342 CANADIAN NOMS-DE-PLUME IDENTIFIED. 



Government, found himself in antagonism with, its "warmest snp- 

 porters. Possessed of a strong will, he wished to rule as well as 

 reign ; and, probably, could he have had, consistently with the new 

 theory, his own way in the management of public affaii'S, the common 

 weal would not have suifered ; for he was a highly-gifted, excellent, 

 and most benevolent-minded man. But the amour propre of Cana- 

 dian statesmen, just beginning to rejoice in the newly-acquired right 

 of self-government, was quickly offended by Sir Charles' too frequent 

 interposition of his ovfn individual judgment. 



Legion's letters were a sharp attack upon Sir Charles Metcalfe's 

 mode of administering the Canadian government, and a vindication 

 of the view taken of the reformed Canadian constitution by the 

 Liberal party. Nominally they were a reply to a series of letters by 

 Dr. Egerton Ryerson, in defence of Sir Charles Metcalfe's ideas; and 

 it was during the course of this discussion that Legion fastened on 

 his opponent the curious soubriquet of Leonidas; not, as I have- seen 

 it alleged, because his antagonist had adopted that name as a nom-de~ 

 plume, but simply because, when rushing to the protection of the 

 Governor-General, he chanced to liken himself to the Spartan hero."^ 

 I need not go further into the particulars of this renowned encounter. 

 I will simply give a specimen or two of Legion's flowing, oratorical 

 style. I first quote a short passage, which disposes of the nom-de- 

 plume theory of the origin of " Leonidas " as a soubriquet, and also 

 explains why Legion himself adopted the obviously objectionable 

 signature which aj)pears at the close of his letters : '' Had he [his 

 opponenii] signed himself the Doctor, or Leonidas, or Three Hundred 

 Spartans, or Wesley, or Fletcher, or Robert Hall, or Chalmers, I 

 should have been spared the necessity for this letter," Legion says ; 

 ".but he [his opponent] has placed his name and his former conduct 

 before the public as bearing upon the matter at issue, and as adding 

 weight. to his arguments. I could not, therefore, as he says, pass it 



* Tlie passage referred to nccurs at p. iv. of the Introductory Notice, dated Co'bourg, May 27, 

 1844, prefixed to "Sir Charles Medcalfe Defended against the Attacks of his late. Counsel- 

 lors." "Mr. Ryerson has not thought proper, under present circumstances, to accept the 

 office of Superintendent of Education ; nor has any political offlce ever heen offered to him. 

 And he is ready to relinquish any situation -which he now fills rather than not accomplish this 

 imperative undertaking. For if a Leonidas and three hundred Spartans could throw them- 

 selves into the Thermopyte of death for the salvation of their country, it would ill become one 

 humble Canadian to hesitate at any sacrifice, or shrink from any responsibility, or even danger, 

 in order to prevent his own countrymen from rushing into a vortex which, he is most certainly 

 persuaded, will involve many of them in calamities more serious than those which followed the 

 events of 1837." 



