: Thomas D'Arcy McGee by Brady Alexander Wallace W Stewart William Stewart Editor - McGee Thomas D'Arcy 1825-1868

@FreeBooksThu 08 Jun, 2023

Posted in: #FreeBooks #FreeBooksIndia #FreeBooksApp #gg

Vote Up Vote Down

at Spirit we worship who walks unseen Through our land of ice and snow: We know not His face, we know not His place, But His presence and power we know.

Joseph Howe had won many laurels as an orator, yet the brilliant French-Canadian writer, Hector Fabre, considered him inferior to McGee. "Mr. Howe is well adapted to the tribune; he pleases, he amuses, he charms; but a severer taste would say that his is far from the brilliant eloquence, the irreproachable diction, the constantly pure style, the breadth of views and the rectitude of ideas of Mr. McGee. To my mind Mr. McGee is a nearly perfect orator, and one who in many senses has no superior."

Of McGee's domestic and private life, little need be said. It was happy in the highest degree. He was married in the period of his association with Young Ireland, and his wife shared the subsequent adventures of his chequered career, and survived his tragic death. His home presented to all who entered it a charming circle. McGee, with his family, was like a joyous boy. He would often be found romping on the floor with his baby daughter. Of his children only two daughters survived, one of whom took the veil. A genial, convivial nature and an ever sparkling humour won him friends in every part of Canada. One of the many tokens of esteem on the part of his townsfolk in Montreal was the present of a handsome furnished house in one of the best districts of the city. Although an Irishman and a very devout Catholic, he gained the warm homage of the Scotch Presbyterian population in Lower Canada, a homage deeper than that bestowed by the Scotch on any of their own countrymen. At the old Irish and Scottish festival of Hallowe'en he had been an ever welcome speaker in the St. Andrew's Society. It is interesting to note that on the Hallowe'en after his death, thirty-seven of the forty-six poems competing for prizes contained some allusion to him, and one lamented his absence in Scotland's old dialect:

Ah! wad that he were here the nicht, Whase tongue was like a faerie lute! But vain the wish: McGee! thy might Lies low in death--thy voice is mute. He's gane, the noblest o' us a'-- Aboon a' care o' worldly fame; An' wha sae proud as he to ca' Our Canada his hame?

The gentle maple weeps an' waves Aboon our patriot-statesman's heed; But if we prize the licht he gave, We'll bury feuds of race and creed. For this he wrocht, for this he died; An' for the luve we bear his name, Let's live as brithers, side by side, In Canada, our hame.

These simple Scotch verses strike the most memorable fact respecting McGee. His name should live in Canadian History as a statesman, orator, and poet. But he should be remembered for an additional reason. The Dominion, for which he laboured, grew, as he prophesied that it would grow, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and its scattered provinces, flattened out over a vast territory, are bound together by the steel lines of trans-continental railways. Yet such material bases of union must fail to hold together the different sects and races inhabiting the Dominion, unless Canadians cherish what McGee passionately advanced, the spirit of toleration and goodwill as the best expression of Canadian nationality.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

McGee's collected poems were edited and published by Mrs. Sadlier . Mrs. Sadlier's introduction contains some valuable information concerning McGee's life.

Free books android app tbrJar TBR JAR Read Free books online gutenberg

Login to post a comment!