Part 21

At the present day, the name of the Hon. William Morris is less frequently in men's mouths than it was half a century ago, but it is a name of much significance to any one familiar with the ecclesiastical history of this country. There was a time when there were three prominent political leaders in Western Canada, agreeing in no respect but in the possession of great abilities and indomitable energy. These were John Beverley Robinson, who led the Church of England party, better known by the name of the "Family Compact;" Egerton Ryerson, who headed the Methodist, which was then the Liberal party; and William Morris, who led the Scotch Presbyterians with all the gravity and sagacity which are usually attributed to that class and creed. The first and last named of these leaders were in Parliament, and guided its rival parties. The second, from the lobby and the press, exercised, perhaps, greater influence than either. Mr. Robinson was the most accomplished, Mr. Ryerson the most versatile, and Mr. Morris the most determined and persevering. Mr. Robinson contended for the supremacy of the Church of England, and her exclusive right to the Clergy Reserves, with the hauteur of a cavalier. Mr. Ryerson, in seeking a share of all good things for his co-religionists, identified them with the people, and consequently had it in his power to use the strong plea for equal justice, which finally prevailed. Mr. Morris sought a share of the Clergy Reserves for his own Church only, upon the plea that the Church of Scotland was, by the Act of Union between England and Scotland, as much an established Church as the Church of England. There have been many exciting times in the history of Canada, but none has called forth more powerful exhibitions of feeling, or, we may add, more ability than the Clergy Reserve struggle--when the Upper Canada Parliament sat at Little York, with the gentlemen above named for its leaders, and when the press was directed by Messieurs Ryerson, Mackenzie, Cary and Collins. Nor did the then leaders sink into oblivion. Mr. Robinson became Chief Justice of Upper Canada, an office which he filled with credit from the time of his appointment in 1829 down to his death in January, 1863, embracing a period of nearly thirty-four years. Mr. Ryerson became Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada, in which capacity he served his country faithfully from 1844 to 1876. Mr. Morris became Receiver-General of United Canada, an office in which it would have been well for the country if he could have been permanently retained. Possessed of an integrity which gave perfect security that he would participate in no jobs himself, he had at the same time that knowledge of men and of business, that patient industry, and that discriminating judgment which would permit no others to peculate. He was a model Receiver-General. Such is the characterization of an able and discriminating writer of twenty and odd years ago, and his remarks will stand the test of time. The late Mr. Morris was not, perhaps, what would be called a man of modern ideas, but he was a man of stainless honour and thorough conscientiousness of purpose. He initiated one of the most important movements known to Canadian history, and took a foremost part in the agitation consequent thereupon. He left his mark upon his time, and transmitted to his posterity a name which is justly held in respect. For the following particulars of his career, we are largely indebted to his eldest son, the Hon. Alexander Morris, who has himself attained to a high place in public life, and whose career has been sketched in a former portion of this work.

The subject of this memoir was born at Paisley, in Lanarkshire, Scotland, on the 31st of October, 1786. When he was about fifteen years of age he emigrated to Upper Canada with his parents, who settled in Montreal, where his father embarked in a general mercantile business. This business involved a considerable shipping interest, and was carried on by Mr. Morris the elder for some years with much success. In process of time a catastrophe occurred which materially crippled his resources, and rendered it necessary that he should resort to a new and hitherto untried occupation. Having lost a homeward bound ship in the Straits of Belle Isle, and no part of the cargo having been insured, owing to the carelessness of an agent, and having sustained other heavy losses, he was compelled to close his business in Montreal, and retire to a farm near Brockville. In 1809 he died, leaving large debts in Montreal and in Glasgow. His son William, the subject of this sketch, remained at Brockville with his brother and the younger members of the family, helping to support them by his exertions, till the war of 1812 with the United States commenced, when he left his business and joined a militia flank company as an Ensign, having received his commission from General Brock. In October of that year he volunteered, with Lieutenant-Colonel Lethbridge, in the attack of the British forces on Ogdensburg, and commanded the only militia gun-boat that sustained injury, one man having been killed and another wounded at his side by a cannon shot. In 1813 he was present at and took an active part in the capture of Ogdensburg, having been detached in command of a party to take possession of the old French fort then at that place--an achievement which he successfully accomplished. His comrades in arms, some of whom are still living, speak in high terms of his soldierly bearing, and of the affection with which he inspired his men, during this early portion of his career. He continued to serve till 1814, when a large body of troops having arrived in the Colony from the Peninsula, he left the militia service, and returned to Brockville, to assist his brother in the management of the business there.

In 1816, he proceeded with the military and emigrant settlers to the Military Settlement near the Rideau, and there commenced mercantile business, at what is now the substantial and prosperous town of Perth, but which was then a wilderness. He continued for some years to bestow his active attention on the mercantile business conducted at Perth by himself, and at Brockville by his brother, the late Mr. Alexander Morris. In 1820 an incident took place that marked the character of the man, and was an index to all his future career. In that year, he and his brother received two handsome pieces of plate from the creditors of their late father in Glasgow, for having voluntarily, and without solicitation, paid in full all the debts owing by the estate. Such respect for a father's memory indicated a high-toned rectitude that deserved and could not fail to command success. In this year, also, the political career of Mr. Morris commenced, he having been elected by the settlers to represent them in the Provincial Parliament. He soon took an active and prominent part in that assembly, and in 1820 took one of the leading steps in his political life, when he moved and carried an address to the King, asserting the claim of the Church of Scotland to a share of the Clergy Reserves under the Imperial Statute 31 Geo. III., cap. 31. With no hostility to the Church of England, but yet with a sturdy perseverance and a strong conviction of right, he urged the claims of his own Church, basing them upon the Act of Union between England and Scotland. The Colonial Government resisted his pretensions, but sixteen years afterwards the twelve Judges in England decided in effect that Mr. Morris was right. In 1835 he was elected for the sixth time consecutively to Parliament for the county of Lanark. In 1836 he was called to a seat in the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. In 1837 he proceeded to the Colonial Office, Downing Street, London, with a petition to the King and Parliament from the Scottish inhabitants of the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, asserting their claims to equal rights with those enjoyed by their fellow-subjects of English origin. He was selected for this mission by a meeting of delegates from all parts of the Province held at Cobourg. Subsequently he received from the Scottish inhabitants of the Province a handsome piece of plate, bearing an appropriate inscription as a token of their approbation of his public services.

During the troubles of 1837 and 1838 he was actively engaged in drilling and organizing the militia of the county of Lanark, of which he was Senior Colonel, and twice sent to the frontier detachments of several regiments, going in command on one occasion himself. In 1841 he was appointed Warden of the District of Johnstown, under the new Municipal Council Act, and carried the law into successful operation. In 1844, he was appointed a member of the Executive Council in Sir Charles Metcalfe's Administration, and also Receiver-General of the Province. He was a most efficient departmental officer, and proved himself to be what Lord Metcalfe described him--a valuable public servant. While Receiver-General, he introduced into that department a new system of management, and paid into the public chest while he held the office £11,000 as interest on the daily deposits of public money--an advantage to the public which had never before been attempted. In 1846 he resigned the office of Receiver-General, and was appointed President of the Executive Council, the duties of which office he discharged with great efficiency and vigour. In 1848, on the retirement of the Administration of which he was a member, he retired to private life, with health impaired by the assiduous attention he had given to his public duties. Till the year 1853, when he was seized with the disease which eventually terminated his career, he continued, when his health permitted, to take an active part in the proceedings of the Legislative Council.

He was a clear, logical, vigorous speaker, and was always listened to with respect; and having a very extensive knowledge of Parliamentary law and practice, he did much to establish the character of legislation in that branch of the Legislature of which he was so long a member; and owing to his high moral character and his firm adherence to principle, he wielded a very beneficial influence in that body. Few public men pass through a life as long as his was, and carry with them more of public confidence and respect than did Mr. Morris. He died on the 29th of June, 1858, in the seventy-second year of his age.

THE HON. THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE.

Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the most brilliant orators known to Canadian Parliamentary history, was born at Carlingford, in the county of Louth, Ireland, on the 13th of April, 1825. He was the fifth child and second son of Mr. James McGee, an official in the Coast Guard Service, by his wife, Dorcas Catharine Morgan. The latter was the daughter of a bookseller in Dublin, who had been connected with the troubles of '98, and who had been brought to ruin and imprisonment as a member of that body known, by a strange misnomer, as "United Irishmen." The real or fancied wrongs of the patriotic bookseller had made a profound impression upon the susceptible mind of his daughter; an impression which was never effaced, and which descended, by hereditary transmission, to her children. The subject of this sketch, like his little brothers and sisters, was taught at a very early age to hate the name of the Saxon, and to long for the emancipation of Ireland from the thraldom of her hereditary foe. His paternal grandfather had also been a participant in the ill-advised attempt of Lord Edward Fitzgerald; and when James McGee accepted employment in the Coast Guard Service we may be sure that he was not actuated by any profound enthusiasm for the duties of his position. He seems, however, to have discharged those duties acceptably to his superior officers, and to have attained to a position which enabled him to provide a comfortable home for his family.

The wrongs of his country were nevertheless a fruitful theme of comment in James McGee's domestic circle, and the family traditions on both sides of the house were constantly retailed for the benefit of the younger members. Reared among such influences, it is not to be wondered at if young Thomas D'Arcy grew up to manhood without any very fervid sentiments of loyalty to the British crown. The mischief wrought by his early training was great, and was destined to exercise a baneful influence upon his future life. It was only after many years of severe discipline, and after he had reached an age to think and reflect for himself that he was able to unlearn the pernicious teachings of his childhood. He never ceased to regard the land of his birth with the affection of a large-hearted patriot, but he grew, in course of time, to rate at their true value the wild revolutionary projects which for many years impeded his intellectual advancement, and engrossed so large a share of his energies. He outgrew the follies of his early youth, and learned wisdom in the school of experience. He conceived nobler and more practical schemes for the advancement of the race from which he sprang; and there is abundant reason for believing that, had his life been spared, he would have developed into a broad and enlightened statesman. His untimely death was a loss to the "New Nationality" which he had helped to call into existence, and a grievous, almost irreparable loss to the Irish race in Canada. The assassin who sent him to his doom perpetrated a crime against humanity, but more especially against his fellow countrymen settled in this Dominion, when he shed the blood of Thomas D'Arcy McGee.

He was, of course, reared in the faith of his ancestors, and was throughout his life a zealous adherent of the Roman Catholic Church. He was christened, in honour of his godfather, Mr. Thomas D'Arcy, a gentleman who resided in the neighbourhood of Carlingford, and who was a personal friend of the family. His mother, who was possessed of a good education, took a pride in directing his infant studies, and by her he was taught to read and write. He seems to have been her favourite son, and he returned her affection with all the enthusiasm of an ardent and poetic nature. She was a melodious singer, and delighted to hold her little boy on her knee while she sang to him those heart-stirring old ballads which stir the blood like the blast of a trumpet. Sometime in 1833, when he was eight years of age, his father was promoted to a more lucrative office than he had previously held. This promotion necessitated the removal of the family to the historic old town of Wexford, where the subject of this sketch began to attend a day-school. We have no accurate information as to the course of study pursued by him, but as this establishment afforded the only scholastic training which he ever received, it is tolerably certain that he must have made good use of his time, for in after years he gave evidence of possessing a fair share of that peculiar knowledge which is seldom, if ever, acquired outside the walls of the schoolroom. The family had not long been settled at Wexford when it was deprived of its maternal head. The memory of his dead mother was ever afterwards cherished by young McGee with a hallowed fondness which found frequent expression. "Through all the changeful years of his after life," says Mrs. Sadlier, "her gentle memory shone like a star through the clouds and mists that never fail to gather round the path of advancing life."[11]

Notwithstanding the hindrances under which his genius was developed, Thomas D'Arcy McGee from a very early age gave unmistakable evidence of the possession of uncommon abilities. He learned his lessons, whatever they were, with astonishing rapidity, and without any apparent mental effort. He was endowed with an ardent imagination, delighted in poetry, and had ever at command a flow of that brilliant eloquence and wit which are the especial birthright of so many of the sons of Erin. He read much, and remembered everything of importance that he read. He had an especial fondness for the history and literature of his native land, and was never weary of declaiming to his youthful associates about "Ireland's Golden Age." He lived an imaginative life, and indulged in all sorts of wild dreams about the future of his race. He had his full share of ambition, however, and saw no means whereby he could acquire fame and influence at home. Like many another clever young Irishman, he cast longing eyes across the Atlantic, to that favoured land where hundreds of thousands of his race have found refuge from the buffetings of adverse fortune. When he was seventeen years of age he emigrated to the United States, accompanied by one of his sisters. After a brief visit to a maternal aunt who resided at Providence, Rhode Island, he repaired to Boston, whither he arrived in the month of June, 1842. A few days later came the annual Fourth of July celebration, which afforded him an opportunity of addressing a large crowd of his fellow-countrymen. His various biographers unite in describing his eloquence on this occasion as something marvellous. When it is borne in mind that he was only seventeen years of age, and that his audience was chiefly composed of emotional Irishmen, ready to applaud any sentiment from the young orator's lips, so long as it was sufficiently anti-British in its tone, a considerable discount from the commonly-accepted estimate is permissible. The speech was probably a fervid, audacious, emotional effort, partaking largely of the "spread-eagle" character, and addressed to the prejudices of the audience rather than to their calm judgments. It answered the speaker's purpose, however, by attracting a due share of attention to himself. A day or two later he obtained employment on the staff of the Boston _Pilot_, a weekly newspaper which was then, as now, the chief exponent of Irish Roman Catholic opinion in New England, and which was then, and for many years afterwards, controlled and published by Mr. Patrick Donahoe. To its columns young McGee contributed some "slashing" articles, and numerous short poems on national subjects, all of which were eminently calculated to compel admiration from its readers. Two years later he succeeded to the chief editorship. He had meanwhile acquired a good deal of additional knowledge as to the proper functions of a journalist, and had adopted a somewhat more chastened style than he had brought with him across the Atlantic. He had also begun to make a figure on the lecture platform, and had thrown himself with great enthusiasm into the agitation on the subject of "Repeal," which was then at its height both in Ireland and in America. His efforts on behalf of this movement reached the ears of the great Liberator, Daniel O'Connell himself, who, at a public meeting held in Ireland, referred to young McGee's editorials and metrical effusions in the _Pilot_ as "the inspired writings of a young exiled Irish boy in America." The result of the notoriety thus gained was an offer to Mr. McGee from the proprietor of the _Freeman's Journal_, of Dublin, to take the editorship of that widely-circulated paper. The offer was accepted, and early in 1845, at the age of twenty, our poet-journalist returned to his native land, and "took his place in the front rank of the Irish press." His connection with the _Freeman's Journal_, however, was not of long duration. The line of editorial action prescribed by the management was altogether too moderate for the radical young Irishman, who had had it all his own way during his three years' sojourn in the United States, and who believed himself well fitted to instruct his fellow-countrymen on all subjects, whether political or otherwise. Mr. O'Connell had laid down certain limits beyond which the National or Old Ireland Party must not pass. Of that Party the _Journal_ was the accredited organ, and the editor thus found himself out of harmony with his position. The Liberator was too Conservative for him, and was seeking the enfranchisement of Ireland by what he regarded as too slow a process. Conceiving himself to be fully competent to instruct Mr. O'Connell as to the political necessities of Ireland, he was not disposed to submit to dictation. The doctrine of "moral force" advocated by the _Journal_ had no charms for him. He was young, enthusiastic, and governed almost entirely by his imagination. After a brief interval he withdrew from his editorial position, and allied himself with the "Young Ireland" Party, as it was called. This alliance brought him into intimate relations with Mr. Charles Gavan Duffy, known to us of the present day as the Hon. Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Victoria, Australia. Mr. Duffy, in conjunction with Thomas Davis and John Dillon, had several years before this time established the _Nation_, at Dublin. The _Nation_ was written with that brilliancy of genius and that absence of judgment which are not unfrequently found allied. It numbered among its contributors many of the brightest young spirits in Ireland. It went far beyond Mr. O'Connell and the _Freeman's Journal_ in its demands, and notwithstanding the ability displayed in its columns, it was neither more nor less than a disseminator of sedition. With the fortunes of this paper, and of the "Young Ireland" Party whose platform it advocated, Mr. McGee now associated himself. His excuse, as well as that of most of his collaborateurs, is to be found in the attributes of youth. He himself had not completed his majority, and very few members of the party were ten years older. They were chiefly composed of briefless but brilliant young barristers, fiery journalists, and hot-headed students. Their scheme, in course of time, developed into an association which was grandiloquently styled "The Irish Confederation," towards one of the wings whereof Mr. McGee occupied the position of secretary. He contributed spirit-stirring ballads and editorials to the _Nation_, delivered vehement harangues to the committees, and went about as deep into the insurrection as Smith O'Brien himself. He was necessarily brought into intimate relations with Charles Gavan Duffy, who, in his recent work entitled "Young Ireland," thus describes the effect produced respectively upon himself and Davis by a first acquaintance with young Thomas D'Arcy McGee: "The young man was not prepossessing. He had a face of almost African type; his dress was slovenly, even for the careless class to which he belonged; he looked unformed, and had a manner which struck me as too deferential for self-respect. But he had not spoken three sentences in a singularly sweet and flexible voice till it was plain that he was a man of fertile brains and great originality: a man in whom one might dimly discover rudiments of the orator, poet and statesman hidden under this ungainly disguise. This was Thomas D'Arcy McGee. I asked him to breakfast on some early day at his convenience, and as he arrived one morning when I was engaged to breakfast with Davis, I took him with me, and he met for the first and last time a man destined to influence and control his whole life. When the Wicklow trip was projected, I told Davis I liked this new-comer and meant to invite him to accompany me. 'Well,' he said, 'your new friend has an Irish nature certainly, but spoiled, I fear, by the Yankees. He has read and thought a good deal, and I might have liked him better if he had not obviously determined to transact an acquaintance with me.'"