Bishop Richardson. His time was spent in the discharge of his official
duties. His coadjutor, Bishop Smith, had become old and feeble, and
Bishop Richardson willingly took upon himself a portion of the invalid's
work. His time, therefore, was fully occupied. In 1870 Bishop Smith
died, and during the next four years the entire duties pertaining to the
Episcopal office devolved upon the survivor. He seemed almost to renew
his youth in order to meet the extra demands made upon him. He was more
than fourscore years of age, yet he contrived to get creditably through
an amount of mental and bodily labour which would have prostrated many
men not past their prime. He frequently conducted his pulpit services
and the sessions of the Conference without the aid of spectacles; and he
was persistent in his determination to do his own work without the
assistance of a secretary. This state of things, however, in a man of
his age, could not be expected to last. His vital forces began
perceptibly to give way. In the month of August, 1874, at the General
Conference of the Church held at Napanee, he consecrated the Rev. Dr.
Carman to the Episcopal office. The ceremonial taxed his energies very
severely, and he was compelled by physical suffering to leave the
Conference room as soon as he had placed his associate in the chair. At
the close of the Conference he returned to his home at Clover Hill--now
known as St. Joseph Street--where a few days' rest enabled him to regain
as great a measure of health as could be expected in a man who had
entered upon his eighty-fourth year. During the autumn and winter he was
actively at work as earnestly as ever, watching over every department of
the Church, and giving especial attention to the questions submitted by
the General Conference for the action of the Quarterly Meeting
Conferences. During the following winter, while visiting the Ancaster
Circuit, he was prostrated by dizziness, and after his return home it
was evident that his end was near. He sank quietly to his rest on the
9th of March, 1875. His death was like his life--manly, and devoid of
display. "I have no ecstasy," he remarked to a clerical visitor, "but I
know in whom I have believed." To another visitor he remarked, "My work
is done; I have nothing to do now but to die." He retained his mental
faculties in their full vigour almost up to the moment when he ceased to
breathe. He was buried in the family vault at the Necropolis, Toronto,
on the 12th of the month. The funeral was unusually large. The funeral
sermon was preached by Bishop Carman in the Metropolitan Methodist
Church, on the morning of Sunday, March 21st, from the text 1st
Corinthians, xv. 55: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy
victory?"
Bishop Richardson, while possessing few or none of the superlatively
salient characteristics by which some of his contemporaries were
distinguished, was one of those men who, almost imperceptibly, exert a
wide and lasting influence for good. There was nothing showy or flashy
about him; nothing theatrical or unreal. He made no pretence to
brilliant oratory, or indeed to specially brilliant gifts of any kind.
He was simply a man of good intellect and sound judgment, with a highly
developed moral nature, who strove earnestly to benefit his fellow-men,
and to leave the world better than he found it. He believed in
Episcopacy, and was in full sympathy with the form of government adopted
by his Church; but his zeal for Episcopacy was altogether subordinated
to his zeal for Christianity. His life was conscientiously devoted to
the service of his Master, and he has left behind him many hallowed
memories. Next to his piety, perhaps the most conspicuous thing about
him was his love for his country. His patriotism was as zealous in his
declining years as it had been in those remote times when he lost his
left arm before the batteries of Oswego. At the time of the Fenian
invasion of Canada, in 1866--when he was in his seventy-sixth year--his
loyal sympathies were roused to such a degree that he expressed his
willingness to risk his one remaining arm in his country's defence. He
would have taken the field, had his doing so been necessary, with as
clear a conscience as he would have discharged any other duty of his
life. In the words of his biographer: "Loyalty to God and his country,
uprightness and integrity in his dealings with his fellow-men, and civil
and religious liberty for all, were leading articles in his creed."
LORD SEATON.
Lord Seaton, who is better known to Canadians by his commoner's title of
Sir John Colborne, was a son of Samuel Colborne, an English gentleman
resident at Lyndhurst, in the county of Hants. He was born sometime in
the year 1777, and after passing from the hands of a private tutor to
Winchester College--where he remained several years--he embraced a
military life, in 1794, by entering the army in the capacity of an
ensign. The closing years of the last century were propitious for a
young British soldier fired by an ambition to distinguish himself, and
young Colborne had embraced precisely the career for which he was best
fitted. He was a born soldier, and throughout his military life
furnished an apt illustration of the round peg in the round hole.
Napier, the historian of the Peninsular War, speaks of him as having
developed "an extraordinary genius for war," and another historian
refers to him as one of the bravest and most efficient officers produced
by those stirring times. For the readers of these pages the chief
interest in his career begins with his arrival in Canada in 1828. His
services previous to that date may be summarized in a few sentences. In
1799 he was sent over by way of Holland to Egypt under Sir Ralph
Abercromby, and remained there until the realm of the Pharaohs was
cleared of the French and restored to the Sultan's dominion. He was with
the British and Russian troops employed on the Neapolitan frontier in
1805; also in Sicily and Calabria, in the campaign of 1806. Having
obtained promotion for his gallant services, he became Military
Secretary to General Fox, Commander of the Forces in Sicily and the
Mediterranean, and afterwards acted in the same capacity to Sir John
Moore. He was present at the battle of Corunna, where his brave Chief
met a glorious death. Immediately afterwards he joined the army of Lord
Wellington, and in 1809 he was sent to La Mancha to report on the
operations of the Spanish armies. Having received the command of a
regiment, and having been appointed to a lieutenant-colonelcy, he
commanded a brigade in Sir Rowland Hill's division in the campaigns of
1810-11, and was detached in command of the brigade to Castel Branco, to
observe the movements of General Reynier's _corps d'armée_ on the
frontier of Portugal. At the battle of Busaco he commanded a brigade and
also on the retreat to the Lines of Torres Vedras. On the 21st of June,
1814, he married Miss Elizabeth Yonge, daughter of the Rev. J. Yonge, of
Puslinch, Devonshire, and Rector of Newton-Ferrers. He was actively
employed all through the War in the Peninsula, and received his due
proportion of wounds and glory. In 1815 he was present at the memorable
battle of Waterloo, in command of his old regiment, the 52nd. He
likewise commanded a brigade on the celebrated march to Paris. The
battle of Waterloo was the last European conflict in which he took part.
He subsequently became Lieutenant-Governor of Guernsey, one of the
Channel Islands. In 1825 he was appointed a Major-General; and in 1828
he first came to Canada as Lieutenant-Governor, when the chief interest
in his life, so far as Canadian readers are concerned, may be said to
have begun. He succeeded Sir Peregrine Maitland, who had been
transferred to Nova Scotia.
He arrived in Canada in November, 1828, and at once assumed charge of
the Administration. His predecessor had left him a very undesirable
legacy in the shape of great popular discontent. It was announced that
Sir John had come over with instructions to reverse Sir Peregrine
Maitland's policy, and to govern in accordance with liberal principles.
The general elections of that year testified plainly enough that the
people of Upper Canada were moving steadily in the direction of Reform,
and if Sir John had acted in accordance with the instructions he had
received from headquarters a good deal of subsequent calamity might
perhaps have been averted. But the new Governor was essentially a
military Governor. He had been literally "a man of war from his youth."
His character, though in the main upright and honourable, was stern and
unbending, and his military pursuits had not fitted him for the task of
governing a people who were just beginning to grasp the principles of
constitutional liberty. He allied himself with the Family Compact, and
was guided by the advice of that body in his administration of public
affairs. Parliament met early in January, 1829, and it soon became
apparent that Sir John Colborne's idea of a liberal policy was not
sufficiently advanced to meet the demands of the Assembly. There is no
need to recapitulate in detail the arbitrary proceedings to which the
Governor lent his countenance during the next few years. The prosecution
of Collins and of William Lyon Mackenzie, and the setting apart of the
fifty-seven rectories, have often been commented upon, and but little
satisfaction is to be derived from repeating those oft-told grievances.
Upon the whole, Sir John Colborne's Administration of Upper Canadian
affairs cannot be said to have been much more beneficent than was that
of his predecessor. With good intentions, he was constitutionally
unequal to the requirements of the position in which he found himself
placed. His course of action was very distasteful to the Reform Party,
but he continued to govern the Upper Province until 1835, when he
solicited his recall. His request was acceded to. His successor, Sir
Francis Bond Head, arrived in January, 1836, and Sir John was just about
to sail from New York for Europe, when he received a despatch appointing
him Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Canada. He consequently
returned, and took up his quarters at Quebec, the capital of the Lower
Province, where he adopted such prompt measures for the defence of the
country as the exigencies of the times demanded. On the breaking out of
the Rebellion he was once more in his proper element, and showed that
the high military reputation which he had achieved on the continent of
Europe had not been undeserved. There is no need to go through the
minutiae of the Lower Canadian Rebellion, nor to tell in detail the
story of St. Denis, of St. Eustache, and of St. Benoit. Sir John has
been accused of unnecessary cruelty in putting down the insurrection.
Suffice it to say that the emergencies of the occasion were such as to
call for determined measures, and that Sir John employed measures suited
to the emergencies. He soon succeeded in extinguishing the flame of
rebellion in all parts of the country, taking the field himself in
person in several engagements. Papineau was compelled to retreat, as
also was Wolfred Nelson and his colleagues; and when Robert, the
latter's brother, presented himself, he was totally routed by the able
regular and militia forces under Sir John Colborne's command. On the
recall of Lord Gosford, Sir John was temporarily appointed
Governor-General of British North America, which high office he vacated
on Lord Durham's arrival in May, 1838. He was appointed to it again on
that nobleman's sudden and unauthorized departure in November of the
same year. He continued to administer the Government until 1839, when he
earnestly solicited his recall, in order that he might be enabled to
repose from his great labours. The Hon. Charles Poulett Thomson was
appointed his successor, and arrived at Quebec to relieve him of the
cares and anxieties of Government. On the 23rd of October Sir John
sailed for England. On his arrival there new honours awaited him. He was
created a peer of the United Kingdom, as Baron Seaton; received the
Grand Cross of the Bath, of Hanover, of St. Michael, and of St. George.
He was also created a Privy Councillor, and a pension of £2,000 per
annum was conferred upon him and his two immediate successors by Act of
Parliament. In 1838 he was appointed Lieutenant-General, and in 1854
General, as also Colonel of the Second Life Guards. In 1860 he was
raised to the highest rank and honour in the British service--that of
Field-Marshal. He died on the 17th of April, 1863, leaving behind him a
numerous progeny, the eldest whereof, James Colborne, succeeded to, and
now holds, the family titles and estates. The latter are of considerable
extent, and are situated in Devonshire, in London, and in the county of
Kildare, Ireland. It is worth while mentioning that the present
incumbent served his father in the capacity of an aide-de-camp during
the Canadian Rebellion.
The name of Sir John Colborne is inseparably blended with that of Upper
Canada College in the minds of the people of this Province. During the
early days of his Administration of affairs in Upper Canada there was a
good deal of agitation in the public mind with respect to the
establishment of a more advanced seat of learning than had previously
existed here. It had long been considered advisable to afford facilities
to the youth of Upper Canada for obtaining a more thorough education
than was to be had at such institutions as the Home District Grammar
School, which up to the year 1829 was the most advanced educational
establishment in York. Public feeling was aroused, and several petitions
were presented to the Legislature on the subject, each of which gave
rise to prolonged controversy and debate. The outcome of the discussion
was that Upper Canada College was established by an order of the
Provincial Government. Its original name was "the Upper Canada College
and Royal Grammar School," and the system upon which it was modelled was
that which was then adopted in most of the great public schools of
England. The classes were first opened on the 8th of January, 1830, in
the building on Adelaide Street which had formerly been used as the Home
District Grammar School. There it continued for more than a year. In the
summer of 1831 the institution was removed to the site which it has
since occupied. A fine portrait in oil of the subject of this sketch, in
his military costume, may be seen in one of the apartments there.
THE HON. SIR DOMINICK DALY.
Sir Dominick Daly was born on the 11th of August, 1799, and was the
third son of Mr. Dominick Daly, a descendant of an old Roman Catholic
family in the county of Galway, Ireland. He was educated at the Roman
Catholic College of St. Mary's, near Birmingham, and after completing
his studies spent some time with an uncle who was a banker in Paris. He
subsequently returned to Ireland. In 1825 the Earl of Dalhousie visited
England, and Sir Francis M. Burton, who acted as Lieutenant-Governor
during his absence, brought with him as his private secretary, Mr.
Dominick Daly, then about twenty-six years of age. Lord Dalhousie
returned to Canada early in 1826, and Mr. Daly returned with Sir Francis
Burton to England.
In 1827 he returned to Quebec, bearing with him instructions to the
Governor-General to confer upon him the office of Provincial Secretary.
The appointment had been procured in England by the influence of Sir
Francis Burton, and other friends of Mr. Daly. During the interval which
elapsed between his appointment as Provincial Secretary and the
rebellion of 1837, a period of about ten years, Mr. Daly carefully
abstained from engaging in the political conflict, and seems to have
enjoyed a larger share of public confidence than any other official.
When Lord Durham was appointed Governor-General after the rebellion, Mr.
Daly was the only public official who was sworn of the Executive
Council, and there is no doubt that he was the only one of the British
officials who was looked on with favour by the leaders of the popular
party. And yet, viewing his conduct by the light of subsequent events,
it is probable that the popular leaders overestimated Mr. Daly's
sympathy with their cause. Unconnected with politics, he considered it
his duty to support the policy of the Governor of the day; and he
doubtless was of opinion that having been for many years incumbent of an
office which had always been admitted to be held as a permanent tenure,
he was justified in retaining it as long as he had the sanction of the
Governor for doing so. When the Union of the old Provinces of Lower and
Upper Canada took place in 1841, the Governor-General called on the
principal departmental officers to find seats in the House of Assembly,
although it is very improbable that he had any intention of strictly
carrying into practice what has since been understood as Responsible
Government. It had been the practice under the old system for the law
officers of the Crown to find seats in the Legislature, but the offices
of Provincial Secretary and Registrar, Receiver-General, Commissioner of
Crown Lands, and Inspector-General, had always been considered
non-political. Lord Sydenham, as far as can be judged from what
occurred, had no definite policy on the subject. He induced Mr. Daly to
enter Parliament, and the latter seems to have had no difficulty in
procuring a seat for the county of Megantic. The Provincial Secretary in
Upper Canada was allowed to retain his office without entering public
life. The Commissioner of Crown Lands in Lower Canada declined becoming
a candidate, and retained his office, while in Upper Canada the
Commissioner of Crown Lands was a member both of the Legislative and
Executive Councils. Mr. Daly seems to have been considered as
unobjectionable by the leaders of the majority in Lower Canada, as he
was by their opponents, which, taking into account the excited state of
feeling at the period of the Union, is conclusive proof that he had
acted with great discretion during the stormy period which preceded the
suspension of the Constitution. When Mr. Baldwin, on accepting office at
the time of the Union, deemed it his duty to acquaint those who were
appointed members of Council prior to the meeting of the first
Parliament of United Canada, that there were some in whom he had no
political confidence, Mr. Daly was one of the exceptions; and as Mr.
Baldwin's avowed object was the introduction of French Canadians into
the Government, he must have been satisfied that they had not the
objection to Mr. Daly that they had to Mr. Ogden and Mr. Day. Mr.
Baldwin's attempt to procure a reconstruction of the Ministry was
unsuccessful, and he resigned, not having been supported by those with
whom he had avowed his readiness to act. Mr. Daly went through the
session of 1841 as a member of the Government, and visited England
during the recess. On the meeting of the Legislature in 1842, Sir
Charles Bagot having, during the interval, succeeded Lord Sydenham,
overtures were made, with the concurrence of Mr. Daly, to Messrs.
Lafontaine and Baldwin, which led to a reconstruction of the Cabinet.
Mr. Daly retained his office of Provincial Secretary, and acted in
perfect harmony with his colleagues, not only during the short term of
Sir Charles Bagot's Government, but during the critical period of 1843,
after Sir Charles Metcalfe's assumption of the Government, and up to the
very moment when, in the opinion of all his colleagues, resignation
became absolutely necessary. During the whole of this period Mr. Daly
appeared to concur with his colleagues on every point on which a
difference of opinion arose, and it was only when resignation became
absolutely necessary that he declined to act any longer in concert with
them. At an early period of the session of 1843 a vacancy occurred in
the Speakership of the Legislative Council--an office of considerable
political importance, and one which it was clearly impossible that the
Ministry could consent to have conferred on a political opponent. The
choice of the Administration fell on the Hon. Denis B. Viger, one of the
oldest Liberal politicians in the Province. On submitting their advice
to Sir Charles Metcalfe, he not only objected most strongly to Mr.
Viger's appointment, but stated that he had offered the post, without
consulting his Ministers, to Mr. Sherwood, a retired Judge, and father
of Mr. Henry Sherwood, one of the leading opponents of the
Administration. Had Mr. Sherwood accepted the offer, the crisis would
have occurred a few weeks sooner than it did, and on a question on which
there could have been no misapprehension. Mr. Sherwood declined the
offer, probably to avoid the impending difficulty, and after some
negotiation, the Ministry consented to withdraw Mr. Viger's name, and to
substitute that of the late Lieutenant-Governor Caron. During all this
difficulty, Mr. Daly was apparently in accord with his colleagues,
although it subsequently appeared that he was acting in concert with Mr.
Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who took an active part in supporting Sir
Charles, and whose letters published in England threw a good deal of
light on the transactions previous to the crisis. Mr. Daly retained his
office of Secretary in the new Ministry formed by Metcalfe, and was
subjected to much censure for what was considered a desertion of his
colleagues. So bitter was the personal feeling that on one occasion
language was used in the House by one of his old colleagues, Mr. Aylwin,
which he deemed so offensive as to lead him to retort in terms that
provoked a hostile message and a subsequent meeting, when, after an
exchange of shots, the dispute was amicably settled.
The Ministry formed under Metcalfe in 1843 was changed repeatedly, Mr.
Daly having been the only member of it who retained office until the
resignation in March, 1848, in consequence of a vote of want of
confidence having been carried in the Assembly at the opening of the
third Parliament. There were during that period two Attorneys-General
and two Solicitors-General in each of the Provinces, two Presidents of
the Council, two Receivers-General, two Ministers of Finance, two
Commissioners of Crown Lands, but only one Secretary, whose adhesion to
office was the subject of a good deal of remark. When at last
resignation became indispensably necessary, Mr. Daly withdrew almost
immediately from public life. It had clearly never been his intention to
continue in Parliament as a member of the Opposition; and it could
scarcely have been expected by the Party with which circumstances had
forced him into alliance that he would adhere to it after its downfall.
It may truly be said of Mr. Daly that he was never a member of any
Canadian Party, and that he had no sympathy with the political views of
any of his numerous colleagues. A most amiable man in private life, and
much esteemed by a large circle of private friends, he was wholly
unsuited for public life. He had never been in the habit of speaking in
public prior to his first election, and he never attempted to acquire
the talent. Having no private fortune, he found himself after the age of
forty suddenly called upon to take a prominent part in the organization
of a new system of government, which involved his probable retirement,
and as an almost necessary consequence, his subsequent exclusion from
office.
In estimating Sir Dominick Daly's political character, it would be
unfair to judge him by the same standard as those who subsequently
accepted office with a full knowledge of the responsibilities which they
incurred by doing so. Sir Dominick Daly was the last of the old Canadian
bureaucracy, and it is not a little singular that he should have been
able to retain his old office of Secretary under the new system for a
period of fully seven years. On his return to England his claim on the
Imperial Government, which without doubt had been strongly urged by
Metcalfe, was promptly recognized, and he was almost immediately
appointed a Commissioner of Enquiry into the claims of the New and
Waltham Forests, which he held until the close of the Commission in
1850-51. He was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the Island of Tobago,
in the Windward Island group, in 1851, and transferred to the government
of Prince Edward Island in 1854, which he held until 1857. In November,
1861, he was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of South
Australia, where he died in the year 1868, in the sixty-ninth year of
his age. He had received the honour of knighthood on the termination of
his service in Prince Edward Island.
Sir Dominick Daly married, in 1826, a daughter of Colonel Gore, of
Barrowmount, in the County Kilkenny, Ireland, by whom he had several
children. One of his sons is the present representative of the city of
Halifax in the Dominion Parliament.
THE HON. WILLIAM McMASTER.