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LETTERS AND JOURNALS OF
JAMES, EIGHTH EARL OF ELGIN
GOVERNOR OF JAMAICA, GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA,
ENVOY TO CHINA, VICEROY OF INDIA
EDITED BY THEODORE WALROND, C.B.
WITH A PREFACE BY ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, D.D.
DEAN OF WESTMINSTER
PREFACE.
Having been consulted by the family and friends of the late Lord Elgin as
to the best mode of giving to the world some record of his life, and
having thus contracted a certain responsibility in the work now laid
before the public, I have considered it my duty to prefix a few words by
way of Preface to the following pages.
On Lord Elgin's death it was thought that a career intimately connected
with so many critical points in the history of the British Empire, and
containing in itself so much of intrinsic interest, ought not to be left
without an enduring memorial. The need of this was the more felt because
Lord Elgin was prevented, by the peculiar circumstances of his public
course, from enjoying the familiar recognition to which he would else have
been entitled amongst his contemporaries in England. 'For' (if I may use
the words which I have employed on a former occasion) 'it is one of the
sad consequences of a statesman's life spent like his in the constant
service of his country on arduous foreign missions, that in his own land,
in his own circle, almost in his own home, his place is occupied by
others, his very face is forgotten; he can maintain no permanent ties with
those who rule the opinion, or obtain the mastery, of the day; he has
identified himself with no existing party; he has made himself felt in
none of those domestic and personal struggles which, attract the attention
and fix the interest of the many who contribute in large measure to form
the public opinion of the time. For twenty years the few intervals of Lord
Elgin's residence in these islands were to be counted not by years, but by
months; and the majority of those who might be reckoned amongst his
friends and acquaintances, remembered him chiefly as the eager and
accomplished Oxford student at Christ Church or at Merton.'
The materials for supplying this blank were, in some respects, abundant.
Besides the official despatches and other communications which had passed
between himself and the Home Government during his successive absences in
Jamaica, Canada, China, and India, he had in the two latter positions kept
up a constant correspondence, almost of the nature of a journal, with Lady
Elgin, which combines with his reflections on public events the expression
of his more personal feelings, and thus reveals not only his own genial
and affectionate nature, but also indicates something of that singularly
poetic and philosophic turn of mind, that union of grace and power, which,
had his course lain in the more tranquil walks of life, would have
achieved no mean place amongst English thinkers and writers.
These materials his family, at my suggestion, committed to my friend Mr.
Theodore Walrond, whose sound judgment, comprehensive views, and official
experience are known to many besides myself, and who seemed not less
fitted to act as interpreter to the public at large of such a life and
character, because, not having been personally acquainted with Lord Elgin,
or connected with any of the public transactions recorded in the following
pages, he was able to speak with the sobriety of calm appreciation, rather
than the warmth of personal attachment. In this spirit he kindly
undertook, in the intervals of constant public occupations, to select from
the vast mass of materials placed at his disposal such extracts as most
vividly brought out the main features of Lord Elgin's career, adding such
illustrations as could be gleaned from private or published documents or
from the remembrance of friends. If the work has unavoidably been delayed
beyond the expected term, yet it is hoped that the interest in those great
colonial dependencies for which Lord Elgin laboured, has not diminished
with the lapse of years. It is believed also that there is no time when it
will not be good for his countrymen to have brought before them those
statesmanlike gifts which accomplished the successful accommodation of a
more varied series of novel and entangled situations than has, perhaps,
fallen to the lot of any other public man within our own memory.
Especially might be named that rare quality of a strong overruling sense
of the justice due from man to man, from nation to nation; that
'combination of speculative and practical ability' (so wrote one who had
deep experience of his mind) 'which peculiarly fitted him to solve the
problem how the subject races of a civilised empire are to be governed;'
that firm, courageous, and far-sighted confidence in the triumph of those
liberal and constitutional principles (in the best sense of the word),
which, having secured the greatness of England, were, in his judgment,
also applicable, under other forms, to the difficult circumstances of new
countries and diverse times.
'It is a singular coincidence,' said Lord Elgin, in a speech at Benares a
few months before his end, 'that three successive Governors-General of
India should have stood towards each other in the relationship of
contemporary friends. Lord Dalhousie, when named to the government of
India, was the youngest man who had ever been appointed to a situation of
such high responsibility and trust. Lord Canning was in the prime of life;
and I, if I am not already on the decline, am nearer to the verge of it
than either of my contemporaries who have preceded me. When I was leaving
England for India, Lord Ellenborough, who is now, alas! the only surviving
ex-Governor-General, said to me, '"You are not a very old man; but, depend
upon it, you will find yourself by far the oldest man in India."' To that
mournful catalogue was added his own name within the brief space of one
year; and now a fourth, not indeed bound to the others by ties of personal
or political friendship, but like in energetic discharge of his duties and
in the prime of usefulness in which he was cut off, has fallen by a fate
yet more untimely.
These tragical incidents invest the high office to which such precious
lives have been sacrificed with a new and solemn interest. There is
something especially pathetic when the gallant vessel, as it were, goes
down within very sight of the harbour, with all its accumulated treasures.
But no losses more appeal at the moment to the heart of the country, no
careers deserve to be more carefully enshrined in its grateful
remembrance.
ARTHUR P. STANLEY.
_Deanery, Westminster:
March 4,1872._
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY YEARS.
Birth and Parentage--School and College--Taste for Philosophy--Training
for Public Life--M.P. for Southampton--Speech on the Address--Appointed
Governor of Jamaica.
CHAPTER II.
JAMAICA.
Shipwreck--Death of Lady Elgin--Position of a Governor in a West Indian
Colony such as Jamaica--State of Public Opinion in the Island--Questions
of Finance, Education, Agriculture, the Labouring Classes, Religion, the
Church--Harmonising Influences of British Connexion--Resignation
--Appointment to Canada.
CHAPTER III.
CANADA.
State of the Colony--First Impressions--Provincial Politics--'Responsible
Government'--Irish Immigrants--Upper Canada--Change of Ministry--French
Habitans--The French Question--The Irish--The British--Discontents; their
Causes and Remedies--Navigation Laws--Retrospect--Speech on Education.
CHAPTER IV.
CANADA.
Discontent--Rebellion Losses Bill--Opposition to it--Neutrality of the
Governor--Riots at Montreal--Firmness of the Governor--Approval of Home
Government--Fresh Riots--Removal of Seat of Government from Montreal
--Forbearance of Lord Elgin--Retrospect.
CHAPTER V.
CANADA.
Annexation Movement--Remedial Measures--Repeal of the Navigation Laws
--Reciprocity with the United States--History of the Two Measures--Duty of
Supporting Authority--Views on Colonial Government--Colonial Interests the
Sport of Home Parties--No Separation!--Self-Government not necessarily
Republican--Value of the Monarchical Principle--Defences of the Colony.
CHAPTER VI.
CANADA.
The 'Clergy Reserves'--History of the Question--Mixed Motives of the
Movement--Feeling in the Province--In Upper Canada--In Lower Canada--Among
Roman Catholics--In the Church--Secularisation--Questions of Emigration,
Labour, Land-tenure, Education, Native Tribes--Relations with the United
States--Mutual Courtesies--Farewell to Canada--At Home.
CHAPTER VII.
FIRST MISSION TO CHINA--PRELIMINARIES.
Origin of the Mission--Appointment of Lord Elgin--Malta--Egypt--Ceylon
--News of the Indian Mutiny--Penang--Singapore--Diversion of Troops to
India--On Board the 'Shannon'--Hong-Kong--Change of Plans--Calcutta and
Lord Canning--Return to China--Perplexities--Caprices of Climate--Arrival
of Baron Gros--Preparation for Action.
CHAPTER VIII.
FIRST MISSION TO CHINA--CANTON.
Improved Prospects--Advance on Canton--Bombardment and Capture--Joint
Tribunal--Maintenance of Order--Canton Prisons--Move Northward--Swatow
--Mr. Burns--Foochow--Ningpo--Chusan--Potou--Shanghae--Missionaries.
CHAPTER IX.
FIRST MISSION TO CHINA--TIENTSIN.
Advance to the Peiho--Taking of the Forts--The Peiho River--Tientsin
--Negotiations--The Treaty--The Eight of Sending a Minister to Pekin
--Return southward--Sails for Japan.
CHAPTER X.
FIRST MISSION TO CHINA--JAPAN.
Embark for Japan--Coast Views--Simoda--Off Yeddo--Yeddo--Conferences--A
Country Ride--Peace and Plenty--Feudal System--A Temple--A Juggler
--Signing the Treaty--Its Terms--Retrospect.
CHAPTER XI.
FIRST MISSION TO CHINA--THE YANGTZE KIANG.
Delays--Subterfuges defeated by Firmness--Revised Tariff--Opium Trade--Up
the Yangtze Kiang--Silver Island--Nankin--Rebel Warfare--The Hen-Barrier
--Unknown Waters--Difficult Navigation--Hankow--The Governor-General
--Return--Taking to the Gunboats--Nganching--Nankin--Retrospect--More
Delays--Troubles at Canton--Return to Hong-Kong--Mission completed
--Homeward Voyage
CHAPTER XII.
SECOND MISSION TO CHINA--OUTWARD.
Lord Elgin in England--Origin of Second Mission to China--Gloomy
Prospects--Egypt--The Pyramids--The Sphinx--Passengers Homeward bound
--Ceylon--Shipwreck--Penang--Singapore--Shanghae--Meeting with Mr. Bruce
--Talien-Whan--Sir Hope Grant--Plans for Landing.
CHAPTER XIII.
SECOND MISSION TO CHINA--PEKIN.
The Landing--Chinese Overtures--Taking of the Forts--The Peiho--Tientsin
--Negotiations broken off--New Plenipotentiaries--Agreement made--Agreement
broken--Treacherous Seizure of Mr. Parkes and others--Advance on Pekin
--Return of some of the Captives--Fate of the rest--Burning of the Summer
Palace--Convention signed--Funeral of the murdered Captives--Imperial
Palace--Prince Kung--Arrival of Mr. Bruce--Results of the Mission.
CHAPTER XIV.
SECOND MISSION TO CHINA--HOMEWARD.
Leaving the Gulf--Detention at Shanghae--Kowloon--Adieu to China--Island
of Luzon--Churches--Government--Manufactures--General Condition--Island of
Java--Buitenzorg--Bantong--Volcano--Soirees--Retrospect--Ceylon--The
Mediterranean--England--Warm Reception--Dunfermline--Royal Academy Dinner
--Mansion House Dinner.
CHAPTER XV.
INDIA.
Appointed Viceroy of India--Forebodings--Voyage to India--Installation
--Deaths of Mr. Ritchie, Lord Canning, General Bruce--The Hot Season
--Business resumed--State of the Empire--Letters: the Army; Cultivation of
Cotton; Orientals not all Children; Missionaries; Rumours of Disaffection;
Alarms; Murder of a Native; Afghanistan; Policy of Lord Canning;
Consideration for Natives.
CHAPTER XVI.
INDIA.
Duty of a Governor-General to visit the Provinces--Progress to the North-
West--Benares--Speech on the Opening of the Railway--Cawnpore--Grand
Durbar at Agra--Delhi--Hurdwar--Address to the Sikh Chiefs at Umballa
--Kussowlie--Simla--Letters: Supply of Labour; Special Legislation;
Missionary Gathering; Finance; Seat of Government; Value of Training at
Head-quarters; Aristocracies; against Intermeddling--The Sitana Fanatics
--Himalayas--Rotung Pass--Twig Bridge--Illness--Death--Characteristics
--Burial-place.
MEMOIR
OF
JAMES, EIGHTH EARL OF ELGIN,
&c. &c.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY YEARS.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE--SCHOOL AND COLLEGE--TASTE FOR PHILOSOPHY--TRAINING
FOR PUBLIC LIFE--M.P. FOR SOUTHAMPTON--SPEECH ON THE ADDRESS--APPOINTED
GOVERNOR OF JAMAICA.
[Sidenote: Birth and parentage.]
James, eighth Earl of Elgin and twelfth Earl of Kincardine, was born in
London on July 20, 1811. His father, whose career as Ambassador at
Constantinople is so well known in connection with the 'Elgin Marbles,'
was the chief and representative of the ancient Norman house, whose hero
was 'Robert the Bruce.' From him, it may be said that he inherited the
genial and playful spirit which gave such a charm to his social and
parental relations, and which helped him to elicit from others the
knowledge of which he made so much use in the many diverse situations of
his after-life. His mother, Lord Elgin's second wife, was a daughter of
Mr. Oswald, of Dunnikier, in Fifeshire. Her deep piety, united with wide
reach of mind and varied culture, made her admirably qualified to be the
depositary of the ardent thoughts and aspirations of his boyhood; and, as
he grew up, he found a second mother in his elder sister, Matilda, who
became the wife of Sir John Maxwell, of Pollok. To the influence of such a
mother and such a sister he probably owed the pliancy and power of
sympathy with others for which he was remarkable, and which is not often
found in characters of so tough a fibre. To them, from his earliest years,
he confided the outpourings of his deeper religious feelings. One
expression of such feeling, dated June 1821, may be worth recording as an
example of that strong sense of duty and affection towards his brothers,
which, beginning at that early age, marked his whole subsequent career.
'Be with me this week, in my studies, my amusements, in everything. When
at my lessons, may I think only of them; playing when I play: when
dressing, may I be quick, and never put off time, and never amuse myself
but in playhours. Oh! may I set a good example to nay brothers. Let me not
teach them anything that is bad, and may they not learn wickedness from
seeing me. May I command my temper and passions, and give me a better
heart for their good.'
[Sidenote: School and college.]
He learned the rudiments of Latin and Greek under the careful teaching of
a resident tutor, Mr. Fergus Jardine. At the age of fourteen he went to
Eton, and thence, in due time, to Christ Church, Oxford, where he found
him self among a group of young men destined to distinction in after-life
--Lord Canning, James Ramsay (afterwards Lord Dalhousie), the late Duke
of Newcastle, Sidney Herbert, and Mr. Gladstone.
There is little to record respecting this period of his life; but a
touching interest attaches to the following extracts from a letter written
by his brother, Sir Frederick Bruce, in November, 1865.
'My recollections of Elgin's early life are, owing to circumstances,
almost nothing. In the year 1820 he went abroad with my father and mother,
and was away for two years. From that time I recollect nothing until he
went to Eton; and his holidays were then divided between Torquay, where my
eldest brother was, and Broomhall;[1] and of them my memory has retained
nothing but the assistance in his later holidays he used to give me in
classical studies.
We were together for about a year and a half at Oxford. But he was so far
advanced in his studies, that we had very little in common to bring us
together; and I hardly remember any striking fact connected with him,
except one or two speeches at the Union Club, when in eloquence and
originality he far outshone his competitors.[2]
'I do not know whether Mr. Welland is still alive: he probably, better
than anyone, could give some sketch of his intellectual growth, and of
that beautiful trait in his character, the devotion and abnegation he
showed o poor Bruce[3] in his long and painful illness.
'He was always reserved about his own feelings and aspirations. Owing to
the shortness of his stay at Oxford, he had to work very hard; and his
friends, like Newcastle and Hamilton, were men who sought him for the
soundness of his judgment, which led them to seek his advice in all
matters. He always stood to them in the relation of a much older man. He
had none of the frailties of youth, and, though very capable of enjoying
its diversions, life with him from a very early date was "sicklied o'er
with the pale cast of thought." Its practical aspect to him was one of
anxiety and difficulty, while his intellect was attracted to high and
abstract speculation, and took little interest in the every-day routine
which is sufficient occupation for ordinary minds. Like all men of
original mind, he lived a life apart from his fellows.
'He looked upon the family estate rather as a trust than as an
inheritance--as far more valuable than money on account of the family
traditions, and the position which in our state of society is given to a
family connected historically with the country. Elgin felt this deeply,
and he clung to it in spite of difficulties which would have deterred a
man of more purely selfish views.'
'It is melancholy to reflect,' adds Sir F. Bruce, 'how those have
disappeared who could have filled up this gap in his history.' It is a
reflection even more melancholy, that the loved and trusted brother, who
shared so many of his labours and his aspirations, no longer lives to
write that history, and to illustrate in his own person the spirit by
which it was animated.
The sense of the difficulties above referred to strongly impressed his
mind even before he went to Oxford, and laid the foundation of that habit
of self-denial in all personal matters, which enabled him through life to
retain a feeling of independence, and at the same time to give effect to
the promptings of a generous nature. 'You tell me,' he writes to his
father from college, 'I coin money. I uncoined your last order by putting
it into the fire, having already supplied myself.'
About the middle of his Oxford career, a studentship fell vacant, which,
according to the strange system then prevalent, was in the gift of Dr.
Bull, one of the Canons of Christ Church. Instead of bestowing it, as was
too commonly done, on grounds of private interest, Dr. Bull placed the
valuable prize at the disposal of the Dean and Censors, to be conferred on
the most worthy of the undergraduates. Their choice fell on James Bruce.
In announcing this to a member of the Bruce family, Dr. Bull wrote: 'Dr.
Smith, no less than the present college officers, assures me that there is
no young man, of whatever rank, who could be more acceptable to the
society, and none whose appointment as the reward of excellent deportment,
diligence, and right-mindedness, would do more good among the young men.'
A letter written about this time to his father shows that the young
student, with a sagacity beyond his years, discerned the germs of an evil
which has since grown to a great height, and now lies at the root of some
of the most troublesome questions connected with University Education.
In my own mind I confess I am much of opinion, that college is put off
in general till too late;[4] and the gaining of _honours_
therefore, becomes too severe to be useful to men who are to enter
into professions. It was certainly originally intended that the
degrees which require only a knowledge of the classics should be taken
at an earlier age, in order to admit of a residence after they were
taken, during which the student might devote himself to science or
composition, and those habits of reflection by which the mind might be
formed, and a practical advantage drawn from the stores of knowledge
already acquired. By putting them off to so late an age, the
consequence has been, that it has been necessary proportionably to
increase the difficulty of their attainment, and to mix up in college
examinations (which were supposed to depend upon study alone) essays
in many cases of a nature that demands the most prolonged and deep
reflection. The effect of this is evident. Those who, from
circumstances, have neither opportunity nor leisure thus to reflect,
must, in order to secure their success, acquire that kind of
superficial information which may enable them to draw sufficiently
plausible conclusions, upon very slight grounds; and [of] many who
have this _form_ of knowledge, most will eventually be proved (if
this system is carried to an excess) to have but little of the
_substance_ of it.
He had meant to read for double honours, but illness, brought on by over-
work, obliged him to confine himself to classics. All who know Oxford are
aware, that the term 'Classics,' as there used, embraces not only Greek
and Latin scholarship, but also Ancient History and Philosophy. In these
latter studies the natural taste and previous education of James Bruce led
him to take a special interest, and he threw himself into the work in no
niggard spirit.[5] At the Michaelmas Examination of 1832, he was placed in
the first class in classics, and common report spoke of him as 'the best
first of his 'year.' Not long afterwards he was elected Fellow of Merton.
He appears to have been a candidate also for the Eldon Scholarship, but
without success. In a contest for a legal prize it was no discredit to be
defeated by Roundell Palmer.
[Sidenote: Taste for philosophy.]
Some of his contemporaries have a lively remembrance of the eagerness with
which, while still a student, he travelled into fields at that period
beyond the somewhat narrow range of academic study. Professor Maurice at
one time, Dr. Pusey at another, were his delighted companions in exploring
the dialogues of Plato. Mr. Gladstone 'remembers his speaking of Milton's
prose works with great fervour when they were at Eton together;' and adds
the confession--interesting alike as regards both the young students--'I
think it was from his mouth I first learned that Milton had written any
prose,' This affection for those soul-stirring treatises of the great
advocate of free speech and inquiry he always retained: they formed his
constant companions wherever he travelled; and there are many occasions in
which their influence may be traced on his thought and language. 'I would
rather swallow a bushel of chaff than lose the precious grains of truth
which may somewhere or other be scattered in it,' was a sentiment which,
though expressed in much later life, was characteristic of his whole
career. In this spirit he listened with deep interest to the roll of
theological controversy then raging at Oxford, though he was never carried
away by its violence.
In after life he had little leisure to pursue the philosophic studies
commenced at Oxford; but they took deep and permanent hold on his mind,
and formed in fact the groundwork of his great practical ability. This is
well stated by Sir Frederick Bruce:--
In Elgin (to use the distinctions of Coleridge, whose philosophy he
had thoroughly mastered) the Reason and Understanding were both
largely developed, and both admirably balanced. And in this
combination lay the secret of his success in so many spheres of
action, so different in their characteristics, so alike in their
difficulties. The process he went through was always the same. He set
himself to work to form in his own mind a clear idea of each of the
constituent parts of the problem with which he had to deal. This he
effected partly by reading, but still more by conversation with
special men, and by that extraordinary logical power of mind and
penetration which not only enabled him to get out of every man all he
had in him, but which revealed to those men themselves a knowledge of
their own imperfect and crude conceptions, and made them constantly
unwilling witnesses or reluctant adherents to views which originally
they were prepared to oppose. To test the accuracy of their statements
and observations, and to discriminate between what was fact and what
was prejudice or misconception, he made use of the higher faculty of
cultivated Reason, which enabled him, by his deep insight into the
universal principles of human nature, of forms of government, &c., to
bring to the consideration of particular facts the light of an a
priori knowledge of what was to be expected under particular
circumstances. The result was, that in an incredibly short time, and
with little apparent study or effort, he attained an accurate and
clear conception of the essential facts before him, and was thus
enabled to strike out a course which he could consistently pursue
amidst all difficulties, because it was in harmony with the actual
facts and the permanent conditions of the problem he had to solve.
[Sidenote: Training for public life.]
The years which followed the completion of his academical studies--those
golden years which generally determine the complexion of a man's future
life--were not devoted in his case to any definite pursuit; for though he
entered himself of Lincoln's Inn in June, 1835, he does not appear to have
ever embarked in the professional study of law.
The scanty notices which remain of this period show him chiefly residing
at Broomhall, where, in his father's absence, he takes his place in the
affairs of the county of Fife; commands his troop of yeomanry; now
presides at a farmers' dinner, for which be has written an appropriate
song; now, at the request of Dr. Chalmers, speaks at a public meeting in
favour of church extension. At one time we hear of long solitary rides
over field and fell, during which the thoughts and feelings that stirred
in him would take the shape of a sonnet or a poem, to be confided to one
of his sisters; at another time he is keeping up a regular correspondence
on abstruse questions of philosophy with his brother Frederick, still at
Oxford.
In these pursuits, as well as in the somewhat harassing occupation of
disentangling the family property from its embarrassments, be was
preparing himself for future usefulness by the exercise of the same
industry and patience, the same grasp both of details and of general
purpose, which be showed in the political career gradually dawning upon
him. It was observed that, whatsoever his hand found to do, he did it with
all his might, as well as with a judgment and discretion beyond his years,
and a tact akin to genius. He was undergoing, perhaps, the best training
for the varied duties to which he was to be called--that peculiarly
British 'discipline of mind, body, and heart' to which observers like
Bunsen attribute the effectiveness of England's public men.
As early as 1834, when he had barely completed his twenty-third year, he
published a Letter to the Electors of Great Britain, with the view of
vindicating the policy and the position of the Tory leaders, more
especially of the Duke of Wellington. A similar motive, the desire of
protesting against a monopoly of liberal sentiments by the Whigs, and
showing in his own person that a Tory was not necessarily a narrow bigot,
impelled him to offer himself as a candidate at the election of 1837, on
the occurrence of an unexpected vacancy in the representation of
Fifeshire. But, coming forward at a moment's warning, he never had any
chance of success, and was defeated by a large majority.
[Sidenote: M.P. for Southampton.]
In the year 1840, George, Lord Bruce, the eldest son of Lord Elgin by his
first wife, died, unmarried, and James became heir to the earldom. On
April 22, 1841, he married Elizabeth Mary, daughter of Mr. C.L. Cumming
Bruce. At the general election in July of the same year he stood for the
borough of Southampton, and was returned at the head of the poll. His
political views at this time were very much those which have since been
called 'Liberal Conservative.' Speaking at a great banquet at Southampton
he said--
I am a Conservative, not upon principles of exclusionism--not from
narrowness of view, or illiberality of sentiment--but because I
believe that our admirable Constitution, on principles more exalted
and under sanctions more holy than those which Owenism or Socialism
can boast, proclaims between men of all classes and degrees in the
body politic a sacred bond of brotherhood in the recognition of a
common warfare here, and a common hope hereafter. I am a Conservative,
not because I am adverse to improvement, not because I am unwilling to
repair what is wasted, or to supply what is defective in the political
fabric, but because I am satisfied that, in order to improve
effectually, you must be resolved most religiously to preserve. I am a
Conservative, because I believe that the institutions of our country,
religious as well as civil, are wisely adapted, when duly and
faithfully administered, to promote, not the interest of any class or
classes exclusively, but the happiness and welfare of the great body
of the people; and because I feel that, on the maintenance of these
institutions, not only the economical prosperity of England, but, what
is yet more important, the virtues that distinguish and adorn the
English character, under God, mainly depend.
[Sidenote: Speech on the Address.]
Parliament met on August 19, and, on the 24th, the new member seconded the
amendment on the Address, in a speech, of great promise. In the course of
it he professed himself a friend to Free Trade, but Free Trade as
explained and vindicated by Mr. Huskisson:--
He should at all times be prepared to vote for a free trade on
principles of reciprocity, due regard being had to the interests which
had grown up under our present commercial system, without which, as he
conceived, the rights of the labouring classes could not be protected.
Much had been on various occasions said about the interests of the
capitalists and the landlords, but unless the measures of a Government
were directed equally to secure the rights of the working classes,
they never should be supported by a vote of his. It was true that the
landlord might derive some increased value to his property from the
increase of factories and other buildings upon it, and that the
capitalist might more advantageously invest his capital, or he might
withdraw it from a sinking concern; but the only capital of the
labourer was his skill in his own particular walk, and it was a
mockery to tell him that he could find a satisfactory compensation
elsewhere.
But the most characteristic part of his speech was that in which he
commented on the 'harsh, severe, and unjust terms' in which it had been
the fashion to designate those who had taken an opposite view on these
questions to that taken by Her Majesty's Government:--
In a day (he said) when all monopolies are denounced, I must he
permitted to say that, to my mind, the monopoly which is the most
intolerable and odious is the pretension to the monopoly of public
virtue.
The amendment was carried by a large majority. Lord Melbourne resigned,
and Sir Robert Peel became Prime Minister. About the same time, by the
death of his father and his own succession to the peerage, the young
Lord's brief career in the House of Commons was closed for ever; no
Scottish peer being eligible, according to the commonly received opinion,
to sit in the Lower House. He appears, indeed, to have had at one time an
idea of pressing the question; but he abandoned this intention on finding
that it had been entertained twenty-five years before by Lord Aberdeen,
and given up by him on the ground, that the majority of the Scottish Peers
looked upon the proposal as lowering to their body, and as implying
inferiority on their part to the English Peers.
[Sidenote: Governor of Jamaica.]
At this time it seemed as if the fair promise of eloquence and
statesmanship had been shown to public life only to be withdrawn from it;
but a path was about to be opened, leading to a new field of action,
distant, indeed, and often thankless, but giving scope for the exercise of
gifts, both of mind and character, which can rarely be exhibited in a
Parliamentary career. In March 1842, at the early age of thirty, he was
selected by Lord Stanley, who was then Secretary for the Colonies, for the
important post of Governor of Jamaica.
[1] The family seat In Fifeshire.
[2] The most distinguished of all those competitors has borne his
testimony to the truth of this expression. 'I well remember,' Mr.
Gladstone wrote after his death, placing him as to the natural gift of
eloquence at the head of all those I knew either at Eton or at the
University.'
[3] His elder brother.
[4] 'We are disposed, in fact, to regard the question, of
University extension, in this sense, as depending entirely on the
possibility of reducing the time required for a University degree, and
we should like to see more attention paid to this point.... The
opinion is strongly and widely entertained, that students now stay too
long at the Public Schools and Universities, and that voting men
ought not to be engaged in the mere preparatory studies of their life
up to the age of twenty-three or twenty-four.'--_Times_, May 22, 1869.
[5] There remains a memorandum in his handwriting of a systematic
course of study to be pursued for his degree, in which two points are
remarkable--1st, the broad and liberal spirit in which it is
conceived; 2ndly, that the whole is based on the Bible. Ancient
History, together with Aristotle's Politics and the ancient orators,
are to be read 'in connection with the Bible History,' with the view
of seeing 'how all hang upon each other, and develops the leading
schemes of Providence.' The various branches of mental and moral
science he proposes, in like manner, 'to hinge upon the New Testament,
as constituting, in another line, the history of moral and
intellectual development.'
CHAPTER II.
JAMAICA.
SHIPWRECK--DEATH OF LADY ELGIN--POSITION OF A GOVERNOR IN A WEST INDIAN
COLONY SUCH AS JAMAICA--STATE OF PUBLIC OPINION IN THE ISLAND--QUESTIONS
OF FINANCE, EDUCATION, AGRICULTURE, THE LABOURING CLASSES, RELIGION, THE
CHURCH--HARMONISING INFLUENCES OF BRITISH CONNEXION--RESIGNATION
--APPOINTMENT TO CANADA.
[Sidenote: Shipwreck.]
[Sidenote: Death of Lady Elgin.]
Lord Elgin sailed for Jamaica in the middle of April 1842. The West Indian
steamers at that time held their rendezvous for the collection and
distribution of the mails not, as now, at St. Thomas, but at a little
island called Turk's Island, a mere sandbank, hedged with coral reefs. The
vessel in which Lord Elgin was a passenger made this island during the
night; but the captain, over anxious to keep his time, held on towards the
shore. They struck on a spike of coral, which pierced the ship's side and
held her impaled; fortunately so, for she was thus prevented from backing
out to sea and foundering with all hands, as other vessels did. Though the
ship itself became a total wreck, no lives were lost, and nearly
everything of value was saved; but from the shock of that night Lady
Elgin, though apparently little alarmed at the time, never recovered. Two
months afterwards, in giving birth to a daughter, now Lady Elma Thurlow,
she was seized with violent convulsions, which were nearly fatal; and
though, to the surprise of the medical men, she rallied from this attack,
her health was seriously impaired, and she died in the summer of the
following year.
[Sidenote: Position of a Governor in a West Indian colony]
There are probably few situations of greater difficulty and delicacy than
that of the Governor of a British colony which possesses representative
institutions. A constitutional sovereign, but with frail and temporary
tenure, he is expected not to reign only but to govern; and to govern
under the orders of a distant minister, who, if he has one eye on the
colony, must keep the other on home politics. Thus, without any power in
himself, he is a meeting-point of two different and generally antagonistic
forces--the will of the imperial government and the will of the local
legislature. To act in harmony with both these forces, and to bring them
into something of harmony with each other, requires, under the most
favourable circumstances, a rare union of firmness with patience and tact.
But the difficulties were much aggravated in a West Indian colony in the
early days of Emancipation.
[Sidenote: such as Jamaica.]
Here the local legislature was a democratic oligarchy, partly composed of
landowners, but chiefly of overseers, with no permanent stake in the
country. And this legislature had to be induced to pass measures for the
benefit of those very blacks of whose enforced service they had been
deprived, and whose paid labour they found it difficult to obtain. Add to
this that, in Jamaica, a long period of contention with the mother-country
had left a feeling of bitter resentment for the past, and sullen
despondency as regards the future. Moreover, the balance had to be held
between the Church of England on the one hand, which was in possession of
all the ecclesiastical endowments, and probably of all the learning and
cultivation of the island, and, on the other hand, the various sects,
especially that of the Baptists, who, having fought vigorously for the
Negroes in the battle of Emancipation, now held undisputed sway over their
minds, and who, as was natural, found it difficult to abandon the position
of demagogues and agitators.
Lord Elgin was at once fortunate and unfortunate in coming after the most
conciliatory and popular of governors, Sir C. Metcalfe. The island was in
a state of peace and harmony which had been long unknown to it; but the
singular affection, which Metcalfe had inspired in all classes, made them
look forward with the most gloomy forebodings to the advent of his
successor.
[Sidenote: State of opinion in the island.]
Moreover, to use Lord Elgin's own language, a tone of despondency with
reference to the prospects of the owners of property had long been
considered the test of a sincere regard for the welfare of Jamaica. He who
had been most successful in proclaiming the depression under which the
landed and trading interests laboured, had been held to be in the popular
acceptation of the term the truest friend to the colony.
Nothing could be more alien to the spirit of inquiry and enterprise which
leads to practical improvement. In an enervating climate, with a
proprietary for the most part non-resident, and a peasantry generally
independent of their employers, much encouragement is requisite to induce
managers to encounter the labour and responsibility which attends the
introduction of new systems; but, by reason of the unfortunate
prepossession above described, the announcement of a belief that the
planters had not exhausted the resources within their reach, had been
considered a declaration of hostility towards that class.
And truly (wrote Lord Elgin himself) the _onus probandi_ lay, and
pretty heavily too, upon the propounder of the obnoxious doctrine of
hope. Was it not shown on the face of unquestioned official returns,
that the exports of the island had dwindled to one-third of their
former amount? Was it not attested even in Parliament, that estates,
which used to produce thousands annually, were sinking money year
after year? Was it not apparent that the labourers stood in a relation
of independence towards the owners of capital and land, totally
unknown to a similar class in any fully peopled country? All these
were facts and indisputable. And again, was it not equally certain
that undeserved aspersions were cast upon the planters? Were they not
held responsible for results over which they could exercise no manner
of control? and was it not natural that, having been thus calumniated,
they should be somewhat impatient of advice?
From the day of Lord Elgin's arrival in the colony, he was convinced that
the endeavour to work a change on public opinion in this respect, would
constitute one of his first and most important duties; but he was not
insensible to the difficulties with which the experiment was surrounded.
He felt that a new Governor, rash enough to assert that all was not yet
accomplished which ingenuity and perseverance could achieve, might have
perilled his chance of benefiting the colony. Men would have said, and
with some truth, 'he knows nothing of the matter; his information is
derived from A. or B.; he is a tool in their hands; he will undo all the
good which others have effected by enlisting the sympathies of England in
our favour.' He would have been deemed a party man, and become an object
of suspicion and distrust.
It was soon found, however, that the new Governor was as anxious as his
predecessor had been to conciliate the good will and promote the interests
of all ranks of the community in a spirit of perfect fairness and
moderation. The agitation of vexed constitutional questions he earnestly
deprecated as likely to interrupt the harmony happily prevailing between
the several branches of the legislature, and to divert the attention of
influential members of the community from the material interests of the
colony to the consideration of more exciting subjects. 'I do not
underrate,' he said, 'the importance of constitutional questions, nor am I
insensible to the honour which may be acquired by their satisfactory
adjustment. In the present crisis of our fortunes, however, I am impressed
with the belief that he is the best friend to Jamaica who concentrates his
energies on the promotion of the moral well-being of the population, and
the restoration of the economical prosperity of the island.'
[Sidenote: Questions of finance]
The finances of the colony were at this time in a state to require the
most careful treatment. At a moment when the recent violent change in the
distribution of the wealth of the community had left the proprietary body
generally in a depressed condition, the Legislature had to provide for the
wants of the newly emancipated population, by increasing at great cost the
ecclesiastical and judicial establishments; and at the same time it was
necessary that a quantity of inconvertible paper recently set afloat
should be redeemed, if the currency was to be fixed on a sound basis.
Under these conditions it was not easy to equalise the receipts and
expenditure of the island treasury; and the difficulty was not diminished
by the necessity of satisfying critics at home. Before long an occasion
arose to test Lord Elgin's tact and discretion in mediating on such
questions between the colony and the mother-country.
Towards the end of 1842 a new tariff was enacted by the legislature of the
island. When the Act embodying it was sent home, it was found to violate
certain economical principles recently adopted in this country. An angry
despatch from Downing Street informed Lord Elgin that it was disapproved,
and that nothing but an apprehension of the financial embarrassments that
must ensue prevented its being formally disallowed. In terms almost
amounting to a reprimand, it was intimated that the adoption of such
objectionable enactments might be prevented if the Governor would exercise
the legitimate influence of his office in opposing them; and it was added,
'If, unfortunately, your efforts should be unsuccessful, and if any such
bill should be presented for your acceptance, it is Her Majesty's pleasure
and command that you withhold your assent from it.'
Lord Elgin replied by a temperate representation, that it was but natural
that traces of a policy long sanctioned by the mother-country should
remain in the legislation of the colony; that the duties in question were
not found injuriously to check trade, while they were needed to meet the
expenditure: moreover, that the Assembly was, and always had been,
extremely jealous of any interference in the matter of self-taxation:
lastly, that 'while sensible that the services of a Governor must be
unprofitable if he failed to acquire and exercise a legitimate moral
influence in the general conduct of affairs, he was at the same time
convinced that a just appreciation of the difficulties with which the
legislature of the island had yet to contend, and of the sacrifices and
exertions already made under the pressure of no ordinary embarrassments,
was an indispensable condition to his usefulness.'
The Home Government felt the weight of these considerations, and the
correspondence closed with the revocation of the peremptory command above
quoted.
[Sidenote: Education.]
The object which Lord Elgin had most at heart was to improve the moral and
social condition of the Negroes, and to fit them, by education, for the
freedom which had been thrust upon them; but, with characteristic tact and
sagacity, he preferred to compass this end through the agency of the
planters themselves. By encouraging the application of mechanical
contrivances to agriculture, he sought to make it the interest not only of
the peasants to acquire, but of the planters to give them, the education
necessary for using machinery; while he lost no opportunity of impressing
on the land-owning class that, if they wished to secure a constant supply
of labour, they could not do so better than by creating in the labouring
class the wants which belong to educated beings.
The following extracts from private letters, written at the time to the
Secretary of State, contain the freshest and best expression of his views
on these and similar questions of island politics:--
In some quarters I am informed, that less desire for education is
shown now by the Negroes than during the apprenticeship; and the
reason assigned is, that it was then supposed that certain social and
political advantages would accrue to those who were able to read, but
that now, when all is gained, and all are on a par in these respects,
the same zeal for learning no longer prevails. It has been suggested
that a great impulse might be given in this direction, by working on
the feeling which existed formerly; confining the franchise for
instance to qualified persons who could read, or by some other
expedient of the same nature. This being an important constitutional
question, I have not thought it right to give the notion any
encouragement; but I submit it as coming from persons who are, I
believe, sincere well-wishers to the Negro. It is not very easy to
keep children steadily at school, or to enforce a very rigid
discipline on them when they are there. Parents who have never been
themselves educated, cannot be expected to attach a very high value to
education. The system of Slavery was not calculated to strengthen the
family ties; and parents do not, I apprehend, exercise generally a
very steady and consistent control in their families. The consequence
is, that children are pretty generally at liberty to attend school or
not as they please. If the rising generation, however, are not
educated, what is to become of this island? That they have withdrawn
themselves to a considerable extent from field labour is, I think,
generally admitted. It is therefore undoubtedly desirable that all
legitimate inducements should be held out, both to parents and
children, to encourage the latter to attend school.
In urging the adoption of machinery in aid of manual labour, one main
object I have had in view has ever been the creation of an aristocracy
among the labourers themselves; the substitution of a given amount of
skilled labour for a larger amount of unskilled. My hope is, that we
may thus engender a healthy emulation among the labourers, a desire to
obtain situations of eminence and mark among their fellows, and also
to push their children forwards in the same career. Where labour is so
scarce as it is here, it is undoubtedly a great object to be able to
effect at a cheaper rate by machinery, what you now attempt to execute
very unsatisfactorily by the hand of man. But it seems to me to be a
still more important object to awaken this honourable ambition in the
breast of the peasant, and I do not see how this can be effected by
any other means. So long as labour means nothing more than digging
cane holes, or carrying loads on the head, physical strength is the
only thing required, no moral or intellectual quality comes into play.
But, in dealing with mechanical appliances, the case is different;
knowledge, acuteness, steadiness are at a premium. The Negro will soon
appreciate the worth of these qualities, when they give him position
among his own class. An indirect value will thus attach to education.
Every successful effort made by enterprising and intelligent
individuals to substitute skilled for unskilled labour; every premium
awarded by societies in acknowledgment of superior honesty,
carefulness, or ability, has a tendency to afford a remedy the most
salutary and effectual which can be devised for the evil here set
forth.
[Sidenote: Agriculture.]
With the view of awakening an interest in the subject of agricultural
improvements, Lord Elgin himself offered a premium of 100_l_. for the
best practical treatise on the cultivation of the cane, with a special
reference to the adoption of mechanical aids and appliances in aid or in
lieu of mechanical labour. In forwarding to Lord Stanley printed copies of
eight of the essays which competed for the prize, he wrote as follows:--
Much, I believe, is involved in the issue of this and similar experiments.
So long as the planter despairs,--so long as he assumes that the cane can
be cultivated and sugar manufactured at profit only on the system adopted
during slavery,--so long as he looks to external aids (among which I class
immigration) as his sole hope of salvation from ruin--with what feelings
must he contemplate all earnest efforts to civilise the mass of the
population? Is education necessary to qualify the peasantry to carry on
the rude field operations of slavery? May not some persons even entertain
the apprehension, that it will indispose them to such pursuits? But let
him, on the other hand, believe that, by the substitution of more
artificial methods for those hitherto employed, he may materially abridge
the expense of raising his produce, and he cannot fail to perceive that an
intelligent, well-educated labourer, with something of a character to
lose, and a reasonable ambition to stimulate him to exertion, is likely to
prove an instrument more apt for his purposes than the ignorant drudge who
differs from the slave only in being no longer amenable to personal
restraint.[1]
One of the measures in which Lord Elgin took the most active interest was
the establishment of a 'General Agricultural Society for the Island of
Jamaica,' and he was much gratified by receiving Her Majesty's permission
to give to it the sanction of her name as Patroness.
I am confident (he writes to Lord Stanley) that the notice which Her
Majesty is pleased to take of the institution will be duly
appreciated, and will be productive of much good.
You must allow me to remark (he adds) that moral results of much
moment are involved in the issue of the efforts which we are now
making for the improvement of agriculture in this colony. Not only has
the impulse which has been imparted to the public mind in Jamaica been
beneficial in itself and in its direct effects, but it has, I am
firmly persuaded, checked opposing tendencies, which threatened very
injurious consequences to Negro civilisation. To reconcile the planter
to the heavy burdens which he was called to bear for the improvement
of our establishments and the benefit of the mass of the population,
it was necessary to persuade him that he had an interest in raising
the standard of education and morals among the peasantry; and this
belief could be imparted only by inspiring a taste for a more
artificial system of husbandry. By the silent operation of such
salutary convictions, prejudices of old standing are removed; the
friends of the Negro and of the proprietary classes find themselves
almost unconsciously acting in concert, and conspiring to complete
that great and holy work of which the emancipation of the slave was
but the commencement.
[Sidenote: The labouring classes.]
On a general survey of the state of the labouring classes, taken after
he had been a little more than a year in the island, he was able to give
a most favourable report of their condition, in all that concerns material
prosperity and comfort of living.
The truth is (he wrote) that our labourers are for the most part in
the position of persons who live habitually within their incomes. They
are generally sober and frugal, and accustomed to a low standard of
living. Their gardens supply them in great measure with the
necessaries of life. The chief part, therefore, of what they receive
in money, whether as wages or as the price of the surplus produce of
their provision grounds, they can lay aside for occasional calls, and,
when they set their minds on an acquisition or an indulgence, they do
not stickle at the cost. I am told that, in the shops at Kingston,
expensive articles of dress are not unusually purchased by members of
the families of black labourers. Whether the ladies are good judges of
the merits of silks and cambrics I do not pretend to decide; but they
pay ready money, and it is not for the sellers to cavil at their
discrimination. The purchase of land, as you well know, is going on
rapidly throughout the island; and the money thus invested must have
been chiefly, though not entirely, accumulated by the labouring
classes since slavery was abolished. A proprietor told me the other
day that he had, within twelve months, sold ten acres of land in small
lots, for the sum of 900_l_. The land sold at so high a price is
situated near a town, and the purchasers pay him an annual rent of
50_s_. per acre, for provision grounds on the more distant parts
of the estate. Again, in most districts, the labourers are possessed
of horses, for which they often pay handsomely. A farm servant not
unfrequently gives from 12_l_. to 20_l_. for an animal which
he intends to employ, not for purposes of profit, but in riding to
church, or on occasions of festivity.
Whence then are these funds derived? That the peasantry are generally
frugal and sober I have already observed. But they are assuredly not
called to tax their physical powers unduly, in order to achieve the
independence I have described. Although the estate I lately visited is
well managed, and the best understanding subsists between employer and
labourers, the latter seldom made their appearance in the field until
some time after I had sallied forth for my morning walk. They work on
the estate only nine days in the fortnight, devoting the alternate
Fridays to the cultivation of their provision grounds, and the
Saturdays to marketing and amusements. On the whole, seeing that the
climate is suited to their constitutions, that they experience none of
the drawbacks to which new settlers, even in the most fertile
countries, are subject, that they are by disposition and temperament a
cheerful race, I much doubt whether any people on the face of the
globe enjoy as large a share of happiness as the Creole peasantry of
this island. And this is a representation not over-charged, or highly
coloured, but drawn in all truth and sobriety of the actual condition
of a population which was, a very few years ago, subjected to the
degrading, depressing influences of slavery. Well may you and others
who took part in the work of emancipation rejoice in the success of
your great experiment.
But was it possible to indulge the same feelings of exultation when
contemplating their condition morally, and marking the indications of
advance towards a higher state of civilisation? In the island itself
controversy was rife as to the degree in which such results had been
already achieved, and the promise of further progress. Some of the more
enthusiastic and ardent of that class of persons who had been the zealous
advocates of the interests of the Negro population at a former period,
were now disposed to judge most hardly of their conduct. Their very
sympathy with the victims of the system formerly prevailing, led them to
conceive unbounded hopes of the benefits, moral and social alike, which a
change would effect; the admirable behaviour of the peasantry at the time
of emancipation, confirmed such anticipations; and they were now beginning
to experience disappointment on finding that all they looked for was not
immediately realised. These feelings, however, Lord Elgin did not share.
On the whole (he said) I feel confident that the moral results
consequent on the introduction of freedom, have been as satisfactory
as could in reason have been expected; and, notwithstanding the very
serious pecuniary loss which this measure has entailed in many
quarters, few indeed, even if they had the power to do so, would
consent to return to the system which has been abandoned. It is
gratifying in the highest degree to observe the feelings now
subsisting between those who lately stood to each other in the
relation of master and slave. Past wrongs are forgotten, and in the
every-day dealings between man and man the humanity of the labourer is
unhesitatingly recognised.
[Sidenote: Religion.]
We have seen how zealously Lord Elgin exerted himself to realise his own
hopes for the prosperity of the colony, by encouraging the spread of
secular and industrial education. Not that he regarded secular education
as all-sufficient. His sympathies[2] were entirely with those who believe
that, while 'it is a great and a good thing to know the laws that govern
this world, it is better still to have some sort of faith in the relations
of this world with another; that the knowledge of cause and effect can
never replace the motive to do right and avoid wrong; that our clergymen
and ministers are more useful than our schoolmasters; that Religion is the
motive power, the faculties are the machines: and the machines are useless
without the motive power.'[3] But, as a practical statesman, he felt that
the one kind of education he had it in his power to forward directly by
measures falling within his own legitimate province; while the other he
could only promote indirectly, by pointing out the need for it, and
drawing attention to the peculiar circumstances of the island respecting
it. The following are a few of the passages in which he refers to the
subject:--
[Sidenote: The Church.]
Much has been done by the island legislature--more, I think, than
could reasonably have been looked for under the circumstances--towards
making provision for the religious necessities of the population. But
the daily formation of small mountain settlements, and the consequent
dispersion of large numbers in districts remote from the established
places of worship, adds greatly to the difficulty of extending to all
these humanising and civilising influences. The Church can keep its
footing here only by the exhibition of missionary zeal and devotion,
tempered by a spirit of Christian benevolence and conciliation. I
regret to say that some of the unhappy controversies which are vexing
the Church in England have broken out here of late. Discussions of
this nature are singularly unprofitable where the people need to be
instructed in the very rudiments of Christian knowledge, and where it
is so desirable to keep well with all who profess to have a similar
object in view.
A single bishop in a colony, where large funds are provided by the
State for Church purposes, and where he is beyond the reach of the
public opinion of England, exercises a very great and irresponsible
authority. If a zealous man, of extreme views on points of doctrine,
the clergy of the diocese, looking to him alone for advancement in
their profession, are apt to echo his sentiments; and the wide folding
doors of our mother Church, which she flings open for the reception of
so many, to use Milton's words, 'brotherly dissimilitudes that are not
vastly disproportioned,' are contracted, to the exclusion, perchance,
of some whom it were desirable to retain in our communion. If, on the
other hand, he be a man of but moderate piety, ability, and firmness,
the importunity of friends at a distance, who may wish to provide for
dependents or connections, and other considerations which need not be
enumerated, may tempt him to lower the standard of ministerial
qualification, of which he is, of course, the sole judge. It requires
a person of much Christian principle, and singular moderation,
discretion, and tact, to administer powers of this nature well. I have
every hope that the bishop whom you have sent us will prove equal to
the task. For the sake of humanity and civilisation, as well as for
the interests of the island, I fervently trust that I may not be
disappointed in my expectations on this head.
The complex and thwarting currents of interest and opinion that may exist
in a colony respecting the maintenance of a State Church are well
illustrated in the following extracts:--
Very soon after I arrived here, I felt satisfied that the conflicts of
party in the colony would ere long assume a new character. I perceived
that the hostility to the proprietary interests, which was supposed to
actuate certain classes of persons who had much influence with the
peasantry, was on the decline. Should a state of quiescence prove
incompatible with the maintenance of their hold on their flocks,
analogy led me to anticipate that the Established Church would, in all
probability, become an object of attack.
Considering the facility with which the franchise may be acquired, it
is not a little remarkable that the constituency should have hitherto
increased so slowly. This phenomenon has not escaped the notice of the
opponents of the union of Church and State, and they have ascribed it
to the true cause. They are sensible that all uneducated population in
easy circumstances, without practical grievances, are not likely to be
intent on the acquisition of political privileges. They have,
therefore, undertaken to supply them with a grievance, in order to
whet their appetite for the franchise, and also to provide them with
guides who shall instruct them in the proper use of it. But in
attempting to carry this scheme into effect they have encountered an
obstacle, which has, for the time, entirely frustrated their
intentions. The more educated and intelligent of the brown party
listen with disapprobation to the tone in which the Baptist ministers
and their adherents arrogate to themselves exclusively the title of
friends and leaders of the black population. Many persons of this
class have already embarked in public life; some, as members of
Assembly, have taken part in those transactions which are the object
of the bitterest denunciations of the Anti-Church party. A few are
Churchmen, others Wesleyans. The prospect of a Baptist oligarchy
ruling in undivided sway disquiets them. They have their doubts as to
whether, in the present stage of our civilisation, the peasantry of
this Island would evince much discrimination in their selection of a
religion if left in that matter entirely to themselves. In the
chequered array of colours which our religious world even now
presents, comprising every shade, from Roman Catholicism and Judaism,
to Myalism, and providing spiritual gratification for every eye, they
still think it, on the whole, desirable that predominance should be
given to some one over the rest. Many have experienced the bounty of
the legislature, which has been most liberal in affording aid to all
sects who have applied for it. They are not, therefore, as yet ready
for the overthrow of the Church Establishment. But I will not take
upon myself to affirm that, as a body, they are prepared to incur
political martyrdom in its defence.
But apart from the difficulties--social, moral, and religious--at which we
have glanced, there was enough in the political aspect of affairs to fill
the Governor of Jamaica with anxiety. The franchise being within the reach
of every one who chose to stretch out a hand and grasp it, might at any
time be claimed by vast numbers of persons who had recently been slaves,
and were still generally illiterate. And the Assembly for which this
constituency had to provide members exercised great authority within its
own sphere. It discharged a large portion of the functions which usually
devolve upon an Executive Government; it initiated all legislative
measures, besides voting the supplies from year to year. What hope was
there that a body so constituted would wield such powers with discretion?
[Sidenote: Harmonising influence of British institutions.]
Lord Elgin's answer to this question shows that he already cherished that
faith in the harmonising influence of British institutions on a mixed
population, which afterwards, at a critical period of Canadian history,
was the mainspring of his policy.
A sojourner in this sea of the Antilles, who is watching with
heartfelt anxiety the progress of the great experiment of Negro
emancipation (an experiment which must result in failure unless
religion and civilisation minister to the mind that freedom which the
enactments of law have secured for the body), might well be tempted to
view the prospect to which I have now introduced you with some
feelings of misgiving, were he not reassured by his firm reliance on
the harmonising influence of British connexion, and the power of self-
adaptation inherent in our institutions. On the one side he sees the
model Republic of Hayti--a coloured community, which has enjoyed
nearly half a century of entire independence and self-rule. And with
what issues? As respects moral and intellectual culture, stagnation:
in all that concerns material development, a fatal retrogression. He
beholds there, at this day, a miserable parody of European and
American institutions, without the spirit that animates either: the
tinsel of French sentiment on the ground of negro ignorance: even the
'sacred right of 'insurrection' burlesqued: a people which has for its
only living belief an ill-defined apprehension of the superiority of
the white man, and, for the rest, blunders on without faith in what
regards this world or that which is to come.
He turns his eyes to another quarter and perceives the cluster of
states which have formed themselves from the breakup of the Spanish
continental dominions. What ground of consolation or hope does he
discover there?
These illustrations of the working of free systems constructed out of
the wreck of a broken-down African Slave Trade are not indeed
encouraging; but neither do they, in my opinion, warrant despair. I
believe that by great caution and diligence, by firmness and
gentleness on the part of the parent state, and much prudence in the
instruments which it employs, a people with a heart and soul may be
built up out of the materials in our hands. I regard our local
constitution as a _fait accompli_, and have no desire to remove a
stone of the fabric. I think that a popular representative system is,
perhaps, the best expedient that can be devised for blending into one
harmonious whole a community composed of diverse races and colour, and
this conviction is strengthened when I read the observations of Sir H.
Macleod and Governor Light, on the coloured classes in Demerara and
Trinidad. In colonies which have no assemblies, it would appear that
aspiring intellects have not the same opportunity of finding their
level, and pent up ambitions lack a vent.
In studying the play of the various forces at work around him, and in
endeavouring to direct them to good issues, Lord Elgin found the best
solace for the domestic sorrow which darkened this period of his life. He
lived chiefly in retirement, at a country-house called Craigton, in the
Blue Mountains, with his sister, now Lady Charlotte Locker, and his
brother Robert, who was also his most able and efficient secretary; seeing
little society beyond that occasioned by official intercourse and
receptions, which were never intermitted at Spanish Town, the seat of
Government. The isolation and monotony of this position, broken only once
by a conference held with some of the neighbouring Governors on a question
of common interest respecting immigration, could not fail to be
distasteful to his active spirit; and when it had lasted over three years,
it was not unnatural that he should seek to be relieved from it. Early in
1845 we find him writing to Lord Stanley as follows:--
[Sidenote: Resignation.]
I am warned by the commencement of the year 1845 that I have filled
the situation of Governor of Jamaica for as long a time as any of my
predecessors since the Duke of Manchester. The period of my
administration has not been marked by striking incidents, but it has
been one of considerable social progress. Uninterrupted harmony has
prevailed between the colonists and the local Government; and it may
perhaps, without exaggeration, be affirmed, that the spirit of
enterprise which has proceeded from Jamaica during the past two years
has enabled the British West Indian colonies to endure, with
comparative fortitude, apprehensions and difficulties which might
otherwise have depressed them beyond measure. Circumstances have,
however, occurred since my arrival in the colony, unconnected with
public affairs, which have materially affected my views in life, and
which made me contemplate with much repugnance the prospect of an
indefinitely prolonged sojourn in this place. Without dwelling at any
greater length on these painful topics, I venture to trust that you
will acquit me of undue presumption when I assure you, that in my
present forlorn and isolated position, nothing enables me to persevere
in the discharge of my duties, except the hope that my humble services
may earn for me your confidence and the approbation of my Sovereign,
and prove not altogether unprofitable to the community over whose
interests I am appointed to watch.
He remained, however, at his post for more than a year longer, and quitted
it in the spring of 1846 on leave of absence, with the understanding that
he should not be required to return to Jamaica.
[Sidenote: Appointment to Canada.]
During nearly the whole period of his government the seals of the Colonial
Office had been held by Lord Stanley, to whom he owed his appointment; and
at the break-up of the Tory party, in the beginning of 1846, they passed
into the hands of his old schoolfellow and college friend, Mr. Gladstone.
But he had scarcely arrived in England when a new Secretary arose in the
person of Lord Grey, to whom he was unknown except by reputation. It is
all the more creditable to both parties that, in spite of their political
differences, Lord Grey should first have endeavoured to induce him, on
public grounds alone, to retain the government of Jamaica, with the
promise of his unreserved confidence and most cordial support; and shortly
afterwards, should have offered to him the still more important post of
Governor-General of British North America. 'I believe,' wrote his
Lordship, in making the offer, 'that it would be difficult to point out
any situation in which great talents would find more scope for useful
exertion, or are more wanted at this moment, and I am sure that I could
not hope to find anyone whom I could recommend to Her Majesty for that
office with so much confidence as yourself.'
So splendid an offer, made in a manner so gratifying, might well overcome
any reluctance which Lord Elgin felt to embark at once on a fresh period
of expatriation, and to resume labours which, however cordially they may
be appreciated by a minister, are apt to meet with little recognition from
the public.
He accepted it, not in the spirit of mere selfish ambition, but with a
deep sense of the responsibilities attached to it, which he portrayed in
earnest and forcible words at a public dinner at Dunfermline:--
To watch over the interests of those great offshoots of the British
race which plant themselves in distant lands; to aid them in their
efforts to extend the domain of civilisation, and to fulfil that first
behest of a benevolent Creator to His intelligent creatures--'subdue
the earth;' to abet the generous endeavour to impart to these rising
communities the full advantages of British laws, British institutions,
and British freedom; to assist them in maintaining unimpaired, it may
be in strengthening and confirming, those bonds of mutual affection
which unite the parent and dependent states--these are duties not to
be lightly undertaken, and which may well claim the exercise of all
the faculties and energies of an earnest and patriotic mind.
It was arranged that he should go to Canada at the end of the year. In the
interval he became engaged to Lady Mary Louisa Lambton, daughter of the
first Earl of Durham. They were married on November 7th, and in the first
days of the year 1847 he sailed for America.
[1] It is impossible not to be struck with the applicability of
these remarks to the condition of the agricultural poor in some parts
of England, and the question of extending among them the benefits of
education.
[2] Vide inf. p. 156.
[3] See the speech of Mr. W.E. Forster, at Leeds, May 20, 1869.
CHAPTER III.
CANADA.
STATE OF THE COLONY--FIRST IMPRESSIONS--PROVINCIAL POLITICS--'RESPONSIBLE
GOVERNMENT'--IRISH IMMIGRANTS--UPPER CANADA--CHANGE OF MINISTRY--FRENCH
HABITANTS--THE FRENCH QUESTION--THE IRISH--THE BRITISH--DISCONTENTS; THEIR
CAUSES AND REMEDIES--NAVIGATION LAWS--RETROSPECT--SPEECH ON EDUCATION.
[Sidenote: View of the state of Canada.]
In passing from Jamaica to Canada, Lord Elgin went not only to a far wider
sphere of action, but to one of infinitely greater complication. For in
Canada there were two civilised populations of nearly equal power, viewing
each other with traditionary dislike and distrust: the French
_habitans_ of the Lower Province, strong in their connexion with the
past, and the British settlers, whose energy and enterprise gave
unmistakable promise of predominance in the future. Canada had, within a
few miles of her capital, a powerful and restless neighbour, whose
friendly intentions were not always sufficient to restrain the unruly
spirits on her frontier from acts of aggression, which might at any time
lead to the most serious complications. Moreover, in Canada representative
institutions were already more fully developed than in any other colony,
and were at this very time passing through the most critical period of
their final development.
[Sidenote: Rebellion of 1837.]
[Sidenote: Lord Durham's Report.]
[Sidenote: Lord Sydenham.]
[Sidenote: Sir C. Bagot.]
[Sidenote: Lord Metcalfe.]
The rebellion of 1837 and 1838 had necessarily checked the progress of the
colony towards self-government. It has since been acknowledged that the
demands which led to that rebellion were such as England would have gladly
granted two or three hundred years before; and they were, in fact,
subsequently conceded one after another, 'not from terror, but because, on
seriously looking at the case, it was found that after all we had no
possible interest in withholding them.'[1] But at the time it was
necessary to put down the rebels by force, and to establish military
government. In 1838 Lord Durham was sent out as High Commissioner for the
Adjustment of the Affairs of the Colony, and his celebrated 'Report' sowed
the seeds of all the beneficial changes which followed. So early as
October 1839, when Poulett Thomson, afterwards Lord Sydenham, went out as
Governor, Lord John Russell took the first step towards the introduction
of 'responsible government,' by announcing that the principal offices of
the colony 'would not be considered as being held by a tenure equivalent
to one during good behaviour, but that the holders would be liable to be
called upon to retire whenever, from motives of public policy or for
other reasons, this should be found expedient.'[2] But the insurrection
was then too recent to allow of constitutional government being
established, at least in Lower Canada; and, after the Union in 1840, Lord
Sydenham exercised, partly owing to his great ability, much more power
than is usually enjoyed by constitutional governors. He exercised it,
however, in such a manner as to pave the way for a freer system, which was
carried out to a great extent by his successor, Sir Charles Bagot; who,
though bearing the reputation of an old-fashioned Tory, did not scruple to
admit to his counsels persons who had been active in opposing the Crown
during the recent rebellion; acting on 'the broad principle that the
constitutional majority had the right to rule under the constitution.'[3]
Towards the end of 1842, Sir C. Bagot found himself obliged by continued
ill-health to resign; and he was succeeded by Lord Metcalfe--a man, as has
been before noticed, of singularly popular manners and conciliatory
disposition, but whose views of government, formed in India and confirmed
in Jamaica, little fitted him to deal at an advanced age with the novel
questions presented by Canada at this crisis. A quarrel arose between him
and his Ministry on a question of patronage. The ministers resigned,
though supported by a large majority in the Assembly. With great
difficulty he formed a Conservative administration, and immediately
dissolved his Parliament. The new elections gave a small majority to the
Conservatives, chiefly due, it was said, to the exertion of his personal
influence; but the success was purchased at a ruinous cost, for he was now
in the position, fatal to a governor, of a party man. Even from this
situation he might perhaps have been able to extricate himself: so great
was the respect felt for his rare qualities of mind and character. But a
distressing malady almost incapacitated him for the discharge of public
business, and at length, in November 1845, forced him to resign. At this
time there was some apprehension of difficulties with America, arising
from the Oregon question, and, in view of the possibility of war, Mr.
Gladstone, who was then at the Colonial Office, appointed Lord Cathcart,
the commander of the forces, to be Governor-General.
[Sidenote: Lord Cathcart.]
When the Whig party came into power, and Lord Grey became Secretary for
the Colonies, the Oregon difficulty had been happily settled, and it was
no longer necessary or desirable that the colony should be governed by a
military officer. What was wanted was a person possessing an intimate
knowledge of the principles and practice of the constitution of England,
some experience of popular assemblies, and considerable familiarity with
the political questions of the day.'[4] After much consideration it was
decided to offer the post to Lord Elgin, though personally unknown at the
time both to the Premier and to the Secretary for the Colonies.
[Sidenote: Principles of Colonial Government.]
The principles on which Lord Elgin undertook to conduct the affairs of the
colony were, that he should identify himself with no party, but make
himself a mediator and moderator between the influential of all parties;
that he should have no ministers who did not enjoy the confidence of the
Assembly, or, in the last resort, of the people; and that he should not
refuse his consent to any measure proposed by his Ministry, unless it were
of an extreme party character, such as the Assembly or the people would be
sure to disapprove.[4] Happily these principles were not, in Lord Elgin's
case, of yesterday's growth. He had acted upon them, as far as was
possible, even in Jamaica; and in their soundness as applied to a colony
like Canada he had that firm faith, grounded on original conviction, which
alone could have enabled him to maintain them, as he afterwards did,
single-handed, in face of the most violent opposition, and in
circumstances by which they were most severely tested.
[Sidenote: Crossing the Atlantic.]
It was fortunate that Lord Elgin had arranged to leave his bride in
England, to follow at a less inclement season; for he had an unusually
stormy passage across the Atlantic--'the worst passage the ship had ever
made.'
Writing on the 16th of January to Lady Grey he says:
Hitherto we have had a very boisterous passage. On the 13th we had a
hurricane, and were obliged to lie to--a rare occurrence with these
vessels. It was almost impossible to be on deck, but I crept out of a
hole for a short time, to behold the sea, which was truly grand in its
wrath; the waves rolling mountains high, and the wind sweeping the
foam off their crests, and driving it, together with the snow and
sleet, almost horizontally over the ocean. We lay thus for some hours,
our masts covered with snow, pitching and tossing, now in the trough
of the sea, and now on the summit of the billows, without anxiety or
alarm, so gallantly did our craft bear itself through these perils.
The ship is very full, with half a million of specie, and a motley
group of passengers: a Bishop, an ex-secretary of Legation and an
ex-consul, both of the United States; a batch of Germans and of
Frenchmen; a host of Yankees, the greater part being bearded, which
is, I understand, characteristic of young America, particularly when
it travels; some specimens of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Canada, and
the Rocky Mountains, not to mention English and Scotch. Every now and
then, at the most serious moments, sounds of uproarious mirth proceed
from a party of Irish, who are playing antics in some corner of the
ship. Considering that we are all hemmed in within the space of a few
feet, and that it is the amusement of the great restless ocean to
pitch us constantly into each other's arms, it is hard indeed if we do
not pick up something new in the scramble.
[Sidenote: First impressions.]
On the 25th of January he landed at Boston, and proceeding next day by
railway and sleigh, reached Montreal on the 29th. On the 31st he wrote
from Monklands, the suburban residence of the governor, to Lady Elgin:--
Yesterday was my great day. I agreed to make my entrance to Montreal,
for the purpose of being inaugurated. The morning was unpropitious.
There had been a tremendous storm during the night, and the snow had
drifted so much that it seemed doubtful whether a sleigh could go from
hence to town (about four miles). I said that I had no notion of being
deterred by weather. Accordingly, I got into a one-horse sleigh, with
very small runners, which conveyed me to the entrance of the town,
where I was met by the Mayor and Corporation with an address. I then
got into Lord Cathcart's carriage, accompanied by the Mayor, and a
long procession of carriages was formed. We drove slowly to the
Government House (in the town), through a dense mass of people--all
the societies, trades, &c., with their banners. Nothing could be more
gratifying. After the swearing in, at which the public were present,
the Mayor read another address from the inhabitants. To this I
delivered a reply, which produced, I think, a considerable effect, and
no little astonishment on some gentlemen who intended that I should
say nothing. I have adopted frankly and unequivocally Lord Durham's
view of government, and I think that I have done all that could be
done to prevent its being perverted to vile purposes of faction.
Various circumstances combined to smooth, for the time, the waters on
which Lord Elgin had embarked. The state of political parties was
favourable; for the old Tories of the British 'Family Compact' party
were in good humour, being in enjoyment of the powers to which they
claimed a prescriptive right, while the 'Liberals' of the Opposition
were full of hope that the removal of Lord Metcalfe's disturbing
influence would restore their proper preponderance. Something also was
due to his own personal qualities. Whereas most of his immediate
predecessors had been men advanced in years and enfeebled by
ill-health, he was in the full enjoyment of vigorous youth--able, if
need were, to work whole days at a stretch; to force his way through a
Canadian snow-storm, if his presence was required at a public meeting;
to make long and rapid journeys through the province, ever ready to
receive an address, and give an _impromptu_ reply. The papers soon
began to remark on the 'geniality and affability of 'his demeanour.'
'He is daily,' they said, 'making new 'friends. He walks to church,
attends public meetings, 'leads the cheering, and is, in fact, a man
of the people.' Before long it was added, 'Our new governor is 'the
most effective speaker in the province;' and, thanks to his foreign
education, he was able to speak as readily and fluently to the French
Canadians in French as to the English in English. Added to this, his
recent marriage was a passport to the hearts of many in Canada, who
looked back to the late Lord Durham as the apostle of their liberties,
if not as a martyr in their cause.
[Sidenote: Provincial politics.]
But though the surface was smooth, there was much beneath to disquiet an
observant governor. It was not only that the Ministry was so weak, and so
conscious of its weakness, as to be incapable even of proposing any
measures of importance. This evil might be remedied by a change of
administration. But there was no real political life; only that pale and
distorted reflection of it which is apt to exist in a colony before it has
learned 'to look within itself for the centre of power.' Parties formed
themselves, not on broad issues of principle, but with reference to petty
local and personal interests; and when they sought the support of a more
widespread sentiment, they fell back on those antipathies of race, which
it was the main object of every wise Governor to extinguish.
The following extracts from private letters to Lord Grey, written within a
few months of his arrival, reflect this state of things. Though the
circumstances to which they refer are past and gone, they may not be
without interest, as affording an insight into a common phase of colonial
government.
Hitherto things have gone on well with me, much better than I hoped
for when we parted. I should have been very willing to meet the
Assembly at once, and throw myself with useful measures on the good
sense of the people, but my ministers are too weak for this. They seem
to be impressed with the belief that the regular Opposition will of
course resist whatever they propose, and that any fragments of their
own side, who happen not to be able at the moment to get what they
want, will join them. When I advise them, therefore, to go down to
Parliament with good measures and the prestige of a new Governor, and
rely on the support of public opinion, they smile and shake their
heads. It is clear that they are not very credulous of the existence
of such a controlling power, and that their faith in the efficiency of
appeals to selfish and sordid motives is greater than mine.
Nevertheless, we must take the world as we find it, and if new
elements of strength are required to enable the Government to go on,
it is I think very advisable to give the French a fair opportunity of
entering the Ministry in the first instance. It is also more prudent
to enter upon these delicate negotiations cautiously and slowly, in
order to avoid, if possible, giving the impression that I am ready to
jump down everybody's throat the moment I touch the soil of Canada.
I believe that the problem of how to govern United Canada would be
solved if the French would split into a Liberal and a Conservative
party, and join the Upper Canada parties which bear corresponding
names. The great difficulty hitherto has been that a Conservative
government has meant a government of Upper Canadians, which is
intolerable to the French, and a Radical government a government of
French, which is no less hateful to the British. No doubt the party
titles are misnomers, for the radical party comprises the political
section most averse to progress of any in the country. Nevertheless,
so it has been hitherto. The national element would be merged in the
political if the split to which I refer were accomplished.
The tottering Ministry attempted to strengthen its position by a junction
with some of the leaders of the 'French' party; but the attempt was
unsuccessful:
I cannot say that I am surprised or disheartened by the result of
these negotiations with the French. In a community like this, where
there is little, if anything, of public principle to divide men,
political parties will shape themselves under the influence of
circumstances, and of a great variety of affections and antipathies,
national, sectarian, and personal; and I never proposed to attempt to
force them into a mould of my own forming.
You will observe that no question of principle or of public policy has
been mooted by either party during the negotiation. The whole
discussion has turned upon personal considerations. This is, I fancy,
a pretty fair sample of Canadian politics. It is not even pretended
that the divisions of party represent corresponding divisions of
sentiment on questions which occupy the public mind; such as
Voluntaryism, Free Trade, &c., &c. Responsible government is the only
subject on which this coincidence is alleged to exist. The opponents
of the Administration are supposed to dissent from the views held by
Lord Metcalfe upon it, though it is not so clear that its supporters
altogether adopt them. That this delicate and most debatable subject
should furnish the watchwords of party is most inconvenient.
In enumerating the difficulties which surround such questions as Union
of the provinces, Emigration, &c., you omit the greatest of them all;
viz.: the materials with which I have to work in carrying out any
measures for the public advantage. There are half a dozen parties
here, standing on no principles, and all intent on making political
capital out of whatever turns up. It is exceedingly difficult, under
such circumstances, to induce public men to run the risk of adopting
any scheme that is bold or novel.
Keenly alive to the evil of this state of things, Lord Elgin was not less
sensible that the blame of it did not rest with the existing generation of
Canadian politicians, but that it was the result of a variety of
circumstances, some of which it was impossible to regret.
Several causes (he wrote) co-operate together to give to personal and
party interests the overweening importance which attaches to them in
the estimation of local politicians. There are no real grievances here
to stir the depths of the popular mind. We are a comfortable people,
with plenty to eat and drink, no privileged classes to excite envy, or
taxes to produce irritation. It were ungrateful to view these
blessings with regret, and yet I believe that they account in some
measure for the selfishness of public men and their indifference to
the higher aims of statesmanship.
[Sidenote: Responsible government.]
The comparatively small number of members of which the popular bodies
who determine the fate of provincial administrations consist, is also,
I am inclined to think, unfavourable to the existence of a high order
of principle and feeling among official personages. A majority of ten
in an assembly of seventy may probably be, according to Cocker,
equivalent to a majority of 100 in an assembly of 700. In practice,
however, it is far otherwise. The defection of two or three
individuals from the majority of ten puts the administration in peril.
Thence the perpetual patchwork and trafficking to secure this vote and
that, which (not to mention other evils) so engrosses the time and
thoughts of ministers, that they have not leisure for matters of
greater moment. It must also be remembered that it is only of late
that the popular assemblies in this part of the world have acquired
the right of determining who shall govern them--of insisting, as we
phrase it, that the administration of affairs shall be conducted by
persons enjoying their confidence. It is not wonderful that a
privilege of this kind should be exercised at first with some degree
of recklessness, and that, while no great principles of policy are at
stake, methods of a more questionable character for winning and
retaining the confidence of these arbiters of destiny should be
resorted to. My course in these circumstances is, I think, clear and
plain. It may be somewhat difficult to follow occasionally, but I feel
no doubt as to the direction in which it lies. I give to my ministers
all constitutional support, frankly and without reserve, and the
benefit of the best advice that I can afford them in their
difficulties. In return for this I expect that they will, in so far as
it is possible for them to do so, carry out my views for the
maintenance of the connexion with Great Britain and the advancement of
the interests of the province. On this tacit understanding we have
acted together harmoniously up to this time, although I have never
concealed from them that I intend to do nothing which may prevent me
from working cordially with their opponents, if they are forced upon
me. That ministries and Oppositions should occasionally change places,
is of the very essence of our constitutional system, and it is
probably the most conservative element which it contains. By
subjecting all sections of politicians in their turn to official
responsibilities, it obliges heated partisans to place some restraint
on passion, and to confine within the bounds of decency the patriotic
zeal with which, when out of place, they are wont to be animated. In
order, however, to secure these advantages, it is indispensable that
the head of the Government should show that he has confidence in the
loyalty of all the influential parties with which he has to deal, and
that he should have no personal antipathies to prevent him from acting
with leading men.
I feel very strongly that a Governor-General, by acting upon these
views with tact and firmness, may hope to establish a moral influence
in the province which will go far to compensate for the loss of power
consequent on the surrender of patronage to an executive responsible
to the local Parliament. Until, however, the functions of his office,
under our amended colonial constitution, are more clearly defined--
until that middle term which shall reconcile the faithful discharge of
his responsibility to the Imperial Government and the province with
the maintenance of the quasi-monarchical relation in which he now
stands towards the community over which he presides, be discovered and
agreed upon, he must be content to tread along a path which is
somewhat narrow and slippery, and to find that incessant watchfulness
and some dexterity are requisite to prevent him from falling, on the
one side into the _neant_ of mock sovereignty, or on the other
into the dirt and confusion of local factions.
Many of his letters exhibit the same conviction that the remedy for the
evils which he regretted was to be found in the principles of government
first asserted by Lord Durham; but there is a special interest in the
expression of this sentiment when addressed, as in the following extract,
to Lord Durham's daughter:--
I still adhere to my opinion that the real and effectual vindication
of Lord Durham's memory and proceedings will be _the success of a
Governor-General of Canada who works out his views of government
fairly_. Depend upon it, if this country is governed for a few
years satisfactorily, Lord Durham's reputation as a statesman will be
raised beyond the reach of cavil. I do not indeed know whether I am to
be the instrument to carry out this work, or be destined, like others
who have gone before me, to break down in the attempt; but I am still
of opinion that the thing may be done, though it requires some good
fortune and some qualities not of the lowest order. I find on my
arrival here a very weak Government, almost as much abused by their
friends as by their foes, no civil or private secretary, and an
immense quantity of arrears of business. It is possible, therefore,
that I may not be able to bear up against the difficulties of my
situation, and that it may remain for some one else to effect that
object, which many reasons would render me so desirous to achieve.
[Sidenote: Irish immigration,]
With these cares, which formed the groundwork of the texture of the
Governor's life, were interwoven from time to time interests of a more
temporary character; of which the first in date, as in importance, was
connected with the flood of immigration consequent on the Irish famine of
1847.
During the course of the season nearly 100,000 immigrants landed at
Quebec, a large proportion of whom were totally destitute, and must have
perished had they not been forwarded at the cost of the public. Owing to
various causes, contagious fever of a most malignant character prevailed
among them, to an unexampled extent; the number confined at one time in
hospitals occasionally approached 10,000: and though the mortality among
children was very great, nearly 1,000 immigrant orphans were left during
the season at Montreal, besides a proportionate number at Grosse Isle,
Quebec, Kingston, Toronto, and other places.
In this manner 'army after army of sick and suffering people, fleeing from
famine in their native land to be stricken down by death in the valley of
the St. Lawrence, stopped in rapid succession at Grosse Isle, and there
leaving numbers of their dead behind, pushed upwards towards the lakes, in
over-crowded steamers, to burthen the inhabitants of the western towns and
villages.'[5]
The people of Canada exerted themselves nobly, under the direction of
their Governor, to meet the sudden call upon their charity; but he felt
deeply for the sufferings which it entailed upon the colony, and he did
not fail to point out to Lord Grey how severe was the strain thus laid on
her loyalty:--
[Sidenote: a scourge to the province.]
The immigration which is now taking place is a frightful scourge to
the province. Thousands upon thousands of poor wretches are coming
here incapable of work, and scattering the seeds of disease and death.
Already five or six hundred orphans are accumulated at Montreal, for
whose sustenance, until they can be put out to service, provision must
be made. Considerable panic exists among the inhabitants. Political
motives contribute to swell the amount of dissatisfaction produced by
this state of things. The Opposition make the want of adequate
provision to meet this overwhelming calamity, in the shape of
hospitals, &c., a matter of charge against the Provincial
Administration. That section of the French who dislike British
immigration at all times, find, as might be expected, in the
circumstances of this year, a theme for copious declamation. Persons
who cherish republican sympathies ascribe these evils to our dependent
condition as colonists--'the States of the Union,' they say, 'can take
care of themselves, and avert the scourge from their shores, but we
are victims on whom inhuman Irish landlords, &c., can charge the
consequences of their neglect and rapacity.' Meanwhile I have a very
delicate and irksome duty to discharge. There is a general belief
that Great Britain must make good to the province the expenses
entailed on it by this visitation. 'It is enough,' say the
inhabitants, 'that our houses should be made a receptacle of this mass
of want and misery: it cannot surely be intended that we are to be
mulcted in heavy pecuniary damages besides.' The reasonableness of
these sentiments can hardly be questioned--bitter indignation would be
aroused by the attempt to confute them--and yet I feel that if I were
too freely to assent to them, I might encourage recklessness,
extravagance, and peculation. From the overwhelming nature of the
calamity, and the large share which it has naturally occupied of the
attention of Parliament and of the public, the task of making
arrangements to meet the necessities of the case has practically been
withdrawn from the department of the Civil Secretary, and fallen into
the hands of the Provincial Administration. In assenting to the
various minutes which they have passed for affording relief to the
sick and destitute, and for guarding against the spread of disease, I
have felt it to be my duty, even at the risk of incurring the
imputation of insensibility to the claims of distress, to urge the
necessity of economy, and of adopting all possible precautions against
waste. You will at once perceive, however, how embarrassing my
position is. A source of possible misunderstanding between myself and
the colonists is furnished by these untoward circumstances, altogether
unconnected with the ordinary, or, as I may perhaps venture to term
them, normal difficulties of my situation.
On the whole, all things considered, I think that a great deal of
forbearance and good feeling has been shown by the colonists under
this trial. Nothing can exceed the devotion of the nuns and Roman
Catholic priests, and the conduct of the clergy and of many of the
laity of other denominations has been most exemplary. Many lives have
been sacrificed in attendance on the sick and administering to their
temporal and spiritual need. But the aspect of affairs is becoming
more and more alarming. The panic which prevails in Montreal and
Quebec is beginning to manifest itself in the Upper Province, and
farmers are unwilling to hire even the healthy immigrants, because it
appears that since the warm weather set in, typhus has broken out in
many cases among those who were taken into service at the commencement
of the season, as being perfectly free from disease. I think it most
important that the Home Government should do all in their power by
enforcing the provisions of the Passengers' Act, and by causing these
facts to be widely circulated, to stem this tide of misery.
* * * * *
What is to be done? Private charity is exhausted. In a country where
pauperism as a normal condition of society is unknown, you have not
local rates for the relief of destitution to fall back upon. Humanity
and prudence alike forbid that they should be left to perish in the
streets. The exigency of the case can manifestly be met only by an
expenditure of public funds.
[Sidenote: The charge should be borne by the mother-country.]
But by whom is this charge to be borne? You urge, that when the first
pressure is past, the province will derive, in various ways, advantage
from this immigration,--that the provincial administration, who
prescribe the measures of relief, have means, which the Imperial
authorities have not, of checking extravagance and waste; and you
conclude that their constituents ought to be saddled with at least a
portion of the expense. I readily admit the justice of the latter
branch of this argument, but I am disposed to question the force of
the former. The benefit which the province will derive from this
year's immigration is, at best, problematical; and it is certain that
they who are to profit by it would willingly have renounced it,
whatever it may be, on condition of being relieved from the evils by
which it has been attended. Of the gross number of immigrants who have
reached the province, many are already mouldering in their graves.
Among the survivors there are widows and orphans, and aged and
diseased persons, who will probably be for an indefinite period a
burden on Government or private charity. A large proportion of the
healthy and prosperous, who have availed themselves of the cheap route
of the St. Lawrence, will, I fears find their way to the Western
States, where land is procurable on more advantageous terms than in
Canada. To refer, therefore, to the 82,000 immigrants who have passed
into the States through New York, and been absorbed there without cost
to the mother-country, and to contrast this circumstance with the
heavy expense which has attended the admission of a smaller number
into Canada, is hardly just. In the first place, of the 82,000 who
went to New York, a much smaller proportion were sickly or destitute;
and, besides, by the laws of the state, ship-owners importing
immigrants are required to enter into bonds, which are forfeited when
any of the latter become chargeable on the public. These, and other
precautions yet more stringent, were enforced so soon as the character
of this year's immigration was ascertained, and they had the effect of
turning towards this quarter the tide of suffering which was setting
in that direction. Even now, immigrants attempting to cross the
frontier from Canada are sent back, if they are either sickly or
paupers. On the whole, I fear that a comparison between the condition
of this province and that of the states of the neighbouring republic,
as affected by this year's immigration, would be by no means
satisfactory or provocative of dutiful and affectionate feelings
towards the mother-country on the part of the colonists. It is a case
in which, on every account, I think the Imperial Government is bound
to act liberally.
[Sidenote: Lord Palmerston's tenants.]
Month after month, the tide of misery flowed on, each wave sweeping deeper
into the heart of the province, and carrying off fresh victims of their
own benevolence. Unfortunately, just as navigation closed for the season,
a vessel arrived full of emigrants from Lord Palmerston's Irish estates.
They appear to have been rather a favourable specimen of their class; but
they came late, and they came from one of Her Majesty's Ministers, and
their coming was taken as a sign that England and England's rulers, in
their selfish desire to be rid of their starving and helpless poor, cared
nothing for the calamities they were inflicting on the colony. Writing on
November 12, Lord Elgin says:--
Fever cases among leading persons in the community here still continue
to excite much comment and alarm. This day the Mayor of Montreal
died,--a very estimable man, who did much for the immigrants, and to
whose firmness and philanthropy we chiefly owe it, that the immigrant
sheds here were not tossed into the river by the people of the town
during the summer. He has fallen a victim to his zeal on behalf of the
poor plague-stricken strangers, having died of ship-fever caught at
the sheds. Colonel Calvert is lying dangerously ill at Quebec, his
life despaired of.
Meanwhile, great indignation is aroused by the arrival of vessels from
Ireland, with additional cargoes of immigrants, some in a very sickly
state, after our Quarantine Station is shut up for the season.
Unfortunately the last arrived brings out Lord Palmerston's tenants. I
send the commentaries on this contained in this day's newspapers.[6]
[Sidenote: The flood subsides.]
From this time, however, the waters began to subside. The Irish famine had
worked its own sad cure. In compliance with the urgent representations of
the Governor, the mother-country took upon herself all the expenses that
had been incurred by the colony on behalf of the immigrants of 1847; and
improved regulations respecting emigration offer ground for hope that the
fair stream, which ought to be full of life and health both to the colony
and to the parent state, will not again be choked and polluted, and its
plague-stricken waters turned into blood.
[Sidenote: Visit to Upper Canada.]
In the autumn of this year Lord Elgin paid his first visit to Upper
Canada, meeting everywhere with a reception which he felt to be 'most
gratifying and 'ncouraging;' and keenly enjoying both the natural beauties
of the country and the tokens of its prosperity which met his view. From
Niagara he wrote to Mr. Cumming Bruce:--
[Sidenote: Niagara.]
I write with the roar of the Niagara Falls in my ears. We have come
here for a few days' rest, and that I may get rid of a bad cold in the
presence of this most stupendous of all the works of nature. It is
hopeless to attempt to describe what so many have been describing; but
the effect, I think, surpassed my expectations. The day was waning
when we arrived, and a turn of the road brought us all at once in face
of the mass of water forming the American Fall, and throwing itself
over the brink into the abyss. Then another turn and we were in
presence of the British Fall, over which a still greater volume of
water seems to be precipitated, and in the midst of which a white
cloud of spray was soaring till it rose far above the summit of the
ledge and was dispersed by the wind. This day we walked as far as the
Table Rock which overhangs one side of the Horse-shoe Fall, and made a
closer acquaintance with it; but intimacy serves rather to heighten
than to diminish the effect produced on the eye and the ear by this
wonderful phenomenon.
The following to Lord Grey is of the same date:--
Our tour has been thus far prosperous in all respects except weather,
which has been by no means favourable. I attended a great Agricultural
Meeting at Hamilton last week, and had an opportunity of expressing my
sentiments at a dinner, in the presence of six or seven hundred
substantial Upper Canada yeomen--a body of men not easily to be
matched.
It is indeed a glorious country, and after passing, as I have done
within the last fortnight, from the citadel of Quebec to the Falls of
Niagara, rubbing shoulders the while with its free and perfectly
independent inhabitants, one begins to doubt whether it be possible to
acquire a sufficient knowledge of man or nature, or to obtain an
insight into the future of nations, without visiting America.
A portion of the speech to which he refers in the foregoing letter may be
here given, as a specimen of his occasional addresses, which were very
numerous; for though the main purposes of his life were such as 'wrote
themselves in action not in word,' he regarded his faculty of ready and
effective speaking as an engine which it was his duty to use, whenever
occasion arose, for the purpose of conciliating or instructing. In
proposing the toast of 'Prosperity to the Agricultural Association of
Upper Canada,' he said:--
[Sidenote: Speech at an agricultural meeting.]
Gentlemen, the question forces itself upon every reflecting mind, How
does it come to pass that the introduction of agriculture, and of the
arts of civilised life, into this and other parts of the American
continent has been followed by such astonishing results? It may be
said that these results are due to the qualities of the hardy and
enterprising race by which these regions have been settled, and the
answer is undoubtedly a true one: but it does not appear to me to
contain the whole truth; it does not appear to account for all the
phenomena. Why, gentlemen, our ancestors had hearts as brave and arms
as sturdy as our own; but it took them many years, aye, even
centuries, before they were enabled to convert the forests of the
Druids, and the wild fastnesses of the Highland chieftains, into the
green pastures of England and the waving cornfields of Scotland. How,
then, does it come to pass, that the labours of their descendants here
have been rewarded by a return so much more immediate and abundant? I
believe that the true solution of this problem is to be found in the
fact that here, for the first time, the appliances of an age, which
has been prolific beyond all preceding ages in valuable discoveries,
more particularly in chemistry and mechanics, have been brought to
bear, under circumstances peculiarly favourable, upon the
productiveness of a new country. When the nations of Europe were
young, science was in its infancy; the art of civil government was
imperfectly understood; property was inadequately protected; the
labourer knew not who would reap what he had sown, and the teeming
earth yielded her produce grudgingly to the solicitations of an
ill-directed and desultory cultivation. It was not till long and
painful experience had taught the nations the superiority of the arts
of peace over those of war; it was not until the pressure of numbers
upon the means of subsistence had been sorely felt, that the ingenuity
of man was taxed to provide substitutes for those ineffective and
wasteful methods, under which the fertility of the virgin soil had
been well-nigh exhausted. But with you, gentlemen, it is far
otherwise. Canada springs at once from the cradle into the full
possession of the privileges of manhood. Canada, with the bloom of
youth yet upon her cheek, and with youth's elasticity in her tread,
has the advantage of all the experience of age. She may avail herself,
not only of the capital accumulated in older countries, but also of
those treasures of knowledge which have been gathered up by the labour
and research of earnest and thoughtful men throughout a series of
generations.
Now, gentlemen, what is the inference that I would draw from all this?
What is the moral I would endeavour to impress upon you? It is this:
That it is your interest and your duty to avail yourselves to the
utmost of all these unparalleled advantages; to bring to bear upon
this soil, so richly endowed by nature, all the appliances of modern
art; to refuse, if I may so express myself, to convert your one talent
into _two_, if, by a more skilful application of the true
principles of husbandry, or by greater economy of management, you can
convert it into _ten_. And it is because I believe that societies
like these, when well directed, are calculated to aid you in your
endeavours to effect these important objects, that I am disposed to
give them all the protection and countenance, which it is in my power
to afford. They have certainly been very useful in other countries,
and I cannot see why they should be less serviceable in Canada. The
Highland Society of Scotland was the first instituted, and the proud
position which Scotland enjoys as an agricultural country speaks
volumes of the services rendered by that society. The Royal
Agricultural Society of England and the Royal Agricultural Society of
Ireland followed in its wake, and with similarly beneficial results. I
myself was instrumental in establishing an agricultural society in the
West Indies, which has already done much to revive the spirits of the
planters; and I shall be very much disappointed, indeed, if that
society does not prove the means, before many years are past, of
establishing the truth so important to humanity, that, even in
tropical countries, free labour properly applied under a good system
of husbandry is more economical than the labour of slaves.
[Sidenote: Change of Ministry.]
At the close of 1847 the Canadian Parliament was dissolved. When the new
Parliament met early in 1848, the Ministry--Lord Metcalfe's Ministry--
found itself in a decided minority. A new one was accordingly formed from
the ranks of the opposition, 'the members of both parties concurring in
expressing their sense of the perfect fairness and impartiality with which
Lord Elgin had conducted himself throughout the transactions' which led to
this result.[7]
[Sidenote: French _habitans_.]
The French Canadians, who formed the chief element in the new government,
were even at this time a peculiar people. Planted in the days of the old
French monarchy, and cut off by conquest from the parent state long before
the Revolution of 1789, their little community remained for many years
like a fragment or boulder of a distinct formation--an island enshrining
the picturesque institutions of the _ancien regime_, in the midst of
an ever-encroaching sea of British nineteenth-century enterprise. The
English, it has been truly said, emigrate, but do not colonise. No
concourse of atoms could be more fortuitous than the gathering of
'traders, sailors, deserters from the army, outcasts, convicts, slaves,
democrats, and fanatics,' who have been the first, and sometimes the only
ingredients of society in our so-called colonies. French Canada, on the
contrary, was an organism complete in itself, a little model of medieval
France, with its recognised gradations of ranks, ecclesiastical and
social.
It may, indeed, be doubted whether the highest forms of social life are
best propagated by this method: whether the freer system, which 'sows
itself on every wind,' does not produce the larger, and, in the long run,
the more beneficent results. But if reason acquiesces in the ultimate
triumph of that busy, pushing energy which distinguishes the British
settler, there is something very attractive to the imagination in the
picture presented by the peaceful community of French _habitans_,
living under the gentle and congenial control of their _coutumes de
Paris_, with their priests and their seigneurs, their frugal,
industrious habits, their amiable dispositions and simple pleasures, and
their almost exaggerated reverence for order and authority. Politically
speaking, they formed a most valuable element in Canadian society. At one
time, indeed, the restless anarchical spirit of the settlers around them,
acting on the sentiment of French nationality, instigated them to the
rebellion of 1837; but, as a rule, their social sympathies were stronger
than their national antipathies; and gratitude to the Government which
secured to them the enjoyment of their cherished institutions kept them
true to England on more than one occasion when her own sons threatened to
fall away from her.
By the legislative union of 1840 the barriers which had separated the
British and French communities were, to a great extent, broken down; and
the various elements in each began gradually to seek out and to combine
with those which were congenial to them in the other. But there were many
cross currents and thwarting influences; and there was great danger, as
Lord Elgin felt, lest they should form false combinations, on partial
views of local or personal interest, instead of uniting on broad
principles of social and political agreement.
Such were the antecedents of the party which now, for the first time,
found itself admitted to the counsels of the Governor. Well might he write
to Lord Grey, that 'the province was about to pass through an interesting
crisis.' He was required, in obedience to his own principles, to accept as
advisers persons who had very lately been denounced by the Secretary of
State as well as by the Governor-General, as impracticable and disloyal.
On the other hand he reflected, with satisfaction, that in these
sentiments he himself had neither overtly nor covertly expressed
concurrence; while the most extravagant assertors of responsible
government had never accused him of stepping out of his constitutional
position. He felt, therefore, that the _onus probandi_ would rest on
his new councillors if they could not act with him, and put forth
pretensions to which he was unable to accede. At least he was determined
to give them a fair trial. Writing on the 17th of March he says:--
The late Ministers tendered their resignations in a body on Saturday
4th, immediately after the division on the address, which took place
on Friday. I received and answered the address on Tuesday, and then
sent for Messrs. Lafontaine and Baldwin. I spoke to them in a candid
and friendly tone: told them that I thought there was a fair prospect,
if they were moderate and firm, of forming an administration deserving
and enjoying the confidence of Parliament; that they might count on
all proper support and assistance from me.
They dwelt much on difficulties arising out of pretensions advanced in
various quarters; which gave me an opportunity to advise them not to
attach too much importance to such considerations, but to bring
together a council strong in administrative talent, and to take their
stand on the wisdom of their measures and policy....
I am not without hopes that my position will be improved by the change
of administration. My present council unquestionably contains more
talent, and has a firmer hold on the confidence of Parliament and of
the people than the last. There is, I think, moreover, on their part,
a desire to prove, by proper deference for the authority of the
Governor-General (which they all admit has in my case never been
abused), that they were libelled when they were accused of
impracticability and anti-monarchical tendencies.
[Sidenote: News of the French revolution.]
It was only a few days after this that news reached Canada of the
revolution of February in Paris. On receipt of it he writes:--
It is just as well that I should have arranged my Ministry, and
committed the Flag of Britain to the custody of those who are
supported by the large majority of the representatives and
constituencies of the province, before the arrival of the astounding
intelligence from Europe, which reached us by the last mail. There
are not wanting here persons who might, under different circumstances,
have attempted, by seditious harangues if not by overt acts, to turn
the example of France, and the sympathies of the United States, to
account.
[Sidenote: Three difficulties.]
But while congratulating Lord Grey on having passed satisfactorily through
a crisis which might, under other circumstances, have been attended with
very serious results, and on the fact that 'at no period, during the
recent history of Canada, had the people of the province generally been
better contented, or less disposed to quarrel with the mother-country,'
Lord Elgin did not disguise from himself, or from the Secretary of State,
that there were ominous symptoms of disaffection on the part of all the
three great sections of the community, the French, the Irish, and the
British.
Bear in mind that one-half of our population is of French origin, and
deeply imbued with French sympathies; that a considerable portion of
the remainder consists of Irish Catholics; that a large Irish
contingent on the other side of the border, fanatics on behalf of
republicanism and repeal, are egging on their compatriots here to
rebellion; that all have been wrought upon until they believe that the
conduct of England to Ireland is only to be paralleled by that of
Russia to Poland; that on this exciting topic, therefore, a kind of
holy indignation mixes itself with more questionable impulses; that
Guy Fawkes Papineau, actuated by the most malignant passions,
irritated vanity, disappointed ambition, and national hatred, which
unmerited favour has only served to exasperate, is waving a lighted
torch among these combustibles--you will, I think, admit, that if we
pass through this crisis without explosions it will be a gratifying
circumstance, and an encouragement to persevere in a liberal and
straightforward application of constitutional principles to
Government.
I have peculiar satisfaction therefore, under all these circumstances,
in calling your attention to the presentment of the grand jury of
Montreal, which I have sent you officially, in which that body adverts
to the singularly tranquil and contented state of the province.[8]
[Sidenote: The French question.]
With regard to the French he constantly expressed the conviction that
nothing was wanted to secure the loyalty of the vast majority, but a
policy of conciliation and confidence. In this spirit he urged the
importance of removing the restrictions on the use of the French
language:--
[Sidenote: Use of the French language.]
I am very anxious to hear that you have taken steps for the repeal of
so much of the Act of Union as imposes restrictions on the use of the
French language. The delay which has taken place in giving effect to
the promise made, I think by Gladstone, on this subject, is one of the
points of which M. Papineau is availing himself for purposes of
agitation. I must, moreover, confess, that I for one am deeply
convinced of the impolicy of all such attempts to denationalise the
French. Generally speaking they produce the opposite effect from that
intended, causing the flame of national prejudice and animosity to
burn more fiercely. But suppose them to be successful, what would be
the result? You may perhaps _Americanize_, but, depend upon it,
by methods of this description you will never _Anglicize_ the
French inhabitants of the province. Let them feel, on the other hand,
that their religion, their habits, their prepossessions, their
prejudices if you will, are more considered and respected here than in
other portions of this vast continent, who will venture to say that
the last hand which waves the British flag on American ground may not
be that of a French Canadian?
In the same spirit, when an association was formed for facilitating the
acquisition of crown lands by French _habitans_, he put himself at
the head, of the movement; by which means he was able to thwart the
disloyal designs of the demagogue who had planned it.
[Sidenote: French unionisation.]
You will perhaps recollect that some weeks ago I mentioned that the
Roman Catholic bishop and priests of this diocese had organised an
association for colonisation purposes, their object being to prevent
the sheep of their pasture (who now, strange as it may appear,
emigrate annually in thousands to the States, where they become hewers
of wood and drawers of water to the Yankees, and bad Catholics into
the bargain) from quitting their fold. Papineau pounced upon this
association as a means of making himself of importance in the eyes of
his countrymen, and of gratifying his ruling passion by abusing
England. Accordingly, at a great meeting convened at Montreal, be held
forth for three hours to the multitude (the bishop in the chair),
ascribing this and all other French-Canadian ills, real or supposed,
to the selfish policy of Great Britain, and her persevering efforts to
deprive them of their nationality and every other blessing.
In process of time, after this rather questionable start, the
association waited on me with a memorial requesting the co-operation
of Government, M. Papineau being one of the deputation.
In dealing with them I had two courses to choose from. I had nothing
for it, situated as I was, but either, on the one hand, to give the
promoters of the scheme a cold shoulder, point out its objectionable
features, and dwell upon difficulties of execution--in which case (use
what tact I might) I should have dismissed the bishop and his friends
discontented, and given M. Papineau an opportunity of asserting that I
had lent a quasi sanction to his calumnies; or, on the other, to
identify myself with the movement, put myself in so far as might be at
its head, impart to it as salutary a direction as possible, and thus
wrest from M. Papineau's hands a potent instrument of agitation.
I was tempted, I confess, to prefer the latter of these courses, not
only by reason of its manifest expediency as bearing upon present
political contests, but also because I sympathise, to a considerable
extent, with the views of the promoters of the movement. No one
object, in my opinion, is so important, whether you seek to retain
Canada as a colony, or to fit her for independence and make her
instinct with national life and vigour, as the filling up of her
vacant lands with a resident agricultural population. More especially
is it of moment that the inhabitants of French origin should feel that
every facility for settling on the land of their fathers is given them
with the cordial assent and concurrence of the British Government and
its representative, and that in the plans of settlement their feelings
and habits are consulted. The sentiment of French Canadian
nationality, which Papineau endeavours to pervert to purposes of
faction, may yet perhaps, if properly improved, furnish the best
remaining security against annexation to the States.
I could not with these views afford to lose the opportunity of
promoting this object, which was presented by a spontaneous movement
of the people, headed by the priesthood--the most powerful influence
in Lower Canada.
The official correspondence which has passed on this subject I hope to
send by the next mail, and I need not trouble you with the detail of
proceedings on my own part, which, though small in themselves, were
not without their effect. Suffice it to say, that Papineau has retired
to solitude and reflection at his seignory, 'La Petite Nation'--and
that the pastoral letter, of which I enclose a copy, has been read
_au prone_ in every Roman Catholic church in the diocese. To
those who know what have been the real sentiments of the French
population towards England for some years past, the tone of this
document, its undisguised preference for peaceful over quarrelsome
courses, the desire which it manifests to place the representative of
British rule forward as the patron of a work dear to French-Canadian
hearts, speaks volumes.
With the same object of conciliating the French portion of the community,
he lost no opportunity of manifesting the personal interest which he felt
in their institutions. The following letter, written in August 1848, to
his mother at Paris, describes a visit to one of these institutions, the
college of St. Hyacinthe, the chief French college of Montreal:--
[Sidenote: A French college.]
I was present, the other day, at an examination of the students at one
of the Roman Catholic Colleges of Montreal. It is altogether under the
direction of the priesthood, and it is curious to observe the course
they steer. The young men declaimed for some hours on a theme proposed
by the superior, being a contrast between ancient and modern
civilisation. The greater part of it was a sonorous exposition of
ultra-liberal principles, '_Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite,' 'Vox
populi, vox Dei_,' a very liberal tribute to the vanity and to the
prejudices of the classes who might be expected to send their children
to the institution or to puff it; with an elaborate _pivot a la
Lacordaire_--that the Church had achieved all that had been
effected in this genre hitherto. _Au reste_, there was the
wonderful mechanism which gives that church such advantages--the
fourteen professors receiving no salaries, working for their food and
that of the homeliest; as a consequence, an education, board and
lodging inclusive, costing only 15 _l._ a year; the youths
subjected to a constant discipline under the eye of ecclesiastics day
and night. I confess, when I see both the elasticity and the machinery
of this church, my wonder is, not with Lacordaire that it should do so
much, but that it should not do more.
[Sidenote: The Irish question.]
More formidable at all times than any discontent on the part of the quiet
and orderly French _habitans_ was the chronic disaffection of the
restless, roving Irish; and especially when connected with a threatened
invasion of American 'sympathisers.' When such threats come to nothing, it
is generally difficult to say whether they were all mere vapouring, or
whether they might have led to serious results, if not promptly met; but
at one time, at least, there appears to have been solid ground for
apprehending that real mischief was intended. On the 18th July, 1848, Lord
Elgin writes:--
[Sidenote: Irish republicans.]
At the moment when the last mail was starting a placard, calling an
Irish repeal, or rather republican, meeting was placed in my hands. I
enclosed it in my letter to you, and I now proceed to inform you how
the movement to which it relates has progressed since then.
An M.P.P.[9], opposed in politics to the present Government, waited on
me a few days ago and told me, that he had been requested to move a
resolution at the meeting in question by a Mr. O'Connor, who
represented himself to be the editor of a newspaper at New York, and a
member of the Irish Republican Union. This gentleman informed him that
it was expected that, before September, there would be a general
rising in Ireland; that the body to which he belonged had been
instituted with the view of abetting this movement; that it was
discountenanced by the aristocracy of the States, but supported by the
great mass of the people; that funds were forthcoming in plenty; that
arms and soldiers, who might be employed as drill sergeants in the
clubs, were even now passing over week after week to Ireland; that an
American general, lately returned from Mexico, was engaged to take the
command when the proper time came; that they would have from 700,000
to 800,000 men in the field, a force with which Great Britain would be
altogether unable to cope; that when the English had been expelled,
the Irish people would be called to determine, whether the Queen was
to be at the head of their political system or not. He added that his
visit to Canada was connected with these objects; that it was
desirable that a diversion should be effected here at the time of the
Irish outbreak; that 50,000 Irish were ready to march into Canada from
the States at a moment's notice. He further stated that he had called
on my informant, because he understood him to be a disappointed man,
and ill-disposed to the existing order of things; that with respect to
himself and the thousands who felt with him, there was no sacrifice
they were not ready to make, if they could humble England and reduce
her to a third-rate power.
The place originally selected for the monster meeting, according to
the advertisement which I enclose, was the Bonsecour Market, a covered
building, under the control of the corporation. When this was
announced, however, the Government sent for the mayor (a French
Liberal) and told him that they considered it unbecoming that he
should give the room for such a purpose. He accordingly withdrew his
permission, stating that he had not been before apprised of the
precise nature of the assembly. After receiving this check, the
leaders of the movement fixed on an open space near the centre of the
town for their gathering.
It took place last night, and proved a complete failure. Not a single
individual of importance among the Irish Repeal party was present.
Some hundreds of persons attended, but were speedily dispersed by a
timely thunder shower. O'Connor was violent enough; but I have not yet
ascertained that he said anything which would form good material for
an indictment. I am of opinion, however, that proceedings of this
description on the part of a citizen of another country are not to be
tolerated; and, although there is an indisposition in certain quarters
to drive things to an extremity, I think I shall succeed in having him
arrested unless he takes himself off speedily.
[Sidenote: The British question.]
But the French question and the Irish question were simple and unimportant
as compared with those which were raised by the state of feeling recently
created in a large and influential portion of the British population,
partly by political events, partly by commercial causes.
[Sidenote: The Family Compact.]
The political party, which was now in opposition--the old Tory Loyalists,
who from their long monopoly of office and official influence had acquired
the title of the 'Family Compact'--were filled with wrath at seeing
rebels--for as such they considered the French leaders--now taken into
the confidence of the Governor as Ministers of the Crown. At the same time
many of the individuals who composed that party were smarting under a
sense of injury and injustice inflicted upon them by the Home Government,
and by that party in the Home Government by whose policy their own
ascendency in the colony had, as they considered, been undermined. Nor was
it possible to deny that there was some ground for their complaints. By
the Canada Corn Act of 1843 not only the wheat of Canada, but also its
flour, which might be made from American wheat, had been admitted into
England at a nominal duty. The premium thus offered for the grinding of
American wheat for the British market, caused a great amount of capital to
be invested in mills and other appliances of the flour trade. 'But almost
before these arrangements were fully completed, and the newly built mills
fairly at work, the [Free-Trade] Act of 1846 swept away the advantage
conferred upon Canada in respect to the corn-trade with this country, and
thus brought upon the province a frightful amount of loss to individuals,
and a great derangement of the Colonial finances.'[10] Lord Elgin felt
deeply for the sufferers, and often pressed their case on the attention of
the Secretary of State.
[Sidenote: Discontent due to Imperial legislation.]
I do not think that you are blind to the hardships which Canada is now
enduring; but, I must own, I doubt much whether you fully appreciate
their magnitude, or are aware of how directly they are chargeable on
Imperial legislation. Stanley's Bill of 1843 attracted all the produce
of the West to the St. Lawrence, and fixed all the disposable capital
of the province in grinding mills, warehouses, and forwarding
establishments. Peel's Bill of 1846 drives the whole of the produce
down the New York channels of communication, destroying the revenue
which Canada expected to derive from canal dues, and ruining at once
mill-owners, forwarders, and merchants. The consequence is, that
private property is unsaleable in Canada, and not a shilling can be
raised on the credit of the province. We are actually reduced to the
disagreeable necessity of paying all public officers, from the
Governor-General downwards, in debentures, which are not exchangeable
at par. What makes it more serious is, that all the prosperity of
which Canada is thus robbed is transplanted to the other side of the
lines, as if to make Canadians feel more bitterly how much kinder
England is to the children who desert her, than to those who remain
faithful. For I care not whether you be a Protectionist or a
Free-trader, it is the inconsistency of Imperial legislation, and not
the adoption of one policy rather than another, which is the bane of
the colonies. I believe that the conviction that they would be better
off if they were 'annexed' is almost universal among the commercial
classes at present, and the peaceful condition of the province under
all the circumstances of the time is, I must confess, often a matter
of great astonishment to myself.
[Sidenote: How to be remedied.]
His sympathy, however, with the sufferings caused by the introduction of
Free-trade was not accompanied by any wish to return to a Protective
policy. On the contrary, he felt that the remedy was to be sought in a
further development of the Free-trade principle, in the repeal of the
Navigation Laws, which cramped the commerce Canada by restricting it to
British vessels, and in a reciprocal reduction of the duties which
hampered her trade with the United States. In this sense he writes to Lord
Grey:--
I am glad to see your bold measure on the Navigation Laws. You have no
other course now open to you if you intend to keep your colonies. You
cannot halt between two opinions: Free-trade in all things, or general
Protection. There was something captivating in the project of forming
all the parts of this vast British empire into one huge
_Zollverein_ with free interchange of commodities, and uniform
duties against the world without; though perhaps, without some
federal legislation, it might have been impossible to carry it out.
Undoubtedly, under such a system, the component parts of the empire
would have been united by bonds which cannot be supplied under that on
which we are now entering; though it may be fairly urged on the other
side, that the variety of conflicting interests which would, under
this arrangement, have been brought into presence would have led to
collisions which we may now hope to escape. But, as it is, the die is
cast. As regards these colonies you must allow them to turn to the
best possible account their contiguity to the States, that they may
not have cause for dissatisfaction when they contrast their own
condition with that of their neighbours.
Another subject on which I am very solicitous, is the free admission
of Canadian products into the States. At present the Canadian farmer
gets less for his wheat than his neighbour over the lines. This is an
unfortunate state of things. I had a long conversation with Mr.
Baldwin about it lately, and he strongly supports the proposition
which I ventured to submit for your consideration about a year ago,
viz. that a special treaty should be entered into with the States,
giving them the navigation of the St. Lawrence jointly with ourselves,
on condition that they admit Canadian produce duty free. An
arrangement of this description affecting internal waters only might,
I apprehend, be made (as in the case of Columbia in the Oregon treaty)
independently of the adjustment of questions touching the Navigation
Laws generally. I confess that I dread the effect of the continuance
of the present state of things on the loyalty of our farmers. Surely
the admission of the Americans into the St. Lawrence would be a great
boon to them, and we ought to exact a _quid pro quo_.
He was sanguine enough to hope that these measures, so simple and so
obviously desirable, might be brought into operation at once; but they
were not carried until many years later, one of them, as we shall see,
only by aid of his own personal exertions; and his disappointment on this
score deepened the anxiety with which he looked round upon the
difficulties of his position, already described. On August 16 he writes:--
The news from Ireland--the determination of Government not to proceed
with the measure respecting the Navigation Laws--doubts as to whether
the American Congress will pass the Reciprocity of Trade Bill--menaces
of sympathisers in the States--all combine at present to render our
position one of considerable anxiety.
Firstly, we have the Irish Repeal body. I need not describe them; you
may look at home; they are here just what they are in Ireland.
Secondly, we have the French population; their attitude as regards
England and America is that of an armed neutrality. They do not
exactly like the Americans, but they are the _conquered, oppressed
subjects_ of England! To be sure they govern themselves, pay no
taxes, and some other trifles of this description; nevertheless, they
are the victims of British _egoisme._ Was not the union of the
provinces carried without their consent, and with a view of subjecting
them to the British? Papineau, their press, and other authorities, are
constantly dinning this into their ears, so no wonder they believe it.
Again, our mercantile and commercial classes are thoroughly disgusted
and lukewarm in their allegiance. You know enough of colonies to
appreciate the tendency which they always exhibit to charge their
misfortunes upon the mother-country, no matter from what source they
flow. And indeed it is easy to show that, as matters now stand, the
faithful subject of Her Majesty in Canada is placed on a worse
footing, as regards trade with the mother-country, than the rebel
'over the 'lines.'
The same man who, when you canvass him at an English borough election,
says, 'Why, sir, I voted Red all my life, and I never got anything by
it: this time I intend to vote Blue,'--addresses you in Canada with 'I
have been all along one of the steadiest supporters of the British
Government, but really, if claims such as mine are not more thought
of, I shall begin to consider whether other institutions are not
preferable to ours.' What to do under these circumstances of anxiety
and discouragement is the question.
As to any aggressions from without, I shall throw the responsibility
of repelling them upon Her Majesty's troops in the first instance. And
I shall be disappointed, indeed, if the military here do not give a
very good account of all American and Irish marauders.
With respect to internal commotions, I should like to devolve the duty
of quelling them as much as possible upon the citizens. I very much
doubt whether any class of them, however great their indifference or
disloyalty, fancy the taste of Celtic pikes, or the rule of Irish mob
law.
Happily the dangers which there seemed so much reason to apprehend were
dispelled by the policy at once firm and conciliatory of the Governor:
mainly, as he himself was never wearied of asserting, owing to the healthy
and loyal feeling engendered in the province by his frank adoption and
consistent maintenance of Lord Durham's principle of responsible
government. It was one of the occasions, not unfrequent in Lord Elgin's
life, that recall the words in which Lord Melbourne pronounced the
crowning eulogy of another celebrated diplomatist:--'My Lords, you can
never fully appreciate the merits of that great man. You can appreciate
the great acts which he publicly performed; but you cannot appreciate, for
you cannot know, the great mischiefs which he unostentatiously prevented.'
[Sidenote: Navigation Laws.]
In the course of the discussions on the Repeal of the Navigation Laws, to
which reference is made in the foregoing letters, an incident occurred
which attracted some attention at the time, and which, as it could not be
explained then, ought, perhaps, to be noticed in this place.
Lord George Bentinck, who led the opposition to the measure, saw reason to
think that, in the published despatches from Canada on the subject, a
letter had been suppressed which would have furnished arguments against
the Government; and, under this impression, he moved in the House of
Commons for 'copies of the omitted correspondence.' The motion was
negatived without a division, on Lord John Russell's pointing out that it
involved an imputation on the Governor's good faith; but the Premier
himself was probably not aware at the time, how completely the mover was
at fault, as is shown in the following letter from Lord Elgin to Mr. C.
Bruce, who, being a member of Parliament and a strong Protectionist, had a
double interest in the matter:--
You ask me about this mare's nest of Bentinck. The facts are these:
the Montreal Board of Trade drew up a memorial for the House of
Commons _against the Navigation Laws_, containing _inter
alia_ a very distinct threat of separation in the event of their
_non-repeal_. My secretary (not my private secretary, mark, but
my responsible Government Secretary) sent _me a draft_ of a
letter to the Board containing very loyal and proper sentiments on
this head. I approved of the letter, and sent a copy of it home with
the memorial, _instead of a report by myself_, partly because it
saved me trouble, and partly because I was glad to show how perfectly
my liberal government had expressed themselves on the point. Two or
three weeks later, the Board of Trade, not liking Mr. Sullivan to have
the last word, wrote an answer, simply justifying what they had
already stated in their memorial, which had already gone with my
comment upon it to be laid before the House of Commons. To send such a
letter home in a separate despatch would have seemed to me worse than
absurd, because it would really have been giving to this unseemly
menace a degree of importance which it did not deserve. If I
_had_ sent it I must have accompanied it with a statement to the
effect, that my sentiments on the point communicated in my former
letter remained unchanged; so the matter would have rested pretty much
where it did before. Bentinck seems to suppose that, in keeping back a
letter which stated that Canada would separate if the Navigation Laws
were not repealed, I intended by some very ingenious dodge to hasten
their repeal![11]
[Sidenote: Speech on education.]
At the beginning of the winter season of 1848-9, Lord Elgin was present,
as patron, at a meeting of the Montreal Mercantile Library Association, to
open the winter's course of lectures. It was an association mainly founded
by leading merchants, 'with a view of affording to the junior members of
the mercantile body opportunities of self-improvement, and inducements
sufficiently powerful to enable them to resist those temptations to
idleness and dissipation which unhappily abound in all large communities.'
He took the opportunity of delivering his views on the subject of
education in a speech, parts of which may still be read with interest,
after all that has been spoken and written on this fertile topic. It has
at least the merit of being eminently characteristic of the speaker, whose
whole life was an illustration, in the eyes of those who knew him best, of
the truths which he sought to inculcate on the young merchants of
Montreal.[12]
After remarking that it was vain for him to attempt, in a cursory address,
to fan the fervour of his hearers' zeal, or throw light on subjects which
they were in the habit of hearing so effectively treated,
Indeed (he continued) I should almost be tempted to affirm that in an
age when education is so generally diffused--when the art of printing
has brought the sources of information so near to the lips of all who
thirst for understanding--when so many of the secrets of nature have
been revealed--when the impalpable and all-pervading electricity, and
the infinite elasticity of steam, have been made subservient to
purposes of human utility,--the advantages of knowledge, in an
utilitarian point of view, the utter hopelessness of a successful
attempt on the part either of individuals or classes to maintain their
position in society if they neglect the means of self-improvement, are
truths too obvious to call for elucidation. I must say that it seems
to me that there is less risk, therefore, of our declining to avail
ourselves of our opportunities than there is of our misusing or
abusing them; that there is less likelihood of our refusing to grasp
the treasures spread out before us, than of our laying upon them rash
and irreverent hands, and neglecting to cultivate those habits of
patient investigation, humility, and moral self-control, without which
we have no sufficient security that even the possession of knowledge
itself will be a blessing to us. I was much struck by a passage I met
with the other day in reading the life of one of the greatest men of
his age and country--Watt--which seemed to me to illustrate very
forcibly the nature of the danger to which I am now referring as well
as its remedy. It is stated in the passage to which I allude, that
Watt took great delight in reading over the specifications of
inventions for which patent rights were obtained. He observed that of
those inventions a large proportion turned out to be entirely
worthless, and a source of ruin and disappointment to their authors.
And it is further stated that he discovered that, among these abortive
inventions, many were but the embodiment of ideas which had suggested
themselves to his own mind--which, probably, when they first presented
themselves, he had welcomed as great discoveries, likely to contribute
to his own fame and to the advantage of mankind, but which, after
having subjected them to that rigid and unsparing criticism which he
felt it his bounden duty to apply to the offspring of his own brain,
he had found to be worthless, and rejected. Now, unquestionably, the
powerful intellect of Watt went for much in this matter:
unquestionably his keen and practised glance enabled him to detect
flaws and errors in many cases where an eye equally honest, but less
acute, would have failed to discover them; but can we doubt that a
moral element was largely involved in the composition of that quality
of mind which enabled Watt to shun the sunken rocks on which so many
around him were making shipwreck--that it was his unselfish devotion
to truth, his humility, and the practice of self-control, which
enabled him to rebuke the suggestions of vanity and self-interest,
and, with the sternness of an impartial judge, to condemn to silence
and oblivion even the offspring of his own mind, for which he
doubtless felt a parent's fondness, when it fell short of that
standard of perfection which he had reared? From this incident in the
life of that great man, we may draw, I think, a most useful lesson,
which we may apply with good effect to fields of inquiry far
transcending those to which the anecdote has immediate reference.
Take, for instance, the wide region occupied with moral and political,
or, as they are styled, social questions: observe the wretched half-
truths, the perilous fallacies, which quacks, greedy of applause or
gain, and speculating on the credulity of mankind, more especially in
times of perturbation or distress, have the audacity to palm upon the
world as sublime discoveries calculated to increase, in some vast and
untold amount, the sum of human happiness; and mark the misery and
desolation which follow, when the hopes excited by these pretenders
are dispelled. It is often said in apology for such persons, that they
are, after all, sincere; that they are deceived rather than deceivers;
that they do not ask others to adopt opinions which they have not
heartily accepted themselves; but apply to this reasoning the
principle that I have been endeavouring to illustrate from the life of
Watt, and we shall find, I think, that the excuse is, in most cases,
but a sorry one, if, indeed, it be any excuse at all. God has planted
within the mind of man the lights of reason and of conscience, and
without it, He has placed those of revelation and experience; and if
man wilfully extinguishes those lights, in order that, under cover of
the darkness which he has himself made, he may install in the
sanctuary of his understanding and heart, where the image of truth
alone should dwell, a vain idol, a creature of his own fond
imaginings, it will, I fear, but little avail him, more especially in
that day when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed, if he shall
plead in extenuation of his guilt that he did not invite others to
worship the idol until he had fallen prostrate himself before it.
These, gentlemen, are truths which I think it will be well for us to
lay to heart. I address myself more particularly to you who are
entering upon the useful and honourable career of the British
merchant; for you are now standing on the lower steps of a ladder,
which, when it is mounted with diligence and circumspection, leads
always to respectability, not unfrequently to high honour and
distinction. Bear in mind, then, that the quality which ought chiefly
to distinguish those who aspire to exercise a controlling and
directing influence in any department of human action, from those who
have only a subordinate part to play, is the knowledge of principles
and general laws. A few examples will make the truth of this
proposition apparent to you. Take, for instance, the case of the
builder. The mason and carpenter must know how to hew the stone and
square the timber, and follow out faithfully the working plan placed
in their hands. But the architect must know much more than this; he
must be acquainted with the principles of proportion and form; he must
know the laws which regulate the distribution of heat, light, and air,
in order that he may give to each part of a complicated structure its
due share of these advantages, and combine the multifarious details
into a consistent whole. Take again the case of the seaman. It is
enough for the steersman that he watch certain symptoms in the sky and
on the waves; that he note the shifting of the wind and compass, and
attend to certain precise rules which have been given him for his
guidance. But the master of the ship, if he be fit for his
situation--and I am sorry to say that many undertake the duties of
that responsible office who are not fit for it--must be thoroughly
acquainted, not only with the map of the earth and heavens, but he
must know also all that science has revealed of some of the most
subtle of the operations of nature; he must understand, as far as man
can yet discover them, what are the laws which regulate the movements
of the currents, the direction of the tempest, and the meanderings of
the magnetic fluid. Or, to take a case with which you are more
familiar--that of the merchant. The merchant's clerk must understand
book-keeping and double-entry, and know how to arrange every item of
the account under its proper head, and how to balance the whole
correctly. But the head of the establishment must be acquainted, in
addition to this, with the laws which regulate the exchanges, with the
principles that affect the production and distribution of national
wealth, and therefore with those social and political causes which are
ever and anon at work to disturb calculations, which would have been
accurate enough for quiet times, but which are insufficient for
others. I think, therefore, that I have established the truth of the
proposition, that men who aspire to exercise a directing and
controlling influence in any pursuit or business, should be
distinguished by a knowledge of principles and general laws. But it is
in the acquisition of this knowledge, and more especially in its
application to the occurrences of daily life, that the chief necessity
arises for the exercise of those high moral qualities, with the
importance of which I have endeavoured, in these brief remarks, to
impress you.
[1] _Our Colonies_: an Address delivered to the members of the
Mechanics' Institute, Chester, Nov. 12, 1855, by the Right Hon. W. E.
Gladstone, M.P.
[2] See the _Colonial Policy of Lord John Russell's Administration_, by
Earl Grey: a work in which the records of a most important period of
colonial history are traced with equal ability and authority.
[3] MacMullen's _History of Canada_, p. 497.
[4] Lord Grey's _Colonial Policy_, &c., i. 207.
[5] MacMullen's _History of Canada_.
[6] A pamphlet was published by a member of the Legislative Council,
denouncing this and similar instances of 'horrible and heartless
conduct' on the part of landed proprietors and their 'mercenary
agents;' but it was proved by satisfactory evidence that his main
statements were not founded in fact.
[7] Lord Grey's _Colonial policy_.
[8] See Papers presented to Parliament, May, 1848; or Lord Grey's
_Colonial Policy_, i. 216.
[9] _I.e._ Member of the Provincial Parliament.
[10] Lord Grey's _Colonial Policy,_ i. 220. Lord Grey was one of the
few statesmen who were blameless in the matter, for he voted against
the Act of 1843, in opposition to his party.
[11] The personal annoyance which he felt on this occasion was only a phase
of the indignation which was often roused in him, by seeing the
interests and feelings of the colony made the sport of party-speakers
and party-writers at home; and important transactions in the province
distorted and misrepresented, so as to afford ground for an attack, in
the British Parliament, on an obnoxious Minister.--_Vide Infra_,
p. 113.
[12] 'A knowledge' wrote Sir F. Bruce, 'of what he was, and of the results
he in consequence achieved, would be an admirable text on which to
engraft ideas of permanent value on this most important question;' as
helping to show 'that to reduce education to stuffing the mind with
facts is to dwarf the intelligence, and to reverse the natural process
of the growth of man's mind; that the knowledge of principles, as the
means of discrimination, and the criterion of those individual
appreciations which are fallaciously called facts, ought to be the end
of high education.'
CHAPTER IV.
CANADA.
DISCONTENT--REBELLION LOSSES BILL--OPPOSITION TO IT--NEUTRALITY OF THE
GOVERNOR--RIOTS AT MONTREAL--FIRMNESS OF THE GOVERNOR--APPROVAL OF HOME
GOVERNMENT--FRESH RIOTS--REMOVAL OF SEAT OF GOVERNMENT FROM
MONTREAL--FORBEARANCE OF LORD ELGIN--RETROSPECT.
[Sidenote: Commercial depression.]
The winter of 1848 passed quietly; but the commercial depression, which was
then everywhere prevalent, weighed heavily on Canada, more especially on
the Upper Province. In one of his letters Lord Elgin caught himself, so to
speak, using the words, 'the downward progress of events.' He proceeds:--
The downward progress of events! These are ominous words. But look at
the facts. Property in most of the Canadian towns, and more especially
in the capital, has fallen fifty per cent. in value within the last
three years. Three-fourths of the commercial men are bankrupt, owing
to Free-trade; a large proportion of the exportable produce of Canada
is obliged to seek a market in the States. It pays a duty of twenty
per cent. on the frontier. How long can such a state of things be
expected to endure?
Depend upon it, our commercial embarrassments are our real difficulty.
Political discontent, properly so called, there is none. I really
believe no country in the world is more free from it. We have, indeed,
national antipathies hearty and earnest enough. We suffer, too, from
the inconvenience of having to work a system which is not yet
thoroughly in gear. Reckless and unprincipled men take advantage of
these circumstances to work into a fever every transient heat that
affects the public mind. Nevertheless, I am confident I could carry
Canada unscathed through all these evils of transition, and place the
connection on a surer foundation than ever, if I could only tell the
people of the province that as regards the conditions of material
prosperity, they would be raised to a level with their neighbours. But
if this be not achieved, if free navigation and reciprocal trade with
the Union be not secured for us, the worst, I fear, will come, and
that at no distant day.
[Sidenote: Political discontent.]
Unfortunately, powerful interests in the one case, indifference and apathy
in the other, prevented these indispensable measures, as he always
maintained them to be, from being carried for many years; and in the
meantime a most serious fever of political discontent was in effect worked
up, out of a heat which ought to have been as transient as the cause of it
was intrinsically unimportant.
[Sidenote: Rebellion Losses Bill.]
Irritated by loss of office, groaning under the ruin of their trade,
outraged moreover (for so they represented it to themselves) in their best
and most patriotic feelings by seeing 'Rebels' in the seat of power, the
Ex-ministerial party were in a mood to resent every measure of the
Government, and especially every act of the Governor-General. When
Parliament met on January 18, he took advantage of the repeal of the law
restricting the use of the French language, to deliver his speech in French
as well as in English: even this they turned to his reproach. But their
wrath rose to fury on the introduction of a Bill 'to provide for the
indemnification of parties in Lower Canada whose property was destroyed
during the Rebellion in 1837 and 1838:' a 'questionable measure,' to use
Lord Elgin's own words in first mentioning it, 'but one which the preceding
administration had rendered almost inevitable by certain proceedings
adopted by them' in Lord Metcalfe's time. As the justification of the
measure is thus rested on its previous history, a brief retrospect is
necessary before proceeding with the account of transactions which formed
an epoch in the history of the colony, as well as in the life of the
Governor.
[Sidenote: History of the measure.]
Within a very short time after the close of the Rebellion of 1837 and 1838,
the attention of both sections of the colony was directed to compensating
those who had suffered by it. First came the case of the primary sufferers,
if so they may be called; that is, the Loyalists, whose property had been
destroyed by Rebels. Measures were at once taken to indemnify all such
persons,--in Upper Canada, by an Act passed in the last session of its
separate Parliament; in Lower Canada, by an ordinance of the 'Special
Council' under which it was at that time administered. But it was felt that
this was not enough; that where property had been wantonly and
unnecessarily destroyed, even though it were by persons acting in support
of authority, some compensation ought to be given; and the Upper Canada Act
above mentioned was amended next year, in the first session of the United
Parliament, so as to extend to all losses occasioned by violence on the
part of persons acting or assuming to act on Her Majesty's behalf. Nothing
was done at this time about Lower Canada; but it was obviously inevitable
that the treatment applied to the one province should be extended to the
other. Accordingly, in 1845, during Lord Metcalfe's Government, and under a
Conservative Administration, an Address was adopted unanimously by the
Assembly, praying His Excellency to cause proper measures to be taken 'in
order to insure to the inhabitants of that portion of the province,
formerly Lower Canada, indemnity for just losses by them sustained during
the Rebellion of 1837 and 1838.'
In pursuance of this address, a Commission was appointed to inquire into
the claims of persons whose property had been destroyed in the rebellion;
the Commissioners receiving instructions to distinguish the cases of those
persons who had joined, aided, or abetted in the said rebellion, from the
case of those who had not. On inquiring how they were to distinguish, they
were officially answered that in making out the classification 'it was not
His Excellency's intention that they should be guided by any other
description of evidence than that furnished by the sentences of the Courts
of Law.' It was also intimated to them that they were only intended to form
a 'general estimate' of the rebellion losses, 'the particulars of which
must form the subject of more minute inquiry hereafter under legislative
authority.'
In obedience to these instructions, the Commissioners made their
investigations, and reported that they had recognised, as worthy of further
inquiry, claims representing a sum total of 241,965_l_. 10_s_.
5_d_., but they added an expression of opinion that the losses
suffered would be found, on closer examination, not to exceed the value of
100,000_l_.
This Report was rendered in April 1846; but though Lord Metcalfe's Ministry
which had issued the Commission, avowedly as preliminary to a subsequent
and more minute inquiry, remained in office for nearly two years longer,
they took no steps towards carrying out their declared intentions.
So the matter stood in March 1848, when, as has been already stated, a new
administration was formed, consisting mainly of persons whose political
sympathies were with Lower Canada. It was natural that they should take up
the work left half done by their predecessors; and early in 1849 they
introduced a Bill which was destined to become notorious under the name of
the 'Rebellion Losses Bill.' The preamble of it declared that in order to
redeem the pledge already given to parties in Lower Canada, it was
necessary and just that the particulars of such losses as were not yet
satisfied, should form the subject of more minute inquiry under legislative
authority; and that the same, so far only as they might have arisen from
the 'total or partial unjust or wanton destruction' of property, should be
paid and satisfied. A proviso was added that no person who had been
convicted, or pleaded guilty, of treason during the rebellion should be
entitled to any indemnity for losses sustained in connection with it. The
Bill itself authorised the appointment of Commissioners for the purpose of
the Act, and the appropriation of 90,000_l_. to the payment of claims
that might arise under it; following in this respect the opinion expressed
by Lord Metcalfe's preliminary Commission of enquiry.
[Sidenote: Excitement respecting it.]
Such was the measure--so clearly inevitable in its direction, so modest in
its proportions--which, falling on an inflamed state of the public mind in
Canada, and misunderstood in England, was the occasion of riot and nearly
of rebellion in the Province, and exposed the Governor-General, who
sanctioned it, to severe censure on the part of many whose opinion he most
valued at home. His own feelings on its introduction, his opinion of its
merits, and his reasons for the course which he pursued in dealing with it,
cannot be better stated than in his own words. Writing to Lord Grey on
March 1, he says:--
A good deal of excitement and bad feeling has been stirred in the
province by the introduction of a measure by the Ministry for the
payment of certain rebellion losses in Lower Canada. I trust that it
will soon subside, and that no enduring mischief will ensue from it,
but the Opposition leaders have taken advantage of the circumstances
to work upon the feelings of old Loyalists as opposed to Rebels, of
British as opposed to French, and of Upper Canadians as opposed to
Lower; and thus to provoke from various parts of the province the
expression of not very temperate or measured discontent. I am
occasionally rated in not very courteous language, and peremptorily
required to dissolve the Parliament which was elected only one year
ago, under the auspices of this same clamorous Opposition, who were
then in power. The measure itself is not indeed altogether free from
objection, and I very much regret that an addition should be made to
our debt for such an object at this time. Nevertheless, I must say I
do not see how my present Government could have taken any other course
in this matter than that which they have followed. Their predecessors
had already gone more than half-way in the same direction, though they
had stopped short, and now tell us that they never intended to go
farther. If the Ministry had failed to complete the work of alleged
justice to Lower Canada which had been commenced by the former
Administration, M. Papineau would most assuredly have availed himself
of the plea to undermine their influence in this section of the
province. The debates in Parliament on this question have been
acrimonious and lengthy, but M. Lafontaine's resolutions were finally
passed by a majority of fifty to twenty-two.
Dissensions of this class place in strong relief the passions and
tendencies which render the endurance of the political system which we
have established here, and of the connection with the mother-country,
uncertain and precarious. They elicit a manifestation of antipathy
between races and of jealousy between the recently united provinces,
which is much to be regretted. This measure of indemnity to Lower
Canada is, however, the last of the kind, and if it be once settled
satisfactorily, a formidable stumblingblock will have been removed
from my path.
A fortnight later he adds:--
The Tory party are doing what they can by menace, intimidation, and
appeals to passion to drive me to a _coup d'Etat_. And yet the
very measure which is at this moment the occasion of so loud an
outcry, is nothing more than a strict logical following out of their
own acts. It is difficult to conceive what the address on the subject
of rebellion losses in Lower Canada, unanimously voted by the House of
Assembly while Lord Metcalfe was governor and Mr. Draper minister, and
the proceedings of the Administration upon that address could have
been meant to lead to, if not to such a measure as the present
Government have introduced.
I enclose a letter which has been published in the newspapers by A. M.
Masson, one of the Bermuda exiles,[1] who was appointed to an office
by the late Government. This person will be excluded from compensation
by the Bill of the present Government, and he positively asserts that
Lord Metcalfe and some of his Ministers assured him that he would be
included by them.
I certainly regret that this agitation should have been stirred, and
that any portion of the funds of the province should be diverted now
from much more useful purposes to make good losses sustained by
individuals in the rebellion. But I have no doubt whatsoever that a
great deal of property was wantonly and cruelly destroyed at that time
in Lower Canada. Nor do I think that this Government, after what their
predecessors had done, and with Papineau in the rear, could have
helped taking up this question. Neither do I think that their measure
would have been less objectionable, but very much the reverse, if,
after the lapse of eleven years, and the proclamation of a general
amnesty, it had been so framed as to attach the stigma of Rebellion to
others than those regularly convicted before the Courts. Any kind of
extra-judicial inquisition conducted at this time of day by
Commissioners appointed by the Government, with the view of
ascertaining what part this or that claimant for indemnity may have
taken in 1837 and 1838, would have been attended by consequences much
to be regretted, and have opened the door to an infinite amount of
jobbing, false swearing, and detraction.
[Sidenote: Petitions against it.]
[Sidenote: Neutrality of the Governor.]
Petitions against the measure were got up by the Tories in all parts of the
province; but these, instead of being sent to the Assembly, or to the
Legislative Council, or to the Home Government, were almost all addressed
to Lord Elgin personally; obviously with the design of producing a
collision between him and his Parliament. They generally prayed either that
Parliament might be dissolved, or that the Bill, if it passed, might be
reserved for the royal sanction. All such addresses, and the remonstrances
brought to him by deputations of malcontents, he received with civility,
promising to bestow on them his best consideration, but studiously avoiding
the expression of any opinion on the points in controversy. By thus
maintaining a strictly constitutional position, he foiled that section of
the agitators who calculated on his being frightened or made angry, while
he left a door open for any who might have candour enough to admit that
after all he was only carrying out fairly the principle of responsible
government.
In pursuance of this policy he put off to the latest moment any decision as
to the course which he should take with respect to the Bill when it came up
to him for his sanction. As regards a dissolution, indeed, he felt from the
beginning that it would be sheer folly, attended by no small risk. Was he
to have recourse to this ultima ratio, merely because a parliament elected
a year before, under the auspices of the party now in opposition, had
passed, by a majority of nearly two to one, a measure introduced by the
present Government, in pursuance of the acts of a former one?
If I had dissolved Parliament, I might have produced a rebellion, but
most assuredly I should not have procured a change of Ministry. The
leaders of the party know that as well as I do, and were it possible
to play tricks in such grave concerns, it would have been easy to
throw them into utter confusion by merely calling upon them to form a
Government. They were aware, however, that I could not for the sake of
discomfiting them hazard so desperate a policy: so they have played
out their game of faction and violence without fear of consequences.
The other course urged upon him by the Opposition, namely, that of
reserving the Bill for the consideration of the Home Government, may appear
to have been open to no such objections, and to have been in fact the
wisest course which he could pursue, in circumstances of so much delicacy.
And this seems to have been the opinion of many in England, who were
disposed to approve of his general policy; but it may be doubted whether
they had weighed all the considerations which presented themselves to the
mind of the Governor on the spot, and which he stated to Lord Grey as
follows:--
There are objections, too, to reserving the Bill which I think I shall
consider insurmountable, whatever obloquy I may for the time entail on
myself by declining to lend myself even to this extent to the plans of
those who wish to bring about a change of administration.
In the first place the Bill for the relief of a corresponding class of
persons in Upper Canada, which was couched in terms very nearly
similar, was not reserved, and it is difficult to discover a
sufficient reason, in so far as the representative of the Crown is
concerned, for dealing with the one measure differently from the
other. And in the second place, by reserving the Bill I should only
throw upon Her Majesty's Government, or (as it would appear to the
popular eye here) on Her Majesty herself, a responsibility which
rests, and ought, I think, to rest, on my own shoulders. If I pass the
Bill, whatever mischief ensues may probably be repaired, if the worst
comes to the worst, by the sacrifice of me. Whereas, if the case be
referred to England, it is not impossible that Her Majesty may only
have before her the alternative of provoking a rebellion in Lower
Canada, by refusing her assent to a measure chiefly affecting the
interest of the _habitans_, and thus throwing the whole
population into Papineau's hands, or of wounding the susceptibilities
of some of the best subjects she has in the province. For among the
objectors to this Bill are undoubtedly to be found not a few who
belong to this class; men who are worked upon by others more selfish
and designing, to whom the principles of constitutional Government are
unfathomable mysteries, and who still regard the representative of
royalty, and in a more remote sense the Crown and Government of
England, if not as the objects of a very romantic loyalty (for that, I
fear, is fast waning), at least as the butts of a most intense and
unrelenting: indignation, if political affairs be not administered in
entire accordance with their sense of what is right.
In solving these knotty problems, and choosing his course of action, the
necessities of the situation required that he should be guided by his own
unaided judgment, and act entirely on his own responsibility. For although,
throughout all his difficulties, in the midst of the reproaches with which
he was assailed both in the colony and in England, he had the great
satisfaction of knowing that his conduct was entirely approved by Lord
Grey, to whom he opened all his mind in private letters, the official
communications which passed between them were necessarily very reserved.
The following extract illustrates well this peculiarity in the position of
a British Colonial Governor, who has two popular Assemblies and two public
presses to consider:--
Perhaps you may have been annoyed by my not writing officially to you
ere this so as to give you communications to send to Parliament. All
that I can say on that point is, that I have got through this
disagreeable affair as well as I have done only by maintaining my
constitutional position, listening civilly to all representations
addressed to me against the measure, and adhering to a strict reserve
as to the course which I might deem it proper eventually to pursue. By
following this course I have avoided any act or expression which might
have added fuel to the flame; and although I have been plentifully
abused, because it has been the policy of the Opposition to drag me
into the strife, no one can say that I have said or done anything to
justify the abuse. And the natural effect of such patient endurance is
now beginning to show itself in the moderated tone of the organs of
the Opposition press. You will perceive, however, that I could not
possibly have maintained this position here, if despatches from me
indicating the Ministerial policy had been submitted to the House of
Commons. They would have found their way out here at once. Every
statement and opinion would have formed the subject of discussion, and
I should have found myself in the midst of the _melee_ a
partisan.
To counteract the violent and reckless efforts of the Opposition, Lord
Elgin trusted partly to the obvious reasonableness of the proposal under
discussion, but more to the growth of a patriotic spirit which should lead
the minority to prefer the rule of a majority within the province to the
coercion of a power from without. Something also he hoped from the effect
of the many excellent measures brought in about the same time by his new
Ministry, 'the first really efficient and working Government that Canada
had had since the Union.' Nor were these hopes altogether disappointed.
Writing on April 12 he observed, that a marked change had taken place
within the last few weeks in the tone both of the press[2] and of the
leaders of the party, some of whom had given him to understand, through
different channels, that they regretted things had gone so far. 'But,' he
adds, 'whether the gales from England will stir the tempest again or not
remains to be seen.'
[Sidenote: Opinions in England.]
And, in effect, the next post from England came laden with speeches and
newspaper articles, denouncing, in no measured terms, the 'suicidal folly
of rewarding rebels for rebellion.' A London journal of influence, speaking
of the British population as affected by the measure in question, said:--
'They are tolerably able to take care of themselves, and we very much
misconstrue the tone adopted by the English press and the English public in
the province, if they do not find some means of resisting the heavy blow
and great discouragement which is aimed at them.' Such passages were read
with avidity in the colony, and construed to mean that sympathy would be
extended from influential quarters at home to those who sought to annul the
obnoxious decision of the local Legislature, whatever might be the means to
which they resorted for the attainment of that end. It may be doubted,
however, whether any extraneous disturbance of this kind had much to do
with the volcanic outburst of local passions which ensued, and which is now
to be related.
[Sidenote: The Bill is passed,]
The Bill was passed in the Assembly by forty-seven votes to eighteen. On
analysing the votes, it was found that out of thirty-one members from Upper
Canada who voted on the occasion, seventeen supported and fourteen opposed
it; and that of ten members for Lower Canada, of British descent, six
supported and four opposed it.
These facts (wrote Lord Elgin) seemed altogether irreconcilable with
the allegation that the question was one on which the two races were
arrayed against each other throughout the province generally. I
considered, therefore, that by reserving the Bill, I should only cast
on Her Majesty and Her Majesty's advisers a responsibility which
ought, in the first instance at least, to rest on my own shoulders,
and that I should awaken in the minds of the people at large, even of
those who were indifferent or hostile to the Bill, doubts as to the
sincerity with which it was intended that constitutional Government
should be carried on in Canada; doubts which it is my firm conviction,
if they were to obtain generally, would be fatal to the connection.
[Sidenote: and receives the Royal Assent.]
Accordingly, when, on April 25, 1849, circumstances made it necessary for
him to proceed to Parliament in order to give the Royal Assent to a Customs
Bill which had that day passed the Legislative Council, he considered that,
as this necessity had arisen, it would not be expedient to keep the public
mind in suspense by omitting to dispose, at the same time, of the other
Acts which still awaited his decision, among which was the 'Act to provide
for the indemnification of parties in Lower Canada whose property was
destroyed during the Rebellion in 1837 and 1838.' What followed is thus
described in an official despatch written within a few days after the
event:--
[Sidenote: Riots.]
When I left the House of Parliament I was received with mingled cheers
and hootings by a crowd by no means numerous which surrounded the
entrance to the building. A small knot of individuals, consisting, it
has since been ascertained, of persons of a respectable class in
society, pelted the carriage with missiles which they must have
brought with them for the purpose. Within an hour after this
occurrence a notice, of which I enclose a copy, issued from one of the
newspaper offices, calling a meeting in the open air. At the meeting
inflammatory speeches were made. On a sudden, whether under the effect
of momentary excitement, or in pursuance of a plan arranged
beforehand, the mob proceeded to the House of Parliament, where the
members were still sitting, and breaking the windows, set fire to the
building and burned it to the ground. By this wanton act public
property of considerable value, including two excellent libraries, has
been utterly destroyed. Having achieved their object the crowd
dispersed, apparently satisfied with what they had done. The members
were permitted to retire unmolested, and no resistance was offered to
the military who appeared on the ground after a brief interval, to
restore order, and aid in extinguishing the flames. During the two
following days a good deal of excitement prevailed in the streets, and
some further acts of incendiarism were perpetrated. Since then the
military force has been increased, and the leaders of the disaffected
party have shown a disposition to restrain their followers, and to
direct their energies towards the more constitutional object of
petitioning the Queen for my recall, and the disallowance of the
obnoxious Bill. The proceedings of the House of Assembly will also
tend to awe the turbulent. I trust, therefore, that the peace of the
city will not be again disturbed.
The Ministry are blamed for not having made adequate provision against
these disasters. That they by no means expected that the hostility to
the Rebellion Losses Bill would have displayed itself in the outrages
which have been perpetrated during the last few days is certain.[3]
Perhaps sufficient attention was not paid by them to the menaces of
the Opposition press. It must be admitted, however, that their
position was one of considerable difficulty. The civil force of
Montreal--a city containing about 50,000 inhabitants of different
races, with secret societies and other agencies of mischief in
constant activity--consists of two policemen under the authority of
the Government, and seventy appointed by the Corporation. To oppose,
therefore, effectual resistance to any considerable mob, recourse must
be had in all cases either to the military or to a force of civilians
enrolled for the occasion. Grave objections, however, presented
themselves in the present instance to the adoption of either of these
courses until the disposition to tumult on the part of the populace
unhappily manifested itself in overt acts. More especially was it of
importance to avoid any measure which might have had a tendency to
produce a collision between parties on a question on which their
feelings were so strongly excited. The result of the course pursued
is, that there has been no bloodshed, and, except in the case of some
of the Ministers themselves, no destruction of private property.
The passions, however, which appeared to have calmed down, burst out with
fresh fury the very day on which these sentences were penned. The House of
Assembly had voted, by a majority of thirty-six to sixteen, an address to
the Governor-General, expressive of abhorrence at the outrages which had
taken place, of loyalty to the Queen, and approval of his just and
impartial administration of the Government, with his late as well as with
his present advisers. It was arranged that Lord Elgin should receive this
Address at the Government House instead of at Monklands. Accordingly, on
April 30, he drove into the city, escorted by a troop of volunteer
dragoons, and accompanied by several of his suite. On his way through the
streets he was greeted with showers of stones, and with difficulty
preserved his face from being injured.[4] On his return he endeavoured to
avoid all occasion of conflict by going back by a different route; but the
mob, discovering his purpose, rushed in pursuit, and again assailed his
carriage with various missiles, and it was only by rapid driving that he
escaped unhurt.[5]
None but those who were in constant intercourse with him can know what Lord
Elgin went through during the period of excitement which followed these
gross outrages. The people of Montreal seemed to have lost their reason.
The houses of some of the Ministers and of their supporters were attacked
by mobs at night, and it was not safe for them to appear in the streets. A
hostile visit was threatened to the house in which the Governor-General
resided at a short distance from the city; all necessary preparation was
made to defend it, and his family were kept for some time in a state of
anxiety and suspense.[6]
For some weeks he himself did not go into the town of Montreal, but kept
entirely within the bounds of his country seat at Monklands, determined
that no act of his should offer occasion or excuse to the mob for fresh
outrage.[7] He knew, of course, that the whole of French Lower Canada was
ready at any moment to rise, as one man, in support of the Government; but
his great object was to keep them quiet, and 'to prevent collision between
the races.'
[Sidenote: Firmness of the Governor.]
[Sidenote: Refuses either to use force,]
'Throughout the whole of this most trying time,' writes Major Campbell,[8]
'Lord Elgin remained perfectly calm and cool; never for a moment losing his
self-possession, nor failing to exercise that clear foresight and sound
judgment for which he was so remarkable. It came to the knowledge of his
Ministers that, if he went into the city again, his life would be in great
danger; and they advised that a commission should issue to appoint a
Deputy-Governor for the purpose of proroguing Parliament. He was urged by
irresponsible advisers to make use of the military forces at his command,
to protect his person in an official visit to the city; but he declined to
do so, and thus avoided what these infatuated rioters seemed determined to
bring on--the shedding of blood. "I am prepared," he said, "to bear any
amount of obloquy that may be cast upon me, but, if I can possibly prevent
it, no stain of blood shall rest upon my name."'
As might have been expected, the Montreal press attributed this wise and
magnanimous self-restraint to fear for his own safety. But he was not to be
moved from his resolve by the paltry imputation; nor did he even care that
his friends should resent or refute it on his behalf.
So little was he affected by it that on finding, some years afterwards,
that Lord Grey proposed to introduce some expression of indignation on the
subject in his work on the colonies, he dissuaded him from doing so. 'I do
not believe,' he said, 'that these imputations were hazarded in any
respectable quarter, or that they are entitled to the dignity of a place in
your narrative.'
[Sidenote: or to yield to violence.]
But if neither the entreaties of 'irresponsible advisers,' nor the taunts
of foes, could move him to the use of force, he was equally firm in his
determination to concede nothing to the clamour and violence of the mob.
Writing officially to Lord Grey on the 30th of April, when the fury of the
populace was at its height, he said:--
It is my firm conviction that if this dictation be submitted to, the
government of this province by constitutional means will be
impossible, and that the struggle between overbearing minorities,
backed by force, and majorities resting on legality and established
forms, which has so long proved the bane of Canada, driving capital
from the province, and producing a state of chronic discontent, will
be perpetuated.
[Sidenote: Tenders resignation.]
At the same time, he thought it his duty to suggest, that 'if he should be
unable to recover that position of dignified neutrality between contending
parties which it had been his unremitting study to maintain,' it might be a
question whether it would not be for the interests of Her Majesty's service
that he should be removed, to make way for some one 'who should have the
advantage of being personally unobnoxious to any section of Her Majesty's
subjects within the province.'
[Sidenote: Approval of Home Government.]
The reply to this letter assured him, in emphatic terms, of the cordial
approval and support of the Home Government. 'I appreciate,' wrote Lord
Grey, 'the motives which have induced your Lordship to offer the suggestion
with which your despatch concludes, but I should most earnestly deprecate
the change it contemplates in the government of Canada. Your Lordship's
relinquishment of that office, which, under any circumstances, would be a
most serious loss to Her Majesty's service, and to the province, could not
fail, in the present state of affairs, to be most injurious to the public
welfare, from the encouragement which it would give to those who have been
concerned in the violent and illegal opposition which has been offered to
your Government. I also feel no doubt that when the present excitement
shall have subsided, you will succeed in regaining that position of
"dignified neutrality" becoming your office, which, as you justly observe,
it has hitherto been your study to maintain, and from which, even those who
are at present most opposed to you, will, on reflection, perceive that you
have been driven, by no fault on your part, but by their own unreasoning
violence.
Relying, therefore, upon your devotion to the interests of Canada, I feel
assured that you will not be induced by the unfortunate occurrences which
have taken place, to retire from the high office which the Queen has been
pleased to entrust to you, and which, from the value she puts upon your
past services, it is Her Majesty's anxious wish that you should retain.'
[Sidenote: Support in the colony.]
While awaiting, in his retreat at Monklands, the _contrecoup_ from the
mother-country of the storm which had burst over the colony, Lord Elgin
found a great source of consolation in the numerous sympathetic addresses
which poured in from every part of the province: fortifying him in the
conviction that the heart of the colony was with him, and that the bitter
opposition at Montreal was chiefly due to local causes; especially 'to
commercial distress, acting on religious bigotry and national hatred.' One
of these addresses, coming from the county of Glengarry, an ancient
settlement of Scottish loyalists, appears to have touched the Scotsman's
heart within the statesman's. In reply to it he said:--
Men of Glengarry--My heart warms within me when I listen to your manly
and patriotic address.
I recognise in it evidence of that vigorous understanding which
enables men of the stock to which you belong to prize, as they ought
to be prized, the blessings of well-ordered freedom, and of that keen
sense of principle which prompts them to recoil from no sacrifice
which duty enjoins.
The men of Glengarry need not recapitulate their services. He must be
ignorant indeed of the history of Canada who does not know how much
they have done and suffered for their Sovereign and their country.
You inhabit here a goodly land. A land full of promise, where your
children have room enough to increase and to multiply, and to become,
with God's blessing, greater and more prosperous than yourselves. But
I am confident that no spell less potent than the gentle and benignant
control of those liberal institutions which it is Britain's pride and
privilege to bestow on her children, will insure the peaceful
development of its unrivalled resources, or knit together into one
happy and united family the various races of which this community is
composed.
On this conviction I have acted, in labouring to secure for you,
during the whole course of my administration the full benefit of
constitutional government. It is truly gratifying to me to learn that
you appreciate my exertions. Depend upon it, they will not be relaxed.
I claim to have something of your own spirit: devotion to a cause
which I believe to be a just one--courage to confront, if need be,
danger and even obloquy in its pursuit--and an undying faith that God
protects the right.
[Sidenote: Debates in the British Parliament.]
In the meantime the unhappy Bill, which had caused such an explosion in the
colony, was running the gantlet of the British Parliament. On June 14 it
was vehemently attacked in the House of Commons by Mr. Gladstone, as being
a measure for the rewarding of Rebels.[9] He, indeed, contented himself
with 'calling the attention of the House to certain parts' of the Bill in
question; but Mr. Herries, following out the same views to their legitimate
conclusion, moved an Address to Her Majesty to disallow the Act of the
Colonial Legislature. The debate was sustained with great Vigour for two
nights; in the course of which the Act was defended not only by Lord John
Russell as leader of the Government, but also, with even more force, by his
great opponent Sir Robert Peel. Speaking with all the weight of an
impartial observer, he showed that it was not the intention of the measure,
and would not be its effect, to give compensation to anyone who could be
proved to have been a rebel; that it was only an inevitable sequel to other
measures which had been passed without opposition; and, further, that its
rejection at this stage would be resisted by all parties in the colony
alike, as an arbitrary interference with their right of self-government. On
a division the amendment of Mr. Herries was thrown out by a majority of
141. And though, a few nights later, a resolution somewhat in the same
sense, moved by Lord Brougham in the Upper House, was only negatived, with
the aid of proxies, by three votes, the large majority in the House of
Commons, and the firm attitude of the Government on the subject, did much
to quiet the excitement in the colony.
The news from England (wrote Lord Elgin) has produced a marked, and,
so far as it goes, a satisfactory change in the tone of the Press; in
proof of which I send you the leading articles of the Tory papers of
Saturday. ... The party, it would appear, is now split into three; but
on one point all are agreed. We must have done, they say, with this
habit of abusing the French; we must live with them on terms of amity
and affection. Such is the first fruit of the policy which was to bring
about, we were assured, a war of races.
This satisfactory result was also due in part to the wise measures adopted
by the Ministry, under direction of the Governor-General, for giving effect
to the provisions of the much-disputed Bill.
We are taking steps (he wrote on June 17) to carry out the Rebellion
Losses Bill. Having adopted the measure of the late Conservative
Government, we are proceeding to reappoint their own Commissioners;
and, not content with that, we are furnishing them with instructions
which place upon the Act the most restricted and loyalist construction
of which the terms are susceptible. Truly, if ever rebellion stood
upon a rickety pretence, it is the Canadian Tory Rebellion of 1849.
[Sidenote: Fresh riots.]
Unhappily the flames, which at this time had nearly died out, were re-
kindled two months later on occasion of the arrest of certain persons
concerned in the former riots; and though this fresh outbreak lasted but a
few days, it was attended in one case with fatal consequences.[10] Writing
on August 20, Lord Elgin says:--
We are again in some excitement here. M. Lafontaine's house was
attacked by a mob (for the second time) two nights ago. Some persons
within fired, and one of the assailants was killed. The violent
Clubbists are trying to excite the passions of the multitude, alleging
that this is Anglo-Saxon blood shed by a Frenchman.
The immediate cause of this excitement is the arrest of certain
persons who were implicated in the destruction of the Parliament
buildings in April last. I was desirous, for the sake of peace, that
these parties should not be arrested until indictments had been laid
before the grand jury, and true bills found against them.
Unfortunately, in consequence of the cholera, the requisite number of
jurors to form a court was not forthcoming for the August term. The
Government thought that they could not, without impropriety, put off
taking any steps against these persons till November. They were,
therefore, arrested last week; all except one, who was committed for
arson, were at once bailed by the magistrates; and he too was bailed
the day after his committal by one of the judges of the Supreme Court.
All this is simple enough, and augurs no very vindictive spirit in the
authorities. Nevertheless it affords the occasion for a fresh
exhibition of the recklessness of the Montreal mob, and the
demoralisation of other classes in the community.
Again on the 27th he writes:--
We have had a fortnight of crisis consequent on the arrests which I
reported to you last week; which may perhaps be the prelude (though I
do not like to be too sanguine) to better times. A most violent
excitement was got up by the Press against M. Lafontaine more
especially, as the instigator of the arrests and the cause of the
death of the young man who was shot in the attack on his house. A vast
number of men, wearing red scarfs and ribands, attended the funeral of
the youth. The shops were shut on the line of the procession; fires
occurred during several successive nights in different parts of the
town, under circumstances warranting the suspicion of incendiarism.
Upon this the stipendiary magistrates, charged by the Government with the
preservation of the peace of the city, represented officially to the
Governor that nothing could save it but the proclamation of Martial Law.
But he told his Council that he 'would neither consent to Martial Law, nor
to any measures of increased vigour whatsoever, until a further appeal had
been made to the Mayor and Corporation of the city.'
[Sidenote: Quiet restored.]
This appeal was successful. A proclamation, issued by the Mayor, was
responded to by the respectable citizens of all parties; and a large number
of special constables turned out to patrol the streets and keep the peace.
Meanwhile the coroner's jury, after a very rigorous investigation, agreed
unanimously to a verdict acquitting M. Lafontaine of all blame, and finding
fault with the civic authorities for their remissness. This verdict was
important, for two of the jury were Orangemen, who had marched in the
procession at the funeral of the young man who was shot. The public
acknowledged its importance, and two of the most violent Tory newspapers
had articles apologising to Lafontaine for having so unfairly judged him
beforehand. 'From, these and other indications (wrote Lord Elgin) I begin
to hope that there may be some return to common sense in Montreal.'
[Removal of Government from Montreal.]
My advisers, however (he proceeds), now protest that it will be
impossible to maintain the seat of Government here. We had a long
discussion on this point yesterday. All seem to be agreed, that if a
removal from this town takes place, it must be on the condition
prescribed in the address of the Assembly presented to me last
Session, viz. that there shall henceforward be Parliaments held
alternately in the Upper and Lower Provinces. A removal from this to
any other fixed point would be the certain ruin of the party making
it. Therefore removal from Montreal implies the adoption of the system
(which, although it has a good deal to recommend it, is certainly open
to great objections) of alternating Parliaments. But this is not the
only difficulty. The French members of the Administration ... are
willing to go to Toronto for four years at the close of the present
Parliament, but they give many reasons, which appear to have in a
great measure satisfied their Upper Canada colleagues, for insisting
on Quebec as the first point to be made. Now I have great objection to
going to Quebec at present. I fear it would be considered, both here
and in England, as an admission that the Government is under French-
Canadian influence, and that it cannot maintain itself in Upper
Canada. I, therefore, concluded in favour of a few days more being
given in order to see whether or not the movement now in progress in
Montreal may be so directed as to render it possible to retain the
seat of Government there.
This hope was disappointed, and he was obliged to admit the necessity of
removal. On September 3 he wrote again:--
We have had, since I last wrote, a week of unusual tranquillity....
but I regret to say that I discover as yet nothing to warrant the
belief that the seat of Government can properly remain at Montreal.
The existence of a perfect understanding between the more outrageous
and the more respectable fractions of the Tory party in the town, is
rendered even more manifest by the readiness with which the former,
through their organs, have yielded to the latter when they preached
moderation in good earnest. Additional proof is thus furnished of the
extent to which the blame of the disgraceful transactions of the past
four months falls on all. All attempts, and several have been made, to
induce the Conservatives to unite in an address, inviting me to return
to the town, have failed; which is the more significant, because it is
well known that the removal of the seat of Government is under
consideration, and that I have deprecated the abandonment of Montreal.
The existence of a party, animated by such sentiments, powerful in
numbers and organisation, and in the station of some who more or less
openly join it--owning a qualified allegiance to the constitution of
the province--professing to regard the Parliament and the Government
as nuisances to be tolerated within certain limits only--raising
itself whenever the fancy seizes it, or the crisis in its judgment
demands it, into an '_imperium in imperio_,'--renders it, I fear,
extremely doubtful whether the functions of Legislation or of
Government can be carried on to advantage in this city. 'Show vigour
and put it down,' say some. You _may_ and _must_ put down
those who resist the law when overt acts are committed. But the party
is unfortunately a national as well as a political one; after each
defeat it resumes its attitude of defiance; and, whenever it comes
into collision with the authorities, there is the risk of a frightful
race feud being provoked. All these dangers are vastly increased by
Montreal's being the seat of Government.
There were other arguments also of no little force. He was assured that
some Members had declared that nothing would induce them to come again to
Montreal; and he himself felt that it must do great mischief to the members
from other parts of the Province, to pass some months of each year in that
'hot-bed of prejudice and disaffection.' Moreover, so long as Montreal
retained the prestige of being the Metropolis, it was impossible to prevent
its press from enjoying a factitious importance, not only within the
province, but also in England and in the States, where it would be looked
upon as the exponent of the sentiments of the community at large.
Ultimately, on November 18, Lord Elgin reported to the Home Government,
that after full and anxious deliberation he had resolved, on the advice of
his Council, to act on the recommendation of the Assembly that the
Legislature should sit alternately at Toronto and Quebec, and with that
view to summon the Provincial Parliament for the next session at Toronto.
This step, 'decided upon in this deliberate and unimpassioned manner,' gave
a useful lesson, which was not lost either upon Montreal or the rest of the
Province. Nor was this its only good effect. 'The arrangement,' wrote Lord
Grey in 1852, 'by which the seat of Government and the sittings of the
Legislature were fixed alternately at Toronto and Quebec, has contributed
not a little towards removing the feelings of alienation from each other of
the inhabitants of French and of British descent. The French Canadians have
thus been brought into closer communication than formerly with the
inhabitants of the Western division of the province, and an increase of
mutual esteem and respect, with the removal of many prejudices by which
they were formerly divided, have been the result of the two classes
becoming better acquainted with each other.'[11]
[Sidenote: Visit to Upper Canada.]
While these arrangements were under discussion, in the autumn following the
stormy events above described, in spite of the threats thrown out by the
extreme party, Lord Elgin, after a progress in Upper Canada in which he was
accompanied by his family, made a short tour in the Western districts, the
stronghold of British feeling, attended only by one aide-de-camp and a
servant, 'so as to contradict the allegation that he required protection.'
Everywhere he was received with the utmost cordiality; the few indications
of a different feeling, on the part of Orangemen and others, having only
the effect of heightening the enthusiasm with which he was greeted by the
majority of the population.
[Sidenote: Continued animosities.]
From this time we hear no more of such disgraceful scenes as it has been
necessary to record; but it was long before the old 'Family-Compact' party
forgave the Governor who had dared to be impartial. By many kinds of
detraction they sought to weaken his influence and damage his popularity;
detractions probably repeated in all sincerity by many who were honestly
incapable of understanding his real motives for forbearance. And as the
members of this party, though they had lost their monopoly of political
power, still remained the dominant class in society, the disparaging tone
which they set was taken up not only in the colony itself, but also by
travellers who visited it, and by them carried back to infect opinion in
England. The result was that persons at home, who had the highest
appreciation of Lord Elgin's capacity as a statesman, sincerely believed
him to be deficient in nerve and vigour; and as the misapprehension was one
which he could not have corrected, even if he had been aware how widely it
was spread, it continued to exist in many quarters until dispelled by the
singular energy and boldness, amounting almost to rashness, which he
displayed in China.
[Sidenote: Forbearance of Lord Elgin.]
The more we remember the vehemence with which these injurious reports were
circulated, the more remarkable appears the resolution not to yield to the
provocation they involved, and the determination to accept the whole
responsibility of the situation at whatever personal cost.
The following letters are among those which disclose the motives of his
resolute forbearance. The last of them, written to an intimate friend
nearly two years later, and summing up the feelings with which he looked
back on the struggles of 1849, may close the personal records of this
troubled year.
[Sidenote: Its motives.]
I do not at all wonder that you should be disposed to question the
wisdom of my course in respect to Montreal; I think it was the best I
could have taken under the circumstances; but I do not presume to say
that it may not be criticised--justly criticised. My choice was not
between a clearly right and a clearly wrong course: how easy is it to
deal with such cases, and how rare are they in life! But between
several difficulties, I think I chose the least. I think, too, that I
am beginning to reap the reward of my policy. I do not believe that
such enthusiasm was ever manifested towards anyone in my situation in
Canada, as has been exhibited during my recent tour. But more than
this. I do not believe that the function of the Governor-General under
constitutional government as the moderator between parties, the
representative of interests which are common to all the inhabitants of
the country, as distinct from those which divide them into parties,
was ever so fully and so frankly recognised. Now, I do not believe
that I could have achieved this if I had had blood upon my hands. I
might have been quite as popular, perhaps more so; for there are many,
especially in Lower Canada, who would gladly have seen the severities
of the law practised upon those from whom they believe that they have
often suffered much, unjustly. But my business is to humanize--not to
harden. At that task I must labour, through obloquy and
misrepresentation if needs be. At the same time I admit that I must,
not for the miserable purpose of self-glorification, but with a view
to the maintenance and establishment of my moral influence, recover
the prestige of personal courage of which some here sought to deprive
me. Before I have travelled unattended through the towns and villages
of Upper Canada, and met 'the bhoys' as they are called, in all of
them on their own ground, I think I shall have effected this object,
in so far as the province is concerned. To right myself in England
will be more difficult; but doubtless, if I live, the opportunity of
so doing, even there, will sooner or later present itself. Hitherto
any impertinences which have reached me from the other side have been
anonymous.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Afterthoughts.]
I believe that the sentiments expressed in the newspaper extract of
which you acknowledge the receipt in your last, with respect to the
merits of the policy of forbearance adopted by me at the great crisis,
are beginning to obtain very generally among the few who trace results
to their causes. But none can know what that crisis was, and what that
decision cost. At the time I took it, I stood literally _alone_.
I alienated from me the adherents of the Government, who felt, or
imagined (having been generally, in times past, on the anti-Government
side), that if the tables had been turned--if _they_ and not
_their adversaries_ had been resisting the law of the land, and
threatening the life of the Queen's representative--a very different
course of repressive policy would have been adopted. At the same time
I gained nothing on the other side, who only advanced in audacity; and
added the charge of personal cowardice to their other outrages. At
home, too, I forfeited much moral support; for although the Government
sustained me with that honourable confidence which entitles a
Government to be well served, they were puzzled. The logic of the case
was against me. Lord Grey and Lord J. Russell both felt that either I
was right or I was wrong. If the latter, I ought to be recalled; if
the former, I ought to make the law respected. And, lastly, I lost any
chance of moral support from the opinion of our neighbours in the
States; for, like all primitive constitutionalists, the ideas of
government they hold in that quarter are very simple. I have been told
by Americans, 'We thought you were quite right; but we could not
understand why you did not _shoot them down!_'
I do not, as you may suppose, often speak of these matters; but the
subject was alluded to the other day by a person (now out of politics,
but who knew what was going on at the time, one of our ablest men),
and he said to me, 'Yes; I see it all now. You were right--a thousand
times right--though I thought otherwise then. I own that I would
have reduced Montreal to ashes before I would have endured half what
you did; and,' he added, 'I should have been justified, too.' 'Yes,' I
answered, 'you would have been justified, because your course would
have been perfectly defensible; but it would not have been the _best
course_. Mine was a _better one_.' And shall I tell you
what was the deep conviction on my mind, which, apart from the
reluctance which I naturally felt to shed blood (particularly in a
cause in which many who opposed the Government were actuated by
motives which, though much alloyed with baser metal, had claims on my
sympathy), confirmed me in that course? I perceived that the mind of
the British population of the province, in Upper Canada especially,
was at that time the prey of opposing impulses. On the one hand, as a
question of blood and sensibility, they were inclined to go with the
anti-French party of Lower Canada; on the other, as a question of
constitutional principle, they felt that I was right, and that I
deserved support. Depend upon it, if we had looked to bayonets instead
of to reason for a triumph, the _sensibilities_ of the great body
of which I speak would soon have carried the day against their
_judgment_.
And what is the result? 700,000 French reconciled to England--not
because they are getting _rebel money_--I believe, indeed, that
no _rebels_ will get a farthing; but because they believe that
the British Governor is just. 'Yes;' but you may say 'this is
purchased by the alienation of the British.' Far from it; I took the
whole blame upon myself; and I will venture to affirm that the
Canadian British never were so loyal as they are at this hour; and,
what is more remarkable still, and more directly traceable to this
policy of forbearance, never, since Canada existed, has party-spirit
been more moderate, and the British and French races on better terms
than they are now; and this, in spite of the withdrawal of protection,
and of the proposal to throw on the colony many charges which the
Imperial Government has hitherto borne.
Pardon me for saying so much on this point; but _'magna est
veritas.'_
[1] _I.e._ one of the rebels of 1837, who had been banished to Bermuda
by Lord Durham.
[2] One of the Conservative papers of the day wrote:--'Bad as the payment
of the rebellion losses is, we do not know that it would not be better
to submit to pay twenty rebellion losses than have what is nominally a
free Constitution fettered and restrained each time a measure
distasteful to the minority is passed.'
[3] 'I confess,' he wrote in a private letter of the same date, 'I did not
before know how thin is the crust of order which covers the anarchical
elements that boil and toss beneath our feet.'
[4] 'When he entered the Government House he took a two-pound stone with
him which he had picked up in his carriage, as evidence of the most
unusual and sorrowful treatment Her Majesty's representative had
received.'--Mac Mullen, p. 511.
[5] 'Cabs, caleches, and everything that would run were at once launched in
pursuit, and crossing his route, the Governor-General's carriage was
bitterly assailed in the main street of the St. Lawrence suburbs. The
good and rapid driving of his postilions enabled him to clear the
desperate mob, but not till the head of his brother, Colonel Bruce,
had been cut, injuries inflicted on the chief of police. Colonel
Ermatanger, and on Captain Jones, commanding the escort, and every
panel of the carriage driven in.'--Mac Mullen, p. 511.
[6] In the midst of this time of anxiety and even of danger to himself and
his family, his eldest son was born at Monklands, on May 16. Her
Majesty was graciously pleased to become godmother to the child, who
was christened Victor Alexander.
[7] The motives, he afterwards said, which induced him to abstain from
forcing his way into Montreal, might be correctly stated in the words
of the Duke of Wellington, who, when asked why he did not go to the
city in 1830, is reported to have answered, 'I would have gone if the
law had been equal to protect me, but that was not the case. Fifty
dragoons would have done it, but that was a military force. If firing
had begun, who could tell when it would end? one guilty person would
fall and ten innocent be destroyed. Would this have been wise or
humane for a little bravado, or that the country might not be alarmed
for a day or two?'
[8] His valued Secretary, to whose personal recollections most of these
details are due.
[9] Some years afterwards, in the 'Address' already quoted, Mr. Gladstone
made something of an _amende_ for this attack; but he does not
appear to have been fully informed, even then, either as to the
intention with which the Act was framed, or as to the manner in which
it had been carried out.
[10] 'This,' observes Lord Grey, 'owing to the extreme forbearance of Lord
Elgin and his advisers, was the only life lost throughout these
unhappy disturbances.'
[11] Lord Grey's Colonial Policy, &c. i. 234. In 1858, however, this
'perambulating system' having proved expensive and inconvenient, the
Queen was asked to designate a permanent abode for the Legislature.
Her Majesty was graciously pleased to name Ottawa, the present capital
of the Dominion; and the selection of this central spot, with, its
singular facilities of communication, has greatly aided in the
consolidation of the province.
CHAPTER V.
ANNEXATION MOVEMENT--REMEDIAL MEASURES--REPEAL OF THE NAVIGATION LAWS--
RECIPROCITY WITH THE UNITED STATES--HISTORY OF THE TWO MEASURES--DUTY OF
SUPPORTING AUTHORITY--VIEWS ON COLONIAL GOVERNMENT--COLONIAL INTERESTS THE
SPORT OF HOME PARTIES--NO SEPARATION!--SELF-GOVERNMENT NOT NECESSARILY
REPUBLICAN--VALUE OF THE MONARCHICAL PRINCIPLE--DEFENCES OF THE COLONY.
[Sidenote: Annexation movement]
The disturbances which followed the passing of the 'Rebellion Losses Bill'
have been described in the preceding chapter chiefly as they affected the
person of the Governor. But it may be truly said that this was the aspect
of them that gave him least concern. He felt, indeed, deeply the
indignities offered to the Crown of England through its representative. But
there was some satisfaction in the reflection that, by taking on himself
the whole responsibility of sanctioning the obnoxious Bill, he had drawn
down upon his own head the chief violence of a storm which might otherwise
have exploded in a manner very dangerous to the Empire. 'I think I might
say,' he writes, 'with less poetry but with more truth, what Lamartine said
when they accused him of coquetting with the _Rouges_ under the
Provisional Government: "_Oui, j'ai conspire! J'ai conspire comme le
paratonnerre conspire avec le nuage pour desarmer la foudre._"' But the
thunder-cloud was not entirely disarmed; and it burst in a direction which
popular passion in Canada has always been too apt to take, threats of
throwing off England and joining the American States. As far back as March
14, 1849, we find Lord Elgin drawing Lord Grey's attention to this subject.
There has been (he writes) a vast deal of talk about 'annexation,' as
is unfortunately always the case here when there is anything to
agitate the public mind. If half the talk on this subject were
sincere, I should consider an attempt to keep up the connection with
Great Britain as Utopian in the extreme. For, no matter what the
subject of complaint, or what the party complaining; whether it be
alleged that the French are oppressing the British, or the British the
French--that Upper Canada debt presses on Lower Canada, or Lower
Canada claims on Upper; whether merchants be bankrupt, stocks
depreciated, roads bad, or seasons unfavourable, annexation is invoked
as the remedy for all ills, imaginary or real. A great deal of this
talk is, however, bravado, and a great deal the mere product of
thoughtlessness. Undoubtedly it is in some quarters the utterance of
very sincere convictions; and if England will not make the sacrifices
which are absolutely necessary to put the colonists here in as good a
position commercially as the citizens of the States--in order to which
_free navigation and reciprocal trade with the States are
indispensable_--if not only the organs of the league but those of
the Government and of the Peel party are always writing as if it were
an admitted fact that colonies, and more especially Canada, are a
burden, to be endured only because they cannot be got rid of, the end
may be nearer at hand than we wot of.
In these sentences we have the germs of views and feelings which time only
made clearer and stronger;--indignation at that tendency, so common in all
minorities, to look abroad for aid against the power of the majority; faith
in the idea of Colonial Government, if based on principles of justice and
freedom; and, as regards the particular case of Canada, the conviction that
nothing was wanted to secure her loyalty but a removal of the commercial
restrictions which placed her at a disadvantage in competing with her
neighbours of the Union. To understand the scope of his policy during the
next few years, it will be necessary to dwell at some length on each of
these points; but for the present we must return to the circumstances which
gave occasion to the letter which we have quoted.
[Sidenote: Manifesto.]
While ready, as that letter shows, to make every allowance for the
utterances of thoughtless folly, or of well-founded discontent on the part
of the people, Lord Elgin felt the necessity of checking at once such
demonstrations on the part of paid servants of the Crown. Accordingly, when
an elaborate manifesto appeared in favour of 'annexation,' bearing the
signatures of several persons--magistrates, Queen's counsel, militia
officers, and others--holding commissions at the pleasure of the Crown, he
caused a circular to be addressed to all such persons with the view of
ascertaining whether their names had been attached with their own consent.
Some of these letters were answered in the negative, some in the
affirmative, and others by denying the right of the Government to put the
question, and declining to reply to it. Lord Elgin resolved, with the
advice of his executive council, to remove from such offices as are held
during the pleasure of the Crown, the gentlemen who admitted the
genuineness of their signatures, and those who refused to disavow them.
[Sidenote: Remedial measures.]
'In this course, says Lord Grey,[1] 'we thought it right to support him;
and a despatch was addressed to him signifying the Queen's approval of his
having dismissed from Her service those who had signed the address, and Her
Majesty's commands to resist to the utmost any attempt that might be made
to bring about a separation of Canada from the British dominions,' But the
necessity for such acts of severity only increased Lord Elgin's desire to
remove every reasonable ground of complaint and discontent; to shut out, as
he said, the advocates of annexation from every plea which could grace or
dignify rebellion. He felt, indeed, an assured confidence that, by carrying
out fearlessly the principle of self-government, he had 'cast an acorn into
time,' which could not fail to bring forth the fruit of political
contentment. But, in the meantime, for the immediate security of the
connection between the colony and the mother-country he thought, as we have
already seen, that two measures were indispensable, viz. the removal of the
existing restrictions on navigation, and the establishment of reciprocal
free trade with the United States.
Judging after the event we may, perhaps, be inclined to think that the
importance which he attached to the latter of these measures was
exaggerated; especially as the annexation movement had died away, and
content, commercial as well as political, had returned to the Province long
before it was carried. But we cannot form a correct view of his policy
without giving some prominence to a subject which occupied, for many years,
so large a share of his thoughts and of his energies.
Writing to Lord Grey on November 8, 1849, he says:--
[Sidenote: 'Reciprocity.']
The fact is, that although both the States and Canada export to the
same neutral market, prices on the Canada side of the line are lower
than on the American, by the amount of the duty which the Americans
levy. So long as this state of things continues there will be
discontent in this country; deep, growing discontent You will not, I
trust, accuse me of having deceived you on this point. I have always
said that I am prepared to assume the responsibility of keeping Canada
quiet, with a much smaller garrison than we have now, and without any
tax on the British consumer in the shape of protection to Canadian
products, if you put our trade on as good a footing as that of our
American neighbours; but if things remain on their present footing in
this respect, there is nothing before us but violent agitation, ending
in convulsion or annexation. It is better that I should worry you with
my importunity, than that I should be chargeable with having neglected
to give you due warning. You have a great opportunity before you--
obtain reciprocity for us, and I venture to predict that you will be
able shortly to point to this hitherto turbulent colony with
satisfaction, in illustration of the tendency of self-government and
freedom of trade, to beget contentment and material progress. Canada
will remain attached to England, though tied to her neither by the
golden links of protection, nor by the meshes of old-fashioned
colonial office jobbing and chicane. But if you allow the Americans to
withhold the boon which you have the means of extorting if you will, I
much fear that the closing period of the connection between Great
Britain and Canada will be marked by incidents which will damp the
ardour of those who desire to promote human happiness by striking
shackles either off commerce or off men.
Even when tendering to the Premier, Lord John Russell, his formal thanks on
being raised to the British peerage--an honour which, coming at that
moment, he prized most highly as a proof to the world that the Queen's
Government approved his policy--he could not forego the opportunity of
insisting on a topic which seemed to him so momentous.
It is (he writes) of such vital importance that your Lordship should
rightly apprehend the nature of these difficulties, and the state of
public opinion in Canada at this conjuncture, that I venture, at the
hazard of committing an indiscretion, to add a single observation on
this head. Let me then assure your Lordship, and I speak advisedly in
offering this assurance, that the disaffection now existing in Canada,
whatever be the forms with which it may clothe itself, is due mainly
to commercial causes. I do not say that there is no discontent on
political grounds. Powerful individuals and even classes of men are, I
am well aware, dissatisfied with the conduct of affairs. But I make
bold to affirm that so general is the belief that, under the present
circumstances of our commercial condition, the colonists pay a heavy
pecuniary fine for their fidelity to Great Britain, that nothing but
the existence to an unwonted degree of political contentment among the
masses has prevented the cry for annexation from spreading, like
wildfire, through the Province. This, as your Lordship will perceive,
is a new feature in Canadian politics. The plea of self-interest, the
most powerful weapon, perhaps, which the friends of British connection
have wielded in times past, has not only been wrested from my hands,
but transferred since 1846 to those of the adversary. I take the
liberty of mentioning a fact, which seems better to illustrate the
actual condition of affairs in these respects than many arguments. I
have lately spent several weeks in the district of Niagara. Canadian
Niagara is separated from the state of New York by a narrow stream,
spanned by a bridge, which it takes a foot passenger about three
minutes to cross. The inhabitants are for the most part U.E.
loyalists,[2] and differ little in habits or modes of thought and
expression from their neighbours. Wheat is their staple product--the
article which they exchange for foreign comforts and luxuries. Now it
is the fact that a bushel of wheat, grown on the Canadian side of the
line, has fetched this year in the market, on an average, from
9_d_. to 1_s_. less than the same quantity and quality of
the same article grown on the other. Through their district council, a
body elected under a system of very extended suffrage, these same
inhabitants of Niagara have protested against the Montreal annexation
movement. They have done so (and many other district councils in Upper
Canada have done the same) under the impression that it would be base
to declare against England at a moment when England has given a signal
proof of her determination to concede constitutional Government in all
its plenitude to Canada. I am confident, however, that the large
majority of the persons who have thus protested, firmly believe that
their annexation to the United States would add one-fourth to the
value of the produce of their farms.
I need say no more than this to convince your Lordship, that while
this state of things subsists (and I much fear that no measure but the
establishment of reciprocal trade between Canada and the States, or
the imposition of a duty on the produce of the States when imported
into England, will remove it), arguments will not be wanting to those
who seek to seduce Canadians from their allegiance.
Shortly afterwards he writes to Lord Grey:--
It is not for me to dispute the point with free-traders, when they
allege that all parts of the Empire are suffering from the effects of
free-trade, and that Canadians must take their chance with others. But
I must be permitted to remark, that the Canadian case differs from
others, both as respects the immediate cause of the suffering, and
still more as respects the means which the sufferers possess of
finding for themselves a way of escape. As to the former point I have
only to say that, however severe the pressure in other cases attendant
on the transition from protection to free-trade, there is none which
presents so peculiar a specimen of legislative legerdemain as the
Canadian, where an interest was created in 1843 by a Parliament in
which the parties affected had no voice, only to be knocked down by
the same Parliament in 1846. But it is the latter consideration which
constitutes the specialty of the Canadian case. What in point of fact
_can_ the other suffering interests, of which the _Times_
writes, do? There may be a great deal of grumbling, and a gradual
move towards republicanism, or even communism; but this is an operose
and empirical process, the parties engaged in it are full of
misgivings, and their ranks at every step in advance are thinned by
desertion. Not so with the Canadians. The remedy offered to them, such
as it is, is perfectly definite and intelligible. They are invited to
form a part of a community, which is neither suffering nor free-
trading, which never makes a bargain without getting at least twice as
much as it gives; a community, the members of which have been within
the last few weeks pouring into their multifarious places of worship,
to thank God that they are exempt from the ills which afflict other
men, from those more especially which afflict their despised
neighbours, the inhabitants of North America, who have remained
faithful to the country which planted them.
Now, I believe, that if these facts be ignored, it is quite impossible
to understand rightly the present state of opinion in Canada, or to
determine wisely the course which the British Government and
Parliament ought to pursue. It may suit the policy of the English
free-trade press to represent the difficulties of Canada as the
consequence of having a fool for a Governor-General; but, if it be
permitted me to express an opinion on a matter of so much delicacy, I
venture to doubt whether it would be safe to act on this hypothesis.
My conviction on the contrary is, that motives of self-interest of a
very gross and palpable description are suggesting treasonable courses
to the Canadian mind at present, and that it is a political sentiment,
a feeling of gratitude for what has been done and suffered this year
in the cause of Canadian self-government, which is neutralising these
suggestions.
Again, on December 29,1849, he writes as follows:--
[Sidenote: Free navigation.]
I believe that the operation of the free navigation system will be
what you anticipate, to a great extent at least, and that it will tend
materially to equalise prices on the two sides of the line. At the
same time I do think, that there are circumstances in this country
which falsify, in some degree, the deductions at which one arrives
from reasoning founded on the abstract principles of political
economy. One of these circumstances is the power which the farmers in
the Western States, having no rents to pay, have of holding back their
grain when prices do not suit them. You must have observed what hoards
they poured forth when they were tempted by the famine prices of 1847;
and I cannot but think that this power of hoarding, coupled with an
indifferent harvest, must account for the great disparity of price,
which has obtained during the course of the present year in the New
York market for bonded grain, and grain for the home consumption. I
fully expect, however, to see the price of Canadian grain, bonded at
New York, rise, now that it can be exported to Liverpool in the New
York liners, which will carry it for ballast. Nevertheless, I think
that Sir Robert Peel's _dictum_ with respect to the Repeal of the
Corn Laws, on the day on which he retired last from office, when he
observed that thenceforward, even when the poor suffered from the high
price of bread, they would not ascribe that suffering to the fact of
their bread being taxed, applies with at least equal force to the
reciprocity question as affecting the Canadian farmers. For sure am I
that, so long as there is a duty on their produce when it enters the
States, and none on the introduction of United States produce into
England, they will ascribe to this cause alone the differences of
price that may occasionally rule to their disadvantage.
The history of the two measures which Lord Elgin so ardently desired, and
which in the foregoing and many similar letters he so urgently pressed, was
eminently characteristic of the two Legislatures, through which they had
respectively to be carried.
[Sidenote: Repeal of Navigation Laws.]
In England, the repeal of restrictive Navigation Laws was contended for by
thoughtful statesmen on grounds of public policy. The protective and
conservative instincts of the old country, fortified by the never-absent
spirit of party, resisted the change. When fairly beaten by force of
argument in the House of Commons, they entrenched themselves ha the House
of Lords; and it was only after a hot struggle that the Act was passed in
June 1849, of which one effect was, by lowering freights, to increase the
profits of the Canadian trade in wheat and timber, and thus to advance, in
a very important degree, the commercial prosperity of the colony.
[Sidenote: Reciprocity Treaty.]
The delays which retarded the settlement of the Reciprocity Treaty were due
to causes of another kind. The difficulty was to induce the American
Congress to pay any attention at all to the subject. In the vast
multiplicity of matters with which that Assembly has to deal, it is said
that no cause which does not appeal strongly to a national sentiment, or at
least to some party feeling, has a chance of obtaining a hearing, unless it
is taken up systematically by 'organizers' outside the House. The
Reciprocity Bill was not a measure about which any national or even party
feeling could be aroused. It was one which required much study to
understand its bearings, and which would affect different interests in the
country in different ways. It stood, therefore, especially in need of the
aid of professional organizers; a kind of aid of which it was of course
impossible that either the British or the Canadian Government should avail
itself. Session after session the Bill was proposed, scarcely debated, and
set aside. At last, in 1854, after the negotiations had dragged on wearily
for more than six years, Lord Elgin himself was sent to Washington in the
hope--'a forlorn hope,' as it seemed to those who sent him--of bringing the
matter to a successful issue. It was his first essay in diplomacy, but made
under circumstances unusually favourable. He was personally popular with
the Americans, towards whom he had always entertained and shown a most
friendly feeling. They appreciated, moreover, better perhaps than it was
appreciated at home, the consummate ability, as well as the rare strength
of character, which he had displayed in the government of Canada; and the
prestige thus attaching to his name, joined to the influence of his
presence, and his courtesy and _bonhomie_, enabled him in a few days
to smooth all difficulties, and change apathy into enthusiasm. Within a few
weeks from the time of his landing he had agreed with Mr. Marcy upon the
terms of a Treaty of Reciprocity, which soon afterwards received the
sanction of all the Governments concerned.
The main concessions made by the Provinces to the United States in this
treaty were, (1) the removal of duties on the introduction, for consumption
in the Provinces, of certain products of the States; (2) the admission of
citizens of that country to the enjoyment of the in-shore sea-fishery; (3)
the opening-up to their vessels of the St. Lawrence and canals pertaining
thereto.
A good deal of misconception prevailed at the time as to the amount of the
concession made under the second head. The popular impression on this point
was, that a gigantic monopoly was about to be surrendered; but this was far
from being the case. The citizens of the United States had already, under
the Convention of 1818, access to the most important cod-fisheries on the
British coasts. The new treaty maintained in favour of British subjects the
monopoly of the river and freshwater fisheries; and the concession which it
made to the citizens of the United States amounted in substance to this,
that it admitted them to a legal participation in the mackerel and herring
fisheries, from illegal encroachments on which it had been found, after the
experience of many years, practically impossible to exclude them.[3]
The duration of the Treaty was limited to ten years, and has not been
extended; but it is not too much to hope that it has had some effect in
engendering feelings of friendliness, and of community of interest, which
may long outlast itself.
[Sidenote: Views of Government.]
It has been already noticed that the 'annexation movement' of 1849 died
away without serious consequences; and extracts which have been given above
sufficiently show to what cause Lord Elgin attributed its extinction. The
powerful attraction of the great neighbouring republic had been
counteracted and overcome by the more powerful attraction of self-
government at home. The centrifugal force was no longer equal to the
centripetal. To create this state of feeling had been his most cherished
desire; to feel that he had succeeded in creating it was, throughout much
obloquy and misunderstanding, his greatest support.
[Sidenote: Duty of supporting authority,]
From the earliest period of his entrance into political life he had always
had the strongest sense of the duty incumbent on every public man of
supporting, even in opposition, the authority of Government. The bitterest
reproach which he cast upon the Whigs, in his first Tory 'Letter to the
Electors of Great Britain' in 1835, was that when they found they could not
carry on the government themselves, they tried to make it impossible for
any other party to do so. Nor was he less severe, on another occasion, in
his reprehension of 'a certain high Tory clique who are always cavilling at
royalty when it is constitutional; circulating the most miserable gossip
about royal persons and royal entertainments,' &c.; busily 'engaged in
undermining the foundations on which respect for human institutions rests.'
Writing, in May 1850, to Mr. Gumming Bruce, a Tory and Protectionist, he
said--
I shall not despair for England whether Free-traders or Protectionists
be in the ascendant, unless I see that the faction out of power abet
the endeavours of those who would make the Government of the country
contemptible. Read Montalembert's speeches. They are very eloquent and
instructive. He had as full a faith in his religion, and what he
considered due to his religion, as you can have in your Corn Laws. Yet
observe how bitterly he now repents having aided those who have
undermined in the French public all respect for authority and the
powers that be.
If all that your Protectionist friends want to do is to put
themselves, or persons in whom they have greater confidence than the
present Ministry, in office, their object is, I confess, a perfectly
legitimate one. What I complain of is the system of what is termed
damaging the Government, when resorted to by those who have no such
purpose in view; or at least no honest intention of assuming
responsibilities which they are endeavouring to render intolerable to
those who are charged with them.
[Sidenote: especially in Colonies.]
But if this 'political profligacy' was, in his judgment, the bane of party
government at home, a still stronger but, perhaps, more excusable tendency
to it threatened to defeat the object of responsible government in Canada.
Accustomed to look abroad for the source and centre of power, a beaten
minority in the Colonial Parliament, instead of loyally accepting its
position, was never without a hope of wresting the victory from its
opponents, either by an appeal to opinion in the mother-country, always
ill-informed, and therefore credulous, in matters of colonial politics, or
else by raising a cry of 'separation' or 'annexation.'
The evil effects of this state of things need hardly be pointed out. On the
one hand the constant reference to opinion in England, not in the shape of
constitutional appeal but by ex-parte statements, produced a state of
chronic irritation against the mother-country. 'There is nothing,' wrote
Lord Elgin, 'which makes the colonial statesman so jealous as rescripts
from the Colonial Office, suggested by the representations of provincial
cliques or interests, who ought, as he contends, to bow before the
authorities of Government House, Montreal, rather than those of Downing
Street.' On the other hand it was not easy to know how to deal with
politicians who did not profess to own more than a qualified and
provisional allegiance to the constitution of the Province and the Crown of
England. The one hope in both cases was to foster a 'national and manly
tone' of political morals; to lead all parties alike to look to their own
Parliament, and neither to the London press nor the American hustings, for
the solution of all problems of Provincial government.
But while thus zealously defending, the fortress of British connection
committed to his care, Lord Elgin was dismayed to find that its walls were
crumbling round him? undermined by the operations of his own Mends; that
there had arisen at home a school of philosophic statesmen, strong in their
own ability, and strengthened by the support of the Radical economists,
according to whom it was to be expected and desired that every colony
enjoying constitutional government should aim at emancipating itself
entirely from allegiance to the mother-country, and forming itself into an
independent Republic. With such views he had no sympathy. The 'Sparta'
which had fallen to his lot was the position of a colonial governor, and
that position he felt it his duty to 'adorn' and to maintain. Moreover,
believing firmly in the vitality of the monarchical principle, as well as
in its value, he contended that it is an error to suppose that a
constitutional monarchy, in proportion as it becomes more liberal, tends
towards republicanism; and further, that if such tendency existed it would
be retrograde rather than progressive.
The views of Colonial Government, its objects and its difficulties, which
have been here briefly epitomised, are displayed in full in the following
letters, together with a variety of opinions on kindred topics. They are
given as characteristic of Lord Elgin; but they may, perhaps, have an
interest of their own, as bearing on important questions which still await
solution.
_To the Earl Grey._
November 16,1849.
[Sidenote: Maintenance of British connection.]
Very much, as respects the result of this annexation movement, depends
upon what you do at home. I cannot say what the effect may be if the
British Government and press are lukewarm on the subject. The
annexationists will take heart, but in a tenfold greater degree the
friends of the connection will be discouraged. If it be admitted that
separation _must_ take place, sooner or later, the argument in
favour of a present move seems to be almost irresistible. I am
prepared to contend that with responsible government, fairly worked
out with free-trade, there is no reason why the colonial relation
should not be indefinitely maintained. But look at my present
difficulty, which may be increased beyond calculation, if indiscreet
expressions be made use of during the present crisis. The English
Government thought it necessary, in order to give moral support to
their representative in Ireland, to assert in the most solemn manner
that the Crown never would consent to the severance of the Union;
although, according to the O'Connell doctrine, the allegiance to the
Crown of the Irish was to be unimpaired notwithstanding such
severance. But when I protest against Canadian projects for
dismembering the empire, I am always told 'the most eminent statesmen
in England have over and over again told us, that whenever we chose we
might separate. Why, then, blame us for discussing the subject?'
* * * * *
_To the Earl Grey._
January 14,1850.
[Sidenote: Colonial interests the sport of home parties.]
I am certainly less sanguine than I was as to the probability of
retaining the colonies under free-trade. I speak not now of the cost
of their retention, for I have no doubt but that, if all parties
concerned were honest, expenses might be gradually reduced. I am sure
also that when free-trade is fairly in operation it will be found that
more has been gained by removing the causes of irritation which were
furnished by the constant _tinkering_ incident to a protective
system, than has been lost by severing the bonds by which it tied the
mother-country and the colonies together. What I fear is, that when
the mystification in which certain questions of self-interest were
involved by protection is removed, factions both at home and in the
colonies will be more reckless than ever in hazarding for party
objects the loss of the colonies.[4] Our system depends a great deal
more on the discretion with which it is worked than the American,
where each power in the state goes habitually the full length of its
tether: Congress, the State legislatures, Presidents, Governors, all
legislating and _vetoing_, without stint or limit, till pulled up
short by a judgment of the Supreme Court. With us factions in the
colonies are clamorous and violent, with the hope of producing effect
on the Imperial Parliament and Government, just in proportion to their
powerlessness at home. The history of Canada during the past year
furnishes ample evidence of this truth. Why was there so much violence
on the part of the opposition here last summer, particularly against
the Governor-General? Because it felt itself to be weak in the
province, and looked for success to the effect it could produce in
England alone.
And how is this tendency to bring the Imperial and Local Parliaments
into antagonism, a tendency so dangerous to the permanence of our
system, to be counteracted? By one expedient as it appears to me only;
namely, by the Governor's acting with some assumption of
responsibility, so that the shafts of the enemy, which are intended
for the Imperial Government, may fall on him. If a line of demarcation
between the questions with which the Local Parliaments can deal and
those which are reserved for the Imperial authority could be drawn,
(as was recommended last session by the Radicals), it might be
different; but, as it is, I see nothing for it but that the Governors
should be responsible for the share which the Imperial Government may
have in the policy carried out in the responsible-government colonies,
with the liability to be recalled and disavowed whenever the Imperial
authorities think it expedient to repudiate such policy.
* * * * *
_To the Duke of Newcastle._
Quebec: February 18, 1853.
[Sidenote: Distribution of honours.]
Now that the bonds formed by commercial protection and the disposal of
local offices are severed, it is very desirable that the prerogative
of the Crown, as the fountain of honour, should be employed, in so far
as this can properly be done, as a means of attaching the outlying
parts of the empire to the throne. Of the soundness of this
proposition as a general principle no doubt can, I presume, be
entertained. It is not, indeed, always easy to apply it in these
communities, where fortunes are precarious, the social system so much
based on equality, and public services so generally mixed up with
party conflicts. But it should never, in my opinion, be lost sight of,
and advantage should be taken of all favourable opportunities to act
upon it.
There are two principles which ought, I think, as a general rule to be
attended to in the distribution of Imperial honours among colonists.
Firstly, they should appear to emanate directly from the Crown, on the
advice, if you will, of the Governors and Imperial Ministers, but not
on the recommendation of the local executives. And, secondly, they
should be conferred, as much as possible, on the eminent persons who
are no longer actively engaged in political life. If these principles
be neglected, such distinctions will, I fear, soon lose their value.
* * * * *
_To the Earl Grey._
Toronto: March 23,1850.
[Sidenote: Speech of Lord J. Russell.]
[Sidenote: Colonial existence not provisional.]
Lord John's speech on the colonies seems to have been eminently
successful at home. It is calculated too, I think, to do good in the
colonies; but for one sentence, the introduction of which I deeply
deplore--the sting in the tail. Alas for that sting in the tail! I
much fear that when the liberal and enlightened sentiments, the
enunciation of which by one so high in authority is so well calculated
to make the colonists sensible of the advantages which they derive
from their connection with Great Britain, shall have passed away from
their memories, there will not be wanting those who will remind them
that, on this solemn occasion, the Prime Minister of England, amid the
plaudits of a full senate, declared that he looked forward to the day
when the ties which he was endeavouring to render so easy and mutually
advantageous would be severed. And wherefore this foreboding? or,
perhaps, I ought not to use the term foreboding, for really to judge
by the comments of the press on this declaration of Lord John's, I
should be led to imagine that the prospect of these sucking
democracies, after they have drained their old mother's life-blood,
leaving her in the lurch, and setting up as rivals, just at the time
when their increasing strength might render them a support instead of
a burden, is one of the most cheering which has of late presented
itself to the English imagination. But wherefore then this
anticipation--if foreboding be not the correct term? Because Lord John
and the people of England persist in assuming that the Colonial
relation is incompatible with maturity and full development. And is
this really so incontestable a truth that it is a duty not only to
hold but to proclaim it? Consider for a moment what is the effect of
proclaiming it in our case. We have on this continent two great
empires in presence, or rather, I should say, two great Imperial
systems. In many respects there is much similarity between them. In so
far as powers of self-government are concerned it is certain that our
colonists in America have no reason to envy the citizens of any state
in the Union. The forms differ, but it may be shown that practically
the inhabitants of Canada have a greater power in controlling their
own destiny than those of Michigan or New York, who must tolerate a
tariff imposed by twenty other states, and pay the expenses of war
undertaken for objects which they profess to abhor. And yet there is a
difference between the two cases; a difference, in my humble judgment,
of sentiment rather than substance, which renders the one a system of
life and strength, and the other a system of death and decay. No
matter how raw and rude a territory may be when it is admitted as a
state into the Union of the United States, it is at once, by the
popular belief, invested with all the dignity of manhood, and
introduced into a system which, despite the combativeness of certain
ardent spirits from the South, every American believes and maintains
to be immortal. But how does the case stand with us? No matter how
great the advance of a British colony in wealth and civilisation; no
matter how absolute the powers of self-government conceded to it, it
is still taught to believe that it is in a condition of pupilage from
which it must pass before it can attain maturity. For one I have never
been able to comprehend why, elastic as our constitutional system is,
we should not be able, now more especially when we have ceased to
control the trade of our colonies, to render the links which bind them
to the British Crown at least as lasting as those which unite the
component parts of the Union.... One thing is, however, indispensable
to the success of this or any other system of Colonial Government. You
must renounce the habit of telling the Colonies that the Colonial is a
provisional existence. You must allow them to believe that, without
severing the bonds which unite them to Great Britain, they may attain
the degree of perfection, and of social and political development, to
which organised communities of free men have a right to aspire.
Since I began this letter I have, I regret to say, confirmatory
evidence of the justice of the anticipations I had formed of the
probable effect of Lord John's declaration. I enclose extracts from
two newspapers, an annexationist, the _Herald_ of Montreal, and a
_quasi_ annexationist, the _Mirror_ of Toronto. You will
note the use they make of it. I was more annoyed however, I confess,
by what occurred yesterday in council. We had to determine whether or
not to dismiss from his offices a gentleman who is both M.P.P., Q.C.,
and J.P., and who has issued a flaming manifesto in favour, not of
annexation, but of an immediate declaration of independence as a step
to it. I will not say anything of my own opinion on the case, but it
was generally contended by the members of the Board, that it would be
impossible to maintain that persons who had declared their intention
to throw off their allegiance to the Queen, with a view to annexation,
were unfit to retain offices granted during pleasure, if persons who
made a similar declaration with a view to independence were to be
differently dealt with. Baldwin had Lord John's speech in his hand. He
is a man of singularly placid demeanour, but he has been seriously
ill, so possibly his nerves are shaken--at any rate I never saw him so
much moved. 'Have you read the latter part of Lord J. Russell's
speech?' he said to me. I nodded assent. 'For myself,' he added, 'if
the anticipations therein expressed prove to be well founded, my
interest in public affairs is gone for ever. But is it not hard upon
us while we are labouring, through good and evil report, to thwart the
designs of those who would dismember the Empire, that our adversaries
should be informed that the difference between them and the Prime
Minister of England is only one of time? If the British Government has
really come to the conclusion that we are a burden to be cast off
whenever a favourable opportunity offers, surely we ought to be
warned.'
I replied that while I regretted as much as he could do the paragraph
to which he referred, I thought he somewhat mistook its import: that I
believed no man living was more opposed to the dismemberment of the
Empire than Lord J. Russell: that I did not conceive that he had any
intention of deserting the Colonies, or of inviting them to separate
from England; but that he had in the sentence in question given
utterance to a purely speculative, and in my judgment most fallacious,
opinion, which, was shared, I feared, by very many persons both in
England and the Colonies: that I held it to be a perfectly unsound and
most dangerous theory, that British Colonies could not attain maturity
without separation, and that my interest in labouring with them to
bring into full play the principles of Constitutional Government in
Canada would entirely cease if I could be persuaded to adopt it. I
said all this I must confess, however, not without misgiving, for I
could not but be sensible that, in spite of all my allegations to the
contrary, my audience was disposed to regard a prediction of this
nature, proceeding from a Prime Minister, less as a speculative
abstraction than as one of that class of prophecies which work their
own fulfilment. I left the Council Chamber disheartened, with the
feeling that Lord J. Russell's reference to the manhood of Colonies
was more likely to be followed by practical consequences than
Lamartine's famous '_quand l'heure aura sonne_' invocation to
oppressed nationalities. It is possible, indeed, that I exaggerate to
myself the probable effects of this declaration. Politicians of the
Baldwin stamp, with distinct views and aims, who having struggled to
obtain a Government on British principles, desire to preserve it, are
not, I fear, very numerous in Canada; the great mass move on with very
indefinite purposes, and not much inquiring whither they are going. Of
one thing, however, I am confident; there cannot be any peace,
contentment, progress, or credit in this colony while the idea obtains
that the connection with England is a millstone about its neck which
should be cast off, as soon as it can be conveniently managed. What
man in his senses would invest his money in the public securities of a
country where questions affecting the very foundations on which public
credit rests are in perpetual agitation; or would settle in it at all
if he could find for his foot a more stable resting-place elsewhere? I
may, perhaps, be expressing myself too unreservedly with reference to
opinions emanating from a source which I am no less disposed than
bound to respect. As I have the means, however, of feeling the pulse
of the colonists in this most feverish region, I consider it to be
always my duty to furnish you with as faithful a record as possible of
our diagnostics. And, after all, may I not with all submission ask, Is
not the question at issue a most momentous one? What is it indeed but
this: Is the Queen of England to be the Sovereign of an Empire,
growing, expanding, strengthening itself from age to age, striking its
roots deep into fresh earth and drawing new supplies of vitality from
virgin soils? Or is she to be for all essential purposes of might and
power, Monarch of Great Britain and Ireland merely--her place and that
of her line in the world's history determined by the productiveness of
12,000 square miles of a coal formation, which is being rapidly
exhausted, and the duration of the social and political organization
over which she presides dependent on the annual expatriation, with a
view to its eventual alienization, of the surplus swarms of her born
subjects? If Lord J. Russell, instead of concluding his excellent
speech with a declaration of opinion which, as I read it, and as I
fear others will read it, seems to make it a point of honour with the
Colonists to prepare for separation, had contented himself with
resuming the statements already made in its course, with showing that
neither the Government nor Parliament could have any object in view in
their Colonial policy but the good of the Colonies, and the
establishment of the relation between them and the mother-country on
the basis of mutual affection; that, as the idea of maintaining a
Colonial Empire for the purpose of exercising dominion or dispensing
patronage had been for some time abandoned, and that of regarding it
as a hot-bed for forcing commerce and manufactures more recently
renounced, a greater amount of free action and self-government might
be conceded to British Colonies without any breach of Imperial Unity,
or the violation of any principle of Imperial Policy, than had under
any scheme yet devised fallen to the lot of the component parts of any
Federal or imperial system; if he had left these great truths to work
their effect without hazarding a conjecture which will, I fear, be
received as a suggestion, with respect to the course which certain
wayward members of the Imperial family may be expected to take in a
contingency still confessedly remote, it would, I venture with great
deference to submit, in so far at least as public feeling in the
Colonies is concerned, have been safer and better.
[Sidenote: 'Separation' and 'annexation.']
You draw, I know, a distinction between separation with a view to
annexation and separation with a view to independence. You say the
former is an act of treason, the latter a natural and legitimate step
in progress. There is much plausibility doubtless in this position,
but, independently of the fact that no one advocates independence in
these Colonies except as a means to the end, annexation, is it really
tenable? If you take your stand on the hypothesis that the Colonial
existence is one with which the Colonists ought to rest satisfied,
then, I think, you are entitled to denounce, without reserve or
measure, those who propose for some secondary object to substitute the
Stars and Stripes for the Union Jack. But if, on the contrary, you
assume that it is a provisional state, which admits of but a stunted
and partial growth, and out of which all communities ought in the
course of nature to strive to pass, how can you refuse to permit your
Colonies here, when they have arrived at the proper stage in their
existence, to place themselves in a condition which is at once most
favourable to their security and to their perfect national
development? What reasons can you assign for the refusal, except such
as are founded on selfishness, and are, therefore, morally worthless?
If you say that your great lubberly boy is too big for the nursery,
and that you have no other room for him in your house, how can you
decline to allow him to lodge with his elder brethren over the way,
when the attempt to keep up an establishment for himself would
seriously embarrass him?
* * * * *
_To the Earl Grey._
Toronto: November 1, 1850.
Sir H. Bulwer spent four days with us, and for many reasons I am glad
that he has been here. He leaves us knowing more of Canada than he did
when he came. I think too that both he and Sir E. Head return to their
homes re-assured on many points of our internal policy, on which they
felt doubtful before, and much enlightened as to the real position of
men and things in this province.
[Sidenote: Self-government not republican.]
With one important truth 1 have laboured to impress them, and I hope
successfully. It is this: that the faithful carrying out of the
principles of Constitutional Government is a departure from the
American model, not an approximation to it, and, therefore, a
departure from republicanism in its only workable shape. Of the
soundness of this view of our case I entertain no doubt whatever; and
though I meet with few persons to whom it seems to have occurred (for
the common belief of superficial observers is that we are
republicanising the colonies), I seldom fail in bringing it borne to
the understanding of any intelligent person with whom I have occasion
to discuss it. The fact is, that the American system is our old
Colonial system with, in certain cases, the principle of popular
election substituted for that of nomination by the Crown. Mr. Filmore
stands to his Congress very much in the same relation in which I stood
to my Assembly in Jamaica. There is the same absence of effective
responsibility in the conduct of legislation, the same want of
concurrent action between the parts of the political machine. The
whole business of legislation in the American Congress, as well as in
the State Legislatures, is conducted in the manner in which railway
business was conducted in the House of Commons at a time when it is to
be feared that, notwithstanding the high standard of honour in the
British Parliament, there was a good deal of jobbing. For instance our
Reciprocity measure was pressed by us at Washington last session, just
as a Railway Bill in 1845 or 1846 would have been pressed in
Parliament. There was no Government to deal with. The interests of the
Union, as a whole and distinct from local and sectional interests, had
no organ in the representative bodies; it was all a question of
canvassing this member of Congress or the other. It is easy to
perceive that, under such a system, jobbing must become not the
exception but the rule.
Now I feel very strongly, that when a people have been once thoroughly
accustomed to the working of such a Parliamentary system as ours, they
never will consent to revert to this clumsy irresponsible mechanism.
Whether we shall be able to carry on the war here long enough to allow
the practice of Constitutional Government and the habits of mind which
it engenders to take root in these provinces, may be doubtful. But it
may be worth your while to consider whether these views do not throw
some light on affairs in Europe. If you part with constitutional
monarchies there, you may possibly get something much more democratic;
but you cannot, I am confident, get American republicanism. It is the
fashion to say, 'of course not; we cannot get their federal system;'
but this is not the only reason, there are others that lie deeper.
Look at France, where they are trying to jumble up the two things, a
head of the State responsible to the people who elect him, and a
ministry responsible to the Parliament.
* * * * *
_To the Duke of Newcastle._
March 26, 1853.
It is argued that, by the severance of the connection, British
statesmen would be relieved of an onerous responsibility for colonial
acts of which they cannot otherwise rid themselves. Is there not,
however, some fallacy in this? If by conceding absolute independence
the British Parliament can acquit itself of the obligation to impose
its will upon the Colonists, in the matter, for instance, of a Church
Establishment, can it not attain the same end by declaring that, as
respects such local questions, the Colonists are free to judge for
themselves? How can it be justifiable to adopt the former of these
expedients, and sacrilegious to act upon the latter?
The true policy, in my humble judgment, is to throw the whole weight
of responsibility on those who exercise the real power, for, after
all, the sense of responsibility is the best security against the
abuse of power; and, as respects the connection, to act and speak on
this hypothesis--that there is nothing in it to check the development
of healthy national life in these young communities. I believe that
this policy will be found to be not only the safest, but also (an
important consideration in these days) the most economical.
* * * * *
_To the Earl Grey._
Toronto: December 17, 1850.
Although, as you observe, it seems to be rather idle in us to
correspond on what may be termed speculative questions, when we have
so much pressing business on hand, I venture to say a few words in
reply to your letter of the 23rd ult., firstly, because I presume to
dissent from some of the opinions which you advance in it; and,
secondly, because I have a practical object of no small importance in
view in calling your attention to the contrasts which present
themselves in the working of our institutions, and those of our
neighbours in the States. My practical object is this: when you
concede to the Colonists Constitutional Government in its integrity,
you are reproached with leading them to Republicanism and the American
Union. The same reproach is hurled with anathemas against your humble
servant. Lord Stanley, if I rightly remember, in the debate on
Ryland's case last year, stated amid cheers, that if you were in the
habit of consulting the Ministers of the Crown in the Colony before
you placed persons on the colonial pension List, he had no hesitation
in saying you had already established a republic in Canada! Now I
believe, on the contrary, that it may be demonstrated that the
concession of Constitutional Government has a tendency to draw the
Colonists the other way; firstly, because it slakes that thirst for
self-government which seizes on all British communities when they
approach maturity; and, secondly, because it habituates the Colonists
to the working of a political mechanism, which is both intrinsically
superior to that of the Americans, and more unlike it than our old
Colonial system.
Adopting, however, the views with respect to the superiority of the
mechanism of our political system to that of our neighbours, which I
have ventured to urge, you proceed to argue that the remedy is in
their hands; that without abandoning their republicanism they and
their _confreres_ in France have nothing to do but to dismiss
their Presidents and to substitute our constitution without a King,
the body without the head, for their own, to get rid of the
inconveniences which they now experience; and you quote with
approbation, as an embodiment of this idea, the project submitted by
M. Grevy and the Red Republicans to the French Constituent Assembly.
[Sidenote: Value of the monarchical principle.]
Now here I confess I cannot go along with you, and the difference
between us is a very material one; for if the monarch be not an
indispensable element in our constitutional mechanism, and if we can
secure all the advantages of that mechanism without him, I have drawn
the wrong moral from the facts. You say that the system the Red
Republicans would have established in France would have been the
nearest possible approach to our own. It is possible, I think, that we
may be tending towards the like issues. It is possible, perhaps
probable, that as the House of Commons becomes more democratic in its
composition, and consequently more arrogant in its bearing, it may
cast off the shackles which the other powers of the State impose on
its self-will, and even utterly abolish them; but I venture to believe
that those who last till that day comes, will find that they are
living under a very different constitution from that which we now
enjoy; that they have traversed the interval which separates a
temperate and cautious administration of public affairs resting on the
balance of powers and interests, from a reckless and overbearing
tyranny based on the caprices and passions of an absolute and
irresponsible body. You talk somewhat lightly of the check of the
Crown, although you acknowledge its utility. But is it indeed so light
a matter, even as our constitution now works? Is it a light matter
that the Crown should have the power of dissolving Parliament; in
other words, of deposing the tyrant at will? Is it a light matter that
for several months in each year the House of Commons should be in
abeyance, during which period the nation looks on Ministers not as
slaves of Parliament but servants of the Crown? Is it a light matter
that there should still be such respect for the monarchical principle,
that the servants of that visible entity yclept the Crown are enabled
to carry on much of the details of internal and foreign administration
without consulting Parliament, and even without its cognisance? Or do
you suppose that the Red Republicans, when they advocated the
nomination of a Ministry of the House of Assembly with a revocable
_mandat_, intended to create a Frankenstein endowed with powers
in some cases paramount to, and in others running parallel with, the
authority of the omnipotent body to which it owed its existence? My
own impression is, that they meant a set of delegates to be appointed,
who should exercise certain functions of legislative initiation and
executive patronage so long as they reflected clearly, in the former
the passions, and in the latter the interests of the majority for the
time being, and no longer.
It appears to me, I must confess, that if you have a republican form
of government in a great country, with complicated internal and
external relations, you must either separate the executive and
legislative departments, as in the United States, or submit to a
tyranny of the majority, not the more tolerable because it is
capricious and wielded by a tyrant with many heads. Of the two evils I
prefer the former.
Consider, for a moment, how much more violent the proceedings of
majorities in the American Legislatures would be, how much more
reckless the appeals to popular passion, how much more frequently the
permanent interests of the nation and the rights of individuals and
classes would be sacrificed to the object of raising political capital
for present uses, if debates or discussions affected the tenure of
office. I have no idea that the executive and legislative departments
of the State can be made to work together with a sufficient degree of
harmony to give the maximum of strength and of mutual independence to
secure freedom and the rights of minorities, except under the
presidency of Monarchy, the moral influence of which, so long as a
nation is monarchical in its sentiments, cannot, of course, be
measured merely by its recognised power.
[Sidenote: Influence of a Governor, under responsible Government.]
Those who are most ready to concur in these views of Colonial Government,
and to admire the vigour with which they were defended, and the consistency
with which they were carried out, may still be inclined to ask whether the
maintenance of them did not involve a species of official suicide: whether
the theory of the responsibility of provincial Ministers to the provincial
Parliament, and of the consequent duty of the Governor to remain absolutely
neutral in the strife of political parties, had not a necessary tendency to
degrade his office into that of a mere _Roi faineant_. He had in 1849,
as Sir C. Adderley expresses it, 'maintained the principle of responsible
Government at the risk of his life.' Was the result of his hard-won victory
only to empty himself of all but the mere outward show of power and
authority?
Such questions he was always ready to meet with an uncompromising negative.
'I have tried,' he said, both systems. In Jamaica there was no responsible
Government: but I had not half the power I have here with my constitutional
and changing Cabinet.' Even on the Vice-regal throne of India, he missed,
at first, at least, something of the authority and influence which had been
his, as Constitutional Governor, in Canada.[5] He was fully conscious,
however, of the difficult nature of the position, and that it was only
tenable on condition of being penetrated, or _possessed_, as he said,
with the idea of its tenability. In this strain he wrote to his intimate
friend. Mr. Cumming Bruce, in September 1852, with reference to a report
that he was to be recalled by the Ministry which had recently come into
power.
As respects the _matter_ of the report, I am disposed to believe
that, viewing the question with reference to personal interests
exclusively, my removal from hence would not be any disadvantage to
me. But, as to my work here--there is the rub. Is it to be all undone?
On this point I must speak frankly. I have been possessed (I use the
word advisedly, for I fear that most persons in England still consider
it a case of _possession_) with the idea that it is possible to
maintain on this soil of North America, and in the face of Republican
America, British connection and British institutions, if you give the
latter freely and trustingly. Faith, when it is sincere, is always
catching; and I have imparted this faith, more or less thoroughly, to
all Canadian statesmen with whom I have been in official relationship
since 1848, and to all intelligent Englishmen with whom I have come in
contact since 1850--as witness Lord Wharncliffe, Waldegrave,
Tremenheere, &c. &c. Now if the Governor ceases to possess this faith,
or to have the faculty of imparting it, I confess I fear that, ere
long, it will become extinct in other breasts likewise. I believe that
it is equally an error to imagine with one old-fashioned party, that
you can govern such dependencies as this on the antiquated
bureaucratic principle, by means of rescripts from Downing Street, in
defiance of the popular legislatures, and on the hypothesis that one
local faction monopolises all the loyalty of the Colony; and to
suppose with the Radicals that all is done when you have simply told
the colonists 'to go to the devil their own way.' I believe, on the
contrary, that there is more room for the exercise of influence on the
part of the Governor under my system than under any that ever was
before devised; an influence, however, wholly moral--an influence of
suasion, sympathy, and moderation, which softens the temper while it
elevates the aims of local polities. It is true that on certain
questions of public policy, especially with regard to Church matters,
views are propounded by my ministers which do not exactly square with
my pre-conceived opinions, and which I acquiesce in, so long as they
do not contravene the fundamental principles of morality, from a
conviction that they are in accordance with the general sentiments of
the community.
It is true that I do not seek the commendation bestowed on Sir F. Head
for bringing men into his councils from the liberal party, and telling
them that they should enjoy only a partial confidence; thereby
allowing them to retain their position as tribunes of the people in
conjunction with the _prestige_ of advisers of the Crown by
enabling them to shirk responsibility for any acts of government which
are unpopular. It is true that I have always said to my advisers,
'while you continue my advisers you shall enjoy nay unreserved
confidence; and _en revanche_ you shall be responsible for all
acts of government.'
But it is no less certain that there is not one of them who does not
know that no inducement on earth would prevail with me to bring me to
acquiesce in any measures which seemed to me repugnant to public
morals, or Imperial interests; and I must say that, far from finding
in my advisers a desire to entrap me into proceedings of which 1 might
disapprove, I find a tendency constantly increasing to attach the
utmost value to my opinion on all questions, local or generals that
arise.
The deep sense which he entertained of the importance of a correct
understanding on this point is shown by his devoting to it the closing
words of the last official despatch which he wrote from Quebec, on December
18, 1854.
I readily admit that the maintenance of the position and due influence
of the Governor is one of the most critical problems that have to be
solved in the adaptation of Parliamentary Government to the Colonial
system; and that it is difficult to over-estimate the importance which
attaches to its satisfactory solution. As the Imperial Government and
Parliament gradually withdraw from legislative interference, and from
the exercise of patronage in Colonial affairs, the office of Governor
tends to become, in the most emphatic sense of the term, the link
which connects the Mother-country and the Colony, and his influence
the means by which harmony of action between the local and imperial
authorities is to be preserved. It is not, however, in my humble
judgment, by evincing an anxious desire to stretch to the utmost
constitutional principles in his favour, but, on the contrary, by the
frank acceptance of the conditions of the Parliamentary system, that
this influence can be most surely extended and confirmed. Placed by
his position above the strife of parties--holding office by a tenure
less precarious than the ministers who surround him--having no
political interests to serve but that of the community whose affairs
he is appointed to administer--his opinion cannot fail, when all cause
for suspicion and jealousy is removed, to have great weight in the
Colonial Councils, while he is set at liberty to constitute himself in
an especial manner the patron of those larger and higher interests--
such interests, for example, as those of education, and of moral and
material progress in all its branches--which, unlike the contests of
party, unite instead of dividing the members of the body politic. The
mention of such influences as an appreciable force in the
administration of public affairs may provoke a sneer on the part of
persons who have no faith in any appeal which is not addressed to the
lowest motives of human conduct; but those who have juster views of
our common nature, and who have seen influences that are purely moral
wielded with judgment, will not be disposed to deny to them a high
degree of efficacy.
[Sidenote: Defence of the colony,]
Closely akin to the question of the maintenance of the connection between
the Colony and Great Britain, especially when viewed as affected by the
commercial and financial condition of the former, was the question of
throwing upon it the expense of defending itself; a problem which was then
only beginning to attract the attention of liberal statesmen. For though it
may be true that the practice of defending the Colonies with the troops and
at the cost of the mother-country was an innovation upon the earlier
Colonial system, introduced at the time of the great war, it is not the
less certain that to the generation of colonists that had grown up since
that time the abandonment of it had all the effect of novelty. It was a
question on which, as affecting Canada, Lord Elgin was in a peculiar degree
'between two fires;' exposed to pressure at once from the Government at
home and from his own Ministers, and seeing much to agree with in the views
of both.
[Sidenote: against internal disorder;]
In the first place, as regards the preservation of order within the
province, he thought it clear that, as a general rule, the cost of this
should fall on the Colony itself wherever it enjoyed self-government; but
there were peculiar circumstances in Canada which made him hesitate to
apply the doctrine unreservedly there. Owing to the contiguity of the
United States, the abettors of any mischief in the Colony might count on
help constantly at hand, not indeed from the Government of the Union, which
never acted disloyally,[6] but from the Unruly spirits that were apt to
infest the borders; and it seemed to him at least doubtful, whether both
justice and policy did not require that Great Britain should afford to the
supporters of order some material aid to counterbalance this. Again, the
peculiar social and political state of Lower Canada, arising mainly from
the conditions under which it had passed into the hands of England, and
from the manner in which England had fulfilled those conditions, created
special difficulties as to the maintenance of internal quiet. On the one
hand England's respect for treaty obligations had induced her to resist all
attempts to break down by fraud or violence those rights and usages of the
French population, which had tended to keep alive among them feelings of
distinctive nationality; while on the other hand the effect of the working
of the old system of colonial administration had been to confer upon
British or American settlers a disproportionate share in the government of
the province. It followed that the French-Canadian majority and the Anglo-
Saxon minority were dwelling side by side in that section of the Colony
without, to any sensible extent, intermingling, and under conditions of
equilibrium which could never have been established but for the presence on
the same scene of a directing and overruling power. In this state of
things, while confidently hoping that an impartial adherence to the
principles of constitutional government would by degrees obliterate all
national distinctions, he saw reason to fear that the sudden withdrawal of
Britain's moderating control, whether as the result of separation or of a
change of Imperial policy, would be followed at no distant period by a
serious collision between the races.
[Sidenote: against foreign attack.]
Similarly, as regards defence against foreign attack, while agreeing that a
self-governing colony should be self-dependent, Lord Elgin felt that the
peculiar position of Canada, having no foreign attack to apprehend except
hi quarrels of England's making, made her case somewhat exceptional. And
any wholesale withdrawal of British troops he strongly deprecated, as
likely to imperil her connection with the mother-country, if it took place
suddenly, before the old notion--the 'axiom affirmed again and again by
Secretaries of State and Governors, that England was bound to pay all
expenses connected with the defence of the Colony'--had lost its hold on
men's minds, and a feeling of the responsibilities attaching to self-
government had had time to grow up.
His first letter on the subject is to Lord Grey, written so early as April
26,1848:--
The question which you raise in your last letter respecting the
military defence of Canada is a large one, and, before irrevocable
steps be taken, it may be well to look at it on all sides.
The first consideration which offers itself in connection with this
subject is this, 'Why does Canada require to be defended, and against
whom?' A very large number of persons in this community believe that
there is only one power from which they have anything to dread, and
that this power would be converted into the fastest friend, bone of
their bone, and flesh of their flesh, if the connection with Great
Britain were abandoned.
In this respect the position of Canada is peculiar. When you say to
any other colony 'England declines to be longer at the expense of
protecting you,' you at once reveal to it the extent of its dependence
and the value of Imperial support. But it is not so here. Withdraw
your protection from Canada, and she has it in her power to obtain the
security against aggression enjoyed by Michigan or Maine: about as
good security, I must allow, as any which is to be obtained at the
present time.
But you may observe in reply to this, 'You cannot get the security
which Michigan and Maine enjoy for nothing; you must purchase it by
the surrender of your custom houses and public lands, the proceeds of
which will be diverted from their present uses and applied to others,
at the discretion of a body in which you will have comparatively
little to say.' The argument is a powerful one, so long as England
consents to bear the cost of the defence of the Colony, but its force
is much lessened when the inhabitants are told that they must look to
their own safety, because the mother-country can no longer afford to
take care of them.
On the other hand very weighty reasons may be adduced in favour of the
policy of requiring the province to bear some portion at least of the
charge of its own protection. The adoption of free-trade, although its
advocates must believe that it tends to make the Colonies in point of
fact less chargeable than heretofore, will doubtless render the
English people more than ever jealous of expenditure incurred on their
behalf. I am, moreover, of opinion, that the system of relieving the
colonists altogether from the duty of self-defence is attended with
injurious effects upon themselves. It checks the growth of national
and manly morals. Men seldom think anything worth preserving for which
they are never asked to make a sacrifice.
My view, therefore, would be that it is desirable that a movement in
the direction which you Lave indicated should take place, but that it
ought to be made with much caution.
The present is not a favourable moment for experiments. British
statesmen, even Secretaries of State, have got into the habit lately
of talking of the maintenance of the connection between Great Britain
and Canada with so much indifference, that a change of system in
respect of military defence incautiously carried out, might be
presumed by many to argue, on the part of the mother-country, a
disposition to prepare the way for separation. Add to this, that you
effected, only a few years ago, a union between the Upper and Lower
Provinces by arbitrary means, and for objects the avowal of which has
profoundly irritated the French population; that still more recently
you have deprived Canada of her principal advantages in the British
markets; that France and Ireland are in flames, and that nearly half
of the population of this Colony are French, nearly half of the
remainder Irish.
That Canada felt no need of bulwarks except against England's foes was a
point on which he constantly insisted. On one occasion he wrote:--
Only one absurdity can be greater, pardon me for saying so, than the
absurdity of supposing that the British Parliament will pay L200,000
for Canadian fortifications; it is the absurdity of supposing that
Canadians will pay it themselves.
L200,000 for defences! and against whom? against the Americans. And
who are the Americans? Your own kindred, a flourishing swaggering
people, who are ready to make room for you at their own table, to give
you a share of all they possess, of all their prosperity, and to
guarantee you in all time to come against the risk of invasion, or the
need of defences, if you will but speak the word!
[Sidenote: Recommends gradual reduction of forces.]
On the whole he was of opinion that the Government should quietly, and
_sans phrase_, remove their troops altogether from some points, reduce
them in others, and 'aim at the eventual substitution of a Major-General's
command for that of a Lieutenant-General in Canada; but that nothing should
be done hastily or _per saltum_, so as to alarm the Colonists with the
idea that some new and strange principle was going to be applied to them.'
You may if you please (he wrote) largely reduce the staff, and more
moderately the men, leaving the remainder in the best barracks. I
think you may do this without, in any material degree, increasing the
tendency towards annexation; provided always that you make no noise
about it.... But, I repeat it, you must not, unless you wish to drive
the Colony away from you, impose new burdens upon the Colonists at
this time.[7]
The course thus sketched out he himself steadily pursued; and his last
letters on the subject, written early in 1853 to the Duke of Newcastle, who
had recently become Secretary for the Colonies, were occupied in
recommending a continuance of the same quietly progressive policy:
When I came here we had a Commander-in-Chief and two Major-Generals.
We have now only one General on the Station, and the staff has
undergone proportional diminution. If further reductions are to be
made, let them be effected in the same quiet way without parade or the
ostentatious adoption of new principles as applicable to the defence
of colonies which are exposed, as Canada is by reason of their
connection with Great Britain, to the hazard of assaults from
organised powers.
Continue then, if you will pardon me for so freely tendering advice,
to apply in the administration of our local affairs the principles of
Constitutional Government frankly and fairly. Do not ask England to
make unreasonable sacrifices for the Colonists, but such sacrifices as
are reasonable, on the hypothesis that the Colony is an exposed part
of the empire. Induce her if you can to make them generously and
without appearing to grudge them. Let it be inferred from your
language that there is in your opinion nothing in the nature of things
to prevent the tie which connects the Mother-country and the Colony
from being as enduring as that which unites the different States of
the Union, and nothing in the nature of our very elastic institutions
to prevent them from expanding so as to permit the free and healthy
development of social, political, and national life in these young
communities. By administering colonial affaire in this spirit you will
find, I believe, even when you least profess to seek it, the true
secret of the cheap defence of nations. If these communities are only
truly attached to the connection and satisfied of its permanence (and,
as respects the latter point, opinions here will be much influenced by
the tone of statesmen at home), elements of self-defence, not moral
elements only but material elements likewise, will spring up within
them spontaneously as the product of movements from within, not of
pressure from without. Two millions of people, in a northern latitude,
can do a good deal in the way of helping themselves when their hearts
are in the right place.
[1] Colonial Policy, i. 232.
[2] 'United Empire Loyalists,' i.e. descendants of the original Loyalists
of the American War.
[3] Despatch of the Earl of Elgin, Dec. 18, 1854.
[4] Compare _Junius_:--'Unfortunately for his country, Mr. Grenville
was at any rate to be distressed, because he was Minister: and Mr.
Pitt and Lord Camden were to be the patrons of America, because they
were in opposition. Their declaration gave spirit and argument to the
Colonies; and while, perhaps, they meant no more than the ruin of a
Minister, they in effect divided one half of the empire from the
other.'
[5] 'Perhaps I may see reason after a little more experience here to modify
my opinion on these points. If I were to tell you what I now think of
the relative amount of influence which I exercised over the march, of
affairs in Canada, where I governed on strictly constitutional
principles, and with a free Parliament, as compared with that which
the Governor-General wields in India _when at peace_, you would
accuse me of paradox.'--_Letter to Sir C. Wood, December 9,1862._
[6] Vide infra, p. 159.
[7] In entire accordance with this view, Be recommended that Great Britain
should take upon herself the payment of the Governor's salary, 'with a
view to future contingencies, and to calls which at a period more or
less remote we may have to make on the loyalty and patriotism of
Canadians.'
CHAPTER VI.
CANADA.
THE 'CLERGY RESERVES'--HISTORY OF THE QUESTION--MIXED MOTIVES OF THE
MOVEMENT--FEELING IN THE PROVINCE--IN UPPER CANADA--IN LOWER CANADA--AMONG
ROMAN CATHOLICS--IN THE CHURCH--SECULARIZATION--QUESTIONS OF EMIGRATION,
LABOUR, LAND-TENURE, EDUCATION, NATIVE TRIBES--RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED
STATES--MUTUAL COURTESIES--FAREWELL TO CANADA--AT HOME.
[Sidenote: The 'Clergy Reserves']
We have had frequent occasion to observe that the guiding principle of Lord
Elgin's policy was to let the Colony have its own way in everything which
was not contrary either to public morality or to some Imperial interest. It
was in this spirit that he passed the Rebellion Losses Act; and in this
spirit he watched the contest which raged for many years on the memorable
question of the 'Clergy Reserves.'
[Sidenote: History of the question.]
By the Canada Act of 1791 one-seventh of the lands then ungranted had been
set apart for the support of a 'Protestant Clergy.' At first these reserves
were regarded as the exclusive property of the Church of England; but in
1820 an opinion was obtained from the Law Officers of the Crown in England,
that the clergy of the Church of Scotland had a right to a share in them,
but not Dissenting Ministers. In 1840 an Act was passed in which the claims
of other denominations also were distinctly recognised. By it the Governor
was empowered to sell the reserves; a part of the proceeds was to be
applied in payment of the salaries of the existing clergy, to whom the
faith of the Crown had been pledged; one-half of the remainder was to go to
the Churches of England and Scotland, in proportion to their respective
numbers, and the other half was to be at the disposal of the Governor-
General for the benefit of the clergy of any Protestant denomination
willing to receive public aid.
But the old inveterate jealousy of Anglican ascendency, aggravated, it is
said, by the political conduct of Bishop Strachan, who had identified his
Church with the obnoxious rule of the Family Compact, was not content with
these concessions. Allying itself with the voluntary spirit, caught from
the Scottish Free Church movement in 1843, it took the shape of a fanatical
opposition to everything in the nature of a public provision for the
support of religion; and the cry was raised for the 'Secularisation of the
Clergy Reserves.' Eagerly taken up, as was natural, by the Ultra-radicals,
or 'Clear-grits,' the cry was echoed by a considerable section of the old
Tory party, from motives which it is less easy to analyse; and so violent
was the feeling that it threatened to sweep away at one stroke all the
endowments in question, without regard to vested interests, and without
even waiting for the repeal of the Imperial Act by which these endowments
were guaranteed. More loyal and moderate counsels however prevailed, owing
chiefly to the support which they received from the Roman Catholics of
Lower Canada, at one time so violently disaffected. In 1850 the Assembly
voted an Address to the Queen, praying that the Act referred to might be
repealed, and that the Local Legislature might be empowered to dispose of
the reserved lands, subject to the condition of securing to the existing
holders for their lives the stipends to which they were then entitled. To
this Address a favourable answer was returned by Lord Grey; who, while
avowing the preference of Her Majesty's Government for the existing
arrangement, by which a certain portion of the public lands of Canada were
applied to religious uses, admitted at the same time that the question of
maintaining it was one so exclusively affecting the people of Canada, that
its decision ought not to be withdrawn from the Provincial Legislature.
A Bill for granting to the Colony the desired powers was intended to be
introduced into Parliament during the session of 1851, but owing to the
pressure of other business it was deferred to the next year. It was to have
been brought forward in a few days, when the break-up of Lord John
Russell's Ministry caused it to be again postponed; and it was not till May
9, 1853, that the long looked-for Act received the Queen's assent.
No action could be taken in the matter by the Colonial Parliament for
that year, as its session closed on June 14; and when it met again next
year a ministerial crisis, followed by a dissolution and a change of
Ministers, caused a postponement of all legislation. Finally, on October
17, 1854, a Bill for the 'Secularisation of the Clergy Reserves' was
introduced into the Assembly. The more moderate and thoughtful men of every
party are said to have been at heart opposed to it; but it was impossible
for them to stand against the current of popular feeling. The Bill speedily
became law; the Clergy Reserves were handed over to the various municipal
corporations for secular uses; and though by this means 'a noble provision
made for the sustentation of religion was frittered away so as to produce
but few beneficial results,'[1] a question which had long been the
occasion of much heart-burning was at least settled, and settled for ever.
A slender provision for the future was saved out of the wreck by the
commutation of the reserved life-interests of incumbents, which laid the
foundation of a small permanent endowment; but, with this exception, the
equality of destitution among all Protestant communities was complete.[2]
The various stages through which this question passed may be traced in the
following letters, of which the first was written to Lord Grey on July 5,
1850:
Two addresses to the Queen were voted by the Assembly a few days ago
and brought up by the House to me for transmission. The one is an
address, very loyal in its tone, deprecating all revolutionary
changes.
[Sidenote: Address to the Queen.]
The other address is not so satisfactory. It prays Her Majesty to
obtain the repeal of the Imperial Act on the Clergy Reserves passed in
1840, and to hand them over to the Canadian Parliament to deal with
them as it may see fit--guaranteeing, however, the life interests of
incumbents. The resolutions on which this address was founded were
introduced by a member of the Government, which has treated the
question as an _open_ one.
You are sufficiently acquainted with Canadian history to be aware of
the fact, that these unfortunate Clergy Reserves have been a bone of
contention ever since they were set apart. I know how very
inconvenient it is to repeal the Imperial Act which was intended to be
a final settlement of the question; but I must candidly say I very
much doubt whether you will be able to preserve the Colony if you
retain it on the Statute Book. Even Lafontaine and others who
recognise certain vested rights of the Protestant churches under the
Constitutional Act, advocate the repeal of the Imperial Act of 1840:
partly because Lower Canada was not consulted at all when it was
passed; and, secondly, because the distribution made under that Act is
an unfair one, and inconsistent with the views of the Upper Canadian
Legislature, as expressed at the time but set aside in deference, as
it is alleged, to the remonstrances of the English bishops. Some among
the Anglo-Saxon Liberals, and some of the Orange Tories, I suspect,
share these views.
A considerable section is for appropriating the proceeds of the
reserves at once, and applying them to education, without any regard
to the rights either of individuals or of churches. These persons are
furious with the supporters of the address for proposing to preserve
the life interests of incumbents. The sentiments of the remainder are
pretty accurately conveyed by the terms of the address.
* * * * *
_To the Earl Grey._
Toronto, July 19, 1850.
[Sidenote: Reasons for agreeing.]
The 'Clear Grit' organs, which have absorbed a large portion of the
'Annexationists,' talk very big about what they will do if England
steps in to preserve the 'Clergy Reserves.' That party would be only
too glad to get up a quarrel with England on such a point. It is, of
course, impossible for you to do anything with the Imperial Act till
next session. A little delay may perhaps enable us to see our way more
clearly with respect to this most perplexing subject.
Lord Sydenham's despatch of January 22,1840, is a curious and
instructive one. It accompanies the Act on the 'Clergy Reserve'
question, which he induced the Parliament of Upper Canada to pass, but
which was not adopted at home; for the House of Lords concocted one
more favourable to the Established Churches. He clearly admits that
the Act is against the sense of the country, and that nothing but his
own great personal influence got it through, and yet he looks upon it
as a settlement of the question. I confess I see few of the conditions
of finality in measures which are passed under such circumstances.
* * * * *
_To the Earl Grey._
Toronto, March 18,1851.
I am far from thinking that the 'Clergy Reserves' will necessarily be
diverted from religious purposes if the Local Parliament has the
disposal of them. I should feel very confident that this would not be
the case, were it not that the tone adopted by the Church of England
here has almost always the effect of driving from her even those who
would be most disposed to cooperate with her if she would allow them.
* * * * *
_To the Earl Grey._
Toronto, June 14,1851.
On the whole the best chance for the Church interest as regards the
question, in my judgment, is that you should carry your empowering
bill through the Imperial Parliament this session, and that we should
get through our session and the general election, which is about to
follow, with as little excitement as possible. The province is
prosperous and the people contented; and at such a time, if no
disturbing cause arise, moderate and reasonable men are likely to be
returned. At the same time the 'Clergy Reserve' question is
sufficiently before the public to insure our getting from the returns
to Parliament a pretty fair indication of what are the real sentiments
of the people upon it. I need not say that there can be no security
for the permanence of any arrangement which is not in tolerable
conformity with those sentiments.
* * * * *
_To the Earl Grey._
July 12,1851.
[Sidenote: Movement not prompted by Roman Catholics.]
As to the insinuation that the movement against the endowments of the
Church of England is prompted by the Romans, events will give the lie
to it ere long. The following facts, however, seem to be wholly
irreconcilable with this hypothesis. Before the Union of the Provinces
there were very few, if any, Roman Catholic members in the Upper
Canada Parliament; they were all-powerful in the Lower. Now it is
recorded in history, that the Upper Canadian Legislative Assembly kept
up year after year a series of assaults on the 'Clergy Reserves;' in
proof of which read the narrative part of the Address to Her Majesty
on the 'Clergy Reserves' from the Legislative Assembly last year. And
it is equally a fact that the Lower Canadian Legislative Assembly
never meddled with them, except I think once, when they were invited
to do so by the Government.
Some months later, in the beginning of 1852, Lord John Russell's
Administration was broken up, and Lord Grey handed over the seals of the
Colonial Office to Sir John Pakington. One of the first subjects on which
the new Secretary asked to be furnished with confidential information was
as to the state of public feeling in Canada upon the question of the future
disposal of the 'Clergy Reserves.' Lord Elgin replied as follows:
[Sidenote: Feeling in the Province;]
You require, if I rightly understand your letter, that I should state,
in the first place, whether I believe that the sentiments of the
community in reference to the subject-matter of this Address are
faithfully represented in the votes of the Assembly. I cannot answer
this question otherwise than affirmatively. Not that I am by any means
disposed to under-rate the importance of the petitions which may have
been sent home by opponents of the measure. The clergy of the Church
of England and of that portion of the Presbyterian Church which
preserves its connection with the Established Church of Scotland, are
generally unwilling that the question of the reserves should be left
to the decision of the Local Legislature. They are, to a considerable
extent, supported by their flocks when they approach the throne as
petitioners against the prayer of the Assembly's Address, although it
is no doubt an error to suppose that the lay members of these
communions are unanimous, or all alike zealous in the espousal of
these views. From this quarter the petitions which appear to have
reached Lord Grey and yourself have, I apprehend, almost exclusively
proceeded. Other bodies, even of those which participate in the
produce of the reserves, as for example the Wesleyans and the Roman
Catholics of Upper Canada, have not, that I am aware of, moved in the
matter, unless it be in an opposite direction.
[Sidenote: in Upper Canada;]
[Sidenote: in Lower Canada;]
Can it then be inferred from such indications that public opinion in
the province does not support the cause taken by the Assembly in
reference to the 'Clergy Reserves'? or, what is perhaps more to the
purpose, that a provincial administration, formed on the principle of
desisting from all attempts to induce the Imperial Government to
repeal the Imperial statute on this subject, would be sustained? I am
unable, I confess, to bring myself to entertain any such expectation.
It is my opinion, that if the Liberals were to rally out of office on
the cry that they were asserting the right of the Provincial
Government to deal with the question of the 'Clergy Reserves' against
a Government willing, at the bidding of the Imperial authorities, to
abandon this claim, they would triumph in Upper Canada more decisively
than they did at the late general election. I need hardly add, that
if, after a resistance followed by such a triumph, the Imperial
Government were to give way, it would be more than ever difficult to
obtain from the victorious party a reasonable consideration for Church
interests. These remarks apply to Upper Canada. It is not so easy to
foresee what is likely to be the course of events in Lower Canada. The
party which looks to M. Papineou as its leader adopts on all points
the most ultra-democratic creed. It professes no very warm attachment
to the endowments of the Roman Catholic Church, and is, of course, not
likely to prove itself more tender with respect to property set apart
by royal authority for the support of Protestantism. The French-
Canadian Representatives who do not belong to this party are, I
believe, generally disinclined to secularisation, and would be brought
to consent to any such proposition, if at all, only by the pressure of
some supposed political necessity. They are however, almost without
exception, committed to the principle that the 'Clergy Reserves' ought
to be subject to the control of the Local Legislature. While the
battle is waged on this ground, therefore, they will probably continue
to side with the Upper Canada Liberals, unless the latter contrive to
alienate them by some act of extravagance....
I am aware that there lie, beyond the subjects of which I have
treated, larger considerations of public policy affecting this
question, on which I have not ventured to touch. On the one hand there
are persons who contend that, as the 'Clergy Reserves' were set apart
by a British Sovereign for religious uses, it is the bounden duty of
the Imperial authorities to maintain at all hazards the disposition
thus made of them. This view is hardly, I think, reconcilable with the
provisions of the statute of 1791; but, if it be correct, it renders
all discussion of subordinate topics and points of mere expediency,
superfluous.
[Sidenote: In the Church;]
On the other hand even among the most attached friends of the Church,
some are to be found who doubt whether on the whole the Church has
gained from the Reserves as much as she has lost by them--whether the
ill-will which they have engendered, and the bar which they have
proved to private munificence and voluntary exertion, have not more
than counter-balanced the benefits which they may have conferred; and
who look to secularisation as the only settlement that will be final
and put an end to strife.
Up to this time Lord Elgin appears to have entertained at least a hope,
that, if the Colony were left to itself, it would settle the matter by
distributing the reserved funds according to some equitable proportion
among the clergy of all denominations. But as time went on, this hope
became fainter and fainter. In his next letter he recounts a conversation
with a person (not named) 'of much intelligence, and well acquainted with
Upper Canada,' not a member of the Church of England, but favourable to the
maintenance of an endowment for religious purposes, who, after remarking on
the infatuation shown by the friends of the Church in 1840, expressed a
decided opinion that the vantage ground then so heedlessly sacrificed was
lost for ever, so far as colonial sentiment was concerned; and that
'neither the present nor any future Canadian Parliament would be induced to
enact a law for perpetuating the endowment in any shape.' The increasing
likelihood, however, of a result which he regarded as in itself undesirable
could not abate his desire to see the matter finally settled, or shake his
conviction that the Provincial Parliament was the proper power to settle
it. With his correspondent it was not so; nor can it be wondered at that
the organ of a Tory Government should have declined to accede to the prayer
of an Address, which could hardly have any other issue than secularisation.
But the decision was not destined to be left in the hands of the Tories.
Before the end of 1852 Lord Derby was replaced by Lord Aberdeen, and Sir J.
Pakington by Lord Elgin's old friend the Duke of Newcastle, who saw at once
the necessity of conceding to the Canadian Parliament the power of settling
the question after its own fashion. Accordingly on May 21, 1853, Lord Elgin
was able to write to him as follows:
[Sidenote: Empowering Bill passed.]
I was certainly not a little surprised by the success with which you
carried the Clergy Reserves Bill through the House of Lords. I am assured
that this result was mainly due to your own personal exertions. I am quite
confident that both in what you have done, and in the way you have done it,
you have best consulted the interests of the Province, the Church, and the
Empire. I trust that what has happened will have here the favourable moral
effect which you anticipate. It cannot fail to have this tendency.
As respects the measures which will be ultimately adopted on this vexed
subject, I do not yet venture to write with confidence. If the
representation of the Bishop of Toronto, as to the feelings which exist
among the great Protestant denominations on the question, were correct,
there could be no doubt whatsoever in regard to the issue. For you may
depend upon it the Roman Catholics have no wish to touch the Protestant
endowment; although, when they are forced into the controversy, they will
contend that it does not rest on the same basis as their own. But I confess
that I place no reliance whatsoever on these calculations and
representations. Almost the greatest evil which results from the delegation
to the Imperial Parliament of the duty of legislating on Colonial questions
of this class, is the scope which the system affords to exaggeration and
mystification. Parties do not meet in fair conflict on their own ground,
where they can soon gain a knowledge of their relative strength, and learn
to respect each other accordingly; they shroud themselves in mystery, and
rely for victory on their success in outdoing each other in hard swearing.
Many men, partly from good nature and partly from political motives, will
sign a petition spiced and peppered to tickle the palate of the House of
Lords, who will not move a yard, or sacrifice a shilling, on behalf of the
object petitioned for. I much fear that it will be found that there is much
division of opinion even among members of the laity of the Church, with
respect to the propriety of maintaining the 'Clergy Reserves;' and that,
even as regards a certain section of the clergy, owing to dissatisfaction
with the distribution of the fund and with the condition of dependence in
which the missionaries are kept, there is greater lukewarmness on the
subject than the fervent representations you have received would lead you
to imagine.
Meanwhile there is a very good feeling in the Province--a great absence of
party violence. Your course has tended to confirm these favourable
symptoms. We must prevent anything being done during this session of the
Provincial Parliament to commit parties with respect to the 'Clergy
Reserves,' and as respects the future we must hope for the best.
[Sidenote: The Reserves secularised.]
The result has been already stated. The 'Clergy Reserves' were secularised,
contrary, no doubt, to the individual wishes of Lord Elgin; but the general
principle of Colonial self-government had signally triumphed, and its
victory more than outweighed to him the loss of any particular cause.
One other measure remains to be noticed, on which Lord Elgin had the
satisfaction of inducing the Home Government to yield to the wishes of the
Colony, viz. the Reform of the Provincial Parliament.
[Sidenote: Reform of the Provincial Parliament.]
By the Constitution of 1840 the legislative power was divided between two
chambers: a council, consisting of twenty persons, who were nominated by
the Governor, and held their seats for life; and a House of Assembly, whose
eighty-four members were elected in equal proportions from the two sections
of the province. As the population of the Colony grew--and between 1840 and
1853 it nearly doubled itself--it was natural that the number of
legislators should be increased; and there were other reasons which made an
increase desirable.
[Sidenote: Increase of representation.]
The Legislative Assembly (wrote Lord Elgin early in 1853) is now
engaged on a measure introduced by the Government for increasing the
representation of the province. I consider the object of the measure a
very important one; for, with so small a body as eighty members, when
parties are nearly balanced, individual votes become too precious,
which leads to mischief. I have not experienced this evil to any great
extent since I have had a liberal administration, which has always
been strong in the Assembly; but, with my first administration, I felt
it severely.
To this change no serious opposition was offered, either in the Colony or
in the Imperial Parliament; and the members of the two Houses were raised
to one hundred and thirty, and seventy-two, respectively. It was otherwise,
however, with the proposal to make the Upper House elective; a measure
certainly alien to English ideas, but one which Lord Elgin appears to have
thought necessary for the healthy working of the constitution under the
circumstances then existing in the province. As early as March, 1850, he
wrote to Lord Grey:--
[Sidenote: Proposal to make the Upper House elective.]
[Sidenote: Reasons in favour.]
A great deal is said here at present about rendering our second branch
of the Legislature elective. As the advocates of the plan, however,
comprise two classes of persons, with views not only distinct but
contradictory, it is difficult to foresee how they are to agree on
details, when it assumes a practical shape. The one class desire to
construct a more efficient Conservative body than the present Council,
the other seek an instrument to aid them in their schemes of
subversion and pillage. For my own part, I believe that a second
legislative body, returned by the same constituency as the House of
Assembly, under some differences with respect to time and mode of
election, would be a greater check on ill-considered legislation than
the Council as it is now constituted. Baldwin is very unwilling to
move in this matter. Having got what he imagines to be the likest
thing to the British constitution he can obtain, he is satisfied, and
averse to further change. In this instance I cannot but think that he
mistakes the shadow for the substance. I admire, however, the
perseverance with which he proclaims, '_Il faut jeter l'ancre de la
constitution_,' in reply to proposals of organic change; though I
fully expect that, like those who raised this cry in 1791, he will
yet, if he lives, find himself and his state-ship floundering among
rocks and shoals, towards which he never expected to steer.
Three years later he held the same language to the Duke of Newcastle.
Writing on March 26, 1853, to inform him that the Bill for increasing the
representation had been carried in the Assembly by a large majority, he
adds:--
The Lords must be attended to in the next place. The position of the
second chamber in our body politic is at present wholly
unsatisfactory. The principle of election must be introduced in order
to give to it the influence which it ought to possess; and that
principle must be so applied as to admit of the working of
Parliamentary Government (which I for one am certainly not prepared to
abandon for the American system) with two elective chambers. I have
made some suggestions with this view, which I hope to be able to
induce the Legislature to adopt.
When our two legislative bodies shall have been placed on this
improved footing, a greater stability will have been imparted to our
constitution, and a greater strength, I believe, if England act
wisely, to the connection.
[Sidenote: The Act passed.]
The question did not come before the British Parliament till the summer of
1854, after Lord Elgin's visit to England, during which he had an
opportunity of stating his views personally to the Government. At his
instance they brought in a Bill to enable the Colonial Legislature to deal
with the subject; and the measure was carried, with few dissentients,
although vehemently denounced by Lord Derby in the House of Lords. The
principles of colonial policy which Lord Durham had expressed so powerfully
in 1888, and on which Lord Grey and Lord Elgin had been acting so
consistently for many years, had at last prevailed; and many of those who
most deprecated the proposed reform as a downward step towards pure
democracy, yet acknowledged that, as it had been determined upon by the
deliberate choice of the Colony, it ought not to be thwarted by the
interference of the mother-country.
[Sidenote: Speech of Lord Derby.]
In the course of the speech above referred to, Lord Derby made use of the
following eloquent words:--
I have dreamed--perhaps it was only a dream--that the time would come
when, exercising a perfect control over their own internal affairs,
Parliament abandoning its right to interfere in their legislation,
these great and important colonies, combined together, should form a
monarchical government, presided over either by a permanent viceroy,
or, as an independent sovereign, by one nearly and closely allied to
the present royal family of this country.
I have believed that, in such a manner, it would be possible to uphold
the monarchical principle; to establish upon that great continent a
monarchy free as that of this country, even freer still with regard to
the popular influence exercised, but yet a monarchy worthy of the
name, and not a mere empty shadow. I can hardly believe that, under
such a system, the friendly connection and close intimacy between the
colonies and the mother-country would in any way be affected; but, on
the contrary, I feel convinced that the change to which I have
referred would be productive of nothing, for years and years to come,
but mutual harmony and friendship, increased and cemented as that
friendship would be by mutual appreciation of the great and
substantial benefits conferred by a free and regulated monarchy.
But pass this Bill, and that dream is gone for ever. Nothing like a
free and regulated monarchy could exist for a single moment under such
a constitution as that which is now proposed for Canada.
From the moment that you pass this constitution, the progress must be
rapidly towards republicanism, if anything could be more really
republican than this Bill.
The dream has been realised, at least in one of its most important
features; the gloomy forebodings have hitherto happily proved groundless.
But the speaker of these words, and the author of the measure to which they
refer, would probably have been alike surprised at the course which events
have taken respecting the particular point then in question. For once the
stream that sets towards democracy has been seen to take a backward
direction; and the constitution of the Dominion of Canada has returned, as
regards the Legislative Council, to the Conservative principle of
nomination by the Crown.
* * * * *
It does not fall within the scope of this memoir to give an account of the
numerous administrative measures which made the period of Lord Elgin's
Government so marked an epoch in the history of Canadian prosperity. It may
be well, however, to notice a few points to which he himself thought it
worth while to advert in official despatches, written towards the close of
his sojourn in the country, and containing a statistical review of the
marvellously rapid progress which the Colony had made in all branches of
productive industry.
The first extracts bear upon questions which have lost none of their
interest or importance--the kindred questions of emigration, of the demand
for labour, and of the acquisition and tenure of land.
[Sidenote: Emigration.]
The sufferings of the Irish during that calamitous period [1847]
induced philanthropic persons to put forward schemes of systematic
colonisation, based in some instances on the assumption that it was
for the interest of the emigrants that they should be as much as
possible concentrated in particular portions of the territories to
which they might proceed, so as to form communities complete in
themselves, and to remain subject to the influences, religious and
social, under which they had lived previously to emigration. It was
proposed, if I rightly remember, according to one of those schemes,
that large numbers of Irish with their priests and home associations
should be established by Government in some unoccupied part of Canada.
I believe that such schemes, however benevolent their design, rest on
a complete misconception of what is for the interest both of the
Colony and of the emigrants. It is almost invariably found that
emigrants who thus isolate themselves, whatever their origin or
antecedents, lag behind their neighbours; and I am inclined to think
that, as a general rule, in the case of communities whose social and
political organisation is as far advanced as that of the North
American Colonies, it is for the interest of all parties that new
comers, instead of dwelling apart and bound together by the affinities
whether of sect or party, which united them in the country which they
have left, should be dispersed as widely as possible among the
population already established in that to which they transfer
themselves.
It may not be altogether irrelevant to mention, as bearing on this
subject, that the painful circumstances which attended the emigration
of 1847 created for a time in this Province a certain prejudice
against emigration generally. The poll tax on emigrants was increased,
and the opinion widely disseminated that, however desirable the
introduction of capitalists might be, an emigration of persons of the
poorer classes was likely to prove a burden rather than a benefit.
Commercial depression, and apprehensions as to the probable effect of
the Free-trade policy of Great Britain on the prosperity of the
Colonies, had an influence in the same direction. To counteract these
tendencies which were calculated, as I thought, to be injurious in the
long run both to the Mother-country and the Province, public attention
was especially directed, in the Speech delivered from the Throne in
1849, to emigration by way of the St. Lawrence, as a branch of trade
which it was most desirable to cultivate (irrespective altogether of
its bearing on the settlement of the country) in consequence of the
great excess of exports over imports by that route, and the consequent
enhancement of freights outwards. These views obtained very general
assent, and the measures which have been adopted since that period to
render this route attractive to emigrants destined for the West (the
effect of which is beginning now to be visible in the yearly
increasing amount of emigration by way of Quebec from the continent of
Europe), are calculated not only to promote the trade of the Province,
but also to make settlers of a superior class acquainted with its
advantages.[3]
[Sidenote: Ottawa Valley.]
This important region (the valley of the Ottawa) takes the name by
which it is designated in popular parlance from the mighty stream
which flows through it, and which, though it be but a tributary of the
St. Lawrence, is one of the largest of the rivers that run
uninterruptedly from the source to the discharge within the dominions
of the Queen. It drains an area of about 80,000 square miles, and
receives at various points in its course the waters of streams, some
of which equal in magnitude the chief rivers of Great Britain. These
streams open up to the enterprise of the lumberman the almost
inexhaustible pine forests with which this region is clothed, and
afford the means of transporting their produce to market. In improving
these natural advantages considerable sums are expended by private
individuals. L50,000 currency was voted by Parliament last session for
the purpose of removing certain obstacles to the navigation of the
Upper Ottawa, by the construction of a canal at a point which is now
obstructed by rapids.
[Sidenote: Demand for labour.]
From the nature of the business, the lumbering trade falls necessarily
in a great measure into the hands of persons of capital, who employ
large bodies of men at points far removed from markets, and who are
therefore called upon to make considerable advances in providing food
and necessaries for their labourers, as well as in building slides and
otherwise facilitating the passage of timber along the streams and
rivers. Many thousands of men are employed during the winter in these
remote forests, preparing the timber which is transported during the
summer in rafts, or, if sawn, in boats, to Quebec when destined for
England, and up the Richelieu River when intended for the United
States. It is a most interesting fact, both in a moral and hygienic
view, that for some years past intoxicating liquors have been
rigorously excluded from almost all the chantiers, as the dwellings of
the lumbermen in these distant regions are styled; and that,
notwithstanding the exposure of the men to cold during the winter and
wet in the spring, the result of the experiment has been entirely
satisfactory.
The bearing of the lumbering business on the settlement of the country
is a point well worthy of notice. The farmer who undertakes to
cultivate unreclaimed land in new countries, generally finds that not
only does every step of advance which he makes in the wilderness, by
removing him from the centres of trade and civilisation, enhance the
cost of all he has to purchase, but that, moreover, it diminishes the
value of what he has to sell. It is not so, however, with the farmer
who follows in the wake of the lumbermen. He finds, on the contrary,
in the wants of the latter, a ready demand for all that he produces,
at a price not only equal to that procurable in the ordinary marts,
but increased by the cost of transport from them to the scene of the
lumbering operations. This circumstance, no doubt, powerfully
contributes to promote the settlement of those districts, and attracts
population to sections of the country which, in the absence of any
such inducement, would probably remain for long periods
uninhabited.[4]
[Sidenote: Wild land.]
The large amount of wild land held by individuals and corporations,
renders the disposal of the public domain a question of less urgency
in this than in some other colonies. Opinion in the Province runs
strongly in favour of facilitating its acquisition in small lots by
actual settlers, and of putting all possible obstacles in the way of
its falling into the hands of speculators. This opinion is founded no
doubt in part on a jealousy of great landholders; but it is mainly, I
apprehend, attributable to a sense of the inconvenience and damage
which are experienced in young countries, when considerable tracts of
land are kept out of the market in the midst of districts that are in
course of settlement. To this feeling much of the hostility to the
'Clergy Reserves' was originally due. The upset price of Government
wild land in Canada varies from 7_s_. 6_d_. currency to
1_s_. currency an acre, according to quality, and by the rules of
the Crown Land Department now in force, it is conceded at these rates,
except in special cases, in lots of not more than 200 acres, on
condition of actual settlement, of erecting a dwelling-house, and
clearing one-fourth of the lot before the patent can be obtained. The
price is payable in some parts of the country in ten yearly
instalments; in others in five; with interest in both cases from the
date of sale.
I have little faith in the efficacy of such devices to compel actual
settlement. They hinder the free circulation of capital, are easily
evaded, and seem to be especially out of place where wild lands are
subject to taxation for municipal purposes, as is the case in Upper
Canada.[5]
[Sidenote: Seigniorial tenure.]
A good deal of land in Lower Canada is held in seigniory, under a
species of feudal tenure, with respect to the conditions of which a
controversy has arisen which threatens, unless some equitable mode of
adjusting it be speedily devised, to be productive of very serious
consequences. A certain class of jurists contend, that by the custom
of the country, established before its conquest by Great Britain, the
seigniors were bound to concede their lands in lots of about 100 acres
to the first applicant, in consideration of the payment of certain
dues, and of a rent which, never, as they allege, exceeded one penny
an acre; and they quote edicts of the French monarchs to show that the
governor and intendant, when the seignior was contumacious, could
seize the land, and make the concession in spite of him, taking the
rent for the Crown. The seigniors, on the other hand, plead the
decisions of the courts since the conquest in vindication of their
claim to receive such rents as they can bargain for. Independently of
this controversy, the incidents of the tenure are in other respects
calculated to exercise an unfavourable influence on the progress of
the Province; and its abolition, if it could be effected without
injustice, would, no doubt, be a highly beneficial measure.[6]
Still more important and interesting at this time is the following sketch
of the Educational System of Upper Canada; the 'Common Schools' and 'Public
School Libraries,' which have attracted so much the attention of our own
educationists. Nor is it uninstructive to note the contrast between what
had been achieved in the colony nearly twenty years ago, and the still
unsettled condition of similar questions in the mother-country: a contrast
which may perhaps call to mind the remarks of Lord Elgin already quoted, as
to the rapid growth which ensues when the seeds that fall from ancient
experience are dropped into a virgin soil.[7]
[Sidenote: Education.]
In 1847 the Normal School, which may be considered the foundation of
the system, was instituted, and at the close of 1853, the first volume
issued from the Educational Department to the Public School Libraries,
which are its crown and completion.... The term school libraries does
not imply that the libraries in question are specially designed for
the benefit of common school pupils. They are, in point of fact,
public libraries intended for the use of the general population; and
they are entitled school libraries because their establishment has
been provided for in the School Acts, and their management confided to
the school authorities.
[Sidenote: Public School Libraries.]
Public School Libraries then, similar to those which are now being
introduced into Canada, have been in operation for several years in
some states of the neighbouring Union, and many of the most valuable
features of the Canadian system have been borrowed from them. In most
of the States, however, which have appropriated funds for library
purposes, the selection of the books has been left to the trustees
appointed by the different districts, many of whom are ill-qualified
for the task; and the consequence has been, that the travelling
pedlars, who offer the most showy books at the lowest prices, have had
the principal share in furnishing the libraries. In introducing the
system into Canada, precautions have been taken which will, I trust,
have the effect of obviating this great evil.
In the School Act of 1850, which first set apart a sum of money for
the establishment and support of school libraries, it is declared to
be the duty of the chief superintendent of education to apportion the
sum granted for this purpose by the legislature under the following
condition: 'That no aid should be given towards the establishment and
support of any school library unless an equal amount be contributed or
expended from local sources for the same;' and the Council of
Instruction is required to examine, and at its discretion recommend or
disapprove of text books for the use of schools, or books for school
libraries; 'provided that no portion of the legislative school grant
shall be applied in aid of any school in which any book is used that
has been disapproved of by the Council, and public notice given of
such disapproval.'
[Sidenote: Common schools.]
The system of public instruction in Upper Canada is engrafted upon the
municipal institutions of the Province, to which an organisation very
complete in its details, and admirably adapted to develop the
resources, confirm the credit, and promote the moral and social
interests of a young country, was imparted by an Act passed in 1849.
The law by which the common schools are regulated was enacted in 1850,
and it embraces all the modifications and improvements suggested by
experience in the provisions of the several school Acts passed
subsequently to 1841, when the important principle of granting money
to each county on condition that an equal amount were raised within it
by local assessment, was first introduced into the statute-book.
[Sidenote: Local superintendence.]
The development of individual self-reliance and local exertion, under
the superintendence of a central authority exercising an influence
almost exclusively moral, is the ruling principle of the system.
Accordingly, it rests with the freeholders and householders of each
school section to decide whether they will support their school by
voluntary subscription, by rate bill for each pupil attending the
school (which must not, however, exceed 1_s_. per month), or by
rates on property. The trustees elected by the same freeholders and
householders are required to determine the amount to be raised within
their respective school sections for all school purposes whatsoever,
to hire teachers from among persons holding legal certificates of
qualification, and to agree with them as to salary. On the local
superintendents appointed by the county councils is devolved the duty
of apportioning the legislative grant among the school sections within
the county, of inspecting the schools, and reporting upon them to the
chief superintendent. The county boards of public instruction,
composed of the local superintendent or superintendents, and the
trustees of the county grammar school, examine candidates for the
office of teacher, and give certificates of qualification which are
valid for the county; the chief superintendent giving certificates to
normal school pupils which are valid for the Province; while the chief
superintendent, who holds his appointment from the Crown, aided in
specified cases by the Council of Public Instruction, has under his
especial charge the normal and model schools, besides exercising a
general control over the whole system..
The question of religious instruction as connected with the common
school system, presented even more than ordinary difficulty in a
community where there is so much diversity of opinion on religious
subjects, and where all denominations are in the eye of the law on a
footing of entire equality. It is laid down as a fundamental
principle, that as the common schools are not boarding but day
schools, and as the pupils are under the care of their parents or
guardians during the Sunday, and a considerable portion of each week
day, it is not intended that the functions of the common school
teacher should supersede those of the parent and pastor of the child.
Accordingly, the law contents itself with providing on this head,
'that in any model or common school established under this act, no
child shall be required to read or study in or from any religious
book, or to join in any exercise of devotion or religion, which shall
be objected to by his or her parents or guardians; provided always,
that within this limitation pupils shall be allowed to receive such
religious instruction as their parents or guardians shall desire,
according to the general regulations which shall be provided according
to law.' And it authorises under certain regulations the establishment
of a separate school for Protestants or Roman Catholics, as the case
may be, when the teacher of the common school is of the opposite
persuasion.
Clergymen recognised by law, of whatever denomination, are made _ex
officio_ visitors of the schools in townships, cities, towns, or
villages where they reside, or have pastoral charge. The chief
superintendent. Dr. Ryerson, remarks on this head:
[Sidenote: The clergy.]
'The clergy of the county have access to each of its schools; and we
know of no instance in which the school has been made the place of
religious discord, but many instances, especially on occasions of
quarterly public examinations, in which the school has witnessed the
assemblage and friendly intercourse of clergy of various religious
persuasions, and thus become the radiating centre of a spirit of
Christian charity and potent cooperation in the primary work of a
people's civilisation and happiness.'
He adds with reference to the subject generally, 'The more carefully
the question of religion in connection with a system of common schools
is examined, the more clearly, I think, it will appear, that it has
been left where it properly belongs--with the local school
municipalities, parents, and managers of schools; the Government
protecting the right of each parent and child, but beyond this, and
beyond the principles and duties of morality common to all classes,
neither compelling nor prohibiting; recognising the duties of pastors
and parents as well as of school trustees and teachers, and
considering the united labours of all as constituting the system of
education for the youth of the country.'
Lord Elgin himself had always shown a profound sense of the importance of
thus making religion the groundwork of education. Speaking on occasion of
the opening of a normal school, after noticing the zealous and wisely-
directed exertions which had 'enabled Upper Canada to place itself in the
van among the nations, in the great and important work of providing an
efficient system of general education for the whole community' he
proceeded:--
[Sidenote: What is education?]
And now let me ask this intelligent audience, who have so kindly
listened to me up to this moment--let me ask them to consider, in all
seriousness and earnestness, what that great work really is. I do not
think that I shall be chargeable with exaggeration when I affirm, that
it is _the_ work of our day and generation; that it is _the_
problem in our modern society which is most difficult of solution;
that it is the ground upon which earnest and zealous men unhappily too
often, and in too many countries meet, not to co-operate but to
wrangle; while the poor and the ignorant multitudes around them are
starving and perishing for lack of knowledge. Well, then, how has
Upper Canada addressed herself to the execution of this great work?
How has she sought to solve this problem--to overcome this difficulty?
Sir, I understand from your statements--and I come to the same
conclusion from my own investigation and observation--that it is the
principle of our common school educational system, that its foundation
is laid deep in the firm rock of our common Christianity. I
understand, sir, that while the varying views and opinions of a mixed
religious society are scrupulously respected, while every semblance of
dictation is carefully avoided, it is desired, it is earnestly
recommended, it is confidently expected and hoped, that every child
who attends our common schools shall learn there that he is a being
who has an interest in eternity as well as in time; that he has a
Father, towards whom he stands in a closer and more affecting, and
more endearing relationship than to any earthly father, and that
Father is in heaven; that he has a hope, far transcending every
earthly hope--a hope full of immortality--the hope, namely, that that
Father's kingdom may come; that he has a duty which, like the sun in
our celestial system, stands in the centre of his moral obligations,
shedding upon them a hallowing light, which they in their turn reflect
and absorb--the duty of striving to prove by his life and conversation
the sincerity of his prayer, that that Father's will may be done upon
earth as it is done in heaven. I understand, sir, that upon the broad
and solid platform which is raised upon that good foundation, we
invite the ministers of religion, of all denominations--the _de
facto_ spiritual guides of the people of the country--to take their
stand along with us; that, so far from hampering or impeding them in
the exercise of their sacred functions, we ask and we beg them to take
the children--the lambs of the flock which are committed to their
care--aside, and to lead them to those pastures and streams where they
will find, as they believe, the food of life and the waters of
consolation.
One more extract must be given from the despatch already quoted, because it
illustrates a feature in his character, to which the subsequent course of
his life gave such marked prominence--his generous and tender feeling of
what was due to subject or inferior races; a sad feeling in this case, and
but faintly supported by any hope of being able to do anything for their
benefit.
[Sidenote: Aboriginal tribes.]
It is painful to turn from reviewing the progress of the European
population and their descendants established in this portion of
America, to contemplate the condition and prospects of the aboriginal
tribes. It cannot, I fear, be affirmed with truth, that the difficult
problem of reconciling the interests of an inferior and native race
with those of an intrusive and superior one, has as yet been
satisfactorily solved on this continent. In the United States, the
course of proceeding generally followed in this matter has been that
of compelling the Red man, through the influence of persuasion or
force, to make way for the White, by retreating farther and farther
into the wilderness; a mode of dealing with the case which necessarily
entails the occasional adoption of harsh measures, and which ceases to
be practicable when civilisation approaches the limits of the
territory to be occupied. In Canada, the tribes have been permitted to
dwell among the scenes of their early associations and traditions, on
lands reserved from the advancing tide of White settlement, and set
apart for their use. But this system, though more lenient in its
operation than the other, is not unattended with difficulties of its
own. The laws enacted for their protection, and in the absence of
which they fall an easy prey to the more unscrupulous among their
energetic neighbours, tend to keep them in a condition of perpetual
pupillage, and the relation subsisting between them and the
Government, which treats them, partly as independent peoples, and
partly as infants under its guardianship, involves many anomalies and
contradictions. Unless there be some reasonable ground for the hope
that they will be eventually absorbed in the general population of the
country, the Canadian system is probably destined in the long run to
prove as disastrous to them as that of the United States. In 1846 and
1847 the attempt was first made to establish among them industrial
boarding schools, in part supported by contributions from their own
funds. If schools of this description be properly conducted, it may, I
think, be expected that, among the youth trained at them, a certain
proportion at least will be so far civilised, as to be capable of
making their way in life without exceptional privileges or restraints.
It would be, I am inclined to believe, expedient that any Indian,
showing this capacity, should be permitted, after sufficient trial, to
receive from the common property of the tribe of which he was a member
(on the understanding of course that neither he nor his descendants
had thenceforward any claim upon it), a sum equivalent to his interest
in it, as a means to enable him to start in independent life. The
process of transition from their present semi-barbarous condition
could hardly fail to be promoted by a scheme of this description if it
were judiciously carried out.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Relations with the United States.]
No sketch of a Governor's life in Canada would be complete which did not
contain some account of his relations with the great neighbouring republic.
We have seen that, at the beginning of his government, Lord Elgin's cares
were increased by threats, and more than threats, of interference on the
part of 'sympathisers' from some of the American States; and that he looked
upon the likelihood of lawless inroad, not to speak of the possibility of
lawful war, as affording solid reason for England's maintaining a body of
troops in the Colony. But it must not be supposed that his attitude towards
the Government or people of the States was one of jealousy or hostility.
The loyal friendliness of the Government in repressing the intemperate
sympathies of certain of its citizens, he cordially acknowledged; and with
the people he did his utmost to encourage the freest and friendliest
intercourse, social and commercial, not only in order that the inhabitants
of the two countries might provoke one another to increased activity in the
good work of civilisation, but also that they might know and understand one
another; and that he might have in the public opinion of the United States
that intelligent support which he despaired of finding in England, owing to
the strange ignorance and indifference which so unfortunately prevails
there on all colonial subjects.
The following letters refer to some of the occasion on which mutual
civilities were interchanged:
_To Mr. Crampton, British Minister at Washington._
Montreal, May 21, 1849.
[Sidenote: their loyal conduct in 1849.]
I am much indebted to you for your letter of the 10th, conveying an
intimation of the intentions of the American Government with reference
to improper interference on the part of American citizens in Canadian
affairs, which is so honourable to General Taylor and his cabinet. If
I should receive any information leading me to believe that any such
interference is contemplated, I shall not fail to communicate with you
at once on the subject. My impression is, that there is not at present
much to be apprehended on that score; for although there is unhappily
considerable excitement and irritation in Canada, the subject in
dispute[8] is not one which is likely to conciliate much sympathy
among our neighbours. I do not, however, less highly appreciate the
good feeling and cordiality evinced by the Executive Government of the
United States.
* * * * *
_To the Earl Grey_
Toronto, June 14,1850.
[Sidenote: Mutual Courtesies.]
Our expedition to the Welland Canal went off admirably, the only
drawback being that we attempted too much. Mr. Merritt, who planned
the affair, gave it out that we were to pass through the canal, and to
touch at Buffalo on our way from Lake Erie to the Falls of Niagara, in
one day. On this hint the Buffalonians made preparations for our
reception on the most magnificent scale.... As might have been
expected, however, what with addresses, speeches, and mishaps of
various kinds, such as are to be looked for in canal travelling on a
large scale (for our party consisted of some three hundred), night
overtook us before we reached Lake Erie, and Buffalo had to be given
up. I very much regret this, as I fear the citizens were disappointed.
Some of our party went there the next day, and were most hospitably
received.
* * * * *
_To the Earl Grey._
Toronto, August 16, 1850.
Our Session has closed with great _eclat_. On Thursday week our
Buffalo friends, with other persons of distinction from different
parts of the Union, arrived here, to the number of about two hundred.
They were entertained that evening at a ball in the City Hall, which
did great credit to the good taste and hospitality of the hosts. Next
day there was a review in the forenoon and a fete at my house, which
lasted from half-past four to twelve. I succeeded in enabling a party
of five hundred to sit down together to dinner; and, what with a few
speeches, fireworks, and dances, I believe I may say the citizens went
away thoroughly pleased.[9] On Saturday, at noon, many of the party
assisted at the prorogation.
These matters may seem trivial to you among the graver concerns of
state; nevertheless, I am sanguine enough to hope that the courtesies
which have passed this year between the Buffalonians and us will not
be without their fruit. The bulk of those who came here from Buffalo,
including the Mayor--a very able man and powerful speaker--are of the
democratic party, and held some years ago very different views from
those which they expressed on this visit. They found here the warmest
and most cordial welcome from all, Her Majesty's representative not
excepted. But they saw, I venture to say almost with certainty,
nothing to lead them to suppose that the Canadians desire to change
their political condition; on the contrary, the mention of Her
Majesty's name evoked on all occasions the most unbounded enthusiasm;
and there was every appearance of a kindly feeling towards the
Governor General, which the Americans seemed not disinclined
themselves to share.
'To render annexation by violence impossible, and by any other means
as improbable as may be,' is, as I have often ventured to repeat, the
polar star of my policy. In these matters, small as they may appear, I
believe we have been steering by its light. Again, as respects
ourselves. I trust that the effects of this Buffalonian visit will be
very beneficial. I took occasion in my speeches, in a joking way which
provoked nothing but laughter and good humour, to hint at some of the
unreasonable traits in the conduct of my Canadian friends. I am sure
that the Americans go home with very correct views as touching our
politics, and with the best sentiments towards myself. It is of very
great importance to me to have the aid of a sound public opinion from
without, to help me through my difficulties here; and, as I utterly
despair of receiving any such assistance from England (I allude not to
the Government but to the public, which never looks at us except when
roused by fear ignorantly to condemn), it is of incalculable
importance that I should obtain this support from America.
[Sidenote: Boston Jubilee.]
In the autumn of 1851, the inhabitants of Boston held a Three Days'
Jubilee, to celebrate the completion of various lines of communication, by
railroad and steamship, destined to draw closer the bonds of union between
Canada and the United States; and Lord Elgin gladly accepted an invitation
to be present. Writing on September 26, 1851, he mentions having 'met there
all the United States, President included;' and describes a 'dinner on the
Boston Common for 3,500 persons, at which many good speeches were made,
Everett's especially so.' He adds:--
Nothing certainly could be more cordial than the conduct of the
Bostonians throughout; and there was a scrupulous avoidance of every
topic that could wound British or Canadian susceptibilities.
To the general harmony and good feeling no one contributed more than Lord
Elgin himself, by his general courtesy and affability, and especially by
his speeches, full of the happiest mixture of playfulness and earnestness,
of eloquence and sound sense, of ardent patriotism with broad international
sympathies. 'It was worth something,' he wrote afterwards, 'to get the
Queen of England as much cheered and lauded in New England as in any part
of Old England;' and the reflection faithfully represents the spirit of
expansive loyalty which characterised all his dealings with his neighbours
of the States.
These qualities, added to the reputation of a wise and liberal Governor,
won for him an unusual amount of regard from the American people. At a
dinner given to him in London, during his short visit to England in the
spring of 1854--a dinner at which the Colonial Secretaries of five
different Governments, Lord Monteagle, Lord John Russell, Lord Grey, Sir J.
Pakington, and the Duke of Newcastle met to do him honour--no one spoke
more warmly or more discriminatingly in his praise than the American
Minister, Mr. Buchanan.
[Sidenote: Speech of Mr. Buchanan.]
'Lord Elgin,' he said, 'has solved one of the most difficult problems
of statesmanship. He has been able, successfully and satisfactorily,
to administer, amidst many difficulties, a colonial government over a
free people. This is an easy task where the commands of a despot are
law to his obedient subjects; but not so in a colony where the people
feel that they possess the rights and privileges of native-born
Britons. Under his enlightened government Her Majesty's North American
provinces have realised the blessings of a wise, prudent, and
prosperous administration; and we of the neighbouring nation, though
jealous of our rights, have reason to be abundantly satisfied with his
just and friendly conduct towards ourselves. He has known how to
reconcile his devotion to Her Majesty's service with a proper regard
to the rights and interests of the kindred and neighbouring people.
Would to Heaven we had such governors-general in all the European
colonies in the vicinity of the United States!'
[Sidenote: Reciprocity Treaty.]
A signal proof of his popularity and influence in America was given a few
months later, on the occasion already referred to, when he visited
Washington for the purpose of negotiating the Reciprocity Treaty; and,
chiefly by the effect of his personal presence, carried through, in a few
weeks, a measure which had been in suspense for years.
In returning from this visit he was received with special honours at
Portland, the terminus of the international railway which he had exerted
himself so much to promote; and he used the opportunity not only to please
and conciliate his entertainers, but also to impress them with the respect
due to the Canadians, as a flourishing and progressive, above all as a
loyal, people. Speaking of the alienation which had existed, a few years
earlier, between the Provinces and the States, he said:[10]
[Sidenote: Speech at Portland.]
When I look back to the past, I find what tended in some degree to
create this misunderstanding. In the first place, as I believe, the
government of these provinces was conducted on erroneous principles,
the rights of the people were somewhat restrained, and large numbers
were prevented from exercising those privileges which belong to a free
people. From this arose, very naturally, a discontent on the part of
the people of the Provinces, with which the people of the States
sympathised. Though this sympathy and this discontent was not always
wise, it is not wonderful that it existed.
What have we now done to put an end to this? We have cut off the
source of all this misunderstanding by granting to the people what
they desired--the great principle of self-government. The inhabitants
of Canada at this moment exercise an influence over their own
destinies and government as complete as do the people of this country.
This is the only cause of misunderstanding that ever existed; and this
cannot arise when the circumstances which made them at variance have
ceased to exist.
The good feeling which has been so fully established between the
States and the Provinces has already justified itself by its works. In
the British Provinces we have already had many evidences to prove your
kindness towards us; and within the last seven years, more than in any
previous seven years since the settlement of the two countries.
Let me ask you, who is the worse off for this display of good feeling
and fraternal intercourse? Is it the Canadas? sir, as the
representative of Her Majesty, permit me to say that the Canadians
were never more loyal than at this moment. Standing here, on United
States ground, beneath that flag under which we are proud to live, I
repeat that no people was ever more loyal than are the Canadas to
their Queen; and it is the purpose of the present Ministers of Her
Majesty's Government to make the people of Canada so prosperous and
happy, that other nations shall envy them their good fortune.
This was the last occasion of his addressing American citizens on their own
soil; nor did the course of his after-life bring him often in contact with
them. But the personal regard which he had won from them descended, some
years later, as a valuable heritage to his brother, Sir Frederick, when
appointed to the difficult post of Minister at Washington after the close
of the American Civil War.[11]
[Sidenote: Parting from Canada.]
The parting of Lord Elgin from Canada was spread, so to speak, over several
years; for though he did not finally quit its shores till the end of 1854,
from 1851 onwards he was continually in expectation of being recalled; and,
towards the end of 1853, he came to England, as we have already seen, on
leave of absence. The numerous speeches made, and letters written on the
occasion of these different leave-takings, contain ample proof how cordial
was the feeling which had grown up between the Colony and its Governor. It
may be enough to give here two specimens. The first is an extract from a
farewell speech at Montreal, listened to with tears by a crowded audience
in the very place where, a few years before, he had been so scandalously
outraged and insulted.[12]
[Sidenote: Farewell to Montreal.]
For nearly eight years, at the command of our beloved Queen, I have
filled this position among you, discharging its duties, often
imperfectly, never carelessly, or with indifference. We are all of us
aware that the period is rapidly approaching when I may expect to be
required by the same gracious authority to resign into other, and I
trust worthier, hands, the office of Governor-General, with the heavy
burden of responsibility and care which attaches to it. It is fitting,
therefore, that we should now speak to each other frankly and without
reserve. Let me assure you, then, that the severance of the formal tie
which binds us together will not cause my earnest desire for your
welfare and advancement to abate. The extinction of an official
relationship cannot quench the conviction that I have so long
cherished, and by which I have been supported through many trials,
that a brilliant future is in store for British North America; or
diminish the interest with which I shall watch every event which tends
to the fulfilment of this expectation. And again permit me to assure
you, that when I leave you, be it sooner or later, I shall carry away
no recollections of my sojourn among you except such as are of a
pleasing character. I shall remember--and remember with gratitude--the
cordial reception I met with at Montreal when I came a stranger among
you, bearing with me for my sole recommendation the commission of our
Sovereign. I shall remember those early months of my residence here,
when I learnt in this beautiful neighbourhood to appreciate the charms
of a bright Canadian winter day, and to take delight in the cheerful
music of your sleigh bells. I shall remember one glorious afternoon--
an afternoon in April--when, looking down from the hill at Monklands,
on my return from transacting business in your city, I beheld that the
vast plain stretching out before me, which I had always seen clothed
in the white garb of winter, had assumed, on a sudden, and, as if by
enchantment, the livery of spring; while your noble St. Lawrence,
bursting through his icy fetters, had begun to sparkle in the
sunshine, and to murmur his vernal hymn of thanksgiving to the
bounteous Giver of light and heat. I shall remember my visits to your
Mechanics' Institutes and Mercantile Library Associations, and the
kind attention with which the advice which I tendered to your young
men and citizens was received by them. I shall remember the undaunted
courage with which the merchants of this city, while suffering under
the pressure of a commercial crisis of almost unparalleled severity,
urged forward that great work which was the first step towards placing
Canada in her proper position in this age of railway progress. I shall
remember the energy and patriotism which gathered together in this
city specimens of Canadian industry, from all parts of the province,
for the World's Fair, and which has been the means of rendering this
magnificent conception of the illustrious Consort of our beloved Queen
more serviceable to Canada than it has, perhaps, proved to any other
of the countless communities which have been represented there. And I
shall forget--but no--what I might have had to forget is forgotten
already; and therefore I cannot tell you what I shall forget.
The remaining extract is from parting words, spoken after a ball which he
gave at Quebec on the eve of his final departure in December, 1854.
[Sidenote: Farewell to Quebec.]
I wish I could address you in such strains as I have sometimes
employed on similar occasions, strains suited to a festive meeting;
but I confess I have a weight on my heart, and that it is not in me to
be merry. For the last time I stand before you in the official
character which I have borne for nearly eight years. For the last time
I am surrounded by a circle of friends with whom I have spent some of
the most pleasant days of my life. For the last time I welcome you as
my guests to this charming residence which I have been in the habit of
calling my home.[13] I did not, I will frankly confess it, know what
it would cost me to break this habit, until the period of my departure
approached; and I began to feel that the great interests which have so
long engrossed my attention and thoughts, were passing out of my
hands. I had a hint of what my feelings really were upon this point--a
pretty broad hint too--one lovely morning in June last, when I
returned to Quebec after my temporary absence in England, and landed
in the Coves below Spencerwood (because it was Sunday, and I did not
want to make a disturbance in the town), and when with the greetings
of the old people in the Coves who put their heads out of the windows
as I passed along, and cried 'Welcome home again,' still ringing in my
ears, I mounted the hill and drove through the avenue to the house
door. I saw the dropping trees on the lawn, with every one of which I
was so familiar, clothed in the tenderest green of spring, and the
river beyond, calm and transparent as a mirror, and the ships fixed
and motionless as statues on its surface, and the whole landscape
bathed in a flood of that bright Canadian sun which so seldom pierces
our murky atmosphere on the other side of the Atlantic. I began to
think that persons were to be envied who were not forced by the
necessities of their position to quit these engrossing interests and
lovely scenes, for the purpose of proceeding to distant lands, but who
are able to remain among them until they pass to that quiet corner of
the Garden of Mount Hermon, which juts into the river and commands a
view of the city, the shipping, Point Levi, the Island of Orleans, and
the range of Lawrentine; so that through the dim watches of that
tranquil night, which precedes the dawning of the eternal day, the
majestic citadel of Quebec, with its noble train of satellite hills,
may seem to rest for ever on the sight, and the low murmur of the
waters of St. Lawrence, with the hum of busy life on their surface, to
fall ceaselessly on the ear. I cannot bring myself to believe that the
future has in store for me any interests which will fill the place of
those I am now abandoning. But although I must henceforward be to you
as a stranger, although my official connection with you and your
interests will have become in a few days matter of history, yet I
trust that through some one channel or another, the tidings of your
prosperity and progress may occasionally reach me; that I may hear
from time to time of the steady growth and development of those
principles of liberty and order, of manly independence in combination
with respect for authority and law, of national life in harmony with
British connection, which it has been my earnest endeavour, to the
extent of my humble means of influence, to implant and to establish. I
trust, too, that I shall hear that this house continues to be what I
have ever sought to render it, a neutral territory, on which persons
of opposite opinions, political and religious, may meet together in
harmony and forget their differences for a season. And I have good
hope that this will be the case for several reasons, and, among
others, for one which I can barely allude to, for it might be an
impertinence in me to dwell upon it. But I think that without any
breach of delicacy or decorum I may venture to say that many years
ago, when I was much younger than I am now, and when we stood towards
each other in a relation somewhat different from that which has
recently subsisted between us, I learned to look up to Sir Edmund Head
with respect, as a gentleman of the highest character, the greatest
ability, and the most varied accomplishments and attainments.[14] And
now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have only to add the sad word Farewell. I
drink this bumper to the health of you all, collectively and
individually. I trust that I may hope to leave behind me some who will
look back with feelings of kindly recollection to the period of our
intercourse; some with whom I have been on terms of immediate official
connection, whose worth and talents I have had the best means of
appreciating, and who could bear witness, at least, if they please to
do so, to the spirit, intentions, and motives with which I have
administered your affairs; some with whom I have been bound by the
ties of personal regard. And if reciprocity be essential to enmity,
then most assuredly I can leave behind me no enemies. I am aware that
there must be persons in so large a society as this, who think that
they have grievances to complain of, that due consideration has not in
all cases been shown to them. Let them believe me, and they ought to
believe me, for the testimony of a dying man is evidence, even in a
court of justice, let them believe me, then, even I assure them, in
this the last hour of my agony, that no such errors of omission or
commission have been intentional on my part. Farewell, and God bless
you.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: At home.]
The two years which followed Lord Elgin's return from Canada were a time of
complete rest from official labour. For though, on the breaking up of Lord
Aberdeen's Ministry in the spring of 1855, he was offered by Lord
Palmerston the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster, with a seat in the
Cabinet, he declined the offer, not on any ground of difference from the
new Ministry, which he intended to support; but because, having only
recently taken his seat in the House of Lords, after a long term of foreign
service, during which he had necessarily held aloof from home politics, he
thought it advisable, for the present at least, to remain independent. He
found, however, ample and congenial occupation for his time in the peaceful
but industrious discharge of home duties at Broomhall. Still his thoughts
were constantly with the distant Provinces in which he had laboured so
long.
Whenever he appeared in public, whether at a dinner given in his honour at
Dunfermline, or on occasion of receiving the freedom of the city of
Glasgow, or in delivering a lecture at the annual opening of the Edinburgh
Philosophical Institute--it was with the same desire of turning to account
the knowledge gained abroad, for the advantage of the Colonies, or of the
mother-country, or for the mutual benefit of both; with the same hope of
drawing closer the bonds of union between them, and dispelling something of
that cloud of ignorance and indifference which has often made the public
opinion of Great Britain a hindrance rather than a support to the best
interests of her dependencies.
[Sidenote: In the House of Lords.]
It was only very rarely that he took any part in the business of
legislation; and of the two occasions on which he was induced to break
silence, one was when the interests of Canada appeared to him to be
imperilled by the rumoured intention of Government to send thither large
bodies of troops that had just returned from the Crimea. He thought it his
duty to protest earnestly against any such proceeding, as likely, in the
first place, to complicate the relations of Canada with the United States,
and, in the second place, to arrest her progress in self-dependence.
[Sidenote: Crimean War.]
The other occasion of his speaking was in May 1855, when Lord Ellenborough
had moved an Address to the Crown, condemnatory of the manner in which the
Crimean War had been and was being conducted. Having been out of England
when hostilities were begun, he had not to consider the question whether it
was a glorious, or even a necessary, war in which we were engaged; and his
one feeling on the subject was that which he had previously expressed to
the citizens of Glasgow.
My opinion (he then said) [on the question of the war] I can easily
state, and I have no hesitation in avowing it. I say that now we are
in the war, we must fight it out like men. I don't say, throw away the
scabbard; in the first place, because I dislike all violent metaphors;
and, in the second place, because the scabbard is a very useful
instrument, and the sooner we can use it the better. But I do say,
having drawn the sword, don't sheathe it until the purpose for which
it was drawn is accomplished.
In the same spirit he now defended the Ministry against Lord Ellenborough's
attack; not on party grounds, which he took pains to repudiate, but on what
he conceived to be the true patriotic principle--viz. to strengthen, at
such a time, the hands of the existing Government, unless there be a
distinct prospect of replacing it by a stronger.
After mentioning that he had not long before informed Lord Palmerston, that
'while he was resolved to maintain an independent position in Parliament,
it was nevertheless his desire and intention, subject to that qualification
and reserve, to support the Government,' he proceeded:
I formed this resolution not only because I had reason to believe that
on questions of public policy my sentiments would generally be found
to be in accordance with those of the present Government, nor yet only
because I felt I owed to the noble Viscount himself, and many at least
of his colleagues, a debt of obligation for the generous support they
uniformly gave me at critical periods in the course of my foreign
career; but also, and principally, because in the critical position in
which this country was placed--at a time when we had only recently
presented to the astonished eye of Europe the discreditable spectacle
of a great country left for weeks without a Government, and a popular
and estimable Monarch left without councillors, during a period of
great national anxiety and peril; when there was hardly a household in
England where the voice of wailing was not to be heard, or an eye
which was not heavy with a tear--it appeared to me, I say, under such
circumstances, to be the bounden duty of every patriotic man, who had
not some very valid and substantial reason to assign for adopting a
contrary course, to tender a frank and generous support to the
Government of the Queen.
Having come to that determination, he had now to ask himself whether
circumstances were so altered as to make it his duty to revoke the pledge
spontaneously given? To this conclusion he could not bring himself.
It seems to me (he said) these Resolutions divide themselves naturally
into two parts. The first part has reference to what I may call the
general policy of the Government with respect to the war; and that
portion of them is conceived in strains of eulogy and commendation--I
may almost say in strains of exultation. The Resolutions speak of firm
alliances, of brotherhood in arms, of a sympathetic and enthusiastic
people; but not a word of regret for national friendships of old
standing broken--desolation carried into thousands of happy
homes--Europe in arms--Asia agitated and febrile--America sullenly
expectant.
This exuberance of exultation, he said, was amply met by the exuberance of
denunciation which characterises the latter part of the Address; but it was
to his mind even less just than the former.
But even (he continued) if I could bring myself to believe, which I
have failed in doing, that censure might be passed in the terms of
these Resolutions upon Her Majesty's present Government without
injustice, I should still be unwilling to concur in them, unless I
could find some better security than either the Resolutions themselves
afford, or, as I regret to be obliged to add, the antecedents and
recorded sentiments of Noble Lords opposite afford, that by bringing
about the change of administration which these Resolutions are
intended to promote, I should be doing a benefit to the public
service. My Lords, I cannot but think that at a time when it is most
important that the Government of this country should have weight and
influence abroad, frequent changes of administration are _prima
facie_ most objectionable. I happened to be upon the Continent when
the last change of Government in this country took place; and I must
say it appeared to me, that a most painful impression was created in
foreign states with respect to the instability of the administrative
system of this country by these frequent changes of administration. I
do think, indeed, that not the least of the many calamities which this
war has brought upon us is the fact, that it has had a tendency in
many quarters to throw discredit on that constitutional system of
Government of which this country has hitherto been the type and the
bright example among the nations.
After all, what is chiefly valuable to nations as well as to
individuals, and the loss of which alone is irreparable, is character;
and it appears to me that, viewed in this light, many of the other
calamities which we have had to deplore during the course of this war
have been already accompanied by a very large and ample measure of
compensation. To take, for instance, the military departments:
notwithstanding the complaints we have heard of deficiencies in our
military organisation, I believe we can with confidence affirm, that
the character of the British soldier, both for moral qualities and for
powers of physical endurance, has been raised by the instrumentality
of this war to an elevation which it had never before attained. In
spite of the somewhat unfavourable tone which, I regret to say, has
been adopted of late by a portion of the press of America, I have
myself seen in influential journals in that country commentaries upon
the conduct of our soldiers at Alma, at Balaklava, and at Inkerman,
which no true-hearted Englishman could read without emotion: and I
have heard a tribute not less generous and not less unqualified borne
to the qualities of our troops by eminent persons belonging to that
great military nation with which we are now so happily allied. To look
to another quarter--to contemplate another class of virtues not less
essential than those to which I have referred to the happiness and
glory of nations--I have heard from enthusiastic, even bigoted,
votaries of that branch of the Christian Church which sometimes prides
itself as having alone retained in its system room for the exercise of
the heroic virtues of Christianity,--I say I have frequently heard
from them the frank admission, that the hospitals of Scutari have
proved that the fairest and choicest flowers of Christian charity and
devotion may come to perfection even in what they are pleased to call
the arid soil of Protestantism. But, my Lords, can we flatter
ourselves with the belief that the character of our statesmen, of our
public men, and of our Parliamentary institutions has risen in a like
proportion? Is it not, on the contrary, notorious that doubts have
been created in quarters where such doubts never existed before as to
the practical efficiency of our much-vaunted constitution, as to its
fitness to carry us unscathed through periods of great difficulty and
danger? I believe, my Lords, that there is one process only, but that
a sure and certain process, by which these doubts may be removed. It
is only necessary that public men, whether connected with the
Government or with the Opposition, whether tied in the bonds of party
or holding independent positions in Parliament, should evince the same
indifference to small and personal motives, the same generous
patriotism, the same disinterested devotion to duty, which have
characterised the services of our soldiers in the field, and of the
women of England at the sick-bed. And, my Lords, I cannot help asking
in conclusion, if--which God forbid--it should unhappily be proved
that, in those whom fortune, or birth, or royal or popular favour has
placed in the van, these qualities are wanting, who shall dare to
blame the press and the people of England, if they seek for them
elsewhere?
From the tone of this speech it will be seen that Lord Elgin had not at
this time joined either of the two parties in the State. He was, in truth,
still feeling his way through the mazes of home politics to which he had
been so long a stranger, and from which, as he himself somewhat regretfully
observed, those ancient landmarks of party had been removed, 'which, if not
a wholly sufficient guide, are yet some sort of direction to wanderers in
the political wilderness.' While he was still thus engaged, events were
happening at the other ends of the earth which were destined to divert into
quite another channel the current of his life.
[1] Mac Mullen's _History of Canada, p. 527._
[2] It Is a singular fact, as illustrating the tenacity and coherence of
the Church of Rome, that while all Protestant endowments were thus
indiscriminately swept away, no voice was raised against the
retention, by the Roman Catholic clergy, of the vast possessions left
to them by the old French capitulation.--_Mac Mullen, p. 528._
[3] Despatch of December 18, 1854.
[4] Despatch of August 16,1853
[5] Despatch of December 18, 1854.
[6] Despatch of December 18,1854. The abolition was shortly afterwards,
satisfactorily effected.
[7] Vide _supra_, p. 48.
[8] The Rebellion Losses Bill.
[9] Some years afterwards, when speaking of these festivities, the Mayor of
Buffalo said: 'Never shall I forget the admiration elicited by Lord
Elgin's beautiful speech on that occasion. Upon the American visitors
(who, it must be confessed, do not look for the highest order of
intellect in the appointees of the Crown) the effect was amusing. A
sterling Yankee friend, while the Governor was speaking, sat by my
side, who occasionally gave vent to his feelings as the speech
progressed, each sentence increasing in beauty and eloquence, by such
approving exclamations as "He's a glorious fellow! He ought to be on
our side of the line! We would make him mayor of our city!" As some
new burst of eloquence breaks from the speaker's lips, my worthy
friend exclaims, "How magnificently he talks! Yes, by George, we'd
make him governor--governor of the state!" As the noble Earl, by some
brilliant hit, carries the assemblage with a full round of applause,
"Ah!" cries my Yankee friend, with a hearty slap on my shoulder, "by
Heaven, if he were on our side, we'd make him President--nothing less
than President!"'
[10] The report of his words is obviously imperfect, but their substance is
probably given with sufficient accuracy.
[11] The great abilities of Sir F. Bruce, and the nobility of his
character, fitted him in a singular manner for this post. He died
suddenly at Boston, on September 19, 1867, too early for extended
fame, but not unrecognised as a public servant of rare value. The
_Times_, which announced his death, after commenting on the
calamitous fate by which, 'within a period of four years, the nation
had lost the services of three members of one family, each endowed
with eminent qualifications for the important work to which they
severally devoted their lives,' proceeded thus with regard to the
youngest of the three brothers. 'The country would have had much.
reason to deplore the death of Sir Frederick Bruce whenever it had
happened; but his loss is an especial misfortune at a time when,
negotiations of the utmost intricacy and delicacy are pending with a
Government which is not always disposed to approach Great Britain in a
spirit of generosity and forbearance. Seldom has a citizen of another
country visited the United States who possessed so keen an insight
into the political working of the Great Republic, and at the same time
ingratiated himself so thoroughly with every American who approached
Him.... Although naturally somewhat impulsive in temperament, he
invariable exhibited entire calmness and self-command when the
circumstances of his position led him into trial.... This
imperturbable temperament in all his official relations served him
well on many occasions, from the day when he succeeded to the
laborious duties relinquished by Lord Lyons; but never was it of
greater advantage than in the protracted and difficult controversy
concerning the Alabama claims. This discussion it fell to the lot of
Sir F. Bruce to conduct on the part of Her Majesty; and we divulge no
secret when we state that it was in accordance with the late
Minister's repeated advice and exhortations that a wise overture
towards a settlement was made by the present Government. He had
succeeded in establishing for himself relations of cordial friendship
with Mr. Seward and the President, and probably there are few outside
the circle of his own family who will be more shocked at the tidings
of his death than the astute and keen-eyed old man with whom he had
sustained incessant diplomatic fence.'
[12] It certainly was not without truth, that one of the local papers most
opposed to him remarked that 'Lord Elgin had, beyond all doubt, a
remarkable faculty of turning enemies into friends.'
[13] Spencerwood, the Governor's private residence.
[14] Sir Edmund Head, who succeeded Lord Elgin as Governor-General of
Canada in 1854, had examined him for a Merton Fellowship in 1833.
Those who knew him will recognise how singularly appropriate, in their
full force, are the terms in which he is here spoken of.
CHAPTER VII.
FIRST MISSION TO CHINA.--PRELIMINARIES.
ORIGIN OF THE MISSION--APPOINTMENT OF LORD ELGIN--MALTA--EGYPT--CEYLON--
NEWS OF THE INDIAN MUTINY--PENANG--SINGAPORE--DIVERSION OF TROOPS TO INDIA
--ON BOARD THE 'SHANNON'--HONG-KONG--CHANGE OF PLANS--CALCUTTA AND LORD
CANNING--RETURN TO CHINA--PERPLEXITIES--CAPRICES OF CLIMATE--ARRIVAL OF
BARON GROS--PREPARATION FOR ACTION.
'The earlier incidents of the political rupture with the Chinese
Commissioner Yeh, which occurred at Canton during the autumn of 1856, and
which led to the appointment of a Special Mission to China, were too
thoroughly canvassed at the time to render it necessary to renew here any
discussion on their merits, or recall at length their details. As the
"Arrow" case derived its interest then from the debates to which it gave
rise, and its effects on parties at home, rather than from any intrinsic
value of its own, so does it now mainly owe its importance to the
accidental circumstance, that it was the remote and insignificant cause
which led to a total revolution in the foreign policy of the Celestial
Empire, and to the demolition of most of those barriers which, while they
were designed to restrict all intercourse from without, furnished the
nations of the West with fruitful sources of quarrel and perpetual
grievances.'
These words form the preface to the 'Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's
Mission to China and Japan,' by Laurence Oliphant, then private secretary
to Lord Elgin. To that work we must refer our readers for a full and
complete, as well as authentic, account of the occurrences which gave
occasion to the following letters. A brief sketch only will here be given.
[Sidenote: Origin of the Mission.]
On October 8, 1856, a _lorcha_ named 'Arrow,' registered as a British
vessel, and carrying a British flag, was boarded by the authorities of
Canton, the flag torn down, and the crew carried away as prisoners. Such
was the English account. The Chinese denied that any flag was flying at the
time of the capture: the British ownership of the vessel, they maintained,
was never more than colourable, and had expired a month before: the crew
were all their own subjects, apprehended on a charge of piracy.
The English authorities refused to listen to this. They insisted on a
written apology for the insult to their flag, and the formal restitution of
the captured sailors. And when these demands were refused, or incompletely
fulfilled, they summoned the fleet, in the hope that a moderate amount of
pressure would lead to the required concessions. Shortly after, finding
arms in their hands, they thought it a good opportunity to enforce the
fulfilment of certain 'long-evaded treaty obligations,' including the right
for all foreign representatives of free access to the authorities and the
city of Canton. With this view, fort after fort, suburb after suburb, was
taken or demolished. But the Chinese, after their manner, would neither
yield nor fight; and contented themselves with offering large rewards for
the head of every Englishman.
When this state of matters was reported to England, it was brought before
the House of Commons on a motion by Mr. Cobden, condemnatory of 'the
violent measures resorted to at Canton in the late affair of the "Arrow."'
The motion, supported by Mr. Gladstone in one of his splendid bursts of
rhetoric, was carried against the Government by a majority of sixteen, in a
full and excited house, on the morning of February 26, 1857. But Lord
Palmerston refused to accept the adverse vote as expressing the will of the
people. He appealed to the constituencies, candidly telling the House that,
pending that appeal, 'there would be no change, and could be no change, in
the policy of the Government with respect to events in China.' At the same
time he intimated that a special Envoy would be sent out to supersede the
local authorities, armed with full powers to settle the relations between
England and China on a broad and solid basis.
[Sidenote: Appointment of Lord Elgin.]
But where was the man who, at a juncture so critical, in face of an adverse
vote of the House of Commons, on the chance of its being rescinded by the
country, could be trusted with so delicate a mission; who could be relied
on, in the conduct of such an expedition against a foe alike stubborn and
weak, to go far enough, and yet not too far--to carry his point, by
diplomatic skill and force of character, with the least possible
infringement of the laws of humanity; a man with the ability and resolution
to insure success, and the native strength that can afford to be merciful?
After 'anxious deliberation,' the choice of the Government fell upon Lord
Elgin.
How, on the voyage to China, he was met half-way by the news of the Indian
Mutiny; how promptly and magnanimously he took on himself the
responsibility of sacrificing the success of his own expedition by
diverting the troops from China to India; how, after many weary months of
enforced inactivity, the expedition was resumed, and carried through
numberless thwartings to a successful issue--these are matters of history
with which every reader must be acquainted. But those who are most familiar
with the events may find an interest in the following extracts from private
letters, written at the time by the chief actor in the drama. They are
taken almost exclusively from a Journal, in which his first thoughts and
impressions on every passing occurrence were hurriedly noted down, from day
to day, for transmission to Lady Elgin.
[Sidenote: Malta.]
_H.M.S. 'Caradoc'--May 2nd._--I have just returned to my ship after
spending a few hours on shore and visiting Lord Lyons in his
magnificent Prince Albert.... How beautiful Malta is with its narrow
streets, gorgeous churches, and impregnable fortifications. I landed
at about six, and walked up to the Palace, and wrote my name in the
Governor's book, who resides out of town. I then took a turn through
the town, and went to the inn to breakfast....
[Sidenote: Chance meetings.]
By way of conversation with the waiter, I asked who were in the house:
'Only two families, one of them Lord Balgonie[1] and his sisters.' I
saw the ladies first, and, at a later hour, their brother, in his bed.
Poor fellow! the hand of death is only too visibly upon him. There he
lay; his arm, absolutely fleshless, stretched out: his large eyes
gleaming from his pale face. I could not dare to offer to his broken-
hearted sisters a word of comfort. These poor girls! how I felt for
them; alone! with their brother in such a state. They go to Marseilles
by the next opportunity, probably by the packet which will convey to
you this letter, and they hope that their mother will meet them there.
What a tragedy! ... I had been _incog_. at the hotel till Sir W.
Reid[2] found me there. When the innkeeper learned who I was, he was
in despair at my having been put into so small a room, and informed me
that he was the son of an old servant at Broomhall, Hood by name, and
that he had often played with me at cricket! How curious are these
strange _rencontres_ in life! They put me in mind of Heber's image,
who says that we are like travellers journeying through a dense wood
intersected by innumerable paths: we are constantly meeting in
unexpected places, and plunging into the forest again!
[Sidenote: Alexandria.]
_Alexandria.--May 6th.--_I made up my letter last night, not knowing
how short the time of my sojourn at Alexandria might be. But at about
one in the morning I received a letter from Frederick,[3] telling me
that the steamer due at Suez had not yet arrived, that an official
reception was to be given me, and that I had better not land too
early.... Notwithstanding which, washing decks, the morning gun, and a
bright sun, broke my slumbers at an early hour, and I got up and
dressed soon after daybreak. At about 6.30 A.M. a boat of the Pacha's,
with a dignitary (who turned out to be a very gentleman-like
Frenchman), arrived, and from him I learnt that the Governor of
Alexandria, with a cortege of dignitaries and a carriage and four, was
already at the shore awaiting my arrival; but Frederick did not come
till about half-past nine, and it was nearly ten before I landed. I
was then conducted by the authorities to the palace in which I am now
writing, consisting of suites of very handsome rooms, and commanding a
magnificent view of the sea. About a dozen attendants are loitering
about and watching every movement, not curiously, but in order to
supply any possible want. At this very moment a mild-looking Turk is
peeping into my bed-room where I am writing this letter, and supposing
that I may wish to be undisturbed, has drawn a red cloth _portiere_
across the open doorway. This palace, which is set apart for the
reception of distinguished strangers, is situated in the Turkish
quarter of the town, and all the houses around are inhabited by
Mussulmans. The windows are all covered with latticed wooden shutters,
through which the wretched women may, I suppose, peer as they do
through the grating at the House of Commons, but which are at least as
impermeable to the mortal eye from without. The streets are very
empty, as it is the Ramadan, during which devout Turks fast and sleep
throughout the day, and indemnify themselves by eating, drinking, and
amusing themselves all night.
_Cairo.--May 7th._--Most of yesterday afternoon was spent in drinking
coffee and smoking long pipes, two ladies partaking of the latter
enjoyment after dinner at Mr. Green's. One of them told me that she
had dined with the Princess (the Pacha's wife) a few days ago. She
went at seven and left at half-past twelve, and with the exception of
a half hour of dinner, all the rest of the time was spent in smoking
and drinking coffee. After dinner, the mother of the Pacha's only
child came in and joined the party. She was treated with a certain
consideration as being the mother of this child, although she was not
given a pipe. The Princess seemed on very good terms with her. This
child (a boy three years old) has an English nurse, and this nurse has
persuaded the Pacha to allow her to take the child to England on a
visit. The mother, who has picked up a little English from the nurse,
said to Mrs. Green, 'I am very unhappy; _young Pacha_' (her boy) 'is
going away.' The mother is no more thought of in this arrangement than
I am. What a strange system it is!... We passed through the wonderful
Delta to-day, and certainly the people looked more comfortable than
those of Alexandria. The beasts too, camels, oxen, donkeys, showed
signs of the fertility of the soil in their sleekness. What might not
be made of this country if it were wisely guided!
[Sidenote: Crossing the Desert.]
_Steamer 'Bentinck.'--Sunday, May 10th._--I write to you from the
neighbourhood of Mount Sinai, which we passed at an early hour this
morning, gliding through a sea of most transparent glass, with so
little motion that there is hardly an excuse for bad writing.... I
must, however, take you back to Cairo. We began to move at a very
early hour, about three, on Saturday (yesterday) morning. We were
actually in the railway carriages at half-past four. I was placed in a
_coupe_ before the engine, in order that I might see the road; and in
this somewhat formidable position ran over about forty miles of the
Desert in about an hour and a half. It is a wonderful sight this
strange barren expanse of stone and gravel, with here and there a
small encampment of railway labourers, after passing through the
luxuriant Valley of the Nile, teeming with production and life, animal
and vegetable. In the morning air there was a healthy freshness, which
was very delightful. At the end of our hour and a half we reached the
termination of the part of the railway which is already completed, and
embarked in two-wheeled four-horse vans (such as you see in the
_Illustrated News_), to pass over about five miles of trackless
desert, lying between the said terminus and a station on the regular
road across the Desert, at which we were to breakfast. This part of
our journey was rough work, and took us some time to execute. Our
station was really a very nice building; and while we were there a
caravan of pilgrims to Mecca, some women in front and the men
following, all mounted on their patient camels, passed by. After we
were refreshed we started for Suez; and you will hardly believe me
when I tell you, that we travelled forty-seven miles over the Desert
in a carriage as capacious and commodious as a London town coach, in
four hours and a half, including seven changes of horses and a
stoppage of half an hour. In short, we got over the ground in about
three hours and three-fourths. We had six horses to our carriage, and
a swarthy Nubian, with a capital seat on horseback, rode by us all the
way, occasionally reminding our horses that it was intended they
should go at a gallop.
[Sidenote: Retrospect of Egypt.]
[Sidenote: Egyptian ladies.]
_May 11th_.--I am glad to have had two days in Egypt. It gave one an
idea at least of that country; in some degree a painful one. I suppose
that France and England, by their mutual jealousies, will be the means
of perpetuating the abominations of the system under which that
magnificent country is ruled. They say that the Pacha's revenue is
about 4,000,000_l_., and his expenses about 2,000,000_l_.; so that he
has about 2,000,000_l_. of pocket-money. Yet I suppose that the
Fellahs, owing to their own industry, and the incomparable fertility
of the country, are not badly off as compared with the peasantry
elsewhere. We passed, at one of our stopping-places between Cairo and
Suez, part of a Turkish regiment on their way to Jeddah. These men
were dressed in a somewhat European costume, some of them with the
Queen's medal on their breasts. There was a hareem, in a sort of
omnibus, with them, containing the establishment of one of the
officers. One of the ladies dropped her veil for a moment, and I saw
rather a pretty face; almost the only Mahommedan female face I have
seen since I have reached this continent. They are much more rigorous,
it appears, with the ladies in Egypt than at Constantinople. There
they wear a veil which is quite transparent and go about shopping: but
in Egypt they seem to go very little out, and their veil completely
hides everything but the eyes. In the palace which I visited near
Cairo (and which the Pacha offered, if we had chosen to take it), I
looked through some of the grated windows allowed in the hareems, and
I suppose that it must require a good deal of practice to see
comfortably out of them. It appears that the persons who ascend to the
top of the minarets to call to prayer at the appointed hours are blind
men, and that the blind are selected for this office, lest they should
be able to look down into the hareems. That is certainly carrying
caution very far.
[Sidenote: Aden.]
_Steamship 'Bentinck,' off Socotra.--May 19th_.--I left my last
letter at Aden. We landed there at about four P.M., under a salute
from an Indian man-of-war sloop and the fort, to which latter place I
was conveyed in a carriage which the Governor sent for me. It was most
fearfully hot. The hills are rugged and grand, but wholly barren; not
a sign of vegetation, and the vertical rays of a tropical sun beating
upon them. The whole place is comprised in a drive around the hills of
some three or four miles, beyond which the inhabitants cannot stray
without the risk of being seized by the Arabs. I cannot conceive a
more dreary spot to dwell in, though the Governor assured me that the
troops are healthy. He received me very civilly, and insisted that I
should remain with him until the steamer sailed, which involved
leaving his abode (the cantonment) at about half-past three in the
morning. He took me to see some most extraordinary tanks which he has
recently discovered, and which must have been constructed with great
care and at great expense, at some remote period, in order to collect
the rain-water which falls at rare intervals in torrents. These tanks
are so constructed that the overflow of the upper one fills the lower,
and in this way, when the fall is considerable, a great quantity can
be gathered. They were all filled with rubbish, and it is very
possible that there may be many besides these which have been already
discovered, but when they are cleared out they are in perfect
preservation. Some of them are of great capacity, and it is difficult
to understand how they come to have been filled up so completely. The
Governor told me that he had, a few months before, driven in his gig
over the largest, which I went with him to see. At that time he had no
idea of its existence.
[Sidenote: Gloomy prospects.]
_May 22nd_.--As each of these wearisome days passes, I cannot help
being more and more determined that, in so far as it rests with me,
this voyage shall not have been made for nothing. However, the issues
are in higher hands.
_Sunday, 24th_.--We are now told we shall reach Ceylon in two days....
I have got dear Bruce's[4] large speaking eyes beside me while I am
writing, and mine (ought I to confess it) are very dim, while all
these thoughts of home crowd upon me. There is nothing congenial to me
in my present life. I have no elasticity of spirits to keep up with
the younger people around me. It may be better when the work begins;
but I cannot be sanguine even as to that, for the more I read of the
blue-books and papers with which I have been furnished, the more
embarrassing the questions with which I have to deal appear.
[Sidenote: First news of the Indian Mutiny.]
It was at Ceylon that he caught the first ominous mutterings of the
terrible storm which was about to burst over India, and which was destined
so powerfully to affect his own expedition. The news of the first serious
disturbance, the mutiny of a native Regiment at Meerut on the 11th of May,
had just been brought by General Ashburnham, the commander of the
expeditionary force, who had left Bombay a few hours after the startling
tidings had been received through the telegraph. Lord Elgin's first feeling
was that these disturbances in India furnished an additional reason for
settling affairs in China with all possible speed, so as to be free to
succour the Indian Government. It was only when fuller intelligence came
from Lord Canning, with urgent entreaties for immediate help, that he
determined, in consultation with General Ashburnham, who cordially entered
into all his views on the subject, to sacrifice for the present the Chinese
expedition, in order to pour into Calcutta all the troops that had been
intended for Canton.
_Galle, Ceylon.--May 26th_.--This is a very charming place, so green
that one almost forgets the heat. Ashburnham is here; we go on
together to Singapore this evening. Bad news from India. I think that
I may find in this news, if confirmed, a justification for pressing
matters with vigour in China, and hastening the period at which I may
hope to see you again.
_Steamship 'Singapore.'--May 27th_.--General Ashburnham brought with
him a report of a most serious mutiny in the Bengal army. Perhaps he
sees it in the worst light, because he has always (I remember his
speaking to me on the subject at Balbirnie) predicted that something
of the kind would occur; but, apart from his anticipations, the matter
seems grave enough. The mutineers have murdered Europeans, seized the
fort and treasure of Delhi; and proclaimed the son of the Great Mogul.
There seems to be no adequate European force at hand to put them down,
and the season is bad for operations by Europeans. Such is the sum and
substance of this report, as conveyed by telegraph to Elphinstone, the
evening before Ashburnham left Bombay. I was a good deal tempted to
remain at Galle for a few hours, in order to await the arrival of the
homeward-bound steamer from Calcutta, and to get further news; but, on
reflection, I came to the conclusion, that the best course to take was
to view this grave intelligence as an inducement to press on to China.
I wrote officially to Clarendon to say, that if this intelligence was
confirmed, it might have a tendency to lower our prestige in the East,
and to increase the influence of the party opposed to reason in China;
that this state of affairs might make it more than ever necessary that
I should endeavour to bring matters in China to an issue at the
earliest moment, so as to anticipate this mischief, and to place the
regiments destined for China at the disposal of Government for service
elsewhere.
_May 29th_.--We are now near the close of our voyage, and the serious
work is about to begin. Up to this point I have heard nothing to throw
any light upon my prospects. It is impossible to read the blue-books
without feeling that we have often acted towards the Chinese in a
manner which it is very difficult to justify; and yet their treachery
and cruelty come out so strongly at times as to make almost anything
appear justifiable.
[Sidenote: Penang.]
[Sidenote: Bishop of Labuan.]
[Sidenote: Character of Chinese.]
_Penang.--June 1st_.--We have just returned to our vessel after a
few hours spent on shore; or, rather, I have just emerged from a bath
in which I have been reclining for half an hour, endeavouring to cool
myself after a hot morning's work. We made this place at about eleven
last night, running into the harbour by the assistance of a bright
moon. The water was perfectly smooth, and I stood on the paddle-box
for some hours, watching the distant hills as they rose into sight and
faded from our view, and the bright phosphorescent light of the sea
cut by our prow, and which, despite the clearness of the night, was
sometimes almost too brilliant to be gazed at. When we dropped our
anchor, the captain still professed to doubt whether or not he would
have to proceed immediately; but he gave me to understand that, if he
could not accomplish this, he would not wish to leave until twelve to-
day, so that I should in that case have an opportunity of landing and
ascending the mountain summit. On this hint I had a bed prepared on
deck (fearing the heat of the cabins), and tried, though rather in
vain, to take a few hours' sleep. At five A.M. I was told that the
Resident, Mr. Lewis, was on board, that carriages and horses were
ready, and that, if I wished to mount the hill, the time had arrived
for the operation. I immediately made a hasty toilette, and set forth
accompanied by the General, some of the others following. We were
conveyed in a carriage three miles, to the foot of the hill, and on
pony-back as much more up it, through a dense tropical vegetation
which reminded me of my Jamaica days. At the end of the ride we
arrived at the Government bungalow, and found one of the most
magnificent views I ever witnessed; in the foreground this tropical
luxuriance, and beyond, far below, the glistening sea studded with
ships and boats innumerable, over which again the Malay peninsula with
its varied outline. I had hardly begun to admire the scene, when a
gentleman in a blue flannel sort of dress, with a roughish beard and a
cigar in his mouth, made his appearance, and was presented to me as
the Bishop of Labuan! He was there endeavouring to recruit his health,
which has suffered a good deal. He complained of the damp of the
climate, while admitting its many charms, and seemed to think that he
owed to the dampness a very bad cold by which he was afflicted. Soon
afterwards his wife joined us. They were both at Sarawak when the last
troubles took place, and must have had a bad time of it. The Chinese
behaved well to them; indeed they seemed desirous to make the Bishop
their leader. His converts (about fifty) were stanch, and he has a
school at which about the same number of Chinese boys are educated.
These facts pleaded in his favour, and it says something for the
Chinese that they were not insensible to these claims. They committed
some cruel acts, but they certainly might have committed more. They
respected the women except one (Mrs. C., whom they wounded severely),
and they stuck by the Bishop until they found that he was trying to
bring Brooke back. They then turned upon him, and he had to run for
his life. The Bishop gave me an interesting description of his school
of Chinese boys. He says they are much more like English boys than
other Orientals: that when a new boy comes they generally get up a
fight, and let him earn his place by his prowess. But there is no
managing them without pretty severe punishments. Indeed, he says that
if a boy be in fault the others do not at all like his not being well
punished; they seem to think that it is an injustice to the rest if
this is omitted. I am about to do with a strange people; so much to
admire in them, and yet with a perversity of disposition which makes
it absolutely necessary, if you are to live with them at all, to treat
them severely, sometimes almost cruelly. They have such an overweening
esteem for themselves, that they become unbearable unless they are
constantly reminded that others are as good as they.... The Bishop
seemed to think that it would be a very good thing if the Rajah were
to go home for a time, and leave the government to his nephew, whom he
praises much.... When we came down from the mountain we went to the
house of the Resident on the shore, and there I found all the world of
Penang assembled to meet me; among them a quantity of Chinese in full
mandarin costume. It was not easy, under the circumstances, to make
conversation for them, but it was impossible not to be pleased with
their good-humoured faces, on which there rests a perpetual grin. We
had a grand 'spread,' in which fresh fish, mangosteen, and a horrible
fruit whose name I forget (_dorian_), but whose smell I shall ever
remember, played a conspicuous part. After breakfast we returned to
our ship to be broiled for about an hour, then to bathe, and now
(after that I have inserted these words in my journal to you) to
finish dressing.
[Sidenote: Singapore.]
_June 3rd._--Just arrived at Singapore. Urgent letters from
Canning to send him troops. I have not a man. 'Shannon' not
arrived.
_Singapore.--June 5th._--I am on land, which is at any rate one thing
gained. But I am only about eighty miles from the equator, and about
two hundred feet above the level of the sea. The Java wind, too, is
blowing, which is the hot wind in these quarters, so that you may
imagine what is the condition of my pores. I sent my last letter
immediately after landing, and had little time to add a word from
land, as I found a press of business, and a necessity for writing to
Clarendon by the mail; the fact being, that I received letters from
Canning, imploring me to send troops to him from the number destined
for China. As we have no troops yet, and do not well know when we may
have any, it was not exactly an easy matter to comply with this
request. However, I did what I could, and, in concert with the
General, have sent instructions far and wide to turn the transports
back, and give Canning the benefit of the troops for the moment.
[Sidenote: Diversion of troops to India.]
The importance of the determination, thus simply announced, can hardly be
exaggerated. 'Tell Lord Elgin,' wrote Sir William Peel, the heroic leader
of the celebrated Naval Brigade, after the neck of the rebellion was
broken, 'tell Lord Elgin that it was the Chinese Expedition that relieved
Lucknow, relieved Cawnpore, and fought the battle of the 6th December.' Nor
would it be easy to praise too highly the large and patriotic spirit which
moved the heads of the Expedition to an act involving at once so generous a
renunciation of all selfish hopes and prospects, and so bold an assumption
of responsibility. Proofs were not wanting afterwards that the sacrifice
was appreciated by the Queen and the country; but these were necessarily
deferred, and it was all the more gratifying, therefore, to Lord Elgin to
receive, at the time and on the spot, the following cordial expressions of
approval from a distinguished public servant, with whom he was himself but
slightly acquainted--Sir H. Ward, then Governor of Ceylon:--
"You may think me impertinent in volunteering an opinion upon what in the
first instance only concerns you and the Queen and Lord Canning. But having
seen something of public life during a great part of my own, which is now
fast verging into the "sere and yellow leaf," I may venture to say that I
never knew a nobler thing than that which you have done in preferring the
safety of India to the success of your Chinese negotiations. If I know
anything of English public opinion, this single act will place you higher,
in general estimation as a statesman, than your whole past career,
honourable and fortunate as it has been. For it is not every man who would
venture to alter the destination of a force upon the despatch of which a
Parliament has been dissolved, and a Government might have been superseded.
It is not every man who would consign himself for many months to political
inaction in order simply to serve the interests of his country. You have
set a bright example at a moment of darkness and calamity; and, if India
can be saved, it is to you that we shall owe its redemption, for nothing
short of the Chinese expedition could have supplied the means of holding
our ground until further reinforcements are received."
For the time the disappointment was great. His occupation was gone, and
with it all hope of a speedy end to his labours. Six weary months he
waited, powerless to act and therefore powerless to negotiate, and feeling
that every week's delay tended to aggravate the difficulties of the
situation in China.
_Singapore.--June 5th._--It is, of course, difficult to conjecture how
this Indian business may affect us in China, and I shall await our
next news from India with no little anxiety. Await it, I say, for
there is no prospect of my getting on from here at present. There is
no word of the 'Shannon' and till she arrives I am a fixture.
[Sidenote: Convict establishment.]
_June 6th._--This morning the Governor took me on foot to the convict
establishment, at which some 2,500 murderers, &c., from India are
confined, and some fifty women, who are generally, after about two
years of penal servitude, let out on condition that they consent to
marry convicts. I cannot say that their appearance made me envy the
convicts much, although some of them were perhaps better-looking than
the women one meets out of the prison. In truth, one meets very few
women at all, and those that sees are far from attractive. _Au reste_,
the convicts go about apparently very little guarded, with a chain
round the waist and each leg. The church, which we afterwards visited,
is rather an imposing edifice, and is being built by convict labour,
at the cost of the Indian Government.
[Sidenote: Opium-shops.]
_June 8th._--This morning I visited, in my walk, some of the horrid
opium-shops, which we are supposed to do so much to encourage. They
are wretched dark places, with little lamps, in which the smokers
light their pipes, glimmering on the shelves made of boards, on which
they recline and puff until they fall asleep. The opium looks like
treacle, and the smokers are haggard and stupefied, except at the
moment of inhaling, when an unnatural brightness sparkles from their
eyes. After escaping from these horrid dens, I went to visit a Chinese
merchant who lives in a very good house, and is a man of considerable
wealth. He speaks English, and never was in China, having been born in
Malacca. I had tea, and was introduced to his mother, wife, and two
boys and two girls. He intends to send one of his sons to England for
education. He denounces opium and the other vices of his countrymen,
and their secret societies. All the well-to-do Chinese agree in this,
but they have not moral courage to come out against them. Indeed, I
suppose they could hardly do so without great risk.... Alas! still no
sign of the 'Shannon.'
[Sidenote: Captain Peel.]
[Sidenote: Ignorance of the Chinese language.]
_June 11th._--At half-past four this morning the 'Shannon' arrived.
Captain Peel came up to breakfast. He has made a quick passage, as he
came almost all the way under canvas: such were his orders from the
Admiralty. He says that his ship is the fastest sailer he has ever
been on board of; that he has the best set of officers; in short, all
is very cheery with him. I told him I should not start till after the
arrival of the steamer from England, and he requires that time to get
ready, as it appears that he had only twelve hours' notice that he was
to take me when he left England. On Tuesday, at noon, the Chinese
arrived with an address to me. I had a reply prepared, which was
translated into Malay, and read by a native. It is a most
extraordinary circumstance that, in this place, where there are some
60,000 or 70,000 Chinese, and where the Europeans are always imagining
that they are plotting, &c., there is not a single European who can
speak their language. No doubt this is a great source of
misunderstanding. The last row, which did _not_ end in a massacre, but
which might have done so, originated in the receipt of certain police
regulations from Calcutta. These regulations were ill translated, and
published after Christmas Day. The Chinese, believing that they
authorised the police to enter their houses at all periods, to
interfere with their amusements at the New Year, &c., shut up their
shops, which is their constitutional mode of expressing
dissatisfaction. It was immediately inferred in certain quarters that
the Chinese intended, out of sympathy with the Cantonese, to murder
all the Europeans. Luckily the Governor thought it advisable to
explain to them what the obnoxious ordinances really meant before
proceeding to exterminate them, and a few hours of explanation had the
effect of inducing them to re-open their shops, and go on quietly with
their usual avocations. Just the same thing happened at Penang. There
too, because the Chinamen showed some disinclination to obey
regulations of police which interfered with their amusements and
habits, a plot against the Europeans was immediately suspected, and
great indignation expressed because it was not put down with _vigour_!
[Sidenote: The Sultan of Johore.]
[Sidenote: _Freres Chretiens_.]
[Sidenote: _Soeurs_.]
_June 13th_.--I have just been interrupted to go and see the Sultan of
Johore. These princes in this country, and indeed all over the East,
are spoilt from their childhood, all their passions indulged and
fostered by their parents, who say, 'What is the use of being a
prince, if he may not have more _ghee_, etc. etc. than his
neighbours?' I do not see what can be done for them. At the school I
visited this morning are two sultan's sons (of Queddah), but they were
at home for some holidays, when they will probably be ruined. During
my morning's walk I heard something like the sound of a school in a
house adjoining, and I proposed to enter and inspect. I found an
establishment of _Freres chretiens_, and one of them (an Irishman)
claimed acquaintance, as having been with Bishop Phelan when he
visited me in Canada. We struck up a friendship accordingly, and I
told him that if there were any _Soeurs_ I should like to see them. He
introduced me to the Vicar Apostolic, a Frenchman, and we went to the
establishment of the _Soeurs_. I found the _Superieure_ a very
superior person, evidently with her heart in the work, and ready for
any fate to which it might expose her, but quiet and cheerful. I told
her that a devout lady in Paris had expressed a fear that my mission
to China would put an end to martyrdom in that country. She smiled,
and said that she thought there would always be on this earth
martyrdom in abundance. The Sisters educate a number of orphan girls
as well as others. All the missionary zeal in these quarters seems to
be among the French priests. Some one once said that it was not
wonderful that young men took away so much learning from Oxford as
they left so little behind them. The same may, I think, be said of the
French religion. It seems all intended for exportation.
[Sidenote: View from Singapore.]
_June 15th_.--I see from my window that a French steamer has just come
into the harbour and dropped her anchor. This reminds me that I have
not yet told you what I see from this window--if I may apply the term
window to a row of Venetian blinds running all round the house or
bungalow, for this residence is not dignified by the title 'house.' I
am on an eminence about 200 feet above the sea; immediately below me
the town; on one side a number of houses with dark red roofs,
surrounded with trees, looking very like a flower-garden, and
confirming me in my opinion of the beauty of such roofs when so
situated; on the other, the same red-roofed houses _without trees_,
which makes all the difference. Beyond, the harbour, or rather
anchorage, filled with ships, the mighty 'Shannon' in the centre--a
triton among the minnows. Beyond, again, a wide opening to the sea,
with lowish shores, rocky, and covered with wood, running out on
either side. Such is the prospect ever before me, a very fine one
during the day, still more interesting at night when it all sparkles
with lights, and the great tropical moon looks calmly down on the
whole.
[Sidenote: On board the 'Shannon.']
_H.M.S. 'Shannon.'--June 24th_.--I daresay you will consider me an
object of envy when I describe to you where I am,--on board of a
magnificent ship-of-war, carrying sixty 68-pounders, our foremast and
mainmast sails set, and gliding through the water with just motion
enough to tell us that the pulse of the great sea is beating. The
temperature of the air is high, but the day is somewhat cloudy, and
the sails throw a shadow on the deck. The only thing I regret is, that
having no poop, the high bulwarks close us in and shut out both the
air and prospect. One can only get these by climbing up on a sort of
standing-place on the side.... Our departure from Singapore was very
striking.... Not only were all the troops and volunteers under arms,
with Chinamen and merchants in crowds, but (may I mention it) the fair
ladies of Singapore were drawn up in a row to give us a parting
salute. We moved off in our boats, under a salute from the battery,
which was repeated by the 'Spartan' as I passed her, and by the
'Shannon' when I got on board, both these vessels manning yards. The
French admiral honoured me also with a salute as I passed him after
getting under weigh, although the sun had already set.
_July 1st_.--Another month begun. Last night, at dinner, we were
startled by hearing that we seemed to be running on a rock or shoal,
where no rock or shoal was known to exist. We backed our screw, and
finally went over the alarming spot, and on sounding found no bottom.
The sea was discoloured, but whether it was by the spawn of fish or
sea-weed we could not discover. Peel took up water in a bucket, but
could discover nothing. If we had not been a screw, and had had
nothing but sails to rely on, we should have kept clear of this
apparent danger, and the result would have been that a shoal would
have been marked on the charts, where, in point of fact, no shoal
exists. Captain Keppel's adventure makes captains cautious.
[Sidenote: Arrival at Hongkong.]
_Hong-Kong.--July 3rd_.--I am headachy and fagged, for I have had
some hours of the most fatiguing of all things--a succession of
interviews, beginning with the Admiral, General, &c,... I found the
Admiral strong on the point that Canton is the only place where we
ought to fight.... However, I hope we may get off to the North in
about ten days,--as soon as we have sent off these letters, and got
(as we ought) two mails from home.
_July 9th_.--An interval ... during which I have been doing a good
many things, my greatest enjoyment and pleasure being the receipt at
last of two sets of letters from home.... I have a great heap of
despatches, some of which seem rather likely to perplex me. I daresay,
however, that I shall see my way through the mist in a day or two....
I had a levee last evening, which was largely attended. The course
which I am about to follow does not square with the views of the
merchants, but I gave an answer to their address, which gave them for
the moment wonderful satisfaction.... A document, taken in one of the
Chinese junks lately captured, states that 'Devils' heads are fallen
in price,'--an announcement not strictly complimentary, but reassuring
to you as regards our safety.
[Sidenote: Change of plans.]
Up to this time Lord Elgin had not entirely given up the hope that the
troops which he had detached to Calcutta might be restored to him before
the setting in of winter should make it impossible to proceed, as his
instructions required, to the mouth of the Peiho, and there open
negotiations with the Court of Pekin. But on the 14th of July came letters
from Lord Canning, written in a strain of deeper anxiety than any that had
preceded; and giving no hope that any troops could be spared from India for
many months to come. At the same time Lord Elgin learned that the French,
on whose co-operation he counted, could not act until the arrival of the
chief of the mission, Baron Gros, who was not expected to reach China till
the end of September. In this state of things, to remain at Hong-Kong was
worse than useless. The sight of his inaction, and the knowledge of the
reasons which enforced it, could not fail to damage the position of England
with the public of China, both Chinese and foreign. He formed, therefore,
the sudden resolution to proceed in person to Calcutta, where he would be
within easier reach of telegraphic instructions from England; where he
would have the advantage of personal communication with Lord Canning, and
of learning for himself at what time he might expect to have any troops at
his command; and where, moreover, his appearance might have a moral effect
in support of the Government greater than the amount of any material force
at his disposal.
[Sidenote: Sails for Calcutta.]
_H. M. S 'Shannon'--July 19th._--I wonder what you will think when you
receive this letter; that is, if I succeed in despatching it from the
point where I wish to post it. Will you think me mad? or what will
your view of my proceedings be?... Here I am actually on my way to
Calcutta! To Calcutta! you will exclaim in surprise. The reasons for
this step are so numerous, that I can hardly attempt to enumerate
them. I found myself at Hong-kong, without troops and without
competent representatives of our allies (America and France) to
concert with; doomed either to _aborder_ the Court of Pekin alone,
without the power of acting vigorously if I met a repulse, or to spend
three months at Hong-kong doing nothing, and proclaiming to the whole
world that I am waiting for the Frenchman; i.e. that England can do
nothing without France. I considered the great objections which
existed to either of these courses. _Sur ces entrefaites_, came
further letters from Canning, begging for more help from me, and
showing that things are even worse with him than they were when I
first heard from him. It occurred to me that I might occupy the three
months well in running up to Calcutta, taking with me what assistance
I can collect for him and obtaining thereby an opportunity of
conferring with him, and learning from him what chance I have of
getting before the winter the troops which I have detached to his
support. Sir M. Seymour approved the plan warmly. It occurred to me on
Tuesday evening, and on Thursday I was under weigh. Alas! _l'homme
propose, mais Dieu dispose_! The monsoon is against us, and as this
ship is practically useless as a steamer, as she can only carry coals
for five days, we are beating against the wind, and making little
progress. Perhaps my whole plans may fail, because I have the
misfortune to be in one of H.M.'s ships instead of in a good merchant
steamer, which would be going at ten miles an hour in a direct line,
while we are going at six in an oblique one. However, we must hope for
the best.
Whether we are to have peace or war with China, either object will be
much more effectually accomplished, when the European forces are
acting together, than when we are alone; the Russians meanwhile, no
doubt, hinting to the Emperor that we are in a bad way in India. The
plan, then, if we can accomplish it, is this: To run up as fast as I
can to Calcutta, and to return so as to meet Baron Gros, who is not
expected till the middle of September. There will just be time to
communicate with the Court of Pekin before winter. I have mentioned
the reasons for these proceedings, derived from my own position; but,
of course, I am mainly influenced by a consideration for Canning. In
both his letters he has expressed a desire to see me, and I am told
that my appearance there with what the Indian public will consider the
first of a large force, will produce a powerful moral effect. I ought
to be there at least two months before he can receive a man from
England.
[Sidenote: Birthday.]
_July 20th_.[5]--Would that I were at home to-day! You say that I do
not appreciate anniversaries, but it is chiefly because it is so sad
when the days come when they cannot be celebrated as of yore. 'Nessun
maggior dolore.' Do not anniversaries stir this great fountain of
sadness? I feel sad when I look at this inhospitable sea, and think
of the smiling countenances with which I should have been surrounded
at home, and the joyous laugh when papa, with affected surprise,
detected the present wrapped up carefully in a paper parcel on the
breakfast table. Is it not lawful to be sad?
_July 25th_.--The consequences of being at so great a distance from
head-quarters are very singular, _e.g._ in this case I shall not hear
whether the Government approve or not of this move of mine until it
has become matter of history; until, in all probability, I have
carried out my plan of visiting the Peiho with the French Ambassador.
It certainly contrasts very strongly with the position of a diplomatic
functionary in Europe now, when reference is made by telegraph to
headquarters in every case of difficulty.... This seems a very
solitary sea. We have passed in all, I think, two ships. This morning
once or twice we have met a log floating with one or two birds
standing upon it. Yesterday great excitement was created by the
discovery of a cask floating on the surface of the sea. Telescopes
were _braques_ from every part of the ship upon this unhappy cask,
which went bobbing up and down, very unconscious of the sensation it
was creating. This incident will convey to you an idea of how
monotonous our life is.
_July 27th_.--At about four yesterday another excitement, greater than
that created by the floating cask. Peel informed me that there was a
steamer in sight, coming towards us. Many were the speculations as to
what she could be. It was generally agreed that she was the 'Transit,'
as she was due about this time. As we neared her, however, she
dwindled in size, and proved a rather dirty-looking merchant-craft
with an auxiliary screw. On asking whence she came, she informed us
that she was from Calcutta, and that she had a letter for me. It
proved to be from Canning, in no respect more encouraging than his
former letters, and therefore, in so far, confirmatory of the
propriety of my present move.
_July 31st.--En route_ for Calcutta. We reached Singapore on the 28th,
at about two P.M. I landed and went to my old quarters at the
Governor's. I found it deliciously cool, much more so than it was
during my former visit.... My friends at Singapore were very cordial
in their welcome of me, and the merchants immediately drew up an
address expressive of their satisfaction at my move on Calcutta. We
have taken on board 100 men of the detachment of the 90th which was on
board the 'Transit,' and put the remainder into the 'Pearl,' so that
we are crammed to the hilt. Please God we may reach Calcutta in about
a week or less, and then a new chapter begins. Just as we were
starting yesterday, an opium-ship from Calcutta arrived, and brought
me a letter and despatch from Canning, more urgent and gloomy than any
of the preceding ones. The 'Simoom' and 'Himalaya' had both arrived,
but he was clamorous for more help, and broadly tells me that I must
not expect to get any of my men back. So here I am deprived of the
force on which I was to rely in China!... Canning's letter is dated
the 21st, and therefore contains the latest intelligence. Nothing can
be worse. I am happy to say that I have already sent to him even more
than he has asked.... I trust that I may do some good, but of course
things are so bad that one fears that it may be too late to hope that
any great moral effect can be produced by one's arrival. However, I
have with me about 1,700 fighting men, and perhaps we may have more,
if we find a transport in the Straits, and take it in tow.
[Sidenote: Arrival at Calcutta.]
On the 8th August the 'Shannon' reached Calcutta. Her arrival is thus
described by Mr. Oliphant[6]:--
'As we swept past Garden Reach, on the afternoon of the 8th August, the
excitement on board was increased by early indications of the satisfaction
with which our appearance was hailed on shore. First our stately ship
suddenly burst upon the astonished gaze of two European gentlemen taking
their evening walk, who, seeing her crowded with the eager faces of men
ready for the fray, took off their hats and cheered wildly; then the
respectable skipper of a merchant-man worked himself into a state of
frenzy, and made us a long speech, which we could not hear, but the
violence of his gesticulations left us in little doubt as to its import;
then his crew took up the cheer, which was passed on at intervals until the
thunder of our 68-pounders drowned every other sound; shattered the windows
of sundry of the 'palaces;' attracted a crowd of spectators to the Maidan,
and brought the contents of Fort William on to the glacis.
'As soon as the smoke cleared away, the soldiers of the garrison collected
there sent up a series of hearty cheers; a moment more and our men were
clustered like ants upon the rigging, and, in the energy which they threw
into their ringing response, they pledged themselves to the achievement of
those deeds of valour which have since covered the Naval Brigade with
glory. After the fort had saluted, Lord Elgin landed amid the cheers of the
crowd assembled at the ghaut to receive him, and proceeded to Government
House, gratified to learn, not merely from the popular demonstrations, but
from Lord Canning himself, that though happily the physical force he had
brought with him was not required to act in defence of the city, still that
the presence of a man of war larger than any former ship that ever anchored
abreast of the Maidan, and whose guns commanded the city, was calculated to
produce upon both the European and native population a most wholesome moral
effect, more especially at a time when the near approach of the Mohurrum
had created in men's minds an unusual degree of apprehension and
excitement.'
Speaking afterwards of this scene, Lord Elgin himself said, 'I shall never
forget to my dying day--for the hour was a dark one, and there was hardly a
countenance in Calcutta, save that of the Governor-General, Lord Canning,
which was not blanched with fear--I shall never forget the cheers with
which the "Shannon" was received as she sailed up the river, pouring forth
her salute from those 68-pounders which the gallant and lamented Sir
William Peel sent up to Allahabad, and from those 24-pounders which,
according to Lord Clyde, made way across the country in a manner never
before witnessed.'
[Sidenote: Peel's naval brigade.]
[Sidenote: Lord Canning.]
_Calcutta.--August 11th_.--Here I am, writing to you from the
Governor-General's palace at Calcutta! Altogether it is one of the
strangest of the _peripeties_ of my life.... I think my visit has
entirely answered as regards the interests of India. I have every
reason to believe that it has had an excellent effect here. I have
agreed to give up the 'Shannon,' in order that Peel and his men may be
formed into a naval brigade, and march with some of their great guns
on Delhi. Peel, for this work, is, I believe, the right man in the
right place, and I expect great things from him. He is delighted, and
Canning and Sir P. Grant have signified in strong terms their
appreciation of the sacrifice I am making, and the service I am
rendering. They are in great want of artillery, and no such guns as
those of the 'Shannon' are in their possession. The vessel itself,
with a small crew, will remain in the river opposite Calcutta, able,
if need were, to knock all the city to bits. I shall get a steamer for
myself, probably one of the Peninsular and Oriental Company's, to
convey me to Hong-kong, and to remain with me till I am better suited.
Canning is very amiable, but I do not see much of him. He is at work
from five or six in the morning till dinner-time. No human being can,
in a climate like this, and in a situation which has so few
_delassements_ as that of Governor-General, work so constantly without
impairing the energy both of mind and body, after a time.... Neither
he nor Lady C. are so much oppressed by the difficulties in which they
find themselves as might have been expected.
[Sidenote: Treatment of inferior races.]
_August 21st._--It is a terrible business, however, this living among
inferior races. I have seldom from man or woman since I came to the
East heard a sentence which was reconcilable with the hypothesis that
Christianity had ever come into the world. Detestation, contempt,
ferocity, vengeance, whether Chinamen or Indians be the object. There
are some three or four hundred servants in this house. When one first
passes by their _salaaming_ one feels a little awkward. But the
feeling soon wears off, and one moves among them with perfect
indifference, treating them, not as dogs, because in that case one
would whistle to them and pat them, but as machines with which one can
have no communion or sympathy. Of course those who can speak the
language are somewhat more _en rapport_ with the natives, but very
slightly so, I take it. When the passions of fear and hatred are
engrafted on this indifference, the result is frightful; an absolute
callousness as to the sufferings of the objects of those passions,
which must be witnessed to be understood and believed.
_August 22nd._ ---- tells me that yesterday, at dinner, the fact that
Government had removed some commissioners who, not content with
hanging all the rebels they could lay their hands on, had been
insulting them by destroying their caste, telling them that after
death they should be cast to the dogs, to be devoured, &c., was
mentioned. A rev gentleman could not understand the conduct of
Government; could not see that there was any impropriety in torturing
men's souls; seemed to think that a good deal might be said in favour
of bodily torture as well! These are your teachers, O Israel! Imagine
what the pupils become under such leading!
[Sidenote: Fears for Lucknow.]
_August 26th._--The great subject of anxiety here now is Lucknow, where
a small party of soldiers, with some two hundred women and an equal
number of children, are beleaguered by a rebel force of 15,000. The
attempts hitherto made to relieve them have failed; and General
Havelock, who commands, says he can do nothing unless he gets the 5th
and 90th Regiments, the two I sent from Singapore on my own
responsibility. The men of the 'Pearl' and 'Shannon' and the marines
are guarding Calcutta, or on their way up to Allahabad, so that it is
impossible to say what would have become of Bengal if these
reinforcements had not come.
_August 30th._--The mail from England has arrived. No letters, of
course, for me. I gather from the newspapers and Canning's letters
that some troops, though only to a small extent, I fear, are to be
sent to Hong-kong, to replace those which have been diverted to India.
From Palmerston's speeches I gather that he adheres to the policy of
my first visiting the North, and making amicable overtures; and,
secondly, taking Canton, if these overtures fail. I believe I have
adopted the only mode of carrying out that policy. It is rather
perplexing, however, and sometimes a little amusing, to be working at
such a distance from head-quarters, as one never knows what is thought
of one's proceedings until it is so much too late to turn to account
the criticisms passed upon them.
[Sidenote: Return to China.]
There remained now nothing to keep him longer at Calcutta; a body of troops
was on its way to Hongkong, to take the place of those that had been
diverted to India, and the end of September was the time at which he had
arranged to meet Baron Gros in the China seas. On the 3rd of September,
therefore, he turned his face once more eastward, to resume the proper
duties of his mission.
[Sidenote: Fever.]
_Steamer 'Ava'--September 10th._--I have had a very bad time of it since
I finished my last letter on my way down the Hooghly. Probably it may
have been something of the Calcutta fever brought with me.... But on
the second night after our departure, it came on to blow hard towards
morning. I was in my cot on the windward side. First, I got rather a
chill, and then the ports were shut |
