As a matter of course, through the force of his personality and without apparent effort, he became leader of the minority in the New Brunswick House, and this minority he changed from weakness to strength. His personal following grew so steadily that in 1883 the majority was defeated and Mr. Blair became Premier of the Province. In three general elections, those of 1886, 1890 and 1894, his leadership was sustained. “By this time,” remarked a friend of his to me, “Blair was the whole thing in the Province of New Brunswick.” However this may have been, it is true that Mr. Blair had become a figure of national prominence. Long before this he had attracted the attention of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, and when the latter became Premier of the Dominion in 1896 he made Mr. Blair a member of his Cabinet, appointing him to the important place of Minister of Railways and Canals. It was in this position that he acquired the mastery of railroad problems that has made him Canada’s leading authority on transportation. In 1903, because he disagreed with the governmental powers on the subject of the projected Grand Trunk Pacific line across the continent, he resigned his portfolio. But it very soon became evident that Mr. Blair was a man with whose services it was difficult to dispense. For the purpose of regulating the railroads in their relations with the public more specifically than had been possible by the Ministry of Railways and Canals a Board of Railway Commissioners was provided for by Parliament early in 1904. Mr. Blair had been very active in advocating the organization of the committee, and it was obvious that there was no man in Canada who could approach him in fitness for the place of chairman. Yet his opposition to the government in its great scheme for the new transcontinental road was a very formidable objection to his selection. This difficulty caused much hesitation on the part of the ruling spirits, but in the end it was decided that the Government could not get along without Mr. Blair, and so he was appointed chairman of the committee. After a few months of very successful work he resigned his place, an act which threw the party in power into a state of astonishment and consternation. In his office in Ottawa I called upon Mr. Blair, and was at once impressed with what might be called his bigness. His face, the lower part of which is covered with the luxuriant growth of beard which is characteristic of the Scotchman, is broad. His forehead is high and wide. His eyes are unusually large. He speaks slowly, and every word has weight.