O’Brien and his people persisted, however, and called a public meeting in the Queen’s Park for the 17th May. There was a very large gathering, probably ten or twelve thousand people, and O’Brien and his companion, Mr. Kilbride (one of Lord Lansdowne’s evicted tenants), were carefully guarded by the police. The Irish party, who comprised probably one-tenth of the crowd, organised the meeting, and Mr. O’Brien, with several Yankee reporters around him, began to speak. The University students had planned to start singing, and the moment he began, the crowd broke out with “God Save the Queen.” Cheers were then called for Lord Lansdowne, Lord Salisbury, Lord Hartington, and Joseph Chamberlain. Then the singing began again; “Rule, Britannia” was sung by the great masses. Again cheers for the four statesmen already mentioned, then alternately “God Save the Queen,” cheers, and “Rule, Britannia.” No one could hear a word of O’Brien’s speech. This went on until he ceased to attempt to speak. Mr. Kilbride then stood up. The students led the crowd in a refrain, “Pay your rint, pay your rint, pay your rint, you thief,” and the people shouted this over and over again, and he, unable to be heard, had to cease, and the meeting ended by some local man trying to say a few words.
While moving through the crowd studying the temper of the people, I saw two or three incidents which showed me that there was a very dangerous and ugly spirit among the loyalists, and I become anxious lest the mob should get beyond all control. I went to the Chief of Police, who had a large force of policemen and an escort of mounted police, to guard the carriage of the visitors, and told him he would have a difficulty in getting O’Brien away without injury. Being a Police Commissioner, I advised him to get those in charge of the meeting to put up someone to speak as soon as Kilbride finished, and to take O’Brien and Kilbride quietly off the platform to the back, hurry them into the carriage, and drive off before the crowd should discover it. This was done, and they had barely got clear when the crowd, seeing they were going, chased them and endeavoured to stone them. Fortunately they had a start, and driving rapidly escaped without injury.
I had told the Chief of Police not to allow O’Brien to go anywhere on the streets without a strong police guard, for, as I told him, “I do not want him hurt for one thing, and, on the other hand, I should be very sorry that the idea should get abroad that he could walk the streets of Toronto (under the circumstances) without protection.” The following evening, O’Brien and his party of three or four friends, including one Yankee reporter, started from the hotel in the dusk to walk round a block, and would not wait for the police escort for which the police sergeant was sending. The party had not gone two hundred yards when the crowds began to gather and follow them. They were pelted with stones and eggs, the New York reporter being badly cut by a stone. They escaped with difficulty back to the hotel. In Hamilton, Kingston, and other places O’Brien was also mobbed and chased and was obliged to hide. He then left the country, while Lord Lansdowne, who remained, received a few days later a remarkable ovation on his return to Ottawa.
I left for England the day after O’Brien’s meeting (on my vacation) and a day or two after my arrival in London I was dining at Lord Salisbury’s, where I met Mr. Balfour, then Chief Secretary for Ireland. They were interested in hearing the particulars. I told Lord Salisbury that the “silent masses” had spoken out, and with no uncertain sound. Both he and Mr. Balfour said that O’Brien’s reception in Canada had helped the passage of the Coercion Bill through the House of Commons, for it proved that the statement of the Nationalists that every country in the world was on their side was not quite accurate.
[CHAPTER IX]
THE IMPERIAL FEDERATION LEAGUE
In 1884 a movement was begun in England, and the Imperial Federation League was formed, for the purpose of securing the Federation of the whole Empire, on somewhat the same lines as the Confederation of Canada. The Right Hon. W. E. Forster was the moving spirit, and the first President of the organisation. The objects of the League are clearly laid down in the following resolutions defining its nature and objects, which were passed at an adjourned conference held in London on the 18th November, 1884:
That a Society be now formed to be called “The Imperial Federation League.”