CHAPTER LI.

Isuppose it is in the very nature of an autobiography to be egotistical, a fault which I have desired to avoid; but find that my own personal affairs have been often so strangely interwoven with public events, that I could not make the one intelligible without describing the other. My departure from Quebec, for instance, was caused by circumstances which involved many public men of that day, and made me an involuntary party to important political movements.

I have mentioned that, with the sanction of the Upper Canadian section of the Ministry, I had commenced the publication in Quebec of a daily newspaper with an evening edition, under the title of theAdvertiser. I strove to make it an improvement upon the style of then existing Quebec journals, but without any attempt at business rivalry, devoting my attention chiefly to the mercantile interests of the city, including its important lumber trade. I wrote articles describing the various qualities of Upper Canadian timber, which I thought should be made known in the British market. This was to some degree successful, and as a consequence I gained the friendship of several influential men of business. But I did not suspect upon how inflammable a mine I was standing. A discourteous remark in a morning contemporary, upon some observations in theCourrier du Canada, in which the ground was taken by the latter that French institutions in Europe exceeded in liberality, and ensured greater personal freedom than those of Great Britain, and by consequence of Canada, induced me to enter into an amicable controversy with theCourrieras to the relative merits of French imperial and British monarchical government. About the same time, I gave publicity to some complaints of injustice suffered by Protestant—I think Orange—workmen who had been dismissed from employment under a local contractor on one of the wharves, owing as was asserted to their religious creed. Just then a French journalist, the editor of theCourrier de Paris, was expelled by the Emperor Louis Napoleon for some critique on "my policy." This afforded so pungent an opportunity for retort upon my Quebec friend, that I could not resist the temptation to use it. From that moment, it appears, I was considered an enemy of French Canadians and a hater of Roman Catholics, to whom in truth I never felt the least antipathy, and never even dreamt of enquiring either the religious or political principles of men in my employment.

I was informed, that the Hon. Mr. Cartier desired that I should discontinue theAdvertiser. Astonished at this, I spoke to one of his colleagues on the subject. He said I had been quite in the right; that the editor of theCourrierwas a d—d fool; but I had better see Cartier. I did so; pointed out that I had no idea of having offended any man's prejudices; and could not understand why my paper should be objectionable. He vouchsafed no argument; said curtly that his friends were annoyed; and that I had better give up the paper. I declined to do so, and left him.

This was subsequent to the events related in Chapter xlix. I spoke to others of the Ministers. One of them—he is still living—said that I was getting too old [I was fifty], and it was time I was superannuated—but that—they could not go against Cartier! My pride was not then subdued, and revolted against such treatment. I was under no obligations to the Ministry; on the contrary, I felt they were heavily indebted to me. I waited on the Hon. L. V. Sicotte, who was on neutral terms with the government, placed my columns at his disposal, and shortly afterwards, on the conclusion of an understanding between him and the Hon. J. Sandfield Macdonald, to which the Hon. A. A. Dorion was a party, I published an article prepared by them, temperately but strongly opposed to the policy of the existing government. This combination ultimately resulted in the formation of the Macdonald-Sicotte Ministry in 1862.

But this was not all. The French local press took up the quarrel respecting French institutions—told me plainly that Quebec was a "Catholic city," and that I would not be allowed to insult their institutions with impunity—hinted at mob-chastisement, and other consequences. I knew that years before, the printing office of a friend of my own—since high in the public service—had been burnt in Quebec under similar circumstances. I could not expose my partners to absolute ruin by provoking a similar fate. The Protestants of the city were quite willing to make my cause a religious and national feud, and told me so. There was no knowing where the consequences might end. For myself, I had really no interest in the dispute; no prejudices to gratify; no love of fighting for its own sake, although I had willingly borne arms for my Queen; so I gave up the dispute; sold out my interest in the printing contract to my partners for a small sum, which I handed to the rightful owner of the materials, and left Quebec with little more than means enough to pay my way to Toronto.

In chapterxxxv. I noticed the almost simultaneous entrance of these two men into political life. Their history and achievements have been severally recorded by friendly biographers, and it is unnecessary for me to add anything thereto. Personally, nothing but kindly courtesy was ever shown me by either. In some respects their record was much alike, in some how different. Both Scotchmen, both ambitious, both resolute and persevering, both carried away by political excitement into errors which they would gladly forget—both unquestionably loyal and true to the empire. But in temper and demeanour, no two men could be more unlike. Mr. Brown was naturally austere, autocratic, domineering. Sir John was kindly, whether to friends or foes, and always ready to forget past differences.

A country member, who had been newly elected for a Reform constituency, said to a friend of mine, "What a contrast between Brown and Macdonald! I was at the Reform Convention the other day, and there was George Brown dictating to us all, and treating rudely every man who dared to make a suggestion. Next day, I was talking to some fellows in the lobby, when a stranger coming up slapped me on the shoulder, and said in the heartiest way 'How d'ye do, M——? shake hands—glad to see you here—I'm John A.!'"

Another member, the late J. Sheridan Hogan—who, after writing for theColonist, had gone into opposition, and was elected member for Grey—told me that it was impossible to help liking Sir John—he was so good-natured to men on both sides of the House, and never seemed to remember an injury, or resent an attack after it was past.

Hence probably the cause of the differing careers of these two men. Standing together as equals during the coalition of 1862, and separating again after a brief alliance of eighteen months' duration, the one retained the confidence of his party under very discouraging circumstances, while the other gradually lapsed into the position of a governmental impossibility, and only escaped formal deposition as a party leader by his own violent death.

I am strongly under the impression that the assassination of George Brown by the hands of a dismissed employee, in May, 1880, was one of the consequences of his own imperious temper. Many years ago, Mr. Brown conceived the idea of employing females as compositors in theGlobeprinting office, which caused a "strike" amongst the men. Great excitement was created, and angry threats were used against him; while the popular feeling was intensified by his arresting several of the workmen under an old English statute of the Restoration. The ill-will thus aroused extended among the working classes throughout Ontario, and doubtless caused his party the loss of more than one constituency. It seems highly probable, that the bitterness which rankled in the breast of his murderer, had its origin in this old class-feud.

Sir John is reported to have said, that he liked supporters who voted with him, not because they thought him in the right, but even when they believed him to be in the wrong. I fancy that in so saying, he only gave candid expression to the secret feeling of all ambitious leaders. This brusque candour is a marked feature of Sir John's character, and no doubt goes a great way with the populace. A friend told me, that one of our leading citizens met the Premier on King Street, and accosted him with—"Sir John, our friend —— says that you are the d—st liar in all Canada!" Assuming a very grave look, the answer came—"I dare say it's true enough!"

Sir John once said to myself. "I don't care for office for the sake of money, but for the sake of power, and for the sake of carrying out my own views of what is best for the country." And I believe he spoke sincerely. Mr. Collins, his biographer, has evidently pictured to himself his hero some day taking the lead in the demand for Canadian independence. I trust and think he is mistaken, and that the great Conservative leader would rather die as did his late rival, than quit for a moment the straight path of loyalty to his Sovereign and the Empire.

Ihave several times had occasion to mention this gentleman, who first came into notice on his being arrested, when a young man, and temporarily imprisoned in Buffalo, for being concerned in the burning of the steamerCaroline, in 1838. He was then twenty-three years old, was a native of Ireland, a Roman Catholic by religious profession, and emigrated to Canada in 1827. I engaged him in 1853, as assistant-editor and correspondent at Quebec, then the seat of the Canadian legislature. He had previously distinguished himself at college, and became one of the ablest Canadian writers of his day. He was the successful competitor for the prize given for the best essay on Canada at the Universal Exhibition of 1856, and had he lived, might have proved a strong man in political life.

In 1858, Mr. Hogan suddenly disappeared, and it was reported that he had gone on a shooting expedition to Texas. But in the following spring, a partially decomposed corpse was found in the melting snow near the mouth of the Don, in Toronto Bay. Gradually the fearful truth came to light through the remorse of one of the women accessory to the crime. A gang of loose men and women who infested what was called Brooks's Bush, east of the Don, were in the habit of robbing people who had occasion to cross the Don bridge at late hours of the night. Mr. Hogan frequently visited a friend who resided east of the bridge, on the Kingston Road, and on the night in question, was about crossing the bridge, when a woman who knew him, accosted him familiarly, while at the same moment another woman struck him on the forehead with a stone slung in a stocking; two or three men then rushed upon him, while partially insensible, and rifled his pockets. He recovered sufficiently to cry faintly, "Don't murder me!" to a man whom he recognised and called by name. This recognition was fatal to him. To avoid discovery, the villains lifted him bodily, in spite of his cries and struggles, and tossed him over the parapet into the stream, where he was drowned. In 1861, some of the parties were arrested; one of them, named Brown, was convicted and hanged for the murder; two others managed to prove analibi, and so escaped punishment.

The Rev. Henry C. Cooper was the eldest of a family of four brothers, who emigrated to Canada in 1832, and settled in what is known as the old Exeter settlement in the Huron tract. He was accompanied to Canada by his wife and two children, afterwards increased to nine, who endured with him all the hardships and privations of a bush life. In 1848 he was appointed to the rectory of Mimico, in the township of Etobicoke, to which was afterwards added the charge of the church and parish of St. George's, Islington, including the village of Lambton on the Humber.

In 1863, his eldest daughter, Elizabeth, became my wife. Our married life was in all respects a happy one, saddened only by anxieties arising from illness, which resulted in the death of one child, a daughter, at the age of six months, and of two others prematurely. These losses affected their mother's health, and she died in November, 1868, aged 36 years. To express my sense of her loss, I quote from Tennyson's "In Memoriam":

"The path by which we twain did go,Which led by tracts which pleased us well,Through four sweet years arose and fell,From flower to flower, from snow to snow:"And we with singing cheer'd the way,And crown'd with all the season lent,From April on to April went,And glad at heart from May to May:"But where the path we walked beganTo slant the fifth autumnal slope,As we descended, following Hope,There sat the Shadow fear'd of man;"Who broke our fair companionship,And spread his mantle dark and cold,And wrapt thee formless in the fold,And dull'd the murmur on thy lip;"And bore thee where I could not seeNor follow, tho' I walk in haste,And think that somewhere in the wasteThe Shadow sits and waits for me."

For the following epitaph on our infant daughter, I am myself responsible. It is carved on a tomb-stone where the mother and her little ones lie together in St. George's churchyard:

We loved thee as a budding flow'rThat bloomed in beauty for awhile;We loved thee as a ray of lightTo bless us with its sunny smile;We loved thee as a heavenly giftSo rich, we trembled to possess,—A hope to sweeten life's decline,And charm our griefs to happiness.The flower, the ray, the hope is past—The chill of death rests on thy brow—But ah! our Father's will be done,We love thee as an angel now!

Mr. Cooper died Sept. 10, 1877, leaving behind him the reputation of an earnest, upright life, and a strong attachment to the evangelical school in the English Church. His widow still resides at St. George's Hill, with one of her daughters. Two of her sons are in the ministry, the Rev. Horace Cooper, of Lloydtown, and the Rev. Robert St. P. O. Cooper, of Chatham.

One of Mr. H. C. Cooper's brothers became Judge Cooper, of Huron, who died some years since. Another, still living, is Mr. C. W. Cooper, barrister, formerly of Toronto, now of Chicago. He was recording secretary to the B. A. League, in 1849, and is a talented writer for the press.

In 1860, soon after my return to Toronto, I was asked by my old friend and former partner, Mr. Henry Rowsell, to take charge of the Beaver Mutual Fire Insurance Company, which had been organized a year or two before by W. H. Smith, author of a work called "Canada—Past, Present, and Future," and a Canadian Gazetteer. Of this company I became managing director, and continued to conduct it until the year 1876, when it was legislated out of existence by the Mackenzie government. I do not propose to inflict upon my readers any details respecting its operations or fortunes, except in so far as they were matters of public history. Suffice it here to say, that I assumed its charge with two hundred members or policy holders; that, up to the spring of 1876, it had issued seventy-four thousand policies, and that not a just claim remained unsatisfied. Its annual income amounted to a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and its agencies numbered a hundred. That so powerful an organization should have to succumb to hostile influences, is a striking example of the ups and downs of fortune.

The summer of 1870 will be long remembered as the year of the Ottawa fires, which severely tried the strength of the Beaver Company. On the 17th August in that year, a storm of wind from the south-west fanned into flames the expiring embers of bush-fires and burning log-heaps, throughout the Counties of Lanark, Renfrew, Carleton and Ottawa, bordering on the Ottawa River between Upper and Lower Canada. No rain had fallen there for months previously, and the fields were parched to such a degree as seemingly to fill the air with inflammable gaseous exhalations, and to render buildings, fences, trees and pastures so dry, that the slightest spark would set them in a blaze. Such was the condition of the Townships of Fitzroy, Huntley, Goulburn, March, Nepean, Gloucester, and Hull, when the storm swept over them, and in the brief space of four hours left them a blackened desert, with here and there a dwelling-house or barn saved, but everything else—dwellings, out-buildings, fences, bridges, crops, meadows—nay, even horses, horned cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, all kinds of domestic and wild animals, and most deplorable of all, twelve human beings—involved in one common destruction. Those farmers who escaped with their lives did so with extreme difficulty, in many cases only by driving their waggons laden with their wives and children into the middle of the Ottawa or some smaller stream, where the poor creatures had to remain all night, their flesh blistered with the heat, and their clothing consumed on their bodies.

The soil in places was burned so deeply as to render farms worthless, while the highways were made impassable by the destruction of bridges and corduroy roads. To the horrors of fire were added those of starvation and exposure; it was many days before shelter could be provided, or even food furnished to all who needed it. The harvest, just gathered, had been utterly consumed in the barns and stacks; and the green crops, such as corn, oats, turnips and potatoes, were so scorched in the fields as to render them worthless.

The number of families burnt out was stated at over four hundred, of whom eighty-two were insurers in the Beaver Company to the extent of some seventy thousand dollars, all of which was satisfactorily paid.

The government and people of Canada generally took up promptly the charitable task of providing relief, and it is pleasant to be able to add that, within two years after, the farmers of the burnt district themselves acknowledged that they were better off than before the great fire—partly owing to a succession of good harvests, but mainly to the thorough cleansing which the land had received, and the perfect destruction of all stumps and roots by the fervid heat.

One or two remarkable circumstances are worth recording. A farmer was sitting at his door, having just finished his evening meal, when he noticed a lurid smoke with flames miles off. In two or three minutes it had swept over the intervening country, across his farm and through his house, licking up everything as it went, and leaving nothing but ashes behind it. He escaped by throwing himself down in a piece of wet swamp close at hand. His wife and children were from home fortunately. Every other living thing was consumed. Another family was less fortunate. It consisted of a mother and several children. Driven into a swamp for shelter, they became separated and bewildered. The calcined skeletons of the poor woman and one child were found several days afterward. The rest escaped.

The fire seems to have resembled an electric flash, leaping from place to place, passing over whole farms to pounce upon others in rear, and again vaulting to some other spot still further eastward.

In the course of the ordinary routine of a fire insurance office, circumstances are frequently occurring that may well figure in a sensational novel. One or two such may not be uninteresting here. I suppress the true names and localities, and some of the particulars.

One dark night, in a frontier settlement of the County of Simcoe, a young man was returning through the bush from a township gathering, when he noticed loaded teams passing along a concession line not far distant. As this was no unusual occurrence, he thought little of it, until some miles further on, he came to a clearing of some forty acres, where there was no dwelling-house apparently, but a solitary barn, which, while he was looking at it, seemed to be lighted up by a lanthorn, and after some minutes, by a flickering flame which gradually increased to a blaze, and shortly enveloped the whole building. Hastening to the spot, no living being was to be seen there, and he was about to leave the place; but giving a last look at the burning building, it struck him that there was very little fire inside, and he turned to satisfy his curiosity. There was nothing whatever in the barn.

In due course, a notice was received at our office, that on a certain night the barn of one Dennis ——, containing one thousand bushels of wheat, had been burnt from an unknown cause, and that the value thereof, some eight-hundred dollars, was claimed from the company. At the same time, an anonymous letter reached me, suggesting an inquiry into the causes of the fire. The inquiry was instituted accordingly. The holder of the policy, an old man upwards of sixty years of age, a miser, reputed worth ten thousand dollars at least, was arrested, committed to ---- gaol, and finally tried and found guilty, without a doubt of his criminality being left on any body's mind who was present. Through the skill of his counsel, however, he escaped on a petty technicality; and considering his miserable condition, the loss he had inflicted on himself, and his seven months' detention in gaol, we took no further steps for his punishment.

A country magistrate of high standing and good circumstances at ——, had a son aged about twenty-seven, to whom he had given the best education that grammar-school and college could afford, and who was regarded in his own neighbourhood as the model of gallantry and spirited enterprise. His father had supplied him with funds to erect substantial farm buildings, well stocked and furnished, in anticipation of his marriage with an estimable and well-educated young lady. Amongst the other buildings was a cheese-factory, in connection with which the young man commenced the business of making and selling cheese on an extensive scale. So matters went on for some months, until we received advices that the factory which we had insured, had been burnt during the night, and that the owner claimed three-thousand dollars for his loss. Our inspector was sent to examine and report, and was returning quite satisfied of the integrity of the party and the justice of the claim, when just as he was leaving the hotel where he had staid, a bystander happened to remark how curious it was that cheese should burn without smell. "That is impossible," said the landlord. "I am certain," said the former speaker, "that this had no smell, for I remarked it to Jack at the time."

The inspector reported this conversation, and I sent a detective to investigate the case. He remained there, disguised of course, for two or three weeks, and then reported that large shipments of cheese to distant parts had taken place previously to the fire; but he could find nothing to criminate any individual, until accidentally he noticed what looked like a dog's muzzle lying in a corner of the stable. He picked it up, and untying a string that was wound around it, found it to be the leg of a new pair of pantaloons of fine quality. Watching his opportunity the same evening, while in conversation with the claimant, he produced the trowser-leg quietly, and enquired where the fellow-leg was? Taken by surprise, the young man slunk silently away. He had evidently cut off a leg of his own pants, and used it to muzzle his house-dog, to silence its barking while he set the factory afire. He left the country that night, and we heard no more of the claim.

A letter was received one day from a Roman Catholic priest, which informed me that a woman whose dying confession he had received, had acknowledged that several years before she had been accessary to a fraud upon our company of one hundred dollars. Her husband had insured a horse with us for that amount. The horse had been burnt in his stable. The claim was paid. Her confession was, that the horse had died a natural death, and that the stable was set on fire for the purpose of recovering the value of the horse. In this case, the woman's confession becoming known to her husband, he left the country for the United States. The woman recovered and followed him.

In the year 1875, the blow fell which destroyed the Beaver Insurance Company, and well nigh ruined every man concerned in it, from the president to the remotest agent. In April of that year, a bill was passed by the Dominion Legislature relative to mutual fire insurance companies. It so happened that the Premier of Canada was then the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie, for whose benefit, it was understood, the Hon. George Brown had got up a stock company styled the Isolated Risk Insurance Co., of which Mr. Mackenzie became president. There was a strong rivalry between the two companies, and possibly from this cause the legislation of the Dominion took a complexion hostile to mutual insurance. Be that as it may, a clause was introduced into the Act without attracting attention, which required the Beaver Company to deposit with the Government the sum of fifty-thousand dollars, being the same amount as had been customary with companies possessing a stock capital. For eighteen months this clause remained unobserved, when the Hon. J. Hillyard Cameron, being engaged as counsel in an insurance case, happened to light upon it, and mentioned it to me at the last meeting of the Board which he attended before his death, which took place two or three weeks afterwards. At the following Board meeting, I stated the facts as reported by him, and was instructed to take the opinion of Mr. Christopher Robinson, the eminent Queen's counsel, upon the case. I did so at once, and was advised by him to submit the question to Professor Cherriman, superintendent of insurance, by whom it was referred to the law officers of the Crown at Ottawa. Their decision was, that the Beaver Company had been required by the new Act to make a deposit of fifty thousand dollars before transacting any new business since April, 1876, and that nothing but an Act of Parliament could relieve the company and its agents from the penalties already incurred in ignorance of the statute.

On receipt of this opinion, immediate notice was sent by circular to all the company's agents, warning them to suspend operations at once. A bill was introduced at the following session, in February, 1877, which received the royal assent in April, remitting all penalties, and authorizing the company either to wind up its business or to transmute itself into a stock company. But in the meantime, fire insurance had received so severe a shock from the calamitous fire at St. John, N. B., by which many companies were ruined, and all shaken, that it was found impossible to raise the necessary capital to resume the Beaver business.

Thus, without fault or error on the part of its Board of Management, without warning or notice of any kind, was a strong and useful institution struck to the ground as by a levin-bolt. The directors, who included men of high standing of all political parties, lost, in the shape of paid-up guarantee stock and promissory notes, about sixty thousand dollars of their own money, and the officers suffered in the same way. The expenses of winding up, owing to vexatious litigation, have amounted to a sum sufficient to cover the outside liabilities of the company.

These particulars may not interest the majority of my readers, but I have felt it my duty to give them, as the best act of justice in my power to the public-spirited and honourable men, with whom for twenty-three years I have acted, and finally suffered. That the members of the company—the insured—have sustained losses by fire since October, 1876, to the amount of over $45,000, which remain unpaid in consequence of its inability to collect its assets, adds another to the many evils which are chargeable to ill-considered and reckless legislation, in disregard of the lawful vested rights of innocent people, including helpless widows and orphans.

On the 20th day of April, 1844, I was standing outside the railing of St. James's churchyard, Toronto, on the occasion of a very sad funeral. The chief mourner was a slightly built, delicate-looking young man of prepossessing appearance. His youthful wife, the daughter of the late Hon. H. J. Boulton, at one time Chief Justice of Newfoundland, had died, and it was at her burial he was assisting. When the coffin had been committed to the earth, the widowed husband's feelings utterly overcame him, and he fell insensible beside the still open grave.

This was my first knowledge of John Hillyard Cameron. From that day, until his death in November, 1876, I knew him more or less intimately, enjoyed his confidence personally and politically, and felt a very sincere regard for him in return. I used at one time to oppose his views in the City Council, but always good-naturedly on both sides. I was chairman of the Market Committee, and it was my duty to resist his efforts to establish a second market near the corner of Queen and Yonge Streets, in the rear of the buildings now known as the Page Block. He was a prosperous lawyer, highly in repute, gaining a considerable revenue from his profession, and being of a lively, sanguine temperament, launched out into heavy speculations in exchange operations and in real estate.

As an eloquent pleader in the courts, he excelled all his contemporaries, and it was a common saying among solicitors, that Cameron ruled the Bench by force of argument, and the jury by power of persuasion. In the Legislature he was no less influential. His speeches on the Clergy Reserve question, on the Duval case, and many others, excited the House of Assembly to such a degree, that on one occasion an adjournment was carried on the motion of the ministerial leader, to give time for sober reflection. So it was in religious assemblies. At meetings of the Synod of the Church of England, at missionary meetings, and others, his fervid zeal and flowing sentences carried all before them, and left little for others to say.

In 1849, Mr. Cameron married again, this time a daughter of General Mallett, of Baltimore, who survives him, and still resides in Toronto. After that date, and for years until 1857, everything appeared to prosper with him. A comfortable residence, well stored with valuable paintings, books and rarities of all kinds. The choicest of society and hosts of friends. An amiable growing family of sons and daughters. Affluence and elegance, popular favour, and the full sunshine of prosperity. Honours were showered upon him from all sides. Solicitor-General in 1846, member of Parliament for several constituencies in turn, Treasurer of the Law Society, and Grand Master of the Orange Association. Judgeships and Chief-Justiceships were known to be at his disposal, but declined for personal reasons.

My political connection with Mr. Cameron commenced in 1854, when, having purchased from the widow of the late Hugh Scobie theColonistnewspaper, I thought it prudent to strengthen myself by party alliances. He entered into the project with an energy and disinterestedness that surprised me. It had been a semi-weekly paper; he offered to furnish five thousand dollars a year to make it a daily journal, independent of party control; stipulated for no personal influence over its editorial views, leaving them entirely in my discretion, and undertaking that he would never reclaim the money so advanced, as long as his means should last. I was then comparatively young, enterprising, and unembarrassed in circumstances, popular amongst my fellow-citizens, and mixed up in nearly every public enterprise and literary association then in existence in Toronto. Quite ready, in fact, for any kind of newspaper enterprise.

My arrangement with Mr. Cameron continued, with complete success, until 1857. The paper was acknowledged as a power in the state; my relations with contemporary journals were friendly, and all seemed well.

In the summer of 1857 occurred the great business panic, which spread ruin and calamity throughout Canada West, caused by the cessation of the vast railway expenditure of preceding years, and by the simultaneous occurrence of a business pressure in the United States. The great house of Duncan Sherman & Co., of New York, through which Mr. Cameron was in the habit of transacting a large exchange business with England, broke down suddenly and unexpectedly. Drafts on London were dishonoured, and Mr. Cameron's bankers there, to protect themselves, sold without notice the securities he had placed in their hands, at a loss to him personally of over a hundred thousand pounds sterling.

Mr. Cameron was for a time prostrated by this reverse, but soon rallied his energies. Friends advised him to offer a compromise to his creditors, which would have been gladly accepted; but he refused to do so, saying, he would either pay twenty shillings in the pound or die in the effort. He made the most extraordinary exertions, refusing the highest seats on the judicial bench to work the harder at his profession; toiling day and night to retrieve his fortunes; insuring his life for heavy sums by way of security to his creditors; and felt confident of final success, when in October, 1876, while attending the assize at Orillia, he imprudently refreshed himself after a night's labour in court, by bathing in the cold waters of the Narrows of Lake Couchiching, and contracted a severe cold which laid him on a sick bed, which he never quitted alive.

I saw him a day or two before his death, when he spoke of a heavy draft becoming due, for which he had made provision. In this he was disappointed. He tried to leave his bed to rectify the error, but fell back from exhaustion, and died in the struggle—as his friends think—from a broken heart.

About the year 1843, the first effort to establish a free public library in Toronto, was made by myself. Having been a member of the Birkbeck Institute of London, I exerted myself to get up a similar society here, and succeeded in enlisting the sympathies of several of the masters of Upper Canada College, of whom Mr. Henry Scadding (now the Rev. Dr. Scadding) was the chief. He became president of the Athenæum, a literary association, of which I was secretary and librarian. In that capacity I corresponded with the learned societies of England and Scotland, and in two or three years got together several hundred volumes of standard works, all in good order and well bound. Meetings for literary discussion were held weekly, the principal speakers being Philip M. Vankoughnet (since chancellor), Alex. Vidal (now senator), David B. Read (now Q.C.), J. Crickmore,— Martin, Macdonald the younger (of Greenfield), and many others whose names I cannot recall. I recollect being infinitely amused by a naïve observation of one of these young men— "Remember, gentlemen, that we are the future legislators of Canada!" which proved to be prophetic, as most of them have since made their mark in some conspicuous public capacity.

We met in the west wing of the old City Hall. The eastern wing was occupied by the Commercial News room, and in course of time the two associations were united. As an interesting memento of many honoured citizens, I copy the deed of transfer in full:

"We, the undersigned shareholders of the Commercial News Room, do hereby make over, assign, and transfer unto the members, for the time being, of the Toronto Athenæum, all our right, title, and interest in and to each our share in the said Commercial News Room, for the purposes and on the terms and conditions mentioned in the copy of a Resolution of the Committee of the said Commercial News Room, hereunto annexed.

"In witness whereof we have hereunto placed our hands and seals this 3rd day of September, 1847."

Thos. D. Harris.Jos. D. Ridout.W. C. Ross.A. T. McCord.D. Paterson.Wm. Proudfoot.F. W. Birchall.Geo. Perc. Ridout.Alexander Murray.W. Allan.J. Mitchell.James F. Smith.W. Gamble.Richard Kneeshaw.John Ewart.George Munro.Thos. Mercer Jones.Joseph Dixon.Signed, sealed and delivered }in the presence of }Samuel Thompson. }

After the destruction by fire of the old City Hall, the Athenæum occupied handsome rooms in the St. Lawrence Hall, until 1855, when a proposition was received to unite with the Canadian Institute, then under the presidency of Chief Justice Sir J. B. Robinson. Dr. Wilson (now President Toronto University) was its leading spirit. It was thereupon decided to transfer the library and some minerals, with the government grant of $400, to the Canadian Institute. In order to legalize the transfer, application was made to Parliament, and on the 19th May, 1855, the Act 18 Vic., c. 236, received the royal assent. The first clause reads as follows:— "The members of the Toronto Athenæum shall have power to transfer and convey to the Canadian Institute, such and so much of the books, minerals, and other property of the said Toronto Athenæum, whether held absolutely or in trust, as they may decide upon so conveying, and upon such conditions as they may think advisable, which conditions, if accepted by the said Canadian Institute, shall be binding."

Accordingly a deed of transfer was prepared and executed by the two contracting parties, by which it was provided:

"That the library formed by the books of the two institutions, with such additions as may be made from the common funds, should constitute a library to which the public should have access for reference, free of charge, under such regulations as may be adopted by the said Canadian Institute in view of the proper care and management of the same."

The books and minerals were handed over in due time, and acknowledged in theCanadian Journal, vol. 3, p. 394, old series. On the 9th February, 1856, Professor Chapman presented his report as curator, "on the minerals handed over by the Toronto Athenæum," which does not appear to have been published in theJournal. The reading room was subsequently handed over to the Mechanics' Institute, which was then in full vigour.

It will be seen, therefore, that the library of the Canadian Institute is, to all intents and purposes, a public library by statute, and free to all citizens for ever. I am sorry to add, that for many years back the conditions of the trust have been very indifferently carried out—few citizens know their rights respecting it, and still fewer avail themselves thereof. The Institute now has a substantial building, very comfortably fitted up, on Richmond Street east; has a good reading room in excellent order, and very obliging officials; gives weekly readings or lectures on Saturday evenings, and has accumulated a valuable library of some eight thousand volumes.

I have thus been identified with almost every movement made in Toronto, for affording literary recreation to her citizens, and rejoice to see the good work progressing in younger and abler hands.

In the month of July, 1850, the Mayor and citizens of Buffalo, hearing that our Canadian legislators were about to attend the formal opening of the Welland Canal, very courteously invited them to extend their trip to that city, and made preparations for their reception. Circumstances prevented the visit, but in acknowledgment of the good will thus shown, a number of members of the Canadian Parliament, then in session here, acting in concert with our City Council, proposed a counter-invitation, which was accordingly sent and accepted, and a joint committee formed to carry out the project.

The St. Lawrence Hall, then nearly finished, was hurriedly fitted up as a ball-room for the occasion, under the volunteered charge chiefly of Messrs. F. W. Cumberland and Kivas Tully, architects. The hall was lined throughout, tent-fashion, the ceiling with blue and white, the walls with pink and white calico, in alternate stripes, varied with a multitude of flags, British and American, mottoes and other showy devices. The staircase was decorated with evergreens, which were also utilized to convert the unfinished butchers' arcade into a bowery vista 500 feet long, lighted with gas laid for the occasion, and extending across Front Street to the entrance of the City Hall, then newly restored, painted and papered.

Lord Elgin warmly seconded the hospitable views of the joint committee, and Colonel Sir Hew Dalrymple promised a review of the troops then in garrison. All was life and preparation throughout the city.

On Friday, August 8th, the steamerChief Justicewas despatched to Lewiston to receive the guests from Buffalo. On her return, in the afternoon, she was welcomed with a salute of cannon, the men of the Fire Brigade lining the wharf and Front Street, along which the visitors were conveyed in carriages to the North American Hotel.

Soon after nine o'clock, the Hall began to fill with a brilliant and joyous assemblage of visitors and citizens with their ladies. Lord and Lady Elgin arrived at about ten o'clock, and were received with the strains of "God Save the Queen," by the admirable military band, which was one of the city's chief attractions in those times.

The day was very wet, and the evening still rainy. The arcade had been laid with matting, but it was nevertheless rather difficult for the fair dancers to trip all the way to the City Hall, in the council chamber of which supper had been prepared. However, they got safely through, and seemed delighted with the adventure. Never since, I think, has the City Hall presented so distinguished and charming a scene. Of course there was a lady to every gentleman. The fair Buffalonians were loud in their praises of the whole arrangements, and thoroughly disposed to enjoy themselves.

On a raised dais at the south side of the room was a table, at which were seated Mayor Gurnett as host, with Lady Elgin; the Governor-General and Mrs. Judge Sill, of Buffalo; Mayor Smith, of Buffalo, and Madame Lafontaine; the Speakers of the two Houses of Parliament, with Mrs. Alderman Tiffany of Buffalo, and the Hon. Mrs. Bruce. Four long tables placed north and south, and two side tables, accommodated the rest of the party, amounting to about three hundred. All the tables were tastefully decorated with floral and other ornaments, and spread with every delicacy that could be procured. The presiding stewards were the Hon. Mr. Bourret, Hon. Sir Allan N. McNab, Hon. Messrs. Hincks, Cayley, J. H. Cameron, S. Taché, Drummond and Merritt.

Toasts and speeches followed in the usual order, after which everybody returned to the St. Lawrence Hall, where dancing was resumed and kept up till an early hour next morning.

The next day, being the 9th, the promised review of the 71st Regiment took place, with favourable weather, and was a decided success.

In the afternoon, Lord Elgin gave a fête champêtre at Elmsley Villa, where he then resided, and which has since been occupied as Knox's College. The grounds then extended from Yonge Street to the University Park, and an equal distance north and south. They were well kept, and on this occasion charmingly in unison with the bright smiles and gay costumes of the ladies who, with their gentlemen escorts, made up the most joyous of scenes.

Having paid my respects at the Government House on New Year's day, I was present as an invited guest at the garden party. His Excellency showed me marked attention, in recognition probably of my services as a peacemaker. The corporation, as a body, were not invited, which was the only instance in which Lord Elgin betrayed any pique at the unflattering reception given him in October, 1849.[28]While conversing with him, I was amused at the enthusiasm of a handsome Buffalo lady, who came up, unceremoniously exclaiming, "Oh, my lord, I heard your beautiful speech (in the marquee), you should come among us and go into politics. If you would only take the stump for the Presidency, I am confident you would sweep every state of the Union!"

An excellent déjeuner had been served in a large tent on the lawn. Speeches and toasts were numerous and complimentary. The conservatory was cleared for dancing, which was greatly enjoyed, and the festivities were wound up by a brilliant display of fireworks.

The guests departed next morning, amid hearty handshaking and professions of friendship. Before leaving the wharf, the Mayor of Buffalo expressed in warm and pleasing terms, his high sense of the hospitality shown himself and his fellow-citizens. And so ended the Buffalo Fête.

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