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diff --git a/9910-8.txt b/9910-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7b819c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/9910-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4537 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Canadian Notabilities, Volume 1, by John Charles Dent + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Canadian Notabilities, Volume 1 + +Author: John Charles Dent + +Posting Date: November 15, 2011 [EBook #9910] +Release Date: February, 2006 +First Posted: October 30, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADIAN NOTABILITIES, VOLUME 1 *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Aldarondo, and +Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders. This file was +produced from images generously made available by the +Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions. + + + + + + + + + + + +CANADIAN NOTABILITIES, VOLUME I + +BY JOHN CHARLES DENT + + + + + + +JOSEPH BRANT--THAYENDANEGEA. + + + +Few tasks are more difficult of accomplishment than the overturning of the +ideas and prejudices which have been conceived in our youth, which have +grown up with us to mature age, and which have finally become the settled +convictions of our manhood. The overturning process is none the less +difficult when, as is not seldom the case, those ideas and convictions are +widely at variance with facts. Most of us have grown up with very erroneous +notions respecting the Indian character--notions which have been chiefly +derived from the romances of Cooper and his imitators. We have been +accustomed to regard the aboriginal red man as an incarnation of treachery +and remorseless ferocity, whose favourite recreation is to butcher +defenceless women and children in cold blood. A few of us, led away by the +stock anecdotes in worthless missionary and Sunday School books, have gone +far into the opposite extreme, and have been wont to regard the Indian as +the Noble Savage who never forgets a kindness, who is ever ready to return +good for evil, and who is so absurdly credulous as to look upon the +pale-faces as the natural friends and benefactors of his species. Until +within the last few years, no pen has ventured to write impartially of the +Indian character, and no one has attempted to separate the wheat from the +chaff in the generally received accounts which have come down to us from +our forefathers. The fact is that the Indian is very much what his white +brother has made him. The red man was the original possessor of this +continent, the settlement, of which by Europeans sounded the death-knell +of his sovereignty. The aboriginal could hardly be expected to receive the +intruder with open arms, even if the latter had acted up to his professions +of peace and good-will. It would have argued a spirit of contemptible +abjectness and faintness of heart if the Indian had submitted without a +murmur to the gradual encroachments of the foreigner, even if the latter +had adopted a uniform policy of mildness and conciliation. But the invader +adopted no such policy. Not satisfied with taking forcible possession +of the soil, he took the first steps in that long, sickening course of +treachery and cruelty which has caused the chronicles of the white conquest +in America to be written in characters of blood. The first and most hideous +butcheries were committed by the whites. And if the Indians did not tamely +submit to the yoke sought to be imposed upon their necks, they only acted +as human beings, civilized and uncivilized, have always acted upon like +provocation. Those who have characterized the Indian as inhuman and +fiendish because he put his prisoners to the torture, seem to have +forgotten that the wildest accounts of Indian ferocity pale beside the +undoubtedly true accounts of the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition. +Christian Spain--nay, even Christian England--tortured prisoners with a +diabolical ingenuity which never entered into the heart of a pagan Indian +to conceive. And on this continent, in the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries, men of English stock performed prodigies of cruelty to which +parallels can be found in the history of the Inquisition alone. For the +terrible records of battle, murder, torture and death, of which the history +of the early settlement of this continent is so largely made up, the white +man and the Christian must be held chiefly responsible. It must, moreover, +be remembered that those records have been written by historians, who have +had every motive for distorting the truth. All the accounts that have +come down to us have been penned by the aggressors themselves, and their +immediate descendants. The Indians have had no chronicler to tell their +version of the story. We all know how much weight should be attached to +a history written by a violent partisan; for instance, a history of the +French Revolution, written by one of the House of Bourbon. The wonder is, +not that the poor Indian should have been blackened and maligned, but that +any attribute of nobleness or humanity should have been accorded to him. + +Of all the characters who figure in the dark history of Indian warfare, +few have attained greater notoriety, and none has been more persistently +villified than the subject of this sketch. Joseph Brant was known to us in +the days of our childhood as a firm and staunch ally of the British, it +is true; but as a man embodying in his own person all the demerits and +barbarities of his race, and with no more mercy in his breast than is to be +found in a famished tiger of the jungle. And for this unjust view of his +character American historians are not wholly to blame. Most historians of +that period wrote too near the time when the events they were describing +occurred, for a dispassionate investigation of the truth; and other writers +who have succeeded have been content to follow the beaten track, without +incurring the labour of diligent and calm enquiry. And, as it is too often +the case with writers, historical and other, many of them cared less for +truth than for effect. Even the author of "Gertrude of Wyoming" falsified +history for the sake of a telling stanza in his beautiful poem; and when, +years afterwards, grant's son convinced the poet by documentary evidence +that a grave injustice had been done to his father's memory, the poet +contented himself by merely appending a note which in many editions is +altogether omitted, and in those editions in which it is retained is much +less likely to be read than the text of the poem itself. It was not till +the year 1838 that anything like a comprehensive and impartial account of +the life of Brant appeared. It was written by Colonel William L. Stone, +from whose work the foregoing quotation is taken. Since then, several other +lives have appeared, all of which have done something like justice to the +subject; but they have not been widely read, and to the general public +the name of Brant still calls up visions of smoking villages, raw scalps, +disembowelled women and children, and ruthless brutalities more horrible +still. Not content with attributing to him ferocities of which he never +was guilty, the chronicles have altogether ignored the fairer side of his +character. + + "The evil that men do lives after them; + The good is oft interred with their bones." + +We have carefully gone through all the materials within our reach, and have +compiled a sketch of the life of the Great Chief of the Six Nations, which +we would fain hope may be the means of enabling readers who have not ready +access to large libraries to form something like a fair and dispassionate +estimate of his character. + +Joseph Brant--or to give him his Indian name, Thayendanegea--was born in +the year 1742. Authorities are not unanimous as to his paternity, it +being claimed by some that he was a natural son of Sir William Johnson; +consequently that he was not a full-blood Indian, but a half-breed. The +better opinion, however, seems to be that none but Mohawk blood flowed +through his veins, and that his father was a Mohawk of the Wolf Tribe, by +name Tehowaghwengaraghkin. It is not easy to reconcile the conflicting +accounts of this latter personage (whose name we emphatically decline to +repeat), but the weight of authority seems to point to him as a son of one +of the five sachems who attracted so much attention during their visit to +London in Queen Anne's reign, and who were made the subject of a paper +in the _Spectator_ by Addison, and of another in the _Tatler_ by Steele. +Brant's mother was an undoubted Mohawk, and the preponderance of evidence +is in favour of his being a chief by right of inheritance. His parents +lived at Canajoharie Castle, in the far-famed valley of the Mohawk, but at +the time of their son's birth they were far away from home on a hunting +expedition along the banks of the Ohio. His father died not long after +returning from this expedition. We next learn that the widow contracted an +alliance with an Indian whose Christian name was Barnet, which name, in +process of time, came to be corrupted into Brant. The little boy, who had +been called Joseph, thus became known as "Brant's Joseph," from which +the inversion to Joseph Brant is sufficiently obvious. No account of his +childhood have come down to us, and, little or nothing is known of him +until his thirteenth year, when he was taken under the patronage of that +Sir William Johnson, who has by some writers been credited with being his +father. Sir William was the English Colonial Agent for Indian Affairs, +and cuts a conspicuous figure in the colonial annals of the time. His +connection with the Brant family was long and intimate. One of Joseph's +sisters, named Molly, lived with the baronet as his mistress for many +years, and was married to him a short time before his death, in 1774. Sir +William was very partial to young Brant, and took special pains to impart +to him a knowledge of military affairs. It was doubtless this interest +which gave rise to the story that Sir William was his father; a story for +which there seems to be no substantial foundation whatever. + +In the year 1755, the memorable battle of Lake George took place between +the French and English colonial forces and their Indian allies. Sir William +Johnson commanded on the side of the English, and young Joseph Brant, then +thirteen years of age, fought under his wing. This was a tender age, even +for the son of an Indian chief, to go out upon the war-path, and he himself +admitted in after years that he was seized with such a tremor when the +firing began at that battle that he was obliged to steady himself by +seizing hold of a sapling. This, however, was probably the first and last +time that he ever knew fear, either in battle or out of it. The history of +his subsequent career has little in it suggestive of timidity. After +the battle of Lake George, where the French were signally defeated, he +accompanied his patron through various campaigns until the close of the +French war, after which he was placed by Sir William at the Moor Charity +School, Lebanon, Connecticut, for the purpose of receiving a liberal +English education. How long he remained at that establishment does not +appear, but he was there long enough to acquire something more than the +mere rudiments of the English language and literature. In after years he +always spoke with pleasure of his residence at this school, and never +wearied of talking of it. He used to relate with much pleasantry an +anecdote of a young half-breed who was a student in the establishment. The +half-breed, whose name was William, was one day ordered by his tutor's son +to saddle a horse. He declined to obey the order, upon the ground that he +was a gentleman's son, and that to saddle a horse was not compatible +with his dignity. Being asked to say what constitutes a gentleman, he +replied--"A gentleman is a person who keeps racehorses and drinks Madeira +wine, and that is what neither you nor your father do. Therefore, saddle +the horse yourself." + +In 1763, Thayendanegea, then twenty-one years of age, married the daughter +of an Oneida chief, and two years afterwards we find him settled at +Canajoharie Castle, in Mohawk Valley, where he for some years lived a life +of quiet and peaceful repose, devoting himself to the improvement of the +moral and social condition of his people, and seconding the efforts of +the missionaries for the conversion of the Indians to Christianity. Both +missionaries and others who visited and were intimate with him during this +time were very favourably impressed by him, and have left on record warm +encomiums of his intelligence, good-breeding, and hospitality. Early in +1772 his wife died of consumption, and during the following winter he +applied to an Episcopal minister to solemnize matrimony between himself and +his deceased wife's sister. His application was refused, upon the ground +that such a marriage was contrary to law; but he soon afterwards prevailed +upon a German ecclesiastic to perform the ceremony. Not long afterwards he +became seriously impressed upon the subject of religion, and experienced +certain mental phenomena which in some communities is called "a change of +heart." He enrolled himself as a member of the Episcopal Church, of which +he became a regular communicant. The spiritual element, however, was not +the strongest side of his nature, and his religious impressions were not +deep enough to survive the life of active warfare in which he was soon +afterwards destined to engage. Though he always professed--and probably +believed in--the fundamental truths of Christianity, he became +comparatively indifferent to theological matters, except in so far as they +might be made to conduce to the civilization of his people. + +Sir William Johnson died in 1774. He was succeeded in his office of +Colonial Agent for Indian Affairs by his son-in-law, Colonel Guy Johnson. +Brant was as great a favourite with the Colonel as he had been with that +gentleman's predecessor. The new agent required a private secretary, and +appointed Brant to that office. The clouds that had been gathering for +some time over the relations between the mother country and her American +colonies culminated in the great war of the revolution. The Americans, +seeing the importance of conciliating the Six Nations, made overtures to +them to cast in their lot with the revolutionists. These overtures +were made in vain. Brant then and ever afterwards expressed his firm +determination to "sink or swim with the English;" a determination from +which he never for a moment swerved down to the last hour of his life. +Apart altogether from the consideration that all his sympathies impelled +him to adopt this course, he felt himself bound in honour to do so, in +consequence of his having long before pledged his word to Sir William +Johnson to espouse the British side in the event of trouble breaking out in +the colonies. Similar pledges had been given by his fore-fathers. Honour +and inclination both pointed in the same direction, he exerted all his +influence with the native tribes, who did not require much persuasion to +take the royal side. Accordingly when Colonel Guy Johnson fled westward to +avoid being captured by the Americans, Brant and the principal warriors +of the Six Nations accompanied him. The latter formed themselves into a +confederacy, accepted royal commissions, and took a decided stand on the +side of King George. To Brant was assigned the position of Principal War +Chief of the Confederacy, with the military degree of a Captain. The Crown +could not have secured a more efficient ally. He is described at this time +as "distinguished alike for his address, his activity and his courage; +possessing in point of stature and symmetry of person the advantage of most +men even among his own well-formed race; tall, erect and majestic, with +the air and mien of one born to command; having been a man of war from +his boyhood; his name was a power of strength among the warriors of +the wilderness. Still more extensive was his influence rendered by the +circumstance that he had been much employed in the civil service of the +Indian Department under Sir William Johnson, by whom he was often deputed +upon embassies among the tribes of the confederacy; and to those yet more +distant, upon the great lakes and rivers of the north-west, by reason +of which his knowledge of the whole country and people was accurate and +extensive." + +In the autumn of 1775 he sailed for England, to hold personal conference +with the officers of the Imperial Government. Upon his arrival in London he +was received with open arms by the best society. His usual dress was that +of an ordinary English gentleman, but his Court dress was a gorgeous and +costly adaptation of the fashions of his own people. In this latter dress, +at the instigation of that busiest of busybodies James Boswell, he sat to +have his portrait painted. The name of the artist has not been preserved, +nor is the preservation of much importance, as this is the least +interesting of the various pictures of Brant, the expression of the face +being dull and commonplace. A much better portrait of him was painted +during this visit for the Earl of Warwick, the artist being George Romney, +the celebrated painter of historical pictures and portraits. It has been +reproduced by our engraver for these pages. + +The effect of this visit was to fully confirm him in his loyalty to the +British Crown. Early in the following spring he set sail on his return +voyage. He was secretly landed on the American coast, not far from New +York, from whence he made his way through a hostile country to Canada at +great peril of his life. Ill would it have fared with him if he had fallen +into the hands of the American soldiery at that time. No such contingency +occurred, however, and he reached his destination in safety. Upon his +arrival in Canada he at once placed himself at the head of the native +tribes, and took part in the battle of "the Cedars," about forty miles +above Montreal. This engagement ended disastrously for the Americans; and +after it was over, Brant did good service to the cause of humanity by +preventing his savage followers from massacring the prisoners. From that +time to the close of the war in 1782, Joseph Brant never ceased his +exertions in the royal cause. From east to west, wherever bullets were +thickest, his glittering tomahawk might be seen in the van, while his +terrific war-whoop resounded above the din of strife. In those stirring +times it is not easy to follow his individual career very closely; but one +episode in it has been so often and so grossly misrepresented that we owe +it to his memory to give some details respecting it. That episode was the +massacre at Wyoming. + +This affair of Wyoming can after all scarcely be called an episode in +Brant's career, inasmuch as he was not present at the massacre at all, and +was many miles distant at the time of its occurrence. Still, historians and +poets have so persistently associated it with his name, and have been so +determined to saddle upon him whatever obloquy attaches to the transaction +that a short account of it may properly be given here. + +The generally-received versions are tissues of exaggerations and +absurdities from first to last. Wyoming has been uniformly represented as +a terrestrial paradise; as a sort of Occidental Arcadia where the +simple-hearted pious people lived and served God after the manner of +patriarchal times. Stripped of the halo of romance which has been thrown +around it, Wyoming is merely a pleasant, fertile valley on the Susquehanna, +in the north-eastern part of the State of Pennsylvania. In the year 1765 +it was purchased from the Delaware Indians by a company in Connecticut, +consisting of about forty families, who settled in the valley shortly after +completing their purchase. Upon their arrival they found the valley in +possession of a number of Pennsylvanian families, who disputed their rights +to the property, and between whom and themselves bickerings and contests +were long the order of the day. Their mode of life was as little Arcadian +as can well be imagined. Neither party was powerful enough to permanently +oust the other; and although their warlike operations were conducted upon a +small scale, they were carried on with a petty meanness, vindictiveness and +treachery that would have disgraced the Hurons themselves. From time to +time one party would gain the upper hand, and would drive the other from +the Valley in apparently hopeless destitution; but the defeated ones, to +whichsoever side they might belong, invariably contrived to re-muster their +forces, and return to harass and drive out their opponents in their turn. +The only purpose for which they could be induced to temporarily lay aside +their disputes and band themselves together in a common cause, was to repel +the incursions of marauding Indians, to which the valley was occasionally +subject. When the war broke out between Great Britain and the colonies, the +denizens of the valley espoused the colonial side, and were compelled to +unite vigorously for purposes of self-defence. They organized a militia, +and drilled their troops to something like military efficiency; but not +long afterwards these troops were compelled to abandon the valley, and to +join the colonial army of regulars under General Washington. On the 3rd of +July, 1778, a force made up of four hundred British troops and about seven +hundred Seneca Indians, under the command of Col. John Butler, entered the +valley from the north-west. Such of the militia as the exigencies of the +American Government had left to the people of Wyoming arrayed themselves +for defence, together with a small company of American regular troops that +had recently arrived in the valley, under the command of Colonel Zebulon +Butler. The settlers were defeated and driven out of the valley. In spite +of all efforts on the part of the British to restrain them, the Indian +troops massacred a good many of the fugitives, and the valley was left a +smoking ruin. But the massacre was not nearly so great as took place on +several other occasions during the revolutionary war, and the burning was +an ordinary incident of primitive warfare. Such, in brief, is the true +history of the massacre in the Wyoming valley, over which the genius of +Thomas Campbell has cast a spell that will never pass away while the +English language endures. For that massacre Brant was no more responsible, +nor had he any further participation in it, than George Washington. He was +not within fifty (and probably not within a hundred) miles of the valley. +Had he been present his great influence would have been put forward, as it +always was on similar occasions, to check the ferocity of the Indians. But +it is doubtful whether even he could have prevented the massacre. + +Another place with which the name of Brant is inseparably associated +is Cherry Valley. He has been held responsible for all the atrocities +committed there, and even the atrocities themselves have been grossly +exaggerated. There is some _show_ of justice in this, inasmuch as Brant was +undoubtedly present when the descent was made upon the valley. But it is +not true that he either prompted the massacre or took any part in it. On +the other hand, he did everything in his power to restrain it, and wherever +it was possible for him to interfere successfully to prevent bloodshed +he did so. Candour compels us to admit that his conduct on that terrible +November day stands out in bright contrast to that of Butler, the white +officer in command. Brant did his utmost to prevent the shedding of +innocent blood; but, even had he been in command of the expedition, which +he was not, Indians are totally unmanageable on the field of battle. There +is at least evidence that he did his best to save life. Entering one of +the houses, while the massacre was raging, he found there a woman quietly +engaged in sewing. "Why do you not fly, or hide yourself?" he asked; "do +you not know that the Indians are murdering all your neighbours, and will +soon be here?" "I am not afraid," was the reply: "I am a loyal subject of +King George, and there is one Joseph Brant with the Indians who will save +me." "I am Joseph Brant," responded the Chief, "but I am not in command, +and I am not sure that I _can_ save you, but I will do my best." At this +moment the Indians were seen approaching. "Get into bed, quick," said +Brant. The woman obeyed, and when the Indians reached the threshold he told +them to let the woman alone, as she was ill. They departed, and he then +painted his mark upon the woman and her children, which was the best +assurance of safety he could give them. This was merely one of several +similar acts of Brant upon that fatal day; acts which do not rest upon mere +tradition, but upon evidence as strong as human testimony can make it. + +It would not be edifying to follow the great Chief through the various +campaigns--including those of Minisink and Mohawk Valley--in which he was +engaged until the Treaty of 1782 put an end to the sanguinary war. In that +Treaty, which restored peace between Great Britain and the United States, +the former neglected to make any stipulation on behalf of her Indian +allies. Not only was this the case; not only was Thayendanegea not so much +as named in the Treaty; but the ancient country of the Six Nations, "the +residence of their ancestors from the time far beyond their earliest +traditions," was actually included in the territory ceded to the United +States. This was a direct violation of Sir Guy Carleton's pledge, given +when the Mohawks first abandoned their native valley to do battle on behalf +of Great Britain, and subsequently ratified by General Haldimand, to the +effect that as soon as the war should be at an end the Mohawks should be +restored, at the expense of the Government, to the condition in which they +were at the beginning of the war. No sooner were the terms of the Treaty +made known than Brant repaired to Quebec, to claim from General Haldimand +the fulfilment of his pledge. General Haldimand received his distinguished +guest cordially, and professed himself ready to redeem his promise. It +was of course impossible to fulfil it literally, as the Mohawk valley had +passed beyond British control; but the Chief expressed his willingness to +accept in lieu of his former domain a tract of land on the Bay of Quinté. +The General agreed that this tract should at once be conveyed to the +Mohawks. The arrangement, however, was not satisfactory to the Senecas, who +had settled in the Genesee Valley, in the State of New York. The Senecas +were apprehensive of further trouble with the United States, and were +anxious that the Mohawks should settle in their own neighbourhood, to +assist them in the event of another war. They offered the Mohawks a large +tract of their own territory, but the Mohawks were determined to live only +under British rule. Accordingly, it was finally arranged that the latter +should have assigned to them a tract of land on the Grand River (then +called the Ouse) comprehending six miles on each side of the stream, from +the mouth to the source. This tract, which contains some of the most +fertile land in the Province, was formally conveyed to them by an +instrument under Governor Haldimand's hand and seal, in which it was +stipulated that they should "possess and enjoy" it forever. The Indians, +unversed in technicalities, supposed that they now had an absolute and +indefeasible estate in the lands. Of course they were mistaken. Governor +Haldimand's conveyance did not pass the fee, which could only be effected +by a crown patent under the Great Seal. + +These several negotiations occupied some time. Towards the close of the +year 1785, Brant, feeling aggrieved at the non-payment of certain pecuniary +losses sustained by the Mohawks during the war, again set sail for England, +where in due course he arrived. As on the occasion of his former visit, he +was received with the utmost consideration and respect, not by the nobility +and gentry alone, but by royalty itself. He seems to have lived upon terms +of equality with the best society of the British capital, and to have so +borne himself as to do no discredit to his entertainers. The Baroness +Riedesel, who had formerly met him at Quebec, had an opportunity of +renewing acquaintance with him, and has left on record the impression which +he produced upon her. She writes: "His manners are polished. He expresses +himself with great fluency, and was much esteemed by General Haldimand. His +countenance is manly and intelligent, and his disposition very mild." + +During this visit a dramatic episode occurred which occupies a conspicuous +place in all books devoted to Brant's life. The present writer has told the +story elsewhere as follows:--One gusty night in the month of January, 1786, +the interior of a certain fashionable mansion in the West End of London +presented a spectacle of amazing gorgeousness and splendour. The occasion +was a masquerade given by one of the greatest of the city magnates; and as +the entertainment was participated in by several of the nobility, and by +others in whose veins ran some of the best blood in England, no expense +had been spared to make the surroundings worthy of the exalted rank of the +guests. Many of the dresses were of a richness not often seen, even in the +abodes of wealth and fashion. The apartments were brilliantly lighted, +and the lamps shone upon as quaint and picturesque an assemblage as ever +congregated in Mayfair. There were gathered together representatives of +every age and clime, each dressed in the garb suited to the character meant +to be personified. Here, a magnificently-attired Egyptian princess of the +time of the Pharaohs languished upon the arm of an English cavalier of the +Restoration. There, high-ruffed ladies of Queen Elizabeth's court conversed +with mail-clad Norman warriors of the time of the Conqueror. A dark-eyed +Jewess who might have figured at the court of King Solomon jested and +laughed with a beau of Queen Anne's day. If the maiden blushed at some of +the broad jokes of her companion, her blushes were hidden by the silken +mask which, in common with the rest of the guests, she wore upon the upper +part of her face, and which concealed all but the brilliancy of her eyes. +Cheek by jowl with a haughty Spanish hidalgo stood a plaided Highlander, +with his dirk and claymore. Athenian orators, Roman tribunes, Knights +of the Round Table, Scandinavian Vikings and Peruvian Incas jostled one +another against the rich velvet and tapestry which hung from ceiling to +floor. Truly, a motley assemblage, and one well calculated to impress the +beholder with the transitoriness of mortal fame. In this miscellaneous +concourse the occupants of the picture frames of all the public and private +galleries of Europe seemed to have been restored to life, and personally +brought into contact for the first time. And though, artistically speaking, +they did not harmonize very well with each other, the general effect was +in the highest degree marvellous and striking. But of all the assembled +guests, one in particular is the cynosure of all eyes--the observed of all +observers. This is the cleverest masquer of them all, for there is not a +single detail, either in his dress, his aspect or his demeanour, which is +not strictly in conformity with the character he represents. He is clad in +the garb of an American Indian. He is evidently playing the part of one of +high dignity among his fellows, for his apparel is rich and costly, and +his bearing is that of one who has been accustomed to rule. The dress is +certainly a splendid make-up, and the wearer is evidently a consummate +actor. How proudly he stalks from room to room, stately, silent, leonine, +majestic. Lara himself--who, by the way, had not then been invented--had +not a more chilling mystery of mien. He is above the average height--not +much under six feet--and the nodding plumes of his crest make him look +several inches taller than he is in reality. His tomahawk, which hangs +loosely exposed at his girdle, glitters like highly-polished silver; and +the hand which ever and anon toys with the haft is long and bony. The dark, +piercing eyes seem almost to transfix every one upon whom they rest. +One half of the face seems to be covered by a mask, made to imitate the +freshly-painted visage of a Mohawk Indian when starting out upon the war +path. He is evidently bent upon preserving a strict incognito, for the +hours pass by and still no one has heard the sound of his voice. The +curiosity of the other guests is aroused, and, pass from room to room as +often as he may, a numerous train follows in his wake. One of the masquers +composing this train is arrayed in the loose vestments of a Turk, and +indeed is suspected to be a genuine native of the Ottoman Empire who has +been sent to England on a diplomatic mission. Being emboldened by the wine +he has drunk, the Oriental determines to penetrate the mystery of the dusky +stranger. He approaches the seeming Indian, and after various ineffectual +attempts to arrest his attention, lays violent hold of the latter's nose. +Scarcely has he touched that organ when a blood-curdling yell, such as has +never before been heard within the three kingdoms, resounds through the +mansion. + + "Ah, then and there was hurling to and fro!" + +The peal of the distant drum did not spread greater consternation among the +dancers at Brussels on the night before Waterloo. What wonder that female +lips blanched, and that even masculine cheeks grew pale? That yell was the +terrible war-whoop of the Mohawks, and came hot from the throat of the +mysterious unknown. The truth flashed upon all beholders. The stranger was +no disguised masquerader, but a veritable brave of the American forest. Of +this there could be no doubt. No white man that ever lived could learn to +give utterance to such an ejaculation. The yell had no sooner sounded than +the barbarian's tomahawk leapt from its girdle. He sprang upon the luckless +Turk, and twined his fingers in the poor wretch's hair. For a single second +the tomahawk flashed before the astonished eyes of the spectators; and +then, before the latter had time--even if they could have mustered the +courage--to interfere, its owner gently replaced it in his girdle, and +indulged in a low chuckle of laughter. The amazed and terrified guests +breathed again, and in another moment the mysterious stranger stood +revealed to the company as Joseph Brant, the renowned warrior of the Six +Nations, the steady ally of the British arms, and the terror of all enemies +of his race. Of course the alarm soon quieted down, and order was restored. +It was readily understood that he had never intended to injure the +terrified Oriental, but merely to punish the latter's impertinence by +frightening him within an inch of his life. Probably, too, that feeling of +self-consciousness from which few minds are altogether free, impelled +him to take advantage of the interest and curiosity which his presence +evidently inspired, to create an incident which would long be talked about +in London drawing-rooms, and which might eventually be handed down to +posterity. + +The anecdotes preserved of his stay in London at this time are almost +innumerable. He was a great favourite with the King and his family, +notwithstanding the fact that when he was first introduced at Court he +declined to kiss His Majesty's hand; adding, however, with delightful +_naivete_, that he would gladly kiss the hand of the Queen. The Prince of +Wales also took great delight in his company, and occasionally took him to +places of questionable repute--or rather, to places as to the disrepute +of which there was no question whatever, and which were pronounced by +the Chief "to be very queer places for a prince to go to." His envoy was +successful, and his stay in London, which was prolonged for some months, +must have been very agreeable, as "he was caressed by the noble and great, +and was alike welcome at Court and at the banquets of the heir-apparent." +After his return to America his first act of historical importance was to +attend the great Council of the Indian Confederacy in the far west. He used +his best endeavours to preserve peace between the Western Indians and the +United States, and steadily opposed the confederation which led to the +expedition of Generals St. Clair and Wayne. We next find him engaged in +settling his people upon the tract which had been granted to them on the +banks of the Grand River. The principal settlement of the Mohawks was +near the bend of the river, just below the present site of the city of +Brantford. They called the settlement "Mohawk Village." The name still +survives, but all traces of the village itself have disappeared. Brant +built the little church which still stands there, an illustration of which +is given above, and in which service has been held almost continuously +every Sunday since its bell first awoke the echoes of the Canadian forest. +Brant himself took up his abode in the neighbourhood for several years, +and did his best to bring his dusky subjects under the influence of +civilization. In order to facilitate his passage across the Grand River he +threw a sort of temporary boom across, at a spot a few yards below where +the iron-bridge now spans the stream at Brantford. From this circumstance +the place came to be known as "Brant's ford;" and when, years afterwards, a +village sprung up close by, the name of "Brantford" was given to it. + +The Indians had not been long settled at Mohawk Village before difficulties +began to arise between them and the Provincial Government as to the nature +of the title to their lands. The Indians, supposing their title to be an +absolute one, began to make leases and sales to the white settlers in the +neighbourhood. To this proceeding the Government objected, upon the ground +that the Crown had a pre-emptive right, and that the land belonged to the +Indians only so long as they might choose to occupy it. Many conferences +were held, but no adjustment satisfactory to the Indians was arrived at. +There has been a good deal of subsequent legislation and diplomacy over +this vexed question, but so far as any unfettered power of alienation +of the lands is concerned Governor Haldimand's grant was practically a +nullity, and so remains to this day. These disputes embittered the Chief's +declining years, which was further rendered unhappy by petty dissensions +among the various tribes composing the Six Nations; dissensions which he +vainly endeavoured to permanently allay. Another affliction befel him in +the shape of a dissipated and worthless son, whom he accidently killed in +self-defence. The last few years of his life were passed in a house built +by him at Wellington Square; now called Burlington, a few miles from +Hamilton. He had received a grant of a large tract of land in this +neighbourhood, and he built a homestead there in or about the year 1800. + +Here he kept up a large establishment, including seven or eight negro +servants who had formerly been slaves. He exercised a profuse and right +royal hospitality alike towards the whites and the Indian warriors who +gathered round him. On the first of May in each year he used to drive up, +in his coach-and-four, Mohawk Village, to attend the annual Indian festival +which was to held there. On these occasions he was generally attended by a +numerous retinue of servants in livery, and their procession used to strike +awe into the minds of the denizens of the settlements through which they +passed. + +He died at his house at Wellington Square, after a long and painful +illness, on the 24th November, 1807, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. +His last thoughts were for his people, on whose behalf he had fought so +bravely, and whose social and moral improvement he was so desirous to +promote. His nephew, leaning over his bed, caught the last words that fell +from his lips: "Have pity on the poor Indians; if you can get any influence +from the great, endeavour to do them all the good you can." + +His remains were removed to Mohawk Village, near Brantford, and interred +in the yard of the little church which he had built many years before, and +which was the first Christian church erected in Upper Canada. And there, by +the banks of the Grand River, + + "After life's fitful fever he sleeps well." + +Sufficient has been said in the course of the preceding sketch to enable +the reader to form a tolerably correct idea of the character of this +greatest representative of the heroic Six Nations. No expression of opinion +was evermore unjust than that which has persistently held him up to the +execration of mankind as a monster of cruelty. That the exigences of his +position compelled him to wink at many atrocities committed by his troops +is beyond question. That, however, was a necessary incident of Indian +warfare; nay, of _all_ warfare; and after a careful consultation and +comparison of authorities we can come to no other conclusion than that, +for an Indian, reared among the customs and traditions of the Six Nations, +Joseph Brant was a humane and kind-hearted man. No act of perfidy was ever +brought home to him. He was a constant and faithful friend, and, though +stern, by no means an implacable enemy. His dauntless courage and devotion +to his people have never been seriously questioned. The charges of +self-seeking and peculation which Red Jacket, "the greatest coward of the +Five Nations," attempted to fasten upon him, only served to render his +integrity more apparent than it would otherwise have been. He was not +distinguished for brilliant flights of eloquence, as were Tecumseh and +Cornstalk; but both his speeches and his writings abound with a clear, +sound common-sense, which was quite as much to the purpose in his dealings +with mankind. His early advantages of education were not great, but he made +best use of his time, and some of his correspondence written during the +latter years of his life would not discredit an English statesman. He +translated a part of the prayers and services of the Church of England, and +also a portion of the Gospels, into the Mohawk language, and in the latter +years of his life made some preparation for a voluminous history of the +Six Nations. This latter work he did not live to carry out. In his social, +domestic and business relations he was true and honest, and nothing pleased +him better than to diffuse a liberal and genial hospitality in his own +home. Taking him all in all, making due allowance for the frailties and +imperfections incidental to humanity, we must pronounce Joseph Brant to +have possessed in an eminent degree many of the qualities which go to make +a good and a great man. + +Brant was thrice married. By his first wife, Margaret, he had two children, +Isaac and Christina, whose descendents are still living. By his second +wife he had no issue. His third wife, Catharine, whom he married in 1780, +survived him and was forty-eight years of age at the time of his death. She +was the eldest daughter of the head-chief of the Turtle tribe, the tribe +first in dignity among the Mohawks. By the usages of that nation, upon her +devolved the right of naming her husband's successor in the chieftaincy. +The canons governing the descent of the chieftaincy of the Six Nations +recognize, in a somewhat modified form, the doctrine of primogeniture; but +the inheritance descends through the female line, and the surviving female +has a right, if she so pleases, to appoint any of her own male offspring to +the vacant sovereignty. Catharine Brant exercised her right by appointing +to that dignity John Brant, her third and youngest son. This youth, whose +Indian name was Ahyouwaighs, was at the time of his father's death +only thirteen years of age. He was born at Mohawk village, on the 27th +September, 1794, and received a liberal English education. Upon the +breaking out of the war of 1812, the young chief took the field with his +warriors, on behalf of Great Britain, and was engaged in most of the +actions on the Niagara frontier, including the battles of Queenstown +Heights, Lundy's Lane, and Beaver Dams. When the war closed in 1815, he +settled at "Brant House," the former residence of his father, at Wellington +Square. Here he and his sister Elizabeth dispensed a cheerful hospitality +for many years. In 1821 he visited England for the purpose of trying to do +what his father had failed in doing, viz, to bring about a satisfactory +adjustment of the disputes between the Government and the Indians +respecting the title of the latter to their lands. His mission, however, +was unsuccessful. While in England he called upon the poet Campbell, and +endeavoured to induce that gentleman to expunge certain stanzas from +the poem of "Gertrude of Wyoming," with what success has already been +mentioned. + +In the year 1827, Ahyouwaighs was appointed by the Earl of Dalhousie to the +rank of Captain, and also in the superintendency of the Six Nations. In +1832 he was elected as a member of the Provincial Parliament for the County +of Haldimand, but his election was contested and eventually set aside, upon +the ground that many of the persons by whose votes he had been elected were +merely lessees of Indian lands; and not entitled, under the law, as it then +stood to exercise the franchise. Within a few months afterwards, and in the +same year, he was carried off by cholera, and was buried in the same +vault as his father. He was never married, and left no issue. His sister +Elizabeth was married to William Johnson Kerr, a grandson of that same Sir +William Johnson who had formerly been a patron of the great Thayendanegea. +She died at Wellington Square in April, 1834, leaving several children, all +of whom are since dead. By his third wife Brant had several other children, +whose descendants are still living in various parts of Ontario. His widow +died at the advanced age of seventy-eight years on the 24th of November, +1837, being the thirtieth anniversary of her husband's death. + +The old house in which Joseph Brant died at Wellington Square, is still in +existence, though it has been so covered in by modern improvements that no +part of the original structure is outwardly visible. Mr. J. Simcoe Kerr, a +son of Brant's daughter Elizabeth, continued to reside at the old homestead +down to the time of his death in 1875. It has since been leased and +refitted for a summer hotel, and is now known as "Brant House." The room +in which the old chief was so unhappy as to slay his son is pointed out to +visitors, with stains--said to be the original blood stains--on the floor. +Among the historical objects in the immediate neighbourhood is a gnarled +old oak nearly six feet in diameter at the base, known as "The Old Council +Tree," from the fact that the chief and other dignataries of the Six +Nations were wont to hold conferences beneath its spreading branches. Close +by is a mound where lie the bodies of many of Brant's Indian contemporaries +buried, native fashion in a circle, with the feet converging to a centre. + +Thirty years ago, the wooden vault in which Brant's remains and those of +his son John were interred had become dilapidated. The Six Nations resolved +upon constructing a new one of stone, and re-interring the remains. Brant +was a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity in his day, and the +various Masonic lodges throughout the neighbourhood lent their aid to the +Indians in their undertaking. The project was finally carried out on the +twenty-seventh of November, 1850. There was an immense gathering at Mohawk +village on the occasion, which is generally referred to as "Brant's second +funeral." The Indians and whites vied with each other in doing honour to +the memory of the departed chief. The remains were interred in a more +spacious vault, over which a plain granite tomb was raised. The slab which +covers the aperture contains the following inscription: + + This Tomb + Is erected to the memory of + THAYENDANEGEA, or + CAPT. JOSEPH BRANT, + Principal Chief and + Warrior of + The Six Nations Indians, + By his Fellow Subjects, + Admirers of his Fidelity and + Attachment to the + British Crown. + Born on the Banks of the + Ohio River, 1742, died at + Wellington Square, U.C., 1807. + + It also contains the remains + Of his son Ahyouwaighs, or + CAPT. JOHN BRANT, + who succeeded his father as + TEKARIHOGEA, + And distinguished himself + In the war of 1812-15 + Born at the Mohawk Village, U.C., 1794; + Died at the same place, 1832. + Erected 1850. + +This sketch would be incomplete without some allusion to the project which +was set in motion about six years ago, having for its object the erection +of a suitable monument to the great Chief's memory. On the 25th of August, +1874, His Excellency, Lord Dufferin, in response to an invitation from the +Six Nations, paid them a visit at their Council House, in the township of +Tuscarora, a few miles below Brantford. He was entertained by the chiefs +and warriors, who submitted to him, for transmission to England, an address +to His Royal Highness Prince Arthur, who was enrolled an Honorary Chief +of the Confederacy on the occasion of his visit to Canada in 1869. The +address, after referring to Brant's many and important services to the +British Crown, expressed the anxious desire of his people to see a fitting +monument erected to his memory. Lord Dufferin transmitted the address, +and received Prince Arthur's assurances of his approval of, and good will +towards, the undertaking. A committee, consisting of many of the leading +officials and residents of the Dominion, was at once formed, and a +subscription list was opened at the Bank of British North America, at +Brantford. A good many contributions have since come in, but the fund is +still insufficient to enable the committee to carry out their project in +a fitting manner. We have referred to the fact that no village is now in +existence at Mohawk. The Indians have deserted the neighbourhood and taken +up their quarters elsewhere. Brant's tomb by the old church, being in an +out-of-the-way spot, remote from the haunts of men, has fallen a prey +to the sacrilegious hands of tourists and others, who have shamefully +mutilated it by repeated chippings of fragments which have been carried +away as relics. It is proposed to place the new monument in the centre of +Victoria Park, opposite the Court House, in Brentford, where it will be +under the surveillance of the local authorities, and where there will be +no danger of mutilation. That Brant's memory deserves such a tribute is +a matter as to which there can be no difference of opinion, and the +undertaking is one that deserves the hearty support of the Canadian people. +We owe a heavy debt to the Indians; heavier than we are likely to pay. +It does not reflect credit upon our national sense of gratitude that no +fitting monument marks our appreciation of the services of those two great +Indians, Brant and Tecumseh. + + + + + + +SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN. + + + +Standing on the summit of one of the rocky eminences at the mouth of the +Sagueuay, and looking back through the haze of two hundred and seventy-four +years, we may descry two small sailing craft slowly making their way up the +majestic stream which Jacques Cartier, sixty-eight years before, christened +in honour of the grilled St. Lawrence. The vessels are of French build, and +have evidently just arrived from France. They are of very diminutive size +for an ocean voyage, but are manned by hardy Breton mariners for whom the +tempestuous Atlantic has no terrors. They are commanded by an enterprising +merchant-sailor of St. Malo, who is desirous of pushing his fortunes by +means of the fur trade, and who, with that end in view, has already more +than once navigated the St. Lawrence as far westward as the mouth of the +Saguenay. His name is Pontgravé. Like other French adventurers of his time +he is a brave and energetic man, ready to do, to dare, and, if need be, to +suffer; but his primary object in life is to amass wealth, and to effect +this object he is not over-scrupulous as to the means employed. On this +occasion he has come over with instructions from Henry IV., King of France, +to explore the St. Lawrence, to ascertain how far from its mouth navigation +is practicable, and to make a survey of the country on its banks. He is +accompanied on the expedition by a man of widely different mould; a man who +is worth a thousand of such sordid, huckstering spirits; a man who unites +with the courage and energy of a soldier a high sense of personal honour +and a singleness of heart worthy of the Chevalier Bayard himself. To these +qualities are added an absorbing passion for colonization, and a piety and +zeal which would not misbecome a Jesuit missionary. He is poor, but what +the poet calls "the jingling of the guinea" has no charms for him. Let +others consume their souls in heaping up riches, in chaffering with the +Indians for the skins of wild beasts, and in selling the same to the +affluent traders of France. It is his ambition to rear the _fleur-de-lis_ +in the remote wildernesses of the New World, and to evangelize the savage +hordes by whom that world is peopled. The latter object is the most dear to +his heart of all, and he has already recorded his belief that the salvation +of one soul is of more importance than the founding of an empire. After +such an exordium it is scarcely necessary to inform the student of history +that the name of Pontgravé's ally is Samuel De Champlain. He has already +figured somewhat conspicuously in his country's annals, but his future +achievements are destined to outshine the events of his previous career, +and to gain for him the merited title of "Father of New France." + +He was born some time in the year 1567, at Brouage, a small seaport town in +the Province of Saintonge, on the west coast of France. Part of his youth +was spent in the naval service, and during the wars of the League he fought +on the side of the King, who awarded him a small pension and attached him +to his own person. But Champlain was of too adventurous a turn of mind +to feel at home in the confined atmosphere of a royal court, and soon +languished for change of scene. Ere long he obtained command of a vessel +bound for the West Indies, where he remained more than two years. During +this time he distinguished himself as a brave and efficient officer. He +became known as one whose nature partook largely of the romantic element, +but who, nevertheless, had ever an eye to the practical. Several important +engineering projects seem to have engaged his attention during his sojourn +in the West Indies. Prominent among these was the project of constructing a +ship-canal across the Isthmus of Panama, but the scheme was not encouraged, +and ultimately fell to the ground. Upon his return to France he again +dangled about the court for a few months, by which time he had once more +become heartily weary of a life of inaction. With the accession of Henry +IV. to the French throne the long religious wars which had so long +distracted the country came to an end, and the attention of the Government +began to be directed to the colonisation of New France--a scheme which had +never been wholly abandoned, but which had remained in abeyance since the +failure of the expedition undertaken by the brothers Roberval, more than +half a century before. Several new attempts were made at this time, none +of which was very successful. The fur trade, however, held out great +inducements to private enterprise, and stimulated the cupidity of the +merchants of Dieppe, Rouen and St Malo. In the heart of one of them +something nobler than cupidity was aroused. In 1603, M. De Chastes, +Governor of Dieppe, obtained a patent from the King conferring upon him and +several of his associates a monopoly of the fur trade of New France. To M. +De Chastes the acquisition of wealth--of which he already had enough, and +to spare--was a matter of secondary importance, but he hoped to make his +patent the means of extending the French empire into the unknown regions of +the far West. The patent was granted soon after Champlain's return from the +West Indies, and just as the pleasures of the court were beginning to pall +upon him. He had served under De Chastes during the latter years of the war +of the League, and the Governor was no stranger to the young man's skill, +energy, and incorruptible integrity. De Chastes urged him to join the +expedition, which was precisely of a kind to find favour in the eyes of an +ardent adventurer like Champlain. The King's consent having been obtained, +he joined the expedition under Pontgravé, and sailed for the mouth of the +St. Lawrence on the 15th of March, 1603. The expedition, as we have seen, +was merely preliminary to more specific and extended operations. The ocean +voyage, which was a tempestuous one, occupied more than two months, and +they did not reach the St. Lawrence until the latter end of May. They +sailed up as far as Tadousac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, where a little +trading-post had been established four years before by Pontgravé, and +Chauvin. Here they cast anchor, and a fleet of canoes filled with wondering +natives gathered round their little barques to sell peltries, and +(unconsciously) to sit to Champlain for their portraits. After a short stay +at Tadousac the leaders of the expedition, accompanied by several of +the crew, embarked in a batteau and preceded up the river past deserted +Stadacona to the site of the Indian village of Hochelaga, discovered by +Jacques Cartier in 1535. The village so graphically described by that +navigator had ceased to exist, and the tribe which had inhabited it at +the time of his visit had given place to a few Algonquin Indians. Our +adventurers essayed to ascend the river still farther, but found it +impossible to make headway against the rapids of St. Louis, which had +formerly presented an insuperable barrier to Cartier's westward progress. +Then they retraced their course down the river to Tadousac, re-embarked on +board their vessels, and made all sail for France. When they arrived there +they found that their patron, De Chastes, had died during their absence, +and that his Company had been dissolved. Very soon afterwards, however, the +scheme of colonization was taken up by the Sieur de Monts, who entered into +engagements with Champlain for another voyage to the New World. De Monts +and Champlain set sail on the 7th of March, 1604, with a large expedition, +and in due course reached the shores of Nova Scotia, then called Acadie. +After an absence of three years, during which Champlain explored the coast +as far southward as Cape Cod, the expedition returned to France. A good +deal had been learned as to the topographical features of the country lying +near the coast, but little had been done in the way of actual colonization. +The next expedition was productive of greater results. De Monts, at +Champlain's instigation, resolved to found a settlement on the shores of +the St Lawrence. Two vessels were fitted up at his expense and placed under +Champlain's command, with Pontgravé as lieutenant of the expedition, which +put to sea in the month of April, 1608, and reached the mouth of the +Saguenay early in June. Pontgravé began a series of trading operations with +the Indians at Tadousac, while Champlain proceeded up the river to fix upon +an advantageous site for the projected settlement. This site he found at +the confluence of the St. Charles with the St. Lawrence, near the place +where Jacques Cartier had spent the winter of 1535-6. Tradition tells us +that when Cartier's sailors beheld the adjacent promontory of Cape Diamond +they exclaimed, "_Quel bec_"--("What a beak!")--which exclamation led to +the place being called _Quebec_. The most probable derivation of the name, +however, is the Indian word _kebec_, signifying a strait, which might well +have been applied by the natives to the narrowing of the river at this +place. Whatever may be the origin of the name, here it was that Champlain, +on the 3rd of July, 1608, founded his settlement, and Quebec was the name +which he bestowed upon it. This was the first permanent settlement of +Europeans on the American continent, with the exception of those at St. +Augustine, in Florida, and Jamestown, in Virginia. + +Champlain's first attempts at settlement, as might be expected, were of a +very primitive character. He erected rude barracks, and cleared a few small +patches of ground adjacent thereto, which he sowed with wheat and rye. +Perceiving that the fur trade might be turned to good account in promoting +the settlement of the country, he bent his energies to its development. +He had scarcely settled his little colony in its new home ere he began to +experience the perils of his quasi-regal position. Notwithstanding +the patent of monopoly held by his patron, on the faith of which his +colonization scheme had been projected, the rights conferred by it began to +be infringed by certain traders who came over from France and instituted +a system of traffic with the natives. Finding the traffic exceedingly +profitable, these traders ere long held out inducements to some of +Champlain's followers. A conspiracy was formed against him and he narrowly +escaped assassination. Fortunately, one of the traitors was seized by +remorse, and revealed the plot before it had been fully carried out. The +chief conspirator was hanged, and his accomplices were sent over to France, +where they expiated their crime at the galleys. Having thus promptly +suppressed the first insurrection within his dominions, Champlain prepared +himself for the rigours of a Canadian winter. An embankment was formed +above the reach of the tide, and a stock of provisions was laid in +sufficient for the support of the settlement until spring. The colony, +inclusive of Champlain himself, consisted of twenty-nine persons. +Notwithstanding all precautions, the scurvy broke out among them during the +winter. Champlain, who was endowed with a vigorous constitution, escaped +the pest, but before the advent of spring the little colony was reduced +to only nine persons. The sovereign remedy which Cartier had found so +efficacious in a similar emergency was not to be found. That remedy was +a decoction prepared by the Indians from a tree which they called +_Auneda_--believed to have been a species of spruce--but the natives of +Champlain's day knew nothing of the remedy, from which he concluded that +the tribe which had employed it on behalf of Cartier and his men had been +exterminated by their enemies. + +With spring, succours and fresh immigrants arrived from France, and new +vitality was imported into the little colony. Soon after this time, +Champlain committed the most impolitic act of his life. The Hurons, +Algonquins and other tribes of the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa, resolved +upon taking the war-path against their enemies, the Iroquois, or Five +Nations--the boldest, fiercest, and most powerful confederacy known to +Indian history. Champlain, ever since his arrival in the country, had done +his utmost to win the favour of the natives with whom he was brought more +immediately into contact, and he deemed that by joining them in opposing +the Iroquois, who were a standing menace to his colony, he would knit the +Hurons and Algonquins to the side of the King of France by permanent and +indissoluble ties. To some extent he was right, but he underestimated +the strength of the foe, an alliance with whom would have been of more +importance than an alliance with all the other Indian tribes of New France. +Champlain cast in his lot with the Hurons and Algonquins, and accompanied +them on their expedition against their enemies. By so doing he invoked the +deadly animosity of the latter against the French for all time to come. He +did not forsee that by this one stroke of policy he was paving the way for +a subsequent alliance between the Iroquois and the English. + +On May 28th, 1609, in company with his Indian allies, he started on the +expedition, the immediate results of which were so insignificant--the +remote results of which were so momentous. The war-party embarked in +canoes, ascended the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Richelieu--then +called the River of the Iroquois--and thence up the latter stream to the +lake which Champlain beheld for the first time, and which until that day +no European eye had ever looked upon. This picturesque sheet of water +was thenceforward called after him, and in its name his own is still +perpetuated. The party held on their course to the head waters of the lake, +near to which several Iroquois villages were situated. The enemy's scouts +received intelligence of the approach of the invaders, and advanced to +repel them. The opposing forces met in the forest on the south-western +shore, not far from Crown point, on the morning of the 30th of July. The +Iroquois, two hundred in number, advanced to the onset. "Among them," says +Mr. Parkman, "could be seen several chiefs, conspicuous by their tall +plumes. Some bore shields of wood and hide, and some were covered with a +kind of armour made of tough twigs, interlaced with a vegetable fibre, +supposed by Champlain to be cotton. The allies, growing anxious, called +with loud cries for their champion, and opened their ranks that he +might pass to the front. He did so, and advancing before his red +companions-in-arms stood revealed to the astonished gaze of the Iroquois, +who, beholding the warlike apparition in their path, stared in mute +amazement. But his arquebuse was levelled; the report startled the woods, +a chief fell dead, and another by his side rolled among the bushes. Then +there arose from the allies a yell which, says Champlain, would have +drowned a thunderclap, and the forest was full of whizzing arrows. For a +moment the Iroquois stood firm, and sent back their arrows lustily; but +when another and another gunshot came from the thickets on their flank they +broke and fled in uncontrollable terror. Swifter than hounds, the allies +tore through the bushes, in pursuit. Some of the Iroquois were killed, more +were taken. Camp, canoes, provisions, all were abandoned, and many weapons +flung down in the panic flight. The arquebuse had done its work. The +victory was complete." The victorious allies, much to the disgust of +Champlain, tortured their prisoners in the most barbarous fashion, and +returned to Quebec, taking with them fifty Iroquois scalps. Thus was the +first Indian blood shed by the white man in Canada. The man who shed it was +a European and a Christian, who had not even the excuse of provocation. +This is a matter worth bearing in mind when we read of the frightful +atrocities committed by the Iroquois upon the whites in after years. +Champlain's conduct on this occasion seems incapable of defence, and it was +certainly a very grave error, considered simply as an act of policy. The +error was bitterly and fiercely avenged, and for every Indian who fell +on the morning of that 30th of July, in this, the first battle fought on +Canadian soil between natives and Europeans, a tenfold penalty was exacted. +"Thus did New France rush into collision with the redoubted warriors of the +Five Nations. Here was the beginning, in some measure doubtless the cause, +of a long succession of murderous conflicts, bearing havoc and flame to +generations yet unborn. Champlain had invaded the tiger's den; and now, in +smothered fury the patient savage would lie biding his day of blood." + +Six weeks after the performance of this exploit, Champlain, accompanied by +Pontgravé, returned to France. Upon his arrival at court he found De Monts +there, trying to secure a renewal of his patent of monopoly, which had +been revoked in consequence of loud complaints on the part of other French +merchants who were desirous of participating in the profits arising from +the fur trade. His efforts to obtain a renewal proving unsuccessful, De +Monts determined to carry on his scheme of colonization unaided by royal +patronage. Allying himself with some affluent merchants of Rochelle, he +fitted out another expedition and once more despatched Champlain to the New +World. Champlain, upon his arrival at Tadousac, found his former Indian +allies preparing for another descent upon the Iroquois, in which +undertaking he again joined them; the inducement this time being a promise +on the part of the Indians to pilot him up the great streams leading from +the interior, whereby he hoped to discover a passage to the North Sea, +and thence to China and the Indies. In this second expedition he was +less successful than in the former one. The opposing forces met near the +confluence of the Richelieu and St. Lawrence Rivers, and though Champlain's +allies were ultimately victorious, they sustained a heavy loss, and +he himself was wounded in the neck by an arrow. After the battle, the +torture-fires were lighted, as was usual on such occasions, and Champlain +for the first time was an eye-witness to the horrors of cannibalism. + +He soon afterwards began his preparations for an expedition up the Ottawa, +but just as he was about to start on the journey, a ship arrived from +France with intelligence that King Henry had fallen a victim to the dagger +of Ravaillac. The accession of a new sovereign to the French Throne might +materially affect De Monts's ability to continue his scheme, and Champlain +once more set sail for France to confer with his patron. The late king, +while deeming it impolitic to continue the monopoly in De Monts's favour, +had always countenanced the latter's colonisation schemes in New France; +but upon Champlain's arrival he found that with the death of Henry IV De +Monts's court influence had ceased, and that his western scheme must stand +or fall on its own merits. Champlain, in order to retrieve his patron's +fortunes as far as might be, again returned to Canada in the following +spring, resolved to build a trading post far up the St. Lawrence, where it +would be easily accessible to the Indian hunters on the Ottawa.--The spot +selected was near the site of the former village of Hochelaga, near the +confluence of the two great rivers of Canada. The post was built on the +site now occupied by the hospital of the Grey Nuns of Montreal, and even +before its erection was completed a horde of rival French traders appeared +on the scene. This drove Champlain once more back to France, but he soon +found that the ardour of De Monts for colonization had cooled, and that he +was not disposed to concern himself further in the enterprize. Champlain, +being thus left to his own resources, determined to seek another patron, +and succeeded in enlisting the sympathy of the Count de Soissons, who +obtained the appointment of Lieutenant-General of New France, and invested +Champlain with the functions of that office as his deputy. The Count did +not long survive, but Henry de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, succeeded to his +privileges, and continued Champlain in his high office. In the spring of +1613 Champlain again betook himself to Canada, and arrived at Quebec early +in May. Before the end of the month he started on his long-deferred tour of +western exploration. Taking with him two canoes, containing an Indian and +four Frenchmen, he ascended the Ottawa in the hope of reaching China and +Japan by way of Hudson's Bay, which had been discovered by Hendrick Hudson +only three years before. In undertaking this journey Champlain had been +misled by a French imposter called Nicholas Vignan, who professed to have +explored the route far inland beyond the head waters of the Ottawa, which +river, he averred, had its source in a lake connected with the North Sea. +The enthusiastic explorer, relying upon the good faith of Vignan, proceeded +westward to beyond Lake Coulange, and after a tedious and perilous voyage, +stopped to confer with Tessouat, an Indian chief, whose tribe inhabited +that remote region. This potentate, upon being apprised of the object of +their journey, undeceived Champlain as to Vignan's character for veracity, +and satisfied him that the Frenchman had never passed farther west than +Tessouat's own dominions. Vignan, after a good deal of prevarication, +confessed that his story was false, and that what the Indian chief had +stated was a simple fact. Champlain, weary and disgusted, abandoned his +exploration and returned to Quebec, leaving Vignan with the Indians in the +wildernesses of the Upper Ottawa. + +His next visit to France, which took place during the summer of the same +year was fraught with important results to the colony. A new company was +formed under the auspices of the Prince of Condé, and a scheme was laid +for the propagation of the Gospel among the Indians by means of Recollet +missionaries sent out from France for the purpose. These, who were the +first priests who settled in Canada, came out with Champlain in May, 1615. +A province was assigned to each of them, and they at once entered upon +the duties of their respective missions. One of them settled among the +Montagnais, near the mouth of the Saguenay; two of them remained at Quebec; +and the fourth, whose name was Le Caron, betook himself to the far western +wilds. Champlain then entered upon a more extended tour of westward +exploration than any he had hitherto undertaken. Accompanied by an +interpreter and a number of Algonquins as guides, he again ascended the +Ottawa, passed the Isle of Allumettes, and thence to Lake Nipissing. After +a short stay here he continued his journey, descended the stream since +known as French River, into the inlet of Lake Huron, now called Georgian +Bay. Paddling southward past the innumerable islands on the eastern coast +of the bay, he landed near the present site of Penetanguishene, and thence +followed an Indian trail leading through the ancient country of the +Hurons, now forming the northern part of the county of Simcoe, and the +north-eastern part of the county of Grey. This country contained seventeen +or eighteen villages, and a population, including women and children, of +about twenty thousand. One of the villages visited by Champlain, called +Cahiague, occupied a site near the present town of Orillia. At another +village, called Carhagouha, some distance farther west, the explorer found +the Recollet friar Le Caron, who had accompanied him from France only a few +months before as above mentioned. And here, on the 12th of August, 1615, Le +Caron celebrated, in Champlain's presence, the first mass ever heard in the +wilderness of western Canada. + +After spending some time in the Huron country, Champlain accompanied the +natives on an expedition against their hereditary foes, the Iroquois, whose +domain occupied what is now the central and western part of the State +of New York. Crossing Lake Couchiching and coasting down the north-eastern +shore of Lake Simcoe, they made their way across country to the Bay of +Quinté, thence into Lake Ontario, and thence into the enemy's country. +Having landed, they concealed their canoes in the woods and marched inland. +On the 10th of October they came to a Seneca [Footnote: The Senecas were +one of the Five Nations composing the redoubtable Iroquois Confederacy. +The Tuscaroras joined the League in 1715, and it is subsequently known in +history as the "Six Nations."] village on or near a lake which was probably +Lake Canandaigua. The Hurons attacked the village, but were repulsed by +the fierce Iroquois, Champlain himself being several times wounded in the +assault. The invading war-party then retreated and abandoned the campaign, +returning to where they had hidden their canoes, in which they embarked and +made the best of their way back across Lake Ontario, where the party broke +up. The Hurons had promised Champlain that if he would accompany them on +their expedition against the Iroquois they would afterwards furnish him +with an escort back to Quebec. This promise they now declined to make good. +Champlain's prestige as an invincible champion was gone, and wounded and +dispirited, he was compelled to accompany them back to their country near +Lake Simcoe, where he spent the winter in the lodge of Durantal, one of +their chiefs. Upon his return to Quebec in the following year he was +welcomed as one risen from the dead. Hitherto Champlain's love of +adventure had led him to devote more attention to exploration than to the +consolidation of his power in New France. He determined to change his +policy in this respect; and crossed over to France to induce a larger +emigration. In July, 1620, he returned with Madame de Champlain, who was +received with great demonstrations of respect and affection by the Indians +upon her arrival at Quebec. Champlain found that the colony had rather +retrograded than advanced during his absence, and for some time after his +return, various causes contributed to retard its prosperity. At the end +of the year 1621, [Footnote: In this year, Eustáche, son of Abraham and +Margaret Martin, the first child of European parentage born in Canada, +was born at Quebec.] the European population of New France numbered only +forty-eight persons. Rival trading companies continued to fight for the +supremacy in the colony, and any man less patient and persevering than the +Father of New France would have abandoned his schemes in despair. This +untoward state of things continued until 1627, when an association, known +to history by the name of "The Company of the One Hundred Associates," was +formed under the patronage of the great Cardinal Richelieu. The association +was invested with the Vice-royalty of New France and Florida, together with +very extensive auxiliary privileges, including a monopoly of the fur trade, +the right to confer titles and appoint judges, and generally to carry +on the Government of the colony. In return for these truly vice-regal +privileges the company undertook to send out a large number of colonists, +and to provide them with the necessaries of life for a term of three years, +after which land enough for their support and grain wherewith to plant it +was to be given them. Champlain himself was appointed Governor. This great +company was scarcely organized before war broke out between France and +England. The English resolved upon the conquest of Canada, and sent out a +fleet to the St. Lawrence under the command of Sir David Kertk. The fleet +having arrived before Quebec, its commander demanded from Champlain a +surrender of the place, and as the Governor's supply of food and ammunition +was too small to enable him to sustain a siege, he signed a capitulation +and surrendered. He then hastened to France, where he influenced the +cabinet to stipulate for the restoration of Canada to the French Crown in +the articles of peace which were shortly afterwards negotiated between the +two powers. In 1632 this restoration was effected, and next year Champlain +again returned in the capacity of Governor. From this time forward he +strove to promote the prosperity of the colony by every means in his power. +Among the means whereby he zealously strove to effect this object was the +establishment of Jesuit missions for the conversion of the Indians. Among +other missions so established was that in the far western Huron country, +around which the _Relations des Jesuites_ have cast such a halo of romance. + +The Father of New France did not live to gather much fruit from the crop +which he had sown. His life of incessant fatigue at last proved too much +even for his vigorous frame. After an illness which lasted for ten weeks, +he died on Christmas Day, 1635, at the age of sixty-eight. His beautiful +young wife, who had shared his exile for four years, returned to France +where she became an Ursuline nun, and founded a convent at Meaux, in which +she immured herself until her death a few years later. + +Champlain's body was interred in the vaults of a little Recollet church in +the Lower Town. This church was subsequently burned to the ground, and its +very site was not certainly known until recent times. In the year 1867 some +workmen were employed in laying water-pipes beneath the flight of stairs +called "Breakneck Steps," leading from Mountain Hill to Little Champlain +street. Under a grating at the foot of the steps they discovered the vaults +of the old Recollet church, with the remains of the Father of New France +enclosed. Independently of his energy, perseverance, and fortitude as an +explorer, Samuel de Champlain was a man of considerable mark, and earned +for himself an imperishable name in Canadian history. He wrote several +important works which, in spite of many defects, bear the stamp of no +ordinary mind. His engaging in war with the Iroquois was a fatal error, but +it arose from the peculiar position in which he found himself placed at the +outset of his western career, and it is difficult to see how anything short +of actual experience could have made his error manifest. The purity of his +life was proverbial, and was the theme of comment among his survivors for +years after his death. He foresaw that his adopted country was destined for +a glorious future. "The flourishing cities and towns of this Dominion," +says one of has eulogists, "are enduring monuments to his foresight; and +the waters of the beautiful lake that bears his name chant the most fitting +requiem to his memory as they break in perpetual murmurings on their +shores." + +This sketch would be incomplete without some reference to the mysterious +astrolabe which is alleged to have been found in the month of August, +1867, and which is supposed by some to have been lost by Champlain on the +occasion of his first voyage up the Ottawa in 1613, as recounted in the +preceding pages. The facts of the case may be compressed into few words, +although they have given rise to many learned disquisitions which, up to +the present time, have been barren of any useful result. + +In the month of August, 1867, some men were engaged in cultivating a piece +of ground on the rear half of lot number twelve, in the second range of the +township of Ross, in the county of Renfrew, Ontario, while turning up the +soil, as it is said, they came upon a queer looking instrument, which upon +examination proved to be an astrolabe an instrument used in former times to +mark the position of the stars, and to assist in computing latitudes, but +long since gone out of use. Upon its face was engraved the date 1603. Now, +Champlain's first journey up the Ottawa was made in the summer of 1613, and +he must have passed at or near the identical spot where the astrolabe was +found. It is claimed that this instrument belonged to Champlain, and +that it was lost by him in this place. In support of this claim it is +represented that Champlain's latitudes were always computed with reasonable +exactness up to the time of his passing through the portage of which the +plot of ground whereon the instrument was found forms a part. After that +time his computations are generally erroneous--so erroneous, indeed, as to +have led some readers of his journal very seriously astray in following out +his course. This, in reality, is all the evidence to be found as to the +ownership of the lost astrolabe. Taken by itself, it is reasonably strong +circumstantial evidence. On the other hand it may be contended that +astrolabes had pretty well gone out of use before the year 1613, and +Champlain was a man not likely to be behind his times in the matter of +scientific appliances. But the strongest argument is to be found in the +fact that Champlain's journal, which contains minute details of everything +that happened from day to day, makes no allusion whatever to his having +lost his astraolabe--a circumstance, it would seem, not very likely to be +omitted. The question is of course an open one, and has given rise, as has +already been said, to much discussion among Canadian archaeologists. It is, +however, of little historical importance, and needs no further allusion in +these pages. + + + + + + +THE HON. WILLIAM OSGOODE. + + + +In view of the fact that this gentleman's name has a very fair chance of +immortality in this Province, it is to be regretted that so little is +accurately known about him, and that only the merest outline of his career +has come down to the present times. Many Canadians would gladly know +something more of the life of the first man who filled the important +position of Chief-Justice of Upper Canada, and the desire for such +knowledge is by no means confined to members of the legal profession. He +was the faithful friend and adviser of our first Lieutenant-Governor, and +it is doubtless to his legal acumen that we owe those eight wise statues +which were passed during the first session of our first Provincial +Parliament, which assembled at Newark on the 17th of September, 1792. + +Nothing is definitely known concerning Chief-Justice Osgoode's ancestry. +A French-Canadian writer asserts that he was an illegitimate son of King +George the Third. No authority whatever is assigned in support of this +assertion, which probably rests upon no other basis than vague rumour. +Similar rumours have been current with respect to the paternity of other +persons who have been more or less conspicuous in Canada, and but little +importance should be attached to them. He was born in the month of March, +1754, and entered as a commoner at Christchurch College, Oxford, in 1770, +when he had nearly completed his sixteenth year. After a somewhat prolonged +attendance at this venerable seat of learning, he graduated and received +the degree of Master of Arts' in the month of July, 1777. Previous to +this time he had entered himself as a student at the Inner Temple, having +already been enrolled as a student on the books of Lincoln's Inn. He seems +at this time to have been possessed of some small means but not sufficient +for his support, and he pursued his professional studies with such avidity +as temporarily to undermine his health. He paid a short visit to the +Continent, and returned to his native land with restored physical and +mental vigour. In due course he was called to the Bar, and soon afterwards +published a technical work on the law of descent, which attracted some +notice from the profession. He soon became known as an erudite and +painstaking lawyer, whose opinions were entitled to respect, and who was +very expert as a special pleader. At the Bar he was less successful, +owing to an almost painful fastidiousness in his choice of words, which +frequently produced an embarrassing hesitation of speech. He seems to have +been a personal friend of Colonel Simcoe, even before that gentleman's +appointment as Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, and their intimacy +may possibly have had something to do with Mr. Osgoode's appointment as +Chief-Justice of the new Province in the spring of 1792. He came over in +the same vessel with the Governor, who sailed on the 1st of May. Upon +reaching Upper Canada the Governor and staff, after a short stay at +Kingston, passed on to Newark (now Niagara). The Chief-Justice accompanied +the party, and took up his abode with them at Navy Hall, where he continued +to reside during the greater part of his stay in the Province which was +of less than three years' duration. The solitude of his position, and +his almost complete isolation from society, and from the surroundings of +civilized life seem to have been unbearable to his sensitive and social +nature. In 1795 he was appointed Chief-Justice of the Lower Province, where +he continued to occupy the Judicial Bench until 1801, when he resigned his +position, and returned to England. His services as Chief-Justice entitled +him to a pension of £800 per annum, which he continued to enjoy for rather +more than twenty-two years. For historical purposes, his career may be said +to have ceased with his resignation, as he never again emerged from +the seclusion of private life. He was several times requested to enter +Parliament, but declined to do so. During the four years immediately +succeeding his return to England he resided in the Temple. In 1804, +upon the conversion of Melbourue House--a mansion in the West End of +London--into the fashionable set of chambers known as "The Albany," he +took up his quarters there for the remainder of his life. Among other +distinguished men who resided there contemporaneously with him were +Lord Brougham and Lord Byron. The latter occupied the set of chambers +immediately adjoining those of the retired Chief-Justice, and the two +became personally acquainted with each other; though, considering the +diversity of their habits, it is not likely that any very close intimacy +was established between them. In conjunction with Sir William Grant, Mr. +Osgoode was appointed on several legal commissions. One of these consisted +of the codification of certain Imperial Statutes relating to the colonies. +Another commission in which he took part was an enquiry into the amount of +fees receivable by certain officials in the Court of King's Bench, which +enquiry was still pending at the time of his death. He lived very much +to himself, though he was sometimes seen in society. He died of acute +pneumonia on the 17th of January, 1824, in the seventieth year of his +age. One of his intimate friends has left the following estimate of his +character:--"His opinions were independent, but zealously loyal; nor were +they ever concealed, or the defence of them abandoned, when occasions +called them forth. His conviction of the excellence of the English +Constitution sometimes made him severe in the reproof of measures which he +thought injurious to it; but his politeness and good temper prevented any +disagreement even with those whose sentiments were most opposed to his own. +To estimate his character rightly, it was, however, necessary to know him +well; his first approaches being cold, amounting almost to dryness. But no +person admitted to his intimacy ever failed to conceive for him that esteem +which his conduct and conversation always tended to augment. He died in +affluent circumstances, the result of laudable prudence, without the +smallest taint of avarice or illiberal parsimony. On the contrary, he lived +generously, and though he never wasted his property, yet he never spared, +either to himself or friends, any reasonable indulgence; nor was he +backward in acts of charity or benevolence." + +He was never married. There is a story about an attachment formed by him +to a young lady of Quebec, during his residence there. It is said that +the lady preferred a wealthier suitor, and that he never again became +heart-whole. This, like the other story above mentioned, rests upon mere +rumour, and is entitled to the credence attached to other rumours of a +similar nature. His name is perpetuated in this Province by that of the +stately Palace of Justice on Queen Street West, Toronto; also, by the name +of a township in the county of Carleton. + + + + + + +LORD SYDENHAM. + + + +Towards the close of last century there was in the City of London, England, +a prominent mercantile house which carried on business under the style of +"J. Thomson, T. Bonar & Co." The branch of commerce to which this house +chiefly devoted its attention was the Russian trade. It had existed, +under various styles, for more than a hundred years, and had built up so +extensive a trade as to have a branch establishment at the Russian capital. +The senior partner of the firm was John Thomson of Waverley Abbey, and +Roehampton, in the county of Surrey. In the year 1820 this gentleman +assumed the name of Poulett--in remembrance of his mother, who was heiress +of a branch of the family of that name--and he was afterwards known as John +Poulett Thomson. In 1781 he married Miss Charlotte Jacob, daughter of a +physician at Salisbury. By this lady he had a numerous family, consisting +of nine children. The youngest of these, Charles Edward Poulett Thomson, +destined to be the first governor of United Canada, and to be raised to +the peerage under the title of Baron Sydenham, was born on the 13th +of September, 1799, at the family seat in Surrey--Waverley Abbey, +above-mentioned. His mother had long been in delicate health, and at the +time of his birth was so feeble as to give rise to much solicitude as to +her chances of recovery. She finally rallied, but for some months she led +the life of an invalid. Her feebleness reflected itself in the constitution +of her son, who never attained to much physical strength. The feebleness of +his body was doubtless increased by the nervous activity of his intellect, +which constantly impelled him to mental feats incompatible with his +delicate frame. It may be said that he passed through the forty-two +years which made up the measure of his life in a chronic state of bodily +infirmity. The fret and worry incidental to an ambitious parliamentary and +official career doubtless also contributed their share to the shortening of +his life. + +His childhood was marked by a sprightly grace and beauty which made him a +general favourite. In his fourth year he was for a time the especial pet of +his Majesty King George III. He made the King's acquaintance at Weymouth, +where, with other members of his family, he spent part of the summer of +1803. While walking on the Parade, in charge of his nurse, his beauty and +sprightliness attracted the notice of His Majesty, who was also spending +the season there, in the hope of regaining that physical and mental vigour +which never returned to him. The King was much taken with the vivacity and +pert replies of the handsome little fellow, and insisted on a daily visit +from him. The child's conquest over the royal heart was complete, and His +Majesty seemed to be never so well pleased as when he had little Master +Thomson in his arms, carrying him about, and showing him whatever amusing +sights the place afforded. On one occasion the King was standing on the +shore near the pier-head, in conversation with Mr. Pitt, who had come down +from London to confer with His Majesty about affairs of State. His Majesty +was about to embark in the royal yacht for a short cruise, and, as was +usual at that time of the day, he had Master Thomson in his arms. When just +on the point of embarking, he suddenly placed the child in the arms of Mr. +Pitt, saying hurriedly, "Is not this a fine boy, Pitt? Take him in your +arms, Pitt--take him in your arms. Charming boy, isn't he?" Pitt complied +with the royal request with the best grace he could, and carried the child +in his arms to the door of his lodgings. + +At the age of seven, Master Thomson was sent to a private school at +Hanwell, whence, three years afterwards, he was transferred to the charge +of the Rev. Mr. Wooley, at Middleton. After spending a short time there, he +became a pupil of the Rev. Mr. Church, at Hampton, where he remained until +he had nearly completed his sixteenth year. He then left school--his +education, of course, being far from complete--and entered the service of +his father's firm. It was determined that he should begin his mercantile +career in the St. Petersburg branch, and in the summer of 1815 he was +despatched to Russia. His fine manners and address, combined with the +wealth and influence of the firm to which he was allied, obtained him +access to the best society of St. Petersburg, where he spent more than +two years. In the autumn of 1817, upon his recovery from a rather serious +illness, it was thought desirable that he should spend the coming winter in +a milder climate than that of St. Petersburg, and he returned to his native +land. The next two or three years were spent in travelling on the Continent +with other members of his family. He then entered the counting-house in +London, where he spent about eighteen months. This brings us down to the +year 1821. In the spring of that year he was admitted as a partner in the +firm, and once more went out to St. Petersburg, where he again remained +nearly two years. He then entered upon a somewhat prolonged tour through +central and southern Russia, and across country to Vienna, where he spent +the winter of 1823-4, and part of the following spring. Towards the end of +April he set out for Paris, where his mother was confined by illness, and +where she breathed her last almost immediately after her son's arrival. Mr. +Thomson soon afterwards returned to London, where he settled down as one of +the managing partners of the commercial establishment. In this capacity he +displayed the same energy which subsequently distinguished his political +and diplomatic career. He took a lively interest in the political questions +of the day; more especially in those relating to commercial matters. He was +a pronounced Liberal, and a strenuous advocate of free-trade. In the summer +of 1825 advances were made to him to become the Liberal candidate for Dover +at the next election. After due consideration he responded favourably to +these advances, and was in due course returned by a considerable majority. +One of his earliest votes in the House of Commons was in favour of +free-trade. He soon became known as a ready and effective speaker, whose +judgment on commercial questions was entitled to respect. His zeal for the +principles of his party was also conspicuous, and when Earl Grey formed his +Administration in November, 1830, the office of Vice-President of the Board +of Trade, together with the Treasurership of the Navy, was offered to and +accepted by Mr. Thomson. He was at the same time sworn in as a member +of the Privy Council. The acceptance of the former office rendered it +necessary for him to sever his connection with the commercial firm of +which he had up to this time been a member, and he never again engaged in +mercantile business of any kind. By this time, indeed, he had established +for himself a reputation of no common order. The part he had taken in +the debates of the House, and in the proceedings of its Committees, on +questions connected with commerce and finance, had proved him to possess +not only a clear practical acquaintance with the details of these subjects, +but also principles of an enlarged and liberal character, and powers of +generalization and a comprehensiveness of view rarely found combined in so +young a man. The next three or four years were busy ones with him. It will +be remembered that this was the era of the Reform Bill. Mr. Thomson did not +take a prominent part in the discussions on that measure, his time being +fully occupied with the financial and fiscal policy, but he put forth the +weight of his influence in favour of the Bill. His principal efforts, +during his tenure of office, were directed to the simplification and +amendment of the Customs Act, and to an ineffectual attempt to negotiate +a commercial treaty with France. After the dissolution in 1831 he was +re-elected for Dover. He was, however, also elected--without any canvass or +solicitation on his part--for Manchester, the most important manufacturing +constituency in the kingdom; and he chose to sit for the latter. In 1834 +he succeeded to the Presidency of the Board of Trade, as successor to +Lord Auckland. Then followed Earl Grey's resignation and Lord Melbourne's +accession. On the dismissal of the Ministry in November, Mr. Thomson was, +of course, left without office, but on Lord Melbourne's re-accession in +the following spring he was reinstated in the Presidency of the Board +of Trade--an office which he continued to hold until his appointment as +Governor-General of Canada. + +Early in 1836 his health had become so seriously affected by his official +labours that he began to recognize the necessity of resigning his office, +and of accepting some post which would not so severely tax his energies. +He continued to discharge his official duties, however, until the +reconstruction of Lord Melbourne's Administration in 1839, when he +signified his wish to be relieved. He was offered a choice between the +office of Chancellor of the Exchequer and that of Governor-General of +Canada. He chose the latter, and having received his appointment and been +sworn in before the Privy Council, he set sail from Portsmouth for Quebec +on the 13th of September, which was the fortieth anniversary of his birth. +He reached his destination after a tedious, stormy voyage, and assumed the +reins of government on the 19th of October. He was well received in this +country. The mercantile community of Canada were especially disposed to +favour the appointment of a man who had himself been bred to commercial +pursuits, and who would be likely to feel a more than ordinary interest in +promoting commercial interests. + +Canada was at this time in a state of transition. Owing to the strenuous +exertions of the Reform party in this country, seconded by Lord Durham's +famous "Report," the concession of Responsible Government and the union of +the provinces had been determined upon by the Home Ministry. It was Mr. +Thomson's mission to see these two most desirable objects carried out. He +had a most difficult part to play. As a pronounced Liberal, he naturally +had the confidence of the Reform party, but there were a few prominent +members of that party who did not approve of the Union project, and he felt +that he could not count upon their cordial support. True, the opponents +of the measure constituted a very small minority of the Reform party +generally; but there was another party from whom the strongest opposition +was to be expected--the Family Compact. This faction was not yet extinct, +though its days were numbered. It still controlled the Legislative Council, +which body had already recorded a vote hostile to the Union. The +situation was one calling for the exercise of great tact, and the new +Governor-General proved himself equal to the occasion. He made no changes +in the composition either of the Special Council of the Lower Province--a +body formed under Imperial sanction by Sir John Colborne--or in that of +the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. After a short stay at Quebec he +proceeded to Montreal, and convoked the Special Council on the 11th of +November. He laid before this body the views of the Imperial Ministry +relating to the union of the Provinces, and the concession of Responsible +Government. By the time the Council had been in session two days the +majority of the members were fully in accord with the Governor's views, and +a series of resolutions were passed as a basis of Union. This disposed +of the question, so far as the Lower Province was concerned, and after +discharging the Council from further attendance, Mr. Thomson proceeded to +Toronto to gain the assent of the Upper Canadian Legislature. With the +Assembly no difficulty was anticipated, but to gain the assent of the Tory +majority in the Legislative Council would evidently be no easy matter, +for the success of the Governor's policy involved the triumph of Reform +principles, and the inevitable downfall of the Family Compact. The +Governor's tact, however, placed them in an anomalous position. For several +years past the Tory party had been boasting of their success in putting +down the Rebellion, and had raised a loud and senseless howl of loyalty. +They were never weary of proclaiming their devotion to the Imperial +will, irrespective of selfish considerations. This cry, which had been +perpetually resounding throughout the Province during the last three years, +supplied the Governor with the means of bending to his pleasure those +who had raised it. He delivered a message to the Legislature in which he +defined the Imperial policy, and appealed in the strongest terms to those +professions of loyalty which the Tory majority in the Council were for ever +proclaiming. He also published a circular despatch from Lord John Russell, +the tone of which was an echo of that of his own message. The Tory majority +were thus placed on the horns of a dilemma. They must either display their +much-vaunted loyalty, by acceding to the Imperial will, or they must admit +that their blatant professions had been mere party cries to deceive +the electors. Their opposition, moreover, would render necessary the +resignation of their offices. With the best grace they could, they +announced their intention to support the Imperial policy. The Assembly +passed resolutions in accordance with the spirit of Governor's message. +Nothing further was necessary to render the Union an accomplished fact; +except the sanction of the Imperial Parliament. A Union Bill, framed under +the supervision of Sir James Stuart, Chief Justice of Lower Canada, was +forwarded to England, where, in a slightly modified form, it was passed by +both Houses, and received the royal assent. Owing to a suspending clause in +the Bill, it did not come into operation until the 10th of February, 1841, +when, by virtue of the Governor-General's proclamation, the measure took +effect, and the union of the Canadas was complete. + +Soon after the close of the session of the Upper Canadian Legislature, +Mr. Thomson was raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Sydenham, of +Sydenham, in Kent, and Toronto in Canada. The greater part of the following +autumn was spent by him in travelling about through the Upper Province. He +seems to have been greatly pleased both with the country and the people. +The following extract from a private letter, written from the shores of the +Bay of Quinté on the 18th of September, is worth quoting, as showing +the impressions of an intelligent observer at that time:--"Amherstburg, +Sandwich, River St. Clair, Lake Huron, Goderich, Chatham, London, +Woodstock, Brantford, Simcoe, the Talbot Road and Settlement, Hamilton, +Dundas, and so back to Toronto--you can follow me on a map. From Toronto +across Lake Simcoe to Penetangnishene on Lake Huron again, and back to +Toronto, which I left again last night for the Bay of Quinté, all parties +uniting in addresses at every place, full of confidence in my government, +and of a determination to forget their former disputes. Escorts of two +and three hundred farmers on horseback at every place from township to +township, with all the etceteras of guns, music, and flags. What is of more +importance, my candidates everywhere taken for the ensuing elections. In +short, such unanimity and confidence I never saw, and it augurs well for +the future.... The fact is that the truth of my original notion of the +people of this country is now confirmed. The _mass_ only wanted the +vigorous interference of a well-intentioned government, strong enough to +control both the extreme parties, and to proclaim wholesome truths and act +for the benefit of the country at large, in defiance of ultras on either +side. But, apart from all this political effort, I am delighted to have +seen this part of the country--I mean the great district, nearly as large +as Ireland, placed between the three lakes, Erie, Ontario, and Huron. You +can conceive nothing finer. The most magnificent soil in the world; four +feet of vegetable mould; a climate, certainly the best in North America. +The greater part of it admirably watered. In a word, there is land enough +and capabilities enough for some millions of people, and for one of the +finest Provinces in the world. The most perfect contrast to that miserable +strip of land along the St. Lawrence called Lower Canada, which has given +so much trouble. I shall fix the capital of the United Provinces in this +one, of course. Kingston will most probably be the place. But there is +everything to be done there yet, to provide accommodation for the meeting +of the Assembly in the spring." + +As suggested in the foregoing extract, Kingston was fixed upon as the seat +of Government of the United Provinces, and the Legislature assembled there +on the 13th of June, 1841. The Governor-General's speech at the opening +of the session was marked by tact, moderation, and good sense. A strong +Opposition, however, soon began to manifest itself, and Mr. Neilson, of +Quebec, moved an amendment to the Address directly condemnatory of the +Union. The amendment was defeated by a vote of 50 to 25. Throughout the +session nearly all the Government measures received the support of the +House, an important exception being the French Election Bill. Meanwhile +the state of Lord Sydenham's health was such as to render his duties very +difficult for him, and as the great object of his mission to Canada had +been successfully accomplished, he resolved to return home at the close of +the session. He forwarded his resignation to the Home Secretary, having +already received leave of absence which would obviate the necessity of his +remaining at his post until the acceptance of his resignation. Of this +leave, however, he was not destined to avail himself. On the 4th of +September he felt himself well enough to ride out on horseback. While +returning homeward he put his horse to a canter, just as he began to ascend +a little hill not far from Alwington House, his residence, near the lake +shore. When about half way up the hill, the horse stumbled and fell, +crashing his rider's right leg beneath his weight. The animal rose to +its feet and dragged Lord Sydenham--whose right foot was fast in the +stirrup--for a short distance. One of his aides, who just then rode up, +rescued the Governor from his perilous position and conveyed him home, when +it was found that the principal bone of his right leg, above the knee, had +sustained an oblique fracture, and that the limb had also received a severe +wound from being bruised against a sharp stone, which had cut deeply and +lacerated the flesh and sinews. Notwithstanding these serious injuries, and +the shock which his nervous system had sustained, his medical attendants +did not at first anticipate danger to his life. He continued free from +fever, and his wounds seemed to be going on satisfactorily; but he was +debilitated by perpetual sleeplessness and inability to rest long in one +position. On the ninth day after his injury dangerous symptoms began to +manifest themselves, and it soon became apparent that he would not recover. +After a fortnight of great suffering, he breathed his last on Sunday, the +19th, having completed his forty-second year six days previously. + +"His fame," says his biographer, "must rest not so much on what he did or +said in Parliament as on what he did and proposed to do out of it--on his +consistent and to a great degree successful efforts to expose the fallacy +of the miscalled Protective system, and gradually, but effectively, to root +it out of the statute-book, and thereby to free the universal industry of +Britain from the mischievous shackles imposed by an ignorant and mistaken +selfishness." + +His Canadian administration may be looked upon as a brief and brilliant +episode in his public career. In private life he was much loved and highly +esteemed. His amiable disposition and pleasing manner excited the warmest +attachment among those who were admitted to his intimacy, and in every +circumstance that affected their happiness he always appeared to take a +lively personal interest. In the midst of his occupations he always had +time for works of kindness and charity. In a letter to an idle friend who +had been remiss in correspondence, he once said, "Of course you have no +time. No one ever has who has nothing to do." His assistance was always +promptly and eagerly afforded whenever he could serve his friends, or +confer a favour on a deserving object. His integrity and sense of honour +were high, and his disinterestedness was almost carried to excess. The +remuneration for his official services was lower than that of any other +official of equal standing, and far below his deserts. Never having +married, however, owing to an early disappointment, his needs were +moderate, and his private fortune considerable. His person and manner were +very prepossessing, and his aptitude and acquired knowledge great. He was +very popular in the social circle, and his death left a void among his +friends which was never filled. + + + + + + +MONTCALM. + + + +"Go to; the boy is a born generalissimo, and is destined to be a Marshal of +France," said M. Ricot, holding up his hands in amazement. The boy referred +to was a little fellow seven or eight years of age, by name Louis Joseph de +Saint Veran. M. Ricot was his tutor, and was led to express himself after +this fashion in consequence of some precocious criticisms of his pupil +on the tactics employed by Caius Julius Cæsar at a battle fought in +Transalpine Gaul fifty odd years before the advent of the Christian era. +It was evident to the critic's youthful mind that the battle ought to have +resulted differently, and that if the foes of "the mighty Julius" had +had the wit to take advantage of his indiscretion, certain pages of the +"Commentaries" might have been conceived in a less boastful spirit. Little +Louis Joseph had sketched a rough plan, showing the respective positions of +the opposing forces, and had then demanded of his tutor why _this_ had not +been done, why _that_ had been neglected, and why _the other_ had never +been even so much as thought of. M. Ricot, after carefully following out +the reasoning of his pupil, could find no weak point therein, and was fain +to admit that the Great Roman had been guilty of a huge blunder in +the arrangement of his forces. Fortunately for the General's military +reputation, the Gauls had been beaten in spite of his defective strategy, +and he himself had survived to transmit to posterity a rather egotistical +account of the affair. M. Ricot had been reading those "Commentaries" +all his life--reading them, as he supposed, critically--but he had never +lighted upon the discovery which his present pupil had made upon a first +perusal. Well might he exclaim, "Go to; the boy is a born generalissimo, +and is destined to be a marshal of France." + +Such is the anecdote--preserved in an old volume of French memoirs--of the +childhood of him who subsequently became famous on two continents, and +who for more than a hundred years past has been accounted one of the most +redoubtable commanders of his age. If the story is true, certainly the +Marquis de Montcalm did not carry out the splendid promise of his boyhood. +He lived to fight the battles of his country with unflinching courage, with +a tolerable amount of military skill, and with a tenacity of purpose that +often achieved success against tremendous odds. But, unlike the great +general to whom, during the last few weeks of his life, it was his fortune +to be opposed, he never gave any evidence of possessing an original +military genius--such a genius as would seem to have been possessed by the +youth who figures in the foregoing anecdote. His chivalrous bravery, his +high-bred courtesy, and, more than all, his untimely death, have done much +to make his name famous in history, and to obscure certain features of +character which we are not usually accustomed to associate with greatness. +"History," says Cooper, "is like love, and is apt to surround her heroes +with an atmosphere of imaginary brightness. It is probable that Louis de +Saint Veran will be viewed by posterity only as the gallant defender of his +country, while his cruel apathy on the shores of the Oswego and the Horican +will be forgotten." + +He was descended from a noble French family, and was born at the Chateau of +Candiac, near Nismes, in southern France, on the 28th of February, 1712. +Concerning his early years but few particulars have come down to us. He +seems to have entered the army before he had completed his fourteenth year, +and to have distinguished himself in various campaigns in Germany, Bohemia +and Italy during the war for the Austrian succession. At the disastrous +battle of Piacenza, in Italy, fought in the year 1746, he gained the +rank of colonel; and in 1749 he became a brigadier-general. Seven years +subsequent to the latter date he began to figure conspicuously in Canadian +history, and from that time forward we are able to trace his career +pretty closely. Early in 1756, having been elevated to the rank of a +Field-Marshal--thus verifying the prediction of his old tutor--he was +appointed successor to the Baron Dieskau in the chief command of the French +forces in this country. He sailed from France early in April, and arrived +at Quebec about a month afterwards. He was accompanied across the Atlantic +by a large reinforcement, consisting of nearly 14,000 regular troops, and +an ample supply of munitions of war. He at once began to set on foot those +active operations against the British in America which were followed +up with such unremitting vigilance throughout the greater part of the +following three years. + +The state of affairs in Canada at this period may be briefly summarized +as follows:--The Government was administered by the Marquis de +Vaudreuil-Cavagnal, a man ill-fitted for so onerous a position in such +troublous times. The colony extended from the seaboard to the far west, +through the valley of the Ohio, and had a white population of about 80,000. +Previous to Montcalm's arrival there were 3,000 veteran French troops in +the country, in addition to a well-trained militia. The country, indeed, +was an essentially military settlement, and the people felt that they might +at any time be called upon to defend their frontiers. The countless tribes +and offshoots of the Huron-Algonquin Indians had cast in their lot with the +French, and were to contribute not a little to the success of many of their +warlike operations. The French, by means of their forts at Niagara, Toronto +and Frontenac (Kingston), held almost undisputed sovereignty over Lake +Ontario; and their forts at Crown Point and Ticonderoga enabled them to +control Lake Champlain. + +Still, the French colonists laboured under some serious disadvantages, +which contributed eventually to decide the contest adversely to them. They +had given comparatively little attention to the cultivation of the soil, +and suffered from a chronic scarcity of food. They were subjected to feudal +exactions ill-suited to the condition of the country, and were further +impoverished by huge commercial monopolies. Every branch of the public +service was corrupt, and the peculations of the officials, if not shared +by the Governor himself, were at least winked at or sanctioned by him. +Montcalm, whatever may have been his shortcomings in some respects, was no +self-seeker, and was very properly disgusted with the mal-administration +which everywhere prevailed. His dissatisfaction with, and contempt for, the +Governor, had the effect of producing much internal dissention among the +Canadians, and of hastening the downfall of French dominion in the colony. + +The population of the British colonies at this time was not much less than +three millions; but this population, unlike that of Canada, knew little of +military affairs. The British colonists had spent their time in commercial +and agricultural pursuits, and had not cast loose from the spirit of +puritanism which had animated the breasts of their forefathers. As compared +with the mother-country they were poor enough in all conscience, but they +were as a rule, frugal, industrious and intelligent; and, as compared with +their Canadian neighbours, they might almost be said to be in affluent +circumstances. They possessed in an eminent degree those qualities--energy, +endurance, and courage--which mark the Anglo-Saxon race in every quarter of +the globe. Such a foe, if once disciplined and roused to united action, was +not to be despised, even by the veteran battalions of France, and the most +Christian King showed his appreciation of this fact by sending against them +a general who was regarded as the most consummate soldier in Europe. + +Having arrived at Quebec about the middle of May, Montcalm lost no time in +opening the campaign. One of his earliest proceedings was to lay siege to +Fort Oswego, which after a faint resistance, was compelled to surrender. +Articles of capitulation were signed, the British laid down their arms, and +the fort was delivered over to the conquerors. One hundred and thirty-four +cannon and a large quantity of specie and military stores became the spoil +of the victors, and more than 1,600 British subjects, including 120 women +and children, became prisoners of war. + +Up to this epoch in his career the conduct of the Marquis de Montcalm +had been such as to deserve the unqualified admiration alike of his +contemporaries and of posterity. Though not past his prime, he had achieved +the highest military distinction which his sovereign could bestow. His +chivalrous courage had been signally displayed on many a hard-fought field, +and his urbanity, amiability, and generosity had made him the idol of +his soldiers. He had a manner at once grand and ingratiating, and in his +intercourse with others he manifested a _bonhomme_ that caused him to be +beloved alike by the simple soldier and the haughty _noblesse_ of his +native land. Considering his opportunities he had been a diligent student, +and had improved his mind by familiarity with the productions of many of +the greatest writers of ancient and modern times. By far the greater +part of his life had been spent in the service of his country, and when +compelled to endure the privations incidental to an active military life +in the midst of war, he had ever been ready to share his crust with the +humblest soldier in the ranks. Up to this time every action of his life +had seemed to indicate that he was a man of high principle and stainless +honour. If it had been his good fortune to die before the fall of Oswego +his name would have been handed down to future times as a perfect mirror of +chivalry--a knight without fear and without reproach. It is sad to think +that a career hitherto without a blot should have been marred with repeated +acts of cruelty and breaches of faith. On both counts of this indictment +the Marquis of Montcalm must be pronounced guilty; and in view of his +conduct at Oswego, and afterwards at Fort William Henry, the only +conclusion at which the impartial historian can arrive is that he was +lamentably deficient in the highest attributes of character. + +Fort Oswego was surrendered on the 14th of August. By the terms of +capitulation the sick and wounded were specially entrusted to Montcalm, +whose word was solemnly pledged for their protection and safe conduct. How +was the pledge redeemed? No sooner were the British deprived of their arms +than the Indian allies of the French were permitted to swoop down upon the +defenceless prisoners and execute upon them their savage will. The sick and +wounded were scalped, slain, and barbarously mutilated before the eyes of +the Marshal of France, who had guaranteed that not a hair of their heads +should fall. Nay, more; a score of the prisoners were deliberately handed +over to the savages to be ruthlessly butchered, as an offering to the manes +of an equal number of Indians who had been slain during the siege. + +Such are the unimpeachable facts of the massacre at Oswego. It is not +probable that these proceedings on the part of the Indians were agreeable +to the feelings of Montcalm, or that he consented to them with a very good +grace. The noble representative of the highest civilization in Europe +could scarcely have taken pleasure in witnessing the hideous massacre +of defenceless women and children. But he was anxious to retain the +co-operation of his red allies at any cost, and had not the moral greatness +to exercise his authority to restrain their savage lust for blood. It has +been contended by some defenders of his fame that he had no choice in the +matter--that the ferocity of the savages was aroused, and could not be +controlled. It is sufficient to say in reply that those who argue thus must +wilfully shut their eyes to the facts. Was it because he could not restrain +his allies that he, without remonstrance, delivered up to them twenty +British soldiers to be tortured, cut to pieces, and burned? Was he unable +to restrain them when he finally became sickened with their butchery and +personally interposed to prevent its further continuance? From the moment +when his will was unmistakably made known to the Indians the massacre +ceased; and if he had been true to himself and his solemnly-plighted word +from the beginning, that massacre would never have begun. By no specious +argument can he be held guiltless of the blood of those luckless victims +whose dismembered limbs were left to fester before the entrenchments at +Oswego. + +With the surrender of Oswego Great Britain lost her last vestige of control +over Lake Ontario. The fort was demolished, and the French returned to +the eastern part of the Province. The result of the campaign of 1756 was +decidedly in favour of the French, and Montcalm's reputation as a military +commander rose rapidly, though his conduct at Oswego led to his being +looked upon with a sort of distrust that had never before attached to his +name. His courage and generalship, however, were unimpeachable, and his +vigilance never slept. During the following winter his spies scoured the +frontiers of the British settlements, and gained early intelligence of +every important movement of the forces. Among other information, he learned +that the British had a vast store of provisions and munitions of war at +Fort William Henry, at the southwestern extremity of Lake George. Early in +the spring, Montcalm resolved to capture this fort, and to possess himself +of the stores. On the 16th of March, 1757, he landed on the opposite side +of the lake, at a place called Long Point. Next day, having rounded the +head of the lake, he attacked the fort; but the garrison made a vigorous +defence, and he was compelled to retire to Fort Ticonderoga, at the foot of +the lake! For several months afterwards his attention was distracted from +Fort William Henry by operations in different parts of the Province; but +early in the month of August he renewed the attempt with a force consisting +of 7,000 French and Canadian troops, 2,000 Indians, and a powerful train of +artillery. The garrison consisted of 2,300 men, besides women and children. +To tell the story of the second siege and final surrender of Fort William +Henry would require pages. Suffice it to say that the dire tragedy of +Oswego was re-enacted on a much more extended scale. For six days the +garrison was valiantly defended by Lieutenant-Colonel Munro, a veteran of +the 35th Regiment of the line. Day after day did the gallant old soldier +defend his trust, waiting in vain for succours that never arrived. Finally, +when he learned that no succours were to be expected, and that to prolong +the strife would simply be to throw away the lives of his men, he had +an interview with the French commander and agreed to an honourable +capitulation. + +Again did Montcalm pledge his sacred word for the safety of the garrison, +which was to be escorted to Fort Edward by a detatchment of French troops. +The sick and wounded were to be taken under his own protection until their +recovery, when they were to be permitted to return to their own camp. + +Such were the terms of capitulation; terms which were honourable, to the +victor, and which the vanquished could accept without ignominy. How were +these terms carried out? No sooner were the garrison well clear of the fort +than the shrill war-whoop of the Indians was heard, and there ensued a +slaughter so terrible, so indiscriminate, and so inconceivably hideous in +all its details that even the history of pioneer warfare hardly furnishes +any parallel to it. Nearly a thousand victims were slain on the spot, and +hundreds more were carried away into hopeless captivity. No more graphic or +historically accurate description of that scene has ever been written than +is to be found in "The Last of the Mohicans," where we read that no sooner +had the war-whoop sounded than upwards of two thousand raging savages burst +from the forest and threw themselves across the plain with instinctive +alacrity. "Death was everywhere, in its most terrific and disgusting +aspects. Resistance only served to inflame the murderers, who inflicted +their furious blows long after their victims were beyond the reach of their +resentment. The flow of blood might be likened to the outbreaking of a +gushing torrent; and as the natives became heated and maddened by the +sight, many among them kneeled on the earth and drank; freely, exultingly, +hellishly, of the crimson tide. The trained bodies of the British troops +threw themselves quickly into solid masses, endeavouring to awe their +assailants by the imposing appearance of a military front. The experiment +in some measure succeeded, though many suffered their unloaded muskets to +be torn from their hands in the vain hope of appeasing the savages." + +It has been alleged on Montcalm's behalf that when the slaughter began he +used his utmost endeavours to arrest it. His utmost endeavours! Why, even +if his command was insufficient to restrain his allies, he had seven +thousand regular troops with arms in their hands, at his back. Instead of +theatrically baring his breast, and calling upon the savages to slay him in +place of the English, for whom his honour was plighted, he would have done +well to have kept that honour unsullied by observing the plain terms of +capitulation, and providing a suitable escort. Instead of calling upon the +British--hampered as they were by the presence of their sick, and of their +women and children--to defend themselves, he should have called upon his +own troops to protect his honour and that of France. Had his promised +escort been provided no attempt would have been made by the Indians, and +the tragedy at Oswego might in process of time have come to be regarded as +a mere mischance. But no such excuse can now be of any avail. According to +some accounts of this second massacre, no escort whatever was furnished. +According to others, the escort was a mere mockery, consisting of a totally +inadequate number of French troops, who were very willing to see their +enemies butchered, and who did not even make any attempt to restrain their +allies. All that can be known for certain is, that if there was any escort +at all it was wholly ineffective; and, leaving humanity altogether out of +the question, this was in itself an express violation of the terms upon +which the garrison had been surrendered. The massacre at Fort William Henry +followed one short year after that at Oswego, and the two combined have +left a stain upon the memory of the man who permitted them which no time +can ever wash away. + +Time and space alike fail us to describe at length the subsequent campaigns +of that and the following year. Montcalm's defence of Fort Ticonderoga on +the 8th of June, 1758, was a masterly piece of strategy, and was unmarred +by any incident to detract from the honour of his victory, which was +achieved against stupendous odds. Ticonderoga continued to be Montcalm's +headquarters until Quebec was threatened by the British under Wolfe; when +he at once abandoned the shores of Lake Champlain, and mustered all his +forces for the defence of the capital of the French colony. + +The siege of Quebec has been described at length in a former sketch, and it +is unnecessary to add much to that description here. It will be remembered +how Wolfe landed at _L'Anse du Foulon_ in the darkness of the night of +September 12th, 1759, and how the British troops scaled the precipitous +heights leading to the Plains of Abraham. Intelligence of this momentous +event reached Montcalm, at his headquarters at Beauport, about daybreak on +the morning of the 13th. "Aha," said the General, "then they have at last +got to the weak side of this miserable garrison." He at once issued orders +to break up the camp, and led his army across the St. Charles River, past +the northern ramparts of the city, and thence on to the plains of Abraham, +where Wolfe and his forces were impatiently awaiting his arrival. The +battle was of short duration. The first deadly volley fired by the British +decided the fortunes of the day, and the French fled across the plains +in the direction of the citadel. Montcalm, who had himself received a +dangerous wound, rode hither and thither, and used his utmost endeavour to +rally his flying troops. While so engaged he received a mortal wound, and +sank to the ground. From that moment there was no attempt to oppose the +victorious British, whose general had likewise fallen in the conflict. + +Montcalm's wound, though mortal, was not immediately so, and he survived +until the following day. When the surgeons proceeded to examine his wound +the general asked if it was mortal. They replied in the affirmative. "How +long before the end?" he calmly enquired. He was informed that the end was +not far off, and would certainly, arrive before many hours. "So much the +better," was the comment of the dying soldier--"I shall not live to see the +surrender of Quebec." The commander of the garrison asked for instructions +as to the further defence of the city, but Montcalm declined to occupy +himself any longer with worldly affairs. Still, even at this solemn moment, +the courteous urbanity by which he had always been distinguished did not +desert him. "To your keeping," he said, to De Ramesey, "I commend the +honour of France. I wish you all comfort, and that you may be happily +extricated from your present perplexities. As for me, my time is short, and +I have matters of more importance to attend to than the defence of Quebec +I shall pass the night with God, and prepare myself for death." Not long +afterwards he again spoke: "Since it was my misfortune to be discomfitted +and mortally wounded, it is a great consolation to me to be vanquished by +so great and generous an enemy. If I could survive this wound, I would +engage to beat three times the number of such forces as I commanded this +morning with a third of their number of British troops." His chaplain +arrived about this time, accompanied by the bishop of the colony, from +whom the dying man received the last sacred offices of the Roman Catholic +religion. He lingered for some hours afterwards, and finally passed away, +to all outward seeming, with calmness and resignation. + +It seems like an ungrateful task to recur to the frailties of a brave and +chivalrous man, more especially when he dies in the odour of sanctity. +But as we ponder upon that final scene in the life of the gay, charming, +brilliant Marquis of Montcalm, we cannot avoid wondering whether the +"sheeted ghosts" of the wounded men, helpless women, and innocent babes who +were so ruthlessly slaughtered at Oswego and William Henry flitted around +his pillow in these last fleeting moments. Notwithstanding the fact that +his mind seemed to receive solace from the solemn rites in which he then +took part, we have never read the account of those last hours of Montcalm +without being reminded of the lines of the British Homer descriptive of the +death of him who fell "on Flodden's fatal field." + +The exact place of Montcalm's death has never been definitely ascertained. +Various sites are indicated by different authorities, but no conclusive +evidence has been adduced in support of the claims of any of them. It is, +however, known for certain that his body was interred within the precincts +of the Ursuline Convent at Quebec, where a mural tablet was erected by +Lord Aylmer to his memory in 1832. The following is a translation of the +inscription:-- + + HONOUR TO MONTCALM! + FATE, IN DEPRIVING HIM OF VICTORY, + RECOMPENSED HIM BY A GLORIOUS DEATH. + +A few years ago his remains were disinterred, and his skull, with its base +enclosed in a military collar, is religiously preserved in a glass case +on a table in the convent. The monument to the joint memory of Wolfe and +Montcalm has been referred to in a previous sketch. + +Thus lived and died the Marquis of Montcalm. He was forty-seven years of +age at the time of his death, and was constitutionally younger than his +years would seem to indicate. A Canadian historian thus sums up the +brighter side of his character: "Trained from his youth in the art of war; +laborious, just, and self-denying, he offered a remarkable exception to the +venality of the public men of Canada at this period, and in the midst of +universal corruption made the general good his aim. Night, the rushing +tide, veteran discipline, and more brilliant genius had given his rival the +victory. Yet he was not the less great; and while the name of Wolfe will +never be forgotten, that of Montcalm is also engraved by its side on the +enduring scroll of human fame. The latter has been censured for not abiding +the chances of a siege, rather than risking a battle. But with a town +already in ruins, a garrison deficient in provisions and ammunition, and an +enemy to contend with possessed of a formidable siege-train, the fire of +which must speedily silence his guns, he acted wisely in staking the issue +on a battle, in which, if he found defeat, he met also an honourable and a +glorious death." + + + + + + +LORD ELGIN. + + + +James Bruce, who afterwards became eighth Earl of Elgin and twelfth Earl +of Kincardine, was born in London, on the 20th of July, 1811. He was the +second son of his father, the seventh Earl, whose embassy to Constantinople +at the beginning of the present century was indirectly the means of +procuring for him a reputation which will probably endure as long as the +English language. All readers of Byron are familiar with the circumstances +under which this reputation was gained. In the year 1799, Lord Elgin +was despatched by the British Government as envoy extraordinary to +Constantinople. During his embassy he had occasion to visit Athens, where +he found that the combined influence of time and the Turks was rapidly +destroying the magnificent vestiges of the past wherewith the city and its +neighbourhood abounded. Actuated by a wish to preserve some of these relics +of departed greatness--and probably wishing to connect his name with +their preservation--he conceived the idea of removing a few of the more +interesting of them to England. Without much difficulty he obtained +permission from the Porte to take away from the ruins of ancient Athens +"any stones that might appear interesting to him." The British Government +declined to lend its assistance to what some members of the Cabinet +regarded as an act of spoliation, and Lord Elgin was thus compelled to +carry out the project at his own expense. He hired a corps of artists, +labourers, and other assistants, most of whom were specially brought from +Italy to aid in the work. About ten years were spent in detaching from +the Parthenon, and in excavating from the rubbish at its base, numerous +specimens of various sculptures, all or most of which were presumed to have +been the handiwork of Phidias and his pupils. Other valuable sculptures +were disinterred from the ruins about the Acropolis, and elsewhere in the +neighbourhood. Upon the arrival in England of these great works of ancient +art all the world of London went to see and admire them. In 1816 they were +purchased for the nation for £35,000, and placed in the British Museum, +where they still remain. Many persons, however, censured Lord Elgin for +what they called his Vandalism in removing the relics from their native +land. Among those who assailed him on this score was Lord Byron, who hurled +anathemas at him both in prose and verse. "The Curse of Minerva" may fairly +be said to have made Lord Elgin's name immortal. The case made against him +in that fierce philippic, however, is grossly one-sided, as the author +himself subsequently acknowledged; and there is a good deal to be said on +the other side. The presence of these magnificent sculptures in the British +Museum gave an impetus to sculpture not only throughout Great Britain, but +to a less extent throughout the whole of Western Europe. It should also +be remembered that had they been permitted to remain where they were they +would most likely have been totally destroyed long before now in some of +the many violent scenes of which Athens has since been the theatre. Some +art critics have--more especially of late years--decried the workmanship of +these marbles, and have argued that they could not possibly have been the +work of Phidias. It is beyond doubt, however, that they display Greek art +at a splendid and mature stage of development, and their value to the +British nation is simply beyond price. + +The subject of this sketch was destined to achieve a higher and less +dubious reputation than that of his father. Being only a second son, he was +not born heir-apparent to the family title and estates, and his education +was completed before--in consequence of the death of his elder brother and +of his father--he succeeded to the peerage. At the age of fourteen he +went to Eton, from which seat of learning he in due time passed to Christ +Church, Oxford. Here he formed one of a group of young men, many of whom +have since attained high distinction in political life. Among them we find +the names of William Ewart Gladstone, the late Duke of Newcastle (the +friend and guardian of the Prince of Wales upon the occasion of his visit +to this country in 1860), Sidney Herbert, James Ramsay (afterwards Earl +of Dalhousie, son of a former Governor-General of Canada), Lord Canning, +Robert Lowe, Edward Cardwell, and Roundell Palmer--now Lord Selborne. +Between young Bruce and two of these--Ramsay and Canning--an uncommonly +warm intimacy prevailed; and it is a somewhat curious coincidence that they +lived to be the three successive rulers of India during the transition +period of British Government there. Ramsay, then Lord Dalhousie, was the +last Governor before the breaking out of the Mutiny; Canning was the +over-ruler of the Mutiny; and Bruce, as Lord Elgin, was the first who went +out as Viceroy after the Indian Empire was brought under the government of +the Crown. + +Among the brilliant young men who were his friends and compeers at college, +James Bruce is said to have been as conspicuous as any for the brilliancy +and originality of his speeches at the Union. Mr. Gladstone himself has +said of him, "I well remember placing him, as to the natural gift of +eloquence, at the head of all those I knew, either at Eton or at the +University." But he was not less distinguished by maturity of judgment, by +a love of abstract thought, and by those philosophical studies which lay +the foundation of true reasoning in the mind. In 1834 he published a +pamphlet to protest against a monopoly of Liberal sentiment by the +Whigs; and in 1841 he went into the House of Commons for Southampton on +Conservative principles, which had, however, a strong flavour of Whiggism +about them. He soon developed a remarkable aptitude for political life. He +seconded the Address which turned out Lord Melbourne and brought in Sir +Robert Peel, in a speech prophetically favourable to free trade, and he +would doubtless have been a cordial supporter of Peel's liberal commercial +policy had not his Parliamentary career speedily come to an end. In 1840, +George, Lord Bruce, elder brother of James, died, unmarried, and the latter +became heir-apparent to the family honours. On the 22nd of April, 1841, he +married Elizabeth Mary, daughter of Mr. C. L. Canning Bruce. The death of +his father soon afterwards raised him to the Scottish peerage. He had no +seat in either House of Parliament, and in 1842 he accepted from Lord +Stanley the office of Governor of Jamaica--an appointment which decided his +vocation in life. With his career at Jamaica we have no special concern, +and it need not detain us. It may be remarked, in passing, that he remained +there four years, during which period--owing, doubtless, in some measure to +the sudden death of his wife soon after their arrival in the island--he +led a somewhat secluded life. He quitted his post in 1846, and returned to +England. Almost immediately after his arrival there Lord Grey, the Colonial +Secretary, offered him the position of Governor-General of British North +America. He accepted it, says his biographer, not in the mere spirit of +selfish ambition, but with a deep sense of the responsibility attached to +it. It was arranged that he should go to Canada at the beginning of the +new year. In the interval, on November 7th, he married Lady Mary Louisa +Lambton, daughter of the first Earl of Durham, whose five months' sojourn +in this country in the year 1838 was destined to produce such important and +beneficial effects upon our Constitution. Lord Elgin was wont to say 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." Thus it happened that the young Conservative Peer, +who had already shaken off his early Tory prepossessions, found himself +called upon to build on the broad foundations laid by the most advanced +member of the Liberal party of that day, and to inaugurate the new +principle of government which Lord Durham and Charles Butler had conceived, +not merely in Canada, but throughout the colonial empire of Britain. +Leaving his bride behind him, to follow at a less inclement season, he set +out for the seat of his new duties early in January, and reached Montreal +on the 29th. He took up his quarters at Monklands, the suburban residence +of the Governor. + +Nine years had elapsed since the Rebellion of 1837, Lord Durham, Lord +Sydenham, Sir Charles Bagot, Lord Metcalfe, and Lord Cathcart had +successively governed the North American Provinces in that short interval, +but--except in the case of Lord Durham--with not very satisfactory results. +The method of Responsible Government was new with us. The smouldering fires +of rebellion were only just extinguished. The repulsion of races was at +its strongest. The deposed clique which had virtually ruled the colony was +still furious, and the depressed section was suspicious and restive. It was +just at the time, too, when, between English and American legislation, we +were suffering at once from the evils of protection and free trade. The +principles upon which Lord Elgin undertook to carry on the administration +of 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 retain 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 should be of an extreme party character, such as the Assembly +or the people would be sure to disapprove of. For some months after +his arrival in this country matters went smoothly enough. The Draper +Administration, never very strong, had for several years been growing +gradually weaker and weaker, and was now tottering towards its fall; but so +far it could command a small majority of votes, and continued to hold the +reins of power. The result of the next general elections, however, which +were held at the close of the year, was the return of a large preponderance +of Reformers, among whom were nearly all the leading spirits of the Reform +Party. Upon the opening of Parliament on the 25th of February, 1848, the +Draper Administration resigned, and its leader accepted a seat on the +judicial bench. The Governor accordingly summoned the leaders of the +opposition to his councils, and the Baldwin-Lafontaine ministry was formed. +After a short session the House was prorogued on the 25th March. It did not +meet again until the 18th of January following. It is hardly necessary to +inform the Canadian reader that the Canadian Parliament sat at Montreal at +that time. During the session one of the stormiest episodes in our history +occurred. Every Canadian who has passed middle age remembers that disturbed +time. The excitement arose out of the Rebellion Losses Bill, as it was +called--a measure introduced by Mr. Lafontaine, the object of which was to +reimburse such of the inhabitants of the Lower Province as had sustained +loss from the rebellion of eleven years before. Within a very short time +after the close of that rebellion, 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 persons who had abetted +the said rebellion from the cases of those who had not. The Commissioners +made their investigations, and reported that they had recognized, as worthy +of further inquiry, claims representing a sum total of £241,965 10s. 5d.; +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. 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 when the Baldwin-Lafontaine Administration was formed. It was natural +that they should take up the work left half done by their predecessors; and +early in the session of 1849 Mr. Lafontaine introduced the Rebellion Losses +Bill. The Opposition contrived to kindle a flame all over the country. +Meetings were held denouncing the measure, and petitions were presented to +the Governor with the obvious design of producing a collision between him +and Parliament. The Bill was finally passed in the Assembly by forty-seven +votes to eighteen. Out of thirty-one members from Upper Canada who voted +on the occasion, seventeen supported and fourteen opposed it; and 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." + +On the 25th of April Lord Elgin went down to the Parliament Buildings and +gave his assent to the Bill. On leaving the House he was insulted by the +crowd, who pelted him with missiles. In the evening a disorderly mob intent +upon mischief got together and set fire to the Parliament Buildings, +which were burned to the ground. By this wanton act public property +of considerable value, including two excellent libraries, was 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. Similar scenes on a somewhat smaller scale, were enacted +in Toronto and elsewhere in the Upper Province. The house of Mr. Baldwin +and some other prominent members of the Reform party were attacked, and the +owners burned in effigy. + +Meanwhile addresses numerously signed came pouring in to the Governor from +all quarters, expressing entire confidence in the Administration, and +unbounded regret for the indignities to which he had been subjected. +Lord Elgin, however, felt bound to tender his resignation to the Home +Government. Meanwhile the Bill which had caused such an explosion in the +colony, was running the gauntlet of the British Parliament. On June 14th +it was vehemently attacked in the House of Commons. Mr. Gladstone himself +describing it as a "measure for rewarding rebels." The strongest pressure +had already been put upon Lord Elgin to induce him to refuse the Royal +Assent to the Bill. To do so would have been to place himself in direct +collision with his Parliament, and this he steadily refused to do. The Home +Government, represented by Lord Grey, firmly supported him, approved his +policy, and shortly afterwards conferred upon him a British peerage as an +acknowledgment of the unshaken confidence of the Queen. Being urgently +pressed to remain in office as Governor-General he consented, and the more +readily because the agitation soon quieted down. From this time we hear no +more of such disgraceful scenes, 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. 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. + +Since the session of 1849 no Parliament has ever sat, nor is any ever again +likely to sit, at Montreal. In view of the riot and the burning of the +Parliament Buildings it was determined to remove the Legislature, which +met at Toronto for the next two years. Subsequently it met alternately +at Quebec and Toronto until 1866, since which time Ottawa has been the +permanent capital of the Dominion. + +After the storm consequent on the Rebellion Losses Bill, the most important +event by which Lord Elgin's Canadian administration was characterized was +the negotiation of the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States. The +conclusion of this Treaty was a matter requiring much time and a good deal +of prudent negotiation. In 1854, after the negotiations had dragged on +wearily for more than six years, Lord Elgin himself was sent to Washington, +in the hope of bringing the matter to a successful issue. Within a few +weeks the terms of a Treaty of Reciprocity were agreed upon, and they soon +afterwards received the sanction of the Governments concerned. Lord Elgin +returned to England at the close of 1854, being succeeded in the government +of Canada by Sir Edmund Walker Head, who had examined him for a Merton +Fellowship at Oxford in 1833. Soon after Lord Elgin's return home, +the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster was offered him by Lord +Palmerston, with a seat in the Cabinet; but he preferred to take no active +part in public affairs, and enjoyed an interval of two years' rest from +official labour. His subsequent career can only be glanced at very briefly. +In 1857 he was sent to China to try what could be done to repair, or to +turn to the best account, the mischiefs done by Sir John Bowring's course, +and by the patronage of it at home, in the face of the moral reprobation +of the people at large. He was present at the taking of Canton, and in +conjunction with the French, succeeded by prompt and vigorous measures in +reducing the Celestial Empire to terms. After signing a Treaty with +the Chinese Commissioners at Tientsin, on the 26th of July, 1858, the +conditions of which were highly favourable to the British, he sailed for +Japan, and boldly entered the harbour of Jeddo, from which foreigners had +always been rigidly excluded. Here he obtained very important commercial +privileges for the British, and on the 26th of August concluded a treaty +with the Japanese. He returned to England in May, 1859. The merchants of +London, in recognition of his immense services to British commerce, did +themselves honour by the thoroughness of their acknowledgment of Lord +Elgin's services, and presented him with the freedom of the City. + +He held the office of Postmaster-General till the hostile acts of the +Chinese Government towards the English and French Ministers in China +rendered it necessary that he should go out again, and opening Pekin to +British diplomacy, returned to England in April, 1861. Almost immediately +afterwards he was offered the Viceroyalty of India. This splendid +appointment he was not disposed to decline. He accepted, and went out to +the seat of his Government He lived only eighteen months longer, a period, +says his biographer, hardly sufficient for him to master the details +of administration of that great Empire, with which he had no previous +acquaintance, and I quite insufficient for him to give to the policy of +the Government the stamp of his own mind. He died of heart-disease; while +making a vice-regal excursion through his dominions, on the 20th of +November, 1863, and was buried in the cemetery at Dhurmsala, in a spot +selected by Lady Elgin. + +"Perhaps," says a sympathetic critic of Lord Elgin's career, "the noblest +part of the history of England is to be found in the recorded lives of +those who have been her chosen servants, and who have died in that service. +Self-control, endurance, and an heroic sense of duty, are more conspicuous +in such men than the love of action and fame. But their lives are the +landmarks of our race. Lord Elgin, it is true, can hardly be ranked with +the first of British statesmen, or orators, or commanders. His services, +great as they unquestionably were, had all been performed under the orders +of other men. Even among his own contemporaries he fills a place in the +second rank. But happy are the country and the age in which such men are to +be found in the second rank, and are content to be there." + + + + + + +MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES WOLFE. + + + + "Tis in the prime of summer-time, an evening calm and cool, + When certain bright-eyed English boys come bounding out of school." + +The school is at Greenwich, six miles below London Bridge, and is kept by +the Reverend Samuel Swinden. Date, some time in the month of June, 1741. +The boys are of all ages, from five years upwards, and most of them are +sons of military and naval officers resident in the neighbourhood. One of +them, a sturdy little urchin of seven years, is a son of the Treasurer of +the great Marine Hospital down by the river's bank. He is destined by his +father for the legal profession, but has already begun to shew his contempt +for the law by breaking His Majesty's peace several times in the course of +every week. He has been at school only a few months, and hitherto he has +not displayed much aptitude for his lessons; but he has distinguished +himself in numberless hand-to-hand engagements with his fellow-scholars, +and has gained the reputation of being, for a youngster of his inches, +tremendously heavy about the fist. On this particular evening the school +has been dismissed barely five minutes before the pugnacious little rascal +contrives to get into an altercation with a lad several years his senior. +As to the precise nature, of the _casus belli_, history and tradition are +alike silent. The pair adjourn to a secluded part of the playground to +settle their differences _a la_ Dogginson, "by fighting it out with their +fistes." The other boys follow as a matter of course, to see fair play. It +is to be regretted that history has not furnished sufficient data to enable +us to describe the passage of arms very minutely. Suffice it is to say +that after a few rounds have been fought, it becomes apparent to all the +spectators that Master Jackey Jervis has at last found his match. His +opponent, a great hulking fellow without any forehead, who has arms like +sledge-hammers, and who has hitherto found it impossible to learn the +multiplication table, takes all Master Jackey's blows with seeming +nonchalance, and ever and anon puts in a tremendous rejoinder which +stretches the Treasurer's son upon the sward. When the contest has gone on +after this fashion for some time the seconds propose that, as there has +been a sufficient effusion of blood to vindicate the courage of both the +combatants, there may well be a cessation of hostilities. The big fellow +stolidly remarks that it is all one to him; but Master Jackey spurns the +proposal with lofty contempt. The contest is renewed; another round is +fought, and the lighter weight once more bites the grass. Before he can +arise to resume the fray, the company receives an accession in the person +of a tall, slabsided, awkwardly-made youth, who impetuously elbows the +others aside, and makes his way to the centre of the fistic arena. The +new-comer is somewhat older than any of the other boys, and is apparently +verging towards manhood. His appearance is somewhat peculiar. The most +partial admirer could hardly pronounce him handsome. Apart from his +ungainly build, he has fiery red hair, high, prominent cheek bones, a +receding forehead, and a proboscis of the kind which the French call a +nose in the air. There is a set, decisive expression about his mouth which +betokens an indomitable will; and a flash in his sparkling blue eyes bears +witness that he has an ominous temper of his own. But, though his personal +appearance is by no means that of an Adonis, the brightness of his +complexion and a certain bold frankness of facial expression preserves him +from absolute ugliness. Those who know him, moreover, are aware that he +possesses qualities which more than redeem his plainness of feature. Though +by no means of a robust constitution, he is endowed with unflinching +courage. He has a high sense of honour, and is the repository of the +secrets of nearly every boy in the school. He is a diligent student, and +though somewhat vain of his superior knowledge, is ever ready to assist +those of his fellow-pupils who are anxious to learn. Add to all this that +he is the senior boy of the school; that, though a stern disciplinarian, he +is generous, impartial, and a protector of the weak; and it will readily be +understood that he is popular both with master and scholars. Unnecessary to +say that there is no more fighting, for the senior boy has forbidden it, +and he is not one who tolerates any opposition to his authority. Two +minutes suffice to quell the disturbance; and the belligerents shake hands +and march off to their respective homes. Little Jackey, however, has been +rather severely handled in the encounter, and does not put in an appearance +for several days, when the preceptor reads him a lecture before the whole +school on the ill effects resulting from little boys permitting their angry +passions to rise. + +It is to be presumed that the lecture was not taken very seriously to +heart, for Master Jervis, during the following seventy years, was many +times conspicuous for little ebullitions of temper. He never took kindly to +his father's scheme to make a lawyer of him. About three years subsequent +to the event just recorded he ran away to sea, and began that glorious +maritime career, the details of which form an important chapter in the +history of England. For Master Jackey Jervis lived to take part in more +deadly encounters than the one in the play-ground at Greenwich, and to take +high rank among the naval heroes of Great Britain. After valiantly fighting +the battles of his country in both hemispheres, and rising to the rank +of Admiral, he achieved that signal victory over the Spanish fleet which +procured for him the Earldom of St. Vincent. Nor is the low-browed lad who +was his opponent altogether unknown to fame. His name was Thomas Brett, +and he lived to do good service in various capacities under Nelson and +Collingwood. But the fame of the senior boy--the florid-complexioned youth +with the aspiring nose--is more dear to Canadians of British blood than is +that of either of his schoolfellows; for his name was James Wolfe. + +His career was short, and was compressed within a space of less than +thirty-four years. It terminated in the moment of victory on the Plains of +Abraham. But, brief as was his earthly span, few lives of any length have +accomplished so much; and his death was so glorious that it should scarcely +have been regretted, even by his nearest and dearest, what he _did_ is +known to us. What he might have done if his life had been spared, can only +be conjectured; but he possessed all the qualifications of a great military +commander, and needed but time and opportunity for their development. Of +these, so long as they were vouchsafed to him, no man knew better how to +take advantage; and it is not extravagant to believe that had he lived to +the age of Marlborough or Wellington, he would have won a place in history +not less distinguished than theirs. + +He was born at the Vicarage, in the little village of Westerham, Kent, on +the 2nd of January, 1726. [Footnote: Authorities are all but unanimous in +placing this date a year later--i.e., on the 2nd of January, 1727. Even the +standard biography of Wolfe (Wright's) repeats the error. That it _is_ an +error becomes apparent when we learn that he was baptized at twenty days +old, and that the parish register shows this ceremony to have taken place +on the 11th of January, 1726--the latter date being Old Style, equivalent +to January 22nd, New Style. The correct date is further confirmed by the +entry in the register of the baptism of his brother, Edward, who was about +a year younger, and who was baptized of the 10th of January, 1727.] His +father, Colonel Edward Wolfe, was an officer in the English army, who +subsequently rose to the rank of Lieutenant-General. His mother was +Henrietta, daughter of Edward Thompson, of Marsden, Yorkshire. James was +their first-born, and was the only member of the family destined to attain +high distinction. The only other offspring of the marriage was a younger +son, Edward, who was born about a year after the birth of James, and who +did not live to reach manhood. Edward entered the army while still a mere +lad, and fought in the battle of Dettingen, on the 16th of June, 1743. He +died on October of the following year, of consumption, accellerated by the +hardships incidental to a campaigning life. + +But little is known of the childhood of the two brothers. Both of them seem +to have been of rather frail constitutions, and the precarious state of +their health is said to have caused their parents much anxiety. As they +grew up to youth they appear to have become somewhat more healthful, though +still far from robust. Their earliest scholastic attainments were received +at the hands of a Mr. Lawrence, who kept a small school in their native +village. Their father was almost always on active service with his +regiment, and the boys saw very little of him. About 1737 the family +removed from Westerham to Greenwich, where the children at once began to +attend Mr. Swinden's School. The episode described in the opening paragraph +is about the only anecdote which has been preserved of their connection +with that institution, and for it we are indebted, not to any life of +Wolfe, but to an old history of Greenwich. Early in November, 1741, within +five months after the happening of the incident above described, Master +James received his first commission, appointing him Second Lieutenant in +his father's regiment of Marines; but there is no trace of his ever having +served under it. He shortly afterwards exchanged into the Line, and his +first active service was in the capacity of Ensign of the Twelfth, or +Colonel Duroure's Regiment of Foot. The exchange took place early in 1742, +and in April of that year he embarked with his regiment for Flanders. The +first of his letters which have been preserved, is written to his mother +from Ghent, and is dated August 27th, 1742. His brother Edward followed +him to the Continent during the same year, and died, as we have seen, in +October, 1744. James's aptitude for the military profession soon became +apparent to his superior officers, and shortly after the completion of his +seventeenth year we find him filling the important pest of Adjutant. He, as +well as his brother, took part in the battle of Dettingen, on the 16th of +June, and though they were placed in the middle of the first line, they +both escaped without a scar. A few days afterwards James, in consequence of +the talent for command which he had already displayed, was promoted to +a lieutenancy and on the 3rd of June, 1744, he received a captain's +commission in the Fourth, or King's Regiment of Foot, commanded by +Lieutenant-General Barrell. His life for some months thereafter was one +of uninterrupted campaigning, but it contains no incident necessary to +be remarked upon. Nest year, Great Britain was compelled to withdraw her +forces from Flander's in order to suppress the Jacobite rebellion in +Scotland, known as the "Rising of the Forty-five." Early in June, Wolfe was +commissioned a Brigade-Major, and almost immediately afterwards he returned +to England. He was at once despatched northward to Newcastle, and fought at +Falkirk and Culloden, in both of which engagements his regiments suffered +severely, though he himself escaped unwounded. + +The Anti-Jacobin _Review_ for 1802 contains an anecdote which, though +probably apocryphal, may as well be inserted here. It is said that when +Wolfe was riding over the field of Culloden with the Duke of Cumberland +they observed a Highlander, who, although severely wounded, was able to +sit up, and who, leaning on his arm, seemed to smile defiance upon them. +"Wolfe," said the Duke, "shoot me that Highland scoundrel, who thus dares +to look on us with such insolence." To which Wolfe replied: "My commission +is at your Royal Highness' disposal, but I can never consent to become an +_executioner_." From this day forward, it is said, Wolfe visibly declined +in the favour of the Commander-in-Chief. It is manifestly impossible to +disprove such a story as this; but it is an undoubted fact that Wolfe did +_not_ decline in the Duke's favour after the battle of Culloden, and as no +authorities are cited in support of the anecdote, it is not unreasonable to +infer that the whole is fictitious. For some months after the "dark day of +Culloden," Wolfe remained in the Highlands, but we have no information as +to how he spent his time there. He passed a part of the following winter in +London, where he took up his quarters with his parents, who then lived +in their town house in Old Burlington-street. During his stay in the +metropolis at this time he must frequently have passed through Temple Bar. +If so, he doubtless had the grim satisfaction of seeing the heads of some +of his former opponents, the Highland rebels, grinning at passers-by from +the spikes over the gateway. + +In January, 1747, he again set out for the Continent with the British +reinforcements for the Netherlands. At the battle of Laffeldt, fought on +the 2nd July, he received a slight wound, and was publicly thanked by the +Commander-in-Chief for his distinguished services. We do not find that he +took part in any other active engagement at this time, and we hear no more +of his wound. We next find him in London, where he seems to have spent the +greater part of the winter of 1747-8. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was +signed soon after, whereby peace was restored to Europe. + +About this time Wolfe had his first experience of the tender passion, the +object being a Miss Lawson, one of the maids of honour to the Princess of +Wales. His suit, however, was disapproved of by his parents, and does not +appear to have been particularly acceptable to the young lady herself, for, +after a good deal of delay, she rejected his offer of his hand. She died +unmarried in March, 1759--the same year which witnessed the death of her +former admirer. Wolfe was not precisely the kind of material of which +despairing lovers are made, and beyond a few expressions of regret, he does +not seem to have taken the rejection very deeply to heart. On the 5th of +January, 1749, he was gazetted as Major of the 20th Regiment, stationed +in Scotland, whither he repaired soon after. His promotion to a +Lieutenant-Colonelcy in the same regiment followed fifteen months later, +and the next three years were for the most part spent with his regiment +in the Highlands, which were gradually recovering from the effects of the +rebellion. Then came a journey to Paris, where he remained several months, +and where he was presented to the King, Louis XV., and to Madame de +Pompadour. The following two or three years of his life were not marked by +any incident of special importance. + +In 1757, in consequence of the recommencement of hostilities with France, +British forces, under Sir John Mordaunt, were despatched to attack +Rochfort, and Wolfe accompanied the expedition as Quartermaster-General. +This expedition was destined to exercise an important influence upon his +future career. He had hitherto been known simply as a brave and efficient +officer, but it was not commonly supposed, even by his intimate friends, +that he was endowed with an original military genius of high order. The +time had arrived when the world was to form a more accurate estimate of +him. Sir John Mordaunt, who was placed in command of the land forces for +the Rochfort expedition, was totally unfit for so responsible a post. Sir +Edward Hawke, who commanded the fleet, did good service both before and +after that time; but this expedition was one for which he does not appear +to have been suited. The incapacity of both the commanders soon began to be +painfully apparent; and Wolfe, a soldier by nature as well as by training, +determined to show them how the siege of Rochfort should be conducted. +While they were wasting time in laying and abandoning immature plans, and +in suggesting this, that and the other impracticable schemes, he, with +Sir John's sanction, quietly landed on the island at one o'clock in the +morning, and made his observations. He saw a small post on the promontory +of Fouras, which it was evident must be taken before Rochfort could be +besieged with success. He further noted the most favourable point for +landing the troops. Having matured his scheme, he returned and made his +report to Sir John and Sir Edward, and urgently recommended that his +suggestions be acted upon. Sir Edward approved of the plan, but Sir John +thought proper to call a Council of war, which, after a long session, +decided that such an attempt was neither advisable nor practicable. The +lucky moment was lost, and the expedition returned to England without +having accomplished anything. The English people had confidently counted +on the success of the expedition, and were proportionately dissapointed. +A committee of inquiry was summoned, and Sir John Mordaunt was tried by +court-martial. He was acquitted; but Pitt, who was at the head of the +Government, after carefully mastering the evidence given by Wolfe, came to +the conclusion that the Quartermaster was an extraordinary young man, and +that if his advice had been followed there would have been a very different +result from the expedition. The youth who had the intrepidity to take the +initiatory observations, and who had had the military skill to concoct the +plan of attack, was evidently a person whose services it might be worth +while to turn to account. At no period in the history of England had there +been a greater scarcity of capable military leaders, and not often had +capable leaders been more urgently needed. This young Wolfe was evidently +an original military genius, and must be pushed forward. He was immediately +promoted to the rank of Colonel, and was soon to receive still higher +promotion. + +The incompetency of the superior officers in the British army had of late +become painfully manifest on both sides of the Atlantic. The American +campaign of 1757 was even more disastrous than were British operations in +Europe. Lord Loudoun, who had been despatched to America in the preceding +year, to direct the campaign against the French, had accomplished nothing, +and the enemy, under Montcalm, were uniformly successful in their +operations. In August occurred the terrible massacre at Fort William Henry. +Other massacres followed, and the colonists were literally panic-stricken. +The border settlements were laid waste, the houses and property of the +inhabitants destroyed, and the colonists themselves scalped and murdered by +the French and their Indian allies. French spies gained early intelligence +of every movement contemplated by the British, and were thus, in many +cases, the means of rendering those movements abortive. The grand British +scheme of the year, however, was the reduction of Louisburg, in furtherance +of which an armament such had never before been collected in the British +Colonies, assembled at Halifax. This armament consisted of about 12,000 +troops, 19 vessels of war, and a considerable number of smaller craft. +The troops were embarked early in August with the ostensible object of +capturing Louisburg; but Lord Loudoun, learning that the French anticipated +the attack, and were prepared to oppose it, abandoned the idea. He landed a +part of the forces on the coast of Nova Scotia, and returned with the rest +to New York. A fleet specially sent out from Great Britain, under the +command of Admiral Holborne, sailed for Cape Breton about the same time; +but the sight of the French ships in Louisburg harbour proved too much for +the Admiral's nerves, and he steered for Halifax. Here he was reinforced +by four men-of-war, and the fleet again set sail for Louisburg. The French +fleet remained under the shelter of the batteries in the harbour; and would +not be coaxed out. Holborne cruised about the coast until late in the +autumn, when his fleet was dispersed and almost destroyed by a succession +of violent storms. Considering that, under the circumstances, he had done +enough for his country for that time, he returned to England with the +shattered remains of his fleet. + +Such was the position of affairs at the close of the year 1757. Public +indignation was aroused by the incompetency and supineness of the military +and naval commanders, and it became apparent either that more efficient +leaders most be found or that all operations in America must be abandoned. +The new Ministry, with Pitt at its head, proved equal to the occasion. Lord +Loudoun was recalled and General Abercromby appointed in his stead. The +Great Commoner formed his plans for next year's campaign, which included +the reduction of Fort Duquesne, Louisburg, Ticonderoga, and Crown Point. +The expedition against Louisburg required a conjoint naval and military +armament. The naval command was assigned to Admiral Boscawen, and the +military forces to Colonel Amherst, who was advanced to the rank of +Major-General. With the latter was associated Wolfe, Whitmore, and +Lawrence, as Brigade-Generals. Operations against Crown Point and +Ticonderoga were entrusted to General Abercromby and Lord Howe. Those +against Fort Duquesne were conducted by General Forbes. The expedition +against Fort Duquesne was completely successful, but Abercromby proved +himself as inefficient as his predecessor in office, Lord Loudoun. Howe, +who was a thoroughly capable officer, was killed at Ticonderoga on the 6th +of July, before his powers could be brought into play. The expedition +under Abercromby proved an utter failure. Not so the expedition against +Louisburg, the capture of which was the most important event of the year. +Being regarded as the key to the St. Lawrence, it was a strongly fortified +place. A fortress had been erected there at a cost of 30,000,000 livres. +The garrison was defended by the Chevalier de Drucourt, with 3,100 troops +and about 700 Indians; while two frigates and six line-of-battle ships +guarded the harbour, the entrance to which was blocked by three sunken +frigates. Boscawen's fleet crossed the Atlantic, and in due course laid +siege to Louisburg. Wolfe led the left division of attack, which may be +said to have borne the brunt of the entire siege. A landing was effected on +the 8th of June, and during the following seven weeks the operations were +almost entirely conducted by Wolfe, to whose skill and judgment their +success is mainly to be attributed. The garrison surrendered on the 26th +of July, and together with sailors and marines, amounting collectively to +5,637 men, were carried to England as prisoners of war. 15,000 stand of +arms and a great quantity of military stores became the property of the +victors; and a glorious array of captured colours were sent to England, +where they were carried in solemn procession through the principal +thoroughfares, and finally placed in St. Paul's Cathedral. The town of +Louisburg was reduced to a heap of ruins. The inhabitants were sent to +France in English ships, and the fortifications were soon after demolished. +A few fishermen's huts are all the dwellings to be found on the site at the +present day. + +From the moment when the news of the fall of Louisburg reached England, +the eyes of the entire nation were turned upon Pitt and Wolfe, who jointly +shared the popular enthusiasm. The lustre of the British arms--tarnished by +so many reverses--began to shine with restored brilliancy, and the nation +rose almost as one man to do honour to the brave young officer whose +prowess and courage had been so signally displayed in its behalf. He +returned to England towards the close of the year, and at once rejoined +his regiment. His health had suffered a good deal during the campaign in +America, but this did not prevent his offering his services to Pitt for the +forthcoming campaign in the St Lawrence. His offer was accepted, and he was +rewarded with the rank of Major-General. To him was assigned the command of +the land forces; the naval armament being entrusted to Admiral Saunders. + +Before starting on this, his final expedition, he became a suitor to +Miss Katherine Lowther, sister to Sir James Lowther, afterwards Earl of +Lonsdale. Her father had formerly been Governor of Barbadoes, and died +in 1745. We have no means of ascertaining when Wolfe first formed the +acquaintance of this lady, but there is no allusion to her in any of his +letters written previous to this time, and it is probable that until his +return from America there had been no love passages between them. His +courtship in this instance was successful. What young lady of generous +impulses would be likely to refuse the hand of the brave hero of Louisburg, +whose praises were in everybody's mouth, and who was the favourite of the +greatest statesman that ever swayed the destinies of Great Britain? His +suit was accepted, and he carried the lady's portrait with him across the +seas, wearing it next his heart until the evening before his death. + +Having got together a staff of officers to his liking, he embarked at +Spithead on the 17th of February, 1759, and reached Halifax on the 30th of +April following. Louisburg harbour was not clear of ice until about the +middle of May, when the fleet sailed thither. During his stay at Louisburg +Wolfe received intelligence of the death of his father, who died at +Blackheath on the 26th of March, in the 75th year of his age. The fleet +left Louisburg early in June, and proceeded to the St. Lawrence. Wolfe, in +due course, landed on the Isle of Orleans, just below Quebec, where the +troops, to the number of 8,000, were landed without opposition, on the +morning of the 27th of June. Having seen his army encamped, Wolfe set out, +accompanied by his Chief Engineer, and an escort to reconnoitre the enemy's +position. Upon reaching the western point of the island, he was not long +in perceiving that Quebec would not fall without a struggle. The prospect, +sufficiently grand at any time, was rendered more than ordinarily +impressive by the warlike preparations to be seen on every hand. In front, +on the summit of Cape Diamond, rose the lofty citadel, with the flag of +France fluttering in the breeze. Above, all the way to Cape Rouge, every +landing-place bristled with well-guarded encampments. Below, on the +elevated range extending from the mouth of the River St. Charles to the +mouth of the Montmorenci--a distance of eight miles--was a still more +imposing array. Every assailable point was efficiently guarded by a +redoubt. A bridge, protected by _tetes de pont_, spanned the St. Charles, +and formed a ready means of communication between the garrison and the +troops on the opposite side of the river. The mouth of the stream, just +below the citadel, was closed by a boom, and was further defended by +stranded frigates. The natural advantages of the situation had been +enhanced by the highest military skill, and there was not a vulnerable +point to be seen anywhere. The enemy's forces, 12,000 strong, composed +of French regulars, Canadian militia, and a few Indians, were under the +direction of the Marquis de Montcalm, one of the most consummate generals +of the age. The position was one which was one which might have well been +pronounced impregnable, and Wolfe could hardly have been censured if he had +then and there abandoned all hope of success. + +But there are some men whom no difficulties can discourage, and no danger +can daunt. Such a man was the intrepid young Major-General who had been +sent out by Pitt to sound the death-note of French Dominion in Canada. +With a shattered constitution, and a frame already in an advanced stage of +consumption, the indomitable young hero commenced the first moves in that +desperate game which he was finally destined to win at the cost of his +own life. The siege lasted nearly three months, during all of which time, +consumed by organic disease, and worn out by long and uninterrupted +service, his dauntless resolution never wholly failed him. For weeks and +weeks his eagle eye, ever on the alert to spy out a vulnerable point in +that seemingly immaculate coat-of-mail, scanned the redoubts from Cape +Rouge to the Montmorenci. There was no fool-hardiness--no wilful throwing +away of life--but there was much to be dared, and much to be left to mere +chance. Whenever there seemed to be any, even the slightest, prospect of +effecting an opening, that chance was greedily seized and eagerly acted +upon. Contemplated in the light of the grand result, we are lost in +amazement at the indomitable soul of that frail young invalid who, +undismayed by repeated defeat, by conflicting counsels, and by the effect +of continued exposure upon his enfeebled frame, steadfastly persevered +in his course until the goal was won. For British dominion in Canada was +established, not by bravery alone. Montcalm's veteran troops were as +brave as those to which they were opposed. Quebec was won by patience, by +unceasing vigilance, by military skill, and by an inward conviction in the +breast of the English commander that "All things are possible to him who +will but do his duty, and who knoweth not when he is beaten." The time was +one which called for action and no time was lost in useless deliberation. +Wolfe's plan of attack was soon formed, and he at once proceeded to carry +it out. The soldiers were directed to hold themselves in readiness either +to march or fight at the shortest notice. A little before midnight on the +28th--about thirty hours after the forces had been landed--the sentinel +on the western point of the island perceived certain black objects in the +river which were slowly moving towards the land where he stood. He had no +sooner aroused his companions than a tremendous discharge of artillery took +place. The force immediately turned out and prepared for battle, but no +enemy being, visible, it was necessary to wait for daylight. It then +appeared that the French commander had despatched eight fire-ships and +rafts, freighted with explosives, towards the British fleet in the river. +These explosives had been launched from the shore in the darkness, but had +been lighted prematurely, and failed to accomplish anything beyond a grand +display of fireworks. Wolfe proceeded with his plans, and on the 30th he +issued a proclamation to the inhabitants, calling upon them to transfer +their allegiance, and enjoining upon them that they should at least +preserve a strict neutrality. Monckton, one of Wolfe's Brigadier-Generals, +then crossed over the arm of the river with a strong detachment, took +possession of Peint Levi, threw up entrenchments, and planted batteries +along the southern shore. In effecting this manoeuvre a body of 1,200 +Canadians were dislodged and repulsed, and the British gained an +advantageous position for attacking the citadel. Monckton held the position +in spite of all Montcalm's efforts to dislodge him, and on the 13th of July +the batteries opened fire from here upon the citadel. The fleet in the +river also opened fire upon the French lines on the northern shore between +Quebec and the Falls of Montmorenci, and under cover of the fire Wolfe +landed on the eastern bank of the Montmorenci River, and intrenched his +position there. The shells from the batteries at Point Levi set fire to the +Upper Town of Quebec, whereby the great Cathedral and many other buildings +were destroyed. Hostilities were renewed day by day, and there was great +destruction both of property and of human life; but after weeks of toilsome +operation the capture of Quebec seemed as far off as when the British fleet +first arrived in the St. Lawrence. On the night of the 28th of July, the +French made a second attempt to destroy the English fleet with fire-rafts, +but the sailors grappled the rafts before they could reach the fleet and +quietly towed them ashore. + +Meantime, Wolfe's efforts to decoy Montcalm to emerge from his fastnesses +and to enter into a general engagement were unceasing; but the French +General was not to be tempted. Several British men-of-war sailed up the +St. Lawrence, past the city, and got into the upper river. Wolfe was thus +enabled to reconnoitre the country above, the bombardment of the citadel +being kept up almost without intermission. On the 31st, Wolfe, from his +camp near the month of the Montmorenci, made a formidable attack upon the +French on the other side of the (Montmorenci) River, near Beauport. The +attack was unsuccessful, and the British were compelled to retire with +considerable loss. Attempts to dislodge the French were made at all points +along the river; but owing to their advantageous position, all such +attempts were fruitless, and as the weeks passed by without securing any +decisive advantage to his arms, Wolfe's anxiety became so great as to bring +on a slow fever, which for some days confined him to his bed. As soon as he +was able to drag himself thence he called his chief officers together and +submitted to them several new methods of attack. Most of the officers were +of opinion that the attack should be made above the city, rather than +below. Wolfe coincided in this view, and on the 3rd of September +transferred his own camp to Point Levi. Soon afterwards a narrow path, +scarcely wide enough for two men to march abreast, was discovered on the +north bank of the St. Lawrence, leading up the cliffs, about two miles +above the city. The spot was known as _L'Anse du Foulon_, but has since +been known as Wolfe's Cove. Wolfe determined to land his forces here, and +under cover of night, to ascend to the heights above. The heights once +reached, it was probable that Montcalm might hazard a battle. Should he +decline to do so, the British troops would at any rate have gained an +advantageous point for a fresh attack upon the citadel. + +Having determined upon this line of proceeding, preparations were at once +set on foot for carrying it out. An important point was to keep the French +in ignorance of the design, and if possible to mislead them as to the spot +where it was proposed to make the attack. With this view, soundings were +made in the river opposite Beauport, between the mouth of the St. Charles +and the Falls of Montmorenci, as though with the intention of effecting +a landing there. The ruse was successful, and Montcalm's attention was +directed to this spot as the probable point which he would soon have +to defend. He hurried down to the entrenchments at Beauport, and made +preparations to oppose the British in their anticipated attempt to land. + +On the evening of the 12th of September, several of the heaviest vessels of +the British fleet anchored near Beauport. Boats were lowered, and were soon +filled with men, as though it were intended to effect a landing forthwith. +Montcalm's attention having been thus concentrated upon this point, the +smaller vessels sailed up the river past Cape Diamond, and joined the +squadron under Admiral Holmes, which lay near Cape Rouge. The forces on the +south bank of the St. Lawrence simultaneously advanced up the shore from +Point Levi, and having arrived opposite the squadron, were quietly taken on +board, where they awaited further orders. Wolfe, with the germs of a hectic +fever still rankling in his blood, was nevertheless actively engaged in +reconnoitring the position both on the river and on land. And now we again +meet for a few moments with our old friend, Mr. John Jervis. Eighteen +years have passed over his head since we last met him in the playground at +Greenwich. He is now commander of the _Porcupine_, one of the sloops of +war in the St. Lawrence. A few weeks before this time he had rendered +an essential service to his old school-fellow, James Wolfe. One of the +General's passages up the river had been made in the _Porcupine_, and in +passing the batteries of the Lower Town of Quebec, the wind had died away, +and the vessel had been driven by the current towards the northern shore. A +cannonade was at once opened upon the vessel from the French batteries, and +Wolfe would soon have been in the hands of the enemy. Jervis proved equal +to the occasion. His word of command rang out to lower the ship's boats. +The command was at once obeyed, and the crew soon towed the _Porcupine_ out +of danger. The memory of this event may perhaps have had something to do +with Wolfe's conduct towards his old friend on the evening of this 12th of +September. The General sent for young Jervis, and had a conversation with +him upon various private matters. He expressed his conviction that he would +not survive the impending battle, and taking Miss Lowther's picture from +his bosom, he delivered it to Jervis. "If I fall," he said, "let it be +given to her with my best love." Jervis, of course, promised compliance, +and the somewhile pupils of, Mr. Swindon bade each other a last farewell. + +The hours intervening between this conference and midnight were chiefly +spent by the General in adding a codicil to his will, and in making a final +inspection of arrangements for the proposed landing at _L'Anse du Foulon_. +The night was calm and beautiful, and as he passed from ship to ship he +commented to the officers on the contrast between the quietness which +reigned supreme, and the resonant roar of battle which would almost +certainly be heard there on the morrow. As he quietly moved about he was +heard repeating in a low tone several stanzas of Gray's "Elegy." One of +these stanzas he repeated several times: + + "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, + And all that beauty, and all that wealth e'er gave, + Await alike th' inevitable hour; + The paths of glory lead but to the grave." + +The occasion was a solemn one, and he doubtless felt that, for him, the +last line had a special significance at that time. Who shall say what other +thoughts filled his breast on that last evening of his life? Perchance he +thought of his mother, of his dead father and brother, and of her who was +pledged to share his name and fame. Let us hope that, in that solemn hour, +with the forebodings of his coming doom strong upon him, he was able to +look back upon his life with a consciousness that he had served his God +with at least some measure of the zeal which he had ever been wont to +display in the service of his country. He continued to repeat the beautiful +lines of the poet, down to the concluding words of the epitaph. Then after +a brief pause, turning to his officers:--"Gentlemen," he said, "I would +rather be the author of that piece than take Quebec to-morrow." [Footnote: +There is a story to the effect that Wolfe, on this night, composed the +well-known song which bears his name, commencing: "How stands the glass +around?" The story is altogether without foundation, the song having been +written and published long before General Wolfe was born. The poetical +talent of the family seems to have been confined to the Irish branch, +one of the members whereof, the Rev. Charles Wolfe, subsequently won +immortality by a single short poem, "The Burial of Sir John Moore."] + +But not much time could be given to sentiment. A little after midnight, +Wolfe embarked a strong detachment of forces in flat-bottomed boats, and, +placing himself at their head, quietly glided down the river to _L'Anse du +Foulon_. The spot was soon reached, and the landing was effected in safety. +The cliff here rises almost perpendicularly to a height of 350 feet, and +one of the soldiers was heard to remark that going up there would be like +going up the side of a house. No time was lost, and the ascent of the +ravine was at once begun. The enemy had a line of sentinels all along the +top of the cliff, and one of the sentries was stationed at the precise spot +where the British would emerge on the summit. When those who were in the +van of ascent had reached a point about half way up the acclevity, the +sentry's attention was aroused by the noise of scrambling that was +necessarily made by the British soldiers. Calling "_Qui vive_?" down +the cliff, he was answered in French, and, suspecting nothing amiss, he +proceeded on his rounds. Meanwhile the British had not waited to ascend two +abreast, but were scrambling up as best they could. Seizing hold of bushes, +roots, and projections of rock, they rapidly scaled the steep sides of the +cliff, and were soon within a few yards of the top. About a hundred of them +made the ascent at a point a few yards further east than the ravine, and +directly above their heads was a sentry-post with five or six French +soldiers, who, hearing the noise, began to peer down the side of the cliff. +Darkness prevented their seeing much, but the roots and bushes seemed all +alive, and firing a volley down at random, they took to their heels and +fled. The British vigorously pushed their way up, and were soon on level +ground. Long before daylight 4,828 British troops stood upon the Heights of +Abraham, commanding the city from the West. One solitary cannon had been +toilsomely dragged up the ravine. It was destined to do good service +against the French troops, and to carry a message of death to their +commander, ere many hours had passed. + +The decisive moment was at hand. By this time Wolfe felt certain that the +French General would now emerge from his entrenchments and fight. His +conviction proved to be well founded. About six o'clock in the morning, +Montcalm, who had been vigilantly watching during the night for an attack +at Beauport, received the intelligence of Wolfe's manoeuvre. Hastening +across the St. Charles, he hurried along past the northern ramparts of +Quebec, and advanced to do battle. His forces consisted of 7,520 troops, +besides 400 Indians. In addition to these, he had a force of about 1,500 +men farther up the river, near Cape Rouge, under H. de Bougainville. +Messengers were dispatched to this officer directing him to hasten to the +scene of action and attack the British in their rear. + +The battle began early in the forenoon, when Montcalm's artillery opened +fire upon the British. His force, independently of that under H. de +Bougainville, being nearly double that of the British, he hoped to turn +his numerical superiority to account by out-flanking the enemy's left, and +crowding them towards the bank, when he would oppose them to the front and +to the north, while H. de Bougainville would sweep down upon their rear. M. +de Bougainville, however, was slow in arriving, and Montcalm's attack on +the north and east was opposed by the British with such determination that +he was compelled to draw back. Then, remustering his troops, he returned to +the charge. This was the decisive moment. The British, by Wolfe's command, +threw themselves on the ground, and though the hot fire of the approaching +Frenchmen did terrible execution among them not a shot was fired in return. +On came the foe until they had advanced to within forty yards of the +British. Then Wolfe's voice was suddenly heard above the din of battle like +the note of a clarion. Responsive to his call, the troops rose as one +man and poured in a volley so deadly as to strike even the well-trained +veterans of France with awe. Scores of them fell to rise no more, and +hundreds sank wounded on the plain. Such of the terrified Canadian troops +as were able to run, fled in sheer terror. Before the smoke of that +terrible volley had cleared away, Wolfe, his delicate frame trembling with +illness, but buoyed up with the assurance of a glorious victory, placed +himself at the head of the Louisburg Grenadiers and the 28th Regiment, and +led them to the fray. Wrapping a handkerchief round his left wrist, which +had just been shattered by a bullet, he continued to advance at the head of +his men, inspiriting them alike by his acts and his deeds. He gave the word +to "Charge," and the word has scarcely passed his lips when he received +a bullet in the groin. Staggering under the shock, he yet continued to +advance, though unable to speak above his breath. The battle had not yet +raged more than fifteen minutes, but it was even now virtually decided. +The French troops were utterly disorganized, and fled in all directions. +Montcalm, brave to rashness, rode along the broken ranks, and vainly tried +to re-form them. As he continued to harangue them, exposing himself to the +enemy's fire with utter indifference to his own safety, he was struck by a +shot from the solitary gun which the British had been able to drag up the +heights. He fell, mortally wounded; and from that moment there can no +longer be said to have been any fighting. It was a fierce pursuit on the +one side and a frantic flight on the other. + +Less than three minutes before Montcalm's fall, Wolfe had received a third +bullet wound--this time in the left breast. He leant upon the arm of the +nearest officer, saying, "Support me--do not let my brave fellows see +me fall. The day is ours--keep it." He was at once carried to the rear. +Hearing some one giving directions to fetch a surgeon, he murmured, "It +is useless--all is over with me." As his life ebbed away he heard a voice +exclaim "They run, they run!" The words inspired him with temporary +animation. Slightly raising his head he asked, "Who--who run?" "The +enemy, sir," was the reply; "they give way everywhere." Summoning his +fast-fleeting strength, he rejoined, "Go, one of you, to Colonel Burton. +Tell him to march Webb's regiment with all speed down to Charles River to +cut off the retreat." His head then sank, and turning slightly on one side, +as in a heavy sleep, he was heard to murmur, "Now, God be praised, I die in +peace." + +And thus died all that was mortal of James Wolfe. [Footnote: There are +various accounts extant of this closing scene in Wolfe's life, all +professing to come more or less directly from eye-witnesses. No two of them +agree in all points, and one of them states that the General never uttered +a syllable after he was carried to the rear. The above is the version +generally accepted by historians, and is supported by the testimony of the +most trustworthy of those who were present at the scene.] + +Everybody knows the rest of the story; how M. de Bougainville appeared on +the field too late to be of any service; how, seeing what had befallen, he +retreated again to Cape Rouge; how the Marquis de Vaudreuil, the Governor, +and his 1,300 Canadians deserted the lines below Quebec, and made what +haste they could to Montreal; how the beleagured garrison, reduced by +famine and slaughter, capitulated on the fifth day after the battle; how a +year afterwards Canada was surrendered to the British Crown; and how the +surrender was ratified by the Treaty of Paris on the 10th of February, +1763. + +And Montcalm. He had his wish, expressed shortly after he received his +death-wound, and did not live to see the surrender of the city which he +had defended so bravely. The story of his life and death has been told at +length in a previous sketch. At present it is sufficient to day that he +died on the day following the battle, and that he was buried within the +precincts of the Ursuline Convent, on Garden street, Quebec. + +The British loss on the Plains of Abraham consisted of 59 killed and 597 +wounded. The French loss was much greater, amounting to about 600 killed +and more than 1,000 wounded and taken prisoners. The death-roll seems +wonderfully small when compared with the carnage in many fields famous in +history; but, judged by its results and all the attendant circumstances, +the battle may very properly be numbered among the decisive conflicts of +the world. + +When intelligence of the death of Wolfe and the fall of Quebec reached +England, the enthusiasm of the people rose to a height which may almost be +described as delirious. The effect was much heightened by the fact +that such good news was wholly unexpected; for only three days before, +despatches had arrived from Wolfe wherein it did not appear that he was by +any means sanguine of success. Bonfires blazed from one end of the +kingdom to the other, and the streets of the metropolis were redolent of +marrow-bones and cleavers. Persons who had never seen each other before +shook hands, and in some cases even embraced one another, when they met on +the streets. The coffee-houses were thronged with hysteric orators who held +forth about the days of chivalry having come back again. Sermons about +the sword of the Lord and of Gideon were heard in churches and chapels +throughout the land. While all these things were passing in nearly every +city, town, and important village in the kingdom, one spot remained +unillumined. That spot was Blackheath, where the hero's mother mourned the +loss of her only child--the child to whom, notwithstanding his delicate +health, she had tried to look forward as the stay of her declining years. +The neighbours, one and all, of whatsoever degree, respected her great +sorrow, and forbore to take part in the general rejoicings. We can fancy, +too, that there was mourning and desolation at Raby Castle, the home of the +beautiful Miss Lowther.[Footnote: The portrait of this lady confided +by Wolfe to John Jervis on the night of the 12th of September, was +subsequently delivered to her, and she wore it in memory of her dead hero +until her marriage, nearly six years afterwards, to Harry, Sixth and last +Duke of Bolton. She survived until 1809, when she died at her mansion in +Grosvenor Square, London, at the age of seventy-five.] A month later this +lady wrote to one of her friends as follows, concerning Mrs. Wolfe: "I +feel for her more than words can say, and should, if it was given me to +alleviate her grief, gladly exert every power which nature or compassion +has bestowed; yet I feel we are the last people in the world who ought to +meet." + +Wolfe's body was embalmed and conveyed to England, where, on the 20th of +November, it was deposited beside that of his father in the family vault, +beneath the parish church of Greenwich. An immense concourse of people +assembled to do honour to the dead hero's remains. On the day after the +funeral, Pitt rose in the House of Commons and proposed an address to the +King, praying that a monument might be erected in Westminster Abbey to +the memory of the Conqueror of Quebec. The prayer was assented to, and +a committee appointed to carry out the details. The sculpture occupied +thirteen years, and the ceremony of unveiling did not take place until the +4th of October, 1773. The monument is of white marble, and stands in the +Chapel of St. John the Evangelist, facing the ambulatory. The sculpture +is very fine, and embodies various emblematic scenes in Wolfe's life. The +inscription runs as follows: + + TO THE MEMORY + OF + JAMES WOLFE + + MAJOR-GENERAL AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF + OF THE + BRITISH LAND FORCES, + ON AN + EXPEDITION AGAINST QUEBEC, + WHO, + AFTER SURMOUNTING BY ABILITY AND VALOUR + ALL OBSTACLES OF ART AND NATURE, + WAS SLAIN IN THE MOMENT OF VICTORY, + ON THE + XIII. of SEPTEMBER, MDXXLIX. + THE + KING AND PARLIAMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN + DEDICATE THIS MONUMENT. + +A monument was also erected to Wolfe's memory in the parish church of +Westerham, the village where he was born; and other memorials are to be +found in Spuerries Park and at Stowe. In the year 1832, Lord Aylmer, +Governor-General of Canada, erected a small pillar, on the Plains of +Abraham, on the exact spot where Wolfe is believed to have breathed his +last. The railing around it being insufficient for its protection, it was +ere long defaced by sacrilegious hands. In 1849 it was removed, and a more +suitable memorial set on in its stead. The cost of the latter was chiefly +defrayed by British troops stationed in the Province. The inscription upon +it is as follows: + + HERE DIED + WOLFE: + VICTORIOUS. + + + + + + +GOVERNOR SIMCOE + + + +Among the many Canadians who at one time or another in their lives have +visited Great Britain, comparatively few, we imagine, have thought it +worth while to travel down to the fine old cathedral city of Exeter, in +Devonshire. The sometime capital of the West of England is of very remote +antiquity. It was a place of some importance before Julius Cæsar landed +in Britain, and eleven hundred years after that event it was besieged and +taken by William the Conqueror. Later still, it was the scene of active +hostilities during the wars of the Roses and of the Commonwealth. So much +for its past. At the present day, for those to the manner born, it is one +of the most delightful places of residence in the kingdom. It is not, +however, of much commercial importance, and is not on any of the direct +routes to the continent. Add to this, that the local society is a very +close corporation indeed, and it will readily be understood why the place +is somewhat _caviare_ to the general public, and not much resorted to by +strangers. + +Like every other old English town, it has its full share of historic and +noteworthy localities. The Guildhall, with its oldtime memories, and +Rougemont Castle, once the abode of the West-Saxon kings, are dear to the +hearts of local antiquarians. The elm-walk, near the Sessions House, is +an avenue of such timber as can be seen nowhere out of England, and is +a favourite resort for the inhabitants on pleasant afternoons. The +Cathedral-close has been consecrated by the genius of one of the most +eminent of living novelists, and its purlieus are familiar to many persons +who have never been within thousands of miles of it. But the crowning glory +of all is the cathedral itself, a grand old pile founded in the eleventh +century, and the building of which occupied nearly two hundred years. Here, +everything is redolent of the past. The chance wayfarer from these western +shores who happens to stray within the walk of this majestic specimen +of mediæval architecture will have some difficulty, for the nonce, in +believing in the reality of such contrivances as steamboats and railways. +Certainly it is one of the last places in the world where one might +naturally expect to see anything to remind him of so modern a spot as the +capital of Ontario. But should any Torontonian who is familiar with his +country's history ever find himself within those walls, let him walk down +the south aisle till he reaches the entrance to the little chapel of St. +Gabriel. If he will then pass through the doorway into the chapel and look +carefully about him, he will soon perceive something to remind him of +his distant home, and of the Province of which that home is the capital. +Several feet above his head, on the inner wall, he will notice a +medallian portrait in bold relief, by Flaxman, of a bluff, hearty, +good-humoured-looking English gentleman, apparently in the prime of life, +and attired in the dress of a Lieutenant-General. His hair, which is pretty +closely cut, is rather inclined to curl--evidently would curl if it were a +little longer. Below the medallion is a mural tablet bearing the following +inscription: + +"Sacred to the memory of John Graves Simcoe, Lieutenant-General in the +army, and Colonel in the 22nd Regiment of Foot, who died on the 25th day +of October, 1806, aged 54. In whose life and character the virtues of the +hero, the patriot, and the Christian were so eminently conspicuous, that it +may justly be said, he served his King and his country with a zeal exceeded +only by his piety towards God." + +On the right of the inscription is depicted the figure of an Indian warrior +with a conspicuous scalp-lock. On the left is the figure of a veteran +of the Queen's Rangers. To the well-read spectator, the portrait stands +confessed as the likeness of the first Governor of Upper Canada, and the +founder of the Town of York. + +Monumental inscriptions, as a rule, are not the most trustworthy +authorities whereby one may be enabled to form an unprejudiced estimate of +the moral and intellectual qualities of "those who have gone before." In +visiting any of the noteworthy resting-places of the illustrious dead, +either in the old world or the new, we are not seldom astonished upon +reading the sculptured testimony of the survivors, to find that "'tis still +the best that leave us." One may well wonder, with the Arch-Cynic, where +the bones of all the _sinners_ are deposited. In the case of Governor +Simcoe, however, there is much to be said in the way of just commendation, +and the inscription is not so nauseously fulsome us to excite disgust. +Toronto's citizens, especially, should take pleasure in doing honour to +his memory. But for him, the capital of the Province would not have been +established here, and the site of the city might long have remained the +primitive swamp which it was when his eyes first beheld it on the morning +of the 4th of May, 1793. + +His life, from the cradle to the grave, was one of almost uninterrupted +activity. He was born at Cotterstock, Northamptonshire. sometime in the +year 1752, and was a soldier by right of inheritance. His father, Captain +John Simcoe, after a life spent in his country's service, died in the St. +Lawrence River, on board H. M. ship _Pembroke_, of miasmatic disease, +contracted in exploring portions of the adjoining country for military +purposes. His death took place only a few day's before the siege of Quebec, +in 1759. He left behind him a widow and two children. The younger of these +children did not long survive his father. The elder who had been christened +John Graves lived to add fresh laurels to the family name, and at the time +of his father's death was in his eighth year. Shortly after the gallant +Captain's death his widow removed to the neighbourhood of Exeter, where the +remaining years of her life were passed. Her only surviving son was sent to +one of the local schools until he had reached the age of fourteen, when he +was transferred to Eton. Few reminiscences of his boyish days have come +down to us. He appears to have been a diligent student, more especially in +matters pertaining to the history of his country, and from a very early +age he declared his determination to embrace a military life. From Eton +he migrated to Merton College, Oxford, where he continued to pursue his +studies until he had entered upon his nineteenth year, when he entered +the army as an ensign in the 35th regiment of the line. This regiment was +despatched across the Atlantic to take part in the hostilities with the +revolted American Colonies, and young Simcoe did his devoirs gallantly +throughout the whole course of the war of Independence. In June, 1775, he +found himself at Boston, and on the 17th of that month he took part in the +memorable fight at Bunker Hill. He subsequently purchased the command of a +company in the 40th Regiment, and fought at the battle of Brandywine, where +he was severely wounded. Upon the formation of the gallant, provincial +corps called "The Queen's Rangers," he applied for the command, and as soon +as he had recovered from his wound his application was granted. Under his +command, the Rangers did good service in many engagements, and fought with +a valour and discipline which more than once caused them to be singled +out for special mention in the official despatches of the time. Sir Henry +Clinton, Commander-in-chief of the royalist forces in America, in a letter +written to Lord George Germaine, under the date of 13th May, 1780, says +that "the history of the corps under his (Simcoe's) command is a series +of gallant, skilful, and successful enterprises. The Queen's Rangers have +killed or taken twice their own numbers." + +Upon the close of the war, the Rangers were disbanded, the officers being +placed on the half-pay list. Young Simcoe had meanwhile been promoted to +the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. During the progress of hostilities he +had conceived an intense dislike to the colonists and their political +principles, and the termination of the war caused no change in his +sentiments toward them. This aversion accompanied him through life, and as +we shall presently see, was destined to materially affect his subsequent +career. Meanwhile, he returned to England with his constitution much +impaired by the hard service he had undergone. Rest and regular habits, +however, soon enabled him to recover, in a great measure, his wonted +vigour. We next hear of him as a suitor to Miss Gwillim, a near relative of +Admiral Graves, Commander of the British fleet during the early part of the +Revolutionary War. The courtship soon terminated in marriage; and not long +afterwards the ambitious young soldier was elected as member of the British +House of Commons for the constituency of St. Maw's, Cornwall. The latter +event took place in 1790. During the following session, Mr. Pitt's Bill for +the division of the Province of Quebec into the two Provinces of Upper +and Lower Canada came up for discussion. The member for St. Maw's was a +vehement supporter of the measure, and upon it receiving the royal assent +the appointment of Lieutenant-Governor of the new Province of Upper Canada +was conferred upon him. He sailed from London on the 1st of May, 1792, +accompanied by a staff of officials to assist him in conducting the +administration of his Government. His wife, with her little son, +accompanied him into his voluntary exile, and her maiden name is still +perpetuated in this Province in the names of three townships bordering on +Lake Simcoe, called respectively North, East, and West Gwillimbury. The +party arrived in Upper Canada on the 8th of June, and after a brief stay +at Kingston took up their abode at Newark, near the mouth of the Niagara +River. + +What Colonel Simcoe's particular object may have been in accepting the +position of Lieutenant-Governor of such an uninviting wilderness as this +Province then was, it is not easy to determine. He had retained his command +in the army, and in addition to his receipts from that source, he owned +valuable estates in Devonshire, from which he must have derived an income +far more than sufficient for his needs. Upper Canada then presented few +inducements for an English gentleman of competent fortune to settle within +its limits. Its entire population, which was principally distributed along +the frontier, was not more than 20,000. At Kingston were a fort and a few +houses fit for the occupation of civilized beings. At Newark, there was the +nucleus of a little village on the edge of the forest. Here and there along +the St. Lawrence, around the Bay of Quinté, and along the Niagara frontier, +were occasional little clusters of log cabins. In the interior, except at +the old French settlement in the western part of the Province, there was +absolutely nothing that could properly be called a white settlement. Roving +tribes of Indians spread their wigwams for a season along the shores of +some of the larger streams, but the following season would probably find +the site without any trace of their presence. A few representatives of the +Six Nations had been settled by Joseph Brant at Mohawk, on the Grand River, +and there were a few Mississaugas near the mouth of the Credit. There was +not a single well-constructed waggon road from one end of the Province to +the other. Such was the colony wherein Governor Simcoe took up his abode +with seeming satisfaction. It has been suggested that he must have been +actuated by philanthropic and patriotic motives, and that he was willing to +sacrifice himself for the sake of rendering Upper Canada a desirable place +of settlement. Another suggestion is that he believed the flames of war +between Great Britain and her revolted colonies likely to be re-kindled; +in which case, he as Governor of an adjoining colony, which must be the +battle-ground, would necessarily be called upon to play an important part. +Whatever his motives may have been, he came over and administered the +government for several years with energy and good judgment. He selected +Newark as his temporary capital, and took up his quarters in an old +store-house--upon which he bestowed the name of Navy Hall--on the outskirts +of the village. Here, on the 16th of January, 1793, was born his little +daughter Kate, and here he began to lay the foundation of the great +popularity which he subsequently attained. He cultivated the most friendly +relations with the Indians in the neighbourhood, who soon began to look +upon him as their "Great Father." They conferred upon him Iroquois name of +Deyonynhokrawen--"One whose door is always open." At a grand Council-fire +kindled a few weeks after his arrival they conferred upon his little +son Frank the dignity of a chieftain, under the title of "Tioga." The +friendliness of the Indians conduced not little to the Governor's +satisfaction: but there were other matters imperatively demanding his +attention. The quality of the land in the interior, and even its external +features, were subjects upon which very little was accurately known. He +directed surveys to be made of the greater part of the country, which was +laid out, under his supervision, into districts and counties. He did what +he could to promote immigration, and held out special inducements to those +former residents of the revolted colonies who had remained faithful to +Great Britain during the struggle. These patriots, who are generally known +by the name of United Empire Loyalists, received free grants of land in +various parts of the Province, upon which they settled in great numbers. +Free grants were also conferred upon discharged officers and soldiers of +the line. To ordinary emigrants, lands were offered at a nominal price; +and under this liberal system the wilderness soon began to wear a brighter +aspect. + +About two months after his arrival--that is to say, on the 17th of +September, 1792, the first Provincial Parliament of Upper Canada met at +Newark. The House of Assembly consisted of sixteen representatives chosen +by the people; the Upper House of eight representatives appointed for +life by the Governor on behalf of the Crown. This Legislature remained in +session nearly a month, during which time it passed eight Acts, each of +which was a great boon to the country, and reflected credit upon the +intelligence and practical wisdom of the members. One of these Acts +introduced the law of England with respect to property and civil rights, +in so far as the same is applicable to the circumstances of a new and +sparsely-settled country. Another established trial by jury. Another +provided for the easy collection of small debts. Still another provided for +the erection of gaols, courthouses and such other public buildings as might +be necessary, in each of the four districts (the Eastern, Middle, Home and +Western) into which the Province had been divided. The session closed on +the 15th October, when the Governor complimented the members on their +having done so much to promote the public welfare and convenience, and +dismissed them to their homes. + +Governor Simcoe was not long in discovering that Newark was not a suitable +place for the capital of the Province. It was not central; and its +proximity to the American Fort of Niagara, [Footnote: This fort was still +occupied by British troops, but it was well understood that it would +shortly be surrendered. The surrender took place under Jay's treaty on 1st +June, 1796.] on the opposite bank of the river, was in itself a serious +consideration. "The chief town of a Province," said he, "must not be placed +within range of the guns of a hostile fort." As a temporary measure, he set +about the construction of Fort George, on our side of the river, and then +began to look about him for a suitable site for a permanent capital. He +spent a good deal of time in travelling about the country, in order that +he might weigh the advantages of different localities after personal +inspection. He travelled through the forest from Newark to Detroit +and back--a great part of the journey being made on foot--and to this +expedition the Province is indebted for the subsequent survey and +construction of the well-known "Governor's Road." The site of the future +seat of Government meanwhile remained undecided. Lord Dorchester, the +Governor-General, who had his headquarters at Quebec, urged that Kingston +should be selected, but the suggestion did not accord with Governor +Simcoe's views. The question for sometime continued to remain an open one. +Finally, Governor Simcoe, in the course of his travels coasted along the +northern shore of Lake Ontario, and after exploring different points along +the route he entered the Bay of Toronto, and landed, as we have seen on the +morning of Saturday, the 4th of May, 1793. The natural advantages of the +place were not to be overlooked, and he was not long in making up his mind +that here should be the future capital of Upper Canada. A peninsula of land +extended out into Lake Ontario, and then came round in a gradual curve, +as though for the express purpose of protecting the basin within from the +force of the waves. Here, then, was an excellent natural harbour, closed +in on all sides but one. An expanse of more than thirty miles of water +intervened between the harbour and the nearest point of the territory of +the new Republic. Toronto, too, was accessible by water both from east and +west--a point of some importance at a time when there was no well-built +highway on shore. These considerations (and doubtless others) presented +themselves to the Governor's mind, and having come to a decision, he at +once set about making some improvements on the site. To Lieutenant-Colonel +Bouchette, he deputed the task of surveying the harbour. To Mr. Augustus +Jones [Footnote: This gentleman's name is familiar to all Toronto lawyers +and others who have had occasion to examine old surveys of the land +herebouts. He subsequently married the daughter of an Indian Chief, and +Rev. Peter Jones, the Indian Wesleyan missionary, was one of the fruits of +this marriage.], Deputy Provincial Surveyor, was entrusted the laying out +of the various roads in the neighbourhood. The great thoroughfare to the +north called Yonge street, was surveyed and laid out for the most part +under the personal supervision of Governor Simcoe himself, who named it +in honour of his friend, Sir George Yonge, Secretary of War in the home +government. In the course of the following summer, the Governor began to +make his home in his new capital. The village, composed of a few Indian +huts near the mouth of the Don, had theretofore been known by the name +of Toronto, having been so called after the old French fort in the +neighbourhood. Discarding this "outlandish" name, as he considered it, he +christened the spot York, in honour of the King's son, Frederick, Duke of +York. By this name the place continued to be known down to the date of its +incorporation in 1834, when its former designation was restored. + +At the date of the founding of York, the public press of Upper Canada +consisted of a single demy sheet, called the _Upper Canada Gazette_, +published weekly at Newark. Its circulation varied from 50 to 150 +impressions. It was printed on Thursday, on a little press--the only one in +the Province--which also printed the Legislative Acts and the Govermental +proclamations. From the issue of August 1st, 1793, we learn that, +"On Monday evening," which would be July 29th, "His Excellency the +Lieutenant-Governor left Navy Hall and embarked on board His Majesty's +schooner the _Mississaga_, which sailed immediately with a favourable +gale for York, with the remainder of the Queen's Rangers." From this time +forward, except during the sitting of the Legislature, Governor Simcoe make +York his headquarters. The Queen's Rangers referred to in the foregoing +extract were a corps which had recently been raised in Upper Canada by the +royal command, and named by the Governor after the old brigade at the +head of which he had so often marched to victory during the war of the +Revolution. The first Government House of Toronto was a somewhat remarkable +structure, and deserves a paragraph to itself. When Colonel Simcoe was +about to embark from London to enter upon the duties of his Government +in this country, he accidentally heard of a movable house which had been +constructed for Captain James Cook, the famous circumnavigator of the +globe. This house was made of canvas, and had been used by its former owner +as a dwelling in various islands of the southern seas. Governor Simcoe +learned that this strange habitation was for sale, and upon inspecting it +he perceived that it might be turned to good account in the wilds of Upper +Canada. He accordingly purchased it, and brought it across the Atlantic +with him. He found no necessity for using it as a dwelling at Newark, where +the storehouse furnished more suitable accommodation; but upon taking up +his quarters at York, Captain Cook's pavilion was brought into immediate +requisition. We have been able to find no very minute account of it; but +it must have been large, as he not only used it as his general private +and official residence, but dispensed vice-regal hospitalities within his +canvas walls. It seems to have been a migratory institution, and to have +occupied a least half-a-dozen different sites during its owner's stay at +York. At one time it was placed on the edge, and near the mouth, of the +little stream subsequently known as Garrison Creek. At another time it +occupied a plot of ground on or near the present site of Gooderham's +distillery. In short, it seems to have been moved about from place to place +in accordance with the convenience or caprice of the owner and his family. + +But there is one spot so intimately associated with Governor Simcoe's +residence here that it is time to give some account of it. Every citizen of +Toronto has heard the name of Castle Frank, and most have some general idea +of its whereabouts. It is presumable that the Governor found his canvas +house an insufficient protection against the cold during the winter of +1793-4. Perhaps, too, (observe please, this is a joke), the idea may have +intruded itself upon his mind that there was a sort of vagabondism in +having no fixed place of abode. At any rate, during the early spring of +1794 he erected a rustic, nondescript sort of log chateau on the steep +acclivity overlooking the valley of the Don, rather more than a mile from +the river's mouth. The situation is one of the most picturesque in the +neighbourhood, even at the present day, and there must have been a wild +semi-savagery about it in Governor Simcoe's time that would render it +specially attractive to one accustomed, he had been, to the trim hedges and +green lanes of Devonshire. + +It must at least have possessed the charm of novelty. When finished, the +edifice was a very comfortable place of abode. From Dr. Scadding's "Toronto +of Old" we learn that it was of considerable dimensions, and of oblong +shape. Its walls were composed of "a number of rather small, carefully hewn +logs, of short lengths. The whole wore the hue which unpainted timber, +exposed to the weather, speedily assumes. At the gable end, in the +direction of the roadway from the nascent capital, was the principal +entrance, over which a rather imposing portico was formed by the projection +of the whole roof, supported by four upright columns, reaching the whole +height of the building, and consisting of the stems of four good-sized, +well-matched pines, with their deeply-chapped, corrugated bark unremoved. +The doors and shutters to the windows were all of double thickness, made of +stout plank, running up and down on one side, and crosswise on the other, +and thickly studded over with the heads of stout nails. From the middle of +the building rose a solitary, massive chimney-stack." + +Such was the edifice constructed by Governor Simcoe for the occasional +residence of himself and his family. He called it Castle Frank, after his +little son, previously mentioned; a lad about five years of age at; this +time. The cleared space contiguous to the building was circumscribed within +rather narrow limits. A few yards from the walls on each side a precipitous +ravine descended. Through one of these ravines flows the Don Elver; while +through the other a little murmuring brook meanders on until its confluence +with the larger stream several hundreds yards farther down. In addition to +a numerous retinue of servants, the household consisted of the Governor, +his wife, Master Frank, and the infant daughter already mentioned. Dr. +Scadding draws a pleasant picture of the spirited little lad clambering up +and down the steep hill-sides with the restless energy of boyhood. He was +destined to climb other hill-sides before his life-work was over, and to +take part in more hazardous performances than, when scampering with his +nurse along the rural banks of the Don. Seventeen years passed, and the +bright-eyed boy had become a man. True to the traditions of his house, he +had entered the army, and borne himself gallantly on many a well-contested +field in the Spanish Peninsula. He eagerly pursued the path of glory which, +as poet tells us, leads but to the grave. The dictum as applied to him, +proved to be true enough. The night of the 6th of October, 1812, found him +"full of lusty life," hopeful, and burning for distinction, before the +besieged outworks of Badajoz. During the darkness of night the siege +was renewed with a terrific vigour that was not to be resisted, and the +"unconsidered voluntaries" of Estramadura tasted the sharpness of English +steel. The town was taken--but at what a cost! If any one wishes to know +more of that fearful carnage let him read the description of it in the +pages of Colonel Napier, and he will acquiesce in the chronicler's +assertion that, "No age, no nation ever sent braver troops to battle than +those that stormed Badajoz." The morning of the 7th rose upon a sight which +might well haunt the dreams of all who beheld it. In the breach where +the ninety-fifth perished almost to a man was a ghastly array, largely +consisted of the mangled corpses of young English officers whose dauntless +intrepidity had impelled them to such deeds of valour as have made their +names a sacred inheritance to their respective families. Many of them were +mere boys + + "With ladies' faces and fierce dragons' spleens" + +upon whose cheeks the down of early manhood had scarce begun to appear. +Among the many remnants of mortality taken from that terrible breach was +the pallid corpse of young Frank Simcoe. + +And what of the little sister, whose first appearance on life's stage was +chronicled a few paragraphs back? Poor little Kate was a tender plant, +not destined to flourish amid the rigours of a Canadian climate. She died +within a year after the building of Castle Frank. Her remains were interred +in the old military burying-ground, near the present site of the church of +St. John the Evangelist, on the corner of Stewart and Portland streets. The +old burying-ground is itself a thing of the past; but the child's death is +commemorated by a tablet over her father's grave, in the mortuary chapel on +the family estate in Devonshire. The inscription runs thus:--"Katharine, +born in Upper Canada, 16th Jan, 1793; died and was buried at York Town, in +that Province, in 1794." + +In less than a month from the time of his arrival at York, Governor Simcoe +was compelled to return for a short time to Newark in order to attend the +second session of the Legislature, which had been summoned to meet on the +31st of May. During this session thirteen useful enactments were added to +the statute book, the most important of which prohibited the introduction +of slaves into the Province, and restricted voluntary contracts of service +to a period of nine years. After the close of the session the Governor +returned to York, and proceeded with the improvements which had already +been commenced there, under his auspices. The erection of buildings for the +accomodation of the Legislature was begun near the present site of the old +gaol on Berkeley street, in what is now the far eastern part of the city. +Hereabouts various other houses sprang up, and the town of York began to +be something more than a name. It laboured under certain disadvantages, +however, and its progress for some time was slow. A contemporary authority +describes it as better fitted for a frog-pond or a beaver-meadow than for +the residence of human beings. It was on the road to nowhere, and its +selection by Governor Simcoe as the provincial capital was disapproved +of by many persons, and more especially by those who had settled on the +Niagara peninsula. Lord Dorchester, the Governor-General, opposed the +selection by every means in his power. In civil matters relating to his +Province, Governor Simcoe's authority was paramount; that is to say, he was +only accountable to the Home Government; but the revenue of the Province +was totally inadequate for its maintenance, and it was necessary to draw on +the Home Government for periodical supplies. In this way, Lord Dorchester, +who, from his high position, had great influence with the British Ministry, +had it in his power to indirectly control, to some extent, the affairs +of Upper Canada. He was, moreover, Commander-in-Chief of British North +America, and as such had full control over the armaments. He determined +that Kingston should at all events be the principal naval and military +station on Lake Ontario, and this determination he carried out by +establishing troops and vessels of war there. The military and naval +supremacy then conferred upon Kingston has never been altogether lost. + +There were other difficulties too, which began to stare Governor Simeoe in +the face about this time. The nominal price at which land had been disposed +of to actual settlers had caused a great influx of immigrants into the +Province from the American Republic. To so great an extent did this +immigration proceed that the Governor began to fear lest the American +element in the Province might soon be the preponderating one. Should such a +state of things come about, invasion or annexation would only be a matter +of time. His hatred to the citizens of the Republic was intense, and +coloured the entire policy of his administration. In estimating their +political and national importance he was apt to be guided by his prejudices +rather than by his convictions. In a letter written to a friend about this +time, he expressed his opinion that "a good navy and ten thousand men would +knock the United States into a nonentity." As the ten thousand men were +not forthcoming, however, he deemed it judicious to guard against future +aggression. The north shore of Lake Erie was settled by a class of persons +whom he knew to be British to the core. This set him reflecting upon the +advisability of establishing his capital in the interior; and within easy +reach of these settlers, who would form an efficient militia in case of an +invasion by the United States. He finally pitched upon the present site +of London, and resolved that in the course of a few years the seat of +government should be removed thither. This resolution, however, was never +carried out. He did not even remain in the country long enough to see the +Government established at York, which did not take place until the spring +of 1797. In 1796 he received an appointment which necessitated his +departure for the Island of St. Domingo, whither he repaired with his +family the same year. Various reasons have been assigned for this +appointment. The opposition of Lord Dorchester, we think, affords a +sufficient explanation, without searching any farther. It has also been +alleged that his policy was so inimical to the United States that the +Government of that country complained of him at headquarters, and thus +determined the Home Ministry, as a matter of policy, to find some other +field for him. After his departure, the administration was carried on by +the Honourable Peter Russell, senior member of the Executive Council, until +the arrival of Governor Peter Hunter, in 1799. + +Two years before his removal from Canada, Governor Simcoe had been promoted +to the rank of Major-General. He remained at St. Domingo only a few months, +when he retired to private life on his Devonshire estates. In 1798 he +became Lieutenant-General, and in 1801 was entrusted with the command of +the town of Plymouth, in anticipation of an attack upon that place by +the French fleet. The attack never took place, and his command proved a +sinecure. From this time forward we have but meagre accounts of him until +a short time before his death, which, as the monumental tablet has already +informed us, took place on the 25th of October, 1806. During the summer of +that year he had been fixed upon as Commander-in-Chief of the East Indian +forces, as successor to Lord Lake. Had his life been spared he would +doubtless have been raised to the peerage and sent out to play his part +in the history of British India. But these things were not to be. Late in +September he was detached to accompany the Earl of Rosslyn on an expedition +to the Tagus, to join the Earl of St. Vincent; an invasion of Portugal +by France being regarded as imminent. Though fifty-four years of age, he +sniffed the scent of battle as eagerly as he had done in the old days of +the Brandy wine, and set out on the expedition in high spirits. The vessel +in which he embarked had just been repainted, and he had scarcely got out +of British waters before he was seized with a sudden and painful illness, +presumed to have been, induced by the odour of the fresh paint. The +severity of his seizure was such as to necessitate his immediate return. +Upon landing at Torbay, not far from his home, he was taken very much +worse, and died within a few hours. He was buried in a little chapel on +his own estates, and the tablet in Exeter Cathedral was shortly afterwards +erected in his honour. + +But we Canadians have more enduring memorials of his presence among us than +any monumental tablet can supply; and unless the topographical features +of this Province should undergo some radical transformation, the name of +Governor Simcoe is not likely to be soon forgotten in our midst. The large +and important county of Simcoe, together with the lake, the shores whereof +form part of its eastern boundary; the county town of the County of +Norfolk; and a well-known street in Toronto--all these remain to perpetuate +the name of the first Governor of Upper Canada. It is well that such +tributes to his worth should exist among us, for he wrought a good work in +our Province, and deserves to be held in grateful remembrance. He was not a +man of genius. He was not, perhaps, a great man in any sense of the word; +but he was upon the whole a wise and beneficent administrator of civil +affairs, and was ever wont to display a generous zeal for the progress and +welfare of the land which he governed. When we contrast his conduct of the +administration with that of some of his successors, we feel bound to speak +and think of him with all kindness. + +The portrait which accompanies this sketch is engraved by kind permission +of Dr. Scadding, from the frontispiece to his work, 'Toronto of old,' which +was copied from a miniature obtained by the author from Captain J. K. +Simcoe, a grandson of the Governor, and the present occupant of the family +estates. The copy is a remarkably faithful one, and the authenticity of the +original, coming, from such a source is beyond dispute. + +The name "Castle Frank," as applied to the site of Governor Simcoe's abode, +requires some explanation, as the original castle is not now in existence. +After General Simcoe's departure from the Province, his rustic chateau was +never used by any one as a permanent abode. Several of his successors +in office, however, as well as various ether residents of York, used +occasionally to resort to it as a kind of camping ground in the summer +time, and it soon came into vogue for pic-nic excursions. Captain John +Denison, a well-known resident of Little York, seems to have taken up his +quarters in it for a few weeks, but not with any intention of permanently +residing there. In. or about the month of June, 1829, the building was +wantonly set on fire by some fisherman who had sailed up the Don. The +timber was dry, and the edifice was soon burned to the ground. It has +never been replaced, but the name of Castle Frank survives in that of the +residence of Mr. Walter McKenzie, situated about a hundred yards distant. +It is commonly applied, indeed, to all the adjoining heights; and on a +pleasant Sunday afternoon in spring or summer, multitudes of Toronto's +citizens repair thither for fresh air and a picturesque view. The route is +through St. James' Cemetery, and thence through the shady ravine and up the +hill beyond. Very few persons, we believe, could point out the exact site +of the old "castle." It is, however easily discoverable by any one who +chooses to search for it. A few yards to the right of the fence which is +the boundary line between St. James' Cemetery and Mr. McKenzie's property +is a slight depression in the sandy soil. That depression marks the site of +the historic Castle Frank. It should be mentioned, however, that no curious +citizen can legally gratify his desire to behold this momento of the past +without first obtaining Mr. McKenzie's permission, as the site belongs to +him, and cannot be reached from the cemetery without scaling the fence. + +Besides his son Frank, whose death is recorded in the foregoing sketch. +General Simcoe left behind him a younger son, Henry Addington Simcoe, +christened after the eminent statesman who subsequently became Lord +Sidmouth. The younger son took orders, and officiated for some years as a +clergyman in the West of England. After the death of his brother in the +breach at Badajos, he succeeded to the family estates; and in his turn was +succeeded by his son, Captain J. K. Simcoe, above mentioned. + + + + + + +THE HON. ROBERT BALDWIN. + + + +The life of Robert Baldwin forms so important an ingredient in the +political history of this country that we deem it unnecessary to offer any +apology for dealing with it at considerable length. More especially is +this the case, inasmuch as, unlike most of the personages included in the +present series, his career is ended, and we can contemplate it, not only +with perfect impartiality, but even with some approach to completeness. The +twenty and odd years which have elapsed since he was laid in his grave have +witnessed many and important changes in our Constitution, as well as in our +habits of thought; but his name is still regarded by the great mass of the +Canadian people with feelings of respect and veneration. We can still point +to him with the admiration due to a man who, during a time of the grossest +political corruption, took a foremost part in our public affairs, and who +yet preserved his integrity untarnished. We can point to him as the man +who, if not the actual author of Responsible Government in Canada, yet +spent the best years of his life in contending for it, and who contributed +more than any other person to make that project an accomplished fact. We +can point to him as one who, though a politician by predilection and by +profession, never stooped to disreputable practices, either to win votes or +to maintain himself in office.. Robert Baldwin, was a man who was not only +incapable of falsehood or meanness to gain his ends, but who was to the +last degree intolerant of such practices on the part of his warmest +supporters. If intellectual greatness cannot be claimed for him, moral +greatness was most indisputably his. Every action of his life was marked +by sincerity and good faith, alike towards friend and foe. He was not only +true to others; but was from, first to last true to himself. His useful +career, and the high reputation which he left behind him, furnish an apt +commentary upon the advice which Polonius gives to his son Laertes:-- + + "This above all, to thine own self be true; + And it must follow, as the night the day, + Thou canst not then be false to any man." + +To our thinking there is something august in the life of Robert Baldwin. +So chary was he of his personal honour that it was next to impossible to +induce him to pledge himself beforehand, even upon the plainest question. +Once, when addressing the electors at Sharon, some one in the crowd asked +him if he would pledge himself to oppose the retention of the Clergy +Reserves, "I am not here," was his reply, "to pledge myself on any +question. I go to the House as a free man, or I go not at all I am here to +declare to you my opinions. If you approve of my opinions, and elect me, I +will carry them out in Parliament. If I should alter those opinions I will +come back and surrender my trust, when you will have an opportunity of +re-electing me or of choosing another candidate; but I shall pledge myself +at the bidding of no man." A gentleman still living in Toronto once +accompanied him on an electioneering tour in his constituency of North +York. There were many burning questions on the carpet at the time, on some +of which Mr. Baldwin's opinion did not entirely coincide with that of the +majority of his constituents. His companion remembers hearing it suggested +to him that his wisest course would be to maintain a discreet silence +during the canvass as to the points at issue. His reply to the suggestion +was eminently characteristic of the man. "To maintain silence under, such +circumstances," said he, "would be tantamount to deceiving the electors. It +would be as culpable as to tell them a direct lie. Sooner than follow such +a course I will cheerfully accept defeat." He could not even be induced to +adopt the _suppressio veri_. So tender and exacting was his conscience that +he would not consent to be elected except upon the clearest understanding +between himself and his constituents, even to serve a cause which he felt +to be a just one. Defeat might annoy, but would not humiliate him. To be +elected under false colours would humiliate him in his own esteem, a state +of things which, to high-minded man, is a burden intolerable to be borne. + +It has of late years become the fashion with many well-informed persons +in this country to think and speak of Robert. Baldwin as a greatly, +over-estimated man. It is on all hands admitted that he was a man of +excellent intentions, of spotless integrity, and of blameless life. It is +not disputed, even by those whose political views are at variance with +those of the party to which he belonged, that the great measures for which +he contended were, in themselves conducive to the public weal, nor is it +denied that he contributed greatly to the cause of political freedom +in Canada. But, it is said, Robert Baldwin was merely the exponent of +principles which, long before his time, had found general acceptance among, +the statesmen of every land where constitutional government prevails. +Responsible government, it is said, would have become an accomplished fact, +even if Robert Baldwin had never lived. Other much-needed reforms with +which his name is inseparably associated would have come, it is contended, +all in good time, and this present year, 1880, would have found us pretty +much where we are. To argue after this fashion is simply to beg the whole +question at issue. It is true that there is no occult power in a mere name. +Ship-money, doubtless, was a doomed impost, even if there had been no +particular individual called John Hampden. The practical despotism of the +Stuart dynasty would doubtless have come to an end long before the present +day, even if Oliver Cromwell and William of Orange had never existed. In +the United States, slavery was a fated institution, even if there had +been no great rebellion, and if Abraham Lincoln had never occupied the +Presidential chair. But it would be a manifest injustice to withhold from +those illustrious personages the tribute due to their great and, on the +whole, glorious lives. They were the media whereby human progress delivered +its message to the world, and their names are deservedly held in honour and +reverence by a grateful posterity. Performing on a more contracted stage, +and before a less numerous audience, Robert Baldwin, fought his good +fight--and won. Surrounded by inducements to prove false to his innate +convictions, he nevertheless chose to encounter obloquy and persecution for +what he knew to be the cause of truth and justice. + + "Once to every man and nation + Comes the moment to decide," + +says Professor Lowell. The moment came to Robert Baldwin early in life. It +is not easy to believe that he ever hesitated as to his decision; and to +that decision he remained true to the latest hour of his existence. If it +cannot in strictness be said of him that he knew no variableness or shadow +of turning, it is at least indisputable that his convictions never varied +upon any question of paramount importance. What Mr. Goldwin Smith has said +of Cromwell might with equal truth, be applied to Robert Baldwin: "He bore +himself, not as one who gambled for a stake, but as one who struggled for a +cause." These are a few among the many claims which Robert Baldwin has upon +the sympathies and remembrances of the Canadian people; and they are claims +which, we believe, posterity will show no disposition to ignore. + +In order, to obtain a clear comprehension of the public career of Robert +Baldwin ft is necessary to glance briefly at the history of one or two of +his immediate ancestors. In compiling the present sketch the writer deems +it proper to say that he some time since wrote an account of Robert +Baldwin's life for the columns of an influential newspaper published in +Toronto. That account embodied the result of much careful and original +investigation. It contained, indeed, every important fact readily +ascertainable with reference to Mr. Baldwin's early life. So far as that +portion of it is concerned there is little to be added at the present time, +and the writer has drawn largely upon it for the purposes of this memoir. +The former account being the product of his own conscientious labour and +investigation, he has not deemed it necessary to reconstruct sentences +and paragraphs where they, already clearly expressed his meaning. With +reference to Mr. Baldwin's political life, however, the present sketch +embodies the result of fuller and more accurate information, and is +conceived in a spirit which the exigencies of a newspaper do not admit of. + +At the close of the Revolution which ended in the independence of the +United States, there resided near the City of Cork, Ireland, a gentleman +named William Wilcocks. He belonged to an old family which had once been +wealthy, and which was still in comfortable circumstances. About this time +a strong tide of emigration set in from various parts of Europe to the New +World. The student of history does not need to be informed that there was +at this period a good deal of suffering and discontent in Ireland. The more +radical and, uncompromising among the malcontents staid at home, hoping for +better times, many of them eventually took part in the troubles of '98. +Others sought a peaceful remedy for the evils under which they groaned, +and, bidding adieu to their native land, sought an asylum for themselves, +and their families in the western wilderness. The success of the American +Revolution combined with the hard times at home to make the United States +"the chosen land" of many thousands of these self-expatriated ones. The +revolutionary struggle was then a comparatively recent affair. The thirteen +revolted colonies had become an independent nation, had started on their +national career under favourable auspices, and had already become a +thriving and prosperous community. The Province of Quebec, which then +included the whole of what afterwards became Upper and Lower Canada, had to +contend with many disadvantages, and its condition was in many important +respects far behind that of the American Republic. Its climate was much +more rigorous than was that of its southern neighbour, and its territory +was much more sparsely settled. The western part of the Province, now +forming part of the Province of Ontario, was especially thinly peopled, +and except at a few points along the frontier, was little better than a +wilderness. It was manifestly desirable to offer strong incentives to +immigration, with a view to the speedy settlement of the country. To effect +such a settlement was the imperative duty of the Government of the day, and +to this end, large tracts of land were allotted to persons whose settlement +here was deemed likely to influence colonization. Whole townships were in +some cases conferred, upon condition that the grantees would settle the +same with a certain number of colonists within a reasonable time. One of +these grantees was the William Willcocks above mentioned, who was a man +of much enterprise and philanthropy. He conceived the idea of obtaining a +grant of a large tract of land, and of settling it with emigrants of his +own choosing, with himself as a sort of feudal proprietor at their head. +With this object in view he came out to Canada in or about the year 1790, +to spy out the land, and to judge from personal inspection which would be +the most advantageous site for his projected colony. In setting out upon +this quest he enjoyed an advantage greater even than was conferred by his +social position. A cousin of his, Mr. Peter Russell, a member of the Irish +branch of the Bedfordshire family of Russell, had already been out to +Canada, and had brought home glowing accounts of the prospects held out +there to persons of capital and enterprise. Mr. Russell had originally gone +to America during the progress of the Revolutionary War, in the capacity of +Secretary to Sir Henry Clinton, Commander-in-chief of the British forces +on this continent. He had seen and heard enough to convince him that the +acquisition of land in Canada was certain to prove a royal road to wealth. +After the close of the war he returned to the Old Country, and gave his +relatives the benefit of his experience. Mr. Russell also came out to +Canada with Governor Simcoe in 1792, in the capacity of Inspector-General. +He subsequently held several important, offices of trust in Upper Canada. +He became a member of the Executive Council, and as the senior member of +that body the administration, of the Government devolved upon him during +the three years (1796-1799) intervening between Governor Simcoe's departure +from Canada, and the appointment of Major-General Peter Hunter as +Lieutenant-Governor. His residence in Canada, as will presently be seen, +was destined to have an important bearing on the fortunes of the Baldwin +family. Meanwhile, it is sufficient to note the fact that it was largely +in consequence of the valuable topographical and statistical information, +furnished by him to his cousin William Willcocks that the latter was +induced to set out on his preliminary tour of Asenation. + +The result of this preliminary tour was to convince Mr. Willcocks that his +cousin had not overstated the capabilities of the country, as to the future +of which he formed the most sanguine expectations. The next step to be +taken was to obtain his grant; and, as his political influence in and +around his native city was considerable, he conceived that this would be +easily managed. He returned home, and almost immediately afterwards crossed +over to England, where he opened negotiations with the Government. After +some delay he succeeded in obtaining a grant of a large tract of land +forming part of the present Township of Whitchurch, in the County of York. +In consideration of this liberal grant he on his part agreed to settle +not fewer than sixty colonists on the laud so granted within a certain +specified time. An Order in Council confirmatory of this arrangement seems +to have been passed. The rest of the transaction is involved in some +obscurity. Mr. Willcocks returned to Ireland, and was soon afterwards +elected Mayor of Cork--an office which he had held at least once before his +American tour. Municipal and other affairs occupied so much of his time +that he neglected to take steps for settling his trans-Atlantic domain +until the period allowed him by Government for that purpose had nearly +expired. However, in course of time--probably in the summer of 1797--he +embarked with the full complement of emigrants for New York, whither they +arrived after a long and stormy voyage. They pushed on without unnecessary +delay, and in due coarse arrived at Oswego, where Mr. Willcocks received +the disastrous intelligence that the Order in Council embodying his +arrangement with the Government had been revoked. + +Why the revocation took place does not appear, as no change of Government +had taken place, and the circumstances had not materially changed. Whatever +the reason may have been the consequences to Mr. Willcocks and his +emigrants were very serious. The poor Irish families who had accompanied +him to the New World--travel-worn and helpless, in a strange land, without +means, and without experience in the hard lines of pioneer life--were +dismayed at the prospect before them. Mr. Wilcocks, a kind and honourable +man, naturally felt himself to be in a manner responsible for their forlorn +situation. He at once professed his readiness to bear the expense of their +return to their native land. Most of them availed themselves of this offer, +and made the best of their way back to Ireland--some of them, doubtless, to +take part in the rising of '98. A few of them elected to remain in America, +and scattered themselves here and there throughout the State of New York. +Mr. Wilcocks himself, accompanied by one or two families, continued his +journey to Canada, where he soon succeeded in securing a considerable +allotment of land in Whitchurch and elsewhere. It is probable that he was +treated liberally by the Government, as his generosity to the emigrants had +greatly impoverished him, and it is certain that a few years later he was +the possessor of large means. Almost immediately after his arrival in +Canada he took up his abode at York, where he continued to reside down to +the time of his death. Being a man of education and business capacity he +was appointed Judge of the Home District Court, where we shall soon meet +him again in tracing the fortunes of the Baldwin family. He had not been +long in Canada before he wrote home flattering reports about the land of +his adoption to his old friend Robert Baldwin, the grandfather of the +subject of this sketch. Mr. Baldwin was a gentleman of good family and some +means, who owned and resided on a small property called Summer Hill, or +Knockmore, near Cairagoline, in the County of Cork. Influenced by the +prospects held out to him by Mr. Willcocks, he emigrated to Canada with his +family in the summer of 1798, and settled on a block of land on the north +shore of Lake Ontario, in what is now the Township of Clarke, in the County +of Durham. He named his newly-acquired estate Annarva (Ann's Field), and +set about clearing and cultivating it. The western boundary of his farm was +a small stream much until then was nameless, but which has ever since been +known in local parlance as Baldwin's Creek. Here he resided for a period of +fourteen years, when he removed to York, where he died in the year 1816. He +had brought with him from Ireland two sons and four daughters. The eldest +son, William Warren Baldwin, was destined to achieve considerable local +renown as a lawyer and a politician. He was a man of versatile talents, and +of much firmness and energy of character. He had studied medicine at the +University of Edinburgh, and had graduated there two years before +his emigration, but had never practised his profession as a means of +livelihood. He had not been many weeks in this country before he perceived +that his shortest way to wealth and influence was by way of the legal +rather than the medical profession. In those remote times, men of education +and mental ability were by no means numerous in Upper Canada. Every man was +called upon to play several parts, and there was no such organization +of labour as exists in older and more advanced communities. Dr. Baldwin +resolved to practice both professions, and, in order to fit himself for the +one by which he hoped to rise most speedily to eminence, he bade adieu to +the farm on Baldwin's Creek and came up to York. He took up his quarters +with his father's friend and his own, Mr. Willcocks, who lived on Duke +street, near the present site of the La Salle Institute. In order to +support himself while prosecuting his legal studies, he determined to +take in a few pupils. In several successive numbers of the _Gazette and +Oracle_--the one newspaper published in the Province at that time--we +find in the months of December, 1802, and January, 1803, the following +advertisement:--"Dr. Baldwin, understanding that some of the gentlemen of +this town have expressed some anxiety for the establishment of a Classical +School, begs leave to inform them and the public that he intends, on +Monday, the first day of January next, to open a School, in which he will +instruct Twelve Boys in Writing, Reading, Classics and Arithmetic. The +terms are, for each boy, eight guineas per annum, to be paid quarterly or +half-yearly; one guinea entrance and one cord of wood to be supplied by +each of the boys on opening the School. N.B.--Mr. Baldwin will meet his +pupils at. Mr. Willcocks' house on Duke street. York, December 18th, 1802." +This advertisement produced the desired effect. The Doctor got all the +pupils he wanted, and several youths, who, in after life; rose to high +eminence in the colony, received their earliest classical teaching from +him. + +It was not necessary at that early day that a youth should spend a fixed +term in an office under articles as a preliminary for practice, either at +the Bar or as an attorney. On the 9th of July, 1794, during the regime +of Governor Simcoe, an act had been passed authorizing the Governor, +Lieutenant-Governor, or person administering the Government of the +Province, to issue licenses to practise as advocates and attorneys to such +persons, not exceeding sixteen in number, as he might deem fit. We have no +means of ascertaining how many persons availed themselves of this statute, +as no complete record of their names or number is in existence. The +original record is presumed to have been burned when the Houses of +Parliament were destroyed during the American invasion in 1813. It is +sufficient for our present purpose to know that Dr. Baldwin was one of the +persons so licensed. By reference to the Journals of the Law Society at +Osgoode Hall, we find that this license was granted on the 6th of April, +1803, by Lieutenant-Governor Peter Hunter. We further find that on the same +day similar licenses were granted to four other gentlemen, all of whom were +destined to become well-known citizens of Canada, viz., William Dickson, +D'Arcy Boulton, John Powell, and William Elliott. Dr. Baldwin, having +undergone an examination before Chief Justice Henry Alcock, and having +received his license, authorizing him to practise in all branches of the +legal profession, married Miss Phoebe Willcocks, the daughter of his +friend and patron, and settled down to active practice as a barrister and +attorney. He took up his abode in a house which had just been erected +by his father-in-law, on what is now the north-west corner of Front and +Frederick streets. [It may here be noted that Front Street was then known +as Palace Street, from the circumstance that it led down to the Parliament +buildings at the east end of the town, and because it was believed that the +official residence or "palace" of the Governor would be built there.] Here, +on the, 12th of May, 1804, was born Dr. Baldwin's eldest son, known to +Canadian history as Robert Baldwin. + +The plain, unpretending structure in which Robert-Baldwin first saw light +has a history of its own. Dr. Baldwin resided in it only about three years, +when he removed to a small house, long since demolished, on the corner of +Bay and Front streets. Thenceforward the house at the foot of Frederick +Street was occupied by several tenants whose names are famous in local +annals. About 1825 it was first occupied by Mr. William Lyon Mackenzie, who +continued to reside in it for several years. It was here that the _Colonial +Advocate_ was published by that gentleman, at the time when his office was +wrecked and the type thrown into the bay by a "genteel mob," a farther +account of which lawless transaction will be found in the sketch of the +life of W. L. Mackenzie, included in the present series. The building +subsequently came into the possession of the Cawthra family--called by +Dr. Scadding "the Astors of Upper Canada"--who carried on a large and +marvellously successful mercantile business within its walls. It was +finally burned down in the winter of 1854-5. + +Dr. Baldwin applied himself to the practice of his several professions +with an energy and assiduity which deserved and secured a full measure of +success. His legal business was the most profitable of his pursuits, but in +the early years of his residence at York he seems to have also had a fair +share of medical practice. It might not unreasonably have been supposed +that the labour arising from these two sources of employment would have +been sufficient for the energies and ambition of any man; but we find that +for at least two years subsequent to his marriage he continued to take in +pupils. Half a century later than the period at which we have arrived, Sir +John Beverley Robinson, then a baronet, and Chief Justice of the Province, +was wont to pleasantly remind the subject of this sketch that their mutual +acquaintance dated from a very early period in the latter's career. At the +time of Robert Baldwin's birth, John Robinson, then a boy in his thirteenth +year, was one of a class of seven pupils who attended daily at Dr. +Baldwin's house for classical instruction. Two or three days after the +Doctor's first-born came into the world, Master Robinson was taken into the +nursery to see "the new baby." Differences of political opinion in after +years separated them far as the poles asunder on most public questions, +but they never ceased to regard each other with personal respect. The late +Chief Justice Maclean was another pupil of Dr. Baldwin's, and distinctly +remembered that a holiday was granted to himself and his fellow students on +the day of the embryo statesman's birth. Doctor Baldwin seems to have +been fully equal to the multifarious calls upon his energies, and to +have exercised his various callings with satisfaction alike to clients, +patients, and pupils. It was no uncommon occurrence in those early days, +when surgeons were scarce in our young capital, for him to be compelled to +leave court in the middle of a trial, and to hurry away to splice a broken +arm or bind up a fractured limb. Years afterwards, when he had retired from +the active practice of all his professions, he used to cite a somewhat +ludicrous instance of his professional versatility. It occurred soon after +his marriage. He was engaged in arguing a case of some importance before +his father-in-law, Judge Willcocks, in the Home District Court, when a +messenger hurriedly arrived to summon him to attend at the advent of a +little stranger into the world. The circumstances were, explained to the +Judge, and--it appearing that no other surgical aid was to be had at +the moment--that functionary readily consented to adjourn the further +consideration of the argument until Dr. Baldwin's return. The latter +hurriedly left the court-room with the messenger, and after the lapse of +somewhat more than an hour, again presented himself and prepared to resume +his interrupted argument. The Judge ventured to express a hope that matters +had gone well with the patient; whereupon the Doctor replied, "Quite well. +I have much pleasure in informing your Honour that a man-child has been +born into the world during my absence, and that both he and his mother are +doing well." The worthy Doctor received the congratulations of the Court, +and was permitted to conclude his argument without any further demands upon +his surgical skill. + +Almost from the outset of his professional career, Dr. Baldwin took a +strong interest in political matters. The fact that he was compelled to +earn his living by honest labour, excluded him from a certain narrow +section of the society of Little York. The society from which he was +excluded, however, was by no means of an intellectual cast, and it is +not likely that he sustained much loss by his exclusion. By intellectual +society in Toronto, he was regarded as a decided acquisition. He could well +afford to despise the petty littleness of the would-be aristocrats of the +Provincial capital. Still, it is probable that his political convictions +were intensified by observing that, among the members of the clique above +referred to; mere merit was regarded as a commodity of little account. He +became known for a man of advanced ideas, and was not slow in expressing +his disapprobation of the way in which government was carried on whenever a +more than ordinarily flagrant instance of injustice occurred. In 1812, he +became treasurer of the law Society of Upper Canada, and while filling that +position, he projected a scheme for constructing a suitable building for +the Society's occupation. The times, however, were impropitious for such +a scheme, which fell through in consequence of the impending war with the +United States. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Canadian Notabilities, Volume 1, by +John Charles Dent + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADIAN NOTABILITIES, VOLUME 1 *** + +***** This file should be named 9910-8.txt or 9910-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/9/1/9910/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Aldarondo, and +Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders. 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