off to some degree, and, as when people are becoming better acquainted, likes and dislikes are being formed; and it remains now to be seen whether, as the result of increased acquaintance, the union sentiment will be strengthened or impaired. Little disposed as we are to advocate the institution of party, we could almost wish that parties in the old sense were possible in the Dominion; that is to say, that some questions would arise that might separate, throughout all the Provinces, those who thought in one way from those who thought in another, so that upon the basis of such a real opposition in political opinion party organization might be carried on and party energies put forth. For the effect of this division would be, as in the United States, if not to annihilate, to weaken those territorial divisions and jealousies that so embarrass political action, and so endanger the future of the country.

Parliament stands adjourned till the 13th of August. The Session that has just closed has been the most unsatisfactory we have had since Confederation, and it has left the public mind in far from a settled or comfortable state. It was a Session marked by a great deal of bitterness, recrimination and idle contention. Political rivalry is supposed to proceed from opposite views of public policy, and to be entirely consistent with the utmost personal respect of opponents for one another; but in the Dominion Parliament there is no pretence of this, and upon numerous occasions during the late Session the recognized language of Parliament was put to its utmost strain to express the contempt which honourable gentlemen on one side felt for honourable gentlemen on the other. It is not by such conduct as this that the country is going to be built up and consolidated; already we feel the effects of it in a certain depressed tone of the public mind, and a general anxiety as to what will

happen next. In a commercial point of view the Dominion is flourishing; the era of surpluses is not yet exhausted. So long as this condition of things lasts, the weakness of our position will be to a great extent concealed; but let financial difficulties overtake us, with political feeling in the same dangerous state of tension as at present, with local jealousies unabated, and it is hard to say what the result might be.

Let us hope, however, for better things. There are many men in the Dominion Parliament who, though they follow their leaders with too implicit an obedience, are not devoid of strong sentiments of honour and duty. At any moment it is possible that a new combination might occur, which would show the House of Commons in a very different light. At present the leaders are wrangling furiously, and the moderate men at their backs vote as they are bid, and so seem to support them in wrangling. But change the leaders, or change the ground of discussion, and the moderate men will be only too glad to have the opportunity afforded them of voting and working in the public interest, and discarding the animosities in which they have previously borne a silent, and, we must believe, more or less unwilling part. We have here in Canada the fair beginnings of an empire: what we need to strengthen our present and secure our future position as an independent people, is national spirit. If we possess this, there will hereafter be, upon this portion of the American continent, a great and powerful nation, working out its own ideas, upholding its own institutions, and exerting, let us trust, an influence for good upon the world. If we possess it not, then, sooner or later, the fabric which political ingenuity has reared must fall to the ground, and we must commit our destinies to some people more favoured in this respect than ourselves.

MY

Y brother went to Oxford full of good resolves as to reading, which he carried out far better than most men do, although undoubtedly, after his first year, his popularity, by enlarging the circle of his acquaintance to an inconvenient extent, somewhat interfered with his studies. Your grandfather was delighted at having a son likely to distinguish himself actually resident in his own old College. In his time it had occupied the place in the University now held by Balliol. Copleston and Whately had been his tutors; and, as he had resided a good deal after taking his degree, he had seen several generations of distinguished men in the common room, including Arnold, Blanco White, Keble, Pusey, and Hampden. Moreover, there was a tradition of University distinction in his family; his father had been Setonian Prizeman and Chancellor's Medallist at Cambridge, and he himself had carried off the Latin verse prize, and one of the English Odes recited before the United Sovereigns when they paid a visit to the Oxford Commemoration in 1814, with Wellington, Blücher, and a host of the great soldiers of that day.

His anxiety as to George's start at Oxford manifested itself in many ways, and particularly as to the want of punctuality, and accuracy in small matters, which he had already noticed. As a delicate lesson on this subject, I find him taking advantage of the fact that George's watch was in the hands of the maker for repairs, to send him his own chronometer, adding: "As your sense of trustworthiness in little and great

* From "Memoir of a Brother," by Thomas Hughes. London: Macmillan & Co.

things is a considerably multiplied multiple of your care for your own private property (which doubtless will grow to its right proportion when you have been cheated a little), I have no doubt old Trusty will return to me in as good order as when he left me. Furthermore, it is possible you may take a fancy to him when you have learnt the value of an unfailing guide to punctuality. In which case, if you can tell me at the end of term that you have, to the best of your belief, made the most of your time, I will with great pleasure swap with you. As to what is making the best of your time, you would of course like to have my ideas. Thus, then "—— and your grandfather proceeds to give a number of rules, founded on his own Oxford experience, as to reading, and goes on:

6

"All this, you will say, cuts out a tolerably full employment for the term. But when you can call this in your recollections, terminus alba cretâ notandus,' it will be worth trouble. I believe the intentions of most freshmen are good, and the first term generally well spent: the second and third are often the trial, when one gets confidence in oneself; and the sense of what is right and honourable must come in place of that deference for one's superior officers which is at first instinctive. I am glad you find you can do as you please, and choose your own society without making yourself at all remarkable. So I found, for the same reasons that facilitate the matter to you. Domestic or private education, I believe, throws more difficulties in the way of saying 'No' when it is your pleasure so to do, and the poor wight only gets laughed at instead of cultivated. After all, one may have too many acquaintance, unexception

able though they be. But I do not know that much loss of time can occur to a person of perfectly sober habits, as you are, if he leaves wine parties with a clear head at chapel time, and eschews supping and lounging, and lunching and gossiping, and tooling in High Street, and such matters, which belong more to particular cliques than to a generally extended acquaintance in College. In all these things, going not as a raw lad, but as a man of nineteen, with my father's entire confidence, I found I could settle the thing to my satisfaction in no time your circumstances are precisely the same, and the result will probably be the same. I applaud, and clap you on the back for rowing: row, box, fence, and walk with all possible sturdiness. Another thing: I believe an idea prevails that it is necessary to ride sometimes, to show yourself of equestrian rank. If you have any mind this way, write to Franklin to send Stevens with your horse; keep him a few weeks, and I will allow you a £5 note to assert your equestrian dignity, now or at any other time. This is a better style of thing than piaffing about on hired Oxford cocky-horses, like Jacky Popkin, and all such half-measures. The only objection to such doings is, that you certainly do see a style of men always across a horse who are fit for nothing else, and non constat that they always know a hock from a stiflejoint. But this is only per accidens. And if you have a fancy for an occasional freak this way, remember I was bred in the saddle, and whatever my present opinions may be from longer experience, can fully enter into your ideas."

You will see by his answer how readily George entered into some of his father's ideas, though I don't think he ever sent for his horse. A few weeks later, in 1841, he writes:

"Now to answer your last letters. I shall be delighted to accept you as my prime minister for the next two years. Any plan of reading which you chalk out for me I think I shall be able to pursue at least I am sure I will try to do so. Men reading for honours now generally employ a 'coach.' If you will condescend to be my coach, I will try to answer to the whip to the best of my power."

Your grandfather accepted the post with great pleasure; and there are a number of letters, full of hints and directions as to study, which I

hope you may all read some day, but which would make this memoir too long. You will see later on how well satisfied he was with the general result, though in one or two instances he had sad disappointments to bear, as most fathers have who are anxious about their sons' work.

*

I have told you already that this was our first separation of any length. I did not see him from the day he went to Oxford in January, until our Rugby Eleven went up to Lord's, at the end of the half-year, for the match with the M.C.C. It was the first time I had ever played there, and of course I was very full of it, and fancied the match the most important event which was occurring in England at the time. One of our Eleven did not turn up, and George was allowed to play for us. He was, as usual, a tower of strength in a boys' Eleven, because you could rely on his nerve. When the game was going badly, he was always put in to keep up his wicket, and very seldom failed to do it.. On this occasion we were in together, and he made a long score, but, I thought, did not play quite in his usual style; and on talking the matter over with him when we got home, I found that he had not been playing at Oxford, but had taken to boating.

I expressed my sorrow at this, and spoke disparagingly of boating, of which I knew nothing whatever. We certainly had a punt in the stream at home, but it was too narrow for oars, and I scarcely knew a stretcher from a rowlock. He declared that he was as fond of cricket as ever, but that in the whole range of sport, even including hunting, there was no excitement like a good neck-and-neck boat race, and that I should come to think so too.

At this time his boating career had only just begun, and rowing was rather at a discount at Oxford. For several years Cambridge had had their own way with the dark blues, notably in this very year of 1841. But a radical reformer had just appeared at Oxford, whose influence has lasted to the present day, and to whom the substitution of the long stroke with sharp catch at the beginning (now universally accepted as the only true form) for the short, digging “waterman's" stroke, as it used to be called, is chiefly due. This was Fletcher Menzies, then captain of the University College boat. He had already

begun to train a crew on his own principles, in opposition to the regular University crew, and, amongst others, had selected my brother, though a freshman, and had taken him frequently down the river behind himself in a pair-oar. The first result of this instruction was, that my brother won the University pair-oar race, pulling stroke to another freshman of his own college.

In Michaelmas Term, 1841, it became clear to all judges of rowing that the opposition was triumphant. F. Menzies was elected captain of the O. U. B. C., and chose my brother as his No. 7, so that on my arrival at Oxford in the spring of 1842, I found him training in the University crew. The race with Cambridge was then rowed in the summer, and over the sixmile course, between Westminster and Putney bridges. This year the day selected was the 12th June. I remember it well, for I was playing at the same time in the Oxford and Cambridge match at Lord's. The weather was intensely hot, and we were getting badly beaten. | So confident were our opponents in the prowess of the University, that, at dinner in the Pavilion, they were offering even bets that Cambridge would win at three events-the cricket match, the race at Westminster, and the Henley Cup, which was to be rowed for in the following week. This was too much for us, and the bets were freely taken; I myself, for the first and last time in my life, betting five pounds with the King's man who sat next me. Before our match was over the news came up from the river that Oxford had won.

of the slice of lemon which was placed in each man's thwart. He snatched it up, and at that time F. Menzies took off his hat and gave it him, and, when the boat shot under Westminster Bridge with a clear lead, he was quite himself again.

In our college boat-of which he was now stroke, and which he took with a brilliant rush to the head of the river, bumping University, the leading boat, to which his captain, F. Men. zies, was still stroke, after two very severe races he always saw that every man had a small slice of lemon at the start, in memory of the Battersea reach.

Next year (1843), owing to a dispute about the time, there was no University race over the London course, but the crews were to meet at the Henley Regatta. The meeting was looked forward to with more than ordinary interest, as party feeling was running high between the Universities. In the previous year, after their victory in London, the Oxford boat had gone to Henley, but had withdrawn in consequence of a decision of the stewards, allowing a man to row in the Cambridge crew who had already rowed in a previous heat, in another boat. So the cup remained in the possession of the Cambridge Rooms, a London rowing club, composed of men who had left college, and of the best oarsmen still at the University. If the Cambridge Rooms could hold the challenge cup this year also, it would become their property. But we had little fear of this, as Menzies' crew was in better form than ever. He had beaten Cam

This was the crisis of the race. As the boats separated, each taking its own side, Egan, the Cambridge coxswain, called on his crew: Shadwell, the Oxford coxswain, heard him, and called on his own men, and when the boats came in sight of each other again from behind the lighters, Oxford was well ahead. But my brother was getting faint from the effects of the sun on his head when Shadwell reminded him

dent would do it again; and, as the Rooms were never so strong as the University, we had no doubt as to the result of the final heat also. I remember walking over from Oxford the night before the regatta, with a friend, full of these hopes, and the consternation with which we heard, on arriving at the town, that the Cambridge University boat had withdrawn so that the best men might be draughted from it into the Rooms' crew, the holders of the cup. Those only who have felt the extraordinary interest which these contests excite can appreciate the dismay with which this announcement filled us. Our boat would, by this arrangement, have to contend with the picked oars of two first-class crews; and we forgot that, after all, though the individual men were better, the fact of their not

having trained regularly together made them really less formidable competitors. But far worse news came in the morning. Menzies had been in the Schools in the previous month, and the strain of his examination, combined with training for the race, had been too much for him. He was down with a bad attack of fever. What was to be done? It was settled at once that my brother should row stroke, and a proposal was made that the vacant place in the boat should be filled by one of Menzies' college crew. The question went before the stewards, who, after long deliberation, determined that this could not be allowed. In consequence of the dispute in the previous year, they had decided that only those oarsmen whose names had been sent in could row in any given race. I am not sure where the suggestion came from, I believe from Menzies himself, that his crew should row the race with seven oars; but I well remember the indignation and despair with which the final announcement was received.

However, there was no help for it, and we ran down the bank to the starting-place by the side of our crippled boat, with sad hearts, cheering them to show our appreciation of their pluck, but without a spark of hope as to the result. When they turned to take up their place for the start, we turned also, and went a few hundred yards up the towing-path, so as to get start enough to enable us to keep up with the race. The signal-gun was fired, and we saw the oars flash in the water, and began trotting up the bank with our heads turned over our shoulders. First one, and then another, cried out that "we were holding our own," that "light | blue was not gaining." In another minute they were abreast of us, close together, but the dark blue flag the least bit to the front. A third of the course was over, and, as we rushed along and saw the lead improved foot by foot, almost inch by inch, hope came back, and the excitement made running painful. In another minute, as they turned the corner and got into the straight reach, the crowd became too dense for running. We could not keep up, and could only follow with our eyes and shouts, as we pressed up towards the bridge. Before we could reach it the gun fired, and the dark blue flag was run up, showing that Oxford had won.

Then followed one of the temporary fits of delirium which sometimes seize Englishmen, the

sight of which makes one slow to disbelieve any crazy story which is told of the doings of other people in moments of intense excitement. The crew had positively to fight their way into their hotel, and barricade themselves there, to escape being carried round Henley on our shoulders. The enthusiasm, frustrated in this direction, burst out in all sorts of follies, of which you may take this as a specimen. The heavy toll-gate was pulled down, and thrown over the bridge into the river by a mob of young Oxonians, headed by a small, decorous, shy man in spectacles, who had probably never pulled an oar in his life, but who had gone temporarily mad with excitement, and I am confident would, at that moment, have led his followers not only against the Henley constables, but against a regiment with fixed bayonets. Fortunately, no harm came of it but a few broken heads and black eyes; and the local authorities, making allowances for the provocation, were lenient at the next petty sessions.

The crew went up to London from Henley, to row for the Gold Cup, in the Thames Regatta, which had just been established. Here they met the Cambridge Rooms' crew again, strengthened by a new No. 3, and a new stroke, and the Leander, then in its glory, and won the cup after one of the finest and closest races ever rowed. There has been much discussion as to these two races ever since in the boating world, in which my brother was on one occasion induced to take part. "The Oxford University came in first," was his account, "with a clear lead of the Leander, the Cambridge crew overlapping the Leander. We were left behind at the start, and had great difficulty in passing our opponents, not from want of pace, but from want of room." And, speaking of the Henley race, which was said to have been won against a "scratch crew," he adds: "A scratch crew' may mean anything short of a perfectly trained crew of good materials. Any one who cares about it will find the names of Rooms' crew at p. 100 of Mr. Macmichael's book, and by consulting the index will be able to form a judgment as to the quality of our opponents. We had a very great respect for them. I never attempted to exaggerate the importance of the 'seven oars' race,' and certainly never claimed to have beaten a Cambridge University crew on that occasion." It will always remain, however, one of the most