An Algonquin Maiden: A Romance of the Early Days of Upper Canada
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CHAPTER II.
AN UPPER CANADIAN HOUSEHOLD.
The breakfast-room of Pine Towers, on a bright, sunny morning, somethree or four days after the death of its much-respected mistress,held a large concourse of the notables of York, and other private andofficial gentry of the Province. They had come to take part, on theprevious day, in the funeral obsequies; and were now, after a night'srest and bountiful morning repast, about to return to the Capital.Among the number gathered to pay respect to the deceased lady'smemory, as well as to show their regard and sympathy for the bereavedhusband, the good old Commodore, were many whose names were "householdwords" in the early days of Upper Canada. Sixty years have passed overthe Province since the notable gathering, and all who were thenpresent have paid the debt of nature. Hushed now as are their voices,the Macleod breakfast-room, on the morning we have indicated, was aperfect babel of noise. The solemn pageant of the previous day, andthe sacred griefs of those whom the grim Enemy had made desolate,seemed at the moment to have been forgotten by the departing throng;and for a time the young master of Pine Towers, as he bade adieu tohis father's guests, witnessed a scene in sharp contrast to yesterday'sorderly decorum. It was with a sigh of relief that Edward Macleod sawthe last of the miscellaneous vehicles move off, and the final guesttake the road to the bateaux on the lake, to convey him and those whowere returning by water to Holland Landing, there to find the means ofreaching the Capital.
Entering the house, empty now of all but those who were left of itsusual inmates, including his sister's friend, the beautifulHelene--whom he had hardly had an opportunity to more than greet onhis return from England--an overpowering sense of desolation fell uponhim. Seating himself near his mother's favourite window, the youngman's loneliness and bereavement found vent in tears. All the pastcame vividly before him--a mother's life-long devotion and tendercare; her thousand winning ways and loving endearments; her pride inhis future career and prospects; and the recollection of the manyinnocent confidences which a mother loves to pour into the ear of ahandsome, grown-up son, whose filial affection and chivalrous devotionassure her that she still possesses charms to which her husband andhis contemporaries of a previous generation had been wont sedulouslyto pay tribute. "Ah, beautiful mother, it is not to-day nor to-morrowthat I shall fully realize that I am to see thee no more on earth,"said the young man musingly, as he left his seat and strode nervouslyup and down the room, while his favourite hound from a rug by thelarge open fire-place eyed his agitated movements.
Presently the young man's soliloquies were interrupted by the timidentrance of his sister, Rose, followed by the more decided and statelytread of the charming Helene.
"Ah, Edward," said his sister, "you are alone. Have all our guestsgone?"
"Yes," was the reply, "and I am not sorry to have the house again toourselves."
"You, of course, include Helene among the latter," observed Roseinterrogatively.
"I do, certainly," was Edward's instant and cordial response, as heoffered Helene his hand to conduct her down the steps into theconservatory and out on to the lawn. "Miss DeBerczy, of course, is oneof us, though you told me this morning that she, too, expressed a wishto be gone."
Helene interrupted these remarks with the explanation that her wish totake leave was owing to a mandate of her mother's which had reachedher that morning.
"We shall all be sorry at your leaving us so soon," was Edward'scourteous rejoinder. "But, when you go," he added, "you must permit meto accompany you to 'Bellevue,' for I wish to pay my respects to yourmamma; it is a long time now since we met. Besides, I have to deliverto her the cameos I brought her from England and the family trinketsyour uncle entrusted to my care."
"Mamma, I know, is eager to receive them, and will be delighted towelcome you back. In her note, by the way, she tells me that CaptainJohn Franklin has written to her from York, asking permission to callupon her on his way north. You know that the Arctic Expedition is togo overland, by way of Penetanguishene and Rupert's Land, and is toeffect a junction with Captain Beechey's party operating from Hudson'sBay."
"So I learned before I left England," replied Edward. "I hope myfather," he added, "will be able to meet the members of the Expedition.It would rouse him from his grief, and I know that he takes a greatinterest in Captain Franklin's project."
The conversation was now monopolized by the ladies, for Helene tookRose aside to tell that young lady that her mamma had given her somenews of a young and handsome land-surveyor, of Barrie, of whom she hadheard Rose speak in terms of warm admiration.
The gentleman referred to was Allan Dunlop, who, Helene related, hadbeen very useful at York to Captain Franklin, in giving him informationas to the route to be followed by his Expedition on its way to the"hoarse North sea."
Rose visibly coloured as she listened to the young man's praises, inthe extract Helene's mother had enclosed from Captain Franklin'scommunication. That young lady protested, however, that Allan Dunlopwas her brother's friend, not hers. "Indeed," she added, "we have onlyoccasionally met at the Church at Barrie, and I have not even beenintroduced to him."
"Ah, and how is it that his name is always on your lips after everyservice I hear you have attended across the bay?" queried Helenearchly.
The tints deepened on Rose's sweet, bright face as she apologeticallyurged "that at such times there was doubtless nothing better to talkabout."
Happily for Rose the embarrassing conversation was interrupted by thereturn of her brother, who rejoined the ladies to say that on thehighway, at the end of the avenue down which he had strolled, a partyof marines and English shipwrights, in command of a naval officer, hadjust passed on their way to the post, near Barrie, to proceed on themorrow by the Notawassaga river to the Georgian Bay, and on to the newnaval station at Penetanguishene. A Mr. Galt, who accompanied theparty, and was on his way to the Canada Land Company's reserve in theHuron district, had brought him letters from York, among which, headded, was one from his old friend, Allan Dunlop, condoling with himon the loss of his mother and sending his respectful compliments tohis father and his family.
"How curious!" observed Helene, "why, we've just been talking of Mr.Dunlop."
"You mean to say," interposed Rose, "that _you_ have just been talkingof him."
"Well! that is quite a coincidence, Miss DeBerczy, but do you know myfriend?" asked Edward.
"No, I've not that pleasure," replied the beautiful Huguenot, "butyour sister, I believe, knows him--"
"Oh, Helene! I do _not_!" said Rose, interruptingly.
Edward turned towards his sister, and for a moment regarded herlovingly. After a pause, he said, "Well, Sis, if you _do_ know him,you know one of the best and most promising of my early acquaintances,and from what I have heard of him since my return, I feel that I wantto improve my own acquaintance with him, and shall not be sorry toknow that he has become your friend as well as mine."
"But, Edward, you must wait till I _do_ know him," said Rose with someemphasis. "I know your friend by sight only, and have never spoken tohim; though, I confess, I have heard a good deal of him in the recentelection, and much that is favourable, though papa has taken a greatdislike to him on account of his political opinions."
"Ah, papa's Tory prejudices would be sure to do injustice to Dunlop,"Edward rejoined; "but, I fear," he added, "there is need in thepolitical arena of Upper Canada of just such a Reformer as he."
At this stage of the conversation the old Commodore was observed onthe veranda, and Tredway approached the group to announce that lunchwas on the table.
Commodore Macleod, as may be inferred from his son's remark about hisfather's Tory prejudices, was a Tory of the old school, a member ofthe Legislative Council of Upper Canada, and a firm ally and stiffupholder of the Provincial Executive, who had earned for themselves,by their autocratic rule, the rather sinister designation of "theFamily Compact." As a trusted friend and loyal supporter of theoligarchy of the day, whom a well-known radical who figured prominentlyin the late
r history of the Province was wont to speak of as that armyof placemen and pensioners, "Paymasters, Receivers, Auditors, King,Lords and Commons, who swallowed the whole revenue of UpperCanada"--the reference to a man of the type of young Dunlop, whoaspired to political honours, was particularly distasteful, and sureto bring upon the object of his bitter animadversion the full vials ofhis wrath.
Ralph Macleod was a grand specimen of the sturdy British seamen, whocontributed by their prowess to make England mistress of the seas. Heentered the navy during the war with Holland, and served under LordHowe, when that old "sea-dog," in 1782, came to the relief ofGibraltar, against the combined forces of France and Spain. He servedsubsequently under Lord Rodney, in the West Indies, and was a shipmateof Nelson's in Sir John Jervis' victory over the Spanish fleet offCape St. Vincent. For his share in that action Macleod gained hiscaptaincy, while his friend Commodore Nelson was made a Rear-Admiral.In 1797 he was wounded at Camperdown while serving under AdmiralDuncan, and retired with the rank of Commodore.
Early in the century, he married an English lady and came to Canada,where for a time he held various posts on the naval stations on theLakes, and was with Barclay, on his flagship, _The Detroit_, in thedisaster on Lake Erie, in September, 1813. Narrowly escaping captureby Commander Perry's forces at Put-in-Bay, he joined General Proctorin his retreat from Amherstburg to the Thames, and was present at thebattle of Moravian Town, where the Indian chief, Tecumseh, lost hislife.
When the Treaty of Ghent terminated the war and left Canada inpossession of her own, Commodore Macleod, with other old navalofficers, retired from the service, and took grants of land in theneighbourhood of Lake Simcoe. Being possessed of considerable privatemeans, the Commodore built a palatial residence on the borders of thatlake, and varied the monotony of a life ashore by an engrossinginterest in politics and the active duties of a Legislative Councillor.The illness of his wife, to whom he was devoted, had in the past twoyears almost entirely withdrawn him from political life, and lost tohis colleagues in the Upper House the services of one who took grimpleasure in strangling bills obnoxious to the dominant faction whichoriginated in the Lower Chamber. His temporary withdrawal from theLegislative Council, and the lengthened absence in England of Dr.Strachan, that sturdy ecclesiastic who was long the ruling spirit ofthe "Family Compact," emboldened the leaders of Reform to inveighagainst the Hydra-headed abuses of the time, and sow broadcast thedragon-teeth of discontent and the seeds of a speedy harvest ofsedition.
Already, Wm. Lyon Mackenzie had unfolded, in the lively columns of_The Colonial Advocate_, his "plentiful crop of grievances;" while theharsh operations of the Alien Act, the interdicting of immigrants fromthe United States, the arrogant claims of the Anglican Church to theexclusive possession of the Clergy Reserves, and the jobbery andcorruption that prevailed in the Land-granting Department of theGovernment, all contributed to fan the flame of discontent and sap theloyalty of the colony. In the Legislative Assembly each recurringsession added to the clamour of opposition, and emphasized the demandfor Responsible Government and Popular Rights. But as yet such demandswere looked upon as the ravings of lunacy or the impertinences oftreason. Constitutional Government, even in the mother-land, was notyet fully attained; and, in a distant dependency, it was not to beexpected that the prerogative of the Crown, or the rights andprivileges of its nominee, an irresponsible Executive, were to be madesubordinate to the will of the people. "Take care what you are aboutin Canada," were the irate words William IV. hurled at his ministers,some few years after the period of which we are writing. "By--!" addedthis constitutional monarch, "I will never consent to alienate theCrown Lands nor to make the Council elective."
With such outbursts of royal petulance and old-time kingcraft, andsimilar ebullitions from Downing Street, exhorting the Upper CanadianAdministration to hold tight the reins of government, the reformingspirit of the period had a hard time of it in entering on its manyyears conflict with an arrogant and bureaucratic Executive. Of many ofthe members of the ruling faction of the time it may not become us nowto speak harshly, for most of them were men of education andrefinement, and in their day did good service to the State. If, in theexercise of their office, they lacked consideration at times for theless favoured of their fellow-colonists, they had the instincts andbearing of gentlemen, save, it may be, when, in conclave, occasiondrove them to a violent and contemptuous opposition to the will of thepeople. But men--most of all politicians--naturally defend theprivileges which, they enjoy; and the exceptional circumstances of thecountry seemed at the time to give to the holders of office aprescriptive right to their position and emoluments.
At the period of which we are writing, there was much need of wisemoderation on the side of the governed as well as on that of thegoverning class. But of moderation there was little; and the nature ofthe evils complained of, the non-conciliatory attitude of the rulingoligarchy, and the licence which a "Free Press,"--recently introducedinto the colony,--gave in formulating charges of corruption, and inloosening the tongue of invective, made it almost impossible todiscuss affairs of State, save in the heated terms familiar toirritated and incensed combatants. It was at this period that theyoung land-surveyor, Allan Dunlop, entered the Legislative Assemblyand took his seat as member for the Northern division of the HomeDistrict. Though warmly espousing the cause of the people in theever-recurring collisions with the different branches of theGovernment, and as warmly asserting the rights and privileges of thepopular Chamber in its struggles with the autocracy of the UpperHouse, the young Parliamentarian was equally jealous of the reasonableprerogative of the Crown, and temperate in the language he used whenhe had occasion to decry its abuse. He was one of the few in theLegislature who, while they recognized that the old system ofgovernment was becoming less and less suited to the genius and wantsof the young Canadian community, at the same time wished to usher inthe new _regime_ with the moderation and tact which mark the work ofthe thoughtful politician and the aims of the true statesman. It hasbeen said that one never knows what is inside a politician. What wasinside the Reformer, Allan Dunlop, was all that became a patriot anda high-minded gentleman.