But This Insolence Is A False Effort, It Will Be
Said.
It should rather be called a false accompaniment to a life-
long true effort.
The man probably is not dishonest, does not
desire to shirk any service which is due from him, is not even
inclined to insolence. Accept his first declaration of equality
for that which it is intended to represent, and the man afterward
will be found obliging and communicative. If occasion offer he
will sit down in the room with you, and will talk with you on any
subject that he may choose; but having once ascertained that you
show no resentment for this assertion of equality, he will do
pretty nearly all that is asked. He will at any rate do as much in
that way as an Englishman. I say thus much on this subject now
especially, because I was quite as much struck by the feeling in
Canada as I was within the States.
From Prescott we went on by the Grand Trunk Railway to Toronto, and
stayed there for a few days. Toronto is the capital of the
province of Upper Canada, and I presume will in some degree remain
so, in spite of Ottawa and its pretensions. That is, the law
courts will still be held there. I do not know that it will enjoy
any other supremacy unless it be that of trade and population.
Some few years ago Toronto was advancing with rapid strides, and
was bidding fair to rival Quebec, or even perhaps Montreal.
Hamilton also, another town of Upper Canada, was going ahead in the
true American style; but then reverses came in trade, and the towns
were checked for awhile. Toronto, with a neighboring suburb which
is a part of it, as Southwark is of London, contains now over
50,000 inhabitants. The streets are all parallelogramical, and
there is not a single curvature to rest the eye. It is built down
close upon Lake Ontario; and as it is also on the Grand Trunk
Railway, it has all the aid which facility of traffic can give it.
The two sights of Toronto are the Osgoode Hall and the University.
The Osgoode Hall is to Upper Canada what the Four Courts are to
Ireland. The law courts are all held there. Exteriorly, little
can be said for Osgoode Hall, whereas the exterior of the Four
Courts in Dublin is very fine; but as an interior, the temple of
Themis at Toronto beats hollow that which the goddess owns in
Dublin. In Dublin the courts themselves are shabby, and the space
under the dome is not so fine as the exterior seems to promise that
it should be. In Toronto the courts themselves are, I think, the
most commodious that I ever saw, and the passages, vestibules, and
hall are very handsome. In Upper Canada the common-law judges and
those in chancery are divided as they are in England; but it is, as
I was told, the opinion of Canadian lawyers that the work may be
thrown together.
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