LORD ELGIN IN TORONTO.
On the 9th day of October, 1849, Lord Elgin made his second public entry
into Toronto. The announcement of his intention to do so, communicated
to the mayor, Geo. Gurnett, Esq., by letter signed by his lordship's
brother and secretary, Col. Bruce, raised a storm of excitement in the
city, which was naturally felt in the city council. The members were
almost to a man Tories, a large proportion of whom had served as
volunteers in 1837-8. The more violent insisted upon holding His
Excellency personally responsible for the payment of rebels for losses
arising out of the rebellion in Lower Canada; while moderate men
contended, that as representative of the Queen, the Governor-General
should be received with respect and courtesy at least, if not with
enthusiasm. So high did party feeling run, that inflammatory placards
were posted about the streets, calling on all loyal men to oppose His
Excellency's entrance, as an encourager and abettor of treason. A
special meeting of the council was summoned in consequence, for
September 13th, at which the Hon. Henry Sherwood, member for the city,
moved a resolution declaring the determination of the council to repress
all violence, whether of word or deed, which was carried by a large
majority.
The draft of an address which had been prepared by a committee of the
citizens, and another by Ald. G. T. Denison, were considered at a
subsequent meeting of the council held on the 17th, and strongly
objected to--the first as too adulatory, the second as too political. As
I had the readiest pen in the council, and was in the habit of helping
members on both sides to draft their ideas in the form of resolutions,
the mayor requested me to prepare an address embodying the general
feelings of the members. I accordingly did so to the best of my ability,
and succeeded in writing one which might express the loyalty of the
citizens, without committing them to an approval of the conduct of the
Hincks-Tache government in carrying through Parliament the Rebellion
Losses Bill. The other addresses having been either defeated or
withdrawn, I submitted mine, which was carried by a majority of
seventeen to four. And thus was harmony restored.
His Excellency arrived on the appointed day, being the 9th of October.
The weather was beautiful, and the city was alive with excitement, not
unmingled with apprehension. Lieut.-Col. and Ald. G. T. Denison had
volunteered the services of the Governor-General's Body Guard, which
were graciously accepted. A numerous cortege of officials and prominent
citizens met and accompanied the Vice-regal party from the Yonge St.
wharf to Ellah's Hotel, on King St. west. As they were proceeding up
Yonge street, one or two rotten eggs were thrown at the
Governor-General's carriage, by men who were immediately arrested.
On arriving at Ellah's Hotel, His Excellency took his stand on the
porch, where the City Address was presented, which with the reply I give
in full:--
ADDRESS.
_To His Excellency the Right Hon. James Earl of Elgin and Kincardine,
Governor-General, &c., &c._
May it Please Your Excellency,
We, the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the City of Toronto,
in Common Council assembled, beg leave to approach Your
Excellency as the representative of our Most Gracious and
beloved Sovereign, with renewed assurances of our attachment and
devotion to Her Majesty's person and government.
We will not conceal from Your Excellency, that great diversity
of opinion, and much consequent excitement, exists among us on
questions connected with the political condition of the
Province; but we beg to assure Your Excellency, that however
warmly the citizens of Toronto may feel on such subjects, they
will be prepared on all occasions to demonstrate their high
appreciation of the blessings of the British Constitution, by
according to the Governor-General of this Province that respect
and consideration which are no less due to his exalted position,
than to the well tried loyalty and decorum which have ever
distinguished the inhabitants of this peaceful and flourishing
community.
The City of Toronto has not escaped the commercial depression
which has for some time so generally prevailed. We trust,
however, that the crisis is now past, and that the abundant
harvest with which a kind Providence has blessed us, will ere
long restore the commerce of the country to a healthy tone.
We watch with lively interest the prospect which the completion
of our great water communications with the ocean, will open to
us; and we fervently hope that the extension of trade thus
opened to Her Majesty's North American Provinces will tend to
strengthen the union between these Provinces and the Parent
State.
We congratulate Your Excellency and Lady Elgin upon the birth of
an heir to Your Excellency's house; and we truly sympathise with
Her Ladyship upon her present delicate and weak state, and
venture to hope that her tour through Upper Canada will have the
effect of restoring her to the enjoyment of perfect health.
REPLY.
Gentlemen,--I receive with much satisfaction the assurance of
your attachment and devotion to Her Majesty's person and
government.
That the diversities of opinion which exist among you, on
questions connected with the political condition of the
Province, should be attended with much excitement, is greatly to
be regretted, and I fully appreciate the motives which induce
you at the present time, to call my attention to the fact. I am
willing, nevertheless, to believe that however warmly the
citizens of Toronto may feel on such subjects, they will be
prepared, on all occasions, to demonstrate their high
appreciation of the blessings of the British Constitution, by
according to the Governor-General that respect and consideration
which are no less due to his position than to their own
well-tried loyalty and decorum.
It is my firm conviction, moreover, that the inhabitants of
Canada, generally, are averse to agitation, and that all
communities as well as individuals, who aspire to take a lead in
the affairs of the Province, will best fit themselves for that
high avocation, by exhibiting habitually in their demeanour, the
love of order and of peaceful progress.
I have observed with much anxiety and concern the commercial
depression from which the City of Toronto, in common with other
important towns in the Province, has of late so seriously
suffered. I trust, however, with you, that the crisis is now
past, and that the abundant harvest, with which a kind
Providence has blessed the country, will ere long restore its
commerce to a healthy tone.
The completion of your water communications with the ocean must
indeed be watched with a lively interest by all who have at
heart the welfare of Canada and the continuance of the
connection so happily subsisting between the Province and the
Parent State. These great works have undoubtedly been costly,
and the occasion of some financial embarrassment while in
progress. But I firmly believe that the investment you have made
in them has been judicious, and that you have secured thereby
for your children, and your children's children, an inheritance
that will not fail them so long as the law of nature endures
which causes the waters of your vast inland seas to seek an
outlet to the ocean.
I am truly obliged to you for the congratulations which you
offer me on the birth of my son, and for the kind interest which
you express in Lady Elgin's health: I am happy to be able to
inform you, that she has already derived much benefit from her
sojourn in Upper Canada.
As not a little fictitious history has been woven out of these events, I
shall call in evidence here the _Globe_ newspaper of the 11th, the
following day, in which I find this editorial paragraph:--
"It is seldom we have had an opportunity of speaking in terms of
approbation of our civic authorities, but we cannot but express
our high sense of the manly, independent manner in which all
have done their duty on this occasion. The grand jury[19] is
chiefly composed of Conservatives, the Mayor, Aldermen and the
police are all Conservatives, but no men could have carried out
more fearlessly their determination to maintain order in the
community."
Of all the Governors-General who have been sent out to Canada, Lord
Elgin was by far the best fitted, by personal suavity of manners,
eloquence in speech, and readiness in catching the tone of his hearers,
to tide over a stormy political crisis. He had not been long in Toronto
before his praises rang from every tongue, even the most embittered.
Americans who came in contact with him, went away charmed with his
flattering attentions.
[Footnote 19: The grand jury, who happened to be in session, had
presented some thirteen young men as parties to an attempt to create a
riot. Some months afterwards, the persons accused were brought to trial,
and three of them found guilty and sentenced to short terms of
imprisonment.]