|
THE SHADOWS FALL
VERY rarely has a
benefactor made his return voyage across the Atlantic Ocean so
utterly cast down as Lord Selkirk was in 1818. Full of hope and
determination he had, in 1815, sent out his military governor,
Semple, in whom he confided much. Though full of anxiety Selkirk had
nevertheless come to Montreal full of determination and resource.
But now the condition of his remote and helpless colonists, the
opposition of the governing powers in Canada, his expensive and
discouraging lawsuits, and the mental suffering that comes to a
proud spirit when it is beaten and broken—all these combined to make
his return to his native land a most melancholy one.
Soon after His
Lordship's return his friend, Sir James Montgomery, brought the
serious features of Lord Selkirk's treatment in Canada before the
British House of Commons, moving for all the official papers in the
case. The motion was carried and the Bluebook known as that of
1819—contains a storehouse of material, where the patient student
may find recorded the chief facts of this long and heart-breaking
struggle.
The mental condition
of Lord Selkirk soon began to prey upon his body—never very strong
at the best. He sought in his overstrained state the assistance of
his friends, and his self-vindication seemed to be the only topic on
which his active mind spent itself.
In the year following
his return from Canada, and when all about him became fearful for
his health, his friend, Lady Katherine Halkett, in order to give his
mind occupation and comfort, appealed to his old college friend—now
become the most influential elan in many ways in Scotland—Sir Walter
Scott, requesting his aid in placing fairly before the world the
misrepresentations of Lord Selkirk's enemies. The chivalrous Sir
Walter was suffering acutely at the time, and was unable to comply
with Her Ladyship's wish. The writer was fortunate in obtaining from
Lord Selkirk's family (1881) a copy of the letter which Sir Walter
Scott wrote in reply, and it may be well to give as much of it as
bears upon the subject :-
"MY DEAR LADY
KATHERINE,—I was most exceedingly indisposed when Your Ladyship's
very kind letter reached me. . . The bad news your favour conveyed
with respect to my dear and esteemed friends, Lord and Lady Selkirk,
did not greatly tend to raise my spirits, lowered as they were by
complete exhaustion. . . . I am afraid I have already said enough to
satisfy Your Ladyship how ill-qualified I am, especially at this
moment, to undertake a thing of such consequence to Lord Selkirk as
a publication of his case. . . . It is most painful to me in these
circumstances, my dear Lady Katherine, to feel that I should be
attempting an impossibility in the wish to make myself master of the
very unpleasant train of difficulties and embarrassments in which
Lord Selkirk has been engaged. . . . Most devoutly do I hope that
these unpleasant transactions will terminate as favourably as Lord
Selkirk's ardent wish to do good, and the sound policy of his
colonizing deserve ; for, as I never knew in my life a man of a more
generous and disinterested disposition, or one whose talents and
perseverance were better qualified to bring great and national
schemes to conclusion, I have only to regret in common with his
other friends the impediments that have been thrown in his way by
the rapacious avarice of this great company.
"I have been three
days in writing this scrawl. I cannot tell Your Ladyship how anxious
I am about Lord and Lady Selkirk.
"I beg my best
compliments to Mr. Halkett, and am always, with most sincere regard,
Your Ladyship's most obedient and faithful servant,
"WALTER SCOTT.
"Edinburgh, 10th
June, 1819."
To see a man thus
prostrate whose years—forty-eight—had scarcely brought him to his
prime is sad, but kind and loving hearts supplied their sympathy and
care to the sinking earl. The countess and her young family
accompanied him to the continent, and in the south of France sought
the rest and pleasant surroundings that they hoped would restore
him. The months dragged on without any improvement, and on April
8th, 1820, at Pau, in the department of Basses Pyrenees, in the
south of France, Lord Selkirk died surrounded by his family. His
bones lie in the Protestant cemetery at Orthes, in the same
department.
The Gentleman's
Magazine of 1820 gives a sketch of his life, evidently penned by a
loving hand.
"Few men were
possessed of higher powers of mind, or were more capable of applying
them with more indefatigable perseverance. His treatise on
'Emigration' has long been considered a standard work, and as having
exhausted one of the most difficult subjects in the science of
political economy. His Lordship is also advantageously known to the
public as the author of some other literary productions, all of them
remarkable for the enlargement and liberality of their views, the
luminous perspicacity of their statements, and that severe and
patient spirit of induction which delights in the pursuit and is
generally successful in the discovery of truth.
"To his friends the
death of this beloved and eminent person is a loss which nothing can
repair. His gentle and condescending manners wound themselves round
the hearts of those admitted to his society, and conciliated an
attachment which every fresh interview served to confirm. With those
connected with him by the ties of kindred and the sweet relations of
domestic society, His Lordship lived on terms of the most
affectionate endearment; indeed, seldom has there existed a family
the members of which were more tenderly attached to each other than
that of which His Lordship was the head, and few families have
experienced a more severe succession of those trials by which the
Almighty chastens the heart and disciplines the virtues of His
creatures. His Lordship was eminently exemplary in the discharge of
every social and private duty. He was a considerate and indulgent
landlord, a kind and gracious master; to the poor a generous
benefactor, and of every public improvement a judicious and liberal
patron.
"The latter years of
the life of this lamented nobleman were employed in the
establishment of an extensive colony in the western parts of British
America. In the prosecution of this favourite object he had
encountered obstacles of the most unexpected and formidable
character. With these, however, he was admirably qualified to
contend; to the counsels of an enlightened philosophy and an
immovable firmness of purpose, he added the most complete habits of
business and a perfect knowledge of affairs. The obstructions he met
with served only to stimulate him to increased exertion; and after
an arduous struggle with a powerful confederacy, which had arrayed
itself against him, and which would, long ere now, have subdued any
other adversary, he had the satisfaction to know that he had finally
succeeded in founding an industrious and thriving community. It has
now struck deep root in the soil, and is competent, from its own
internal resources, to perpetuate itself and to extend the blessings
of civilization to those remote and boundless regions."
We add nothing. These
are fitting words with which tenderly to leave the foreign grave of
the founder of the Red River colony.
Lady Selkirk survived
the fated earl. Their son Dunbar .Tames Douglas succeeded his father
in 1820 and died in 1885, when the title became extinct. Lady
Isabella Helen, eldest daughter, married the Hon. Charles I-lope,
who was at one time governor of the Isle of Wight. Their son,
Captain ,John Hope, R.N., now occupies the Selkirk family seat of
St. Mary's Isle, Kircudbrightshire, Scotland. Lady Catherine Jane,
second daughter, married Loftus Tottenham Wigram. The family of Earl
Thomas are now all dead. |
