In 1878 the Liberal party was defeated, and Sir John Mac donald returned to office with the support of Smith, who had been driven to rejoin the Conservatives by the over-cautious railway policy of the Liberals. In 188o the new government made a con tract for building the railway with a syndicate of which Stephen was the chief director, and in which Smith, from the first largely interested, came more and more to the front. Both were promi nent directors of the Bank of Montreal, and employed its re sources in the work without hesitation. Smith also embarked in the work the whole of his private fortune, and it was his dogged perseverance which more than anything else enabled the company to bring its work to a successful conclusion. On Nov. 7,1885, at Craigellachie in the Rocky Mountains, Donald Smith drove home the last spike of the first Canadian transcontinental railway. In 1882 he left parliament, but returned to it in 1887, and repre sented Montreal West till 1896, when he was appointed to suc ceed Sir Charles Tupper in London as high commissioner for Canada. In that year he was made G.C.M.G. ; in 1897 he was raised to the peerage and in 1909 made G.C.V.O. In 1889 he became governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. On March 21, 1896, he was appointed government commissioner to Manitoba and the Territories to endeavour to lessen the bitterness in the discussion as to Roman Catholic rights in the public schools, and the compromise of 1897 followed the lines which he suggested.
(See CANADA.) In January 190o, during the war in South Africa, he raised, equipped and presented to the British government a regiment of irregular cavalry 600 strong. Strathcona's Horse, as it was called, was recruited in the Canadian West, and did good service during the war. With his cousin, Lord Mountstephen, he founded and endowed the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, and both in Canada and in Scotland gave largely to university work. He was the backbone of the Canadian emigration policy from 1896 on wards. He helped in the improvement of the waterways of the Canadian West, and in placing steamers on them, and gave much assistance to the proposed All Red Route of British-owned steam ers, encircling the world. From the first he was a member of the Pacific Cable Board, controlling the cable laid in 1902 by the combined governments of Great Britain, Canada and Australia. No man did more to tighten the ties which bind Canada to the British Empire. He died in London on Jan. 21, The Life by Beckles Willson contains some useful information. The Histories of the Hudson's Bay Company by Beckles Willson, Rev. George Bryce and Miss Agnes C. Laut tell his early struggles. Sir Wilfrid Laurier (2 vols.), by J. S. Willison, describes the financial dealings between the Canadian government and the Canadian Pacific railway. His parliamentary speeches are to be found in the Canadian Hansard.