Some days ago he most amiably gave me a
little private talk on these matters, of course on the tacit
understanding that he was not to be "interviewed" as for close reporting
of his informal sentences. He was, by the way, apparently in robust
health, as if, like Mr. Asquith, of a temperament to flourish under the
heaviest responsibilities ever laid on a Prime Minister in his own
country. No statesman could be of aspect and utterance less hurried, nor
more pleasant, lucid, cautious, disposed to give a friendly caller large
and accurate information briefly, while disclosing nothing at variance
with or unfindable in his published speeches. Of some of them he
repeated apposite slices; to others he referred for further
enlightenment as to his views on imperial federation. Really he was
neither secretive nor newly informative. The Premier of Canada at any
time is governed, much as I have endeavored to show how the electors
are, by that natural, instinctive course of the general loyal Canadian
mind, which constitutes "the situation" and controls Governmental
proceedings on behalf of the public.
Well meaning persons who allege Sir Robert to have either favored or
disfavored imperial federation have been inaccurate.
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