d I am sure that I could
not hope to find anyone whom I could recommend to Her Majesty for that
office with so much confidence as yourself.'

So splendid an offer, made in a manner so gratifying, might well overcome
any reluctance which Lord Elgin felt to embark at once on a fresh period
of expatriation, and to resume labours which, however cordially they may
be appreciated by a minister, are apt to meet with little recognition from
the public.

He accepted it, not in the spirit of mere selfish ambition, but with a
deep sense of the responsibilities attached to it, which he portrayed in
earnest and forcible words at a public dinner at Dunfermline:--

To watch over the interests of those great offshoots of the British
race which plant themselves in distant lands; to aid them in their
efforts to extend the domain of civilisation, and to fulfil that first
behest of a benevolent Creator to His intelligent creatures--'subdue
the earth;' to abet the generous endeavour to impart to these rising
communities the full advantages of British laws, British institutions,
and British freedom; to assist them in maintaining unimpaired, it may
be in strengthening and confirming, those bonds of mutual affection
which unite the parent and dependent states--these are duties not to
be lightly undertaken, and which may well claim the exercise of all
the faculties and energies of an earnest and patriotic mind.

It was arranged that he should go to Canada at the end of the year. In the
interval he became engaged to Lady Mary Louisa Lambton, daughter of the
first Earl of Durham. They were married on November 7th, and in the first
days of the year 1847 he sailed for America.

[1] It is impossible not to be struck with the applicability of
these remarks to the condition of the agricultural poor in some parts
of England, and the question of extending among them the benefits of
education.

[2] Vide inf. p. 156.

[3] See the speech of Mr. W.E. Forster, at Leeds, May 20, 1869.

CHAPTER III.

CANADA.

STATE OF THE COLONY--FIRST IMPRESSIONS--PROVINCIAL POLITICS--'RESPONSIBLE
GOVERNMENT'--IRISH IMMIGRANTS--UPPER CANADA--CHANGE OF MINISTRY--FRENCH
HABITANTS--THE FRENCH QUESTION--THE IRISH--THE BRITISH--DISCONTENTS; THEIR
CAUSES AND REMEDIES--NAVIGATION LAWS--RETROSPECT--SPEECH ON EDUCATION.

[Sidenote: View of the state of Canada.]

In passing from Jamaica to Canada, Lord Elgi