sir John Macdonald led, to make it desirable to put him entirely aside. It was at this juncture that the general elections of 1872 took place and what was afterwards termed the Pacific scandal occurred. Following the elections and as a rest of the apparent impossibility of bringing the two Companies together-largely because Sir Hugh Allan and Mr. McPherson each desired to be President of the consolidated concern-the charter was eventually given to a new Company with Sir Hugh Allan at its head. Then the greatest political storm in Canadian history burst upon the country. THE PACIFIC RAILWAY CHARGES On April 2, 1873, amidst suppressed excitement and in an atmosphere laden with the hopes and fears of political electricity, Mr. Lucius Seth Huntington rose in the House of Commons with a statement and motion of serious import. He was a good speaker and a politician of some ability who had been a member of Sandfield Macdonald's Government in the early "sixties" and was destined to hold a place in the next Dominion Cabinet. The charge he made was dramatic in style and solemn in substance. It meant that the Government had trafficked with foreigners in connection with Canadian railway interests and in order to obtain money to debauch the constituencies in the elections of 1872. Stripped of verbiage it declared that Sir Hugh Allan, acting for American capitalists, had practically obtained the Pacific charter for them and himself through the contribution of large sums of money to the Conservative campaign fund and that this money had been obtained from the United States capitalists referred to through a man named G. W. McMullen. For the moment Mr. Huntington offered no proofs but demanded the appointment of a Committee of the House to inquire into the whole matter of the Railway charter. Upon motion of Sir John Macdonald a Select Committee composed of Messrs. J. G. Blanchet, Edward Blake, A. A. Dorion, James McDonald and John Hillyard Cameron-three Conservatives and two Liberals was promptly appointed. A measure was also passed to enable the Committee to make its inquiries from witnesses under oath. Parliament then adjourned to 13th August, when it was thought that the Committee's Report might be received. Meanwhile, the Oaths Bill was disallowed in London as being illegal and the work of the Committee rendered practically impossible. A tremendous sensation was also created and a new turn given to the whole question by the publication of a series of letters and telegrams in Montreal which seemed to clearly indicate the guilt of the Ministry. Mr. McMullen, it was afterwards shown, had obtained them surreptitiously from the desk of Mr. J. J. C. Abbott, the legal adviser of Sir Hugh Allan. In plain English they had been stolen and then made public. Appearing without any explanation, except of a hostile character, they seemed so serious that public sentiment was roused to a white heat and much anger was shown toward Lord Dufferin for not at once dismissing his Ministry. These documents were all of a somewhat similar nature. The most important of them was as follows and was marked "Private and confidential": Dear Sir Hugh: "MONTREAL, 30th July, 1872. The friends of the Government will be expected to be assisted with funds in the pending elections, and any amount which you, or your Company shall advance for that purpose shall be recouped to you. A memorandum of immediate requirements is below. Very truly yours, Now wanted : Sir John A. Macdonald, Hon. Mr. Langevin, Sir G. E. C., . Sir J. A. (add'l.), . (Signed) George E. Cartier. $25,000 15,000 20,000 10,000 30,000" Other documents were receipts for similar sums, requests for more and a telegram which became particularly well known in the elections and controversies of succeeding years. It was addressed to Mr. Abbott at Montreal, on August 26th, signed "John A. Macdonald," and read as follows: "I must have another $10,000; will be the last time of calling; do not fail me; answer to-day." Mr. Abbott promptly wired to draw on him for the amount. In his subsequent evidence before a Royal Commission Sir Hugh Allan gave a list of the total sums which he had contributed in this connection. They included $85,000 to Sir George Cartier's Committee in Montreal-where he fought a losing battle in a very doubtful constituency, against the advice of Sir John Macdonald, and was beaten ; $45,000 to Sir John himself, for election expenses in Ontario; and $32,600 to Mr. H. L. Langevin for election expenses at Quebec. is the bare detail of the matter and it certainly looks bad enough. Fill in these particulars with the natural animus of party warfare; add the suspicions resulting from a season of company promoting and charter controversies; mix up in this mess the unsustained allegations of disappointed capitalists and defeated politicians; and the result is still more unpleasant. Such Yet time and the justice of historic retrospect have thrown strong light into this dense shadow and relieved the situation of much that at first seemed inexcusable. Sir Hugh Allan was a man who would have been naturally connected with such an enterprise as the Canadian Pacific Railway, both by public fitness and financial power. He was, and always had been, a Conservative and is understood to have given almost as liberally to party funds in a preceding election as in this one of 1872. His great transportation interests depended very largely for success upon the progressive policy of the Government and would have made him contribute to its campaign fund without any question of a C. P. R. charter. He practically controlled. |