LEAVES THEY HAVE TOUCHED. 119 



not assure you that it will afford me much pleasure to be in any 

 degree useful to you. So pray command yours, very truly, D. Daly. 

 Champde-Mars Street, Saturday, 10th March, 1848." 



One more. relic of Lord Elgin's day, ere I pass on. The year 1848, 

 it will be remembered, was a memorable one for commotions in 

 Europe. It was not allowed to pass without public trouble threat- 

 ened to Canada, from the usual quainter. Mr. Barclay, so long the 

 well-knoAvn British Consul at New York, had occasion to address 

 the following commvinication to the proper functionary at Montreal, 

 on the 28th of August, 1848. " Sir : I beg to acquaint you that a 

 large company of persons, sympathizers with the seditious in Canada, 

 left Albany and its vicinity on Saturday morning the 26th instant 

 for Quebec. This information may be relied on as correct. It is 

 derived from the same source as that communicated to you by my 

 letter of the 26th instant, for the use of His Excellency the Governor- 

 General. I have the honour to be, &c., Anth. Barclay." 



A sentence or two of Sir Edmund Head's, Lord Elgin's successor, 

 must close for the present my Canadian series. After the requisite 

 number of years, manuscript relics of the Lords Monck, Lisgar and 

 Dufferin, and of several of their respective contemporaries in Canada, 

 will be of eqvial interest vrith those which I have now adduced. 



I transcribe first from a letter addressed by Sii' Edmund to a friend 

 in 1856. It may be observed that Sir Edmund Head's handwriting, 

 while Governor-General, was of a style most appalling to the ordinary 

 reader or copyist. Tlae words are visible enough, with I'oomy spaces 

 between them. The pen seems usually to have been a soft quill with 

 a broad nib, much worn. But haste ever impelled the hand, and 

 most of the letters are only jjartially formed. His signature might 

 be anything — the cipher of an eccentric Shah or Padishah. In 1856 

 Ottawa had not yet been fixed on as the capital of Canada. The 

 Government was still alternating between Toronto and Quebec. In 

 November of this year, Sir Edmund writes to his friend thus : " The 

 open state of the Seat of Government Question is doing harm by 

 aggravating the French and English quarrels, and afibrding a topic in 

 which four parts out of five can always be brought to bear negatively 

 against any Government." To the same friend we have him 

 expressing, two years later, an opinion on Canadian Confederation — 

 some nine years before Confederation was effected. " I admit," he 

 . says, " the union of the Canadas may be difficult to maintain. If it 



