UPPER CANADA.
Ottawa is in Upper Canada, but crossing the suspension bridge from
Ottawa into Hull the traveller is in Lower Canada. It is therefore
exactly in the confines, and has been chosen as the site of the new
Government capital very much for this reason. Other reasons have,
no doubt, had a share in the decision. At the time when the choice
was made Ottawa was not large enough to create the jealousy of the
more populous towns. Though not on the main line of railway, it was
connected with it by a branch railway, and it is also connected with
the St. Lawrence by water communication. And then it stands nobly
on a magnificent river, with high overhanging rock, and a natural
grandeur of position which has perhaps gone far in recommending it to
those whose voice in the matter has been potential. Having the world
of Canada from whence to choose the site of a new town, the choosers
have certainly chosen well. It is another question whether or no a
new town should have been deemed necessary.
Perhaps it may be well to explain the circumstances under which it
was thought expedient thus to establish a new Canadian capital. In
1841 when Lord Sydenham was Governor General of the Provinces, the
two Canadas, separate till then, were united under one Government.
At that time the people of Lower or French Canada, and the people
of Upper or English Canada differed much more in their habits and
language than they do now. I do not know that the English have become
in any way Gallicized, but the French have been very materially
Anglicized. But while this has been in progress, national jealousy
has been at work; and even yet that national jealousy is not at an
end. While the two provinces were divided, there were, of course,
two capitals, and two seats of Government. These were at Quebec for
Lower Canada, and at Toronto for Upper Canada, both which towns are
centrically situated as regards the respective provinces. When the
union was effected, it was deemed expedient that there should be but
one capital; and the small town of Kingstown was selected, which is
situated on the lower end of Lake Ontario in the Upper Province.
But Kingstown was found to be inconvenient, lacking space and
accommodation for those who had to follow the Government, and the
Governor removed it and himself to Montreal. Montreal is in the
Lower Province, but is very central to both the provinces; and it is,
moreover, the chief town in Canada. This would have done very well,
but for an unforeseen misfortune.
It will be remembered by most readers that in 1837 took place the
Mackenzie-Papineau rebellion, of which those who were then old enough
to be politicians heard so much in England. I am not going back to
recount the history of the period, otherwise than to say that the
English Canadians at that time, in withstanding and combating the
rebels, did considerable injury to the property of certain French
Canadians, and that when the rebellion had blown over and those
in fault had been pardoned, a question arose whether or no the
Government should make good the losses of those French Canadians who
had been injured. The English Canadians protested that it would be
monstrous that they should be taxed to repair damages suffered by
rebels, and made necessary in the suppression of rebellion. The
French Canadians declared that the rebellion had been only a just
assertion of their rights, that if there had been crime on the part
of those who took up arms that crime had been condoned, and that the
damages had not fallen exclusively or even chiefly on those who had
done so. I will give no opinion on the merits of the question, but
simply say that blood ran very hot when it was discussed. At last
the Houses of the Provincial Parliament, then assembled at Montreal,
decreed that the losses should be made good by the public treasury;
and the English mob in Montreal, when this decree became known, was
roused to great wrath by a decision which seemed to be condemnatory
of English loyalty. It pelted Lord Elgin, the Governor General, with
rotten eggs, and burned down the Parliament House. Hence, there
arose, not unnaturally, a strong feeling of anger on the part of the
local Government against Montreal; and moreover there was no longer a
House in which the Parliament could be held in that town. For these
conjoint reasons it was decided to move the seat of Government again,
and it was resolved that the Governor and the Parliament should
sit alternately at Toronto in Upper Canada, and at Quebec in Lower
Canada, remaining four years at each place. They went at first to
Toronto for two years only, having agreed that they should be there
on this occasion only for the remainder of the term of the then
Parliament. After that they were at Quebec for four years; then at
Toronto for four; and now are again at Quebec. But this arrangement
has been found very inconvenient. In the first place there is a great
national expenditure incurred in moving old records, and in keeping
double records, in moving the library, and as I have been informed
even the pictures. The Government clerks also are called on to
move as the Government moves; and though an allowance is made to
them from the national purse to cover their loss, the arrangement
has nevertheless been felt by them to be a grievance, as may be
well understood. The accommodation also for the ministers of the
Government, and for members of the two Houses has been insufficient.
Hotels, lodgings, and furnished houses could not be provided to the
extent required, seeing that they would be left nearly empty for
every alternate space of four years. Indeed it needs but little
argument to prove that the plan adopted must have been a thoroughly
uncomfortable plan, and the wonder is that it should have been
adopted. Lower Canada had undertaken to make all her leading citizens
wretched, providing Upper Canada would treat hers with equal
severity. This has now gone on for some twelve years, and as the
system was found to be an unendurable nuisance it has been at last
admitted that some steps must be taken towards selecting one capital
for the country.
I should here, in justice to the Canadians, state a remark made to
me on this matter by one of the present leading politicians of the
colony. I cannot think that the migratory scheme was good; but he
defended it, asserting that it had done very much to amalgamate the
people of the two provinces; that it had brought Lower Canadians into
Upper Canada, and Upper Canadians into Lower Canada, teaching English
to those who spoke only French before, and making each pleasantly
acquainted with the other. I have no doubt that something,--perhaps
much,--has been done in this way; but valuable as the result may have
been, I cannot think it worth the cost of the means employed. The
best answer to the above argument consists in the undoubted fact that
a migratory Government would never have been established for such
a reason. It was so established because Montreal, the central town,
had given offence, and because the jealousy of the provinces against
each other would not admit of the Government being placed entirely at
Quebec, or entirely at Toronto.
But it was necessary that some step should be taken; and as it was
found to be unlikely that any resolution should be reached by the
joint provinces themselves, it was loyally and wisely determined to
refer the matter to the Queen. That Her Majesty has constitutionally
the power to call the Parliament of Canada at any town of Canada
which she may select, admits, I conceive, of no doubt. It is, I
imagine, within her prerogative to call the Parliament of England
where she may please within that realm, though her lieges would be
somewhat startled if it were called otherwhere than in London. It
was therefore well done to ask Her Majesty to act as arbiter in
the matter. But there are not wanting those in Canada who say that
in referring the matter to the Queen it was in truth referring it
to those by whom very many of the Canadians were least willing to
be guided in the matter; to the Governor General namely, and the
Colonial Secretary. Many indeed in Canada now declare that the
decision simply placed the matter in the hands of the Governor
General.
Be that as it may, I do not think that any unbiassed traveller will
doubt that the best possible selection has been made, presuming
always, as we may presume in the discussion, that Montreal could
not be selected. I take for granted that the rejection of Montreal
was regarded as a _sine quâ non_ in the decision. To me it appears
grievous that this should have been so. It is a great thing for any
country to have a large, leading, world-known city, and I think that
the Government should combine with the commerce of the country in
carrying out this object. But commerce can do a great deal more
for Government than Government can do for commerce. Government has
selected Ottawa as the capital of Canada; but commerce has already
made Montreal the capital, and Montreal will be the chief city of
Canada, let Government do what it may to foster the other town. The
idea of spiting a town because there has been a row in it seems to
me to be preposterous. The row was not the work of those who have
made Montreal rich and respectable. Montreal is more centrical than
Ottawa,--nay, it is as nearly centrical as any town can be. It is
easier to get to Montreal from Toronto than to Ottawa;--and if from
Toronto, then from all that distant portion of Upper Canada, back of
Toronto. To all Lower Canada Montreal is, as a matter of course, much
easier of access than Ottawa. But having said so much in favour of
Montreal, I will again admit that, putting aside Montreal, the best
possible selection has been made.
When Ottawa was named, no time was lost in setting to work to prepare
for the new migration. In 1859 the Parliament was removed to Quebec,
with the understanding that it should remain there till the new
buildings should be completed. These buildings were absolutely
commenced in April 1860, and it was, and I believe still is, expected
that they will be completed in 1863. I am now writing in the winter
of 1861; and, as is necessary in Canadian winters, the works are
suspended. But unfortunately they were suspended in the early part
of October,--on the 1st of October,--whereas they might have been
continued, as far as the season is concerned, up to the end of
November. We reached Ottawa on the 3rd of October, and more than a
thousand men had then been just dismissed. All the money in hand
had been expended, and the Government,--so it was said,--could give
no more money till Parliament should meet again. This was most
unfortunate. In the first place the suspension was against the
contract as made with the contractors for the building; in the next
place there was the delay; and then, worst of all, the question again
became agitated whether the colonial legislature were really in
earnest with reference to Ottawa. Many men of mark in the colony were
still anxious--I believe are still anxious,--to put an end to the
Ottawa scheme, and think that there still exists for them a chance
of success. And very many men who are not of mark are thus united,
and a feeling of doubt on the subject has been created. £225,000 has
already been spent on these buildings, and I have no doubt myself
that they will be duly completed, and duly used.
We went up to the new town by boat, taking the course of the river
Ottawa. We passed St. Ann's, but no one at St. Ann's seemed to know
anything of the brothers who were to rest there on their weary oars.
At Maxwellstown I could hear nothing of Annie Laurie or of her
trysting place on the braes, and the turnpike man at Tara could
tell me nothing of the site of the hall, and had never even heard
of the harp. When I go down South I shall expect to find that the
negro melodies have not yet reached "Old Virginie." This boat
conveyance from Montreal to Ottawa is not all that could be wished
in convenience, for it is allied too closely with railway travelling.
Those who use it leave Montreal by a railway; after nine miles, they
are changed into a steamboat. Then they encounter another railway,
and at last reach Ottawa in a second steamboat. But the river is
seen, and a better idea of the country is obtained than can be had
solely from the railway cars. The scenery is by no means grand, nor
is it strikingly picturesque; but it is in its way interesting. For a
long portion of the river the old primeval forests come down close to
the water's edge, and in the fall of the year the brilliant colouring
is very lovely. It should not be imagined,--as I think it often is
imagined,--that these forests are made up of splendid trees, or
that splendid trees are even common. When timber grows on undrained
ground, and when it is uncared for, it does not seem to approach
nearer to its perfection than wheat and grass do under similar
circumstances. Seen from a little distance the colour and effect is
good, but the trees themselves have shallow roots and grow up tall,
narrow, and shapeless. It necessarily is so with all timber that is
not thinned in its growth. When fine forest trees are found, and are
left standing alone by any cultivator who may have taste enough to
wish for such adornment, they almost invariably die. They are robbed
of the sickly shelter by which they have been surrounded; the hot
sun strikes the uncovered fibres of the roots, and the poor solitary
invalid languishes and at last dies.
As one ascends the river, which by its breadth forms itself into
lakes, one is shown Indian villages clustering down upon the bank.
Some years ago these Indians were rich, for the price of furs, in
which they dealt, was high; but furs have become cheaper, and the
beavers with which they used to trade are almost valueless. That a
change in the fashion of hats should have assisted to polish these
poor fellows off the face of creation must, one may suppose, be very
unintelligible to them; but nevertheless it is probably a subject of
deep speculation. If the reading world were to take to sermons again
and eschew their novels, Messrs. Thackeray, Dickens, and some others
would look about them and inquire into the causes of such a change
with considerable acuteness. They might not, perhaps, hit the truth,
and these Indians are much in that predicament. It is said that very
few pure-blooded Indians are now to be found in their villages, but I
doubt whether this is not erroneous. The children of the Indians are
now fed upon baked bread, and on cooked meat, and are brought up in
houses. They are nursed somewhat as the children of the white men are
nursed; and these practices no doubt have done much towards altering
their appearance. The negroes who have been bred in the States, and
whose fathers have been so bred before them, differ both in colour
and form from their brothers who have been born and nurtured in
Africa.
I said in the last chapter that the city of Ottawa was still to be
built; but I must explain, lest I should draw down on my head the
wrath of the Ottawaites, that the place already contains a population
of 15,000 inhabitants. As, however, it is being prepared for four
times that number--for eight times that number let us hope--and as it
straggles over a vast extent of ground, it gives one the idea of a
city in an active course of preparation. In England we know nothing
about unbuilt cities. With us four or five blocks of streets together
never assume that ugly, unfledged appearance which belongs to the
half-finished carcase of a house, as they do so often on the other
side of the Atlantic. Ottawa is preparing for itself broad streets,
and grand thoroughfares. The buildings already extend over a length
considerably exceeding two miles, and half a dozen hotels have been
opened, which, if I were writing a guide-book in a complimentary
tone, it would be my duty to describe as first-rate. But the
half-dozen first-rate hotels, though open, as yet enjoy but a
moderate amount of custom. All this justifies me, I think, in saying
that the city has as yet to get itself built. The manner in which
this is being done justifies me also in saying that the Ottawaites
are going about their task with a worthy zeal.
To me I confess that the nature of the situation has great
charms,--regarding it as the site for a town. It is not on a plain,
and from the form of the rock overhanging the river, and of the
hill that falls from thence down to the water, it has been found
impracticable to lay out the place in right-angled parallelograms. A
right-angled parallelogramical city, such as are Philadelphia and the
new portion of New York, is from its very nature odious to me. I know
that much may be said in its favour--that drainage and gas-pipes come
easier to such a shape, and that ground can be better economized.
Nevertheless I prefer a street that is forced to twist itself about.
I enjoy the narrowness of Temple Bar, and the misshapen curvature
of Pickett Street. The disreputable dinginess of Holywell Street is
dear to me, and I love to thread my way up by the Olympic into Covent
Garden. Fifth Avenue in New York is as grand as paint and glass can
make it; but I would not live in a palace in Fifth Avenue if the
corporation of the city would pay my baker's and butcher's bills.
The town of Ottawa lies between two waterfalls. The upper one, or
Rideau Fall, is formed by the confluence of a small river with the
larger one; and the lower fall--designated as lower because it is at
the foot of the hill, though it is higher up the Ottawa river--is
called the Chaudière, from its resemblance to a boiling kettle.
This is on the Ottawa river itself. The Rideau fall is divided into
two branches, thus forming an island in the middle as is the case
at Niagara. It is pretty enough, and worth visiting, even were it
further from the town than it is; but by those who have hunted out
many cataracts in their travels it will not be considered very
remarkable. The Chaudière fall I did think very remarkable. It is of
trifling depth, being formed by fractures in the rocky bed of the
river; but the waters have so cut the rock as to create beautiful
forms in the rush which they make in their descent. Strangers are
told to look at these falls from the suspension bridge; and it
is well that they should do so. But in so looking at them they
obtain but a very small part of their effect. On the Ottawa side
of the bridge is a brewery, which brewery is surrounded by a
huge timber-yard. This timber-yard I found to be very muddy, and
the passing and repassing through it is a work of trouble; but
nevertheless let the traveller by all means make his way through the
mud, and scramble over the timber, and cross the plank bridges which
traverse the streams of the sawmills, and thus take himself to the
outer edge of the woodwork over the water. If he will then seat
himself, about the hour of sunset, he will see the Chaudière fall
aright.
But the glory of Ottawa will be--and, indeed, already is--the set of
public buildings which is now being erected on the rock which guards
as it were the town from the river. How much of the excellence of
these buildings may be due to the taste of Sir Edmund Head, the late
Governor, I do not know. That he has greatly interested himself
in the subject is well known: and as the style of the different
buildings is so much alike as to make one whole, though the designs
of different architects were selected, and these different architects
employed, I imagine that considerable alterations must have been made
in the original drawings. There are three buildings, forming three
sides of a quadrangle; but they are not joined, the vacant spaces
at the corner being of considerable extent. The fourth side of the
quadrangle opens upon one of the principal streets of the town. The
centre building is intended for the Houses of Parliament, and the
two side buildings for the Government offices. Of the first Messrs.
Fuller and Jones are the architects, and of the latter Messrs. Stent
and Laver. I did not have the pleasure of meeting any of these
gentlemen; but I take upon myself to say that as regards purity of
art and manliness of conception their joint work is entitled to the
very highest praise. How far the buildings may be well arranged
for the required purposes, how far they may be economical in
construction, or specially adapted to the severe climate of the
country, I cannot say; but I have no hesitation in risking my
reputation for judgment in giving my warmest commendation to them as
regards beauty of outline and truthful nobility of detail.
I will not attempt to describe them, for I should interest no one in
doing so, and should certainly fail in my attempt to make any reader
understand me. I know no modern Gothic purer of its kind, or less
sullied with fictitious ornamentation. Our own Houses of Parliament
are very fine, but it is, I believe, generally felt that the
ornamentation is too minute; and, moreover, it may be questioned
whether perpendicular Gothic is capable of the highest nobility which
architecture can achieve. I do not pretend to say that these Canadian
public buildings will reach that highest nobility. They must be
finished before any final judgment can be pronounced; but I do feel
very certain that that final judgment will be greatly in their
favour. The total frontage of the quadrangle, including the side
buildings, is 1,200 feet; that of the centre buildings is 475. As
I have said before, £225,000 has already been expended, and it
is estimated that the total cost, including the arrangement and
decoration of the ground behind the building and in the quadrangle,
will be half a million.
The buildings front upon what will, I suppose, be the principal
street of Ottawa, and they stand upon a rock looking immediately down
upon the river. In this way they are blessed with a site peculiarly
happy. Indeed I cannot at this moment remember any so much so. The
castle of Edinburgh stands very well; but then, like many other
castles, it stands on a summit by itself, and can only be approached
by a steep ascent. These buildings at Ottawa, though they look down
from a grand eminence immediately on the river, are approached
from the town without any ascent. The rock, though it falls
almost precipitously down to the water, is covered with trees and
shrubs, and then the river that runs beneath is rapid, bright, and
picturesque in the irregularity of all its lines. The view from the
back of the library, up to the Chaudière falls, and to the saw-mills
by which they are surrounded, is very lovely. So that I will say
again, that I know no site for such a set of buildings so happy as
regards both beauty and grandeur. It is intended that the library, of
which the walls were only ten feet above the ground when I was there,
shall be an octagonal building, in shape and outward character like
the chapter-house of a cathedral. This structure will, I presume, be
surrounded by gravel walks and green sward. Of the library there is a
large model showing all the details of the architecture; and if that
model be ultimately followed, this building alone will be worthy of a
visit from English tourists. To me it was very wonderful to find such
an edifice in the course of erection on the banks of a wild river,
almost at the back of Canada. But if ever I visit Canada again it
will be to see those buildings when completed.
And now, like all friendly critics, having bestowed my modicum of
praise, I must proceed to find fault. I cannot bring myself to
administer my sugar-plum without adding to it some bitter morsel by
way of antidote. The building to the left of the quadrangle as it is
entered is deficient in length, and on that account appears mean to
the eye. The two side buildings are brought up close to the street,
so that each has a frontage immediately on the street. Such being the
case they should be of equal length, or nearly so. Had the centre of
one fronted the centre of the other, a difference of length might
have been allowed; but in this case the side front of the smaller
one would not have reached the street. As it is, the space between
the main building and the smaller wing is disproportionably large,
and the very distance at which it stands will, I fear, give to
it that appearance of meanness of which I have spoken. The clerk
of the works, who explained to me with much courtesy the plan of
the buildings, stated that the design of this wing was capable of
elongation, and had been expressly prepared with that object. If this
be so, I trust that the defect will be remedied.
The great trade of Canada is lumbering; and lumbering consists in
cutting down pine trees up in the far distant forests, in hewing or
sawing them into shape for market, and getting them down the rivers
to Quebec, from whence they are exported to Europe, and chiefly
to England. Timber in Canada is called lumber; those engaged in
the trade are called lumberers, and the business itself is called
lumbering. After a lapse of time it must no doubt become monotonous
to those engaged in it, and the name is not engaging; but there is
much about it that is very picturesque. A saw-mill worked by water
power is almost always a pretty object, and stacks of new cut timber
are pleasant to the smell, and group themselves not amiss on the
water's edge. If I had the time, and were a year or two younger, I
should love well to go up lumbering into the woods. The men for this
purpose are hired in the fall of the year, and are sent up hundreds
of miles away to the pine forests in strong gangs. Everything is
there found for them. They make log huts for their shelter, and food
of the best and the strongest is taken up for their diet. But no
strong drink of any kind is allowed, nor is any within reach of the
men. There are no publics, no shebeen houses, no grog-shops. Sobriety
is an enforced virtue; and so much is this considered by the masters,
and understood by the men, that very little contraband work is done
in the way of taking up spirits to these settlements. It may be said
that the work up in the forests is done with the assistance of no
stronger drink than tea; and it is very hard work. There cannot be
much work that is harder; and it is done amidst the snows and forests
of a Canadian winter. A convict in Bermuda cannot get through his
daily eight hours of light labour without an allowance of rum; but
a Canadian lumberer can manage to do his daily task on tea without
milk. These men, however, are by no means teetotallers. When they
come back to the towns they break out, and reward themselves for
their long enforced moderation. The wages I found to be very various,
running from thirteen or fourteen dollars a month to twenty-eight or
thirty, according to the nature of the work. The men who cut down the
trees receive more than those who hew them when down, and these again
more than the under class who make the roads and clear the ground.
These money wages, however, are in addition to their diet. The
operation requiring the most skill is that of marking the trees for
the axe. The largest only are worth cutting, and form and soundness
must also be considered.
But if I were about to visit a party of lumberers in the forest, I
should not be disposed to pass a whole winter with them. Even of a
very good thing one may have too much. I would go up in the spring,
when the rafts are being formed in the small tributary streams, and
I would come down upon one of them, shooting the rapids of the rivers
as soon as the first freshets had left the way open. A freshet in the
rivers is the rush of waters occasioned by melting snow and ice. The
first freshets take down the winter waters of the nearer lakes and
rivers. Then the streams become for a time navigable, and the rafts
go down. After that comes the second freshet, occasioned by the
melting of far-off snow and ice up in the great northern lakes which
are little known. These rafts are of immense construction, such as
those which we have seen on the Rhone and Rhine, and often contain
timber to the value of two, three, and four thousand pounds. At the
rapids the large rafts are, as it were, unyoked, and divided into
small portions, which go down separately. The excitement and motion
of such transit must, I should say, be very joyous. I was told that
the Prince of Wales desired to go down a rapid on a raft, but that
the men in charge would not undertake to say that there was no
possible danger. Whereupon those who accompanied the prince requested
his Royal Highness to forbear. I fear that in these careful days
crowned heads and their heirs must often find themselves in the
position of Sancho at the banquet. The sailor prince who came after
his brother was allowed to go down a rapid, and got, as I was told,
rather a rough bump as he did so.
Ottawa is a great place for these timber rafts. Indeed, it may, I
think, be called the head-quarters of timber for the world. Nearly
all the best pine wood comes down the Ottawa and its tributaries.
The other rivers by which timber is brought down to the St. Lawrence
are chiefly the St. Maurice, the Madawaska, and the Saguenay; but
the Ottawa and its tributaries water 75,000 square miles; whereas
the other three rivers with their tributaries water only 53,000.
The timber from the Ottawa and St. Maurice finds its way down the
St. Lawrence to Quebec, where, however, it loses the whole of its
picturesque character. The Saguenay and the Madawaska fall into the
St. Lawrence below Quebec.
From Ottawa we went by rail to Prescott, which is surely one of the
most wretched little places to be found in any country. Immediately
opposite to it, on the other side of the St. Lawrence, is the
thriving town of Ogdensburgh. But Ogdensburgh is in the United
States. Had we been able to learn at Ottawa any facts as to the hours
of the river steamers and railways we might have saved time and have
avoided Prescott; but this was out of the question. Had I asked the
exact hour at which I might reach Calcutta by the quickest route, an
accurate reply would not have been more out of the question. I was
much struck at Prescott--and indeed all through Canada, though more
in the upper than in the lower province--by the sturdy roughness,
some would call it insolence, of those of the lower classes of the
people with whom I was brought into contact. If the words "lower
classes" give offence to any reader, I beg to apologize;--to
apologize and to assert that I am one of the last of men to apply
such a term in a sense of reproach to those who earn their bread by
the labour of their hands. But it is hard to find terms which will
be understood; and that term, whether it give offence or no, will be
understood. Of course such a complaint as that I now make is very
common as made against the States. Men in the States with horned
hands and fustian coats are very often most unnecessarily insolent
in asserting their independence. What I now mean to say is that
precisely the same fault is to be found in Canada. I know well what
the men mean when they offend in this manner. And when I think on
the subject with deliberation, at my own desk, I can not only excuse,
but almost approve them. But when one personally encounters their
corduroy braggadocio; when the man to whose services one is entitled
answers one with determined insolence; when one is bidden to follow
"that young lady," meaning the chambermaid, or desired, with a toss
of the head, to wait for the "gentleman who is coming," meaning the
boots, the heart is sickened, and the English traveller pines for the
civility,--for the servility, if my American friends choose to call
it so,--of a well-ordered servant. But the whole scene is easily
construed, and turned into English. A man is asked by a stranger some
question about his employment, and he replies in a tone which seems
to imply anger, insolence, and a dishonest intention to evade the
service for which he is paid. Or if there be no question of service
or payment, the man's manner will be the same, and the stranger feels
that he is slapped in the face and insulted. The translation of
it is this. The man questioned, who is aware that as regards coat,
hat, boots, and outward cleanliness he is below him by whom he is
questioned, unconsciously feels himself called upon to assert his
political equality. It is his shibboleth that he is politically equal
to the best, that he is independent, and that his labour, though it
earn him but a dollar a day by porterage, places him as a citizen on
an equal rank with the most wealthy fellow-man that may employ or
accost him. But being so inferior in that coat, hat and boots matter,
he is forced to assert his equality by some effort. As he improves in
externals he will diminish the roughness of his claim. As long as the
man makes his claim with any roughness, so long does he acknowledge
within himself some feeling of external inferiority. When that has
gone,--when the American has polished himself up by education and
general well being to a feeling of external equality with gentlemen,
he shows, I think, no more of that outward braggadocio of
independence than a Frenchman.
But the blow at the moment of the stroke is very galling. I confess
that I have occasionally all but broken down beneath it. But when it
is thought of afterwards it admits of full excuse. No effort that a
man can make is better than a true effort at independence. But this
insolence is a false effort, it will be said. It should rather be
called a false accompaniment to a life-long true effort. The man
probably is not dishonest, does not desire to shirk any service which
is due from him,--is not even inclined to insolence. Accept his first
declaration of equality for that which it is intended to represent,
and the man afterwards will be found obliging and communicative.
If occasion offer he will sit down in the room with you and will
talk with you on any subject that he may choose; but having once
ascertained that you show no resentment for this assertion of
equality, he will do pretty nearly all that he is asked. He will at
any rate do as much in that way as an Englishman. I say thus much on
this subject now especially, because I was quite as much struck by
the feeling in Canada as I was within the States.
From Prescott we went on by the Grand Trunk Railway to Toronto, and
stayed there for a few days. Toronto is the capital of the province
of Upper Canada, and I presume will in some degree remain so in spite
of Ottawa and its pretensions. That is, the law courts will still
be held there. I do not know that it will enjoy any other supremacy,
unless it be that of trade and population. Some few years ago Toronto
was advancing with rapid strides, and was bidding fair to rival
Quebec, or even perhaps Montreal. Hamilton, also, another town of
Upper Canada, was going a head in the true American style; but
then reverses came in trade, and the towns were checked for a
while. Toronto, with a neighbouring suburb which is a part of it,
as Southwark is of London, contains now over 50,000 inhabitants.
The streets are all parallelogramical, and there is not a single
curvature to rest the eye. It is built down close upon Lake Ontario;
and as it is also on the Grand Trunk Railway it has all the aid which
facility of traffic can give it.
The two sights of Toronto are the Osgoode Hall and the University.
The Osgoode Hall is to Upper Canada what the Four Courts are to
Ireland. The law courts are all held there. Exteriorly little can
be said for Osgoode Hall, whereas the exterior of the Four Courts
in Dublin is very fine; but as an interior the temple of Themis at
Toronto beats hollow that which the goddess owns in Dublin. In Dublin
the Courts themselves are shabby, and the space under the dome is
not so fine as the exterior seems to promise that it should be. In
Toronto the Courts themselves are, I think, the most commodious that
I ever saw, and the passages, vestibules, and hall are very handsome.
In Upper Canada the common law judges and those in Chancery are
divided as they are in England; but it is, as I was told, the opinion
of Canadian lawyers that the work may be thrown together. Appeal is
allowed in criminal cases; but as far as I could learn such power of
appeal is held to be both troublesome and useless. In Lower Canada
the old French laws are still administered.
But the University is the glory of Toronto. This is a Gothic building
and will take rank after, but next to the buildings at Ottawa. It
will be the second piece of noble architecture in Canada, and as far
as I know on the American continent. It is, I believe, intended to be
purely Norman, though I doubt whether the received types of Norman
architecture have not been departed from in many of the windows. Be
this as it may the College is a manly, noble structure, free from
false decoration, and infinitely creditable to those who projected
it. I was informed by the head of the College that it has been open
only two years, and here also I fancy that the colony has been much
indebted to the taste of the late Governor, Sir Edmund Head.
Toronto as a city is not generally attractive to a traveller. The
country around it is flat; and, though it stands on a lake, that
lake has no attributes of beauty. Large inland seas such as are
these great Northern lakes of America never have such attributes.
Picturesque mountains rise from narrow valleys, such as form the beds
of lakes in Switzerland, Scotland, and Northern Italy. But from such
broad waters as those of Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, and Lake Michigan,
the shores shelve very gradually, and have none of the materials of
lovely scenery.
The streets in Toronto are framed with wood, or rather planked, as
are those of Montreal and Quebec; but they are kept in better order.
I should say that the planks are first used at Toronto, then sent
down by the lake to Montreal, and when all but rotted out there, are
again floated off by the St. Lawrence to be used in the thoroughfares
of the old French capital. But if the streets of Toronto are better
than those of the other towns, the roads round it are worse. I had
the honour of meeting two distinguished members of the Provincial
Parliament at dinner some few miles out of town, and, returning back
a short while after they had left our host's house, was glad to be
of use in picking them up from a ditch into which their carriage had
been upset. To me it appeared all but miraculous that any carriage
should make its way over that road without such misadventure. I may
perhaps be allowed to hope that the discomfiture of those worthy
legislators may lead to some improvement in the thoroughfare.
I had on a previous occasion gone down the St. Lawrence, through the
thousand isles, and over the rapids in one of those large summer
steamboats which ply upon the lake and river. I cannot say that I was
much struck by the scenery, and therefore did not encroach upon my
time by making the journey again. Such an opinion will be regarded
as heresy by many who think much of the thousand islands. I do not
believe that they would be expressly noted by any traveller who was
not expressly bidden to admire them.
From Toronto we went across to Niagara, re-entering the States at
Lewiston in New York.