VII.

A staircase on the outside led to the upper storey of the Masonic Hall. In this place were held the first meetings of the first Mechanics' Institute, organized under the auspices of Moses Fish, a builder of York, and other lovers of knowledge of the olden time. Here were attempted the first popular lectures. Here we remember hearing—certainly some forty years ago—Mr. John Fenton read a paper on the manufacture of steel, using diagrams in illustration: one of them showed the magnified edge of a well-set razor, the serrations all sloping in one direction, by which it might be seen, the lecturer remarked, that unless a man, in shaving, imparted to the instrument in his hand a carefully-studied movement, he was likely "to get into a scrape."—The lower part of the Masonic Hall was for a considerable while used as a school, kept successively by Mr. Stewart and Mr. Appleton, and afterwards by Mr. Caldicott.

At the corner of Market Lane, on the north side, towards the Market, was Frank's Hotel, an ordinary white frame building. The first theatre of York was extemporized in the ball-room of this house. When fitted up for dramatic purposes, that apartment was approached by a stairway on the outside.

Here companies performed, under the management, at one time, of Mr. Archbold; at another, of Mr. Talbot; at another, of Mr. Vaughan. The last-named manager, while professionally at York, lost a son by drowning in the Bay. We well remember the poignant distress of the father at the grave, and that his head was bound round on the occasion with a white bandage or napkin. Mrs. Talbot was a great favourite. She performed the part of Cora in Pizarro, and that of Little Pickle, in a comedy of that name, if our memory serves us.

Pizarro, Barbarossa or the Siege of Algiers, Ali Baba or the Forty Thieves, the Lady of the Lake, the Miller and his Men, were among the pieces here represented. The body-guard of the Dey of Algiers, we remember, consisted of two men, who always came in with military precision just after the hero, and placed themselves in a formal manner at fixed distances behind him, like two sentries. They were in fact soldiers from the garrison, we think. All this appeared very effective.

The dramatic appliances and accessories at Frank's were of the humblest kind. The dimensions of the stage must have been very limited: the ceiling of the whole room, we know, was low. As for orchestra—in those days, the principal instrumental artist of the town was Mr. Maxwell, who, well-remembered for his quiet manner, for the shade over one eye, in which was some defect, and for his homely skill on the violin, was generally to be seen and heard, often alone, but sometimes with an associate or two, here, as at all other entertainments of importance, public or private. Nevertheless, at that period, to an unsophisticated yet active imagination, innocent of acquaintance with more respectable arrangements, everything seemed charming; each scene, as the bell rang and the baize drew up, was invested with a magical glamour, similar in kind, if not equal in degree, to that which, in the days of our grandfathers, ere yet the modern passion for real knowledge had been awakened, fascinated the young Londoner at Drury Lane.

And how curiously were the illusions of the mimic splendors sometimes in a moment broken, as if to admonish the inexperienced spectator of the facts of real life. In the performance of Pizarro, it will be remembered that an attempt is made to bribe a Spanish soldier at his post. He rejects and flings to the ground what is called "a wedge of massive gold:"—we recollect the sound produced on the boards of the stage in Frank's by the fall of this wedge of massive gold: it instantly betrayed itself by this, as well as by its nimble rebound, to be, of course, a gilded bit of wood.

And it is not alone at obscure village performances that such disclosures occur. At an opera in London, where all appearances were elaborately perfect, we recollect the accidental fall of a goblet which was supposed to be of heavy chased silver, and also filled with wine—a contretemps occasioned by the giddiness of the lad who personated a page: two things were at once clear: the goblet was not of metal, and nothing liquid was contained within it: which recalls a mishap associated in our memory with a visit to the Argentina at Rome some years ago: this was the coming off of a wheel from the chariot of a Roman general, at a critical moment: the descent on this occasion from the vehicle to the stage was a true step from the sublime to the ridiculous; for the audience observed the accident, and persisted in their laugh in spite of the heroics which the great commander proceeded to address, in operatic style, to his assembled army.

It was in the assembly-room at Frank's, dismantled of its theatrical furniture, that a celebrated fancy ball was given, on the last day of the year 1827, conjointly by Mr. Galt, Commissioner of the Canada Company, and Lady Mary Willis, wife of Mr. Justice Willis. On that occasion the general interests of the Company were to some extent studied in the ornamentation of the room, its floor being decorated with an immense representation, in chalks or water-colour, of the arms of the association. The supporters of the shield were of colossal dimensions: two lions, rampant, bearing flags turning opposite ways: below, on the riband, in characters proportionably large, was the motto of the Company, "Non mutat genus solum." The sides and ceiling of the room, with the passages leading from the front door to it, were covered throughout with branchlets of the hemlock-spruce: nestling in the greenery of this perfect bower were innumerable little coloured lamps, each containing a floating light.

Here, for once, the potent, grave and reverend signiors of York, along with their sons and daughters, indulged in a little insanity. Lady Mary Willis appeared as Mary, Queen of Scots; the Judge himself, during a part of the evening, was in the costume of a gay old lady, the Countess of Desmond, aged one hundred years; Miss Willis, the clever amateur equestrienne, was Folly, with cap and bells; Dr. W. W. Baldwin was a Roman senator; his two sons William and St. George, were the Dioscuri, "Fratres Helenæ, lucida Sidera;" his nephew, Augustus Sullivan, was Puss in Boots; Dr. Grant Powell was Dr. Pangloss; Mr. Kerr, a real Otchipway chief, at the time a member of the Legislature, made a magnificent Kentucky backwoodsman, named and entitled Captain Jedediah Skinner. Mr. Gregg, of the Commissariat, was Othello. The Kentuckian (Kerr), professing to be struck with the many fine points of the Moor, as regarded from his point of view, persisted, throughout the evening, in exhibiting an inclination to purchase—an idea naturally much resented by Othello. Col. Givins, his son Adolphus, Raymond Baby, and others, were Indian chiefs of different tribes, who more than once indulged in the war-dance. Mr. Buchanan, son of the British Consul at New York, was Darnley; Mr. Thomson, of the Canada Company's office, was Rizzio; Mr. G. A. Barber was a wounded sailor recently from Navarino (that untoward event had lately taken place); his arm was in a sling; he had suffered in reality a mutilation of the right hand by an explosion of gunpowder, on the preceding 5th of November.

Mr. Galt was only about three years in Canada, but this short space of time sufficed to enable him to lay the foundation of the Canada Company wisely and well, as is shewn by its duration and prosperity. The feat was not accomplished without some antagonism springing up between himself and the local governmental authorities, whom he was inclined to treat rather haughtily.

It is a study to observe how frequently, at an early stage of Upper Canadian society, a mutual antipathy manifested itself between visitors from the transatlantic world, tourists and settlers (intending and actual), and the first occupants of such places of trust and emolument as then existed. It was a feeling that grew partly out of personal considerations, and partly out of difference of opinion in regard to public policy. A gulf thus began at an early period to open between two sections of the community, which widened painfully for a time in after years;—a fissure, which, at its first appearance, a little philosophy on both sides would have closed up. Men of intelligence, who had risen to position and acquired all their experience in a remote, diminutive settlement, might have been quite sure that their grasp of great imperial and human questions, when they arose, would be very imperfect; they might, therefore, rationally have rejoiced at the accession of new minds and additional light to help them in the day of necessity. And on the other hand, the fresh immigrant or casual visitor, trained to maturity amidst the combinations of an old society, and possessing a knowledge of its past, might have comprehended thoroughly the exact condition of thought and feeling in a community such as that which he was approaching, and so might have regarded its ideas with charity, and spoken of them in a tone conciliatory and delicate. On both sides, the maxim Tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner would have had a salutary and composing effect, "for," as the author of Realmah well says, "in truth, one would never be angry with anybody, if one understood him or her thoroughly."

We regret that we cannot recover two small "paper pellets of the brain," of this period, arising out of the discussions connected with the appointment of an outsider (Mr. Justice Willis) to the Bench of Upper Canada. They would have been illustrative of the times. They were in the shape of two advertisements, one in reply to the other, in a local Paper: one was the elaborate title-page of a pamphlet "shortly to appear," on the existing system of Jurisprudence in Upper Canada; with the motto "Meliora sperans;" the other was an exact counterpart of the first, only in reversed terms, and bearing the motto "Deteriora timens."

In the early stages of all the colonies it is obviously inevitable that appointments ab extra to public office must occasionally, and even frequently, be made. Local aspirants are thus subject to disappointments; and men of considerable ability may now and then feel themselves overshadowed, and imagine themselves depressed, through the introduction of talent transcending their own. Some manifestations of discontent and impatience may thus always be expected to appear. But in a few years this state of things comes naturally to an end. In no public exigency is there any longer a necessity to look to external sources for help. A home supply of persons "duly qualified to serve God in Church and State" is legitimately developed, as we see in the United States, among ourselves, and in all the other larger settlements from the British Islands.

The dénouement of the Willis-trouble may be gathered from the following notice in the Gazette of Thursday, July 17th, 1828, now lying before us: "His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor has been pleased to appoint, by Commission under the Great Seal, Christopher Alexander Hagerman, Esq., to be a Judge in the Court of King's Bench for this Province, in the room of the Hon. John Walpole Willis, amoved, until the King's pleasure shall be signified."

Lady Mary Willis, associated with Mr. Galt in the Fancy Ball just spoken of, was a daughter of the Earl of Strathmore. A trial of a painful nature known as Willis v. Bernard in the annals of the Common Pleas, arising out of circumstances connected with Judge Willis's brief residence in Canada, took place in 1832 before the Chief Justice of England and a special jury, at Westminster, Mr. Sergeant Wilde acting for the plaintiff; Mr. Sergeant Spankie, Mr. Sergeant Storks and Mr. Thesiger, for the defendant: when a thousand pounds were awarded as damages to the plaintiff. On this occasion Mr. Galt was examined as a witness. Judge Willis was afterwards appointed Chief Justice of Demerara.

In the Canadian Literary Magazine for April, 1833, there is a notice of Mr. Galt, with a full-length pen-and-ink portrait, similar to those which used formerly to appear in Fraser. In front of the figure is a bust of Lord Byron; behind, on a wall, is a Map shewing the Canadian Lakes, with York marked conspicuously. From the accompanying memoir we learn that "Mr. Galt always conducted himself as a man of the strictest probity and honour. He was warm in his friendships, and extremely hospitable in his Log Priory at Guelph, and thoroughly esteemed by those who had an opportunity of mingling with him in close and daily intimacy. He was the first to adopt the plan of opening roads before making a settlement, instead of leaving them to be cut, as heretofore, by the settlers themselves—a plan which, under the irregular and patchwork system of settling the country then prevailing, has retarded the improvement of the Province more, perhaps, than any other cause."

In his Autobiography Mr. Galt refers to this notice of himself in the Canadian Literary Magazine, especially in respect to an intimation given therein that contemporaries at York accused him of playing "Captain Grand" occasionally, and "looking down on the inhabitants of Upper Canada." He does not affect to say that it was not so; he even rather unamiably adds: "The fact is, I never thought about them [i. e., these inhabitants], unless to notice some ludicrous peculiarity of individuals."

The same tone is assumed when recording the locally famous entertainment, given by himself and Lady Willis, as above described. Having received a hint that the colonelcy of a militia regiment might possibly be offered him, he says: "This information was unequivocally acceptable; and accordingly," he continues, "I resolved to change my recluseness into something more cordial towards the general inhabitants of York. I therefore directed one of the clerks [the gentleman who figured as Rizzio,] to whom I thought the task might be agreeable, to make arrangements for giving a general Fancy Ball to all my acquaintance, and the principal inhabitants. I could not be troubled," he observes, "with the details myself, but exhorted him to make the invitations as numerous as possible."

In extenuation of his evident moodiness of mind, it is to be observed that his quarters at York were very uncomfortable. "The reader is probably acquainted," he says in his Autobiography, "with the manner of living in the American hotels, but without experience he can have no right notion of what in those days (1827,) was the condition of the best tavern in York. It was a mean two-storey house; the landlord, however, [this was Mr. Frank,] did," he says, "all in his power to mitigate the afflictions with which such a domicile was quaking, to one accustomed to quiet."

Such an impression had his unfortunate accommodation at York made on him, that, in another place, when endeavouring to describe Dover, in Kent, as a dull place, we have him venturing to employ such extravagant language as this: "Everybody who has been at Dover knows that it is one of the vilest [hypochondriacal] haunts on the face of the earth, except Little York in Upper Canada." We notice in Leigh Hunt's London Journal for June, 1834, some verses entitled "Friends and Boyhood," written by Mr. Galt, in sickness. They will not sound out of place in a paper of early reminiscences:

But Market Lane and its memories detain us too long from King Street. We now return to the point where Church Street intersects that thoroughfare.

VIII.

Up to 1803 the Anglican congregation had assembled for Divine Worship in the Parliament Building; and prior to the appointment of the Rev. Mr. Stuart, or in his absence, a layman, Mr. Cooper, afterwards the well-known wharfinger, used to read the service. In March, 1799, there was about to be a Day of General Thanksgiving. The mode proposed for its solemn observance at York was announced as follows in the Gazette and Oracle of March 9: "Notice is hereby given that Prayers will be read in the North Government Building in this Town, on Tuesday, the 12th instant, being the day appointed for a General Thanksgiving throughout the Province to Almighty God for the late important victories over the enemies of Great Britain. Service to begin half after eleven o'clock."

We give a contemporary account of the proceedings at an important meeting of the subscribers to the fund for the erection of the first St. James' Church at York, in 1803. It is from the Oracle and Gazette of January 22, in that year.

"At a Meeting of the subscribers to a fund for erecting a Church in the Town of York, holden at the Government Buildings, on Saturday the 8th day of January instant, the Hon. Chief Justice [Elmsley] in the Chair. Resolved unanimously: That each subscriber shall pay the amount of his subscription by three instalments: the first being one moiety in one month from this day; the second being a moiety of the residue in two months; and the remainders in three months: That Mr. William Allan and Mr. Duncan Cameron shall be Treasurers, and shall receive the amount of the said subscriptions; and that they be jointly and severally answerable for all moneys paid into their hands upon the receipt of either of them: That His Honour the Chief Justice, the Honourable P. Russell, the Honourable Captain McGill, the Reverend Mr. Stuart, Dr. Macaulay, Mr. Chewett, and the two Treasurers, be a Committee of the subscribers, with full power and authority to apply the moneys arising from subscriptions, to the purpose contemplated: Provided, nevertheless, that if any material difference of opinion should arise among them, resort shall be had to a meeting of the subscribers to decide. That the Church be built of stone, brick, or framed timber, as the Committee may judge most expedient, due regard being had to the superior advantages of a stone or brick building, if not counterbalanced by the additional expense: That eight hundred pounds of lawful money, be the extent upon which the Committee shall calculate their plan; but in the first instance, they shall not expend beyond the sum of six hundred pounds (if the amount of the sums subscribed and paid into the hands of the Treasurers, together with the moneys which may be allowed by the British Government, amount to so much), leaving so much of the work as can most conveniently be dispensed with, to be completed by the remaining two hundred pounds: Provided, however, that the said six hundred pounds be laid out in such manner that Divine Worship can be performed with decency in the Church: That the Committee do request the opinion of Mr. Berczy, respecting the probable expenses which will attend the undertaking, and respecting the materials to be preferred; due regard being had to the amount of the fund, as aforesaid; and that after obtaining his opinion, they do advertise their readiness to receive proposals conformable thereto. N.B. The propriety of receiving contributions in labour or materials is suggested to the Committee. A. MacDonell, Secretary to the Meeting."

In the Gazette and Oracle of June 4, 1803, D. Cameron and W. Allan are inviting tenders for the supply of certain materials required for "building a Church in this Town."

"Advertisement. Wanted. A quantity of Pine Boards and Scantling, Stones and Lime, for building a Church in this Town. Any person inclined to furnish any of these articles will please to give in their proposals at the lowest prices, to the subscribers, to be laid before the Committee. D. Cameron, W. Allan. York, 1st June, 1803."

It would seem that in July the determination was to build the Church of stone.

"On Wednesday last, the 6th instant," says the Oracle and Gazette, July 9th, 1803, "a meeting of the subscribers to the fund for erecting a Church in this Town was held at the Government Buildings, on which occasion it was unanimously resolved: That the said Church should be built of Stone. That one hundred toises of Stone should accordingly be contracted for without delay. That a quantity of two-inch pine plank, not exceeding 6,000 feet, should also be laid in; and a reasonable quantity of Oak studs, and Oak plank, for the window-frames and sashes.—A future meeting we understand," the Oracle adds, "will be held in the course of the season, at which, when the different Estimates and Proposals have been examined, and the extent which the fund will reach, has been ascertained, something decisive will be settled."

The idea of building in stone appears to have been subsequently relinquished; and a Church-edifice in wood was decided on. We are informed that the Commandant of the Garrison, Col. Sheaffe, ordered his men to assist in raising the frame.

In 1810, a portion of the church-plot was enclosed, at an expense of £1 5s. for rails, of which five hundred were required for the purpose. At the same time the ground in front of the west-end, where was the entrance, was cleared of stumps, at an expense of £3 15s. In that year the cost for heating the building, and charges connected with the Holy Communion, amounted to £1 7s. 6d., Halifax currency.

In 1813, Dr. Strachan succeeded Dr. Stuart as incumbent of the church; and in 1818 he induced the congregation to effect some alterations in the structure. From an advertisement in an early Gazette of the year 1818, it will be seen that the ecclesiastical ideas in the ascendant when the enlargement of the original building was first discussed, were much more in harmony with ancient English Church usages, than those which finally prevailed when the work was really done. With whomsoever originating, the design at first was to extend the building eastward, not southward; to have placed the Belfry at the west end, not at the south; the Pulpit was to have been placed on the north side of the Church; a South Porch was to have been erected. The advertisement referred to reads as follows:—"Advertisement. Plans and Estimates for enlarging and repairing the Church will be received by the subscribers before the 20th of March, on which day a decision will be made, and the Contractor whose proposals shall be approved of, must commence the work as the season will permit. The intention is: 1st. To lengthen the Church forty feet towards the east, with a circular end; thirty of which to form part of the body of the Church, and the remaining ten an Altar, with a small vestry-room on the one side, and a Government Pew on the other. 2nd. To remove the Pulpit to the north side, and to erect two Galleries, one opposite to it, and another on the west end. 3rd. To alter the Pews to suit the situation of the Pulpit, and to paint and number the same throughout the Church. 4th. To raise a Belfry on the west end, and make a handsome entrance on the south side of the Church, and to paint the whole building on the outside. Thomas Ridout, J. B. Robinson, Churchwardens. William Allan. Feb. 18, 1818."

The intentions here detailed were not carried into effect. On the north and south sides of the old building additional space was enclosed, which brought the axis of the Church and its roof into a north and south direction. An entrance was opened at the southern end, towards King Street, and over the gable in this direction was built a square tower bearing a circular bell-turret, surmounted by a small tin-covered spire. The whole edifice, as thus enlarged and improved, was painted of a light blue colour, with the exception of the frames round the windows and doors, and the casings at the angles, imitating blocks of stone, alternately long and short, which were all painted white.

The original western door was not closed up. Its use, almost exclusively, was now, on Sundays and other occasions of Divine Worship, to admit the Troops, whose benches extended along by the wall on that side the whole length of the church.—The upper windows on all the four sides were now made circular-headed. On the east side there was a difference. The altar-window of the original building remained, only transformed into a kind of triplet, the central compartment rising above the other two, and made circular headed. On the north and south of this east window were two tiers of lights, as on the western side.

In the bell-turret was a bell of sufficient weight sensibly to jar the whole building at every one of its semi-revolutions.

In the interior, a central aisle, or open passage, led from the door to the southern end of the church, where, on the floor, was situated a pew of state for the Lieutenant-Governor: small square pillars at its four corners sustained a flat canopy over it, immediately under the ceiling of the gallery; and below this distinctive tester or covering, suspended against the wall, were the royal arms, emblazoned on a black tablet of board or canvas.

Half-way up the central aisle, on the right side, was an open space, in which were planted the pulpit, reading-desk and clerk's pew, in the old orthodox fashion, rising by gradations one above the other, the whole overshadowed by a rather handsome sounding-board, sustained partially by a rod from the roof. Behind this mountainous structure was the altar, lighted copiously by the original east window. Two narrow side-aisles, running parallel with the central one, gave access to corresponding rows of pews, each having a numeral painted on its door. Two passages, for the same purpose ran westward from the space in front of the pulpit. To the right and left of the Lieutenant-Governor's seat, and filling up (with the exception of two square corner pews) the rest of the northern end of the church, were two oblong pews; the one on the west appropriated to the officers of the garrison; the other, on the east, to the members of the Legislature.

Round the north, west, and south sides of the interior, ran a gallery, divided, like the area below, into pews. This structure was sustained by a row of pillars of turned wood, and from it to the roof above rose another row of similar supports. The ceiling over the parts exterior to the gallery was divided into four shallow semi-circular vaults, which met at a central point. The pews everywhere were painted of a buff or yellowish hue, with the exception of the rims at the top, which were black. The pulpit and its appurtenances were white. The rims just referred to, at the tops of the pews, throughout the whole church, exhibited, at regular intervals, small gimlet-holes: in these were inserted annually, at Christmas-tide, small sprigs of hemlock-spruce. The interior, when thus dressed, wore a cheerful, refreshing look, in keeping with the festival commemorated.

Within this interior used to assemble, periodically, the little world of York: occasionally, a goodly proportion of the little world of all Upper Canada.

To limit ourselves to our own recollections: here, with great regularity, every Sunday, was to be seen, passing to and from the place of honour assigned him, Sir Peregrine Maitland,—a tall, grave officer, always in military undress; his countenance ever wearing a mingled expression of sadness and benevolence, like that which one may observe on the face of the predecessor of Louis Philippe, Charles the Tenth, whose current portrait recalls, not badly, the whole head and figure of this early Governor of Upper Canada.

In an outline representation which we accidentally possessed, of a panorama of the battle of Waterloo, on exhibition in London, the 1st Foot Guards were conspicuously to be seen led on by "Major-General Sir Peregrine Maitland." It was a matter of no small curiosity to the boyish mind, and something that helped to rouse an interest in history generally, to be assured that the living personage here, every week, before the eye, was the commander represented in the panorama; one who had actually passed through the tremendous excitement of the real scene.

With persons of wider knowledge, Sir Peregrine was invested with further associations. Besides being the royal representative in these parts, he was the son-in-law of Charles Gordon Lennox, fourth Duke of Richmond, a name that stirred chivalrous feelings in early Canadians of both Provinces; for the Duke had come to Canada as Governor-in-Chief, with a grand reputation acquired as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland; and great benefits were expected, and probably would have been realized from his administration, had it been of long continuance. But he had been suddenly removed by an excruciating death. Whilst on a tour of inspection in the Upper Province, he had been fatally attacked with hydrophobia, occasioned by the bite of a pet fox. The injury had been received at Sorel; its terrible effects were fatally experienced at a place near the Ottawa, since named Richmond.

Some of the prestige of the deceased Duke continued to adhere to Sir Peregrine Maitland, for he had married the Duke's daughter, a graceful and elegant woman, who was always at his side, here and at Stamford Cottage across the Lake. She bore a name not unfamiliar in the domestic annals of George the Third, who once, it is said, was enamoured of a beautiful Lady Sarah Lennox, grandmother, as we suppose, or some other near relative, of the Lady Sarah here before us at York. Moreover, conversationalists whispered about (in confidence) something supposed to be unknown to the general public—that the match between Sir Peregrine and Lady Sarah had been effected in spite of the Duke. The report was that there had been an elopement; and it was naturally supposed that the party of the sterner sex had been the most active agent in the affair.

To say the truth, however, in this instance, it was the lady who precipitated matters. The affair occurred at Paris, soon after the Waterloo campaign. The Duke's final determination against Sir Peregrine's proposals having been announced, the daughter suddenly withdrew from the father's roof, and fled to the lodgings of Sir Peregrine, who instantly retired to other quarters. The upshot of the whole thing, at once romantic and unromantic, included a marriage and a reconciliation; and eventually a Lieutenant-Governorship for the son-in-law under the Governorship-in-Chief of the father, both despatched together to undertake the discharge of vice-regal functions in a distant colony. At the time of his marriage with Lady Sarah Lennox, Sir Peregrine had been for some ten years a widower. On his staff here at York was a son by his first wife, also named Peregrine, a subaltern in the army.

After the death of the Duke of Richmond, Sir Peregrine became administrator, for a time, of the general government of British North America. The movements of the representative of the Crown were attended with some state in those days. Even a passage across from York to Stamford, or from Stamford to York, was announced by a royal salute at the garrison.

Of a visit to Lower Canada in 1824, when, in addition to the usual suite, there were in the party several young Englishmen of distinction, tourists at that early period, on this continent, we have the following notice in the Canadian Review for December of that year. After mentioning the arrival at the Mansion House Hotel in Montreal, the Review proceeds: "In the morning His Excellency breakfasted with Sir Francis Burton, at the Government House, whom he afterwards accompanied to Quebec in the Swiftsure steamboat. Sir Peregrine is accompanied," the Review reports, "by Lord Arthur Lennox, Mr. Maitland, Colonels Foster, Lightfoot, Coffin and Talbot; with the Hon. E. G. Stanley [from 1851 to 1869, Earl of Derby], grandson of Earl Derby, M.P. for Stockbridge, John E. Denison, Esq. [subsequently Speaker of the House of Commons], M.P. for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and James S. Wortley, Esq. [afterwards Lord Wharncliffe], M.P. for Bossiney in Cornwall. The three latter gentlemen," the magazine adds, "are now upon a tour in this country from England; and we are happy to learn that they have expressed themselves as being highly gratified with all that they have hitherto seen in Canada."

It will be of interest to know that the name of Sir Peregrine Maitland is pleasantly preserved by means of Maitland Scholarships in a Grammar School for natives at Madras; and by a Maitland Prize in the University of Cambridge. The circumstances of the institution of these memorials are these as originally announced: "The friends of Lieutenant-General Sir Peregrine Maitland, K.C.B., late Commander in Chief of the Forces in South India, being desirous of testifying their respect and esteem for his character and principles, and for his disinterested zeal in the cause of Christian Truth in the East, have raised a fund for the institution of a prize in one of the Universities, and for the establishment of two native scholarships at Bishop Corrie's Grammar School at Madras; such prize and scholarships to be associated with the name of Sir Peregrine Maitland. In pursuance of the foregoing scheme, the sum of £1,000 has been given to the University of Cambridge for the purpose of instituting a prize to be called "Sir Peregrine Maitland's Prize," for an English essay on some subject connected with the propagation of the Gospel, through missionary exertions in India and other parts of the heathen world." This Prize, which is kept up by the interest accruing every three years, has been awarded at Cambridge regularly since 1845.

The successor to Sir Peregrine Maitland in the Government of Upper Canada was another distinguished military officer, Sir John Colborne. With ourselves, the first impression of his form and figure is especially associated with the interior in which we are supposing the reader to be now standing. We remember his first passing up the central aisle of St James's Church. He had arrived early, in an unostentatious way; and on coming within the building he quietly inquired of the first person whom he saw, sitting in a seat near the door: Which was the Governor's pew? The gentleman addressed happened to be Mr. Bernard Turquand, who, quickly recognizing the inquirer, stood up and extended his right arm and open hand in the direction of the canopied pew over which was suspended the tablet bearing the Royal Arms. Sir John, and some of his family after him, then passed on to the place indicated.

At school, in an edition of Goldsmith then in use, the name of "Major Colborne" in connection with the account of Sir John Moore's death at Corunna had already been observed; and it was with us lads a matter of intense interest to learn that the new Governor was the same person.

The scene which was epitomized in the school-book, is given at greater length in Gleig's Lives of Eminent British Military Commanders. The following are some particulars from Colonel Anderson's narrative in that work: "I met the General," Colonel Anderson says, "on the evening of the 16th, bringing in, in a blanket and sashes. He knew me immediately, though it was almost dark, squeezed me by the hand and said 'Anderson, don't leave me.' At intervals he added 'Anderson, you know that I have always wished to die in this way. I hope the people of England will be satisfied. I hope my country will do me justice. You will see my friends as soon as you can. Tell them everything. I have made my will, and have remembered my servants. Colborne has my will and all my papers.' Major Colborne now came into the room. He spoke most kindly to him; and then said to me, 'Anderson, remember you go to ——, and tell him it is my request, and that I expect, he will give Major Colborne a lieutenant-colonelcy.' He thanked the surgeons for their trouble. He pressed my hand close to his body, and in a few minutes died without a struggle."

He had been struck by a cannon ball. The shot, we are told, had completely crushed his shoulder; the arm was hanging by a piece of skin, and the ribs over the heart, besides been broken, were literally stripped of flesh. Yet, the narrative adds, "he sat upon the field collected and unrepining, as if no ball had struck him, and as if he were placed where he was for the mere purpose of reposing for a brief space from the fatigue of hard riding."

Sir John Colborne himself afterwards at Ciudad Rodrigo came within a hair's-breadth of a similar fate. His right shoulder was shattered by a cannon shot. The escape of the right arm from amputation on the field at the hands of some prompt military surgeon on that occasion, was a marvel. The limb was saved, though greatly disabled. The want of symmetry in Sir John Colborne's tall and graceful form, permanently occasioned by this injury, was conspicuous to the eye. We happened to be present in the Council Chamber at Quebec, in 1838, at the moment when this noble-looking soldier literally vacated the vice-regal chair, and installed his successor Lord Durham in it, after administering to him the oaths. The exchange was not for the better, in a scenic point of view, although the features of Lord Durham, as his well-known portrait shews, were very fine, suggestive of the poet or artist.

Of late years a monument has been erected on Mount Wise at Plymouth, in honour of the illustrious military chief and pre-eminently excellent man, whose memory has just been recalled to us. It is a statue of bronze, by Adams, a little larger than life; and the likeness is admirably preserved. (When seen on horseback at parades or reviews soldiers always averred that he greatly resembled "the Duke." Dr. Henry, in "Trifles from my Portfolio" (ii. 111.) thus wrote of him in 1833: "When we first dined at Government House, we were struck by the strong resemblance he bore to the Duke of Wellington; and there is also," Dr. Henry continues, "a great similarity in mind and disposition, as well as in the lineaments of the face. In one particular they harmonize perfectly—namely, great simplicity of character, and an utter dislike to shew ostentation.")

On the four sides of the granite pedestal of the statue on Mount Wise, are to be read the following inscriptions: in front: John Colborne, Baron Seaton. Born MDCCLXXVIII. Died MDCCCLXIII. On the right side: Canada. Ionian Islands. On the left side: Peninsula. Waterloo. On the remaining side: In memory of the distinguished career and stainless character of Field Marshal Lord Seaton, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., G.C.H. This Monument is erected by his friends and comrades.

Accompanying the family of Sir John Colborne to their place in the Church at York was to be seen every Sunday, for some time, a shy-mannered, black-eyed, Italian-featured Mr. Jeune, tutor to the Governor's sons. This was afterwards the eminent Dr. Jeune, Master of Pembroke College at Oxford, a great promoter of reform in that University, and Bishop of Lincoln. Sir John himself was a man of scholarly tastes; a great student of history, and a practical modern European linguist.

Through a casual circumstance, it is said that full praise was not publicly given, at the time, to the regiment commanded by Sir John Colborne, the 52nd, for the particular service rendered by it at the battle of Waterloo. By the independent direction of their leader, the 52nd made a sudden flank movement at the crisis of the fight and initiated the final discomfiture of which the Guards got the sole praise. At the close of the day, when the Duke of Wellington was rapidly constructing his despatch, Colonel Colborne was inquired for by him, and could not, for the moment, be found. The information, evidently desired, was thus not to be had; and the document was completed and sent off without a special mention of the 52nd's deed of "derring do."

During the life-time of the great Duke there was much reticence among the military authorities in regard to the Battle of Waterloo from the fact that the Duke himself did not encourage discussion on the subject. All was well that had ended well, appeared to have been his doctrine. He once checked an incipient dispute in regard to the great event of the 18th of June between two friends, in his presence, by the command, half-jocose, half-earnest: "You leave the Battle of Waterloo alone!" He gave £60 for a private letter written by himself to a friend on the eve of the battle, and was heard to say, as he threw the document into the fire, "What a fool was I, when I wrote that!"

Since the death of the Duke, an officer of the 52nd, subsequently in Holy Orders,—the Rev. William Leeke—has devoted two volumes to the history of "the 52nd or Lord Seaton's Regiment;" in which its movements on the field of Waterloo are fully detailed. And Colonel Chesney in his "Waterloo Lectures; a Study of the Campaign of 1815" has set the great battle in a new light, and has demolished several English and French traditions in relation to it, bringing out into great prominence the services rendered by Blucher and the Prussians.

The Duke's personal sensitiveness to criticism was shewn on another occasion: when Colonel Gurwood suddenly died, he, through the police, took possession of the Colonel's papers, and especially of a Manuscript of Table Talk and other ana, designed for publication, and which, had it not been on the instant ruthlessly destroyed, would have been as interesting probably as Boswell's.

On Lord Seaton's departure from Canada, he was successively Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, and Commander-in-Chief in Ireland. He then retired to his own estate in the West of England, where he had a beautiful seat, in the midst of the calm, rural, inland scenery of Devonshire, not far from Plympton, and on the slope descending southward from the summits of Dartmoor. The name of the house is Beechwood, from the numerous clean, bold, magnificent beech trees that adorn its grounds, and give character to the neighbourhood generally. In the adjoining village of Sparkwell he erected a handsome school-house and church.

On his decease at Torquay in 1863 his remains were deposited in the Church at Newton Ferrers, the ancient family burying-place of the Yonges.

Mrs. Jameson's words in her "Winter studies and Summer Rambles," express briefly but truly, the report which all that remember him, would give, of this distinguished and ever memorable Governor of Canada. "Sir John Colborne," she says incidentally, in the Introduction to the work just named, "whose mind appeared to me cast in the antique mould of chivalrous honour; and whom I never heard mentioned in either Province but with respect and veneration." Dr. Henry in "Trifles from my Portfolio," once before referred to, uses similar language. "I believe," he says, "there never was a soldier of more perfect moral character than Sir John Colborne—a Bayard without gasconade, as well as sans peur et sans reproche." The title "Seaton," we may add, was taken from the name of an ancient seaport town of Devon, the Moridunum of the Roman period.