He cast an
envious eye across the ocean at the trenchant argument
of the dear loaf; he had no such straight road to the
public stomach and grand arbitrator of the fate of empires.
If the Liberals in England failed to turn out the Government
over this business, they would lose in his eyes all the
respect he ever had for them, which wasn't much, he
acknowledged. When his opponents twitted him with
discrepancy here, since a bargain so bad for one side
could hardly fail to favour the other, he poured all his
contempt on the scheme as concocted by damned enthusiasts
for the ruin of businessmen of both countries. Such
persons, Mr Winter said, if they could have their way,
would be happy and satisfied; but in his opinion neither
England nor the colonies could afford to please them as
much as that. He professed loud contempt for the opinions
of the Conservative party organs at Toronto, and stood
boldly for his own views. That was what would happen, he
declared, in every manufacturing division in the country,
if the issue came to be fought in a general election. He
was against the scheme, root and branch.
Mr Winter was skilled, practised, and indefatigable. We
need not follow him in all his ways and works; a good
many of his arguments, I fear, must also escape us. The
Elgin Mercury, if consulted, would produce them in daily
disclosure; so would the Clayfield Standard.
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