Leave Niagara--Suspension Bridge--In British territory--Hamilton
City--Buildings--Proceed eastward--Toronto--Dine at Mess--Pay
visits--Public edifices--Sleighs--Amusement of the boys--
_Camaraderie_ in the army--Kindly feeling displayed--Journey
resumed towards Quebec--Intense cold--Snow landscape--Morning
in the train--Hunger and lesser troubles--Kingston, its rise
and military position--Harbour, dockyards--Its connection with
the Prince of Wales’ Tour--The Upper St. Lawrence--Canada as
to defence.
We left the Falls with regret--the “city of the Falls” without any
painful emotion. The people at the hotel were perfectly civil and
obliging, though they bore no particular good-will, perhaps, to
one whom they had been taught to regard as the bitter enemy and
traducer of their country and their cause.
Our guide seemed to pity us for our folly in going to such a place
as Canada, when we could, if we liked, stay in an American hotel in
the States. He assured us it was “only fit for Irish, Frenchmen,
and free niggers.” The true American of this type is perhaps the
most prejudiced man in the world, not even excepting the old type
of the British farmer, or men of the Sibthorp epoch. His conviction
of his immense superiority is founded on the readiness with which
others flock to serve him. By their service he becomes a sort of
aristocrat in regard to all immigrants, and can live without
having recourse to any menial office or duty. I presume our hairy
friend never brushed his boots in his life, and would sooner wear
them dirty for ever than stoop to the unwonted task. At last came
our time to depart.
Our sleighs glided smoothly down to the railway station at the
Clifton, where the train was waiting to take us over the Suspension
Bridge. That structure is, I fear, too beautiful to last. It
requires a good deal of coolness and custom to look down from it
on the fearful flood of the river rolling below, and mark the
vibration as a heavy train passes over it. Then, too, there is the
influence of cold on iron to be considered, the effects of tension,
and the like: all have been duly provided for; and yet the bridge
looks very light and very graceful, and let us hope it may be very
strong and very lasting.
In five minutes we were in British territory. The first palpable
and outward sign of the fact was an examination of our luggage by
the customs officers at a station a few miles from the frontier,
during which, or by which, one of the party lost a hat and its
guardian box. The examination was rendered as little irksome as
possible by the civility of the officials; and it made me quite
happy to see the crowns on their brass buttons, degraded British
subject as I was. One burly fellow congratulated me on “escaping
alive out of the hands of the Yankees--he would not have given a
cent for my life for the last six months.”
Our journey was not so much impeded by snow as we expected. It is
forty-three miles from Niagara to the rising city of Hamilton,
and we were little more than one hour and a quarter in doing the
distance. All I am aware of is that on our way we passed through
vast snow-fields, by the mineral waters of St. Catherine’s, the
frozen canal, and that we caught glimpses on our right of the blue
expanse of Lake Ontario.
The first sight of Hamilton caused a rapid change in my mind
respecting the condition of Canada, and a most agreeable feeling
of surprise. It was evident the Americans were not justified in
their affected depreciation of the provinces, if they contained
such towns as these. Despite the unfavourable circumstances under
which it was visited, the city presented an appearance of comfort
and prosperity which even a democratic people might envy, and which
scarcely justified the corporation in refusing, as I hear they do,
to rely on local sources for liquidation of certain claims against
them.
Fine-looking streets, a forest of spires, important public
buildings, did no discredit to the old standard which floated over
the Custom-house near the station. And yet it was not possible
to help remarking that the passengers in the train were reading
American not Canadian newspapers. They were enjoying the fruits of
American piracy in their more serious studies. The literary thefts
of the sanctimonious Harpers, who play for ever on the moods and
tenses of the verb to steal--were in the hands of all the people
who were reading books.
Not alone the British flag did we see at Hamilton, but the British
soldier; for at the doorway of the hotel were two well-known faces.
A battalion of the Rifle Brigade was expected every moment, and
two officers had been sent on to provide for their reception, as
there were no barracks to receive the force, and they were hunting
up house-owners to let their premises on the instant. It may be
imagined that house-owners take a favourable view for themselves of
the value of property thus suddenly in request; and the officers
were proportionately indignant with those griping Canadians, as
if they would have met different treatment from English colonists
anywhere.
Hamilton is a city of some 20,000 inhabitants. It is on a bay
(Burlington), which runs in at the west of Lake Ontario north of
the peninsula formed by the lake, by the St. Lawrence, by Lake
Erie, and by the river falling into Erie at Maitland. It is on the
rail between the west from Detroit and London, the south-east from
the States, and the east from Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec. In
event of war it is exposed to an attack by any American gunboat
from the harbours on the south shore of Lake Ontario, and yet, to
the best of my belief, it is utterly destitute of defence, and has
not even a martello tower for its protection.
The name is not fifty years old, and twenty years ago Hamilton had
less than 4000 inhabitants. Its growth bears no comparison with
that of some American cities, but it is still very remarkable, and
its wealth, importance, and defencelessness are quite sufficient
to make it an object of attack. The houses are built of stone.
Banks, hotels, manufactories, churches--well constructed and
handsome--give proof of the prosperity of the community; and the
residence there of Sir Alan MacNab, who lived somewhere in the
vicinity in a brand new mediæval castle, should be some guarantee
for their loyalty. Indeed, I was told that in no place had the
Prince a more gratifying or enthusiastic reception.
But men without discipline, organisation, or defensive works can
do but little against gunboats. It is true that Hamilton would
not be of much service to the enemy, as it would not command
the communications; but its possession by them would be very
embarrassing, and its destruction, for lack of means to defend it,
would be very discreditable. The population ought to yield at least
4000 able-bodied men for local service; and a casemated work, armed
with powerful guns, could keep a mere mischief-seeking gunboat at
proper distance, and save the place from destruction or injury.
Our halt at Hamilton was brief, and soon we were on our way
eastwards once more, skirting the shores of the lake, fenced in
by a monotonous line of snow-laden fir trees and palings. The
people who got in and out at the stations were of a different race
from the Americans--stouter and ruddier of hue, and many of them
spoke with a Scotch or Irish accent, the former predominating.
They did not talk much about anything but the weather, and did not
give themselves concern about anything except the winter and its
prospects, having made up their minds long ago that there was to be
no fight between England and the United States.
Just as it became dusk we reached Toronto, having accomplished the
thirty-eight miles in two hours, but late as it was we could make
out the picturesque outlines of a large city. Close to the station
a line of sleighs, and a mass of well-dressed people drawn up by
the margin of a sheet of ice, on which a skated crowd were whirling
about, gave an air of gaiety to the place.
A sharp smart sleigh drive, and we were at the comfortable hotel,
called Rossin House, where an invitation from the officers of Her
Majesty’s 30th to dinner was awaiting us. They were quartered in a
substantial old-fashioned barrack on the shore of lake Ontario,
some distance outside the city. The barracks are surrounded by an
earthen parapet, provided with traverses and embrasures, and there
is a very quaint and fantastic earthen redoubt on the beach, but
any ordinary vessel of war could lay the whole establishment in
ruins with perfect impunity in half-an-hour.
The mess table was surrounded by an unusual number of old Crimean
officers, and I was glad to find the fears I had entertained that
the inducements offered by the Americans to soldiers to desert,
had not as yet given any considerable increase to the tendency in
that direction, which causes such anxiety to regimental officers
stationed near the frontier. Whilst I remained at Toronto, I dined
daily at the same hospitable board.
A snapping fierce wind, laden with icy arrows, set in the day after
our arrival. In the afternoon, however, I sleighed out and visited
the bishop, one of the most lively, agreeable men conceivable, of
the age of ninety or thereabouts; Mr. Brown, who is one of the
powers of the State, and the editor and owner of the ablest paper
in West Canada; the mayor, and other Torontians of eminence.
The city is so very surprising in the extent and excellence of its
public edifices, that I was fain to write to an American friend at
New York to come up and admire what had been done in architecture
under a monarchy, if he wished to appreciate the horrible state
of that branch of the fine arts under his democracy. Churches,
cathedrals, market, post-office, colleges, schools, mechanics’
institute, rise in imperial dignity over the city; but there was a
visible deterioration in the beer and billiard saloons, and the
drinking exchanges. The shops are large, and well furnished with
goods, and trade even now is brisk enough, considering the time of
the year. All this is within an enemy’s grasp, and more than this,
the command of the railway east and west.
In this winter time the streets are filled with sleighs, and the
air is gay with the caroling of their bells. Some of these vehicles
are exceedingly elegant in form and finish, and are provided with
very expensive furs, not only for the use of the occupants, but for
mere display. The horses are small spirited animals, of no great
pretension to beauty or breeding. The people in the streets were
well-dressed, comfortable-looking, well-to-do--not so tall as the
people in New York, but stouter and more sturdy-looking. Their
winter brings no discomfort; for fuel is abundant and not dear, and
when the wind is not blowing high, the weather is very agreeable.
Here, again, I observed that the young people have a curious custom
of going about with small sleighs, which are, to the best of my
belief, called “tarboggins,” though I did not see them indulge
in the practice by which the youth of New York vex and fret the
drivers of all vehicles in sleighing-time. I have been amused by
observing the urchins in the Empire City prowling about with these
primitive sleighs, watching for an opportunity to exercise their
talents. Fortunate it is for the British coachman that the youth
of these islands are not acquainted with this pleasing mode of
locomotion. Our omnibuses, having a conductor behind, would be
better defended than the American vehicles, which have no such
protection; but the four-wheeled cabs would fall a helpless prey
into their hands.
The sport is carried on in this wise: the youths take their
tarboggin or sleigh--a flat piece of board four feet long, with or
without runners, will do; through a hole at one end is attached a
piece of cord. The boys watch their opportunity, and when a vehicle
passes, noiselessly on the snow they run out, slip the cord over
the iron or any projection of the carriage behind, and, holding the
end fast, throw themselves down on their sleigh, which is dragged
along by the vehicle; and if cabby should arise in his wrath, in
an instant the end of the cord is let go, and the young navigator,
starting to his feet, runs off with his instrument of torture in
search of a new victim. It adds much to this entertainment for one
boy to catch hold of the leg or the sleigh of another boy, so that
a string of four or five youths may be seen in full enjoyment of
the recreation. Bless them! If I had not seen them following this
sport, I should have fairly doubted if there were any boys in the
United States.
If there was not all the cordiality which could be desired between
the natives and the military, no fault could be found with the
full measure of hospitality dealt out to their own countrymen
by the officers of the garrison. Removed from the stiffness of
home stations, the genial, kindly character of our young soldiers
expatiates, in despite of middling cookery and colonial wines, and
keeps open house for friends on foreign service. When sleighing
for the day is over, and the skating party has come to an end, it
is hard indeed for poor Jones to think of anything more than his
dinner; but if he made the most of his opportunities, he might
write a book in the solitude of his barrack, as those famous
prisoners have done whose brains have conceived and brought forth
such brilliant works in the darkness of the Tower.
The snows are well-nigh as binding and environing for a third of
the year in bad seasons, and no doubt something would come of it
all, but that the officer has his duties to attend to, and cannot
escape from Private 1000’s stoppages, grievances, or failings.
Now, it is no easy matter indeed for British officers to be very
great friends in the same regiment. Of course you will find Pylades
and Orestes there, but you may be sure if you do they are men who
have no clashing interests, no contest of purses, no conflicting
views about leave or steps. It is to me quite wonderful, all things
considered, how bravely the natural kindliness of our officers
contends against a system which, with all its advantages, creates a
source of rivalry and jealousy not known in other services.
In a promotion-by-seniority service there can of course be no
feeling against a man on the part of his juniors because he happens
to be older; but no one can well brook the greater fortune which
depends on the command of money,--though he may be willing to
seize on it, if he can, by the same means,--in the case of his own
juniors. I do not speak without some small knowledge when I say
that there is a much larger amount of _camaraderie_ in our service
than ought to be found in it, but that there is much less than
exists in some other armies. The French officer is jealous of the
man promoted by merit, for the declaration of that superiority is
a tacit censure on himself, and he is also prone to take umbrage
at the good fortune of the _immortels_ of the _État major_; but he
has little ground for antipathy to any of his own set, as regards
social position or military rank in the corps.
Our strong love of field-sports also tends to create
small difficulties when at home, from which spring other
causes of estrangement. One man, for instance, wants to
get to the spring-meeting when another is burning for the
spring-fishing--shooting-leaves and hunting-leaves clash together,
though in no army in the world is there such a liberal system of
furlough as in our own. These causes do not operate in Canada,
where there is now, in fact, but little sport of any kind within
easy distances. Moose shooting in snow is slow work, and for other
game the sportsman must wander far and wide. But when the table is
set, and the full tide of conversation flows, what a cheery group
of warriors, young and old, may be seen in Canadian quarters! They
have had sleighing parties and skating adventures, and altogether
have got over the day somehow, and are prepared to look pleasantly
on the world, albeit the snow is two feet deep over it.
As to the position afforded by the buildings in these particular
old barracks in Toronto, no more uncomfortable place could well be
imagined in face of an enemy. The defences are so ludicrous, that a
Chinese engineer would despise them. Certainly, we have no right to
laugh at Americans, or to hold their works _in petto_, if we take
one glance at the fortifications of Toronto; and yet, as will be
seen, it is a place of the very greatest importance.
My stay here would have been longer, perhaps, but that I was
informed of a very kindly intention on the part of the people
which I did not desire to have carried out, at all events under the
existing circumstances--being in hopes that a future opportunity
would occur of proving that I was not indifferent to the good
feeling and very flattering sentiments of the gentlemen who had
commenced the movement towards myself; and so, in the sure hope
that I would be back in Toronto ere I left America, I bade my good
friends good-bye, never, as it proves, in all likelihood, to see
them again, and, in the midst of a snow-fall, resumed my journey
with my companions towards Quebec.
After undergoing a year of obloquy, ill-looks, slander, and
popular disfavour in a great country, it was very pleasant to meet
with such marks of good-will and kindness from one’s countrymen
and fellow-subjects on the same continent; and it was quite as
gratifying to know that such feelings were entertained by them, as
it would have been to receive the outward token of their existence,
which alone would have contented my friends.
The evening on which I left Toronto was intensely cold. Never for
a moment had the snow and frost relented, and a wind of piercing
keenness swept up the frozen dust in thick clouds, which penetrated
every chink. The railway officials did their best for us, and the
stove in the carriage was poked up to excessive energy; but the
heat of these calorifiers is worse than cold itself.
Our way lay through a snow-field bordered by snow-hills, or by the
stiff cones of snow-covered firs. Our fellow-passengers were big
men in fur-coats and thick boots, who were given to silence and
sleep. Slowly the train creaked through the soft barrier which
so gently yet stiffly, opposed the tramp of the iron horse. The
landscape was simply nothing to see. It looked as if one were
going for ever through a vast array of newly-washed sheets spread
over the whole country. Darkness fell suddenly out of the skies on
the whiteness, but still could not darken it. The whiteness shone
through the depths of night, and flashed out in streaks of dazzling
light, as the flare of the engine-fires and of the lamps shot out
over the surface. And so it came to pass that at last we went to
sleep, gathering up rug and greatcoat and wrapper into vast mounds,
from which issued many a _spiritus asper_ and susurrous sounds for
the livelong night.
On waking up it seemed as though day had just dawned, but the watch
said it was nearly eight o’clock. A cold white light, filled with
rime, battled through the frost on the windows of the carriage,
which was spread over the glass like beautiful damascened white
tablecloths. Scraping away a lovely trellis pattern with my nail, I
opened a space of clear transparent ocean in the ice-sea, and was
rewarded for my pains by a view of a cloud of snow which had been
falling all night, and now rested deep on the ground, and turned
the pines and firs bounding the line of rail into ragged white
tumuli.
The train still creaked and bumped now and then over the snow,
squeaked, puffed, and grated, and at last came to a standstill,
again went on, and again halted. At last we reached a station.
Seven hours behind time! A sensation of hunger by no means slight
fell upon us. Frost is an appetizer of undoubted merit. We had
neglected laying in a _viaticum_. More prudent and accustomed
travellers produced flasks and brown-paper parcels, and all the
wonderful things which Americans consume on the voyage. Let me
not be fastidious, however; for after a time I envied men who were
discussing pleasantly fragments of unseemly cakes, spice-nuts, and
brandy-balls for breakfast.
My companions prowled up and down the horrid car, reeking with the
stove-drawn odours of many bodies during the night--they sought
food like young lions. Pah! what an atmosphere it was!--all windows
closed by reason of cold intense outside, the hateful stoves, one
in the centre of the car, and one at each end, heated almost to
redness, surrounded by men who crowded up, and chewed tobacco,
and smote the iron surface with hissing burnt-sienna-coloured
jets!--frowsty, fusty, and muggy exceedingly. There was a deposit
of train-oil,--a hot humanised dew all over us. And water, there
was none to wash with. So I applied a handful of snow gathered on
the carriage platform to my face and hands in lieu thereof, and got
back to my seat just as A----n returned from some distant part of
the train with hands full of apples. They were delicious, and with
three or four of them, and a few cigars, we managed to construct a
charming breakfast.
It was so dark when the train reached Kingston, that we could see
nothing more than the outlines of the station. I was exceedingly
anxious to visit a place of so much importance historically,
commercially, and strategically, and fully intended to remain
there for some days on my return to Toronto; but the Fates
ordained that it was not to be, and all my personal knowledge of
Kingston was derived from that glimpse in the dark of the railway
terminus, and certain steeples and spires rising above the snow.
But the position of the city confers upon it a very high place
on the list of military posts for the defence of Canada, and some
considerations connected with it will be discussed hereafter.
Politically Kingston has become a dead body since 1844, when its
short-lived career as the capital and seat of government was cut
short. The military genius of the French occupants in early days,
in seizing on the best positions for the defence and maintenance of
their conquest, is shown still, by the fact that our forts occupy
the sites of those which were originally constructed by them.
More than a hundred years before there was any trace of a city at
Kingston, or any building save the wigwam of the Indian or the
log-huts of the soldiery, the Count de Frontenac built a fort in
communication with the great system, from the St. Lawrence to the
Ohio, of the French strongholds, which was destined to extend to
the Mississippi, and to enclose the troublesome English Colonies
within stringent limits. When this fort was captured by Colonel
Bradstreet in 1756, the French had only established a kind of
military colony and a very insignificant trading-post round the
fort. In little more than twenty years subsequently, the present
town was founded; and in the war with America the place became of
very great consequence.
It is a fact curious enough, and worthy of some consideration, that
the great war in the middle of the last century, which ended in the
loss to France of her hopes of Indian influence and of empire, and
in the seizure of her American Colonies by Great Britain, should
have, according to the best of American statesmen and philosophical
reasoners, led also to the establishment of the United States, and
the foundation of the greatest Republic the world has ever seen.
Kingston commands the entrance to the Rideau Canal, one of the
principal means of communication between Lake Ontario and the
interior of the country, forming an admirable connection between
the Ottawa River and Lake Ontario: it is, in fact, the most
important means of inland intercourse, because the difficulties
in the way of an enemy are very considerable, either in a direct
attack upon Kingston, if properly fortified, or in a flank movement
against it from the interior.
The canal is brought into working order with the Grand Trunk
Railway; so that if the Americans, our only possible enemy, were
to make demonstrations against our frontier and our lines, with a
view of intercepting our supplies and internal relations between
the east and west of the province, it would be easy to disembark
men and munitions at Kingston Mills and forward them by railway.
Kingston, again, is an excellent point of observation, and with
proper defences and aggressive resources, ought to command Lake
Ontario and the entrance from the St. Lawrence. An adequate force
stationed there, with a proper flotilla, could effectually keep
in check any hostile demonstration from Cape Vincent, Sacket’s
Harbour, or the other posts from Oswego to the western extremity of
Lake Ontario.
The harbour is said to be excellent; there is a dockyard, which
could be rendered capable of doing most of the work required for
our light gunboats: and with the additions pointed out and urged
by our engineer officers to the existing fortifications, Kingston
could be made a position of as much military strength as it
undoubtedly now is of strategical importance.
Between Toronto and Kingston there are, however, Port Hope,
Coburg, and Belville on the line of railway, all of which present
facilities for the landing of an enemy: at any one of these points
a hostile occupation would cut the regular communications at once;
and indeed it is very much to be regretted, in a military point of
view, that engineering, commercial, or other considerations caused
the makers of the Grand Trunk Railway to run the line close to the
shores of a great inland sea, the opposite side of which belongs
to a foreign country which has from time to time announced (if
not through the lips of statesmen, by the popular voice) that the
conquest of Canada is a fixed principle in its policy.
The Americans, whether by accident or design, have constructed the
New York Central, which runs along the south coast, at a distance
of many miles from Lake Ontario, but cross-lines connect it with
the principal ports upon the lake, from Buffalo to Sandusky; their
line runs tolerably close to the shore of Lake Erie higher up, but
there is no position on that lake which has to fear the aggression
of such a force as could be collected at Kingston.
Perhaps to the generality of people in England, Kingston was first
made known by the unpleasant incidence which compelled the Prince
of Wales to pass it unvisited, or rather to remain on board the
steamer. No doubt the Orangemen are now very sorry for what they
did, and, in fact, feel that they were led by the fanaticism or the
desire for notoriety of some small local leaders to make themselves
very ridiculous and offensive. The zeal of these Defenders of the
Faith was no doubt stimulated by the presence of a large number
of Irish Roman Catholics, who are at least as violent as their
opponents.
The French-Canadians, with just as much fidelity to their faith,
do not enter into the violent polemical, political, and miscalled
religious controversies which led to such an unseemly result at
Kingston; and certainly, it is much to be regretted that the
peculiar influence of American institutions, which checks any
attempt of religious parties to disturb the public peace or social
relations for their own purposes and for the gratification of pride
or lust of power, cannot be extended to the provinces and to the
British Possessions, where they work such prodigious mischief.
From Kingston the line winds along the shore of the great
lake-like river, studded with a thousand islands. Here, again,
the Americans would possess considerable advantage in case of
war, as their main-line is far inland, but branch-lines from it
lead to Cape Vincent and Ogdensburgh, at right-angles to our line
of communication. The American water-boundary, I believe, passes
outside a considerable number of the more important islands; but
the power which possesses naval supremacy on Lake Ontario will
probably find the means of commanding the Upper St. Lawrence, no
matter which belligerent establishes himself on the islands.
The Canadians with whom I conversed in the train declared they
were quite ready to defend their country in case of invasion, but
did not understand, they said, being taken away to distant points
to fight for the homes of others. It seemed quite clear to them
that the United States would only invade Canada to humiliate and
weaken the mother-country, and that the general defence of the
province ought to devolve on the power whose policy had led to the
war; whilst the inhabitants should be ready to give the imperial
troops every assistance in the localities where they are actually
resident.