They made a factor debatable, but
small. The farmers had everything to win, nothing to
lose. The prospect offered them more for what they had
to sell, and less for what they had to buy, and most of
them were Liberals already; but the rest had to be
convinced, and a political change of heart in a bosom of
South Fox was as difficult as any other. Industrial,
commercial, professional, agricultural, Lorne Murchison
scanned them all hopefully, but Walter Winter felt them
his garnered sheaves.
It will be imagined how Mr Winter, as a practical
politician, rejoiced in the aspect of things. The
fundamental change, with its incalculable chances to play
upon, the opening of the gate to admit plain detriment
in the first instance for the sake of benefit, easily
beclouded, in the second, the effective arm, in the hands
of a satirist, of sentiment in politics--and if there
was a weapon Mr Winter owned a weakness for it was
satire--the whole situation, as he often confessed, suited
him down to the ground. He professed himself, though no
optimist under any circumstances very well pleased. Only
in one other place, he declared, would he have preferred
to conduct a campaign at the present moment on the issue
involved, though he would have to change his politics to
do it there, and that place was England.
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