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5''/6l1

THE HONORABLE THOMAS D'AECY ICGEE

OF MONTREAL.

Eob me of all the joys of sense,

Curse me with all but imiwtonco,

FUnft me upon an ocean oar,

Cast me upon a savage shore,

Slay mf; ! but own abovo my b.er

" The man now gone still held while horo

The jewel Independence ! "
^ Canadian Ballads,

By Thomas D' Arc y Mc Gee

Had the Honorable Thomas D'Arcy McGce lived in the middle of
the sixth century he would very probably have been a member, and
a very distinguished one too, of that all-powerful " Bardic Order,"
before whose awful anger, Mr. McGee informs us in his History of
Ireland, " kings trembled and warriors succumbed in superstitious
dread." This iiifluential order, we are elsewhere told, were " the
editors, professors, registrars, and record keepers " of those early
days ; th^ makers and masters of public opinion, whose number
in the provinces of Meath and Ulster alone, in the reign of king
Hugh the second, exceeded twelve hundred. Although the subject
of our sketch was neither a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, it
is not improbable that, could we trace his genealogy aright, we
might discover that the trunk of his family tree is rooted and
grounded in poetic earth ; for his intellectual life derived no slight
nourishment from the poet's heritage, — imagination and fancy.
Mr. McGee's ancestors hailed originally from Ulster. It is therefore
probable he derived through them from the imposing commonwealth
of bards to which we have referred, and that his scholar-like fore-

HON. THOMAS 1) ARCY McOEE.

fathers may be looked for among the twelve hnrulred whom king
Hugh impeached, but who were upheld and defended by the mag-
nanimous St. Columbcille, who, moved by a love of letters, a school-
man's sympathies, and a christian man's duties, expressly journeyed
from his sea-girt home at Icolumkill to appear as counsel for his
brethren at the rude tribunal of the irascible king. On referring to
one of the larger and more perfect maps of Ireland, and looking
closely along the north-eastern co:kjt, we shall perceive situated
sca-Avard oft' the shore of Antrim, in the province of Ulster,
and within the ancient barony of Belfast, a small islet which
bears the name of " Island Magee." This little sea-washed
speck contained, according to one of the latest, if not the latest
topographical survey, about seven thousand acres of the finest
land in the northern part of the kingdom. Moreover, in 1837
it was peopled by no less than two thousand six hundred and
ten inhabitants. In the early times, the lord hip of the Island
was vested in the great Ulster family of O'Neil, from whom it
passed in the sixteenth century to the Macdonalds of the Antrim
Glens, and in the seventeenth, by the fortune of arms, to the
Chichesters, Earlg of Belfast and Marquises of Donegal. From
this small Island, for which the original tenants iU'c said to have paid
the annual rental of " tAvo goshawks and a pair of gloves,"
(which, by the way, may have been considered enough, since,
to an incredibly recent period, the Island was imagined by its
inliabitants to be a theatre of sorcery,) — their descendants were
almost extenninated, and wholly expelled by a force of covenan-
ters at the time when the memorable Munroe was commander of the
Parliamentary armies in Ireland. Three only of those who bore the
name of Magee were said to have escaped to the mainland, and
from one of those three, who we suspect must have appropriated
more than his share of the sorcery, the subject of our sketch
accounted himself to have directly descended.

Without dwelling further on the facts and incidents of his remote
ancestry, we may mention that the Honorable Thomas D'Arcj
McGee is the second son of the late Mr. James McGee, of Wexford,
and of Dorcas Morgan, his wife. He was born at Carlingford, in
the County of Louth, on the 13th of April, 1825, a day which has
since then become a day of mourning in hie family. The name of

HON. THOMAS D ARCY McGEE.

'• D'Arcy," by which Mr. McGec was conventionally known, is,
we have understood, derived from his god-father Mr. 1'homas
D'Arcy, a gentlemen who resided in tlie neighborhood of Carling-
ford, and, as we may infer, a personal friend of the family. Of his
parents Mr. McGee was accustomed to speak with filial affection
and becoming reverence, for he was early taught to " honor his
father and his mother." But for the memory of the latter, whom
he lost at a very early age, he entertained feelings of tender and
enthusiastic admiration. Such feelings appear to be almost divmely
wrought, and, like threads of gold, they beautify as well as
strengthen the purest fibres of our nature. On the mind of Mr.
McGee they exerted the gentle influence of poetry as well as the
holy one of love. Separate qualities, such as duty and respect,
obedience and devotion, love and pride, when looked at through the
lens of his memory, cease to be distinct. All his recollections of
his mother, though differently colored, nevertheless met and blended
harmoniously in his character, not unlike the soft hues of the rain-
bow, as in the hush of evening they silently melt in a sea of light.

No doubt there were strong intellectual affinities between the
mother and her son ; and this sympathetic attraction created an
indelible impression on the heart of the latter. The intellectual
charts of the two minds were, we are inclined to think, marked with
not dissimilaT^ lines ; bold and deeply drawn 'n the case of the son,
they were sketchily traced and dehcately shaded in the instance
of the mother. The subtle charm of divine poesy seems to have
pervaded both ; and this spell of fancy and feeling, of imagina-
tion and truth, may, in some sort, account for the magnetic
attractions which governed the intercourse of the parent and child.

To talk about his mother was, as all who know him had occasion
to observe, a source of unalloyed happiness to her son. As in a
holiday in his boyhood, so the acids of controversy and the sharp
edges of strife gave place to expressions tipped with sunshine, when
his lips could be beguiled into speaking of what his heart never
ceased to feel.

" My mother ! at that holy name
' ; _ Within my bosom there's a gush

• , Of feeling, which no time can tame, ^ v^ - , ^. , ., ,
A feeling which for years of fame
" I would not, could not crush ! " _ ;!

HON. THOMAS d'ARCY McGEE.

According to his recollection of her, the subject of our sketch
vras accustomed to allude to liis mother as a person of genius and
accjuirements, rare in her own or in any other class. She was
endowed, as Mr. McGeo commonly observed, with a fertile ima-
gination and a cultirated mind. Moreover nature had given her
a sweet voice and an ex(][uisite ear, and the latter prescribed exact
laws to the former when, bird-like, she thought fit to attune that
voice to song. She was fond of music, as well as of its twin
sister, poetry. A diligent reader of the best books, she was also
an intelUgent lover of the best ballads. She liked especially those
of Scotland. The poetry of common life was in her case no mere
figure of speech. Through all the changes of daily duty there ran
a vein of fancy, which enabled her to brighten the real with the
pleasant phantasies of the ideal, and support the dark cares of the
mind on the white wings of the imagination. McNeil's .words

" Oh whar hae you been a' the day

My boy Tammie ! "

were the words with Avhich she usually greeted and welcomed her
favorite child. In common with her contemporaries, the mothers
of her day, she appears to have had a special liking for Home's
tragedy of Douglas ; and we may perhaps more easily imagine than
describe her sense of pride as she listened to " Tammie's" earliest
lesson in elocution. It is not difficult to see the curly-headed urchin
standing on a table, and in melo-dramatic guise, with precocious
efifrontery informing his mother, who knew better, and his mother's
friends who did not believe him, that

• " My name is Norval."

His mother, as we have said, was early removed from him by death.
We will not speak of, since we cannot describe, grief. We may,
however, conjecture, since their natures and intellectual tastes were
identical, that her death was like a severance of himself from himself.
The tears, for he was not ashamed to weep, which no doubt
fell upon her grave, were neither idle nor unavailing tears, for
they became as it were so many cameras through ivhich were
reflected the duties, the incidents, and the obligations of his

HON. THOMAS d'aRCY McOEE.

future life. Thus at the age of seventeen vre find D'Arcy McGee
had passed tlie shallows whore timid youths hatho and shiver,
and had boldly struck out into the deep sea of duty. We have
no data which will enable us to bridge the time between his
mother's death and his arrival on this continent : but it is not
difficult to suppose that it was filled up in the manner usual to
youth, with the diftcrence only of a greater amount of application
and a higher range of study. On arriving at Boston, he became
almost immediately connected with the press of that city. Kind
fortune seemed to befriend him ; for his lot appeared to bo cast in,
what was at that time, and perhaps still is, the intellectual capital
of the United States — the forcing-houso of its fanaticism, and the
favored seat of its scholarship. Thus it was that D'Arcy McGee,
a youth hungry and thirsty for knowledge, influence and fame,
found himself a resident of the New England States capital, with
access to the best public libraries on this side of the Atlantic, and
within reach of the best public lecturers on literary and sci^^ntific
subjects. For at that day Emerson, Giles, his county and cou.itry-
raan, Whipple, Chapin, and Brownson, lived in that city or in its
vicinity. It was moreover the residence of Channing, Bancroft,
Eastburn, Prescott, Ticknor, Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes, and
others, whose works should have purified the moral atmosphere,
and have made Boston to others, what we suppose it must have been
to them, an appreciative and congenial home. It is not difficult to-
imagine, from what we knew and could observe of his mature man-
hood, that D'Arcy McGee, the impulsive Irish lad, overflowing
with exuberant good nature and untiring industry, with his heart
full of hope and his brain full of ambition, soon found his way into
meetings where learned men delivered lectures, or among the book-
sellers, whose shops such celebrities frequented. Neither is it a
matter for surprise that he early attracted the notice of several of
their number. Opportunities of speaking publicly are by no means
uncommon in the United States, and we should imagine that Boston
contained a great many nurseries, under difierent names, where
the alphabet of the art could be acquired. Whether the scholar
progresses beyond his letters depends very much on the furnishing
of his mind. The nerve and knack may be got by practice, but
the prime condition, — having something to say, — must spring from

UON. THOMAS d'ARCY McGEE.

exact thought and severe study. We have every reason to believe
that even in his early youth, the subject of our sketch, observed
that condition ; but we have no means of knowing where or in what
way ho acijuired the fluent habit of graceful and polished oratory.
For since ho was enthroned on his mother's tea-table, and declared
to listening friends that his name was " Norval," wo have boon
unable to discover any intermediate audience between his select
one at Carlingford, and his scientific one at Boston. Strange as
it may seem, it is we believe, no less true than strange, that
during his sojourn at Boston, from the years 1842 to 1845, when
between the ages of seventeen and twenty, he had actually made
his mark as a public speaker. Nor was it denied, that the auda-
cious youth, though contemptuously styled " Greenhorn," and
" Paddy-boy," very fairly held his own with men who never were
" green" and who had long ceased to be " boys." It may be
observed in passing that the " Know-nothing" party, which has
since then acquired consistency and influence, in its incipient shape,
was discernible at that day under the name of the Anti-foreign
party, a party which Mr. McGee could not do otherwise than
criticise Avith severity and oppose with vehemence.

At the period we refer to, 'he " Lyceum System" as it has been
termed, spread itself over the New England States. Peoplo desired
to receive knowledge distilled through the brains of their neigh-
bors. Lecturers were at a premium ; and youth forestalled time by
discoursing of wisdom, irrespective of experience. Thus it was that
D'Arcy McGee, with a boy's down on his chin, and with whiskers
in embryo, itinerated among our neighbors, and gave them the
advantage of listening to a youthfuUecturer, discoursing, we must
be permitted to think, on aged subjects. What those subjects were
may be partially conjectured, for the reminiscences of his lecturing
life in those days were full of amusing as well as of instructive
incident ; more especially as the period was, we think, coeval with
a transition phase not only of the Irish, but of the American, mind.

Mixing, as he necessarily must have done, with all sorts and con-
ditions of men, it was impossible that Mr. McGee should not have
formed many acquaintances of more or loss valuable, and some friend-
ships, perhaps, beyond price. Among the latter it was his practice
to make grateful mention of Mr. Grattan, then Her Majesty's

HON. THOMAS D ARCY McQJ

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Consul at Boston. Besides a name historically eloquent which ho
inherited, that gentlemen, muiucstionahly possessed great intellec-
tual acquirements as well as personal gifts. In the latter wore in-
cluded a kindly disposition and a cordial manner. It was therefore
natural enough that ho should have taken a warm interest in his en-
thusiastic countryman, and from the treasmy of his own experience
have given the young writer and lecturer many valuable hints on
the style and structure of literary work. Thus it chanced that the
wise counsellor and the kind friend meeting in the same person,
exerted no inconsiderable influence on the young enthusiast. Mr.
Grattan's 8ym})athics fell upon an appreciative mind, and were
destined at a later period of life to exert no inconsiderable iufluenae
on his character ; for Mr. McGce always spoke of the Consul with
admiration and of his services with gratitude.

A new page in his eventful life was however about to bo opened.
The obscure lad who had turned his back upon Ireland was about
to be beckoned home again by the country he had left. The
circumstances, apart from their political significance, were in the
highest degree complimentary to one who at the time was not " out
of his teens." An article, written by Mr. McGee, on an Irish
subject, in a Boston newspaper, having attracted the attention of
the late Mr. O'Connell, the former received, early In the year 1845,
a very handsome offer from the proprietor of the Freeman's
Journal, a Dublin daily paper, for his editorial services. This
proposal he accepted, and henco his personal participation in the
Irish i)olitics of the eventful years which commenced then and ended
in 1848. Ardent by temperament, and enthusiastic by disposition,
it was almost impossible for him to keep within the bounds of moral
force which Mr. O'Connell had prescribed, and which the newspaper
he served was instructed to advocate. Mr. McGee felt that such
fetters galled him, and he became impatient under their restraint.
The habit of maintaining his own convictions was a necessity of
his condition. Controlled by his imagination and following the
lead of his feelings, he determined at all hazards to associate
himself with the more advanced and enthusiastic section of the
liberal party, then known by the name of "Young Ireland."
This section or coterie, for it was scarcely a party, possessed many
attractions for such an adherent. Besides the name, and the bright,

HON. THOMAS D ARCY McGEE.

alluring, misleading (juality of youth, which that name symbolized
and expressed, the coterie was mado up of those many-hued forms
of intellectual mosaic work which men generally admire and rarely
trust J very charming in our sight and very perishable in our service ►
It was composed, at least at first, almost altogether of young
barristers, young doctors, young college men and young journalists,
most of them under thirty, and many under twenty-five years of
age. Mr. McGce was probably their most youthful member, for
when his association with them commenced he was not of age. Of
such hot blood was the " Young Ireland " party compo' tided, that
little surprise was occasioned, and none was expressed, when its
mischievous revels were broken up by the riot act. We cannot in a
paper of this kind discuss the question at any length, but if Ave under-
stand the history of those times aright, the policy of moral force which
had guided O'Connell was not, in the first instance, discarded by
his younger and more ardent disciples. They wished to accomplish
the purpose of " The Liberator," only they desired to shorten the
time and accelerate the speed of the operation. They thought that
O'Connell was " old and slow." They felt that they were young
and active. In their minds the rivalry between age and youth was
renewed, provoking the old issues and re-enacting the old results.
Keeping in view the great end which they had set themselves tO'
accomplish, they nevertheless sought, in the first instance, to move
by literary rather than by political appliances. Accordingly they
planned, among other works, a series of stirring shilling volumes
for the people, entitled the " Library of Ireland." The famine of
1847 extinguished the enterprizc, but not until twenty volumes of
this new National Library had been published. Of the above
number Mr. McGee was the author of two. One, a series of bio-
graphics of illustrious Irishmen of the seventeenth century, and
the other a memoir of Art. McMurrough, a half forgotten Irish
king of the fourteenth century. Of course, works published under
such circumstances, and forming parts vi such a series, would at
first, at all events, be well received and widely circulated. They
were passionately written and greedly devoured by a people Avho
were emaciated by famine and made desperate by pestilence. Still
their merits could not have been of a mere evanescent character,
for we are credibly informed that now, after a period of twenty
years, the books retain much of their early popularity.

-IS

HON. TnOMAS D'ARCY McGEB.

Mr. McGee, if wo remember aright, has somewhere said, with
respect to the transactions of those times, that " Young Ireland,"
not content to restore the past, endeavored to re-enact it ; not
content to write history, tried, to use a familiar phrase of Mr. John
Sandfield Macdonald's, to " make it ;" and we have little doubt,
could we see the intellectual machinery which preceded those
events, we should discover that none more than Mr. McGee assi-
duously labored to manufacture history.

The coterie grew into a confederation of which Mr. McGee was,
we beheve the chief promoter and the chosen secretary. It was
not without adherents, neither was it without attraction, and
especially co the class, a by no means inconsiderable one, whose
judgment is controlled by their imagination, and who seem to think
that feeling and wisdom are identical qualities. We decline to in-
dicate those transactions by any particular nuine. We all know that
they were failures, and since time tempers judgment, we venture to
believe that the chief actors of that day concur with the critics of the
present time in thinking that they were follies. The most stirrinfj
among the ma.iy impassioned Songs of the Nation, — " Who
fears to speak of '98" — showed alike the genius, the courage, and
the credulity of " Young Ireland" of '48. The Irish politics of
fifty years since were no more worthy of recall than was the Irish
policy of two hundred years since. Young Ireland should not, we
venture to think, have invoked the embarrasing memories of the
past, if it wished to make old Ireland new. It was an error in
time, an error in judgment, and an error in sense, which, fortunately
for all, contained within itself the germ of inevitable failure.

While England, through her press and in her Parliament,
scouted the policy and punished its principal exponents, she did not
fail very generously to acknowledge the unquestionable talent and
out-spoken honesty of that earnest and ill-fated party. We all
know what followed. Some of the leaders were sent into penal
exile, while others, including the subject of our sketch, found safety
in voluntary expatriation. But the exploit was not unattended with
excitement and peril, as the following narrative will more clearly
show: —

After the secession of the Young Ireland party from Conciliation Hall, in 18ir>,
under f'e leadership of the lato Mr. Smith O'Brien, the confederation was estub-

HON. THOMAS D ARCY McGEE.

lished, and at all its meetings McGee was one of the most forcible and prominent
speakers- He was not a favorite with many of the leadirg spirits of the party with
whom he was associated ; but he and Charles Gavan Duify, who has since so :!on-
spicuously figured as a statesman in Australia, were always the fastest friends, and
carried on with each other a friendly correspondence up to the time of his death.
When the British Government suspended the Habeas Corms Act in 1848, it was
resolved at a meeting of the Executive Council, held at their rooms in D'Olier
street, that this act of despotism should be resisted by force of arms, and for that pur-
pose an appjal should be made to the country, and the prominent leaders sent into
those districts where their influence with thepeasantry was greatest. According to
this arrangement, the late Smith O'Brien, the late Col. Doheny, and the late John
B. I^illon, General Meagher, Richard O'Gorman, and others, left Dublin and
proceeded to their assigned localities ; but McGoe was charged with bringing over
from Glasgow an expedition which had been organized and armed in that city. —
Descriptions of the leaders were published in the Hue and Cry — a sort of private
police gazette— and rewards offered for their apprehension. The country was
sAvarming with detectives ; the railway depots were closely watched, and tho stage
coach lines placed under strict police scrutiny. The proclamation of the suspen-
sion of the Raheas Corpus Act wa,s made in Dublin on a Sunday morning in July,
1818, but Mr. McGee departed suddenly from the city on Saturday evening, and
arrived in Londonderry on the following morning, whore he met a friend, as he
was taking his matutinal walk upon the historic walls of the maiden city. The
meeting occurred on a much-frequented spot of this very public promenade — it
was exactly over Bishop's gate— McGeo placed his finger on his lip, which his friend
at onue understood; no name was mentioned and they walked past Walker's
monument out of Butcher's gate, through the suburb of Dcrry called the "bog side,"
into the country, and up the green hills which look upon the fair Lough Svvilly,
where Wolfe Tone was captured, upon the mountain of Gray Innishowea,

"Where coward or traitor there never was none."

Mr. MoGee briefly explained the proceedings of the previous forty-eight hours, the
plan of action, and the duty to which he was detailed. The assizes which Avere about
to commence the next day iuDer'-y, brought many professional men from J)ublin
to the city, and it was therefore deemed prudent not to return to his hotel, where
he stayed under the name of Doyle, until night had cast her shadows athwart the
waters of the Foyle. The evening was spent in McGee's bed-room, where future
prospects of success were enthusiastically discussed. His companion wrote a let-
ter to his wife in Dublin, simply stating that Mr. Doyle had passed through Derry
and was in good health and spirits. He was then soant of money, but expected to
find a draft on his arrival in Glasgow, for which place he left by steamer the next
evening. AMien he arived in Glasgow he met his friends, and put up at a hotel to
await some intelligence of Smith O'Brien's movements. When he had been
there a fortnight, he was discovered, and a warrant was being made out for his
arrest, when intelligence reached the ears of a wealthy citizen, and a prominent
member in the Repeal Association. That gentleman hastened to inform Mr_
McCee of his danger, supplied him with the funds, and with him took the next
train for Newcastle on-Tyne. \A'hen within a few miles of that place, they returned
towards Glasgow, got out at a way station, and took tho stage coach for a littlo
port on the Scotch coast whence a steamer plies daily to Belfast, and makes tho
trip in about three hours and a half. This was lucky, for the police had hired a
special train, passed them on the way, and wore waiting for Mr. McGee at tho
Newca'^tlo station. There was another passenger in tho coach, but to his great

HON. THOMAS D ARCT MrGEE.

horror that passenger was no other than the renowned Rev. Tresham Grejig,
who was the great champion of tha Orange and Government party in Ireland.
Mr. McGee thought he would be delivered over by the reverend loyalist to
the first policeman they should meet. But he was agreeably dissappointed ;
Tresham did not take the slightest noti(;e of him, and soon himself and his
carpet-bag were stowed away in the steamboat. He arrived in Belfast about
midnight, walked to the station of the Ulster railway, took the train for Ar-
magh, which he reached about daylight. From Armagh he proceeded to Omagli,
in the county Tyrone, by jaunting car, thence to Enniskillen, and from that to
Sligo, where the Ribbon men took charge of him, and concealed him for a
fortnight at the base of the Benbulben ^lountain. Here he remained in perfect
security until he communicated with his friends in Gla.sgow, and funds were for-
warded to him to enable him to escape from the country. His object was to reach
Donegal or Derry, and get away by some ;ihip leaving either of those ports for
America. He moved from Benbulben, first to Donegal, and was concealed in the
town and in the very house where Sir Thomas Blake, of Menio Castle, County
Galway, was then stationed as one of Her Majesty's "Resident Magistrates." He
remained there a week, and Sir Thomas got information of the fact on the very
day he took his departure. The worthy Baronet gave close pursuit, and traced him
up to Dcrry, where the late Bishop McGinn and some of his clergy rendered him
efiectual aid. He was jirovided with a clerical suit of clothes and a breviary. In
the garb of a Catholic priest he was passed through the enemy's lines and put on
board a ship anchored off Moville at the mouth of the Foyle, called the "Shamrock'"'
and commanded by Capt. John Moore, of Galway, He was several days at soa
before he let the Captain know his real (iharacter, but his confidence was not mis-
placed. The captain treated hira hospitably, and brought him safely to Now
York.

Thus it was that, heated and excited by the strife, angered and
disappointed at the issue, Mr. McGce for a second time landed in
the United States. As before, his occupations "vvere those of a
journalist and a lecturer, for it ■was his pleasure as well as his duty
to live by the sweat of his brain. Between the close of 1848 and
the commencement of 1857, he published two newspapers, The
Neiv York Nation, and the American Celt. It was, of course,
natural, all the circumstances considered, that the inclination of his
mind should have been violently, and from the force of recent ex-
perience and actual discipline, bitterly hostile to the government of
Great Britain. Many will remember, not from the papers them-
selves, for they had but a small circulation in the Provinces, but
fr.' m extracts which found a place in several of the Canadian jour-
nals, how fiercely and fanatically anti-English his political writings
were. But while admitting the exaggerated rancour which char-
acterized his words, it will undoubtedly be allowed that time and
the opportunity for closer observation produced tlicir usual influence

HON. THOMAS d'aRCT MoGEE.

on his instructed mind. His tierce anger towards Great Britain
gradually disappeared. His excited temper, like the evil spirit of
the son of Kish, was exorcised, if not by the spell of music, at
least by the taming influence of time, the force of a '^quired truth
and the sense of obvious wrong. The book of remembrance and
the book of experience were before him. He could read their letter-
press and criticise their illustrations. He could see his country-
men under British and his countrymen under American rule. He
<}ould look from that picture to this, from monarchical England to
republican America, and with all the imperfections of the former,
he might and probably did express his judgment of the contrast in
the words of the Prince of Denmark, that taken all in all " it was
Hyperion to a Satyr."

We could not, even in the cursory sketch which our limited space
will permit us to make, pass over in silence Mr. McGee's personal
and political career previous to his residence in Canada, for a por-
tion of that career was a prelude to, and directly connected with, its
more recent sequences amongst ourselves. His occupations during
that period were professedly those of an author and a lecturer,
and only accidentally those of a politician. Those occupations were
marked with many errors and crossed with many vicissitudes.
Still it must be allowed that if one of his ardent temperament and
peculiar position succeeded in avoiding misfortune, he could
hardly be expected to escape mistakes. An Irishman by birth,
a Roman Catholic by parentage, passionately attached to his race,
and devoutly loyal to his rehgioa, he was from the very outset of
his career remarkable for the courageous spirit of independence
with which he formed and maintained his opinions, no matter
whether the subjects on which he adventured them were political,
historical, or social. One of his Canadian ballads illustrates this
phase of his character, and supplies a key-note to his conduct ;
The last stanza which prefaces this sketch will be read with mourn-
ful interest for it seems to have been laden with the crimson burden

The first is as follows :

of foreknowledge

" Let fortune frown and foes increasci
And life's long battle know no peace,
Give mc to wear upon my breast
The object of my early quest,
Undinnn'd, unbroken, and unchang'd,
The talisman I sought and gain'd,
The jewel, Independence !"

HON. THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE.

Neither was it a mere poetical profession of faith. Mr. McGee 's
history very clearly shoAvs that he had reason for his rhyme. In
the very dew of his youth he maintained his poUtical principles
against such an opponent as the great O'Connell, and later still he
wore his " Jewel Independence" in the presence of the late Dr.
Hughes, the distinguished Archbishop of New York. It is pro-
bable that neither of those eminent men viewed with complacency
what must have appeared like presumption on the part of their
youthful antagonist, and the latter especially may have detected
in the at<;jtude thus assumed a certain amount of spiritual indepen-
dence which that Prelate regarded as perilous to his religious welfare;
but it is pleasant to believe, as we have some reason to believe,
that with manly generosity, those gifted gentlemen did not fail to
express their respect for Mr.' McGee's abilities, their appreciation
of his sincerity, and their desire for his success in life.

The independence which Mr. McGee valued and apostro-
phized was not the independence which he found in the United
States. His second sojourn in that country thoroughly disen-
chanted him. His early admiration paled before his later expe-
rience. The homoeopathic principle appears to be susceptible of
political as well as physical application, for a taste of democratic
institutions cured Mr. McGee, as it has cured many besides him,
of any tendency to democracy. Neither was social life in America
more attractive than political life. Both were an ofifencc, and one
was an abomination. But the double discovery was made only
after a painful and protracted effort not to see it, for it was with
great reluctance that his vigorous mind and tenacious will surren-
dered their preconceived impressions and yielded at length to the
irrefragable force of such unwelcome truths. It would be interest-
ing to read, perchance we may have the opportunity of reading,
Mr. McGee's own account of his rise and progress towards higher
moral and physical latitudes, for every inch of his course might point
a moral, every stage of his journey adorn a tale. They only who
know with what fanatic faith the human mind will cling even to a
cheat, can appreciate the wrench which follows the discovery of
the cheat. No man can deliberately break his idol without some
sorrowful remembrance of the thing he once thought divine. The
testimony of Mr. McGeo might enable us to compare the pttractions

nON. THOMAS d'aRCY McGEE.

of his fancy witli the fallacies of his experience,— the dream-land
which his imagination painted and the real land which his eyes saw.
In this interval of conflict, while fighting against himself, and by
wager of battle as it were, testing the strength and quality of his prin-
ciples and opinions, new light, and with it new views, from an un-
looked-for quarter, seemed to cross his path. In the midst of lite-
rary work in New York he made the acquaintance of many friends
in Canada. Having formed his own opinions of the people whom
he had mot, it was natural enough he should wish to see the coun-
try where they dwelt. Thus it was that Mr. McGee, during one
summer vacation, takmg a holiday after the manner of an editor,
found himself writing letters to his paper from the shores of Lake
Huron, at another from the solitudes of the Ottawa, and at a third
from the scenic Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The
Provincial attractions were too much for him. He heard in the
Provinces what he did not hear in the States, honest opinions open-
ly expressed. He found in the Provinces what he failed to find in
the States, a tangible security for freedom. The promise of liberty
was no spurious or counterfeit debenture. It was impressed with
the stamp of law and endorsed with the sign -manual of authority.
Whatever may have been the form of the fascination, we find that
in the early part of the year 1857, after, as we have the right to
suppose, a carefal comparison of the two stutes of society, the
American and the Canadian, Mr. McGee transferred, as he has
somewhere said, " his household goods to the valley of the St. Law-
rence," selecting the City of Montreal as the place of his abode.
We may here add that the City of Montreal 'ost no time in return-
ing the compliment, for on the first opportunity that city elected him
as one of its representatives in Parliament, and a little later his friends
and neighbors presented him with an exceedingly well-appointed
homestead in one of its most eligible localities. It was a hearty
Irish mode of making him welcome. Mr. McGee very modestly
sought only to be a citizen of the country ; his friends determined
that he should be a freeman. No doubt the gift represented a great
honor of no uncertain value to the object of it. But apart from such
considerations, the shape which the testimonial took, soothed and
flattered Irish sentiment, for if there be one form of property dearer
than another to the offspring of Erin, it is that of a holding ; and'na

HON. THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE.

matter whether it be a park or a potato patch, it is equally precious
if it promotes the possessor to the condition of an estated gentleman
or a landed proprietor.

The old vocation was revived in Mr. McGee's new home. To
write, to print, to publish were with him not only habits of life,
but modes of enjoyment.

" The long, long weary day
Would pass in grief away,"

at least to him, if it uttered no speech from his pen, or received
no thought from his brain. The time which elapsed between his
arrival at Montreal, and the isssue of the first number of his news-
paper, the New Era, was brief enough ; but it was nevertheless
of suflficient length to enable hira to sketch through its columns a
policy which harmonized with the name of his paper. He earnestly
advocated, and continued to advocate to the last hour of his life, an
early union of all the colonies of British North America. In doing
so, we may observe in passing, he initiated a phrase descriptive of
his object, a phrase which has since become familiar alike from use
and criticism, for the proposed confederacy in his mind and writings
was felicitously associated with the idea of a " new nationality."

At the general election in 1858, Mr. McGee's public career in
Canada commenced. He was returned to Parliament as one of
the three representatives of Montreal. Whether from hereditary
habit, a playful disposition, or serious thought, we know not, but on
his arrival in the Province, he lost no time in declaring himself in
true Hibernian style to be " against the government." And
against the government he undoubtedly was during the four years
of the continuance of irritating and acrimonious sixth Parliament.
Much of course was expected of him. He had a certain repute
as a politician, though he was more distinctly known as a forcible
writer, and a fluent speaker. Still, his earlier Parliamentary efforts
were, we think, followed by disappointment to those who had thought
him to be capable *of better and wiser things. It was observed that
he was a relentless quiz, an adroit master of satire, and the
most active of partizan sharpshooters. Many severe, some ridicu-
lous, and not a few savage things were said by him. Thus from
his aflBuent treasury of caustic and bitter irony he contributed

HON. THOMAS D'ARCY McQEE.

not a little to the personal and Parliamentary embarrassments of
those times. Many of the speeches of that period we would rather
for<Tet than remember. Some were not complimentary to the body
to which they were addressed, and some of them were not creditable
to the persons by whom they were deUvered. It is true that such
speeches secured croAvded galleries, for they were sure to be either
breezy or ticklish, gusty with rage, or grinning with jests. They
were therefore the raw materials out of v»hich mirth is manufactured,
and consequently they ruffled tempers that were remarkable for
placidity, and provoked irrepressible laughter in men who were
regarded as too grave to be jocose. Of course they were little
calculated to elicit truth, or promote order, or attract reSpect to the
speaker. Indeed men who were inclined to despondency aflFected
little reserve in saying that Parliamentary government was in their
opinion a failure. During his early career, Mr. McGee appeared
chiefly to occupy himself in saying unpleasant and severe things ; in
irritating the smoothest natures, and brushing every body'.', hair the
wrong way. This occupation was apt to include the habit of making
personal allusions tho reverse of agreeable, and, as a matter of
course, creating personal enmities the reverse of desirable. In
truth, Mr. McGee's speeches at that time were garnished with so
many merry jests, and sometimes overlaid with so much rancorous
levity, that their more valuable parts werci hidden from ordinary
eyes, and inappreciable to ordinary minds. The cookery was too
generous, the condiments were too spicy. The sauce bore to the
substance about the same proportional inequality that Falstaff's
*' sack" did to his bread ; and this deficiency of solidity was attri-
buted by many people to an absence of intellectual property, rather
than to an error of conventional taste. Hence arose a disposition
on the part of some to underrate Mr. McGee's mental strength,
and hence, too, the observation, which, however, was more remark-
able for glibness than accuracy, that " Mr. McGee speaks better
than he reasons." Certainly the Parliamentary skirmishes of that
period, though difficult to defend, were deUghtful to witness.
Human drollery made up in some sort for human naughtiness.
There were, for example, two members of that house of great abi-
lity, but very dissimilar habits of thought. They sat not far from
one another, for if at that day they were not exactly " friends in

HON. THOMAS d'ARCY M^OEE.

19^

council," they usually voted together. One was the present Attor-
ney General West, the unrivalled chief of Parliamentary debate ;
and the other, the present learned member for Brome, the intellec-
tual detective of suspected fallacies. Breadth and subtlety, reason
and casuistry, extensive observation and minute knowledge, marked
then as now the peculiar characters of their modes of thought. No
matter, however, whether the range of their reasoning was broad
or deep, horizontal or vertical, circular or lateral, profound or pecu-
liar, it was commonly acknowledged by the subject of our sketch
in a cheerful Irish way, amusing enough to the spectator, but pro-
bably not as agreeable to those who looked for grave reflections on
grave thoughts. The truth is, that Mr. McGee always seemed to
be, in spite of himself, either mischievous or playful ; and regardless
alike of the place or the occasion, he appeared to be seized with an
irresistible impulse to splash every body with his paddle, and thus
scatter about him an uncomfortable kind of melo-dramatic spray,
which occasionally drifted and thickened into a rain of searching,
infectious, comic banter, and which, as a matter of course, amidst
roars of laughter, would drown reason, logic and speech in a flood
of exuberant fun. Siich efibrts, however, did not always succeed.
Indeed, more clever than praiseworthy, they scarcely deserved suc-
cess, for people do not always admire what they laugh at. Reaction
follows every kind of excess. Members began to talk of decorum
of debate, and the necessity of recalling the House to a state of
order. None better than Mr. McGee knew that he could, if occa-
sion needed, be grave as well as gay, wise as well as witty, serious
as well as jocose. He knew that he could lead thought as well as
piovoke mirth. He knew that at the fitting time he could make
for himself a name, and for his adopted country a place, which
would attract respect and honor in both hemispheres.

Having fairly looked his work in the face, Mr. McGee very
naturally as we conjecture, cast about him for fitting co-oper-
ators. This portion of his public life seems to have been beset
with perplexing peculiarities, as his party associations seem to
have been the result of the merest accident. With an upper-crust
of paradox there must, we may suppose, have been an under-
current of contradiction. To be sure he chose his side, but in the
presence of his declared principles and published opinions it is

HON. THOMAS d'aRCY McOEB.

difficult to understand by what laws his choice was determined. Oh
his arrival in Canada, he had, for reasons which he deemed to
be sufficient, declared himself to be " against the government.'*
Nor can it be denied that for the space of six years he proved the
sincerity of his declaration. On the 20th May, 1862, the fortress
which he had so persistently battered, fell, for the Cartier-Macdonald
administration, which he had opposed and denounced, having been
defeated on the motion for reading the Militia Bill the second time,
was constrained to resign. In the Sandfield Macdonald-Sicotte
administration, which succeeded to power, the subject of our sketch
was offijred and accepted the office of President of the Council.
On the 8th of May following, on a question of want of confidence,
the last mentioned administration found itself to be in a minority of
five. Four days afterwards Parliament was prorogued Avith a view
to its immediate dissolution. After the prorogation, Mr. Sandfield
Macdonald, the leader of the Government, undertook the responsi-
bility of directing what was equivalent to the very hazardous mili-
tary manoeuvre of changing his front in the presence of an active
and sagacious enemy. No doubt he was obliged to strengthen his
position, and under any circumstances hid mode of doing so would
be subject to criticism. He reconstructed his government, and the
operation included, amongst other changes, not only the sending of
his Irish forces to the rear, but of reducing them to the ranks, with
the option, as it was amusingly made to appear, of being
mustered out of the service. The transaction is of recent occurrence,
and need not be dwelt upon. The surprise which it occasioned
remains ; for no very specific reasons have been given, so far as we
are aware, for the course which was then pursued. That it was
not taken upon the advice of the subject of our sketch, we have the
best reason for thinking ; for Mr. McGee took the earliest oppor-
tunity of showing, in the general election which followed, that he
would not play pawn to Mr. Sandfield Macdonald's king. Kather
than do so he crossed over to the enemy. The amenities of
political elections is a work yet to be written ; when it is written,
the election for Montreal, in 1863, might, we incline to thinfe,
furnish some instructive as well as amusing passages. In the
session which immediately followed, Mr. McGee, on three different
occasions, and with evident and unalloyed satisfaction, recorded" bis

HON. THOMAS d'ARCY McQEE.

vote of want of confidence in the re-constructed administration of
his former ciiief. Thus had he fairly crossed the House. He not
only, and with a will, voted with the party which he had theretofore
opposed, hut in the month of March following, on the late Sir E. P.
Tachd being called upon to form an administration, and a strong
party administration too, he accepted the office of Minister of Agri-
culture, which he continued to fill to the 1st July, 18G7. People
may be inclined to think, and not without some reason, that the
subject of our sketch was moved in the course which he took more
by pique than by principle, and that a personal slight provoked his
political defection. Without staying to discuss a question on which
we are not informed, we may, perhaps, be permitted to ask another,
which to us, at least, appears to be still more perplexing. What
were the circumstances Avhich in the first instance separated Mr.
McGee from the party of which he continued to be a conspicuous
member to the day of his death ? Were it not ill-mannered to
pry, we might, perchance, amuse ourselves by indulging in some
idle speculations, and supplement them by making some curious
enquiries.

If there was one question more than another with which Mr.
McGee had identified his name, that question was the union of all
the Provinces, and as connected with, and inseparable from it, the
questions of National defence, of the Inter-colonial Railway, and
of Free Inter-colonial Trade. Happily these questions are not
now the property of a party. They belong to the whole of British
America, for they have been accepted by the great majority of
its inhabitants, as well as by the government and the people of
England. Still it should not be forgotten, that these great ques-
tions were parts of the cherished policy of the administration which
Mr. McGee opposed, rather than of the administration to which he
belonged. The law which regulates political relationships is not
easily adjusted, for it is not unfrequently embarrassed with vexa-
tious personal entanglements. In the instance before us, though
we may see the affront which impelled, and suspect the causes
which attracted him towards his present alliance, we do not see,
nor are we required to see, why he served a seven year's appren-
ticeship to a a party whose policy, in many important particulars,
^m not only different from, but opposed to his own.

HON. THOMAS D'aRCY McQEE.

Passing from Mr. McGec's history as a party-man, to his opinion*
as a public one, we seem to emerge from a bewildering hibyrinth
of ill-lighted passages, into a succession of salons radiant with sun-
shine. We rise from what may be compared with the unseemly
brawls of a parish vestry to the ennobling deliberations of a National
Parliament. The vision of the " new era," which Mr. McGee, in
his Montreal paper, foreshadowed in 1857, seems to have grown
into shape and consistency. In an address delivered at the Tem-
perance Hall, Halifax, in July, 1863, he thus sketched, and with a
bold hand, the boundaries of British America, the Northern Empire
of the future :

"A single glance at the physical geography of the whole of British America will
show that it forms, quite as much in structure as in size, one of the mos^t valuable
sections of the globe. Along this eastern coast the Almighty pours the broad Gulf
stream, nursed within the tropics, to temper the rigors of our air, to irrigate our
' deep sea pastures,' to combat and subdue the powerful Polar stream wliich would
otherwise, in a single night, fill all our gulfs and harbors with a barrier of perpetual
ice. Far towards the west, beyond the wonderful lakes, which excite the admira-
tion of every traveller, the winds that lift the water-bearing clouds from the Gulf
of Cortez, and waft them northward, are met by counter-currents which capsize
them just where they are essential,— beyond Lake Superior, on hoth slopes of the
Eocky Mountains. These are the limits of that climate which has been so much
misrepresented, a climate which rejects every pestilence, which breeds no malaria,
a climate under which the oldest stationary population— the French Canadian-
have multiplied without the infusion of new blood from France or elsewhere, from
a stock of 80,000 in 17C0 to a people of 880,000 in 18G0. I need not, however, have
gone so far for an illustration of. the fostering effects of our climate on the Euro-
pean race, when I look on the sons and daughters of this peninsula— natives of the
soil for two, three, and four generations— when I see the lithe and manly forms on
all sides, around and before me, when I see especially who they are that adorn that
gallery (alluding to the ladies), the argument is over, the case is closed. If wo
descend from the climate to the soil, we find it sown by nature with these precious
forests fiUcd to erect cities, to build fleets and to warm the hearts of many gene-
ratious. '-^ have the isothern of wheat on the Eed Biver, on the Ottawa, and on
the St. .^ .1 ; root crops everywhere ; coal in Cape Breton and on the Saskatche-
wan ; iron wiia us from the St. Maurice to the Trent ; in Canada the copper-bear-
ing rocks at frequent intervals from Huron to Gasp^ ; gold in Columbia and Nova
Scotia ; salt again, and hides in the Red River region ; fisheries inland and seaward
unequalled. Such is a rough sketch, a rapid enumeration of the resources of this
land of our children's inheritance. Now what needs it this country,— with a lake
and river and seaward system sufficient to accommodate all its own, and all its
neighbor's commerce, — what needs such a country for its future? It needs a
population sufficient in number, in spirit, and in capacity to become its masters ;
and this population need, as all civilized men need, rehgious and civil liberty, unity,
authority, free intercourse, commerce, security and law."

Again, in the same paper, Mr. McGee exhibited the materials
•whereof the new nationality shall be composed :

HON. THOMAS D ARCY McGEE.

" I ondoavor to contemplate it in the light of a future, possible, probable, and
I hope to live to be able to to way positive, British American Nationality. For I
repeat, in the terms »)f the (luestions I asked at first, what do we need to rjonstniot
such a nationality. Territory, resources by sea and land, civil and reliKious freedom,
these we have already. Four millions we already are: four millions culled from
the races that, for a thousand years, have led the van of Christendom. When tho
sceptre of Christian civilization trembled in the enervate grusp of the Greek of tho
Lower Empire, then tho Western tribes of Europe, fiery, hirsute, clamorous, but
kindly, snatched at the falling prize, and placed themselves at the head of human
affairs. We are the children of these fire-tried kingdom founders, of these ocean-
discoverers of Western Europe. Analyse our aggregate population : we have moro
Saxons than Alfred had when ho founded the English realm. We have more Celt*
than JJricn had when he put his heel on the neck of Odin. "\Vo have more
Normans than William had when he marshalled his invading host along tho
strand of Falaise. We have the laws of St. Edward and St. Louis, Magna Charta
and the lloman Code. We speak tho speeches of Shakespeare and Bossuet. Wo
copy the constitution which Burke and Somers and Sidney and Sir Thomas
Moore lived, or died, to secure or save. Out of these august elements, in tho name
of tiie future generations who shall inhabit all the vast regions we now cull ours, I
invoke the fortunate genius of an United British America, to solemnize law with
the moral sanction of religion, and to crown the fair pillar of our freedom with
its only appropriate capital, lawful authority, so that hand in hand we and our
descendants may advance steadily to the accomplishment of a couunon destiny."

And at St. John, New Brunswick, in the following month of the
same year, Mr. McGee said : " There are before the public men
of British America, at this moment, but two courses ; either to drift
with the tide of democracy, or to seize the golden moment and fix
for ever the monarchical character of our institutions ! " " I invite,"
he continues, " every fellow colonist who agrees with me to unite
our efforts that we may give our Province the aspect of an Empire,
in order to exercise the influence abroad and at home to create
a State, and to originate a history which the world will not
willingly let die !"

In another part of the same paper, Mr. McGee very solemnly said :

" This being my general view of my own duty— my sincere slow-formed conviction
of what a British American policy should be— I look forward to the time when
these Provinces, once united, and increasing at an accelerated ratio, may become a
Principality worthy of the acceptance of one of the Sons of that Sovereign whose
reign inaugurated the firm foundation of our Colonial liberties. If I am right, the
Eailroad will give us union — union will give us nationality — and nationality, a
Prince of the blood of our ancient Kings. These speculations on the future may be
thought premature and fanciful. But what is premature in America ? Propose a
project which has life in it, and while still you speculate, it grows. If that way
towards greatness, which I have ventured to point out to our scattered communi-
ties be practicable, I have no fear that it will not be taken, even in my time. If it
be not practicable, well, then, at least, I shall have this consolation, that I have

HON. THOMAS d'aRCY McQEE.

incited the intelligence of these Provinces to rise above partizan contests and per-
sonal warfare to the consideration of great principles, healthful and ennobling in
their discussion to the minds of men."

On the same subject, we find in a speech delivered at an earlier
day in the Legislative Assembly, the following passage, in which
Mr. McGee eloquently grouped in one view the main points of his
magnificent picture :

" I conclude, Sir, as I began, by entreating the hou&a to believe that I have spoken
Tfithout respect of persons, and with a sole single desire for the increase, prosperity
freedom and honor of this incipient Northern Nation. I call it a Northern Nation
— for such it must become, if all of us do our duty to the last. Men do not talk on
this continent of changes wrought by centuries, but of the events of years. Men do
not vegetate in this age, as they did formerly in one spot — occupying one portion.
Thought outruns the steam car, and hope outflies the telegraph. We live more in
ten years in this era than the Patriarch did in a thousand. The Patriarch might
outlive the palm tree which was planted to commemorate his birth, and yet not see
so many wonders as we have witnessed since the constitution we are now discuss-
ing was formed. AVhat marvels have not been wrought in Europe and America
from 18-10 to 18G0 ? And who can say the woi-ld, or our own portion of it more par-
ticularly, is incapable of maintaining to the eud of the century the ratio of the past
progress ? I for one cannot presume to say so. I look to the future of my adopted
country with hope, though not without anxiety. 1 see in the not remote distance
one great nationality, bound, like the shield of Achilles, by the blue rim of Ocean.
I see it quartered into many communities, each disposing of its internal affairs, but
all bound together by free institutions, free intercourse, and free commerce. I see
within the round of that shield the peaks of the Western Mountains and the crests
of the Eastern waves, the winding Assiniboine, the live-fold lakes, the St. Lawrence,
the Ottawa, the Saguenay, the St. John, and the basin of Minas. Ey all these
flowing waters in all the valleys they fertilize, in all the cities they visit in their
courses, I see a generation of industrious, contented, moral men, free in name and
in fact — men capable of maintaining, in peace and in war, a constitution worthy
©f such a country ! "

There are, moreover, throughout the volume of speeches and
addresses on " British American Union," passages wliich appear
to be as reverent in their character, as they are eloquent in their
language. We deeply regret that our space does not allow us
to lighten this sketch with extensive extracts from Mr. McGee's
writings. The manner, for example, in which the political and
social systems of the United States re-act upon one another
is frequently pointed out with graphic power. He might,
though we do not know that be did, warn his readers that
liberty in America may become, for there is great danger of her
becoming, a suicide ; and expiring wretchedly from some act of
unpremeditated violence j for authority, as it has been truly said, is

HON. THOMAS d'aRCY MoGEE.

as necessary to the preservation of liberty as judges are to the
administration of law. No violence therefore is done either to
sentiment or experience in asserting, that they are most vigilant for
freedom, who are most conservative of authority. After this man-
ner Mr. McGee spoke, in closing his speech on the motion for an
address to Her Majesty in favor of Confederation :

"We need in these Provinces, and we can bear a larsie infusion of authority.
I am not at all afraid this constitution errs on the side of too great conservatLsm.
If it be found too conservative now, the downward tendency in political ideas
which chararlerizes this democratic ajje is a sufficient guarantee for amendment.
Its conservatism is the principle on which this instrument is strong, and worthy
of the support of every colonist, and through which it will secure the warm appro-
bation of the Imperial authorities. We have here no traditions and ancient
venerable institutions— liere, there are no aristocratic elements hallowed by time or
bright dc5ds— here, every man is the first settler of the land, or removed from the
first settler one or two generations at the farthest — here, we have no architectural
monuments calling up old associations — here, we have none of those old popular
legends and stories which in other countries have exercised a powerful share in
the Government — here, every man is the son of his own works. (Hear, hear!)
We have none of those influences about us which elsewhere have their effect upon
Government, just as much as the invisible atmosphere itself tends to influence
life, and animal and vegetable existence. This is a new land— a land of young
pretensions, because it is new — because classes and systems have not had time
to grow hero naturally. We have no aristocracy, but of virtue and talent— which
is the best aristocracy, and is the old and true meaning of the term. (Hear, hear !)
There is a class of men rising in these colonies superior in many respects to others
with whom they might be compared. What I sliould like to see is — that fair
representatives of the Canadian and Acadian aristocracy should be sent to the foot
of the Throne with that scheme, to obtain for it the Royal sanction — a scheme not
suggested by others or imposed upon us — but one, the work of ourselves, the creation
of our own intellect, ajid of our own free, unbiassed, untrammelled will. I should
like to see our best men go there, and endeavor to have this measure carried
through the Imperial Parliament— going into Her Majesty's presence, and by their
manner, if not actually by their speech, saying — " During Your Majesty's reign we
have had llesixmsibl' Government conceded to us; we have administered it for
nearly a quarter of a century, during which we have under it doubled our popu-
lation, and more than quadrupled our trade. The small colonies which your
ancestors could hardly see on the map, have grown into great communities-
A groat danger has arisen in our near neighborhood ; over our homes a cloud hangs
dark and heavy. We do not know when it may burst. With our strength we are
not able to combat against the storm, but Mhat we can do, we will do cheerfully
and loyally. We want time to grow ; wo want more peojile to fdl our country-
more indust'' us families of men to dcvcloi)e our resources ; we want to increase our
prosperity ; we want more extended trade and commerce ; we want more land tilled
—more men established through our wastes and wildernesses ; we, of the British
North American Provinces, want to be joined together, that if danger comes, we
may support each other in the day of trial. We come to Your Majesty, who has
given us liberty, to give us unit;'— that we may preserve and perpetuate our free-
dom ; and whatsoever charter, in the wisdom of your Majesty and of your Par-

.Ji

HON. THOMAS D ARCT McGEB.

liament you give us, we shall loyally obey and observe, as long as it is the pleasure
of your Majesty, and your successors, to maintain the connection between Grtat
Britain and these Colonies."

An opponent of every kind of sectionalism, Mr. McGee ^vas accus-
tomed to say that he neither knew nor wished to know where the
boundary is which divides Upper from Lower Canada. To him the
whole was Canada. Rather than occupy himself in discovering boun-
daries, he worked hard to remove the pickets which separated
the British Provinces from one another, that he might strengthen the
barriers which protected them from the American States. He strove
to weld them together by such bonds as love forges when he desires
to fuse indissoluble ties. Therefore he advocated a policy of
conciliation, a policy of forbearance, a policy of defence, a policy
of commerce, a policy of intercourse, a policy of justice, a policy
of peace ; where men's thoughts should be charitable and their
hves generous. He professed a statesman's anxiety not to re-enact
in Canada the curses which have afflicted Ireland. With this pur-
pose in view, it was his aim to discourage all societies whose objects
were politically to separate men from one another, to discourage all
brotherhoods whose rules cast men into antagonist associations, or
sorted them into many-colored coteries, to breed suspicion and
create enmity. He believed that there could be unity hi plurality,
and that the United Provinces hke the United Kingdom, though
made up of several races, might be tempered and welded into a
State, one and indivisible.

Mr. McGee was not only a statesman and an orator — he was also,
as most people are aware, a lecturer of no ordinary gifts, and an
author of no ordinary abiUty. His range of subjects in the former
character is perplexingly extensive, and suggests the notion that the
nooks and crannies of his gifted brain must have been as thickly
peopled with thoughts as were the tenements of the fifth and sixth
wards of New York, with his ill-treated and closely-packed coun-
trymen. To many of us it is a matter of regret that wo know
nothing more of those lectures than their names.* With respect

*The subjects include papers on Columbus, Shakespeare, Milton, Burke, Grattan,
Burns, Moore, The Reformation, The Jesuits, The English Revolutiui" of 1G88,
The Growth and Power of the Middle Classes in England, The Moral of the Four
Revolutions, The Irish Brigade in the service of France, The American Revolution,.
The Spirit of Irish History, Will and SkiU.

HON. THOMAS d'ARCY McGEB.

27-

to Mr. McGee's works, we shall in this place content ourselves with*
a list of their titles only.*

Mr. McGee left Ireland for the second time in 1848. He
returned to Ireland for the second time in 1865. Between that
coming and that going, his personal history had been stamped with
strange vicissitudes, and his pohtical opinions had undergone serious
changes. He left Ireland as a fugitive because failure had waited
upon folly ; and he was then and for a long time afterwards obli-
vious to every recollection but the self-evident one of failure. He
returned to Ireland as an ambassador, because folly had been exor-
cised by wisdom, and endeavor had been crowned with success. More-
over, there was frankness in the confession, that he could think of his
previous failure, if not with complacency, at least without either regret
or shame. On both occasions he was equally sincere, and perhaps
even when he was most wrong, he was most in earnest. It was not,
however, as a private, much less as an obscure individual, that he
was required to re-visit his native land. He did so by command
of the Queen's representative, as a Commissioner from Canada.
He did so, furthermore, as a member of the Executive Council for
the purpose of joining his colleagues in conference with the repre-
sentatives of Her Majesty's Government. When last in Ireland he
took the opportunity of publicly explaining to his countrymen the
true position, actual and comparative, of the Irish race in America,
and he has become a martyr to the truth of his explanation.
Nevertheless, the force and originality of the statements and opi-
nions contained in his eloquent and celebrated Wexford speech,
attracted unusual attention. The press and public men of Great
Britain and Ireland had much to say of the speaker and his speech ;
and no wonder, for recent events have taught them, and they have
s in characters

cruelly taugl

drippinc

he said prophetic, as well as philosophic, truth.

* O'Connell and his Friends, 1 vol., Boston, 18-W ; The Irish Writers of the Seven-
teenth Century, 1 vol., Dublin, 1856 ; Life of McMurrough, 1 vol., Dublin, 1847 ;
Memoir of DutFy, Pamphlet, Dublin, 1849; Historical Sketches of Irish Settlers in
America. 1 vol., Boston, 1860 ; History of the Eeformation in Ireland, 1 vol.,
Boston, 1052 ; Catholic History of North America, 1 vol., Boston, 1852 ; Life of
Bishop Maginn, 1 vol., New York, 1856 ; Canadian Ballads, Montreal, 1 vol.. New
York, 1858; Popular History of Ireland, 2 vols., New York, 1862; Notes oa
Federal Governments, past and present, Pamphlet, Montreal, 18C4 ; Speeches oa.
British American Union, London, 1865.

HON. THOMAS d'ARCY McGEE.

In his personal appearance, Mr. McGee was what our portrait
represented him to be. The photographer and the sunbeam seem to
have understood one another admirably, when they turned Mr.
McGee upside down in the camera; for he came out of the
trial with incomparable exactness. The shadows of the outward
man have been caught with felicitous accuracy. The intellectual
man, if reproduced at all, must be reproduced by resorting to a
process analogous to that which has been observed by the artist
with respect to the physical man. Light from without enables us
to see what Mr McGee was naturally. Light from within must enable
us to see what he was intellectually. The mirror work of his mind is
reflected in his words, and they who would examine its brightness,
must do so in the pages of Ms writings.

The great gifts of genius which Divine Providence occasionally
bestows, are, we believe, conferred as special trusts, for special uses.
The subject of our sketch may have been, perchance he was, a
chosen trustee of special gifts. He worked as if witliin the folds of
the scheme which he had set himself to accomplish, there were many
purposes of wisdom and charity. Directlj he desired by means of
Confederation to bring about the intimate uni.rn of several Provinces,
Indirectly, he desired by a policy of conciliation, to bring about the
fusion of various races, and thus to supplement the law which shall
create a new nation, with a policy which shall create a new
nationality.

Nor are such plans purposeless, or such hopes chimerical. The
races which inhabit British America represe;it peoples whose
countries are made up of various tribes and different languages.
The laws of moral like those of physical gravitation have not ceased
to operate. The smaller bodies will be attracted, and eventually
absorbed by the larger ones. What the United Kingdom is, the
United Provinces will become. The question is one of time, and
not of legislation. But the process of transition to be accomplished
wisely, must be accomplished without violence and especially
without wrong. The pursuit of such a purpose is worthy of
a Christian statesman, and a philosophic patriot. Mr. McGee and
'the late Sir E. P. Tachd were in their lives members of the same
government and co-laborers in the same cause. With many others
the J sought to give shape and consistency to the vision of " a fra-

HON. THOMAS D'ARCY McGEB.

ternal era," which each foreshadowed, whi(.'h both foresaw, and
which the most experienced of our statesmen are striving to bnng
about. Time will, we beheve, approve such eflbrts ; and if success
should crown exertion, many good men will envy, and all good men
will praise them. If they fail, though there should be no such
word as failure, the disappointment will, so far as their memories are
concerned, be associated in either case with

" A peace above all other dignities, .

A still and quiet conscience."

And in the possession of a "still and quiet conscience" the
gifted orator and brave patriot, the Honorable Thomas D'Arcy
McGee, has in this world won " dignities ;" and in the world to
come, where " good deeds are had in remembrance," we doubt
not he has found peace. It is hard to dwell on the ruthless
character of the act which has given to eternity one, with reverence
be it Slid, whose life was so valuable to time. It is idle, and per-
chance wrong, to challenge His decrees without whom even a spar-
row falls not ; and yet all intelligence is at fault, all reasoning vain
as we mournfully recall his memory, who was so great, and so
greatly feared ; so great, and so greatly loved. Alas ! the " dome
of thought" is crushed, " the golden bowl is broken."

" Ay ! broken by a fiendish hand,
Impell'd by fiendish thought ;
Seek not, oh ! man, to understand
Why such a wreck was wrought ;

why in the meridian of his age, in the zenith of his usefulness ;
scarcely beyond the morning of his fame, and only in the dawn
of his honors, should his bright career have been brought to such a
cruel end ? It is vain to ask, and impossible to answer such ques-
tions. The blood-stained facts were related by different persons in
nearly the same words, and in similar phrases telegraphed to different
parts of the world. Thus the tidings read :

« Ottawa, April 7th, 3.00 a.m.

" Mr. McGee left the House of Commons before two o'clock this
morning, the moon making it nearly as light as day. He was
accompanied by Mr. McFarlane, also a. member of the Houses.

HON. THOMAS d'ARCY MoGEE.

They separated at the corner of the street and -went opposite waya
to their respective lodgings. When they said " good night" Mr.
McGee was not more than one hundred yards from his hotel.
He was smoking a cigar and carried his walking stick under his
left arm. To the '' good night, Sir" of one of the humbler servants
of the House of Commons he answered cheerfully, " rather say
good morning ; for it is morning now." Such were his last words,
very simple words to be sure, but not without a meaning, suggestive
as we read them, of the day without night on which he was about
to enter. His right hand was occupied in finding the latch
key wherewith it was his practice to pass through the private
door, to his rooms. It is conjectured that as he stooped to place
the key in the door, an assassin from some place of convenient
concealment, shot him from behind, placing the muzzle of the pistol
very near to his head. The ball came out of his mouth destroying
his front teeth and burying itself in the framework of the door, and
from the nature of the wound, causing instant death. The pes-
tilent breath of the miscreant must momentarily, at least, have
mingled with his victim's, for they were apparently in such close
proximity as to cause the hair of the latter to be singed and the
flesh scorched by the flash of the siiot. Thus was " the golden bowl
broken," and thus were scattered the garnered treasures of his
seething brain; scattered, too, when he was actively coining
bright thoughts of sterling value to the country of his adoption,
as well as to the country of his birth."

It is difficult for those who have observed him closely and knew
him well, to hold a steady pen or write with calmness, much less
with coherency, of his great intellectual powers ; neither it is easy,
with the music of his melodeous voice still vibrating in our ears, to
speak of aught else than of the marvellous skill with which he
could pour out his soul in language most felicitously chosen ;
-and yet it is desirable not to overlook a personal achievement
of still higher merit and perhaps of more difficult attainment,
viz : his triumphant, moral mastery of himself. We may refer now
with pride and thankfulness and without either shame or shock, to
the earnest character of his effi^rts to bring about an exact corres-
pondence between his precepts and his example, between the tastes
that injured him, and the teachings that benefited others. It was

HON. THOMAS D'aRCY McGEE.

no easy trial for one of his exuberant mirth, his social predilections,
and his convival habits, to lay aside the evil which had become
associated with such experiences, and yet retain the experiences
apart from the evil ; to preserve the relish for the friendship, and
yet put from him the wine which he had esteemed as the almost
inseparable associate of such friendship : to get rid of what
theologians term the " besetting sin," and yet retain the grace
and brightness of the virtue which is too commonly degraded
by the sin. Mr. McGee did so, and as we are informed, without
resorting to any stimulating test, or to any public pledge ; but by
bending his strong will to the vow which he had registered in the
cloister of his soul, and which he had reverently presented to the
supreme source of strength. " I have made my resolve," said
he to his attending physician, who, despairing of his life, recom-
mended him to take some stimulants. " I have made my resolve,
and not to save life itself will I break through it." He Uved long
enough to convince the most incredulous that he had won this great
victory over himself, a victory which he had striven to win with the
energy of despair, and for which his truest friends had labored with
the earnestness of devotion. His self denial, and their exertions
•were at length rewarded, and from thenceforward fear gave place
to hope that his mental strength would not again be impaired by
moral weakness. \Mien he was so unconsciously drawing near the
close of his life, it is a blessed fact to remember and a holy one to
record, that the follies and stains which had disfigured that life, one
after another, had been overcome and cast oat, leaving him at the
last " renewed, regenerate and disenthralled " by the threefold
powers of virtue, temperance, and charity.

To return to our narrative. Many of our readers are aware
that when in Ireland about two years ago Mr. McGee made his
celebrated Wexford speech. That speech attracted towards him no
small amount of attention on the part of the public men of Eng-
land, and, we may add, no small amount of aversion on the
part of the fiendish fraternity, whose machinations were so
eloquently described and so fearlessly exposed. Incidentally,
and in his private capacity, he was encouraged to represent his
views on the policy which English statesmen should observe in
the government of Ireland ; and it is probable that such repre-

nON. THOMAS D'ARCY McQEB.

sentations may have giveij rise to the opinion which the Earl of
Mayo lately expressed in the House of Commons, when his Lord-
ship is reported to have said that Mr. Thomas D'Arcy McGee
was one of the ablest men in Canada — " a man who never speaks
without influencing large masses of his countrymen wherever he
addresses them, is at this moment one of the most eloquent advo-
cates of British rule and British institutions to be found on the
face of the globe." To his countrymen, if we recollect aright, Mr.
McGee said on that occasion — " there ought to be no separation
of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. Each country
would suffer loss in the loss of the other, and even liberty in
Europe would be exposed to the perils of shipwreck if those
islands were divided by a hostile sea." To Englishmen, he
said, " try kindness and generosity in your legislation for Ireland.
Treat Ireland as you have treated Scotland — consider her feelings,
and respect her prejudices — .study her history, and concede her
rights — try equal justice to all — practice the golden rule and " do
as you would be done by. Then will Irishmen in Ireland re-
semble Irishmen in Canada, where the Celt is not envious of the
Saxon, and tlie Saxon is not supercilious to the Celt." Whether or
not Mr. McGee's representations produced any effect on the minds
of those to whom they were addressed, we have no means of know-
ing ; still, it is noteworthy that the policy in regard to Ireland
which seems to find most favour at the present time very much re-
sembles the poUcy, based on equal rights and equal respect for all
origins, all races, and all creeds which he was accustomed to ad-
vocate, and which he is understood to have submitted to influential
statesmen at home, when the opportunity was afforded to him of
making a representation of his views. Fortunately, we have Mr.
McGee's exposition of his course on this matter in his well re-
membered speech delivered at OttaAva on the 17th March last, the
anniversary of his patron Saint, the last it -"vas his lot to celebrate :

" Mr. Mayor, before I sit down— as this is St. Patrick's night, and I am the guest
of the Irish citizens of Ottawa— if you will permit me, I may be expected to add a
few general remarks on the critical subject of the state of the native land of our
hosts and myself— the condition and state of Ireland. If I have avoided, for two
or three years, much speaking in public on the subject of Ireland, even in a literary
or historical sense, I do not admit that I can be fairly charged in consequence with

HON. THOMAS D ARCY McQEE.

being either a sordid, or a cold-hearted Irishman. I utterly deny, because I could
not stand still and see our peaceful, unoflending Canada invaded and deluged in
blood, in the abused and unauthorized name of Ireland, that, therefore, I was a
bad Irishman. I utterly deny the audacious charge, and I say that my menta
labors will prove, such as they are, that I know Ireland as well, both in her
strength and her weakness, and love her as deaily, as any of those who, in ignor-
ance of my Canadian position— in ignorance of my obligations to my adopted coun-
try—not to speak of my solemn oath of oflico— have made this cruelly falwe charge
against me. You have been kind enough, Mr. Mayor, to allude to my ' History
of Ireland.' No one is more sensible of its many deficiencies than I am, and if I
live I hope to remedy some of them ; but it certainly was to me a labor of love,
and I believe it is the first time that a history of Ireland has ever been commenced
and completed by a person situated as I was at the time, in a distant colony, afte'"
his personal connection with the mother country might be supposed to have closed
forever. * *#*««#«##«#»#

As to Irish public affairs, I will further take the liberty to mention that when
in 1865 and 18G7, by the consent of my colleagues and my gallant friend here (Sir
John A. Macdonald) I went home to represent this country, I, on both occasions
—in 1805 to Lord Kimberly, then Lord Lieutenant ; and last year to the Earl of
Derby, whose retirement from active public life, and the cause of it, every observer
of his great historical career must regret— I twice respectfully submitted my hum-
ble views and the result of my considerable Irish-American experiences, and that
they were courteously, and I hope I may say favorably, entertained. I urged on
those eminent statesmen in very homely words that they were keeping a pot boil-
ing in Ireland to scald us out here in the colonies. Of course 1 do not admit, and
never will admit, that any wrong done in Ireland, anciently or lately, can make an
armed attack on our peaceful Canadian population anything else than methodized
murder, or can entitle those taken red-handed in the fact, to any other judicial fate
than that of marauders and murderers. But apart from our own recent experience,
I felt it my duty to press the trans-Atlantic consequences of the state of Ireland
on the attention of those who had the initiation of the remedy in their own hands
believing that I was doing Ireland a good turn in the proper quarter. I cannot
accuse myself of having lost any proper opportunity of doing so, and if I were free
to publish some very gratifying letters in my possession, I think it would be ad-
mitted by most of my countrymen, that a silent Irishman may be as serviceable in
some kinds of work as a noisy one. I shall not presume, Mr. Mayor, because I am
your chief guest, to monopolise the evening. I will only say further on the subject
of Ireland, that I claim the right to love and serve her and her sons in Canada in
my own way, which is not by either approval or connivance with enterprises my
reason condemns as futile in their conception, and my heart rejects as criminal in
their consequences.

" As for us who dwell in Canada, I may say finally, that in no other way can we
better serve Ireland than by burying out of sight our old feuds and old factions, in
mitigating our ancient hereditary enmities, in proving ourselves gcod subjects of a
good government, and wise trustees of the equal rights we enjoy here, civil and
religious. The best argument we here can make for Ireland, is to enable friendly
observers at home to say, ' see how well Irishmen get on together in Canada. There
they have equal civil and religious rights ; there they cheerfully obey just laws, and
are ready to die for the rights they enjoy, and the country that is so governed.' Let
us put that weapon into the hands of the friends of Ireland at L me, and it will be
worth all the revolvers that ever were stolen from a Cork gunshop, and all the
Eepublican chemicals that ever were smuggled out of New York."

HON. THOMAS d'ARCT McGEE.

Though not a delegate, Mr. Me Gee as a member of the Executive-
Council of Canada, was in a position to render his colleagues great
assistance when they were engaged in carrying the act of confed-
eration through the Imperial Parliament. The object which that act
brought about was an object of absorbing interest to Mr. McGee,
and without detracting from the wisdom or sagacity of any other
statesman, we may perhaps say that his writings did mue.. toward*
making the project popular in the minds, while his speeches made
it pleasant to the hearts of men. Neither has the question found
since then a more eloquent, a more consistent, or a more enthusias-
tic advocate than the subject of this sketch, for the purpose to
which that question pointed had become the principle aim of his
existence and the governing passion of his life. With his mind thus
occupied Mr. McGee was appointed a Commissioner from Canada
to tlie Paris Exposition, yet even there amidst the bewildering
attractions of social and intellectual life, amidst the representatives
of every tongue and tribe from " China to Peru," and encom-
passed with the surroundings of ancient and modern art, " in num-
ber without number, — numberless ;" yet even there, with such
allurements and distractions, his best thoughts turned lovingly to
that new Dominion whose foundation his industry had helped to lay,
and whose superstructure his genius was assisting to build. His
mind, though acutely alive to beauty and culture, nevertheless
turned from the charms of Paris and the loveliness of France ; from
the pleasant homesteads and profitable vineyards, from the intel-
lectual wealth and heroic history of that alluring land ; to the seat of
another sovereignty and the site of another empire — an empire,

" Whose flanks were mighty oceans.
Whose base the Northern pole."

From the central city of European civilization, the emporium of
ancient art and the abode of modern fashion, he turned away his
thoughts, and addressed his remarkable letter of the 1st May,
1867, to his constituents at Montreal, and through them to the in-
habitants of Canada, and wisely counselled them after what manner
they might hope to win a place in the family of states which few
European nations had attained, and which none had surpassed. It
was, we have reason to know, his intention to have supplemented

HON. THOMAS d'aRCY M^,GEE.

that letter with another, but for reasons of a political, as well as of
a personal kind, he deemed it advisable to postpone its publication.

The arrangements consequent on the formation of the first Privy
Council of the new Dominion did not include a portfolio for Mr.
McGee. To the regret of many persons and the surprise of all, he
was, at his own generous and spontaneous desire, left out. The
history of the transaction, so far as we are aware, has not been
made public,*but there can be no doubt whatever that Mr. McGee
would not allow his personal wishes or his political claims to stand
in the way of the harmonious action of the new experiment. His
pride might have rebelled, or his poverty might have clamored,
but honor and patriotism rebuked the one and silenced the other.
He might have said, and probably did say, " don't consider mo or
my claims, look to the state and its welfare." Thus it chanced
that the minister who was most generally known in the Maritime
Provinces, and almost as well known in Ontario and Quebec, as
any member of the administration, who had spoken more eloquently,
and written more earnestly than any of his colleagues on the duties
and advantages of union and confederation, waived all claim to be
considered when that union was oflficially brought about, and the
statesmen were chosen to give it consistency and put it in motion.
No doubt the waiver was a sacrifice of feeling at the shrine of
duty, but it is pleasant to know that it was unattended with any
sacrifice of friendship. We believe indeed that moved by the
generosity of his character, Mr. McGee withdrew his claim to
office with such i* steady purpose as to draw from Sir John
A. Macdonald a remonstrance at the hurried character of the
proceeding. By acting as he did, Mr. McGee thought to relieve
Sir John of certain embarrassments. Nor was the supposition ill-
founded, for it was said that his timely magnanimity overcame
several very disturbing difficulties. Thus was it that the Minister
of Justice and the Minister of Militia continued to be fast friend*
of Mr. McGee and ho of them to the last hour of his life.

After the Privy Councillors were sworn in, new elections took
place. It occasioned but small surprise to Mr. McGee that the
felonious organizations which he had denounced when in England,
and which he had sought to destroy on his return to Canada, exerted
every influence they could command to exchange opposition and re-

HON. THOMAS D ARCY MoGEE.

sistancc on their parts for assault and exposure on his. Like the
members of such associations, he knew something of secret organiza-
tions for violent purposes. He was not unacquainted with the mis-
chievous character of the machinery by which such associations were
supported and kept in motion. lie was not unfamiliar with the oatho,
or ignorant of the constitutions of such orders, and being in some
sort acquainted with their pernicious structure and daiigeious ten-
dency, he was enabled to speak with emphasis of thin^^^sas they were,
and counsel with authority of things as they ought to be. But his
advice was received with contempt and his reproof was met with re-
sistance. The innocent blood so freely shod at Ridgeway provoked
neither compassion nor thought on their parts who shrank not from
the consequences of blood guiltiness. The Satanic league across
the southern frontier but too successfully impregnated certain local-
ities in Canada with the sulphur of their sin. Being the largest
city of the Dominion, Montreal was supposed to contain the greatest
number of Fenian sympatliisers, while the especial section which
Mr. McGce represented was regarded as the chosen seat of the
" Local Head Centre." While it was not possible for Mr. McGee
to have exaggerated the evil which such an organization was cal-
culated to bring about, it is possible that he took an extreme vie^v of
its local influence, and a mistaken one of the individuals by whom it
was sustained and defended. Thus when he somewhat rashly pub-
lished what he knew, the disclosure fell far short of the public expec-
tation and peradventure of his own belief. He said either too much
or too little, and hence his reputation for acuteness acquired no
strength from what he then deemed it to be his duty to disclose.
The election which followed, though it resulted in » majority in his
favor of two hundred and eighty-four votes, she wed a serious de-
fection in a certain class of his Irish supporters, and gave strength
to the belief that the leaven of mischief had by no means been
in-operative. It was a melancholy return of ingratitude, a base recom-
pense to one, who beyond all living Irishmen, had accomplished most
good for his country and his countrymen. But the wave of sedition
still flowed from the United States. In a public address at Buffalo,
within sight of the shores where many 6f our youth had without
provocation been foully slain, Senator Morrison, of Tennessee, is
reported to have said of those Irishmen, who would not enrol them-

HON. THOMAS d'aIICY McQEE.

Belves in the fiendish enterprise which ho favored and advocated,
" the recreant traitors who refuse to join this organization will ho
handed down to posterity with the names of Benedict Arnold,
Judas Iscariot, and D'Arcy McGee." If such words were spoken
in the open, what might not have been determined upon in the
bocret councils of those who could coolly make covenants for blood ?
Underlyins and concurrent with such allusions were ominous threats
against his life, which, in various forms, but pointing to one issue,
beset Mr. McGee almost everywhere. He was tracked and watched
with such feline pertinacity as to induce his friends to place him and
his house under the surveillance of the police. He was neither fool-
hardy nor insensible of the risk he ran, nor was he ignorant of the
implacable character of the foes by whom he was surrounded. Ho
had, however, long since settled his account with his conscience
and determined irrespective of consequences to do his duty to
his Sovereign, to his country and to himself. Nevertheless, as the
Honorable Mr. Chauveau beautifully observed, even while he was
thus pursuing the paths of charity, loyalty and honor^ the shadowed
hand of the assassin was upon him, pursuing him with that kind of
stealthy craft with which the brute in his instinct hungers for the
man.

By way of contrast to such savagery let us find a fitting place in
this paper for Mr. McGee 's sentiments on an act of atrocity which
was but too typical of the crime by which he was to meet his death.
The season selected was in both cases identical. It was the passion
week of the Church Catholic. In one case the assassin chose Friday,
the day whereon the atonement is commemorated. In the other, the
assassin selected Tuesday, the eve of the betrayal. If no such pane-
gyric has been pronounced on the Honorable Thos. D'Arcy McGee,
as he pronounced on President Lincoln, it is because his mantle has
not yet fallen on a competent successor. We shall suggest no con-
trasts, and draw no comparisons between the two events, for our
readers will need little assistance in arriving at conclusions that may
be damaging to our intellect, and must be degrading to our nature.

■i'f

•is

HON. THOMAS d'ARCY McGZ3B.

Hon. Mr. McGee rose to move the second resolution, and was received with
loud cheers. He read the resolution :

" That we regard this unprovoked and most atrocious assassination, the greatest
crime of our age, as committed not merely against the people of the United
States, but against our common humanity, and against our common civilization."

He said :— Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen, — I am sure it is hardly necessary for me
to say that I thoroughly and emphatically endorse every syllable contained in that
short but expressive resolution. The awful crime which was committed on Friday
night/ last in the city of Washington has thrilled through every heart in Canada,
and but one universal sentiment — one universal sentiment without any ex-
•eption, high or low — prevails in relation to that crime. [Cheers]. That
sentiment, in one view, expressc our 'orror and detestation of this cruel, cold-
blooded assassination, and, in aaother, our deep, sincere sympathy with the
nation, thus suddenly in the midst of its rejoicings, deprived by a ruthless
murderer's hand of its kind-hearted chief magistrate. [Renewed cheers.] It
is not on the principle of speaking no ill of the dead that I venture to
subscribe personally to the declaration that this atrocious assassination is
not only a crime against our common humanity, and our common Christian
civilization, but that the loss of Mr. Lincoln at this moment is a loss to that hu-
manity and that civilization. [Cheers.] Tlie spirit of clemency, moderation, and
of conciliation, displayed by the late President, were virtues uncommon, almost
unexampled, in time of civil war ; they are virtues whose sweet savor must have
ascended before him to the judgment seat to which he was so suddenly summoned ;
they were virtues which entitled him to the beatitude pronounced upon a Judean
mountain, and echoed all over heaven, — " blessed are the peace-makers." Let rae
venture to express the hope, Mr. Mayor, that as the American people revere the
memory, so they will follow, in this respect, the sublime example of their lamented
President. [Cheers.] To do otherwise — to lose their equilibrum — to forego their
magnanimous purposes — even under the terrible shock they have suffered, would
be to allow the assassin's policy to triumph over the policy of President Lincoln.
(Continued cheers.) Thank God, there is one compensating consequence, atten-
dant on even such a crime ! Never yet did the assassin's knife reach the core of a
cause or the heart of a principle. No wreath of Harmodious hides, in history, the
barren results of these bloody short-cuts to forbidden ends. And as for the wretched
criminals in this case — they cannot hope to escape their due punishment. They
have conspired in what they have done against the whole civilized world, and the
whole civilized world is concerned, and expended upon the guilty ; but in the
name of that humanity and civilization which mourned the fate of the murdered
President ; by the memory and example he left to his people, let the avenger's arms
descend only on the guilty, and after due evidence of their guiltiness. (Cheers.)
Should this be the course taken by the United States, I have no hesitation in
saying that their greatest victory is yet before them ; that a victory graater than
any one on the field of battle ; that the more shining page in their annals is yet to
be written ; and that the noblest example of helf-govemment the world has yet
seen, is about to be set by those who will so endeavor to honor the memory of
Abraham Lincoln, by walking in the way, and under the guidance of the spirit, of
Abraham Lincoln. (Cheers.) And though not mentioned in the resolutions, the
unity of which could not well be broken, it is right I should add that the citizens

Montreal, and the whole people of Canada— from the le"st to the highest, from

EON. THOMAS d'AUCY McGEB.

the least obtrusive to his Excellency the Governor General— indulge the hope
that the Secretary of State (Mr. [Seward) may still be spared to his country and
his friends. (Cheers.)

As his strength permitted, Mr. McGee availed himself of several
opportunities to inculcate his lessons of conciliation and peace, of
generous consideration and mutual good will. Under various pre-
texts, to different persons, before antagonistic societies and con-
tending coterifis, th^ like duties were enforced. The text was ever
the same — " Sirs, ye are brethren," the application at one time
patriarchal, and at another apostolic, was at all times consistent.
*' See that ye fall not out by the way." " Beai; ye one another's
burdens," for by so fulfilling the law of Christ you will best dis-
charge the obligations you owe to your confederated country. We
read such councils and feel the friendly touch of his generous help-
ing hand in his lecture on the " Mental outfit of the New Domi-
nion." In his speeches at Ottawa on the last anniversary of hia
patron Saint ; in his sketch of the history of English literature, in
his speeches in Parhament, and especially in that last speech made
by him just before the debate closed which immediately preceded
the hush and silence of his silver tongue. Incidentally the question
of the repeal of the Union between Ca^iada and Nova Scotia, be-
came a subject of conversation in the House of Commons, when
Mr. McGee, true to his own convictions, and his mission of good
■will and peace, informed those 'vho favored such a project that time
would smooth difficulties and intercourse would heal discontent ; that
justice would overcome prejudice, and that simple kindness would
at length triumph and make converts of all. It is a matter of
congratulation that so fair a report of those last words was made.
But had we possessed fore-knowledge, how keen would have been
the hearing ear, how exact the untiring pen ! We shall transcribe
the speech as revised by an able and painstrking repo'-ter, and
subsequently inserted in the Ottawa Times :

MR. McGEE'S LAST SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

{Delivered on the Night of Monday, April 6, 18G8.)

I took objection, sir, this afternoon, to the motion which has stood fr>r some days
in the name of the hon. member for WelUngton Centre, and which has rovy been
introduced as an amendment, being taken up out of order. I did so, a.s I stated
then, believing that such a discussion as it was likely to occasion would not be con-

HON. THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE.

ducive to the peaceful interests of the country, and the objection which I raised
has been sustained. That objection was made as much in the interest of the hon.
member himself as of any other of this country. And had he but availed himself
of the interval which had thus been offered him for the exercise of reflection, and
decided not to throw himself, as ho has now done, into this Nova Scotia quarrel, I
believe, sir, that, in after years, he would not have failed to acknowledge the service
which I had rendered him. I believe that the hon. member, although he had spent
some time previously in opposing Confederation, came from the hustings as a
" fair trial man"— one of those pledged at his election to give the new system a fair
trial — and how is he fulfilling that pledge ? He is seeking for subjects of irritation,
and not finding it advisable openly to oppose the principles of Union here, loses nx>
opportunity to strike below the belt — to deal a stab in the dark — and it is time
now that the mask should be torn from his face. In the honorable profession to
which he belongs there are certain applications in use, known to the faculty as
emollients. If, in the exercise of the duties of that honorable profession, he makes
such liberal emollient use of vinegar and gall as he here employs towards Confe-
deration, all 1 can say is that his unlucky patients are sincerely to be pitied. The
hon. gentleman had affected to be a convert to Confederation. If he had been
really a convert, he would be prepared even at the eleventh hour — even at the
eleventh hour and the fifty-ninth minute — to give the new system a fair trial. If
he had been earnest in his professions of desire for the success of Confederation he
might have said, "I do not think Dr. Tupper was the best choice for this mission,
but, since he has gone, I wisli lim all success for the sake of the welfare of the
^ Union." If he thinks it necessary at all to go into the mutter of the appointment
of agentleraac to watch the interests of the Dominion in this matter of repeal, he
might be expected to do so in some such spirit, and to discuss it in some such tone.
He knows well that no good can possibly result from such a motion at such a time ;
he knows well that the motion must certainly miscarry ; and he knows well that
if it were possible for it to be adopted, the recall of Dr. Tupper would have no ap-
preciable efl'ect in the conciliation of Nova fecoiiti "' ''hy, sir, it would be only the
abstraction of a thimblefuU from the bucket of her di. contentment. The dissatis-
faction with the Union which unhappily prevails amc ng a considerable portion of
the people there, is founded on other grounds than 1):. Tupper's appointment, and
has existed long previously. It is a family matter which it is right to 1 jave within
the family; and it is for this reason that none other than a Nova Scot) an could
L.-'ve been judiciously chosen for the mission. There are not many in this House,
not Nova Scotians, who know much about Nova Scotia, and why not leave Nova
Scotians to meet Nova Scotians on their own ground ? Dr. Tupper's character has
been assailed, and he himself personally maligned, and it is duo to him that he
should be placed in a position to justify his conduct, with regard to the part he
had taken towards obtaining that Imperial Act of legislation by which the Union
had been established. It has been charged against him that he has lost the con-
fidence of his own people. Sir, I hope that in this House mere temporary or local
popularity will never be made the test by which to measure the worth or eflliciency
of a public servant. (Hear, hear.) He, sir, who builds upon popularity builds upon
a shifting sand. He who rests simply on popularity, and who will risk the right
in hunting after popularity, will soon find the object he pursues slip away from
him. It is, sir, in my humble opinion, the leader of a forlorn hope who is ready to
meet and stem the tide of temporary unpopularity, who is prepared, if needs be, to
sacrifice himself in defence of the principles which he has adopted as those of truth
—who shows us that he is ready not only to triumph with his principles, but even
to aufler for his principles— who has proved himself, above all others, worthy of

HON. THOMAS D'ARCY MoGEB.

41'

peculiar honor. (Applause ) It would show but a base spirit to sacrifice the man^
who had sacrificed himself for the Union. Nothing in this appointment has so
greatly pleased me as the chivalry of spirit by which it has been dictated, and in
which the hen. and learned Knight at the head of the Government has defended
the hon. member for Cumberland in his absence. (Hear, hear.) I +hink, sir, that
it is a pity that our Nova Scotia friends "nave not yet been able to make up their
minds to give the scheme of Union a fair trial — that they have not consented
to allow it to work untrammelled — that they have not been contented to
watch its natural revolution in its appointed orbit unchecked by any stumb-
ling block of their placing. For their own sakes— for the sakes of the an-
cient and renowned loyalty of their Province — I regret the course they have
chosen. The Repeal address which the popular branch of their Legislature has
adopted, and a copy of which is asked for in the motion now before us, is too
school-boy a performance to prove creditable to Nova Scotia, on the jour-
nals of this House, if it is to bo entered there. It is unworthy of that Province
which has produced so illustrious an array of men of eminence — men whom we
respect not only as lawyers of excellence, but also as acknowledged masters of
English composition. It is a document at once ill-considered and fallacious — the
production of empiric politicians — and, while wo admit the discredit which its
J.... '".ation will attach to Nova Scotia, we must remember that any shortcoming
o,., ^vx part will reflect some portion of its discredit upon ourselves also, recollect-
ing that whatever reputation is achieved by British Americans abroad, will be
made applicable to every section of the whole Dominion. The propositions which
the address enunciates are of two classes : firstly, statements of opinions or con-
clusions of argument which I, sir, for one, maintain to be unsound; and secondly,
allegations of fact, which, in many instances, I know to be incorrect. And I say
that it is not creditable to the author of that address to hear the tone in which
he speaks of the administration of our institutions, and stigmatizes the Lieu-
tenant-Governors who rule these Provinces as the mere tools of the Canadian
Government, while he brands the Senators of his own Province as hirelings pur-
chased to carry out the Union. It is not creditable that such a charge should
have been brought by Nova Scoticus against Nova Scotians. The address com-
plains generally of injuries supposed to have been inflicted upon Nova Scotia by
the old Province of Canada, and charges our statesmen with having juggled Nova
Scotia out ." bcr liberties. Such allegations or any allegations of the existence of
any quan '^'roen Nova Scotia and Canada, are totally groundless. The address
totally rnf Li t, the question. The quarrel, if any quarrel there be, rests between
Nova Scotia and .;o British Empire, from whose power the Act of Union alone
derives its autijt . ' And I think, sir, without any disrespect to that Province,
that, in any contrtvorsy with the British empire, even the most patriotic Nova
Scotian will admit himself overmatched in his attempt to limit the power of Bri-
tish influence. The Nova Scotian complaints divide themselves under two heads.
A portion of them may be within the power of this House to remedy, and a iwrtion
of them are not so, but rest entirely with the Imperial Parliament. With the
latter we have no concern, but, as regards our own share, I am sure that this House
has no disposition to act in any spirit of unfairness. (Hear, hear.) It may be that
there at \ some grounds of complaint with regard to some of the legislations of the
early ?'>,.• t of the session, and that, in such minor matters as the newspaper postage
and 0( I an tarifi" impositions. Nova Scotia may have some grounds for remou'
Btrance, but so long as these points admit of modification or adjustment there
will be no danger of its denial here. Whenever, sir, the Nova Scotian case on these
issues, is presented fairly and calmly, it will find an amount of support here ^ivIucIl

HON. THOMAS D'ARCY MoGEE.

•will leave none of its advocates ground for complaint that the voice of Nova Scotia
demanding justice is not fairly listened to within these walls. Then as now, and in
that case as in every case, the representatives of Nova Scotia will find all parties in
the House united in the desire of doing justice to their Province. And, sir, I am
sure that not one of them will deny to-day that the same justice has been meted
out to themselves as to all other portions of the Dominion, or that fear, favor or
alfection for any individual localities has been evinced in the Government of the
Confederation. But Nova Scotia must only ask us to consider these subjects from
a broad national point of view, and to deal with herself, not with exceptional par-
tiality, but in the same spirit of even-handed fairness which we extended equally
to Quebec, Ontario, or New Brunswick. And here, sir, I cannot withhold my ac-
knowledgement of respect and appreciation of the moderate and large-minded, and
truly national spirit, in which the hon. member for Lambton, the leader of the
largest section of the Opposition, has approached and has dealt with all these great
questions affecting the carrying out, and the maintenance and the welfare of the
Union. All that can be justly required on the part of Nova Scotia, is that the
opinions of her representatives, expressed ii; this Legislature here, shall carry with
them their duly proportionate weight, and 1 Y ivo only to regret that gentlemen
■opposite should have taken their stand upon ap Jil irm so ultramontaine as to for-
bid approach by any well wisher of the Union, if there is to be any satisfactory
co-operation upon the subjects in which tliey are most deeply interested, they must
endeavor to modify the extremeness of their views— not necesssarily to compel to a
coincidence with ours, but at least to present them, where alone argument or com-
parison can be possible, in the same plane. In the attitude they have taken, the
first advances towards mutual political amity must come from them, and these
advances will be, I shall venture to assert for all on our side, frankly and fairly
responded to. I hold, sir, in my hand a little volume, a pamphlet which has been
recently issued, but which I shall take the hberty of recommending to every mem-
ber of this House, as well worthy of his attentive perusal. It is entitled " Inter-
colonial Trade— our only safe-guard against disunion." Its author is Mr. HaU-
burton, whose happy manner of treating his important subject displays the great
ability hereditary in his name. Mr. Haliburton is not, I believe, actively mixed up
■with politics, and undoubtedly handles his topic in no merely party style. Prom
this reason alone the conclusions from his disinterested, impartial and unimpas-
sioned point of view, adopted and published in the interests of the permanent
prosperity of the country, must be regarded of greater weight, and of greater
soundness than those of the I'raraers of this address, which can work but a tempo-
rary mischief. And this pamphlet shows conclusively beyond doubt or cavil, that
ought indeed to be suUiciently obvious to all— that the Union is not to be consoli-
dated by any temporary conciliating concessions to evanescent popular prejudice
— not by any momentary humoring, in this direction or that, or some particular
local or sectional phase of public opinion— but by our constant, earnest and unre-
mitting care of the commercial welfare and progress of the Province. And besides
this attention and practical consideration, we need, above everything else, the heal-
ing influence of time. I have, sir, great reliance on the mellowing effects of time.
It is not only the lime, and the sand, and the hair, and the mortar, but the time
which has been taken to temper it. And if time be so necessary an element
in so rudimentary a process as the mixing of mortar, of how much greater im-
portance must it be in the working of consolidating the Confederation of these
Provinces. Time, sir, will heal all existing irritations; Time will mellow and
refine all points of contrast that seom so harsh to-day ; Time will come to the aid
•«f the pervading principles of impartial justice, which happily permeated the

HON. THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE.

■whole land. By and by Time will show us the Constitution of this Dominion M
much cherished in the hearts of the people of all its Provinces, not excepting
Nova Scotia, as is the British Constitution itself. And I do not despair, with the
assistance of time, of seeing, by and by, the hon. member for Lunenburg himself
converted into the heartiest supporter of Union within these walls, willing and
anxious to perpetuate the system which he will find to work so advantageously
for his own Province, and adopting the position of the hon. member for Guys-
boro' as that of the true and patriotic statesman. 1 Avill not, sir, believe that
such anticiitations are ill-founded, for I can find their precedent even in the
history of Nova Scotia herself When Capo Breton was annexed to Nova Scotia
— annexed not by any Act of Parliament, but simply by an order of the King in
Council, the people were so strongly opposed to the Union that they almost
threatened robellion. Well, sir, this took place as lately as 1820, and already time
has brought with it its certain healing operations, and there is no question raised
now of the advantages which the Union hr,s conferred. There is no such ques-
tion, because there has been no consequent injustice. The incorporated people
have found that there is no desire to rob them of their liberties, and no dispo-
sition to treat them with unfairness. They see, what time shows them, that the
Union was effected for their advantage, as well as that of their neighbors, and
they are satisfied, because they find it working for both. And, sir, I have every
confidence that we will similarly vvear out Nova Scotian hostility by the unfailing
■exercise and exhibition of a high-minded spirit of fair play. It has been
said that the interests of Canada are diametrically opposed to the inter-
ests of Nova Scotia, but I ask which of the parties to the partnership has
most interest in its successful conduct, or has most to fear from the failure
■which the misfortunes or the losses of any of its members must occasion.
"Would it not be we who have embarked the largest share of the capital of
Confederation ? Our friends, sir, need have no fear but that that Confede-
ration will ever be administered with serene and even justice. To its whole
history, from its earliest inception to its final triumphant consummation,
no stigma can be attached, no stain attributed. Its single aim from the beginning
has been to consolidate the extent of British North America with tue utmost
regard to the independent powers and privileges of each Province, and I, sir, who
have been, and who am still, its warm and earnest advocate, speak here not as the
representative of any race, or of any Province, but as thoroughly and emphat-
ically a Canadian, ready and bound to recognize the claims, if any, of my Cana-
dian fellow-subjects, from the farthest east to the farthest west, equally as those
of my nearest neighbor, or of the friend who proposed me on the hustings.
(Great applause.)

And with such sentiments in his heart and with such words on his
lips, his public life in Canada was brought to a consistent end. A few
minuteslater, and the assassin's bullet made space enough for his spirit
to escape the thrall of the flesh ; and alas ! by the same act, to make
a blank in our Legislature, and our literature, by destroying our
most precious portion in the " Mental outfit of the New Dominion."
Horror and indignation walked through our thoroughfares and grief
found congenial articulation in the language of passion. " The fir
tree howl'd, for the cedar had fallen." The press groaned with sor-

HON. THOMAS d'ARCY McGEB.

row while on Its teeming pages, passages bright with tears, bore elo-
quent testimony to the merits of the dead. But while the murderers
had make a blank where the nation had found a prize, it was not in
his power, in the power of the whole brotherhood of conspirators,
to bury Mr. Mc Gee's services in the shroud of blood, wherein they
too successfully had buried him. The great duty which he had assigned
to himself of consolidating and building up the British American
confederacy will not be frustrated by his most inhuman murder.
On the contrary, in studying his character as a statesman and his
teachings as a scholar, even those who most opposed him will be
charmed by his genius, touched by his charity, and moved by his
example, to still their passions, to lay aside " their prejudices and
their partial affections " to hush all fretful cries, and to banish
all craven fears, and thus learn from his sacrifice and death, lessons
as valuable, and perchance more availing, than those which he had
taught in his hfe. The Government of the Dominion, the Legislar
tures of the Provinces, and the Corporations of Cities, seemed to
vie with one another in the amount of the rewards which should
be paid for the discovery of the murderer. In the meanwhile, the
pavement where that pool of human blood lay was sacredly enclosed,
no foot was allowed to cross it. It was left, some said, to cry to
heaven for vengeance ; and others said that like the blood of a
sacrifice, it was as an offering of peace to the wicked passions of
men.

We shall insert what is without doubt the best report now extant
of what followed later in the day.

HOUSE OP COMMONS.

Ottawa, Tuesday, April 7th, 18C8.

The SPEAKER took the chair at ten minutes past three.

The galleries were densely crowded.

Sir JOHN A. MACDONALD rose amidst the breathless silence of the House
and manifesting feelings of the most profound emotion, Avhich for some time al-
most stopped his utterance, said: — Mr. Speaker, it is with pain amounting to
anguish that I rise to address you. He who last night, nay this morning, w;is with
us and of us, whose voice is still ringing in our ears, who charmed us with his
marvellous eloquence, elevated us by his large statesmanship, and instructed us by
his wisdom and his patriotism, is no more— is foully murdered. If ever a soldier
who fell on the field of battle in the front of the fight, deserved well of his country,
Thomas D'Arcy McGee deserved well of Canada and its people. The blow which
has just fallen is too recent, the shock is too great, for us yet to re: lize its awful

HON. THOMAS D'ARCY MoGEE.

atrocity, or the extent of this most irreparable loss. I feel, sir, that our sorrow,
our genuine and unaffected sorrow, prevents us from giving adequate expression
to our feelings just now, but by and by, and at length, +liis House will have a mel-
ancholy pleasure in considering the character and position of my late friend and
colleague. To all, the loss is great, to me I may say inexpressibly so ; as the loss is
not only of a warm political friend, who has acted with me for some years, but of
one with whom I enjoyed the intercommunication of his rich and varied mind ; the
blow has been overwhelming. I feel altogether incapable of addressing myself to
the subject just now. Our departed friend was a man of the kindest and most
generous impulse, a man whose hand was open to every one, whose heart was made
for friendship, and whose enmities were written in water ; a man who had no gall,
no guile ; "in wit a man, simplicity a child." He might have lived a long and res-
pected life had he chosen the easy path of popularity rather than the stern one of
•duty. He has lived a short life, respected and beloved, and died a heroic death ; a
martyr to the cause of his country. How easy it would have been for him, had he
chosen, to iiave sailed along the full tide of popularity with thousands and hundreds
'Of thousands following him, without the loss of a single plaudit, but he has been
slain, and I fear slain because he preferred the path of duty. I cannot but quote
from his speech of last night. " Sir," said Mr. McGee, " I hope that in this House
*' mere temporary or local popularity will never be made the test by which to
" measure the worth or efficiency of a public servant. (Hear, hear.) He, sir, who
" builds upon popularity builds upon a shifting sand. He who rests simply on
" popularity, and who will risk the right in hunting after popularity, will soon find
" the object he pursues slip away from him. It is, sir, in my humble opinion, the
" leader of a forlorn hope who is ready to meet and stem the tide of temporary
" unpopularity, who his prepared, if needs be, to sacrifice himself in defence of the
" principles which he has adopted as those of truth— who shows us that he is
" ready not only to triumph with his principles, but even to suffer for his principles
*' — who has proved himself, above all others, worthy of peculiar honor." (Applause.)
He has gone from us, and it will be long ere we find such a happy mixture of
eloquence and wisdom, wit and earnestness. (Hear, hear.) His was no artificial
or meretricious eloquence, every word of his was as he believed, and every
belief, every thought of his, was in the direction of what was good and true.
Well may I say now, on behalf of the Government and of the country, that,
if he has fallen, he has fallen in our cause, leaving behind him a grateful re-
collection which will ever live in the hearts and minds of his countrymen. We
must remember too that the blow which has fallen so severely on this House and
the country will fall more severely on his widowed partner and his bereaved chil-
dren. Of their sorrows I will not venture now to speak — but I would remind the
House that he was too good, too generous to be rich. He hast left us, the govern-
ment, the people, and the representatives of the people, a sacred legacy, and we
would be wanting in our duty to this country and to the feeling which will agitate
the country from one end to the other, if we do not accept that legacy as a sacred
trust, and look upon his widow and children as now belonging to the State. (Hear,
hear.) I now move that the House adjourn, and that it stand adjourned till
Tuesday next, at half past seven.

Mr. McKENZIE said, in rising to second this motion, I find it almost impossible
to proceed ; but last night we were all charmed by the eloquence of our departed
friend, who is now numbered with our honoured dead, and none of us dreamed
when we separated last, that we should so very soon be called upon in this way to
record our affection for him who had been thus suddenly cut off. It wa.s my own lot
for many years to work in political harmony with him, and.it was my lot sometimes
to oppose him, but through all the vicissitudes of poUtical warfare we over found him

HON. THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE.

to possess personally that generous disposition so characteristic of the man and his
country ; and it will be long, as the Hon. Knight at the head of the Government has
said, before wo shall see his like again amongst us. I think there can be no doubt upon
the mind of any one who has watched the events of last year in this Province, in con-
nection with events in his own distant native land, that he has fallen a victim to
the noble and patriotic course which he has pursued, and that he has been
assassinated by one of those who are alike the enemies of our country and of
mankind. (Hear, hear.) I cordially sympathise with all that has been uttered by
the honorable", gentleman at the head of the Government, in making this motion,
and I have no fear that the generosity of Canadians will fail when it comes to be
considered what we owe to his memory, and what we owe to his family. I would
gladly, if I could, speak for a few minutes regarding the position he held amongst us,
during the few years he lived and laboured as a public man in this colony,
but I canriot do more to-day than simply record my full ai)preciation of his public
character as an orator, a statesman and a patriot, and express the fervent hope that
his family thus suddenly bereaved of him who was at once their support and their
shield, will not, so far as comforts of this life can be afforded, suffer by his death :
and my desire is that all the consolation that can be given by those who were long
his companions in public life may be afforded at this trying moment to his grief
striken family, in the expression of our deep sympathy ; as the sentiment of uni-
versal sorrow which touches every generous heart in the land will bring to his wife
and children the general sympathies of the people. This is the first instance we have
had in our country of any of our great public men being stricken down by the
hand of the assassin, and grief for our loss, and grief for his family are mingled
in my mind with a profound feeling of shame and regret that such a crime could,
by any possibility, be perpetrated on our soil, and I can only hope that the efforts
to be made by Government will lead to the discovery that to an alien hand is due
the sorrow that now clouds not only this house but the whole community. (Hear
hear.)

Mr. CiVETIER.— Mr. Speaker, I will state at the outset that my heart is filled
with feelings of deepest sorrow. I had the pleasure and delight in common with
all the members of this house, to listen last night to the charming eloquence of
the representative of the city of Montreal, and no one expected at that moment,
that any one of us should be here speaking to-day on such a lamental)le evil as
that which befell us immediately after the adjournment of the house. I feel deep
regret at this moment that I am not gifted with that power of speech, that power
of description, that power of eloquence, which distinguished our departed friend.
I could make use of such power to bring back before you, sir, and before this
house, in proper language the great loss we have suffered, the loss the coun-
try has suffered, and the loss mankind has suffered, in the death of Thomas
D'Arcy McGee. (Hear, hear.) Our colleague, Mr. McGee, was not an
ordinary man ; he was, I may say, one of those great, gifted minds, whom it
pleases Providence sometimes to set before the world, in order to show to what
a height the intellect of man can be exalted by the Almighty. IMr. McGee
adopted this land of Canada, as his country, but although this was the land of his
adoption he never ceased to love his mother country, his dear old Ireland. In
this adopted land of his he did all in his power in order that his countrymen
should be rendered as happy as possible, whether their lot was cast in this
country, in Ireland, or in any part of the globe where an Irishman had set his
foot. Mr. McGee though very young had a great deal of experience. He was
connected with political events in Ireland in 1848 and there ii not the least doubt
that those painful times caused him to give the deepest consideration to ihose
political evils, though he was, as described by my honorable friend the leader of

BON. THOMAS D'aRCT McGEE.

Government, a man of impulse, of genius, and.of wisdom, it is very seldom we meet>
a man on earth having those fine gifts who was so judicious as our late colleague-
He was educated as it were for the benefit of his country. He is no longer among
us, and I suppose all of niy listeners at this moment will say with me that it has
not been given to any one of us to have ever listened to so eloquent a public man..
Every one of us shares the conviction that such happiness, such delight will never
be given hereafter to any one of us during our life time. He has left us. He has
left behind him expressions of his feeling of patriotism and an immense amount of
evidence, that no Irishman, on earth, loved so much as he did dear Ireland.
Mr. Speaker, I cannot but allude at this moment to that foreign organization in
the land inhabited by our neighbors. 1 have not the least doubt that Mr.
McGee, by warning the Irishmen of Canada not to join in that detestable organ-
ization, rendered the greatest service that an Irishman can render to his country.
(Hear, hear.) He acquired for the Irish inhabitants of Canada the inestimable
reputation of loyalty and of freedom from any participation in the hateful, detest-
able feelings and doings of the members of that abominable institution, the
Fenian organization. (Hear, hear.) Now that he is no longer amongst us, that
he has passed from life to death, it is very likely that his death was the work
of an assassin in that organization. It is not for us at this moment to
excite feelings of revenge against the perpetrators of such an abominable act,
but every one of us knows this, that if Thomas D'Arcy McGee had not
taken the patriotic stand which he took before and during the Fenian invasion of
this country, he would not be lying a corpse this morning. At all events, sir,
every Irishman inhabiting the different Provinces of Canada, when they consider
the services Thomas D'Arcy McGee rendered to them in order to induce
them not to partake in that Fenian movement in the United States, will
lament his death as much as any one of us. Now, Mr. Speaker, I will not allude
to his private qualities. I have known him; and we know that of t is world's goods
he possessed very little. He Avas a poor man, but I know myself that feelings of
charity swelled his heart. The little he had, he was always willing to share with
his poor countrymen. Although he was so gifted, although he soared so high above
the ablest man in the land, did he over show a feeling of vanity, did he ever show,
by even a word, that he Avas more gifted than any one else in the land ? No ! but
he used all his great power and ability modestly, for the good of his native land
and his adopted country. I do hope and trust that this great Dominion will not
leave helpless his widow and his dear children. He has not fallen, it is true, upon
the field of battle ; it cannot be said that he met the fate of a military hero : but
his end was that of a Parliamentary hero. For two or three years he knew the
bad passions which existed among certain classes on the other side of the lines.
Again and again he received, through newspapers and other means, warning of the
fate which he met last night. Well, did that prevent him from continuing his good
work of inducing his countrymen to have nothing to do with that detestable
organization ? No ! he laboured on, and now that he is no longer amongst us, we
feel that the Irish inhabitants of the Dominion will appreciate the services he has
rendered to them, and that they will mingle their tears with ours for his irreparable
loss. (Hear, hear.)

Mr. CHAM3ERLIN said : When profound grief, such as now reigns in this
House, weighs down men's hearts, few words are best. Yet I am loth that we
should depart ere some tribute of respect has been paid, some word of regret ut-
tered, even in this place, in behalf of the fraternity of letters, to which the deceased
belonged. It is fit it should be spoken, e\en though it come from a member of
what is held to be the lower branch of the literary craft to which I belong, in which^
too. our deceased friend held it no mean honor to win a distinguished place-

HON. THOMAS D'aRCY MoQEE.

-{Hear, hoar.) His lovo of letters, and the great diversity of his writings, are well
known. Of his diligence in promoting the cause of literature, his endeavors to
create a love of letters among the young men of Montreal and of the whole Domi-
nion, it has been my privilege also to know much. He had made himself known
in Canada and abroad as a lecturer, essayist, historian and poet with so much dis-
tinction that it may bo said of him sis was said of a celebrated countryman of his
— " Nihil tetigit quod non ornavit." Others have spoken in fitting terms of the
•matchless oratory with which he clothed statesmanlike thought, and of his labors
>to allay intestine strife and promote the highest interests of the country, for which
he has lost his life. But the press and literature of Canada must also mourn
to-day for their brightest light extinguished ; their greatest man prematurely reft
from them, as he has been, from his country. (Applause.)

Mr. ANGLTN said : 1 would be unworthy of my position in the House if I did
aoot take this occasion to join in the expressions of horror and detestation wliich I
know every member of this House, every man worthy of the name of a man, in
this Dominion, must feel at the atrocious crime which has been committed. (Hear,
hear.) I feel peculiarly embarrassed on this occasion, because it has been assumed,
and I Tear only too correctly, that this foul assa.ssination has been the work of an
organization of Irishmen— not I trust of Irishmen belonging to this Dominion —
though I think it will not require much intelligence to determine that any Irish-
man who has enjoyed the free institutions of this country could not be guilty of
■such a dastardly act, (hear, hear,) but I cannot help thinking nevertheless, that
as wherever Irishmen are— they are all one people — the crime of one will reflect on
them all. I think I may speak on behalf of the whole of the Irishmen of this Do-
minion, I am sure I may on behalf of those of my own province, in expressing our
^utter destestation of this crime. It is an outrage that will probably have a great
effect on the future of this country. None of us can realize its effects yet, the
shock is too recent, none of us can, on this occasion, give vent to the feeling which
overmasters us. Perhaps after all this is the highest tribute which we can pay to
the man who has gone from amongst us. This must be the most telling mode of
showing to our countrymen what our feelings are, and that we all agree in stigma-
tizing a crime of this nature. (Hear, hear.) I go even further than those who
liave preceded me, and express the hope that the assassin shall be speedily brought
to justice. Not that we shall indulge in feelings of vengeance, but that all the
means at the command of the Government shall be put forth to ferret out this
assassin wherever he may be concealed ; that the death of Mr. McGee may be re-
venged, and that the supremacy of the law may be maintained. (Hear, hear.) I
feel myself, Mr. Speaker, quite incapable of adequately expressing my feelings on
this occasion, but I could not allow the opportunity to pass without saying these
feyf words. (Applause.)

Mr. Cn AU VE AU said : I also must pay my tribute of homage to him who has
Just fallen the victim of a crime of which we have truly said that it is without
precedent in the history of our country. I recall the eloquent speech which lie
made even last night, in which one would search in vain for a single word, which
could wound or irritate in the least degree, the feelings of those to whom he particu-
larly addressed himself. (Hear, hear.) Those who heard him can bear testi-
mony that the advice and counsels were not given with a spirit of provocation,
but on the contrary, they were given in a spirit of conciliation and concord.
Those who heard him can truly judge that this spirit animated him last night,
in his remarks on the subject of Nova Scotia. They can remember that he ter-
sninated his speech in saying that he fervently hoped that the debate would not have
.any unfavorable results for the country, and would not produce any evils .to this

HON. THOMAS D'ARCY McOEE.

province. A like crime has happily no precedent in the history of our country,
and were it possible for us to console ourselves for the loss which we have sustained in
the death of a friend; of an eminent man— of the prince of orators; we would find that
consolation in the glory and relation of his death. That death is the baptism in blood
of Confederation, and the sacrifice of him who did so much to bring about that Con-
federation, is a fact which ought to raise us in our own estimation, and make U3
judge of the height of our mission. Though Mr. McGee has not fallenonthe battle:
field, his death is none the less glorious, because itis the consummation of a grand
idea, a grand principle ;— that of the union of the colonies. As the heroes on the
field of battle, so the soldiers of grand causes are ever in danger. Great things are
rarely done except at the peril of the lives of those who accomplish them, hence
Mr. McGee's patriotism made him disdain that danger, neither did the fear of
that danger ever caused him to recoil in the struggle which he had undertaken
against those whose hand struck him last night. (Hear, hear.) Warnings to him
had not been wanting, either publicly— through the press, or in the sinister form
of threatening letters ; but his groat soul disdained those threats, and nothing de-
terred him from the great task which he had undertaken. Notwithstanding
such menaces he pursued his patriotic course with fearless intrepidity. It is true
indeed, that the assassin was not abashed by such courage for he watched him
steadily and crept behind him that ho might, coward like, with the greater cer-
tainty strike the fatal blow. Alas ! there is reason to believe that the cruel monster
was present at the last sitting of the House, aye and in those galleries heard the
Avords of peace and good will that charmed us all, and yet he remainded unmoved
by the persuasive pow er of such sentiments ; unmoved, because his heart was
full of evil and his mind was full of crime, and both were intent on blood — the
blood of the benefactor of his country and his countrymen. Truly, if that death
is a glorious one for the country, it is a sensiole aid terrible loss for his family.
Even yesterday he presented a petition in favour of the representatives and the
family of a hero, that of Colonel DeSaliiljerry. He told me what he proposed to
submit, and to ask the House to come to the aid of the descendants of DcSalaberry,
and a few hours later he himself fell as a hero and left a family without support,
without hope, and without fortune. The name of D'Arcy McGee will live in the
History of Canada, and his death will mark the death of Tenianism, for never has
cause gained by assassination. No ! from Julius Cicsar to Henry the Fourth, from
Count Rossi to President Lincoln, never has a cause succeeded by assassination ;
for the death of those great men was the signal of the death of the cause of the
party under the blows of which they fell, as the death of D'Arcy McGee will bo
the signal of the death of the party which exercised its vengeance on him. I think
that the murder of the Hon. Mr. McGee will have a happy influence upon Cana-
da, inasmuch as it will force ^hat spirit of disloyalty heretofore prevalent to dis-
appear, and inspire a horror of the party which gave it birth ; while, at the same
time, it will contribute to the glory and the greatness of Canada. It has been
happily said, the Hon. Mr. McGee never displayed the least vanity, or prided
himself upon his transcendent talents. He was always modest and affable
towards all, and never appeared to appreciate his own merit. He also had a gener-
ous heart. He was always ready to contribute to every charity or charitable
institution. I have often met him in Montreal in ceremonies and public celebra-
tions got up for the purpose of doing good and instilling charity, and he never
refused his aid or refused to draw on the eloquent fund of words which sprung
from the bottom of his heart in aid of the poor. On these occasions he always
seemed to be under the impression that he was only doing what another person
would have done, and his good heart was equal to his modesty. The orphans and

HON. THOMAS* D' ARC Y McGEE.

unfortunates have lost in him a groat protootor, hut he also leaves hehind him a
widow and some orphans. To-day wo must perforce deplore his death. To-mor-
row, or at another sitting of the House, we will have a duty to fulill towards his
memory and his family (hear, hour), and I am happy to see that the Govorn-
mont has already thought of an act of reparation, an act of justice ; and I am sure
that so far as the Province of Quebo(! is con<H>rnod, whatever sum the Govern-
ment |)roposes, that Province will heartily concur in. The Hon. gentleman,
whoso speech was dolivorednin French, was visibly affected, and was listened to with
marked attention.

Mr. E. M. MACDONALD (Lunenburgh, N. S.). Mr. Speaker,— When it is
reraemborod tliat in the debate last night I was placed prominently in opposition
to the honorable gentleman whoso violent and tragical death has filled the mem-
bers of this lloiiso with emotions of grief, I may perhaps be excused if I attempt
briefly to add my tribute of respect to what has been said by those who have
already spoken. I fcol utterly unable, Mr. Speaker, adequately to express tho
feelings that at this moment almost overwhelm me. IIow little did I dream,
when feebly attempting last night to combat his arguments, that I was to be his
last opponent— how little did any of us suppose, when listening to his glowing
pi^riods scarce twelve hours ago, that wo wore listening to him for tlio last time.
When wo remember that the voice whose eloquent utterances have so often
charme<l this House is hushed forever— when we think that the active, teeming
brain, who.io prolific labors have left their impress upon the institutions and the
literature of this country, has ceased to animate the form that yesterday was
D'Arcy IMcGee, and is now but a mass of cold, senseless clay, — and when we reflect
upon the heinous criminality of the act by which so valuable a life has been de-
stroyed — in the presence of this recent horror men stand iJghast, and detraction is
dumb. It was my lot to be among those who viewed some political events from a
different standpoint from that occupied by tlio decea.sed ; but whatever difference
of opinion may have existed among public men as to tho honorable gentleman's
political views, on one point there was no diifercnce — all were agreed in admira-
tion of the groat intellectual power, the genial kindliness of heart, and the expansive
charity that characterized him wliose loss we arc now called on so suddenly to mourn,
and who, now that he has gone from this House, has scarcely left his equal behind
him. I feel, Mr. Speaker, that in the murder of Mr. McGee, a stigma has been
ca.st upon the good name of British America, ujion the people of every origin, who
acknowledge allegiance to Great Britain on this continent ; and that the honor
of this legislature, and the honor of the Dominion, are involved in the duty of
tracing out and bringing to punishment, the criminal who has been guilty of this
foul deed.

Hon. STEWART CAMPBELL said: I cannot allow this opportunity to pass
without a few observations. It affords me painful gratification to find that although
on some occasions I may differ from the other representatives of Nova Scotia, on
this occasion and on this grave topic we are in feeling in sympathy and in heart,
one and the same. Sir, I feel assured when the intelligence of the sad and awful
fact which has bowed us almost to the dust reaches that Province, that throughout
its length and breadth there will be mourning and weeping, lamentation and
woe. Mr. Speaker, the distinguished Statesman, whose untimely end we are now
lamenting, was well known in that Province. His honored reputation had se-
cured there many warm and sincerely devoted friends, not only of one class, but
of all classes : the highest and the humblest alike appreciated and asserted his
private and his public merits, and all are at this moment in solemn accord, with
, the feelings and the utterances which now dignify this hour and this place. Siri

HON. THOMAS d'aRCT M^GEE.

it is my luisrortune that I had no very loiij? i)or.«*oniil ac{[uaintnnco with tho pfroat
departed: but that acquaintance was sullicicnily long, and suiliricntly i)riviUtred,
to iini)rt'HS nie with an tibiiling conviction of Ids various ilisintcjroslcdaiiil patriotic
servii'os on bohalCof tlio country in whicii his lot was cast, and which ho loved so
woU. Hut if thoro wore nothing else to attach nio to his iiieuiory, it would bo
the recollection of t lie sjilcndid oxliibilion of his plo(|iienco, his ijatriolisni, and his
wisdom, as disidayed on tho floor of this House last night, only a brief period bo-
fore his valuable life was so shockingly terminated. It was a valuable legacy, I fear,
that tho record of those precious sentiments, that exalted ithilosophy, that sound
advice will not be adcuiutely preserved. 1 would they could be deposited in tho
archives of this Dominion, and fondly cherished and treasured up in tho hearts of
its people. Mr. Speaker, it atlbrds me the highest satisfaction to hearthaiit is tho
intention of tho govornuKint t<j do what can be done to alleviate the pangs and
privations of the widow and tho children of our departed friend— they are to be
left not to the charities of a cold world, but to the justice of an obligated comitry.
Sir, I shall say no more. The elotiuent lips of tho greatest amongst us have been
une(iual to this occasion; what then can 1)0 expected from me? I can only cor-
dially agree with the motion to adjourn the House.

It was a frightful novelty in Canada to see the walls of our high-
ways stained with placards offering rewards for the discovery of
assassins. Such sights made people pause and inquire whether it
is inevitable that crime should travel hand in hand witl' '•ivilization.
Lately in the United States, and now in the British i lovinces, the
•exceptional vices of the old world seemed to have taken root in the
new. In one case striking a statesman eminent for his serene wis-
dom as well as his exalted position ; and in the other striking a states-
man conspicuous alike for the generosity' of his character and tho
greatness of his genius. Similar crimes were, as a matter of course,
dealt with in a similar manner. Outraged society addressed itself
to the duty of vindicating its violated order and of re-asserting the
majesty of tho law. The Governments of the Dominion and of the
two Provinces of old Canada> offered $10,000 reward for the dis-
covery of the murderers. The Corporation of Ottawa, with praise-
worthy unanimity, offered $4,000 for the conviction of the mis-
creants who had fixed such an accursed stain on the fair repute of
the new capital. The City of Monti oal lost no time in declaring
its detestation of so foul a deed by promising |5,000 for the con-
viction of the perpetrator. The Police machinery of the whole
Dominion was put in instant motion, and we may rest assured
that the acute officers of that service will penetrate every haunt,
and scour every crevice of infamy, until they shall bring the
history of the crime to light and the authors of it to justice. Leaving

HON. THOMAS D ARCY McGEE.

the duty to those to whom it belongs of unmasking organized
murderers, the public directed their "attention to the sacred obligation
of doing honor to the dead, and of providing for the comfort of those
ol his name and blood who had especial reason to mourn his loss. Mr.
Walter MacFarlane of Montreal and other personal friends arrived
at Ottawa charged with the duty of bearing Mr. McGee's
remains to the former city, Avhere preparations Oi no ordinary
character Avere in progress to receive them, and in due time
to bear them, Avith becoming solemnity, to their last resting
place. The Corporation of Montreal had already determined that
the funeral should be conducted Avith every ceremony Avhicii taste
could devise and money command, and that the cost should be borne
by the City Exchequer. All business Avas involuntarily suspended,
for the troubled thoughts of the community could not flow peacably
in their accustomed channels. People spoke incoherently, for in-
dignation Avas mingled Avith dismay at the disgrace Avhich had over-
taken our civilization as Avell as the disaster Avhich had befallen our
country.

The ncAv^i-apers very truthfully indicated the popular pulse, and
shcAved hoAv acutely the heart of the Avhole community had been
touched by the inexcusable crime. For, from evory quarter, from
toAvn and city, from village and hamlet, the soul of the people sought
and found expression in the language of poetic passion. Grief does
not commonly articulate its misery in nicely balanced words, nor is
it careful that its periods should be rounded Avith smoothness.
The lament of the disconsolate Avill not satisfy the ear of indifference,
nor Avill the wail of the bereaved be controlled by the exact
rules of harmony. Whens the quick of sorrow is touched, the
pain will be sharp enough to provoke a cry that all may hear, but
Avhich few will criticize. It Avas, therefore, natural that he Avho so
pre-eminently possessed the divine gift of poesy, should, from his
winding sheet of blood, have aAvakcned in less gifted natures, passions
akin to those which always moved him. It Avas homage and not
ambition that caused such persons to graft their figurative rose on
a furze bush, and bid it blossom in his praise. It was tribute and not
rivalry which caused them to attune their ill-strung dulcimers to
his well set harp ; and, by so doing to provoke if possible, a harmony
thev Avere unable to command. In metaphor c:nd music, in rhetoric
and song, they desired to honor the minstrel with the best instru-

HON. THOMAS d'ARCT McGEE.

mentthey had, for they knew the generosity of his nature, and
remembered that his sympathetic soul was unaccustomed to meet
such efforts with a sneer. The contributions in verse from bards of
the backwoods, from Sandwich to Nova Scotia, though widely differ-
ing in poetic merit., are not unworthy of being preserved among those
rough examples of human passion in which the stricken mind occa-
sionally hymns its homage to the virtues of the living, or the merits
of the dead.

The Montreal Gazette very truly observed that " Mr. McGee
was the very apostle of peace. He taught us all, Protestant and
Cathohc, French and English, that we are brethren living in this our
fair land, to enjoy it in all brotherly love with one another. And
will his death dissolve this union ? Wc trow not. A common
sorrow is a good cement for love. The tears that fall on his tomb
will be from the hearts of thousands, without distinction of race or
of creed, tears that will bind the weepers together in love."

Such sentiments were common to the people of the whole Pro-
vince, but they were especially present to the minds of his friends
and constituents in the City of Montreal. Love and grief, indigna-
tion and vengeance, the tear of pity and the lust for blood, stirred
passion to its very depths, while they united together, as one man,
the whole population of one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the
world. Men assembled as citizens and seemed to vie Avith one
another in speaking his praises. English and French were there,
Scotchmen and Irishmen, the Pole and the Swiss, Germans and
Danes, Christians and Jews. The origins were diverse enough, but
they agreed in opinion and Aveie" settled in their resolve. Then they
separated as citizens and re-assembled as countrymen ; again they
divided, and again came together as members of different brother-
hoods, according to their professions, their callings, or their trades ;
but no matter whether in the character of national, learned, or phi-
lanthropic societies, clubs for social purposes, or unions for trading
purposes ; the aim and object of every gathering was identical : — to
pay fitting tribute to the memory of their murdered representative.
The hives of every branch of industry sent out theirswarms; seminaries
of learning contributed their scholars. Cath jlic Christianity was re-
presented in the persons of its accredited clergy, and Protestant
Christianity by its chosen ministers. All met together to take common
counsel on the way in which they could best do him honor who, in

HON. THOMAS D ARCY McGEE.

reverent imitation of the loftiest pattern, had striven to promote
peace and good will among men. In the meanwhile, though his
lifeless body lay " unanointed and unaneled," it was neither un-
cared for nor unwept. For three days he lay in state, carefully
watched by loving friends and sorrowfully looked at by mourning
thousands. By the especial request of the community and the
considerate permission of his widow, his house was open to all who
desired to see him in that fatal sleep which a fiend brought about
but "svhich an angel will destroy.

In the meanwhile, people from all parts of the Dominion, and
many from the United States, were gathered together at Montreal
to attend the funeral which had been appointed to take place on
Easter Monday, the 18th April, 1868, being the anniversary, as we
ha,ve elsewhere said, of his forty-third birth day. The public jour-
nals of the province have very accurately described the incidents
and particulars of that impressive pageant. Our space will not
permit us to add to their narratives, but we cannot deny ourselves
the gratification of including in our cursory work the eloquent and
impressive sermon, as it is reported in the Montreal Herald^
■which was delivered on the occasion, in St. Patrick's Church, by
the Rev. Mr. O'Farrell, who, as the personal friend as well as the
spiritual counsellor of the deceased, had much right to speak with
earnestness of his character, as Avell as of the opinions and princi-
ples by which it had been regulated and controlled.

THE FUNERAL SEEMON.
The Rev. Mr. O'Farrell then ascended the pulpit and gave out the text : —

" IIow is the mighty man fallen, that saved the people of Israel."— I Machabees, ix. 21.

He said : Such, dearly beloved, was the cry of sorrow that burst from the hearts/
of the Jewi.sh people, that re-echoed along the plaivis and amongst the hills of
Judsca, when the doleful news was brought, that .Tudas Machabeus, their skilful
captain, their heroic leader, had fallen at last upon the field of battle, fighting in
the cause of his country's freedom. " And all the people of Israel bewailed with
great lamentation, and they mourned for him many days, and said : * How is the
mighty man fallen, that saved the people of Israel.' " May we not, ought we not,
to give utterance to a similar outburst of grief on this most lamentable occasion
which hiis united us all here to-day ? And, in presence of these poor relics of
mortality, which remind us .so iiowerfully of one who, by his brilliant genius, his
soul-stirring eloquenoe, his far-seeing wisdom, contributed so much to the safety
and renown of this country, shall we not say, as did the Jews of old: "I[ow is
the mighty man fallen, that saved the people ?" He did not, it is true, perish on
the field of battle, amidst the clang of arms and tumult of the confiivt ; but he

HON. THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE.

died in as noble a field. Although struck down by the foulest murder that ever
darkened our annals, he died ius certainly for the land of his adoption, and with a
soul as unflinching and a heart as brave as ever beat in a soldier's breast, and
" therefore the people of this land have bewailed hioi with great lamentations,
" and they Borrow for him, and shall not cease to mourn him for many days."
"When the illustrious French soldier, Latour d'Auvergne, the first grenadier of
France, as he was simply, yet honorably, styled, died in the service of his coun-
try, his name was still retained on the muster roll of his regiment, and, when
called out by the commanding officer on service days, as if he were still present,
the oldest soldier would step out of the ranks, and, amid the solemn silence of his
comrades, reply in these touching words : " Died on the field of honor." And so,
my brethren, when the muster r(jll of the great men of Canada shall be read out
to future generations, to the name of Thomas D'Arcy McGee shall be added, as
his best and most suitable epitaph, that he " died on the field of honor." In
the midst of the general grief, I have been requested to give utterance, before this
magnificent assembly of the rulers and statesmen and leaders of our country, to
the feelings that have stirred to the very centre the heart of the nation, and,
although I well know that my Avords, feeble and languid, can serve but as a very
imperfect echo to the emotions with which your hearts are throbbing, still I
have willingly accepted the invitation, because I admired and esteemed in the
deceased the Scholar, whose mind was stored and enriched with the most varied
information ; the Patriot, who loved his country, his native as well as his adopted
one, with the truest and deepest aflection ; the Statesman, whose mighty intellect
soared above all merely local interests, and comprehended in his fiir-reaching
glance the necessities and advantages of the entire Empire ; but, more than all, as
a minister of God, I loved and admirer the humble Christian, who devoted his
talents to the noblest causes, whose faith in the doctrines of the Catholic Church
shone out all the brighter and purer after the storms by which it had been tested,
and towards the close of his life he especially showed the firmest hope and the
most touching confidence in the merits and mercies of his crucified master. To
dilate on these different phases of his character at any great lengtl would detain
us beyond reasonable limits. I shall, therefore, refer to each of them in a brief,
simple manner. Others, with more eloquent voices, but not with a more loving
heart, shall develope them elsewhere. No one amongst you is ignorant of the
extraordinary talents and wonderful abilities that distinguished 'the deceased.
His mind was one of the richest and most deeply stored with the wisdom of past
ages that I have ever been acquainted witli^ not the mere knowledge of date and
facts, and all the dry bones of history, but with the hving spirit which enabled
him to penetrate into the causes and calculate the consequences of the mighty
revolutions of the past, and weigh them with the precision of a master. And
when his graceful imagination turned to the cultivation of the masses, a perennial
well spring of the sweetest poetry bubbled up from his heart. Ikit what shall I
say of that marvellous gift of eloquence which used to entrance the thousands
that so often assembled to drink in those limpid streams that flowed so deliciously,
80 enchantingly from his lips. Our ears are yet ravished with the silvery tones of
that magnificent voice, that stirred every fibre of our hearts like the rising and
the swelling of the ffiolian harp. Alas ! that voice is now stilled for ever, those
sweet accents shall never more charm our souls ; the skilful perlbrmor, who once
played upon our very heart strings, and, drew from them such delicious feelings,
has been stricken down in the prime of his manhood, by a most dastardly blow ;
and as when a strain ff glorious music has suddenly ceasod, our souls feel an
aching void, a painful longing to catch once more those harmo lious sounds :—

HOJT. THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE.

" Sweet voice of comfort! 't was like tho stealing

" Of summer wind through gome wreathed shell;

" Each secret winding, each inmost feeling,

" Of all my soul, echoed to its spell.

" 'T was whispered balm, 't was sunshine spoken.

" I'd live through years of grief and pain,

" To hare my long sleep of sorrow broken

" By such benign blessed sounds again."

2. But why dwell longer on what all of you know even better than I do, for
you have been oftener witnesses to the wonderful versatility of his mind, which
could pass with such ease from grave to gay, and from the abstrusest problems of
social science, to the highest scenes of poetical fancy? And after all, if Mr.
McGee were only a man of talent, if his abililities had been of no use to his coun-
try, if he were not a patriot as well as a scholar, I should not stand here to-day to
praise his memory, even though his genius had been a hundred fold greater than
it was. Love of country, my brethren, is no selfish feeling, no narrow confining
of the affections of tho heart, it is a feeling implanted by God himself in the hearts
<tf even the most untutored, that makes us love the land which gave us birth, no
matter hovv poor or how oppressed, better than the proudest or most glorious of
the nations of tho earth. It was this feeling which animated the lloyal Prophet
when he exclaimed, " If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand be for-
gotten, may my tongue cleave to my jaws, if I do not remember thee, if I make
not Jerusalem the beginning of my joy." It was this feeling which made our
blessed Lord shed tears of sorrow over his ungrateful Jerusalem, and so well was
his love of country known to the Jews, that when they wished to obtain from him
a miracle in favor of the centurion, they considered that no argument would be
more efficacious than to remind the Saviour that this stranger loved theif nation.
If, then, Mr. McGee had proved recreant to his native land, no words of mine
should ever sound in his praise, and I should allow him to remain, as a great
writer said of him whose soul was dead to this generous feeling, " unwept, un-
honored and unsung." Never was a fouler calumny uttered than that the de-
ceased was a traitor to Ireland. There was scarcely a pulse of his heart that did
not beat for her, scarcely a poem or a song, or more extensive work from his pen,
that had not Irelr.nd for his theme. There was scarcely a legend of the old land
unknown to him, scarcjely a monument or a ruin in it which was not celebrated by
him either in verse or prose, not an association formed for the cultivation of her
literature in which he had not some share, not a national movement for her pros-
perity which was not encouraged by him. I never knew a man who thought more
constantly, or more affectionately of Ireland. She wjis the inspirer of his verse —
the theme of his prose. He loved her with a passionate ardor, like that of a
lover for his mistress. lie loved everything about Ireland, except the short-
comings of her people. From his early boyhood his pen was devoted to her ser-
vice. His warm imagination and passionate heart took fire at what he deemed
her unbearable wrongs, and he threw himself into a movement which we all know
was foolish and most ill timed. He loved Ireland then, not wisely but too well.
And when in after years he condemned his youthful impetuosity, did he then
cease to love his country ? Eead over the passionate outpourings of his heart in
verse, read over the list of his larger writings, and you will find that he has
•scarcely another theme. Look at his " Irish Settlers in America," the "Attempt
to establish the Reformation in Ireland," the " Life of Dr. Maginn," and greatest
■of all his "History of Ireland," whicli is confessedly tho best which has been
vwritten, and more wonderful has been written upon a foreign soil, with such

HON. THOMAS d'ARCY MoGEE.

scanty material as he could hero procure. How then could some of our people
come to be convinced that he had renounced and vilified his native land ? Ah !
my brethren, the power of calumny is fearful for a time. Every stray word, every
unguarded expression that fell from his lips, was taken hold of by his enemies,
and paraded, and repeated again and again until it sank into many persons' hearts,
and became so deeply rooted there, that nothing would eradicate it. Advantage,
too, was taken of the honest, outspoken indignation with which he reprobated
the nefarious attempts of a miserable, disgraceful conspiracy to enter into this
peaceable land, and to avenge the wrongs of Ireland upon Canada, the happy
homes of your children. Yes, if he was guilty of a crime against Ireland because
he denounced the abominable plots of men who only bring shame and disgrace
upon her, then I too am guilty of the same crime, for I denounce to-day, as vehe-
mently as he could do, such vile, unprincipled means ; and if it be proved that his
death was the result of his enmity to those secret societies, then I call upon every
honest man to stamp out with horror, every vestige of them from amongst ua»
There must be no sympathy for such a dastardly crime, the man or woman who
could feel any joy at such a diabolical deed, would be as horrible to my soul as the
assassin himself. (There was here an involuntary movement of applause, quickly
checked by the preacher, who reminded the audience that it was the house of
God.) Mr. McGee, then, was not false to his own land, although he tried to serve
to the utmost of his power his adopted one. I shall quote for you a sentence
from his own speech on last St. Patrick's Day in Ottawa, when alluding to this
charge against him : " If I have avoided for two or three years nuioh si)eaking in
public on the subject of Ireland, even in a literary or historical sense, I do not
admit that I can be fairly charged in consequence with being either a sordid or a
cold hearted Irishman. I utterly deny, because I could not stand still and see
our peaceful, unofFeuding Canada invaded and deluged in blood, in the abused and
unauthorized name of Ireland, that therefore I was a bad Irishman. 1 utterly
deny the audacious charge, and I say that my mental labors will prove, such as
they are, that I know Ireland as well, in her strength and in weakness, and love
her as dearly as those who, in ignorance of my Canadian position, in if^norance of
my obligations to my adopted country, not to speak of my solemn oath of office,
have made this cruelly false charge against me." After which he alluded to the
fact that he had brought the wrongs of Ireland before the chief authorities in
England, and he adds, " that he believed he was doing Ireland a [jood turn in the
proper quarter." I deem it unnecessary to dwell longer upon a point which, to
my mind, is of the clearest evidence, nor should I have treated it at all at such
length, if all the hatred which has been excited against the deceased, and which,
I fear, has culminated in his death, so awful and so shocking, had not sprung from
such unfounded, such base calumnious charges, which were blindly believed in
by some of my countrymen. But it is true that the heart of the deceased was
large enough to admit of other affections. Beside the love of Ireland, there grew
up in it another love, almost as strong and enduring— the love of Canada, and
under the influence of that new feeling his mind took a wider compas.s, his views
became more enlarged and liberal, his glance became more far reaching, and he
rose from being the patriot of one country, to be the statesman that embraced the
entire empire in his views. Others shall tell you what he did to build up a public
spirit in this country— what labors he underwent to infuse a great national feel-
ing into all inhabitants— how he strove earnestly to unite all nationalities and
creeds together, and to diffuse a common spirit of charity, good feeling and bro-
therly love among all the children of the soil. When the necessity made itself
felt that all parts of this vatit region should become linked more closely together^,.

UON. THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE.

whose voice wa.s more frequently raised to cement and consolidate all the parts
of this new Dominion ? It is a siguiiicant, although a melancholy fact, tliat the last
speech which his eloquent lips uttered, was in defence of the Union which would
make this country a great and prosperous nation, and thus his parting legacy, I
may say his 'dying words, were an exhortation to concord and peace, securing to
him for ever in the gratitude of his countrymen, the title whibh he desired most
during his life, that of " peacemaker." Torn from amongst us while yet so young,
scarcely forty-three years old, his mind had not yet attained its full development,
and marvellous as have been the proofs of his genius, we shall never know to what
a height he might yet have soared, if Providence had spared him to us for a longer
time. With the new view of things which he had acquired during his late illness,
and the renewed determination to ai)ply himself still more closely to his duties,
he might have become the frreatest statesman of this new world, and worthy to
be placed in comparison with the most illustrious names in the annals of Europe.
Yet, ray brethren, why should X, a minister of God, dwell upon such merely human
qualities ? Here, in the presence of the Most High, and with that poor corpse lying
cold and motionless before us, must we not bo inevitably reminded of the vanity of
all earthly creatures, and of the words of Jesus Christ, " What doth it profit a man
if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul, and wliat will a man give in ex-
change for his soul." T. D. McGee is now before a tribunal where earthly renown is
counted for very little, and where the Judge will not inquire whether he was a good
poet, or an eloquent orator, or a clever statesman, but whether he was a sincere and
humljle Christian, and employed well the gifts which he had received from above.
As far as human knowledge can go, I believe the deceased did earnestly strive to
prepare himself for the great account which we must all one day render to Him
who is the Judge of the living and the dead. He had his faults, every one knows
— let those who are without them cast the first stone at him. In his early days,
when soured and disappointed with the defeat and failure of his cherished plans,
he seemed for a while to be shaken in his love for the Church, which would not
approve of revolutionary schemes, but when the mists of passion cleared away
from his soul, the light of religion shone out all the brighter upon him. Nor was
his fiiith a mere speculative belief in the doctrines of the Catholic Church. He
was also an humble, and, despite of human frailty, a sincere observer of her teach-
ings. One thing was very remarkable in his character. It was the simple, unaf-
fected way in which he was ever ready to aid in any cause of benevolence. I
remember when I once invited him to give a lecture for some object that was
dear to me, he chose for his theme, " Heroic Charity," and it struck me then, as
it does now, that he himself might be considered as exemplifying the subject in
his own person. But his religious feelings became more intense and sincere dur-
ing the long illness to Avhich Providence was pleased to subject him. During the
lonely hours of his convalescence, his mind pondered deeply on the great truths
of religion, and he himself often spoke of the beneficial efi'ects upon his soul of
those consoling mysteries. The result of these meditations might be seen in the
increased fervor with which he prepared to receive the Sacraments which Christ
institutcsdv to satisfy the wants of the soul, and in the public fulfilment in this
Church, on the day before he departed from Montreal, of those duties which are
imposed upon Catholics at Easter time. This change might also be seen in the
resolution which he kept so inviolably until the day of his death, to abstain from
those social excesses which would mar so considerably the ell'ect of his talents.
Let those who are tempted as he was, appreciate the amount of self-sacrifice
which such a resolution involved. Finally, this change might be seen in the eax-
jiest tones of the few writings or speeches which were lately prepared by him, but

HON. THOMAS D ARCY McGEE.

in none, perhaps, better than in the very affecting lines which he composed as a
song of requiem to a departed friend, beside whose coffin he stood in those very
aisles only one short month agb. I cannot conclude better than by quoting some
of those lines, as the portrait which he painted of his friend will now serve to de-
scribe himself.

" Ilis Faith was as the tested gold,
" Uis Hope assured, not over-bold,
" Uis Charities past count untold.

Miserere Domine.

" Well may they grieve, who laid him there,
" Where shall they find his equal ? Where ?
" Nought can avail him now but prayer.
Miserere Domine,"

With this mournful dirge 1 commend his memory to your care. May his les-
sons never be lost upon us. May his death on behalf of his country serve to give
strength to our hearts to do or die, if necessary in her cause ; and as we are all
united here to-day around the body of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, may we become
more and aiore united in brotherly feeling and holy charity, all animated with his
spirit, all laboring for the same great ends, and then from those ashes, in this
holy Easter time, a new country shall spring, and with his blood shall be watered
and fostered the young tree of our national greatness. And when we shall have
thus served our country here below, may we all pass to the better country above,
to bless and praise our God for ever. Amen.

The affecting service at St. Patrick's was supplemented by a
still more imposing ceremonial at the Roman Catholic Parish Church,
where the Queen's subjects of French origin are accustomed to
worship ; eight thousand persons, it was conjectured, stood within the
walls of that spacious building when the coffin, borne by friends,
and followed by mourners, was carried to its allotted place in the
centre of the central aisle. The continuous roll of muffled music
caught by successive bands and transmitted from street to street and
square to .square, seemed to grow in volume and intensity as the
procession arrived within the Place d'Armes, and drew near to the
entrance of the Church. Then, as the cries of inferior animals in
the desert are said to subside when the lion roars, so all instruments
of lesser note, were hushed, as with throbbing breath the great organ
of Notre Dame took up the burden of their grief, and in strains of
unapproachable pathos and emotion gave with thrilling effect,
the Dead March in Saul. White robed priests and minute chorister
boys, in number without number, moved with noiseless celerity to
their stalls. All was still, for unusual interest was manifested as
the Eight Reverend Monseigneur Bourget, the Roman Catholic
Bishop of Montreal, with two attendant priests advanced to the

HON. THOMAS D*ARCT M„GEB. •

front of the Altar, while the former with visible emotion, which age,
recent illness, and present suffering, were well calculated to in-
crease, dehvered a very solemn and touching address, a po"+ion of
which we very imperfectly translate. After speaking of the Lcinous-
ness of the crime, the Venerable Bishop added :

" By this demonstration you render homage to a citizen, who, it may he, having
committed faults knew how to atone for them nohly, and it was for this atone-
ment he was doomed to die by the hand of an assassin. He went homo thinking
that he Avas unlocking the door of his earthly house, and he found himself on the
threshold of ' the liouse not made with hands,' where, let us hope, the God of mercy
was waitinn to receive him. In the midst of these sad surroundings this grand
demonstration teaches us that while an individual may ho assassinated, a people
cannot be slain. Murderers will see that a nation has only one heart and one soul,
and that both are set against them. Where all are resolved to support the cause
of order and society no fear need be entertained for the machinations of assassins."

The solemn service ended, the procession of mourners was again
formed. Following the car, whereon the coffin was placed for the
last time, they silently ascended the slope of what formerly was
called " Mont Royal" to the quiet cemetery where D'Arcy McGee's
last resting place had already been prepared. Public buildings
were passta, and thronged thoroughfares left behind, but along the
country roads flag staffs had been improvised, and banners at half
mast suspended ; for private individuals vied with public bodies in
doing honor to one who had earnestly striven to confer benefits on
all. The picturesque burial place was at length reached. In tra-
versing its quiet pathways one could not fail to note the manner in
which faith and love, memory and hope, had striven to adorn it. A
local newspaper described the scene as " a forest of marble."
Truly the emblems of mortality and of redemption were- there, the
obelisk and the cross, one pointing to the skies and the other telling
of the way there. Could the slumberer of immortality have spoken
to us from his shroud, he might then with impassioned eloquence
have read " sermons in stones " as truly as he had elsewhere taught
that there was " good in every thing."

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