A Man Under Middle Height, Hair Turning A
Little Grey, Eyes Grey Blue, Sparkling And Kindly; Face Almost Grecian;
Figure Spare But Muscular; Well Proportioned; Manner Full Of Almost
Southern Fire, And Restlessness.
We discussed our Grand Trunk affairs.
I explained the objects of our draft Bill, which were few and simple
-
(A) To raise 500,000l. as an "equipment" mortgage, to provide
the railway with, much needed, plant and material; (B) to set aside all
revenue derived from postal and military services; and upon the
security of this revenue to issue "Postal and Military" Bonds,
wherewith to pay the debts due by the Company in Canada and England.
These debts were pressing, and were large. (C) To alter the
administration of the Company in such wise that while the executive
work would be done in Canada, with Montreal as headquarters, the seat
of government would be in London, the stock and bonds being mainly held
in England. I think, at that time, there were not more than
20,000l. of the original issue of Ordinary Stock of the Grand
Trunk held in Canada.
Mr. Cartier knew, of course, all the ins and outs of the Grand Trunk.
His Government had in previous years placed the loan of
3,100,000l. from Canada, expended in construction, behind other
securities, to enable an issue of second bonds with which to complete
the Trunk lines. But, unfortunately, as a condition of this concession,
profitless branches were undertaken, branches, no doubt, locally
useful, perhaps politically needful, but profitless nevertheless.
Mr. Cartier's sole query was, "Have you arranged with the Government at
home as to the Military Revenue?" - to which I replied, that there was
no occasion: the Government made no objection, and regularly paid the
moderate charges made for the conveyance of men and material over the
Railway: and we could, of course, if the Canadian Parliament passed our
draft Bill into an Act, appropriate these receipts in any way the Act
directed. With the Canadian Government it was different. The Canadian
Government had, so far, delayed any settlement of our accounts for the
costly conveyance of mail matter, by special trains, over long
distances, so timed as to suit the Province but not to suit the Grand
Trunk passengers; and one of my objects in coming out was to endeavour
to induce Mr. Cartier and his colleagues to close up this pending
matter for the past and to accord a just and adequate amount for the
service of the future, such amount to be effective over a period of
years. We then went into general conversation. I told Mr. Cartier I had
been in Canada in 1851: and had at that time seen Papinean, Mackenzie,
and others, whose resistance had led to peace and union, and greater
liberty for all. This remark fired his eye; and he said, "Ah! it is
eight years that I am Prime Minister of Canada; when I was a rebel the
country was different, very different."
Mr. Cartier often preceded his observations, I believe, by the words
"When I was a rebel;" and old George Crawford, of the Upper Province, a
magnificent specimen of a Scotch Upper Canadian, once said, "Cartier,
my frind, ye'll be awa to England and see the Queen, and when ye come
bock aw that aboot ye're being a robbell, as no doobt ye were, will
never be hard again. Ye'll begin, mon, 'When I was at Windsor Castle
talking to the Queen.'" Years before, on Cartier being presented to the
Queen by Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, he told Her Majesty that a Lower
Canadian was "an Englishman who speaks French."
But Mr. Cartier had been a rebel; and a gallant and brave one. One of
the incidents was, that when Sir John Colborne's troops invested the
Chateau of St. Eustache, Cartier, a young man of nineteen, was lowered
from a window at night, crawled along to the Cache, then under range of
fire, and brought back a bag of cartridges strapped round his waist, to
replenish the exhausted ammunition of the defenders of the Chateau. And
I believe that he was hauled up again amidst a rain of bullets, having
been discovered, - which bullets, fortunately for Canada, missed the
"rebel."
I may here mention that in the autumn of 1865 I had a long interview
with President Andrew Johnson, at the White House at Washington, having
been introduced by Mr. Rice, of St. Paul's, Minnesota, a man to whom
the United States and Canada are each deeply indebted, for the
completion of railways from St. Paul's to the Hudson's Bay post of Fort
Garry, now the thriving town of Winnipeg. The President told me he had
that morning received a letter from the wife of the ex-President of the
just defeated Southern Confederacy, which he said was "the reverse of
complimentary." He read a sentence or two; and smiled quietly at a
reference to his, as assumed by the lady, early occupation of
journeyman tailor. President Davis was at the moment in prison in the
case-mates of Fort Hatteras. "It is, of course, difficult to know what
to do with him." Well, I said, "Mr. President, I remember when you were
a Senator you said to those who talked secession, that if they carried
out their threats, and you had your way, you would 'hang them as high
as Haman.'"
The President paused, and then lifted his head and replied, "So I did,
Sir. But we must look at things all round; consider faults on both
sides, and that we have to be fellow-citizens in future." I added, "Mr.
President, I have just left Canada, and taken leave of Mr. Cartier, the
Prime Minister of that country. The Queen has not a more loyal subject.
Yet, in 1839, he was a rebel in arms against the Crown. He was a
secessionist. For a while he was a refugee in the woods at Rouse's
Point, on Lake Champlain.
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