FENIANISM.

PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS.

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McGee, pleaded in Parliament, for that for which every eminent politician, with one exception, pleaded, were the Hon. J. C. Aikens, the Hon Wm. McMaster, the Hon. John Ross, in the Upper House, and in the Lower House, Mr. James O'Halloran and many others. Col. McGivern, well-known as a successful merchant, as a railway man, as a military man, also swelled the volume of eloquence advocating Confederation.

While some Irishmen were playing useful, and others useful and distinguished parts in the foundation of the Dominion, misguided men of the same nationality, acting on motives it is impossible to understand, adopting a course which no wrongs in Ireland could justify, aimed what was meant as a deadly blow at a young and unoffending nation.

The miserable attempt of Fenians to disturb this country led McGee, as it led Archbishop Connolly, to write and speak eloquently in the praise of our free institutions and in denunciation of a conspiracy, which, by no single feature of sanity or generosity could appeal either to the judgment or the heart.

On the 8th of June, the very day the Hochelaga Volunteers were repelling one of the last waves of a rowdy invasion on the eastern frontier, the new parliament buildings at Ottawa were opened to receive the Legislature of the country. These buildings have not been incorrectly described as the finest buildings of the kind on this continent, and a correct taste would prefer them to the parliament buildings, which rise amid the smoke of London by the darkened Thames. This imposing structure was built by an Irishman, the Hon. Thomas McGreevy, M.P. for Quebec West, who is connected with several great enterprises. He was for several years a member of the City Council, Quebec, and sat for Stadacona in the Legislative Council, Quebec, from November, 1867, until January, 1874. He describes himself as a Conservative, but perfectly independent of any Government, his policy being what it has ever been, to do what he believes is most for the good of the Dominion.

During the course of the Session, the resolutions necessary to the Scheme of Confederation were passed, and in August, the last parliament of United Canada rose, the Ministry having lost during the year, Mr. Brown in January, and Mr. Galt early in August.

The jealousy of the Americans at seeing a strong and united nation established on their frontier need not be dwelt on. Nor need we speak of the Fenian trials at Toronto, further than to say that the law was fearlessly and justly administered, and that justice was tempered with clemency.

Early in 1867, the British North America Act passed the Imperial Parliament, while McGee was busy as one of the Canadian Commissioners to the Paris Exhibition. From Paris he addressed a remarkable letter to his constituents, and through them to the whole Dominion, counselling all how a place might be won in the family of States, which few European nations had attained.

The arrangements for the New Dominion did not include a portfolio for D'Arcy McGee, who waived his claim in order to make room for another Catholic Irishman, whose entrance into the Cabinet would be welcome to Nova Scotia-the Hon. Mr. Kenny. Mr. Kenny was the only Irishman in the Cabinet. It is a noteworthy fact that the first Cabinet of the New Dominion did not contain a single man from Ontario or Quebec, of the blood of Baldwin.

The election of 1867 took place during the summer, immediately after the Privy Councillors were sworn in. McGee's seat was fiercely contested. He represented a part of Montreal which was the seat of the "local head centre" of Fenianism. Another Irish Catholic, Mr. Devlin, contested the seat, and every vile epithet calculated to rouse ignorant Irish Catholics was hurled at McGee, He had, as his manner was, gone right round from denying the existence of Fenianism in Montreal, to exaggerating the extent of it, and denouncing it not in undeserved terms, but in terms which seemed violent from a man of his past history. He won his election, but by a majority which convinced him his power had greatly waned. He had, however, the consolation that if he had lost popularity, he had lost it sincerely active in enlightening his countrymen. There is reason to believe he had prior to the election been aware of how much influence he had sacrificed to right and truth, for he had determined to take an office of some value at Ottawa, to retire from politics, and in the Capital of the Dominion where his voice had been so often heard, near and in the magnificent Library of Parliament Buildings, to do good literary

LONGING FOR FAME.

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work, and take an additional bond of fame. Some years before he had written :

I dreamed a dream when the woods were green,

And my April heart made an April scene,

In the far, far distant land;

That even I might something do

That should keep my memory for the true,

And my name from the spoiler's hand.

His mind too, always religious as that of a man of poetic turn cannot fail to prove, though in the darkness of unbelief and the fury and storm of passion, he be unable to see the mountains which climb to heaven, and the orphaned heart dares not assert its Divine filiation. McGee had, of late too, become decidedly "serious"; the shadow of impending doom was on him; and the future from which his heart took a steady glow was bounded by no earthly horizon. Politics and public life, he now said had not been his choice. He drifted into those troubled waters by force of circumstances. He longed for the calm pursuits of literature. Perhaps, sometimes he longed for quieter halls than even those in which in silence unbroken by the vulgar voice of man, we commune with the mighty dead. There was a day when he yearned for the long sleep and the unenvied home, when he found no sympathy in the States, and the iron went into his soul. The import of the little poem, "Ad Misericordiam" is unmistakable."*

He had conquered a habit which was for a long time a spot on the bright sun of his genius and character, and completely ignored "the sweet poison of misused wine;" a thing very hard to do,-almost heroic for a man who possesses great social gifts. Perhaps he felt that wedded in youth to the chaste beauty of literature, he had squandered hours due to her on less serene attractions. His health was not what it was in those days of youth, when men can outwatch the stars and shake themselves free from all associations, like the sun breaking from the witholding arms of night-those wasted irrevocable hours in which men draw on the future, and project into life, even before its evening, the long persistent shadows of remorse. If the object of his retiring from politics was to give

• See "Poems" p. 505.

more scope to religious feeling, who shall use the word "premature" in regard to the tragic close at hand? But if it was that he might return with an atoning love to the bosom of literature, if that with passionate repentant devotion he might, undistracted by all cares, heap costlier offerings on her shrine, then his resolve, like most human resolves, came "too late." Yet if he could have chosen a fate which would be most in accordance with his dearest aspirations it was that which befell him. The base flash of the assassin's fire did as much for his fame as the blaze of his glorious wit.

On the St. Patrick's Day of 1868, he was entertained at a banquet in Ottawa city, and in his speech, he dwelt on the necessity of satisfying the just demands of the Irish people. That speech was copied and commented on throughout the empire. He remarked in the course of it that even a "silent" "silent" Irishman might do something to serve his country. On the very night of his murder he had on a question of tampering with the Union between Nova Scotia and Canada, eulogised Confederation, speaking, as he said, not as a representative of any race, in any Province, but as emphatically a Canadian. Before these words had ceased to echo along the corridors of the Parliament buildings, while smoking a cigar and enjoying the moonlight, just as he had reached the door of his temporary home he fell dead, shot by a fellow-countryman from behind. We Irish are a chivalrous people-by what fatality is it that we have occasionally produced such dastards? D'Arcy McGee fell a martyr to the interests of Canada, and the magnificent pomp of his funeral expressed the sorrow and admiration of the country, a sorrow and admiration which was felt by Scotchmen and Englishmen, by Frenchmen and Germans deeply felt by those of all races born on our soil. The morning which rose on the murderous act was one of those in our history in which the country has appeared at its best. The press groaned with sorrow. From all sides came testimonies to the merits of the dead. In the House of Commons there was a full attendance of members, and the galleries were crowded. When the Speaker had taken the chair, Sir John A. Macdonald rose amid breathless silence, and, manifesting an emotion which stopped his utterance for some time, proceeded to pay

his tribute to McGee, preparatory to moving the adjournment of the House. "He who last night, nay this morning, was with us, whose voice is still ringing in our ears, who charmed us with his marvellous eloquence, elevated us by his large statesmanship and instructed us by his wisdom, his patriotism, is no more-is foully murdered. If ever a soldier who fell on the field of battle deserved well of his country, Thomas D'Arcy McGee deserved well of Canada and its people." Sir John A. Macdonald proceeded to delineate the beautiful character of "our departed friend," a man of the kindest and most generous impulse, who "might have lived a long and respected life had he chosen the easy path of popularity rather than the stern one of duty." Mr. Mackenzie, in seconding the motion dwelt on Mr. McGee's generous disposition, “characteristic of the man and his country," nor could there in his opinion be a doubt that he had fallen a victim to the noble and patriotic course he had pursued. Mr. Cartier, Mr. Chamberlain,Mr. Anglin, Mr. Chauveau, Mr. E. M. Macdonald, Mr. Stuart Campbell, each laid his garland on the corpse of the murdered statesman.

The history of Canada since 1867 belongs to contemporary politics.

In 1869, Irish Catholics, under the impression that they were not fairly dealt with in regard to political position and patronage, formed what is known as the "Catholic League," with Mr. John O'Donohoe as president. Of this League Mr. John McKeown, now of St. Catharines, Captain Larkin, of St. Catharines, Mr. Jeremiah Merrick, of Toronto, Mr. O'Hanly, of Ottawa, the Hon. Mr. Fraser, were leading spirits. Mr. O'Donohoe who sat for some time for East Toronto, is a barrister, whose career shows energy and ambition. Mr. McCrosson was also a member of the League, and he has of late started a paper which is ably written and ably edited-I allude to the Tribune of Toronto-a Catholic journal pur sang. Mr. McCrosson comes from Strabane, County Tyrone, and is one of those men whose business avocations cannot dull their love of reading and political speculation. In the summer of 1869, Sir. Francis Hincks returned to Canada and was soon after offered by Sir. John Macdonald his old office of Finance Minister which he accepted on the 9th Oct. and which he resigned on the 22nd Feb. 1873, eight months before the Cabinet resigned.