Miss Confederation

by Anne McDonald

  ******** Spencer Wood was the home of the governors general from 1854 to 1867. The house at Spencer Wood burned down in 1860, and was rebuilt in 1863 for the new governor general, Lord Monck, who served from 1861 to 1868. Rideau Hall in Ottawa was bought and renovated by the Canadian government in 1866 to be the new residence for the governors general from 1867. The original estate was sold by the Canadian government in 1870 and is now a park, the Bois-de-Coulonge.

  ******** The Queen Victoria, which the Canadians sent for the Maritime delegates.

  ******** Possibly Donald Cameron, whom Emma Tupper married in 1869.

  ******** Margaret, daughter of Colonel Gray of PEI, and Charlotte Elizabeth, the daughter of Colonel Gray of Saint John, NB.

  ******** According to the Bank of Canada, this would equal about $230 in 2010 dollars.

  ******** Mercy’s younger sister, who would have been the eldest sister at home while Mercy and her parents were away.

  ******** Charles Drinkwater, John A. Macdonald’s secretary.

  ******** This was probably the Stadacona Club.

  ******** Held at the parliament buildings and given by the governor general, Lord Monck.

  ******** The Lower Provinces are the Maritime provinces.

  Four

  From the Sublime to the Ridiculous: The “Failed,” the Grand Success, or the Drunken Fiasco of the Government Ball

  Thursday, October 13 to Monday, October 17

  It’s lucky we have Mercy’s diary. If we were to consider only the previously collected documents having to do with Confederation, all of which are from men’s perspectives, we would be left with a very different take on the conference’s events. In this first week of the conference, Mercy writes of D’Arcy McGee’s drunkenness, and of the terrible weather in Quebec City. McGee was known for his earthiness, like John A. Macdonald, and for his punning. He must have said or done something to “make her take no notice of him” at their dinner at Spencer Wood. One wonders what it was. She notes that the famous British journalist George Augustus Sala dined with them, though she was “rather disappointed in the man.…”

  From this first week we get a sense of what Mercy would have taken note of and how she would have written about people and events had she not fallen ill with diphtheria at the end of the week. The Nova Scotian delegate Charles Tupper was a medical doctor who always carried his black medical bag with him, and he attended to Mercy during her illness and recuperation. Mercy was not isolated from the others, though. She heard about the events and balls she missed from the other young women, and had a number of visitors, including Leonard Tilley and some of the other men who may have been courting her.

  Despite the fact that her direct observation of events was somewhat limited, Mercy was still able to offer considerable insight into the goings-on at the conference, and the characters of and relationships among the people there. The comparison between what has been written and published officially and Mercy’s writings allows us a different view of the events of Confederation.

  Lorette Falls, from below the falls looking up, near Montmorency, about 1860.

  Thursday morning, October 13, Quebec City

  Yesterday we went to see the falls of Lorette and the Indian Chief. It was raining and we could not walk down the gorge, just stood on the bridge and saw the waterfall. Col. Gray PEI chaperoned the party. We had Mr. Crowther, Mr. Galt’s secretary in the carriage with Miss [Jessie] McDougall, Ma and I. We went to the Indian Chief’s house. Not at all what I expected to see, the only sign of it being Indian was a Tomahawk and Chief’s cap which they showed us. I bought a wooden spoon to take home as a curiosity. The Old Chief is the last of the Huron Tribe. His wife, an old woman 90 years of age was sitting alongside of him. He has two silver armlets presented by George lV and a medal by the Prince of Wales. In the evening we dined at the Governor General’s, it was a very pleasant party.* D’Arcy McGee took me to dinner and sat between Lady MacDonnell and I. Before dinner was half over he got so drunk he was obliged to leave the table. I took no notice of him. Mr. Gray said I acted admirably [emphasis mine].** The sun has not shone for two hours ever since we have been here. I was never in such a place.

  Friday morning, October 14, Quebec City

  Raining again. Will it ever be fine? Sala*** dined with us last night. I was rather disappointed in the man, a rough new faced Englishman. Black eyes and hair and such a red nose and face. Mr. Brown sat alongside of him and introduced him to me. I have a sore throat this morning. Col Gray has given me some Homeopathic medicine. I hope it will cure. We want to make some visits today.

  I have written a long letter to Eliza. The Governor’s Ball is to come off tonight. They say it’s going to be such a crush. Mother and I went for a walk on Durham Terrace.**** While there a large piece of rock fell. When the men came in they said a baby was killed.

  This additional comment can be found in her extract in the Guardian, June 30, 1917:

  At first we thought the house nearby was on fire owing to the great amount of dust that arose. When the gentlemen came home from the Conference they said that the rock had pierced the roof of the house and killed a child in a cradle.

  Monday afternoon — 17, Quebec City

  Home all alone. I have not been able to leave my bedroom since Friday. Just as I was going to get ready for the Ball I went to comb Mamma’s hair and nearly fainted. She made me lie down. I got so nervous and excited that I commenced crying. Papa went off for Dr. Tupper,***** he came up directly. He wrote some prescriptions and sent them off to have some medicine made up for me. He saw I had a very sore throat and was very feverish, of course going to the Ball was out of the question so I very soon undressed and got into bed. Mrs. Penny came in to see us dressed and kindly offered to stay with me while Mamma was at the ball. They did not start until nearly 11 o’clock and were home by 2. Dr. Tupper came in again when he came home. He saw I was very ill indeed. All day Saturday I never raised my head from the pillow, only to take the medicine or gargle my throat. Yesterday morning it broke, it still remains very sore. The Doctor has just been here and he says I shall be quite well in a few days. I hope so for there are two or three Balls and parties this week, one “at Home” at Government House on Friday night and a party at Madame Tessier’s****** on Wednesday.

  Papa and Ma have gone out to make some visits. Mr. Crowther has just called and left a comic newspaper for me with his compliments. He, Mr. Drinkwater, and Mr. Bernard call every day to enquire for me. The Ball ******* I believe was rather a failure as far as the delegates are concerned. The Quebec people never introduced the ladies nor gentlemen to any partners nor never seen whether they had any supper or not [emphasis mine]. The Col Grays******** are both rather indignant at the way their daughters were treated. Miss [Margaret] Gray and Miss Tupper came to see me this morning.

  The Citadel, with the Wolfe and Montcalm Monument, Quebec City, about 1860. This image also provides a good view of the rock cliffs, where rock slides often happened after heavy rains. The Wolfe and Montcalm Monument is different from the Wolfe Monument on the Plains of Abraham. The monument in this photograph was erected in 1827 by Governor General Lord Dalhousie, in the Governor’s Garden, to pay tribute to both of the generals, who died in September 1759.

  They came to the conclusion I had not missed much yet. They all went to Montmorency [Falls] Saturday. The only gentleman with them Mr. Livesay******** and he rode on the box.

  Here is where history gets interesting. Luckily, even though Mercy was away sick, she kept on top of all the goings-on, concerned about what she was missing. Because of that, we get to see what was really happening — the social culture that helped make (or not make, in PEI’s case) the important relationships that mattered for Confederation.

  Along with Mercy’s writing, we have the record of another woman who helped to document the soci
al side of the conference events.

  Frances Elizabeth Owen Cole Monck, known as Feo to her family, was the sister-in-law of Lord Monck. She was married to his brother Richard, the governor general’s private secretary. Feo was also the niece of Lord Monck, as she was the daughter of Lady Monck’s eldest sister. Feo travelled to Canada in May 1864, and remained till May 1865. While here, she kept a journal. It is lively and full of details of life at Spencer Wood, her travels around the country, and the social side of the political events and people shaping Canada at that time. The journal is made up of a collection of letters that were sent back home and meant to inform and entertain her family. In her letters, she describes the beauty of the scenery around her, and also makes fun of herself, her husband, the people around her, the customs of her time and place, and the delegates at the Quebec conference.

  Feo had a very different social status and background from Mercy Coles. These helped to shape her views. She was also privy to more information about, and had more exposure to, the politicians of the time, because of living at Spencer Wood, and her close proximity to the governor general. When Lady Monck, Lord Monck’s wife, returned to Ireland with their children for the fall and winter of 1864–65, Feo took her place as the mistress of the house, serving as hostess at the many dinners held by Lord Monck.

  Lady Frances Elizabeth Owen Cole Monck, known as Feo to her family.

  A version of Feo’s journal was published in 1891 as My Canadian Leaves, but the far more telling and interesting unedited version of her journal, compiled and annotated by W.L. Morton and included in Monck Letters and Journals, 1863–1868: Canada from Government House at Confederation, was published in 1970. It is full of juicy notes and gossip one doesn’t find anywhere else.

  Mercy’s and Feo’s writings show how limited our understanding of the social history of Confederation would be if we weren’t able to examine what they had to say about the people and events of the time. Mercy’s view is one take on the Ball; Edward Whelan, who was a pro-Confederation delegate from Prince Edward Island, provides another, very different view; and Feo Monck has yet another take.

  Edward Whelan, in his The Union of the British Provinces, says:

  On the evening of the 14th a very brilliant Ball was given in the Parliament Buildings, under the auspices of the Canadian Ministry. It was attended by the same classes — the same distinguished persons and society as attended the “Drawing Room” on the 11th. [In contrast, Mercy thought this was quite tiresome.] His Excellency the Governor General, His Excellency the Lieut. Governor of Nova Scotia [Sir Richard MacDonnell] and Lady, the Members of the Canadian Government, the Delegates from the Eastern Provinces, and about 800 others, formed a large and most agreeable party, by whom the pleasures of the dance were kept up without interruption and without an incident to mar the harmony of the occasion [emphasis mine], until nearly 3 o’clock on the morning of the 15th.1

  Feo Monck, in her journal on October 16, provides a description given by her cousin, F. Burrows, who claims the event was “most amusing; such drunkenness, pushing, kicking and tearing, he says, he never saw; his own coattails were nearly torn off; the supper room floor was covered with meat, drink, and broken bottles.”

  Feo Monck’s own description of the ball is here. Note that the / / surround the parts that were cut out of her diary in the edited version, My Canadian Leaves.

  October 15, Saturday

  The G-G then introduced me to Sir Robert Macdonnell [sic].******** He asked me to walk about with him and have some refreshments, so off we went.… Well this old king and I wandered on and on for a long time, him being too grand to ask the way.… I wonder how they could entrust any government to him!… [A]nd when we at last found the right room, I danced with Dr. Tupper / who trembled with nervousness as I whirled him through the Lancers.… I am making so many blunders but my head aches and these delegates puzzle me so/.

  Whelan’s account of the ball in his Examiner is a bit more forthcoming than in his later Union of the British Provinces.

  It was a stunning and crushing affair as regards numbers, gorgeous dress, lavish expenditure on the part of the Government: and, indeed, everything that was calculated to make a sensational sacrifice at the shrine of pleasure. I do not think the arrangements were quite so good and regu-lar as they were at our small Ball in Charlottetown when the Delegates met there. There, the Delegates from the other Provinces were introduced to our Society, such as it is, by persons appointed for the purpose. Here, the Delegates from the Maritime Provinces — (and I speak of the whole of introduction to the Quebec belles and gentlemen, Those who brought ladies from the Lower Provinces had to do, for the most part, the cicerone business themselves: and it was not pleasant to see the lady of the Provincial Secretary of Nova Scotia [Mrs. Charles Tupper] — a very fine and handsome woman — led to the Supper Room by an antiquated, grey-headed Cockney fop, without influence or position, and who seems to be dogging the steps of the Delegation through the Provinces. However, I will say nothing more upon this point. The Canadian Ministry, I am sure, were desirous of making the entertainment as agreeable as possible to their guests: and if any error were committed, it was not of the heart but of the head.

  Whelan did not wish to be critical; in fact, he wanted to impress. His book Union of the British Provinces was compiled after the fact, after the conferences had ended and the delegates had had the opportunity to edit and revise their speeches. His aim was to sell the idea of Confederation to the people through what must, to some extent, be seen as propaganda. He published the book with his own money in Charlottetown in 1865; he made hardly any of it back, however, as much of Prince Edward Island’s population had turned decidedly against the idea of Confederation by that time.

  * * *

  * Edward Whelan obviously thought it was a pleasant party, too. He wrote:

  I have just returned (11 o’clock, p.m.) from dining at Spencer Wood, the residence of the Governor General. It is hardly necessary to say that the dinner was a superb one — lacking nothing in the departments of cuisine and vintage; but rendered especially charming by the ease, affability and good humour which characterized the intercourse of the numerous guests; which included many of the Delegates, several of the Canadian Ministry; and last, but not least, several of the fair daughters of different parts of Canada, one or two of whom I should like to particularize, but dare not.(“Edward Whelan Reports from the Quebec Conference,” ed. Peter B. Waite, Canadian Historical Review XLII [1961])

  ** In the June 1917 extract from her diary, Mercy leaves out the part about D’Arcy McGee getting drunk and having to leave the table, as well as her comments on the weather and Quebec City.

  *** George Augustus Sala was a famous British journalist, who was travelling through Canada and the United States in 1864. He was in Quebec City as a correspondent for the Daily Telegraph.

  **** Durham Terrace, which is the terrace and boardwalk in front of the Château Frontenac, was renamed Dufferin Terrace in 1879. It was originally built in 1838, and extended in 1854.

  ***** It’s been suggested that Charles Tupper quite enjoyed his tending to the wives and daughters of his colleagues, though Mercy’s accounts of him don’t lead one to conclude anything untoward happened with her.

  ****** Wife of Ulric-Joseph Tessier, the speaker of the legislative assembly of the Province of Canada.

  ******* The Ball was held at the parliament buildings by the Canadian government for the Maritime delegates on Friday October 14.

  ******** Col. John Hamilton Gray, premier of PEI, and Col. John Hamilton Gray, a lawyer and former premier of New Brunswick.

  ******** Livesay was an older man, involved with the railway, and was probably the “Cockney fop … dogging the steps of the Delegation through the Provinces” described by Edward Whelan.

  ******** Richard MacDonnel
was lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, 1864–65. In the end, he was moved out of the position because he didn’t support the idea of Confederation. The job was given to Sir Fenwick Williams, of whom Mercy writes later.

  Five

  Diphtheria

  While in Quebec City, Mercy Coles fell sick with diphtheria. At the time, diphtheria was a serious concern, and was often fatal. She was so ill that she ended up missing most of the events in Quebec City, where the conference continued until October 26. One benefit of her absence and illness, however, was that they brought her more attention from many of the men. This was certainly some consolation for her, but couldn’t make up for her lost opportunities both to woo and be wooed.

  At the time, there was no cure for diphtheria. There were, however, some rather dramatic treatments for the symptoms, and Mercy had to endure some of both: the treatments, and the symptoms. Despite her illness, however, she was not isolated from what was going on. People at the time had little idea of how diseases were transmitted, and so the highly contagious Mercy had many visits from the other young women, and from a number of the delegates and secretaries, including Leonard Tilley, Hewitt Bernard, and Charles Drinkwater.

  Tuesday Afternoon, October 18, Quebec City

  I am sure I shall know the shape of every shingle on the roof of the old house opposite. I went downstairs for about a half an hour in the middle of the day. I felt very weak and was very glad to come back to my bedroom again. I saw a few of the guests however, I think they had not all returned. While I was there the servant brought in invitations from the Bachelors of Quebec to a Ball at the Provincial Building on Friday evening. We are also invited to a party tomorrow evening. I hope I shall be able to go. My throat does not seem much improved, the other side is very painful. Mrs. Tupper said at first it was Diphtheria. I fancied so from the medicine and wine I had to take. I have not seen the Doctor since morning. I then told him he need not come. I should be downstairs but I could not wait for him, the talking made my head ache. They have all gone to see the Citadel. I shall have to miss all the sights. Never mind, I feel I shall get quite well whenever we leave Quebec. It’s the most miserable place to live in one can fancy. We have not had one fine day ever since we came. It has been pouring just a few minutes ago. Such dumpy, draggled frail women they have here [emphasis mine]. I have just seen one go by with a handsome embroidered skirt over a red one, her white one an inch thick with mud. Ma is going to have a new black silk waist made. She has only the one evening dress and finds it rather awkward.