Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Third Supplement.djvu/353

 leaders feared that free trade would soon be extended from natural products to manufactures, and that these would be ruined in competition with the more highly developed American industries. Above all, the British sentiment of Canada was alarmed lest the proposal should involve union with the United States. In great confidence Laurier dissolved parliament, but he was defeated, and his long term of office ended in September 1911.

After the defeat of Laurier the naval question was still urgent. In 1913 the new prime minister, Sir Robert Borden, abandoned the plan of a Canadian navy, and, on the ground of an emergency, proposed to add three ‘Dreadnought’ battleships to the British fleet. Laurier held that his own policy of a Canadian navy, which the conservatives had accepted, was the true one for Canada. He put this forward as against a gift of ships. The government measure was carried in the Canadian House of Commons, after the adoption for the first time in Canada of the closure, but was defeated by the liberal majority in the Senate. When war came in 1914, Canada, unlike Australia, had no share in naval defence. While Laurier supported the government's war policy, Bourassa vigorously attacked British imperialism as only less dangerous to the world than that of Germany. In 1917, when both Britain and the United States adopted conscription, and the many military failures of the year pointed to a prolonged war, a strong movement set in for coalition government. Sir Robert Borden announced that conscription would be applied to Canada, and, at the same time, he invited Laurier to join a coalition. While this was favoured by the great mass of English-speaking liberals, bitter opposition to conscription came from Quebec. Laurier was unwilling to risk losing support in his own province. He refused to join the new government, and in the election of 1917 Quebec alone stood with him. The liberal party was shattered in English-speaking Canada. By this time Laurier's health was failing, and he died at Ottawa on 17 February 1919, before peace was finally concluded.

Laurier was tall and graceful. His dignity and his courtesy were alike impressive. This charm of manner concealed a will which was like iron when once his mind was made up. He used, with some truth, to accuse himself of indolence. He disliked detail, with the result that he sometimes allowed abuses to go far before checking them. His tastes were simple, and during most of his life he was very poor. Though he could be opportunist, his personal character always commanded high respect. By long ancestry Canadian, he had no personal ties with either England or France. While, in all great crises, his opinions ran with those of the French element in Canada, he always opposed with outspoken vigour any appeal to racial or religious passions.  LAWSON, EDWARD LEVY-, first Baron Burnham (1833-1916), newspaper proprietor. [See Levy-Lawson.]

LEACH, ARTHUR FRANCIS (1851–1915), historical writer, the third son of Thomas Leach, barrister, of Seaford Lodge, Ryde, Isle of Wight, by his wife, Sarah Green, was born in London 16 March 1851. He was educated at Winchester College, and gained a scholarship at New College, Oxford, in 1869. In 1872 he won the Stanhope historical essay prize, and in 1873 obtained a first class in literae humaniores. From 1874 to 1881 he was a fellow of All Souls College, and in 1876 he was called to the bar by the Middle Temple. In 1884 he was appointed an assistant charity commissioner (Endowed Schools department). From 1901 to 1903 he was administrative examiner at the Board of Education, from April to December 1903 senior examiner, and from 1904 to 1906 assistant secretary. He was appointed second charity commissioner in 1906, a post which he held till his death in 1915.

Leach was associated with the Endowed Schools department at a particularly interesting period of its development, namely that following the Public Schools Act of 1868 (which was based on the recommendations of the royal commission of 1861–1864 on the public schools) and the Endowed Schools Act of 1869 (which embodied the recommendations of the Schools Inquiry commission of 1864–1868). The latter commission had dealt with 782 grammar schools and 2,175 endowed elementary schools, and the provision of new schemes for these schools was transferred to an augmented Charity Commission, of which body Leach was 327