Volume 3 — CHARLES, FOURTH DUKE OF RICHMOND,

GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA.

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The Duke of Richmond's administration of affairs in Canada was not of long duration, but his high rank, and the melancholy circumstances attending his death, have invested his name with an interest which would not otherwise have attached to it. His rank was higher than that of any other Governor known to Canadian annals, and his death was due to the most terrible malady that can afflict mankind.

Charles Gordon Lennox, Duke of Richmond, Earl of March, and Baron Settrington in the peerage of England; Duke of Lennox, Earl of Darnley, and Baron Methuen in the peerage of Scotland; and Duc d'Aubigny in France, was a descendant of King Charles the Second, by the fair and frail Louise Renée de Querouaille, "whom," says Macaulay, "our rude ancestors called Madam Carwell." He was the only son of Lieutenant-General Lord George Henry Lennox, by Lady Louisa Ker, daughter of the Marquis of Lothian, and nephew of the third Duke. He was born in 1764, succeeded to the family titles and estates in 1806, and married, in 1789, Charlotte, daughter of the Duke of Gordon, by whom he had a numerous progeny. He was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1807 till 1813, during the Secretaryships of the Duke of Wellington and Mr.—afterwards the Right Honourable Sir Robert—Peel. Having displayed much ability in the public service, he was appointed Governor-General of Canada as successor to General Sir John Coape Sherbrooke. He entered on the duties of his office in the month of July, 1818, having been accompanied across the Atlantic by his son-in-law, Major-General Sir Peregrine Maitland, who had been appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the Upper Province.

The Duke brought with him a good reputation. His Irish administration had been remarkably successful, and it was believed that his tact, good nature, and capacity for governing would be productive of happy results in this country. He spent the remainder of the summer following his arrival in a trip to the Upper Province, and after his return to Quebec he was engaged in various diplomatic matters which consumed the greater part of the following autumn. He met the Legislature for the first time in January, 1819, when he opened the session with a speech which augured well for his popularity. It was not long, however, before complications arose. There was a gradually widening breach between the branches of the Legislature as to their respective rights and privileges under the constitution, and it soon became evident that the Governor-General was not the man to heal this breach. Among the chief points in dispute was the management of the colonial finances. When the estimates for the year were presented, it was found that there was an increase of £15,000, including an item of £8,000 for a pension-list. The Assembly became alarmed, and referred the estimates to a committee. The committee cut down several items of expenditure, including that relating to pensions. The Upper House declined to pass the supply bill, as amended, and the result was a practical dead-lock in public affairs. It was clear that the Assembly had no confidence in the Executive. The session was prorogued on the 12th of April, nothing of importance having been accomplished. The Governor, in his prorogation speech, expressed his dissatisfaction with the Assembly, and harangued that body in a fashion which aroused much ill-will on the part of the members, who repaired to their homes with a fixed determination to resist to the utmost all attempts to infringe upon their rights. They were not destined, however, to come into any further collision with his Grace the Duke of Richmond. Soon after the close of the session he drew upon the Receiver-General on his own responsibility for the necessary funds to defray the civil list.

Towards the end of the following June the Governor-General left Quebec, on an extended tour through both the Provinces. He had a summer residence at William Henry, or Sorel, in the county of Richelieu, on the River St. Lawrence, where he made a short stay on his upward journey. During his sojourn there he was bitten on the back of his hand by a tame fox with which he was amusing himself. His Grace thought nothing of the matter, although he experienced some uneasy sensations on the following morning. He proceeded on his tour to the Upper Province, visited Niagara Falls, York, and other points of interest, and reached Kingston on his return journey about the middle of August. He had arranged to visit some recently surveyed lots in what was then the back wilderness on the line of the Rideau Canal, between the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa. He set out from Kingston on the 20th of August accompanied by several members of his staff. It had been calculated that the expedition would occupy several days. On the morning of the 21st he began to suffer from a pain in his shoulder. The pain steadily increased and he was recommended to drink some hot wine and water. He did so, but found great difficulty in swallowing it. In the evening he reached Perth, and found the pain somewhat abated. He remained at Perth until the morning of the 24th, when he resumed his journey, and proceeded on foot over a rugged country of thirty miles, accompanied by Lieutenant-Colonel Cockburn. He was much overcome by fatigue and passed a restless night. On the 25th, he arrived within three miles of Richmond West, on the Goodwood River, about twenty miles from Bytown—now Ottawa. There he rested well during the night, and walked to the settlement on the following morning. He felt much relieved, and attributed his healthy sensations to his laborious exercise. In a few hours he again complained of a returning illness, but passed the night with so much composure that he continued his journey on the following morning. It was noticed by his staff that he was moody and irritable, very unlike his ordinary self, and that he displayed an extraordinary aversion to water, when crossing the little streamlets in the forest. He was advised by Lieutenant-Colonel Cockburn to rest himself and send for medical advice, but he continued his journey until he reached a stream where a canoe was waiting to convey him a short distance. He must have been sensible of the terrible fate impending over him for several days before this time, but he bore up with much strength of mind. Upon reaching the stream just mentioned he expressed his desire to embark in the canoe, but declared that he did not think he should be able to do so. He added, "Gentlemen, if I fail, you must force me." His officers had no suspicion of the real state of affairs, and attributed his dread of approaching the water to a sort of delirium induced by the fatigue he had undergone, and the excessive heat of the sun. He was no sooner seated in the canoe than his face displayed such mortal terror at the near neighbourhood of the water that the truth flashed upon one of his officers, who exclaimed: "By Heaven, the Duke has the hydrophobia!" As the Duke proceeded down stream in the canoe, his officers walked through the forest to the point where he was expected to disembark. As they were threading their way along, they were horrified to see His Grace dart across their path into the depths of the wood. They pursued, and after a long chase overtook him. He was raving mad. They secured him, and held him down until the paroxysm had passed, when, with much self-possession, he explained his terrible situation, and requested them to do whatever seemed to them best. They resolved to return with him to the settlement, and began to retrace their steps. Upon reaching the creek which they had crossed on the previous day, His Grace stopped, and begged that they would not force him across the stream, as he felt that he could not survive the effort of crossing the water. They accordingly made a detour into the forest, and soon arrived at a little bush shanty, where they requested the Duke to rest himself. The Duke expressed his desire to take refuge in an adjoining barn, rather than in the shanty, as the barn, he said, was farther from water. His wish was complied with, and he sprang over a fence and entered the barn. There he spent a terrible day, sometimes being quite calm and collected, but with frequent recurrences of his malady. Towards evening he consented to be removed into the shanty, where he was made as comfortable as circumstances admitted of. His paroxysms returned frequently in the course of the following night, and at eight o'clock on the following morning—which was the 28th—death put an end to his sufferings. The ruins of the old hovel on the banks of the Goodwood in which the Duke expired, are, or recently were, still in existence. The spot is in the county of Carleton, about four miles from Richmond, and near the confluence of the Goodwood and Rideau rivers, about sixteen miles from the junction of the Ottawa and Rideau.

His body was conveyed in a canoe to Montreal, where his family awaited his return from his tour. It was subsequently removed in a steamer to Quebec, where it was interred close to the communion table in the Anglican Cathedral. Such was the tragical end of Charles Gordon Lennox, fourth Duke of Richmond.