[84] John George Lambton, Earl of Durham, was born at Lambton Castle, in
April, 1792, and died at the Isle of Wight, on the 28th July, 1840,
broken-hearted at the apparent failure of his Canadian mission.
"Lord Durham," says Justin McCarthy, "was a man of remarkable character.
It is a matter of surprise how little his name is thought of by the
present generation, seeing what a strenuous figure he seemed in the eyes
of his contemporaries, and how striking a part he played in the politics
of a time which has even still some living representatives. He belonged to
one of the oldest families in England. The Lambtons had lived on their
estate in the north in uninterrupted succession since the Conquest. The
male succession, it is stated, never was interrupted since the twelfth
century. They were not, however, a family of aristocrats. Their wealth was
derived chiefly from coal mines, and grew up in later days; the property
at first, and for a long time, was of inconsiderable value. For more than
a century, however, the Lambtons had come to take rank among the gentry of
the country, and some member of the family had represented the city of
Durham in the House of Commons from 1727 until the early death of Lord
Durham's father, in December, 1797, William Henry Lambton, Lord Durham's
father, was a staunch Whig, and had been a friend and associate of Fox.
John George Lambton, the son, was born at Lambton Castle, in April, 1792.
Before he was quite twenty years of age, he made a romantic marriage at
Gretna Green with a lady who died three years after. He served for a short
time in a regiment of Hussars. About a year after the death of his first
wife, he married the eldest daughter of Lord Grey. In 1828 he was raised
to the Peerage with the title of Baron Durham." - History of Our Own
Times, page 9. - Justin McCarthy.
[85] I use the term advisedly, for had he followed out the Colborne policy
and gibbetted the "Bermuda exiles," he would have had one sin less to
atone for, at the hands of Lord Brougham and other merciless enemies in
England.
[86] Thanks to the late Mr. J. B. Martel, then Secretary of the Harbour
Commission, Quebec, we may designate in a few words the site which the
Quebec Bank now possesses. This extent of ground (at that period a beach
lot), was conceded to the Seminary by the Marquis de Denonville in 1687,
and confirmed by the King, the 1st March, 1688. The 25th August, 1750,
Messire Christophe de Lalane, Directeur du Seminaire des Missions
Etrangeres a Paris, made a concession of it to Mons. Nicholas Rene
Levasseur, Ingenieur, formerly chief contractor of the ships of "His
Most Christian Majesty." On the 24th June, 1760, a deed of sale of this
same property, to Joseph Brassard Descheneaux, consisting of a two-story
house and a wharf (avec les peintures au-dessus de la porte.) On the 8th
September, 1764, a deed of sale to Alexander McKenzie, purchase money,
$5,800.
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