The Colonist Roads Along The Great
Mountain Sides, Across Rivers, And, Through The Forests, Are Of His
Doing, With The
Practical co-operation of ex-Governor Trutch, a very
able engineer; and to Douglas, Trutch, Sir Mathew Begbie, Mr. Dunsmuir,
And a few others, the order, obedience to the law, and progress of the
country must be mainly attributed. But no stone marks the services of
Governor Dallas; no honour was offered him by our Government at home;
and he received scant reward from the Governor and Committee of the
Hudson's Bay Company sitting in London. Surely those who have profited
by his self-denying labours might consider whether his great services
should be allowed to fall into oblivion for want of some adequate
monument to his memory.
CHAPTER XVI.
The Honorable Thomas d'Arcy McGee.
Amongst the men, able and earnest, who carried the union of the
British, separated, Provinces, and made the "Dominion," no man gave
more soul and substance to the cause, by his eloquence, than Mr. d'Arcy
McGee. His had been a chequered career. Beginning, like Sir George
Etienne Cartier, in revolt against what he believed to be British
tyranny, he ended his life, one of the most loyal, as he was one of the
most eloquent, of Her Majesty's subjects. In 1848 he was one of the
"Young Ireland" party, and became an exile from his country; and, at
length, a denizen of the United States. From thence he came to Canada.
In Canada he found all the liberty, without very much of the license,
of politicians in the United States. In Canada he could think for
himself; in the United States he must think the thoughts of some secret
organization - or perish. In Canada he was welcomed, and soon made a
position. I first met him, in a casual way, in Ireland, in the time of
O'Connell, I think in 1844; and in 1861 I made his acquaintance, and I
knew him well until his untimely death, by Fenian assassination, at
Ottawa. He had faults - what politician has not? But he was honorable
and kindly; no man's enemy, unless it were his own. He was remarkable
in appearance; of middle height, very dark complexion, and with hair so
curious and curly that he always joked about his popularity with the
negroes of Canada. He told a story of a meeting in Montreal at a little
public-house called "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Here he was addressing an
audience containing a considerable number of dark men. Mr. Holton, his
colleague, had orated about differential duties, very dry and Yankee-
like, as usual. McGee followed in one of his arousing speeches. When he
sat down, the respected negro landlord of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" got up to
move a vote of confidence. And, according to McGee's story, said:
"Bredren, we all on us heah came to dis land on a venter. Mr. McGee he
came heah on a venter. Dis child know nothing bout dem disgreable
duties. All we wants, bredren, is to pick out de best man. How is we to
do dat? Bredren, best way is to follow de hair. Mr. McGee has hair like
good nigger. Bredren, let us follow our hair." The result was McGee was
adopted unanimously.
In 1865 a volume of Mr. McGee's speeches was published by Chapman &
Hall. He did me the favour to dedicate the book to me in these, too
complimentary, terms: "To E. W. Watkin, Esq., M.P. for Stockport, whose
intimate connection with many great enterprises in which the material
future of British America is interwoven, and, still more, whose high-
spirited advocacy of a sound Colonial policy, both in and out of
Parliament, has conferred lasting obligations, upon these Provinces,
this volume is very sincerely and cordially dedicated."
The last speech in this volume was delivered in the Legislative
Assembly of Canada, at Quebec, on the 9th February, 1865. I venture to
record some portion of it in this book: -
"With your approbation, Sir, and the forbearance of the House, I will
endeavour to treat this subject in this way: - First, to give some
slight sketch of the history of the question; then to examine the
existing motives which ought to prompt us to secure a speedy union of
these Provinces; then to speak of the difficulties which this question
has encountered before reaching its present fortunate stage; then to
say something of the mutual advantages, in a social rather than
political point of view, which these Provinces will have in their
union; and, lastly, to add a few words on the Federal principle in
general: when I shall have done. In other words, I propose to consider
the question of Union mainly from within, and, as far as possible, to
avoid going over the ground already so fully and so much better
occupied by hon. friends who have already spoken upon the subject.
"So far back as the year 1800, the Hon. Mr. Uniacke, a leading
politician in Nova Scotia at that date, submitted a scheme of Colonial
Union to the Imperial authorities. In 1815, Chief Justice Sewell, whose
name will be well remembered as a leading lawyer of this city, and a
far-sighted politician, submitted a similar scheme. In 1822, Sir John
Beverley Robinson, at the request of the Colonial Office, submitted a
project of the same kind; and I need not refer to the report of Lord
Durham, on Colonial Union, in 1839. These are all memorable, and some
of them are great, names. If we have dreamed a dream of Union (as some
of you gentlemen say), it is at least worth while remarking that a
dream which has been dreamed by such wise and good men, may, for aught
we know, or you know, have been a sort of vision - a vision
foreshadowing forthcoming natural events in a clear intelligence: a
vision - I say it without irreverence, for the event concerns the lives
of millions living, and yet to come - resembling those seen by the
Daniels and Josephs of old, foreshadowing the trials of the future, the
fate of tribes and peoples, the rise and fall of dynasties.
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