He struck me to be a man who thought spending
money, or taking risks, however slight, a kind of crime. That, in fact,
it was better to trust to Providence in important questions, and keep
the national pocket tightly buttoned. We got little out of him, save an
insight into the difficulty to be overcome. And yet he had been a party
to the Crimean War. On the final discussion, in the House, on the vote
for the Intercolonial guarantee, on the 28th March, 1867, Mr. Gladstone
concluded his speech by declaring, "I believe the present guarantee
does depend upon motives of policy belonging to a very high order, and
intimately and inseparably associated with most just, most enlightened
views of the true interests of the Empire." Thus we had sown the seed
not in vain, and the counsel of the Duke was not forgotten.
Mr. Van Koughnet arrived on the 26th November. On the 27th I took him
to see the Duke, and we had a long conference.
Finally, it was decided to send in a memorial to the Duke to lay before
the Cabinet. Howe prepared it. It was most ably drawn, like all the
State papers of that distinguished man, and it was sent in to the
Colonial Office on the 2nd December, 1861. Thus, all had been done that
could then be done by the delegation.
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