Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

nold's poetry, and the other, the absence from it of any enthusiasm. Such of his works as have already been discussed are in themselves a justification of the first assertion, but in speaking of the sadness of a poet who is so vividly impressed with the follies and weaknesses of mankind, it is neces sary to guard against the assumption that this sadness contains the slightest admixture of cynicism. It is so easy to be hard, and bitter, and cynical, but it is another thing to expound that gentle, sorrowful philosophy which views with tender toleration and infinite pity the sin and sorrow of the world. There is not in the whole of Mr. Arnold's published poems one single bitter, cynical, or uncharitable line. To look with charity on all men, to recognise how circumscribed is our existence here, to bend with resignation to the inevitable, to believe that the world's 'secret is not joy but peace,' these are the teachings of Mr. Arnold's sweet sad singing.

Each one of Mr. Arnold's poems is so perfect in itself, saying so fully and delightfully what the poet meant to say, that it is impossible to discover anything wanting in any poem considered separately. But, in his poetry as a whole, we undoubtedly miss something. The presence of sadness almost implies the absence of enthusiasm, and we search in vain for any trace of enthusiasm in Mr. Arnold. There is no sign that he has ever allowed himself to be carried away by his subject; he is strong with the strength of self-restraint, not with the strength of impulse. He has a firm seat on his Pegasus, and a strong hand upon the reins; he never urges his steed to scour the plain at full speed, charging boldly all the obstacles in his path ; he never drops the reins upon his neck, that he may wander where the impulse of the moment may direct. In this respect it is interesting to contrast Mr. Arnold with Shelley. He is never borne along, as Shelley often is, by the tyrannous force of his thoughts;

he is never crude, never allows the simple beauty of an idea to be hidden under profusion of images, as Shelley sometimes does; we understand from his own poetry, why it is that he reproaches Shelley, with 'not knowing enough;' and yet Shelley's faults all arise from the excess of that impetuous enthusiasm, the lack of which is Mr. Arnold's most serious defect. But Shelley was always young, and enthusiasm is an attribute of youth, while Mr. Arnold's poetry never bears the stamp of youth. His Early Poems occupy a separate place in his works,. and we know by the years that have elapsed since they were published, that they are in fact the work of youth, but internal evidence would never· show it. That exquisitely melodious lyric A Memory Picture, which is one of the Early Poems, concludes. thus :

'Ah, too true! Time's current strong
Leaves us true to nothing long.
Yet, if little stays with man,
Ah, retain we all we can!
If the clear impression dies,
Ah, the dim remembrance prize!
Ere the parting hour go by,
Quick, thy tablets, Memory!'

This is hardly the conclusion that a young poet would ordinarily give to a poem, containing the picture of a fair, sweet woman. A more striking instance is to be found in another of the Early Poems, which deals directly with the aspirations of youth. In Youth and Calm, the question whether 'the ease from shame and rest from fear' of the grave is, 'the crowning end of life and youth,' is thus answered :

'Ah no, the bliss youth dreams is one
For daylight, for the cheerful sun,
For feeling nerves and living breath-
Youth dreams a bliss on this side death.
lt dreams a rest, if not more deep,
More grateful than this marble sleep;
It hears a voice within it tell :
Calm's not life's crown, though calm is well.
'Tis all, perhaps, which man requires,
But 'tis not what our youth desires.'

If the poem had ended with the line in italics, the subject would clearly have been treated from the standpoint

1

of youth itself, but the concluding lines strike the mournful key of age, with its shattered aspirations, and bitter disillusionments, and change the whole scope of the pcem : instead of being the warm protest of youth, it becomes the sorrowful reflection of maturity. Mr. Arnold's early poems, in fact, bear no trace of the youthful exuberance, which, mellowed by experience, its baser parts all purged away,' gives strength and fire to the utterances of a poet's maturity. His Early Poems may be the better for this freedom from the rash enthusiasm of youth, but his work as a whole suffers, and its influence is lessened, by the loss of that which such enthusiasm leaves behind it in a poet's mind, making him

'Beyond a mortal man impassion'd far.'

Mr. Arnold, in describing a poet's feelings and emotions, has with the

[ocr errors]

introspective power of genius, gauged at once the strength and weakness of his own poetry. Apart from its intrinsic beauty, the passage is remarkable as an instance of unconscious self-analysis, and the last line in particular is startling in the truth of its application to himself. 'His sad lucidity of soul,'--this it is that makes Mr. Matthew Arnold perhaps one of the greatest, and certainly one of the saddest, of living poets. We cannot more fitly conclude than by quoting this passage, which may, without extravagance, be called a poet's description of himself :

'He gazes-tears
Are in his eyes, and in his ears
The murmur of a thousand years.
Before him he sees life uuroll,
A placid and continuous whole-
That general life, which does not cease,
Whose secret is not joy, but peace;
That life whose dumb wish is not miss'd
If birth proceeds, if things subsist;
The life of plants, and stones, and rain,
The life he craves-if not in vain
Fate gave, what chance shall not control,
His sad lucidity of soul.'

A STRAY LEAF FROM AN OLD DIARY.

THE HON. LOUIS JOSEPH PAPINEAU.

BY J. M. LE MOINE.

NE of the most conspicuous fig

ON ures, now and hereafter, in the

annals of the Province of Quebec, will doubtless be that of the fiery spirit, who originated the insurrection of 1837. I find inserted in an old Diary of mine, a note recording my first glimpse of this famous agitator and eloquent statesman, Louis Joseph Papineau; it dates of my early youth—in 1837.

Trifling as it seems, it may possibly interest some readers of the present generation.

Far be it from me to attempt to portray in extenso, the eminent statesman's parliamentary career-as his historian or biographer. This may be practicable, when a few decades have passed over and the embers of the political cauldron, so lively in 1837, shall have sufficiently cooled to be handled with safety or advantage: let us wait until the contemporaries of this stormy period have been gathered to their fathers; let us possess in peace our minds, until the momentous changes, brought about in a

great measure by the outbreak of '37- ber for Montreal, a notary by profes8, have finally fruited.

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

To others, his career seems surrounded with the divine halo of patriotism he was the liberator of an oppressed nationality;—the unrelenting foe to Colonial misrule. His memory will survive in imperishable lustre.

Let us then be satisfied to wait until time and impartial history have pronounced their final, their irrevocable verdict.

I have stated that the first view I had, of the great Speaker of the Canadians' Commons, dated more than forty years back. Why was it so vivid? Why did it leave such a lasting impress in the "haunted halls" of memory?

That Mr. Papineau had a remarkable physique: that he blended in his person the courteous demeanour, the lofty, proud deportment of the ancient French seigneur, with the fiery delivery of a modern French orateur parlementaire, all who saw him, in the midst of debate, felt inclined to admit. He was scrupulously neat in his dress, even when an octogenarian. He carried his well proportioned head, high ; his hair was cut rather short and ter-· minated in an erect toupet, well suited to his grave style of face: his coat, of black cloth with the petit collet, resembled in cut, a Judge's coat. It may not be out of place to recall here the leading traits of his parliamentary

career.

Louis Joseph Papineau, born in Montreal, in 1789, was the son of Joseph Papineau, for many years mem

sion, and highly distinguished for the simple but very effective style of his forensic oratory.

Joseph was born in Montreal, in 1752.

The young Louis Joseph was educated at the Quebec Seminary, and had for class-mates, amongst others, the genial and talented author of the CANADIANS OF OLD. Philippe A DeGaspé, Esq. Mr. De Gaspé, in his Memoirs, has recorded several interesting particulars of the studiousness, wit, and eloquence of the budding statesman. Young Mr. Papineau's abilities had so impressed his friends, that he was returned to Parliament whilst yet a law student, in 1809, two years previous to his admission to the Bar: he represented the county of Kent-now the county of Chambly Chambly for twenty consecutive years, he represented in Parliament the west ward of Montreal. In 1812, although no lover of the British Government, true to his allegiance, he served as a captain in the militia, until 1815: having to escort to Montreal some American prisoners, he left the ranks and refused to take his place, until the band of the escort had ceased playing 'Yankee Doodle,' in derision of the captives. Three years after his entrance in the legislative halls, he was chosen as leader of the French Canadian opposition party, a position which he held until the insurrection of 1837. For twenty years, from 1817 to 1837, he was Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. In 1820, he was elevated to a seat in the Legislative Council. In 1822, we find him selected in conjunction with the late Hon. John Neilson, as a delegate to proceed to England to oppose the Imperial plan for the union of Upper and Lower Canada: a mission crowned with complete success, the obnoxious measure having been withdrawn. His share in the rebellion of 1837, we all know : he had to fly to the United States.

In 1839, he crossed the Atlantic and buried himself in seclusion, in the city of Paris, for eight years. with no other familiars but, Lamennais, Béranger, and a few other French master-minds. Through the exertions of his great adversary,Lafontaine, he was subsequently pardoned; he received also through the same influence, £4,500 arrears of his pay as late Speaker. His thrilling accents were soon again heard in the legislative halls, but times and politics had changed: many of the reforms previously asked for had been granted the great tribune found in 1847 the soil yielding under his feet: another master-spirit, the Hon. Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine, had come to the front.

One of the changes Mr. Papineau had so warmly advocated in 1837, an elective Legislative Council, strange to say, found echo later on. A brilliant constellation of youthful Montreal lawyers, the Dorions, Doutre, Papin, Labreche, Viger, Laberge, Laflamme and others, made it a plank of their platform in the Avenir newspaper. Mr. Papineau was the oracle_the high-priest, of this ardent, eloquent and patriotic band, who have lived mostly all of them, to see the bulk of the opinions they entertained thirty years ago, triumphant, and themselves, released from the cold shades of opposition to enjoy the highest offices in the gift of the Crown and people. The fiery statesman, withdrew for ever, in 1854, from the arena of politics: he was in the habit of passing the winter season at Montreal, in the society of a few tried friends: the summer months he devoted to his family at his elegant Chateau, Montebello, in his seigniory of La Petite Nation, on the green banks of the Ottawa: here, amidst his plantations, his flowers, his birds and books, he found sincere friends and trusty advisers, in those dear old authors, Montaigne, Seneca, Plutarch, Bacon, &c. ; of their intercourse, he never tired.

[ocr errors]

Here, on one mellow day of September, 1871 (the 28th), at the ripe age of 83 years, death released his noble spirit, not however with the usual accompaniment on his part of a son of Rome: Mr. Papineau, like Sainte-Beuve, refused to see, in his last moments, the R. C. pastor, though his remains were placed by loving hands in a tomb in his own private chapel at Montebello, which chapel he had had consecrated by the R. C. authorities some years previous.

The power wielded for a quarter of a century over the masses in Lower Canada by Mr. Papineau, was something marvellous: though the influence his impassioned appeals exerted, may seem incredible to those who never witnessed the display. Mr. Papineau had unquestionably several of the attributes which Quintillian and others assign to the public speaker. His domestic life was spotless: his tastes elevated—pure; his education and fortune had opened out to him the choicest stores of learning: Vir probus dicendi peritus, he certainly was.

Was it then surprising if, at the peroration of a fiery onslaught on colonial abuses-or at the close of a scathing denunciation of the ostracism of his race, attempted by the grasping bureaucracy which then invaded every avenue to preferment—or even, to justice, was it surprising to hear deafening cheers and frantic spectators, seizing hold of the fearless speaker and carrying him in triumph to his hotel or his home? No parliamentary orator in the Province of Quebec ever struck so surely, so powerfully, the popular chord, as did this indefatigable champion of popular rights ?*

*'lf,' says his biographer, L. O. David, 'posterity, oblivious of his genius, ever dare to ask what Papineau had done for his country, let his voice reply from his tomb: "Je vous ai fait respecter, j'ai appris au monde que dans un coin de l'Amérique quelques milliers de Français, vaincus par les arines apres une lutte héroique, avaient su arracher leurs droits et leurs libertés des griffes de leurs vainqueurs. J'ai, pendant trente ans,guidé mes compatriotes dans des combats qui ont fait l'admiration des nations étrangères, et j'ai appris à mes fiers conquérants qu'ils ne pourraient jamais enchaîner ma patrie."

[ocr errors]

In June, 1837, when I saw him first, he was in the zenith of his fame, though coming events were already looming out portentously.

A split in the party of the patriots was at hand, the Hon. John Neilson and some others, refused to abet armed resistance to British rule in this they differed from the "patriots" of the Montreal district.

:

A grand gathering of the Nationalité Canadienne was to take place on the 24th June, 1837, in a beautiful maple grove owned by Captain Faucher, at Berthier, then forming part of the county of Bellechasse: the festival, dear to all Canadians, the Fête de la St. Jean Baptiste, was to be solemnized here by all the "patriots" of ever so many counties, not only by the destruction of hundreds of lovely young maple trees as is now the unhallowed custom, but in a much more appropriate manner by speeches, a splendid banquet with-music-songs—a display of artillery and of cavalry. The Demosthenes of Parliament was to address the people on their wrongs and their mode of redress, flanked by the elite of the House of Assemby, Sir E. P. Taché (then Dr. E. P. Taché) his friend, Notary Letourneau, M. P. P. for Islet, Messrs. A. N. Morin, Louis Bourdages, cum multis aliis. The fire eaters of two or three counties met accordingly, and what with oratory, punch, music and songs, the discharge of fowling pieces, and the presence of the best trotting horses of the three counties, mounted by warlike young peasants with wreaths of maple and green, the pageant was a memorable one and very creditable to the enterprise of the "patriotes."

A full account is given by the Canadien newspaper of the 3rd July, 1837. Once the fete ended, the liberator in a showy carriage, followed by much of the "rank and fashion" of the disaffected counties, was to drive all the way to Kamouraska, to visit an important personage of the day: J. Bte. Taché, brother to Sir E. P. Taché,

whose services to Canada subsequently, invested him with a knighthood and the honorary title of aidede-camp to the Queen.

It was judged suitable that popular respect and ovations should attend the march of the Hon. Louis J. Papineau, not only amongst grown up men ready to bleed for their country, but even amongst prattling school-boys. Thus, was brought in, the parish school of St. Thomas. It was so fated that in "jacket and frills" I found myself a juvenile inmate the tallest boy of this rustic academy. Our "Dominie's" name was Mercier. Dominie Mercier was no less celebrated for the zest and vigour with which he wielded the birch rod over the shoulders of his refractory subjects, than for his demonstrative patriotism amongst their fathers: he was what then was styled "un bon patriote," ready to vote down at a moment's notice, the importation of any dutiable English goods: broadcloth, cutlery, tea, &c. * Mr. Mercier was determined his school should offer ocular proof of the glowing patriotism, which, there bubbled up, like, from a fountain. The great statesman, Papineau, being pressed for time, could not stop, even to receive addresses: it was then decided by the Dominie, that an address, brief but gushing, should be delivered to the liberator as the carriage rolled past the school, on its way to Kamouraska. To the tallest boy was allotted the envied honour of acting as spokesman. He, as well as his comrades, for the nonce had been suitably drilled in court etiquette: all the "hopefuls" were to stand in line on the road side, and when in presence of the carriage, the tallest was to advance three steps, right foot first, take off his cap, and deliver

[blocks in formation]
« VorigeDoorgaan »