During nearly the whole period of his government the seals of the Colonial Office had been held by Lord Stanley, to whom he owed his appointment; and at the break-up of the Tory party, in the beginning of 1846, they passed into the hands of his old schoolfellow and college friend, Mr. Gladstone. But he had scarcely arrived in England when a new Secretary arose in the person of Lord Grey, to whom he was unknown except by reputation. It is all the more creditable to both parties that, in spite of their political differences, Lord Grey should first have endeavoured to induce him, on public grounds alone, to retain the government of Jamaica, with the promise of his unreserved confidence and most cordial support; and shortly afterwards, should have offered to him the still more important post of Governor-General of British North America. 'I believe,' wrote his Lordship, in making the offer, 'that it would be difficult to point out any situation in which great talents would find more scope for useful exertion, or are more wanted at this moment, and I am sure that I could not hope to find anyone whom I could recommend to Her Majesty for that office with so much confidence as yourself.'
So splendid an offer, made in a manner so gratifying, might well overcome any reluctance which Lord Elgin felt to embark at once on a fresh period of expatriation, and to resume labours which, however cordially they may be appreciated by a minister, are apt to meet with little recognition from the public.
He accepted it, not in the spirit of mere selfish ambition, but with a deep sense of the responsibilities attached to it, which he portrayed in earnest and forcible words at a public dinner at Dunfermline:—
To watch over the interests of those great offshoots of the British race which plant themselves in distant lands; to aid them in their efforts to extend the domain of civilisation, and to fulfil that first behest of a benevolent Creator to His intelligent creatures—'subdue the earth;' to abet the generous endeavour to impart to these rising communities the full advantages of British laws, British institutions, and British freedom; to assist them in maintaining unimpaired, it may be in strengthening and confirming, those bonds of mutual affection which unite the parent and dependent states—these are duties not to be lightly undertaken, and which may well claim the exercise of all the faculties and energies of an earnest and patriotic mind.
It was arranged that he should go to Canada at the end of the year. In the interval he became engaged to Lady Mary Louisa Lambton, daughter of the first Earl of Durham. They were married on November 7th, and in the first days of the year 1847 he sailed for America.
[1] It is impossible not to be struck with the applicability of these remarks to the condition of the agricultural poor in some parts of England, and the question of extending among them the benefits of education.
[2] Vide inf. p. 156.
[3] See the speech of Mr. W.E. Forster, at Leeds, May 20, 1869.