Minister of Militia and Defence, FREDERICK W. BORDEN, of Nova Scotia. Minister of the Interior, CLIFFORD SIFTON, of Manitoba. Minister of Customs, WILLIAM PATERSON, of Ontario. Minister of Inland Revenue, H. G. JOLY DE LOTBINIERE, of Quebec. Ministers without Portfolio ( CHRISTOPHE A. GEOFFRION, ( RICHARD R. DOBELL, of Quebec. Solicitor-General, CHARLES FITZPATRICK, of Quebec. [2] See p. 134. {176} CHAPTER X CANADA'S NEW PLACE IN THE WORLD Laurier in England--Laurier in France--The South African War--The elections of 1900--The conference of 1902--The Alaskan boundary In 1837 a young girl of eighteen had come to the British throne. Many had wished her well, but few had dreamed that, as the best beloved of British sovereigns, she would prove an essential factor in a great imperial movement which was to mark the close of her reign. The extraordinary length of that reign, her homely virtues, and her statesmanlike prudence had made her Queen indeed in all her vast domains and the one common, personal rallying-point for all her people. The year 1897 marked the sixtieth anniversary of her reign, her Diamond Jubilee, which the whole Empire now planned to celebrate in fitting fashion. The prime minister sailed for England early in June, accompanied by Madame Laurier. It was his first voyage across the Atlantic. It can be imagined with what interest he looked forward to seeing both the land from {177} which he had imbibed his political ideals and the land from which his ancestors had come to New France more than two centuries before. But his interest and his mission were more than personal. He had great tasks to perform. The most immediate purpose was to secure the denunciation or revision of the Belgian and German treaties. He was to sit in the third Colonial Conference which had been summoned for the occasion and in which all the self-governing colonies were to be represented. There it would be his mission to interpret to his colleagues from overseas the new imperial and national ideals which were taking shape in Canada. To the general public he desired to make better known the vast opportunities Canada had to offer both for the venturing settler and for the trader who stayed at home. Perhaps less purposed, but, as it proved, no less successful, was a desire to bring together more closely the land of his allegiance and the land of his ancestry.