UNE DES GRANDES VERTUS DE SIR WILFRID LAURIER

Je tiens à faire connaître la générosité de coeur de Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Pour cela, je me permets de citer une conversation entre Sir Wilfrid et mon fils, moins de deux mois avant sa mort, telle que mon fils me l’a écrite peu de temps après.

“The conversation took place at King Edward Hôtel, Toronto, on December 18th, 1918. We were discussing the leadership of the Liberal party and Sir Wilfrid ’s health. He told me that one of his great desires had been to spend a year quietly with Lady Laurier free from politics and ail outside disturbances, that they had never had any family life and both longed for it, that as time went on he knew it was impossible to hâve a year and he would hâve been happy with six months, but that he now realised that that desire and longing could not be fulfilled. He said he was not sick; he was well, but he was utterly lacking in strength and that very probably I should read soon of his passing away; that very often some of his close friends were disturbed because he did not do certain things they

wished him to do. His only reason for not doing those things was that he did not hâve the strength to do them. He was conserving what little energy he had left in case a moment came when ail his strength would be required. He said that while his personal wish was for this little space of freedom with his wife, he was quite prepared to abandon his hope if his duty to the Liberal party and Canada required him to stay in harness to the last.

We went from this immediately to a discussion of the Union Government and the effect that the breaking of old personal and political relations would hâve upon the future of the Liberal party. Sir Wilfrid said that some of his colleagues were finding fault because he was not bitter towards those who had left the party at this period. He said to me: “Turgeon, you are still a young man ; I am an old man and I can tell you that as you progress through the years you will find that the sweetest thing in life is to forgive — not to be forgiven, but to forgive.” I blurted out, “That is quite ail right, Sir Wilfrid, with regard to those who left us sincerely, but does not apply to those who left us and deserted you from ulterior motives.” “Turgeon”, he answered, “you forget, they who left us sincerely need no forgiveness either from you or from me ; therefore, if we wish to taste that which I know to be the sweetest thing in life, the feeling to forgive, there is left only the joy of forgiving those who left us from what you are pleased to call ulterior motives. ” This was the end of this partieular phase of the conversation and I admit I learned a new philosophy as a resuit of it.