year. The progress of the mental revolution was slow, but certain, and
by degrees the past of Thomas D'Arcy McGee stood revealed to him in all
its insufficient barrenness. He fought against his
steadily-strengthening convictions as long as he could, but his judgment
and good sense at last won the day. In the month of August, 1852, he
liberated his mind in a letter published in the _Celt_, and addressed to
his friend Thomas Francis Meagher. In that letter he unfolded with much
frankness the process by which he had been led to modify his opinions,
and referred to the scheme of the past as "the recent conspiracy against
the peace and existence of Christendom." His emancipation was complete,
and from this time forward there was an entire revolution in the tone of
all his writings and public speeches. Instead of writing diatribes
against the irrevocable he adopted "Peace and good will among men" as
his motto. Amicable relations were restored between him and the Roman
Catholic hierarchy, and erelong, at the request of the late Bishop
Timon, of Buffalo, he removed the office of publication of the _Celt_ to
that place. He continued the publication for about five years after the
removal, during which time he made many friends and achieved a fair
share of worldly prosperity. He was a diligent, albeit rather a fitful
student, and amassed a considerable fund of political and general
knowledge. His paper was regarded as the chief exponent of Irish
Catholic opinion on this continent, and as a standard authority on all
matters connected with Irish affairs. Some of his ablest lectures were
composed and delivered during this period, and some of them were the
means of greatly extending his reputation. Among those which evoked the
most flattering criticism from the press, those on "The Catholic History
of America," "The Irish Reformation," and "The Jesuits" occupy the
foremost place. The many demands upon his time did not prevent him from
engaging in various laudable enterprises for ameliorating the moral and
social condition of his countrymen in America, and from putting forth
many valuable suggestions for their guidance. It was his special object,
says one of the most sympathetic of his critics, to keep them bound
together by the memories of their common past, and to teach them that
manly self-respect which would elevate them before their
fellow-citizens, and keep them from political degradation. He strove to
make them good citizens of their adopted country, lovers of the old
cradle-land of their race, and devoted adherents of what to them was
"the sacred cause of Catholicity." Among other schemes vigorously
propounded by him for their material advancement was that of
colonization--"spreading abroad and taking possession of the land;
making homes on the broad prairies of the all-welcoming West," instead
of herding together in the tenement houses of the large cities. In
furtherance of this project he organized a Convention at Buffalo at
which he addressed the assembled representatives with great eloquence.
He began, however, to experience the pecuniary difficulties inseparable
from the conduct of a newspaper which declines to ally itself with any
political party, for he had persistently held aloof from the troubled
sea of party-politics in the United States. These difficulties
increased, and were sometimes so great as to occasion serious
embarrassment. His future prospects were not bright, and he looked
forward with some anxiety. When matters had reached a pretty low ebb
with him he was advised to change his base of operations. His
journalistic pursuits and his platform experiences had brought him into
contact with many prominent Irish Canadians, with some of whom he had
formed warm personal friendships. By these gentlemen he was urged to
take up his abode in Montreal, where, as he was informed, the want of a
ruling mind such as his was sensibly felt by the rapidly-increasing
Irish population. It was further represented to him that the
appreciation he had met with in the United States had been by no means
commensurate with his deserts, and that his compatriots in Canada stood
in urgent need of his services. To such representations he was not
disposed to turn a deaf ear, more especially as the pecuniary outlook in
Buffalo was far from encouraging. After careful deliberation he assented
to the proposal which had been made to him, disposed of his interest in
his newspaper, and removed to Montreal with his family early in 1857.
The manner of his reception in Montreal was such as could not fail to be
highly gratifying to his feelings. His fellow-countrymen vied with each
other in doing him honour, and in affording him material support. He
established a newspaper called the _New Era_. His acquaintance with
Canadian affairs at this date was not very wide, and he was compelled to
take a somewhat non-committal stand on many questions which the public
had at heart. On one subject, however, he spoke with no uncertain sound.
He advocated with great energy and eloquence the scheme of an early
union of the various British colonies in North America. The _New Era_
did not realize, in a pecuniary sense, the expectations of its founder,
but as matters turned out, its success or non-success was a matter of
little importance. At the next general election Mr. McGee, after a close
contest, was returned to Parliament as the representative of Montreal
West. The publication of the newspaper was discontinued, and he devoted
himself to his duties as a legislator.
From the time of first taking his seat in Parliament he was a
conspicuous figure there; but it must be confessed that during the
earlier sessions of his Parliamentary career he did little to inspire
the public with any belief in his profound statesmanship. He arrayed
himself on the side of the Opposition, and attacked the then-existing
Cartier-Macdonald Administration with all the fiery eloquence at his
command. "It was observed," says Mr. Fennings Taylor, "that he was a
relentless quiz, an adroit master of satire, and the most active of
partisan sharpshooters. Many severe, some ridiculous, and not a few
savage things were said by him. Thus from his affluent treasury of
caustic and bitter irony he contributed not a little to the personal and
Parliamentary embarrassments of those times. Many of the speeches of
that period we would rather forget than remember. Some were not
complimentary to the body to which they were addressed, and some of them
were not creditable to the person by whom they were delivered. It is
true that such speeches secured crowded galleries, for they were sure to
be either breezy or ticklish, gusty with rage, or grinning with jests.
They were therefore the raw materials out of which mirth is
manufactured, and consequently they ruffled tempers that were remarkable
for placidity, and provoked irrepressible laughter in men who were
regarded as too grave to be jocose. Of course they were little
calculated to elicit truth, or promote order, or attract respect to the
speaker. Mr. McGee appeared chiefly to occupy himself in saying
unpleasant and severe things; in irritating the smoothest natures, and
in brushing everybody's hair the wrong way." The personalities in which
he permitted himself to indulge were frequently in the worst conceivable
taste, and he raised up for himself many enemies. It began to be
suspected that this brilliant Irishman, whose advent into Canadian
political life had been heralded with so loud a flourish of trumpets,
was no heaven-born statesman, after all. He said some clever things in
the course of his speeches, and a good many other things that were
neither clever nor sensible. There was an evident desire on his part to
attract attention to himself, and his self-consciousness was sometimes
so marked as to be positively offensive. It was difficult to say why he
had joined the ranks of the Opposition. Of the local politics he, at the
time of his entry into Parliament, knew little or nothing, and there was
not much in common between him and the leaders of the Party to which he
had attached himself. The latter could not feel as though their ranks
had been very powerfully strengthened by such an accession. As the years
passed by, however, D'Arcy McGee became more tractable, and--be it
said--more sensible. He never entirely overcame his fondness for
displaying his Irish wit on the floor of the House, but he taught
himself to be more amenable to certain rules of debate which are tacitly
recognized among the members of all grave deliberative assemblies. To
put the matter in plain English, he less frequently transgressed the
bounds of decorum and sober good-breeding. With increase of years came
increase of knowledge as to the needs of the country, and as to the
proper functions of a legislator. His intellectual vision became keener,
and his views acquired breadth. It began to be apparent that there was a
serious side to his character, and that he could rise to a high level
upon a great occasion. No one had ever doubted that he possessed a
goodly share of genius, but he began to show that he also possessed more
practical qualifications for a statesman. Though largely endowed with
the poetical temperament, he did not disdain to interest himself in such
prosaic matters as statistics, and could make an effective speech of
which figures formed the main argument. His oratory, though florid and
discursive, began to exhibit symptoms of a genuine manly purpose. He
studied law, and in 1861 was called to the Bar of the Lower Province,
though he never seriously devoted himself to the practice of that
profession. He continued to fight in the Opposition ranks until the
downfall of the Cartier-Macdonald Ministry in the month of May, 1862. In
the Administration which succeeded, under the leadership of John
Sandfield Macdonald and Louis Victor Sicotte, he accepted office as
President of the Council. After the resignation of the Hon. A. A.
Dorion, he also acted for some time as Provincial Secretary. Upon the
reconstruction of the Administration in the following year he was not
invited to take a portfolio, and his dissatisfaction at the cavalier
treatment to which he had been subjected soon began to make itself
apparent. He crossed the House, and voted against the new Government,
accompanying his votes with remarks the reverse of complimentary to the
Premier. Upon the formation of the Taché-Macdonald Government, which was
nothing if not Conservative, in March, 1864, Mr. McGee became Minister
of Agriculture; a position which he continued to hold until the
accomplishment of Confederation. He had thus completely changed sides,
though it does not appear that his party convictions had undergone any
material modification, and it was alleged, with some show of truth, that
he was actuated more by pique than by principle.
In the proceedings which resulted in Confederation Mr. McGee took a
conspicuous and an honourable part. The union of the British North
American Provinces, as we have seen, had been advocated by him from the
time of his first arrival in the country. Independently of his speeches
in the House, which were among the most brilliant efforts evoked by the
occasion, he did good service by his writings in the public press, and
by lectures and addresses delivered by him in various parts of Canada
and the Maritime Provinces. In order that he might be relieved from
pecuniary cares by which he was sometimes beset, his friends throughout
the country organized a fund on his behalf, and purchased and presented
him with a comfortable, well-appointed homestead in Montmorenci Terrace,
St. Catherine Street, Montreal, wherein he and his family found a
resting-place during the remaining years of his life. He was thus
enabled to address himself to his cherished projects with comparative
freedom from anxiety.
In 1865 he repaired to England as a Member of the Executive Council to
confer with the Imperial Government upon the great question of
Confederation. During his absence he, after an interval of seventeen
years, once more set foot on his native land, and paid a visit to
Wexford, the home of his boyhood, where he was the guest of his father.
During his sojourn at Wexford on this occasion he delivered an eloquent
speech on the condition of the Irish race in America. He publicly
deplored the part he had played in the troubles of 1848, and enlarged
upon the demoralized condition of his countrymen in the United States as
compared with those resident in Canada. He proclaimed his conviction
that the time for fruitless attempts at insurrection was past, and that
he for his part should regard traitors to Great Britain as the enemies
of human progress. This deliverance gave grievous offence to the Irish
citizens of the United States, by many of whom D'Arcy McGee was
thenceforward denounced as a renegade to his principles. This sentiment
was strengthened by McGee's righteous denunciations of the Fenian horde
who menaced our shores in the summer of 1866, and who shed the blood of
some of our promising young men. At the general election of 1867 these
utterances were called into requisition as an election cry. Mr. McGee
had not accepted a portfolio in the first Government under
Confederation, which had just been formed, but had waived his claim to
office in favour of another Irish Catholic, Mr. Kenny, of Nova Scotia.
McGee, however, though he was thus complaisant, had no intention of
retiring immediately from public life, and once more offered himself to
his constituents in Montreal West. That constituency was the abode of
the local "Head Centre" of the Fenian Brotherhood, and the Fenian
influence there was considerable. Mr. McGee's utterances had made him
the object of the inveterate hatred of that body, and it was determined
that he should be ousted from the seat which he had held ever since his
entry into political life in Canada. Mr. Devlin, an Irish Catholic, and
a prominent member of the Montreal Bar, was brought out as an opposition
candidate, and the most shameless devices were resorted to to secure
that gentleman's return. "Every vile epithet calculated to rouse
ignorant Irish Catholics,"--says the author of "The Irishman in
Canada,"--"was hurled at McGee. He had, as his manner was, gone right
round from denying the existence of Fenianism in Montreal, to
exaggerating the extent of it, and denouncing it, not in undeserved
terms, but in terms which seemed violent from a man of his past history.
He won his election, but by a majority which convinced him that his
power had greatly waned. He had, however, the consolation that if he had
lost popularity, he had lost it in enlightening his countrymen." He had
felt it to be his duty to place Fenianism in its proper light before his
fellow-countrymen in Canada. He knew that the order was powerless for
good, and that it would entail pecuniary loss, if not absolute ruin,
upon many well-meaning but ignorant and misguided persons. So far as the
Fenian scheme contemplated an invasion of Canada, he regarded it with
all the scorn and abhorrence of a loyal subject. For this he was
denounced by the Fenians, and held up to execration as one who had sold
himself to the spoiler.
Before the opening of the first session of the Dominion Parliament he
was attacked by a long and severe illness, which brought him to death's
door, and from which he only recovered in time to attend at the opening
of the session. It was noticed that there was a decided change, not
merely in his physical appearance, but in the workings of his mind. He
had formerly been addicted to frequent indulgence in strong drink. He
had now become rigidly abstemious and regular in all his habits. He
seemed to be pervaded by a seriousness which almost amounted to
melancholy. His friends believed these characteristics to be something
deeper than the temporary humours of convalescence. His serious
indisposition had made him reflect, and his situation was one which
afforded ample food for reflection. Ever since the delivery of the
Wexford speech he had been in receipt of frequent anonymous letters in
which he was anathematized as a traitor, and warned to prepare for
death. Some of these came from Ireland. The envelopes of a few of them
afforded evidence of their having been posted in Montreal; but by far
the greater number came from the United States. He affected to console
himself with the proverb that "threatened men live long," but he could
not bring himself to regard these truly fiendish communications with
indifference. He knew the desperate character of the class of Irishmen
from whom they emanated, and he shuddered as he reflected that he had at
one time been the idol and fellow-worker of such as they. The shadow of
his impending doom was upon him. During the interval between rising from
his bed of sickness and the opening of the session in November he had
determined to retire from public life in the course of the following
year, and to devote the rest of his days to literary pursuits. His
determination was not destined to be carried out. He took a part in the
debates while the session was in progress, and some of the most
statesmanlike utterances that ever passed his lips were delivered during
this, the last winter he was ever to see. On the evening of the 6th of
April he occupied his usual place in the House, and made a brilliant and
effective speech on the subject of the lately-formed Union. A little
after two o'clock on the following morning he left the House in company
with two of his political friends, and proceeded in the direction of the
place where he lodged--the Toronto House, on Sparks Street, kept by a
Mrs. Trotter. When the three had arrived within a hundred yards of Mr.
McGee's destination they separated, each betaking himself to his own
lodging-house. Mr. McGee, having reached his door and inserted his
latch-key, was just about entering, when the sound of a pistol-shot was
heard by his landlady, who was awaiting his arrival. She hurried to the
door, and opened it, to find Mr. McGee's body lying prone across the
sidewalk. The alarm was given, and a crowd soon collected on the spot.
The body was raised, but the assassin's bullet had done its work. The
ball had entered the back of the head and passed through the mouth,
shattering the front teeth, and producing what must have been instant
and painless death.
The miscreant at whose hands D'Arcy McGee met his fate was a Fenian
named Patrick James Whalen. He was subsequently arrested, tried, found
guilty, and hanged at Ottawa.
Had Mr. McGee lived another week he would have completed his forty-third
year; so that he was still a young man, and had his life been spared
there is good reason to believe that he would have made an abiding mark
in literature. During his lifetime he published many volumes, but they
were for the most part written under disadvantageous circumstances, and
merely afford indications of what he might have achieved in literature.
His poems have been collected in various editions; but the work by which
he is best known is his "Popular History of Ireland," originally
published in two volumes at New York in 1863, and since reprinted in
various forms.
[Illustration: DAVID ALLISON, signed as David Allison]
DAVID ALLISON, M.A., LL.D.,
_SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION FOR THE PROVINCE OF NOVA SCOTIA._
Doctor Allison was born at Newport, Hants County, Nova Scotia, on the
3rd of July, 1836. By both lines of descent he belongs to that thrifty
Scoto-Irish stock to which the central counties of Nova Scotia are
largely indebted for their progress. On the paternal side he belongs to
a family which has displayed much aptitude for public affairs, his
grandfather and father both having occupied seats in the Provincial
Legislature. His brother, Mr. W. Henry Allison, after occupying a seat
in the same Body for several terms, at present represents the county of
Hants in the House of Commons.
His preliminary education was received at the Provincial Academy at
Halifax--since re-organized and developed into Dalhousie College--and at
the Wesleyan Academy, Sackville, N.B. His school-boy days at Halifax
were contemporaneous with a period of great political excitement, and a
race of orators rarely surpassed in any colonial legislature--Howe,
Johnston, Young, Uniacke--enlivened the Assembly room of the Province
with their eloquence. Frequent attendance on the discussions waged by
these masters of debate gave to the young student's mind a strong and
permanent leaning towards political and constitutional studies. At
Sackville, where he studied four consecutive years, the basis of a broad
and liberal training was firmly laid. Twenty-five years ago,
institutions of learning really doing educational work of a high order
were not so numerous in the Maritime Provinces as they now are, and the
Academy at Sackville, distinguished for its high standard and energetic
methods, attracted patronage, not only from Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick, but from Newfoundland and "the vexed Bermoothes." During his
connection with this school, he was thus brought into contact with many
young men who have since won distinction in Provincial life. His
academic career ended, he was determined (we suppose) by denominational
proclivities to seek University training and honours at the Wesleyan
University, Middletown, Conn., U.S., where his career was in a high
degree successful and brilliant. For some years after graduation, in
1859, he filled the post of classical instructor at Sackville, first in
the Academy, and from 1862 to 1869 in the Mount Allison College, an
institution organized in that year under charter obtained from the
Legislature of New Brunswick. The resignation of the Presidency of the
College by the Rev. Dr. Pickard, in 1869, gave its Board of Governors an
opportunity of showing their appreciation of his scholarship and
character. He was unanimously elected President, and thenceforward for
nine years devoted himself with assiduity and success to the duties of
that position.
The work of a classical teacher, especially in a country college, does
not attract much public attention, and however effectively performed
cannot furnish much material for biographical remark. It is enough to
say that Professor Allison taught the classics with great efficiency,
illuminating the otherwise dull page with the illustrative light of
history, philosophy and literature. On his accession to the Presidency
of the College he exchanged the Chair of Classics for that of Mental
Science, and his lectures on that subject as delivered to successive
classes would, if published, secure for their author no mean reputation
as an acute and independent thinker. During the nine years of his
Presidency at Sackville he bore a heavy load of responsibility. The work
of endowing the College and generally improving its financial condition
was no light one. The intense intercollegiate competition of the Lower
Provinces rendered it necessary to infuse new vigour into the teaching
staff. The unsettled condition of the "higher education" question, and
the somewhat feverish state of the public mind regarding it, obliged one
occupying his position to be on the alert, ready with pen or voice to
attack or defend as circumstances might require. It is sufficient to
affirm, that when in 1878 he resigned his office for a new sphere of
responsibility, no College in the Maritime Provinces had for its years a
better record than his, and no college officer a wider or more enviable
reputation for varied scholarship and progressive tendencies of mind.
On a vacancy arising in the office of Superintendent of Education for
the Province of Nova Scotia in 1877, all eyes were turned to him.
Enjoying to a flattering extent the confidence of the friends of the
Sackville Institution, he naturally hesitated, but finally yielded when
appeals from the leaders of public opinion on all sides were joined to
the independent attractions of the offered post. The two years during
which he has administered the educational affairs of the Province show
clearly that he possesses a delicate appreciation of the elements of the
problem which he is required to solve. Reforms should, if possible,
follow one another in logical sequence. If the new Superintendent is
moving too slowly for some and too fast for others, he is probably
moving as all his really sincere and well-informed critics would wish
him to do, were their opportunities for taking in the whole situation as
good as his. Since his appointment he has aroused throughout the
Province a fresh interest in the cause of popular instruction, not only
by his masterly reports, but by the vigorous use of his abundant gift of
public speaking.