Canada and the States Part 34

The President seemed much struck, and, after a pause, he said, "Sir, will you say that again?" I repeated the words, and he scribbled, as I spoke, some notes on the blotter of the portfolio before him. He then said, "A countryman of mine has been over to your side of the Atlantic to teach you to tame horses. This gentleman, Mr. Rarey, uses what he calls 'mild force.' Mild force will probably be useful with us." The Fenian demonstrations in the United States against England were named as a breach of comity. The President said, sharply, "Why don't your people remonstrate? We hear no complaint."

To return to my narrative, Mr. Cartier arranged an interview for me with the Governor-General, Sir Edmund Head, and I presented my letters from Mr. Baring, and was a.s.sured of all the help he could give me.

"Your demands are very clear, and appear to me equally just. First you ask the Government of Canada to aid you in pa.s.sing a Bill through Parliament, which clearly is for the benefit of Canada, because it proposes to increase the efficiency of the railway service by a further outlay of capital, and also to pay off debt, a considerable part of which is incurred in Canada; and secondly, you ask for an immediate and just settlement of the charge for the conveyance by you of the mails."

The Governor-General then sent for Mr. John A.

Macdonald, who came immediately, and the conversation which had taken place was repeated.

This was the first time I had seen either Cartier, Sir Edmund Head, or Macdonald.

Sir Edmund Head was a tall stately man, with thoughtful brow, and complexion a little purpled by cardiac derangement. As the don of a college he would have been great, and in his sphere: as the Governor of a Province with a self-a.s.serting people, I doubt if he had found the true groove.

His despatches were scholastic essays. His simplest replies were grave and learned, sometimes too complex for ordinary comprehension. When he, subsequently, became Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, he tried to manage a profit-and-loss undertaking as if he were governing a province: just as when he governed a province he administered all things as if he were dealing with Russia in Europe. He was, however, a man of the kindest heart, and the strictest honor. But, after all, he was one of the round men put into the square holes of Provincial Government by the "authorities" at home. Still, on the whole, a n.o.ble character, and in very truth a gentleman. His chronic ailment led to some irritability of temper; and when, during the visit of the Prince of Wales, one of the Governor's aides-de-camp was pushed over from the steamer at Detroit by the press of the crowd, and fell into the water, Colonel Irving said:--"Ah! there was no danger whatever to ----'s life.

The Governor-General has blown him up so much that he could never sink." I was present at a farewell dinner to Sir Edmund Head at Mr.

Cartier's, at Quebec, in the winter of 1861-2. In response to the toast of his health, he alluded to his infirmity of temper, admitted his suffering--before concealed from outside people--and expressed his apologies in a manner so feeling and so gentle that the tears came into everybody's eyes. I heard more than one sob from men whose rough exterior disguised the real tenderness of their hearts.

Mr. John A. Macdonald entered the Governor-General's presence with a manly deference. I was at once struck by an odd resemblance in some of his features and expressions to Disraeli--dark curly hair, piercing eyes, aquiline nose, mouth sometimes firm, almost stern in expression, sometimes so mild that he seemed especially fitted to play with little children. I soon learned that, in tact, fixed purpose, and resources, he was ahead of them all. And, after watching his career for a quarter of a century, I have seen no reason to alter that opinion. He is the statesman of Canada--one of the ablest men on the Continent. I wish he administered the Colonial relations of the whole Empire. Had he done so for the last ten years we should have escaped our mistakes in South Africa, and the everlasting disgrace of Majuba Hill. Why is it that such men are excluded from office at home? Sir John A. Macdonald (then Mr. Macdonald) was once taken by me under the gallery, by special order of Mr. Speaker, to hear a "great" speech of Mr. Gladstone, whom he had not before heard. When we went away, I said: "Well, what do you think of him?" He replied: "He is a great rhetorician, but--he is not an orator." Would that men would not be carried away in a torrent of happy words. One hour of the late Patrick Smyth was, to my mind, worth a week of all the great rhetoricians.

A day or two after these interviews, the Hon. John Ross took me down to Portland, to have an interview with the Hon. A. T. Galt, the Finance Minister of Canada. I at once recognized in Mr. Galt a reduced likeness of his father. Mr. Galt was about five feet eleven: his father, who I had seen when a boy, about six feet four, and "buirdly" and stout in proportion. The father wore spectacles--the son did not. The father was the author of the "Annals of the Parish," "Laurie Todd," and many works greatly read when I was young. He was, also, the founder of the town of "Guelph," and of other towns in Upper Canada. If anyone wants to see an admirable likeness of him, he had better consult "Fraser's Magazine,"

of one of the issues of 1830 to 1833, and he will there find a rough engraving of the hoisting of the Union Jack at Guelph. Mr. Galt, _pere_, was so very large a man that Mr. Archibald Prentice, of the "Manchester Times," used to tell a story about his pointing Mr.

Galt out to a little humpbacked Scotchman in the High Street of Edinburgh: "Eh! Jamie, mon, there's the great Galt, author of the 'Annals of the Parish.'" "'Annals o' the Payrish,' Archie, hech, sirs, he's big eneuch to be the Payrish itself--let alone the annals o' it."

Mr. Galt, the Finance Minister, has done great services to Canada, and is doing them still, in developing the mineral resources of the West, and in other ways. Our conversation on Grand Trunk affairs was long and anxious. I could see that Mr. Galt would do everything in his power; but the public prejudice was strongly against the Grand Trunk. The Grand Trunk Arrangements Bill was pa.s.sed, as herein stated, in May, 1862; but, alas, the question of postal payments by Canada stood over till the end of 1864.

In reference to my visit, of 1861, so far as my personal journeyings were concerned, I will merely transcribe a few letters sent home.

"STEAMSHIP 'PERSIA'

"(in the Gulf of St. Lawrence), "_Sunday noon._

"I have not had a pen in hand for a week--not since I wrote just as we were coming to Cork.

"Just now the weather is as like that of last Sunday as one pea is to another--rain and mist--mist and rain! Yet we have, on the whole, had wonderful weather--little sea--little wind--little of anything very unpleasant--nothing unbearable.

"Our church-service is just over: the Captain reads prayers and a sermon, and does it very well: the sailors are dressed in their best, and behave with great decorum, but show some sleepiness: the day is wet, and that, and the general devoutness, draws a large congregation, --indeed, the cabin is full.

"And now for a long letter:--

"When I left off, before, we were coming to Cork. It was blowing and raining, and the atmosphere was thick with mist. We went on till six.

Captain looked anxious--the Cork pilot bothered, the pa.s.sengers ill- tempered, and everything had a dismal dampness about it. At last we stopped, and the big boilers sent out their steam through the waste pipe with a loud roar. Around us was nothing but _mist_--the, to me, nastiest form of fog. We could not see more than three times the length of the ship. We tried the lead twice, and the second time got soundings. We then fired a gun--then another--then a third. Then we moved on--then stopped--then moved on. The Captain sent for his chart, and put on his eye-gla.s.ses. The pilot stared out into the fog, and pointed first in one direction, then in another. All no use. We knew we _ought_ to be outside the Queenstown harbour--but we could see nothing. At last we heard a gun, and then in quick succession appeared a row boat and a steam tug with the pa.s.sengers and mails; and, the mist breaking a little, we saw the land right a-head of us, about half-a- mile off. It was disagreeable, but it got over; and now came the transfer of bags, luggage, and pa.s.sengers--only two or three of the latter. The tug came alongside and made fast, but there was a good deal of swell, and as she bobbed up and down it became highly amusing to see the crew and pa.s.sengers scramble up the ladder, which sometimes was perpendicular, and at other times almost flat, as it followed the altering level of the tug. The ladder got broken--two or three ropes snapped--a deal of profane swearing took place--but it got over, too.

"The tug brought the news--the Confederates had defeated the Federal forces at Mana.s.ses Junction--three thousand killed and wounded-- prisoners taken--artillery captured, &c., &c. I went up to one of the Misses Preston and hoped the news was happy--for she seemed delighted at what she had heard, and which then I had not. She said she 'did not quite know--it was for the South.' I replied that such news hardly could be happy for both sides, and, unless the news were _peace_, was unhappy for all the world. She did not quite agree--and then told me the tidings. But what a strange effect in such a little ship- confined community!

"The Southern people collected together in delight--the Northern in anger and disgust. The former predicted an early possession of Washington for the Palmetto flag; the latter talked of raising half-a- million of men, and 'crushing out' the South, right amain; while, as in any disaster, there is always someone to be blamed, many of the Northern men laid all the responsibility upon the 'lawyer-generals' and 'store-keeping-colonels,' who had a.s.sumed commands for which they were never fit. It is a sad, unhappy quarrel!

"But I must describe our circle to you. First, I should tell you that I have the honor to sit at the Captain's table, and on his left hand--a Miss Ewart sitting on his right. Our set consists of the Captain, Judkins--the right and left-hand pa.s.sengers as aforesaid--Col. Preston, Mrs. Preston and the three Misses Preston.

Mr. Stone, Col. Stewart, Miss Warde, Mr. Still, and Mr. Hutton, of Sheffield, and his daughter. We have 134 pa.s.sengers, _only_, on board--a slack muster, caused by the evil times in America--and all were at dinner on Sat.u.r.day, the day we sailed, but the wind, rain, mist, and misery of the next three days sent many of them below, and for those days we had plenty of elbow-room. The weather, however, improved, the sun got now and then out, though it has, so far, been anything but warm, and out came the sick people again in renovated appet.i.te--some epicurean and dainty, many others with a ravenous, all- devouring maw, reminding one of the 'worm that never dieth.'

"Now, Col. Preston is the late U.S. Amba.s.sador to Madrid, where he has resided officially, and with his family, for the four years of the Buchanan Presidency. He is now replaced, I think, by a Mr. Falkner. He is a tall, stout, gentlemanly man, but, while a perfect gentleman in his conversation, and having less of the American accent than most Americans, his manner is somewhat ungainly--perhaps owing to his make, which is large and a little inclining to the unwieldy.

"Mrs. Preston has an Americo-Grecian face, and is a 'grand-dame.' She talks of the blessings of slavery, and of the vain and self-recoiling efforts of her mother, who liberated many slaves and educated more, to reduce the evil; and is full of the troubles and robberies of foreign house-keeping and of the gossip of the diplomatic circle.

"Her daughters are high-spirited, good-humoured, large-sized girls-- fresh, natural and charming. One of them has a fine face with eyes of blue, just like those Bradley liked to paint--and the other two are good looking enough. They have, however, no conversation--lots of talk and gossip; much of it, too, amusing and quick witted, but it wants thought. They all come from Kentucky, where they are now going. Colonel Stewart is, I think, from Louisiana. He talks little, and does not interest me. Mr. Stone is a voluble high-spirited Northern man, with Southern tendencies. He says that the men who started this secession, and have made it what it is, ought (on both sides) to be hung, and he 'would go home on purpose.' It seems that a house in which he had a large sum has failed, and, to use a phrase I have heard both Mr.

Preston and himself make use of, the civil war has 'shocked' his property above one half, _i.e._ has reduced its value above one half. They all agree, in fact, that the value of all property has gone down at least half, a loss, if the nation had to sell up--which it has not, but has only to 'liquidate'--of a sum greater than required to buy up all the slaves and set them free. Credit is gone--the faith of the people in their Government is weakened, and thousands are ruined in every city in the land. Sad civil war! Our pa.s.sengers comprise all sorts of people--from all sorts of places, clothed in all sorts of dresses: anything will do at sea. We have, too, a good many old stagers of the Atlantic, who think nothing of 'going across.' This will console you--as you have to go 'across' next spring--to know that one man has been across 57 times, another 31, another 18, and another 13; and one lady has been 6--while the fat buxom stewardess has done a hundred, and is alive and well, and quite as ready to receive a half crown from a pa.s.senger, of any country, as ever!

"But I must give over writing for a little, till this breeze of wind is over.

"We have now only 1,000 miles to go, and shall be in New York on Wednesday.

"_Monday._

"We had a bad night, and I could not sleep for the row and the motion.

We have now got it over, and are going merrily along with a smart breeze, bright sun, and sparkling sea. It will be late on Wednesday, however, when we get in.

"A rough night at sea has its features. On board these ships there are strict rules and strict discipline. We breakfast, lunch, dine, and tea at hours which are kept to a moment. The bell rings, and down we sit.

Then the bar closes at 11, and all lights are put out at 12. The lights in the cabins are placed inside a part.i.tion, glazed with ground gla.s.s, so that there is no glare, and you cannot get at them. No loose lights are allowed, and a pa.s.senger who struck a light would be severely handled. These are proper precautions against fire, and should be obeyed. But at 12 we are in total darkness--the ship rolls and pitches --every now and then a sea strikes her, and burr--hush--swish--goes the water over her sides or bows, and along her decks.

Then the men above run about, ropes are pulled, sails set or taken in, and a general hullabaloo goes on--no doubt in the interest of the pa.s.sengers--but very disagreeable. Then the boatswain's whistle--Pee- ee-ee ah! Pee-ee-ee ah-h-h!--every now and then wakes you up. Light is a comfort, and darkness at sea seems to aggravate the strange feeling which now and then affects you, as you think you are following a great road without track or guide--save that which the stars, if visible, and the previous day's observations afford.

"On Sat.u.r.day morning (10 August) I was called up to see the Great Eastern: and certainly an immense steamer was making its way eastward, about 15 miles due north of us. You will see by the date of her arrival if she was the object we saw or not. Sat.u.r.day was very cold. We had heard at Queenstown, from a note from Capt. Stone to Judkins, that icebergs had been seen on the homeward pa.s.sage, and at 3 o'clock we saw ahead of us something which looked like the wreck of a steamer--but which was p.r.o.nounced to be ice. It was about 10 miles off. As we approached it we found it was a little mountain of ice, covering perhaps a couple of acres in area, and about 50 or 60 feet high. It a.s.sumed all sorts of shapes as we caught sight of it at different points--it looked, once, like a great lion crouching on the water--then it took an appearance like part of the causeway at Staffa. As soon as we got abreast of it we saw pack ice around it, and the light, then shining upon the whole ma.s.s, gave a fairy-like whiteness--transparent, snowy whiteness--which was very beautiful to see. While we were observing it, a great ma.s.s broke away, toppled over into the sea, sending up an immense snowy spray, and disappeared. The remainder stayed in sight, with the evening sun-light upon it, for a couple of hours.

"Yesterday, Sunday, morning, we sighted Cape Race, the eastern extremity of Newfoundland, and ran close in sh.o.r.e along a most desolate, dismal, coast, for a couple of hours. Abreast of the lighthouse and telegraph station a boat came off, and we pitched over a packet, with a little red flag attached, containing the latest news, to be telegraphed from thence to New York and other places, so that our pa.s.sing would be known that afternoon everywhere--and if the steamer had not left Halifax it might bring the news thence to England; thus you may know of our safe arrival, so far, by about the 18th or 19th. I hope you may, as it will relieve your mind from various fears about me.

It is very seldom indeed that the steamers actually sight Cape Race, as we did. However, we saw that desolate coast and the poor hermits of the place. Rounding the Cape, we enter the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which broke in rain and storm upon us. We saw several fishing sloops 'lying to,' to wait for better weather. These little craft are often run over by larger vessels, as they swarm in what is the great east and west track for steamers and other large ships; and when the wind is south, or south west, there is always fog and mist in the Gulf, and on the banks of Newfoundland outside.

"I find it a great comfort having a cabin to myself. I am now writing in my 'drawing-room'--_i.e.,_ my upper berth, with my legs hanging down over my bed-room, or lower berth. All my property is stowed away and hung up, and the steward keeps all nice and clean--calls me in the morning, and at half-past seven brings me a foot-pan of fresh sea-water to bathe in. The _rum_ is not very much diminished, as I have been very self-denying, being desirous of coming home in full vigour and hard health, if possible. It is very good, however, and when I finish this letter I shall reward good resolution by taking a little drop to drink your health--and G.o.d bless you!

"Taylor was excessively sick and ill, but is now all alive, and says he 'feels so light' he could run a race.

"I am pretty well. I have not been sick at all: I wish I had--but I ought to be thankful for a great deal of comfort in this long journey.

"I shall open this if anything worth recording takes place before we reach New York. If not, the receipt of this will tell you that we are 'safely landed.' I shall, however, write again from New York before I leave it for Boston--but I shall only remain a portion of a day and a night at New York."

"ST. LAWRENCE HALL, MONTREAL.

"_Sunday, August 18._

"From New York I went on, _via_ Long Island Sound, to Boston, where I arrived at 7 a.m. on Friday. I stayed there all day, in conference with Mr. Baring's agent, Mr. Ward, and went on to Montreal, in the evening, _via_ Lowel, Concord, and Rouse's Point. I engaged a double berth in a sleeping car, and slept pretty well and pretty comfortably from about 10 till 5--with sundry breaks, caused as hereafter stated. I got to Montreal at 10--washed, breakfasted, and then did a hard day's work, and dined at 7, with the internal satisfaction that I had done a good day's duty, and had a good appet.i.te for both food and drink--the latter, however, moderate--only one pint and one cup of coffee and one cigar after--the first cigar which I have smoked since leaving England. The rum, thanks to similar moderation, holds out, and will last some time yet.

"New York is be-flagged and be-bannered to a wonderful extent. Every street is disfigured by huge streamers, some right across the street, others out of windows and from the tops of houses--while each occupant tries to vie with his neighbour in this sort of loyalty, till there seems almost to be hypocrisy in it. 'Stars and Stripes' everywhere, and on all occasions, opportune and inopportune. The main public place in New York is half filled by ugly wooden sheds, used as military store rooms and barracks, and, every now and then, with a frequency which is startling, are the head-quarters of all sorts of Volunteer regiments-- American, Irish, German, Dutch, French, and Scotch. These rooms are adorned with flags, and transparencies showing the costume of the corps, or the portrait of the colonel, or general, shown generally on a big prancing horse, and sporting a savage-looking beard. All along the roads and routes--everywhere almost--are tents and wooden sheds, the encampments of companies and regiments; and every now and then bands and recruiting parties parade the street, and draw crowds of people after them. The mothers of America have taken up the question, too, and there are societies to make lint and bandages for the wounded, and to st.i.tch together clothing for the new companies. Little Zouaves are plentiful--red vest, blue sash, and red fez and breeches.

"The day we arrived, the New York Firemen Zouaves (7th New York) returned from the defeat at Bull's Run--380 out of 1,000, who left two months ago under a young fellow named Ellsworth, as colonel. Ellsworth was shot by a public-house keeper, whose secession flag he hauled down --and the regiment was much cut up at Bull's Run. It has been very uproarious, and some of its men 'retreated' on the way from Bull's Run to New York, on the principle that, once ordered to retreat, they had better 'retreat right away home.' There can be no doubt, however, that the bulk of these men fought well--but were, like most of the regiments, badly officered--zealous men, but lawyers, store-keepers, and political partisans, who could do nothing in handling _bodies_ of men.

"But to go back: about 60 miles from Boston, and just as I got into the bed-berth in the car, several companies of one of the Vermont regiments joined the train, having been discharged, on the expiration of their three months' term, the day before. These men had to be dropped in companies at various stations all along the road; and every hour or so I was wakened up by bell ringing, gun firing, and cheering, as each section got back home to their friends. In the morning I got amongst those who were left, and heard their adventures. They had been in nothing but skirmishing, however, and only had had three men wounded.

They seemed a nice body of young fellows, many very young. All were voluble and in high spirits (_coming home_), and were very large about the hard biscuits they had eaten--some, as one 'boy' said--for they are all 'boys,' not 'men,' as with us--with the stamp of 1810 upon them,--of camping out--keeping sentry at night, &c., &c., &c. They had three young fellows, girlish-looking lads, with them, '_sick;_'

two--one certainly--sick under death; just get home to die! I went into the baggage car and saw them lying on the floor, covered up in tarpaulins and blankets, poor fellows!

"I have been to the Catholic Cathedral at Montreal to-day, and heard high ma.s.s. I visited it in 1851. Fine church, fine music, and a good sermon, in French; but I thought I should have preferred Mr. Woolnough and the little church at home.

"The matter of business I have in hand is surrounded with difficulty, and there are here, I fear, two cla.s.ses in connection with the concern.