Canada and the States Part 33

In the sad years which followed my misfortune of 1846, previously alluded to, it was enough for me, wearily, to get through the work of the day, and then to return to a home where there has always been sympathy, kindness, and cheerfulness in the darkest and most anxious hours of laborious and self-denying lives. In those years I rarely saw any of my old friends of prominence and station. My wife and I lived the lives of recluses until clouds ceased to lower. Health became restored, a moderate and augmenting fortune, laid in the foundations of carefulness, came to us; and we at last emerged into daylight, again.

When in Parliament, in 1857, I made a speech in the House of Commons, which some thought timely, upon the then pressing question of Indian railways. Mr. Disraeli did me the honor to listen to what I had to say.

After his lamented death, one of his executors handed back to me, in an envelope, endorsed in his own hand, the letters which I had written to him in the years of the Manchester Athenaeum.

I may add, that Mr. Disraeli's ear was always open to me during the struggles for the Intercolonial Railway as a means, and the Confederation of the British Provinces in America as the great end, of our efforts. He was strongly in favour of Confederation; and, just as we owe the establishment of a Crown Colony in British Columbia to the sagacity of Bulwer Lytton, so we owe the final realization of Confederation, through the pa.s.sing of an Act by the Queen, Lords, and Commons of Great Britain and Ireland, to the Government, no less sagacious on this question, of Lord Beaconsfield.

I think the following letters reflect no discredit upon my motives,-- neither self-seeking nor selfish. At the same time they are further evidence of Mr. Disraeli's thorough kindness and feeling of justice towards all who had, in his judgment, "deserved well of their country."

"LONDON, "_3rd August, 1867_.

"DEAR SIR,

"On my return from Scotland yesterday I learnt, confidentially, that you had been good enough to propose to present my name to the Queen for the honour of knighthood, in consideration of my services in connection with the union of the British North American Provinces under the Crown, and with their Intercolonial Railway. And I see that a semi-official statement to that effect is in some of the papers. Will you permit me to thank you very sincerely for such a recognition of the services of a political opponent whose known opinions will protect him from the suspicion of receiving, and you from that of giving, an unworthy reward.

"But the mail brings me tidings from Canada which convince me that the French Canadian population at large look upon the course pursued towards Messrs. Cartier and Langevin in the recent distribution of honors as an act of indifference towards themselves. It might be possible, therefore--but you will be the best judge--that the honor now proposed for me might lead to an aggravation of this feeling of dissatisfaction, which arises at the very inopportune moment of the birth of the 'new Dominion.'

"I think, therefore, that I should be as deficient in public duty as in generosity, if I did not evince my grat.i.tude for your unsolicited remembrance by saying that, should the difficulty I allude to be found really to exist, I shall not feel myself slighted or aggrieved should your kindness proceed no further, pending such an unfortunate state of feeling.

"I ought to add, that my late most kind and indulgent friend, the Duke of Newcastle, suggested some little time before his death an even higher reward for the services, which he alone knew the real extent of; but at my request it was postponed until--all the manifold difficulties being one by one cleared away--the great question of policy which he had so much at heart should be finally realized in legislation.

"Having thus been led almost, to rely upon some adequate recognition of several years' gratuitous and arduous exertion on both sides of the Atlantic, I feel the sacrifice I propose to make. But a desire to avoid aggravating this unfortunate misunderstanding induces me to trouble you now.

"I have the honour to be, dear Sir, "Yours very faithfully and obliged, "E. W. WATKIN.

"THE RT. HON. THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER."

"DOWNING STREET, S.W.

"_August 8, 1867_.

"DEAR SIR,

"I have had the honor of receiving your letter of the 3rd instant, in which you refer to the rumoured intention of Her Majesty's Government to recommend your name to the Queen for the honor of knighthood, in consideration of services connected with the International Colonial Railway, and the influence of that undertaking on the union of the British North American Provinces; and in which you state your apprehension, that such an intention, in consequence of the recent intelligence from Canada with respect to the distribution of honors, might prove embarra.s.sing to the Government.

"Under that impression you have, in a manner highly creditable to yourself, and most considerate to the Government, stated that you should not feel yourself slighted or aggrieved, if the views of Her Majesty's Government towards yourself were not proceeded with pending such an unfortunate feeling in Canada.

"It is quite true that it was the intention of Her Majesty's Government to recommend to Her Majesty to confer the honor of knighthood on you, in consideration of your services in question, thereby, as they believe, fulfilling the purpose of the late Duke of Newcastle, when his Grace was Secretary of State for the Colonies; but Her Majesty's Government, appreciating your motives in the suggestion which you have made, are of opinion that it may be expedient to suspend, for a time, conferring a distinction on you which, under the peculiar circ.u.mstances of the case, might occasion a painful, though an unfounded, feeling of jealousy.

"I have the honor to remain, "Dear Sir, yours faithfully, "B. DISRAELI.

"E. W. WATKIN, Esq., M.P."

Time went on, and, one morning in the summer of 1868, I received this letter:--

"10, DOWNING STREET, WHITEHALL, "_August 11, 1868_.

"MY DEAR MR. ROSE,

"The Queen has been graciously pleased to order, that letters patent should be prepared, to confer the honor of knighthood on Mr. Watkin, the Member for Stockport.

"As I know you take a great interest in the welfare of that gentleman, I have sent you this line, that you may be the first to know the distinction that awaits him.

"Sincerely yours, "B. DISRAELI.

"PHILIP ROSE, Esqre."

I may also add a curious bit of history of a personal character.

Mr. Disraeli was returned to Parliament, in 1837, for Maidstone, mainly, by the exertions and influence of his agent, Mr. Richard Hart, the eminent solicitor. Mr. Hart was my friend and agent on my return for the borough of Hythe, in 1874, and in 1880.

Mr. Hart had many interesting reminiscences of Mr. Disraeli to recount, and some day, in a more appropriate place, I hope to be able to recount them.

CHAPTER XXIII.

_Visits to Quebec and Portland, and Letters Home_, 1861.

Leaving Montreal by the night boat, I arrived at the wharf at Quebec; and, after a visit to the hotel and a walk round the city, called on Mr. Cartier, the Chief Minister of Canada, at the small house he then inhabited.

My first relation with Quebec was in acting as Honorary Secretary to a Committee in Manchester, which raised 7,500_l_. by subscription, and sent it out in money and goods to relieve the people, houseless and ruined by the great Quebec fires of May and July, 1845, when 3,015 houses were burnt down, and thousands of people were made homeless, and were starving. I also visited the city in 1851. Later on, in the year 1866, I was Chairman of the City of London Committee, which raised 23,800_l_. to alleviate the suffering caused by the great Quebec fire of that year.

In my walk round the city (in 1861) I was struck with the absence of precautions against fire, and the persistence in building wooden houses, when the cost of brick or stone could not be greatly more than of wood.

I may say, however, in my right as an old helper in these fire disasters, that on inspecting the city last September (1886), I was much impressed by the new building regulations in rigid force, and especially by the admirable system adopted for the effective repression of fires. There are central and subordinary fire stations, all connected together by telegraph and telephone. A constant watch is kept, engines are always ready to start off, and a sufficient number of men available for duty night and day.

But to come back to Mr. Cartier. After I had waited in his salon for a few minutes, he entered: A man under middle height, hair turning a little grey, eyes grey blue, sparkling and kindly; face almost Grecian; figure spare but muscular; well proportioned; manner full of almost southern fire, and restlessness. We discussed our Grand Trunk affairs.

I explained the objects of our draft Bill, which were few and simple-- (A) To raise 500,000_l_. as an "equipment" mortgage, to provide the railway with, much needed, plant and material; (B) to set aside all revenue derived from postal and military services; and upon the security of this revenue to issue "Postal and Military" Bonds, wherewith to pay the debts due by the Company in Canada and England.

These debts were pressing, and were large. (C) To alter the administration of the Company in such wise that while the executive work would be done in Canada, with Montreal as headquarters, the seat of government would be in London, the stock and bonds being mainly held in England. I think, at that time, there were not more than 20,000_l_. of the original issue of Ordinary Stock of the Grand Trunk held in Canada.

Mr. Cartier knew, of course, all the ins and outs of the Grand Trunk.

His Government had in previous years placed the loan of 3,100,000_l_. from Canada, expended in construction, behind other securities, to enable an issue of second bonds with which to complete the Trunk lines. But, unfortunately, as a condition of this concession, profitless branches were undertaken, branches, no doubt, locally useful, perhaps politically needful, but profitless nevertheless.

Mr. Cartier's sole query was, "Have you arranged with the Government at home as to the Military Revenue?"--to which I replied, that there was no occasion: the Government made no objection, and regularly paid the moderate charges made for the conveyance of men and material over the Railway: and we could, of course, if the Canadian Parliament pa.s.sed our draft Bill into an Act, appropriate these receipts in any way the Act directed. With the Canadian Government it was different. The Canadian Government had, so far, delayed any settlement of our accounts for the costly conveyance of mail matter, by special trains, over long distances, so timed as to suit the Province but not to suit the Grand Trunk pa.s.sengers; and one of my objects in coming out was to endeavour to induce Mr. Cartier and his colleagues to close up this pending matter for the past and to accord a just and adequate amount for the service of the future, such amount to be effective over a period of years. We then went into general conversation. I told Mr. Cartier I had been in Canada in 1851: and had at that time seen Papinean, Mackenzie, and others, whose resistance had led to peace and union, and greater liberty for all. This remark fired his eye; and he said, "Ah! it is eight years that I am Prime Minister of Canada; when I was a rebel the country was different, very different."

Mr. Cartier often preceded his observations, I believe, by the words "When I was a rebel;" and old George Crawford, of the Upper Province, a magnificent specimen of a Scotch Upper Canadian, once said, "Cartier, my frind, ye'll be awa to England and see the Queen, and when ye come bock aw that aboot ye're being a robbell, as no doobt ye were, will never be hard again. Ye'll begin, mon, 'When I was at Windsor Castle talking to the Queen.'" Years before, on Cartier being presented to the Queen by Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, he told Her Majesty that a Lower Canadian was "an Englishman who speaks French."

But Mr. Cartier had been a rebel; and a gallant and brave one. One of the incidents was, that when Sir John Colborne's troops invested the Chateau of St. Eustache, Cartier, a young man of nineteen, was lowered from a window at night, crawled along to the Cache, then under range of fire, and brought back a bag of cartridges strapped round his waist, to replenish the exhausted ammunition of the defenders of the Chateau. And I believe that he was hauled up again amidst a rain of bullets, having been discovered,--which bullets, fortunately for Canada, missed the "rebel."

I may here mention that in the autumn of 1865 I had a long interview with President Andrew Johnson, at the White House at Washington, having been introduced by Mr. Rice, of St. Paul's, Minnesota, a man to whom the United States and Canada are each deeply indebted, for the completion of railways from St. Paul's to the Hudson's Bay post of Fort Garry, now the thriving town of Winnipeg. The President told me he had that morning received a letter from the wife of the ex-President of the just defeated Southern Confederacy, which he said was "the reverse of complimentary." He read a sentence or two; and smiled quietly at a reference to his, as a.s.sumed by the lady, early occupation of journeyman tailor. President Davis was at the moment in prison in the case-mates of Fort Hatteras. "It is, of course, difficult to know what to do with him." Well, I said, "Mr. President, I remember when you were a Senator you said to those who talked secession, that if they carried out their threats, and you had your way, you would 'hang them as high as Haman.'"

The President paused, and then lifted his head and replied, "So I did, Sir. But we must look at things all round; consider faults on both sides, and that we have to be fellow-citizens in future." I added, "Mr.

President, I have just left Canada, and taken leave of Mr. Cartier, the Prime Minister of that country. The Queen has not a more loyal subject.

Yet, in 1839, he was a rebel in arms against the Crown. _He_ was a secessionist. For a while he was a refugee in the woods at Rouse's Point, on Lake Champlain. A reward of 500_l_. was offered for his apprehension. But our country removed grievances, recognized the equality of French and English Canadians, united the Provinces, and forgave the rebels. All that sad contest is now forgotten."