Complete Fictional Works of John Buchan (Illustrated)

by John Buchan

  For the Indians, the ancient owners of the land, Minto had at all times a peculiar tenderness. In his early wanderings he had been brought much into contact with savage tribes, and in particular had seen how the frontier officers in India kept the peace by a wise tolerance, when the harsh hand would have led to strife. In the Batoche expedition he had had experience of the red man, and was eager to preserve something of his traditional life from the steam-roller of civilization. We find him, on his way back from his Yukon journey, visiting the Sarcee and Blackfoot Reserves, of which he wrote to Queen Victoria:—”The Indians, too, have made great advances, and though they met me with all their old barbaric pomp, bead-work, feathers, and tomahawks, I am told I am probably the last Governor-General who will receive such a welcome, and that my successors will have to be content with chiefs in tall hats and black coats. I suppose one must not regret the coming change, but I confess the wild red man has charms for me.”

  Two years later he was at Fort Qu’appelle and held a pow-wow with the chiefs of a neighbouring reserve and heard their grievances. One of them was the Sioux, Standing Buffalo, with whose intelligence he was much impressed, and he listened patiently to the tale of their woes. The foremost was the suppression of their traditional dancing. “The Commissioner for Native Affairs,” says the journal, “is evidently opposed to dancing. He is a tall cadaverous Scotsman, more like an elder of the Kirk than anything else, and had the most depressing effect on me. . . . I cannot conceive his ever approving of dancing! But why should not these poor people dance? It is their only amusement, and sober beyond words in comparison to a Scottish reel.

  Lord Minto and “Dandy,” 1900. (Photo by Topley, Ottawa)

  Of course the Sun Dance and its cruelties it was right to stop, but surely not all dancing. . . . The ridiculous wish to cut it down, root and branch, on the part of narrow-minded authorities ^makes me sick, and I said plainly that I saw no harm in it, and was in no way opposed to it. I suppose I shall be reported, as usual, as in violent opposition to my Ministers. I don’t care a damn, as I am convinced all reasonable people who know the Indians agree with me, and I believe my speaking out occasionally does much good.” So we find him to the end of his tenure of office pleading the cause of the Indians, especially of his friend Standing Buffalo, to Indian commissioners and Lieutenant-Governors, without much assistance from the Prime Minister. Sir Wilfrid, who might have been expected to have a tender side towards the ancient ways, had no wish to rouse the Canadian equivalent of the Nonconformist conscience.

  Some months after Minto’s return from the Yukon a Dawson paper thus described his visit and its results: —

  “For a Governor-General in an aggressive young colony like Canada to be actively interested in affairs necessitates the constant exercise of the greatest common sense. An illustration was afforded in Dawson. The complaints from the territory percolating through to the outside were loud and deep. The Government had considered it necessary on the floor of the House to protest that there was really nothing wrong here excepting the people. Lord Minto was not content to come here and be blind and deaf. The Administration desired it. There were many staunch supporters of the party in power who stood prepared to take mortal offence did the Governor-General make any capital for the Opposition.

  “A weak man would have taken the hint and remained silent, leaving abuses unredressed and the people oppressed. A cowardly man would have avoided the dangerous shoals by retiring from the public behind official dignity and red tape. A stupid man would have had the party and Government about his ears in a week. But Lord Minto avoided every pitfall. He first insisted upon receiving the people here and hearing their complaints: the Administration stood off in affright! The Governor-General even invited bills of rights and memorials recapitulating abuses; and the stauncher members of the party almost collapsed! He cross-examined his callers closely, showing the most intelligent and sympathetic understanding of the questions brought before him. The wise ones winked knowingly, and intimated that the Governor-General would avoid the rocks by shelving the complaints; that the memorials would be pigeon-holed and never resurrected; that, in short, it was all a ‘stall.’

  “He left Dawson, and it is a matter of Yukon history that after his departure he was silent as the grave. Not a word came back to Dawson; not a word reached the outside papers. Ottawa gossip never even discovered he was having anything to say to the Ministers, or reporting to them his discoveries while here. And the only way in which we know we were not forgotten was that, commencing some twenty days after his departure, the very reforms were begun for which he had been petitioned. Day by day the abuses were removed, until presently everything complained of to Lord Minto had been remedied without a word of explanation. Moreover, it was to be observed that so cleverly had his recommendations been made that his standing with the Canadian Government and in official circles was higher than ever. He had dared to be more than an official puppet; had put his spoke in the Canadian wheel; had not feared to essay the amendment of palpable abuses; and yet had interfered so cleverly that there was not the slightest soreness discoverable anywhere.”

  That was the kind of recognition which Minto desired. He was a man of action, and, though his position forbade him to act himself, he could get things done by others. He adhered scrupulously to constitutional form, and he did not seek personal repute or advertisement, but he secured results without friction, where the gushing popularity-hunting type of Governor would have utterly failed. Dr. Doughty has written of him: “Sir Wilfrid Laurier said once: “Lord Minto is the most constitutional Governor we have had.’ And yet perhaps no other Governor succeeded so completely in imposing his own policy upon the Government. He would suggest, persuade, insist; but when once his point was gained, there was complete self-effacement, and the measure became that of his advisers, even in its inception. He might be the discoverer of the evil and the author of the remedy, but the action must be taken by, and the credit belong to, the Government of Canada.”

  He would have asked for no finer tribute. It is a definition of the essential function of a wise viceroy in a free Dominion.

  CHAPTER 8. GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA, 1898-1904 (continued)

  Social and Personal Relations

  A GOVERNOR-GENERAL lives an intricate and crowded life in the public eye, and he is fortunate if from the whirl of minor duties he can snatch time for study and reflection. His mind may be absorbed in some grave discussion with his Ministers or the home Government, but he must present himself smiling at a dozen functions, and let no one guess his preoccupation. He must perpetually entertain and be entertained: he must show interest in every form of public activity, from a charity bazaar to a university celebration; he must be accessible to all men that he may learn of them and they of him; he must visit every corner of his domain, and become, for the time being, not only one of its citizens, but by adoption a perfervid son of each town and province. These things are the imponderabilia of governorship, not less important than a cool head and a sound judgment in the greater matters of policy, and many a man who is well fitted for the latter duties fails signally in the other. We have seen Minto’s work on the political side; in its social and personal aspects its merits were no less conspicuous. To the task indeed he brought splendid endowments. He had remarkable physical strength, and could go through a long ceremonial day without loss of vigour or temper. He mentions in his journal that at the age of fifty-six he wore glasses for the first time in reading, which shows how little he had to complain of in bodily powers. He was also endowed with the liveliest curiosity about all sorts and conditions of men, their business, their sports, the whims and humours of their lives. Being the extreme contrary of an egoist, it was easy for him to enter into other people’s interests, and his sympathy was no painfully adopted pose, but sincere and spontaneous. Lastly, he had a wife who shared his happy temperament, and relieved him of more than half his burden. Lady Minto’s energy was unflagging, and her tact infallible. She busied hersel
f with every form of social work, interesting herself in the charities already established, and raising a fund in memory of Queen Victoria which was devoted to establishing cottage hospitals in outlying districts. She accompanied him everywhere, and everywhere made friends. Few Governor-Generals have made a greater success of that delicate and arduous duty, official entertainments. There was a cordiality about the reception of each guest which gave the impression of an individual welcome, and the happy atmosphere could not fail to leave its impression on the stream of visitors who crossed the threshold, for the hospitable doors of Government House were always open. The secret of this success was apparent: the whole establishment worked for the common end with a spirit of co-operation which produced a harmonious household, for there was a magnetism about Minto which called forth the best in others. He had the good fortune to be assisted by the most competent staff; his first military secretary was Laurence Drummond, to be followed two years later by that officer of the Coldstream Guards who, as Sir Stanley Maude, in the Great War saved our fortunes in Mesopotamia. Minto was no lover of functions, but he accepted them cheerfully, wearing on every possible occasion his military uniform in preference to the diplomatic gold coat. “You are so absurdly fond of my bare legs and dancing pumps,” he wrote to his wife. “What I feel is that all my service till I came here has been military service, every little honour I have won is for that, and on retirement I was given the right to wear a General’s uniform, and I shall always do so. I hate these bare-legged people.” He could find a source of humour even in boredom.

  “An awful dinner last night,” he told his wife; “timed for 7 and we did not get home till 2 a.m. The toast list was sent to me beforehand, and, to my horror, five toasts and seventeen people to speak. I violently remonstrated, but was assured the speeches would be very short. They were yards long! At last, when I was getting desperate, and was just going to propose Sir . . . ‘s health to close the proceedings, to my dismay he jumped up and proposed mine for the second time. We were by that time so overcome with emotion at each other’s eloquence that we simultaneously broke up. X made a tremendous speech, and, trembling with emotion, proclaimed a Monroe doctrine for Canada, and that she must absorb the States and rule the world. As he had a U.S. professor next door to him, who had just made an excellent speech, I quite expected war would be declared this morning.”

  The group of high-spirited and extraordinarily handsome children became something of a legend, and their doings and sayings did much to add to the lively interest which Canada took in Government House. A happy home life is not only an indispensable background for a busy man, but, if that man be Governor-General, it is an element in his influence and a direct aid to the popularity of his regime. The atmosphere of Government House, with its warm family affection, its gaiety and its simplicity, was a rest and a refreshment to all who entered it. Minto’s journals and letters are full of his children and his pride in their achievements, and the humours and surprises of the young; the remarkable talent that Eileen showed for acting; Ruby’s success in taking a first-class at the Toronto College of Music; Esmond’s wit and charm; Larry’s and Violet’s horsemanship. He tells this story of his youngest daughter, who accompanied him on a journey to Lake Tamiscaming. “As we arrived at the station a poor man was brought in horribly mutilated by a blast on the new railway near here. He was quite insensible and practically dead, and they put him in the booking office. I hoped Vi had not seen him, but she had, and assumed he was in frightful agony and asked me angrily why they did not kill him now, at once: ‘Do have him killed, Father.’ So thoroughly practical and so like old Vi — it would so often be much the best plan.”

  There were other entertainments at Government House than formal parties, one of the most successful being a children’s fancy dress ball at the Christmas of 1903, when the chief characters were taken from Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, his youngest daughter Violet filling the part of Alice, and Esmond, then seven years old, that of the White Rabbit. There were also many dramatic performances, brilliantly stage-managed by Captain Harry Graham. There were unrehearsed performances too, such as the fire that broke out in the new wing of the house on the early morning of Easter Sunday 1904, when Lady Minto was lying helpless with a broken leg. “My own bedroom,” Minto writes in his journal, “was so full of smoke I could hardly breathe in it. We made a stretcher out of a screen and carried Mary down to the oval room. She really behaved magnificently; my fear was that she was too cool and would not allow us to hurry her enough. The children’s wing was almost totally destroyed, and much damage was done by water before the fire was extinguished. The younger children had been taken for safety to the stables, and were found there later, kneeling by the corn bin, earnestly praying for their mother’s safety.”*

  * This was not the only experience the Mintos had of fires, for in the same month four years earlier four miles of the town of Ottawa had been burnt, and the Governor-General had himself assisted the fire brigade in fighting the flames.

  There were certain incidents which belonged to the social and ceremonial side of Minto’s duties which gave him as much thought and trouble as the major problems of politics. Two of them are worth noting, as an example of the kind of difficulty which beset the Governor-General’s path. When in January 1901 Queen Victoria died, it seemed to Minto only fitting that there should be an official memorial service in Ottawa. He consulted Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who approved, and it was decided that a service should be held in the Church of England Cathedral, at which the Governor-General and Ministers should attend in state. It was arranged that Minto should issue the invitations, that the Primate should officiate, and that the Government should contribute to the Cathedral decorations. Suddenly there arrived a note from Sir Wilfrid saying that there could be no state service, as there was no state church in Canada, and that Ministers could only attend the services of their own communions. Minto was naturally surprised, not at the information about the state church, but at Sir Wilfrid’s conclusion. It seemed to him reasonable to hold the memorial service for the dead Queen in the church to which she had belonged, though the Prime Minister was a Catholic. Moreover, there was an exact precedent. The body of Sir John Thompson had been brought from England in a man-of-war, there had been a state funeral at Halifax, and a state memorial service in the Roman Catholic Basilica at Ottawa, for all of which the Government had paid. Sir Wilfrid, much embarrassed, explained that Sir John’s had been a “burial” service with the body present; but Minto replied that the body had remained at Halifax, while the memorial service was held at Ottawa. There was indeed no argument possible on the Prime Minister’s side; he had been willing enough, but had changed his mind because of the objections of certain of the Ministers, notably Mr. Scott, who was a narrow type of Catholic. Meantime the Ministerial press accused the Governor-General of having taken a highhanded line on his own authority and of attempting to force a state church upon Canada. Minto very properly issued a contradiction, pointing out that every step he had taken had been with Sir Wilfrid’s assent, and the consequence was that Ministers looked extremely foolish. The whole affair was scarcely to the Prime Minister’s credit; he had agreed without consulting his Cabinet, and at a hint of opposition had chosen to leave the Governor-General in the lurch. The result was that the solemnity of the occasion was somewhat marred: the Catholic Mayor of Quebec, who was also Prime Minister of the Province, attended in state a service in the English Cathedral in that city; at Ottawa Sir Wilfrid went to the Roman Catholic Basilica, while Minto with some of the Ministers went to the English service — accompanied, to the amazement of the citizens, by that stout Catholic, Mr. Israel Tarte.

  A second incident was the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York in the autumn of 1901. The Government at first showed complete apathy in the business; Mr. Scott was doubtful about Canada’s welcome, but waived his objection in haste when Minto proposed to cable his views home and suggest that the visit be countermanded. Then Mini
sters desired to make arrangements themselves, which was manifestly an impossible plan, but Minto pointed out that he would be held personally responsible for the details, and they willingly relinquished the task. The organization from beginning to end was the work of the Governor-General and his staff, and it was no small undertaking. The time was limited, the Royal visitors wished to travel Canada from East to West, local susceptibilities had to be considered in order that no area might be neglected, and it was equally important that the Duke and Duchess should not be overweighted with duties but should have a reasonable share of leisure and amusement. There were anxious hearts at the Citadel before the Ophir arrived at Quebec, but the success of the visit was complete and unequivocal. Minto’s letter of October 25, 1901, to King Edward is the best summary: —

  “It is a great pleasure to me to be able to tell your Majesty of the immense success of their Royal Highnesses’ visit. From the day they arrived at Quebec till their departure last Monday their stay here has been a series of ovations, and I hear nothing on all sides but expressions of pleasure, not only as to the success of the tour, but as to the affectionate impressions they have left behind them. . . . Their Royal Highnesses held receptions at all the chief towns, which were very largely attended. They were arranged on the lines of the state receptions held at Ottawa, though there was at first considerable divergence of opinion as to the best manner of conducting them — whether they should simply be receptions in the ordinary sense of the word, a few selected people being brought up and introduced, or whether people should ‘pass’ and bow without shaking hands, or whether every one should shake hands. Their Royal Highnesses adopted the last course, and it has been deeply appreciated as a personal intercourse between themselves and the Canadian people, which will always be remembered.