DURHAM 



1885 



DURHAM 



his engravings are Death and the Devil and 

 Saint Jerome in His Study; famous among his 

 woodcuts are The Smaller Passion and The 

 Apocalypse. His masterpiece of religious 

 painting is The Four Apostles, now in the 

 Munich Gallery, consisting of two panels of 

 life-size figures of the Apostles John and Peter, 

 Mark and Paul. Diirer enjoyed high honor 

 and esteem in his lifetime; he was court 

 painter for the emperors Maximilian I and 

 Charles V. Among his friends were Luther, 

 Melanchthon, Erasmus and Raphael. B.M.W. 



DURHAM, dur'um, JOHN GEORGE LAMBTOX, 

 Earl of (1792-1840), an English statesman, 

 known to his contemporaries as "Reformer 

 Jack," one of the most radical of the Liberal 

 leaders of his day; now remembered chiefly 

 as the principal 

 author of the 

 great Reform Bill 

 of 1832 and as 

 the writer of a 

 Report on the 

 Affairs of British 

 North America, a 

 document which 

 was directly re- 

 sponsible for the 

 union of Upper 

 and Lower Can- 

 ada and laid the EARL OF DURHAM 

 foundation of British colonial policy up to the 

 present time. Lord Durham was a great pop- 

 ular leader, and filled a larger place than many 

 men whose names are familiar to-day. If his 

 fame is dimmed by time, and if an early death 

 robbed him of the highest honors, yet the 

 principles for which he fought have triumphed. 



Though the Lambtons were a family which 

 had for nearly seven hundred years owned a 

 vast acreage of land, the family traditions 

 were of a pronounced Whig type. The grand- 

 father of the Earl of Dunham had refused a 

 peerage, and his father was a vigorous de- 

 fender of popular rights. Young Lambton was 

 sent to Eton, and then for a short time held a 

 commission in a regiment of Hussars. In 1816 

 he married Louisa Elizabeth, daughter of Earl 

 Grey. She was his second wife; his first wife, 

 with whom he had eloped to Gretna Green 

 in 1812, died early in 1815. Meantime, on 

 reaching his majority in 1813, he was elected 

 to the House of Commons, where he became 

 a fearless advocate of reform and generally 

 opposed the Tories. His marriage to Earl 

 Grey's daughter strengthened his political po- 



sition, and by 1818 he seems to have been 

 more or less in the confidence of his father- 

 in-law and other Whig leaders. But he was 

 too radical for these aristocrats, and their dis- 

 trust of him was not lessened by his great 

 speech in 1821 on 'Parliamentary reform. This 

 was eleven years before the Reform Bill, yet 

 in it he advocated more thoroughgoing reform 

 than provided by that law. In 1828 Lambton 

 was raised to the peerage as Baron Durham. 



In November, 1830, when Earl Grey suc- 

 ceeded the Duke of Wellington as Prime Min- 

 ister, Durham entered the Cabinet as Lord 

 of the Privy Seat. He was almost immedi- 

 ately appointed chairman of a committee of 

 four to draft the Reform Bill. Most of the 

 work was done by Durham himself, the other 

 three members being his assistants rather than 

 collaborators. Durham himself selected one of 

 them, Lord John Russell, to present the bill 

 to Parliament. After the passage of the Re- 

 form Bill, Durham undertook a special mis- 

 sion to Russia, and on his return in the spring 

 of 1833 was created first Earl of Durham and 

 Viscount Lambton. He was again ambassador 

 to Russia, from 1835 to 1837. 



His Services to Canada. As early as July. 

 1837, Viscount Melbourne, then Premier, urged 

 Durham to undertake the government of Can- 

 ada, where affairs had come to an alarming 

 crisis. Durham at first refused, but some 

 months later accepted. By a special act of the 

 British Parliament he was given almost dic- 

 tatorial powers in Canada, and he had the 

 assurances of Melbourne that the government 

 would give him "the firmest and most un- 

 flinching support." Durham arrived at Quebec 

 on May 27, 1838, and sailed from Quebec for 

 England on November 3 of the same year. 

 In this brief period he gained a marvelous 

 insight into the true needs of Canada. The 

 rebellions led by Papineau and William Lyon 

 Mackenzie had already been crushed, but dis- 

 affection still remained. Durham, loath to 

 punish the rebels as traitors, issued a proclama- 

 tion of amnesty on June 28, 1838, the day of 

 Queen Victoria's coronation. From the bene- 

 fits of this proclamation twenty-four of the 

 leaders were excluded. Eight of them were 

 already in prison and were to be exiled to 

 Bermuda; the remaining sixteen, including 

 Papineau, were fugitives, and were forbidden 

 to return to Canada on penalty of death. 



Durham was undoubtedly justified in feel- 

 ing that this extraordinary use of his power 

 would be sustained, and public opinion -of -the 



