It certainly was not owing to slow driving that we were late, but it so happened that instead of arriving at 9 P.M. we did not reach Hochelaga until 10 o'clock, and then it was to find a great and rather a noisy if good-humoured crowd assembled, and the banquet, which afforded the occasion for the display of the electric light, laid out in the hall of the station. Three large tables were already occupied, and the impatience visible on the faces of the company was, according to one of my friends, very much intensified by the effect of the white light, which cast deep shadows over their hungry looks. But not only was there supper to be eaten, but speeches to be made. The Mayor was irresistible. He got the Duke on his legs, although the latter candidly told the company that he would rather drive an engine through a deep drift of snow than make a speech. There were very telling orations in French and English, and Mr. Chapleau made an excellent address, and there were French-Canadian glees and choruses by the company. Not to be wondered at was it if after such a long day and night we all retired with alacrity to seek rest in our quarters at the comfortable and magnificent hotel Windsor, to which we were once more assigned.
Saturday, 14th.—We were roused up soon after 6 o'clock in the morning, for we had to take the early train to La Chine in order to "enjoy" the descent of the famous "rapids" in the steamer which makes the run down to the city. It was a lovely morning, and we had a delightful run up the left bank, and charming views of Montreal and the "Victoria Bridge." There is nothing in America finer than this Canadian town and its grand frontage of masonry extending for miles along the shores of the lake, the varied architecture of its noble buildings, and the wooded heights dotted with fair villas. We got on board our steamer and shot "the Rapids" as thousands do every year. It was one sensation more. The water was a little too high, however, to give us an idea of all its terrors. Very exciting were the preparations for the committal of the craft, which began to show signs of friskiness as we approached the shoot, to the tyranny of the waters. Steering gear was prepared, extra tackles put on the apparatus, the helm was called on to aid the wheel, four men threw themselves on spoke and rope, and we left off talking about the price of corn and the possible cost per bushel at Liverpool and cognate matters, as we felt the river had got hold of us, and as we looked down from the deck on the boiling swirl and seething eddies which heralded our coming to the broken water. "And the boldest held his breath for a time" as the boat took her header. If anything were to give way?—if the men at the helm did something they ought not to do? A Thames canoe-man who has braved Boulter's Lock in its fury has been moved just as we were—all but the market women, who went on knitting, and the priest, who never raised his eyes from his "Hours"—and the navigating habitués. And there, as with all the power of steam and science we were battling with the evil power of the river, there shot out from the shore a tiny craft with a single Indian sitting bolt upright and keeping his course with his paddles through the tortured flood. "Does he mean to commit suicide?" "Not he. He's going to the other side, I guess. These Injuns don't drown easy." I would not have taken his place for all the silver sculls that ever were won, nor would I advise any winner of them to essay the same. In five minutes it was all over—that is, the worst part of the Rapids. It was rather annoying to be told that there has been no loss of life in the many years the "shooting" of them has been going on. We got back to the town in time for breakfast at the hotel, and then there was a good deal to be done before our departure for Toronto. An excursion about Montreal, "over the hills and far away," engaged the attention and the time of most of my friends for the day; but I remained in all the forenoon, and only went out for an hour before dinner "to take a last fond look" at the well-remembered scene of the hospitalities and repose I enjoyed in the winter of 1861 in the house of the kindest and best of hosts.
"I cannot but remember such things were
That were most precious to me."
Yes! "And there's rosemary—that's for remembrance." The travellers come back delighted with their excursion—to dine early, and start in the special train at dusk, attended by many friends. But the programme must be attended to.
In Canada, where the Scotch form a great and influential part of the most thriving community, the Duke of Sutherland was, of course, received with enthusiasm, and the interest in his visit was not diminished by the fact that he is uncle to a Governor who, succeeding one of the ablest and most popular administrators that ever crossed the seas, has managed to wear the mantle of his predecessor with dignity and grace, and to secure an extraordinary measure of respect and goodwill from all classes of the Queen's subjects in this vast Dominion. There are villages peopled by the descendants of the Sutherland immigrants, who thought it a hard fate to be deported from their bleak hills and watery glens. Their fathers lived long enough to recognise with gratitude the benefits of the policy which they resented so bitterly; and the descendants of these Sutherland men are now prosperous and happy, a credit to the old country and to the clan.
Sunday, 15th.—We awoke from our repose in the train at a siding near Prescott in the early morning—looked out, and, lo, there was Lake Ontario clouded in the rain-sweep and all the landscape shrouded with mist. Presently, at 7.30, the steamer comes up, glistening with wet, and waddles to the wharf. It had been arranged that we were to go from Prescott to Kingston by the Lake and then take the train on to Toronto, and we went aboard accordingly, and found places reserved and every preparation made for us; but the fog was thickening, and as it was possible that the steamer might not start, or if she started at all that she might be brought up all standing in the Lake by reason of the weather, we resolved to go on by train. At 9.30 A.M. the special started, and ran all day without any incident worthy of notice. Stay, ungrateful that I am! Is it possible to forget the surprise at the Coburg Station, where the Grand Trunk Railway Company, to break our journey, had prepared a banquet, set forth with flowers and served by the nicest people possible? Somehow or other our day was a coup manqué, and we hustled through the country in a vacuous way, with an outlook of scraggy pine woods and ragged clearings with black fang-like stumps in the midst, and towns innominate. The rain never ceased, and at 6 o'clock, when we arrived at Toronto and took shelter in the Queen's Hotel, where Captain Geddes, aide-de-camp to the Lieutenant-Governor, the Mayor, Mr. McMurrich, and Alderman Walker saw the Duke and made arrangements for the morrow, it was falling in torrents; but Toronto seen under the most disadvantageous circumstances was voted to be very surprising, for my friends had heard so much of the immobility if not backsliding of Canada, that they were not prepared for such very fine buildings and such a great array of wharves and quays on the lake, and the great fleet of craft alongside them. The hotel, too, was in very good keeping with all the surroundings. Still we were not happy. Those Montreal people had disturbed the minds of some of my companions with statistics bearing on the price of wheat, and the Auditor and others were busy working away turning cents into halfpence and pounds into bushels, and calculating whether wheat could ever be sold at Liverpool for 32s. 6d. a quarter.
We were all pretty fresh after a good night's rest, when we were summoned to breakfast, and after that I had a visit from a soldier whom I parted with on the plateau of Sebastopol, where he fought and bled, and, wounded as he was, remained to the end, till his regiment (the 30th) left, now a pensioner, and not in very good case in Toronto. It is strange enough that there is no race, so far as I know, in the world which is held in the least by the ties of fosterage but one—the Irish—and even with them the relations of that sort are relaxing rapidly.
The Mayor and his friends came early and carried off the travellers to do all of Toronto that might be in the time. Some day, surely, this "place of meeting," which is, I believe, the meaning of the name, must be of greater importance than it is now, rapid as has been its growth, and great as is its present prosperity. Twice ruined by American invaders—they are very handy there across Lake Ontario—Toronto has increased in all the elements of wealth and consequence by springs and bounds, and since 1861, when I was there, its population has doubled (it numbers now 82,000 souls), and it is increasing still very rapidly. The University is worthy of a great nation—a noble Norman pile with good endowments and admirable professors, beautifully situated. I regretted much that I had not an opportunity, owing to the shortness of our visit, of seeing the venerable ex-President, Dr. McCaul, whose edition of Horace caused me infinite wailing in the time of Consul Plancus when I was at school, and who is still in perfect mental vigour.
After a visit to the Lieutenant-Governor, Mr. Beverly Robinson, the Mayor, Mr. Walker, Mr. Swinyard, Alderman Denison, &c., conducted the Duke and his party through the city, and showed them the Normal College, the Wellesley Schools, where the Duke got a half-holiday for the children, having put it to their own votes whether they would take it or not, and Osgoode Hall, where Chief Justice Spragge received them. It was only possible to skim the surface of the sights, and the perverse weather made even that slight performance unsatisfactory. President Wilson was disappointed that the visitors could not (I should have said rather that there would have been no use in their doing it under the circumstances) climb the University Tower, from which there is a beautiful prospect in fine weather. There was a lunch, and it was all the more agreeable that there were no toasts or speeches, at Government House, where the Lieutenant-Governor and Mrs. Robinson had a large party to meet the Duke. The Lieutenant-Governor is full of confidence in the future of his beautiful Province—all it needs is to be better known to respectable emigrants. There is an almost neglected island, "Manitoulin," under his sway, about which we heard many good things, that ought to be an agricultural Paradise. It is admitted to be cold, and to be badly off for communication with the rest of the world in winter time. There are many parts of the States quite as cold and as remote, and not so fertile, to which emigrants resort in swarms. Nothing is done to direct the stream to Canada. But we must be off. The "Buckingham"—the Pullman Palace—the Great Western official carriage, the Pennsylvania drawing-room carriage and baggage waggon, and Conductor Blount are waiting for us at the Great Western Station, and at 2 o'clock we resume our journey, and away by Hamilton and past the New Welland we speed, in weather which effectually prevents our seeing anything an inch beyond the panes of glass in the windows, and which gives the idea that Niagara is unduly extending its area.