His simplest replies were grave
and learned, sometimes too complex for ordinary comprehension.
When he,
subsequently, became Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, he tried to
manage a profit-and-loss undertaking as if he were governing a
province: just as when he governed a province he administered all
things as if he were dealing with Russia in Europe. He was, however, a
man of the kindest heart, and the strictest honor. But, after all, he
was one of the round men put into the square holes of Provincial
Government by the "authorities" at home. Still, on the whole, a noble
character, and in very truth a gentleman. His chronic ailment led to
some irritability of temper; and when, during the visit of the Prince
of Wales, one of the Governor's aides-de-camp was pushed over from the
steamer at Detroit by the press of the crowd, and fell into the water,
Colonel Irving said: - "Ah! there was no danger whatever to - - 's life.
The Governor-General has blown him up so much that he could never
sink." I was present at a farewell dinner to Sir Edmund Head at Mr.
Cartier's, at Quebec, in the winter of 1861-2. In response to the toast
of his health, he alluded to his infirmity of temper, admitted his
suffering - before concealed from outside people - and expressed his
apologies in a manner so feeling and so gentle that the tears came into
everybody's eyes. I heard more than one sob from men whose rough
exterior disguised the real tenderness of their hearts.
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