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Lord Elgin
Bibliographical Note


For accounts of the whole career of Lord Elgin see Letters and Journals of James, Eighth, Earl of Elgin, etc., edited by Theodore Walrond, C.B., with a preface by his brother-in-law, Dean Stanley (London 2nd. ed., 1873); for China mission, Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission to China and Japan by Lawrence Oliphant, his private secretary (Edinburgh, 1869); for the brief Indian administration, The Friend of India for 1862-63. Consult also article in vol. 8 of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th ed.; John Charles Dent's Canadian Portrait Gallery (Toronto, 1880), vol. 2, which also contains a portrait; W.J. Rattray's The Scot in British North America (Toronto, 1880) vol. 2, pp. 608-641.

For an historical review of Lord Elgin's administration in Canada, see J.C. Dent's The Last Forty Years, or Canada since the Union of 1841 (Toronto, 1881), chapters XXIII-XXXIV inclusive, with a portrait; Louis P. Turcotte's Le Canada Sous l'Union (Quebec, 1871), chapters I-IV, inclusive; Sir Francis Hincks's Reminiscences of His Public Life (Montreal, 1884) with a portrait of the author; Joseph Pope's Memoirs of the Rt. Hon. Sir John A. Macdonald, G.C.B. (Ottawa and London, 1894), with portraits of the great statesman, vol. 1, chapters IV-VI inclusive; Lord Grey's Colonial Policy of Lord John Russell's Administration (London, 2nd ed., 1853), vol. 1; Sir C.B. Adderley's Review of the Colonial Policy of Lord John Russell's Administration, by Earl Grey, and Subsequent Colonial History (London, 1869).

For accounts of the evolution of responsible government in Canada consult the works by Dent, Turcotte, Rattray, Hincks, Grey and Adderley, just mentioned; Lord Durham's Report on the Affairs of British North America, submitted to parliament, 1839; Dr. Alpheus Todd's Parliamentary Government in The British Colonies (2nd ed. London, 1894); Bourinot's Manual of the Constitutional History of Canada (Toronto, 1901); his Canada under British Rule (London and Toronto, 1901), chapters VI-VIII inclusive; Memoir of the Life of the Rt. Hon. Lord Sydenham, etc., by his brother G. Poulett Scrope, M.P., (London, 1843), with a portrait of that nobleman; Life and Correspondence of Charles Lord Metcalfe, by J.W. Kaye (London, new ed., 1858).

For comparisons between the parliamentary government of Great Britain or Canada, and the congressional system of the United States, see Walter Bagehot's English Constitution and other political essays (New York, 1889); Woodrow Wilson's Congressional Government (Boston, 1885); Dr. James Bryce's American Commonwealth (London, 1888); Bourinot's Canadian Studies in Comparative Politics, in Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., vol. VIII, sec. 2 (old ser.), and in separate form (Montreal, 1891). Other books and essays on the same subject are noted in a bibliography given in Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., vol. XI, old ser., sec. 2, as an appendix to an article by Sir J.G. Bourinot on Parliamentary Government in Canada.

The reader may also profitably consult the interesting series of sketches (with excellent portraits) of the lives of Sir Francis Hincks, Sir A. MacNab, Sir L.H. LaFontaine, R. Baldwin, Bishop Strachan, L.J. Papineau, John Sandfield Macdonald, Antoine A. Dorion, Sir John A. Macdonald, George Brown, Sir E.P. Tache, P.J.O. Chauveau, and of other men notable from 1847-1854, in the Portraits of British Americans (Montreal 1865-67), by J. Fennings Taylor, who was deputy clerk of the old legislative council, and later of the senate of Canada, and a contemporary of the eminent men whose careers he briefly and graphically describes. Consult also Dent's Canadian Portrait Gallery, which has numerous portraits.

NOTES

[1: He was bitten by a tame fox and died of hydrophobia at Richmond, in the present county of Carleton, Ontario.]

[2: "Letters and Journals of James, eighth Earl of Elgin, etc." Edited by Theodore Waldron, C.B. For fuller references to works consulted in the writing of this short history, see _Bibliographical Notes_ at the end of this book.]

[3: Lady Elma, who married, in 1864, Thomas John Howell-Thurlow-Camming Bruce, who was attached to the staff of Lord Elgin in his later career in China and India, etc., and became Baron Thurlow on the death of his brother in 1874. See "Debrett's Peerage."]

[4: "The Colonial Policy of Lord John Russell's Administration," by Earl Grey, London, 1857. See Vol. I, p. 205.]

[5: The "Life and Correspondence of Charles, Lord Metcalfe," by John W. Kaye, London, 1858.]

[6: "Reminiscences of his public life," by Sir Francis Hincks, K.C.M.G., C.B., Montreal, 1884]

[7: See "McMullen's History of Canada," Vol. II (2nd Ed.), p. 201.]

[8: These concluding words of Lord Elgin recall a similar expression of feeling by Sir Etienne Pascal Tache, "That the last gun that would be fired for British supremacy in America would be fired by a French Canadian."]

[9: Fifty years after these words were written, debates have taken place in the House of Commons of the Canadian federation in favour of an imperial Zollverein, which would give preferential treatment to Canada's products in British markets. The Conservative party, when led by Sir Charles Tupper, emphatically declared that "no measure of preference, which falls short of the complete realization of such a policy, should be considered final or satisfactory." England, however, still clings to free trade.]

[10: The father of the Hon. Edward Blake, the eminent constitutional lawyer, who occupied for many years a notable place in Canadian politics, and is now (1902) a member of the British House of Commons.]

[11: See her "Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada." London, 1838.]

[12: "I am inclined," wrote Lord Durham, "to view the insurrectionary movements which did take place as indicative of no deep-rooted disaffection, and to believe that almost the entire body of the reformers of this province sought only by constitutional means to attain those objects for which they had so long peaceably struggled before the unhappy troubles occasioned by the violence of a few unprincipled adventurers and heated enthusiasts."]

[13: For a succinct history of this road see "Eighty Years' Progress or British North America," Toronto, 1863.]

[14: "Portraits of British Americans," Montreal, 1865, vol. 1., pp. 99-100. See Bourinot's "Parliamentary Procedure," p. 573_n_. The last occasion on which a Canadian speaker exercised this old privilege was in 1869, and then Mr. Cockburn made only a very brief reference to the measures of the session.]

[15: It was not until 1874 when Mr. Alexander Mackenzie was first minister of a Liberal government that simultaneous polling at a general election was required by law, but it had existed some years previously in Nova Scotia.]

[16: See "The Last Forty Years, or Canada Since the Union of 1841," by John Charles Dent, Toronto, 1881, vol. II., p. 309. Mr. White became Minister of the Interior in Sir John Macdonald's government (1885-88) but died suddenly in the midst of a most active and useful administrative career.]

[17: See remarks of Dr. Kingsford in his "History of Canada" (vol. VII., pp. 266-273), showing how unjust was the clamour raised by the enemies of the church in New England when a movement was in progress for the establishment of a colonial episcopate simply for purposes of ordination and church government.]

[18: A clause of the act of 1791 provided that the sovereign might, if he thought fit, annex hereditary titles of honour to the right of being summoned to the legislative council in either province, but no titles were ever conferred under the authority of this imperial statute.]

[19: Thirteen other patents were left unsigned by the lieutenant-governor and consequently had no legal force.]

[20: "Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Charles Lord Sydenham, G.C.B.," edited by his brother G. Poulett-Scrope, M.P.; London, 1843.]

[21: Sir Francis Hincks's "Reminiscences of his Public Life," p. 283.]

[22: See on these points an excellent article on the feudal system of Canada in the _Queen's Quarterly_ (Kingston, January, 1899) by Dr. W. Bennett Munro. Also _Droit de banalite_, by the same, in the report of the Am. Hist Ass., Washington, for 1899, Vol. I.]

[23: "Spencerwood," the governor's private residence.]

[24: See article on Lord Elgin in "Encyclopaedia Britannica" (9th ed.), Vol. VIII., p. 132.]

[25: In the "North British Review," quoted by Waldron, pp. 458-461.]

[26: Lord Elgin's eldest son (9th Earl) Victor Alexander Brace, who was born in 1849, at Monklands, near Montreal, was Viceroy of India 1894-9. See Debrett's Peerage, arts. Elgin and Thurton for particulars of Lord Elgin's family.]

[27: See Mr. Howe's eloquent speeches on the organization of the empire, in his "Speeches and Public Letters," (Boston, 1859), vol. II., pp. 175-207.]

[28: See on this subject Todd's "Parliamentary Government in the British Colonies," pp. 313-329.]

[29: See Todd's "Parliamentary Government in England," vol. II., p. 101.]

[30: He was speaker of the House of Representatives from 1895 to 1899.]

\[31: "Congressional Government," pp. 301, 332.]

[32:"The English Constitution," pp. 95, 96.]

[33: In the _International Review_, March, 1877.]

[34: "Congressional Government," p. 94.]

[35: "The American Commonwealth," I., 210 et seq.]

[36: Ibid., pp. 304, 305]

[37: ibid., Chap. 95, vol. III.]

[38: "Commentaries," sec. 869.]

[39: See Story's "Commentaries," sec. 869.]


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