LIBRARY OF THE University of California. Class -'6 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/canadaspatriotstOOcollrich CANADA'S PATRIOT STATESMAN THE LIFE AISD CAREER THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD 0.0. D., P.O., D.C.L., LL • • • • • CflNflDfl'8 PATRIOT STflTESMM. The Life and Career IHI-; RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD, G.C.I' ' xlenham— Bagot- Metrtilfe. • • . 33 CHAPTER in. Growth of Macdouald's Popularity— *' If I were only prepared now I should try for the liegidlature" — " Yes, yonder on that stormy sky, I see my star of Destiny** — Political Tumult— Metcalfe plays the Hindoo — Madonald elected to the Kiwgston Council — Called out to oppose Manahan — Address- ing Violent Mobe— Sketch of the Time. 60 CHAPTER IV. Wrom the Hastings to txn House -Macdouald's Early Toryism -The Character of his Opponent— Blood and Whiskey flow at the Election — Tho Fountain of Honour a tainted Well, the Mirror of Justice a Mirage — Mr. Macdouald's First Ap-giearance in the liegislature— Historical Sketch of the Time. - 62 CHAPTER V. Draughts froik Tory FountaTns— Mac a reflex of the House of Lords, the members of which were appointed by the Crown for life. To these were given the prerogative of altering or rejecting bills which came up from the lower chamber. The councillors POLITICAL VrUEAVALS. 33 were men of high social standing including even prelates and judges. Then came the executive; a mimic privy council, composed of men elected by the viceroy to advise with him on all matters of public administration. The membera of this bodj' were drawn from the legislative council, or from the house of assembly, were not obliged to have a seat in the popular branch, and were responsible only to the head of the goveniment. The governor was a mimic king, and in those days had all the ways of a sovereign. " I am accountable to God only for my actions," said Charles the Firsts when presented with the Petition of Right. " I am accountable to the King only for my actions " said the little Canadian mock-soverei^^n, when meekly reminded of what was due to the people. These were not the days of darkness, neither were they the days of light ; rather both kings and commons lived in a sort of twilight where the liberty of the present seemed to merge in the oppression of the past. Since before the time when the barons wrung from John at Runnymeade, the Charter of their liberties, everyone had talked about the " right of the subject '* and the " prerogative of the Crown ;" but none seemed to know where the one began or the other ended. Under the reign of the Prince of Orange, men who remembered the tyr- anny of the profiigato Stuarts, thought they lived in the noon- day of constitutional liberty. But it remained yet for George the Third to set up a tyi*ant who did no6 lival the author of " Thorough," only because he lacked ability for anything but projfligate intrigues, and the additional and self-sufficient reason that Englishmen having tasted of a liberty unknown in the days of Charles, would not be driven again into abasement by a cleverer tyrant than Strafford. Truly, for tyranny was the spirit of those Georges, willing, but the flesh was weak. "I will die rather than stoop to opposition," said George the Third ; but opposition was better than revolution, and he stooped. For years he retained ministers in defiance of the House of Com- mons, resisted the entry of good men, of whom Fox was one, 84 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A, MACDONALD, into the Cabinet, and maintained a system of wrong-headed personal government that cost the country a hundred millions of pounds, thirteen provinces, and the lives of a thousand subjects. His son William the Fourth, though called "The Peoples Friend," still dismissed or retained a minister " when he pleased, and because he pleased ; " but with him, we may well believe, disappeared from the royal closet forever the last vestige of personal government. A flutter, it is true, went through the breasts of the jealous guardians of constitutional liberty not many years ago when the commons discussed the " Question de jupons;" when a minister of whom the nation had grown sick, a man who dandled cushions and played with feathers while momentous questions of the state were hanging, resigned the seals and two days later crept back again to power behind the petticoats of the ladies-in-waiting. But if anything were needed to give assurance of constitutional rule, it surely must have appeared, when, with girlish frankness, the young Queen told Peel, " I liked my old ministers very well, and am very sorry to part with them ; but I bow to constitutional usage." It is not written in the constitution where the power of the sovereign shall begin or end in retaining or dismissing minis- ters ; but he would be a bold ruler indeed who should ever again attempt personal rule in England. Should such an attempt be made, it were not necessary to fear for the people. It would be only the worse for that sovereign. But while the principles of liberty were growing broader and deeper in England, the people of the colonies were chafing under a yoke as intolerable as that felt in England at anytime during the reign of the Stuarts. In the provinces of Canada the long heard cry of discontent had grown deeper and more ominous towards the close of the Teicm of William the Fourth. Wise men looked into the future then as they look ever, but we wonder that they could not have foreseen the consequences POLITICAL UrilK AVALS. 35 of such government as was now imposed upon the Canadian people. Each province, as we have seen, had its mimic kin^, and this creature generally ruled with the spirit of an autocrat. It mattered little that the man was good when the system by which he governed was so very bad. There existed at this time in every province a combination which bore the hateful name of '* Family Compact." This compact was composed of men who were tories by profession, and who came, by virtue of the preference they had so loog held above their fellow colonists, to regard their right to public office as prescriptive. They tilled the legislative council, which became the tool of the Crown to thwart or strangle any objectionable measure sent up from the chamber of the people. They filled every office of emolument from the Prime Minister to the scrgeant- at-arms; from the chief justice down to the tip-staff. "Nor did Israel 'scape the infection," for they were found in the church which in turn furnished mitred heads to the council. They looked upon the large bulk of the colonists as inferiors, and viewed with alarm the movem/ Ha//, Kimjsfo)}.) FROM THE BAR TO THE HUSTINGS, 67 The governor was grateful, and the following year the doctor was assured the chief superin tendency of education for Upper Canada. If in this, though, we find no reparation by the governor for his oppression of the people, we do find in it an excuse for the divine in lending himself to the autocrat. Self-interest is the strongest passion among mortals ; and Dr. Ryereon was mortal. His pamphlets are not worth much notice, save for their literary form, which is good, although Hon. A. Mackenzie says in his "Life of George Brown" that it is not good. This hardly amounts to a contradiction, how- ever, as Mr. Mackenzie is not a judge of literary style. The doctor was an accomplished writer, and generally made the most of his material, though he had a pv nn«^ht afterwards vote for whom they chose. Here was something more than soothing speech; here, in- deed, was the genius of a Mark Antony, that could by the very force of subtle knowledge of character, turn a hostile mob into friends up )ii fho spot. The stroke told, and at 43very point which appealed to the manliness and fair play of his opponents — for every man, however mean, respects both these qualities — the crowd cheered again and again, and the cheers did not all come from his own friends. It need hardly be said that during his speech there were no more interrup- tions, and that he had completely conquered his opponents be- sides charming his friends. A very intelligent Irishman, who bad just arrived in Canada, called at Macdonald's office the next day, and said to a student there that he had heard O'Connell the year before making a speech in Kerry. " The speech last night," he said. " was not as forcible as O'Connell's, G4 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A, MACDONALD. but it was just as effective." Mr. Macdonald's speeches, how- ever, were far from consisting of sweetness and suavity alone ; he had a tongue that could scourge, but it was rarely an unruly fconsrue. Manahan received more than one castifjation before that memorable campaign ended ; but the ex-ministry and their party came in for the lion's share* We have already shown that the crisis was one where party feeling was called into fierce activity ; that in many places the active tory became a firebrand, and the moderate one a zealot — that hosts of re- formers rallied around the governor, and only the most pro- nounced of the party stood by their guns. We do not wonder at Mr. Macdonald being loud in his cry against the ousted ministry. He had been brought up a conservative, and the young men with whom he first mingled were of the same po- litical school. So, indeed, were nearly all, if not all, of his close friends, up to his entry into public life ; and the first chapter of political history he read, in equipping himself for his career, he saw through conservative glasses. It was impossible that he could have been other than a tory, taking into consideration his birth, early training and associations. In and about Kingston everything was on the side of conserv- atism ; — the wealth, the influence, in great measure the intel- ligence, the social standing, and the prospects. Had Macdon- ald been the son of a whig father, and grown up in Toronto, instead of Kingston, he might have struck a difierent chord when he came upon his first platform. But to condemn him for being a tory, as circumstances were, would be to see " an example and a shining light" in the hero in Pi Ma/ore, who " might have been a Roosian, a French, or Turk, or Proosian, or perhaps an Italian," but who " in spite of all temptations to belong to other nations," became " an Englishman." Friendly historians, commenting upon Mr. Macdonald's entry into pub- lic life, speak of his toryism, not as a set of irresistible opin- ions, but as if the young politician were troubled with lame back or a club foot, for they considerately describe it as " his fROM THE HUSTINGS TO THE HOUSE, 60 misfortune rather than his fault." The fact is. he ought, like Richard the Third, to have come into the world a horrible pro- di^, feet first, and bristling with teeth, and instead of crying, as most babies do when fii-st stranded upon this cold and cruel world, begun with a rattling stump speech on Reform. It mattei-s little how John A. Macdonald set out. It is his career in the trying path of public life in which we are interested. If there he did his duty history will be satisfied. Macd yet strange and contradictory was his beginning. He began as a visionary radical, and formed one of the joints in O'Connell's tail ; in his earlier books he evoked a clapping of hands from reformers by his advocacy of free trade : but won so LIFE OF SIR JOHN A. MAGDONALD. party leadership by becoming the champion of protection. In " Lothair " he sneered at the aristocracy, and then knelt before its shrine. He denounced it as a " Venetian oligarchy," and then described it as comprising " tlie dignified pillai^s upon which order and liberty rest." Yet in after years when the man- tle of rule descended upon him, even his opponents forgot these things, for they had been done and said when there was nei- ther responsibility nor experience. A man is not bom wise, but the way to wisdom lies open to every man, and he is furnished with a light to guide him by that way, and that light the underetanding. If he falter by the way or turn into the crooked bye-paths, then does he be- come accountable to his fellow men and receive the judgment of history. A man who first sets foot in the bewildering paths of public life is like unto one who has just begun to learn a trade. Experience is his school, and there must be many a de- fective blow dealt, many a wrong step made before the appren- tice comes out a master of his craft. We have no training schools unfortunately where we can send candidates for public life, but are obliged to accept the unfit and unready, and leave them to learn their trade while they are doing our journeymen work ! It is not surprising that the " botches " seen in our egislative halls are so many and the handicraft often so very bad. Neither, unfortunately, is it always the ablest and most suitable students in the political trade that we send at the poli- tical journey-work ; but often men of a low intellectual stamp, who never read a suitable book in their lives, who know noth- ing and really care less about great political questions, and whose passport to public favour is joviality in the bar-room or at the billiard table, and the ability to talk blatant vulgarity on the " stump " at election times. Few of the really worthy men, those who watch the trend of events, who read and think, can be induced to enter into a field so degraded, but retire away to their libraries; though probably, if one of these men did come, he would find himself distanced far in the race DRAUGHTS FROM TORY FOUNTAINS. 81 by aome demagogue who excelled him in drinking beer, driv- ing ftost horses, and "treating" friends in the saloons. We have a legion of reformers in this country, but will some of them not come forward and begin to reform here ? As well may they wrangle with the winds as many of the questions against which they have set their lances. If the people, after hearing both sides of a plain question, put with clearness and force, decide to have N. P. or N. C, let them have it It is they alone who are concerned. But the question of the intellectual and moral capacity of the candidate for legisla- tive place touches the root of the whole political system. If you elect to represent you a man with a low moral char- acter, depend upon hia turning corruptionist if he get the chance; and it is but too often the case, in all parts of our Dominion, that a man who has no moral or social stand- ing, and who has failed at everything else — in commerce, in law, in medicine, and not unfrequently in divinity — turns politician, sells himself to the highest bidder, and ever after- wards makes it the aim of his life to get all of the public funds he can, welcoming the means, whatever their character, to that end. Well, Gladstone and Disraeli were not exceptions in being " ofi' with the old love." Peel, who began his career as a toiy of the tories, was not struck with the light till two years after Mr. Macdonald had entered public life, and then suddenly an- nounced to the house that he had changed his mind on the whole subject of protection, on the policy that ho had advo- cated all his life, and was now converted to a belief in free trade. Yet history relates the change without discredit to his memory, although it came when he was in his fifty-eighth year, the very meridian of his powers. Only a few days ago a noble lord, whose toryism had been pronounced, and who tbught side by side with Disraeli in many a pitched battle vigainst Gladstone, entered the great liberal's cabinet as colo- nial secretary. And really the torics whom he deserted had 82 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD, less to say about the defection of the distinguished peer than some of our critics about the utterances of a student politi- cian delivered during a reign of political chaos, and in the twi- light of opinion. We are not apologizing for inconsistency here, but justifying a wholesome and honest change of opinion. It would be an evil principle that required a legislator to oppose the adoption of the locomotive because, before the introduction of the steam engine, he had favoured the stage coach. No; tempora mutantxir^ et nos mutamur in illis. For the remainder of the session, Mr. Macdonald sat uncon- cernedly at his desk, save when he arose to make a motion or introduce a measure. He had not grown less contemptuous for his opponents or warmer towards his friends ; but sat there waiting, with cool philosophy, for that tide to come, which, ** taken at the flood leads on to fortune." Once indeed, on the 20th of February, he was aroused from his indiflference by a wrangle which seemed to be interminable. Mr. Ay 1 win had persisted in interrupting Mr. Moffatt till he was named from tlie chair. But beyond the naming, no one on either side seemed to know how to proceed. Sir Allan was nonplussed, ministers looked on bewildered, leading reform members arose only to add to the confusion, while the merry -andrew who had raised the squall, bandied words defiantly with the house and the chair, seeming to say in eflxict, " I have been named ; here I am; what are you going to do with me ?" While the house sat puzzled and confounded, there was a movement at a quiet desk, and the cool member for Kingston arose. He looked around the confused house, and from the houSe to the chair. "The member for Quebec has been named," he said; "ho might now explain the cause of his being called to order after which he must withdraw." And he took his seat The words threw light upon the house but a formality was yet needed. Aylwin still kept the floor, hurled abuse indiscriminately, and deded the chair. Membei*s looked from one to the other, and DBA UGETS FROM TORY FOUNTAINS. 88 many eyes were turned to the desk of the member for King- ston. Again he arose. " As the member for Quebec chooses to continue in the same strain, I move that he withdraw." This punctured the bubble, and Mr. Aylwin apologized. The incident goes to show the cool prompitude of the young politi- cian, when others who must have understood the formalities, in the confusion, had forgotten them. It was hoped by Sir Charles that the appearance of Mr. Draper in the lower chamber would secure the harmony of the members, but the tendency was to disruption instead of cohesion. With a loud flourish Mr. Draper had stated in the beginning of the session that the government would stand or fall with the University Bill ; with cynical faces the opposi- tion saw him bring the measure down ; saw his supporters shrink away; saw him eat the leek, withdraw the Bill upon the second reading, do everything, in short, but keep his word and resign. They remembered, too, that only a few weeks before he had told the people of London that he would not retain office under circumstances that would oblige a British minister to yield up tlie seals. At this date, it appears, the conscience of Sir Charles Met- calfe began to sting him, in proportion as his government lost ground he exerted himself by art and wile to prop it up, till, eventually, as his biographer tells us, he began to fear that he had lowered his honour, and appeared to himself somewhat of a trickster. But, though he had degraded his high office, the home government considered he had done his duty well, and wrote to him that he had been ennobled. It is not surprising that when an address was moved in the legislature, felicitating him on his honours, many a member said that he could not congratulate either Baron Metcalfe or the House of Lords ; and that mstead of being honoured with gauds and title he ought to have been re- called atul tried for hicrh crim(?s and misdemeanors. If the 84 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD. denunciation was extravagant, it was certainly not without its excuse. Shortly after the prorogation of parliament a destructive fire broke out in Quebec, consuming 1,650 dwellings, two ehurches, a ship-yard and several lumber yards. Nearly 2,000 pei-sons were turned penniless and adrift upon public eharity. Assistance rapidly poured in from every quarter, and the governor-general, who took active measures in soliciting subscriptions, generously headed the list with §2,000. The end of poor Metcalfe's mortal career was drawing close to him now. His old malady, cancer in the face, had broken out afresh, and was dragging him down remoreelessly to the grave. They sent out a physician from the colonial office with a sovereign wash* for the disease, but the patient was beyond the reach of human skill. During the early winter he crossed the At- lantic to his seat at Basingstoke and died there. It is said that in private life he was kind and courteous, and good to the poor ; and that many a tear was shed to hi» memory. His epitaph was written by Macaulay, who makes the martle tell posterity that," In Canada, not yet recovered from the calamities of civil war, he reconciled contending factions to each other and to the mother country," and that " costly monuments in Asiatic and American cities attest the gratitude of the nations he ruled." This, however, only lessens our faith in epitaphs. It proves, too, that Byron was not all astray when he told us in the " English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," not to ** Believe a woman or an epitaph, Or any other thing that's false.** It was during 'the spring of this year that the gallant com- mander Sir John Franklin sailed away with high hopes from England to meet his death among the thunders of ice in the dismal North. Thereafter it was that many a whaling crew Chloride of Zinc. DRAUGHTS FROM TORY FOUNTAINS. 85 at night \n Northern bays sang while the tempest howled and icebergs rumbled the touching song, In Bantling Bay while the whale blows, The fate of Franklin no one knows ; ♦ * * and told, how, often in the wierd light of the aurora bore- alis the brave commanior and two of his compan3^ clad in white, were seen gliding swiftly by bound for the frozen pole^ CHAPTER VI. THE LIGHTS OF '44. WILLIAM HENRY DRAPER, whose commanding pres- ence and sweet silvery voice would attract anybody who visited the gallery of the legislature, was born in Lon- don, England, in I80L His father v/as rector of a High Epis- copal Church there, but the son yearning for adventure left the parsonage when a mere lad and entered as a cadet on board an East Indiaman. Here he had plenty of the adventure that falls to the middy's share, but tiring of the " floating palace," as Marryat describes the East Indiamen of those days, and even the allurement of a tiger hunt in the jungle after the voy- age, the young rover, in his twentieth year, reached Canada, and settled down to t!:o lass romantic ^-mployment of teaching school in Port Hope. But this new occupation was only a stepping-stone and did not detain him long. He studied law and was called to the bar, taking up his residence in Toronto or what was then known as Little York. In 1836 Toronto elected him to the legislature of Upper Canada, and the fol- lowing year, at the invitation of Sir Francis Bond Head, he took a seat in the executive without a portfolio. During the battle of smoke at Gallows' Hill he was an aide de-camp to the governor ; became solicitor-general in 1837 and attorney-general in 1840, succeeding, to the latter office Hon. Christopher A. Hagerman. Mr. Draper was a tory. Ht staunchly upheld the union of Church and State, but did not consider that any church, save his own, had the right to an offi- cial existence. Dear to him, above every feature of government, 86 THE LIGHTS OF '44. 87 was the prerogative of the Crown, which he looked upon as a constitutional safeguard, never indeed regarding it as a tyranni- cal engine, even when it kept the majority under its heel and demitted the governing power to the minority. Yet, ac- cording to the light he had upon political liberty, he was a good man, and loved his countiy well. The fact is, he regarded "popular rights " .as a doctrine so full of evil, that, it would, if granted, undermine our stately systems and plunge the whole governmental fabric into ruin. As all good and thoughtful men to day regard the doctrines of communism, so did he regard the principles of the reformers. During many a year he was a brake upon the great-roLing wheel of progress, but in his obstruction saw only the duty of the patriot. He possessed a graceful form and a commanding presence; and whea he ad- dressed a jury, in his earlier years, cr his fellow legislators in later life, so rich and courtly was his eloquence, so sweet and insinuating were the tones of his voice, that he won for him- self the name of " Sweet William." He had a subtle know- ledge of human nature, an inexhaustible fund of tact when beset by,difficulties to mollify opponents, and "make the worse appear the bettor reason "; ^et he never had a large personal followin- »uld not bold together the incongruous ele- ments of the cabinets he led. It is not as a politician that he endures in our memory now, but as the justice of the dignified presence and silvery voice that for thiity years adorned the bench with his high character and great judicial insight. He died on the 3rd of November, 1877, being then in his 77th year, regretted for his lofty character and great abilities. Robert Baldwin, the great Reformer, and son of Dr. William Wanen Baldwin, of Summer Hill, Cork, Ireland, was bom at Toronto in 1804. In 1789 his father and gi-andfather emigrated to this country and settled in the township of Clarke, Ontario, but removed afterwards to Toronto, where young Dr. Baldwin betook himself to the dual profession of law and medicine, prac- tising both for a time, and the law exclusively in later years. 88 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD with marked success. About six months before his death, which occurred in 1844', he was called to the legislative council of Canada. In 1825 Robert, who was now twenty-one years, entered upon the practice of law with his father, and the firm was thereafter known as " Baldwin & Son." In 1829 a va- cancy occun-ed in the representation of York, by the resignation of Chief Justice Robinson, and Robert Baldwin was called out by the liberals to oppose the candidate of the Family Compact, Mr. Small. Young Baldwin, like his father, was op- posed to the outrageous system of government which then pre- vailed, and being of a singularly lofty and honourable char- acter, and of marked ability, his entry into the field of politics created much attention. It was a time surely to fire any man who had in him the love of fair play, and could rise above personal or class interests. Of the twelve years from 1824 to 1836, the government was in a minority in the popular branch for eight years, a fact which some of the tories declared at the time to be " annoying, but not of much consequence." Mr Baldwin was elected despite the array of government strength he found in the field ; and on his entry intij the house at once began to assail the odiousness of the existing nystem. In 1836 he went to England, and while there sought an interview with the colonial secretary. Lord Glenelg; but that languid gentleman, who reminds one of Frederick Fairlie in the " Woman in White," refused to see him, though he was good enough to intimate that he would attend to communications in writing upon the subject. Mr. Baldwin's efibrts availed little then, but the prin- ciples for which he strove were soon to triumph. The report of Lord Durham not long afterwards, which set the tory world aghast, was a powerful auxiliary. In 1840 Mr. Baldwin be- came solicitor-general under Mr. Draper, with the approval of the reform party, and the year following the union was ap- pointed attorney-general for Canada West. This position he retained till the meanness and tyranny of governor Metcalfe forced himself and his party to resign office and make way for THE LIGUTS OF '44. 89 a goveniment by the minority. We may as well anticipate the remainder of his career. He remained in opposition till 1848, when he again became leader of the government, which position he retained till I80I. At this period he bade farewell to public life, retiring full of honours, and surrounded by af- fluence, to his .seat at Spadina, Toronto. Here he died on December 9th, 18.')8. Throngs of people from every surround- ing part streamed in to his funeral, to attest their love and respect for thin good and noble-minded statesman. Robert Baldwin married a sister of the late Hon. Edward Sullivan, who bore Jiim several children. One of these enter- ed the church, and another went to sea, while a daugh- ter married Hon. John Ross Mr. Baldwin was somewhat above the middle statuie, of stout build, and slightly stooped at the shoulders. As a speaker he was not captivating, but he was convincing, for every sentence seemed to come from a deep well of conviction ; and though he hesitated as he spoke, and broke and marred his sentences, his aims were so noble and so good that he always received the profound attention and respect of his auditors. In disposition he w.is mild and affable, but he could not woo popular favour by the smaller arts which, in many men, are tlie passport to popularity. Yet he was neither cold nor formal, and all who came to know him closely were captivated by the sweet sincerity of his character. We have seen a private letter that he wrote to a friend in Kingston, who had decided to enter political life, and from it we gather that he was not enamoured of the public sphere. " I confess," he says, " was I to put public inter- est out of tlie fjuestion, it would be more the part of a private friend to wish that you might be disappointed, for politics are certainly a most thankless and profitless occupation. Do what one will, sacrifice what one may, and his conduct is misrepre- sented and his motives maligned, and the only consolation left is the consciousness of having done one's duty." Well is it with the statesman who, opening his heart, can say that he has done 90 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD. his duty. Well has it been with the high-minded, the good Robert Baldwin. One of the most remarkable men in appearance and ability in the house was Mr. Louis H^^polite Lafontaine. He was a son of Antoine Menard Lafontaine, who had been a member of the parliament of Lower Canada frou) 1796 to 1804, and was born at Boucherville, in October, 1807. He began life as a bar- rister, and applied himself diligently to his profession, accumu- lating a handsome fortune. When the oppressions of the little British clique became intolerable, he was found among the daring young spirits at whose head was Papineau, who met to discuss ways of throwing oft' the hateful yoke. Later on he became the rival of Papineau, and put himself at the head of la jeune France ; " and the priests shook their heads at his orthodoxy." He was on the search for liberty then and often hinted at throwing off the " ecclesiastical fetters " as well as the yoke of the Compact In 1837 he fled the country from a wan-ant for high treason, passed over to England, and thence, in some ti-epidation, silently slipped across the Chann2l to France. There was no evidence against him, however, and an ironical letter he had written to Mr. Girouard on the absurdity of rebellion was taken literally, and went far towards removing him even from suspicion. His little tour had a wonderful ef- fect upon him, for he came back, not only a good loyalist, but a pious Christian. He went to mass ostentatiously, frequented the sacraments, and muttered his Ave Marian aloud. The priests killed the fatted calf on his return, and he became a pet and a light of Holy Church. In 1842 he reached the goal of his po- litical ambition, by being called to the cabinet as attorney- general East, but the next year, with his colleagues, fell a victim to the snares of the governor-general, and resigned. In 1848, w^hen the tory fabric tumbled down, he again came in as attorney general East, which position he retained till 1851. Two yeai*s later he was appointed Chief Justice to the Queen's Bench of Lower Canada, and in 1854 was created a baronet of THE LIGHTS OF 'U- 91 the United Kingdom. He was married twice, first to Adele, only daughter of A Berthelot, advocate, of Lower Canada, and secondly to a widowed lady of Montreal. He left no issue. Mr. Lait)ntaine was a man of a very commanding appearance. He had a strikingly handsome face and a magnificent forehead which was said to resemble strongly that of Napoleon the Fii-st. " He was not," says the writer of Washington Sketches, "an ebquent speaker, his utterances being thick and guttural, and his English, though good in structure, bad in pronunciation." He was a close and very decided reasoner, never losing his temper ; but having formed many of his ideas arbitrarily from books he w^as tied to theories and dogmatical. He frequently showed a passion for the impracticable in politics, and was vain of his knowledge of the British constitution, of which one keen critic at least, said he knew nothing. He was an honourable opponent, but his resentments were as undying as his attach- ments. In his judicial capacity he excelled, and down to his death added a lustre to the dignity and efficiency of the Bench. The Speaker of the Assembly, the Hon. Sir Allan Napier MacNab was born at Niagara, in 1798. While a lad at school the Americans attacked Toronto, and he was " one of a number of boys selected as able to carry a musket."* The lad then entered the ship of Sir James Yco, where he was rated as a midshipman, and accompanied the expedition to Sacket's Harbor and other points. Promotion being slow on ship-board, he joined the 100th Regiment in which he saw some service, and subse- quently entered upon the study of law. In 1825 he was called to the bar, and some months afterwards began to practice his profession in Hamilton. Up to this period he had been a victim of impecuniosity, having been " compelled to restrict his peram- bulations within the charmed circles of the blue posts which in these times marked the boundary that must not be passed by a baUed debtor."t • Morgan : ** Biographies of Celebrated Canadians." + Dent's •♦ Iiast Foity Years." 92 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD, In 1829 he was elected to parliament for Went worth, hav- ing created sympathy for himself among the tories. He was speaker of the List parliament held in Upper Canada, ancl when the rebellion broke out hastened from Hamilton to Toronto with his men of Gore» and dispersed the deluded band that Mackenzie had gathered about him at Montgomery's tavern. Later in the year, he ordered the cutting out of the Caroline, which was surrendered to Niagara Falls. We have already seen that ho was chosen by the tories as speaker of the second parliament under the Union. We shall meet his figure again, all im|X)rtant with its gauds of honour, and shall not anticipate his career. He was not of much con- sequence iis a politician. He had a good presence and could make a ready speech, but he lacked all the essentials of an or- ator, and the tact that charms one's friends and mollifies his enemies. Though his speech was jagged and often lumbering, he was always drawn up in the order of battle, ready to level a lance against any opponent, whether he knew his mettle or not, or to rush into the most intricate question that he knew nothing about. Sir Allan would have been a better man had they not spoiled him with their gauds and knighthood. Tt is not every man who is equal to the carrying of a ribbon or a star, or a C. M. G. to his name. Sir Allan was not. The mo- ment that the title fell upon him, his usefulness departed ; he seemed to feel that he had been absorbed by the Crown, and drawn out of the coarser and unholy atmosphere of com- mon life in which he had formerly lived. Henceforth his duty was to guard faithfully the interests of that Crown of which he felt himself a part. Prosperity and honours are often con- vincing tests of a man. They are what fire is to the metala From the ordeal only the gold issues unchanged. And, Hearts that the world in vain have tried, And sorrow but more closely tied; That stood the storms when waves were rough. Yet in a sunny hour, fell off. Like ships that have gone down at jmh, When heaven was all tranquillity. THE LIGUTS OF 'U- 93 Dominick Daly, the son of Dominick Daly, by the sister of the fii'st Lord Wallscourt, was born in Galway, Ireland, in 1798, and married in his t went}- -eighth year the second daughter of Colonel Ralph Gore, of Barrowmount, County Kilkenny. He studied law, was, in due time, called to the bar; but not caring for the legal profession, came out as secretary with governor Burton to Quebec. Shortly after his arrival he became provincial secretary for Lower Canada ; and on the accomplishment of the Union became provincial secretary for Canada, and a mamber of the board of works, with a seat in the council. He retained the provincial secretaryship till 1848, when he was driven out of ofBce by the reformers. He sat in gloomy state three years longer for Megantic, and then betook himself to England where be petitioned the govern- ment for a substantial recognition of big twenty-five years* faithful service in Canada. In answer to his prayer he was appointed successively to the governorship of Tobago, Prince Edward Island, and Western Australia, and received a knight- hood. If ever hencbman deserved reward at the hands of the Crown, Dominick Daly did. His idea of political duty was to show unswerving fealty to the Crown, and support every government that came to power. Ht was a body upon which the political sun never set When a government, of which he was a member waxed stroma, Dominick became full of party sinew and vitality ; but nR that party waned and the end drew near, the colour faded out of him; he became a sort of political jelly-fish, and calmly awaited the change of parties, when he developed new affections, a new frame, and frcbh marro.v and muscle. Like Mejnour of the Rosy Cross, he saw rulers come and go, and parties wax and wane, and fall to pieces, and rally and grow gicat again; but time nor change affected him. In the best of nature he assisted the successor of Burton and his clique to thwart and oppress the French majority ; and he aided Durham in laying the broad foundation of an ent aid calm of the bench; but whenever he spoke of moving there was a general rising at the cabinet seats, as if not one, but all, would be the premier, and he was obliged to forego retirement till a successor without a rival appeared. It was during this time that many eyes were turned to the member for Kingston, as a rising hope of the declining party, but he seems not to have been anxious to "go on board a ship that was foundeiing." Yet the impression went abroad and got into the public prints, that the member for Kingston was about to enter the cabinet. A Toronto paper, violently opposed to the government, but an admirer, evidently, of Mr. Macdonald, heard tlie rumour, and told its readers rather sadly : " Mr. John A. Macdonald is marked for another victim ; he too will speedily be a flightless bird." A Montreal journal, which has not since ceased to support Mr. Macdonald, told its readers something different. " The appointment of Mr. Macdonald," it said, "if confirmed, will, we-believe, give universal satisfac- tion. A liberal, able, and clear-headed man, of sound conserv- ative principles, and unpretending demeanour, he will be an ac- quisition to any ministry, and bring energy and business habits into a department of wnicn tnere have been for many years, THE LAST DAYS OF TORYISM. lOS under the present, and still more under preceding manage- ments, many complaints." But this was a time when govern- ment was sustained only for plunder, and some of those who had worn the harness long in the tory cjiuse — who had voted for the good and the bad, and lent themselves to every scheme of their masters — threatened rebellion if any more " recruits " were taken into office. Macdonald took the dis- appointment with philosophical coolness, told his friends that he did not suppose the world was coming to an end very soon, that he could " aflbrd to wait," and added : " The condition oi our party must be worse, before it is better." During the pre- ceding session he had sat, as usual, industriously at his desk ; but in one discussion which came up he took a part which is interesting to us now in view of an important act of legis- lation of his later life. On the fii*st of May, Mr. Cay ley had a resolution before the house seekinor to re^julate a scale of differential duties on im- portations in leather manufactures, which was bitterly oppos- ed by some of the reformera. Among those who warmly de- fended the resolution was Mr. Macdonald, and what he said is interesting, because we have heard that in adopting the " na- tional policy," as in other matters, he was only " the creature of expediency," and did not believe the principle of protection to be good. But it will interest, if it will not discomfit, those who say this, to learn that on the 1st day of May, 1846, Mr. Macdonald stood up in his place in the Canadian parliament and told " hon. gentlemen that there was no reason in their opposition to these resolutions ;" that " had they studied the question they must have supported them," that " the measure of the hon. gentleman was really a protective one, and as such deserved unanimous support;" for "it would prevent the trade of Canada from being subject to the competition of Ame- rican artisans, and not among the least to the artisans of Ame- rican penitentiaries." 110 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD. And now drew on the last days of toryisra in Canada. It9 sun was low in the sky, even when Metcalfe put his dignity by and appealed to party in the name of the Queen. It lay not in the power of man or any combination of men to bring the life back again to its palsied limbs. Toryism is the policy of stagnation, the force that opposes change and progress. It cannot live where the will of the people is supreme. It was put upon its trial in Canada, in the summer of 1 848, and fell, never again to raise its head. We know the term " tory " is still applied to one of our great parties, and that we are told "toryism still lives;" but surely oui informants are those who are not acquainted with the history of public parties in the past, or who understand the genius of political opinion in the present But after all, it matters really little what we call our parties now, since there is not neces.sarily a connection at any time between the name and the nature of any thing. It is not 80 long aoro since a profound and dogmatic thinker would be styled a " duns," because he resembled the over-leanied and profound Scotus. Now, that name dunce we apply only to a blockhead — and not more striking has the difference between the Duns of six hundred years ago, and the dunce of now become, than between the tory of 1840, and the tory of 1883. In the autumn of 184G, Lord Elgin, the greatest of Canadian governors up to his day, Durham excepted, arrived in Canada. He was a member of the tory school, and the reformers became sore afraid when they heard of his coming; yet they had already learnt how really little there is in a governor's party name. When Sir Francis B. Head came they posted proclamations upon the fences, but before the little boys tore down the placards, they began to learn how sorely they had been deceived. When Metcalfe, " the great liberal," came, they had no letter black enough in their type-cases to print their " Welcomes ; " a day came upon them when ink was not dark enough to paint hiis character. But when Bagot, " the tory," came, they hung down their heads in gloom ; and were wearing mourning faces THE LAST DA VS OF TOBYISM. lU when he called their leaders to his cabinet. Lord Elgin was a nobleman in the peerages of Scotland and the United King- dom, and was a Bruce of the illustrious house which had for a member the victor of Bannockburn. In 1842 he had been ap- pointed governor of Jamaica; and upon the change of govern- ment in England in the summer of ]84G,and the establishment of peaceable relations between the imperial and United States governments, was sent out to Canada. Shortly before departing for his seat of government he married his second wife, Lady Mary Louisa, the eldest surviving daughter of the late Lord Duiham, but left his bride to follow him when the tempestuous season passed. He arrived here in the early winter, and at once threw his whole energies into the work before him. It was pkin to those who watched his movements with an intel- ligent eye that he had studied the political condition of Canada before he passed the Atlantic ; nay, more, he alarmed the apos- tles of the Compact by telling the inhabitants of Montreal : " I shall best maintain the prerogative of the Crown by manifest- ing a due regard for the wishes and feelings of the people, and by seeking the advice and assistance of those who enjoy their confidence." He had studied carefully the doctrines laid down by his illustrious father-in-law and found they were good. He soon mastered the condition of affairs in Canada, and saw, so his biographer* tells us, that in the ruling party " there was no real political life ; only that pale and distorted reflection of it which is apt to exist in a colony liefore it has learnt to look within itself for the centre of power." He frankly and heartily assisted the effete and um-epresentative body he found in office, but plainly told them that he should as cheerfully and not less heartily assist their opponents. The governor was doubly tied to his duty. Canada had long been looked upon as a stormy sea, studded with breakers, where administrators were as likely to meet with shipwreck as to win laurels ; and he was deter- I ^ — — — ■ • Walrond. 112 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD, mined to avoid the rocks. Then, as dear to him as his own success was the reputation of his father-in-law, Lord Durham, which still trembled in the balance, and must so remain till the principles he laid down had been worked out for weal or woe. He was here to win a reputation for himself in follow- ing out the principles laid down by the father of his absent bride : we may be sure most earnestly did he set himself to his duty. His manly form was seen at several public meetings, exposed to the fierce winds of our Canadian winters, and he ha claims, if it can be said that he had any claims, and Mr. Sherwood saw the ruling aspiration of his life gratified. In the speech opening the session, the governor announced the relinquish- ment of post-office control by the imperial parliament, and the repeal of differential duties, in favour of British manufacturers. The old hull of the Compact ship, the vessel in which they had sailed so long, and enjoyed the privilege of office with all its spoils, was exposed to a merciless, we may say a murderous, fire from the opposition guns, and though division after divi- THE LAST DAYS OF TORYISM. 113 sion showed that the government was in a sad minority in the house, ministers said naught about resignation. The sun- set of Mr. Draper's political life seemed to have given him mystical lore, and the speech he made reviewing his own career, and setting forth his opinion on the duties of ministries, might have been regarded as a valuable death-bed sermon. Like Saul, the scales seemed to have ffillen from his eyes of a sudden, and that which he had never seen before, though he must have heard it times without number, was instantly re- vealed to his vision. He told, in no boastful spirit, that he had always tried to serve his country to the full extent of his powers, and dwelt with no little feeling — indeed, shed tears as he spoke — on the ingratitude of men at whose hands he had deserved better things than conspiracy and calumny. He gave no uncertain sound when he came to speak of responsible gov- ernment. That, he said, was the only method by which the country could be governed justly and well After the close of the ses.sion another shuffle was made of seats in the doomed cabinet, and Mr. John Macdonald, whose administrative ability commanded general attention, was re- moved from the receiver-generalship to the office of crown lands, then the most important department in the public ser- vice, and one that in the past had been most shamefully, if not criminally, mismanaged. Here he established a new and better order of things, reducing confusion and delay to ordcT and promptness, till, during the brief time his place was vouch- safed to him, the report went abroad that if the government were effete and incompetent they had, at least, among them one master business head. In December a dissolution was granted, and for the last time the cause of toryism appealed for support to the electo- rate of Canada. H CHAPTER VIII. RULING IN STORM. THE reformers entered the contest with cheerful faces, and the tories fought sullenly on the deck of their sinking ship. A change had come over the country since the autumn which saw the governor-general the leading spirit in one side of a party contest. The public is sometimes an impulsive and not too just arbiter between men or questions ; but it is possess- ed of a broad generosity, and is certain to show sympathy eventually, for that one to whom it discovers, on reflection, it haa done injustice. And, as Carlyle expresses it, since it is al- ways " revising its opinion," it is certain sooner or later to dis- cover if it has gone wrong. A demagogue may siicceed for a time in leading the public into extravagance, or gross error, but sober, second thought, is sure to come and set its judgment right. Percival Stockdale thought the public always wrong, because as often as he gave them his verses, so often did they cast them aside, after a hasty glance ; the author going back to the country comforting himself on " the verdict of posterity.** But Percival lives now only among " The Curiosities of Litera- ture." Whenever you see a man who has had an opportunity of stating his case, whatever it may be, before the people, and see them withhold their approbation, be assured that the pub- lic is not stupid, or unjust, and that the man is another Perci- val Stockdale. By foul means, and through false cries, a verdict had been wrenched from the public against Mr. Baldwin. He bore his defeat with that proud patience which the gods love and men 114 RULING IN STOBM. 115 admire ; and now that he came before the people, the same lofty and upright character that they had always known him, his principles unchanged by time, sincere and true, to ask of them, in their sober, second thought, for a verdict again, near- ly all the wholesome sentiment in the country rallied around him. He went to the polls with ringing cries, cries that at the late election were called the voice of treason. Once again he told his hearers, who were now in an impartial mood, that " he was not disloyal, nor were his followers rebels ; but this they con- tended for, nothing more, and nothing less, that what the Queen would not be permitted to do in England, we should not per- mit the governor to do in Canada. Tories had proclaimed from their hustings that responsible government, as sought by the reformers, would be insufficient, and unworthy of Canada; but he had unbounded faith in its adequacy." And some writer used the apt figure that, as in the unfettered working of the ocean, lay the secret of the purity of its waters, so in the untranmielled operation of colonial government lay the secret of its justice and purity. In Lower Canada, the people, the great bulk of whom were reformera, were loudly jubilant and lit bontires before the opening of the polls, in anticipation of a sweeping victory. The question that most agitated public gatherings there was that of recompense to persons who had suffered losses, either by the irebels or the soldiers, during the uprising of 1837. The re- bellion of 1837-38 had no sooner been put down than resolu- tions were introduced into the legislature of Upper Canada providing for the appointment of commissioners to investigate the claims set forth by certain loyal inhabitants for damages sustained during and by " the late unnatural rebellion." The report of these commissioners was made the basis of further legislation during the following session ; while the special council of Lower Canada had pro voided by ordinance a recom- pense for loyal persons in that province whose property had been injured or destroyed during the collision between Papi- 116 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD, neau's followers and the soldiers. But neither the act of the one legislature, nor the ordinance of the other met the demands of a large number who had suffered by the rising. There came from every quarter, demanding compensation, men whose pro- perty had been injured or destroyed, not by the rebels, but by the agents of authority. Nor can we wonder at the nature or the number of supplications, when we take into account the loyalty of the soldiers. Their zeal, we are told in the records of this unfortunate time, did not end when they had left the poor habitant soaking his coarse homespun with his heart's blood on the field where he fell, but they directed thinr might against property in tainted districts, tiring outbuildings and dwellings, slaughtering Ciittle, and, it is not hard to believe, only ceasing, like Alexanders, in sorrow, because there was naught else to conquer. But in the most disaffected districts, there were some whose adherence to authority had been un- flinching, who deplored the uprising, and gave no countenance to the rebels ; and these came forward now asking recompense for butchered cattle and demolished dwellingt. Accordingly, shortly after the union, an act was passed ex- tending compensation for losses sustained at the hands of pei*sons acting on behalf of Her Majesty in " the suppression of the said rebellion, and, for the prevention of further disturbances," but the operation of the act curiously enough was confined to Upper Canada alone. Lower Canada, where the conflict had been the greater and the more bloody, where the trained sol- diery had been let loose, and scores of the innocent, with the guilty, felt the weight of the arm of authority, was not admitted within the pale of the recompense law. Therefore it was that in 1845 the assembly passed another address praying Sir Charles Metcalfe for a measure which would " insure to the inhabitants of that part of this province, formerly Lower Canada, indemnity for just losses during the rebellion of 1837 and LS38." This change of ministerial attitude is curious reading now, but the wheel had gone round since 1842. Here and there among the RULING IN STORM. 117 remnants of the ancient party was a man who saw the drift of public opinion, and one of these was Mr. Draper. He saw that his party was being every day pushed nearer the brink of the precipice, that French votes and sympathies were on the other side ; and, as drowning men will clutch at straws, seized upon the faint hope of wining Lower Canadian support by authoris- ing commissioners to enquire into the " losses sustained by loyal subjects in Lower Canada during the rebellion, and the losses arising and growing out of the said rebellion." The com- missioners were instructed to distinguish between rebels and loyal subjects, but they soon found that every claimant on his own showing, had always been unswervingly obedient to the law. Men who had fired at soldiers out of flint muskets and hacked at the law officers with scythes, came forward claiming compensation for their losses as the reward of their loyalty. The commissioners were non-plussed. They wrote on the 11th of Feburary, 184G, to the govemor-in-council, Earl Cathcart, for instructions as to how the}' might draw a distinction be- tween the loyal and those who had rebelled. The provincial secretary replied that it was not the intention of his excellency that the commissioners should be guided by " any description of evidence, other than that furnished by the evidence of the courts of law." It was pointed out that the commissioners were not to try cases, but merely to obtain a general estimate of the rebellion losses, and that the particulars of the estimate would form the subject of minute enquiry, subsequently, un- der parliamentary authority. The commissionei-s presented their report in the same year. This document set forth that commissioners were entirely at the mercy of the claimants where there was no court sentence before them ; and they ex- hibited a list of 2,17G persons who claimed damages amount- ing in the aggregate to £241,9G5. An opinion was expressed that £100,000 would cover all meritorious claims, for it had been ascertained that damages for X25,503 were claimed by persons who had actually been condemned by court-martial for 118 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD. complicity in the rebellion. But the intention of the ministry was not to close the question of these claims, but to temporize and keep it hanging. The report of the commissioners was, therefore, laid by, Mr. Draper, like Micawber, hoping that some- thing would " turn up " by which he might be able to repudiate the claims. Hence it was that another act was immediately passed authorizing the payment of £9,986 to Lower Canada claimants, which sum had been recognised by parliament as due the second session after the union. This £9,986 was not a large amount, Mr. Draper reasoned, but it was a sop to the French party, and a first step, while the larger instalment was impending. But the premier outwitted himself. His instal- ment was received with anger and contempt, and the gulf be- tween him and the support he sought became wider than ever. From one end of Lower Canada to the other, during the election of 1848, went up the cry demanding full compensation for rebellion losses. The reform candidates came into the field pledging themselves to satisfy all j»M claims. Thus it was that Mr. Lafontaine and his party were returned in overwhelm- ing majority. Li Upper Canada the popular tide likewise set with the re- formers, though stubborn was the dying tight made by their opponents. In Kingston John A. Macdonald, who was unspar- ing in his attacks upon the reformers, and not full of eulogy for his own party, whose tactics and ability he must have despised at heart, was returned in triumph. The legislature met on the 25th of February, and the tories proposed Sir Allan Mac- Nab for the speakership. The vote for the speakership is usually a test of the strength of parties, and in this case it re- vealed that fifty-four of those present were in opposition, and nineteen true to the government. Mr. Morin was then chosen unanimously. Some happy exchanges had been made at the polls. Not among the least of these was the return of Francis Hincks for Oxford, and the rejection of the coarse and noisy Ogle R. Growan for Leeds. Amonof the new faces seen in the house RULING IN STORM 119 were those of George Etienne Cartier and Alexander Tilloch Gait, both destined to play high and honourable parts in the history of their country. For the first time, William Hume Blake, one of the most remarkable men of his day, took his seat in the house. He was born in 1809, at Kiltcgan, County of Wicklow, Ireland, where his father was a church of England r«3ctor. He received his education at Trinity College, Dublin, and studied surgery under Sir Philip Crampton. Not caring for surgery, he began a course of theology, which sf«ems also to have been unsuited to him, and he subsequently emigrated to Can- ada, taking up his abode in the backwoods. But wilderness life, separated from all the influences of civilization, was no more fascinating to Mr. Blake and his family than to that class generally, whose hardships Mrs. Moodie has described with such feeling and vividness, and he moved to Toronto, where he entered the legal profession, becoming in a few years one of it- brightest ornaments, and eventually adding lustre to the bench of his adopted province. We shall see that as an orator he had no rival in that parlia- ment, and that his eloquence was not of that icy, passionless kind which comes from the trained intellect — never from the heart — but was instinct with Celtic fire, now rising to a storm of withering scorn and invective, now launching forth arrows of piercing sarcasm, and again mello\ving down to unsurpassed depths of pathos and tenderness. On the day following the vote on the speakership, the gov- ernment resigned, and Lord Elgin called on M. Lafontaine to form a cabinet. After a short delay, the new ministry was announced as follows : — FOR CANADA EAST. Hon. H. L. Lafontaine - - Attorney -Oeneral. „ .Tas. Leslie - . - Pres. Executive Council. „ 11. E. Caron - Speaker of the Legislative Council, 120 LIFE Oh SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD. Hon. E. p. Tache - - Chief Com. of Public Works. „ T. C. Aylwin - - - - Solicitor-General. „ L. M. ViGER - - - - Receiver 'General. FOR CANADA WEST. Hon. Robert Baldwin - - - Attorney-General. „ R. B. Sullivan - - - Provincial Secretary. „ Francis Hincks - - - Inspector-General. „ J. H. Price - - - Com. of Crown Lands. „ Malcolm Cameron Asst. Com. of Public Works. The shade of Metcalfe could not have been unmoved when the new cabinet ministers came to draw comparisons between Lord Elf^in and another governor-general. Now were they met by a gentleman who could no more stoop to an act of meanness in dij)lomacy than to a similar offence in private life ; by one whose attitude towards them was that of a kind friend, if not a father; who knew the weakness inherent in party ministers and the evils by which they are beset. He frankly gave them his confidence and told them he wanted theirs ; and that in all things which tended to a just and intelligent ad- ministration of affairs they should K'^ve the best of his assist- ance. Though he would scorn to lend his influence to further the interests of any party, even it were the party of his choice, he sat for hours advising ministers to be firm with their mea- sures, telling them of the rocks they had to encounter in their way, and pointing out that they ought to set up high aims and not be turned from these by the pressure of any circum- stance. The time was soon to come when both the ministry and the governor would need all the firmness that comes from a conviction of right doing and from philosophy. On coming into power, the new ministry promptly intro- duced a series of resolutions into the assembly which was fol- lowed by a bill " to provide for the indemnification of parties in Lower Canada, whose property had been destroyed in the RULING IN STORM. 121 years 1837 and 1838." The only reservation made in the al- U wance of claims was in the case of those who had been con- victed of rebellion and either imprisoned or transported to Bermuda. Five commissioners wxre appointed to carry out the Act, and a sum of £100,000 was set apart to satisfy all claims. The introduction of the measure was the signal for an ex- plosion. Like the bursting of a long pent-up storm, arose a cry of indignation from the tory members and their press. To many it seemed that the day of doom had dawned upon our monarchy. Two poor gentlemen shed tears over their liquor, when mentioning the name of the Queen. The fact is, this bill was (>nly the climax of a long series of outrages. The loyal Family Compact had been driven from power, and superseded by "radicals, rebels and republicans," a trinity of bad blood, but apt alliteration. The head of the government was a French- man, a former leader of the society La Jcune France ; a man who had been, at one time, an infidel, and at another, a rebel, flying his country from the wrath of the laws. It was no longer deemed dishonourable to have rebelled against the au- thority of the Queen ; nay, more, a bill had been introduced, not only to condone the rebellion, but to indemnify the rebels. For of those who rebelled, it was held that not one in ten had been convicted by the laws ; whereas ever^'one having a stile broken down during the rising, who had not been imprisoned or sent to Bermuda, came forward with claims which the gov- ernment allowed. But the proudest spirit that chafed under this galling ordinance, was the gallant knight of Hamilton. He must have felt with Solomon, as he glanced back upon all the history which he had made, that the brightest trail a man may leave behind him for the admiration of the world, is but a huge vanity. To what purpose now had he marshalled his " gallant men of Gore," levelling the taverns and dwellings of rebellious owners, or on that dark December night, sent his soldiers to seize the "piratical" Caroline, and give her to the cataract of Niagara. Now that a premium had been put upon rebellion, 122 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD. he saw a sort of derision in the very spurs upon his lieels, for they had been given him in token of his loyalty. He resolved^ however, that the outrages should not be sanctioned, without a struggle. He rallied his followers in their lodgings ; he told them the crisis had come, when rebellion was to be stamped as a crime or a virtue. In his loyal ears, we doubt not, as he trod from alley to alley through tlie darkness on his mission of re- sistance, rang tht words of the couplet ; '* Treason does not prosper ; what's the reason ? Why, when it prospers none dare call it treason." But he would " dare call it treason," and, so, girt up his loins for the fight. His party, tlierefore, entered the conflict with a will. The knight led the attack, and his invective was unsparing and in- discriminate. He did not wonder that a premium was put upon rebellion, now that rebels were rewarded for their own up- risings ; for the government itself was a rebel government, and the party by which it was maintained in power vas a phalanx of rebels. His lieutenants were scarce less unsparing and fierce in the attack. But the government boldly took up their posi- tion. Mr. Baldwin, attorney -general- west, maintained that it would be disgraceful to enquire whether a man had been a rebel or not after the passage of a general act of indemnity. Mr. Drummond, solicitor-general-east, took ground which placed the matter in the clearest light. The indemnity act had par- doned those concerned in high treason. Technically speaking, then, all who had been attainted stood in the same position as before the rebellion. But the opposition were not in a mood to reason. The two colonels, Prince and Gugy, talked a great deal of fury. The former once again reminded the house that he was " a gentleman " ; the latter made it plain that he was a blusterer. Mr. Sherwood was fierce and often trenchant ; while Sir Allan reiterated that the whole French-Canadian people were traitors and aliens. At this date we are moved neither RULING IN STORM. 123 to anger nor contempt at reading such utterances as those of the knight's, for it would be wrong to regard them as else than infirmities ; and it is regretable that by such statements the one party should allow itself to be dominated and the other driven to wrath. But through all these volcanic speeches Sir Allan was drifting in the direction of a mighty lash held in a strong arm ; and when the blow descends we find little com- passion for the wrigglings of the tortured knight. It was while Sir Allan had been bestriding the parliament like a Colossus, breathing fire and brimstone against every opponent, and fling- ing indiscrimmately about him such epithets as " traitor " and " rebel," that Mr. Blake, solicitor-general-west, stung beyond endurance, sprang to his feet. " He would remind them that there was not only one kind of rebellion and one description of rebel and traitor. He would tell them there was such a thing as rebellion against the constitution as well as rebellion against the crown. A man could be a traitor to his country's rights as well as a traitor to the power of the crown." He instanced I'hilip of Spain and James the Second when there was a struggle ijetween political freedom and royal tyranny. " These royal tyrants found loyal men to do their bidding, not only in iha army but on the bench of justice. There was one such loyai servant, he who shone above all the rest, the execrable Judge Jeffries, who sent, among the many other victims before theit Maker, the mild, amiable and great Lord Russell. Another victim of these loyal servants was Algernon Sydney, whose offence was his loyalty to the people's rights and the constitu- tion. Ho had no sympathy with the spurious loyalty of the hon. gentlemen opposite, which, while it trampled on the peo- ple, was the slave of the court — a loyalty which, from the dawn of the history of the world down to the present day, had lashed humanity into rebellion. He would not go to ancient history ; but he would tell the hon. gentlemen opposite of one great ex- hibition of this loyalty ; on an occasion when the people of a distant Roman province contemplated the perpetration of the 124 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A, MACDONALD. foulest crime that the page of history records — a crime from which Nature in compassion hid her face and strove to draw a veil over ; but the heathen Roman lawgiver could not be in- duced by perjured witnesses to place the great founder of our religion upon the cross. * I find no fault in him,' he said. But these provincials, after endeavouring by every other means to effect their purpose, had recourse to this spurious loyalty — ' If thou lettest this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend.' Mark the loyalty ; could they not see every feature of it ; could they not trace it in this act ; aye, and overcome by that mawkish, spurious loyalty, the heathen Roman governor gave his sanc- tion to a deed whose foul and impure stain eighteen centuries of national humiliation and suffering have been unable to efface. This spurious, slavish loyalty was not British stuff ; this spuri- ous, bullying loyalty never grew in his native land. British loyalty wrung on the field of Runnymede, from the tyrant king, the great charter of English liberty. Aye, the barons of Eng- land, with arms in their hands, demanded and received the great charter of their rights. British loyalty, during a period of three centuries, wrung from tyrant kings thirty different recognitions of that great charter. Aye, and at the glorious era of the revolution, when the loyal Jeffries was ready, in his extreme loyalty, to hand over England's freedom and rights to the hands of tyrants, the people of England established the constitution which has maintained England till this day, a great, free and powerful nation." Again and again did Sir Allan, tortured by the merciless lash, rise in his place, but still the long pent-up stream of manly wrath and contempt poured forth. " The expression * rebel * " continued the speaker, " has been applied by the gallant knight opposite, to some gentlemen on this side of the house, but I can tell gentlemen on the other side that their public conduct has proved that they are the rebels to the constitution and their country." It required but one taunt more to bring on the climax — and that tau came. " And there sit the loyal men," con- RULING IN STORM. 125 tinued the avenging member, pointing deliberately at the oppo- sition benches, " there sit the loyal men who shed the blood of the people and trampled on their just rights. There sit the rebels." Choking with rage, Sir Allan arose once again and repudiated the epithet rebel as applied to him, and asked Mr. Blake to retract. This the honourable gentleman firmly refused to do,- whereupon a sudden uproar arose through the house, which was followed by a turmoil in the galleries, where spec- tators had joined in the discussion. Several breaches of the peace were committed, and men grappled and struck at each other admidst the terrified screams of ladies. Many of the disturbers were arrested and the galleries cleared, the ladies seeking refuge in the body of the house. For twenty minutes the chamber was a scene of wild confusion, and remained with closed doors. The sergeant-at-arms was sorely tried to prevent a collision between Mr. Blake and Sir Allan. As the discussion on the bill drew to a close, Mr. John A. Mac- donald, who had all along preserved a stolid silence, rose in his place and told Mr. Speaker that this measure was not going to pass without his protest, and that while his physical strength endured he would oflfer it resistance. Mr. Macdonald was one of the few members of the opposition against whom the charge of inconsistency for opposing the bill could not be brought, for when Mr. Draper introduced the bill which was the parent of the pre- sent measure, Mr. Macdonald had not yet entered the ministiy , and was only a passive, if not contemptuous, member of the tory side of the house. Now, however, he became active, and if we can believe the newspaper reports, "fierce." He brought in a petition from his constituents, praying that the moneys of the people of Upper Canada be " withheld from the rebels of Lower Canada." He entreated the government to move slowly and carefully with the bill, and when a minister remarked that they were only waiting for him " to get done speaking to pass it," he launched out fiercely against the promoters of the mea- sure, charging them with utter disregard of the sense of the 126 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A, MACDONALD. country, and wanton discourtesy to members of the opposition. He affirmed that the country was aroused against them, and that they were drawing down grave dangers, not alone upon their own heads, but upon the peace of the province. He de- precated the surrender of the interests of Upper Canada into the hands of the members of Lower Canada for party purposes, and hurled no few epithets against Mr. Baldwin. But despite this last effort to kill time, and liLs reading a locg roll of the Mackenzie lettera through the tedious night, the bill passed the lower house by a vote of forty-seven to eighteen. The next day, speaking of the debate, the Pilots the leading ministerial organ, said : " In vain the hopeful ex-commissioner of crown lands, Mr. J. A. Macdonald, ranted aU-ut wanton and disgraceful lack of courtesy, and thundered at Mr. Baldwin, the charge of having sold Upper Canada to Lower Canada. It was all to no purpose. Three-fourths of the house were buried in refreshing slumbers. • * * He made a last faint effort to prolong the discussion by reading some thirty papers of Mr. Mackenzie's published letters — and then the whole house was silent." There only remains the sequel of tory consistency now to be told to complete this chapter of disgrace. The bill had no sooner passed the house than petitions to the governor-general, praying for its disallowance, poured in from every quarter. Lord Elgin received petition after petition in his closet, read each one carefully and thoughtfully pondered the whole question over. He plainly saw that the petitioners, who were toiies, were en- deavouring to force him into conflict with his ministry and to act over again the part of Lord Metcalfe. And the longer the governor pondered the deeper the impression grew that his duty lay in assenting to the bUi. His reasons for this conclusion were abundant and irresistible ; and since they were so, he argued that it would be unwoi-thy in him to shift upon the shoulders of the sovereign the onus of assent or disallow- ance. In the first place dissolution appeared to him unwise and uncalled for. as the ministry had been elected but a RULING IN STORM. U7 tew months before on writs issued at the request of their op- ponents. Then the measure was carried in the popular branch by a vote of more than two to one ; and an analysis of this vote showed that of the thirty-one representatives from Upper Canada, seventeen voted for the measure and 14 against it; and of ten members of British origin from Lower Canada six voted for and only four against it. Such logic as this was irresistible, and though the governor saw the dark storm-clouds gathering above his head, he manfully resolved to do the right and give his assent to the bill. On the afternoon of \pril 25th, he drove into town at the call of the ministry, to assent to a customs bill, which in con- sequence of the opening of navigation, it was imperative should go into instant etTect. The rumour having gone abroad that assent was to be given to the obnoxious " rebel bill " as it was called, a number of persons opposed to the government, and all of them " gentlemen," packed the galleries of tb« assembly. They made no stir beyond taking snuff or shaking their cam- bric pocket-kerchiefs till the governor nodded his assent to the rebellion bill, when they arose as one man, and with much pounding of feet went out of the building. His excellency did not heed the interruption, and when his business was ended, followed by his suite, passed out to his carriage. But he had no sooner made his appearance outside than the body of loyal- ist gentlemen who had left the building set up a storm of groans, hisses and oaths. Some of them likewise seized bricks, stones or pieces of bottles, while others took addled eggs out of their pockets, and with these missiles an attack was begun on the governor and his party. The vice-regal carriage got away, however, before serious injury was done to anybody. But this was only a small outburst of tory loyalty. Upon the Champ de Mars that evening gathered a large and turbulent crowd. The meeting had been called by placard and Mr. A .- gustus He ward, nephew of the chief justice of Upper Canada, and a society beau, was in the chair. This gentleman made an 128 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A, MACDONALD, inflammatory speech, and was followed by Mr. Ersdale ; Mr, Ferres, a newspaper editor ; Mr. Mack and Mr. M ontgomerie, another journalist, all "gentlemen." Tlie chief subject of the harangue was, **Now is the time for action," while frequently above the din could be heard the cry, " To the parliament build- ings." After the chairman had made the closing remarks he shouted out, " Now boys, three cheers for the Queen ; then let us tfike a walk." The cheers were given and the walk was taken. Up to the parliament buildings surged the crowd of gentlemen loading the nacaes of Lord Elgin and the ministry with blasphemous and obscene epithets. The windows were attacked with stones, after which some hundreds of the mob rushed into the building. The assembly was sitting in com- mittee when the visitors burst through the doors. The members fled in dismay, some taking refuge in the lobbies, and othere be- hind the speaker's chair. Then the rioters passed on tc their work- Some wrecked furniture, others wrenched the legs oflT chairs, tables and desks, while some demolished the chan- deliers, lamps and globes. One of the party, in the midst of ihenxeUe seated himself in the speakers chair and cried out, "The French parliament is dissolved." He was hurled from his place and the chair thrown over and wrecked. The mace was torn out of the hands of Mr. Chisholm, the sergeant-at-arms, and sub- sequently left as a trophy of victory in the room of Sir Allan MacNab at the Donegani hotel. In the midst of the riot and destruction there was a cry of " fire." Flames were then found in the balcony ; and almost simultaneously the legislative coun- cil chamber was ablaze. The party left the building which in a few minutes was doomed. There was little time to save any of the contents, and out of 20,000 volumes not more than 200 were saved. A full length portrait of her majesty, which cost £2,000 was rescued, but on being brought out of the building one of the loyalists punched his stick through the canvas.* * This picture now hangs in the Senate Chamber, facing the throne. B CLING IN STOHM. 129 The fire companies promptly turned out on the tirst alarm, but on their way to the building iell into the hands of the gentlemen engaged in the incendiarism, who detained them till everything had been devoured by the flames. Through some misunderstanding the military were not on hand, and the mob only left after the most brilliant part of the conflagration was over, flown with victory, and athirst for new conquest. It was a direful night in Montreal. Many a blanched face Avas seen in the gleam of the conflagration, and a deep shudder ran through the community at the simultaneous clang- ing of the bells. While the fires of the burning buiWing shone in their windows the ministry held a cabinet and decided to meet the following morning in the Bonsecours Market. There are occasions when feelings lie tbo deep for words, and the opening of the next day's session seemed one of thesa ivir. Baldwin, who made a motion, spoke in a low voice, as if under the influence of some painful spell ; but the worthy Hamilton kuiglit to whom the mob had brought their choicest spoils was in his priraesi talking condition. It is not worth while to re- cord here what he said, but it is woi th stating that Mr. Blake took occasion to make one last comment upon the quality of the loyalty with which the e^rs of the house had been so long as- sailed — "a loyalty " he said, " which one day incited a mob to pelt the governor-general, and to destroy the halls of parlia- ment and the public records, and on the next day sought to find excuses for anarchy.'* It is true indeed that some of the tones had tried to condone the outrages ; but Mr. John Wilson, Mr. Badgle}^ and other conservatives denounced the perpetrators with unmeasured indignity. Mr. John A. Macdonald was one of those who deplored the occurrences, but he censured the Government for lack of pre- caution when they must have known that the outrages were contemplated ; and he attributed all the disgraceful proceedings to the bill they had forced upon the people. In the midst of the general debate he rose and moved that Kingston be adopted 130 LIFE OF SIR JOIIX A. MACVOXALD. henceforth as the seat of govern ment, but his motion was I jst by a vote of fifty-one against ten. And others as well as Mr. Macdonald censured the government for not having adopted measures of protection against the lawlessness of the rioters. Ministers, in a timid sort ot a way, explaineil the absence of the soldiers, but read now, and in the light of the mob's after deeds, their explanations do not seem satisfactory. It is much to be able to say as we look back upon this turbulent time, that there was no shedding of blood, but we have no reason to congmtulate anybody that for nights the mob held possession of a great* city without being confronted by an available mili- tary, whether bloodshed would or would not have been the re- sult of the collision. When the mob will rise, take the bit in their teeth and trample upon the supreme law of peace and or- der they challenge the worst consequences, and have no right to complain of whatever may follow. Forbearance is a virtue we know, but past a certain limit it becomes poltroonery. A coward indeed Lord Elgin was called for submitting twice to the indignities of the rioters without employing the military, but taking all the circumstances into account, whatever grounds there might have been for such a charge against the government there was none whatever for the charge against the governor. His forbearance was dictated by the highest and most worthy of motives. During the day detachments of the mob appeared where the house was in session uttering hoots and groans, and assaulting any member of the government party who exposed himself. But when night fell over the city the stragglers came together and began again the work of destruction. The houses of Mr. Hincks and of Mr. Holmes, and the lodgings of Dr. Price and Ml". Baldwin were attacked and the windows demolished with stones. Then the mob turned to the beautiful residence of M. Lafontaine, but recently purchased, hacking down fruit trees and bui-ning the outbuildings ; then entered the house itself and demolished the furniture and library. Just as the KULiyG IN STORM. 131 torch was being applied to finish the work tlie cold but tardy- steel of the soldiers was seen glittering in the moonlight and the mob fell back with disappointed howls. Then the loyal- ists headed off for Dr. Nelson's but were met there again by the bayonets and shrunk back. This too was another night of terror in Montreal, for small detachments of the mob prowled the city through the darkness wreaking their vengeance upon the windows of houses belonging to known supporters of the government. In the morning placiirds addressed to " the friends of peace " were posted around the city calling a meeting at the Champ de Mars. The chief speakers at this meeting were Hon. George Moffatt and Colonel Gugy. They counselled order and passed an address to the Queen to call Lord Elgin home. On the Saturday following, an address was passed by the house bearing testimony to the justice and impartiality which had characterized his excellency's administration, and express- ing deep sorrow and indignation at the recent outrages. On Monday, his lordship, accompanied by his suite, and escorted by a troop of volunteers, drove in from Monklands to receive this address. But they had no sooner entered the city than they were assailed with insults and pelted with brickbats and rotten eggs. A stone weighing two pounds crashed through the coach, while a continuous fusilade of eggs and blasphemy was kept up. The address was to be read in "government house," a building so called on Notre Dame Street ; and on ar- riving here the governor found his carriage surrounded by a violent mob. A magistrate read the riot act and the soldiers charged, but the mob gave way, cheering for the troops. They were anxious that their loyalty should not be misunderstood On theaddress being read and replied to, the governor set out on his retura to Monklands, going by Sherbrooke Street in- stead of Notre Dame, by which he had come. The mob were outwitted, and set up a howl of baffled rage. They iname- diatelv rallied, however, and, seizing cabs, caleches, and '^ever.v- 132 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD. thing that would run," started off in pursuit. At Molson's Corner they overtook the vice-regal party, and at once began the attack. The back of the coach was driven in with stones, Col. Bruce, the governor's brother, was wounded in the back of the head, and Col. Ermatinger and Capt. Jones received bodily injuries. 'Hie governor himself escaped unhurt. The party eventually distanced the mob and entered the sheltering gates of Monklnnds. Meanwhile the spirit of riot had elsewhere risen its head. Tn several Upper Canada towns where the ultra loyalists were found in strongest force, hooting mobs paraded and smashed the heads ami window^ cf m], noxious persons. In Toronto a number of gentlemen gathered and lit bonfires with all the zeal of religious executioners at Smithfield, and there burnt in efiigy Messrs. Baldwin, Blake, and Mackenzie. The lodgings of the latter, who had just returned from exile, were attacked and battered, lifter which the rioters wreaked their vencreance upon the windows of warehouses occupied by Dr. Rolph and George Brown. But tliis, after all, was only the bad blood of the community. From all parts of Canada addresses poured in upon the governor, commending the fearless attitude he had taken in defence of popular rights. Of all who prized polit- ical freedom the governor was now the darling. But while the masses rejoiced in the better constitutional era which Lord Elgin had inaugurated, a British American league, representing the tory discontent of the time, was formed at Montreal, with branches in Kingston, Toronto and elsewhere. There were many planks in the platform of the new association, one of which was a scheme for the union of the British Noi'th American provinces. Mr. Alexander Mac- kenzie, in his " Life of Hon. George Brown," thus drily refers to the organization : " Like King David's famous army at the Cave of Adullam, every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gath- ered themselves to the meeting of the league. * * They RULING IN STORM. 133 were dubbed Children of the Sun. * * The}' advocated ex- treme toryism, extreme disloyalty, and finally threatened to drive the French into the sea." Towards the end of July, a convention from the league sat at Kinprston for several days, and one of the speakers there was Mr. John A. Macdonald. Confusion and discord reigned through the gathering. Ogle R. Gowan felt seriously disposed to have Lord Elgin impeached before the house of lords ; some other speaker proposed that the league declare for annexation ; another said independence would be better, and each had an instant following. Among the many disgusted at the riot of proposals was Mr. John A. Macdonald, who, at an early date, separated himself from the babel. Other leading members followed suit, and the mam- moth Family gathering fell to pieces. A few of the fragments leorganized themselves into associations whose objects were annexation jukI independence. The news of the outrages created a sensation in England. Mr. Disraeli declared the time to be " a momeiit of the deepest public interest." Mr. Gladstone, who like the whi£e knight at the cross roads had looked at only one side of the shield^ and said it was silver as he set his lance in the rest, declared that Lord Elgin should have disiillowed the bill ; but Lord John Russell, Sir Robert Peel and others defended the action of his excellency, and paid warm tribute to tlie unflinching manliness and broad statesmanship he had shown. In view however of all that had happened, and while the approbation of the British parlianr.ent was ringing in his ears, Lord Elgin felt it his duty to signify that his office was at the disposal of the colonial secretary ; but that official refused to accept the resignation, and took occasion in warm and generous terms to endorse the course of his excellency. The 80th of May was the day fixed for the prorogation of parliament, but Lord Elgin did not deem it well to expose himself for the third time to the passions of the mob without takin^' means of ample defence ; so the commander of the forces, 134 LIFE or SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD. Major-General Rowan came down, and the thunder of cannon announced the close of the last parliament ever to sit in Mon- treal. The summer sped away and autumn came, but tumult still lived in Montreal. In August the ringleaders in the spring riots were rearrested and released again on bail, but the mob flew to arras, and after nightfall giithered like fiends around M. Lafontaine's dwelling. The inmates knew the fate in store for them should they fall into the hands of that mob, and after due warning fired, wounding several of the rioters. One of the gang, William Mason, was shot in the thigh, and as he fell his a.ssociates cried out, " The blood of a Saxon has been shed by a Frenchman." Then, and, as it would seem, when the house and its inmates were about being torn to pieces, the military came and the mob went ofiT, bearing with them the insensible Mason who died next morning. Since the burning of the parliament buildings, the question of removing the seat of government from Montreal to some other city had been under the governor's consideration. The protracted and outrageous disposition of the mob, which ap- peared ready to rise to deeds of destruction at any moment out of cold blood, now decided his course. It was therefore fixed that the remaining two sessions of parliament should be held in Toronto, and that henceforth the sittings should be held at that city and Quebec, at each for four years alternately. Thus was the parliament driven out of Montreal, and thus was the reputation of the city once again, as but too often since, smirch- ed by the lawlessness of her mobs. CHAPTER IX. THE GREAT MINISTRY FALLS. AFTER the wild paroxysm of loyalty had spent itself in storm, many of the tories, who by their speeches had stiired their followers up to the riot point, aivl afterwards attempted to find excuse for their excesses, began to feel ashamed of the part they had j)layed and to be anxious about the consequences. A conclave was held at which it was de- cided to send Sir Allan MacNab and Mr. Cayley to England to avouch in Downing Street the loyalty of the party who had burnt down the parliament buildings, poked sticks through a picture of the queen, and attacked the representative of the sovereign with addled eggs. No one to this day knows what reception these two got at Downing Street ; but as they have re- mained no reserved upon the subject, it would not be hazardous to say that their silence was probably judicious. Hot upon their heels followed Mr. Francis Hincks, accredited by his government to make known fully the ciiuses of the disgraceful outbreaks. We are not surprised that the colonial office about this time took a good deal of our provincial business into its own hands; for if two parties here had a dispute about a jack-knife they ran to Downing Street to have it «ettlr'vith awe for the " belted knight, the duke and earl and a' that," that a king can make, the honour was highly prized at the time by Lord Elgin, and properly prized, for his conduct had been on trial before the home government. He made an extended tour of the province, and at every place was received with evidence of admiration and gi*atitude. As he drove through Toronto a party of gentlemen hurled a few eggs and some bottles at him, but they fell short of the mark. In Kingston a few persons came down to the wharf at which lay the vice- regal steamer, and gave some dismal howls, then slunk away again. This trifling exhibition of tory manners was dictated by fear, however, rather than by hate, for the rumour had got abroad in Montreal that the seat of government was to be le- HON. GEORGE BROWN. THE GREAT MINISTRY FALLS. 137 moved ; whereupon the instigatoi-s of the riots in that city promptly sent out emissaries whose duty it was to see that the governor-general was insulted in any city that was likely to be chosen as the capital. In November the seat of government was changed to Tor- onto, and the offices established in the dreary pile along Front Street, which does duty to the present day. The government met in all its strength, and he were a rash prophet who would predict that it was not impregnable for many years to come. But some shrewd eyes looking through the assemblage of re- formers, saw in this semblance of strength irresistible evidence of weakness. A large majority is to bo coveted when parties are divided by some well marked line, and each avows a set of well understood opinions ; but the government whose party doctrines are yet only in the formative process, is not to be envied of the possession. One day a vote wfis taken in the lower chamber which divided the house upon party issues; and as the reformei-s stood up in all their appalling strength, John A. Macdonald is credited with having observed to a member who sat beside him, " That mighty fabric is soon to go to pieces." His companion replied, " I suppose no government has a perennial leaso, but if numbers aud apparent harmony count for aught, I think their prospects are good." "Ah, yes," said Macdonald, "appxrent harmony! But we shall see." As has been stated already, the reform party comprised not only modarato seekers for reform, but many who desired radical changes, and not a few who thought we ought to fashion our political system after the republican model. The advocates of these innovations pressed their views upon the government, but neither Mr. Baldwin nor Mr. Lafontaine seemed disposed to move any further at once in the direction of reform, and inti- mated that the chano:e desired must come thro uofho^radual stajjes. When the attitude of the leaders became known, a number of the most prominent of th3 government followers met, laid down a new political platform, and resolved to withdraw themsolvea 138 LIFE OF Sm JOHN A. MACDONALD. from the refoiiu party. The clnef names in the new comhi na- tion were David Christie, Dr. John Rolph, James Leslie, and Malcohn Cameron ; and among the concessions they demanded were, abolition of judges' pensioii>, biennial parliaments, uni- vei-sal sutlVage, and election of all public officers. The naine given to the new party was the " Clear Grits," a term which first appeared in the Globe. The appellation appears to have origi- nated during a convei-sation between (ieorge Brown and Cliris- tie. the latter remarking that they wanted in the new move- ment " men who were clear grit" The clear grits h.ul no sooner completed their organization in Upper Canada, than Louis Papineau aroused himself and formed in Lower Canada " Le Parti Rouge" a combination le.-.s radical than revolutionary. We can fancy that member to whom John Macdonald had made the prediction turning aghast as he saw the great fabric which he had regarded as indestructible already split into three parts. And we miglit fancy the astute observer telling him to wonder not, that the "greatest was behind." This double defection set the government reeling; but many of those who stood fast in their allegiance waited upon minis- ters and informed them that the time had now arrived when they expected a settlement of* the long-burning question of the clergy reserves upon a new basia Mr. Baldwin professed himself hostile to a union of Church and St vnturr.v,)iue to say, that, had Mr. Brown nut buen "setLleil down" at this time to politics, the laudable purpose of the Italian priest might have Uned him away into missionary work. Mr. Browu was a warm admiier of Gavazzi, for the Globe of June itJth. 1853, de- scribed him as *' the distinguished defender of the Protestant taith.'* It is seldom two such distinguished defenders of any aith get together and some harm does not come of it. It is iiardly necessary to add that the papacy withstood the shock .f th»' oleric and the journalist. Indeed, both the editor and priest are dead, and Rome still lives, or did, at least, ' up to the hour of going to press." It takes more than a great newspaper and a small padre to destroy an institution that may flourish when the traveller from New Zealand stands •ipon the mined arch of London Bridge. The session of 1850 produced a number of important meas- ures, and the most prominent of these refeiTed to an extension of the canal system, which gave to inland shipping an uninter- i-upted coui-se of navigation from lakes Erie and Ontario by the St. Lawrence to the ocean ; the control of post offices and postal revenues by the Canadian government; and a measure Til E GR EA T MINIS TR r FA LLS. 143 for the establishment of free trade between the pi-ovinces of British North America. Notwithstanding the plenitude of important legislation achieved by the government and the latter's apparent impreg- nableness, it was a house divided against itself, as we have already seen, and soon must fall. Opinion was in a nebulous state among reformers, and just as in the formation of our stellar systems — as some scientists believe — masses of insubor- dinate matter become detached from the main bulk and roll away, each forming a sphere in itself : so the great reform body was dissevered, one portion becoming rouge, another clear grit, still another independent, the balance remaining true to its original conditions. One might suppose that a party made up of so many independent sovereignties as this would be a helpless mass before the skilful attiick of the enemy ; but the conservative party, which was then in its chrysalis state — between a dead and eflete toryism, and the coming conserva- tism — was led by the indiscreet and offensive Sir Allan Mac- Nab, who did not injure his opponents by his bad temper and w 31-se tactics and only disgusted his friends. So coarse, and 8<. insolent were his attacks on Mr. Lafontaine, and even on lord Elgin, that Colonel Gugy, who had been an uncompro- D jsing tory, arose in his placo and disclaimed approval of his UiJider's coui-se. He said he had borne the reproach of such leadership too long, and announced his separation from the party. Several consultations were held among the conservatives, and when the government first began to show evidences of division within its ranks, Mr. Macdonaid proposed a course of action, but Sir Allan broke so repeatedly beyond the lines which had been laid down, that Macdonaid despaired of suc- cess by attack. He summoned philosophy however ; and at a caucus in Toronto, held by his party to adopt "ways and means," after it was decided that no ways or means could be adopted her eraarked, " We need not despair ; their »and& of life 144 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD. are rapidly running themselves out; they will die in due time if we but let them alone." As early a? this date there were seve- ral conservatives of the liberal school who whispered among themselves that so long as Sir Allan was the leader there was little hope for a vigorous conservative party. " MacNab and Sherwood were a pair of weights upon Macdonald's wungs" a (x»nservative of that day tells us, " and some of our party, I for one, felt that there was no hope till w^e got a chavge of idea at the head of our party." It is true MacNab had begun to trim his sails to the popular breeze, so far as he could see the direction in which blew that wind, but he belonged to a past century, and was too old and too stubborn to bend to the demands of the time. During the spring of the following 3'ear, a vacancy occurred in the representation of Haldimand, and a number of candi- dates, among w^hom were George Brown and William Lyon Mackenzie, offered themselves for the seat. We have already introduced Brown, but have made only slight mention of Mac- kenzie. William Lyon Mackenzie, whose figure seen down the galleries of the past, seems in these latter years to the Ciireless student of Canadian history to be suffused with glory, was born at Dundee, Scotland, about the year 1795. In 1824 he established a newspaper at Queenston, Upper Canada, and at once began a galling attack upon the Family Compact. Though he was possessed of a sturdy, independent spirit, and might under ahy circumstances have brought himself into col- lision with the powers of the time, in declaring w^ar against the Compact, he had everything to gain and nothing to lose. After a short journalistic career in Queenston, during which his de- cisive and uncompromising w^ay of dealing with offences against freedom and public morality brought him to some notice, he removed to York and beojan to issue flaming denunciations in the very shadow of the enemy's camp. The oligarchs became enraged at his attacks, and bitterly complained before some of rhe younor gentlemen of their own set, like Henry when pro- THE GREAT MINISTRY FALLS. 145 voked by Becket, that they had no one to rid them of " this fellow's annoyance." The genteel young men consulted about the matter, and one June day in 1826, with canes and kid gloves called at Mackenzie's office ; broke open the doors, bat- tered the face otf some of the types, and bore away a quantity which they threw in the bay. The persecution only made a martyr of the bitter journalist, who thereafter became a sorer thorn than ever in the side of the Family. Two years later the county of York sent him to the assembly, but here he violated privilege by publishing lengthy reports of the legis- lative debates ; and waa expelled. But after the expulsion he was again elected, and again expelled; and the farce was con- tinued till he had been four times elected and as often expelled. In 1834 he was chosen for the second riding of York, and took his seat without molestation. Two years subsequently, parlia- ment was dissolved, and Sir Fnancis Bond Head and his coun- cil adopted corrupt and unmanly ways to keep their opponents out of the assembly. One of the victims was Mackenzie ; and exasperated beyond all endurance, he turned his thoughts to •ebellion. The story of the farce on Gallows Hill has already been told and need not be repeated. Mackenzie tied away through the wintry woods and found an asylum in the re- public for a time, but was afterwards arrested there and thrown into prison. When a pardon was granted to the rebels he made his way back to Canada, and living in the remembrance of the people as a brave man, who with all his indiscretion and impatience, had risked the all he had for popular liberty, he was welcomed to the huntings of Haldimand with vociferous cheers from a thousand lusty throats. But although he seemed to be remembered gratefully by some of the people, he was re- ceived coldly enough by Mr. Baldwin and other members of government The following extract from an unpublished letter, written by him in 1850, to Mr. Aug. Thibodo,of Kingston,will explain his relations to the government, and show also, we believe, why he put himself at the head of a refractory party, 146 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A MACDONALD, after his entry into the legislature. " Mr. Baldwin and his friends steadily strive to keep me down here in means and influence. I applied for three years assembly wages due — retused. Applied for a year's wages due on the Welland Canal — refused. Also for the money due Randal's estate, £500 — refused. In every possible way they have striven to render my residence here burthensome to me. Why is this ? Are the reformers of '37 the tories of '50 ? Or does office and the fear of losing it convert manly oppositionists into timid and crouching plairemen ? If so I trust I'll never be * led into temp- tation.' " The anti-papacy articles of Brown rose before their author in the Haldimand election like the ghost of Banquo, and Mackenzie was elected by a fair majority. Brown went back to his newspaper to print more indiscreet articles, and Mackenzie went to the legislature where, for the remainder of his public career, he was at best a hasty critic with a narrow view and limited conception of public measures. Another new face was seen at this last session of the third parliament under the union, a man who, could he have cast the horoscope, would have seen, down the years, political degradation — let us not say dishonour — whether his star showed he deserved that fate or not. Perhaps it is needless to say that the new member intro- duced to the house was M. Luc Letellier de St. Just. Parliament met in Toronto in the early spring. The chief measure of legislation was a bill making provision for the oonstruction of railways to supplement the canal system, and put Canada in a position to compete with the carriers of the United States, where railroad building had recently become a maiiia. A measure introduced during the session by Mr. Hincks authorized the govemor-in-council to take steps in concert with the governments of the maritime provinces towards the construction of a railway from Hamilton to Quebec, to make connection there with another line to run along the St. Law- rence and through New Brunswick to Nova Scotia, terminating at Halifax. A meeting of delegates was held in Toronto, and THE GREAT MINHSTRY FALLS. 147 measures were adopted towards the construction of the lines. But when the delegates, Mr. Hincks from Canada and Mr. Chandler from New Brunswick, went to England to ask impe- rial aid, they were astonished to find that Joseph Howe had either been guilty of duplicity in leading them to hope that help would be given, or that Earl Grey had deceived Mr. Howe ; for Sir John Pakington informed them that imperial assistance could not be promised. But out of these projects eventually grew the Intercolonial and Grand Trunk railways. Another important measure of the session was the abolition of the law of primogeniture, in defence of which Mr. Macdonald had aired his early eloquence ; but he had grown wiser now, and sat with supreme unconcern while the politicians swept the ideal law of hisyouth off the statute books. Macdonald's attitude during the session was not more demon- strative, and less scornful, than it was on his first appear- ance in the house. On July 19th he brought in a bill relating to the medical profession in Upper Canada, introducing it to the Hou.se in a few terse sentences. The measure met with some opposition, and the chief hostility, though .for what reason it is hard to tell, came from the Solicitor-General, John Sandfield Macdonald. The arguments used by this opponent were very paltry, and as some other members took up the same strain, John A. Macdonald at last became annoyed. " Mr. Speaker," be said, " if the Solicitor-General is to be logical and consistent, after he has opposed my bill, in view of what it aims to do — and its scope and aims are not denied — he ought to introduce a bill to legalize murder." How apt, not to say how crushing, was this thrust must be apparent to those who will now try to conceive of our great body of medical practitioners without ob- ligations, organization, or protection. When the simple brother in one of Matthew Arnold's poems plucked the tiny plant to fling at Balder, the gods laughed at his humour, but presently they saw the Father against whom they had hurled their javelins^n vain fall, pierced by the fragile 148 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A, MACDONALD. weed. The country had seen Mr. Baldwin stand bravely through the clangor of the fire bells, and in the glare of the burning halls of parliament ; saw him supreme when Sir Al- lan MacNab tried once again to coax abroad the spurious Bri- tish Lion ; now they see him, on a measure brought in by William Lyon Mackenzie to abolish the court of Chancery, stand up and declare that he will resign his place in the government. The weed had slain Balder. The -house rejected Mackenzie's measure, but a majority of the Upper Canada mem- bers voted for it; and though Mr. Baldwin was no advocate for "double majorities" he was cut beyond endurance at this rebuke to his ideal court. His lofty spirit could not bend. It was a time of wonders ; for almost immediately afterwards M. Lafontaine arose at his desk and announced his intention of retiring at an early day. "The two masts are overboard," Macdonald remarked in an undertone to Mr. Sherwood ; " a helpless hulk there is left now! " In October, M. Lafontaine withdrew and the other ministers followed him. Lord Elgin, who was now at his lovely resi- dence, Spencer Wood, upon the cliffs of Sillery, sent for Mr. Uincks to form a government. Perhaps Mr. Hincks could not see through the blank wall of the future; perhaps he did get a glimpse through it, but made up his mind to follow the path he had traced out. At any rate he did not send for George Brown, who was burning to get into office, but made up his government as follows : FROM CANADA WEST. Hon. Francis Hincks Premier and Insp'r- General. " W. B. Richards Attorney-General West. " Malcolm Cameron President of the Council. " Dr. John RoLPH CorrCr of Crown Lands, ** Jam es Morkis Postmaster- General. THE GREAT M 11^ IS TRY FALLS. U9 FROM CANADA EAST FoN. A. N. MoRiN l*Tovincial Secretary. " L. T. Drummond Attorney-General East " John Young ComW of Public Works. '* R. E. Caron Speaker of Legislative Council " E. P.Tache Receiver-General. But there was more than one jealous member when Mr. Hincks made out his programme. Mr. John Sandfield Macdonald, who aimed to be attorney -general, was offered the commissioner- ship of crown lands, but refused, and went away muttering ' curses not loud but deep." Mr. Brown, as was rather his wont, fdund vent for his vexation and disappointment in noise, and fulminated more indiscreetly than ever through the Globe. He had little denunciation for the tories — indeed, the tone of his paper was complimentary to John A. Macdonald and man} other candidates of the party, — but he was unsparing of the Government, he who had lashed the clear grits such a brief time before for their treachery in putting themselves in oppo- sition to the " redeemers of the country." But this all happened before he got into the legislature, and, more than all, before he was ignored in the making up of Hincks' cabinet. Once again Canada was in the throes of a general election. ^yi^^ CHAPTER X. "burning" questions. THE new government was pledged to the public to provide measures for an elective legislative council, for increased parliamentary representation, the abolition of seigniorial tenure, and the secularization of the clergy reserves. Of all the ques- tions which had agitated the public mind, this latter was the most prominent, the most galling and unjust. Among the other evils planted in the constitutional act of 1791, were the provi- sions for granting a seventh of the crown lands in the provinces of Canada, for the support of " the Protestant clergy," and the establishment of rectories in every township or parish, " accord- ing to the establishment of the Church of England." In the early history of Upper Canada, the effect of these grants was not felt, but as the population began to spread over the public domain, and it was found that the sanctitied hand of the church had aggregated her reserves in large blocks, to aid in the spread of the gospel according to her way of teaching, a general cry of dissatisfaction was raised. Well might the dissenters have cried with Cassius, " Now is it Rome indeed, and Rome enough." It was Rome without the ceremonies and canonical panoply, but it was Rome monopolized. The heads of other protestant deno- minations met to protest against the injustice. The words " a protestant clergy " excluded the dissenters, whom all imperial statutes ignored ; but the presbyterians stood boldly up and proved that they came within the meaning of the words. The law officers of the Crown, on pondering the question said the Presbyterians were correct in their view, and that the 1.50 '^BUBNIXG'' QUESTIONS. 161 benefit of the act should extend to " these persons, so long as there were any of them in the country." The language of the officers might be taken to refer to moose or bears, but it really did point to " the presbyterians." The sturdiest advocate for the maintenance of the reserves was Dr., afterwards Bishop, Strachan, one of the ablest men that has ever appeared in Canada, and an uncompromising chamj)ion of the church of his second love. He resisted the claims of dissenting bodies — " pre- tensions " he called these claims — and hurried away to Eng- land to fortify the colonial office against the importunities of the outraged denominations. In 1836, Sir John Colborne was recalled to England, but before his departure endowed forty- four rectories to the unspeakable amazement and indignation of the province. To each such rectory was allotted about three hundred and eighty-six acres of land. The law oHicers in Eng- land promptly declared the endowment to be invalid, but Dr. Strachan got together a bundle of documents which he packed off to England ; whereupon the oracles reversed the^r decision. It must certainly have been annoying to officials of the Bri- tish Government to be pestered about every little colonial mat- ter, but they brought the trouble upon themselves by arro- gantly, not to say, impertinently, undertaking to deal with matters which rightly belonged to the jurisdiction of the colo- nial legislatures, in framing our constitutional acts. Nor had they grown more wise, perhaps we should say less meddlesome, in 1840. The Union Act provided that no further reservations were to be made — as if the Canadian government were not the best judge whether more reservations ought to be made or not — and that, of previous sales of reserves, one-third should go to the presbyterian body and two-thirds to the church of England ; and that of the future proceeds of sales, one-third should go to the episcopalians, one-sixth to presbyters,and the remainder "for purposes of public worship or religious instruction in Canada." This latter citation was an insinuation in favour of the dissent- ers; for the framers of the act could not be expected to name 152 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD. the Baptists, Wesleyans, Unitarians, et cretera. But this settle- ment of the question, proposed doubtless by the spiritual peei-s, was made without any regard for the census, and at once caused a cry of anger and dissatisfaction through the country. We know not by what light went the peers when making the ap- propriation. It is their custom when choosing a bishoj>, we know, to pray to be guided in the choice they are about to make, and then to appoint the person named by the prime min- ister. It is not certain that in apportioning the reserve proceeds among the Canadian religious bodies they gave much time to thought or prayer, simply setting down double as much to the episcopalians, whether they numbered ten or ten thou- sand, as to any other denomination. Four years afterwards, discontent at the settlement had reached such a head that a complete seculariziition of the reserves was demanded by the reform party. The question was discussed on the hustings and in the legislature with much passion, and Mr. Henry Price, a congregationalist, at his place in the house, described the reserves, with not less justice than force, as " one of the great- est curses that could have been inflicted upon the land." But the tories showed no inclination to disturb the arrangement. On the contrary, to them, like to the framers of the act of 1791, establishment was one of the dearest features of our ofovern- ment. When the reformers came into office in 1848, the champions of secularization were filled with hope ; but as we have seen, Mr. Baldwin, although opposed to the union of church and state, or rather of God and Mammon, had enough of high church prejudice to be content to let the settlement by the union act abide. In Lower Canada the question was never of any consequence, and for this reason M. Lafontaine was op- posed to opening up the matter again. We shall discuss, in its proper place, the influence it had upon paiiies, how it split governments, begot coalitions, and changed the whole current of our political history. ''BURNING" QUESTIONS. 153 But if the lower province was not concerned about the clergy reserves, it had a ^ievance scarce less exasperating. In the seventeenth century the feudal system still existed in France, and was transferred, though not in all its rigours, to Canada. Large blocks of land were granted by the West India Company to families of the crown, army officers and religious bodies, who held them en sdgnexiHe. This condition embraced the pay- ment of fealty and homage to the king. On the day set apart for doing homage^ came the seigneur, or holder of the granted lands, to the castle of St. Louis in Quebec, and kneeling before the representative of the king, he there, in token of submission, delivered up his sword; which was graciously returned. Nearly all the fertile lands, stretching, for three hundred miles, along the banks of the St. Lawrence were granted to the seigneurs. The latter enjo3'ed many rights and privileges, but they also had their duties. Within their dcinaii^ they had jurisdiction over all offences against the laws save treason and murder. When the seigneurie or any portion of it was sold, a fifth of what it brought, called a quints was paid to the crown. Being unable to cultivate his extensive grant, the seigneur divided it into lots having a frontage of three acres on the St. Lawrence, extending backward eighty acres. The holders of these lots which were granted en rotut^e, were called censitaires. Several annoying conditions were imposed upon the censitaire. He was obliged* "to grind his grain at the seigneur's mill, bake his bread in the seigneur's oven, work for him one or more days in the year, and give him one fish in every eleven for the priv- ilege of fishing in the river before his farm." He was also obliged to pay a small yearly rental, to do military service, to open up and repair roads, and build bridges. If he sold his lot he was obliged to hand over lods et ventes, that is, the twelfth part of the recei[>ts, to the seigneur. The holding descended to the censitaires heir, whose relations to the seigneur remain- • Pnmdii Parknuui : •' The Old R^me in Canada.'* 154 LIFE OF iSIB JOHN A. MACDONALD. ed the same as during the original occupation. Some years after the conquest the censitaires became restive under the in- creased obligations put upon them by the seigneurs, who, in consequence of the system of dividing the seigneurie among all members of the family, were driven to sore straits to maintain a living suitable to their rank. At the time reformers in Upper Canada were demanding a secularization of the. clergy reserves, the wretched censitaire was praying to be released from the yoke of his master. Accounts are given of the most dishonest and harassing measures adopted towards the ignor- ant habitant^ who was not aware that he was being cheated — only knowing that he was being oppressed — by the seigneurs. Some hot-headed Frenchmen, without any instinct of justice, advocated the total sweeping away of seigniorial claims without compensation ; others advocated a joint commutation of what was called the ceiis et rentes by the state and the censitaires ; and the legislature in 184;9 passed an act providing for optional commutation. This measure, however, did not satisfy the habitant, who demanded that the system should be abolished branch and root. Thus the legislature had upon its hands at the period to which our narrative has reached, two important, or, to use the phrase of the time, two " burning " questions. Mr. Francis Hincks, the leader of the government asked to grapple with these questions, was the youngest son of Dr. Hincks, of Breckenborough, Yorkshire, England, and could trace his ancestry far backward, finding a Hincks as alderman of Chester in 1341. Dr. Hincks obtained a fellowship in Trinity College, Dublin, and subsequently became rector of Killyleagh. He was the author of a number of papers on the transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, and on Assyrian, Persian, and Egyp- tian archaeology. Some of his discoveries proved valuable additions to the knowledge of Eastern lore, and chief among these may be mentioned his determination of the value and forms of the Assyrian numerals. After spending some years kt college, his son Francis entered a large business house, and *'BUIiNING" QU£STIONS. 155 subsequently sailed as supercargo to the West Indies, visiting Jamaica, Trinidad, Demarara, and Barbadoes. In the latter city he met a Canadian gentleman with whom he visited Can- ada, for the purpose of studying her commerce. He went back to Ireland, well pleased with the new country, married the second daughter of Alexander Stewai-t, a merchant of Belfast, and soon after returned to Canada, taking up hiy residence in Toronto. €Ie rapidly rose in the estimation of all with whom he came in contact for his great abilities and integi-ity; and after the arrival of Lord Durham to Canada, established the Examiner newspaper. As a journalist he was seen to possess abilities of the highest order, and while he fearlessly sifted every question to the bottom, his style of writing always main- tained the due dignity of the press. In 1841 he was " called out *' for Oxford, and defeated Ids opponent by a majority of thirty-one votes; and was re-elected on going back to his constituency after having accepted the inspector-generalship. Three years later he was defeated by a son-in-law of Admiral Vansittart for the same constituency, but in 1848 was again elected by a majority of three hundred and thirty-five over his old opponent Carroll. Again he entered the government of his first friend in Canada, taking the same office he had held before. In the autumn of 1851, as we have seen, on the retirement of Robert Baldwin, he was called to form a govern- ment. He is to be an interesting figure for some years to come, and we must not anticipate his career. M. Augustin Norbert Morin, his " other half," as the second government head used to be called in those days, was born at St. Michel, district of Quebec, in 1803. He studied law in the office of D. B. Viger, and was called to the bar at Montreal, in 1828. In his twenty -eighth year he was returned to parlia- ment, and was so brilliant as to fill his friends with great hopes for his future. He entered the Baldwin-Lafontaine ministry as commlssionar of crown lands, in October, 1842, retaining office until Decenibd iLc following year, when, with his col- 166 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD. leagues he was forced out of office by the treachery of the governor. In 1848 he was again retui*ned to parliament, and elected to the speiikership. On the resignation of M. Lafon- taine, three years later, Mr. Hinck's choice fell upon him as the only suitable successor to the retiring statesman. Kaye, whose portraits are not always above suspicion, pays honest tribute to the character of M. Moria. His administrative abilities, he tells us, were of the highest class. He had vast powers of appli- cation, rare conscientiousness, and a noble self-devotion, which in old times would have carried him cheerfully to the stake. His patriotism was of the purest water, and he was utterly without selti-shaess and guile. And he was of so sensitive a nature and so confiding a disposition, that it was said of him he was as tender-hearted as a woman, and as simple as a child. A prominent figure in the new cabinet, a man who as yet had no clear notion of what his party leanings were, was Etienne P. Tachd, receiver-general. He was the descendant of an ancient and distinguished French family, and was born at St Thomas, Lower Canada, in 1795. When the war broke out in 1812, young Tach^ entered the militia of Lower Canada as an ensign in the 5th battalion, and dashed bravely to the front in defence of his country. After the war had closed, he studied medicine and achieved much success in his profession. He was elected to the first parliament under the union, and six years later was appointed deputy -tuljutant-general, which po- sition he retained for two years, when he entered the Lafon- taine-Baldwin ministry as commissioner of public works. On the resignation of L. M. Viger the following year, he became receiver-general, and was allotted to the same office on the for- mation of the Hincks' ministry. Henceforth Mr. Tachd began to evince preferences for the conservative party, and was dur- ing his term of oflice in the reform government a professed admirer of Mr. John A. Macdonald. We shall see that he soon boldly goes to the party whither his sympathies had been ''BUJiNING" QUESTIONS. 157 leading him, and stands at tho head of a government with the member whom it was his wont so warmly to admire. The election was held in the early winter, and resulted in a return of all the new ministers. The position of parties was little changed, save indeed that the only member of the once mighty compact who took his place in the new house was Sir Allan MacNab, and he only won his seat by repudiating many of the principles which he had been in the habit of defending with much fury. One of the surprises of the election was the rejection of the honoured ex-leader of the reform party by the electors of North York for a ciindidate who up to the time had been unknown to the electorate. The fact is that the public mind had been excited during the summer about the question of secularization, and the suspicion got abroad that Mr. Baldwin looked upon ^he disturbance of the existing set- tlement with no friendly eye. And so when he appeared at the hustings a throng of his friends waited upon him, and bluntly requested him to pledge him.'^elf to support secularization. It is not strange that Robert Baldwin should receive a request like this with scorn. He calmly told his supporters that he came before them with no claim upon their regards save what a record of his public career had given him; that he had always acted unfettered by pledges, free to do what he believed was right ; that he would not fetter himself now, and if they sent him to the legislature he would go there free of pledges. They rejected him, and took the unknown. John A. Macdonald, whose popularity had flagged not since his first election, was returned again for Kingston, but took his seat not in that listless manner which was his wont, but sat up at his desk, his eye upon every movement that was made. Mr. John Sandtield Macdonald, who was burning for an opportunity to be avenged on Mr. Hincks, was elected speaker. The Speech made reference to the proposed intro- duction of decimal currency, to railways, the attitude of the imperial government towards secularization of the clergy re- 158 LIFE OF SIR JOHN A. MA CD ON A LD. serves, and the expediency of settling the grievance of seignorial tenure. Some life was introduced into the debate on the address by George Brown, who made his maiden speech — a slashing and effective effort, and perhaps as forcible an array of raw material as had ever been presented to that parliament. In after years Mr. Brown's style of parliamentary speaking improved, but not very much. This first speech of his revealed all his strength, and not a few of his defects. He had a prodigious capacity for getting facts together, and these he flung with a tremendous force in the face of his audience. Only the one qualification of an orator had he, however, and that was this force, a quality which was perhaps made better by having to it a nervous side. It was homely, blunt speech, strongly made, and that was alL It lacked all the accomplish me^jts and many of the gifts which are essential to oratory. It was devoid of imagination, of sarcasm, of humour, of irony, of pathos, of scorn. We know that facts can be honestly and effectually told without these gifts and graces, but we are merely pointing out that it is a delusion to suppose that Mr. Brown was an orator. He was a man of much honest purpase, of rugged, strong intellect ; so rugg6