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His day came to a close. It had been long and
eventful. Its beginning was not very bright and his experience had been a
chequered one. Few men had been tested as he had. Although fifty years of
his life had been passed in comparative obscurity, during which his powers
of endurance had been subjected to the severest strain, the last
forty-four years had been lived in the light of almost glaring publicity.
From the year 1870, when he took such a conspicuous part in the North-West
Settlement, until the end came in 1914, he had been in every sense of the
word a public man. And he had occupied no mean position. He had been in
the very front rank. He had been recognized on the floor of Parliament, in
the realm of finance, in the world of railway development as a man of
extraordinary powers. He had been sought after by some and had been
denounced by others. But he had come through it all—the second part of his
history as well as the first—without danger. On both stages he had played
his part well and had proved himself to be not only a good and useful
friend and servant of the company but of inestimable value to the Empire.
The last few years, fortunately, were passed in a
position removed from controversy and competition. There the real, kindly,
genial and helpful spirit of the man revealed itself and he won for
himself hosts of admirers and friends on both sides of the Atlantic. The
sun was setting but it was going down in a cloudless sky, in a blaze of
light, the clouds all cleared away and the evening beautiful and calm. To
the last he was fortunate. He had no long and painful sickness. In
October, 1913, he left his home at Glencoe and came to London to take up
his duties there. There was no thought of anything happening but he was
struck down by an illness which proved to be fatal and on the 21st of
January his spirit passed away. When the news of his death was flashed to
the ends of the Empire he was universally mourned as a good man, a worthy
citizen and a true patriot. Public men in generous terms made appropriate
reference to the loss which the Empire had sustained. We quote a few of
these eulogies as examples of many pronounced in the different Dominions
of the King.
The Premier of the Dominion of Canada, R. L. Borden,
spoke as follows:-"It is fitting, I am sure all members of both sides in
this house will agree, that we should pay a tribute to the memory of the
great Canadian who passed away yesterday. I speak of Lord Strathcona as a
Canadian, because, although born across the sea, his life work was almost
altogether carried on in this country. I do not know of any man who was
inspired by a higher conception of duty than was Lord Strathcona.
"As the weight of years pressed upon him it was
almost pathetic to see the devotion with which he insisted on performing
even the minor duties of his position. In all the time I have known him,
and that was in the later years of his life, I was struck with the fact
that time did not seem to have dimmed the freshness of his spirit, the
vigor of his will or his strength of purpose.
"I consider that it would be a fitting tribute of
respect to his memory that this house should stand adjourned until
to-morrow."
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, leader of the Opposition, in
seconding the motion said:—"Since Sir John Macdonald's time I do not know
that there has been any Canadian, who, on departing this life, has left
behind him such a trail of sorrow as Lord Strathcona. He is mourned by His
Majesty, whose personal friend he was, by the authorities of commerce and
of finance in the commercial and financial metropolis of the world, by the
poor of London, by the people of Scotland, the land of his birth, with
whom he never cornpletley severed his connection, and in Canada, by all
classes of the community. This universal sorrow is a tribute only bestowed
upon men of strong personality and to this class he undoubted]y belonged.
"He came to Canada when he was only eighteen years
of age, more than seventy-five years ago. At that time all his possessions
were the sound practical education of a Scottish lad, and more than the
full share of the characteristics of his race, keen business courage,
caution and firmness never loud and assertive, never failing to stand
strong as adamant against all reverses, and never spoiled even by the most
phenomenal success. He came as a simple clerk to the Hudson Bay Company,
and from that station he rose step by step until he became, after the
death of Sir George Simpson, in 1860, at first in fact, and afterwards
both in fact and name, the governor of that historic company, a position
which he held to the last day of his life."
The Secretary of State for the Colonies, Right Hon.
Lewis Harcourt, sent the following message from the British Government to
the Governor-General of Canada:- I desire on the part of His Majesty's
Government to convey through Your Royal Highness to the Government and the
people of Canada, an expression of deep sympathy in the loss the Dominion
has sustained by the death of Lord Strathcona, High Commissioner for
Canada in London for the past seventeen years, a sympathy shared by his
many friends in the United Kingdom and throughout the Empire. His name has
been for many years a household word among us, embodying to all the
thought of Canada and her marvellous progress as well as his own notable
career, distinguished by large public usefulness and magnificent
liberality, and his memory is assured of an honored and abiding place in
the annals of the Dominion to which he devoted his faithful services to
the end."
In the Canadian Senate, Hon. Mr. Lougheed, leader of
the Government, spoke as follows:— "Coming to Canada at a period when men
were living who had lived when Montealm and Wolfe fought on the Plains of
Abraham, he began to carve for himself that wonderful career with which
Canada to-day is so familiar. Subjecting himself to all the hardships and
rigors, the privations and adventures common to the Hudson Bay Company
outposts along the northern fringe of Canada, he surmounted every
difficulty until he reached the highest position in the gift of that most
remarkable company. Lord Strathcona's presence in London was an asset of
inestimable value to Canada. His princely and lavish hospitality, his
beneficence as a giver, his philanthropy in assisting and endowing great
institutions in Canada and elsewhere, placed him in the forefront of the
great philanthropists of the age."
Sir George Ross added his tribute to that of the
leader:—"In such cases," he said, "we usually say 'we stand in the shadow
of a great career.' To-day we do not stand in the shadow, but in the
luminous light of the greatest career of any Canadian with whom most of us
have been acquainted. Of the various qualities which distinguished Lord
Strathcona, the first, to my mind, is the resolute purpose he showed from
his earliest days to his latest hours."
These are a few of the public utterances of which
Lord Strathcona was the subject. They could easily be multiplied a
hundredfold. The man gripped the age in which he lived and made a distinct
and vivid impression. The remarkable story of his life captured the
imagination. his success, to quote the word of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, had
been "phenomenal." He had won his way through a tanglewood of
difficulties, out into the open, and he had done so without ostentation.
He was endowed with great gifts but they were solid in quality rather than
brilliant. The simplicity of the man, his quiet and gentle manner, the
reticence which avoided display, the absence of the vulgar assertive,
self-advertising spirit which, too often, shows itself in the newly
rich—all this impressed itself on those who knew him best. And through all
the eulogistic utterances which followed upon his decease there runs this
note. Men dwelt upon this conspicuous feature in his character, its
reserved power. There was no exaggeration, no wildness of speech or
action, no flights of fancy, no outbreaks of passion. He observed the
golden mean, was moderate in all things, a wise man, sound of judgment,
temperate in speech and yet possessed of a great determination. No finer
example can be found of the old-time maxim, "Where there is a will there
is a way." He had a will and he made a way. The building of the Canadian
Pacific Railway was an illustration of the conquering power of his will,
He had the faith and tenacity of purpose which, if they could not "remove
mountains," at least could build a railway over them. It was that in the
man which impressed his fellows—the dogged, steady persistence with which
he followed his object till he had gained it.
His external bearing was mild and quiet but it
concealed a spirit of adamant. Having once undertaken anything, committed
himself to it, lie was not to be turned from its accomplishment. With
tireless energy, marvellous industry, careful audacity, he carried
successfully through enterprises which others, of a more showy ability,
had failed to complete. The dependability of the man, his conscientious
and thorough performance of his duties, great or small, secured for him
recognition and promotion from the officials of the Hudson Bay Company and
afterwards from the great leaders in the political and financial world.
And when men came to speak of him after he was dead, trying to appraise
him at his true value and analyze his amazing success and discover the
secret of his extraordinary rise there is a singular unanimity in their
verdict. They all fasten upon this outstanding characteristic that
whatever his hand found to do he did it with his might. He lost no time
securing influence, pulling strings, enlisting doubtful help, but went
straight at the thing to he done and did it. Such a man with such a
history and such a method and such a grand result is a man of which
Canadians may well be proud. And he is one, too, who can safely be put
forward as an example and inspiration to the aspiring youth of the land. |
