The Hon. Mr Tellier's speech--the Minister
was always kept to the last--was a defence of the recent
dramatic development of the Government's railway policy,
and a reminder of the generous treatment Elgin was
receiving in the Estimates for the following year--thirty
thousand dollars for a new Drill Hall, and fifteen thousand
for improvements to the post-office. It was a telling
speech, with the chink of hard cash in every sentence,
a kind of audit by a chartered accountant of the Liberal
books of South Fox, showing good sound reason why the
Liberal candidate should be returned on Thursday, if only
to keep the balance right. The audience listened with
practical satisfaction. "That's Tellier all over," they
said to one another...
The effect in committee of what, in spite of the Hon. Mr
Tellier's participation, I must continue to call the
speech of the evening, may be gathered from a brief
colloquy between Mr Bingham and Mr Williams, in the act
of separating at the door of the opera house.
"I don't know what it was worth to preference trade,"
said Bingham, "but it wasn't worth a hill o' beans to
his own election."
"He had as soft a snap," returned Horace Williams, on
the brink of tears--"as soft a snap as anybody ever had
in this town. And he's monkeyed it all away.
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