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32X

The EDITH and LORNE PIERCE
COLLECTION of CANADI ANA

^een's University at Kingston

tf /=soi5 v^"/-';'"""^

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[private.]

THE ST. GEORGE'S SOCIETY AND
MR. GOLDWIN SMITH.

'■X

I AM far from desiring to renew the public controversy
respecting the attempt to expel me, on account of my
political opinions, from the St. George's Society. But as
allusions have continued to be made to the affair, and it
remains on record in the Minutes of the Society,
I have thought it well to commit the facts to writing
for my future vindication m case of need. I place
copies of the memorandum privately in the hands of a
few friends, especially of those members of the St.
George's Society who came forward in my defence, and
who may be glad to be assured that in taking that course
they did the Society no wrong. My absence from Toronto
when the attack was made prevented a full and fair
statement of the case at the time.

The St. George's Society of Toronto is declared by
its charter to be formed for the benevolent purposes of '• af-
fording pecuniary, medical, and other relief to persons of
English or Welsh birth, and their descendants, as may from
sickness or other causes have fallen into distress." By one
of the By-Laws the •* promotion of mutual and friendly
intercourse " is added to the objects of the Society. But

even if this addition affected the present question, no By-
Law could alter the charter.

By the twenty-third By-Law " the introduction of poli-
tical or religious subjects, or their discussion, shall not be
allowed by the Society."

On the 6th of June, 1879, I was elected a Life Member
of the Society.

In the previous year I had published in Canada a
book entitled *• The Political Destiny of Canada," advot
eating the Union of Csfnada and the United States. The
book had been reviewed or noticed in many quarters, had
formed the subject of a series of criticisms by Sir Francis
Hincks, and had made my opinions generally known.

Thus I was admitted, and my donations were received,^
with a full knowledge of my political opinions, and under
the pledge implied in the By-Law excluding politics fronv
discussion.

On the 8th of July, i88t, a motion was brought forWard
in my absence to elect me an honorary member of the
Society. An adverse resolution was moved at a sub-
sequent meeting, partly on the ground that "the
peculiar views as to the future relations of Canada to
the rest of the empire and to the United States, with
which Mr. Smith has become so prominently identified,
would afford ground for the assumption that by this hon-
orary distinction those views are approved by the Society."
The resolution was ruled out of order by the President
under the By-Law precluding the discussion of political
opinion. After this I continued my donations till they
amounted in all to upwards of a thousand dollars, and was
elected an officer of the Society.

On the first of February, 1889, 1 was brought forw;ard»

not at my own instance, for the Presidency of the Society,
but was defeated by Mr. W. E. Wellington.

Failure to be elected to an office which I had not
sought, caused me no concern ; but the spirit in which
the contest had been conducted, and the attacks made
upon my character, showed me that politics of a very bitter
and personal kind had found their way into a society
which I had joined on the supposition that it was purely
benevolent, or benevolent aind social, aud that politics were
excluded from its pale. I could have no wish to continue
such associations, least of all in a charitable institution.
I therefore practically retired from the Society, only re-
fraining from the formal resignation of my Life Membership
because I had no wish to do anything hostile or give rise
to anything unpleasant.

In the year 1892, owing principally to the pressure of
the American Tariff, there was a movement in the Provin-
ces of Ontario and Quebec in favour of union with the
United States. I took no part in setting that movement on
fool. I was not in Canada at its inception, or before it
had come to a head. But a Continental Union Associa-
tion having been formed, or rather revived, I joined it,
contributed to its fund, and allowed myself to be named
its Honorary President. I declined the Presidency, and
would gladly have declined the Honorary Presidency,
because I had, in fact, shut my study door on all political
agitations, and devoted the small remainder of my days
to the completion of literary works. But, having advo-
cated Continental Union, and possibly induced others to
embrace it, I felt that it would be cowardly to hold back,
especially when an attempt had been made to repress
freedom of discussion on the subject by the dismiFsal of
Mr. Elgin Myers from his office.

The question was distinctly put to Sir John Thompson,
Minister of Justice, in Parliament, by Mr. Choquette,
whether Continental Union, or, as they termed it. Annex-
ation, was a lawful opinion, and the Minister of Justice
answered that it was, provided the means were lawful.'"
The means employed by the Continental Union Asso-
ciation were strictly lawful. Its declared object was
to "obtain, with the leave of the Imperial Govern*
ment, the submission of the question to the Canadian
people, and to prepare the people for the vote." The con-
sent of the Imperial Government was most distinctly
recognized as indispensable.

I had not the slightest personal interest in the matter of
any kind. Whether my course was right or wrong, I was
actuated solely by the conviction which I had long enter-
tained, and which I shared with public men in England,
whose patriotism as well as their loyalty was unquestioned,
that the re-union of the English-speaking race on this con-
tinent would be beneficial to both branches of the race,
especially to the Canadian branch, and that it would be
not less advantageous to the mother country.

In January, 1893, 1 spoke at a meeting of the Continen-
tal Union Association, and intimated that I was on the
point of leaving Toronto on my annual health trip to the
South. No sooner had my back been turned than Mr.
Castell Hopkins, as a member of the St. George's Society,

,*"Mr. Choquette — Would a speech favouring annexation be
seditious ?

" Sir John Thompson—Not if the person thought that the Con-
stitution should be changed by lawful meains.*'— Debates of the House
of Commons of the Dominion of Canada, (May 19, 1892,) Vol. xxxv, col.
2833.

put up the following motion, which was seconded by Mr.
Charles Spanner, senior : —

•• That m view of his advocacy of the annexation of
" the Dominion of Canada to the United States, his posi-
'- tion as President of the Continental Union Association
*♦ of Toronto, and the treason to his Sovereign, to Eng-
" land, and to Canada, involved in these conditions, this
• body of loyal Englishmen request Mr. Goldwin Smith to
" tender his resignation as a Life Member of the St.
♦♦ George's Society, and hereby instruct the Treasurer to
" return to Mr. Smith the fee previously paid for that
'•privilege."

The last clause was afterwards omitted by Mr. Hopkins,
who may have seen in the Globe newspaper that what he
would have to return, if pecuniary right was to be done,
was not an ordinary fee of $io, but the sum of $i,o6o.

Mr. Castell Hopkins was a member of the editorial
staff of the Empire^ a journal which had long been assail-
ing me with much virulence, and had ended by attempting
to fix upon me, in relation to this very question, the same
charge of treason. That charge it supported by a docu-
ment which, it pretended, had been stolen for it from the
printing office of Messrs. Hunt'" & Rose, but which I
proved incontestably to be a fabr.M ation.

Mr. Castell Hopkins, at the time when he gave notice
of his motion, was disqualified from so doing, as he had not
paid his subscription. This seems to indicate that he can
have felt no extraordinary interest in the Society and that it
was probably not by his zeal and anxiety for its character
that he was led to take action against me when its leading
members took none.

On the third of March, 1893, Mr. Castell Hopkins's
motion came up. His notice was held bad on the ground

above mentioned. But the President, Mr. Drayton,
authorized him to bring forward his motion without any
notice. The twenty- fifth By-Law of the Society provides
that no proposition for the expulsion of a member shall
be in order ♦♦ unless one month's notice has been given in
writing of an intention to submit it at the next ensuing
general meeting." It is obvious that Mr. Castell Hopkins's
motion was, though not in form, in substance a motion for
expulsion, involving an infamous charge and formulated
in the most insulting language which political and personal
malice could suggest. Yet Mr. Drayton allowed him to
bring it forward without notice, and in the absence from the
country of the member against whom it was directed. Mr.
Drayton also ruled, in direct contradiction to the ruling
of his predecessor above cited, that the question of politi-
cal union with the United States was not political, and
that the By-Law which excluded politics from discussion
was applicable only to orthodox politics ; a construction
which, it is presumed, he would have extended by analogy
to the other prohibited subject, that of religion.

Mr. Herbert Mason moved, and Mr. Wood seconded,
an amendment to the effect that the political opinions of a
member could not be introduced.

After a long and angry debate, Mr. Castell Hopkins
and his party, seeing that they could not carry their
motion, acquiesced in the following amendment, which
was adopted without division : —

•' Whereas it has been brought to the notice of this

• Society that Mr. Goldwin Smith, one of its Life Members,

" has openly proclaimed himself in favour of severing

" Canada from the rest of the British Empire, and has alpo

** accepted the office of Honorary President of an associa-

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tion having for its object the active promotion of an agita-
tion for the union of Canada with the United States,

*' Therefore the Society desires emphatically to place
on record its strong disapprobation of any such move*
ment, and hereby expresses its extreme regret that the
Society sholild contain in its ranks a member who is
striving for an object which would cause an irreparable
injury to this Dominion, would entail a loss to the
mother land of a most important part of her empire,
and would deprive Canadians of their birth-right as
British subjects."

I thereupon addressed the following letter to the
President of the Society : —

*' To the President of the St, George's Society : —

" Sir, — By the report of your meeting on Friday last, I
see that while the attack which Mr. Castell Hopkins was
allowed, in my absence, to make on my character has
fallen to the ground, a resolution was passed pointed at
me and condemnatory of the political opinions which, in
common with many Canadian citizens, I hold. The
object of the Continental Union Association, to my con-
nection with which exception is taken, is • to procure by

• constitutional means, and with the consent of the Crown,
' the submission of the question of Continental Union to

* the Canadian people.' If this is treason, let the law be
put in force against it ; unless it is treason, let the char-
acters of honourable citizens remain unassailed by reck-
less imputation. Independence, to which many, includ-
ing the Premier of our Province, look forward, would
be not less than Continental Union, the severance of
Canada from allegiance to the British Crown.

•• The twenty-third By-law of the Society is * The

• introduction of political or religious subjects, or their

♦ discussion shall not be allowed at any meeting of the
' Society.* The proceedings of Friday' night appear to
have been in direct contravention ot this rule. To pre-

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tend that in the phrase * political or religious subjects,'
the word * political ' is to be taken, not like ♦ religious,'
in its natural sense, and that which it bears in all the
dictionaries, but in some non-natural and restricted
sense, such as would admit the introduction of the most
burning of all political subjects, is, it seems to me, a
subterfuge which no upright judge could allow to prevail.

•♦ The Act of Incorporation, which must be decisive as
to the objects of the Society, describes it as ' formed
'for the benevolent purposes of affording pecuniary,
' medical, and other relief to such natives of England and
' Wales, and their descendants, as may from sickness and
' other causes have fallen into distress.' A benevolent
society can have no more right to interfere with the
political opinions of its members, or with their course as
citizens, than has a church, a literary society, or a joint
stock company. Whether the hand whicn holds out
assistance and the lips which breathe comfort are politi-
cally orthodox or not, the distressed English emigrant
whose relief is the paramount duty of this Society, will
never enquire.

'• I should always be ready to do or forego anything in
the interest of charity, provided there were no impeach-
ment of my character or violation of any public principle
in my person. But with a view to the possibility of
any further proceedings of this kind, I must say dis-
tinctly that I will not suffer the St. George's Society,
on the pretence of my being one of its members, to inter-
fere with my political convictions or with my conduct as
a citizen. If an attempt is ever made to remove me
from my Life Membership, or to inflict upon me a stigma
or penalty of any kind on account of my political
opinions, I shall seek the protection of the law and shall
endeavour with its aid to preserve a benevolent institu-
tion from being perverted, with its fund, to the ends of
political party and used for party purposes as an engine
of social persecution. I shall do this in the interest of
public charity much more than in my own interest,
though I have freely contributed to the benevolent fund.

• 4
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Years ago, seeing, as I thought, that influences different
from those of benevolence or of English brotherhood
were gaining a footing in the Society. I retired from
active membership, only leaving my name as a Life
Member on the books to avoid the scandal of secession,
and sought other organs for the charitable effort which
had been my object in joining the Association.

"I am, sir,

** Your obedient servant.

(Signed)
Washington, March 6, 1893."

" GoLDwiN Smith.

I afterwards allowed six months to elapse in order to
give Mr. Castell Hopkins and his party time, if they
dared, to renew their attack, of which there were some
mutterings. I then, being on the eve of departure to
England, and thinking that advantage might again be
taken of my absence to attack my character, addressed
the following letter of resignation to the Secretary of the
Society : —

" Thk Grange,

" Toronto, 20th September, 1893.

•♦ To the Secretary St. George's Society, Toronto: —

" Dear Sir,— I am shortly leaving for England, and,
before my departure, I think it best formally to retire
from my Life Membership of the St. George's Society
of Toronto. Some years ago, having reason to appre-
hend that political animosities, of which I was an ob-
ject, had found their way into your branch of the St.
George's Society, I practically withdrew and was re-
ceived into another branch. I did this with reluctance
as an Englishman, who had always cherished English
ties and associations, and not least my connection with
the St. George's Society of Toronto. Not wishing tp

create any unpleasant impression, I abstained from the
formal withdrawal of rhy name. But, as you are aware,
I from that time ceased to take any part in the proceed-
ings of the Society.

" In March last political enemies, who had long been
assailing my character in other ways, took advantage
during my absence from tlie country, of the retention of
my name upon your list to attempt the infliction upon
me of the social brand and insult of expulsion. This I
felt bound in the interests of society at large, and of
charitable institutions as well as in that of my own char-
acter to resist. Had I been approached in a way not
injurious to my self-respect and reputation, on behalf of
the charity, and by members qualified to represent its
interests, there would have been no difficulty in obtain-
ing my resignation.

" More than six months having now elapsed since t\\e
attack on me was made without any intimation of its re-
newal, I feel that I shall be liable to no misconstruction
in giving effect to my original inclination. I beg leave
accordingly to resign my Life Membership and withdraw
from your Society.

" I am,

•* Dear Sir,

♦' Yours faithfully,

(Signed) ♦' Goldwin Smith."

Mr. Castell Hopkins now has the assurance to
charge me with having abused my membership in the
St. George's Society for political purposes. This state-
ment is absolutely false. Nobody ever accused me, or, I
believe, thought of accusing me, of anything of the kind.
If there had been the slightest ground for thfi charge Mr.
Castell Hopkins would have embodied it in his motion, or
brought it forward at the time.

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I have mentioned that the Empire, the journal of the
editorial staff of which Mr. Castell Hopkins was a member,
had attempted to fix upon me the charge of treason. The
circumstances were these : —

Sir John Macdonald, being advised that his fiscal
policy was growing unpopular, determined at once to dis-
solve Parliament and snap a verdict. The Parliament had
still a year to run and the Government had a large and
mechanical majority. There was no pretext for disso-
lution. To justify it, Sir John Macdonald declared to the
country that negotiations for a reciprocity treaty v/ere on
foot with the United States, and that he wanted a popular
mandate. The American Secretary of State, Mr. Blaine,
at once wrote a letter saying that no negotiations whatever
were on foot. There was nothing for it then but to appeal to
the loyalty and ** old flag " sentiment, and try to make the
people believe that the Liberal leaders were engaged in a
plot to hand over Canada to the United States. It is
needless to say that this was a pure and most shameless
figment ; but some means of lending it a colour of proba-
bility had to be devised.

Mr. Edward Farrer was a journalist who, in the prac-
tice of his profession, like some of his confreres, had formed
connections on both sides of the line. He undertook to
help in preparing for an American correspondent a sort of
brief, settmg forth the American case, coipmercial and
general, on the Fisheries Question, which was then in dis-
pute. The document was printed at Toronto, in the office
of Messrs. Hunter & Rose, for the convenience of revi-
sion by Mr. Farrer. Such was Mr. Farrer's account. I
had nothing to do with the paper ; I had never seen it or
heard of it ; nor had I myself written a word upon the

question. The proof sheets of Mr. Farrer's pamphlet
were stolen from the office of Messrs. Hunter & Rose by a
printer in their employment, who laid his hands at the
same time upon some other documents, and were put into
the hands of Sir John Macdonald, who had com^ to
Toronto to open the campaign. That morning word was
sent me that it was intended to arrest Mr. Farrer and my-
self for treason. I of course laughed at the intimation.
In the evening Sir John filled his speech with references
to Mr. Farrer s pamphlet, on which he -dilated as evidence
of a conspiracy on the part of the Liberal leaders to be-
tray Canada to the United States. He at the same time
alluded to something else of a treasonable character,
which had been discovered, and was in the hands of the
police. Some days afterwards the meaning of his allusion
appeared. The Evjpire, which was his personal organ,
published an editorial with flaring typography announcing
that the treason was spreading, and that 1 was involved in
it. The proof tendered of this was a document alleged,
like Mr. Farrer's proof sheets, to have been stolen by the
Tory spy from the office of Messrs. Hunter & Rose. It
purported to be an instruction from me to my printer to
set up a pamphlet of my own, uniformly with that of Mr.
Farrer, of whose treasonable production I was thus sup-
posed to be criminally cognizant. Some time having
elapsed since the printing of my pamphlet, it was likely
that my instructions to my printer would have been
thrown away. Thrown away they had been. But by a
lucky chance they were recovered from a heap of waste
paper in my yard, and I was enabled to show that they
directed my pamphlet to be set up uniformly, not with
Mr. Farrer's pamphlet, but with a former pamphlet of my

own. Of Mr. Farrer's pamphlet, I repeat, I had never
heard. I placed the genuine document in the hands of
my solicitors for the inspection of the editor of the
Empire^ who saw it and did not venture to dispute its
authenticity.

The spy who had stolen Mr. Farrer's proof sheets from
Messrs. Hunter & Rose, and had stolen and falsified my
instructions to my printer, was rewarded by the Minister
of Justice with a place in that Department.