to each of you the thanks we owe to every citizen of Toronto, for
nowhere have we received more kindness, and nowhere have we had
occasion to feel greater gratitude for receptions accorded us, than in
your city. These farewells I feel to be very sad occasions. I know that
if the matter had rested with the Princess she would have wished to
postpone them for another year--(cheers)--for we have spent many happy
days in Canada, and would have wished to prolong them. That, however,
could not be. The time for departing, I am sorry to say, has very
nearly come. For my part, I feel as if the sands of the last days of
happiness had nearly run out. (Cheers.) I beg to thank you, sir, for
the reference which you have made in your address to the visit of
Prince George of Wales. (Loud cheers.) It is now nearly twenty-four
years, I think, since his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales (loud
cheers) came here, he being at that time, nearly of the age which
Prince George has now attained. I have often heard from him of the
kindness and loyalty with which he was greeted in Canada. (Cheers.) I
know it has been a matter of regret to him that he has been unable in
recent years to repeat his visit. I know how he watches with the
greatest interest and sympathy the progress of this country, and how he
hopes at some future day he may possibly revisit it. (Loud cheers.) In
the address you desire me to convey to Her Majesty the assurance of
your loyalty--an assurance which we shall deliver, not that any such
assurance is needed--(Cheers)--the reverence and loyalty with which Her
Majesty is regarded is well known to me, but we will faithfully carry
out your commission. It is a message of devotion to the Throne and
Empire coming from a great community. (Loud cheers.) I do not know
anything more remarkable in the recent history of this great continent
than the story of this populous and extensive Province, whose shores
are washed by the beautiful waters of Erie, Huron, and Ontario. Within
the lifetime of a man, indeed only sixty years ago, nothing but an
untouched growth of wood was visible throughout this wide region, where
there are now myriads of happy homesteads--(cheers,) and, while this
remarkable result has been accomplished in so short a time, we see no
diminution in the progress and prosperity of the Province. During the
last few years Ontario may be said to have become a Mother Country, for
she has sent out colonies to the West by tens of thousands, and yet,
owing to the rapid and natural increase of her people, and to the
manner in which the void occasioned by the departure of these has been
filled up from across the seas, we still see the population constantly
increasing--(cheers)--and I believe the next census will show as great
an increase as the last, and that, I believe was 18 per cent. (Loud
cheers.) I was very much struck some time ago by the manner in which
some men, comfortably situated here, wished, nevertheless, to see the
West. I had occasion to ask for the services of two men for a friend of
mine who had taken a farm in Manitoba. One was got immediately, and an
Ontario gentleman, to whom I applied, came to me and said: "You will be
surprised to hear who the second man is whom I have obtained for your
friend; he is a man having a large farm and a very comfortable
homestead, and, while he does not wish to leave the Province
permanently, he desires to go to the North-West to see the country, and
has volunteered to go as a hired man for a year to Manitoba." He left
for that year his wife and child at home. I hope by this time he has
been able to rejoin them. I do not think the desire prevailing amongst
you in Ontario to go westward need cause the men of Ontario one
moment's anxiety. Your ranks will be quickly refilled. Numbers are now
coming in from the Old Country--and I beg to congratulate the
Government of Ontario on the successful way in which they have put
forward the attractions, I may say the great attractions, of this
Province as compared with those of the West, with the view of arresting
some of those who were on their passage farther west. (Cheers.) I had a
conversation only yesterday with a gentleman who is at the head of the
Agricultural Science Department of South Kensington, in London; and to
show you there is a wide field open for the surplus population of a
class you wish to attract, I would like to quote that gentleman's words.
He is a great authority, a Government official, and I am sure his name
is known to many of you--Professor Tanner. (Cheers.) He told me that
over 7,000 men are studying agriculture in Great Britain at the present
time; that over 6,000 had passed last year the examination provided by
Government; that of those 6,000 there certainly would not be an
opportunity in Great Britain for the employment of more than one-tenth;
that is to say that nine-tenths will assuredly, if they wish to follow
out the course which their studies would indicate as the career they
seek to pursue, have to find a place outside the limits of the old
country. I would certainly recommend them to come here. (Cheers.) I
have made such recommendations often at home. Sometimes I have been
told that I incur a great responsibility for doing so. (Cheers.) I
shall be very glad to assume the responsibility for the rest of my days.
(Renewed cheering.) I shall only ask of Ontario societies when they
invite women to come here, to back me in advising the old country
people not to send too many instructresses of youth--(hear, hear)--for
wherever I have made a speech in England advising women to emigrate, I
have always received about 500 letters on the succeeding day from
people who said they were perfectly confident that there was an opening
for a good governess in Canada. (Laughter and cheers.) I wish to
emphasize the fact that there is hardly any opening, for we grow our
own stock in that respect--(Loud cheers),--and I believe in the
Exhibition of which we shall soon be making an examination strangers
will see that among the objects placed in the most honourable position
is the school desk, the school bench, and the school book. (Renewed
cheers.) They will find these exhibited along with the best products of
the factory, the forest, the field and the mine. I say, I shall
continue to recommend this Province, for you have inspired me with
additional confidence--(Cheers)--perhaps because the community have
confidence in themselves. (Renewed cheers.) I will say nothing more,
for I feel I might expatiate at too great a length upon your prospects.
(Continued cheers.) I beg now formally to declare the Toronto
Exhibition of 1883 to be open to the public. (Loud and continued
cheering.)
The following is the Governor-General's reply to an address presented
in the Queen's Park, Toronto. Several thousand persons had assembled
although the rain had descended in torrents for some hours.
Mr. Mayor and citizens of the city of Toronto,--Ladies and Gentlemen of
this great Province of Ontario,--I have again to thank you for a loyal
and affectionate address, conveying your reverence and love to the
Queen. Already several of the Queen's children have visited Canada. On
this occasion you have been welcoming, kindly and cordially, a grandson
of her Majesty. (Cheers.) On all occasions on which members of the
Queen's family have visited this country they have met with a welcome
which evinces your determination to sustain the Empire in which Canada
occupies so large a place. I thank you, sir, for what you have stated
with regard to my term of office. You have had the good fortune to
enjoy five years of prosperity and progress. I would, if you will allow
me, take the words you have addressed to me as not in any sense
conveying a personal compliment, but as expressing your appreciation of
the value of the office which I have had the honour to hold for five
years, and your wish to maintain its dignity. I confess that I am not
so desirous of any personal popularity, but I am jealous for the
position of the Governor-General. I need not tell you, who know it
already, the value of the constitutional rules under which its
functions are exercised. They who disparage the office by telling you
that it is one of no influence would be the first to cry out against
its powers, and they would be right to do so, should those powers be
used in excess of constitutional privilege. It is sufficient that the
ministers, both of the last Government and the present, regard the
office as valuable, and desire its continuance. There is, however, one
point in connection with it which I should wish to impress upon you. In
some quarters, although not, I am satisfied, by the people at large,
the presence of a Governor-General is held to imply something called
"etiquette"--(Laughter),--and implies also the establishment of a
"court." I wish to say from my experience in Canada I am sure that this
is by no means the case. Etiquette may perhaps be defined as some rule
of social conduct. I have found that no such rule is necessary in
Canada, for the self-respect of the people guarantees good manners.
(Cheers.) We have had no etiquette and no court. Our only etiquette has
been the prohibition of any single word spoken by strangers at the
Government House in disparagement of Canada. (Cheers.) Our only court
has been the courting of her fair name and fame. (Cheers.) Now, ladies
and gentlemen, you ask me why it is I am so enthusiastic a Canadian. I
believe I am perhaps even more of a Canadian than some of the Canadians
themselves. I ascribe it to the very simple cause that I have seen
perhaps more of your country than have very many amongst you. I know
what your great possessions are, and to what a magnificent heritage you
have fallen heirs. I know that wide forest world out of which the older
Provinces have been carved. I know that great central region of
glorious prairie-land from which shall be carved out future Provinces
as splendid or yet more splendid than those of which we now proudly
boast. I know also that vast country beyond the Rocky Mountains, that
wondrous region sometimes clothed in gloomy forest, sometimes smiling
beneath the sun in pastoral beauty of valley and upland, or sometimes
shadowed by Alpine gorges and mighty mountain peaks--the territory of
British Columbia. And in each and all of these three immense sections
of your great country I know that you have possessions which must make
you in time one of the foremost among the nations, not only of this
continent, but of the world. (Cheers.) It is because I have seen so
much of you and of your territories that I am enthusiastic in your
behalf, and that the wish of my life shall be the desire to further
your interests; and I pray the God who has granted to you this great
country that he may in his own good time make you a great people. (Loud
cheers.)
On leaving Ottawa, an address was presented by the Corporation of the
city. The Governor-General replied as follows:--
Mr. Mayor, members of the Corporation, and citizens of Ottawa--We both
thank you most cordially for your words, which are so full of kindness.
It is indeed a sorrowful thought to us that the present must be our
last meeting for all time, as far as any official connection between us
is concerned; but we shall hope that it will not be the last occasion
on which we shall again be brought together, for it would be indeed a
melancholy prospect to us were we not able to look forward to some
future day on which we might revisit the scenes which have been so much
endeared to us, and witness the continuance of that progress which has
been so marked in the Dominion during the last five years.
You kindly wish us God-speed, and hope that our future career may be
happy; but we can never again have a happier or more fortunate time
than that spent amongst you; indeed, whenever, in the future, life's
path is darker, we can take comfort and refreshment from the
recollection of the bright days passed under the beautiful clear
sunshine of the Canadian seasons.
If in any way we have been able to please you in the personal
intercourse which it has been our happiness to have experienced on
civic occasions, and in social meetings at Government House, we shall
certainly leave with the feeling that there is no community more easy
to please. The interest and affection we have for you will always
endure, and I hope that when any of you visit the Old Country (should I
happen to be there) you will let me again see you.
But, gentlemen, however pleasant may have been the friendships begun
during the last few years, or the official relations at my office, it
is important that we should not over-value individual likings. So long
as the Governor-General follows the example set by our beloved monarch
as a constitutional sovereign, so long should the favour he finds with
the people endure, and any personal popularity is a thing of no account.
You have been pleased to endorse afresh the system under which we live
and which you think infinitely preferable to that which obtains among
our neighbours to the south of us. But my constitutional governorship
is nearly over, and now that I am practically out of harness, I mean to
assume autocratic airs, and confess to you that I have sometimes wished
for the benefit and adornment of your city to become its dictator with
plenary power of raising federal and local taxes for any object which
may have seemed best to my despotic will. But I have faith in popular
rule, and believe that when I next visit Ottawa I shall see the city
not only embellished by the completion of some of the good buildings
which are now rising, or about to be erected, within its limits, but
that I shall see every street, and especially those which are widest,
planted with flourishing shade trees. I shall probably see a new
Government House, from whose windows the beautiful extent of your river
shall be visible, as well as the noble outlines of your Parliament
Buildings. Leading from this to the city I shall mark how the long,
fine avenue planted in 1884, an avenue which will stretch all the way
along Sussex street past New Edinburgh to Government House, has sent
forth beautiful branches of the foliage of the maple, which perhaps at
intervals may mingle with a group or two of dark fir-trees. I am sure I
shall see any boulders now lying by the wayside broken up to form the
metal for excellent roads, and of course no vestiges of that burnt
wooden house at the corner of Pooley's Bridge will remain. Indeed, I
shall see few tenements which are not of brick or stone both in Ottawa
and Hull, and last, but not least, I am sure we shall find the Ministry
and Supreme Court properly housed in official residences such as are
provided for those functionaries by most of the civilized nations of
the world.
But do not think that I say anything of this prophetic vision in any
spirit of detraction of what we possess here at present. I know well
that without Federal help, such as is given at Washington, and with the
limited area from which assessments can be drawn, it must take time to
build up an ideal city, and I have always found the Ottawa of to-day a
very pleasant place as a residence. You have a society of singular
interest and variety, because so many men of ability are brought
together at the seat of government, and I believe that a gayer and
brighter season than the Ottawa winter is hardly to be met with. By the
increase of good accommodation afforded by the hotels, an improvement,
which has been most notable within the last few years, has been
effected for the comfort of visitors, and its results are apparent in
the great number of strangers who throng your city during the time of
the sitting of Parliament. Ottawa should become during these months
more and more the social centre for the Dominion, and in contributing
towards this, and in working for this end, you will not only be
benefitting yourselves, but aiding in strengthening the national spirit
and the unity of sentiment between the provinces which may be greatly
fostered in convening together, not only the leading men of the
Dominion, but those ladies belonging to other centres of social life in
Canada, without whose patriotic feeling it would be vain even for the
ablest statesman to do much towards national unity and purpose.
For our part we shall always look back upon many of the months spent in
this city as being among the brightest and pleasantest, and in bidding
you farewell we wish to express a hope that it may only be farewell for
the present.
Let me now thank you once more, and may all good remain with you and
yours.
LORNE.
Government House, Ottawa, 9th October, 1883.
At Montreal, on his departure, the St. Jean Baptiste Society and the
Caledonian Society presented addresses. Lord Lorne thanked them for the
personal good wishes expressed, but referring to the presentation to
the Governor-General of addresses from societies representing some race
or old national sentiment among Canadians, he said that he would
suggest that, for the future, Canadians should approach the Head of the
Government only as Canadians, the Mayor or Warden representing all.
Although among themselves they might and would always cherish
recollections of the nationality from which they sprang, a
Governor-General must recognize them only as that which they now are,
namely, component parts of the Canadian people.
His Excellency then replied as follows to the address presented by the
Mayor on behalf of the city:--
_To the Mayor and Corporation of the City of Montreal._
Gentlemen,--Your kind words remind us rather of what we would have
wished to have done than of any accomplishment of those desires. It is
but little that an individual placed at the head of your Government as
its impartial chief magistrate can or may do, and it is perhaps as well
that this is so, for it would be a matter of regret, and one to be
deplored, if the esteem in which that high office is held should depend
on any individual's capacity for capturing popular sympathy. The
position is one capable of much good in moderating counsel, and even in
the suggestion of methods of procedure in government; but any action
the head of the state may take must be unknown, except at rare
intervals, to the public, and must always be of such a nature that no
party may claim him as their especial friend. As a sign of the union of
your country with the rest of the Empire, he has other functions more
important than that of making Canada well known abroad, which it may be
in his power greatly to use for your benefit. Steam communication has
made the advent of emigrants easy, and the emigrant is a better
advertiser for you than any official can be. In short, so far as the
public activity of a Governor-General is concerned, he should rely
rather on the approbation of posterity than on any personal recognition,
taking care only that his name be associated with constitutional rule,
and his impartial recognition of whatever Ministry the country, through
the House of Commons, elects for his advice. It is a source of much
satisfaction to me to know that my successor is certain to follow in
this respect the example of the Queen, whose representative he is.
It would be impertinence in me to speak of his private character, for
they who desire to know of this have only to go and hear what is said
by his loving tenantry and friends on his estates in County Kerry,
Ireland, where an emphatic tribute to his personal worth has been
lately paid him at Dereen. In a few days he will land upon your shores,
and I am certain he will receive that warm welcome which a generous and
loyal people are ever ready to accord to the temporary representative
of constitutional government.
You have alluded, sir, to that happy day in November, five years ago,
when Montreal gave us so splendid a welcome. I remember when the horses
became unmanageable it was the good will of the citizens to honour us
by detaching them, and by drawing the carriage for a long distance
until we reached the great Windsor Hotel. I told them at the time that
I considered it an omen of how a Governor might always trust to them
for support. That impression was strengthened during my stay in Canada,
together with this other, namely, that if anything goes wrong, it is
easy for the people to take matters into their own hands, and to change
the programme, substituting another where order and active purpose may
be clearly discerned.
My residence amongst you has led me greatly to honour your people, and
in honouring them it has been my privilege to honour also its men of
both sides of politics in the State, who have been chosen by the
constituencies to lead their political life. Almost the only pain I
have experienced during my term here has been caused by the personal
attacks which are too frequently made on both sides against party men.
Believe me, gentlemen, such personal attacks do no good in advancing
any cause, but belittle the nation in the eyes of strangers. They are
also, as a rule, as unwarrantable as they are repulsive, useless and
mischievous. I have seen a good deal of the public life and of the
politicians of many countries, and I unhesitatingly affirm that you
have in general in Canada as pure and noble-minded statesmen as may be
found anywhere the wide world over. Where in other lands you see those
who have had political power and patronage occupying palaces and
raising themselves to be amongst the richest of the people, we here see
perhaps too much of the other extreme, and men who have led parties to
battle and been the victorious leaders in honest political strife are
too often left to live in houses which an English squire would not
consider good enough for his bailiff. This leads me to speak to you of
a wish which I have often cherished, but which, to reveal a Cabinet
secret, I have never succeeded in persuading any Canadian statesman to
support by a speech in the chambers of the Legislature. They fear, I
suppose, that selfishness would be assigned as their motive. I
therefore come to you, the people, to propose it, and to ask you--the
representatives and citizens of the wealthiest community in Canada--to
take it up. It is this: that we should have at Ottawa official
residences not only for the Judges of the Supreme Court, but for the
Dominion Ministers of the day. This is, of course, a matter which would
indifferently benefit whatever party may be in power. Should you
encourage the idea through your representatives you will be only
following in the footsteps of many other peoples. Every little state in
Germany provides good residences for its Ministers. At Berlin and at
Paris the nations of France and of Germany look upon it as a matter of
course that the Ministry should possess fit residences. Why should we
not follow an example so obviously good, and, because we rightly ask
the Judges of the Supreme Court and federal Ministry to reside at the
Capital, furnish them with the means of doing so in a manner suited to
the dignity of this nation?
Forgive me for detaining you at length, but in speaking to you it is
impossible not to remember that I am addressing the wealthiest and
greatest community in the country. Montreal must always keep her
pre-eminent position on the St. Lawrence, situated as she is at the end of
the ocean waterways, which form so imperial an avenue to the artificial
navigation connecting the great lakes that lie at the limits of the
vast grain region of the prairies. But while our thoughts naturally
turn westward to the vast interior with gratitude to the Giver for so
wondrous a wealth in the new soils of the central continent, let us be
thankful also for the Providence which has enabled our thrifty and
hardy people to turn to good account the banks on both sides of the
great stream flowing from hence seawards. Let us be thankful that this
great arterial channel has tempted people not only up its own current,
but up the channels of its tributaries, and that under the guidance of
men like Labelle and others, we are gradually having the great country
to the north opened up by settlements which have spread along the
Ottawa, the River Rouge, the Lievre and the Saguenay, until the long
silent shores of Lake St. John have become the busy scenes of
agricultural life. Let us be grateful also that we have this country
garrisoned by men who are as true to the Constitution and the Throne as
they are faithful to their Church, and while we direct our own young
men and the youthful emigrant from Europe to the North and to the West,
let us take care to point out to the stranger the advantages which are
so manifest here for those who either desire a city life or who wish to
reside upon the fruitful and long cleared farms of the ancient
provinces of Old Canada.
Now, _Monsieur le Maire_, accept our thanks and our farewell, but
let me express our wish that our parting may be only for a time, and
_au revoir_.
On the 20th October the Corporation of the City of Quebec presented a
farewell address. The Governor-General in the course of his reply, made
the following remarks:--
Where the laws, the language, and the institutions of each of the
Provinces forming our great Confederation are guarded by a constitution
which sees its own strength in the happy continuance of local
privileges, what wonder is it that success and progress are everywhere
to be seen. The Englishman, Scotchman or Irishman here finds the
traditions of his country continued; the French-Canadian enjoys the
most absolute liberty and safety under the flag which secures to him in
common with all citizens of every Province a national life, the natural
and legitimate desire of the growing communities of this great country.
From East to West the spreading colonies are now able to give each
other the hand. They are beginning to find out what vast possessions
they have. They value national coherence and the maintenance of local
laws. They glory in that glorious name which you first assumed--a
Canadian. You know me well enough by this time to make it superfluous
for me to render any long _éloge_ upon your characteristics.
Although we leave you we shall always be with you in spirit, and
cherish a desire to assist you.
The words of affectionate regret come easily, and I have but little
advice to give you. If there be any, it would be that no part of the
Dominion should exclude itself from the influence of the rest. They who
know only themselves and avoid contact with others go backwards; they
who welcome new impressions and compare the ideas of other men with
their own, make progress. Open your arms to the immigrants who come,
while you endeavour to repatriate your own people; there is room enough
here for all; continue to make the country to the north of you a second
line of wealth-giving lands for the first line formed by the valley of
the St. Lawrence. Remember to direct some of your young men to the West.
I feel that you throughout Canada are on the right track. You have only
to keep it. With the motto--"Our Rights and our Union" you will, with
the blessing of God, become a people whose sons will be ever proud of
the country of their birth.
May your triumphs continue to be the triumphs of Peace, your rewards
the rewards of Industry, Loyalty, and Faith!
THE END.