In an outline representation which we accidentally possessed, of a panorama of the battle of Waterloo, on exhibition in London, the 1st Foot Guards were conspicuously to be seen led on by "Major-General Sir Peregrine Maitland." It was a matter of no small curiosity to the boyish mind, and something that helped to rouse an interest in history generally, to be assured that the living personage here, every week, before the eye, was the commander represented in the panorama; one who had actually passed through the tremendous excitement of the real scene.
With persons of wider knowledge, Sir Peregrine was invested with further associations. Besides being the royal representative in these parts, he was the son-in-law of Charles Gordon Lennox, fourth Duke of Richmond, a name that stirred chivalrous feelings in early Canadians of both Provinces; for the Duke had come to Canada as Governor-in-Chief, with a grand reputation acquired as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland; and great benefits were expected, and probably would have been realized from his administration, had it been of long continuance. But he had been suddenly removed by an excruciating death. Whilst on a tour of inspection in the Upper Province, he had been fatally attacked with hydrophobia, occasioned by the bite of a pet fox. The injury had been received at Sorel; its terrible effects were fatally experienced at a place near the Ottawa, since named Richmond.
Some of the prestige of the deceased Duke continued to adhere to Sir Peregrine Maitland, for he had married the Duke's daughter, a graceful and elegant woman, who was always at his side, here and at Stamford Cottage across the Lake. She bore a name not unfamiliar in the domestic annals of George the Third, who once, it is said, was enamoured of a beautiful Lady Sarah Lennox, grandmother, as we suppose, or some other near relative, of the Lady Sarah here before us at York. Moreover, conversationalists whispered about (in confidence) something supposed to be unknown to the general public—that the match between Sir Peregrine and Lady Sarah had been effected in spite of the Duke. The report was that there had been an elopement; and it was naturally supposed that the party of the sterner sex had been the most active agent in the affair.
To say the truth, however, in this instance, it was the lady who precipitated matters. The affair occurred at Paris, soon after the Waterloo campaign. The Duke's final determination against Sir Peregrine's proposals having been announced, the daughter suddenly withdrew from the father's roof, and fled to the lodgings of Sir Peregrine, who instantly retired to other quarters. The upshot of the whole thing, at once romantic and unromantic, included a marriage and a reconciliation; and eventually a Lieutenant-Governorship for the son-in-law under the Governorship-in-Chief of the father, both despatched together to undertake the discharge of vice-regal functions in a distant colony. At the time of his marriage with Lady Sarah Lennox, Sir Peregrine had been for some ten years a widower. On his staff here at York was a son by his first wife, also named Peregrine, a subaltern in the army.
After the death of the Duke of Richmond, Sir Peregrine became administrator, for a time, of the general government of British North America. The movements of the representative of the Crown were attended with some state in those days. Even a passage across from York to Stamford, or from Stamford to York, was announced by a royal salute at the garrison.
Of a visit to Lower Canada in 1824, when, in addition to the usual suite, there were in the party several young Englishmen of distinction, tourists at that early period, on this continent, we have the following notice in the Canadian Review for December of that year. After mentioning the arrival at the Mansion House Hotel in Montreal, the Review proceeds: "In the morning His Excellency breakfasted with Sir Francis Burton, at the Government House, whom he afterwards accompanied to Quebec in the Swiftsure steamboat. Sir Peregrine is accompanied," the Review reports, "by Lord Arthur Lennox, Mr. Maitland, Colonels Foster, Lightfoot, Coffin and Talbot; with the Hon. E. G. Stanley [from 1851 to 1869, Earl of Derby], grandson of Earl Derby, M.P. for Stockbridge, John E. Denison, Esq. [subsequently Speaker of the House of Commons], M.P. for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and James S. Wortley, Esq. [afterwards Lord Wharncliffe], M.P. for Bossiney in Cornwall. The three latter gentlemen," the magazine adds, "are now upon a tour in this country from England; and we are happy to learn that they have expressed themselves as being highly gratified with all that they have hitherto seen in Canada."
It will be of interest to know that the name of Sir Peregrine Maitland is pleasantly preserved by means of Maitland Scholarships in a Grammar School for natives at Madras; and by a Maitland Prize in the University of Cambridge. The circumstances of the institution of these memorials are these as originally announced: "The friends of Lieutenant-General Sir Peregrine Maitland, K.C.B., late Commander in Chief of the Forces in South India, being desirous of testifying their respect and esteem for his character and principles, and for his disinterested zeal in the cause of Christian Truth in the East, have raised a fund for the institution of a prize in one of the Universities, and for the establishment of two native scholarships at Bishop Corrie's Grammar School at Madras; such prize and scholarships to be associated with the name of Sir Peregrine Maitland. In pursuance of the foregoing scheme, the sum of £1,000 has been given to the University of Cambridge for the purpose of instituting a prize to be called "Sir Peregrine Maitland's Prize," for an English essay on some subject connected with the propagation of the Gospel, through missionary exertions in India and other parts of the heathen world." This Prize, which is kept up by the interest accruing every three years, has been awarded at Cambridge regularly since 1845.
The successor to Sir Peregrine Maitland in the Government of Upper Canada was another distinguished military officer, Sir John Colborne. With ourselves, the first impression of his form and figure is especially associated with the interior in which we are supposing the reader to be now standing. We remember his first passing up the central aisle of St James's Church. He had arrived early, in an unostentatious way; and on coming within the building he quietly inquired of the first person whom he saw, sitting in a seat near the door: Which was the Governor's pew? The gentleman addressed happened to be Mr. Bernard Turquand, who, quickly recognizing the inquirer, stood up and extended his right arm and open hand in the direction of the canopied pew over which was suspended the tablet bearing the Royal Arms. Sir John, and some of his family after him, then passed on to the place indicated.
At school, in an edition of Goldsmith then in use, the name of "Major Colborne" in connection with the account of Sir John Moore's death at Corunna had already been observed; and it was with us lads a matter of intense interest to learn that the new Governor was the same person.