Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin Part 14

Our expedition to the Welland Ca.n.a.l 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 pa.s.s through the ca.n.a.l, 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 ca.n.a.l 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 _eclat_. 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 fete 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 Sat.u.r.day, at noon, many of the party a.s.sisted 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sistance 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 circ.u.mstances 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 sh.o.r.es 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 a.s.sure 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 a.s.sure 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 grat.i.tude--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 a.s.sumed, on a sudden, and, as if by enchantment, the livery of spring; while your n.o.ble 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' Inst.i.tutes and Mercantile Library a.s.sociations, 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 ill.u.s.trious 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 pa.s.sing 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.s 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 n.o.ble 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 b.u.mper 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 a.s.suredly 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 a.s.sure 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 G.o.d 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 Inst.i.tute--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 n.o.ble 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 princ.i.p.ally, 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 circ.u.mstances, to be the bounden duty of every patriotic man, who had not some very valid and substantial reason to a.s.sign 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 circ.u.mstances 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 pa.s.sed 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 n.o.ble 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 _prima 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 const.i.tutional system of Government of which this country has. .h.i.therto 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 cla.s.s 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 inst.i.tutions 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 const.i.tution, 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 G.o.d 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?