CAPE TOWN, 8th May1891.
DEAR SIR,—I wished to write and congratulate you on winning the elections in Canada. I read your manifesto and I could understand the issue. If I might express a wish, it would be that we could meet before our stern fate claims us. I might write pages, but I feel I know you and your politics as if we had been friends for years. The whole thing lies in thequestion, Can we invent some tie with our mother country that will prevent separation? It must be a practical one, for future generations will not be born in England. The curse is that English politicians cannot see the future. They think they will always be the manufacturing mart of the world, but do not understand what protection coupled with reciprocal relations means. I have taken the liberty of writing to you; if you honour me with an answer I will write again.—
Yours,C. J. RHODES.
PS. You might not know who I am, so I will say I am the Prime Minister of this Colony—that is the Cape Colony.
Sir John Macdonald never received this letter. It was written in South Africa in May, and Sir John died on June 6.
Sir John Macdonald's resemblance to Lord Beaconsfield has often been remarked. That it must have been striking is evident from Sir Charles Dilke's comment:
The first time I saw Sir John Macdonald was shortly after Lord Beaconsfield's death and as the clock struck midnight. I wasstarting from Euston station, and there appeared at the step of the railway carriage, in Privy Councillor's uniform (the right to wear which is confined to so small a number of persons that one expects to know by sight those who wear it), a figure precisely similar to that of the late Conservative leader, and it required, indeed, a severe exercise of presence of mind to remember that there had been a City banquet from which the apparition must be coming, and rapidly to arrive by a process of exhaustion at the knowledge that this twin brother of that Lord Beaconsfield whom shortly before I had seen in the sick room, which he was not to leave, must be the Prime Minister of Canada.[4]
At an evening reception in London, Sir John, who was standing a little apart, saw a lady attract another's attention, saying in an earnest whisper, 'You say you have never seen Lord Beaconsfield. There he is,' pointing to Sir John.
Sir John Macdonald's underlying and controlling thought was ever for the British Empire. That Canada should exist separateand apart from England was a contingency he never contemplated. The bare mention of such a possibility always evoked his strongest condemnation as being fatal to the realization of a united Empire, which was the dominant aspiration of his life.[5] To see Canada, Australia, and South Africa united by ties of loyalty, affection, and material interest; to see them ranged round the mother country as a protection and a defence—to see the dear land of England secure, to see her strong in every quarter of the globe, mistress of the seas, 'with the waves rolling about her feet,happy in her children and her children blessed in her'—such was Sir John Macdonald's dearest wish. As his devoted wife has most truly written of him:
Through all the fever, the struggles, the battles, hopes and fears, disappointments and successes, joys and sorrows, anxieties and rewards of those long busy years, this fixed idea of an united Empire was his guiding star and inspiration. I, who can speak with something like authority on this point, declare that I do not think any man's mind could be more fully possessedof an overwhelming strong principle than was this man's mind of this principle. It was the 'Empire' and 'England's precedent' always, in things great and small—from the pattern of a ceremony, or the spelling of a word, to the shaping of laws and the modelling of a constitution. With a courage at once fierce and gentle, generally in the face of tremendous opposition, often against dangerous odds, he carried measure after measure in the Canadian Parliament, each measure a stone in the edifice of empire which he so passionately believed in and was so proud to help build and rear.[6]
A parliamentary federation of the Empire he considered impracticable. He did not believe that the people of Canada—or of any other dependency of Great Britain—would ever consent to be taxed by a central body sitting outside its borders, nor did he relish the idea that the mother of parliaments at Westminster should be subordinated to any federal legislature, no matter how dignified and important it might be. He believed in allowing Canada's relations with the mothercountry to remain as they are. To use his own words, spoken within a year or so of his death:
I am satisfied that the vast majority of the people of Canada are in favour of the continuance and perpetuation of the connection between the Dominion and the mother country. There is nothing to gain and everything to lose by separation. I believe that if any party or person were to announce or declare such a thing, whether by annexation with the neighbouring country, the great republic to the south of us, or by declaring for independence, I believe that the people of Canada would say 'No.' We are content, we are prosperous, we have prospered under the flag of England; and I say that it would be unwise, that we should be lunatics, to change the certain present happiness for the uncertain chances of the future. I always remember, when this occurs to me, the Italian epitaph: 'I was well, I would be better, and here I am.' We are well, we know, all are well, and I am satisfied that the majority of the people of Canada are of the same opinion which I now venture to express here.... I say that it wouldbring ruin and misfortune, any separation from the United Kingdom. I believe that is the feeling of the present Parliament of Canada, and I am certain that any party, or the supposed party, making an appeal to the people of Canada, or any persons attempting to form a party on the principle of separation from England, no matter whether they should propose to walk alone, or join another country, I believe that the people of Canada would rise almost to a man and say, 'No, we will do as our fathers have done. We are content, and our children are content, to live under the flag of Great Britain.'[7]
Macdonald did not believe in forcing the pace. He looked for a preferential trade arrangement with the United Kingdom, and the establishment of a common system of defence. In all other respects he desired the maintenance of thestatus quo, being content to leave the rest to the future. So much for the Imperial relations. That in all matters relating to its internal affairs Canada should continue to possess the fullest rights of self-government, including exclusive powers oftaxation, he considered as an indispensable condition to its well-being.
Nearly twenty-three years have passed since Sir John Macdonald died, and to-day his figure looms even larger in the public mind than on that never-to-be-forgotten June evening when the tolling bells announced to the people of Ottawa the passing of his great spirit. When one takes into account all that he had to contend against—poverty, indifferent health, the specific weakness to which I have alluded, the virulence of opponents, the faint-heartedness of friends—and reflects upon what he accomplished, one asks what was the secret of his marvellous success? The answer must be that it was 'in the large composition of the man'; in his boundless courage, patience, perseverance; and, above all, in his wonderful knowledge of human nature—his power of entering into the hearts and minds of those about him and of binding them to his service. His life is a great example and incentive to young Canadians. Sir John Macdonald began the world at fifteen, with but a grammar-school education; and, possessing neither means nor influence of any kind, rose by his own exertions to a high placeon the roll of British statesmen; laboured to build up, under the flag of England, a nation on this continent; and died full of years and honours, amid the nation's tears.
Looking o'er the noblest of our time,Who climbed those heights it takes an age to climb,I marked not one revealing to mankindA sweeter nature or a stronger mind.
[1] It was commonly understood at this time that Sir Charles Tupper, whose name would naturally first occur in this connection, preferred to remain in England as high commissioner, and, consequently, was not in the running.
[2] Letter toThe Times, September 1, 1886.
[3]Weekly Sun, April 17, 1907.
[4]Problems of Greater Britain, p. 44.
[5] 'Some few fools at Montreal are talking about Independence, which is another name for Annexation. The latter cry, however, is unpopular from its disloyalty, and the Annexationists have changed their note and speak of the Dominion being changed into an independent but friendly kingdom. This is simply nonsense. British America must belong either to the American or British System of Government' (Sir John Macdonald to the Hon. R. W. W. Carrall, dated Ottawa, September 29, 1860).
'A cardinal point in our policy is connection with England. I have no patience with those men who talk as if the time must come when we must separate from England. I see no necessity for it. I see no necessity for such a culmination, and the discussion or the mention of it and the suggestion of it to the people can only be mischievous' (Liberal-Conservative Hand Book, 1876, pp. 22-3).
'As to Independence—to talk of Independence is—to use Mr Disraeli's happy phrase—"veiled treason." It is Annexation in disguise, and I am certain that if we were severed from England, and were now standing alone with our four millions of people, the consequence would be that before five years we should be absorbed into the United States' (ibid., p. 24).
'The solid substantial advantage of being able to obtain money on better terms than we could on our own credit alone is not the only benefit this guarantee will confer upon us; for it will put a finish to the hopes of all dreamers or speculators who desire or believe in the alienation and separation of the colonies from the mother country. That is a more incalculable benefit than the mere advantage of England's guarantee of our financial stability, great and important as that is' (Debates, House of Commons, 1872, p. 339).
'Gentlemen, we want no independence in this country, except the independence we have at this moment' (Report of the Demonstration in Honour of the Fortieth Anniversary of Sir John A. Macdonald's Entrance into Public Life. Toronto, 1885, p. 103).
'Those who disliked the colonial connection spoke of it as a chain, but it was a golden chain, and he for one, was glad to wear the fetters' (Debates, House of Commons, 1875, p. 981).
[6] MontrealGazette, October 25, 1897.
[7] Pope'sMemoirs of Sir John Macdonald, vol. ii, pp. 220-1.
The following works, dealing in whole or in part with the day of Sir John Macdonald, may be consulted: Sir Joseph Pope'sMemoirs of the Right Honourable Sir John Alexander Macdonald(two vols.: London, Edward Arnold, 1894); Sir John Willison'sSir Wilfrid Laurier and the Liberal Party(two vols.: Toronto, Morang, 1903); George R. Parkin'sJohn A. Macdonald(Toronto, Morang, 1908); Dent'sThe Last Forty Years, or Canada since the Union of 1841(Toronto, 1881); Castell Hopkins'sLife and Work of Sir John Thompson(Toronto, 1895); Sir Richard Cartwright'sReminiscences(Toronto, Briggs, 1913); Sir Joseph Pope's pamphlet,Sir John Macdonald Vindicated(Toronto, 1913); Buckingham and Ross,The Honourable Alexander Mackenzie: His Life and Times(Toronto, 1892); Lewis'sGeorge Brown(Toronto, Morang, 1906); Sir Charles Tupper'sRecollections of Sixty Years in Canada(London, Cassell, 1914).
Consult also the writings of W. L. Grant, J. L. Morison, Edward Kylie, George M. Wrong, John Lewis, Sir Joseph Pope, and O. D. Skelton inCanada and its Provinces, vols. v, vi, and ix.
For biographical sketches of Robert Baldwin, George Brown, Sir Alexander Campbell, Sir George Cartier, Sir Antoine Dorion, Sir Alexander Galt, Sir Francis Hincks, Sir Louis LaFontaine, John Sandfield Macdonald, Sir Allan MacNab, Sir E. P. Taché, Sir John Rose, and other prominent persons connected with this narrative, see Taylor,Portraits of British Americans(Montreal, 1865-67); Dent,The Canadian Portrait Gallery(Toronto, 1880); andThe Dictionary of National Biography(London, 1903).
Abbott, John, a colleague of Sir John Macdonald: subscribes to Annexation manifesto,27; prime minister,142.
Aberdeen, Lord, governor-general,149.
Allan, Sir Hugh, and the Pacific Scandal,97and note,99,101.
Annexation manifesto of 1849, some subscribers to,27.
Archibald, Adams, a colleague of Sir John Macdonald,79; lieutenant-governor of Manitoba,91.
Argyll, Duke of, and Sir John Macdonald,116-17.
Assembly. See Parliament.
'Baldwin Reformers,' their union with the Conservatives,38,39,46.
Baldwin, Robert, with LaFontaine in power,20,28; burned in effigy,22; defends the Liberal-Conservative alliance,39,46; the Common School Act,55; retires from public life,20,31.
Beaconsfield, Lord, and Sir John Macdonald,175-6. See Disraeli.
Blake, Edward,22; prime minister of Ontario,93; resigns in order to assist his party in the House of Commons,96; minister of Justice,107,109; his opposition to the building of the C.P.R.,120; is out-generalled on the Riel resolution,132-3; resigns Liberal leadership,160; retires from public life,173; his career and character,95,104-10.
Bowell, Mackenzie, a colleague of Sir John Macdonald,152.
British Columbia, its admission into Confederation,93,96,118-21.
British America League, the, resolutions of,27-8.
British North America Act, the,74; and the qualification of voters,133.
Brown, George, founds the 'Globe,'18; stirs up racial and religious strife between Upper and Lower Canada,29-31,32,71; his antagonism towards Macdonald,32and note,33,46-7,95,117; opposes Seigneurial Tenure and Clergy Reserves Bills,45and note; leader of the Clear Grits,47; his policy of Rep. by Pop.,54-5,67,69,72; his Short Administration in 1858 and humiliation,57-8,59; his opinion of the Double Shuffle,61; joins hands with Macdonald and Cartier to carry through the scheme of Confederation,42,71-3,83; joins the Taché-Macdonald Cabinet,73,104; quarrels with his colleagues and resumes his ferocious attacks on the Government,75and note; out of Parliament,95; his letter soliciting campaign funds,101n.; his assassination,18,118.
Campbell, Sir Alexander, a colleague of Sir John Macdonald: studies law under Macdonald,7-8; becomes a partner,14; the aristocrat of Macdonald's Cabinet,115,149-51.
Canada, and the Hudson's Bay Company,49,88; financial depression in 1857,53; the visit of the Prince of Wales (Edward VII),67-8; the position of prime minister,76-7; the transfer of the North-West,88; the Treaty of Washington,91-3,94; the terms of union with British Columbia,93; the building of the C.P.R.,49-52,97-101,118-21; the Franchise Act of 1885,135-8; reciprocity with United States,172,173; content to live under the flag of Great Britain,179-81.
Canadian Pacific Railway, the, first mooted,49-52; the Pacific Scandal,97and note,100; the building of,118-126.
Caron, Sir Adolphe, a colleague of Sir John Macdonald,140,142-3.
Cartier, Sir George Étienne, a colleague of Sir John Macdonald: leader of French-Canadian wing of Liberal-Conservative government,41,44-5,47,57,96,115; his work on behalf of Confederation,42,62,78,80; the Double Shuffle,59-62; his relations with Macdonald,78,91; negotiates for the transfer of the North-West,88.
Cartwright, Sir Richard,87,96; takes umbrage at Macdonald's appointment of Hincks as finance minister,84,85,86and note,87; his relations with Macdonald,116,118,150,165-7; a most accomplished debater,164-5.
Cayley, William, a colleague of Sir John Macdonald,25.
Chapleau, Adolphe, a colleague of Sir John Macdonald,140,142-3,156.
Clear Grits, the, press for the secularization of the Clergy Reserves,29; combine with the Conservatives in the defeat of the Government,35,36; combine with the Rouges,47; protest against the choice of a capital being left to Her Majesty,53; their success with 'Rep. by Pop.' and 'No Popery' in Upper Canada,54-6.
Clergy Reserves question, the,29and note,37,38,45.
Collins, John Edmund, his book on Sir John Macdonald,165-166.
Commercial Bank, failure of the,82,86and note.
Common School Act, the,55.
Confederation, the scheme of,62,71-4,75,76.
Conservatives, join with Lower Canadian Liberals in 1854, becoming the Liberal-Conservative party,36-9,102; defection among,69; their National Policy,112. See Parliament.
Costigan, John, and Macdonald's Home Rule views,153-4.
Derby, Lord,49,58.
Dilke, Sir Charles, on Sir John Macdonald's resemblance to Lord Beaconsfield,175-6.
Disraeli, Benjamin,58; on Goldwin Smith,156. See Beaconsfield.
Dominion of Canada. See Canada.
Dorion, A. A., the Rouge leader,39-40,47,56,67,96; his alliance with Brown,45and note; in the Macdonald-Sicotte Cabinet,69-70; hostile to Confederation,74.
Dorion, J. B. E., 'l'enfant terrible,'56.
Double Shuffle episode, the,52,57,59-62.
Draper, W. H., and Macdonald,13; from prime minister to chief justice,19; Canadian commissioner in the Hudson's Bay Company investigation,49.
Dufferin, Lord, and the Pacific Scandal,97and note; and Macdonald,115-16.
Durham, Lord, his Report on the state of Canada,15,34; the question of its authorship,15n.
Elgin, Lord, his troubles in connection with the Rebellion Losses Bill,22,23,24,25.
Family Compact, the,3,16-17,44.
Farrer, Edward, his amusing article on Sir John Macdonald,131.
Fitzpatrick, Sir Charles, chief justice,128.
Foster, George E., a colleague of Sir John Macdonald,145-6,156.
Fournier, Telesphore,56; minister of Justice,107.
Franchise Act of 1885, the,133-138.
French Canadians, their hostility to the Union Act,34-35; and Sir Edmund Head,40; and Rep. by Pop.,54; and the execution of Riel,127,130-2.
Galt, Sir A. T., a colleague of Sir John Macdonald: sent for in 1858,58-9; his work on behalf of Confederation,62,72-3,78; resigns portfolio of Finance,82,113; his character,82-3,84-5.
Gladstone, W. E., attacks the Rebellion Losses Bill,25; his case of a 'Double Shuffle,'62and note; and the Fenian claims,95; and Home Rule,154.
Gourlay, Robert, and the Family Compact,3.
Grandin, Bishop of St Albert, denounces Louis Riel,129-30.
Grand Trunk Railway, opening of,48.
Great Western Railway, opening of,48.
Guibord, Joseph, the famous case of,110-12.