Sometimes We Saw A Pretty Lake With
Park-Like Scenery Around, And We Thought "Here We Could Make A Pretty
Country place." At ten o'clock Saturday night we arrived at Toronto, and
Sir David Macpherson and his carriage were waiting
For us, and it was so
delightful to drive in an open carriage with a lovely moon shining and
the sweet, cool air refreshing us, that we were very sorry the drive was
so short. Lady M - - and her daughter, Miss M - -, only in their house,
which seems like an English one in the style of arrangements - servants
and conservatories, and greenhouses, &c., and my bedroom is furnished
like a Scotch one, full of pretty quilts and muslin covers, and odds and
ends. I was delighted to find myself between two very fine sheets, and
slept like a top. Evelyn had a headache and did not get up or go to
church. We drove to the nearest and had a nice service and fair sermon
from a Mr. de Barr, son of a Canadian Judge; Dick, Miss, M - -, and I
stayed to Holy Communion, and I was struck with the remarkable number of
young people who remained. After luncheon I had a long talk with Sir
David. He says we are quite wrong about free trade: as the world is, it
should be fair trade, or England will continue to lose, as she is now
losing, every year. The Canadians are obliged to have Protection on
account of the United States, who would send their manufactured goods by
English vessels and so ruin Canadian workshops. No country can grow and
prosper which only produces the raw article of food, &c. Land alone
cannot make a people rich or great; he thinks the Conservative party are
not half, active or energetic enough, and we must have workmen orators
stumping all over the country to reach their own class, or we shall lose
all influence with those who will really be the ruling power. Here, he
says, the Conservatives are two to one in the House of Commons; the
Radicals here abuse their country, and try to hinder and injure all the
enterprise which would enlarge its borders and bring emigrants to take
possession, and do all they can to lower it in the estimation of
outsiders, in hopes that if things come to smash they might have a
chance of a reign of power. Doesn't this remind one of some people in
our own country? Radicals are called "grits" here, and they say you can
recognize a "grit" when you see him, for though they are not at all from
one class or one industry, they have heads that might betoken a sojourn
in a penitentiary!
_Monday, September 8th_. - We did not go anywhere last evening but
strolled about the garden. Mr. Brand, son of the late Speaker, Mr.
Morris, member of the Senate, and another man, dined. Mr. Morris was
Governor of Manitoba. He said in the year 1870 Winnipeg was a little
wild village. Now, when I asked him about buying a few things at Toronto
for the Rocky Mountains expedition, he exclaimed "Oh! wait until you get
to Winnipeg, you can get everything there!" He described a ball he had
given to some royalties (I forget which) and how he had to scour the
country for three hundred miles round to get provisions enough for the
supper, in the year 1874. In my youth I remember reading of Winnipeg,
Fort William and Lake Superior as the outposts of the Hudson Bay
Company, and how travellers, trappers, &c., endured all manner of
hardships, and crossed hikes with Indians carrying the canoes from lake
to lake, and guiding them through endless swamps and rocky bills, until
half-frozen and starved they arrived quite exhausted at these distant
forts. Now we travel by rail in a private car, and Mr. Donald Smith has
a country house near Winnipeg, to which he invited us, and all along
there are "rising cities" which did not exist in any shape five years
ago. When this Canadian Pacific Railway is finished to British Columbia,
and the Atlantic and Pacific are united by it in one, our "Dominion"
then ought to have a splendid future. I don't think I told you about Mr.
Tan Horn's conversation with me at Montreal he said "we are a great deal
too quiet in Canada; we don't puff ourselves enough or make enough of
our advantages and our doings. Why, we live next door to fifty millions
of liars and we must brag or we shall be talked out."
_Monday, later_. - I have just returned from a drive with Miss M - -
and Hedley to Toronto, and I am surprised at its size and importance,
and busy look and general air of English prosperity and neatness. Though
Montreal is very pretty, the town is too French and idle-looking to be
impressive - there are numbers of well-kept villas and gardens here. We
are now going out to see a regatta on Lake Ontario and to the island.
Lady M - - said last night, when making arrangements, "I think this will
suit the young people," and I exclaimed "Don't put me among the old
ones, please," so I am going. Sir D - - has gone to Ottawa on Ministerial
business.
Letter No. 5.
_September 12th, Niagara Falls._
On Tuesday we drove with John, and Dr. Wilson showed us over the
University and some pretty sketches he had taken. We got berths on board
the steamer from Owen Sound on Saturday. It is difficult to find out who
manages these things, and we had telegrams going to two or three places
before we could make certain of our berths. At four o'clock all sorts of
people called, being Lady Macpherson's "at home" day, and many on me and
E - -. I don't admire Canadian women _especially_! We had fourteen
at dinner and a delightful old Irishman, Chief Justice Haggerty, took me
in. The Lieutenant-Governor, Mr. Robinson, though only the Provincial
Governor, is treated as the representative of the Queen, and goes before
every one.
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