Whether the majority or the minority report ought to be
accepted, we cannot decide. They differ, however, little except in regard to the construction to be put on Sir Hector Langevin's conduct. Either he allowed corruption, or else showed a lack of judgment and common-sense sufficient to. disqualify him from further political work. A set-off to the disgrace which has fallen on the Conservative Party from these disclosures is found in the exposure of the conduct of the Liberal leaders in Quebec. A Committee of the Dominion Senate has just reported that "an improper grant of £35,000 to the new Baie des Cbaleurs Railway was ' secured ' by the contractors paying 220,000 to Mr. Ernest Ps.caud, the editor of Mr. Mercier's organ in the Press, and reputed to be the most influential wirepuller in the Nationalist ranks ; 210,800 of this sum going to pay notes endorsed by the Prime Minister- and other prominent men in the ruling party." A further inquiry into these charges is said to be likely to take place. There is, we are convinced, only one way to make an end of corruption in Canada,—to pay high salaries to the Ministers,. to secure permanent officials as honest and high-minded as the Judges, and to make the offering or receiving of bribes a highly penal offence. Men will risk disgrace, but penal servitude unflinchingly applied is a real deterrent.
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