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AN EVENING WITH GLADSTONE

One day while we were in London, Mr. Chesson, who was the head of the Society for the Protection of Aboriginal Peoples, sent for me and said that Mr. Gladstone had expressed a desire to meet me, and if agreeable to me, a member of Parliament would arrange for a dinner at the Liberal Club, at which about a dozen gentlemen would be present and Mr. Gladstone would preside. ...

I had never been at the Liberal Club which was the headquarters of the Liberal party. I was greatly astonished at the magnificence of the rooms. The alabaster staircase, as it flashed upon me made an impression that lingers with me yet....Toward the close of the dinner, Mr. Gladstone asked me some questions concerning the American Indians and expressed surprise at the wars which were constant ever since the whites came in contact with them, while in Canada... the race existed in even larger numbers and there had never been a war.

I explained the difference in the systems adopted, beginning with the first settlements. The French in Canada always treated the Indians as equals and intermarried with them. The English made them equal before the law, and in Canada an Indian could always come into court and have rights tried there, while in the United States the Indians were made "wards" of the government, could not make a contract,