No register of names; no list of Edward's partners, such as we
have of the Prince of Wales. [215] No Court Journal! Merely an entry of
the names of the signers of the address in the Quebec Gazette of the
18th August, 1791. Can we not, then, re-people the little world of Quebec
of 1791? - bring back some of the principal actors of those stormy
political, but frolicsome times? Let us walk in with the "nobility and
gentry," and make our best bow to the scion of royalty. There, in fall
uniform, you will recognize His Excellency Lord Dorchester, the Governor-
General, one of our most popular administrators; next to him, that tall,
athletic military man, is the Deputy Governor-General, Sir Alured Clark.
He looks eager to grasp the reins of office from his superior, who will
set sail for home in a few days. See how thoughtful the Deputy Governor
appears; in order to stand higher with his royal English master he
chuckles before-hand over the policy which gives to many old French
territorial divisions, right English names - Durham, Suffolk, Prince
Edward, York, Granville, Buckinghamshire, Herefordshire, Kent. The western
section of Canada will rejoice in the new names of Hesse, Luneberg,
Nassau, Mecklenburg. That Deputy Governor will yet live to win a baton
[216] of Field Marshal under a Hanoverian sovereign. He is now in close
conversation with Chief Justice William Smith, senior. Round there are a
bevy of Judges, Legislative Councillors, Members of Parliament, all done
up to kill, a l'ancienne mode, by Monsigneur Jean Laforme, [217] court
hair-dresser, with powdered periwigs, ruffles and formidable pigtails.
Here is Judge Mabane, Secretary Pownall, Honorable Messrs. Finlay, [218]
Dunn, Harrison, Holland, Collins, Caldwell, Fraser, Lymburner; Messrs.
Lester, Young, Smith junior. Mingled with them you also recognize the
bearers of old historic names - Messrs. de Longueuil, Baby, de Bonne,
Duchesnay, Duniere, Gueroult, de Lotbiniere, Roc de St. Ours, Dambourges,
de Rocheblave, de Rouville, de Boucherville, Le Compte, Dupre, Bellestre,
Taschereau, de Tonnancour, Panet, de Salaberry, and a host of others. Were
these gentlemen all present? Probably not, they were likely to be. Dear
reader, you want to know also what royal Edward did - said - was thought of
- amongst the Belgravians of old Stadacona, during the three summers he
spent in Quebec.
"How he looked when he danced, when he sat at his ease,
When his Highness had sneezed, or was going to sneeze."
Bear in mind then, that we have to deal with a dashing Colonel of
Fusileers - age twenty-five - status, a prince of the blood; add that he was
ardent, generous, impulsive, gallant; a tall, athletic fellow; in fact,
one of George III.'s big, burly boys - dignified in manner - a bit of a
statesman; witness his happy and successful speech [219] at the hustings
of the Charlesbourg election, and the biting rebuke it contained in
anticipation - for Sir Edmund Head's unlucky post-prandial joke about the
superior race.
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