During the week, further evidence of the rapacity of the
minor Canadian officials has been produced before the Com- mittee of .Public Accounts. It is evident, indeed, that they believed the " boodle "—Angliee "swag "—which they extracted from the contractors to be a perfectly legitimate perquisite. The most important evidence was •that of Mr. Danserean, Postmaster of Montreal, and for many years one of the chief officials of the Secretary of State, who testified that he had gone to New York at the request of Mr. Chapleau, Secretary of State, to make inquiries in regard to the printing-presses of the establishments of Hoe and of Potter. He was told by Mr. Chapleau, he asserted, " to warn these New York manufae. turers that they must not pay anybody commission on con- tracts except the representatives of political organisations of the Conservative Party of Canada." The witness gave to the managers of Messrs. Potter and Messrs. Hoe " the name of the president of the French Conservative Association of Montreal, and also mentioned the Toronto Conservative Association as a proper recipient of their contributions. They mentioned that that was the practice in Washington also." The Senate Rail- way Committee has reported in regard to the Chaleur .Bay Railway scandal; but apparently they do not recommend that the authors of the malpractices exposed shall be punished. In face, however, of a very scanty telegram, and the intricacy of the subject, we prefer to withhold all comment on the Report.
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