Wilmot and Tilley

James Hannay

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• Publié par: zofam
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 41
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wilmot and Tilley, by James Hannay
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Title: Wilmot and Tilley
Author: James Hannay
Release Date: July 19, 2008 [EBook #26086]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILMOT AND TILLEY ***
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THE MAKERS OF CANADA
EDITED BY
DUNCAN CAMPBELL SCOTT, F.R.S.C.,
PELHAM EDGAR, Ph.D., and,
WILLIAM DAWSON LE SUEUR, B.A., LL.D., F.R.S.C.
WILMOT AND TILLEYTHE MAKERS OF CANADA
WILMOT AND
TILLEY
BY
JAMES HANNAY
EDITION DE LUXE
TORONTO
MORANG & CO., LIMITED1907
Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada in
the year 1907 by Morang & Co., Limited, in the
Department of Agriculture
Transcriber's Note: Unique page headings have
been retained and appear along the left margin by
the relevant paragraphs. Minor typographical
errors have been corrected without note. Variant
spellings have been retained. Inconsistent
hyphenation has been standardised.
[ix]
CONTENTS
LEMUEL ALLAN WILMOT
Page
CHAPTER I
ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE 1
CHAPTER II
EARLY EFFORTS FOR REFORM 13
CHAPTER III
WILMOT IN THE LEGISLATURE 31
CHAPTER IV
WILMOT AS A DELEGATE TO THE COLONIAL OFFICE 41
CHAPTER V
LORD JOHN RUSSELL ON TENURE OF OFFICE 57
CHAPTER VI
THE READE APPOINTMENT 67
CHAPTER VII
WILMOT'S VIEWS ON EDUCATION 83
[x]CHAPTER VIII
THE DEMAND FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 99
CHAPTER IXTHE VICTORY IS WON 113
CHAPTER X
JUDGE AND GOVERNOR 131
SIR LEONARD TILLEY
CHAPTER I
EARLY LIFE AND BUSINESS CAREER 143
CHAPTER II
ELECTED TO THE LEGISLATURE 159
CHAPTER III
THE PROHIBITORY LIQUOR LAW 171
CHAPTER IV
REFORM AND PROGRESS 183
CHAPTER V
THE INTERCOLONIAL RAILWAY 195
CHAPTER VI
THE MOVEMENT FOR MARITIME UNION 201
[xi]CHAPTER VII
THE QUEBEC CONFERENCE 215
CHAPTER VIII
DEFEAT OF CONFEDERATION 231
CHAPTER IX
TILLEY AGAIN IN POWER 239
CHAPTER X
THE BRITISH NORTH AMERICA ACT 253
CHAPTER XI
THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF CANADA 269
CHAPTER XII
FINANCE MINISTER AND GOVERNOR 277
INDEX 293
LEMUEL ALLAN WILMOT[1]
CHAPTER I
ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE
HE contest for responsible government which was carried on in all the
provinces of British North America for so many years resembled in some ofT
its features a modern battle, where the field of operations is so wide that it
is impossible for a general to cover it with his eye or to keep control of all the
movements of his subordinates. In such a case, everything depends on the
ability of the generals who command the different army corps, who, operating in
remote parts of the field, must take the responsibility of success or failure. The
two Canadas were so far removed from New Brunswick, and the means of
communication were so poor, that there was but little help, even in the way of
suggestion, to be expected from them, while the contest for responsible
government was being carried on. Even the efforts in the same direction which
were being made in the province of Nova Scotia had but little influence on the
course of events in New Brunswick, for each province had its own particular
grievances and its own separate interests. Thus it happened that the battle for
responsible government in New Brunswick was fought, to a large extent,
[2]without reference to what was being done in the other provinces which now
form the Dominion of Canada, and the leaders of the movement had to be
guided by the peculiar local circumstances of the situation. Still, there is no
doubt that the efforts of all the provinces, directed to the same ends, were
mutually helpful and made the victory more easily won.
Among the men who took a part in the contest for responsible government in
New Brunswick, Lemuel Allan Wilmot undoubtedly held the foremost place, not
only by reason of the ability with which he advocated the cause, but from the
trust which the people had in him, which made him a natural leader and the
proper exponent of their views. There were, indeed, men working in the same
field before his time, but it was his happy fortune to witness the fruit of his
labours to give the province a better form of government, and to bring its
constitution into line with the system which prevailed in the mother country. He
not only viewed the land of promise from afar, but he entered into it, and he
became the first native lieutenant-governor of the province,—a result which
even he, sanguine as he was, could hardly have contemplated when he began
his career as a public man.
THE WILMOTLemuel Allan Wilmot was born in the county of Sunbury, on the banks of the St.
FAMILY
[3]John River, on January 31st, 1809. He was the son of William Wilmot, a
respectable merchant and lumberman, who was in partnership with William
Peters, grandfather of Sir Leonard Tilley. William Wilmot was the son of Lemuel
Wilmot, a Loyalist, who was a resident of Poughkeepsie, New York, at the
beginning of the Revolution. He (Lemuel) raised a company of soldiers for the
service of the king, and became a captain in the Loyal American Regiment
which was commanded by Beverley Robinson, serving in that corps during the
war. At the peace, he came to New Brunswick and settled in Sunbury County
on the river St. John. The Wilmots were a respectable English family, and the
first of the name in America was Benjamin Wilmot, who was born in England in
1589 and came to America with his wife Ann, probably prior to 1640. He was
one of the early settlers of New Haven, Connecticut, and the records of that
colony show that he took the oaths of fidelity at a court held on May 2d, 1648.
He died in 1669. His son William, who was born in 1632, was probably also anative of England. He married Sarah Thomas in 1658, and died in 1689.
Thomas Wilmot, his son, was born in 1679. He married Mary Lines, and their
son Ezekiel was born in 1708. Ezekiel Wilmot and his wife Beulah were the
parents of Lemuel, who was born in 1743. Lemuel Wilmot married Elizabeth
Street, and William, the father of the subject of this biography, was their son.
[4]William Wilmot married Hannah Bliss, a daughter of the Hon. Daniel Bliss, a
Massachusetts Loyalist, who became a member of the council of New
Brunswick and was the father of John Murray Bliss, one of the judges of the
supreme court of that province. His grandfather was Colonel John Murray, a
Massachusetts Loyalist, who was for many years a member of the general court
of that colony and who became a mandamus councillor. It will thus be seen that
Lemuel Wilmot came from the best New England stock, and that his
connections were highly respectable and even distinguished. He was proud of
his New England descent, and claimed the usual ancestor from among the
passengers of the Mayflower who landed at Plymouth in 1620. If this claim is
correct, his descent from the Pilgrim Fathers must have been through the
female line, and no record of it has been preserved. The matter is not of much
consequence at the present day, for the Wilmots have made a record in their
province far more distinguished than that which they won in New England, for
they have given to New Brunswick five members of the legislature, a senator
and member of the House of Commons of Canada, two members of the
executive of New Brunswick, and one of the privy council of Canada, an
attorney-general and a provincial secretary of New Brunswick and two
lieutenant-governors.
LIEUTENANT-The system of government which existed in all the British North American
GOVERNOR
[5]colonies at the time when L. A. Wilmot was born was practically the same. NewCARLETON
Brunswick had been separated from Nova Scotia in 1784, and, in the autumn of
that year, its first governor was sent out in the person of Thomas Carleton, a
brother of Sir Guy Carleton. Thomas Carleton had been an officer in one of the
regiments which fought during the War of the Revolution, but he was in no way
distinguished, and had no special qualifications for the position he was called
upon to fill. That fact, however, did not concern the persons in England who
appointed him. In those days, fitness or ability had very little to do with colonial
appointments. Carleton continued to fill the office of governor and lieutenant-
governor until his death in 1817; but for the last fourteen years of his term he
resided in England, and the duties of his office were performed by a succession
of administrators under the name of presidents. To assist him in his
deliberations, Carleton had a council of twelve members, who were appointed
by the Crown and were therefore wholly under the influence of the governor
and the authorities in England. In 1809, its number had been reduced to ten,
and it was composed of the four judges of the supreme court, the provincial
secretary and the surveyor-ge