" They were likely,
the friends of Mr Winter thought, to know now that they
were voting on a different side. This was the secret of
Mr Winter's friends' unusual diligence on voting-day in
Moneida. The mere indication of a wish on the part of
the superintendent would constitute undue influence in
the eye of the law. The squire was not the most discreet
of men--often before it had been the joke of Conservative
councils how near the old man had come to making a case
for the Grits in connection with this chief or that. I
will not say that he was acquainted with the famous letter
from Queen Victoria, affectionately bidding her Indian
children to vote for the Conservative candidate. But
perhaps he had not adhered to the strictest interpretation
of the law which gave him fatherly influence in everything
pertaining to his red-skinned charges' interests temporal
and spiritual, excepting only their sacred privilege of
the ballot. He may even have held it in some genial
derision, their sacred privilege; it would be natural,
he had been there among them in unquestioned authority
so long. Now it had assumed an importance. The squire
looked at it with the ardour of a converted eye. When he
told Mr Farquharson that he could bring Moneida with him
to a Liberal victory, he thought and spoke of the farmers
of the township not of his wards of the Reserve.
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