142 . OUR ISLAND STORY

of the tenantry before the Land Commissioners Court of which the late Sir Hugh E. C. Childers was President. Later, in the ~ year 1877, when Premier of the Province, he was chosen by the Dominion Government to be one. of the counsel before the Inter- national Fisheries Commission authorized by the terms of the Treaty of Washington.

The Ministry of which he became Premier in the yearl876 was made up of five Conservatives and four Liberals. It could not, in the nature of men and in the conditions of party politics, '_ have been a long-lived Administration. Its Liberal Leader was young, radical. and aggressive. Its Commissioner of Public Works was a man of large ideas and but little experience in public busi- ness. Its Provincial Secretary, the Hon. George W. DeBlois, Was a. Conservative of the old school. So long as the purpose for which the coalition was specially formed remained unfulfilled, the Administration was harmonious. But as soon as the School Question was settled the process of disintegration began. The Commissioner of Public Works commenced the erection of an ex- ' pensiveHospital for the Insane and the macadamizing of roads, particularly those in the vicinity of Charlottetown. Evidences of Liberal favoritism were seen and charges of political corruptiOn I were rife. To meet the increasing expenditure of the Government an Obnoxious tax was imposed upon the people. In the Dominion election contest of 1878 partizanship ran high. The Leader of the Provincial Government and his Liberal colleagues actively and energetically promoted the canvas on behalf of the McKenzie Administration, while 'Mr. DeBlois and his fellow Conservatives were keen sympathizers with the efforts of Sir John Macdonald. A crisis was reached in the following session of the Legislature, in the year 1879, when the ConservatiVe members and supporters of the Government—excepting the Hon. Iohn Yeo and Mr. James W. Richards—joined the Opposition in a vote of want of confi- , Vdence. At the general election which followed, Mr. Davies and his friends suffered an overwhelming defeat.

But his interest in Canadian politics gained strength as a re- sult of his loss of the control of Provincial affairs. He bore the Liberal banner to victory in Queen’s County in the contest of