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Home , Imperial War Cabinet, Robert Borden, The Right Honourable

Sir Borden

By SIR JOSEPH CHISHOLM'

BY the death of Sir Robert Although I have been the recepient of Borden on , 1937, lostane of its many degrees, I never attended a uruvernity. For five years I was principally engaged in greatest statesmen. While the news of his passing teaching, but I endeavoured during that occasioned deep regret. not only in Canada but period to give myself the equivalent. One throughout all British countries and elsewhere. to studying with such a purpose, if endowed the members of the Institute of Public Affairs it with a certain earnestness and persistence absorbs lessons that are never for~otten was an especial loss (or he was the first president and especially an intense appreciation of of the Institute and he took a deep interest in its the value of time. So. the handicap, res purpose and success. When the Institute was angusta dvtn;, which deprived me of the formed, the question of selecting a president came university education that I so greatly desired was perhaps not without its com~ up for consideration and it was thought desirable pensations. But on the other hand, I was that the most prominent living Nova Scotian. who without the aid that comes from close and happened also to be one whose activities were so constant association with keen fellow stud~ closely connected with public affairs in Canada, ents and the inestimable advantage of the influence and leadership that emanates from should be inviL..."'d to accept the post. The desire of great teachers. the promoters was communicated to him and in a Jetter dated February 6, 1937, he graciously accept~ From Horton Academy young Borden went to ed the offer. Glenwood Institute in New Jersey to teach and he This writer has been asked tel contribute a few humourously stated that there he was immediately page£ dealing with some features of Sir Robert's dignified with the of Professor. A few years: busy life. It was his good fortune to have been ago, the editor of a Glenwood newspaper asked Sit associated and to have almost daily contact with Robert (as he had become), for an article giving Sir Robert during the seventeen years immediately recollections of his teaching days in Glenwood. pi"eceding his removal from Halifax and thus was and he courteously consented by furnishing a given an opportunity of seeing him at close range detailed relation of the events of that part of his and of becoming familiar with the strong notes career. He was able to recall the names of many ofa really greatman. Itis not proposed to attempt of his pupils. and it appeared that several of those an ything like an extended or exhaustive sketch whose training he had directed were still living of his life or of the important measures in which he and watching with pride the achievements of their took part; this is rather intended to be a brief old-time teacher. account of some of the incidents of a variEd and Mr. Borden returned to Nova Scotia to study interesting career. for the bar. There was no law school then in the Sir Robert's life may con\"eniently be divided in­ Province and the student had to acquire his know­ to two parts.-the first being antecedent to 1896, ledge of law in the office of a lawyer and by private the years of his early edccation, his study for reading. He studied in the office of Weatherbe admission to the bar and of his successful practice and Graham. both partners of which finn were of his profession; the second embraces his public afterwards appointed to the Bench and succeeded life as a Member of , the leadership of to tbe position of Chief Justice of the Supreme his party, his Premiership and his life after he had Court of Nova Scotia. In 1878, Mr. Borden was retired from Parliament. admitted to the bar and he practiced for a few years He was born at Grand Pre on June 26, 1854, in as partner of the late Judge John P. and as a lad attended the Horton Academy, then Chipman. He then came to Halifax to be a member a good private school ofwhich he gives some account of the law finn of Graham, Tupper and Borden. in a notable address delivered in 1932 at Acadia Thenceforward he devoted himself assiduously to University. His progress as a pupil was so rapid the practice of his profession and soon became a that he was made an assistant teacher in the school leader of the Nova Scotia bar. His fine intellect. in his fifteenth year. For a few years following he his wide reading in law and in general literature. continued the work of teaching. his robust honesty. his kindliness of heart and his He never attended a univern:ty but he was all dignified and gracious bearing give him a command~ his life an earnest and diligent student. Speaking ing position in the profession and in the community. of his early life as a teacher and his lack of university He won and securely held the confidence of a largo training he said: clientele. He was on one side or another of every important case argued in the courts of his native .EDJTOR·S NOTE: Sir Joseph Chil­ holm, B.A.,LL.D., II Cbtef Justice of Nova Scotia. Province and he became a familiar figure in tho 6 PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Supreme Court of Canada and before the Judicial He was returned and from 1896 to 1900 he was a Committee of the Privy Council. An excellent tower of strength to his party in the House of raconteur he could entertain his friends for hours Commons. He was again elected in 1900. After with amusing incidents which occurred in the Courts the election Sir decided to resign and in intercourse with clients and witnesses. An ac­ the leadership of his party and the matter of electing 'Countof the important cases in which he was counsel a new leader emerged. Mr. Borden neither sought would expand this article to too great a length. nor desired the honour. The year 1896 was a ttiming point in Mr. In assuming the leadership, he stipulated that Borden's life. Up to then his exclusive mistress he would lead for one Parliament only and that was the law. He had taken no part in politics; at the end of that term another should be chosen. he was not known to have made one political But circumstances over·ru1ed his desire. He was speech. As a young man he was classed as a defeated in Halifax in 1904. In that election all moderate Liberal, but as he afterwards disclosed the Conservative candidates in Nova Scotia were he had voted in the Repeal election of 1886 with the defeated. The next year, he was elected for the Conservatives as he did also when Commercial County of Carleton in and in 1908 he was Union and Unrestricted Reciprocity became a returned for both Carleton and Halifax and resigned part of the policy of the Liberal party. Shortly the former seat. lprior to the electinn of 1896, a prominent Mr. Borden and his party, reinforced by an Conservative Member of Parliament came to important section of the Liberal party. strongly Nova Scotia to rally the Conservative forces and opposed the Taft-Fielding Reeiprocity pact in 1911 in conversation with one who was a Conservative and before their assaults the government of Sir candidate in another county, he pointed out that WiJfred Laurier fell. A new administration was the Conservatives of Nova Scotia had been repre­ formed with Mr. Borden as Prime Minister, an sented in the House of Commons ever since Con­ office which he held continuously unW , federation by men of outstanding ability-by Sir when by reason of impaired health, brought on by CharlesTupper, , Sir Adams Archibald, his strenuous work in the years of the great War, A. W. McLellan, Sir , he resigned the Premiership, and retired from Thomas E. Kenny and Sir John Thompson-and active political life. The magnitude of the tasks it was highly desirable that the record should be imposed upon Sir Robert during the War years, the maintained. He said: "We must nominate Mr. anxieties through he lived. the urgency of each day's Borden as candidate in Halifax with Mr. Kenny. work, cannot be fully realized. He was in a sense An able Conservative lawyer is needed on the a war casualty. The success which attended his Conservative side and Mr. Borden is the man". unceasing efforts to achieve the great end is demon­ This organizer, however, did not himself approach strated by the fact that in Britain and the Domin­ Mr. Borden. One afternoon shortly after, two ions he was the only Prime Minister who held office prominent local men, the late McCallum Grant, continuously from the beginning to the end of the who succeeded the late Hon. David McKeen as Great War. The others for one reason or another Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, and the late had to give up the command but he continued on Hector McInnes, whose recent death we lament the bridge directing the ship of state. He attended entered the law office and asked for Mr. Borden. meetings of the British Cabinet in 1915, was a They were closeted with him a considerable time member of the Imperial and of the and then left as solemnly as they had entered. Mr. Imperial War Conference in 1917 and 1918, attended Borden paced the floor of his private office for a the Peace Conference in 1919 and took an considerable time and then invited one of his important part in its deliberations. By his ad­ partners into his office. "00 you know what these VOC'3.cy the position of Canada was acknow.edged gentlemen have proposed to me?" he said ';they are and representing his own Dominion, he took part urging me to become a candidate with Mr. Kenny in all the negotiations. He was a signatory of the in the approaching election. I have never had any Peace Treaty. He urged successfully that Canada thought of entering upon a political career. My should be represented at the . training has been altogether for the law and I do As early as 1912, he publicly declared that in the not want to be a politician. And they require an matter of Imperial co·operation. the people of answer tomorrow". Continuing to pace the floor Canada proposed to have a voice in Jmperial con­ for some further time, he added, "Well, I must cerns and he saw this accomplished in a very few see what my wife thinks about it". The next years. Mr. Lloyd-George, who is singularly thrifty day he agreed, I believe, with some reluctance, to of praise when he comes to speak of those with be a candidate, but on the understanding that, if whom he was associated in the great struggle, says elected, he should be relieved from further service this of Sir in his War Memories, at the expiration of the next term of Parliament. page 1743: This condition he stipulated later in conversations Canada was represented by Sir Robert with the Conservative leader, Sir Charles Tupper. Borden, who was always the Quintessence • PUBLIC AFFAIRS 7

of common sense. Always calm, well­ publicist was appointed to investigate the whole balanced. a man of co-operating temper, invariably subordinating self to the common subject and to make a report upon it. The war cause, he was a sagacious and helpful coun­ interrupted the progress of the intended measures. sellor, never forgetting that his first duty To the Hon. A. K. Maclean, a member of the Union was to the people of the great Dominion government wa~ entrusted the task of preparing the he represented. but also realizing that they were enga~ed in an Imperial enterprise required legislation. The changes were embodied and ~at an insistent and obstructive parti­ in the Civil Service Act of 1918. This Act provides cularism would destroy any hope ofachieving for a Civil Service Commission of not more than success in the common task. three members, for examination of the candidates Among the objects of the Institute of Public for admission to the service, for their transfer and Affairs are the promotion of a scientific interest promotion and for making regulations touching the in public affairs. public administration and related whole subject. This Act, as Sir Robert claimed, subjects, and the development of an enlightened was a tremendous step in advance; indeed, Mr. public opinion. It fell to Sir Robert Borden, more Maclean characteri7..ed it as revolutionary. One than to any of his predecessors, by speeches and by welcome result of its enactment was that Members legislation directed by him to promote these objects. of Parliament, supporting the government of the The war period has been already referred to, when day, are reliever! to a very great extent of the in the most trying time in the history of the Dom­ troublesome necessity of dispensing public patron· nion, he had to grapple with problems of tremen· age. dous magnitude and to devise expedients fit for After Sir Robert Borden had resigned the post their solution. All partisan feeling had to be laid of Prime Minister, he continued in another capacity aside. The one pressing matter was the safety of to give the country the benefit of his experience the and of Canada as one of its and erudition. He served for short periods as component parts. Canada's full moral and material Chancellor of Queen's University and McGill strength had to be mustered in the effort. There University. By his lectures on the public platform had to be a demonstration of British solidarity he helped to spread enlightened views on divers before the world. The formation of a Union subjects-educational, constitutional and historical. government for the first time in the history of the The first collection of his speeches was made in the Dominion was a great step in that direction. To war period; in 1917 Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton extreme partisans in both parties it was unwelcome published his war speeches under the title of The War at the time. By Sir Robert's persistence in pursuing and The Future. In 1922 his Marfleet lectures on the larger purpose it was accomplished, and leading Canadian Constitutional Studies, delivered in 1921 men of both part.ies took a share in administration. at the University of , were published in That was a step in public administration which at book form, and in 1927, on the invitation of the some future time may form a useful precedent in a Rhodes Trustees and the authorities of Oxford period of stress. The war had the effect of JX>stJX>n. University, he gave a series of six lectures at Oxford iog the accomplishment ofsome of Sir Robert's other on Canada in the Commonwealth. These splendid aims in the direction of reform. It delayed but did lectures, published later by the Clarendon Press, not defeat his resolve to reform the civil service of should be in the hands of every Canadian student. Canada, to mention only one of his aims. The story of our young nation is there told with What he did in reforming the service is deserving Sir Robert's accustomed precision and lucidity. of notice. While yet in opposition he began to stir The temper and are admirable; the judgment public opinion on the necessity of relorm. In dignified and balanced. The speeches and books his election address on August, 1907, he announced referred to, together with biographical and other that there must be a thorough and complete refoona. historical material written in the evening of his tion of the laws relating to the Civil Service: and life, which, it is to be hoped, will be published in his party became thereby committed to the ~IiCY. permanent form and made accessible to the public, The reform was urged in speeches in Parliament in will make the most valuable literary contribution 1907 and 1908; and after the formation of his touching public affairs, so far made by a Canadian. administration in 1911, a distinguished English Prime Minister.