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LETTERS AND JOURNALS OF JAMES, EIGHTH EARL OF ELGIN

GOVERNOR OF JAMAICA, GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA, ENVOY TO CHINA, VICEROY OF INDIA

EDITED BY THEODORE WALROND, C.B.

WITH A PREFACE BY ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, D.D. DEAN OF WESTMINSTER

PREFACE.

Having been consulted by the family and friends of the late Lord Elgin as to the best mode of giving to the world some record of his life, and having thus contracted a certain responsibility in the work now laid before the public, I have considered it my duty to prefix a few words by way of Preface to the following pages.

On Lord Elgin's death it was thought that a career intimately connected with so many critical points in the history of the British Empire, and containing in itself so much of intrinsic interest, ought not to be left without an enduring memorial. The need of this was the more felt because Lord Elgin was prevented, by the peculiar circumstances of his public course, from enjoying the familiar recognition to which he would else have been entitled amongst his contemporaries in England. 'For' (if I may use the words which I have employed on a former occasion) 'it is one of the sad consequences of a statesman's life spent like his in the constant service of his country on arduous foreign missions, that in his own land, in his own circle, almost in his own home, his place is occupied by others, his very face is forgotten; he can maintain no permanent ties with those who rule the opinion, or obtain the mastery, of the day; he has identified himself with no existing party; he has made himself felt in none of those domestic and personal struggles which, attract the attention and fix the interest of the many who contribute in large measure to form the public opinion of the time. For twenty years the few intervals of Lord Elgin's residence in these islands were to be counted not by years, but by months; and the majority of those who might be reckoned amongst his friends and acquaintances, remembered him chiefly as the eager and accomplished Oxford student at Christ Church or at Merton.'

The materials for supplying this blank were, in some respects, abundant. Besides the official despatches and other communications which had passed between himself and the Home Government during his successive absences in Jamaica, Canada, China, and India, he had in the two latter positions kept up a constant correspondence, almost of the nature of a journal, with Lady Elgin, which combines with his reflections on public events the expression of his more personal feelings, and thus reveals not only his own genial and affectionate nature, but also indicates something of that singularly poetic and philosophic turn of mind, that union of grace and power, which, had his course lain in the more tranquil walks of life, would have achieved no mean place amongst English thinkers and writers.

These materials his family, at my suggestion, committed to my friend Mr. Theodore Walrond, whose sound judgment, comprehensive views, and official experience are known to many besides myself, and who seemed not less fitted to act as interpreter to the public at large of such a life and character, because, not having been personally acquainted with Lord Elgin, or connected with any of the public transactions recorded in the following pages, he was able to speak with the sobriety of calm appreciation, rather than the warmth of personal attachment. In this spirit he kindly undertook, in the intervals of constant public occupations, to select from the vast mass of materials placed at his disposal such extracts as most vividly brought out the main features of Lord Elgin's career, adding such illustrations as could be gleaned from private or published documents or from the remembrance of friends. If the work has unavoidably been delayed beyond the expected term, yet it is hoped that the interest in those great colonial dependencies for which Lord Elgin laboured, has not diminished with the lapse of years. It is believed also that there is no time when it will not be good for his countrymen to have brought before them those statesmanlike gifts which accomplished the successful accommodation of a more varied series of novel and entangled situations than has, perhaps, fallen to the lot of any other public man within our own memory. Especially might be named that rare quality of a strong overruling sense of the justice due from man to man, from nation to nation; that 'combination of speculative and practical ability' (so wrote one who had deep experience of his mind) 'which peculiarly fitted him to solve the problem how the subject races of a civilised empire are to be governed;' that firm, courageous, and far-sighted confidence in the triumph of those liberal and constitutional principles (in the best sense of the word), which, having secured the greatness of England, were, in his judgment, also applicable, under other forms, to the difficult circumstances of new countries and diverse times.

'It is a singular coincidence,' said Lord Elgin, in a speech at Benares a few months before his end, 'that three successive Governors-General of India should have stood towards each other in the relationship of contemporary friends. Lord Dalhousie, when named to the government of India, was the youngest man who had ever been appointed to a situation of such high responsibility and trust. Lord Canning was in the prime of life; and I, if I am not already on the decline, am nearer to the verge of it than either of my contemporaries who have preceded me. When I was leaving England for India, Lord Ellenborough, who is now, alas! the only surviving ex-Governor-General, said to me, '"You are not a very old man; but, depend upon it, you will find yourself by far the oldest man in India."' To that mournful catalogue was added his own name within the brief space of one year; and now a fourth, not indeed bound to the others by ties of personal or political friendship, but like in energetic discharge of his duties and in the prime of usefulness in which he was cut off, has fallen by a fate yet more untimely.

These tragical incidents invest the high office to which such precious lives have been sacrificed with a new and solemn interest. There is something especially pathetic when the gallant vessel, as it were, goes down within very sight of the harbour, with all its accumulated treasures. But no losses more appeal at the moment to the heart of the country, no careers deserve to be more carefully enshrined in its grateful remembrance.

ARTHUR P. STANLEY.

Deanery, Westminster: March 4,1872.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

EARLY YEARS.

Birth and Parentage—School and College—Taste for Philosophy—Training for Public Life—M.P. for Southampton—Speech on the Address—Appointed Governor of Jamaica.

CHAPTER II.

JAMAICA.

Shipwreck—Death of Lady Elgin—Position of a Governor in a West Indian
Colony such as Jamaica—State of Public Opinion in the Island—Questions
of Finance, Education, Agriculture, the Labouring Classes, Religion, the
Church—Harmonising Influences of British Connexion—Resignation
—Appointment to Canada.

CHAPTER III.

CANADA.

State of the Colony—First Impressions—Provincial Politics—'Responsible
Government'—Irish Immigrants—Upper Canada—Change of Ministry—French
Habitans—The French Question—The Irish—The British—Discontents; their
Causes and Remedies—Navigation Laws—Retrospect—Speech on Education.

CHAPTER IV.

CANADA.

Discontent—Rebellion Losses Bill—Opposition to it—Neutrality of the
Governor—Riots at Montreal—Firmness of the Governor—Approval of Home
Government—Fresh Riots—Removal of Seat of Government from Montreal
—Forbearance of Lord Elgin—Retrospect.

CHAPTER V.

CANADA.

Annexation Movement—Remedial Measures—Repeal of the Navigation Laws
—Reciprocity with the United States—History of the Two Measures—Duty of
Supporting Authority—Views on Colonial Government—Colonial Interests the
Sport of Home Parties—No Separation!—Self-Government not necessarily
Republican—Value of the Monarchical Principle—Defences of the Colony.

CHAPTER VI.

CANADA.

The 'Clergy Reserves'—History of the Question—Mixed Motives of the
Movement—Feeling in the Province—In Upper Canada—In Lower Canada—Among
Roman Catholics—In the Church—Secularisation—Questions of Emigration,
Labour, Land-tenure, Education, Native Tribes—Relations with the United
States—Mutual Courtesies—Farewell to Canada—At Home.

CHAPTER VII.

FIRST MISSION TO CHINA—PRELIMINARIES.

Origin of the Mission—Appointment of Lord Elgin—Malta—Egypt—Ceylon
—News of the Indian Mutiny—Penang—Singapore—Diversion of Troops to
India—On Board the 'Shannon'—Hong-Kong—Change of Plans—Calcutta and
Lord Canning—Return to China—Perplexities—Caprices of Climate—Arrival
of Baron Gros—Preparation for Action.

CHAPTER VIII.

FIRST MISSION TO CHINA—CANTON.

Improved Prospects—Advance on Canton—Bombardment and Capture—Joint
Tribunal—Maintenance of Order—Canton Prisons—Move Northward—Swatow
—Mr. Burns—Foochow—Ningpo—Chusan—Potou—Shanghae—Missionaries.

CHAPTER IX.

FIRST MISSION TO CHINA—TIENTSIN.

Advance to the Peiho—Taking of the Forts—The Peiho River—Tientsin
—Negotiations—The Treaty—The Eight of Sending a Minister to Pekin
—Return southward—Sails for Japan.

CHAPTER X.

FIRST MISSION TO CHINA—JAPAN.

Embark for Japan—Coast Views—Simoda—Off Yeddo—Yeddo—Conferences—A
Country Ride—Peace and Plenty—Feudal System—A Temple—A Juggler
—Signing the Treaty—Its Terms—Retrospect.

CHAPTER XI.

FIRST MISSION TO CHINA—THE YANGTZE KIANG.

Delays—Subterfuges defeated by Firmness—Revised Tariff—Opium Trade—Up
the Yangtze Kiang—Silver Island—Nankin—Rebel Warfare—The Hen-Barrier
—Unknown Waters—Difficult Navigation—Hankow—The Governor-General
—Return—Taking to the Gunboats—Nganching—Nankin—Retrospect—More
Delays—Troubles at Canton—Return to Hong-Kong—Mission completed
—Homeward Voyage

CHAPTER XII.

SECOND MISSION TO CHINA—OUTWARD.

Lord Elgin in England—Origin of Second Mission to China—Gloomy
Prospects—Egypt—The Pyramids—The Sphinx—Passengers Homeward bound
—Ceylon—Shipwreck—Penang—Singapore—Shanghae—Meeting with Mr. Bruce
—Talien-Whan—Sir Hope Grant—Plans for Landing.

CHAPTER XIII.

SECOND MISSION TO CHINA—PEKIN.

The Landing—Chinese Overtures—Taking of the Forts—The Peiho—Tientsin
—Negotiations broken off—New Plenipotentiaries—Agreement made—Agreement
broken—Treacherous Seizure of Mr. Parkes and others—Advance on Pekin
—Return of some of the Captives—Fate of the rest—Burning of the Summer
Palace—Convention signed—Funeral of the murdered Captives—Imperial
Palace—Prince Kung—Arrival of Mr. Bruce—Results of the Mission.

CHAPTER XIV.

SECOND MISSION TO CHINA—HOMEWARD.

Leaving the Gulf—Detention at Shanghae—Kowloon—Adieu to China—Island
of Luzon—Churches—Government—Manufactures—General Condition—Island of
Java—Buitenzorg—Bantong—Volcano—Soirées—Retrospect—Ceylon—The
Mediterranean—England—Warm Reception—Dunfermline—Royal Academy Dinner
—Mansion House Dinner.

CHAPTER XV.

INDIA.

Appointed Viceroy of India—Forebodings—Voyage to India—Installation
—Deaths of Mr. Ritchie, Lord Canning, General Bruce—The Hot Season
—Business resumed—State of the Empire—Letters: the Army; Cultivation of
Cotton; Orientals not all Children; Missionaries; Rumours of Disaffection;
Alarms; Murder of a Native; Afghanistan; Policy of Lord Canning;
Consideration for Natives.

CHAPTER XVI.

INDIA.

Duty of a Governor-General to visit the Provinces—Progress to the North-
West—Benares—Speech on the Opening of the Railway—Cawnpore—Grand
Durbar at Agra—Delhi—Hurdwar—Address to the Sikh Chiefs at Umballa
—Kussowlie—Simla—Letters: Supply of Labour; Special Legislation;
Missionary Gathering; Finance; Seat of Government; Value of Training at
Head-quarters; Aristocracies; against Intermeddling—The Sitana Fanatics
—Himalayas—Rotung Pass—Twig Bridge—Illness—Death—Characteristics
—Burial-place.

MEMOIR

OF

JAMES, EIGHTH EARL OF ELGIN,

&c. &c.

CHAPTER I.

EARLY YEARS.

BIRTH AND PARENTAGE—SCHOOL AND COLLEGE—TASTE FOR PHILOSOPHY—TRAINING FOR PUBLIC LIFE—M.P. FOR SOUTHAMPTON—SPEECH ON THE ADDRESS—APPOINTED GOVERNOR OF JAMAICA.

[Sidenote: Birth and parentage.]

James, eighth Earl of Elgin and twelfth Earl of Kincardine, was born in London on July 20, 1811. His father, whose career as Ambassador at Constantinople is so well known in connection with the 'Elgin Marbles,' was the chief and representative of the ancient Norman house, whose hero was 'Robert the Bruce.' From him, it may be said that he inherited the genial and playful spirit which gave such a charm to his social and parental relations, and which helped him to elicit from others the knowledge of which he made so much use in the many diverse situations of his after-life. His mother, Lord Elgin's second wife, was a daughter of Mr. Oswald, of Dunnikier, in Fifeshire. Her deep piety, united with wide reach of mind and varied culture, made her admirably qualified to be the depositary of the ardent thoughts and aspirations of his boyhood; and, as he grew up, he found a second mother in his elder sister, Matilda, who became the wife of Sir John Maxwell, of Pollok. To the influence of such a mother and such a sister he probably owed the pliancy and power of sympathy with others for which he was remarkable, and which is not often found in characters of so tough a fibre. To them, from his earliest years, he confided the outpourings of his deeper religious feelings. One expression of such feeling, dated June 1821, may be worth recording as an example of that strong sense of duty and affection towards his brothers, which, beginning at that early age, marked his whole subsequent career. 'Be with me this week, in my studies, my amusements, in everything. When at my lessons, may I think only of them; playing when I play: when dressing, may I be quick, and never put off time, and never amuse myself but in playhours. Oh! may I set a good example to nay brothers. Let me not teach them anything that is bad, and may they not learn wickedness from seeing me. May I command my temper and passions, and give me a better heart for their good.'

[Sidenote: School and college.]

He learned the rudiments of Latin and Greek under the careful teaching of a resident tutor, Mr. Fergus Jardine. At the age of fourteen he went to Eton, and thence, in due time, to Christ Church, Oxford, where he found him self among a group of young men destined to distinction in after-life —Lord Canning, James Ramsay (afterwards Lord Dalhousie), the late Duke of Newcastle, Sidney Herbert, and Mr. Gladstone.

There is little to record respecting this period of his life; but a touching interest attaches to the following extracts from a letter written by his brother, Sir Frederick Bruce, in November, 1865.

'My recollections of Elgin's early life are, owing to circumstances, almost nothing. In the year 1820 he went abroad with my father and mother, and was away for two years. From that time I recollect nothing until he went to Eton; and his holidays were then divided between Torquay, where my eldest brother was, and Broomhall;[1] and of them my memory has retained nothing but the assistance in his later holidays he used to give me in classical studies.

We were together for about a year and a half at Oxford. But he was so far advanced in his studies, that we had very little in common to bring us together; and I hardly remember any striking fact connected with him, except one or two speeches at the Union Club, when in eloquence and originality he far outshone his competitors.[2]

'I do not know whether Mr. Welland is still alive: he probably, better than anyone, could give some sketch of his intellectual growth, and of that beautiful trait in his character, the devotion and abnegation he showed o poor Bruce[3] in his long and painful illness.

'He was always reserved about his own feelings and aspirations. Owing to the shortness of his stay at Oxford, he had to work very hard; and his friends, like Newcastle and Hamilton, were men who sought him for the soundness of his judgment, which led them to seek his advice in all matters. He always stood to them in the relation of a much older man. He had none of the frailties of youth, and, though very capable of enjoying its diversions, life with him from a very early date was "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought." Its practical aspect to him was one of anxiety and difficulty, while his intellect was attracted to high and abstract speculation, and took little interest in the every-day routine which is sufficient occupation for ordinary minds. Like all men of original mind, he lived a life apart from his fellows.

'He looked upon the family estate rather as a trust than as an inheritance—as far more valuable than money on account of the family traditions, and the position which in our state of society is given to a family connected historically with the country. Elgin felt this deeply, and he clung to it in spite of difficulties which would have deterred a man of more purely selfish views.'

'It is melancholy to reflect,' adds Sir F. Bruce, 'how those have disappeared who could have filled up this gap in his history.' It is a reflection even more melancholy, that the loved and trusted brother, who shared so many of his labours and his aspirations, no longer lives to write that history, and to illustrate in his own person the spirit by which it was animated.

The sense of the difficulties above referred to strongly impressed his mind even before he went to Oxford, and laid the foundation of that habit of self-denial in all personal matters, which enabled him through life to retain a feeling of independence, and at the same time to give effect to the promptings of a generous nature. 'You tell me,' he writes to his father from college, 'I coin money. I uncoined your last order by putting it into the fire, having already supplied myself.'

About the middle of his Oxford career, a studentship fell vacant, which, according to the strange system then prevalent, was in the gift of Dr. Bull, one of the Canons of Christ Church. Instead of bestowing it, as was too commonly done, on grounds of private interest, Dr. Bull placed the valuable prize at the disposal of the Dean and Censors, to be conferred on the most worthy of the undergraduates. Their choice fell on James Bruce. In announcing this to a member of the Bruce family, Dr. Bull wrote: 'Dr. Smith, no less than the present college officers, assures me that there is no young man, of whatever rank, who could be more acceptable to the society, and none whose appointment as the reward of excellent deportment, diligence, and right-mindedness, would do more good among the young men.'

A letter written about this time to his father shows that the young student, with a sagacity beyond his years, discerned the germs of an evil which has since grown to a great height, and now lies at the root of some of the most troublesome questions connected with University Education.

In my own mind I confess I am much of opinion, that college is put off in general till too late;[4] and the gaining of honours therefore, becomes too severe to be useful to men who are to enter into professions. It was certainly originally intended that the degrees which require only a knowledge of the classics should be taken at an earlier age, in order to admit of a residence after they were taken, during which the student might devote himself to science or composition, and those habits of reflection by which the mind might be formed, and a practical advantage drawn from the stores of knowledge already acquired. By putting them off to so late an age, the consequence has been, that it has been necessary proportionably to increase the difficulty of their attainment, and to mix up in college examinations (which were supposed to depend upon study alone) essays in many cases of a nature that demands the most prolonged and deep reflection. The effect of this is evident. Those who, from circumstances, have neither opportunity nor leisure thus to reflect, must, in order to secure their success, acquire that kind of superficial information which may enable them to draw sufficiently plausible conclusions, upon very slight grounds; and [of] many who have this form of knowledge, most will eventually be proved (if this system is carried to an excess) to have but little of the substance of it.

He had meant to read for double honours, but illness, brought on by over- work, obliged him to confine himself to classics. All who know Oxford are aware, that the term 'Classics,' as there used, embraces not only Greek and Latin scholarship, but also Ancient History and Philosophy. In these latter studies the natural taste and previous education of James Bruce led him to take a special interest, and he threw himself into the work in no niggard spirit.[5] At the Michaelmas Examination of 1832, he was placed in the first class in classics, and common report spoke of him as 'the best first of his 'year.' Not long afterwards he was elected Fellow of Merton. He appears to have been a candidate also for the Eldon Scholarship, but without success. In a contest for a legal prize it was no discredit to be defeated by Roundell Palmer.

[Sidenote: Taste for philosophy.]

Some of his contemporaries have a lively remembrance of the eagerness with which, while still a student, he travelled into fields at that period beyond the somewhat narrow range of academic study. Professor Maurice at one time, Dr. Pusey at another, were his delighted companions in exploring the dialogues of Plato. Mr. Gladstone 'remembers his speaking of Milton's prose works with great fervour when they were at Eton together;' and adds the confession—interesting alike as regards both the young students—'I think it was from his mouth I first learned that Milton had written any prose,' This affection for those soul-stirring treatises of the great advocate of free speech and inquiry he always retained: they formed his constant companions wherever he travelled; and there are many occasions in which their influence may be traced on his thought and language. 'I would rather swallow a bushel of chaff than lose the precious grains of truth which may somewhere or other be scattered in it,' was a sentiment which, though expressed in much later life, was characteristic of his whole career. In this spirit he listened with deep interest to the roll of theological controversy then raging at Oxford, though he was never carried away by its violence.

In after life he had little leisure to pursue the philosophic studies commenced at Oxford; but they took deep and permanent hold on his mind, and formed in fact the groundwork of his great practical ability. This is well stated by Sir Frederick Bruce:—

In Elgin (to use the distinctions of Coleridge, whose philosophy he had thoroughly mastered) the Reason and Understanding were both largely developed, and both admirably balanced. And in this combination lay the secret of his success in so many spheres of action, so different in their characteristics, so alike in their difficulties. The process he went through was always the same. He set himself to work to form in his own mind a clear idea of each of the constituent parts of the problem with which he had to deal. This he effected partly by reading, but still more by conversation with special men, and by that extraordinary logical power of mind and penetration which not only enabled him to get out of every man all he had in him, but which revealed to those men themselves a knowledge of their own imperfect and crude conceptions, and made them constantly unwilling witnesses or reluctant adherents to views which originally they were prepared to oppose. To test the accuracy of their statements and observations, and to discriminate between what was fact and what was prejudice or misconception, he made use of the higher faculty of cultivated Reason, which enabled him, by his deep insight into the universal principles of human nature, of forms of government, &c., to bring to the consideration of particular facts the light of an a priori knowledge of what was to be expected under particular circumstances. The result was, that in an incredibly short time, and with little apparent study or effort, he attained an accurate and clear conception of the essential facts before him, and was thus enabled to strike out a course which he could consistently pursue amidst all difficulties, because it was in harmony with the actual facts and the permanent conditions of the problem he had to solve.

[Sidenote: Training for public life.]

The years which followed the completion of his academical studies—those golden years which generally determine the complexion of a man's future life—were not devoted in his case to any definite pursuit; for though he entered himself of Lincoln's Inn in June, 1835, he does not appear to have ever embarked in the professional study of law.

The scanty notices which remain of this period show him chiefly residing at Broomhall, where, in his father's absence, he takes his place in the affairs of the county of Fife; commands his troop of yeomanry; now presides at a farmers' dinner, for which be has written an appropriate song; now, at the request of Dr. Chalmers, speaks at a public meeting in favour of church extension. At one time we hear of long solitary rides over field and fell, during which the thoughts and feelings that stirred in him would take the shape of a sonnet or a poem, to be confided to one of his sisters; at another time he is keeping up a regular correspondence on abstruse questions of philosophy with his brother Frederick, still at Oxford.

In these pursuits, as well as in the somewhat harassing occupation of disentangling the family property from its embarrassments, be was preparing himself for future usefulness by the exercise of the same industry and patience, the same grasp both of details and of general purpose, which be showed in the political career gradually dawning upon him. It was observed that, whatsoever his hand found to do, he did it with all his might, as well as with a judgment and discretion beyond his years, and a tact akin to genius. He was undergoing, perhaps, the best training for the varied duties to which he was to be called—that peculiarly British 'discipline of mind, body, and heart' to which observers like Bunsen attribute the effectiveness of England's public men.

As early as 1834, when he had barely completed his twenty-third year, he published a Letter to the Electors of Great Britain, with the view of vindicating the policy and the position of the Tory leaders, more especially of the Duke of Wellington. A similar motive, the desire of protesting against a monopoly of liberal sentiments by the Whigs, and showing in his own person that a Tory was not necessarily a narrow bigot, impelled him to offer himself as a candidate at the election of 1837, on the occurrence of an unexpected vacancy in the representation of Fifeshire. But, coming forward at a moment's warning, he never had any chance of success, and was defeated by a large majority.

[Sidenote: M.P. for Southampton.]

In the year 1840, George, Lord Bruce, the eldest son of Lord Elgin by his first wife, died, unmarried, and James became heir to the earldom. On April 22, 1841, he married Elizabeth Mary, daughter of Mr. C.L. Cumming Bruce. At the general election in July of the same year he stood for the borough of Southampton, and was returned at the head of the poll. His political views at this time were very much those which have since been called 'Liberal Conservative.' Speaking at a great banquet at Southampton he said—

I am a Conservative, not upon principles of exclusionism—not from narrowness of view, or illiberality of sentiment—but because I believe that our admirable Constitution, on principles more exalted and under sanctions more holy than those which Owenism or Socialism can boast, proclaims between men of all classes and degrees in the body politic a sacred bond of brotherhood in the recognition of a common warfare here, and a common hope hereafter. I am a Conservative, not because I am adverse to improvement, not because I am unwilling to repair what is wasted, or to supply what is defective in the political fabric, but because I am satisfied that, in order to improve effectually, you must be resolved most religiously to preserve. I am a Conservative, because I believe that the institutions of our country, religious as well as civil, are wisely adapted, when duly and faithfully administered, to promote, not the interest of any class or classes exclusively, but the happiness and welfare of the great body of the people; and because I feel that, on the maintenance of these institutions, not only the economical prosperity of England, but, what is yet more important, the virtues that distinguish and adorn the English character, under God, mainly depend.

[Sidenote: Speech on the Address.]

Parliament met on August 19, and, on the 24th, the new member seconded the amendment on the Address, in a speech, of great promise. In the course of it he professed himself a friend to Free Trade, but Free Trade as explained and vindicated by Mr. Huskisson:—

He should at all times be prepared to vote for a free trade on principles of reciprocity, due regard being had to the interests which had grown up under our present commercial system, without which, as he conceived, the rights of the labouring classes could not be protected. Much had been on various occasions said about the interests of the capitalists and the landlords, but unless the measures of a Government were directed equally to secure the rights of the working classes, they never should be supported by a vote of his. It was true that the landlord might derive some increased value to his property from the increase of factories and other buildings upon it, and that the capitalist might more advantageously invest his capital, or he might withdraw it from a sinking concern; but the only capital of the labourer was his skill in his own particular walk, and it was a mockery to tell him that he could find a satisfactory compensation elsewhere.

But the most characteristic part of his speech was that in which he commented on the 'harsh, severe, and unjust terms' in which it had been the fashion to designate those who had taken an opposite view on these questions to that taken by Her Majesty's Government:—

In a day (he said) when all monopolies are denounced, I must he permitted to say that, to my mind, the monopoly which is the most intolerable and odious is the pretension to the monopoly of public virtue.

The amendment was carried by a large majority. Lord Melbourne resigned, and Sir Robert Peel became Prime Minister. About the same time, by the death of his father and his own succession to the peerage, the young Lord's brief career in the House of Commons was closed for ever; no Scottish peer being eligible, according to the commonly received opinion, to sit in the Lower House. He appears, indeed, to have had at one time an idea of pressing the question; but he abandoned this intention on finding that it had been entertained twenty-five years before by Lord Aberdeen, and given up by him on the ground, that the majority of the Scottish Peers looked upon the proposal as lowering to their body, and as implying inferiority on their part to the English Peers.

[Sidenote: Governor of Jamaica.]

At this time it seemed as if the fair promise of eloquence and statesmanship had been shown to public life only to be withdrawn from it; but a path was about to be opened, leading to a new field of action, distant, indeed, and often thankless, but giving scope for the exercise of gifts, both of mind and character, which can rarely be exhibited in a Parliamentary career. In March 1842, at the early age of thirty, he was selected by Lord Stanley, who was then Secretary for the Colonies, for the important post of Governor of Jamaica.

[1] The family seat In Fifeshire.

[2] The most distinguished of all those competitors has borne his testimony to the truth of this expression. 'I well remember,' Mr. Gladstone wrote after his death, placing him as to the natural gift of eloquence at the head of all those I knew either at Eton or at the University.'

[3] His elder brother.

[4] 'We are disposed, in fact, to regard the question, of University extension, in this sense, as depending entirely on the possibility of reducing the time required for a University degree, and we should like to see more attention paid to this point…. The opinion is strongly and widely entertained, that students now stay too long at the Public Schools and Universities, and that voting men ought not to be engaged in the mere preparatory studies of their life up to the age of twenty-three or twenty-four.'—Times, May 22, 1869.

[5] There remains a memorandum in his handwriting of a systematic course of study to be pursued for his degree, in which two points are remarkable—1st, the broad and liberal spirit in which it is conceived; 2ndly, that the whole is based on the Bible. Ancient History, together with Aristotle's Politics and the ancient orators, are to be read 'in connection with the Bible History,' with the view of seeing 'how all hang upon each other, and develops the leading schemes of Providence.' The various branches of mental and moral science he proposes, in like manner, 'to hinge upon the New Testament, as constituting, in another line, the history of moral and intellectual development.'

CHAPTER II.

JAMAICA.

SHIPWRECK—DEATH OF LADY ELGIN—POSITION OF A GOVERNOR IN A WEST INDIAN COLONY SUCH AS JAMAICA—STATE OF PUBLIC OPINION IN THE ISLAND—QUESTIONS OF FINANCE, EDUCATION, AGRICULTURE, THE LABOURING CLASSES, RELIGION, THE CHURCH—HARMONISING INFLUENCES OF BRITISH CONNEXION—RESIGNATION —APPOINTMENT TO CANADA.

[Sidenote: Shipwreck.]
[Sidenote: Death of Lady Elgin.]

Lord Elgin sailed for Jamaica in the middle of April 1842. The West Indian steamers at that time held their rendezvous for the collection and distribution of the mails not, as now, at St. Thomas, but at a little island called Turk's Island, a mere sandbank, hedged with coral reefs. The vessel in which Lord Elgin was a passenger made this island during the night; but the captain, over anxious to keep his time, held on towards the shore. They struck on a spike of coral, which pierced the ship's side and held her impaled; fortunately so, for she was thus prevented from backing out to sea and foundering with all hands, as other vessels did. Though the ship itself became a total wreck, no lives were lost, and nearly everything of value was saved; but from the shock of that night Lady Elgin, though apparently little alarmed at the time, never recovered. Two months afterwards, in giving birth to a daughter, now Lady Elma Thurlow, she was seized with violent convulsions, which were nearly fatal; and though, to the surprise of the medical men, she rallied from this attack, her health was seriously impaired, and she died in the summer of the following year.

[Sidenote: Position of a Governor in a West Indian colony]

There are probably few situations of greater difficulty and delicacy than that of the Governor of a British colony which possesses representative institutions. A constitutional sovereign, but with frail and temporary tenure, he is expected not to reign only but to govern; and to govern under the orders of a distant minister, who, if he has one eye on the colony, must keep the other on home politics. Thus, without any power in himself, he is a meeting-point of two different and generally antagonistic forces—the will of the imperial government and the will of the local legislature. To act in harmony with both these forces, and to bring them into something of harmony with each other, requires, under the most favourable circumstances, a rare union of firmness with patience and tact. But the difficulties were much aggravated in a West Indian colony in the early days of Emancipation.

[Sidenote: such as Jamaica.]

Here the local legislature was a democratic oligarchy, partly composed of landowners, but chiefly of overseers, with no permanent stake in the country. And this legislature had to be induced to pass measures for the benefit of those very blacks of whose enforced service they had been deprived, and whose paid labour they found it difficult to obtain. Add to this that, in Jamaica, a long period of contention with the mother-country had left a feeling of bitter resentment for the past, and sullen despondency as regards the future. Moreover, the balance had to be held between the Church of England on the one hand, which was in possession of all the ecclesiastical endowments, and probably of all the learning and cultivation of the island, and, on the other hand, the various sects, especially that of the Baptists, who, having fought vigorously for the Negroes in the battle of Emancipation, now held undisputed sway over their minds, and who, as was natural, found it difficult to abandon the position of demagogues and agitators.

Lord Elgin was at once fortunate and unfortunate in coming after the most conciliatory and popular of governors, Sir C. Metcalfe. The island was in a state of peace and harmony which had been long unknown to it; but the singular affection, which Metcalfe had inspired in all classes, made them look forward with the most gloomy forebodings to the advent of his successor.

[Sidenote: State of opinion in the island.]

Moreover, to use Lord Elgin's own language, a tone of despondency with reference to the prospects of the owners of property had long been considered the test of a sincere regard for the welfare of Jamaica. He who had been most successful in proclaiming the depression under which the landed and trading interests laboured, had been held to be in the popular acceptation of the term the truest friend to the colony.

Nothing could be more alien to the spirit of inquiry and enterprise which leads to practical improvement. In an enervating climate, with a proprietary for the most part non-resident, and a peasantry generally independent of their employers, much encouragement is requisite to induce managers to encounter the labour and responsibility which attends the introduction of new systems; but, by reason of the unfortunate prepossession above described, the announcement of a belief that the planters had not exhausted the resources within their reach, had been considered a declaration of hostility towards that class.

And truly (wrote Lord Elgin himself) the onus probandi lay, and pretty heavily too, upon the propounder of the obnoxious doctrine of hope. Was it not shown on the face of unquestioned official returns, that the exports of the island had dwindled to one-third of their former amount? Was it not attested even in Parliament, that estates, which used to produce thousands annually, were sinking money year after year? Was it not apparent that the labourers stood in a relation of independence towards the owners of capital and land, totally unknown to a similar class in any fully peopled country? All these were facts and indisputable. And again, was it not equally certain that undeserved aspersions were cast upon the planters? Were they not held responsible for results over which they could exercise no manner of control? and was it not natural that, having been thus calumniated, they should be somewhat impatient of advice?

From the day of Lord Elgin's arrival in the colony, he was convinced that the endeavour to work a change on public opinion in this respect, would constitute one of his first and most important duties; but he was not insensible to the difficulties with which the experiment was surrounded. He felt that a new Governor, rash enough to assert that all was not yet accomplished which ingenuity and perseverance could achieve, might have perilled his chance of benefiting the colony. Men would have said, and with some truth, 'he knows nothing of the matter; his information is derived from A. or B.; he is a tool in their hands; he will undo all the good which others have effected by enlisting the sympathies of England in our favour.' He would have been deemed a party man, and become an object of suspicion and distrust.

It was soon found, however, that the new Governor was as anxious as his predecessor had been to conciliate the good will and promote the interests of all ranks of the community in a spirit of perfect fairness and moderation. The agitation of vexed constitutional questions he earnestly deprecated as likely to interrupt the harmony happily prevailing between the several branches of the legislature, and to divert the attention of influential members of the community from the material interests of the colony to the consideration of more exciting subjects. 'I do not underrate,' he said, 'the importance of constitutional questions, nor am I insensible to the honour which may be acquired by their satisfactory adjustment. In the present crisis of our fortunes, however, I am impressed with the belief that he is the best friend to Jamaica who concentrates his energies on the promotion of the moral well-being of the population, and the restoration of the economical prosperity of the island.'

[Sidenote: Questions of finance]

The finances of the colony were at this time in a state to require the most careful treatment. At a moment when the recent violent change in the distribution of the wealth of the community had left the proprietary body generally in a depressed condition, the Legislature had to provide for the wants of the newly emancipated population, by increasing at great cost the ecclesiastical and judicial establishments; and at the same time it was necessary that a quantity of inconvertible paper recently set afloat should be redeemed, if the currency was to be fixed on a sound basis. Under these conditions it was not easy to equalise the receipts and expenditure of the island treasury; and the difficulty was not diminished by the necessity of satisfying critics at home. Before long an occasion arose to test Lord Elgin's tact and discretion in mediating on such questions between the colony and the mother-country.

Towards the end of 1842 a new tariff was enacted by the legislature of the island. When the Act embodying it was sent home, it was found to violate certain economical principles recently adopted in this country. An angry despatch from Downing Street informed Lord Elgin that it was disapproved, and that nothing but an apprehension of the financial embarrassments that must ensue prevented its being formally disallowed. In terms almost amounting to a reprimand, it was intimated that the adoption of such objectionable enactments might be prevented if the Governor would exercise the legitimate influence of his office in opposing them; and it was added, 'If, unfortunately, your efforts should be unsuccessful, and if any such bill should be presented for your acceptance, it is Her Majesty's pleasure and command that you withhold your assent from it.'

Lord Elgin replied by a temperate representation, that it was but natural that traces of a policy long sanctioned by the mother-country should remain in the legislation of the colony; that the duties in question were not found injuriously to check trade, while they were needed to meet the expenditure: moreover, that the Assembly was, and always had been, extremely jealous of any interference in the matter of self-taxation: lastly, that 'while sensible that the services of a Governor must be unprofitable if he failed to acquire and exercise a legitimate moral influence in the general conduct of affairs, he was at the same time convinced that a just appreciation of the difficulties with which the legislature of the island had yet to contend, and of the sacrifices and exertions already made under the pressure of no ordinary embarrassments, was an indispensable condition to his usefulness.'

The Home Government felt the weight of these considerations, and the correspondence closed with the revocation of the peremptory command above quoted.

[Sidenote: Education.]

The object which Lord Elgin had most at heart was to improve the moral and social condition of the Negroes, and to fit them, by education, for the freedom which had been thrust upon them; but, with characteristic tact and sagacity, he preferred to compass this end through the agency of the planters themselves. By encouraging the application of mechanical contrivances to agriculture, he sought to make it the interest not only of the peasants to acquire, but of the planters to give them, the education necessary for using machinery; while he lost no opportunity of impressing on the land-owning class that, if they wished to secure a constant supply of labour, they could not do so better than by creating in the labouring class the wants which belong to educated beings.

The following extracts from private letters, written at the time to the Secretary of State, contain the freshest and best expression of his views on these and similar questions of island politics:—

In some quarters I am informed, that less desire for education is shown now by the Negroes than during the apprenticeship; and the reason assigned is, that it was then supposed that certain social and political advantages would accrue to those who were able to read, but that now, when all is gained, and all are on a par in these respects, the same zeal for learning no longer prevails. It has been suggested that a great impulse might be given in this direction, by working on the feeling which existed formerly; confining the franchise for instance to qualified persons who could read, or by some other expedient of the same nature. This being an important constitutional question, I have not thought it right to give the notion any encouragement; but I submit it as coming from persons who are, I believe, sincere well-wishers to the Negro. It is not very easy to keep children steadily at school, or to enforce a very rigid discipline on them when they are there. Parents who have never been themselves educated, cannot be expected to attach a very high value to education. The system of Slavery was not calculated to strengthen the family ties; and parents do not, I apprehend, exercise generally a very steady and consistent control in their families. The consequence is, that children are pretty generally at liberty to attend school or not as they please. If the rising generation, however, are not educated, what is to become of this island? That they have withdrawn themselves to a considerable extent from field labour is, I think, generally admitted. It is therefore undoubtedly desirable that all legitimate inducements should be held out, both to parents and children, to encourage the latter to attend school.

In urging the adoption of machinery in aid of manual labour, one main object I have had in view has ever been the creation of an aristocracy among the labourers themselves; the substitution of a given amount of skilled labour for a larger amount of unskilled. My hope is, that we may thus engender a healthy emulation among the labourers, a desire to obtain situations of eminence and mark among their fellows, and also to push their children forwards in the same career. Where labour is so scarce as it is here, it is undoubtedly a great object to be able to effect at a cheaper rate by machinery, what you now attempt to execute very unsatisfactorily by the hand of man. But it seems to me to be a still more important object to awaken this honourable ambition in the breast of the peasant, and I do not see how this can be effected by any other means. So long as labour means nothing more than digging cane holes, or carrying loads on the head, physical strength is the only thing required, no moral or intellectual quality comes into play. But, in dealing with mechanical appliances, the case is different; knowledge, acuteness, steadiness are at a premium. The Negro will soon appreciate the worth of these qualities, when they give him position among his own class. An indirect value will thus attach to education.

Every successful effort made by enterprising and intelligent individuals to substitute skilled for unskilled labour; every premium awarded by societies in acknowledgment of superior honesty, carefulness, or ability, has a tendency to afford a remedy the most salutary and effectual which can be devised for the evil here set forth.

[Sidenote: Agriculture.]

With the view of awakening an interest in the subject of agricultural improvements, Lord Elgin himself offered a premium of 100_l_. for the best practical treatise on the cultivation of the cane, with a special reference to the adoption of mechanical aids and appliances in aid or in lieu of mechanical labour. In forwarding to Lord Stanley printed copies of eight of the essays which competed for the prize, he wrote as follows:—

Much, I believe, is involved in the issue of this and similar experiments. So long as the planter despairs,—so long as he assumes that the cane can be cultivated and sugar manufactured at profit only on the system adopted during slavery,—so long as he looks to external aids (among which I class immigration) as his sole hope of salvation from ruin—with what feelings must he contemplate all earnest efforts to civilise the mass of the population? Is education necessary to qualify the peasantry to carry on the rude field operations of slavery? May not some persons even entertain the apprehension, that it will indispose them to such pursuits? But let him, on the other hand, believe that, by the substitution of more artificial methods for those hitherto employed, he may materially abridge the expense of raising his produce, and he cannot fail to perceive that an intelligent, well-educated labourer, with something of a character to lose, and a reasonable ambition to stimulate him to exertion, is likely to prove an instrument more apt for his purposes than the ignorant drudge who differs from the slave only in being no longer amenable to personal restraint.[1]

One of the measures in which Lord Elgin took the most active interest was the establishment of a 'General Agricultural Society for the Island of Jamaica,' and he was much gratified by receiving Her Majesty's permission to give to it the sanction of her name as Patroness.

I am confident (he writes to Lord Stanley) that the notice which Her Majesty is pleased to take of the institution will be duly appreciated, and will be productive of much good.

You must allow me to remark (he adds) that moral results of much moment are involved in the issue of the efforts which we are now making for the improvement of agriculture in this colony. Not only has the impulse which has been imparted to the public mind in Jamaica been beneficial in itself and in its direct effects, but it has, I am firmly persuaded, checked opposing tendencies, which threatened very injurious consequences to Negro civilisation. To reconcile the planter to the heavy burdens which he was called to bear for the improvement of our establishments and the benefit of the mass of the population, it was necessary to persuade him that he had an interest in raising the standard of education and morals among the peasantry; and this belief could be imparted only by inspiring a taste for a more artificial system of husbandry. By the silent operation of such salutary convictions, prejudices of old standing are removed; the friends of the Negro and of the proprietary classes find themselves almost unconsciously acting in concert, and conspiring to complete that great and holy work of which the emancipation of the slave was but the commencement.

[Sidenote: The labouring classes.]

On a general survey of the state of the labouring classes, taken after he had been a little more than a year in the island, he was able to give a most favourable report of their condition, in all that concerns material prosperity and comfort of living.

The truth is (he wrote) that our labourers are for the most part in the position of persons who live habitually within their incomes. They are generally sober and frugal, and accustomed to a low standard of living. Their gardens supply them in great measure with the necessaries of life. The chief part, therefore, of what they receive in money, whether as wages or as the price of the surplus produce of their provision grounds, they can lay aside for occasional calls, and, when they set their minds on an acquisition or an indulgence, they do not stickle at the cost. I am told that, in the shops at Kingston, expensive articles of dress are not unusually purchased by members of the families of black labourers. Whether the ladies are good judges of the merits of silks and cambrics I do not pretend to decide; but they pay ready money, and it is not for the sellers to cavil at their discrimination. The purchase of land, as you well know, is going on rapidly throughout the island; and the money thus invested must have been chiefly, though not entirely, accumulated by the labouring classes since slavery was abolished. A proprietor told me the other day that he had, within twelve months, sold ten acres of land in small lots, for the sum of 900_l_. The land sold at so high a price is situated near a town, and the purchasers pay him an annual rent of 50_s_. per acre, for provision grounds on the more distant parts of the estate. Again, in most districts, the labourers are possessed of horses, for which they often pay handsomely. A farm servant not unfrequently gives from 12_l_. to 20_l_. for an animal which he intends to employ, not for purposes of profit, but in riding to church, or on occasions of festivity.

Whence then are these funds derived? That the peasantry are generally frugal and sober I have already observed. But they are assuredly not called to tax their physical powers unduly, in order to achieve the independence I have described. Although the estate I lately visited is well managed, and the best understanding subsists between employer and labourers, the latter seldom made their appearance in the field until some time after I had sallied forth for my morning walk. They work on the estate only nine days in the fortnight, devoting the alternate Fridays to the cultivation of their provision grounds, and the Saturdays to marketing and amusements. On the whole, seeing that the climate is suited to their constitutions, that they experience none of the drawbacks to which new settlers, even in the most fertile countries, are subject, that they are by disposition and temperament a cheerful race, I much doubt whether any people on the face of the globe enjoy as large a share of happiness as the Creole peasantry of this island. And this is a representation not over-charged, or highly coloured, but drawn in all truth and sobriety of the actual condition of a population which was, a very few years ago, subjected to the degrading, depressing influences of slavery. Well may you and others who took part in the work of emancipation rejoice in the success of your great experiment.

But was it possible to indulge the same feelings of exultation when contemplating their condition morally, and marking the indications of advance towards a higher state of civilisation? In the island itself controversy was rife as to the degree in which such results had been already achieved, and the promise of further progress. Some of the more enthusiastic and ardent of that class of persons who had been the zealous advocates of the interests of the Negro population at a former period, were now disposed to judge most hardly of their conduct. Their very sympathy with the victims of the system formerly prevailing, led them to conceive unbounded hopes of the benefits, moral and social alike, which a change would effect; the admirable behaviour of the peasantry at the time of emancipation, confirmed such anticipations; and they were now beginning to experience disappointment on finding that all they looked for was not immediately realised. These feelings, however, Lord Elgin did not share.

On the whole (he said) I feel confident that the moral results consequent on the introduction of freedom, have been as satisfactory as could in reason have been expected; and, notwithstanding the very serious pecuniary loss which this measure has entailed in many quarters, few indeed, even if they had the power to do so, would consent to return to the system which has been abandoned. It is gratifying in the highest degree to observe the feelings now subsisting between those who lately stood to each other in the relation of master and slave. Past wrongs are forgotten, and in the every-day dealings between man and man the humanity of the labourer is unhesitatingly recognised.

[Sidenote: Religion.]

We have seen how zealously Lord Elgin exerted himself to realise his own hopes for the prosperity of the colony, by encouraging the spread of secular and industrial education. Not that he regarded secular education as all-sufficient. His sympathies[2] were entirely with those who believe that, while 'it is a great and a good thing to know the laws that govern this world, it is better still to have some sort of faith in the relations of this world with another; that the knowledge of cause and effect can never replace the motive to do right and avoid wrong; that our clergymen and ministers are more useful than our schoolmasters; that Religion is the motive power, the faculties are the machines: and the machines are useless without the motive power.'[3] But, as a practical statesman, he felt that the one kind of education he had it in his power to forward directly by measures falling within his own legitimate province; while the other he could only promote indirectly, by pointing out the need for it, and drawing attention to the peculiar circumstances of the island respecting it. The following are a few of the passages in which he refers to the subject:—

[Sidenote: The Church.]

Much has been done by the island legislature—more, I think, than could reasonably have been looked for under the circumstances—towards making provision for the religious necessities of the population. But the daily formation of small mountain settlements, and the consequent dispersion of large numbers in districts remote from the established places of worship, adds greatly to the difficulty of extending to all these humanising and civilising influences. The Church can keep its footing here only by the exhibition of missionary zeal and devotion, tempered by a spirit of Christian benevolence and conciliation. I regret to say that some of the unhappy controversies which are vexing the Church in England have broken out here of late. Discussions of this nature are singularly unprofitable where the people need to be instructed in the very rudiments of Christian knowledge, and where it is so desirable to keep well with all who profess to have a similar object in view.

A single bishop in a colony, where large funds are provided by the State for Church purposes, and where he is beyond the reach of the public opinion of England, exercises a very great and irresponsible authority. If a zealous man, of extreme views on points of doctrine, the clergy of the diocese, looking to him alone for advancement in their profession, are apt to echo his sentiments; and the wide folding doors of our mother Church, which she flings open for the reception of so many, to use Milton's words, 'brotherly dissimilitudes that are not vastly disproportioned,' are contracted, to the exclusion, perchance, of some whom it were desirable to retain in our communion. If, on the other hand, he be a man of but moderate piety, ability, and firmness, the importunity of friends at a distance, who may wish to provide for dependents or connections, and other considerations which need not be enumerated, may tempt him to lower the standard of ministerial qualification, of which he is, of course, the sole judge. It requires a person of much Christian principle, and singular moderation, discretion, and tact, to administer powers of this nature well. I have every hope that the bishop whom you have sent us will prove equal to the task. For the sake of humanity and civilisation, as well as for the interests of the island, I fervently trust that I may not be disappointed in my expectations on this head.

The complex and thwarting currents of interest and opinion that may exist in a colony respecting the maintenance of a State Church are well illustrated in the following extracts:—

Very soon after I arrived here, I felt satisfied that the conflicts of party in the colony would ere long assume a new character. I perceived that the hostility to the proprietary interests, which was supposed to actuate certain classes of persons who had much influence with the peasantry, was on the decline. Should a state of quiescence prove incompatible with the maintenance of their hold on their flocks, analogy led me to anticipate that the Established Church would, in all probability, become an object of attack.

Considering the facility with which the franchise may be acquired, it is not a little remarkable that the constituency should have hitherto increased so slowly. This phenomenon has not escaped the notice of the opponents of the union of Church and State, and they have ascribed it to the true cause. They are sensible that all uneducated population in easy circumstances, without practical grievances, are not likely to be intent on the acquisition of political privileges. They have, therefore, undertaken to supply them with a grievance, in order to whet their appetite for the franchise, and also to provide them with guides who shall instruct them in the proper use of it. But in attempting to carry this scheme into effect they have encountered an obstacle, which has, for the time, entirely frustrated their intentions. The more educated and intelligent of the brown party listen with disapprobation to the tone in which the Baptist ministers and their adherents arrogate to themselves exclusively the title of friends and leaders of the black population. Many persons of this class have already embarked in public life; some, as members of Assembly, have taken part in those transactions which are the object of the bitterest denunciations of the Anti-Church party. A few are Churchmen, others Wesleyans. The prospect of a Baptist oligarchy ruling in undivided sway disquiets them. They have their doubts as to whether, in the present stage of our civilisation, the peasantry of this Island would evince much discrimination in their selection of a religion if left in that matter entirely to themselves. In the chequered array of colours which our religious world even now presents, comprising every shade, from Roman Catholicism and Judaism, to Myalism, and providing spiritual gratification for every eye, they still think it, on the whole, desirable that predominance should be given to some one over the rest. Many have experienced the bounty of the legislature, which has been most liberal in affording aid to all sects who have applied for it. They are not, therefore, as yet ready for the overthrow of the Church Establishment. But I will not take upon myself to affirm that, as a body, they are prepared to incur political martyrdom in its defence.

But apart from the difficulties—social, moral, and religious—at which we have glanced, there was enough in the political aspect of affairs to fill the Governor of Jamaica with anxiety. The franchise being within the reach of every one who chose to stretch out a hand and grasp it, might at any time be claimed by vast numbers of persons who had recently been slaves, and were still generally illiterate. And the Assembly for which this constituency had to provide members exercised great authority within its own sphere. It discharged a large portion of the functions which usually devolve upon an Executive Government; it initiated all legislative measures, besides voting the supplies from year to year. What hope was there that a body so constituted would wield such powers with discretion?

[Sidenote: Harmonising influence of British institutions.]

Lord Elgin's answer to this question shows that he already cherished that faith in the harmonising influence of British institutions on a mixed population, which afterwards, at a critical period of Canadian history, was the mainspring of his policy.

A sojourner in this sea of the Antilles, who is watching with heartfelt anxiety the progress of the great experiment of Negro emancipation (an experiment which must result in failure unless religion and civilisation minister to the mind that freedom which the enactments of law have secured for the body), might well be tempted to view the prospect to which I have now introduced you with some feelings of misgiving, were he not reassured by his firm reliance on the harmonising influence of British connexion, and the power of self- adaptation inherent in our institutions. On the one side he sees the model Republic of Hayti—a coloured community, which has enjoyed nearly half a century of entire independence and self-rule. And with what issues? As respects moral and intellectual culture, stagnation: in all that concerns material development, a fatal retrogression. He beholds there, at this day, a miserable parody of European and American institutions, without the spirit that animates either: the tinsel of French sentiment on the ground of negro ignorance: even the 'sacred right of 'insurrection' burlesqued: a people which has for its only living belief an ill-defined apprehension of the superiority of the white man, and, for the rest, blunders on without faith in what regards this world or that which is to come.

He turns his eyes to another quarter and perceives the cluster of states which have formed themselves from the breakup of the Spanish continental dominions. What ground of consolation or hope does he discover there?

These illustrations of the working of free systems constructed out of the wreck of a broken-down African Slave Trade are not indeed encouraging; but neither do they, in my opinion, warrant despair. I believe that by great caution and diligence, by firmness and gentleness on the part of the parent state, and much prudence in the instruments which it employs, a people with a heart and soul may be built up out of the materials in our hands. I regard our local constitution as a fait accompli, and have no desire to remove a stone of the fabric. I think that a popular representative system is, perhaps, the best expedient that can be devised for blending into one harmonious whole a community composed of diverse races and colour, and this conviction is strengthened when I read the observations of Sir H. Macleod and Governor Light, on the coloured classes in Demerara and Trinidad. In colonies which have no assemblies, it would appear that aspiring intellects have not the same opportunity of finding their level, and pent up ambitions lack a vent.

In studying the play of the various forces at work around him, and in endeavouring to direct them to good issues, Lord Elgin found the best solace for the domestic sorrow which darkened this period of his life. He lived chiefly in retirement, at a country-house called Craigton, in the Blue Mountains, with his sister, now Lady Charlotte Locker, and his brother Robert, who was also his most able and efficient secretary; seeing little society beyond that occasioned by official intercourse and receptions, which were never intermitted at Spanish Town, the seat of Government. The isolation and monotony of this position, broken only once by a conference held with some of the neighbouring Governors on a question of common interest respecting immigration, could not fail to be distasteful to his active spirit; and when it had lasted over three years, it was not unnatural that he should seek to be relieved from it. Early in 1845 we find him writing to Lord Stanley as follows:—

[Sidenote: Resignation.]

I am warned by the commencement of the year 1845 that I have filled the situation of Governor of Jamaica for as long a time as any of my predecessors since the Duke of Manchester. The period of my administration has not been marked by striking incidents, but it has been one of considerable social progress. Uninterrupted harmony has prevailed between the colonists and the local Government; and it may perhaps, without exaggeration, be affirmed, that the spirit of enterprise which has proceeded from Jamaica during the past two years has enabled the British West Indian colonies to endure, with comparative fortitude, apprehensions and difficulties which might otherwise have depressed them beyond measure. Circumstances have, however, occurred since my arrival in the colony, unconnected with public affairs, which have materially affected my views in life, and which made me contemplate with much repugnance the prospect of an indefinitely prolonged sojourn in this place. Without dwelling at any greater length on these painful topics, I venture to trust that you will acquit me of undue presumption when I assure you, that in my present forlorn and isolated position, nothing enables me to persevere in the discharge of my duties, except the hope that my humble services may earn for me your confidence and the approbation of my Sovereign, and prove not altogether unprofitable to the community over whose interests I am appointed to watch.

He remained, however, at his post for more than a year longer, and quitted it in the spring of 1846 on leave of absence, with the understanding that he should not be required to return to Jamaica.

[Sidenote: Appointment to Canada.]

During nearly the whole period of his government the seals of the Colonial Office had been held by Lord Stanley, to whom he owed his appointment; and at the break-up of the Tory party, in the beginning of 1846, they passed into the hands of his old schoolfellow and college friend, Mr. Gladstone. But he had scarcely arrived in England when a new Secretary arose in the person of Lord Grey, to whom he was unknown except by reputation. It is all the more creditable to both parties that, in spite of their political differences, Lord Grey should first have endeavoured to induce him, on public grounds alone, to retain the government of Jamaica, with the promise of his unreserved confidence and most cordial support; and shortly afterwards, should have offered to him the still more important post of Governor-General of British North America. 'I believe,' wrote his Lordship, in making the offer, 'that it would be difficult to point out any situation in which great talents would find more scope for useful exertion, or are more wanted at this moment, and I am sure that I could not hope to find anyone whom I could recommend to Her Majesty for that office with so much confidence as yourself.'

So splendid an offer, made in a manner so gratifying, might well overcome any reluctance which Lord Elgin felt to embark at once on a fresh period of expatriation, and to resume labours which, however cordially they may be appreciated by a minister, are apt to meet with little recognition from the public.

He accepted it, not in the spirit of mere selfish ambition, but with a deep sense of the responsibilities attached to it, which he portrayed in earnest and forcible words at a public dinner at Dunfermline:—

To watch over the interests of those great offshoots of the British race which plant themselves in distant lands; to aid them in their efforts to extend the domain of civilisation, and to fulfil that first behest of a benevolent Creator to His intelligent creatures—'subdue the earth;' to abet the generous endeavour to impart to these rising communities the full advantages of British laws, British institutions, and British freedom; to assist them in maintaining unimpaired, it may be in strengthening and confirming, those bonds of mutual affection which unite the parent and dependent states—these are duties not to be lightly undertaken, and which may well claim the exercise of all the faculties and energies of an earnest and patriotic mind.

It was arranged that he should go to Canada at the end of the year. In the interval he became engaged to Lady Mary Louisa Lambton, daughter of the first Earl of Durham. They were married on November 7th, and in the first days of the year 1847 he sailed for America.

[1] It is impossible not to be struck with the applicability of these remarks to the condition of the agricultural poor in some parts of England, and the question of extending among them the benefits of education.

[2] Vide inf. p. 156.

[3] See the speech of Mr. W.E. Forster, at Leeds, May 20, 1869.

CHAPTER III.

CANADA.

STATE OF THE COLONY—FIRST IMPRESSIONS—PROVINCIAL POLITICS—'RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT'—IRISH IMMIGRANTS—UPPER CANADA—CHANGE OF MINISTRY—FRENCH HABITANTS—THE FRENCH QUESTION—THE IRISH—THE BRITISH—DISCONTENTS; THEIR CAUSES AND REMEDIES—NAVIGATION LAWS—RETROSPECT—SPEECH ON EDUCATION.

[Sidenote: View of the state of Canada.]

In passing from Jamaica to Canada, Lord Elgin went not only to a far wider sphere of action, but to one of infinitely greater complication. For in Canada there were two civilised populations of nearly equal power, viewing each other with traditionary dislike and distrust: the French habitans of the Lower Province, strong in their connexion with the past, and the British settlers, whose energy and enterprise gave unmistakable promise of predominance in the future. Canada had, within a few miles of her capital, a powerful and restless neighbour, whose friendly intentions were not always sufficient to restrain the unruly spirits on her frontier from acts of aggression, which might at any time lead to the most serious complications. Moreover, in Canada representative institutions were already more fully developed than in any other colony, and were at this very time passing through the most critical period of their final development.

[Sidenote: Rebellion of 1837.]
[Sidenote: Lord Durham's Report.]
[Sidenote: Lord Sydenham.]
[Sidenote: Sir C. Bagot.]
[Sidenote: Lord Metcalfe.]

The rebellion of 1837 and 1838 had necessarily checked the progress of the colony towards self-government. It has since been acknowledged that the demands which led to that rebellion were such as England would have gladly granted two or three hundred years before; and they were, in fact, subsequently conceded one after another, 'not from terror, but because, on seriously looking at the case, it was found that after all we had no possible interest in withholding them.'[1] But at the time it was necessary to put down the rebels by force, and to establish military government. In 1838 Lord Durham was sent out as High Commissioner for the Adjustment of the Affairs of the Colony, and his celebrated 'Report' sowed the seeds of all the beneficial changes which followed. So early as October 1839, when Poulett Thomson, afterwards Lord Sydenham, went out as Governor, Lord John Russell took the first step towards the introduction of 'responsible government,' by announcing that the principal offices of the colony 'would not be considered as being held by a tenure equivalent to one during good behaviour, but that the holders would be liable to be called upon to retire whenever, from motives of public policy or for other reasons, this should be found expedient.'[2] But the insurrection was then too recent to allow of constitutional government being established, at least in Lower Canada; and, after the Union in 1840, Lord Sydenham exercised, partly owing to his great ability, much more power than is usually enjoyed by constitutional governors. He exercised it, however, in such a manner as to pave the way for a freer system, which was carried out to a great extent by his successor, Sir Charles Bagot; who, though bearing the reputation of an old-fashioned Tory, did not scruple to admit to his counsels persons who had been active in opposing the Crown during the recent rebellion; acting on 'the broad principle that the constitutional majority had the right to rule under the constitution.'[3] Towards the end of 1842, Sir C. Bagot found himself obliged by continued ill-health to resign; and he was succeeded by Lord Metcalfe—a man, as has been before noticed, of singularly popular manners and conciliatory disposition, but whose views of government, formed in India and confirmed in Jamaica, little fitted him to deal at an advanced age with the novel questions presented by Canada at this crisis. A quarrel arose between him and his Ministry on a question of patronage. The ministers resigned, though supported by a large majority in the Assembly. With great difficulty he formed a Conservative administration, and immediately dissolved his Parliament. The new elections gave a small majority to the Conservatives, chiefly due, it was said, to the exertion of his personal influence; but the success was purchased at a ruinous cost, for he was now in the position, fatal to a governor, of a party man. Even from this situation he might perhaps have been able to extricate himself: so great was the respect felt for his rare qualities of mind and character. But a distressing malady almost incapacitated him for the discharge of public business, and at length, in November 1845, forced him to resign. At this time there was some apprehension of difficulties with America, arising from the Oregon question, and, in view of the possibility of war, Mr. Gladstone, who was then at the Colonial Office, appointed Lord Cathcart, the commander of the forces, to be Governor-General.

[Sidenote: Lord Cathcart.]

When the Whig party came into power, and Lord Grey became Secretary for the Colonies, the Oregon difficulty had been happily settled, and it was no longer necessary or desirable that the colony should be governed by a military officer. What was wanted was a person possessing an intimate knowledge of the principles and practice of the constitution of England, some experience of popular assemblies, and considerable familiarity with the political questions of the day.'[4] After much consideration it was decided to offer the post to Lord Elgin, though personally unknown at the time both to the Premier and to the Secretary for the Colonies.

[Sidenote: Principles of Colonial Government.]

The principles on which Lord Elgin undertook to conduct the affairs of the colony were, that he should identify himself with no party, but make himself a mediator and moderator between the influential of all parties; that he should have no ministers who did not enjoy the confidence of the Assembly, or, in the last resort, of the people; and that he should not refuse his consent to any measure proposed by his Ministry, unless it were of an extreme party character, such as the Assembly or the people would be sure to disapprove.[4] Happily these principles were not, in Lord Elgin's case, of yesterday's growth. He had acted upon them, as far as was possible, even in Jamaica; and in their soundness as applied to a colony like Canada he had that firm faith, grounded on original conviction, which alone could have enabled him to maintain them, as he afterwards did, single-handed, in face of the most violent opposition, and in circumstances by which they were most severely tested.

[Sidenote: Crossing the Atlantic.]

It was fortunate that Lord Elgin had arranged to leave his bride in England, to follow at a less inclement season; for he had an unusually stormy passage across the Atlantic—'the worst passage the ship had ever made.'

Writing on the 16th of January to Lady Grey he says:

Hitherto we have had a very boisterous passage. On the 13th we had a hurricane, and were obliged to lie to—a rare occurrence with these vessels. It was almost impossible to be on deck, but I crept out of a hole for a short time, to behold the sea, which was truly grand in its wrath; the waves rolling mountains high, and the wind sweeping the foam off their crests, and driving it, together with the snow and sleet, almost horizontally over the ocean. We lay thus for some hours, our masts covered with snow, pitching and tossing, now in the trough of the sea, and now on the summit of the billows, without anxiety or alarm, so gallantly did our craft bear itself through these perils.

The ship is very full, with half a million of specie, and a motley group of passengers: a Bishop, an ex-secretary of Legation and an ex-consul, both of the United States; a batch of Germans and of Frenchmen; a host of Yankees, the greater part being bearded, which is, I understand, characteristic of young America, particularly when it travels; some specimens of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Canada, and the Rocky Mountains, not to mention English and Scotch. Every now and then, at the most serious moments, sounds of uproarious mirth proceed from a party of Irish, who are playing antics in some corner of the ship. Considering that we are all hemmed in within the space of a few feet, and that it is the amusement of the great restless ocean to pitch us constantly into each other's arms, it is hard indeed if we do not pick up something new in the scramble.

[Sidenote: First impressions.]

On the 25th of January he landed at Boston, and proceeding next day by railway and sleigh, reached Montreal on the 29th. On the 31st he wrote from Monklands, the suburban residence of the governor, to Lady Elgin:—

Yesterday was my great day. I agreed to make my entrance to Montreal, for the purpose of being inaugurated. The morning was unpropitious. There had been a tremendous storm during the night, and the snow had drifted so much that it seemed doubtful whether a sleigh could go from hence to town (about four miles). I said that I had no notion of being deterred by weather. Accordingly, I got into a one-horse sleigh, with very small runners, which conveyed me to the entrance of the town, where I was met by the Mayor and Corporation with an address. I then got into Lord Cathcart's carriage, accompanied by the Mayor, and a long procession of carriages was formed. We drove slowly to the Government House (in the town), through a dense mass of people—all the societies, trades, &c., with their banners. Nothing could be more gratifying. After the swearing in, at which the public were present, the Mayor read another address from the inhabitants. To this I delivered a reply, which produced, I think, a considerable effect, and no little astonishment on some gentlemen who intended that I should say nothing. I have adopted frankly and unequivocally Lord Durham's view of government, and I think that I have done all that could be done to prevent its being perverted to vile purposes of faction.

Various circumstances combined to smooth, for the time, the waters on which Lord Elgin had embarked. The state of political parties was favourable; for the old Tories of the British 'Family Compact' party were in good humour, being in enjoyment of the powers to which they claimed a prescriptive right, while the 'Liberals' of the Opposition were full of hope that the removal of Lord Metcalfe's disturbing influence would restore their proper preponderance. Something also was due to his own personal qualities. Whereas most of his immediate predecessors had been men advanced in years and enfeebled by ill-health, he was in the full enjoyment of vigorous youth—able, if need were, to work whole days at a stretch; to force his way through a Canadian snow-storm, if his presence was required at a public meeting; to make long and rapid journeys through the province, ever ready to receive an address, and give an impromptu reply. The papers soon began to remark on the 'geniality and affability of 'his demeanour.' 'He is daily,' they said, 'making new 'friends. He walks to church, attends public meetings, 'leads the cheering, and is, in fact, a man of the people.' Before long it was added, 'Our new governor is 'the most effective speaker in the province;' and, thanks to his foreign education, he was able to speak as readily and fluently to the French Canadians in French as to the English in English. Added to this, his recent marriage was a passport to the hearts of many in Canada, who looked back to the late Lord Durham as the apostle of their liberties, if not as a martyr in their cause.

[Sidenote: Provincial politics.]

But though the surface was smooth, there was much beneath to disquiet an observant governor. It was not only that the Ministry was so weak, and so conscious of its weakness, as to be incapable even of proposing any measures of importance. This evil might be remedied by a change of administration. But there was no real political life; only that pale and distorted reflection of it which is apt to exist in a colony before it has learned 'to look within itself for the centre of power.' Parties formed themselves, not on broad issues of principle, but with reference to petty local and personal interests; and when they sought the support of a more widespread sentiment, they fell back on those antipathies of race, which it was the main object of every wise Governor to extinguish.

The following extracts from private letters to Lord Grey, written within a few months of his arrival, reflect this state of things. Though the circumstances to which they refer are past and gone, they may not be without interest, as affording an insight into a common phase of colonial government.

Hitherto things have gone on well with me, much better than I hoped for when we parted. I should have been very willing to meet the Assembly at once, and throw myself with useful measures on the good sense of the people, but my ministers are too weak for this. They seem to be impressed with the belief that the regular Opposition will of course resist whatever they propose, and that any fragments of their own side, who happen not to be able at the moment to get what they want, will join them. When I advise them, therefore, to go down to Parliament with good measures and the prestige of a new Governor, and rely on the support of public opinion, they smile and shake their heads. It is clear that they are not very credulous of the existence of such a controlling power, and that their faith in the efficiency of appeals to selfish and sordid motives is greater than mine.

Nevertheless, we must take the world as we find it, and if new elements of strength are required to enable the Government to go on, it is I think very advisable to give the French a fair opportunity of entering the Ministry in the first instance. It is also more prudent to enter upon these delicate negotiations cautiously and slowly, in order to avoid, if possible, giving the impression that I am ready to jump down everybody's throat the moment I touch the soil of Canada.

I believe that the problem of how to govern United Canada would be solved if the French would split into a Liberal and a Conservative party, and join the Upper Canada parties which bear corresponding names. The great difficulty hitherto has been that a Conservative government has meant a government of Upper Canadians, which is intolerable to the French, and a Radical government a government of French, which is no less hateful to the British. No doubt the party titles are misnomers, for the radical party comprises the political section most averse to progress of any in the country. Nevertheless, so it has been hitherto. The national element would be merged in the political if the split to which I refer were accomplished.

The tottering Ministry attempted to strengthen its position by a junction with some of the leaders of the 'French' party; but the attempt was unsuccessful:

I cannot say that I am surprised or disheartened by the result of these negotiations with the French. In a community like this, where there is little, if anything, of public principle to divide men, political parties will shape themselves under the influence of circumstances, and of a great variety of affections and antipathies, national, sectarian, and personal; and I never proposed to attempt to force them into a mould of my own forming.

You will observe that no question of principle or of public policy has been mooted by either party during the negotiation. The whole discussion has turned upon personal considerations. This is, I fancy, a pretty fair sample of Canadian politics. It is not even pretended that the divisions of party represent corresponding divisions of sentiment on questions which occupy the public mind; such as Voluntaryism, Free Trade, &c., &c. Responsible government is the only subject on which this coincidence is alleged to exist. The opponents of the Administration are supposed to dissent from the views held by Lord Metcalfe upon it, though it is not so clear that its supporters altogether adopt them. That this delicate and most debatable subject should furnish the watchwords of party is most inconvenient.

In enumerating the difficulties which surround such questions as Union of the provinces, Emigration, &c., you omit the greatest of them all; viz.: the materials with which I have to work in carrying out any measures for the public advantage. There are half a dozen parties here, standing on no principles, and all intent on making political capital out of whatever turns up. It is exceedingly difficult, under such circumstances, to induce public men to run the risk of adopting any scheme that is bold or novel.

Keenly alive to the evil of this state of things, Lord Elgin was not less sensible that the blame of it did not rest with the existing generation of Canadian politicians, but that it was the result of a variety of circumstances, some of which it was impossible to regret.

Several causes (he wrote) co-operate together to give to personal and party interests the overweening importance which attaches to them in the estimation of local politicians. There are no real grievances here to stir the depths of the popular mind. We are a comfortable people, with plenty to eat and drink, no privileged classes to excite envy, or taxes to produce irritation. It were ungrateful to view these blessings with regret, and yet I believe that they account in some measure for the selfishness of public men and their indifference to the higher aims of statesmanship.

[Sidenote: Responsible government.]

The comparatively small number of members of which the popular bodies who determine the fate of provincial administrations consist, is also, I am inclined to think, unfavourable to the existence of a high order of principle and feeling among official personages. A majority of ten in an assembly of seventy may probably be, according to Cocker, equivalent to a majority of 100 in an assembly of 700. In practice, however, it is far otherwise. The defection of two or three individuals from the majority of ten puts the administration in peril. Thence the perpetual patchwork and trafficking to secure this vote and that, which (not to mention other evils) so engrosses the time and thoughts of ministers, that they have not leisure for matters of greater moment. It must also be remembered that it is only of late that the popular assemblies in this part of the world have acquired the right of determining who shall govern them—of insisting, as we phrase it, that the administration of affairs shall be conducted by persons enjoying their confidence. It is not wonderful that a privilege of this kind should be exercised at first with some degree of recklessness, and that, while no great principles of policy are at stake, methods of a more questionable character for winning and retaining the confidence of these arbiters of destiny should be resorted to. My course in these circumstances is, I think, clear and plain. It may be somewhat difficult to follow occasionally, but I feel no doubt as to the direction in which it lies. I give to my ministers all constitutional support, frankly and without reserve, and the benefit of the best advice that I can afford them in their difficulties. In return for this I expect that they will, in so far as it is possible for them to do so, carry out my views for the maintenance of the connexion with Great Britain and the advancement of the interests of the province. On this tacit understanding we have acted together harmoniously up to this time, although I have never concealed from them that I intend to do nothing which may prevent me from working cordially with their opponents, if they are forced upon me. That ministries and Oppositions should occasionally change places, is of the very essence of our constitutional system, and it is probably the most conservative element which it contains. By subjecting all sections of politicians in their turn to official responsibilities, it obliges heated partisans to place some restraint on passion, and to confine within the bounds of decency the patriotic zeal with which, when out of place, they are wont to be animated. In order, however, to secure these advantages, it is indispensable that the head of the Government should show that he has confidence in the loyalty of all the influential parties with which he has to deal, and that he should have no personal antipathies to prevent him from acting with leading men.

I feel very strongly that a Governor-General, by acting upon these views with tact and firmness, may hope to establish a moral influence in the province which will go far to compensate for the loss of power consequent on the surrender of patronage to an executive responsible to the local Parliament. Until, however, the functions of his office, under our amended colonial constitution, are more clearly defined— until that middle term which shall reconcile the faithful discharge of his responsibility to the Imperial Government and the province with the maintenance of the quasi-monarchical relation in which he now stands towards the community over which he presides, be discovered and agreed upon, he must be content to tread along a path which is somewhat narrow and slippery, and to find that incessant watchfulness and some dexterity are requisite to prevent him from falling, on the one side into the néant of mock sovereignty, or on the other into the dirt and confusion of local factions.

Many of his letters exhibit the same conviction that the remedy for the evils which he regretted was to be found in the principles of government first asserted by Lord Durham; but there is a special interest in the expression of this sentiment when addressed, as in the following extract, to Lord Durham's daughter:—

I still adhere to my opinion that the real and effectual vindication of Lord Durham's memory and proceedings will be the success of a Governor-General of Canada who works out his views of government fairly. Depend upon it, if this country is governed for a few years satisfactorily, Lord Durham's reputation as a statesman will be raised beyond the reach of cavil. I do not indeed know whether I am to be the instrument to carry out this work, or be destined, like others who have gone before me, to break down in the attempt; but I am still of opinion that the thing may be done, though it requires some good fortune and some qualities not of the lowest order. I find on my arrival here a very weak Government, almost as much abused by their friends as by their foes, no civil or private secretary, and an immense quantity of arrears of business. It is possible, therefore, that I may not be able to bear up against the difficulties of my situation, and that it may remain for some one else to effect that object, which many reasons would render me so desirous to achieve.

[Sidenote: Irish immigration,]

With these cares, which formed the groundwork of the texture of the Governor's life, were interwoven from time to time interests of a more temporary character; of which the first in date, as in importance, was connected with the flood of immigration consequent on the Irish famine of 1847.

During the course of the season nearly 100,000 immigrants landed at Quebec, a large proportion of whom were totally destitute, and must have perished had they not been forwarded at the cost of the public. Owing to various causes, contagious fever of a most malignant character prevailed among them, to an unexampled extent; the number confined at one time in hospitals occasionally approached 10,000: and though the mortality among children was very great, nearly 1,000 immigrant orphans were left during the season at Montreal, besides a proportionate number at Grosse Isle, Quebec, Kingston, Toronto, and other places.

In this manner 'army after army of sick and suffering people, fleeing from famine in their native land to be stricken down by death in the valley of the St. Lawrence, stopped in rapid succession at Grosse Isle, and there leaving numbers of their dead behind, pushed upwards towards the lakes, in over-crowded steamers, to burthen the inhabitants of the western towns and villages.'[5]

The people of Canada exerted themselves nobly, under the direction of their Governor, to meet the sudden call upon their charity; but he felt deeply for the sufferings which it entailed upon the colony, and he did not fail to point out to Lord Grey how severe was the strain thus laid on her loyalty:—

[Sidenote: a scourge to the province.]

The immigration which is now taking place is a frightful scourge to the province. Thousands upon thousands of poor wretches are coming here incapable of work, and scattering the seeds of disease and death. Already five or six hundred orphans are accumulated at Montreal, for whose sustenance, until they can be put out to service, provision must be made. Considerable panic exists among the inhabitants. Political motives contribute to swell the amount of dissatisfaction produced by this state of things. The Opposition make the want of adequate provision to meet this overwhelming calamity, in the shape of hospitals, &c., a matter of charge against the Provincial Administration. That section of the French who dislike British immigration at all times, find, as might be expected, in the circumstances of this year, a theme for copious declamation. Persons who cherish republican sympathies ascribe these evils to our dependent condition as colonists—'the States of the Union,' they say, 'can take care of themselves, and avert the scourge from their shores, but we are victims on whom inhuman Irish landlords, &c., can charge the consequences of their neglect and rapacity.' Meanwhile I have a very delicate and irksome duty to discharge. There is a general belief that Great Britain must make good to the province the expenses entailed on it by this visitation. 'It is enough,' say the inhabitants, 'that our houses should be made a receptacle of this mass of want and misery: it cannot surely be intended that we are to be mulcted in heavy pecuniary damages besides.' The reasonableness of these sentiments can hardly be questioned—bitter indignation would be aroused by the attempt to confute them—and yet I feel that if I were too freely to assent to them, I might encourage recklessness, extravagance, and peculation. From the overwhelming nature of the calamity, and the large share which it has naturally occupied of the attention of Parliament and of the public, the task of making arrangements to meet the necessities of the case has practically been withdrawn from the department of the Civil Secretary, and fallen into the hands of the Provincial Administration. In assenting to the various minutes which they have passed for affording relief to the sick and destitute, and for guarding against the spread of disease, I have felt it to be my duty, even at the risk of incurring the imputation of insensibility to the claims of distress, to urge the necessity of economy, and of adopting all possible precautions against waste. You will at once perceive, however, how embarrassing my position is. A source of possible misunderstanding between myself and the colonists is furnished by these untoward circumstances, altogether unconnected with the ordinary, or, as I may perhaps venture to term them, normal difficulties of my situation.

On the whole, all things considered, I think that a great deal of forbearance and good feeling has been shown by the colonists under this trial. Nothing can exceed the devotion of the nuns and Roman Catholic priests, and the conduct of the clergy and of many of the laity of other denominations has been most exemplary. Many lives have been sacrificed in attendance on the sick and administering to their temporal and spiritual need. But the aspect of affairs is becoming more and more alarming. The panic which prevails in Montreal and Quebec is beginning to manifest itself in the Upper Province, and farmers are unwilling to hire even the healthy immigrants, because it appears that since the warm weather set in, typhus has broken out in many cases among those who were taken into service at the commencement of the season, as being perfectly free from disease. I think it most important that the Home Government should do all in their power by enforcing the provisions of the Passengers' Act, and by causing these facts to be widely circulated, to stem this tide of misery.

* * * * *

What is to be done? Private charity is exhausted. In a country where pauperism as a normal condition of society is unknown, you have not local rates for the relief of destitution to fall back upon. Humanity and prudence alike forbid that they should be left to perish in the streets. The exigency of the case can manifestly be met only by an expenditure of public funds.

[Sidenote: The charge should be borne by the mother-country.]

But by whom is this charge to be borne? You urge, that when the first pressure is past, the province will derive, in various ways, advantage from this immigration,—that the provincial administration, who prescribe the measures of relief, have means, which the Imperial authorities have not, of checking extravagance and waste; and you conclude that their constituents ought to be saddled with at least a portion of the expense. I readily admit the justice of the latter branch of this argument, but I am disposed to question the force of the former. The benefit which the province will derive from this year's immigration is, at best, problematical; and it is certain that they who are to profit by it would willingly have renounced it, whatever it may be, on condition of being relieved from the evils by which it has been attended. Of the gross number of immigrants who have reached the province, many are already mouldering in their graves. Among the survivors there are widows and orphans, and aged and diseased persons, who will probably be for an indefinite period a burden on Government or private charity. A large proportion of the healthy and prosperous, who have availed themselves of the cheap route of the St. Lawrence, will, I fears find their way to the Western States, where land is procurable on more advantageous terms than in Canada. To refer, therefore, to the 82,000 immigrants who have passed into the States through New York, and been absorbed there without cost to the mother-country, and to contrast this circumstance with the heavy expense which has attended the admission of a smaller number into Canada, is hardly just. In the first place, of the 82,000 who went to New York, a much smaller proportion were sickly or destitute; and, besides, by the laws of the state, ship-owners importing immigrants are required to enter into bonds, which are forfeited when any of the latter become chargeable on the public. These, and other precautions yet more stringent, were enforced so soon as the character of this year's immigration was ascertained, and they had the effect of turning towards this quarter the tide of suffering which was setting in that direction. Even now, immigrants attempting to cross the frontier from Canada are sent back, if they are either sickly or paupers. On the whole, I fear that a comparison between the condition of this province and that of the states of the neighbouring republic, as affected by this year's immigration, would be by no means satisfactory or provocative of dutiful and affectionate feelings towards the mother-country on the part of the colonists. It is a case in which, on every account, I think the Imperial Government is bound to act liberally.

[Sidenote: Lord Palmerston's tenants.]

Month after month, the tide of misery flowed on, each wave sweeping deeper into the heart of the province, and carrying off fresh victims of their own benevolence. Unfortunately, just as navigation closed for the season, a vessel arrived full of emigrants from Lord Palmerston's Irish estates. They appear to have been rather a favourable specimen of their class; but they came late, and they came from one of Her Majesty's Ministers, and their coming was taken as a sign that England and England's rulers, in their selfish desire to be rid of their starving and helpless poor, cared nothing for the calamities they were inflicting on the colony. Writing on November 12, Lord Elgin says:—

Fever cases among leading persons in the community here still continue to excite much comment and alarm. This day the Mayor of Montreal died,—a very estimable man, who did much for the immigrants, and to whose firmness and philanthropy we chiefly owe it, that the immigrant sheds here were not tossed into the river by the people of the town during the summer. He has fallen a victim to his zeal on behalf of the poor plague-stricken strangers, having died of ship-fever caught at the sheds. Colonel Calvert is lying dangerously ill at Quebec, his life despaired of.

Meanwhile, great indignation is aroused by the arrival of vessels from Ireland, with additional cargoes of immigrants, some in a very sickly state, after our Quarantine Station is shut up for the season. Unfortunately the last arrived brings out Lord Palmerston's tenants. I send the commentaries on this contained in this day's newspapers.[6]

[Sidenote: The flood subsides.]

From this time, however, the waters began to subside. The Irish famine had worked its own sad cure. In compliance with the urgent representations of the Governor, the mother-country took upon herself all the expenses that had been incurred by the colony on behalf of the immigrants of 1847; and improved regulations respecting emigration offer ground for hope that the fair stream, which ought to be full of life and health both to the colony and to the parent state, will not again be choked and polluted, and its plague-stricken waters turned into blood.

[Sidenote: Visit to Upper Canada.]

In the autumn of this year Lord Elgin paid his first visit to Upper Canada, meeting everywhere with a reception which he felt to be 'most gratifying and 'ncouraging;' and keenly enjoying both the natural beauties of the country and the tokens of its prosperity which met his view. From Niagara he wrote to Mr. Cumming Bruce:—

[Sidenote: Niagara.]

I write with the roar of the Niagara Falls in my ears. We have come here for a few days' rest, and that I may get rid of a bad cold in the presence of this most stupendous of all the works of nature. It is hopeless to attempt to describe what so many have been describing; but the effect, I think, surpassed my expectations. The day was waning when we arrived, and a turn of the road brought us all at once in face of the mass of water forming the American Fall, and throwing itself over the brink into the abyss. Then another turn and we were in presence of the British Fall, over which a still greater volume of water seems to be precipitated, and in the midst of which a white cloud of spray was soaring till it rose far above the summit of the ledge and was dispersed by the wind. This day we walked as far as the Table Rock which overhangs one side of the Horse-shoe Fall, and made a closer acquaintance with it; but intimacy serves rather to heighten than to diminish the effect produced on the eye and the ear by this wonderful phenomenon.

The following to Lord Grey is of the same date:—

Our tour has been thus far prosperous in all respects except weather, which has been by no means favourable. I attended a great Agricultural Meeting at Hamilton last week, and had an opportunity of expressing my sentiments at a dinner, in the presence of six or seven hundred substantial Upper Canada yeomen—a body of men not easily to be matched.

It is indeed a glorious country, and after passing, as I have done within the last fortnight, from the citadel of Quebec to the Falls of Niagara, rubbing shoulders the while with its free and perfectly independent inhabitants, one begins to doubt whether it be possible to acquire a sufficient knowledge of man or nature, or to obtain an insight into the future of nations, without visiting America.

A portion of the speech to which he refers in the foregoing letter may be here given, as a specimen of his occasional addresses, which were very numerous; for though the main purposes of his life were such as 'wrote themselves in action not in word,' he regarded his faculty of ready and effective speaking as an engine which it was his duty to use, whenever occasion arose, for the purpose of conciliating or instructing. In proposing the toast of 'Prosperity to the Agricultural Association of Upper Canada,' he said:—

[Sidenote: Speech at an agricultural meeting.]

Gentlemen, the question forces itself upon every reflecting mind, How does it come to pass that the introduction of agriculture, and of the arts of civilised life, into this and other parts of the American continent has been followed by such astonishing results? It may be said that these results are due to the qualities of the hardy and enterprising race by which these regions have been settled, and the answer is undoubtedly a true one: but it does not appear to me to contain the whole truth; it does not appear to account for all the phenomena. Why, gentlemen, our ancestors had hearts as brave and arms as sturdy as our own; but it took them many years, aye, even centuries, before they were enabled to convert the forests of the Druids, and the wild fastnesses of the Highland chieftains, into the green pastures of England and the waving cornfields of Scotland. How, then, does it come to pass, that the labours of their descendants here have been rewarded by a return so much more immediate and abundant? I believe that the true solution of this problem is to be found in the fact that here, for the first time, the appliances of an age, which has been prolific beyond all preceding ages in valuable discoveries, more particularly in chemistry and mechanics, have been brought to bear, under circumstances peculiarly favourable, upon the productiveness of a new country. When the nations of Europe were young, science was in its infancy; the art of civil government was imperfectly understood; property was inadequately protected; the labourer knew not who would reap what he had sown, and the teeming earth yielded her produce grudgingly to the solicitations of an ill-directed and desultory cultivation. It was not till long and painful experience had taught the nations the superiority of the arts of peace over those of war; it was not until the pressure of numbers upon the means of subsistence had been sorely felt, that the ingenuity of man was taxed to provide substitutes for those ineffective and wasteful methods, under which the fertility of the virgin soil had been well-nigh exhausted. But with you, gentlemen, it is far otherwise. Canada springs at once from the cradle into the full possession of the privileges of manhood. Canada, with the bloom of youth yet upon her cheek, and with youth's elasticity in her tread, has the advantage of all the experience of age. She may avail herself, not only of the capital accumulated in older countries, but also of those treasures of knowledge which have been gathered up by the labour and research of earnest and thoughtful men throughout a series of generations.

Now, gentlemen, what is the inference that I would draw from all this? What is the moral I would endeavour to impress upon you? It is this: That it is your interest and your duty to avail yourselves to the utmost of all these unparalleled advantages; to bring to bear upon this soil, so richly endowed by nature, all the appliances of modern art; to refuse, if I may so express myself, to convert your one talent into two, if, by a more skilful application of the true principles of husbandry, or by greater economy of management, you can convert it into ten. And it is because I believe that societies like these, when well directed, are calculated to aid you in your endeavours to effect these important objects, that I am disposed to give them all the protection and countenance, which it is in my power to afford. They have certainly been very useful in other countries, and I cannot see why they should be less serviceable in Canada. The Highland Society of Scotland was the first instituted, and the proud position which Scotland enjoys as an agricultural country speaks volumes of the services rendered by that society. The Royal Agricultural Society of England and the Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland followed in its wake, and with similarly beneficial results. I myself was instrumental in establishing an agricultural society in the West Indies, which has already done much to revive the spirits of the planters; and I shall be very much disappointed, indeed, if that society does not prove the means, before many years are past, of establishing the truth so important to humanity, that, even in tropical countries, free labour properly applied under a good system of husbandry is more economical than the labour of slaves.

[Sidenote: Change of Ministry.]

At the close of 1847 the Canadian Parliament was dissolved. When the new Parliament met early in 1848, the Ministry—Lord Metcalfe's Ministry— found itself in a decided minority. A new one was accordingly formed from the ranks of the opposition, 'the members of both parties concurring in expressing their sense of the perfect fairness and impartiality with which Lord Elgin had conducted himself throughout the transactions' which led to this result.[7]

[Sidenote: French habitans.]

The French Canadians, who formed the chief element in the new government, were even at this time a peculiar people. Planted in the days of the old French monarchy, and cut off by conquest from the parent state long before the Revolution of 1789, their little community remained for many years like a fragment or boulder of a distinct formation—an island enshrining the picturesque institutions of the ancien régime, in the midst of an ever-encroaching sea of British nineteenth-century enterprise. The English, it has been truly said, emigrate, but do not colonise. No concourse of atoms could be more fortuitous than the gathering of 'traders, sailors, deserters from the army, outcasts, convicts, slaves, democrats, and fanatics,' who have been the first, and sometimes the only ingredients of society in our so-called colonies. French Canada, on the contrary, was an organism complete in itself, a little model of medieval France, with its recognised gradations of ranks, ecclesiastical and social.

It may, indeed, be doubted whether the highest forms of social life are best propagated by this method: whether the freer system, which 'sows itself on every wind,' does not produce the larger, and, in the long run, the more beneficent results. But if reason acquiesces in the ultimate triumph of that busy, pushing energy which distinguishes the British settler, there is something very attractive to the imagination in the picture presented by the peaceful community of French habitans, living under the gentle and congenial control of their coûtumes de Paris, with their priests and their seigneurs, their frugal, industrious habits, their amiable dispositions and simple pleasures, and their almost exaggerated reverence for order and authority. Politically speaking, they formed a most valuable element in Canadian society. At one time, indeed, the restless anarchical spirit of the settlers around them, acting on the sentiment of French nationality, instigated them to the rebellion of 1837; but, as a rule, their social sympathies were stronger than their national antipathies; and gratitude to the Government which secured to them the enjoyment of their cherished institutions kept them true to England on more than one occasion when her own sons threatened to fall away from her.

By the legislative union of 1840 the barriers which had separated the British and French communities were, to a great extent, broken down; and the various elements in each began gradually to seek out and to combine with those which were congenial to them in the other. But there were many cross currents and thwarting influences; and there was great danger, as Lord Elgin felt, lest they should form false combinations, on partial views of local or personal interest, instead of uniting on broad principles of social and political agreement.

Such were the antecedents of the party which now, for the first time, found itself admitted to the counsels of the Governor. Well might he write to Lord Grey, that 'the province was about to pass through an interesting crisis.' He was required, in obedience to his own principles, to accept as advisers persons who had very lately been denounced by the Secretary of State as well as by the Governor-General, as impracticable and disloyal. On the other hand he reflected, with satisfaction, that in these sentiments he himself had neither overtly nor covertly expressed concurrence; while the most extravagant assertors of responsible government had never accused him of stepping out of his constitutional position. He felt, therefore, that the onus probandi would rest on his new councillors if they could not act with him, and put forth pretensions to which he was unable to accede. At least he was determined to give them a fair trial. Writing on the 17th of March he says:—

The late Ministers tendered their resignations in a body on Saturday 4th, immediately after the division on the address, which took place on Friday. I received and answered the address on Tuesday, and then sent for Messrs. Lafontaine and Baldwin. I spoke to them in a candid and friendly tone: told them that I thought there was a fair prospect, if they were moderate and firm, of forming an administration deserving and enjoying the confidence of Parliament; that they might count on all proper support and assistance from me.

They dwelt much on difficulties arising out of pretensions advanced in various quarters; which gave me an opportunity to advise them not to attach too much importance to such considerations, but to bring together a council strong in administrative talent, and to take their stand on the wisdom of their measures and policy….

I am not without hopes that my position will be improved by the change of administration. My present council unquestionably contains more talent, and has a firmer hold on the confidence of Parliament and of the people than the last. There is, I think, moreover, on their part, a desire to prove, by proper deference for the authority of the Governor-General (which they all admit has in my case never been abused), that they were libelled when they were accused of impracticability and anti-monarchical tendencies.

[Sidenote: News of the French revolution.]

It was only a few days after this that news reached Canada of the revolution of February in Paris. On receipt of it he writes:—

It is just as well that I should have arranged my Ministry, and committed the Flag of Britain to the custody of those who are supported by the large majority of the representatives and constituencies of the province, before the arrival of the astounding intelligence from Europe, which reached us by the last mail. There are not wanting here persons who might, under different circumstances, have attempted, by seditious harangues if not by overt acts, to turn the example of France, and the sympathies of the United States, to account.

[Sidenote: Three difficulties.]

But while congratulating Lord Grey on having passed satisfactorily through a crisis which might, under other circumstances, have been attended with very serious results, and on the fact that 'at no period, during the recent history of Canada, had the people of the province generally been better contented, or less disposed to quarrel with the mother-country,' Lord Elgin did not disguise from himself, or from the Secretary of State, that there were ominous symptoms of disaffection on the part of all the three great sections of the community, the French, the Irish, and the British.

Bear in mind that one-half of our population is of French origin, and deeply imbued with French sympathies; that a considerable portion of the remainder consists of Irish Catholics; that a large Irish contingent on the other side of the border, fanatics on behalf of republicanism and repeal, are egging on their compatriots here to rebellion; that all have been wrought upon until they believe that the conduct of England to Ireland is only to be paralleled by that of Russia to Poland; that on this exciting topic, therefore, a kind of holy indignation mixes itself with more questionable impulses; that Guy Fawkes Papineau, actuated by the most malignant passions, irritated vanity, disappointed ambition, and national hatred, which unmerited favour has only served to exasperate, is waving a lighted torch among these combustibles—you will, I think, admit, that if we pass through this crisis without explosions it will be a gratifying circumstance, and an encouragement to persevere in a liberal and straightforward application of constitutional principles to Government.

I have peculiar satisfaction therefore, under all these circumstances, in calling your attention to the presentment of the grand jury of Montreal, which I have sent you officially, in which that body adverts to the singularly tranquil and contented state of the province.[8]

[Sidenote: The French question.]

With regard to the French he constantly expressed the conviction that nothing was wanted to secure the loyalty of the vast majority, but a policy of conciliation and confidence. In this spirit he urged the importance of removing the restrictions on the use of the French language:—

[Sidenote: Use of the French language.]

I am very anxious to hear that you have taken steps for the repeal of so much of the Act of Union as imposes restrictions on the use of the French language. The delay which has taken place in giving effect to the promise made, I think by Gladstone, on this subject, is one of the points of which M. Papineau is availing himself for purposes of agitation. I must, moreover, confess, that I for one am deeply convinced of the impolicy of all such attempts to denationalise the French. Generally speaking they produce the opposite effect from that intended, causing the flame of national prejudice and animosity to burn more fiercely. But suppose them to be successful, what would be the result? You may perhaps Americanize, but, depend upon it, by methods of this description you will never Anglicize the French inhabitants of the province. Let them feel, on the other hand, that their religion, their habits, their prepossessions, their prejudices if you will, are more considered and respected here than in other portions of this vast continent, who will venture to say that the last hand which waves the British flag on American ground may not be that of a French Canadian?

In the same spirit, when an association was formed for facilitating the acquisition of crown lands by French habitans, he put himself at the head, of the movement; by which means he was able to thwart the disloyal designs of the demagogue who had planned it.

[Sidenote: French unionisation.]

You will perhaps recollect that some weeks ago I mentioned that the Roman Catholic bishop and priests of this diocese had organised an association for colonisation purposes, their object being to prevent the sheep of their pasture (who now, strange as it may appear, emigrate annually in thousands to the States, where they become hewers of wood and drawers of water to the Yankees, and bad Catholics into the bargain) from quitting their fold. Papineau pounced upon this association as a means of making himself of importance in the eyes of his countrymen, and of gratifying his ruling passion by abusing England. Accordingly, at a great meeting convened at Montreal, be held forth for three hours to the multitude (the bishop in the chair), ascribing this and all other French-Canadian ills, real or supposed, to the selfish policy of Great Britain, and her persevering efforts to deprive them of their nationality and every other blessing.

In process of time, after this rather questionable start, the association waited on me with a memorial requesting the co-operation of Government, M. Papineau being one of the deputation.

In dealing with them I had two courses to choose from. I had nothing for it, situated as I was, but either, on the one hand, to give the promoters of the scheme a cold shoulder, point out its objectionable features, and dwell upon difficulties of execution—in which case (use what tact I might) I should have dismissed the bishop and his friends discontented, and given M. Papineau an opportunity of asserting that I had lent a quasi sanction to his calumnies; or, on the other, to identify myself with the movement, put myself in so far as might be at its head, impart to it as salutary a direction as possible, and thus wrest from M. Papineau's hands a potent instrument of agitation.

I was tempted, I confess, to prefer the latter of these courses, not only by reason of its manifest expediency as bearing upon present political contests, but also because I sympathise, to a considerable extent, with the views of the promoters of the movement. No one object, in my opinion, is so important, whether you seek to retain Canada as a colony, or to fit her for independence and make her instinct with national life and vigour, as the filling up of her vacant lands with a resident agricultural population. More especially is it of moment that the inhabitants of French origin should feel that every facility for settling on the land of their fathers is given them with the cordial assent and concurrence of the British Government and its representative, and that in the plans of settlement their feelings and habits are consulted. The sentiment of French Canadian nationality, which Papineau endeavours to pervert to purposes of faction, may yet perhaps, if properly improved, furnish the best remaining security against annexation to the States.

I could not with these views afford to lose the opportunity of promoting this object, which was presented by a spontaneous movement of the people, headed by the priesthood—the most powerful influence in Lower Canada.

The official correspondence which has passed on this subject I hope to send by the next mail, and I need not trouble you with the detail of proceedings on my own part, which, though small in themselves, were not without their effect. Suffice it to say, that Papineau has retired to solitude and reflection at his seignory, 'La Petite Nation'—and that the pastoral letter, of which I enclose a copy, has been read au prône in every Roman Catholic church in the diocese. To those who know what have been the real sentiments of the French population towards England for some years past, the tone of this document, its undisguised preference for peaceful over quarrelsome courses, the desire which it manifests to place the representative of British rule forward as the patron of a work dear to French-Canadian hearts, speaks volumes.

With the same object of conciliating the French portion of the community, he lost no opportunity of manifesting the personal interest which he felt in their institutions. The following letter, written in August 1848, to his mother at Paris, describes a visit to one of these institutions, the college of St. Hyacinthe, the chief French college of Montreal:—

[Sidenote: A French college.]

I was present, the other day, at an examination of the students at one of the Roman Catholic Colleges of Montreal. It is altogether under the direction of the priesthood, and it is curious to observe the course they steer. The young men declaimed for some hours on a theme proposed by the superior, being a contrast between ancient and modern civilisation. The greater part of it was a sonorous exposition of ultra-liberal principles, 'Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité,' 'Vox populi, vox Dei,' a very liberal tribute to the vanity and to the prejudices of the classes who might be expected to send their children to the institution or to puff it; with an elaborate pivot à la Lacordaire—that the Church had achieved all that had been effected in this genre hitherto. Au reste, there was the wonderful mechanism which gives that church such advantages—the fourteen professors receiving no salaries, working for their food and that of the homeliest; as a consequence, an education, board and lodging inclusive, costing only 15 l. a year; the youths subjected to a constant discipline under the eye of ecclesiastics day and night. I confess, when I see both the elasticity and the machinery of this church, my wonder is, not with Lacordaire that it should do so much, but that it should not do more.

[Sidenote: The Irish question.]

More formidable at all times than any discontent on the part of the quiet and orderly French habitans was the chronic disaffection of the restless, roving Irish; and especially when connected with a threatened invasion of American 'sympathisers.' When such threats come to nothing, it is generally difficult to say whether they were all mere vapouring, or whether they might have led to serious results, if not promptly met; but at one time, at least, there appears to have been solid ground for apprehending that real mischief was intended. On the 18th July, 1848, Lord Elgin writes:—

[Sidenote: Irish republicans.]

At the moment when the last mail was starting a placard, calling an Irish repeal, or rather republican, meeting was placed in my hands. I enclosed it in my letter to you, and I now proceed to inform you how the movement to which it relates has progressed since then.

An M.P.P.[9], opposed in politics to the present Government, waited on me a few days ago and told me, that he had been requested to move a resolution at the meeting in question by a Mr. O'Connor, who represented himself to be the editor of a newspaper at New York, and a member of the Irish Republican Union. This gentleman informed him that it was expected that, before September, there would be a general rising in Ireland; that the body to which he belonged had been instituted with the view of abetting this movement; that it was discountenanced by the aristocracy of the States, but supported by the great mass of the people; that funds were forthcoming in plenty; that arms and soldiers, who might be employed as drill sergeants in the clubs, were even now passing over week after week to Ireland; that an American general, lately returned from Mexico, was engaged to take the command when the proper time came; that they would have from 700,000 to 800,000 men in the field, a force with which Great Britain would be altogether unable to cope; that when the English had been expelled, the Irish people would be called to determine, whether the Queen was to be at the head of their political system or not. He added that his visit to Canada was connected with these objects; that it was desirable that a diversion should be effected here at the time of the Irish outbreak; that 50,000 Irish were ready to march into Canada from the States at a moment's notice. He further stated that he had called on my informant, because he understood him to be a disappointed man, and ill-disposed to the existing order of things; that with respect to himself and the thousands who felt with him, there was no sacrifice they were not ready to make, if they could humble England and reduce her to a third-rate power.

The place originally selected for the monster meeting, according to the advertisement which I enclose, was the Bonsecour Market, a covered building, under the control of the corporation. When this was announced, however, the Government sent for the mayor (a French Liberal) and told him that they considered it unbecoming that he should give the room for such a purpose. He accordingly withdrew his permission, stating that he had not been before apprised of the precise nature of the assembly. After receiving this check, the leaders of the movement fixed on an open space near the centre of the town for their gathering.

It took place last night, and proved a complete failure. Not a single individual of importance among the Irish Repeal party was present. Some hundreds of persons attended, but were speedily dispersed by a timely thunder shower. O'Connor was violent enough; but I have not yet ascertained that he said anything which would form good material for an indictment. I am of opinion, however, that proceedings of this description on the part of a citizen of another country are not to be tolerated; and, although there is an indisposition in certain quarters to drive things to an extremity, I think I shall succeed in having him arrested unless he takes himself off speedily.

[Sidenote: The British question.]

But the French question and the Irish question were simple and unimportant as compared with those which were raised by the state of feeling recently created in a large and influential portion of the British population, partly by political events, partly by commercial causes.

[Sidenote: The Family Compact.]

The political party, which was now in opposition—the old Tory Loyalists, who from their long monopoly of office and official influence had acquired the title of the 'Family Compact'—were filled with wrath at seeing rebels—for as such they considered the French leaders—now taken into the confidence of the Governor as Ministers of the Crown. At the same time many of the individuals who composed that party were smarting under a sense of injury and injustice inflicted upon them by the Home Government, and by that party in the Home Government by whose policy their own ascendency in the colony had, as they considered, been undermined. Nor was it possible to deny that there was some ground for their complaints. By the Canada Corn Act of 1843 not only the wheat of Canada, but also its flour, which might be made from American wheat, had been admitted into England at a nominal duty. The premium thus offered for the grinding of American wheat for the British market, caused a great amount of capital to be invested in mills and other appliances of the flour trade. 'But almost before these arrangements were fully completed, and the newly built mills fairly at work, the [Free-Trade] Act of 1846 swept away the advantage conferred upon Canada in respect to the corn-trade with this country, and thus brought upon the province a frightful amount of loss to individuals, and a great derangement of the Colonial finances.'[10] Lord Elgin felt deeply for the sufferers, and often pressed their case on the attention of the Secretary of State.

[Sidenote: Discontent due to Imperial legislation.]

I do not think that you are blind to the hardships which Canada is now enduring; but, I must own, I doubt much whether you fully appreciate their magnitude, or are aware of how directly they are chargeable on Imperial legislation. Stanley's Bill of 1843 attracted all the produce of the West to the St. Lawrence, and fixed all the disposable capital of the province in grinding mills, warehouses, and forwarding establishments. Peel's Bill of 1846 drives the whole of the produce down the New York channels of communication, destroying the revenue which Canada expected to derive from canal dues, and ruining at once mill-owners, forwarders, and merchants. The consequence is, that private property is unsaleable in Canada, and not a shilling can be raised on the credit of the province. We are actually reduced to the disagreeable necessity of paying all public officers, from the Governor-General downwards, in debentures, which are not exchangeable at par. What makes it more serious is, that all the prosperity of which Canada is thus robbed is transplanted to the other side of the lines, as if to make Canadians feel more bitterly how much kinder England is to the children who desert her, than to those who remain faithful. For I care not whether you be a Protectionist or a Free-trader, it is the inconsistency of Imperial legislation, and not the adoption of one policy rather than another, which is the bane of the colonies. I believe that the conviction that they would be better off if they were 'annexed' is almost universal among the commercial classes at present, and the peaceful condition of the province under all the circumstances of the time is, I must confess, often a matter of great astonishment to myself.

[Sidenote: How to be remedied.]

His sympathy, however, with the sufferings caused by the introduction of Free-trade was not accompanied by any wish to return to a Protective policy. On the contrary, he felt that the remedy was to be sought in a further development of the Free-trade principle, in the repeal of the Navigation Laws, which cramped the commerce Canada by restricting it to British vessels, and in a reciprocal reduction of the duties which hampered her trade with the United States. In this sense he writes to Lord Grey:—

I am glad to see your bold measure on the Navigation Laws. You have no other course now open to you if you intend to keep your colonies. You cannot halt between two opinions: Free-trade in all things, or general Protection. There was something captivating in the project of forming all the parts of this vast British empire into one huge Zollverein with free interchange of commodities, and uniform duties against the world without; though perhaps, without some federal legislation, it might have been impossible to carry it out. Undoubtedly, under such a system, the component parts of the empire would have been united by bonds which cannot be supplied under that on which we are now entering; though it may be fairly urged on the other side, that the variety of conflicting interests which would, under this arrangement, have been brought into presence would have led to collisions which we may now hope to escape. But, as it is, the die is cast. As regards these colonies you must allow them to turn to the best possible account their contiguity to the States, that they may not have cause for dissatisfaction when they contrast their own condition with that of their neighbours.

Another subject on which I am very solicitous, is the free admission of Canadian products into the States. At present the Canadian farmer gets less for his wheat than his neighbour over the lines. This is an unfortunate state of things. I had a long conversation with Mr. Baldwin about it lately, and he strongly supports the proposition which I ventured to submit for your consideration about a year ago, viz. that a special treaty should be entered into with the States, giving them the navigation of the St. Lawrence jointly with ourselves, on condition that they admit Canadian produce duty free. An arrangement of this description affecting internal waters only might, I apprehend, be made (as in the case of Columbia in the Oregon treaty) independently of the adjustment of questions touching the Navigation Laws generally. I confess that I dread the effect of the continuance of the present state of things on the loyalty of our farmers. Surely the admission of the Americans into the St. Lawrence would be a great boon to them, and we ought to exact a quid pro quo.

He was sanguine enough to hope that these measures, so simple and so obviously desirable, might be brought into operation at once; but they were not carried until many years later, one of them, as we shall see, only by aid of his own personal exertions; and his disappointment on this score deepened the anxiety with which he looked round upon the difficulties of his position, already described. On August 16 he writes:—

The news from Ireland—the determination of Government not to proceed with the measure respecting the Navigation Laws—doubts as to whether the American Congress will pass the Reciprocity of Trade Bill—menaces of sympathisers in the States—all combine at present to render our position one of considerable anxiety.

Firstly, we have the Irish Repeal body. I need not describe them; you may look at home; they are here just what they are in Ireland. Secondly, we have the French population; their attitude as regards England and America is that of an armed neutrality. They do not exactly like the Americans, but they are the conquered, oppressed subjects of England! To be sure they govern themselves, pay no taxes, and some other trifles of this description; nevertheless, they are the victims of British égoisme. Was not the union of the provinces carried without their consent, and with a view of subjecting them to the British? Papineau, their press, and other authorities, are constantly dinning this into their ears, so no wonder they believe it.

Again, our mercantile and commercial classes are thoroughly disgusted and lukewarm in their allegiance. You know enough of colonies to appreciate the tendency which they always exhibit to charge their misfortunes upon the mother-country, no matter from what source they flow. And indeed it is easy to show that, as matters now stand, the faithful subject of Her Majesty in Canada is placed on a worse footing, as regards trade with the mother-country, than the rebel 'over the 'lines.'

The same man who, when you canvass him at an English borough election, says, 'Why, sir, I voted Red all my life, and I never got anything by it: this time I intend to vote Blue,'—addresses you in Canada with 'I have been all along one of the steadiest supporters of the British Government, but really, if claims such as mine are not more thought of, I shall begin to consider whether other institutions are not preferable to ours.' What to do under these circumstances of anxiety and discouragement is the question.

As to any aggressions from without, I shall throw the responsibility of repelling them upon Her Majesty's troops in the first instance. And I shall be disappointed, indeed, if the military here do not give a very good account of all American and Irish marauders.

With respect to internal commotions, I should like to devolve the duty of quelling them as much as possible upon the citizens. I very much doubt whether any class of them, however great their indifference or disloyalty, fancy the taste of Celtic pikes, or the rule of Irish mob law.

Happily the dangers which there seemed so much reason to apprehend were dispelled by the policy at once firm and conciliatory of the Governor: mainly, as he himself was never wearied of asserting, owing to the healthy and loyal feeling engendered in the province by his frank adoption and consistent maintenance of Lord Durham's principle of responsible government. It was one of the occasions, not unfrequent in Lord Elgin's life, that recall the words in which Lord Melbourne pronounced the crowning eulogy of another celebrated diplomatist:—'My Lords, you can never fully appreciate the merits of that great man. You can appreciate the great acts which he publicly performed; but you cannot appreciate, for you cannot know, the great mischiefs which he unostentatiously prevented.'

[Sidenote: Navigation Laws.]

In the course of the discussions on the Repeal of the Navigation Laws, to which reference is made in the foregoing letters, an incident occurred which attracted some attention at the time, and which, as it could not be explained then, ought, perhaps, to be noticed in this place.

Lord George Bentinck, who led the opposition to the measure, saw reason to think that, in the published despatches from Canada on the subject, a letter had been suppressed which would have furnished arguments against the Government; and, under this impression, he moved in the House of Commons for 'copies of the omitted correspondence.' The motion was negatived without a division, on Lord John Russell's pointing out that it involved an imputation on the Governor's good faith; but the Premier himself was probably not aware at the time, how completely the mover was at fault, as is shown in the following letter from Lord Elgin to Mr. C. Bruce, who, being a member of Parliament and a strong Protectionist, had a double interest in the matter:—

You ask me about this mare's nest of Bentinck. The facts are these: the Montreal Board of Trade drew up a memorial for the House of Commons against the Navigation Laws, containing inter alia a very distinct threat of separation in the event of their non-repeal. My secretary (not my private secretary, mark, but my responsible Government Secretary) sent me a draft of a letter to the Board containing very loyal and proper sentiments on this head. I approved of the letter, and sent a copy of it home with the memorial, instead of a report by myself, partly because it saved me trouble, and partly because I was glad to show how perfectly my liberal government had expressed themselves on the point. Two or three weeks later, the Board of Trade, not liking Mr. Sullivan to have the last word, wrote an answer, simply justifying what they had already stated in their memorial, which had already gone with my comment upon it to be laid before the House of Commons. To send such a letter home in a separate despatch would have seemed to me worse than absurd, because it would really have been giving to this unseemly menace a degree of importance which it did not deserve. If I had sent it I must have accompanied it with a statement to the effect, that my sentiments on the point communicated in my former letter remained unchanged; so the matter would have rested pretty much where it did before. Bentinck seems to suppose that, in keeping back a letter which stated that Canada would separate if the Navigation Laws were not repealed, I intended by some very ingenious dodge to hasten their repeal![11]

[Sidenote: Speech on education.]

At the beginning of the winter season of 1848-9, Lord Elgin was present, as patron, at a meeting of the Montreal Mercantile Library Association, to open the winter's course of lectures. It was an association mainly founded by leading merchants, 'with a view of affording to the junior members of the mercantile body opportunities of self-improvement, and inducements sufficiently powerful to enable them to resist those temptations to idleness and dissipation which unhappily abound in all large communities.' He took the opportunity of delivering his views on the subject of education in a speech, parts of which may still be read with interest, after all that has been spoken and written on this fertile topic. It has at least the merit of being eminently characteristic of the speaker, whose whole life was an illustration, in the eyes of those who knew him best, of the truths which he sought to inculcate on the young merchants of Montreal.[12]

After remarking that it was vain for him to attempt, in a cursory address, to fan the fervour of his hearers' zeal, or throw light on subjects which they were in the habit of hearing so effectively treated,

Indeed (he continued) I should almost be tempted to affirm that in an age when education is so generally diffused—when the art of printing has brought the sources of information so near to the lips of all who thirst for understanding—when so many of the secrets of nature have been revealed—when the impalpable and all-pervading electricity, and the infinite elasticity of steam, have been made subservient to purposes of human utility,—the advantages of knowledge, in an utilitarian point of view, the utter hopelessness of a successful attempt on the part either of individuals or classes to maintain their position in society if they neglect the means of self-improvement, are truths too obvious to call for elucidation. I must say that it seems to me that there is less risk, therefore, of our declining to avail ourselves of our opportunities than there is of our misusing or abusing them; that there is less likelihood of our refusing to grasp the treasures spread out before us, than of our laying upon them rash and irreverent hands, and neglecting to cultivate those habits of patient investigation, humility, and moral self-control, without which we have no sufficient security that even the possession of knowledge itself will be a blessing to us. I was much struck by a passage I met with the other day in reading the life of one of the greatest men of his age and country—Watt—which seemed to me to illustrate very forcibly the nature of the danger to which I am now referring as well as its remedy. It is stated in the passage to which I allude, that Watt took great delight in reading over the specifications of inventions for which patent rights were obtained. He observed that of those inventions a large proportion turned out to be entirely worthless, and a source of ruin and disappointment to their authors. And it is further stated that he discovered that, among these abortive inventions, many were but the embodiment of ideas which had suggested themselves to his own mind—which, probably, when they first presented themselves, he had welcomed as great discoveries, likely to contribute to his own fame and to the advantage of mankind, but which, after having subjected them to that rigid and unsparing criticism which he felt it his bounden duty to apply to the offspring of his own brain, he had found to be worthless, and rejected. Now, unquestionably, the powerful intellect of Watt went for much in this matter: unquestionably his keen and practised glance enabled him to detect flaws and errors in many cases where an eye equally honest, but less acute, would have failed to discover them; but can we doubt that a moral element was largely involved in the composition of that quality of mind which enabled Watt to shun the sunken rocks on which so many around him were making shipwreck—that it was his unselfish devotion to truth, his humility, and the practice of self-control, which enabled him to rebuke the suggestions of vanity and self-interest, and, with the sternness of an impartial judge, to condemn to silence and oblivion even the offspring of his own mind, for which he doubtless felt a parent's fondness, when it fell short of that standard of perfection which he had reared? From this incident in the life of that great man, we may draw, I think, a most useful lesson, which we may apply with good effect to fields of inquiry far transcending those to which the anecdote has immediate reference. Take, for instance, the wide region occupied with moral and political, or, as they are styled, social questions: observe the wretched half- truths, the perilous fallacies, which quacks, greedy of applause or gain, and speculating on the credulity of mankind, more especially in times of perturbation or distress, have the audacity to palm upon the world as sublime discoveries calculated to increase, in some vast and untold amount, the sum of human happiness; and mark the misery and desolation which follow, when the hopes excited by these pretenders are dispelled. It is often said in apology for such persons, that they are, after all, sincere; that they are deceived rather than deceivers; that they do not ask others to adopt opinions which they have not heartily accepted themselves; but apply to this reasoning the principle that I have been endeavouring to illustrate from the life of Watt, and we shall find, I think, that the excuse is, in most cases, but a sorry one, if, indeed, it be any excuse at all. God has planted within the mind of man the lights of reason and of conscience, and without it, He has placed those of revelation and experience; and if man wilfully extinguishes those lights, in order that, under cover of the darkness which he has himself made, he may install in the sanctuary of his understanding and heart, where the image of truth alone should dwell, a vain idol, a creature of his own fond imaginings, it will, I fear, but little avail him, more especially in that day when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed, if he shall plead in extenuation of his guilt that he did not invite others to worship the idol until he had fallen prostrate himself before it.

These, gentlemen, are truths which I think it will be well for us to lay to heart. I address myself more particularly to you who are entering upon the useful and honourable career of the British merchant; for you are now standing on the lower steps of a ladder, which, when it is mounted with diligence and circumspection, leads always to respectability, not unfrequently to high honour and distinction. Bear in mind, then, that the quality which ought chiefly to distinguish those who aspire to exercise a controlling and directing influence in any department of human action, from those who have only a subordinate part to play, is the knowledge of principles and general laws. A few examples will make the truth of this proposition apparent to you. Take, for instance, the case of the builder. The mason and carpenter must know how to hew the stone and square the timber, and follow out faithfully the working plan placed in their hands. But the architect must know much more than this; he must be acquainted with the principles of proportion and form; he must know the laws which regulate the distribution of heat, light, and air, in order that he may give to each part of a complicated structure its due share of these advantages, and combine the multifarious details into a consistent whole. Take again the case of the seaman. It is enough for the steersman that he watch certain symptoms in the sky and on the waves; that he note the shifting of the wind and compass, and attend to certain precise rules which have been given him for his guidance. But the master of the ship, if he be fit for his situation—and I am sorry to say that many undertake the duties of that responsible office who are not fit for it—must be thoroughly acquainted, not only with the map of the earth and heavens, but he must know also all that science has revealed of some of the most subtle of the operations of nature; he must understand, as far as man can yet discover them, what are the laws which regulate the movements of the currents, the direction of the tempest, and the meanderings of the magnetic fluid. Or, to take a case with which you are more familiar—that of the merchant. The merchant's clerk must understand book-keeping and double-entry, and know how to arrange every item of the account under its proper head, and how to balance the whole correctly. But the head of the establishment must be acquainted, in addition to this, with the laws which regulate the exchanges, with the principles that affect the production and distribution of national wealth, and therefore with those social and political causes which are ever and anon at work to disturb calculations, which would have been accurate enough for quiet times, but which are insufficient for others. I think, therefore, that I have established the truth of the proposition, that men who aspire to exercise a directing and controlling influence in any pursuit or business, should be distinguished by a knowledge of principles and general laws. But it is in the acquisition of this knowledge, and more especially in its application to the occurrences of daily life, that the chief necessity arises for the exercise of those high moral qualities, with the importance of which I have endeavoured, in these brief remarks, to impress you.

[1] Our Colonies: an Address delivered to the members of the
Mechanics' Institute, Chester, Nov. 12, 1855, by the Right Hon. W. E.
Gladstone, M.P.

[2] See the Colonial Policy of Lord John Russell's Administration, by
Earl Grey: a work in which the records of a most important period of
colonial history are traced with equal ability and authority.

[3] MacMullen's History of Canada, p. 497.

[4] Lord Grey's Colonial Policy, &c., i. 207.

[5] MacMullen's History of Canada.

[6] A pamphlet was published by a member of the Legislative Council, denouncing this and similar instances of 'horrible and heartless conduct' on the part of landed proprietors and their 'mercenary agents;' but it was proved by satisfactory evidence that his main statements were not founded in fact.

[7] Lord Grey's Colonial policy.

[8] See Papers presented to Parliament, May, 1848; or Lord Grey's Colonial Policy, i. 216.

[9] I.e. Member of the Provincial Parliament.

[10] Lord Grey's Colonial Policy, i. 220. Lord Grey was one of the few statesmen who were blameless in the matter, for he voted against the Act of 1843, in opposition to his party.

[11] The personal annoyance which he felt on this occasion was only a phase of the indignation which was often roused in him, by seeing the interests and feelings of the colony made the sport of party-speakers and party-writers at home; and important transactions in the province distorted and misrepresented, so as to afford ground for an attack, in the British Parliament, on an obnoxious Minister.—Vide Infra, p. 113.

[12] 'A knowledge' wrote Sir F. Bruce, 'of what he was, and of the results he in consequence achieved, would be an admirable text on which to engraft ideas of permanent value on this most important question;' as helping to show 'that to reduce education to stuffing the mind with facts is to dwarf the intelligence, and to reverse the natural process of the growth of man's mind; that the knowledge of principles, as the means of discrimination, and the criterion of those individual appreciations which are fallaciously called facts, ought to be the end of high education.'

CHAPTER IV.

CANADA.

DISCONTENT—REBELLION LOSSES BILL—OPPOSITION TO IT—NEUTRALITY OF THE GOVERNOR—RIOTS AT MONTREAL—FIRMNESS OF THE GOVERNOR—APPROVAL OF HOME GOVERNMENT—FRESH RIOTS—REMOVAL OF SEAT OF GOVERNMENT FROM MONTREAL—FORBEARANCE OF LORD ELGIN—RETROSPECT.

[Sidenote: Commercial depression.]

The winter of 1848 passed quietly; but the commercial depression, which was then everywhere prevalent, weighed heavily on Canada, more especially on the Upper Province. In one of his letters Lord Elgin caught himself, so to speak, using the words, 'the downward progress of events.' He proceeds:—

The downward progress of events! These are ominous words. But look at the facts. Property in most of the Canadian towns, and more especially in the capital, has fallen fifty per cent. in value within the last three years. Three-fourths of the commercial men are bankrupt, owing to Free-trade; a large proportion of the exportable produce of Canada is obliged to seek a market in the States. It pays a duty of twenty per cent. on the frontier. How long can such a state of things be expected to endure?

Depend upon it, our commercial embarrassments are our real difficulty. Political discontent, properly so called, there is none. I really believe no country in the world is more free from it. We have, indeed, national antipathies hearty and earnest enough. We suffer, too, from the inconvenience of having to work a system which is not yet thoroughly in gear. Reckless and unprincipled men take advantage of these circumstances to work into a fever every transient heat that affects the public mind. Nevertheless, I am confident I could carry Canada unscathed through all these evils of transition, and place the connection on a surer foundation than ever, if I could only tell the people of the province that as regards the conditions of material prosperity, they would be raised to a level with their neighbours. But if this be not achieved, if free navigation and reciprocal trade with the Union be not secured for us, the worst, I fear, will come, and that at no distant day.

[Sidenote: Political discontent.]

Unfortunately, powerful interests in the one case, indifference and apathy in the other, prevented these indispensable measures, as he always maintained them to be, from being carried for many years; and in the meantime a most serious fever of political discontent was in effect worked up, out of a heat which ought to have been as transient as the cause of it was intrinsically unimportant.

[Sidenote: Rebellion Losses Bill.]

Irritated by loss of office, groaning under the ruin of their trade, outraged moreover (for so they represented it to themselves) in their best and most patriotic feelings by seeing 'Rebels' in the seat of power, the Ex-ministerial party were in a mood to resent every measure of the Government, and especially every act of the Governor-General. When Parliament met on January 18, he took advantage of the repeal of the law restricting the use of the French language, to deliver his speech in French as well as in English: even this they turned to his reproach. But their wrath rose to fury on the introduction of a Bill 'to provide for the indemnification of parties in Lower Canada whose property was destroyed during the Rebellion in 1837 and 1838:' a 'questionable measure,' to use Lord Elgin's own words in first mentioning it, 'but one which the preceding administration had rendered almost inevitable by certain proceedings adopted by them' in Lord Metcalfe's time. As the justification of the measure is thus rested on its previous history, a brief retrospect is necessary before proceeding with the account of transactions which formed an epoch in the history of the colony, as well as in the life of the Governor.

[Sidenote: History of the measure.]

Within a very short time after the close of the Rebellion of 1837 and 1838, the attention of both sections of the colony was directed to compensating those who had suffered by it. First came the case of the primary sufferers, if so they may be called; that is, the Loyalists, whose property had been destroyed by Rebels. Measures were at once taken to indemnify all such persons,—in Upper Canada, by an Act passed in the last session of its separate Parliament; in Lower Canada, by an ordinance of the 'Special Council' under which it was at that time administered. But it was felt that this was not enough; that where property had been wantonly and unnecessarily destroyed, even though it were by persons acting in support of authority, some compensation ought to be given; and the Upper Canada Act above mentioned was amended next year, in the first session of the United Parliament, so as to extend to all losses occasioned by violence on the part of persons acting or assuming to act on Her Majesty's behalf. Nothing was done at this time about Lower Canada; but it was obviously inevitable that the treatment applied to the one province should be extended to the other. Accordingly, in 1845, during Lord Metcalfe's Government, and under a Conservative Administration, an Address was adopted unanimously by the Assembly, praying His Excellency to cause proper measures to be taken 'in order to insure to the inhabitants of that portion of the province, formerly Lower Canada, indemnity for just losses by them sustained during the Rebellion of 1837 and 1838.'

In pursuance of this address, a Commission was appointed to inquire into the claims of persons whose property had been destroyed in the rebellion; the Commissioners receiving instructions to distinguish the cases of those persons who had joined, aided, or abetted in the said rebellion, from the case of those who had not. On inquiring how they were to distinguish, they were officially answered that in making out the classification 'it was not His Excellency's intention that they should be guided by any other description of evidence than that furnished by the sentences of the Courts of Law.' It was also intimated to them that they were only intended to form a 'general estimate' of the rebellion losses, 'the particulars of which must form the subject of more minute inquiry hereafter under legislative authority.'

In obedience to these instructions, the Commissioners made their investigations, and reported that they had recognised, as worthy of further inquiry, claims representing a sum total of 241,965_l_. 10_s_. 5_d_., but they added an expression of opinion that the losses suffered would be found, on closer examination, not to exceed the value of 100,000_l_.

This Report was rendered in April 1846; but though Lord Metcalfe's Ministry which had issued the Commission, avowedly as preliminary to a subsequent and more minute inquiry, remained in office for nearly two years longer, they took no steps towards carrying out their declared intentions.

So the matter stood in March 1848, when, as has been already stated, a new administration was formed, consisting mainly of persons whose political sympathies were with Lower Canada. It was natural that they should take up the work left half done by their predecessors; and early in 1849 they introduced a Bill which was destined to become notorious under the name of the 'Rebellion Losses Bill.' The preamble of it declared that in order to redeem the pledge already given to parties in Lower Canada, it was necessary and just that the particulars of such losses as were not yet satisfied, should form the subject of more minute inquiry under legislative authority; and that the same, so far only as they might have arisen from the 'total or partial unjust or wanton destruction' of property, should be paid and satisfied. A proviso was added that no person who had been convicted, or pleaded guilty, of treason during the rebellion should be entitled to any indemnity for losses sustained in connection with it. The Bill itself authorised the appointment of Commissioners for the purpose of the Act, and the appropriation of 90,000_l_. to the payment of claims that might arise under it; following in this respect the opinion expressed by Lord Metcalfe's preliminary Commission of enquiry.

[Sidenote: Excitement respecting it.]

Such was the measure—so clearly inevitable in its direction, so modest in its proportions—which, falling on an inflamed state of the public mind in Canada, and misunderstood in England, was the occasion of riot and nearly of rebellion in the Province, and exposed the Governor-General, who sanctioned it, to severe censure on the part of many whose opinion he most valued at home. His own feelings on its introduction, his opinion of its merits, and his reasons for the course which he pursued in dealing with it, cannot be better stated than in his own words. Writing to Lord Grey on March 1, he says:—

A good deal of excitement and bad feeling has been stirred in the province by the introduction of a measure by the Ministry for the payment of certain rebellion losses in Lower Canada. I trust that it will soon subside, and that no enduring mischief will ensue from it, but the Opposition leaders have taken advantage of the circumstances to work upon the feelings of old Loyalists as opposed to Rebels, of British as opposed to French, and of Upper Canadians as opposed to Lower; and thus to provoke from various parts of the province the expression of not very temperate or measured discontent. I am occasionally rated in not very courteous language, and peremptorily required to dissolve the Parliament which was elected only one year ago, under the auspices of this same clamorous Opposition, who were then in power. The measure itself is not indeed altogether free from objection, and I very much regret that an addition should be made to our debt for such an object at this time. Nevertheless, I must say I do not see how my present Government could have taken any other course in this matter than that which they have followed. Their predecessors had already gone more than half-way in the same direction, though they had stopped short, and now tell us that they never intended to go farther. If the Ministry had failed to complete the work of alleged justice to Lower Canada which had been commenced by the former Administration, M. Papineau would most assuredly have availed himself of the plea to undermine their influence in this section of the province. The debates in Parliament on this question have been acrimonious and lengthy, but M. Lafontaine's resolutions were finally passed by a majority of fifty to twenty-two.

Dissensions of this class place in strong relief the passions and tendencies which render the endurance of the political system which we have established here, and of the connection with the mother-country, uncertain and precarious. They elicit a manifestation of antipathy between races and of jealousy between the recently united provinces, which is much to be regretted. This measure of indemnity to Lower Canada is, however, the last of the kind, and if it be once settled satisfactorily, a formidable stumblingblock will have been removed from my path.

A fortnight later he adds:—

The Tory party are doing what they can by menace, intimidation, and appeals to passion to drive me to a coup d'État. And yet the very measure which is at this moment the occasion of so loud an outcry, is nothing more than a strict logical following out of their own acts. It is difficult to conceive what the address on the subject of rebellion losses in Lower Canada, unanimously voted by the House of Assembly while Lord Metcalfe was governor and Mr. Draper minister, and the proceedings of the Administration upon that address could have been meant to lead to, if not to such a measure as the present Government have introduced.

I enclose a letter which has been published in the newspapers by A. M. Masson, one of the Bermuda exiles,[1] who was appointed to an office by the late Government. This person will be excluded from compensation by the Bill of the present Government, and he positively asserts that Lord Metcalfe and some of his Ministers assured him that he would be included by them.

I certainly regret that this agitation should have been stirred, and that any portion of the funds of the province should be diverted now from much more useful purposes to make good losses sustained by individuals in the rebellion. But I have no doubt whatsoever that a great deal of property was wantonly and cruelly destroyed at that time in Lower Canada. Nor do I think that this Government, after what their predecessors had done, and with Papineau in the rear, could have helped taking up this question. Neither do I think that their measure would have been less objectionable, but very much the reverse, if, after the lapse of eleven years, and the proclamation of a general amnesty, it had been so framed as to attach the stigma of Rebellion to others than those regularly convicted before the Courts. Any kind of extra-judicial inquisition conducted at this time of day by Commissioners appointed by the Government, with the view of ascertaining what part this or that claimant for indemnity may have taken in 1837 and 1838, would have been attended by consequences much to be regretted, and have opened the door to an infinite amount of jobbing, false swearing, and detraction.

[Sidenote: Petitions against it.]
[Sidenote: Neutrality of the Governor.]

Petitions against the measure were got up by the Tories in all parts of the province; but these, instead of being sent to the Assembly, or to the Legislative Council, or to the Home Government, were almost all addressed to Lord Elgin personally; obviously with the design of producing a collision between him and his Parliament. They generally prayed either that Parliament might be dissolved, or that the Bill, if it passed, might be reserved for the royal sanction. All such addresses, and the remonstrances brought to him by deputations of malcontents, he received with civility, promising to bestow on them his best consideration, but studiously avoiding the expression of any opinion on the points in controversy. By thus maintaining a strictly constitutional position, he foiled that section of the agitators who calculated on his being frightened or made angry, while he left a door open for any who might have candour enough to admit that after all he was only carrying out fairly the principle of responsible government.

In pursuance of this policy he put off to the latest moment any decision as to the course which he should take with respect to the Bill when it came up to him for his sanction. As regards a dissolution, indeed, he felt from the beginning that it would be sheer folly, attended by no small risk. Was he to have recourse to this ultima ratio, merely because a parliament elected a year before, under the auspices of the party now in opposition, had passed, by a majority of nearly two to one, a measure introduced by the present Government, in pursuance of the acts of a former one?

If I had dissolved Parliament, I might have produced a rebellion, but most assuredly I should not have procured a change of Ministry. The leaders of the party know that as well as I do, and were it possible to play tricks in such grave concerns, it would have been easy to throw them into utter confusion by merely calling upon them to form a Government. They were aware, however, that I could not for the sake of discomfiting them hazard so desperate a policy: so they have played out their game of faction and violence without fear of consequences.

The other course urged upon him by the Opposition, namely, that of reserving the Bill for the consideration of the Home Government, may appear to have been open to no such objections, and to have been in fact the wisest course which he could pursue, in circumstances of so much delicacy. And this seems to have been the opinion of many in England, who were disposed to approve of his general policy; but it may be doubted whether they had weighed all the considerations which presented themselves to the mind of the Governor on the spot, and which he stated to Lord Grey as follows:—

There are objections, too, to reserving the Bill which I think I shall consider insurmountable, whatever obloquy I may for the time entail on myself by declining to lend myself even to this extent to the plans of those who wish to bring about a change of administration.

In the first place the Bill for the relief of a corresponding class of persons in Upper Canada, which was couched in terms very nearly similar, was not reserved, and it is difficult to discover a sufficient reason, in so far as the representative of the Crown is concerned, for dealing with the one measure differently from the other. And in the second place, by reserving the Bill I should only throw upon Her Majesty's Government, or (as it would appear to the popular eye here) on Her Majesty herself, a responsibility which rests, and ought, I think, to rest, on my own shoulders. If I pass the Bill, whatever mischief ensues may probably be repaired, if the worst comes to the worst, by the sacrifice of me. Whereas, if the case be referred to England, it is not impossible that Her Majesty may only have before her the alternative of provoking a rebellion in Lower Canada, by refusing her assent to a measure chiefly affecting the interest of the habitans, and thus throwing the whole population into Papineau's hands, or of wounding the susceptibilities of some of the best subjects she has in the province. For among the objectors to this Bill are undoubtedly to be found not a few who belong to this class; men who are worked upon by others more selfish and designing, to whom the principles of constitutional Government are unfathomable mysteries, and who still regard the representative of royalty, and in a more remote sense the Crown and Government of England, if not as the objects of a very romantic loyalty (for that, I fear, is fast waning), at least as the butts of a most intense and unrelenting: indignation, if political affairs be not administered in entire accordance with their sense of what is right.

In solving these knotty problems, and choosing his course of action, the necessities of the situation required that he should be guided by his own unaided judgment, and act entirely on his own responsibility. For although, throughout all his difficulties, in the midst of the reproaches with which he was assailed both in the colony and in England, he had the great satisfaction of knowing that his conduct was entirely approved by Lord Grey, to whom he opened all his mind in private letters, the official communications which passed between them were necessarily very reserved. The following extract illustrates well this peculiarity in the position of a British Colonial Governor, who has two popular Assemblies and two public presses to consider:—

Perhaps you may have been annoyed by my not writing officially to you ere this so as to give you communications to send to Parliament. All that I can say on that point is, that I have got through this disagreeable affair as well as I have done only by maintaining my constitutional position, listening civilly to all representations addressed to me against the measure, and adhering to a strict reserve as to the course which I might deem it proper eventually to pursue. By following this course I have avoided any act or expression which might have added fuel to the flame; and although I have been plentifully abused, because it has been the policy of the Opposition to drag me into the strife, no one can say that I have said or done anything to justify the abuse. And the natural effect of such patient endurance is now beginning to show itself in the moderated tone of the organs of the Opposition press. You will perceive, however, that I could not possibly have maintained this position here, if despatches from me indicating the Ministerial policy had been submitted to the House of Commons. They would have found their way out here at once. Every statement and opinion would have formed the subject of discussion, and I should have found myself in the midst of the mêlée a partisan.

To counteract the violent and reckless efforts of the Opposition, Lord Elgin trusted partly to the obvious reasonableness of the proposal under discussion, but more to the growth of a patriotic spirit which should lead the minority to prefer the rule of a majority within the province to the coercion of a power from without. Something also he hoped from the effect of the many excellent measures brought in about the same time by his new Ministry, 'the first really efficient and working Government that Canada had had since the Union.' Nor were these hopes altogether disappointed. Writing on April 12 he observed, that a marked change had taken place within the last few weeks in the tone both of the press[2] and of the leaders of the party, some of whom had given him to understand, through different channels, that they regretted things had gone so far. 'But,' he adds, 'whether the gales from England will stir the tempest again or not remains to be seen.'

[Sidenote: Opinions in England.]

And, in effect, the next post from England came laden with speeches and newspaper articles, denouncing, in no measured terms, the 'suicidal folly of rewarding rebels for rebellion.' A London journal of influence, speaking of the British population as affected by the measure in question, said:— 'They are tolerably able to take care of themselves, and we very much misconstrue the tone adopted by the English press and the English public in the province, if they do not find some means of resisting the heavy blow and great discouragement which is aimed at them.' Such passages were read with avidity in the colony, and construed to mean that sympathy would be extended from influential quarters at home to those who sought to annul the obnoxious decision of the local Legislature, whatever might be the means to which they resorted for the attainment of that end. It may be doubted, however, whether any extraneous disturbance of this kind had much to do with the volcanic outburst of local passions which ensued, and which is now to be related.

[Sidenote: The Bill is passed,]

The Bill was passed in the Assembly by forty-seven votes to eighteen. On analysing the votes, it was found that out of thirty-one members from Upper Canada who voted on the occasion, seventeen supported and fourteen opposed it; and that of ten members for Lower Canada, of British descent, six supported and four opposed it.

These facts (wrote Lord Elgin) seemed altogether irreconcilable with the allegation that the question was one on which the two races were arrayed against each other throughout the province generally. I considered, therefore, that by reserving the Bill, I should only cast on Her Majesty and Her Majesty's advisers a responsibility which ought, in the first instance at least, to rest on my own shoulders, and that I should awaken in the minds of the people at large, even of those who were indifferent or hostile to the Bill, doubts as to the sincerity with which it was intended that constitutional Government should be carried on in Canada; doubts which it is my firm conviction, if they were to obtain generally, would be fatal to the connection.

[Sidenote: and receives the Royal Assent.]

Accordingly, when, on April 25, 1849, circumstances made it necessary for him to proceed to Parliament in order to give the Royal Assent to a Customs Bill which had that day passed the Legislative Council, he considered that, as this necessity had arisen, it would not be expedient to keep the public mind in suspense by omitting to dispose, at the same time, of the other Acts which still awaited his decision, among which was the 'Act to provide for the indemnification of parties in Lower Canada whose property was destroyed during the Rebellion in 1837 and 1838.' What followed is thus described in an official despatch written within a few days after the event:—

[Sidenote: Riots.]

When I left the House of Parliament I was received with mingled cheers and hootings by a crowd by no means numerous which surrounded the entrance to the building. A small knot of individuals, consisting, it has since been ascertained, of persons of a respectable class in society, pelted the carriage with missiles which they must have brought with them for the purpose. Within an hour after this occurrence a notice, of which I enclose a copy, issued from one of the newspaper offices, calling a meeting in the open air. At the meeting inflammatory speeches were made. On a sudden, whether under the effect of momentary excitement, or in pursuance of a plan arranged beforehand, the mob proceeded to the House of Parliament, where the members were still sitting, and breaking the windows, set fire to the building and burned it to the ground. By this wanton act public property of considerable value, including two excellent libraries, has been utterly destroyed. Having achieved their object the crowd dispersed, apparently satisfied with what they had done. The members were permitted to retire unmolested, and no resistance was offered to the military who appeared on the ground after a brief interval, to restore order, and aid in extinguishing the flames. During the two following days a good deal of excitement prevailed in the streets, and some further acts of incendiarism were perpetrated. Since then the military force has been increased, and the leaders of the disaffected party have shown a disposition to restrain their followers, and to direct their energies towards the more constitutional object of petitioning the Queen for my recall, and the disallowance of the obnoxious Bill. The proceedings of the House of Assembly will also tend to awe the turbulent. I trust, therefore, that the peace of the city will not be again disturbed.

The Ministry are blamed for not having made adequate provision against these disasters. That they by no means expected that the hostility to the Rebellion Losses Bill would have displayed itself in the outrages which have been perpetrated during the last few days is certain.[3] Perhaps sufficient attention was not paid by them to the menaces of the Opposition press. It must be admitted, however, that their position was one of considerable difficulty. The civil force of Montreal—a city containing about 50,000 inhabitants of different races, with secret societies and other agencies of mischief in constant activity—consists of two policemen under the authority of the Government, and seventy appointed by the Corporation. To oppose, therefore, effectual resistance to any considerable mob, recourse must be had in all cases either to the military or to a force of civilians enrolled for the occasion. Grave objections, however, presented themselves in the present instance to the adoption of either of these courses until the disposition to tumult on the part of the populace unhappily manifested itself in overt acts. More especially was it of importance to avoid any measure which might have had a tendency to produce a collision between parties on a question on which their feelings were so strongly excited. The result of the course pursued is, that there has been no bloodshed, and, except in the case of some of the Ministers themselves, no destruction of private property.

The passions, however, which appeared to have calmed down, burst out with fresh fury the very day on which these sentences were penned. The House of Assembly had voted, by a majority of thirty-six to sixteen, an address to the Governor-General, expressive of abhorrence at the outrages which had taken place, of loyalty to the Queen, and approval of his just and impartial administration of the Government, with his late as well as with his present advisers. It was arranged that Lord Elgin should receive this Address at the Government House instead of at Monklands. Accordingly, on April 30, he drove into the city, escorted by a troop of volunteer dragoons, and accompanied by several of his suite. On his way through the streets he was greeted with showers of stones, and with difficulty preserved his face from being injured.[4] On his return he endeavoured to avoid all occasion of conflict by going back by a different route; but the mob, discovering his purpose, rushed in pursuit, and again assailed his carriage with various missiles, and it was only by rapid driving that he escaped unhurt.[5]

None but those who were in constant intercourse with him can know what Lord Elgin went through during the period of excitement which followed these gross outrages. The people of Montreal seemed to have lost their reason. The houses of some of the Ministers and of their supporters were attacked by mobs at night, and it was not safe for them to appear in the streets. A hostile visit was threatened to the house in which the Governor-General resided at a short distance from the city; all necessary preparation was made to defend it, and his family were kept for some time in a state of anxiety and suspense.[6]

For some weeks he himself did not go into the town of Montreal, but kept entirely within the bounds of his country seat at Monklands, determined that no act of his should offer occasion or excuse to the mob for fresh outrage.[7] He knew, of course, that the whole of French Lower Canada was ready at any moment to rise, as one man, in support of the Government; but his great object was to keep them quiet, and 'to prevent collision between the races.'

[Sidenote: Firmness of the Governor.]
[Sidenote: Refuses either to use force,]

'Throughout the whole of this most trying time,' writes Major Campbell,[8] 'Lord Elgin remained perfectly calm and cool; never for a moment losing his self-possession, nor failing to exercise that clear foresight and sound judgment for which he was so remarkable. It came to the knowledge of his Ministers that, if he went into the city again, his life would be in great danger; and they advised that a commission should issue to appoint a Deputy-Governor for the purpose of proroguing Parliament. He was urged by irresponsible advisers to make use of the military forces at his command, to protect his person in an official visit to the city; but he declined to do so, and thus avoided what these infatuated rioters seemed determined to bring on—the shedding of blood. "I am prepared," he said, "to bear any amount of obloquy that may be cast upon me, but, if I can possibly prevent it, no stain of blood shall rest upon my name."'

As might have been expected, the Montreal press attributed this wise and magnanimous self-restraint to fear for his own safety. But he was not to be moved from his resolve by the paltry imputation; nor did he even care that his friends should resent or refute it on his behalf.

So little was he affected by it that on finding, some years afterwards, that Lord Grey proposed to introduce some expression of indignation on the subject in his work on the colonies, he dissuaded him from doing so. 'I do not believe,' he said, 'that these imputations were hazarded in any respectable quarter, or that they are entitled to the dignity of a place in your narrative.'

[Sidenote: or to yield to violence.]

But if neither the entreaties of 'irresponsible advisers,' nor the taunts of foes, could move him to the use of force, he was equally firm in his determination to concede nothing to the clamour and violence of the mob. Writing officially to Lord Grey on the 30th of April, when the fury of the populace was at its height, he said:—

It is my firm conviction that if this dictation be submitted to, the government of this province by constitutional means will be impossible, and that the struggle between overbearing minorities, backed by force, and majorities resting on legality and established forms, which has so long proved the bane of Canada, driving capital from the province, and producing a state of chronic discontent, will be perpetuated.

[Sidenote: Tenders resignation.]

At the same time, he thought it his duty to suggest, that 'if he should be unable to recover that position of dignified neutrality between contending parties which it had been his unremitting study to maintain,' it might be a question whether it would not be for the interests of Her Majesty's service that he should be removed, to make way for some one 'who should have the advantage of being personally unobnoxious to any section of Her Majesty's subjects within the province.'

[Sidenote: Approval of Home Government.]

The reply to this letter assured him, in emphatic terms, of the cordial approval and support of the Home Government. 'I appreciate,' wrote Lord Grey, 'the motives which have induced your Lordship to offer the suggestion with which your despatch concludes, but I should most earnestly deprecate the change it contemplates in the government of Canada. Your Lordship's relinquishment of that office, which, under any circumstances, would be a most serious loss to Her Majesty's service, and to the province, could not fail, in the present state of affairs, to be most injurious to the public welfare, from the encouragement which it would give to those who have been concerned in the violent and illegal opposition which has been offered to your Government. I also feel no doubt that when the present excitement shall have subsided, you will succeed in regaining that position of "dignified neutrality" becoming your office, which, as you justly observe, it has hitherto been your study to maintain, and from which, even those who are at present most opposed to you, will, on reflection, perceive that you have been driven, by no fault on your part, but by their own unreasoning violence.

Relying, therefore, upon your devotion to the interests of Canada, I feel assured that you will not be induced by the unfortunate occurrences which have taken place, to retire from the high office which the Queen has been pleased to entrust to you, and which, from the value she puts upon your past services, it is Her Majesty's anxious wish that you should retain.'

[Sidenote: Support in the colony.]

While awaiting, in his retreat at Monklands, the contrecoup from the mother-country of the storm which had burst over the colony, Lord Elgin found a great source of consolation in the numerous sympathetic addresses which poured in from every part of the province: fortifying him in the conviction that the heart of the colony was with him, and that the bitter opposition at Montreal was chiefly due to local causes; especially 'to commercial distress, acting on religious bigotry and national hatred.' One of these addresses, coming from the county of Glengarry, an ancient settlement of Scottish loyalists, appears to have touched the Scotsman's heart within the statesman's. In reply to it he said:—

Men of Glengarry—My heart warms within me when I listen to your manly and patriotic address.

I recognise in it evidence of that vigorous understanding which enables men of the stock to which you belong to prize, as they ought to be prized, the blessings of well-ordered freedom, and of that keen sense of principle which prompts them to recoil from no sacrifice which duty enjoins.

The men of Glengarry need not recapitulate their services. He must be ignorant indeed of the history of Canada who does not know how much they have done and suffered for their Sovereign and their country.

You inhabit here a goodly land. A land full of promise, where your children have room enough to increase and to multiply, and to become, with God's blessing, greater and more prosperous than yourselves. But I am confident that no spell less potent than the gentle and benignant control of those liberal institutions which it is Britain's pride and privilege to bestow on her children, will insure the peaceful development of its unrivalled resources, or knit together into one happy and united family the various races of which this community is composed.

On this conviction I have acted, in labouring to secure for you, during the whole course of my administration the full benefit of constitutional government. It is truly gratifying to me to learn that you appreciate my exertions. Depend upon it, they will not be relaxed. I claim to have something of your own spirit: devotion to a cause which I believe to be a just one—courage to confront, if need be, danger and even obloquy in its pursuit—and an undying faith that God protects the right.

[Sidenote: Debates in the British Parliament.]

In the meantime the unhappy Bill, which had caused such an explosion in the colony, was running the gantlet of the British Parliament. On June 14 it was vehemently attacked in the House of Commons by Mr. Gladstone, as being a measure for the rewarding of Rebels.[9] He, indeed, contented himself with 'calling the attention of the House to certain parts' of the Bill in question; but Mr. Herries, following out the same views to their legitimate conclusion, moved an Address to Her Majesty to disallow the Act of the Colonial Legislature. The debate was sustained with great Vigour for two nights; in the course of which the Act was defended not only by Lord John Russell as leader of the Government, but also, with even more force, by his great opponent Sir Robert Peel. Speaking with all the weight of an impartial observer, he showed that it was not the intention of the measure, and would not be its effect, to give compensation to anyone who could be proved to have been a rebel; that it was only an inevitable sequel to other measures which had been passed without opposition; and, further, that its rejection at this stage would be resisted by all parties in the colony alike, as an arbitrary interference with their right of self-government. On a division the amendment of Mr. Herries was thrown out by a majority of 141. And though, a few nights later, a resolution somewhat in the same sense, moved by Lord Brougham in the Upper House, was only negatived, with the aid of proxies, by three votes, the large majority in the House of Commons, and the firm attitude of the Government on the subject, did much to quiet the excitement in the colony.

The news from England (wrote Lord Elgin) has produced a marked, and, so far as it goes, a satisfactory change in the tone of the Press; in proof of which I send you the leading articles of the Tory papers of Saturday. … The party, it would appear, is now split into three; but on one point all are agreed. We must have done, they say, with this habit of abusing the French; we must live with them on terms of amity and affection. Such is the first fruit of the policy which was to bring about, we were assured, a war of races.

This satisfactory result was also due in part to the wise measures adopted by the Ministry, under direction of the Governor-General, for giving effect to the provisions of the much-disputed Bill.

We are taking steps (he wrote on June 17) to carry out the Rebellion Losses Bill. Having adopted the measure of the late Conservative Government, we are proceeding to reappoint their own Commissioners; and, not content with that, we are furnishing them with instructions which place upon the Act the most restricted and loyalist construction of which the terms are susceptible. Truly, if ever rebellion stood upon a rickety pretence, it is the Canadian Tory Rebellion of 1849.

[Sidenote: Fresh riots.]

Unhappily the flames, which at this time had nearly died out, were re- kindled two months later on occasion of the arrest of certain persons concerned in the former riots; and though this fresh outbreak lasted but a few days, it was attended in one case with fatal consequences.[10] Writing on August 20, Lord Elgin says:—

We are again in some excitement here. M. Lafontaine's house was attacked by a mob (for the second time) two nights ago. Some persons within fired, and one of the assailants was killed. The violent Clubbists are trying to excite the passions of the multitude, alleging that this is Anglo-Saxon blood shed by a Frenchman.

The immediate cause of this excitement is the arrest of certain persons who were implicated in the destruction of the Parliament buildings in April last. I was desirous, for the sake of peace, that these parties should not be arrested until indictments had been laid before the grand jury, and true bills found against them. Unfortunately, in consequence of the cholera, the requisite number of jurors to form a court was not forthcoming for the August term. The Government thought that they could not, without impropriety, put off taking any steps against these persons till November. They were, therefore, arrested last week; all except one, who was committed for arson, were at once bailed by the magistrates; and he too was bailed the day after his committal by one of the judges of the Supreme Court.

All this is simple enough, and augurs no very vindictive spirit in the authorities. Nevertheless it affords the occasion for a fresh exhibition of the recklessness of the Montreal mob, and the demoralisation of other classes in the community.

Again on the 27th he writes:—

We have had a fortnight of crisis consequent on the arrests which I reported to you last week; which may perhaps be the prelude (though I do not like to be too sanguine) to better times. A most violent excitement was got up by the Press against M. Lafontaine more especially, as the instigator of the arrests and the cause of the death of the young man who was shot in the attack on his house. A vast number of men, wearing red scarfs and ribands, attended the funeral of the youth. The shops were shut on the line of the procession; fires occurred during several successive nights in different parts of the town, under circumstances warranting the suspicion of incendiarism.

Upon this the stipendiary magistrates, charged by the Government with the preservation of the peace of the city, represented officially to the Governor that nothing could save it but the proclamation of Martial Law. But he told his Council that he 'would neither consent to Martial Law, nor to any measures of increased vigour whatsoever, until a further appeal had been made to the Mayor and Corporation of the city.'

[Sidenote: Quiet restored.]

This appeal was successful. A proclamation, issued by the Mayor, was responded to by the respectable citizens of all parties; and a large number of special constables turned out to patrol the streets and keep the peace. Meanwhile the coroner's jury, after a very rigorous investigation, agreed unanimously to a verdict acquitting M. Lafontaine of all blame, and finding fault with the civic authorities for their remissness. This verdict was important, for two of the jury were Orangemen, who had marched in the procession at the funeral of the young man who was shot. The public acknowledged its importance, and two of the most violent Tory newspapers had articles apologising to Lafontaine for having so unfairly judged him beforehand. 'From, these and other indications (wrote Lord Elgin) I begin to hope that there may be some return to common sense in Montreal.'

[Removal of Government from Montreal.]

My advisers, however (he proceeds), now protest that it will be impossible to maintain the seat of Government here. We had a long discussion on this point yesterday. All seem to be agreed, that if a removal from this town takes place, it must be on the condition prescribed in the address of the Assembly presented to me last Session, viz. that there shall henceforward be Parliaments held alternately in the Upper and Lower Provinces. A removal from this to any other fixed point would be the certain ruin of the party making it. Therefore removal from Montreal implies the adoption of the system (which, although it has a good deal to recommend it, is certainly open to great objections) of alternating Parliaments. But this is not the only difficulty. The French members of the Administration … are willing to go to Toronto for four years at the close of the present Parliament, but they give many reasons, which appear to have in a great measure satisfied their Upper Canada colleagues, for insisting on Quebec as the first point to be made. Now I have great objection to going to Quebec at present. I fear it would be considered, both here and in England, as an admission that the Government is under French- Canadian influence, and that it cannot maintain itself in Upper Canada. I, therefore, concluded in favour of a few days more being given in order to see whether or not the movement now in progress in Montreal may be so directed as to render it possible to retain the seat of Government there.

This hope was disappointed, and he was obliged to admit the necessity of removal. On September 3 he wrote again:—

We have had, since I last wrote, a week of unusual tranquillity…. but I regret to say that I discover as yet nothing to warrant the belief that the seat of Government can properly remain at Montreal.

The existence of a perfect understanding between the more outrageous and the more respectable fractions of the Tory party in the town, is rendered even more manifest by the readiness with which the former, through their organs, have yielded to the latter when they preached moderation in good earnest. Additional proof is thus furnished of the extent to which the blame of the disgraceful transactions of the past four months falls on all. All attempts, and several have been made, to induce the Conservatives to unite in an address, inviting me to return to the town, have failed; which is the more significant, because it is well known that the removal of the seat of Government is under consideration, and that I have deprecated the abandonment of Montreal.

The existence of a party, animated by such sentiments, powerful in numbers and organisation, and in the station of some who more or less openly join it—owning a qualified allegiance to the constitution of the province—professing to regard the Parliament and the Government as nuisances to be tolerated within certain limits only—raising itself whenever the fancy seizes it, or the crisis in its judgment demands it, into an 'imperium in imperio,'—renders it, I fear, extremely doubtful whether the functions of Legislation or of Government can be carried on to advantage in this city. 'Show vigour and put it down,' say some. You may and must put down those who resist the law when overt acts are committed. But the party is unfortunately a national as well as a political one; after each defeat it resumes its attitude of defiance; and, whenever it comes into collision with the authorities, there is the risk of a frightful race feud being provoked. All these dangers are vastly increased by Montreal's being the seat of Government.

There were other arguments also of no little force. He was assured that some Members had declared that nothing would induce them to come again to Montreal; and he himself felt that it must do great mischief to the members from other parts of the Province, to pass some months of each year in that 'hot-bed of prejudice and disaffection.' Moreover, so long as Montreal retained the prestige of being the Metropolis, it was impossible to prevent its press from enjoying a factitious importance, not only within the province, but also in England and in the States, where it would be looked upon as the exponent of the sentiments of the community at large.

Ultimately, on November 18, Lord Elgin reported to the Home Government, that after full and anxious deliberation he had resolved, on the advice of his Council, to act on the recommendation of the Assembly that the Legislature should sit alternately at Toronto and Quebec, and with that view to summon the Provincial Parliament for the next session at Toronto. This step, 'decided upon in this deliberate and unimpassioned manner,' gave a useful lesson, which was not lost either upon Montreal or the rest of the Province. Nor was this its only good effect. 'The arrangement,' wrote Lord Grey in 1852, 'by which the seat of Government and the sittings of the Legislature were fixed alternately at Toronto and Quebec, has contributed not a little towards removing the feelings of alienation from each other of the inhabitants of French and of British descent. The French Canadians have thus been brought into closer communication than formerly with the inhabitants of the Western division of the province, and an increase of mutual esteem and respect, with the removal of many prejudices by which they were formerly divided, have been the result of the two classes becoming better acquainted with each other.'[11]

[Sidenote: Visit to Upper Canada.]

While these arrangements were under discussion, in the autumn following the stormy events above described, in spite of the threats thrown out by the extreme party, Lord Elgin, after a progress in Upper Canada in which he was accompanied by his family, made a short tour in the Western districts, the stronghold of British feeling, attended only by one aide-de-camp and a servant, 'so as to contradict the allegation that he required protection.' Everywhere he was received with the utmost cordiality; the few indications of a different feeling, on the part of Orangemen and others, having only the effect of heightening the enthusiasm with which he was greeted by the majority of the population.

[Sidenote: Continued animosities.]

From this time we hear no more of such disgraceful scenes as it has been necessary to record; but it was long before the old 'Family-Compact' party forgave the Governor who had dared to be impartial. By many kinds of detraction they sought to weaken his influence and damage his popularity; detractions probably repeated in all sincerity by many who were honestly incapable of understanding his real motives for forbearance. And as the members of this party, though they had lost their monopoly of political power, still remained the dominant class in society, the disparaging tone which they set was taken up not only in the colony itself, but also by travellers who visited it, and by them carried back to infect opinion in England. The result was that persons at home, who had the highest appreciation of Lord Elgin's capacity as a statesman, sincerely believed him to be deficient in nerve and vigour; and as the misapprehension was one which he could not have corrected, even if he had been aware how widely it was spread, it continued to exist in many quarters until dispelled by the singular energy and boldness, amounting almost to rashness, which he displayed in China.

[Sidenote: Forbearance of Lord Elgin.]

The more we remember the vehemence with which these injurious reports were circulated, the more remarkable appears the resolution not to yield to the provocation they involved, and the determination to accept the whole responsibility of the situation at whatever personal cost.

The following letters are among those which disclose the motives of his resolute forbearance. The last of them, written to an intimate friend nearly two years later, and summing up the feelings with which he looked back on the struggles of 1849, may close the personal records of this troubled year.

[Sidenote: Its motives.]

I do not at all wonder that you should be disposed to question the wisdom of my course in respect to Montreal; I think it was the best I could have taken under the circumstances; but I do not presume to say that it may not be criticised—justly criticised. My choice was not between a clearly right and a clearly wrong course: how easy is it to deal with such cases, and how rare are they in life! But between several difficulties, I think I chose the least. I think, too, that I am beginning to reap the reward of my policy. I do not believe that such enthusiasm was ever manifested towards anyone in my situation in Canada, as has been exhibited during my recent tour. But more than this. I do not believe that the function of the Governor-General under constitutional government as the moderator between parties, the representative of interests which are common to all the inhabitants of the country, as distinct from those which divide them into parties, was ever so fully and so frankly recognised. Now, I do not believe that I could have achieved this if I had had blood upon my hands. I might have been quite as popular, perhaps more so; for there are many, especially in Lower Canada, who would gladly have seen the severities of the law practised upon those from whom they believe that they have often suffered much, unjustly. But my business is to humanize—not to harden. At that task I must labour, through obloquy and misrepresentation if needs be. At the same time I admit that I must, not for the miserable purpose of self-glorification, but with a view to the maintenance and establishment of my moral influence, recover the prestige of personal courage of which some here sought to deprive me. Before I have travelled unattended through the towns and villages of Upper Canada, and met 'the bhoys' as they are called, in all of them on their own ground, I think I shall have effected this object, in so far as the province is concerned. To right myself in England will be more difficult; but doubtless, if I live, the opportunity of so doing, even there, will sooner or later present itself. Hitherto any impertinences which have reached me from the other side have been anonymous.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Afterthoughts.]

I believe that the sentiments expressed in the newspaper extract of which you acknowledge the receipt in your last, with respect to the merits of the policy of forbearance adopted by me at the great crisis, are beginning to obtain very generally among the few who trace results to their causes. But none can know what that crisis was, and what that decision cost. At the time I took it, I stood literally alone. I alienated from me the adherents of the Government, who felt, or imagined (having been generally, in times past, on the anti-Government side), that if the tables had been turned—if they and not their adversaries had been resisting the law of the land, and threatening the life of the Queen's representative—a very different course of repressive policy would have been adopted. At the same time I gained nothing on the other side, who only advanced in audacity; and added the charge of personal cowardice to their other outrages. At home, too, I forfeited much moral support; for although the Government sustained me with that honourable confidence which entitles a Government to be well served, they were puzzled. The logic of the case was against me. Lord Grey and Lord J. Russell both felt that either I was right or I was wrong. If the latter, I ought to be recalled; if the former, I ought to make the law respected. And, lastly, I lost any chance of moral support from the opinion of our neighbours in the States; for, like all primitive constitutionalists, the ideas of government they hold in that quarter are very simple. I have been told by Americans, 'We thought you were quite right; but we could not understand why you did not shoot them down!'

I do not, as you may suppose, often speak of these matters; but the subject was alluded to the other day by a person (now out of politics, but who knew what was going on at the time, one of our ablest men), and he said to me, 'Yes; I see it all now. You were right—a thousand times right—though I thought otherwise then. I own that I would have reduced Montreal to ashes before I would have endured half what you did; and,' he added, 'I should have been justified, too.' 'Yes,' I answered, 'you would have been justified, because your course would have been perfectly defensible; but it would not have been the best course. Mine was a better one.' And shall I tell you what was the deep conviction on my mind, which, apart from the reluctance which I naturally felt to shed blood (particularly in a cause in which many who opposed the Government were actuated by motives which, though much alloyed with baser metal, had claims on my sympathy), confirmed me in that course? I perceived that the mind of the British population of the province, in Upper Canada especially, was at that time the prey of opposing impulses. On the one hand, as a question of blood and sensibility, they were inclined to go with the anti-French party of Lower Canada; on the other, as a question of constitutional principle, they felt that I was right, and that I deserved support. Depend upon it, if we had looked to bayonets instead of to reason for a triumph, the sensibilities of the great body of which I speak would soon have carried the day against their judgment.

And what is the result? 700,000 French reconciled to England—not because they are getting rebel money—I believe, indeed, that no rebels will get a farthing; but because they believe that the British Governor is just. 'Yes;' but you may say 'this is purchased by the alienation of the British.' Far from it; I took the whole blame upon myself; and I will venture to affirm that the Canadian British never were so loyal as they are at this hour; and, what is more remarkable still, and more directly traceable to this policy of forbearance, never, since Canada existed, has party-spirit been more moderate, and the British and French races on better terms than they are now; and this, in spite of the withdrawal of protection, and of the proposal to throw on the colony many charges which the Imperial Government has hitherto borne.

Pardon me for saying so much on this point; but 'magna est
veritas.'

[1] I.e. one of the rebels of 1837, who had been banished to Bermuda by Lord Durham.

[2] One of the Conservative papers of the day wrote:—'Bad as the payment of the rebellion losses is, we do not know that it would not be better to submit to pay twenty rebellion losses than have what is nominally a free Constitution fettered and restrained each time a measure distasteful to the minority is passed.'

[3] 'I confess,' he wrote in a private letter of the same date, 'I did not before know how thin is the crust of order which covers the anarchical elements that boil and toss beneath our feet.'

[4] 'When he entered the Government House he took a two-pound stone with him which he had picked up in his carriage, as evidence of the most unusual and sorrowful treatment Her Majesty's representative had received.'—Mac Mullen, p. 511.

[5] 'Cabs, caleches, and everything that would run were at once launched in pursuit, and crossing his route, the Governor-General's carriage was bitterly assailed in the main street of the St. Lawrence suburbs. The good and rapid driving of his postilions enabled him to clear the desperate mob, but not till the head of his brother, Colonel Bruce, had been cut, injuries inflicted on the chief of police. Colonel Ermatanger, and on Captain Jones, commanding the escort, and every panel of the carriage driven in.'—Mac Mullen, p. 511.

[6] In the midst of this time of anxiety and even of danger to himself and his family, his eldest son was born at Monklands, on May 16. Her Majesty was graciously pleased to become godmother to the child, who was christened Victor Alexander.

[7] The motives, he afterwards said, which induced him to abstain from forcing his way into Montreal, might be correctly stated in the words of the Duke of Wellington, who, when asked why he did not go to the city in 1830, is reported to have answered, 'I would have gone if the law had been equal to protect me, but that was not the case. Fifty dragoons would have done it, but that was a military force. If firing had begun, who could tell when it would end? one guilty person would fall and ten innocent be destroyed. Would this have been wise or humane for a little bravado, or that the country might not be alarmed for a day or two?'

[8] His valued Secretary, to whose personal recollections most of these details are due.

[9] Some years afterwards, in the 'Address' already quoted, Mr. Gladstone made something of an amende for this attack; but he does not appear to have been fully informed, even then, either as to the intention with which the Act was framed, or as to the manner in which it had been carried out.

[10] 'This,' observes Lord Grey, 'owing to the extreme forbearance of Lord Elgin and his advisers, was the only life lost throughout these unhappy disturbances.'

[11] Lord Grey's Colonial Policy, &c. i. 234. In 1858, however, this 'perambulating system' having proved expensive and inconvenient, the Queen was asked to designate a permanent abode for the Legislature. Her Majesty was graciously pleased to name Ottawa, the present capital of the Dominion; and the selection of this central spot, with, its singular facilities of communication, has greatly aided in the consolidation of the province.

CHAPTER V.

ANNEXATION MOVEMENT—REMEDIAL MEASURES—REPEAL OF THE NAVIGATION LAWS— RECIPROCITY WITH THE UNITED STATES—HISTORY OF THE TWO MEASURES—DUTY OF SUPPORTING AUTHORITY—VIEWS ON COLONIAL GOVERNMENT—COLONIAL INTERESTS THE SPORT OF HOME PARTIES—NO SEPARATION!—SELF-GOVERNMENT NOT NECESSARILY REPUBLICAN—VALUE OF THE MONARCHICAL PRINCIPLE—DEFENCES OF THE COLONY.

[Sidenote: Annexation movement]

The disturbances which followed the passing of the 'Rebellion Losses Bill' have been described in the preceding chapter chiefly as they affected the person of the Governor. But it may be truly said that this was the aspect of them that gave him least concern. He felt, indeed, deeply the indignities offered to the Crown of England through its representative. But there was some satisfaction in the reflection that, by taking on himself the whole responsibility of sanctioning the obnoxious Bill, he had drawn down upon his own head the chief violence of a storm which might otherwise have exploded in a manner very dangerous to the Empire. 'I think I might say,' he writes, 'with less poetry but with more truth, what Lamartine said when they accused him of coquetting with the Rouges under the Provisional Government: "Oui, j'ai conspiré! J'ai conspiré comme le paratonnerre conspire avec le nuage pour désarmer la foudre."' But the thunder-cloud was not entirely disarmed; and it burst in a direction which popular passion in Canada has always been too apt to take, threats of throwing off England and joining the American States. As far back as March 14, 1849, we find Lord Elgin drawing Lord Grey's attention to this subject.

There has been (he writes) a vast deal of talk about 'annexation,' as is unfortunately always the case here when there is anything to agitate the public mind. If half the talk on this subject were sincere, I should consider an attempt to keep up the connection with Great Britain as Utopian in the extreme. For, no matter what the subject of complaint, or what the party complaining; whether it be alleged that the French are oppressing the British, or the British the French—that Upper Canada debt presses on Lower Canada, or Lower Canada claims on Upper; whether merchants be bankrupt, stocks depreciated, roads bad, or seasons unfavourable, annexation is invoked as the remedy for all ills, imaginary or real. A great deal of this talk is, however, bravado, and a great deal the mere product of thoughtlessness. Undoubtedly it is in some quarters the utterance of very sincere convictions; and if England will not make the sacrifices which are absolutely necessary to put the colonists here in as good a position commercially as the citizens of the States—in order to which free navigation and reciprocal trade with the States are indispensable—if not only the organs of the league but those of the Government and of the Peel party are always writing as if it were an admitted fact that colonies, and more especially Canada, are a burden, to be endured only because they cannot be got rid of, the end may be nearer at hand than we wot of.

In these sentences we have the germs of views and feelings which time only made clearer and stronger;—indignation at that tendency, so common in all minorities, to look abroad for aid against the power of the majority; faith in the idea of Colonial Government, if based on principles of justice and freedom; and, as regards the particular case of Canada, the conviction that nothing was wanted to secure her loyalty but a removal of the commercial restrictions which placed her at a disadvantage in competing with her neighbours of the Union. To understand the scope of his policy during the next few years, it will be necessary to dwell at some length on each of these points; but for the present we must return to the circumstances which gave occasion to the letter which we have quoted.

[Sidenote: Manifesto.]

While ready, as that letter shows, to make every allowance for the utterances of thoughtless folly, or of well-founded discontent on the part of the people, Lord Elgin felt the necessity of checking at once such demonstrations on the part of paid servants of the Crown. Accordingly, when an elaborate manifesto appeared in favour of 'annexation,' bearing the signatures of several persons—magistrates, Queen's counsel, militia officers, and others—holding commissions at the pleasure of the Crown, he caused a circular to be addressed to all such persons with the view of ascertaining whether their names had been attached with their own consent. Some of these letters were answered in the negative, some in the affirmative, and others by denying the right of the Government to put the question, and declining to reply to it. Lord Elgin resolved, with the advice of his executive council, to remove from such offices as are held during the pleasure of the Crown, the gentlemen who admitted the genuineness of their signatures, and those who refused to disavow them.

[Sidenote: Remedial measures.]

'In this course, says Lord Grey,[1] 'we thought it right to support him; and a despatch was addressed to him signifying the Queen's approval of his having dismissed from Her service those who had signed the address, and Her Majesty's commands to resist to the utmost any attempt that might be made to bring about a separation of Canada from the British dominions,' But the necessity for such acts of severity only increased Lord Elgin's desire to remove every reasonable ground of complaint and discontent; to shut out, as he said, the advocates of annexation from every plea which could grace or dignify rebellion. He felt, indeed, an assured confidence that, by carrying out fearlessly the principle of self-government, he had 'cast an acorn into time,' which could not fail to bring forth the fruit of political contentment. But, in the meantime, for the immediate security of the connection between the colony and the mother-country he thought, as we have already seen, that two measures were indispensable, viz. the removal of the existing restrictions on navigation, and the establishment of reciprocal free trade with the United States.

Judging after the event we may, perhaps, be inclined to think that the importance which he attached to the latter of these measures was exaggerated; especially as the annexation movement had died away, and content, commercial as well as political, had returned to the Province long before it was carried. But we cannot form a correct view of his policy without giving some prominence to a subject which occupied, for many years, so large a share of his thoughts and of his energies.

Writing to Lord Grey on November 8, 1849, he says:—

[Sidenote: 'Reciprocity.']

The fact is, that although both the States and Canada export to the same neutral market, prices on the Canada side of the line are lower than on the American, by the amount of the duty which the Americans levy. So long as this state of things continues there will be discontent in this country; deep, growing discontent You will not, I trust, accuse me of having deceived you on this point. I have always said that I am prepared to assume the responsibility of keeping Canada quiet, with a much smaller garrison than we have now, and without any tax on the British consumer in the shape of protection to Canadian products, if you put our trade on as good a footing as that of our American neighbours; but if things remain on their present footing in this respect, there is nothing before us but violent agitation, ending in convulsion or annexation. It is better that I should worry you with my importunity, than that I should be chargeable with having neglected to give you due warning. You have a great opportunity before you— obtain reciprocity for us, and I venture to predict that you will be able shortly to point to this hitherto turbulent colony with satisfaction, in illustration of the tendency of self-government and freedom of trade, to beget contentment and material progress. Canada will remain attached to England, though tied to her neither by the golden links of protection, nor by the meshes of old-fashioned colonial office jobbing and chicane. But if you allow the Americans to withhold the boon which you have the means of extorting if you will, I much fear that the closing period of the connection between Great Britain and Canada will be marked by incidents which will damp the ardour of those who desire to promote human happiness by striking shackles either off commerce or off men.

Even when tendering to the Premier, Lord John Russell, his formal thanks on being raised to the British peerage—an honour which, coming at that moment, he prized most highly as a proof to the world that the Queen's Government approved his policy—he could not forego the opportunity of insisting on a topic which seemed to him so momentous.

It is (he writes) of such vital importance that your Lordship should rightly apprehend the nature of these difficulties, and the state of public opinion in Canada at this conjuncture, that I venture, at the hazard of committing an indiscretion, to add a single observation on this head. Let me then assure your Lordship, and I speak advisedly in offering this assurance, that the disaffection now existing in Canada, whatever be the forms with which it may clothe itself, is due mainly to commercial causes. I do not say that there is no discontent on political grounds. Powerful individuals and even classes of men are, I am well aware, dissatisfied with the conduct of affairs. But I make bold to affirm that so general is the belief that, under the present circumstances of our commercial condition, the colonists pay a heavy pecuniary fine for their fidelity to Great Britain, that nothing but the existence to an unwonted degree of political contentment among the masses has prevented the cry for annexation from spreading, like wildfire, through the Province. This, as your Lordship will perceive, is a new feature in Canadian politics. The plea of self-interest, the most powerful weapon, perhaps, which the friends of British connection have wielded in times past, has not only been wrested from my hands, but transferred since 1846 to those of the adversary. I take the liberty of mentioning a fact, which seems better to illustrate the actual condition of affairs in these respects than many arguments. I have lately spent several weeks in the district of Niagara. Canadian Niagara is separated from the state of New York by a narrow stream, spanned by a bridge, which it takes a foot passenger about three minutes to cross. The inhabitants are for the most part U.E. loyalists,[2] and differ little in habits or modes of thought and expression from their neighbours. Wheat is their staple product—the article which they exchange for foreign comforts and luxuries. Now it is the fact that a bushel of wheat, grown on the Canadian side of the line, has fetched this year in the market, on an average, from 9_d_. to 1_s_. less than the same quantity and quality of the same article grown on the other. Through their district council, a body elected under a system of very extended suffrage, these same inhabitants of Niagara have protested against the Montreal annexation movement. They have done so (and many other district councils in Upper Canada have done the same) under the impression that it would be base to declare against England at a moment when England has given a signal proof of her determination to concede constitutional Government in all its plenitude to Canada. I am confident, however, that the large majority of the persons who have thus protested, firmly believe that their annexation to the United States would add one-fourth to the value of the produce of their farms.

I need say no more than this to convince your Lordship, that while this state of things subsists (and I much fear that no measure but the establishment of reciprocal trade between Canada and the States, or the imposition of a duty on the produce of the States when imported into England, will remove it), arguments will not be wanting to those who seek to seduce Canadians from their allegiance.

Shortly afterwards he writes to Lord Grey:—

It is not for me to dispute the point with free-traders, when they allege that all parts of the Empire are suffering from the effects of free-trade, and that Canadians must take their chance with others. But I must be permitted to remark, that the Canadian case differs from others, both as respects the immediate cause of the suffering, and still more as respects the means which the sufferers possess of finding for themselves a way of escape. As to the former point I have only to say that, however severe the pressure in other cases attendant on the transition from protection to free-trade, there is none which presents so peculiar a specimen of legislative legerdemain as the Canadian, where an interest was created in 1843 by a Parliament in which the parties affected had no voice, only to be knocked down by the same Parliament in 1846. But it is the latter consideration which constitutes the specialty of the Canadian case. What in point of fact can the other suffering interests, of which the Times writes, do? There may be a great deal of grumbling, and a gradual move towards republicanism, or even communism; but this is an operose and empirical process, the parties engaged in it are full of misgivings, and their ranks at every step in advance are thinned by desertion. Not so with the Canadians. The remedy offered to them, such as it is, is perfectly definite and intelligible. They are invited to form a part of a community, which is neither suffering nor free- trading, which never makes a bargain without getting at least twice as much as it gives; a community, the members of which have been within the last few weeks pouring into their multifarious places of worship, to thank God that they are exempt from the ills which afflict other men, from those more especially which afflict their despised neighbours, the inhabitants of North America, who have remained faithful to the country which planted them.

Now, I believe, that if these facts be ignored, it is quite impossible to understand rightly the present state of opinion in Canada, or to determine wisely the course which the British Government and Parliament ought to pursue. It may suit the policy of the English free-trade press to represent the difficulties of Canada as the consequence of having a fool for a Governor-General; but, if it be permitted me to express an opinion on a matter of so much delicacy, I venture to doubt whether it would be safe to act on this hypothesis. My conviction on the contrary is, that motives of self-interest of a very gross and palpable description are suggesting treasonable courses to the Canadian mind at present, and that it is a political sentiment, a feeling of gratitude for what has been done and suffered this year in the cause of Canadian self-government, which is neutralising these suggestions.

Again, on December 29,1849, he writes as follows:—

[Sidenote: Free navigation.]

I believe that the operation of the free navigation system will be what you anticipate, to a great extent at least, and that it will tend materially to equalise prices on the two sides of the line. At the same time I do think, that there are circumstances in this country which falsify, in some degree, the deductions at which one arrives from reasoning founded on the abstract principles of political economy. One of these circumstances is the power which the farmers in the Western States, having no rents to pay, have of holding back their grain when prices do not suit them. You must have observed what hoards they poured forth when they were tempted by the famine prices of 1847; and I cannot but think that this power of hoarding, coupled with an indifferent harvest, must account for the great disparity of price, which has obtained during the course of the present year in the New York market for bonded grain, and grain for the home consumption. I fully expect, however, to see the price of Canadian grain, bonded at New York, rise, now that it can be exported to Liverpool in the New York liners, which will carry it for ballast. Nevertheless, I think that Sir Robert Peel's dictum with respect to the Repeal of the Corn Laws, on the day on which he retired last from office, when he observed that thenceforward, even when the poor suffered from the high price of bread, they would not ascribe that suffering to the fact of their bread being taxed, applies with at least equal force to the reciprocity question as affecting the Canadian farmers. For sure am I that, so long as there is a duty on their produce when it enters the States, and none on the introduction of United States produce into England, they will ascribe to this cause alone the differences of price that may occasionally rule to their disadvantage.

The history of the two measures which Lord Elgin so ardently desired, and which in the foregoing and many similar letters he so urgently pressed, was eminently characteristic of the two Legislatures, through which they had respectively to be carried.

[Sidenote: Repeal of Navigation Laws.]

In England, the repeal of restrictive Navigation Laws was contended for by thoughtful statesmen on grounds of public policy. The protective and conservative instincts of the old country, fortified by the never-absent spirit of party, resisted the change. When fairly beaten by force of argument in the House of Commons, they entrenched themselves ha the House of Lords; and it was only after a hot struggle that the Act was passed in June 1849, of which one effect was, by lowering freights, to increase the profits of the Canadian trade in wheat and timber, and thus to advance, in a very important degree, the commercial prosperity of the colony.

[Sidenote: Reciprocity Treaty.]

The delays which retarded the settlement of the Reciprocity Treaty were due to causes of another kind. The difficulty was to induce the American Congress to pay any attention at all to the subject. In the vast multiplicity of matters with which that Assembly has to deal, it is said that no cause which does not appeal strongly to a national sentiment, or at least to some party feeling, has a chance of obtaining a hearing, unless it is taken up systematically by 'organizers' outside the House. The Reciprocity Bill was not a measure about which any national or even party feeling could be aroused. It was one which required much study to understand its bearings, and which would affect different interests in the country in different ways. It stood, therefore, especially in need of the aid of professional organizers; a kind of aid of which it was of course impossible that either the British or the Canadian Government should avail itself. Session after session the Bill was proposed, scarcely debated, and set aside. At last, in 1854, after the negotiations had dragged on wearily for more than six years, Lord Elgin himself was sent to Washington in the hope—'a forlorn hope,' as it seemed to those who sent him—of bringing the matter to a successful issue. It was his first essay in diplomacy, but made under circumstances unusually favourable. He was personally popular with the Americans, towards whom he had always entertained and shown a most friendly feeling. They appreciated, moreover, better perhaps than it was appreciated at home, the consummate ability, as well as the rare strength of character, which he had displayed in the government of Canada; and the prestige thus attaching to his name, joined to the influence of his presence, and his courtesy and bonhomie, enabled him in a few days to smooth all difficulties, and change apathy into enthusiasm. Within a few weeks from the time of his landing he had agreed with Mr. Marcy upon the terms of a Treaty of Reciprocity, which soon afterwards received the sanction of all the Governments concerned.

The main concessions made by the Provinces to the United States in this treaty were, (1) the removal of duties on the introduction, for consumption in the Provinces, of certain products of the States; (2) the admission of citizens of that country to the enjoyment of the in-shore sea-fishery; (3) the opening-up to their vessels of the St. Lawrence and canals pertaining thereto.

A good deal of misconception prevailed at the time as to the amount of the concession made under the second head. The popular impression on this point was, that a gigantic monopoly was about to be surrendered; but this was far from being the case. The citizens of the United States had already, under the Convention of 1818, access to the most important cod-fisheries on the British coasts. The new treaty maintained in favour of British subjects the monopoly of the river and freshwater fisheries; and the concession which it made to the citizens of the United States amounted in substance to this, that it admitted them to a legal participation in the mackerel and herring fisheries, from illegal encroachments on which it had been found, after the experience of many years, practically impossible to exclude them.[3]

The duration of the Treaty was limited to ten years, and has not been extended; but it is not too much to hope that it has had some effect in engendering feelings of friendliness, and of community of interest, which may long outlast itself.

[Sidenote: Views of Government.]

It has been already noticed that the 'annexation movement' of 1849 died away without serious consequences; and extracts which have been given above sufficiently show to what cause Lord Elgin attributed its extinction. The powerful attraction of the great neighbouring republic had been counteracted and overcome by the more powerful attraction of self- government at home. The centrifugal force was no longer equal to the centripetal. To create this state of feeling had been his most cherished desire; to feel that he had succeeded in creating it was, throughout much obloquy and misunderstanding, his greatest support.

[Sidenote: Duty of supporting authority,]

From the earliest period of his entrance into political life he had always had the strongest sense of the duty incumbent on every public man of supporting, even in opposition, the authority of Government. The bitterest reproach which he cast upon the Whigs, in his first Tory 'Letter to the Electors of Great Britain' in 1835, was that when they found they could not carry on the government themselves, they tried to make it impossible for any other party to do so. Nor was he less severe, on another occasion, in his reprehension of 'a certain high Tory clique who are always cavilling at royalty when it is constitutional; circulating the most miserable gossip about royal persons and royal entertainments,' &c.; busily 'engaged in undermining the foundations on which respect for human institutions rests.' Writing, in May 1850, to Mr. Gumming Bruce, a Tory and Protectionist, he said—

I shall not despair for England whether Free-traders or Protectionists be in the ascendant, unless I see that the faction out of power abet the endeavours of those who would make the Government of the country contemptible. Read Montalembert's speeches. They are very eloquent and instructive. He had as full a faith in his religion, and what he considered due to his religion, as you can have in your Corn Laws. Yet observe how bitterly he now repents having aided those who have undermined in the French public all respect for authority and the powers that be.

If all that your Protectionist friends want to do is to put themselves, or persons in whom they have greater confidence than the present Ministry, in office, their object is, I confess, a perfectly legitimate one. What I complain of is the system of what is termed damaging the Government, when resorted to by those who have no such purpose in view; or at least no honest intention of assuming responsibilities which they are endeavouring to render intolerable to those who are charged with them.

[Sidenote: especially in Colonies.]

But if this 'political profligacy' was, in his judgment, the bane of party government at home, a still stronger but, perhaps, more excusable tendency to it threatened to defeat the object of responsible government in Canada. Accustomed to look abroad for the source and centre of power, a beaten minority in the Colonial Parliament, instead of loyally accepting its position, was never without a hope of wresting the victory from its opponents, either by an appeal to opinion in the mother-country, always ill-informed, and therefore credulous, in matters of colonial politics, or else by raising a cry of 'separation' or 'annexation.'

The evil effects of this state of things need hardly be pointed out. On the one hand the constant reference to opinion in England, not in the shape of constitutional appeal but by ex-parte statements, produced a state of chronic irritation against the mother-country. 'There is nothing,' wrote Lord Elgin, 'which makes the colonial statesman so jealous as rescripts from the Colonial Office, suggested by the representations of provincial cliques or interests, who ought, as he contends, to bow before the authorities of Government House, Montreal, rather than those of Downing Street.' On the other hand it was not easy to know how to deal with politicians who did not profess to own more than a qualified and provisional allegiance to the constitution of the Province and the Crown of England. The one hope in both cases was to foster a 'national and manly tone' of political morals; to lead all parties alike to look to their own Parliament, and neither to the London press nor the American hustings, for the solution of all problems of Provincial government.

But while thus zealously defending, the fortress of British connection committed to his care, Lord Elgin was dismayed to find that its walls were crumbling round him? undermined by the operations of his own Mends; that there had arisen at home a school of philosophic statesmen, strong in their own ability, and strengthened by the support of the Radical economists, according to whom it was to be expected and desired that every colony enjoying constitutional government should aim at emancipating itself entirely from allegiance to the mother-country, and forming itself into an independent Republic. With such views he had no sympathy. The 'Sparta' which had fallen to his lot was the position of a colonial governor, and that position he felt it his duty to 'adorn' and to maintain. Moreover, believing firmly in the vitality of the monarchical principle, as well as in its value, he contended that it is an error to suppose that a constitutional monarchy, in proportion as it becomes more liberal, tends towards republicanism; and further, that if such tendency existed it would be retrograde rather than progressive.

The views of Colonial Government, its objects and its difficulties, which have been here briefly epitomised, are displayed in full in the following letters, together with a variety of opinions on kindred topics. They are given as characteristic of Lord Elgin; but they may, perhaps, have an interest of their own, as bearing on important questions which still await solution.

To the Earl Grey.

November 16,1849.

[Sidenote: Maintenance of British connection.]

Very much, as respects the result of this annexation movement, depends upon what you do at home. I cannot say what the effect may be if the British Government and press are lukewarm on the subject. The annexationists will take heart, but in a tenfold greater degree the friends of the connection will be discouraged. If it be admitted that separation must take place, sooner or later, the argument in favour of a present move seems to be almost irresistible. I am prepared to contend that with responsible government, fairly worked out with free-trade, there is no reason why the colonial relation should not be indefinitely maintained. But look at my present difficulty, which may be increased beyond calculation, if indiscreet expressions be made use of during the present crisis. The English Government thought it necessary, in order to give moral support to their representative in Ireland, to assert in the most solemn manner that the Crown never would consent to the severance of the Union; although, according to the O'Connell doctrine, the allegiance to the Crown of the Irish was to be unimpaired notwithstanding such severance. But when I protest against Canadian projects for dismembering the empire, I am always told 'the most eminent statesmen in England have over and over again told us, that whenever we chose we might separate. Why, then, blame us for discussing the subject?'

* * * * *

To the Earl Grey.

January 14,1850.

[Sidenote: Colonial interests the sport of home parties.]

I am certainly less sanguine than I was as to the probability of retaining the colonies under free-trade. I speak not now of the cost of their retention, for I have no doubt but that, if all parties concerned were honest, expenses might be gradually reduced. I am sure also that when free-trade is fairly in operation it will be found that more has been gained by removing the causes of irritation which were furnished by the constant tinkering incident to a protective system, than has been lost by severing the bonds by which it tied the mother-country and the colonies together. What I fear is, that when the mystification in which certain questions of self-interest were involved by protection is removed, factions both at home and in the colonies will be more reckless than ever in hazarding for party objects the loss of the colonies.[4] Our system depends a great deal more on the discretion with which it is worked than the American, where each power in the state goes habitually the full length of its tether: Congress, the State legislatures, Presidents, Governors, all legislating and vetoing, without stint or limit, till pulled up short by a judgment of the Supreme Court. With us factions in the colonies are clamorous and violent, with the hope of producing effect on the Imperial Parliament and Government, just in proportion to their powerlessness at home. The history of Canada during the past year furnishes ample evidence of this truth. Why was there so much violence on the part of the opposition here last summer, particularly against the Governor-General? Because it felt itself to be weak in the province, and looked for success to the effect it could produce in England alone.

And how is this tendency to bring the Imperial and Local Parliaments into antagonism, a tendency so dangerous to the permanence of our system, to be counteracted? By one expedient as it appears to me only; namely, by the Governor's acting with some assumption of responsibility, so that the shafts of the enemy, which are intended for the Imperial Government, may fall on him. If a line of demarcation between the questions with which the Local Parliaments can deal and those which are reserved for the Imperial authority could be drawn, (as was recommended last session by the Radicals), it might be different; but, as it is, I see nothing for it but that the Governors should be responsible for the share which the Imperial Government may have in the policy carried out in the responsible-government colonies, with the liability to be recalled and disavowed whenever the Imperial authorities think it expedient to repudiate such policy.

* * * * *

To the Duke of Newcastle.

Quebec: February 18, 1853.

[Sidenote: Distribution of honours.]

Now that the bonds formed by commercial protection and the disposal of local offices are severed, it is very desirable that the prerogative of the Crown, as the fountain of honour, should be employed, in so far as this can properly be done, as a means of attaching the outlying parts of the empire to the throne. Of the soundness of this proposition as a general principle no doubt can, I presume, be entertained. It is not, indeed, always easy to apply it in these communities, where fortunes are precarious, the social system so much based on equality, and public services so generally mixed up with party conflicts. But it should never, in my opinion, be lost sight of, and advantage should be taken of all favourable opportunities to act upon it.

There are two principles which ought, I think, as a general rule to be attended to in the distribution of Imperial honours among colonists. Firstly, they should appear to emanate directly from the Crown, on the advice, if you will, of the Governors and Imperial Ministers, but not on the recommendation of the local executives. And, secondly, they should be conferred, as much as possible, on the eminent persons who are no longer actively engaged in political life. If these principles be neglected, such distinctions will, I fear, soon lose their value.

* * * * *

To the Earl Grey.

Toronto: March 23,1850.

[Sidenote: Speech of Lord J. Russell.]
[Sidenote: Colonial existence not provisional.]

Lord John's speech on the colonies seems to have been eminently successful at home. It is calculated too, I think, to do good in the colonies; but for one sentence, the introduction of which I deeply deplore—the sting in the tail. Alas for that sting in the tail! I much fear that when the liberal and enlightened sentiments, the enunciation of which by one so high in authority is so well calculated to make the colonists sensible of the advantages which they derive from their connection with Great Britain, shall have passed away from their memories, there will not be wanting those who will remind them that, on this solemn occasion, the Prime Minister of England, amid the plaudits of a full senate, declared that he looked forward to the day when the ties which he was endeavouring to render so easy and mutually advantageous would be severed. And wherefore this foreboding? or, perhaps, I ought not to use the term foreboding, for really to judge by the comments of the press on this declaration of Lord John's, I should be led to imagine that the prospect of these sucking democracies, after they have drained their old mother's life-blood, leaving her in the lurch, and setting up as rivals, just at the time when their increasing strength might render them a support instead of a burden, is one of the most cheering which has of late presented itself to the English imagination. But wherefore then this anticipation—if foreboding be not the correct term? Because Lord John and the people of England persist in assuming that the Colonial relation is incompatible with maturity and full development. And is this really so incontestable a truth that it is a duty not only to hold but to proclaim it? Consider for a moment what is the effect of proclaiming it in our case. We have on this continent two great empires in presence, or rather, I should say, two great Imperial systems. In many respects there is much similarity between them. In so far as powers of self-government are concerned it is certain that our colonists in America have no reason to envy the citizens of any state in the Union. The forms differ, but it may be shown that practically the inhabitants of Canada have a greater power in controlling their own destiny than those of Michigan or New York, who must tolerate a tariff imposed by twenty other states, and pay the expenses of war undertaken for objects which they profess to abhor. And yet there is a difference between the two cases; a difference, in my humble judgment, of sentiment rather than substance, which renders the one a system of life and strength, and the other a system of death and decay. No matter how raw and rude a territory may be when it is admitted as a state into the Union of the United States, it is at once, by the popular belief, invested with all the dignity of manhood, and introduced into a system which, despite the combativeness of certain ardent spirits from the South, every American believes and maintains to be immortal. But how does the case stand with us? No matter how great the advance of a British colony in wealth and civilisation; no matter how absolute the powers of self-government conceded to it, it is still taught to believe that it is in a condition of pupilage from which it must pass before it can attain maturity. For one I have never been able to comprehend why, elastic as our constitutional system is, we should not be able, now more especially when we have ceased to control the trade of our colonies, to render the links which bind them to the British Crown at least as lasting as those which unite the component parts of the Union…. One thing is, however, indispensable to the success of this or any other system of Colonial Government. You must renounce the habit of telling the Colonies that the Colonial is a provisional existence. You must allow them to believe that, without severing the bonds which unite them to Great Britain, they may attain the degree of perfection, and of social and political development, to which organised communities of free men have a right to aspire.

Since I began this letter I have, I regret to say, confirmatory evidence of the justice of the anticipations I had formed of the probable effect of Lord John's declaration. I enclose extracts from two newspapers, an annexationist, the Herald of Montreal, and a quasi annexationist, the Mirror of Toronto. You will note the use they make of it. I was more annoyed however, I confess, by what occurred yesterday in council. We had to determine whether or not to dismiss from his offices a gentleman who is both M.P.P., Q.C., and J.P., and who has issued a flaming manifesto in favour, not of annexation, but of an immediate declaration of independence as a step to it. I will not say anything of my own opinion on the case, but it was generally contended by the members of the Board, that it would be impossible to maintain that persons who had declared their intention to throw off their allegiance to the Queen, with a view to annexation, were unfit to retain offices granted during pleasure, if persons who made a similar declaration with a view to independence were to be differently dealt with. Baldwin had Lord John's speech in his hand. He is a man of singularly placid demeanour, but he has been seriously ill, so possibly his nerves are shaken—at any rate I never saw him so much moved. 'Have you read the latter part of Lord J. Russell's speech?' he said to me. I nodded assent. 'For myself,' he added, 'if the anticipations therein expressed prove to be well founded, my interest in public affairs is gone for ever. But is it not hard upon us while we are labouring, through good and evil report, to thwart the designs of those who would dismember the Empire, that our adversaries should be informed that the difference between them and the Prime Minister of England is only one of time? If the British Government has really come to the conclusion that we are a burden to be cast off whenever a favourable opportunity offers, surely we ought to be warned.'

I replied that while I regretted as much as he could do the paragraph to which he referred, I thought he somewhat mistook its import: that I believed no man living was more opposed to the dismemberment of the Empire than Lord J. Russell: that I did not conceive that he had any intention of deserting the Colonies, or of inviting them to separate from England; but that he had in the sentence in question given utterance to a purely speculative, and in my judgment most fallacious, opinion, which, was shared, I feared, by very many persons both in England and the Colonies: that I held it to be a perfectly unsound and most dangerous theory, that British Colonies could not attain maturity without separation, and that my interest in labouring with them to bring into full play the principles of Constitutional Government in Canada would entirely cease if I could be persuaded to adopt it. I said all this I must confess, however, not without misgiving, for I could not but be sensible that, in spite of all my allegations to the contrary, my audience was disposed to regard a prediction of this nature, proceeding from a Prime Minister, less as a speculative abstraction than as one of that class of prophecies which work their own fulfilment. I left the Council Chamber disheartened, with the feeling that Lord J. Russell's reference to the manhood of Colonies was more likely to be followed by practical consequences than Lamartine's famous 'quand l'heure aura sonné' invocation to oppressed nationalities. It is possible, indeed, that I exaggerate to myself the probable effects of this declaration. Politicians of the Baldwin stamp, with distinct views and aims, who having struggled to obtain a Government on British principles, desire to preserve it, are not, I fear, very numerous in Canada; the great mass move on with very indefinite purposes, and not much inquiring whither they are going. Of one thing, however, I am confident; there cannot be any peace, contentment, progress, or credit in this colony while the idea obtains that the connection with England is a millstone about its neck which should be cast off, as soon as it can be conveniently managed. What man in his senses would invest his money in the public securities of a country where questions affecting the very foundations on which public credit rests are in perpetual agitation; or would settle in it at all if he could find for his foot a more stable resting-place elsewhere? I may, perhaps, be expressing myself too unreservedly with reference to opinions emanating from a source which I am no less disposed than bound to respect. As I have the means, however, of feeling the pulse of the colonists in this most feverish region, I consider it to be always my duty to furnish you with as faithful a record as possible of our diagnostics. And, after all, may I not with all submission ask, Is not the question at issue a most momentous one? What is it indeed but this: Is the Queen of England to be the Sovereign of an Empire, growing, expanding, strengthening itself from age to age, striking its roots deep into fresh earth and drawing new supplies of vitality from virgin soils? Or is she to be for all essential purposes of might and power, Monarch of Great Britain and Ireland merely—her place and that of her line in the world's history determined by the productiveness of 12,000 square miles of a coal formation, which is being rapidly exhausted, and the duration of the social and political organization over which she presides dependent on the annual expatriation, with a view to its eventual alienization, of the surplus swarms of her born subjects? If Lord J. Russell, instead of concluding his excellent speech with a declaration of opinion which, as I read it, and as I fear others will read it, seems to make it a point of honour with the Colonists to prepare for separation, had contented himself with resuming the statements already made in its course, with showing that neither the Government nor Parliament could have any object in view in their Colonial policy but the good of the Colonies, and the establishment of the relation between them and the mother-country on the basis of mutual affection; that, as the idea of maintaining a Colonial Empire for the purpose of exercising dominion or dispensing patronage had been for some time abandoned, and that of regarding it as a hot-bed for forcing commerce and manufactures more recently renounced, a greater amount of free action and self-government might be conceded to British Colonies without any breach of Imperial Unity, or the violation of any principle of Imperial Policy, than had under any scheme yet devised fallen to the lot of the component parts of any Federal or imperial system; if he had left these great truths to work their effect without hazarding a conjecture which will, I fear, be received as a suggestion, with respect to the course which certain wayward members of the Imperial family may be expected to take in a contingency still confessedly remote, it would, I venture with great deference to submit, in so far at least as public feeling in the Colonies is concerned, have been safer and better.

[Sidenote: 'Separation' and 'annexation.']

You draw, I know, a distinction between separation with a view to annexation and separation with a view to independence. You say the former is an act of treason, the latter a natural and legitimate step in progress. There is much plausibility doubtless in this position, but, independently of the fact that no one advocates independence in these Colonies except as a means to the end, annexation, is it really tenable? If you take your stand on the hypothesis that the Colonial existence is one with which the Colonists ought to rest satisfied, then, I think, you are entitled to denounce, without reserve or measure, those who propose for some secondary object to substitute the Stars and Stripes for the Union Jack. But if, on the contrary, you assume that it is a provisional state, which admits of but a stunted and partial growth, and out of which all communities ought in the course of nature to strive to pass, how can you refuse to permit your Colonies here, when they have arrived at the proper stage in their existence, to place themselves in a condition which is at once most favourable to their security and to their perfect national development? What reasons can you assign for the refusal, except such as are founded on selfishness, and are, therefore, morally worthless? If you say that your great lubberly boy is too big for the nursery, and that you have no other room for him in your house, how can you decline to allow him to lodge with his elder brethren over the way, when the attempt to keep up an establishment for himself would seriously embarrass him?

* * * * *

To the Earl Grey.

Toronto: November 1, 1850.

Sir H. Bulwer spent four days with us, and for many reasons I am glad that he has been here. He leaves us knowing more of Canada than he did when he came. I think too that both he and Sir E. Head return to their homes re-assured on many points of our internal policy, on which they felt doubtful before, and much enlightened as to the real position of men and things in this province.

[Sidenote: Self-government not republican.]

With one important truth 1 have laboured to impress them, and I hope successfully. It is this: that the faithful carrying out of the principles of Constitutional Government is a departure from the American model, not an approximation to it, and, therefore, a departure from republicanism in its only workable shape. Of the soundness of this view of our case I entertain no doubt whatever; and though I meet with few persons to whom it seems to have occurred (for the common belief of superficial observers is that we are republicanising the colonies), I seldom fail in bringing it borne to the understanding of any intelligent person with whom I have occasion to discuss it. The fact is, that the American system is our old Colonial system with, in certain cases, the principle of popular election substituted for that of nomination by the Crown. Mr. Filmore stands to his Congress very much in the same relation in which I stood to my Assembly in Jamaica. There is the same absence of effective responsibility in the conduct of legislation, the same want of concurrent action between the parts of the political machine. The whole business of legislation in the American Congress, as well as in the State Legislatures, is conducted in the manner in which railway business was conducted in the House of Commons at a time when it is to be feared that, notwithstanding the high standard of honour in the British Parliament, there was a good deal of jobbing. For instance our Reciprocity measure was pressed by us at Washington last session, just as a Railway Bill in 1845 or 1846 would have been pressed in Parliament. There was no Government to deal with. The interests of the Union, as a whole and distinct from local and sectional interests, had no organ in the representative bodies; it was all a question of canvassing this member of Congress or the other. It is easy to perceive that, under such a system, jobbing must become not the exception but the rule.

Now I feel very strongly, that when a people have been once thoroughly accustomed to the working of such a Parliamentary system as ours, they never will consent to revert to this clumsy irresponsible mechanism. Whether we shall be able to carry on the war here long enough to allow the practice of Constitutional Government and the habits of mind which it engenders to take root in these provinces, may be doubtful. But it may be worth your while to consider whether these views do not throw some light on affairs in Europe. If you part with constitutional monarchies there, you may possibly get something much more democratic; but you cannot, I am confident, get American republicanism. It is the fashion to say, 'of course not; we cannot get their federal system;' but this is not the only reason, there are others that lie deeper. Look at France, where they are trying to jumble up the two things, a head of the State responsible to the people who elect him, and a ministry responsible to the Parliament.

* * * * *

To the Duke of Newcastle.

March 26, 1853.

It is argued that, by the severance of the connection, British statesmen would be relieved of an onerous responsibility for colonial acts of which they cannot otherwise rid themselves. Is there not, however, some fallacy in this? If by conceding absolute independence the British Parliament can acquit itself of the obligation to impose its will upon the Colonists, in the matter, for instance, of a Church Establishment, can it not attain the same end by declaring that, as respects such local questions, the Colonists are free to judge for themselves? How can it be justifiable to adopt the former of these expedients, and sacrilegious to act upon the latter?

The true policy, in my humble judgment, is to throw the whole weight of responsibility on those who exercise the real power, for, after all, the sense of responsibility is the best security against the abuse of power; and, as respects the connection, to act and speak on this hypothesis—that there is nothing in it to check the development of healthy national life in these young communities. I believe that this policy will be found to be not only the safest, but also (an important consideration in these days) the most economical.

* * * * *

To the Earl Grey.

Toronto: December 17, 1850.

Although, as you observe, it seems to be rather idle in us to correspond on what may be termed speculative questions, when we have so much pressing business on hand, I venture to say a few words in reply to your letter of the 23rd ult., firstly, because I presume to dissent from some of the opinions which you advance in it; and, secondly, because I have a practical object of no small importance in view in calling your attention to the contrasts which present themselves in the working of our institutions, and those of our neighbours in the States. My practical object is this: when you concede to the Colonists Constitutional Government in its integrity, you are reproached with leading them to Republicanism and the American Union. The same reproach is hurled with anathemas against your humble servant. Lord Stanley, if I rightly remember, in the debate on Ryland's case last year, stated amid cheers, that if you were in the habit of consulting the Ministers of the Crown in the Colony before you placed persons on the colonial pension List, he had no hesitation in saying you had already established a republic in Canada! Now I believe, on the contrary, that it may be demonstrated that the concession of Constitutional Government has a tendency to draw the Colonists the other way; firstly, because it slakes that thirst for self-government which seizes on all British communities when they approach maturity; and, secondly, because it habituates the Colonists to the working of a political mechanism, which is both intrinsically superior to that of the Americans, and more unlike it than our old Colonial system.

Adopting, however, the views with respect to the superiority of the mechanism of our political system to that of our neighbours, which I have ventured to urge, you proceed to argue that the remedy is in their hands; that without abandoning their republicanism they and their confrères in France have nothing to do but to dismiss their Presidents and to substitute our constitution without a King, the body without the head, for their own, to get rid of the inconveniences which they now experience; and you quote with approbation, as an embodiment of this idea, the project submitted by M. Grévy and the Red Republicans to the French Constituent Assembly.

[Sidenote: Value of the monarchical principle.]

Now here I confess I cannot go along with you, and the difference between us is a very material one; for if the monarch be not an indispensable element in our constitutional mechanism, and if we can secure all the advantages of that mechanism without him, I have drawn the wrong moral from the facts. You say that the system the Red Republicans would have established in France would have been the nearest possible approach to our own. It is possible, I think, that we may be tending towards the like issues. It is possible, perhaps probable, that as the House of Commons becomes more democratic in its composition, and consequently more arrogant in its bearing, it may cast off the shackles which the other powers of the State impose on its self-will, and even utterly abolish them; but I venture to believe that those who last till that day comes, will find that they are living under a very different constitution from that which we now enjoy; that they have traversed the interval which separates a temperate and cautious administration of public affairs resting on the balance of powers and interests, from a reckless and overbearing tyranny based on the caprices and passions of an absolute and irresponsible body. You talk somewhat lightly of the check of the Crown, although you acknowledge its utility. But is it indeed so light a matter, even as our constitution now works? Is it a light matter that the Crown should have the power of dissolving Parliament; in other words, of deposing the tyrant at will? Is it a light matter that for several months in each year the House of Commons should be in abeyance, during which period the nation looks on Ministers not as slaves of Parliament but servants of the Crown? Is it a light matter that there should still be such respect for the monarchical principle, that the servants of that visible entity yclept the Crown are enabled to carry on much of the details of internal and foreign administration without consulting Parliament, and even without its cognisance? Or do you suppose that the Red Republicans, when they advocated the nomination of a Ministry of the House of Assembly with a revocable mandat, intended to create a Frankenstein endowed with powers in some cases paramount to, and in others running parallel with, the authority of the omnipotent body to which it owed its existence? My own impression is, that they meant a set of delegates to be appointed, who should exercise certain functions of legislative initiation and executive patronage so long as they reflected clearly, in the former the passions, and in the latter the interests of the majority for the time being, and no longer.

It appears to me, I must confess, that if you have a republican form of government in a great country, with complicated internal and external relations, you must either separate the executive and legislative departments, as in the United States, or submit to a tyranny of the majority, not the more tolerable because it is capricious and wielded by a tyrant with many heads. Of the two evils I prefer the former.

Consider, for a moment, how much more violent the proceedings of majorities in the American Legislatures would be, how much more reckless the appeals to popular passion, how much more frequently the permanent interests of the nation and the rights of individuals and classes would be sacrificed to the object of raising political capital for present uses, if debates or discussions affected the tenure of office. I have no idea that the executive and legislative departments of the State can be made to work together with a sufficient degree of harmony to give the maximum of strength and of mutual independence to secure freedom and the rights of minorities, except under the presidency of Monarchy, the moral influence of which, so long as a nation is monarchical in its sentiments, cannot, of course, be measured merely by its recognised power.

[Sidenote: Influence of a Governor, under responsible Government.]

Those who are most ready to concur in these views of Colonial Government, and to admire the vigour with which they were defended, and the consistency with which they were carried out, may still be inclined to ask whether the maintenance of them did not involve a species of official suicide: whether the theory of the responsibility of provincial Ministers to the provincial Parliament, and of the consequent duty of the Governor to remain absolutely neutral in the strife of political parties, had not a necessary tendency to degrade his office into that of a mere Roi fainéant. He had in 1849, as Sir C. Adderley expresses it, 'maintained the principle of responsible Government at the risk of his life.' Was the result of his hard-won victory only to empty himself of all but the mere outward show of power and authority?

Such questions he was always ready to meet with an uncompromising negative. 'I have tried,' he said, both systems. In Jamaica there was no responsible Government: but I had not half the power I have here with my constitutional and changing Cabinet.' Even on the Vice-regal throne of India, he missed, at first, at least, something of the authority and influence which had been his, as Constitutional Governor, in Canada.[5] He was fully conscious, however, of the difficult nature of the position, and that it was only tenable on condition of being penetrated, or possessed, as he said, with the idea of its tenability. In this strain he wrote to his intimate friend. Mr. Cumming Bruce, in September 1852, with reference to a report that he was to be recalled by the Ministry which had recently come into power.

As respects the matter of the report, I am disposed to believe that, viewing the question with reference to personal interests exclusively, my removal from hence would not be any disadvantage to me. But, as to my work here—there is the rub. Is it to be all undone? On this point I must speak frankly. I have been possessed (I use the word advisedly, for I fear that most persons in England still consider it a case of possession) with the idea that it is possible to maintain on this soil of North America, and in the face of Republican America, British connection and British institutions, if you give the latter freely and trustingly. Faith, when it is sincere, is always catching; and I have imparted this faith, more or less thoroughly, to all Canadian statesmen with whom I have been in official relationship since 1848, and to all intelligent Englishmen with whom I have come in contact since 1850—as witness Lord Wharncliffe, Waldegrave, Tremenheere, &c. &c. Now if the Governor ceases to possess this faith, or to have the faculty of imparting it, I confess I fear that, ere long, it will become extinct in other breasts likewise. I believe that it is equally an error to imagine with one old-fashioned party, that you can govern such dependencies as this on the antiquated bureaucratic principle, by means of rescripts from Downing Street, in defiance of the popular legislatures, and on the hypothesis that one local faction monopolises all the loyalty of the Colony; and to suppose with the Radicals that all is done when you have simply told the colonists 'to go to the devil their own way.' I believe, on the contrary, that there is more room for the exercise of influence on the part of the Governor under my system than under any that ever was before devised; an influence, however, wholly moral—an influence of suasion, sympathy, and moderation, which softens the temper while it elevates the aims of local polities. It is true that on certain questions of public policy, especially with regard to Church matters, views are propounded by my ministers which do not exactly square with my pre-conceived opinions, and which I acquiesce in, so long as they do not contravene the fundamental principles of morality, from a conviction that they are in accordance with the general sentiments of the community.

It is true that I do not seek the commendation bestowed on Sir F. Head for bringing men into his councils from the liberal party, and telling them that they should enjoy only a partial confidence; thereby allowing them to retain their position as tribunes of the people in conjunction with the prestige of advisers of the Crown by enabling them to shirk responsibility for any acts of government which are unpopular. It is true that I have always said to my advisers, 'while you continue my advisers you shall enjoy nay unreserved confidence; and en revanche you shall be responsible for all acts of government.'

But it is no less certain that there is not one of them who does not know that no inducement on earth would prevail with me to bring me to acquiesce in any measures which seemed to me repugnant to public morals, or Imperial interests; and I must say that, far from finding in my advisers a desire to entrap me into proceedings of which 1 might disapprove, I find a tendency constantly increasing to attach the utmost value to my opinion on all questions, local or generals that arise.

The deep sense which he entertained of the importance of a correct understanding on this point is shown by his devoting to it the closing words of the last official despatch which he wrote from Quebec, on December 18, 1854.

I readily admit that the maintenance of the position and due influence of the Governor is one of the most critical problems that have to be solved in the adaptation of Parliamentary Government to the Colonial system; and that it is difficult to over-estimate the importance which attaches to its satisfactory solution. As the Imperial Government and Parliament gradually withdraw from legislative interference, and from the exercise of patronage in Colonial affairs, the office of Governor tends to become, in the most emphatic sense of the term, the link which connects the Mother-country and the Colony, and his influence the means by which harmony of action between the local and imperial authorities is to be preserved. It is not, however, in my humble judgment, by evincing an anxious desire to stretch to the utmost constitutional principles in his favour, but, on the contrary, by the frank acceptance of the conditions of the Parliamentary system, that this influence can be most surely extended and confirmed. Placed by his position above the strife of parties—holding office by a tenure less precarious than the ministers who surround him—having no political interests to serve but that of the community whose affairs he is appointed to administer—his opinion cannot fail, when all cause for suspicion and jealousy is removed, to have great weight in the Colonial Councils, while he is set at liberty to constitute himself in an especial manner the patron of those larger and higher interests— such interests, for example, as those of education, and of moral and material progress in all its branches—which, unlike the contests of party, unite instead of dividing the members of the body politic. The mention of such influences as an appreciable force in the administration of public affairs may provoke a sneer on the part of persons who have no faith in any appeal which is not addressed to the lowest motives of human conduct; but those who have juster views of our common nature, and who have seen influences that are purely moral wielded with judgment, will not be disposed to deny to them a high degree of efficacy.

[Sidenote: Defence of the colony,]

Closely akin to the question of the maintenance of the connection between the Colony and Great Britain, especially when viewed as affected by the commercial and financial condition of the former, was the question of throwing upon it the expense of defending itself; a problem which was then only beginning to attract the attention of liberal statesmen. For though it may be true that the practice of defending the Colonies with the troops and at the cost of the mother-country was an innovation upon the earlier Colonial system, introduced at the time of the great war, it is not the less certain that to the generation of colonists that had grown up since that time the abandonment of it had all the effect of novelty. It was a question on which, as affecting Canada, Lord Elgin was in a peculiar degree 'between two fires;' exposed to pressure at once from the Government at home and from his own Ministers, and seeing much to agree with in the views of both.

[Sidenote: against internal disorder;]

In the first place, as regards the preservation of order within the province, he thought it clear that, as a general rule, the cost of this should fall on the Colony itself wherever it enjoyed self-government; but there were peculiar circumstances in Canada which made him hesitate to apply the doctrine unreservedly there. Owing to the contiguity of the United States, the abettors of any mischief in the Colony might count on help constantly at hand, not indeed from the Government of the Union, which never acted disloyally,[6] but from the Unruly spirits that were apt to infest the borders; and it seemed to him at least doubtful, whether both justice and policy did not require that Great Britain should afford to the supporters of order some material aid to counterbalance this. Again, the peculiar social and political state of Lower Canada, arising mainly from the conditions under which it had passed into the hands of England, and from the manner in which England had fulfilled those conditions, created special difficulties as to the maintenance of internal quiet. On the one hand England's respect for treaty obligations had induced her to resist all attempts to break down by fraud or violence those rights and usages of the French population, which had tended to keep alive among them feelings of distinctive nationality; while on the other hand the effect of the working of the old system of colonial administration had been to confer upon British or American settlers a disproportionate share in the government of the province. It followed that the French-Canadian majority and the Anglo- Saxon minority were dwelling side by side in that section of the Colony without, to any sensible extent, intermingling, and under conditions of equilibrium which could never have been established but for the presence on the same scene of a directing and overruling power. In this state of things, while confidently hoping that an impartial adherence to the principles of constitutional government would by degrees obliterate all national distinctions, he saw reason to fear that the sudden withdrawal of Britain's moderating control, whether as the result of separation or of a change of Imperial policy, would be followed at no distant period by a serious collision between the races.

[Sidenote: against foreign attack.]

Similarly, as regards defence against foreign attack, while agreeing that a self-governing colony should be self-dependent, Lord Elgin felt that the peculiar position of Canada, having no foreign attack to apprehend except hi quarrels of England's making, made her case somewhat exceptional. And any wholesale withdrawal of British troops he strongly deprecated, as likely to imperil her connection with the mother-country, if it took place suddenly, before the old notion—the 'axiom affirmed again and again by Secretaries of State and Governors, that England was bound to pay all expenses connected with the defence of the Colony'—had lost its hold on men's minds, and a feeling of the responsibilities attaching to self- government had had time to grow up.

His first letter on the subject is to Lord Grey, written so early as April 26,1848:—

The question which you raise in your last letter respecting the military defence of Canada is a large one, and, before irrevocable steps be taken, it may be well to look at it on all sides.

The first consideration which offers itself in connection with this subject is this, 'Why does Canada require to be defended, and against whom?' A very large number of persons in this community believe that there is only one power from which they have anything to dread, and that this power would be converted into the fastest friend, bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh, if the connection with Great Britain were abandoned.

In this respect the position of Canada is peculiar. When you say to any other colony 'England declines to be longer at the expense of protecting you,' you at once reveal to it the extent of its dependence and the value of Imperial support. But it is not so here. Withdraw your protection from Canada, and she has it in her power to obtain the security against aggression enjoyed by Michigan or Maine: about as good security, I must allow, as any which is to be obtained at the present time.

But you may observe in reply to this, 'You cannot get the security which Michigan and Maine enjoy for nothing; you must purchase it by the surrender of your custom houses and public lands, the proceeds of which will be diverted from their present uses and applied to others, at the discretion of a body in which you will have comparatively little to say.' The argument is a powerful one, so long as England consents to bear the cost of the defence of the Colony, but its force is much lessened when the inhabitants are told that they must look to their own safety, because the mother-country can no longer afford to take care of them.

On the other hand very weighty reasons may be adduced in favour of the policy of requiring the province to bear some portion at least of the charge of its own protection. The adoption of free-trade, although its advocates must believe that it tends to make the Colonies in point of fact less chargeable than heretofore, will doubtless render the English people more than ever jealous of expenditure incurred on their behalf. I am, moreover, of opinion, that the system of relieving the colonists altogether from the duty of self-defence is attended with injurious effects upon themselves. It checks the growth of national and manly morals. Men seldom think anything worth preserving for which they are never asked to make a sacrifice.

My view, therefore, would be that it is desirable that a movement in the direction which you Lave indicated should take place, but that it ought to be made with much caution.

The present is not a favourable moment for experiments. British statesmen, even Secretaries of State, have got into the habit lately of talking of the maintenance of the connection between Great Britain and Canada with so much indifference, that a change of system in respect of military defence incautiously carried out, might be presumed by many to argue, on the part of the mother-country, a disposition to prepare the way for separation. Add to this, that you effected, only a few years ago, a union between the Upper and Lower Provinces by arbitrary means, and for objects the avowal of which has profoundly irritated the French population; that still more recently you have deprived Canada of her principal advantages in the British markets; that France and Ireland are in flames, and that nearly half of the population of this Colony are French, nearly half of the remainder Irish.

That Canada felt no need of bulwarks except against England's foes was a point on which he constantly insisted. On one occasion he wrote:—

Only one absurdity can be greater, pardon me for saying so, than the absurdity of supposing that the British Parliament will pay £200,000 for Canadian fortifications; it is the absurdity of supposing that Canadians will pay it themselves.

£200,000 for defences! and against whom? against the Americans. And who are the Americans? Your own kindred, a flourishing swaggering people, who are ready to make room for you at their own table, to give you a share of all they possess, of all their prosperity, and to guarantee you in all time to come against the risk of invasion, or the need of defences, if you will but speak the word!

[Sidenote: Recommends gradual reduction of forces.]

On the whole he was of opinion that the Government should quietly, and sans phrase, remove their troops altogether from some points, reduce them in others, and 'aim at the eventual substitution of a Major-General's command for that of a Lieutenant-General in Canada; but that nothing should be done hastily or per saltum, so as to alarm the Colonists with the idea that some new and strange principle was going to be applied to them.'

You may if you please (he wrote) largely reduce the staff, and more moderately the men, leaving the remainder in the best barracks. I think you may do this without, in any material degree, increasing the tendency towards annexation; provided always that you make no noise about it…. But, I repeat it, you must not, unless you wish to drive the Colony away from you, impose new burdens upon the Colonists at this time.[7]

The course thus sketched out he himself steadily pursued; and his last letters on the subject, written early in 1853 to the Duke of Newcastle, who had recently become Secretary for the Colonies, were occupied in recommending a continuance of the same quietly progressive policy:

When I came here we had a Commander-in-Chief and two Major-Generals. We have now only one General on the Station, and the staff has undergone proportional diminution. If further reductions are to be made, let them be effected in the same quiet way without parade or the ostentatious adoption of new principles as applicable to the defence of colonies which are exposed, as Canada is by reason of their connection with Great Britain, to the hazard of assaults from organised powers.

Continue then, if you will pardon me for so freely tendering advice, to apply in the administration of our local affairs the principles of Constitutional Government frankly and fairly. Do not ask England to make unreasonable sacrifices for the Colonists, but such sacrifices as are reasonable, on the hypothesis that the Colony is an exposed part of the empire. Induce her if you can to make them generously and without appearing to grudge them. Let it be inferred from your language that there is in your opinion nothing in the nature of things to prevent the tie which connects the Mother-country and the Colony from being as enduring as that which unites the different States of the Union, and nothing in the nature of our very elastic institutions to prevent them from expanding so as to permit the free and healthy development of social, political, and national life in these young communities. By administering colonial affaire in this spirit you will find, I believe, even when you least profess to seek it, the true secret of the cheap defence of nations. If these communities are only truly attached to the connection and satisfied of its permanence (and, as respects the latter point, opinions here will be much influenced by the tone of statesmen at home), elements of self-defence, not moral elements only but material elements likewise, will spring up within them spontaneously as the product of movements from within, not of pressure from without. Two millions of people, in a northern latitude, can do a good deal in the way of helping themselves when their hearts are in the right place.

[1] Colonial Policy, i. 232.

[2] 'United Empire Loyalists,' i.e. descendants of the original Loyalists of the American War.

[3] Despatch of the Earl of Elgin, Dec. 18, 1854.

[4] Compare Junius:—'Unfortunately for his country, Mr. Grenville
was at any rate to be distressed, because he was Minister: and Mr.
Pitt and Lord Camden were to be the patrons of America, because they
were in opposition. Their declaration gave spirit and argument to the
Colonies; and while, perhaps, they meant no more than the ruin of a
Minister, they in effect divided one half of the empire from the
other.'

[5] 'Perhaps I may see reason after a little more experience here to modify
my opinion on these points. If I were to tell you what I now think of
the relative amount of influence which I exercised over the march, of
affairs in Canada, where I governed on strictly constitutional
principles, and with a free Parliament, as compared with that which
the Governor-General wields in India when at peace, you would
accuse me of paradox.'—Letter to Sir C. Wood, December 9,1862.

[6] Vide infra, p. 159.

[7] In entire accordance with this view, Be recommended that Great Britain should take upon herself the payment of the Governor's salary, 'with a view to future contingencies, and to calls which at a period more or less remote we may have to make on the loyalty and patriotism of Canadians.'

CHAPTER VI.

CANADA.

THE 'CLERGY RESERVES'—HISTORY OF THE QUESTION—MIXED MOTIVES OF THE MOVEMENT—FEELING IN THE PROVINCE—IN UPPER CANADA—IN LOWER CANADA—AMONG ROMAN CATHOLICS—IN THE CHURCH—SECULARIZATION—QUESTIONS OF EMIGRATION, LABOUR, LAND-TENURE, EDUCATION, NATIVE TRIBES—RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED STATES—MUTUAL COURTESIES—FAREWELL TO CANADA—AT HOME.

[Sidenote: The 'Clergy Reserves']

We have had frequent occasion to observe that the guiding principle of Lord Elgin's policy was to let the Colony have its own way in everything which was not contrary either to public morality or to some Imperial interest. It was in this spirit that he passed the Rebellion Losses Act; and in this spirit he watched the contest which raged for many years on the memorable question of the 'Clergy Reserves.'

[Sidenote: History of the question.]

By the Canada Act of 1791 one-seventh of the lands then ungranted had been set apart for the support of a 'Protestant Clergy.' At first these reserves were regarded as the exclusive property of the Church of England; but in 1820 an opinion was obtained from the Law Officers of the Crown in England, that the clergy of the Church of Scotland had a right to a share in them, but not Dissenting Ministers. In 1840 an Act was passed in which the claims of other denominations also were distinctly recognised. By it the Governor was empowered to sell the reserves; a part of the proceeds was to be applied in payment of the salaries of the existing clergy, to whom the faith of the Crown had been pledged; one-half of the remainder was to go to the Churches of England and Scotland, in proportion to their respective numbers, and the other half was to be at the disposal of the Governor- General for the benefit of the clergy of any Protestant denomination willing to receive public aid.

But the old inveterate jealousy of Anglican ascendency, aggravated, it is said, by the political conduct of Bishop Strachan, who had identified his Church with the obnoxious rule of the Family Compact, was not content with these concessions. Allying itself with the voluntary spirit, caught from the Scottish Free Church movement in 1843, it took the shape of a fanatical opposition to everything in the nature of a public provision for the support of religion; and the cry was raised for the 'Secularisation of the Clergy Reserves.' Eagerly taken up, as was natural, by the Ultra-radicals, or 'Clear-grits,' the cry was echoed by a considerable section of the old Tory party, from motives which it is less easy to analyse; and so violent was the feeling that it threatened to sweep away at one stroke all the endowments in question, without regard to vested interests, and without even waiting for the repeal of the Imperial Act by which these endowments were guaranteed. More loyal and moderate counsels however prevailed, owing chiefly to the support which they received from the Roman Catholics of Lower Canada, at one time so violently disaffected. In 1850 the Assembly voted an Address to the Queen, praying that the Act referred to might be repealed, and that the Local Legislature might be empowered to dispose of the reserved lands, subject to the condition of securing to the existing holders for their lives the stipends to which they were then entitled. To this Address a favourable answer was returned by Lord Grey; who, while avowing the preference of Her Majesty's Government for the existing arrangement, by which a certain portion of the public lands of Canada were applied to religious uses, admitted at the same time that the question of maintaining it was one so exclusively affecting the people of Canada, that its decision ought not to be withdrawn from the Provincial Legislature.

A Bill for granting to the Colony the desired powers was intended to be introduced into Parliament during the session of 1851, but owing to the pressure of other business it was deferred to the next year. It was to have been brought forward in a few days, when the break-up of Lord John Russell's Ministry caused it to be again postponed; and it was not till May 9, 1853, that the long looked-for Act received the Queen's assent.

No action could be taken in the matter by the Colonial Parliament for that year, as its session closed on June 14; and when it met again next year a ministerial crisis, followed by a dissolution and a change of Ministers, caused a postponement of all legislation. Finally, on October 17, 1854, a Bill for the 'Secularisation of the Clergy Reserves' was introduced into the Assembly. The more moderate and thoughtful men of every party are said to have been at heart opposed to it; but it was impossible for them to stand against the current of popular feeling. The Bill speedily became law; the Clergy Reserves were handed over to the various municipal corporations for secular uses; and though by this means 'a noble provision made for the sustentation of religion was frittered away so as to produce but few beneficial results,'[1] a question which had long been the occasion of much heart-burning was at least settled, and settled for ever. A slender provision for the future was saved out of the wreck by the commutation of the reserved life-interests of incumbents, which laid the foundation of a small permanent endowment; but, with this exception, the equality of destitution among all Protestant communities was complete.[2]

The various stages through which this question passed may be traced in the following letters, of which the first was written to Lord Grey on July 5, 1850:

Two addresses to the Queen were voted by the Assembly a few days ago and brought up by the House to me for transmission. The one is an address, very loyal in its tone, deprecating all revolutionary changes.

[Sidenote: Address to the Queen.]

The other address is not so satisfactory. It prays Her Majesty to obtain the repeal of the Imperial Act on the Clergy Reserves passed in 1840, and to hand them over to the Canadian Parliament to deal with them as it may see fit—guaranteeing, however, the life interests of incumbents. The resolutions on which this address was founded were introduced by a member of the Government, which has treated the question as an open one.

You are sufficiently acquainted with Canadian history to be aware of the fact, that these unfortunate Clergy Reserves have been a bone of contention ever since they were set apart. I know how very inconvenient it is to repeal the Imperial Act which was intended to be a final settlement of the question; but I must candidly say I very much doubt whether you will be able to preserve the Colony if you retain it on the Statute Book. Even Lafontaine and others who recognise certain vested rights of the Protestant churches under the Constitutional Act, advocate the repeal of the Imperial Act of 1840: partly because Lower Canada was not consulted at all when it was passed; and, secondly, because the distribution made under that Act is an unfair one, and inconsistent with the views of the Upper Canadian Legislature, as expressed at the time but set aside in deference, as it is alleged, to the remonstrances of the English bishops. Some among the Anglo-Saxon Liberals, and some of the Orange Tories, I suspect, share these views.

A considerable section is for appropriating the proceeds of the reserves at once, and applying them to education, without any regard to the rights either of individuals or of churches. These persons are furious with the supporters of the address for proposing to preserve the life interests of incumbents. The sentiments of the remainder are pretty accurately conveyed by the terms of the address.

* * * * *

To the Earl Grey.

Toronto, July 19, 1850.

[Sidenote: Reasons for agreeing.]

The 'Clear Grit' organs, which have absorbed a large portion of the 'Annexationists,' talk very big about what they will do if England steps in to preserve the 'Clergy Reserves.' That party would be only too glad to get up a quarrel with England on such a point. It is, of course, impossible for you to do anything with the Imperial Act till next session. A little delay may perhaps enable us to see our way more clearly with respect to this most perplexing subject.

Lord Sydenham's despatch of January 22,1840, is a curious and instructive one. It accompanies the Act on the 'Clergy Reserve' question, which he induced the Parliament of Upper Canada to pass, but which was not adopted at home; for the House of Lords concocted one more favourable to the Established Churches. He clearly admits that the Act is against the sense of the country, and that nothing but his own great personal influence got it through, and yet he looks upon it as a settlement of the question. I confess I see few of the conditions of finality in measures which are passed under such circumstances.

* * * * *

To the Earl Grey.

Toronto, March 18,1851.

I am far from thinking that the 'Clergy Reserves' will necessarily be diverted from religious purposes if the Local Parliament has the disposal of them. I should feel very confident that this would not be the case, were it not that the tone adopted by the Church of England here has almost always the effect of driving from her even those who would be most disposed to cooperate with her if she would allow them.

* * * * *

To the Earl Grey.

Toronto, June 14,1851.

On the whole the best chance for the Church interest as regards the question, in my judgment, is that you should carry your empowering bill through the Imperial Parliament this session, and that we should get through our session and the general election, which is about to follow, with as little excitement as possible. The province is prosperous and the people contented; and at such a time, if no disturbing cause arise, moderate and reasonable men are likely to be returned. At the same time the 'Clergy Reserve' question is sufficiently before the public to insure our getting from the returns to Parliament a pretty fair indication of what are the real sentiments of the people upon it. I need not say that there can be no security for the permanence of any arrangement which is not in tolerable conformity with those sentiments.

* * * * *

To the Earl Grey.

July 12,1851.

[Sidenote: Movement not prompted by Roman Catholics.]

As to the insinuation that the movement against the endowments of the Church of England is prompted by the Romans, events will give the lie to it ere long. The following facts, however, seem to be wholly irreconcilable with this hypothesis. Before the Union of the Provinces there were very few, if any, Roman Catholic members in the Upper Canada Parliament; they were all-powerful in the Lower. Now it is recorded in history, that the Upper Canadian Legislative Assembly kept up year after year a series of assaults on the 'Clergy Reserves;' in proof of which read the narrative part of the Address to Her Majesty on the 'Clergy Reserves' from the Legislative Assembly last year. And it is equally a fact that the Lower Canadian Legislative Assembly never meddled with them, except I think once, when they were invited to do so by the Government.

Some months later, in the beginning of 1852, Lord John Russell's Administration was broken up, and Lord Grey handed over the seals of the Colonial Office to Sir John Pakington. One of the first subjects on which the new Secretary asked to be furnished with confidential information was as to the state of public feeling in Canada upon the question of the future disposal of the 'Clergy Reserves.' Lord Elgin replied as follows:

[Sidenote: Feeling in the Province;]

You require, if I rightly understand your letter, that I should state, in the first place, whether I believe that the sentiments of the community in reference to the subject-matter of this Address are faithfully represented in the votes of the Assembly. I cannot answer this question otherwise than affirmatively. Not that I am by any means disposed to under-rate the importance of the petitions which may have been sent home by opponents of the measure. The clergy of the Church of England and of that portion of the Presbyterian Church which preserves its connection with the Established Church of Scotland, are generally unwilling that the question of the reserves should be left to the decision of the Local Legislature. They are, to a considerable extent, supported by their flocks when they approach the throne as petitioners against the prayer of the Assembly's Address, although it is no doubt an error to suppose that the lay members of these communions are unanimous, or all alike zealous in the espousal of these views. From this quarter the petitions which appear to have reached Lord Grey and yourself have, I apprehend, almost exclusively proceeded. Other bodies, even of those which participate in the produce of the reserves, as for example the Wesleyans and the Roman Catholics of Upper Canada, have not, that I am aware of, moved in the matter, unless it be in an opposite direction.

[Sidenote: in Upper Canada;]
[Sidenote: in Lower Canada;]

Can it then be inferred from such indications that public opinion in the province does not support the cause taken by the Assembly in reference to the 'Clergy Reserves'? or, what is perhaps more to the purpose, that a provincial administration, formed on the principle of desisting from all attempts to induce the Imperial Government to repeal the Imperial statute on this subject, would be sustained? I am unable, I confess, to bring myself to entertain any such expectation. It is my opinion, that if the Liberals were to rally out of office on the cry that they were asserting the right of the Provincial Government to deal with the question of the 'Clergy Reserves' against a Government willing, at the bidding of the Imperial authorities, to abandon this claim, they would triumph in Upper Canada more decisively than they did at the late general election. I need hardly add, that if, after a resistance followed by such a triumph, the Imperial Government were to give way, it would be more than ever difficult to obtain from the victorious party a reasonable consideration for Church interests. These remarks apply to Upper Canada. It is not so easy to foresee what is likely to be the course of events in Lower Canada. The party which looks to M. Papineou as its leader adopts on all points the most ultra-democratic creed. It professes no very warm attachment to the endowments of the Roman Catholic Church, and is, of course, not likely to prove itself more tender with respect to property set apart by royal authority for the support of Protestantism. The French- Canadian Representatives who do not belong to this party are, I believe, generally disinclined to secularisation, and would be brought to consent to any such proposition, if at all, only by the pressure of some supposed political necessity. They are however, almost without exception, committed to the principle that the 'Clergy Reserves' ought to be subject to the control of the Local Legislature. While the battle is waged on this ground, therefore, they will probably continue to side with the Upper Canada Liberals, unless the latter contrive to alienate them by some act of extravagance….

I am aware that there lie, beyond the subjects of which I have treated, larger considerations of public policy affecting this question, on which I have not ventured to touch. On the one hand there are persons who contend that, as the 'Clergy Reserves' were set apart by a British Sovereign for religious uses, it is the bounden duty of the Imperial authorities to maintain at all hazards the disposition thus made of them. This view is hardly, I think, reconcilable with the provisions of the statute of 1791; but, if it be correct, it renders all discussion of subordinate topics and points of mere expediency, superfluous.

[Sidenote: In the Church;]

On the other hand even among the most attached friends of the Church, some are to be found who doubt whether on the whole the Church has gained from the Reserves as much as she has lost by them—whether the ill-will which they have engendered, and the bar which they have proved to private munificence and voluntary exertion, have not more than counter-balanced the benefits which they may have conferred; and who look to secularisation as the only settlement that will be final and put an end to strife.

Up to this time Lord Elgin appears to have entertained at least a hope, that, if the Colony were left to itself, it would settle the matter by distributing the reserved funds according to some equitable proportion among the clergy of all denominations. But as time went on, this hope became fainter and fainter. In his next letter he recounts a conversation with a person (not named) 'of much intelligence, and well acquainted with Upper Canada,' not a member of the Church of England, but favourable to the maintenance of an endowment for religious purposes, who, after remarking on the infatuation shown by the friends of the Church in 1840, expressed a decided opinion that the vantage ground then so heedlessly sacrificed was lost for ever, so far as colonial sentiment was concerned; and that 'neither the present nor any future Canadian Parliament would be induced to enact a law for perpetuating the endowment in any shape.' The increasing likelihood, however, of a result which he regarded as in itself undesirable could not abate his desire to see the matter finally settled, or shake his conviction that the Provincial Parliament was the proper power to settle it. With his correspondent it was not so; nor can it be wondered at that the organ of a Tory Government should have declined to accede to the prayer of an Address, which could hardly have any other issue than secularisation. But the decision was not destined to be left in the hands of the Tories. Before the end of 1852 Lord Derby was replaced by Lord Aberdeen, and Sir J. Pakington by Lord Elgin's old friend the Duke of Newcastle, who saw at once the necessity of conceding to the Canadian Parliament the power of settling the question after its own fashion. Accordingly on May 21, 1853, Lord Elgin was able to write to him as follows:

[Sidenote: Empowering Bill passed.]

I was certainly not a little surprised by the success with which you carried the Clergy Reserves Bill through the House of Lords. I am assured that this result was mainly due to your own personal exertions. I am quite confident that both in what you have done, and in the way you have done it, you have best consulted the interests of the Province, the Church, and the Empire. I trust that what has happened will have here the favourable moral effect which you anticipate. It cannot fail to have this tendency.

As respects the measures which will be ultimately adopted on this vexed subject, I do not yet venture to write with confidence. If the representation of the Bishop of Toronto, as to the feelings which exist among the great Protestant denominations on the question, were correct, there could be no doubt whatsoever in regard to the issue. For you may depend upon it the Roman Catholics have no wish to touch the Protestant endowment; although, when they are forced into the controversy, they will contend that it does not rest on the same basis as their own. But I confess that I place no reliance whatsoever on these calculations and representations. Almost the greatest evil which results from the delegation to the Imperial Parliament of the duty of legislating on Colonial questions of this class, is the scope which the system affords to exaggeration and mystification. Parties do not meet in fair conflict on their own ground, where they can soon gain a knowledge of their relative strength, and learn to respect each other accordingly; they shroud themselves in mystery, and rely for victory on their success in outdoing each other in hard swearing. Many men, partly from good nature and partly from political motives, will sign a petition spiced and peppered to tickle the palate of the House of Lords, who will not move a yard, or sacrifice a shilling, on behalf of the object petitioned for. I much fear that it will be found that there is much division of opinion even among members of the laity of the Church, with respect to the propriety of maintaining the 'Clergy Reserves;' and that, even as regards a certain section of the clergy, owing to dissatisfaction with the distribution of the fund and with the condition of dependence in which the missionaries are kept, there is greater lukewarmness on the subject than the fervent representations you have received would lead you to imagine.

Meanwhile there is a very good feeling in the Province—a great absence of party violence. Your course has tended to confirm these favourable symptoms. We must prevent anything being done during this session of the Provincial Parliament to commit parties with respect to the 'Clergy Reserves,' and as respects the future we must hope for the best.

[Sidenote: The Reserves secularised.]

The result has been already stated. The 'Clergy Reserves' were secularised, contrary, no doubt, to the individual wishes of Lord Elgin; but the general principle of Colonial self-government had signally triumphed, and its victory more than outweighed to him the loss of any particular cause.

One other measure remains to be noticed, on which Lord Elgin had the satisfaction of inducing the Home Government to yield to the wishes of the Colony, viz. the Reform of the Provincial Parliament.

[Sidenote: Reform of the Provincial Parliament.]

By the Constitution of 1840 the legislative power was divided between two chambers: a council, consisting of twenty persons, who were nominated by the Governor, and held their seats for life; and a House of Assembly, whose eighty-four members were elected in equal proportions from the two sections of the province. As the population of the Colony grew—and between 1840 and 1853 it nearly doubled itself—it was natural that the number of legislators should be increased; and there were other reasons which made an increase desirable.

[Sidenote: Increase of representation.]

The Legislative Assembly (wrote Lord Elgin early in 1853) is now engaged on a measure introduced by the Government for increasing the representation of the province. I consider the object of the measure a very important one; for, with so small a body as eighty members, when parties are nearly balanced, individual votes become too precious, which leads to mischief. I have not experienced this evil to any great extent since I have had a liberal administration, which has always been strong in the Assembly; but, with my first administration, I felt it severely.

To this change no serious opposition was offered, either in the Colony or in the Imperial Parliament; and the members of the two Houses were raised to one hundred and thirty, and seventy-two, respectively. It was otherwise, however, with the proposal to make the Upper House elective; a measure certainly alien to English ideas, but one which Lord Elgin appears to have thought necessary for the healthy working of the constitution under the circumstances then existing in the province. As early as March, 1850, he wrote to Lord Grey:—

[Sidenote: Proposal to make the Upper House elective.]

[Sidenote: Reasons in favour.]

A great deal is said here at present about rendering our second branch of the Legislature elective. As the advocates of the plan, however, comprise two classes of persons, with views not only distinct but contradictory, it is difficult to foresee how they are to agree on details, when it assumes a practical shape. The one class desire to construct a more efficient Conservative body than the present Council, the other seek an instrument to aid them in their schemes of subversion and pillage. For my own part, I believe that a second legislative body, returned by the same constituency as the House of Assembly, under some differences with respect to time and mode of election, would be a greater check on ill-considered legislation than the Council as it is now constituted. Baldwin is very unwilling to move in this matter. Having got what he imagines to be the likest thing to the British constitution he can obtain, he is satisfied, and averse to further change. In this instance I cannot but think that he mistakes the shadow for the substance. I admire, however, the perseverance with which he proclaims, 'Il faut jeter l'ancre de la constitution,' in reply to proposals of organic change; though I fully expect that, like those who raised this cry in 1791, he will yet, if he lives, find himself and his state-ship floundering among rocks and shoals, towards which he never expected to steer.

Three years later he held the same language to the Duke of Newcastle. Writing on March 26, 1853, to inform him that the Bill for increasing the representation had been carried in the Assembly by a large majority, he adds:—

The Lords must be attended to in the next place. The position of the second chamber in our body politic is at present wholly unsatisfactory. The principle of election must be introduced in order to give to it the influence which it ought to possess; and that principle must be so applied as to admit of the working of Parliamentary Government (which I for one am certainly not prepared to abandon for the American system) with two elective chambers. I have made some suggestions with this view, which I hope to be able to induce the Legislature to adopt.

When our two legislative bodies shall have been placed on this improved footing, a greater stability will have been imparted to our constitution, and a greater strength, I believe, if England act wisely, to the connection.

[Sidenote: The Act passed.]

The question did not come before the British Parliament till the summer of 1854, after Lord Elgin's visit to England, during which he had an opportunity of stating his views personally to the Government. At his instance they brought in a Bill to enable the Colonial Legislature to deal with the subject; and the measure was carried, with few dissentients, although vehemently denounced by Lord Derby in the House of Lords. The principles of colonial policy which Lord Durham had expressed so powerfully in 1888, and on which Lord Grey and Lord Elgin had been acting so consistently for many years, had at last prevailed; and many of those who most deprecated the proposed reform as a downward step towards pure democracy, yet acknowledged that, as it had been determined upon by the deliberate choice of the Colony, it ought not to be thwarted by the interference of the mother-country.

[Sidenote: Speech of Lord Derby.]

In the course of the speech above referred to, Lord Derby made use of the following eloquent words:—

I have dreamed—perhaps it was only a dream—that the time would come when, exercising a perfect control over their own internal affairs, Parliament abandoning its right to interfere in their legislation, these great and important colonies, combined together, should form a monarchical government, presided over either by a permanent viceroy, or, as an independent sovereign, by one nearly and closely allied to the present royal family of this country.

I have believed that, in such a manner, it would be possible to uphold the monarchical principle; to establish upon that great continent a monarchy free as that of this country, even freer still with regard to the popular influence exercised, but yet a monarchy worthy of the name, and not a mere empty shadow. I can hardly believe that, under such a system, the friendly connection and close intimacy between the colonies and the mother-country would in any way be affected; but, on the contrary, I feel convinced that the change to which I have referred would be productive of nothing, for years and years to come, but mutual harmony and friendship, increased and cemented as that friendship would be by mutual appreciation of the great and substantial benefits conferred by a free and regulated monarchy.

But pass this Bill, and that dream is gone for ever. Nothing like a free and regulated monarchy could exist for a single moment under such a constitution as that which is now proposed for Canada.

From the moment that you pass this constitution, the progress must be rapidly towards republicanism, if anything could be more really republican than this Bill.

The dream has been realised, at least in one of its most important features; the gloomy forebodings have hitherto happily proved groundless. But the speaker of these words, and the author of the measure to which they refer, would probably have been alike surprised at the course which events have taken respecting the particular point then in question. For once the stream that sets towards democracy has been seen to take a backward direction; and the constitution of the Dominion of Canada has returned, as regards the Legislative Council, to the Conservative principle of nomination by the Crown.

* * * * *

It does not fall within the scope of this memoir to give an account of the numerous administrative measures which made the period of Lord Elgin's Government so marked an epoch in the history of Canadian prosperity. It may be well, however, to notice a few points to which he himself thought it worth while to advert in official despatches, written towards the close of his sojourn in the country, and containing a statistical review of the marvellously rapid progress which the Colony had made in all branches of productive industry.

The first extracts bear upon questions which have lost none of their interest or importance—the kindred questions of emigration, of the demand for labour, and of the acquisition and tenure of land.

[Sidenote: Emigration.]

The sufferings of the Irish during that calamitous period [1847] induced philanthropic persons to put forward schemes of systematic colonisation, based in some instances on the assumption that it was for the interest of the emigrants that they should be as much as possible concentrated in particular portions of the territories to which they might proceed, so as to form communities complete in themselves, and to remain subject to the influences, religious and social, under which they had lived previously to emigration. It was proposed, if I rightly remember, according to one of those schemes, that large numbers of Irish with their priests and home associations should be established by Government in some unoccupied part of Canada. I believe that such schemes, however benevolent their design, rest on a complete misconception of what is for the interest both of the Colony and of the emigrants. It is almost invariably found that emigrants who thus isolate themselves, whatever their origin or antecedents, lag behind their neighbours; and I am inclined to think that, as a general rule, in the case of communities whose social and political organisation is as far advanced as that of the North American Colonies, it is for the interest of all parties that new comers, instead of dwelling apart and bound together by the affinities whether of sect or party, which united them in the country which they have left, should be dispersed as widely as possible among the population already established in that to which they transfer themselves.

It may not be altogether irrelevant to mention, as bearing on this subject, that the painful circumstances which attended the emigration of 1847 created for a time in this Province a certain prejudice against emigration generally. The poll tax on emigrants was increased, and the opinion widely disseminated that, however desirable the introduction of capitalists might be, an emigration of persons of the poorer classes was likely to prove a burden rather than a benefit. Commercial depression, and apprehensions as to the probable effect of the Free-trade policy of Great Britain on the prosperity of the Colonies, had an influence in the same direction. To counteract these tendencies which were calculated, as I thought, to be injurious in the long run both to the Mother-country and the Province, public attention was especially directed, in the Speech delivered from the Throne in 1849, to emigration by way of the St. Lawrence, as a branch of trade which it was most desirable to cultivate (irrespective altogether of its bearing on the settlement of the country) in consequence of the great excess of exports over imports by that route, and the consequent enhancement of freights outwards. These views obtained very general assent, and the measures which have been adopted since that period to render this route attractive to emigrants destined for the West (the effect of which is beginning now to be visible in the yearly increasing amount of emigration by way of Quebec from the continent of Europe), are calculated not only to promote the trade of the Province, but also to make settlers of a superior class acquainted with its advantages.[3]

[Sidenote: Ottawa Valley.]

This important region (the valley of the Ottawa) takes the name by which it is designated in popular parlance from the mighty stream which flows through it, and which, though it be but a tributary of the St. Lawrence, is one of the largest of the rivers that run uninterruptedly from the source to the discharge within the dominions of the Queen. It drains an area of about 80,000 square miles, and receives at various points in its course the waters of streams, some of which equal in magnitude the chief rivers of Great Britain. These streams open up to the enterprise of the lumberman the almost inexhaustible pine forests with which this region is clothed, and afford the means of transporting their produce to market. In improving these natural advantages considerable sums are expended by private individuals. £50,000 currency was voted by Parliament last session for the purpose of removing certain obstacles to the navigation of the Upper Ottawa, by the construction of a canal at a point which is now obstructed by rapids.

[Sidenote: Demand for labour.]

From the nature of the business, the lumbering trade falls necessarily in a great measure into the hands of persons of capital, who employ large bodies of men at points far removed from markets, and who are therefore called upon to make considerable advances in providing food and necessaries for their labourers, as well as in building slides and otherwise facilitating the passage of timber along the streams and rivers. Many thousands of men are employed during the winter in these remote forests, preparing the timber which is transported during the summer in rafts, or, if sawn, in boats, to Quebec when destined for England, and up the Richelieu River when intended for the United States. It is a most interesting fact, both in a moral and hygienic view, that for some years past intoxicating liquors have been rigorously excluded from almost all the chantiers, as the dwellings of the lumbermen in these distant regions are styled; and that, notwithstanding the exposure of the men to cold during the winter and wet in the spring, the result of the experiment has been entirely satisfactory.

The bearing of the lumbering business on the settlement of the country is a point well worthy of notice. The farmer who undertakes to cultivate unreclaimed land in new countries, generally finds that not only does every step of advance which he makes in the wilderness, by removing him from the centres of trade and civilisation, enhance the cost of all he has to purchase, but that, moreover, it diminishes the value of what he has to sell. It is not so, however, with the farmer who follows in the wake of the lumbermen. He finds, on the contrary, in the wants of the latter, a ready demand for all that he produces, at a price not only equal to that procurable in the ordinary marts, but increased by the cost of transport from them to the scene of the lumbering operations. This circumstance, no doubt, powerfully contributes to promote the settlement of those districts, and attracts population to sections of the country which, in the absence of any such inducement, would probably remain for long periods uninhabited.[4]

[Sidenote: Wild land.]

The large amount of wild land held by individuals and corporations, renders the disposal of the public domain a question of less urgency in this than in some other colonies. Opinion in the Province runs strongly in favour of facilitating its acquisition in small lots by actual settlers, and of putting all possible obstacles in the way of its falling into the hands of speculators. This opinion is founded no doubt in part on a jealousy of great landholders; but it is mainly, I apprehend, attributable to a sense of the inconvenience and damage which are experienced in young countries, when considerable tracts of land are kept out of the market in the midst of districts that are in course of settlement. To this feeling much of the hostility to the 'Clergy Reserves' was originally due. The upset price of Government wild land in Canada varies from 7_s_. 6_d_. currency to 1_s_. currency an acre, according to quality, and by the rules of the Crown Land Department now in force, it is conceded at these rates, except in special cases, in lots of not more than 200 acres, on condition of actual settlement, of erecting a dwelling-house, and clearing one-fourth of the lot before the patent can be obtained. The price is payable in some parts of the country in ten yearly instalments; in others in five; with interest in both cases from the date of sale.

I have little faith in the efficacy of such devices to compel actual settlement. They hinder the free circulation of capital, are easily evaded, and seem to be especially out of place where wild lands are subject to taxation for municipal purposes, as is the case in Upper Canada.[5]

[Sidenote: Seigniorial tenure.]

A good deal of land in Lower Canada is held in seigniory, under a species of feudal tenure, with respect to the conditions of which a controversy has arisen which threatens, unless some equitable mode of adjusting it be speedily devised, to be productive of very serious consequences. A certain class of jurists contend, that by the custom of the country, established before its conquest by Great Britain, the seigniors were bound to concede their lands in lots of about 100 acres to the first applicant, in consideration of the payment of certain dues, and of a rent which, never, as they allege, exceeded one penny an acre; and they quote edicts of the French monarchs to show that the governor and intendant, when the seignior was contumacious, could seize the land, and make the concession in spite of him, taking the rent for the Crown. The seigniors, on the other hand, plead the decisions of the courts since the conquest in vindication of their claim to receive such rents as they can bargain for. Independently of this controversy, the incidents of the tenure are in other respects calculated to exercise an unfavourable influence on the progress of the Province; and its abolition, if it could be effected without injustice, would, no doubt, be a highly beneficial measure.[6]

Still more important and interesting at this time is the following sketch of the Educational System of Upper Canada; the 'Common Schools' and 'Public School Libraries,' which have attracted so much the attention of our own educationists. Nor is it uninstructive to note the contrast between what had been achieved in the colony nearly twenty years ago, and the still unsettled condition of similar questions in the mother-country: a contrast which may perhaps call to mind the remarks of Lord Elgin already quoted, as to the rapid growth which ensues when the seeds that fall from ancient experience are dropped into a virgin soil.[7]

[Sidenote: Education.]

In 1847 the Normal School, which may be considered the foundation of the system, was instituted, and at the close of 1853, the first volume issued from the Educational Department to the Public School Libraries, which are its crown and completion…. The term school libraries does not imply that the libraries in question are specially designed for the benefit of common school pupils. They are, in point of fact, public libraries intended for the use of the general population; and they are entitled school libraries because their establishment has been provided for in the School Acts, and their management confided to the school authorities.

[Sidenote: Public School Libraries.]

Public School Libraries then, similar to those which are now being introduced into Canada, have been in operation for several years in some states of the neighbouring Union, and many of the most valuable features of the Canadian system have been borrowed from them. In most of the States, however, which have appropriated funds for library purposes, the selection of the books has been left to the trustees appointed by the different districts, many of whom are ill-qualified for the task; and the consequence has been, that the travelling pedlars, who offer the most showy books at the lowest prices, have had the principal share in furnishing the libraries. In introducing the system into Canada, precautions have been taken which will, I trust, have the effect of obviating this great evil.

In the School Act of 1850, which first set apart a sum of money for the establishment and support of school libraries, it is declared to be the duty of the chief superintendent of education to apportion the sum granted for this purpose by the legislature under the following condition: 'That no aid should be given towards the establishment and support of any school library unless an equal amount be contributed or expended from local sources for the same;' and the Council of Instruction is required to examine, and at its discretion recommend or disapprove of text books for the use of schools, or books for school libraries; 'provided that no portion of the legislative school grant shall be applied in aid of any school in which any book is used that has been disapproved of by the Council, and public notice given of such disapproval.'

[Sidenote: Common schools.]

The system of public instruction in Upper Canada is engrafted upon the municipal institutions of the Province, to which an organisation very complete in its details, and admirably adapted to develop the resources, confirm the credit, and promote the moral and social interests of a young country, was imparted by an Act passed in 1849. The law by which the common schools are regulated was enacted in 1850, and it embraces all the modifications and improvements suggested by experience in the provisions of the several school Acts passed subsequently to 1841, when the important principle of granting money to each county on condition that an equal amount were raised within it by local assessment, was first introduced into the statute-book.

[Sidenote: Local superintendence.]

The development of individual self-reliance and local exertion, under the superintendence of a central authority exercising an influence almost exclusively moral, is the ruling principle of the system. Accordingly, it rests with the freeholders and householders of each school section to decide whether they will support their school by voluntary subscription, by rate bill for each pupil attending the school (which must not, however, exceed 1_s_. per month), or by rates on property. The trustees elected by the same freeholders and householders are required to determine the amount to be raised within their respective school sections for all school purposes whatsoever, to hire teachers from among persons holding legal certificates of qualification, and to agree with them as to salary. On the local superintendents appointed by the county councils is devolved the duty of apportioning the legislative grant among the school sections within the county, of inspecting the schools, and reporting upon them to the chief superintendent. The county boards of public instruction, composed of the local superintendent or superintendents, and the trustees of the county grammar school, examine candidates for the office of teacher, and give certificates of qualification which are valid for the county; the chief superintendent giving certificates to normal school pupils which are valid for the Province; while the chief superintendent, who holds his appointment from the Crown, aided in specified cases by the Council of Public Instruction, has under his especial charge the normal and model schools, besides exercising a general control over the whole system..

The question of religious instruction as connected with the common school system, presented even more than ordinary difficulty in a community where there is so much diversity of opinion on religious subjects, and where all denominations are in the eye of the law on a footing of entire equality. It is laid down as a fundamental principle, that as the common schools are not boarding but day schools, and as the pupils are under the care of their parents or guardians during the Sunday, and a considerable portion of each week day, it is not intended that the functions of the common school teacher should supersede those of the parent and pastor of the child. Accordingly, the law contents itself with providing on this head, 'that in any model or common school established under this act, no child shall be required to read or study in or from any religious book, or to join in any exercise of devotion or religion, which shall be objected to by his or her parents or guardians; provided always, that within this limitation pupils shall be allowed to receive such religious instruction as their parents or guardians shall desire, according to the general regulations which shall be provided according to law.' And it authorises under certain regulations the establishment of a separate school for Protestants or Roman Catholics, as the case may be, when the teacher of the common school is of the opposite persuasion.

Clergymen recognised by law, of whatever denomination, are made ex officio visitors of the schools in townships, cities, towns, or villages where they reside, or have pastoral charge. The chief superintendent. Dr. Ryerson, remarks on this head:

[Sidenote: The clergy.]

'The clergy of the county have access to each of its schools; and we know of no instance in which the school has been made the place of religious discord, but many instances, especially on occasions of quarterly public examinations, in which the school has witnessed the assemblage and friendly intercourse of clergy of various religious persuasions, and thus become the radiating centre of a spirit of Christian charity and potent cooperation in the primary work of a people's civilisation and happiness.'

He adds with reference to the subject generally, 'The more carefully the question of religion in connection with a system of common schools is examined, the more clearly, I think, it will appear, that it has been left where it properly belongs—with the local school municipalities, parents, and managers of schools; the Government protecting the right of each parent and child, but beyond this, and beyond the principles and duties of morality common to all classes, neither compelling nor prohibiting; recognising the duties of pastors and parents as well as of school trustees and teachers, and considering the united labours of all as constituting the system of education for the youth of the country.'

Lord Elgin himself had always shown a profound sense of the importance of thus making religion the groundwork of education. Speaking on occasion of the opening of a normal school, after noticing the zealous and wisely- directed exertions which had 'enabled Upper Canada to place itself in the van among the nations, in the great and important work of providing an efficient system of general education for the whole community' he proceeded:—

[Sidenote: What is education?]

And now let me ask this intelligent audience, who have so kindly listened to me up to this moment—let me ask them to consider, in all seriousness and earnestness, what that great work really is. I do not think that I shall be chargeable with exaggeration when I affirm, that it is the work of our day and generation; that it is the problem in our modern society which is most difficult of solution; that it is the ground upon which earnest and zealous men unhappily too often, and in too many countries meet, not to co-operate but to wrangle; while the poor and the ignorant multitudes around them are starving and perishing for lack of knowledge. Well, then, how has Upper Canada addressed herself to the execution of this great work? How has she sought to solve this problem—to overcome this difficulty? Sir, I understand from your statements—and I come to the same conclusion from my own investigation and observation—that it is the principle of our common school educational system, that its foundation is laid deep in the firm rock of our common Christianity. I understand, sir, that while the varying views and opinions of a mixed religious society are scrupulously respected, while every semblance of dictation is carefully avoided, it is desired, it is earnestly recommended, it is confidently expected and hoped, that every child who attends our common schools shall learn there that he is a being who has an interest in eternity as well as in time; that he has a Father, towards whom he stands in a closer and more affecting, and more endearing relationship than to any earthly father, and that Father is in heaven; that he has a hope, far transcending every earthly hope—a hope full of immortality—the hope, namely, that that Father's kingdom may come; that he has a duty which, like the sun in our celestial system, stands in the centre of his moral obligations, shedding upon them a hallowing light, which they in their turn reflect and absorb—the duty of striving to prove by his life and conversation the sincerity of his prayer, that that Father's will may be done upon earth as it is done in heaven. I understand, sir, that upon the broad and solid platform which is raised upon that good foundation, we invite the ministers of religion, of all denominations—the de facto spiritual guides of the people of the country—to take their stand along with us; that, so far from hampering or impeding them in the exercise of their sacred functions, we ask and we beg them to take the children—the lambs of the flock which are committed to their care—aside, and to lead them to those pastures and streams where they will find, as they believe, the food of life and the waters of consolation.

One more extract must be given from the despatch already quoted, because it illustrates a feature in his character, to which the subsequent course of his life gave such marked prominence—his generous and tender feeling of what was due to subject or inferior races; a sad feeling in this case, and but faintly supported by any hope of being able to do anything for their benefit.

[Sidenote: Aboriginal tribes.]

It is painful to turn from reviewing the progress of the European population and their descendants established in this portion of America, to contemplate the condition and prospects of the aboriginal tribes. It cannot, I fear, be affirmed with truth, that the difficult problem of reconciling the interests of an inferior and native race with those of an intrusive and superior one, has as yet been satisfactorily solved on this continent. In the United States, the course of proceeding generally followed in this matter has been that of compelling the Red man, through the influence of persuasion or force, to make way for the White, by retreating farther and farther into the wilderness; a mode of dealing with the case which necessarily entails the occasional adoption of harsh measures, and which ceases to be practicable when civilisation approaches the limits of the territory to be occupied. In Canada, the tribes have been permitted to dwell among the scenes of their early associations and traditions, on lands reserved from the advancing tide of White settlement, and set apart for their use. But this system, though more lenient in its operation than the other, is not unattended with difficulties of its own. The laws enacted for their protection, and in the absence of which they fall an easy prey to the more unscrupulous among their energetic neighbours, tend to keep them in a condition of perpetual pupillage, and the relation subsisting between them and the Government, which treats them, partly as independent peoples, and partly as infants under its guardianship, involves many anomalies and contradictions. Unless there be some reasonable ground for the hope that they will be eventually absorbed in the general population of the country, the Canadian system is probably destined in the long run to prove as disastrous to them as that of the United States. In 1846 and 1847 the attempt was first made to establish among them industrial boarding schools, in part supported by contributions from their own funds. If schools of this description be properly conducted, it may, I think, be expected that, among the youth trained at them, a certain proportion at least will be so far civilised, as to be capable of making their way in life without exceptional privileges or restraints. It would be, I am inclined to believe, expedient that any Indian, showing this capacity, should be permitted, after sufficient trial, to receive from the common property of the tribe of which he was a member (on the understanding of course that neither he nor his descendants had thenceforward any claim upon it), a sum equivalent to his interest in it, as a means to enable him to start in independent life. The process of transition from their present semi-barbarous condition could hardly fail to be promoted by a scheme of this description if it were judiciously carried out.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Relations with the United States.]

No sketch of a Governor's life in Canada would be complete which did not contain some account of his relations with the great neighbouring republic.

We have seen that, at the beginning of his government, Lord Elgin's cares were increased by threats, and more than threats, of interference on the part of 'sympathisers' from some of the American States; and that he looked upon the likelihood of lawless inroad, not to speak of the possibility of lawful war, as affording solid reason for England's maintaining a body of troops in the Colony. But it must not be supposed that his attitude towards the Government or people of the States was one of jealousy or hostility. The loyal friendliness of the Government in repressing the intemperate sympathies of certain of its citizens, he cordially acknowledged; and with the people he did his utmost to encourage the freest and friendliest intercourse, social and commercial, not only in order that the inhabitants of the two countries might provoke one another to increased activity in the good work of civilisation, but also that they might know and understand one another; and that he might have in the public opinion of the United States that intelligent support which he despaired of finding in England, owing to the strange ignorance and indifference which so unfortunately prevails there on all colonial subjects.

The following letters refer to some of the occasion on which mutual civilities were interchanged:

To Mr. Crampton, British Minister at Washington.

Montreal, May 21, 1849.

[Sidenote: their loyal conduct in 1849.]

I am much indebted to you for your letter of the 10th, conveying an intimation of the intentions of the American Government with reference to improper interference on the part of American citizens in Canadian affairs, which is so honourable to General Taylor and his cabinet. If I should receive any information leading me to believe that any such interference is contemplated, I shall not fail to communicate with you at once on the subject. My impression is, that there is not at present much to be apprehended on that score; for although there is unhappily considerable excitement and irritation in Canada, the subject in dispute[8] is not one which is likely to conciliate much sympathy among our neighbours. I do not, however, less highly appreciate the good feeling and cordiality evinced by the Executive Government of the United States.

* * * * *

To the Earl Grey

Toronto, June 14,1850.

[Sidenote: Mutual Courtesies.]

Our expedition to the Welland Canal went off admirably, the only drawback being that we attempted too much. Mr. Merritt, who planned the affair, gave it out that we were to pass through the canal, and to touch at Buffalo on our way from Lake Erie to the Falls of Niagara, in one day. On this hint the Buffalonians made preparations for our reception on the most magnificent scale…. As might have been expected, however, what with addresses, speeches, and mishaps of various kinds, such as are to be looked for in canal travelling on a large scale (for our party consisted of some three hundred), night overtook us before we reached Lake Erie, and Buffalo had to be given up. I very much regret this, as I fear the citizens were disappointed. Some of our party went there the next day, and were most hospitably received.

* * * * *

To the Earl Grey.

Toronto, August 16, 1850.

Our Session has closed with great éclat. On Thursday week our Buffalo friends, with other persons of distinction from different parts of the Union, arrived here, to the number of about two hundred. They were entertained that evening at a ball in the City Hall, which did great credit to the good taste and hospitality of the hosts. Next day there was a review in the forenoon and a fête at my house, which lasted from half-past four to twelve. I succeeded in enabling a party of five hundred to sit down together to dinner; and, what with a few speeches, fireworks, and dances, I believe I may say the citizens went away thoroughly pleased.[9] On Saturday, at noon, many of the party assisted at the prorogation.

These matters may seem trivial to you among the graver concerns of state; nevertheless, I am sanguine enough to hope that the courtesies which have passed this year between the Buffalonians and us will not be without their fruit. The bulk of those who came here from Buffalo, including the Mayor—a very able man and powerful speaker—are of the democratic party, and held some years ago very different views from those which they expressed on this visit. They found here the warmest and most cordial welcome from all, Her Majesty's representative not excepted. But they saw, I venture to say almost with certainty, nothing to lead them to suppose that the Canadians desire to change their political condition; on the contrary, the mention of Her Majesty's name evoked on all occasions the most unbounded enthusiasm; and there was every appearance of a kindly feeling towards the Governor General, which the Americans seemed not disinclined themselves to share.

'To render annexation by violence impossible, and by any other means as improbable as may be,' is, as I have often ventured to repeat, the polar star of my policy. In these matters, small as they may appear, I believe we have been steering by its light. Again, as respects ourselves. I trust that the effects of this Buffalonian visit will be very beneficial. I took occasion in my speeches, in a joking way which provoked nothing but laughter and good humour, to hint at some of the unreasonable traits in the conduct of my Canadian friends. I am sure that the Americans go home with very correct views as touching our politics, and with the best sentiments towards myself. It is of very great importance to me to have the aid of a sound public opinion from without, to help me through my difficulties here; and, as I utterly despair of receiving any such assistance from England (I allude not to the Government but to the public, which never looks at us except when roused by fear ignorantly to condemn), it is of incalculable importance that I should obtain this support from America.

[Sidenote: Boston Jubilee.]

In the autumn of 1851, the inhabitants of Boston held a Three Days' Jubilee, to celebrate the completion of various lines of communication, by railroad and steamship, destined to draw closer the bonds of union between Canada and the United States; and Lord Elgin gladly accepted an invitation to be present. Writing on September 26, 1851, he mentions having 'met there all the United States, President included;' and describes a 'dinner on the Boston Common for 3,500 persons, at which many good speeches were made, Everett's especially so.' He adds:—

Nothing certainly could be more cordial than the conduct of the Bostonians throughout; and there was a scrupulous avoidance of every topic that could wound British or Canadian susceptibilities.

To the general harmony and good feeling no one contributed more than Lord Elgin himself, by his general courtesy and affability, and especially by his speeches, full of the happiest mixture of playfulness and earnestness, of eloquence and sound sense, of ardent patriotism with broad international sympathies. 'It was worth something,' he wrote afterwards, 'to get the Queen of England as much cheered and lauded in New England as in any part of Old England;' and the reflection faithfully represents the spirit of expansive loyalty which characterised all his dealings with his neighbours of the States.

These qualities, added to the reputation of a wise and liberal Governor, won for him an unusual amount of regard from the American people. At a dinner given to him in London, during his short visit to England in the spring of 1854—a dinner at which the Colonial Secretaries of five different Governments, Lord Monteagle, Lord John Russell, Lord Grey, Sir J. Pakington, and the Duke of Newcastle met to do him honour—no one spoke more warmly or more discriminatingly in his praise than the American Minister, Mr. Buchanan.

[Sidenote: Speech of Mr. Buchanan.]

'Lord Elgin,' he said, 'has solved one of the most difficult problems of statesmanship. He has been able, successfully and satisfactorily, to administer, amidst many difficulties, a colonial government over a free people. This is an easy task where the commands of a despot are law to his obedient subjects; but not so in a colony where the people feel that they possess the rights and privileges of native-born Britons. Under his enlightened government Her Majesty's North American provinces have realised the blessings of a wise, prudent, and prosperous administration; and we of the neighbouring nation, though jealous of our rights, have reason to be abundantly satisfied with his just and friendly conduct towards ourselves. He has known how to reconcile his devotion to Her Majesty's service with a proper regard to the rights and interests of the kindred and neighbouring people. Would to Heaven we had such governors-general in all the European colonies in the vicinity of the United States!'

[Sidenote: Reciprocity Treaty.]

A signal proof of his popularity and influence in America was given a few months later, on the occasion already referred to, when he visited Washington for the purpose of negotiating the Reciprocity Treaty; and, chiefly by the effect of his personal presence, carried through, in a few weeks, a measure which had been in suspense for years.

In returning from this visit he was received with special honours at Portland, the terminus of the international railway which he had exerted himself so much to promote; and he used the opportunity not only to please and conciliate his entertainers, but also to impress them with the respect due to the Canadians, as a flourishing and progressive, above all as a loyal, people. Speaking of the alienation which had existed, a few years earlier, between the Provinces and the States, he said:[10]

[Sidenote: Speech at Portland.]

When I look back to the past, I find what tended in some degree to create this misunderstanding. In the first place, as I believe, the government of these provinces was conducted on erroneous principles, the rights of the people were somewhat restrained, and large numbers were prevented from exercising those privileges which belong to a free people. From this arose, very naturally, a discontent on the part of the people of the Provinces, with which the people of the States sympathised. Though this sympathy and this discontent was not always wise, it is not wonderful that it existed.

What have we now done to put an end to this? We have cut off the source of all this misunderstanding by granting to the people what they desired—the great principle of self-government. The inhabitants of Canada at this moment exercise an influence over their own destinies and government as complete as do the people of this country. This is the only cause of misunderstanding that ever existed; and this cannot arise when the circumstances which made them at variance have ceased to exist.

The good feeling which has been so fully established between the States and the Provinces has already justified itself by its works. In the British Provinces we have already had many evidences to prove your kindness towards us; and within the last seven years, more than in any previous seven years since the settlement of the two countries.

Let me ask you, who is the worse off for this display of good feeling and fraternal intercourse? Is it the Canadas? sir, as the representative of Her Majesty, permit me to say that the Canadians were never more loyal than at this moment. Standing here, on United States ground, beneath that flag under which we are proud to live, I repeat that no people was ever more loyal than are the Canadas to their Queen; and it is the purpose of the present Ministers of Her Majesty's Government to make the people of Canada so prosperous and happy, that other nations shall envy them their good fortune.

This was the last occasion of his addressing American citizens on their own soil; nor did the course of his after-life bring him often in contact with them. But the personal regard which he had won from them descended, some years later, as a valuable heritage to his brother, Sir Frederick, when appointed to the difficult post of Minister at Washington after the close of the American Civil War.[11]

[Sidenote: Parting from Canada.]

The parting of Lord Elgin from Canada was spread, so to speak, over several years; for though he did not finally quit its shores till the end of 1854, from 1851 onwards he was continually in expectation of being recalled; and, towards the end of 1853, he came to England, as we have already seen, on leave of absence. The numerous speeches made, and letters written on the occasion of these different leave-takings, contain ample proof how cordial was the feeling which had grown up between the Colony and its Governor. It may be enough to give here two specimens. The first is an extract from a farewell speech at Montreal, listened to with tears by a crowded audience in the very place where, a few years before, he had been so scandalously outraged and insulted.[12]

[Sidenote: Farewell to Montreal.]

For nearly eight years, at the command of our beloved Queen, I have filled this position among you, discharging its duties, often imperfectly, never carelessly, or with indifference. We are all of us aware that the period is rapidly approaching when I may expect to be required by the same gracious authority to resign into other, and I trust worthier, hands, the office of Governor-General, with the heavy burden of responsibility and care which attaches to it. It is fitting, therefore, that we should now speak to each other frankly and without reserve. Let me assure you, then, that the severance of the formal tie which binds us together will not cause my earnest desire for your welfare and advancement to abate. The extinction of an official relationship cannot quench the conviction that I have so long cherished, and by which I have been supported through many trials, that a brilliant future is in store for British North America; or diminish the interest with which I shall watch every event which tends to the fulfilment of this expectation. And again permit me to assure you, that when I leave you, be it sooner or later, I shall carry away no recollections of my sojourn among you except such as are of a pleasing character. I shall remember—and remember with gratitude—the cordial reception I met with at Montreal when I came a stranger among you, bearing with me for my sole recommendation the commission of our Sovereign. I shall remember those early months of my residence here, when I learnt in this beautiful neighbourhood to appreciate the charms of a bright Canadian winter day, and to take delight in the cheerful music of your sleigh bells. I shall remember one glorious afternoon— an afternoon in April—when, looking down from the hill at Monklands, on my return from transacting business in your city, I beheld that the vast plain stretching out before me, which I had always seen clothed in the white garb of winter, had assumed, on a sudden, and, as if by enchantment, the livery of spring; while your noble St. Lawrence, bursting through his icy fetters, had begun to sparkle in the sunshine, and to murmur his vernal hymn of thanksgiving to the bounteous Giver of light and heat. I shall remember my visits to your Mechanics' Institutes and Mercantile Library Associations, and the kind attention with which the advice which I tendered to your young men and citizens was received by them. I shall remember the undaunted courage with which the merchants of this city, while suffering under the pressure of a commercial crisis of almost unparalleled severity, urged forward that great work which was the first step towards placing Canada in her proper position in this age of railway progress. I shall remember the energy and patriotism which gathered together in this city specimens of Canadian industry, from all parts of the province, for the World's Fair, and which has been the means of rendering this magnificent conception of the illustrious Consort of our beloved Queen more serviceable to Canada than it has, perhaps, proved to any other of the countless communities which have been represented there. And I shall forget—but no—what I might have had to forget is forgotten already; and therefore I cannot tell you what I shall forget.

The remaining extract is from parting words, spoken after a ball which he gave at Quebec on the eve of his final departure in December, 1854.

[Sidenote: Farewell to Quebec.]

I wish I could address you in such strains as I have sometimes employed on similar occasions, strains suited to a festive meeting; but I confess I have a weight on my heart, and that it is not in me to be merry. For the last time I stand before you in the official character which I have borne for nearly eight years. For the last time I am surrounded by a circle of friends with whom I have spent some of the most pleasant days of my life. For the last time I welcome you as my guests to this charming residence which I have been in the habit of calling my home.[13] I did not, I will frankly confess it, know what it would cost me to break this habit, until the period of my departure approached; and I began to feel that the great interests which have so long engrossed my attention and thoughts, were passing out of my hands. I had a hint of what my feelings really were upon this point—a pretty broad hint too—one lovely morning in June last, when I returned to Quebec after my temporary absence in England, and landed in the Coves below Spencerwood (because it was Sunday, and I did not want to make a disturbance in the town), and when with the greetings of the old people in the Coves who put their heads out of the windows as I passed along, and cried 'Welcome home again,' still ringing in my ears, I mounted the hill and drove through the avenue to the house door. I saw the dropping trees on the lawn, with every one of which I was so familiar, clothed in the tenderest green of spring, and the river beyond, calm and transparent as a mirror, and the ships fixed and motionless as statues on its surface, and the whole landscape bathed in a flood of that bright Canadian sun which so seldom pierces our murky atmosphere on the other side of the Atlantic. I began to think that persons were to be envied who were not forced by the necessities of their position to quit these engrossing interests and lovely scenes, for the purpose of proceeding to distant lands, but who are able to remain among them until they pass to that quiet corner of the Garden of Mount Hermon, which juts into the river and commands a view of the city, the shipping, Point Levi, the Island of Orleans, and the range of Lawrentine; so that through the dim watches of that tranquil night, which precedes the dawning of the eternal day, the majestic citadel of Quebec, with its noble train of satellite hills, may seem to rest for ever on the sight, and the low murmur of the waters of St. Lawrence, with the hum of busy life on their surface, to fall ceaselessly on the ear. I cannot bring myself to believe that the future has in store for me any interests which will fill the place of those I am now abandoning. But although I must henceforward be to you as a stranger, although my official connection with you and your interests will have become in a few days matter of history, yet I trust that through some one channel or another, the tidings of your prosperity and progress may occasionally reach me; that I may hear from time to time of the steady growth and development of those principles of liberty and order, of manly independence in combination with respect for authority and law, of national life in harmony with British connection, which it has been my earnest endeavour, to the extent of my humble means of influence, to implant and to establish. I trust, too, that I shall hear that this house continues to be what I have ever sought to render it, a neutral territory, on which persons of opposite opinions, political and religious, may meet together in harmony and forget their differences for a season. And I have good hope that this will be the case for several reasons, and, among others, for one which I can barely allude to, for it might be an impertinence in me to dwell upon it. But I think that without any breach of delicacy or decorum I may venture to say that many years ago, when I was much younger than I am now, and when we stood towards each other in a relation somewhat different from that which has recently subsisted between us, I learned to look up to Sir Edmund Head with respect, as a gentleman of the highest character, the greatest ability, and the most varied accomplishments and attainments.[14] And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have only to add the sad word Farewell. I drink this bumper to the health of you all, collectively and individually. I trust that I may hope to leave behind me some who will look back with feelings of kindly recollection to the period of our intercourse; some with whom I have been on terms of immediate official connection, whose worth and talents I have had the best means of appreciating, and who could bear witness, at least, if they please to do so, to the spirit, intentions, and motives with which I have administered your affairs; some with whom I have been bound by the ties of personal regard. And if reciprocity be essential to enmity, then most assuredly I can leave behind me no enemies. I am aware that there must be persons in so large a society as this, who think that they have grievances to complain of, that due consideration has not in all cases been shown to them. Let them believe me, and they ought to believe me, for the testimony of a dying man is evidence, even in a court of justice, let them believe me, then, even I assure them, in this the last hour of my agony, that no such errors of omission or commission have been intentional on my part. Farewell, and God bless you.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: At home.]

The two years which followed Lord Elgin's return from Canada were a time of complete rest from official labour. For though, on the breaking up of Lord Aberdeen's Ministry in the spring of 1855, he was offered by Lord Palmerston the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster, with a seat in the Cabinet, he declined the offer, not on any ground of difference from the new Ministry, which he intended to support; but because, having only recently taken his seat in the House of Lords, after a long term of foreign service, during which he had necessarily held aloof from home politics, he thought it advisable, for the present at least, to remain independent. He found, however, ample and congenial occupation for his time in the peaceful but industrious discharge of home duties at Broomhall. Still his thoughts were constantly with the distant Provinces in which he had laboured so long.

Whenever he appeared in public, whether at a dinner given in his honour at Dunfermline, or on occasion of receiving the freedom of the city of Glasgow, or in delivering a lecture at the annual opening of the Edinburgh Philosophical Institute—it was with the same desire of turning to account the knowledge gained abroad, for the advantage of the Colonies, or of the mother-country, or for the mutual benefit of both; with the same hope of drawing closer the bonds of union between them, and dispelling something of that cloud of ignorance and indifference which has often made the public opinion of Great Britain a hindrance rather than a support to the best interests of her dependencies.

[Sidenote: In the House of Lords.]

It was only very rarely that he took any part in the business of legislation; and of the two occasions on which he was induced to break silence, one was when the interests of Canada appeared to him to be imperilled by the rumoured intention of Government to send thither large bodies of troops that had just returned from the Crimea. He thought it his duty to protest earnestly against any such proceeding, as likely, in the first place, to complicate the relations of Canada with the United States, and, in the second place, to arrest her progress in self-dependence.

[Sidenote: Crimean War.]

The other occasion of his speaking was in May 1855, when Lord Ellenborough had moved an Address to the Crown, condemnatory of the manner in which the Crimean War had been and was being conducted. Having been out of England when hostilities were begun, he had not to consider the question whether it was a glorious, or even a necessary, war in which we were engaged; and his one feeling on the subject was that which he had previously expressed to the citizens of Glasgow.

My opinion (he then said) [on the question of the war] I can easily state, and I have no hesitation in avowing it. I say that now we are in the war, we must fight it out like men. I don't say, throw away the scabbard; in the first place, because I dislike all violent metaphors; and, in the second place, because the scabbard is a very useful instrument, and the sooner we can use it the better. But I do say, having drawn the sword, don't sheathe it until the purpose for which it was drawn is accomplished.

In the same spirit he now defended the Ministry against Lord Ellenborough's attack; not on party grounds, which he took pains to repudiate, but on what he conceived to be the true patriotic principle—viz. to strengthen, at such a time, the hands of the existing Government, unless there be a distinct prospect of replacing it by a stronger.

After mentioning that he had not long before informed Lord Palmerston, that 'while he was resolved to maintain an independent position in Parliament, it was nevertheless his desire and intention, subject to that qualification and reserve, to support the Government,' he proceeded:

I formed this resolution not only because I had reason to believe that on questions of public policy my sentiments would generally be found to be in accordance with those of the present Government, nor yet only because I felt I owed to the noble Viscount himself, and many at least of his colleagues, a debt of obligation for the generous support they uniformly gave me at critical periods in the course of my foreign career; but also, and principally, because in the critical position in which this country was placed—at a time when we had only recently presented to the astonished eye of Europe the discreditable spectacle of a great country left for weeks without a Government, and a popular and estimable Monarch left without councillors, during a period of great national anxiety and peril; when there was hardly a household in England where the voice of wailing was not to be heard, or an eye which was not heavy with a tear—it appeared to me, I say, under such circumstances, to be the bounden duty of every patriotic man, who had not some very valid and substantial reason to assign for adopting a contrary course, to tender a frank and generous support to the Government of the Queen.

Having come to that determination, he had now to ask himself whether circumstances were so altered as to make it his duty to revoke the pledge spontaneously given? To this conclusion he could not bring himself.

It seems to me (he said) these Resolutions divide themselves naturally into two parts. The first part has reference to what I may call the general policy of the Government with respect to the war; and that portion of them is conceived in strains of eulogy and commendation—I may almost say in strains of exultation. The Resolutions speak of firm alliances, of brotherhood in arms, of a sympathetic and enthusiastic people; but not a word of regret for national friendships of old standing broken—desolation carried into thousands of happy homes—Europe in arms—Asia agitated and febrile—America sullenly expectant.

This exuberance of exultation, he said, was amply met by the exuberance of denunciation which characterises the latter part of the Address; but it was to his mind even less just than the former.

But even (he continued) if I could bring myself to believe, which I have failed in doing, that censure might be passed in the terms of these Resolutions upon Her Majesty's present Government without injustice, I should still be unwilling to concur in them, unless I could find some better security than either the Resolutions themselves afford, or, as I regret to be obliged to add, the antecedents and recorded sentiments of Noble Lords opposite afford, that by bringing about the change of administration which these Resolutions are intended to promote, I should be doing a benefit to the public service. My Lords, I cannot but think that at a time when it is most important that the Government of this country should have weight and influence abroad, frequent changes of administration are primâ facie most objectionable. I happened to be upon the Continent when the last change of Government in this country took place; and I must say it appeared to me, that a most painful impression was created in foreign states with respect to the instability of the administrative system of this country by these frequent changes of administration. I do think, indeed, that not the least of the many calamities which this war has brought upon us is the fact, that it has had a tendency in many quarters to throw discredit on that constitutional system of Government of which this country has hitherto been the type and the bright example among the nations.

After all, what is chiefly valuable to nations as well as to individuals, and the loss of which alone is irreparable, is character; and it appears to me that, viewed in this light, many of the other calamities which we have had to deplore during the course of this war have been already accompanied by a very large and ample measure of compensation. To take, for instance, the military departments: notwithstanding the complaints we have heard of deficiencies in our military organisation, I believe we can with confidence affirm, that the character of the British soldier, both for moral qualities and for powers of physical endurance, has been raised by the instrumentality of this war to an elevation which it had never before attained. In spite of the somewhat unfavourable tone which, I regret to say, has been adopted of late by a portion of the press of America, I have myself seen in influential journals in that country commentaries upon the conduct of our soldiers at Alma, at Balaklava, and at Inkerman, which no true-hearted Englishman could read without emotion: and I have heard a tribute not less generous and not less unqualified borne to the qualities of our troops by eminent persons belonging to that great military nation with which we are now so happily allied. To look to another quarter—to contemplate another class of virtues not less essential than those to which I have referred to the happiness and glory of nations—I have heard from enthusiastic, even bigoted, votaries of that branch of the Christian Church which sometimes prides itself as having alone retained in its system room for the exercise of the heroic virtues of Christianity,—I say I have frequently heard from them the frank admission, that the hospitals of Scutari have proved that the fairest and choicest flowers of Christian charity and devotion may come to perfection even in what they are pleased to call the arid soil of Protestantism. But, my Lords, can we flatter ourselves with the belief that the character of our statesmen, of our public men, and of our Parliamentary institutions has risen in a like proportion? Is it not, on the contrary, notorious that doubts have been created in quarters where such doubts never existed before as to the practical efficiency of our much-vaunted constitution, as to its fitness to carry us unscathed through periods of great difficulty and danger? I believe, my Lords, that there is one process only, but that a sure and certain process, by which these doubts may be removed. It is only necessary that public men, whether connected with the Government or with the Opposition, whether tied in the bonds of party or holding independent positions in Parliament, should evince the same indifference to small and personal motives, the same generous patriotism, the same disinterested devotion to duty, which have characterised the services of our soldiers in the field, and of the women of England at the sick-bed. And, my Lords, I cannot help asking in conclusion, if—which God forbid—it should unhappily be proved that, in those whom fortune, or birth, or royal or popular favour has placed in the van, these qualities are wanting, who shall dare to blame the press and the people of England, if they seek for them elsewhere?

From the tone of this speech it will be seen that Lord Elgin had not at this time joined either of the two parties in the State. He was, in truth, still feeling his way through the mazes of home politics to which he had been so long a stranger, and from which, as he himself somewhat regretfully observed, those ancient landmarks of party had been removed, 'which, if not a wholly sufficient guide, are yet some sort of direction to wanderers in the political wilderness.' While he was still thus engaged, events were happening at the other ends of the earth which were destined to divert into quite another channel the current of his life.

[1] Mac Mullen's History of Canada, p. 527.

[2] It Is a singular fact, as illustrating the tenacity and coherence of the Church of Rome, that while all Protestant endowments were thus indiscriminately swept away, no voice was raised against the retention, by the Roman Catholic clergy, of the vast possessions left to them by the old French capitulation.—Mac Mullen, p. 528.

[3] Despatch of December 18, 1854.

[4] Despatch of August 16,1853

[5] Despatch of December 18, 1854.

[6] Despatch of December 18,1854. The abolition was shortly afterwards, satisfactorily effected.

[7] Vide supra, p. 48.

[8] The Rebellion Losses Bill.

[9] Some years afterwards, when speaking of these festivities, the Mayor of Buffalo said: 'Never shall I forget the admiration elicited by Lord Elgin's beautiful speech on that occasion. Upon the American visitors (who, it must be confessed, do not look for the highest order of intellect in the appointees of the Crown) the effect was amusing. A sterling Yankee friend, while the Governor was speaking, sat by my side, who occasionally gave vent to his feelings as the speech progressed, each sentence increasing in beauty and eloquence, by such approving exclamations as "He's a glorious fellow! He ought to be on our side of the line! We would make him mayor of our city!" As some new burst of eloquence breaks from the speaker's lips, my worthy friend exclaims, "How magnificently he talks! Yes, by George, we'd make him governor—governor of the state!" As the noble Earl, by some brilliant hit, carries the assemblage with a full round of applause, "Ah!" cries my Yankee friend, with a hearty slap on my shoulder, "by Heaven, if he were on our side, we'd make him President—nothing less than President!"'

[10] The report of his words is obviously imperfect, but their substance is probably given with sufficient accuracy.

[11] The great abilities of Sir F. Bruce, and the nobility of his character, fitted him in a singular manner for this post. He died suddenly at Boston, on September 19, 1867, too early for extended fame, but not unrecognised as a public servant of rare value. The Times, which announced his death, after commenting on the calamitous fate by which, 'within a period of four years, the nation had lost the services of three members of one family, each endowed with eminent qualifications for the important work to which they severally devoted their lives,' proceeded thus with regard to the youngest of the three brothers. 'The country would have had much. reason to deplore the death of Sir Frederick Bruce whenever it had happened; but his loss is an especial misfortune at a time when, negotiations of the utmost intricacy and delicacy are pending with a Government which is not always disposed to approach Great Britain in a spirit of generosity and forbearance. Seldom has a citizen of another country visited the United States who possessed so keen an insight into the political working of the Great Republic, and at the same time ingratiated himself so thoroughly with every American who approached Him…. Although naturally somewhat impulsive in temperament, he invariable exhibited entire calmness and self-command when the circumstances of his position led him into trial…. This imperturbable temperament in all his official relations served him well on many occasions, from the day when he succeeded to the laborious duties relinquished by Lord Lyons; but never was it of greater advantage than in the protracted and difficult controversy concerning the Alabama claims. This discussion it fell to the lot of Sir F. Bruce to conduct on the part of Her Majesty; and we divulge no secret when we state that it was in accordance with the late Minister's repeated advice and exhortations that a wise overture towards a settlement was made by the present Government. He had succeeded in establishing for himself relations of cordial friendship with Mr. Seward and the President, and probably there are few outside the circle of his own family who will be more shocked at the tidings of his death than the astute and keen-eyed old man with whom he had sustained incessant diplomatic fence.'

[12] It certainly was not without truth, that one of the local papers most opposed to him remarked that 'Lord Elgin had, beyond all doubt, a remarkable faculty of turning enemies into friends.'

[13] Spencerwood, the Governor's private residence.

[14] Sir Edmund Head, who succeeded Lord Elgin as Governor-General of Canada in 1854, had examined him for a Merton Fellowship in 1833. Those who knew him will recognise how singularly appropriate, in their full force, are the terms in which he is here spoken of.

CHAPTER VII.

FIRST MISSION TO CHINA.—PRELIMINARIES.

ORIGIN OF THE MISSION—APPOINTMENT OF LORD ELGIN—MALTA—EGYPT—CEYLON— NEWS OF THE INDIAN MUTINY—PENANG—SINGAPORE—DIVERSION OF TROOPS TO INDIA —ON BOARD THE 'SHANNON'—HONG-KONG—CHANGE OF PLANS—CALCUTTA AND LORD CANNING—RETURN TO CHINA—PERPLEXITIES—CAPRICES OF CLIMATE—ARRIVAL OF BARON GROS—PREPARATION FOR ACTION.

'The earlier incidents of the political rupture with the Chinese Commissioner Yeh, which occurred at Canton during the autumn of 1856, and which led to the appointment of a Special Mission to China, were too thoroughly canvassed at the time to render it necessary to renew here any discussion on their merits, or recall at length their details. As the "Arrow" case derived its interest then from the debates to which it gave rise, and its effects on parties at home, rather than from any intrinsic value of its own, so does it now mainly owe its importance to the accidental circumstance, that it was the remote and insignificant cause which led to a total revolution in the foreign policy of the Celestial Empire, and to the demolition of most of those barriers which, while they were designed to restrict all intercourse from without, furnished the nations of the West with fruitful sources of quarrel and perpetual grievances.'

These words form the preface to the 'Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission to China and Japan,' by Laurence Oliphant, then private secretary to Lord Elgin. To that work we must refer our readers for a full and complete, as well as authentic, account of the occurrences which gave occasion to the following letters. A brief sketch only will here be given.

[Sidenote: Origin of the Mission.]

On October 8, 1856, a lorcha named 'Arrow,' registered as a British vessel, and carrying a British flag, was boarded by the authorities of Canton, the flag torn down, and the crew carried away as prisoners. Such was the English account. The Chinese denied that any flag was flying at the time of the capture: the British ownership of the vessel, they maintained, was never more than colourable, and had expired a month before: the crew were all their own subjects, apprehended on a charge of piracy.

The English authorities refused to listen to this. They insisted on a written apology for the insult to their flag, and the formal restitution of the captured sailors. And when these demands were refused, or incompletely fulfilled, they summoned the fleet, in the hope that a moderate amount of pressure would lead to the required concessions. Shortly after, finding arms in their hands, they thought it a good opportunity to enforce the fulfilment of certain 'long-evaded treaty obligations,' including the right for all foreign representatives of free access to the authorities and the city of Canton. With this view, fort after fort, suburb after suburb, was taken or demolished. But the Chinese, after their manner, would neither yield nor fight; and contented themselves with offering large rewards for the head of every Englishman.

When this state of matters was reported to England, it was brought before the House of Commons on a motion by Mr. Cobden, condemnatory of 'the violent measures resorted to at Canton in the late affair of the "Arrow."' The motion, supported by Mr. Gladstone in one of his splendid bursts of rhetoric, was carried against the Government by a majority of sixteen, in a full and excited house, on the morning of February 26, 1857. But Lord Palmerston refused to accept the adverse vote as expressing the will of the people. He appealed to the constituencies, candidly telling the House that, pending that appeal, 'there would be no change, and could be no change, in the policy of the Government with respect to events in China.' At the same time he intimated that a special Envoy would be sent out to supersede the local authorities, armed with full powers to settle the relations between England and China on a broad and solid basis.

[Sidenote: Appointment of Lord Elgin.]

But where was the man who, at a juncture so critical, in face of an adverse vote of the House of Commons, on the chance of its being rescinded by the country, could be trusted with so delicate a mission; who could be relied on, in the conduct of such an expedition against a foe alike stubborn and weak, to go far enough, and yet not too far—to carry his point, by diplomatic skill and force of character, with the least possible infringement of the laws of humanity; a man with the ability and resolution to insure success, and the native strength that can afford to be merciful? After 'anxious deliberation,' the choice of the Government fell upon Lord Elgin.

How, on the voyage to China, he was met half-way by the news of the Indian Mutiny; how promptly and magnanimously he took on himself the responsibility of sacrificing the success of his own expedition by diverting the troops from China to India; how, after many weary months of enforced inactivity, the expedition was resumed, and carried through numberless thwartings to a successful issue—these are matters of history with which every reader must be acquainted. But those who are most familiar with the events may find an interest in the following extracts from private letters, written at the time by the chief actor in the drama. They are taken almost exclusively from a Journal, in which his first thoughts and impressions on every passing occurrence were hurriedly noted down, from day to day, for transmission to Lady Elgin.

[Sidenote: Malta.]

H.M.S. 'Caradoc'—May 2nd.—I have just returned to my ship after spending a few hours on shore and visiting Lord Lyons in his magnificent Prince Albert…. How beautiful Malta is with its narrow streets, gorgeous churches, and impregnable fortifications. I landed at about six, and walked up to the Palace, and wrote my name in the Governor's book, who resides out of town. I then took a turn through the town, and went to the inn to breakfast….

[Sidenote: Chance meetings.]

By way of conversation with the waiter, I asked who were in the house: 'Only two families, one of them Lord Balgonie[1] and his sisters.' I saw the ladies first, and, at a later hour, their brother, in his bed. Poor fellow! the hand of death is only too visibly upon him. There he lay; his arm, absolutely fleshless, stretched out: his large eyes gleaming from his pale face. I could not dare to offer to his broken- hearted sisters a word of comfort. These poor girls! how I felt for them; alone! with their brother in such a state. They go to Marseilles by the next opportunity, probably by the packet which will convey to you this letter, and they hope that their mother will meet them there. What a tragedy! … I had been incog. at the hotel till Sir W. Reid[2] found me there. When the innkeeper learned who I was, he was in despair at my having been put into so small a room, and informed me that he was the son of an old servant at Broomhall, Hood by name, and that he had often played with me at cricket! How curious are these strange rencontres in life! They put me in mind of Heber's image, who says that we are like travellers journeying through a dense wood intersected by innumerable paths: we are constantly meeting in unexpected places, and plunging into the forest again!

[Sidenote: Alexandria.]

_Alexandria.—May 6th.—_I made up my letter last night, not knowing how short the time of my sojourn at Alexandria might be. But at about one in the morning I received a letter from Frederick,[3] telling me that the steamer due at Suez had not yet arrived, that an official reception was to be given me, and that I had better not land too early…. Notwithstanding which, washing decks, the morning gun, and a bright sun, broke my slumbers at an early hour, and I got up and dressed soon after daybreak. At about 6.30 A.M. a boat of the Pacha's, with a dignitary (who turned out to be a very gentleman-like Frenchman), arrived, and from him I learnt that the Governor of Alexandria, with a cortege of dignitaries and a carriage and four, was already at the shore awaiting my arrival; but Frederick did not come till about half-past nine, and it was nearly ten before I landed. I was then conducted by the authorities to the palace in which I am now writing, consisting of suites of very handsome rooms, and commanding a magnificent view of the sea. About a dozen attendants are loitering about and watching every movement, not curiously, but in order to supply any possible want. At this very moment a mild-looking Turk is peeping into my bed-room where I am writing this letter, and supposing that I may wish to be undisturbed, has drawn a red cloth portière across the open doorway. This palace, which is set apart for the reception of distinguished strangers, is situated in the Turkish quarter of the town, and all the houses around are inhabited by Mussulmans. The windows are all covered with latticed wooden shutters, through which the wretched women may, I suppose, peer as they do through the grating at the House of Commons, but which are at least as impermeable to the mortal eye from without. The streets are very empty, as it is the Ramadan, during which devout Turks fast and sleep throughout the day, and indemnify themselves by eating, drinking, and amusing themselves all night.

Cairo.—May 7th.—Most of yesterday afternoon was spent in drinking coffee and smoking long pipes, two ladies partaking of the latter enjoyment after dinner at Mr. Green's. One of them told me that she had dined with the Princess (the Pacha's wife) a few days ago. She went at seven and left at half-past twelve, and with the exception of a half hour of dinner, all the rest of the time was spent in smoking and drinking coffee. After dinner, the mother of the Pacha's only child came in and joined the party. She was treated with a certain consideration as being the mother of this child, although she was not given a pipe. The Princess seemed on very good terms with her. This child (a boy three years old) has an English nurse, and this nurse has persuaded the Pacha to allow her to take the child to England on a visit. The mother, who has picked up a little English from the nurse, said to Mrs. Green, 'I am very unhappy; young Pacha' (her boy) 'is going away.' The mother is no more thought of in this arrangement than I am. What a strange system it is!… We passed through the wonderful Delta to-day, and certainly the people looked more comfortable than those of Alexandria. The beasts too, camels, oxen, donkeys, showed signs of the fertility of the soil in their sleekness. What might not be made of this country if it were wisely guided!

[Sidenote: Crossing the Desert.]

Steamer 'Bentinck.'—Sunday, May 10th.—I write to you from the neighbourhood of Mount Sinai, which we passed at an early hour this morning, gliding through a sea of most transparent glass, with so little motion that there is hardly an excuse for bad writing…. I must, however, take you back to Cairo. We began to move at a very early hour, about three, on Saturday (yesterday) morning. We were actually in the railway carriages at half-past four. I was placed in a coupé before the engine, in order that I might see the road; and in this somewhat formidable position ran over about forty miles of the Desert in about an hour and a half. It is a wonderful sight this strange barren expanse of stone and gravel, with here and there a small encampment of railway labourers, after passing through the luxuriant Valley of the Nile, teeming with production and life, animal and vegetable. In the morning air there was a healthy freshness, which was very delightful. At the end of our hour and a half we reached the termination of the part of the railway which is already completed, and embarked in two-wheeled four-horse vans (such as you see in the Illustrated News), to pass over about five miles of trackless desert, lying between the said terminus and a station on the regular road across the Desert, at which we were to breakfast. This part of our journey was rough work, and took us some time to execute. Our station was really a very nice building; and while we were there a caravan of pilgrims to Mecca, some women in front and the men following, all mounted on their patient camels, passed by. After we were refreshed we started for Suez; and you will hardly believe me when I tell you, that we travelled forty-seven miles over the Desert in a carriage as capacious and commodious as a London town coach, in four hours and a half, including seven changes of horses and a stoppage of half an hour. In short, we got over the ground in about three hours and three-fourths. We had six horses to our carriage, and a swarthy Nubian, with a capital seat on horseback, rode by us all the way, occasionally reminding our horses that it was intended they should go at a gallop.

[Sidenote: Retrospect of Egypt.]
[Sidenote: Egyptian ladies.]

May 11th.—I am glad to have had two days in Egypt. It gave one an idea at least of that country; in some degree a painful one. I suppose that France and England, by their mutual jealousies, will be the means of perpetuating the abominations of the system under which that magnificent country is ruled. They say that the Pacha's revenue is about 4,000,000_l_., and his expenses about 2,000,000_l_.; so that he has about 2,000,000_l_. of pocket-money. Yet I suppose that the Fellahs, owing to their own industry, and the incomparable fertility of the country, are not badly off as compared with the peasantry elsewhere. We passed, at one of our stopping-places between Cairo and Suez, part of a Turkish regiment on their way to Jeddah. These men were dressed in a somewhat European costume, some of them with the Queen's medal on their breasts. There was a hareem, in a sort of omnibus, with them, containing the establishment of one of the officers. One of the ladies dropped her veil for a moment, and I saw rather a pretty face; almost the only Mahommedan female face I have seen since I have reached this continent. They are much more rigorous, it appears, with the ladies in Egypt than at Constantinople. There they wear a veil which is quite transparent and go about shopping: but in Egypt they seem to go very little out, and their veil completely hides everything but the eyes. In the palace which I visited near Cairo (and which the Pacha offered, if we had chosen to take it), I looked through some of the grated windows allowed in the hareems, and I suppose that it must require a good deal of practice to see comfortably out of them. It appears that the persons who ascend to the top of the minarets to call to prayer at the appointed hours are blind men, and that the blind are selected for this office, lest they should be able to look down into the hareems. That is certainly carrying caution very far.

[Sidenote: Aden.]

Steamship 'Bentinck,' off Socotra.—May 19th.—I left my last letter at Aden. We landed there at about four P.M., under a salute from an Indian man-of-war sloop and the fort, to which latter place I was conveyed in a carriage which the Governor sent for me. It was most fearfully hot. The hills are rugged and grand, but wholly barren; not a sign of vegetation, and the vertical rays of a tropical sun beating upon them. The whole place is comprised in a drive around the hills of some three or four miles, beyond which the inhabitants cannot stray without the risk of being seized by the Arabs. I cannot conceive a more dreary spot to dwell in, though the Governor assured me that the troops are healthy. He received me very civilly, and insisted that I should remain with him until the steamer sailed, which involved leaving his abode (the cantonment) at about half-past three in the morning. He took me to see some most extraordinary tanks which he has recently discovered, and which must have been constructed with great care and at great expense, at some remote period, in order to collect the rain-water which falls at rare intervals in torrents. These tanks are so constructed that the overflow of the upper one fills the lower, and in this way, when the fall is considerable, a great quantity can be gathered. They were all filled with rubbish, and it is very possible that there may be many besides these which have been already discovered, but when they are cleared out they are in perfect preservation. Some of them are of great capacity, and it is difficult to understand how they come to have been filled up so completely. The Governor told me that he had, a few months before, driven in his gig over the largest, which I went with him to see. At that time he had no idea of its existence.

[Sidenote: Gloomy prospects.]

May 22nd.—As each of these wearisome days passes, I cannot help being more and more determined that, in so far as it rests with me, this voyage shall not have been made for nothing. However, the issues are in higher hands.

Sunday, 24th.—We are now told we shall reach Ceylon in two days…. I have got dear Bruce's[4] large speaking eyes beside me while I am writing, and mine (ought I to confess it) are very dim, while all these thoughts of home crowd upon me. There is nothing congenial to me in my present life. I have no elasticity of spirits to keep up with the younger people around me. It may be better when the work begins; but I cannot be sanguine even as to that, for the more I read of the blue-books and papers with which I have been furnished, the more embarrassing the questions with which I have to deal appear.

[Sidenote: First news of the Indian Mutiny.]

It was at Ceylon that he caught the first ominous mutterings of the terrible storm which was about to burst over India, and which was destined so powerfully to affect his own expedition. The news of the first serious disturbance, the mutiny of a native Regiment at Meerut on the 11th of May, had just been brought by General Ashburnham, the commander of the expeditionary force, who had left Bombay a few hours after the startling tidings had been received through the telegraph. Lord Elgin's first feeling was that these disturbances in India furnished an additional reason for settling affairs in China with all possible speed, so as to be free to succour the Indian Government. It was only when fuller intelligence came from Lord Canning, with urgent entreaties for immediate help, that he determined, in consultation with General Ashburnham, who cordially entered into all his views on the subject, to sacrifice for the present the Chinese expedition, in order to pour into Calcutta all the troops that had been intended for Canton.

Galle, Ceylon.—May 26th.—This is a very charming place, so green that one almost forgets the heat. Ashburnham is here; we go on together to Singapore this evening. Bad news from India. I think that I may find in this news, if confirmed, a justification for pressing matters with vigour in China, and hastening the period at which I may hope to see you again.

Steamship 'Singapore.'—May 27th.—General Ashburnham brought with him a report of a most serious mutiny in the Bengal army. Perhaps he sees it in the worst light, because he has always (I remember his speaking to me on the subject at Balbirnie) predicted that something of the kind would occur; but, apart from his anticipations, the matter seems grave enough. The mutineers have murdered Europeans, seized the fort and treasure of Delhi; and proclaimed the son of the Great Mogul. There seems to be no adequate European force at hand to put them down, and the season is bad for operations by Europeans. Such is the sum and substance of this report, as conveyed by telegraph to Elphinstone, the evening before Ashburnham left Bombay. I was a good deal tempted to remain at Galle for a few hours, in order to await the arrival of the homeward-bound steamer from Calcutta, and to get further news; but, on reflection, I came to the conclusion, that the best course to take was to view this grave intelligence as an inducement to press on to China. I wrote officially to Clarendon to say, that if this intelligence was confirmed, it might have a tendency to lower our prestige in the East, and to increase the influence of the party opposed to reason in China; that this state of affairs might make it more than ever necessary that I should endeavour to bring matters in China to an issue at the earliest moment, so as to anticipate this mischief, and to place the regiments destined for China at the disposal of Government for service elsewhere.

May 29th.—We are now near the close of our voyage, and the serious work is about to begin. Up to this point I have heard nothing to throw any light upon my prospects. It is impossible to read the blue-books without feeling that we have often acted towards the Chinese in a manner which it is very difficult to justify; and yet their treachery and cruelty come out so strongly at times as to make almost anything appear justifiable.

[Sidenote: Penang.]
[Sidenote: Bishop of Labuan.]
[Sidenote: Character of Chinese.]

Penang.—June 1st.—We have just returned to our vessel after a few hours spent on shore; or, rather, I have just emerged from a bath in which I have been reclining for half an hour, endeavouring to cool myself after a hot morning's work. We made this place at about eleven last night, running into the harbour by the assistance of a bright moon. The water was perfectly smooth, and I stood on the paddle-box for some hours, watching the distant hills as they rose into sight and faded from our view, and the bright phosphorescent light of the sea cut by our prow, and which, despite the clearness of the night, was sometimes almost too brilliant to be gazed at. When we dropped our anchor, the captain still professed to doubt whether or not he would have to proceed immediately; but he gave me to understand that, if he could not accomplish this, he would not wish to leave until twelve to- day, so that I should in that case have an opportunity of landing and ascending the mountain summit. On this hint I had a bed prepared on deck (fearing the heat of the cabins), and tried, though rather in vain, to take a few hours' sleep. At five A.M. I was told that the Resident, Mr. Lewis, was on board, that carriages and horses were ready, and that, if I wished to mount the hill, the time had arrived for the operation. I immediately made a hasty toilette, and set forth accompanied by the General, some of the others following. We were conveyed in a carriage three miles, to the foot of the hill, and on pony-back as much more up it, through a dense tropical vegetation which reminded me of my Jamaica days. At the end of the ride we arrived at the Government bungalow, and found one of the most magnificent views I ever witnessed; in the foreground this tropical luxuriance, and beyond, far below, the glistening sea studded with ships and boats innumerable, over which again the Malay peninsula with its varied outline. I had hardly begun to admire the scene, when a gentleman in a blue flannel sort of dress, with a roughish beard and a cigar in his mouth, made his appearance, and was presented to me as the Bishop of Labuan! He was there endeavouring to recruit his health, which has suffered a good deal. He complained of the damp of the climate, while admitting its many charms, and seemed to think that he owed to the dampness a very bad cold by which he was afflicted. Soon afterwards his wife joined us. They were both at Sarawak when the last troubles took place, and must have had a bad time of it. The Chinese behaved well to them; indeed they seemed desirous to make the Bishop their leader. His converts (about fifty) were stanch, and he has a school at which about the same number of Chinese boys are educated. These facts pleaded in his favour, and it says something for the Chinese that they were not insensible to these claims. They committed some cruel acts, but they certainly might have committed more. They respected the women except one (Mrs. C., whom they wounded severely), and they stuck by the Bishop until they found that he was trying to bring Brooke back. They then turned upon him, and he had to run for his life. The Bishop gave me an interesting description of his school of Chinese boys. He says they are much more like English boys than other Orientals: that when a new boy comes they generally get up a fight, and let him earn his place by his prowess. But there is no managing them without pretty severe punishments. Indeed, he says that if a boy be in fault the others do not at all like his not being well punished; they seem to think that it is an injustice to the rest if this is omitted. I am about to do with a strange people; so much to admire in them, and yet with a perversity of disposition which makes it absolutely necessary, if you are to live with them at all, to treat them severely, sometimes almost cruelly. They have such an overweening esteem for themselves, that they become unbearable unless they are constantly reminded that others are as good as they…. The Bishop seemed to think that it would be a very good thing if the Rajah were to go home for a time, and leave the government to his nephew, whom he praises much…. When we came down from the mountain we went to the house of the Resident on the shore, and there I found all the world of Penang assembled to meet me; among them a quantity of Chinese in full mandarin costume. It was not easy, under the circumstances, to make conversation for them, but it was impossible not to be pleased with their good-humoured faces, on which there rests a perpetual grin. We had a grand 'spread,' in which fresh fish, mangosteen, and a horrible fruit whose name I forget (dorian), but whose smell I shall ever remember, played a conspicuous part. After breakfast we returned to our ship to be broiled for about an hour, then to bathe, and now (after that I have inserted these words in my journal to you) to finish dressing.

[Sidenote: Singapore.]

June 3rd.—Just arrived at Singapore. Urgent letters from Canning to send him troops. I have not a man. 'Shannon' not arrived.

Singapore.—June 5th.—I am on land, which is at any rate one thing gained. But I am only about eighty miles from the equator, and about two hundred feet above the level of the sea. The Java wind, too, is blowing, which is the hot wind in these quarters, so that you may imagine what is the condition of my pores. I sent my last letter immediately after landing, and had little time to add a word from land, as I found a press of business, and a necessity for writing to Clarendon by the mail; the fact being, that I received letters from Canning, imploring me to send troops to him from the number destined for China. As we have no troops yet, and do not well know when we may have any, it was not exactly an easy matter to comply with this request. However, I did what I could, and, in concert with the General, have sent instructions far and wide to turn the transports back, and give Canning the benefit of the troops for the moment.

[Sidenote: Diversion of troops to India.]

The importance of the determination, thus simply announced, can hardly be exaggerated. 'Tell Lord Elgin,' wrote Sir William Peel, the heroic leader of the celebrated Naval Brigade, after the neck of the rebellion was broken, 'tell Lord Elgin that it was the Chinese Expedition that relieved Lucknow, relieved Cawnpore, and fought the battle of the 6th December.' Nor would it be easy to praise too highly the large and patriotic spirit which moved the heads of the Expedition to an act involving at once so generous a renunciation of all selfish hopes and prospects, and so bold an assumption of responsibility. Proofs were not wanting afterwards that the sacrifice was appreciated by the Queen and the country; but these were necessarily deferred, and it was all the more gratifying, therefore, to Lord Elgin to receive, at the time and on the spot, the following cordial expressions of approval from a distinguished public servant, with whom he was himself but slightly acquainted—Sir H. Ward, then Governor of Ceylon:—

"You may think me impertinent in volunteering an opinion upon what in the first instance only concerns you and the Queen and Lord Canning. But having seen something of public life during a great part of my own, which is now fast verging into the "sere and yellow leaf," I may venture to say that I never knew a nobler thing than that which you have done in preferring the safety of India to the success of your Chinese negotiations. If I know anything of English public opinion, this single act will place you higher, in general estimation as a statesman, than your whole past career, honourable and fortunate as it has been. For it is not every man who would venture to alter the destination of a force upon the despatch of which a Parliament has been dissolved, and a Government might have been superseded. It is not every man who would consign himself for many months to political inaction in order simply to serve the interests of his country. You have set a bright example at a moment of darkness and calamity; and, if India can be saved, it is to you that we shall owe its redemption, for nothing short of the Chinese expedition could have supplied the means of holding our ground until further reinforcements are received."

For the time the disappointment was great. His occupation was gone, and with it all hope of a speedy end to his labours. Six weary months he waited, powerless to act and therefore powerless to negotiate, and feeling that every week's delay tended to aggravate the difficulties of the situation in China.

Singapore.—June 5th.—It is, of course, difficult to conjecture how this Indian business may affect us in China, and I shall await our next news from India with no little anxiety. Await it, I say, for there is no prospect of my getting on from here at present. There is no word of the 'Shannon' and till she arrives I am a fixture.

[Sidenote: Convict establishment.]

June 6th.—This morning the Governor took me on foot to the convict establishment, at which some 2,500 murderers, &c., from India are confined, and some fifty women, who are generally, after about two years of penal servitude, let out on condition that they consent to marry convicts. I cannot say that their appearance made me envy the convicts much, although some of them were perhaps better-looking than the women one meets out of the prison. In truth, one meets very few women at all, and those that sees are far from attractive. Au reste, the convicts go about apparently very little guarded, with a chain round the waist and each leg. The church, which we afterwards visited, is rather an imposing edifice, and is being built by convict labour, at the cost of the Indian Government.

[Sidenote: Opium-shops.]

June 8th.—This morning I visited, in my walk, some of the horrid opium-shops, which we are supposed to do so much to encourage. They are wretched dark places, with little lamps, in which the smokers light their pipes, glimmering on the shelves made of boards, on which they recline and puff until they fall asleep. The opium looks like treacle, and the smokers are haggard and stupefied, except at the moment of inhaling, when an unnatural brightness sparkles from their eyes. After escaping from these horrid dens, I went to visit a Chinese merchant who lives in a very good house, and is a man of considerable wealth. He speaks English, and never was in China, having been born in Malacca. I had tea, and was introduced to his mother, wife, and two boys and two girls. He intends to send one of his sons to England for education. He denounces opium and the other vices of his countrymen, and their secret societies. All the well-to-do Chinese agree in this, but they have not moral courage to come out against them. Indeed, I suppose they could hardly do so without great risk…. Alas! still no sign of the 'Shannon.'

[Sidenote: Captain Peel.]
[Sidenote: Ignorance of the Chinese language.]

June 11th.—At half-past four this morning the 'Shannon' arrived. Captain Peel came up to breakfast. He has made a quick passage, as he came almost all the way under canvas: such were his orders from the Admiralty. He says that his ship is the fastest sailer he has ever been on board of; that he has the best set of officers; in short, all is very cheery with him. I told him I should not start till after the arrival of the steamer from England, and he requires that time to get ready, as it appears that he had only twelve hours' notice that he was to take me when he left England. On Tuesday, at noon, the Chinese arrived with an address to me. I had a reply prepared, which was translated into Malay, and read by a native. It is a most extraordinary circumstance that, in this place, where there are some 60,000 or 70,000 Chinese, and where the Europeans are always imagining that they are plotting, &c., there is not a single European who can speak their language. No doubt this is a great source of misunderstanding. The last row, which did not end in a massacre, but which might have done so, originated in the receipt of certain police regulations from Calcutta. These regulations were ill translated, and published after Christmas Day. The Chinese, believing that they authorised the police to enter their houses at all periods, to interfere with their amusements at the New Year, &c., shut up their shops, which is their constitutional mode of expressing dissatisfaction. It was immediately inferred in certain quarters that the Chinese intended, out of sympathy with the Cantonese, to murder all the Europeans. Luckily the Governor thought it advisable to explain to them what the obnoxious ordinances really meant before proceeding to exterminate them, and a few hours of explanation had the effect of inducing them to re-open their shops, and go on quietly with their usual avocations. Just the same thing happened at Penang. There too, because the Chinamen showed some disinclination to obey regulations of police which interfered with their amusements and habits, a plot against the Europeans was immediately suspected, and great indignation expressed because it was not put down with vigour!

[Sidenote: The Sultan of Johore.]
[Sidenote: Frères Chrétiens.]
[Sidenote: Soeurs.]

June 13th.—I have just been interrupted to go and see the Sultan of Johore. These princes in this country, and indeed all over the East, are spoilt from their childhood, all their passions indulged and fostered by their parents, who say, 'What is the use of being a prince, if he may not have more ghee, etc. etc. than his neighbours?' I do not see what can be done for them. At the school I visited this morning are two sultan's sons (of Queddah), but they were at home for some holidays, when they will probably be ruined. During my morning's walk I heard something like the sound of a school in a house adjoining, and I proposed to enter and inspect. I found an establishment of Frères chrétiens, and one of them (an Irishman) claimed acquaintance, as having been with Bishop Phelan when he visited me in Canada. We struck up a friendship accordingly, and I told him that if there were any Soeurs I should like to see them. He introduced me to the Vicar Apostolic, a Frenchman, and we went to the establishment of the Soeurs. I found the Supérieure a very superior person, evidently with her heart in the work, and ready for any fate to which it might expose her, but quiet and cheerful. I told her that a devout lady in Paris had expressed a fear that my mission to China would put an end to martyrdom in that country. She smiled, and said that she thought there would always be on this earth martyrdom in abundance. The Sisters educate a number of orphan girls as well as others. All the missionary zeal in these quarters seems to be among the French priests. Some one once said that it was not wonderful that young men took away so much learning from Oxford as they left so little behind them. The same may, I think, be said of the French religion. It seems all intended for exportation.

[Sidenote: View from Singapore.]

June 15th.—I see from my window that a French steamer has just come into the harbour and dropped her anchor. This reminds me that I have not yet told you what I see from this window—if I may apply the term window to a row of Venetian blinds running all round the house or bungalow, for this residence is not dignified by the title 'house.' I am on an eminence about 200 feet above the sea; immediately below me the town; on one side a number of houses with dark red roofs, surrounded with trees, looking very like a flower-garden, and confirming me in my opinion of the beauty of such roofs when so situated; on the other, the same red-roofed houses without trees, which makes all the difference. Beyond, the harbour, or rather anchorage, filled with ships, the mighty 'Shannon' in the centre—a triton among the minnows. Beyond, again, a wide opening to the sea, with lowish shores, rocky, and covered with wood, running out on either side. Such is the prospect ever before me, a very fine one during the day, still more interesting at night when it all sparkles with lights, and the great tropical moon looks calmly down on the whole.

[Sidenote: On board the 'Shannon.']

H.M.S. 'Shannon.'—June 24th.—I daresay you will consider me an object of envy when I describe to you where I am,—on board of a magnificent ship-of-war, carrying sixty 68-pounders, our foremast and mainmast sails set, and gliding through the water with just motion enough to tell us that the pulse of the great sea is beating. The temperature of the air is high, but the day is somewhat cloudy, and the sails throw a shadow on the deck. The only thing I regret is, that having no poop, the high bulwarks close us in and shut out both the air and prospect. One can only get these by climbing up on a sort of standing-place on the side…. Our departure from Singapore was very striking…. Not only were all the troops and volunteers under arms, with Chinamen and merchants in crowds, but (may I mention it) the fair ladies of Singapore were drawn up in a row to give us a parting salute. We moved off in our boats, under a salute from the battery, which was repeated by the 'Spartan' as I passed her, and by the 'Shannon' when I got on board, both these vessels manning yards. The French admiral honoured me also with a salute as I passed him after getting under weigh, although the sun had already set.

July 1st.—Another month begun. Last night, at dinner, we were startled by hearing that we seemed to be running on a rock or shoal, where no rock or shoal was known to exist. We backed our screw, and finally went over the alarming spot, and on sounding found no bottom. The sea was discoloured, but whether it was by the spawn of fish or sea-weed we could not discover. Peel took up water in a bucket, but could discover nothing. If we had not been a screw, and had had nothing but sails to rely on, we should have kept clear of this apparent danger, and the result would have been that a shoal would have been marked on the charts, where, in point of fact, no shoal exists. Captain Keppel's adventure makes captains cautious.

[Sidenote: Arrival at Hongkong.]

Hong-Kong.—July 3rd.—I am headachy and fagged, for I have had some hours of the most fatiguing of all things—a succession of interviews, beginning with the Admiral, General, &c,… I found the Admiral strong on the point that Canton is the only place where we ought to fight…. However, I hope we may get off to the North in about ten days,—as soon as we have sent off these letters, and got (as we ought) two mails from home.

July 9th.—An interval … during which I have been doing a good many things, my greatest enjoyment and pleasure being the receipt at last of two sets of letters from home…. I have a great heap of despatches, some of which seem rather likely to perplex me. I daresay, however, that I shall see my way through the mist in a day or two…. I had a levee last evening, which was largely attended. The course which I am about to follow does not square with the views of the merchants, but I gave an answer to their address, which gave them for the moment wonderful satisfaction…. A document, taken in one of the Chinese junks lately captured, states that 'Devils' heads are fallen in price,'—an announcement not strictly complimentary, but reassuring to you as regards our safety.

[Sidenote: Change of plans.]

Up to this time Lord Elgin had not entirely given up the hope that the troops which he had detached to Calcutta might be restored to him before the setting in of winter should make it impossible to proceed, as his instructions required, to the mouth of the Peiho, and there open negotiations with the Court of Pekin. But on the 14th of July came letters from Lord Canning, written in a strain of deeper anxiety than any that had preceded; and giving no hope that any troops could be spared from India for many months to come. At the same time Lord Elgin learned that the French, on whose co-operation he counted, could not act until the arrival of the chief of the mission, Baron Gros, who was not expected to reach China till the end of September. In this state of things, to remain at Hong-Kong was worse than useless. The sight of his inaction, and the knowledge of the reasons which enforced it, could not fail to damage the position of England with the public of China, both Chinese and foreign. He formed, therefore, the sudden resolution to proceed in person to Calcutta, where he would be within easier reach of telegraphic instructions from England; where he would have the advantage of personal communication with Lord Canning, and of learning for himself at what time he might expect to have any troops at his command; and where, moreover, his appearance might have a moral effect in support of the Government greater than the amount of any material force at his disposal.

[Sidenote: Sails for Calcutta.]

H. M. S 'Shannon'—July 19th.—I wonder what you will think when you receive this letter; that is, if I succeed in despatching it from the point where I wish to post it. Will you think me mad? or what will your view of my proceedings be?… Here I am actually on my way to Calcutta! To Calcutta! you will exclaim in surprise. The reasons for this step are so numerous, that I can hardly attempt to enumerate them. I found myself at Hong-kong, without troops and without competent representatives of our allies (America and France) to concert with; doomed either to aborder the Court of Pekin alone, without the power of acting vigorously if I met a repulse, or to spend three months at Hong-kong doing nothing, and proclaiming to the whole world that I am waiting for the Frenchman; i.e. that England can do nothing without France. I considered the great objections which existed to either of these courses. Sur ces entrefaites, came further letters from Canning, begging for more help from me, and showing that things are even worse with him than they were when I first heard from him. It occurred to me that I might occupy the three months well in running up to Calcutta, taking with me what assistance I can collect for him and obtaining thereby an opportunity of conferring with him, and learning from him what chance I have of getting before the winter the troops which I have detached to his support. Sir M. Seymour approved the plan warmly. It occurred to me on Tuesday evening, and on Thursday I was under weigh. Alas! l'homme propose, mais Dieu dispose! The monsoon is against us, and as this ship is practically useless as a steamer, as she can only carry coals for five days, we are beating against the wind, and making little progress. Perhaps my whole plans may fail, because I have the misfortune to be in one of H.M.'s ships instead of in a good merchant steamer, which would be going at ten miles an hour in a direct line, while we are going at six in an oblique one. However, we must hope for the best.

Whether we are to have peace or war with China, either object will be much more effectually accomplished, when the European forces are acting together, than when we are alone; the Russians meanwhile, no doubt, hinting to the Emperor that we are in a bad way in India. The plan, then, if we can accomplish it, is this: To run up as fast as I can to Calcutta, and to return so as to meet Baron Gros, who is not expected till the middle of September. There will just be time to communicate with the Court of Pekin before winter. I have mentioned the reasons for these proceedings, derived from my own position; but, of course, I am mainly influenced by a consideration for Canning. In both his letters he has expressed a desire to see me, and I am told that my appearance there with what the Indian public will consider the first of a large force, will produce a powerful moral effect. I ought to be there at least two months before he can receive a man from England.

[Sidenote: Birthday.]

July 20th.[5]—Would that I were at home to-day! You say that I do not appreciate anniversaries, but it is chiefly because it is so sad when the days come when they cannot be celebrated as of yore. 'Nessun maggior dolore.' Do not anniversaries stir this great fountain of sadness? I feel sad when I look at this inhospitable sea, and think of the smiling countenances with which I should have been surrounded at home, and the joyous laugh when papa, with affected surprise, detected the present wrapped up carefully in a paper parcel on the breakfast table. Is it not lawful to be sad?

July 25th.—The consequences of being at so great a distance from head-quarters are very singular, e.g. in this case I shall not hear whether the Government approve or not of this move of mine until it has become matter of history; until, in all probability, I have carried out my plan of visiting the Peiho with the French Ambassador. It certainly contrasts very strongly with the position of a diplomatic functionary in Europe now, when reference is made by telegraph to headquarters in every case of difficulty…. This seems a very solitary sea. We have passed in all, I think, two ships. This morning once or twice we have met a log floating with one or two birds standing upon it. Yesterday great excitement was created by the discovery of a cask floating on the surface of the sea. Telescopes were braqués from every part of the ship upon this unhappy cask, which went bobbing up and down, very unconscious of the sensation it was creating. This incident will convey to you an idea of how monotonous our life is.

July 27th.—At about four yesterday another excitement, greater than that created by the floating cask. Peel informed me that there was a steamer in sight, coming towards us. Many were the speculations as to what she could be. It was generally agreed that she was the 'Transit,' as she was due about this time. As we neared her, however, she dwindled in size, and proved a rather dirty-looking merchant-craft with an auxiliary screw. On asking whence she came, she informed us that she was from Calcutta, and that she had a letter for me. It proved to be from Canning, in no respect more encouraging than his former letters, and therefore, in so far, confirmatory of the propriety of my present move.

July 31st.—En route for Calcutta. We reached Singapore on the 28th, at about two P.M. I landed and went to my old quarters at the Governor's. I found it deliciously cool, much more so than it was during my former visit…. My friends at Singapore were very cordial in their welcome of me, and the merchants immediately drew up an address expressive of their satisfaction at my move on Calcutta. We have taken on board 100 men of the detachment of the 90th which was on board the 'Transit,' and put the remainder into the 'Pearl,' so that we are crammed to the hilt. Please God we may reach Calcutta in about a week or less, and then a new chapter begins. Just as we were starting yesterday, an opium-ship from Calcutta arrived, and brought me a letter and despatch from Canning, more urgent and gloomy than any of the preceding ones. The 'Simoom' and 'Himalaya' had both arrived, but he was clamorous for more help, and broadly tells me that I must not expect to get any of my men back. So here I am deprived of the force on which I was to rely in China!… Canning's letter is dated the 21st, and therefore contains the latest intelligence. Nothing can be worse. I am happy to say that I have already sent to him even more than he has asked…. I trust that I may do some good, but of course things are so bad that one fears that it may be too late to hope that any great moral effect can be produced by one's arrival. However, I have with me about 1,700 fighting men, and perhaps we may have more, if we find a transport in the Straits, and take it in tow.

[Sidenote: Arrival at Calcutta.]

On the 8th August the 'Shannon' reached Calcutta. Her arrival is thus described by Mr. Oliphant[6]:—

'As we swept past Garden Reach, on the afternoon of the 8th August, the excitement on board was increased by early indications of the satisfaction with which our appearance was hailed on shore. First our stately ship suddenly burst upon the astonished gaze of two European gentlemen taking their evening walk, who, seeing her crowded with the eager faces of men ready for the fray, took off their hats and cheered wildly; then the respectable skipper of a merchant-man worked himself into a state of frenzy, and made us a long speech, which we could not hear, but the violence of his gesticulations left us in little doubt as to its import; then his crew took up the cheer, which was passed on at intervals until the thunder of our 68-pounders drowned every other sound; shattered the windows of sundry of the 'palaces;' attracted a crowd of spectators to the Maidan, and brought the contents of Fort William on to the glacis.

'As soon as the smoke cleared away, the soldiers of the garrison collected there sent up a series of hearty cheers; a moment more and our men were clustered like ants upon the rigging, and, in the energy which they threw into their ringing response, they pledged themselves to the achievement of those deeds of valour which have since covered the Naval Brigade with glory. After the fort had saluted, Lord Elgin landed amid the cheers of the crowd assembled at the ghaut to receive him, and proceeded to Government House, gratified to learn, not merely from the popular demonstrations, but from Lord Canning himself, that though happily the physical force he had brought with him was not required to act in defence of the city, still that the presence of a man of war larger than any former ship that ever anchored abreast of the Maidan, and whose guns commanded the city, was calculated to produce upon both the European and native population a most wholesome moral effect, more especially at a time when the near approach of the Mohurrum had created in men's minds an unusual degree of apprehension and excitement.'

Speaking afterwards of this scene, Lord Elgin himself said, 'I shall never forget to my dying day—for the hour was a dark one, and there was hardly a countenance in Calcutta, save that of the Governor-General, Lord Canning, which was not blanched with fear—I shall never forget the cheers with which the "Shannon" was received as she sailed up the river, pouring forth her salute from those 68-pounders which the gallant and lamented Sir William Peel sent up to Allahabad, and from those 24-pounders which, according to Lord Clyde, made way across the country in a manner never before witnessed.'

[Sidenote: Peel's naval brigade.]
[Sidenote: Lord Canning.]

Calcutta.—August 11th.—Here I am, writing to you from the Governor-General's palace at Calcutta! Altogether it is one of the strangest of the péripéties of my life…. I think my visit has entirely answered as regards the interests of India. I have every reason to believe that it has had an excellent effect here. I have agreed to give up the 'Shannon,' in order that Peel and his men may be formed into a naval brigade, and march with some of their great guns on Delhi. Peel, for this work, is, I believe, the right man in the right place, and I expect great things from him. He is delighted, and Canning and Sir P. Grant have signified in strong terms their appreciation of the sacrifice I am making, and the service I am rendering. They are in great want of artillery, and no such guns as those of the 'Shannon' are in their possession. The vessel itself, with a small crew, will remain in the river opposite Calcutta, able, if need were, to knock all the city to bits. I shall get a steamer for myself, probably one of the Peninsular and Oriental Company's, to convey me to Hong-kong, and to remain with me till I am better suited. Canning is very amiable, but I do not see much of him. He is at work from five or six in the morning till dinner-time. No human being can, in a climate like this, and in a situation which has so few délassements as that of Governor-General, work so constantly without impairing the energy both of mind and body, after a time…. Neither he nor Lady C. are so much oppressed by the difficulties in which they find themselves as might have been expected.

[Sidenote: Treatment of inferior races.]

August 21st.—It is a terrible business, however, this living among inferior races. I have seldom from man or woman since I came to the East heard a sentence which was reconcilable with the hypothesis that Christianity had ever come into the world. Detestation, contempt, ferocity, vengeance, whether Chinamen or Indians be the object. There are some three or four hundred servants in this house. When one first passes by their salaaming one feels a little awkward. But the feeling soon wears off, and one moves among them with perfect indifference, treating them, not as dogs, because in that case one would whistle to them and pat them, but as machines with which one can have no communion or sympathy. Of course those who can speak the language are somewhat more en rapport with the natives, but very slightly so, I take it. When the passions of fear and hatred are engrafted on this indifference, the result is frightful; an absolute callousness as to the sufferings of the objects of those passions, which must be witnessed to be understood and believed.

August 22nd. —— tells me that yesterday, at dinner, the fact that Government had removed some commissioners who, not content with hanging all the rebels they could lay their hands on, had been insulting them by destroying their caste, telling them that after death they should be cast to the dogs, to be devoured, &c., was mentioned. A rev gentleman could not understand the conduct of Government; could not see that there was any impropriety in torturing men's souls; seemed to think that a good deal might be said in favour of bodily torture as well! These are your teachers, O Israel! Imagine what the pupils become under such leading!

[Sidenote: Fears for Lucknow.]

August 26th.—The great subject of anxiety here now is Lucknow, where a small party of soldiers, with some two hundred women and an equal number of children, are beleaguered by a rebel force of 15,000. The attempts hitherto made to relieve them have failed; and General Havelock, who commands, says he can do nothing unless he gets the 5th and 90th Regiments, the two I sent from Singapore on my own responsibility. The men of the 'Pearl' and 'Shannon' and the marines are guarding Calcutta, or on their way up to Allahabad, so that it is impossible to say what would have become of Bengal if these reinforcements had not come.

August 30th.—The mail from England has arrived. No letters, of course, for me. I gather from the newspapers and Canning's letters that some troops, though only to a small extent, I fear, are to be sent to Hong-kong, to replace those which have been diverted to India. From Palmerston's speeches I gather that he adheres to the policy of my first visiting the North, and making amicable overtures; and, secondly, taking Canton, if these overtures fail. I believe I have adopted the only mode of carrying out that policy. It is rather perplexing, however, and sometimes a little amusing, to be working at such a distance from head-quarters, as one never knows what is thought of one's proceedings until it is so much too late to turn to account the criticisms passed upon them.

[Sidenote: Return to China.]

There remained now nothing to keep him longer at Calcutta; a body of troops was on its way to Hongkong, to take the place of those that had been diverted to India, and the end of September was the time at which he had arranged to meet Baron Gros in the China seas. On the 3rd of September, therefore, he turned his face once more eastward, to resume the proper duties of his mission.

[Sidenote: Fever.]

Steamer 'Ava'—September 10th.—I have had a very bad time of it since I finished my last letter on my way down the Hooghly. Probably it may have been something of the Calcutta fever brought with me…. But on the second night after our departure, it came on to blow hard towards morning. I was in my cot on the windward side. First, I got rather a chill, and then the ports were shut, leaving me very hot. I remained all day in a state of feverish lethargy, unable to rise, and constantly falling off into dreamy dozes; kaleidoscopes, with the ugliest sides of everything perpetually twirling before my eyes. I panted so for air that they opened my ports towards evening as an experiment. It turned out better than might have been expected. A sea washed in, and filled my cot half full of water, which decided me on rising. No gentler hint would have mastered my lethargy. After I got on deck, as you may imagine, it was about as difficult, or rather more so, to overcome the vis inertiae which fixed me there. So a bed was made for me under the awning. I remained on deck for four nights; the fourth, in a cot slung up to the boom, and though I slept little, it was cool. Last night I came down to the cabin again. I have taken the turn, and am on the mend, though I do not yet feel the least inclination for food, and my nerves are so shaky that I can hardly write. That little pretty book[7] of Guizot's which you sent me, I have been trying to read, but I find that it is too touching for me, and I have been obliged to lay it aside.

September 11th.—I am now at Singapore again, which is my kind of oasis in this desert of the East; the only place where I have felt well or comfortable, and where there has been a sort of cordiality in the people, which makes one feel somewhat at home. I shall stay here two days, to gain a little strength before plunging again into the sea.

[Sidenote: Perplexities.]

Hong-Kong.—September 20th.—I did not attempt to write on my way from Singapore to this place, because, though we were much favoured by the weather (as this is the worst month in the China seas and the most subject to typhoons), the motion of the screw in the 'Ava' is so bad, that it is almost impossible to write when she is going at full speed. However, I may now tell you that we made out our voyage in six days of beautiful weather, and that I have gone on gradually recovering my health, which I lost between Calcutta and Singapore. I believe I do not look quite as blooming as usual; but it is of no use my claiming sympathy on this score, for, as the Bishop of Labuan appears to have said, I always have a more florid appearance than most people, and never therefore get credit for being ill, however ill I may feel. I found two mails from home…. The Government approves of my having sent my troops to India, and Clarendon's letter seems to imply that they are not quite insensible to the difficulties of my position…. As it is, I now find myself in a very puzzling position. If I go to the North I shall lose prestige, and perhaps also time; it is even possible that I may force the Emperor to declare himself against us, and to direct hostilities against us at the northern ports, where hitherto we have been trading in peace. On the other hand, if I do not go to the North, and make pacific overtures to the Emperor, I shall go dead against my instructions, and against the policy which Palmerston has over and over again told Parliament I am to pursue.

[Sidenote: Hong-kong.]

Hong-Kong.—September 25th.—I used to dislike to begin writing a letter, when I thought I should receive one from my correspondent before it was finished; but I have got over all these scruples now. Our correspondence is kept up in a kind of constant flow, and our letters so cross each other, that we hardly know where one is begun or ended. Therefore, although I sent off one this forenoon, and although I may calculate on hearing from you again before this is despatched, I feel that it is quite natural to take up my pen, and to have some talk with you this evening before I retire to my cot. I have been dining with the Admiral quietly, at 3 P.M., and I went on shore with him afterwards to take a walk. We strolled through the Chinese part of the town, crowded with Chinese all returning from their work, and looking good-humoured as usual. The town is more extensive than I had supposed it to be; but it was close and hot, and I was rather glad when we got into our boat again to pull off to our ship, which is lying about 2- 1/2 miles from the shore. It was calm and cool on the water; and after reaching my ship, I have sat down to my writing desk, having placed one of the ship's attendants (a disbanded sepoy, I believe) at the punkah which has lately been fitted up in my cabin. It is wonderful what a comfort these punkahs are! I was suffocated with heat before my sepoy began to pull, and every now and then I have to halloo to him when he seems disposed to take a nap….

[Sidenote: Caprices of climate.]

October 1st.—What a climate! after raining cats and dogs for forty- eight hours incessantly, it took to blowing at about twelve last night, rain still as heavy as ever. Our captain, who is a man of energy, apprehending that he might run ashore or foul of some ship, got up steam immediately, and set to work to perform the goose step at anchor in the harbour. You may imagine the row,—wind blowing, rain splashing, ropes hauled, spars cracking, everybody hallooing:—'A stroke a-head! ease her! faster! stop her!' and other variations of the same tune. All this immediately over my head! After expending the conventional number of hours in my cot, in the operation of what is facetiously called sleeping, I mounted on deck at about 5 A.M…. I wish I could send you a sketch of that gloomy hill at the foot of which Victoria lies, as it loomed sullenly in the dusky morning, its crest wreathed with clouds, and its cheeks wrinkled by white lines that marked the track of the descending torrents. It was still blowing and raining as hard as ever, but I took my two hours' exercise notwithstanding, clad in Mackintosh. Frederick and Oliphant, who went on shore the day before yesterday to dine with Sir J. Bowring, have not yet returned.

[Sidenote: After the storm.]

Seven P.M.—The weather cleared about noon. I remained in my cabin as usual till after five, when I ordered my boat and went on shore. There were signs of the night's work here and there. Masts of junks sticking out of the water, and on land verandahs mutilated, &c. Loch accompanied me, and we walked up the hill to a road which runs above the town. The prospect was magnificent—Victoria below us, running down the steep bank to the water's edge; beyond, the bay, crowded with ships and junks, and closed on the opposite side by a semi-circle of hills, bold, rugged, and bare, and glowing in the bright sunset…. When we got beyond the town, the hill along which we were walking began to remind me of some of the scenery in the Highlands—steep and treeless, the water gushing out at every step among the huge granite boulders, and dashing with a merry noise across our path. After somewhat more than an hour's walk we turned back, and began to descend a long and precipitous path, or rather street, for there were houses on either side, in search of our boat. By the time we had embarked the tints of the sunset had vanished, a moon nearly full rode undisputed mistress in the cloudless sky, and we cut our way to our ship through the ripple that was dancing and sparkling in her beams.

[Sidenote: Better news from India.]

Hong-kong.—October 8th.—On the 6th, I went to the anchorage of the French fleet, about twelve miles off. On our way back we made the tour of the island. Every spot at the foot of the hills on which anything will grow is cultivated by the industrious Chinese, whose chief occupation in these parts seems, however, to be fishing. Last evening I dined with our own admiral. An opium-ship from India had just arrived, so we had a plentiful crop of topics of conversation. The news from India is rather better. The whole of Bengal was dependent not only on the China force, but on that portion of it which I took or sent them on my own responsibility. The 5th and 90th regiments are marching to the relief of Lucknow. The crews of the 'Shannon' and 'Pearl' are protecting other disturbed districts, and the marines garrisoning Calcutta…. It cannot therefore be said that I have not done Canning a good turn. I think, however, that there is a disposition, both in Calcutta and in England, to underrate our needs in China, and I am disposed to write to Canning a despatch which will bring this point out…. If we take Canton by naval means alone, we shall probably not be able to hold the city; in which case we shall probably occasion a great deal of massacre and bloodshed, without influencing in the slightest degree the Court of Pekin.

[Sidenote: Continued perplexities.]

October 9th.—I do not think that the naval actions here have really done anything towards solving our questions, and perhaps they may have been injurious, in so far as they have enabled the Government and the Press to take up the tone that we could settle our affairs without troops. All these partial measures increase the confidence of the Chinese in themselves, and confirm them in the opinion that we cannot meet them on land. They have never denied our superiority by sea.

October 13th.—No steamer from England yet. I have just despatched letters to Canning, in the sense I have already explained to you…. General Ashburnham's position is a very cruel one,—at the head of a whole lot of doctors and staff-officers of all kinds, without any troops. The enormous amount of supplies sent out passes belief. Oceans of porter, soda-water, wine of all sorts, and delicacies that I never even heard of, for the hospitals. I am told, even tea and sugar, but that may be a calumny. This is the reaction, after the economies practised in the Crimea, and will be persevered in, I suppose, till Parliament gets tired of paying, and then we shall have counteraction the other way.

On the 16th of October the French ambassador reached Hong-kong, having been delayed by the breaking down of an engine, which made it necessary for him to stay at Singapore to refit. The relations of the two ambassadors, at first somewhat distant and diplomatic, soon ripened into mutual feelings of cordial regard.

[Sidenote: Arrival of Baron Gros.]

October 18th.—The instructions brought by the last mail give me much greater latitude of action; in fact, untie my hands altogether. I hope I shall get Baron Gros to go with me; but if not, I shall go at Canton alone. The Admiral is quite ready for the attempt, as soon as his marines arrive.

[Sidenote: A sister's death.]

October 30th.—How little was I prepared for the sad intelligence brought to me by your last![8] How constantly we shall all feel the absence of that good genius!—that Providence always on the watch to soothe the wretched and to console the afflicted. I had never thought of her early removal by death; and yet one ought to have done so, for she complained much of suffering last year, and all who knew her well must have felt that to make her complain her sufferings must have been great. She is gone; and she will leave behind her a blank in many existences…. Many years ago we were much together. She was then in the full vigour of her faculties…. I had ample opportunity then of appreciating the remarkable union of heart and head and soul which her character presented. Many of her letters written in those days were of rare excellence…. I feel for you.

October 31st.—I shall hardly recognise Scotland without her, so much did she, in her unobtrusive and quiet way, make herself the point to which, in all difficulties and joys, one looked…. Poor Maxwell has the satisfaction of knowing that all that was great and lovable in her flourished under his protection and with his sympathy. Perhaps that is the best consolation which a person bereaved as he is can enjoy. It is not a consolation which will arrest his progress along the path which she has trodden before, but it is one which will strew it with flowers…. Already, when this letter reaches you, the green weeds will have begun to creep over the new-made grave, and the crust of habit to cover wounds which at first bled most freely. It is also a soothing reflection that hers was a life of which death is rather the crown than the close; so that it will not be in gloom, but in the soft sunset light of memory that they who have been wont to walk with her, and are now deprived of her companionship, will have henceforward to tread their weary way. I see in that sunset light the days when we were much together—when she used to call herself my wife. In those days her nervous system was stronger than it was when you became acquainted with her. Her soul spoke through more obedient organs. Nothing could exceed the eloquence and beauty of her letters in those days, when written under the influence of strong feeling. She is gone. I do not expect ever to see her like again.

November 1st.—Poor Balgonie, too. It is another loss; very sad, though different in its character. When I saw him at Malta, I had not a conception that he would last so long…. On November 1st I am reading your thoughts of September 1st. How far apart this proves us to be!… I sympathise deeply in all those feelings…. To whatever side one looks there is the sad blank effected by her removal; even in my public interests, I cannot say how much, since I returned home, I owed to her thoughtfulness and affection…. Cut off as we are here at present from all immediate contact with home interests, it is difficult to realise her removal and its consequences to the full. It is a stunning blow from which one recovers gradually to a consciousness of a great and undefined loss. God bless you!… and grant that you may share her inexpressible comfort.

[Sidenote: Visit to Macao.]

November 8th.—I have been absent for four days on a tour…. I liked Macao, because there is some appearance about it of a history, —convents and churches, the garden of Camoëns, &c. The Portuguese have been in China about three hundred years. Hong-kong was a barren rock fifteen years ago. Macao is Catholic, Hong-kong Protestant. So these causes combined give the former a wonderful superiority in all that is antique and monumental.

November 14th.—I have received your letters to September 24th…. The Government approve entirely of my move to Calcutta, and Lord Clarendon writes very cordially on the subject.

November 15th.—I have seen the Russian Plenipotentiary…. He has been at Kiachta and the mouth of the Peiho, asking for admission to Pekin, and got considerably snubbed at both places, as I should have been if I had gone there. It will devolve on me, I apprehend, to administer the return, which is not, I think, a bad arrangement for British prestige in the East.

[Sidenote: Beginning of serious work.]

Steamer 'Ava,' Hong-kong.—November 17th.—My serious work is about to begin. I must draw up a challenge for Yeh, which is a delicate matter. Gros showed me a projet de note when I called on him some days ago. It is very long, and very well written. The fact is, that he has a much better case of quarrel than we; at least one that lends itself much better to rhetoric. An opium-ship came in from Calcutta yesterday. It brought me nothing from Canning. It is clear, however, that things are getting better with him. I think it probable that my despatch anticipating a favourable turn of affairs there, and founding on that anticipation a demand for reinforcements, will reach England at the very time when the news from India justifying that anticipation will be received…. The Government and public in England would not believe there was any danger in India for a long time, and consequently allowed the season for precautionary measures to pass by, and then made up for their apathy by the most exaggerated apprehensions. My mind has been more tranquil, for it has not presented these phases. As soon as I heard of Canning's difficulties, I determined to do what I could for him; but it never occurred to me that we were to act as if the game was up with us in the East.

[Sidenote: How to govern a democracy.]

The secret of governing a democracy is understood by men in power at present. Never interfere to check an evil until it has attained such proportions that all the world see plainly the necessities of the case. You will then get any amount of moral and material support that you require; but if you interfere at an earlier period, you will get neither thanks nor assistance! I am not at all sure but that the time is approaching when foresight will be a positive disqualification in a statesman. But to return to our own matters. The Government and public are thinking of nothing but India at present. It does not however follow, that quite as strong a feeling might not be got up for China in a few months. If we met with anything like disaster here, that would certainly be the case.

[Sidenote: Description of Hong-kong.]

Head-Quarters House, Hong-kong.—November 22nd.—I wish you could take wings and join me here, if it were even for a few hours. We should first wander through these spacious apartments. We should then stroll out on the verandah, or along the path of the little terrace garden which General Ashburnham has surrounded with a defensive wall, and from thence I should point out to you the harbour, bright as a flower-bed with the flags of many nations, the jutting promontory of Kowloon, and the barrier of bleak and jagged hills that bounds the prospect. A little later, when the sun began to sink, and the long shadows to fall from the mountain's side, we should set forth for a walk along a level pathway of about a quarter of a mile long, which is cut in its flank, and connects with this garden, and from thence we should watch this same circle of hills, now turned into a garland, and glowing in the sunset lights, crimson and purple, and blue and green, and colours for which a name has not yet been found, as they successively lit upon them. Perhaps we should be tempted to wait (and it would not be long to wait, for the night follows in these regions very closely on the heels of day), until, on these self-same hills, then gloomy and dark and sullen, tens of thousands of bright and silent stars were looking down calmly from heaven.

Macao.—December 2nd.—Baron Gros and I have been settling our plans of proceeding, which we are conducting with a most cordial entente…. As he is well versed in all the forms and usages of diplomacy, he is very useful to me in such points…. I have been living here in the house of Mr. Dent, one of the merchant princes of China. He is very obliging, and I have remained at his request a day longer than I intended. I return, however, to-day. I like Macao with its air of antiquity, in some respects almost of décadence. It is more interesting than Hong-kong, which has only existed fifteen years, and is as go-a-head and upstart and staring as 'one of our cities,' as my American friend informed me a few days ago.

Hong-kong.—December 5th.—When I went out to walk with Oliphant, I was informed by a person I met in a very public walk just out of the town, that a man had been robbed very near where we were. I met the person immediately afterwards. He was rather a mesquin-looking Portuguese, and he said that three Chinamen had rushed upon him, knocked him down, thrown a quantity of sand into his eyes, and carried off his watch. This sort of affair is not uncommon. I have bought a revolver, and am beginning to practise pistol-shooting.

[Sidenote: Preparation for action.]

December 9th.—Baron Gros came here on Monday. We have been busy, and all our plans are settled. I sent up this evening to the Admiral my letter to Yeh, which is to be delivered on Saturday the 12th. He is to have ten days to think over it, and if at the end of that time he does not give in, the city will be taken. We are in for it now. I have hardly alluded in my ultimatum to that wretched question of the 'Arrow,' which is a scandal to us, and is so considered, I have reason to know, by all except the few who are personally compromised. I have made as strong a case as I can on general grounds against Yeh, and my demands are most moderate. If he refuses to accede to them, which he probably will, this will, I hope, put us in the right when we proceed to extreme measures. The diplomatic position is excellent. The Russian has had a rebuff at the mouth of the Peiho; the American at the hands of Yeh. The Frenchman gives us a most valuable moral support by saying that he too has a sufficient ground of quarrel with Yeh. We stand towering above all, using calm and dignified language, moderate in our demands, but resolute in enforcing them. If such had been our attitude from the beginning of this controversy it would have been well. However, we cannot look back; we must do for the best, and trust in Providence to carry us through our difficulties.

[1] One of his Fifeshire neighbours.

[2] The Governor of the island.

[3] His brother, then Consul-general of Egypt.

[4] His eldest son.

[5] His birthday, and also his father's.

[6] Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission, i. 55.

[7] Life of Lady Rachel Russell.

[8] The death of his elder sister, Lady Matilda Maxwell.

CHAPTER VIII.

FIRST MISSION TO CHINA. CANTON.

IMPROVED PROSPECTS—ADVANCE ON CANTON—BOMBARDMENT AND CAPTURE—JOINT TRIBUNAL—MAINTENANCE OF ORDER—CANTON PRISONS—MOVE NORTHWARD—SWATOW—MR. BURNS—FOOCHOW—NINGPO—CHU-SAN—POTOU—SHANGHAE—MISSIONARIES.

[Sidenote: Improved prospects.]

On the same day on which the ultimatum of the Envoys was delivered to Yeh, i.e. on the 12th of December, 1857, the glad news reached Lord Elgin that Lucknow had been relieved: the more welcome to him as carrying with it the promise of speedy reinforcement to himself, and deliverance from a situation of extreme difficulty and embarrassment. 'Few people,' he might well say, 'had ever been in a position which required greater tact—four Ambassadors, two Admirals, 'a General, and a Consul-general; and, notwithstanding 'this luxuriance of colleagues, no sufficient force.' And what he felt most in the insufficiency of the force was not the irksomeness of delay, still less any anxiety as to the success of his arms. 'My greatest difficulty.' he wrote, 'arises from my fear that we shall be led to 'attack Canton before we have all our force, and led 'therefore to destroy, if there is any resistance, both life 'and property to a greater extent than would otherwise 'be necessary.' The prospects of immediate reinforcements from India diminished his fears on this score, and sent him forward with a better hope of bringing the painful situation to a speedy and easy close.

[Sidenote: Changed quarters.]

_H.M.S. 'Furious,' Canton River.—December 17th.—_You see from my date that I am again in a new lodging. It promises to be, I think, more agreeable than any of our previous marine residences. We have paddles instead of a screw. Then the captain has not only given up to me all the stern accommodation, but he has also done everything in his power to make the place comfortable…. He is the Sherard Osborn of Arctic regions notoriety. I am on my way to join Gros, in order to decide on our future course of action. I mentioned yesterday that Honan was occupied, and that I had received a letter from Yeh, which must, I suppose, be considered a refusal. This was the fair side of the medal. The reverse was an ugly quarrel up the river, which ended in the loss of the lives of some sailors and the destruction of a village,—a quarrel for which our people were, I suspect, to some extent responsible. I fear that, under cover of the blockade instituted by the Admiral, great abuses have taken place…. It makes one very indignant, but unfortunately it is very difficult to bring the matter home to the culprits. All this, however, makes it most important to bring the situation to a close as soon as possible. It is clear that there will be no peace till the two parties fight it out. The Chinese do not want to fight, but they will not accept the position relatively to the strangers under which alone strangers will consent to live with them, till the strength of the two parties has been tested by fighting. The English do want to fight.

[Sidenote: Yeh's reply.]

December 18th.—This does not promise to be a lively sojourn. We are anchored at present at a point where the river forks into the Whampoa and Blenheim reaches. We have the Blenheim reach, and my suite wish me to go up it to the Macao Fort, from which they think they would have a good view of what goes on when the city is attacked. I wish, however, to be with Gros, and he will go up the Whampoa reach as far as his great lumbering ship will go. Meanwhile we are here confined to our ships, as it would not of course do for me to go on shore to be caught. Poor Yeh would think me worth having at present. What will he do? His answer is very weak, and reads as if the writer was at his wits' end; but with that sort of stupid Chinese policy which consists in never yielding anything, he exposes himself to the worst consequences without making any preparations (so far as we can see) for resistance. Among other things in his letter he quotes a long extract from a Hong-kong paper describing Sir G. Bonham's investiture as K.C.B., and advises me to imitate him for my own interest, rather than Sir J. Davis, who was recalled. Davis, says Yeh, insisted on getting into the city, and Bonham gave up this demand. Hence his advice to me. All through the letter is sheer twaddle.

[Sidenote: Advance on Canton.]

December 22nd.—On the afternoon of the 20th, I got into a gunboat with Commodore Elliot, and went a short way up towards the barrier forts, which were last winter destroyed by the Americans. When we reached this point, all was so quiet that we determined to go on, and we actually steamed past the city of Canton, along the whole front, within pistol-shot of the town. A line of English men-of-war are now anchored there in front of the town. I never felt so ashamed of myself in my life, and Elliot remarked that the trip seemed to have made me sad. There we were, accumulating the means of destruction under the very eyes, and within the reach, of a population of about 1,000,000 people, against whom these means of destruction were to be employed! 'Yes,' I said to Elliot, 'I am sad, because when I look at that town, I feel that I am earning for myself a place in the Litany, immediately after "plague, pestilence, and famine."' I believe however that, as far as I am concerned, it was impossible for me to do otherwise than as I have done. I could not have abandoned the demand to enter the city after what happened last winter, without compromising our position in China altogether, and opening the way to calamities even greater than those now before us. I made my demands on Yeh as moderate as I could, so as to give him a chance of accepting; although, if he had accepted, I knew that I should have brought on my head the imprecations both of the navy and army and of the civilians, the time being given by the missionaries and the women. And now Yeh having refused, I shall do whatever I can possibly do to secure the adoption of plans of attack, &c., which will lead to the least destruction of life and property…. The weather is charming; the thermometer about 60° in the shade in the morning; the sun powerful, and the atmosphere beautifully clear. When we steamed up to Canton, and saw the rich alluvial banks covered with the luxuriant evidences of unrivalled industry and natural fertility combined; beyond them, barren uplands, sprinkled with a soil of a reddish tint, which gave them the appearance of heather slopes in the Highlands; and beyond these again, the white cloud mountain range, standing out bold and blue in the clear sunshine,—I thought bitterly of those who, for the most selfish objects, are trampling under foot this ancient civilisation.

[Sidenote: Summons to Yeh.]

December 24th.—My letter telling Yeh that I had handed the affair over to the naval and military commanders, and Gros's to the same effect, were sent to him to-day; also a joint letter from the commanders, giving him forty-eight hours to deliver over the city, at the expiry of which time, if he does not do so, it will be attacked. I postponed the delivery of these letters till to-day, that the expiry of the forty-eight hours might not fall on Christmas Day. Now I hear that the commanders will not be ready till Monday, which the Calendar tells me is 'the Massacre of the Innocents!' If we can take the city without much massacre, I shall think the job a good one, because no doubt the relations of the Cantonese with the foreign population were very unsatisfactory, and a settlement was sooner or later inevitable. But nothing could be more contemptible than the origin of our existing quarrel. We moved this evening to the Barrier Forts, within about two miles of Canton, and very near the place where the troops are to land for the attack on the city. I have been taking walks on shore the last two or three days on a little island called Dane's Island, formed of barren hills, with little patches of soil between them and on their flanks, cultivated in terraces by the industrious Chinese. The people seemed very poor and miserable, suffering, I fear, from this horrid war. The French Admiral sent on shore to Whampoa some casks of damaged biscuit the other day, and there was such a rush for it, that some people were, I believe, drowned. The head man came afterwards to the officer, expressed much gratitude for the gift, but said that if it was repeated, he begged notice might be given to him, that he might make arrangements to prevent such disorder. The ships are surrounded by boats filled chiefly by women, who pick up orange-peel and offal, and everything that is thrown overboard. One of the gunboats got ashore yesterday, within a stone's-throw of the town of Canton, and the officer had the coolness to call on a crowd of Chinese, who were on the quays, to pull her off, which they at once did! Fancy having to fight such people!

Christmas Day.—Who would have thought, when we were spending that cold snowy Christmas Day last year at Howick, that this day would find us separated by almost as great a distance as is possible on the surface of our globe! and that I should be anchored, as I now am, within two miles of a great city, doomed, I fear, to destruction, from the folly of its own rulers and the vanity and levity of ours. We have moved a little farther up the river this morning, and as we are, like St. Paul, dropping an anchor from the stern, I have had over my head for several hours the incessant dancing about and clanking of a ponderous chain-cable, till my brains are nearly all shaken out of their place.

December 26th.—I have a second letter from Yeh, which is even more twaddling than the first. They say that he is all day engaged in sacrificing to an idol, which represents the God of Physic, and which is so constructed that a stick in its hand traces figures on sand. In the figures so traced he is supposed to read his fate.

Early on Monday the 28th the attack began; and Lord Elgin was reluctantly compelled to witness what he had been reluctantly compelled to order—the bombardment of an unresisting town. Happily the damage both to life and property proved to be very much less serious than at the time he supposed it to be.

[Sidenote: Bombardment.]

December 28th, Noon.—We have been throwing shells, etc., into Canton since 6 A.M., without almost any reply from the town. I hate the whole thing so much, that I cannot trust myself to write about it.

December 29th.—The mail was put off, and I add a line to say that I hope the Canton affair is over, and well over…. When I say this affair is over, perhaps I say too much. But the horrid bombardment has ceased, and we are in occupation of Magazine Hill, at the upper part of the city, within the walls.

[Sidenote: Capture of the city.]
[Sidenote: Looting.]

H.M.S. 'Furious,' Canton River.—January 2nd, 1858.—The last week has been a very eventful one: not one of unmixed satisfaction to me, because of course there is a great deal that is painful about this war, but on the whole the results have been successful. On Monday last (the 28th) I was awakened at 6 A.M. by a cannon-shot, which was the commencement of a bombardment of the city, which lasted for 27 hours. As the fire of the shipping was either not returned at all, or returned only by a very few shots, I confess that this proceeding gave me great pain at the time. But I find that much less damage has been done to the town than I expected, as the fire was confined to certain spots. I am on the whole, therefore, disposed to think that the measure proved to be a good one, as the terror which it has excited in the minds of the Cantonese is more than in proportion to the injury inflicted, and therefore it will have the effect, I trust, of preventing any attempts on their part to dislodge or attack us, which would entail very great calamities on themselves. At 10 A.M. on Monday the troops landed at a point about two miles east of the city, and marched up with very trifling resistance to Lin Fort, which they took, the French entering first, to the great disgust of our people. Next morning at 9 A.M., they advanced to the escalade of the city walls, and proceeded, with again very slight opposition, to the Magazine Hill, on which they hoisted the British and French flags. They then took Gough fort with little trouble, and there they were by 3 P.M. established in Canton. The poor stupid Chinese had placed some guns in position to resist an attack from the opposite quarter—the quarter, viz. from which Gough attacked the city; and some people suppose that if we had advanced from that side we should have met with some resistance. My own opinion is, that the resistance would have been no great matter in any case, although, no doubt, if we had made the attempt in summer, and with sailors only, as some proposed when I came here in July, we should probably have met with disaster. As it is, my difficulty has been to enforce the adoption of measures to keep our own people in order, and to prevent the wretched Cantonese from being plundered and bullied. This task is the more difficult from the very motley force with which we have to work, composed, firstly, of French and English; secondly, of sailors to a great extent—they being very imperfectly manageable on shore; all, moreover, having, I fear, a very low standard of morality in regard to stealing from the Chinese. There is a word called 'loot,' which gives, unfortunately, a venial character to what would, in common English, be styled robbery…. Add to this, that there is no flogging in the French army, so that it is impossible to punish men committing this class of offences…. On the other hand, these incomprehensible Chinese, although they make no defence, do not come forward to capitulate; and I am in mortal terror lest the French Admiral, who is in the way of looking at these matters in a purely professional light, should succeed in inducing our chiefs to engage again in offensive operations, which would lead to an unnecessary destruction of life and property. I proposed to Gros that we should land on the first day of the year, and march up to Magazine Hill. He consented, and the chiefs agreed, so we landed about 1 P.M. at a point on the river bank immediately below the south-east angle of the city wall, which is now our line of communication between the river and Magazine Hill. As we landed, all the vessels in the river hoisted English and French flags, and fired salutes. We walked up to the hill along the top of the wall, which is a good wide road, and which was all lined with troops and sailors, who presented arms and cheered as we passed. We reached the summit at about three. The British quarter, which is a sort of temple, stands on the highest point, the hill falling pretty precipitously from it on all sides. The view is one of the most extensive I ever saw. Towards the east and north barren hills of considerable height, and much of the character of those we see from Hong-kong. On the west, level lands cultivated in rice and otherwise. Towards the south, the town lying still as a city of the dead. The silence was quite painful, especially when we returned about nightfall: but it is partly owing to the narrowness of the streets, which prevents one from seeing the circulation of population which may be going on within. We remained at the top of the hill till about half-past five, during which time we blew up the Blue Jacket Fort and Gough Fort, and got back to our ships about 8 P.M., having spent a very memorable first of January, and made a very interesting expedition; although I could not help feeling melancholy when I thought that we were so ruthlessly destroying the prestige of a place which had been, for so many centuries, intact and undefiled by the stranger, and exercising our valour against so contemptible a foe.

January 4th.—I have not given you as full a description as I ought to have done of the views and ceremony of Friday, because I saw 'Our own Correspondent' there, and I think I can count on that being well done in the Times…. This day is a pour of rain, rather unusual for the season…. Some of the Chinese authorities are beginning to show a desire to treat, and some of the inhabitants are presenting petitions to us to protect them against robbers, native and foreign.

[Sidenote: Capture of Yeh.]

January 6th.—Yesterday was a great day. The chiefs made a move which was very judicious, I think, and which answered remarkably well. They sent bodies of men at an early hour into the city from different points, and succeeded in capturing Yeh, the Lieutenant-Governor of the city, and the Tartar General, &c. This was done without a shot being fired, and I believe the troops behaved very well, abstaining from loot, &c. Altogether the thing was a complete success, and I give them great credit for it. Yeh has been carried on board the 'Inflexible' steamer as a prisoner of war. He is an enormous man. I can hardly speak to his appearance, as I only saw him for a moment as he passed me in a chair on his way to his vessel. Morrison, who has taken a sketch of him, speaks favourably of him; but it is the fashion to abuse even his looks. The Lieutenant-General has been allowed to depart, but the Lieutenant-Governor and Tartar General are still in custody at head-quarters. At my suggestion a proposal was made to the Lieutenant-Governor to-day to continue to govern the city under us; but the stolidity of the Chinese is so great that there is no saying what he may do. We have given him till to-morrow to determine whether he will accept. My whole efforts have been directed to preserve the Cantonese from the evils of a military occupation; but their stupid apathetic arrogance makes it almost impossible to effect this object. Yeh's tone when he was taken was to be rather bumptious. The Admiral asked him about an old man of the name of Cooper, who was kidnapped. At first he pretended that he knew nothing about him. When pressed he said, 'Oh! he was a prisoner of war. I took him when I drove you away from the city last winter. I took a great deal of trouble with him and the other European prisoners, but I could not keep them alive. They all died, and if you like I'll show you where I had them buried.' Morrison says that when he saw him on board the 'Inflexible,' he was very civil and piano. He takes it easy, eats and drinks well, &c. He said to his captain, that if it was not an indiscreet question, he would be glad to know whether it was likely that we should kill him. The captain had no difficulty in re-assuring him on that point.

January 8th.—We had rather an important day's work yesterday. The Lieutenant-Governor showed some symptoms of a willingness to govern on our conditions. This gives some chance of our getting out of the difficulties of our situation. You may imagine what it is to undertake to govern some millions of people (the province contains upwards of 20,000,000), when we have in all two or three people who understand the language! I never had so difficult a matter to arrange…. Each man has his own way of seeing things, and the real difficulties of the question being enormous, and the mysteries of the Chinese character almost unfathomable,… the problem is well nigh insoluble. However yesterday we seemed to make some progress towards an understanding. We walked up to the front along the wall as usual, and very hot it was; but we returned through the town itself with the General and Admiral and a large escort. I rode on a pony. It was a strange and sad sight. The wretched-looking single-storied houses on either side of the narrow streets almost all shut up, only a few people making their appearance, and these for the most part wan and haggard, and here and there places which the fire from our ships had destroyed, all presented a very melancholy spectacle; and one could hardly help asking one's self, with some disgust, whether it was worth while to make all the row which we have been making, for the sake of getting into this miserable place. However, I presume that the better part of the population have either fled or hid themselves. I daresay if they had returned, and the shops had been opened, the aspect of the town would have been different.

[Sidenote: Establishment of a joint tribunal.]

January 9th.—Yesterday I went up again to the front without Gros, and pressed matters forward towards a solution. The result was, that my plan of getting the Governor of the province to consent to return to his Yamun and resume his functions, a board of our officers, supported by a large body of troops, being appointed to inhabit his Yamun with him, and to aid him in the maintenance of order, prevailed…. To-day we went, Gros and I, in great procession to the Governor's Yamun, to reinstate him in his office on the above conditions. We were carried in chairs through the town, attended by a large escort. The city seemed fuller of people than on the occasion of my former visit, and they looked more cheerful.

January 10th.—By a ludicrous mistake, no orders had been given to release the Governor and Tartar General, so that, after waiting for them for an hour, we heard that the sentry would not let them leave the room in which they were confined. The consequence was that it was getting late, and as I wished to get my escort out of the streets before it was dark, we were obliged to hurry through the ceremony a little. We began with a kind of squabble about seats; but after that was over, I addressed the Governor in a pretty arrogant tone. I did so out of kindness, as I now know what fools they are, and what calamities they bring upon themselves, or rather on the wretched people, by their pride and trickery. Gros followed, in a few words endorsing what I had said. The Governor answered very satisfactorily. I then rose, saying that we must depart, and that we wished him and the Tartar General all sorts of felicity. They were good-natured- looking men, the General being of great size. They conducted us to the front door, where we ought to have found our chairs; but they had disappeared, to the infinite wrath of Mr. Parkes…. I say the front door; but in fact the house consisted of a series of one-storied pavilions, placed one behind the other, and connected by a covered way with trellis-work panels running through a sort of garden. We got at last into the chairs, and hastened off to the city wall, which we reached just as it was getting dark, having thus terminated about the strangest day which has yet occurred in Chinese history,—the Governor of this arrogant city of Canton accepting office at the hand of two barbarian chiefs!

Wednesday, January 13th.—You get the least agreeable picture of the concerns in which I am engaged; because, as I write this record from day to day, all my anxieties and their causes are narrated. On the whole I think the last fortnight has been a very successful one. I walked through the city to-day with the Admiral and an escort, and saw evident signs of improvement in the streets. The people seemed to be resuming their avocations, and the shops to be re-opening. My 'Tribunal' is working well. In short, I hope that the evils incident to the capture of a city, and especially of a Chinese city, have been in this instance very much mitigated. The season is very changing. Three nights ago the thermometer did not fall below 72°, and last night it fell to 40°. There is a cold wind; and it was necessary to walk briskly to-day to keep one's-self warm.

[Sidenote: Exodus.]

January 16th.—Though I was able to send off the last despatches with something of a satisfactory report, we are by no means, I fear, yet out of the wood. I took a long walk in the city of Canton yesterday. I visited the West Gate, where I found a stream of people moving outwards, and was told by the officer that this goes on from morning to night. They say, when asked, that they are going out of town to celebrate the New Year, but my belief is that they are flying from us. The streets were full, and the people civil. Quantities of eating stalls, but a large proportion of the shops still shut. As we got near the wall in our own occupation, some people ran up to us complaining that they had been robbed. We went into the houses and saw clearly enough the signs of devastation. I have no doubt, from the description, that the culprits were French sailors. If this goes on one fortnight after we have captured the town, when is it to stop?… It is very difficult to remedy…. Nothing could, I believe, be worse than our own sailors, but they are now nearly all on board ship, and we have the resource of the Cat…. All this is very sad, but I am not yet quite at the end of my tether. If things do not mend within a few days I shall startle my colleagues by proposing to abandon the town altogether, giving reasons for it which will enable me to state on paper all these points. No human power shall induce me to accept the office of oppressor of the feeble.

[Sidenote: A sober population.]
[Sidenote: Maintenance of order.]

January 20th.—I hinted at my ideas as to the evacuation of the city, and it has had an excellent effect…. There is a notable progress towards quiet in the city. Still, I fear the tide of emigration is going on. Parkes is exerting himself with considerable effect, and he is really very clever. There were a great many more shops open in the streets yesterday than I had seen before…. What a thing it is to have to deal with a sober population! I have wandered about the streets of Canton for some seven or eight days since the capture, and I have not seen one drunken man. In any Christian town we should have had numbers of rows by this time arising out of drunkenness, however cowed the population might have been. The Tribunal convicted a Chinaman the other day for selling 'samshoo' to the soldiers. I requested Parkes to hand him over to the Governor Pehkwei for punishment. This was done, and the arrangement answered admirably. The Governor was pleased, he presented himself before the Chinese as the executor of our judgments, and at the same time we, to a certain extent, seemed to be conceding to the Chinese the principle of exterritoriality which we assert as against them…. I have no 'responsible ministers' here, though the presence of a colleague, and, since military operations began, the position of the naval and military Commanders-in-Chief, have required me to act with some caution, in order to make the wheels of the machine work smoothly and keep on the rails. For this reason it was that I suggested a few days ago the plan of evacuation. The maintenance of order in a city under martial law was, I felt, an affair rather for the Commander-in-Chief than for me, therefore I was in a false position when I meddled with it directly. But the question of remaining in the city or not was a political one. By letting it be known that I had there my lines of Torres Vedras, upon which I should fall back if necessary, I obtained the influence I required for insuring, as far as possible, the adoption of satisfactory arrangements within the city. I must add that this evacuation plan was not intended by me to be a mere threat. I have it clearly matured in my mind as a thing feasible, and which would be under certain circumstances an advisable plan to adopt. In taking Canton we had, as I understand it, two objects in view: the one to prove that we could take it; the other to have in our hands something to give up when we come to terms with the Emperor,—'a material guarantee.' I believe that the capture of the city, followed by the capture of Yeh, has settled the former point. Indeed, from all that I hear, I infer that the capture of Yeh has had more effect on the Chinese mind than the capture of the city. I believe, therefore, that we might abandon the city without losing much if anything on this head. No doubt we should lose on the second head; we should not have Canton to give up when a treaty was concluded, if we had given it up already. Even then however we might, by retaining the island of Honan, the forts, &c., do a good deal towards providing a substitute; so that you see my threat was made bonâ fide. I certainly should have preferred the loss to which I have referred, to the continuance of a state of things in which the Allied troops were plundering the inhabitants.

January 24th.—Baron Gros and I were conversing together yesterday on affairs in this quarter, and among other things he told me that we were both much reproached for our laxity, and that I was more blamed on that account than he. I said to him: 'I can praise you on many accounts, my dear Baron, but I cannot compliment you on being a greater brute than I am.'

Whatever was the feeling of the British residents, and whatever excuses may be made for it, the consistent humanity shown both in the taking and in the occupation of the city did not fail to strike Mr. Reed, the Plenipotentiary of the United States, who wrote to Lord Elgin: 'I cannot omit this opportunity of most sincerely congratulating you on the success at Canton, the great success of a bloodless victory, the merit of which, I am sure, is mainly due to your Lordship's gentle and discreet counsels. My countrymen will, I am sure, appreciate it.' 'This,' observes Lord Elgin, from the representative of the United States, is gratifying both personally and politically.'

January 28th.—I am glad to say that this mail conveys, on the whole, a satisfactory report of the progress of affairs, though this letter puts you in possession of all the ebbs and flows which have taken place during the fortnight. I send a leaf of geranium, which I culled in the garden of the Tartar general.

[Sidenote: Canton prisons.]

January 31st.—I visited yesterday two of the Canton prisons, and witnessed there some sights of horror beyond what I could have pictured to myself. Many of the inmates were so reduced by disease and starvation, that their limbs were not as thick as my wrist. One man who was in this condition was in the receptacle for untried prisoners, and said he had been there seven years. In one of the courts which we entered, there was a cell closed in by a double row of upright posts, which is the common style of gate at Canton, and I was attracted to it by the groans of its inmates. I desired it to be opened, and such a spectacle as it presented! The prisoners were covered with sores, produced by severe beatings; one was already dead, and the rats,—but I cannot go further in description. The others could hardly crawl, they were so emaciated, and my conviction is that they were shut in there to die. The prison authorities stated that they had escaped at the time of the bombardment for which they had been punished as we saw. If the statement was true, they must have been systematically starved since their recapture. Our pretext for visiting the prisons was to discover whether any Europeans, or persons who had been in the service of, or had had relations with Europeans, were confined in them. We took out some who professed to belong to the latter classes. I went a step further, by taking out a poor boy of fifteen, whom we found in chains, but so weak that when we took them off he was unable to stand. I told Mr. Parkes to take him to Pehkwei from me, as a sample of the manner in which his prisons are managed.

February 2nd.—Pehkwei was very indignant at our visit to his prisons, and hinted that he would make away with himself, in a letter which he wrote to me on the subject. However, he was obliged to admit that some of the things we found were very bad, and quite against the Chinese law. On reviewing the whole I must admit, that, except in the case of the one cell that I have described, it was rather neglect, want of food, medical care, cleanliness, &c., than positive cruelty, of which one found evidence in the prisons.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Move northwards.]

Canton the impregnable had been taken, and was in the military occupation of the allied forces; Yeh, the Terror of Barbarians, was a captive beyond the seas; so completely was all resistance crushed, that it was found possible to raise the blockade of the Canton River, and to let trade return to its usual channels. Still nothing was achieved so long as the Emperor remained aloof, and could represent the affair as a local disturbance not affecting the imperial power. To any permanent settlement it was essential that he should be a party; the next step, therefore, was to move northwards to Shanghae, and there open direct negotiations with the Court of Pekin; and, for the success of these negotiations, it was obviously of great importance that the envoys of England and France should have the co- operation of the representatives of Russia and the United States.

February 4th.—Still no letters. To-morrow, Frederick is to go to Macao, to take to Messrs. Reed and Putiatine copies of all my diplomatic correspondence with Yeh, &c., and an invitation to each that he will join us in an attempt to settle matters by negotiation at Shanghae. It is the commencement of the third act in this Chinese affair.

February 6th.—I have a letter from Mr. Reed, saying that he is going to the North this day, so that perhaps Frederick will not find him. This would be a great disappointment.

Sunday, February 7th.—A month without news is very long to wait. Perhaps time passes a little more quickly than when one was dawdling and doing nothing at Hong-Kong; but still this life is tiresome enough. I do not suppose that there ever was a town of the same extent, or a population of the same number, more utterly uninteresting than the town and population of Canton—low houses, narrow streets, temples containing some hideous idols, which are not apparently in the least venerated by their own worshippers. The only other resource is the curiosity shops, and, as you know, I have not the genius for making collections.

February 9th.—Things have taken a better turn. F. by steaming at night from Macao to Hong-Kong caught Reed about an hour before that fixed for his departure for the North. He was delighted with my communication, and has written undertaking to co-operate cordially with us. This is, I think, a very great diplomatic triumph, because it not only smooths the way for future proceedings, but it greatly relieves our anxiety about Canton, as the Americans are the only people who would be likely to give us trouble during the military occupation.

February 10th.—We have got Putiatine's letter for Pekin. It is very good; perhaps better than any of the lot…. However, the entente is now established. My mind, too, is a good deal relieved to-day by seeing the wretched junks, which have been shut up so long by the blockade, with their sails set, gliding down the river. I sent Mr. Wade to visit Yeh yesterday, to see how he took the notion of being sent out of the country to Calcutta or elsewhere. He adhered to his policy of indifference, real or affected, I cannot tell which. I suppose it is a point of pride with him never to complain.

[Sidenote: Adieu to Canton.]

H.M.S. 'Furious.'—February 20th.—I am now off from Canton, never I hope to see it again. Two months I have been there—engaged in this painful service—checking, as I have best been able to do, the disposition to maltreat this unfortunate people…. On the whole I think I have been successful. There never was a Chinese town which suffered so little by the occupation of a hostile force; and considering the difficulties which our alliance with the French (though I have had all support from Gros, in so far as he can give it) has occasioned, it is a very signal success. The good people at Hong- Kong, &c., do not know whether to be incredulous or disgusted at this policy…. I am told a parcel of ridiculous stories about arming of Braves, &c. I heard that in the western suburb the people 'looked ill- natured,' so I have been the greater part of my two last days in that suburb, looking in vain into faces to discover these menacing indications. Yesterday I walked through very out-of-the-way streets and crowded thoroughfares with Wade and two sailors, through thousands and thousands, without a symptom of disrespect…. I know that our people for a long time used to insist on every Chinaman they met taking his hat off. Of course it rather astonished a respectable Chinese shopkeeper to be poked in the ribs by a sturdy sailor or soldier, and told, in bad Chinese or in pantomime, to take off his hat, which is a thing they never do, and which is not with them even a mark of respect. I only mention this as an instance of the follies which people commit when they know nothing of the manners of those with whom they have to deal…. We are steaming down to Hong-Kong on a beautiful fresh morning. I feel as if I was a step on my way home.

At Hong-Kong he remained nearly a fortnight, that his ship might be fitted to go to the North: his letter for Pekin being sent on, in the meantime, to Shanghae, by the hands of his secretary, Mr. Oliphant.[1]

February 26th.—To-morrow this letter goes, and still no mail from England. I think of starting in a few days, and calling at the other ports—Foochow, Amoy, and Ningpo. I have a line from Oliphant, who took up my letter to Shanghae, and made a quick though rough passage. We shall be a good deal longer on the way, and my captain advises me to be off, to anticipate the equinox. I have just written a despatch to Lord Clarendon, to tell him that perhaps I may go direct from Shanghae to Japan, and so home. It is almost too good a prospect to be realised.

[Sidenote: Home news.]

February 27th.—I had Reed to dine with me yesterday. He is off this morning to Manila, en route for Shanghae. The Russian returns on Monday, and we are going to Shanghae by the same route most fraternally…. Your accounts of the boys make me feel as if I had been an age away from home. God grant that I may get through this business soon, and return to find you all flourishing!

March 1st.—I received your letters yesterday…. How I wish that I had joined that merry dance on Christmas Day at Dunmore, and seen B. and R. performing their reel steps, and F.[2] snapping his fingers! You knew now how differently my New Year was passed—traversing that vast city of the dead—meditating over that 28th December which Herod had already hallowed…. These letters are my conscience and memory, the only record I keep of passing emotions and events…. Depend upon it the true doctrine is one I have before propounded to you: Do nothing with which your own conscience can reproach you; nothing in its largest sense; nothing, including omission as well as commission; not nothing only in the meaning of having done no ill, but nothing also in the meaning of having omitted no opportunity of doing good. You are then well with yourself. If it is worth while to be well with others—SUCCEED.

[Sidenote: Swatow.]

H.M.S. 'Furious,' Swatow.—March 5th.—I am again on the wide ocean, though for the moment at anchor…. The settlement here is against treaty. It consists mainly of agents of the two great opium- houses, Dent and Jardine, with their hangers-on. This, with a considerable business in the coolie trade—which consists in kidnapping wretched coolies, putting them on board ships where all the horrors of the slave-trade are reproduced, and sending them on specious promises to such places as Cuba—is the chief business of the 'foreign' merchants at Swatow. Swatow itself is a small town some miles up the river. I can only distinguish it by the great fleet of junks lying off it. The place where the foreigners live is a little island, barren, but nicely situated at the mouth of the river. A number of Chinese are resorting to it, and putting up rather good houses for Chinese. The population has a better appearance than the Cantonese. The men powerful and frank-looking, and some of the women not quite hideous. Our people get on very well with the natives here. They have no consuls or special protection; so they act, I presume, with moderation, and matters go on quite smoothly. I went into the house of one of the 'Shroffs' (bankers or money-dealers) connected with Jardine's house, and I found the gentleman indulging in his opium-pipe. He gave us some delicious tea…. The Shroffs here are three brothers. They came from Canton, their father remained behind. The mandarins wanting money to carry on the war with us, called upon him to pay 12,000 taels about 4,000_l_. They used him as the screw to get this sum from his sons who were in foreign employ. Though the old man had resolved to leave his home and his patch of ground rather than pay, his sons provided the money and sent him back. Such cases are constantly occurring here, and they show bow strong the family affections are in China.

[Sidenote: Rough justice.]

Another case was mentioned to me yesterday, which illustrates the very roundabout way in which justice is arrived at among us all here. The coolies in a French coolie ship rose. The master and mate jumped overboard, and the coolies ran the ship on shore, where the crew had their clothes, &c., taken from them, but were otherwise well treated. On this a French man-of-war comes, proceeds to Swatow, which is fifty miles from the scene of the occurrence, and informs the people that they will bombard the place immediately unless 6,000 dollars are paid. They got the money, but the mandarins at once squeezed it out of these same Shroffs, saying, that as they brought the barbarians to the spot, they must pay for the damages they inflicted. Meanwhile, the 'foreigners' have it, I apprehend, much their own way. They are masters of the situation, pay no duties except tonnage dues, which are paid by them at about one-third of the amount paid by native vessels of the same burthen!

[Sidenote: Mr. Burns.]

Hearing that Mr. Burns, a missionary, whose case is narrated in the series of 'insults by the Chinese authorities' submitted to Parliament (he having been in fact very kindly treated, as he himself acknowledges), was at the island, I invited him to breakfast. I found him a very interesting person, really an enthusiastic missionary, and kindly in his feelings towards the Chinese. He wears the Chinese attire, not as a disguise, but to prevent crowds being attracted by his appearance. He does not boast of much success in converting, but the Chinese are very willing to listen to him and to take books. They approve of all books that inculcate virtue, morality, &c., but they have no taste for the distinctive doctrines of Christianity. As Yeh said, when a Bible was presented to him from the Bishop:—'I know that book quite well, a very good book. It teaches men to be virtuous, like the Buddhistic books;' and then turning very politely to his captain, 'Will you be good enough to take care of this book till I want it.'

The country in this neighbourhood is very lawless. Burns, a few days before he was arrested, slept with his two companions, two native Christians, in a large village. During the night the house he was in was broken into, and all they had stolen. Nothing remained but a few of their books, which they carried tied to sticks over their shoulders. A peasant came up to him and said, 'I see you are not accustomed to carry loads,' and took his burden and carried it for him six miles, asking for nothing in return. Other natives bought the books (they had previously given them gratuitously), and thus they got money enough to go on with. When they got into this principal town, and were arrested by the police, the authorities seemed rather to regret it. They underwent some interrogatories which Burns seems to have turned into a sort of sermon, for he went at length into Christian teaching, and the judges listened most complacently. They confined them in prison, but did everything they could to make Burns himself comfortable. His companions were not so well treated. He joined them at one time at his own request, under circumstances curiously illustrative of Chinese manners. A subordinate of the gaoler with whom he was lodged died from swallowing opium. The gaoler was at once held responsible, and his house was mobbed. On which Mr. Burns, not knowing the cause of the disturbance, asked to rejoin his companions. He found them shut up in a very loathsome cell, with several other prisoners; a place something like my Canton prisons; but he said they did very well while there, for they were able to preach to the other prisoners. At one of the interrogatories, one of his companions, the more zealous of the two, on being asked why he had brought a foreigner to the place, answered that it was because he was a Christian, and that their books said, 'It is better to die with the wise than to live with fools.' This sentiment was not considered complimentary by the mandarins, who immediately ordered him to be beaten, upon which he got ten blows on each side of his face with an instrument like the sole of a shoe. Mr. B. told this story, but added that he believed the beating had been determined on before, for his other companion, who was the more worldly of the two, and who had probably found his way to the heart of the gaoler, was told that he too would be beaten that day, but that the blows would be laid on by a friendly hand, and that if he kept his cheek loose, he would not feel them much.

[Sidenote: Amoy.]

March 8th.—We are entering Foochow; a most beautiful day; the sea smooth as glass. We left Amoy last night. I went to church in the forenoon at the Consulate. An American missionary preached. There are several missionaries at Amoy. They have, as they say, about 300 converts. The foreigners and natives get on very well there. The town is a poor enough place, and the island seems rocky and barren. How it can sustain the great population which inhabits the villages that cover it is a mystery.

March 14th.—A vessel from Shanghae brought me this morning a letter from Oliphant, which shows that he has got well through the business which I entrusted to him.[3] He went with my letter for the Prime Minister of the Emperor to a city named Soochow, which is not open to foreigners, and which is moreover the seat of beauty and fashion in the empire, and he seems to have been well received. This is a good sign. An edict has moreover been issued by the Emperor degrading Yeh, and moderate in its tone as regards foreigners. All this looks as if there would be at Pekin a disposition to settle matters. God grant that it may be so, that I may get home, and not be required to do farther violence to these poor people.

[Sidenote: Foochow.]

The scenery of Foochow and its neighbourhood struck him as singularly beautiful. Even in an official despatch we find him writing of it as follows:—

With the exception perhaps of Chusan, I have as yet seen no place in China which, in point of beauty of scenery, rivals Foochow. The Min river passes to the sea between two mountain ranges, which, wherever the torrents have not washed away every particle of earth from the surface, are cultivated by the industrious Chinese in terraces to their very summits. These mountain ranges close in upon its banks during the last part of its course: at one time confining it to a comparatively narrow channel, and at another suffering it to expand into a lake; but in the vicinity of the Pagoda Island they separate, leaving between them the plain on which Foochow stands. This plain is diversified by hill and dale, and comprises the Island of Nantai, which is the site of the foreign settlement. At the season of my visit, both hills and plain were chiefly covered with wheat; but I was informed that the soil is induced, by irrigation and manure applied liberally, to yield in many cases, besides the wheat crop, two rice crops during the year. We walked with perfect freedom, both about the town and into the surrounding country. Nothing could be more courteous than the people of the villages, or more quaint than the landscape, consisting mainly of hillocks dotted with horseshoe graves, and monuments to the honour of virtuous maidens and faithful widows, surrounded by patches of wheat and vegetables. Kensal Green or Père la Chaise, cultivated as kitchen gardens, would not inaptly represent the general character of the rural districts of China which I have visited.

In some respects, however, the impression was not so satisfactory. In his journal he says:—

The people whom we met in our peregrinations were perfectly civil. The Consul, too, and Europeans were civil likewise. They were willing to give me information. I do not know that I carried much away with me, except the general impression, that our trade is carried on on principles which are dishonest as regards the Chinese, and demoralising to our own people.

[Sidenote: American missionaries.]

At Foochow, I saw one of the American missionaries, a very worthy man I should think, but not of the stamp of Mr. Burns. He had been about eight years at Foochow, and he computed the converts made by himself and his brother missionaries at fifteen. He said that they were particular as to the conduct of their converts; but I cannot affirm that he satisfied me that they accepted in any very earnest way the peculiar doctrines of Christianity. However, I daresay that these missionaries do good, for the Chinese are not fanatics, and it must do them a benefit to see among them some foreigners who are not engaged exclusively in money-making.

[Sidenote: Chinhae.]

March 16th.—We are at anchor off Chinhae at the mouth of the river which leads to Ningpo. We have just returned from a walk on shore. We passed through a small walled town, and climbed up a hill to a temple on the summit, from which we had a magnificent prospect. On the east and north, the sea studded with the islands of the Chusan group; on the west, a rich plain, through which the river meanders on its way from Ningpo; on the north, a succession of mountain ranges. We were accompanied by some curious but good-natured Chinamen, who seemed anxious to give us information. A very dirty lad, without a tail, proved to be the priest. After looking about us for some time, we entered the building; which contained a sort of central shrine, in which were some gilt figures of large size, besides rows of smaller gilt figures round the walls. I observed a number of slips of paper with Chinese characters upon them; and being told that they were used for divination purposes, I asked how it was done: upon which one of the Chinamen took from before the shrine a thing like a match-holder, full of bits of stick like matches, and kneeling down on a hassock, began to shake this case till one of the bits of stick fell out. He picked it up, and finding a single notch upon it, selected from the slips of paper which I had noticed the one which had a corresponding mark. We carried it away, and I intend to get Mr. Wade to translate it that I may send it to you. The other Chinamen present seemed very much amused at what was going on. They do not appear to have a particle of reverence for their religion, and yet they spend a good deal of money on their temples.

Wade's teacher (so the Chinaman who aids him in the work of interpretation is styled) has told him that the lot which fell to me at the Buddhist temple is the No. 1 lot, the most fortunate of all. Their system of divination is rather complicated, but, as I understand it, it appears to be that Noah, or some one who lived about his time, discovered eight symbols on the back of a tortoise. These, multiplied into themselves, make sixty-four, which constituted the Book of Fate. It appears that my lot is the first of the eight, and therefore the best that can be got!

[Sidenote: Ningpo.]

Ningpo.—March 18th.—We arrived here yesterday, and I have been walking both days about the town with Mr. Meadows, the author, who is vice-consul here. I am disappointed with the city, of which I had heard a great deal. But the people are even more amiable than at any other place I have visited. Oliphant has rejoined us in high spirits, after his visit to Soochow. I cross-examined a Church of England clergyman about his converts. When pressed, he could only name one who seemed to be conscious of the want which we believe to be supplied by the Atonement. About 100, however, including children, attend churches in Ningpo, of whom thirty have been baptized.

Ningpo was one of the places which had been treated with more than ordinary severity in the last war. It was also one of the places in which the natives showed the most friendly disposition towards foreigners. To the resident traders the inference was obvious: the severity was the cause of the friendly disposition, and it had only to be applied elsewhere to produce the like results. With evident satisfaction Lord Elgin sets himself, in an official despatch, to refute this reasoning. After observing that the natives showed rather an exaggeration than a defect of the desire to live peaceably with foreigners, he proceeds:—

The state of Ningpo in this respect furnishes their favourite and, perhaps, most plausible argument, to that class of persons who advocate what is styled a vigorous policy in China; in other words, a policy which consists in resorting to the most violent measures of coercion and repression on the slenderest provocations. They say, 'Remember what happened at Ningpo during the last war, and observe the consideration and respect which is evinced towards you there. Treat other towns in China likewise, and the result will be the same.' I question the soundness of this inference. Ningpo is situated on the south-eastern verge of the mighty valley of the Yang-tze-kiang, which is inhabited by a population the most inoffensive, perhaps, both by disposition and habit, of any on the surface of the earth. Their amenity towards the foreigner is due, I apprehend, to temperament, as much, at least, as to the recollection of the violence which they may have sustained at his hands.

I have made it a point, whenever I have met missionaries or others who have penetrated into the interior from Ningpo and Shanghae, to ask them what treatment they experienced on those expeditions, and the answer has almost invariably been that, at points remote from those to which foreigners have access, there was no diminution, but on the contrary rather an enhancement, of the courtesy exhibited towards them by the natives.

[Sidenote: Missionary schools.]

H.M.S. 'Furious.'—March 20th.—Yesterday, I called on a clergyman to see Miss Aldersey,—a remarkable lady, who came out here immediately after the last war, and has been devoting herself and her fortune to the education and Christianisation of the Chinese at Ningpo. She seems a nice person, but I could not get as much conversation with her as I wished, because the Bishop, &c., were present all the time. She has to pay the girls a trifle, as an equivalent for what their labour is worth, for coming to her school, or to board them and keep them, as it is not at all in the ideas of the Chinese that women should be educated. She does not seem to have got the entrée into Chinese houses of the richer class. Mrs. Russell (wife of the English clergyman), who speaks the language, has obtained it a little. I cannot make out that, when she visits them, they ever talk of anything except where she got her dress, &c.; but on great occasions, when they assemble for ceremonies in the temples, they seem very devout. In private they treat these matters with great indifference. I had some of the missionaries to dinner. They put the converts at a larger number than I understood Mr. Russell to do, but otherwise their report did not differ materially from his.

[Sidenote: Chusan.]
[Sidenote: French missionary.]

Chusan.—March 21st.—This is a most charming island. How any people, in their senses, could have preferred Hong-Kong to it, seems incredible. The people too, that is to say, the lower orders, seem really to like us. We walked through the town of Tinghae, and asked at the shop of a seller of perfumed sticks for the 'Mosquito tobacco,' but in vain. We then passed through the further gate of the city into the country beyond, and seeing something like a chapel, made towards it. A man, dressed as a Chinaman, came out to meet us. He addressed us in French, and proved to be a Roman Catholic priest. He was very civil, and asked us into his house, where he gave us some tea, grown on his own farm. He has been here two years quite alone, and he was ten years before in the province of Kiangsù. He says that he has some 200 converts. Some twenty boys, deserted children, he brings up, and works on his farm. I saw them, and I must say I never beheld a more happy and well-conditioned set of boys. In the town was an establishment for younger children, chiefly girls, under the charge of a Chinese female convert. After he had given us tea, the missionary accompanied us in our walk. He first took us to a sort of cottage- villa, belonging to one of the rich inhabitants, consisting of about a couple of acres of ground, covered by kiosks and grottos and dwarf- trees, and ups and downs and zigzags,—all in the most approved Chinese fashion. From thence we clambered up a mountain of, I should think, some 1,200 feet in height, from which we had a very extensive view, and beheld ranges of hills, separated by cosy valleys, on one side; on the other, the walled city of Tinghae, surrounded by rice- fields; beyond, the sea studded with islands of the Chusan group. It was a beautiful view, and we returned to the ship very much pleased with our scramble.

[Sidenote: Scenery.]

March 22nd.—I have just returned from a walk to the top of a hill, on the opposite side of the flat on which the town is situated from that which we mounted yesterday. The day is charming, clear, with a fanning, bracing air. We had a finer view almost than yesterday. The same character of scenery all round the island. Spacious flats on the sea-board under irrigation; about one-half of the fields covered (now) with water, and the other half in crop, chiefly beans, wheat, and rape, which, with its yellow flower, gives warmth to the colouring of the landscape; these flats, fringed by hills of a goodly height—say from 600 to 1,200 feet,—which cluster together as they recede from the sea-board, compressing the flats into narrow valleys, and finally extinguishing them altogether. The hills themselves barren, with patches here and there of Chinese cultivation and fir plantations, the first I have seen in China. Turn your eyes to the sea, and you have before you innumerable islands dotting its surface, the same in character, though smaller in size, than that on which you are standing. I have seldom seen a more delightful spot. In going on our walk, we passed by the burying-ground of the British who died while we occupied the island, and we did something to put order among their neglected graves. On our return, we passed by a cottage where an old lady was seated at her spinning-wheel. I entered. She received us most courteously, placed chairs for us, and immediately set to work to prepare tea. When she found that one of the party was a doctor, a son (grown up) was produced who was suffering from ague. We brought him on board, and gave him some quinine. He showed us the medicine he was taking. It appeared to be a sort of mash of bits of bamboo and all sorts of vegetable ingredients. The doctor who tried it said it had no taste. I should mention that at the landing-place we met some of the French, missionary's boys, who brought me a present of eggs and fowls and salad from the farm, in return for a dollar which I gave them yesterday to buy cakes withal.

[Sidenote: Potou.]
[Sidenote: Bonzes.]

March 23rd.—We set off this morning to visit Potou.[4] After lauding on the beach, we proceeded along a spacious paved path to a monastery, in a very picturesque spot under the grey granite hills. We entered the buildings, which were like all other Buddhistic temples —the same images, &c.—and were soon surrounded by crowds of the most filthy and miserable-looking bonzes, some clad in grey and some in yellow. All were very civil, however, and on the invitation of the superior—who had a much more intelligent look than the rest—we went into an apartment at the side of the temple and had some tea. After a short rest we proceeded on our way, and mounted a hill about 1,500 feet in height, passing by some more temples on the way. I never saw human beings apparently in a lower condition than these bonzes, though some of the temples were under repair, and on the whole tolerably cared for. The view from the top of the hill was magnificent, and there was glorious music here and there, from the sea rolling in upon the sandy beach. We met some women (not young ones) going up the hill in chairs to worship at the temples, and found, in some, individuals at their devotions. In one there was a monk, hidden behind a great drum, repeating in a plaintive tone, over and over again, the name of Buddha, 'ameta fo,' or something like that sound. I observed some with lumps on the forehead, evidently produced by knocking it against the ground. The utter want of respect of these people for their temples, coupled with this asceticism and apparent self-sacrifice in their religion, is a combination which I cannot at present understand. It has one bad effect, that in the plundering expeditions which we Christians dignify with the name of war in these countries, idols are ripped up in the hope of finding treasure in them, temple ornaments seized, and in short no sort of consideration is shown for the religious feelings of the natives.

The following notice of the same sacred island occurs in one of his despatches:—

I trust that I may be permitted to offer one remark in reference to Potou, an islet adjoining Chusan, which I touched at on my way from the latter place to Chapoo. Little information, of course, was to be gathered there on questions directly affecting trade or politics, for it is a holy spot, exclusively appropriated to temples in tinsel and bonzes in rags; but it was impossible to wander over it as I did, visiting with entire impunity its most sacred recesses, without being forcibly reminded of the fact that one, at least, of the obstacles to intercourse between nations, which operates most powerfully in many parts, especially of the East, can hardly be said to exist in China. The Buddhistic faith does not seem to excite in the popular mind any bigoted antipathy to the professors of other creeds. The owner of the humblest dwelling almost invariably offers to the foreigner who enters it the hospitable tea-cup, without any apparent apprehension that his guest, by using, will defile it; and priests and worshippers attach no idea of profanation to the presence of the stranger in the joss-house. This is a fact, as I humbly conceive, not without its significance, when we come to consider what prospect there may be of our being able to extend and multiply relations of commerce and amity with this industrious portion of the human race.

The private journal proceeds:—

March 24th.—We are gliding through a perfectly smooth sea, with islands on both sides of us, on a beautifully calm and clear day, warmer than of late, but still tart enough to feel healthy. We passed a fleet of some hundreds of junks, proceeding northward under convoy of some lorchas of the 'Arrow' class, carrying flags which they probably have no right to. These lorchas exact a sort of black mail from the junks, and plunder them whenever it is more profitable to do so than to protect them. They often have Europeans on board. Poor Yeh has suffered severely for our sins in respect to this description of craft. We are on our way to Chapoo now, a port not opened to trade, but one which I am ordered by the Government to induce the Chinese to open. As it is very little out of the way to Shanghae, I wish to look at it in passing.

[Sidenote: Chapoo.]

March 25th.—We reached Chapoo at about 5 P.M. I did not land, but some of the party did, and mounted a hill from whence they looked down upon a walled town of no great size, and a plain, perfectly flat, stretching for any number of miles beyond it. The people, as usual, were civil, and made no difficulties, although we have no right to land there. The bay in which we anchored is open, and not in any particular way interesting. At about three this morning we started, and have been favoured with as good a day as yesterday. We have had nothing of the bold coasts of previous days, and passed occasionally islands flatter than those seen before. We are now in the mouth of the Yang-tze-kiang, with a perfectly flat and low shore on one side, and an equally flat one just discoverable with the aid of the telescope on the other. A good many junks are sailing about us, their dark sails filled with a lively breeze. Before us is a large man-of-war, which I am just told is the American 'Minnesota.' So our cruise is coming to an end, which I regret, as it has been a very pleasant break, and at least for the time has kept me out of reach of the bothers of my mission. We have reason too to be most thankful for the weather with which we have been favoured, and if Mr. Reed is before me he cannot complain, as I am here on the very day on which I said I should reach Shanghae. This is a very strange coast. The sea seems to be filling up with the deposits of the rivers. We have an island (inhabited) beside us, which did not exist a few years ago. We have not during all yesterday and to-day had ever more than eight fathoms of water.

[Sidenote: Shanghae.]

Shanghae had been named as the rendezvous for the Allied Powers. There, as he had written to the Emperor's Prime Minister, 'the Plenipotentiaries of England and France would be prepared to enter into negotiations for the settlement of all differences existing between their respective Governments and that of China with any Plenipotentiary, duly accredited by the Emperor, who might present himself at that port before the end of the month of March.' There he still fondly hoped to find his Hercules' Pillar. 'If I can only conclude a treaty at Shanghae,' so he wrote when starting from Canton, 'and hasten home afterwards!'

The place was well chosen for the purpose; not only as the most northerly of the Treaty ports, and therefore nearest to the capital, but also as the most flourishing stronghold of European influence and civilisation then existing in China. 'I was struck,' wrote Lord Elgin in one of his despatches, 'by the thoroughly European appearance of the place; the foreign settlement, with its goodly array of foreign vessels, occupying the foreground of the picture; the junks and native town lying up the river, and dimly perceptible among the shadows of the background; spacious houses, always well, and often sumptuously, furnished; Europeans, ladies and gentlemen, strolling along the quays; English policemen habited as the London police; and a climate very much resembling that which I had experienced in London exactly twelve months before, created illusions which were of course very promptly dissipated.'

[Sidenote: Message from Pekin.]

Dissipated too was the hope in which he had indulged, of a speedy termination to his labours; for he was met by a message from the Prime Minister, that 'no Imperial Commissioner ever conducted business at Shanghae; that a new Commissioner had been sent to Canton to replace Yeh; and that it behoved the English Minister to wait in Canton, and there make his arrangements.' This, of course, was not to be thought of; and nothing remained but to move onwards towards Pekin, and apply some more direct pressure to the Emperor and his capital.

March 29th.—Shanghae.—Here I am in the Consul's house, a very spacious mansion. The climate, character of the rooms, &c., all make me feel in Europe again. I reached this harbour on the 26th, but only landed to-day. Mr. Reed and Count Putiatine arrived before me, but Baron Gros has not yet made his appearance. The Prime Minister of the Emperor says that he cannot write to me himself, but sends me a message through the Governor-General of the province to say that a Commissioner has been sent to Canton by the Emperor to replace Yeh, and that I must go there and settle matters with him. This will never do, so I must move on to the mouth of the Peiho. I am only waiting for Gros and the Admiral before I start. The Shanghae merchants presented an address to me to-day, and as I was obliged to say something in reply, I thought that I might as well take advantage of the opportunity to let the Chinese (who are sure to get a translation of my answer) know, that there is no chance of my going back to Canton. I also endeavoured to give the British manufacturers a hint that they must exert themselves and not trust to cannon if they intend to get a market in China.

The views to which he here refers were expressed in his reply in the following forcible language:—

[Sidenote: Reply to merchants' address.]

In my communication with the functionaries of the Chinese Government, I have been guided by two simple rules of action: I have never preferred a demand which I did not believe to be both moderate and just, and from a demand so preferred I have never receded. These principles dictated the policy which resulted in the capture and occupation of Canton. The same principles will be followed by me, with the same determination, to their results, if it should be necessary to repeat the experiment in the vicinity of the capital of the Emperor of China.

The expectations held out to British manufacturers at the close of the last war between Great Britain and China, when they were told 'that a new world was opened to their trade so 'vast that all the mills in Lancashire could not make stocking-stuff sufficient for one of its provinces,' have not been realised; and I am of opinion that when force and diplomacy shall have done all that they can legitimately effect, the work which has to be accomplished in China will be but at its commencement.

When the barriers which prevent free access to the interior of the country shall have been removed, the Christian civilisation of the West will find itself face to face, not with barbarism, but with an ancient civilisation in many respects effete and imperfect, but in others not without claims on our sympathy and respect. In the rivalry which will then ensue, Christian civilisation will have to win its way among a sceptical and ingenious people, by making it manifest that a faith which reaches to Heaven furnishes better guarantees for public and private morality than one which does not rise above the earth.

At the same time the machina-facturing West will be in presence of a population the most universally and laboriously manufacturing of any on the earth. It can achieve victories in the contest in which it will have to engage only by proving that physical knowledge and mechanical skill, applied to the arts of production, are more than a match for the most persevering efforts of unscientific industry.

The journal proceeds as follows, under date of the 29th of March:—

I shall be a little curious to see my next letters. The truth is, that the whole world just now are raving mad with a passion for killing and slaying, and it is difficult for a person in his sober senses like myself to keep his own among them. However I shall be glad to see what Parliament says about Canton.

[Sidenote: Baths for the million.]
[Sidenote: Malevolence towards Chinese.]

March 30th.—Baron Gros arrived to-day. I forgot to mention that I visited the town of Shanghae yesterday, and among other things went into a bathing establishment, where coolies were getting steamed rather than bathed at rather less than a penny a head, which penny includes, moreover, a cup of tea. So that these despised Chinamen have bathing-houses for the million. With us they are a recent invention: they have had them, I believe, for centuries. I am told that they are much used by the labouring class. I was struck by an instance of the malevolence towards the Chinese, which I met with to-day. Baron Gros told me that a boat with some unarmed French officers and seamen got adrift at a place called the Cape of Good Hope, as he was coming up from Hong-Kong. They found themselves off an island, on the shore of which a crowd of armed Chinese collected. Their situation was disagreeable enough. Next day, however, the body of the Chinese dispersed, and a few who remained came forward in the kindest manner offering them food, &c. They stated that they came down in arms to defend themselves, fearing that they were pirates, but that as they were peaceful people they were glad to serve them. I have heard the first part of this story from two other quarters, but the latter part was in both cases omitted.

[Sidenote: Burial practices.]

April 3rd.—I took another walk yesterday into the country, and saw a kind of tower where dead children, whom the parents are too poor to bury, are deposited. It is a kind of pigeonhouse about twenty feet high, and the babies are dropped through the pigeon-holes. After that I walked into a spacious building where coffins containing dead bodies are stored, awaiting a lucky day for the burial, or for some other reason. The coffins are so substantial and the place so well ventilated that there was nothing at all disagreeable in it. There is something touching in the familiarity with which the Chinese treat the dead.

[Sidenote: Roman Catholic mission.]

Shanghae.—Easter Sunday.—I have been at church…. In the afternoon I walked to the Roman Catholic cathedral, which is about three miles from the Consulate. I found a really handsome, or at any rate spacious, building, well decorated. The priests were very civil. They count 80,000 converts (a considerable portion, I take it, descendants of the Christian converts made by the missionaries ages ago) in this province. It is impossible to help contrasting their proceedings with those of the Protestants. They come out here to pass the whole of their lives in evangelising the heathen, never think of home, live on the same fare and dress in the same attire as the natives. The Protestants (generally) hardly leave the ports, where they have excellent houses, wives, families, go home whenever self or wife is unwell, &c. I passed an American missionary's house yesterday. It was a great square building, situated in a garden, and at the entrance gate there was a modest barn-like edifice, large enough to hold about twenty sitters, which on inquiry I found to be the church. These people have excellent situations, good salaries, so much for every child, allowances for sickness, &c. They make hardly any converts, but then they console themselves by saying, that the Roman Catholics who make all these sacrifices do it from a bad motive, teach idolatry, &c. I cannot say, but I must admit that the priests whom I met to-day talked like very sensible men, and that the appearance of the young Chinamen (séminaristes) whom I saw was most satisfactory. They had an intelligent, cheerful look, greatly superior to that of the Roman Catholic seminarists generally in Europe. The priests bear testimony to their aptitude in learning, their docility and good conduct. They have an organ in the cathedral, the pipes of which are all made of bamboo. It seems to have an excellent tone.

[Sidenote: and college.]

April 7th.—I went on Monday to visit a college which the priests have about six miles off, with about seventy scholars. It appeared to be in good order. I walked back with a priest who had been in Canada in our time. He was talkative, and gave me a good deal of information about the Jesuits. It came on to rain very hard as we returned, but we found our letters from home to reward us on our arrival…. No doubt, as you say, one cannot help sometimes regretting that one is mixed up with so bad a business as this in China, but then in some respects it is a great opportunity for doing good, or at least for mitigating evil.

[Sidenote: American missionary.]

I had a visit to-day from Dr. B., who is, I believe, the most eminent of the American missionaries in China. He began by expressing his gratitude to me for the merciful way in which matters had been conducted at Canton, adding that they were bad people, that they insulted foreigners. He had lived among them fifteen years, and had never been insulted when alone. He always went about without even a stick, and they knew that he did not wish to injure them, &c. I then asked him whether there was not some inconsistency in what he had said about their treatment of himself and the epithet 'bad' which he had applied to them. He said that perhaps the word was too strong, that he was much attached to the Chinese, but that certain classes at Canton were no doubt very hostile to foreigners, and that the chastisement they had received was quite necessary. I really believe that what Dr. B. said is pretty nearly the truth of the case, and it is satisfactory to me that the fact that I laboured to spare the people should be known, known not only by those who approve, but by those who abhor clemency.

From the foregoing and similar extracts, it will be seen how much interest he took in the labours of the missionaries, and at the same time with what breadth and calmness of view he handled a subject peculiarly liable to exaggeration on one side or the other. During his stay at Shanghae, it was brought before him officially in the shape of an address from the Protestant missionaries of the port, praying him, in the first place, to obtain a separate decree of toleration in favour of Protestantism, distinct from that which the French had already obtained for the 'Religion of the Lord of Heaven;' and, in the second place, to procure for them greater liberty of travelling and preaching in all parts of China. His reply contained words of grave warning, which have a special interest when read by the light of recent events. After saying that 'it certainly appeared to him to be reasonable and proper that the professors of different Christian denominations should be placed in China on a footing of equality,' he proceeded as follows:—

[Sidenote: Reply to address of Protestant missionaries.]

I should be wanting in candour, however, if I were not to state that, in my opinion, the demands which you prefer involve, in some of their details and consequences, questions of considerable nicety.

Christian nations claim for their subjects or citizens, who sojourn in the East under heathen Governments, privileges of exterritoriality. They are bound, therefore, when they seek to extend their rights of residence and occupation, to take care that those exceptional privileges be not abused, to the prejudice of the countries conceding them.

I cannot say that I think that the Christian nations who have established a footing in China, under the sanction of treaty stipulations obtained by others, or in virtue of agreements made directly by the Chinese Governments with themselves, have in all cases duly recognised this obligation.

Unless I am greatly misinformed, many vile and reckless men, protected by the privileges to which I have referred, and still more by the terror which British prowess has inspired, are now infesting the coasts of China. It may be that for the moment they are able, in too many cases, to perpetrate the worst crimes with impunity; but they bring discredit on the Christian name; inspire hatred of the foreigner where no such hatred exists; and, as some recent instances prove, teach occasionally to the natives a lesson of vengeance, which, when once learnt, may not always be applied with discrimination.

But if the extension of the privileges of foreigners in China involves considerations of nicety, still more delicate are the questions which arise when it is proposed to confer by treaty on foreign Powers the right to interfere on behalf of natives who embrace their religion. It is most right and fitting that Chinamen espousing Christianity should not be persecuted. It is most wrong and most prejudicial to the real interests of the Faith that they should be tempted to put on a hypocritical profession in order to secure thereby the advantages of abnormal protection.