Few positions for young Canadians of ambition--American
consulships--Bayard Taylor--S. S. Cox--Canadian High
Commissioner--Desirability of men of elevated life--Necessity for
developing a Canadian national spirit.
It has occurred to many of our young Canadians that there are very few
positions attainable to us as Canadians really worth striving for. We
are so peculiarly situated, that we seem to be in a large measure
debarred from obtaining positions which would ordinarily fall to the lot
of those attaining eminence among five millions of people. To become a
member of a Provincial Legislature is, perhaps, the first position
ambitious young men ordinarily aspire to; and while the position itself
is really honorable, and also one of usefulness, yet it is not wholly
satisfactory. As to becoming an M.P., and spending three dreary months
or so in Ottawa, it is not a desirable situation. In fact, most aspiring
young Canadians, who come from good homes, do not take kindly to the
idea of being forcibly banished for three months out of the twelve. In
Washington, on the other hand, since consuls and _charges d’affaires_ of
all civilized nations are resident there, it naturally follows that that
capital must be the place of social activity and the like, and a place
where one can meet persons worth knowing, and who are wholly different
from ourselves.
To become a judge, no doubt, is the aspiration of many young Canadians,
and not for a moment would any one attempt to decry the desirableness of
that honorable position. Yet the fact is, that we have altogether too
many young men aspiring for legal positions. “Too many lawyers in Canada
by three-fourths” is heard among us as common everyday talk. Since
Canada has no foreign consular service, all consularships are squarely
and flatly out of our reach. Bayard Taylor began as a boy tramping over
Europe on foot, and gave the world his boyish volume of “Views Afloat,”
which is quite as readable to-day as when first penned. And he kept on
travelling until he became quite familiar with most of the languages of
modern Europe. Then a consulship was given him, and he really obtained a
position worth working for. At different courts he became the
representative of the great American nation, and enjoyed social
advantages which can fall only to the lot of persons thrown in contact,
as he necessarily was, with people from every quarter of the globe.
Finally he became ambassador at Berlin, and enjoyed the highest honors
there. There he died, and his body was sent back to his American home,
having been accorded especial honors by the German court. Here was a
career, it appears to the writer, which was really worth striving for.
He was not a lawyer, nor in any wise specially educated in any
particular specialty, but yet with the career open to him, by dint of
his own push and good common-sense, he really rivalled in position any
of those among us who make political fights to get to Ottawa, or pore
over the midnight oil to become eminent in law. And what is true in Mr.
Taylor’s case is equally true in the case of many representatives who
to-day are the accredited representatives of the American Government at
the court of St. James. Take, for instance, the case of S. S. Cox, who
was American representative at Constantinople. Mr. Cox was, no doubt, a
tolerably clever man, but not a lawyer, though generously educated. Like
Taylor, he travelled and gave to the world the result of his
observations in his “Arctic Sunbeams” and “Orient Sunbeams.” True, he
had been a member of Congress, but even if one were to become an M.P. in
Canada that would not further him in any way for foreign preferments. No
one will for a moment doubt but that Cox’s position as _charge
d’affaires_ at Constantinople was far preferable to that of any M.C. at
Washington, or an M.P. at Ottawa.
We have a High Commissioner, some one reminds me. Yes, and we may
instance Sir Charles Tupper at London; but the social status of that
gentleman over there must have been so doubtful that one can hardly jump
to the conclusion that his position was desirable after all. Of course,
his salary would be desirable, but of that I am not speaking. Do not for
a moment suppose that Sir Charles would be very graciously received by
the representative of the Czar, for instance. Obviously not, for he was
not a real ambassador, or even a consul, and he had no particular
powers, anyhow. The representative of the little kingdom of Greece, as
the representative of three millions of people, would have far more
social status in London than our Sir Charles, who ought to represent
over five millions, and half a continent. So I think I might as well
give over this matter of consulship, for there’s really nothing to be
attained in that direction.
We educate a young man at home in one of our universities, and then to
give him a good finish send him off to Oxford, or perhaps to Heidelberg,
and our young man comes home the representative of one of our best
Canadian families. He has not been educated for a profession
particularly, for his parents as well as himself realize that the
professions are already quite full enough, and also that there’s no
_éclat_ to be gained from the hardest drudgery in any one of them. Now,
I ask, what position is open to him at all commensurate with his careful
education and his talents? Really among us, as Canadians, there is none.
No doubt, at Oxford or Heidelberg, he has studied the laws of nations
and many matters of civil polity, and ought to be as well qualified,
after a little apprenticeship, as any one anywhere to be the foreign
representative of his own country at St. James, St. Cloud, or St.
Petersburg. But he cannot, and must either lead the life of a gentleman
of leisure among his people or go in for sordid money-getting. If he
leads the life of a gentleman of leisure he does not fully fill the
sphere of usefulness his countrymen are by right of common citizenship
obviously justly entitled to. As to common money-getting, we hope never
to see the day when the most cultivated in our young country will give
themselves over wholly to that sordid life.
An aristocracy in Canada is not what I am aiming at. But we do certainly
need some peer among us to leaven the mass, and keep us refined and up
to the social standard. The United States is already possessing such
persons. The case of Charles Sumner, for instance. He could have made
money as a lawyer, no doubt. But with his great talents and careful
education, he spent his life among his New England kin, except when
travelling or at Washington, and no one will for a moment deny but that
he leavened his fellows during his whole life. Political preferments or
legal standing he never sought after, but he, with his culture and pure
life, did real good to his fellows.
It would be easy to elaborate and speak of many more such examples, both
in the United States and Britain. But having illustrated the point, I
have said sufficient to prove that such a cultured few among us are
desirable and to be commended. They do not call them aristocrats in the
United States, and I do not see why they should be so termed here. In
the future, as our country grows, and our old families become stable
with the steady growth of our country, their sons must be educated
broadly and generously, and will no doubt be a benefit to us by
leavening the lump; and we certainly do not want to cast our ringers at
them, even if they do not get down to sordid money-getting, but seek for
something higher. Yet, as I set out to prove, there are really few
positions among us worth their striving for. If they would rise among us
and make themselves known, I fail to know where or how they are to do
it. Is a clerk or head of a department needed at Ottawa? Canadians, we
are led to know, do not as a rule get the preference. In very many
instances some one must be imported from the British Isles and given
that position right over the heads of our own fellows. Now, we all love
honor, and respect our common Mother Country, but this is carrying the
matter too far, without a doubt. Do not for a moment suppose any
Canadian will be exported from Canada to London to fill any one of the
clerkships or offices over there. Such an instance is not within my
knowledge, and I am at a loss to know why we need do it for the young
English, Scotch or Irish man. The remedy for the want of a goal for
Canadians I am not going to speak of. Let those who can, and wish, take
the matter up and tell us. Yet we do not want independence just now that
we may have foreign consuls and the like, and thus open careers for our
young men of abilities, for we are too poor yet to do all that. Nor do
we want annexation to the United States, for our people are unmistakably
British, disguise the fact as one may. Our people are really British in
thought and feeling, and are not disposed to throw off the Mother
Country. If Imperial federation ever takes place, it is probable that
the different colonies will then have a resident _charge d’affaires_ at
each sister colony, and our chosen members would assemble at the central
parliament at London. In this there would be a help to our ambitious
young men, and perhaps some remedies will thus come about. But it is
absurd to think that our rising young men will always be content to go
on as we are, finding no goal in our midst worth striving for. These
young men see, perhaps, their college-mates in the United States away
ahead of them in positions of trust, while they cannot possibly get
higher as Canadians, and are apt to become in a measure disgusted with
home. The writer can recall instances of his fellow college-mates in the
United States whom he thinks were no cleverer than himself, nor had they
any special advantage over him in any wise. Yet to-day in his memory he
can fix upon a number of such American college-mates who are now foreign
consuls of the United States Government, M.C’s, senators, and others who
occupy high positions in the army and navy of that Government. In
drawing the comparison between them and himself it is quite natural for
him to ask himself why his college associates so signally succeeded. The
answer must be because success could be obtained in their own country,
and such success led to preferments worth striving for, to the
contra-distinction of our own lot as Canadians, where there is no career
open to us.
That we all love Canada, and are all satisfied with our form of
government, goes without saying, yet somehow we are not developing a
national spirit in any wise whatever. It appears to me that we can and
ought to develop a spirit of patriotic pride among us, and I see nothing
incompatible with our position as provinces to hinder fostering such a
spirit. One great difficulty is that our flag and that of Britain are
exactly alike. Go away from home, and meet a Canadian vessel up in the
Mediterranean, for instance, and I defy you to tell if she be not an
ordinary British ship. The same ensign is at the peak, and there is
really nothing outwardly visible to make a Canadian’s heart swell with
pride on beholding a Canadian ship away from home. It seems to me that
we might have a flag of our own, not incompatible with the Union Jack,
which would cause us to cling to it and feel that it was really our own.
In the way of a national ode there positively is nothing at all. Moore’s
boat song is the best thing we have by far, and is really a gem. But gem
as it is, recollect it was written by an Irishman, and is mainly about
boat life on our great river. Perhaps we are not old enough yet to
produce a genius capable of giving us a national ode, and yet we have
had some very good poems by Canadians, and I wish quickly to see the day
when some of our poets will give us a national ode which shall be a gem
for us to rally round. Let those who possess the proper poetic genius
ponder on this subject.
Ask a Canadian young lady who sits down to the piano in Britain before a
drawing-room full of Britons of both sexes to play something Canadian,
as I have heard asked there. Now just let our young lady musicians think
the matter over and make up their minds what they would play and sing
under such conditions. If our young ladies go over there, they must know
they will be asked for such songs, and I really hope, for the credit of
our country, they will not be compelled to fall back upon American songs
to represent Canada. Such songs may represent America, but the part
Canada plays on this continent will in such songs be sadly deficient.