James FitzGibbon by Ruth McKenzie

Author:Ruth McKenzie [McKenzie, Ruth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Historical, Political, History, Canada, Pre-Confederation (To 1867)
ISBN: 9781459715639
Google: poDJcFxGk0cC
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 1996-08-09T16:18:43+00:00

Anna Brownell Jameson, author of Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada (1838)

I admit that all I know has been gleaned by me in the great school of the World; yet if an unerring scale of comparative merits be applied to men I would not decline to place myself among those who are likely to be candidates for the higher offices of this Government, where professional qualifications are not indispensible [sic].13

FitzGibbon ended his letter by saying that he looked to his Excellency alone for favourable consideration – a vain hope that Head would step into the breach of patronage left by the departure of Colborne.

A shrewd observer of the Upper Canadian scene arrived in Toronto in December 1836 and remained in the province nine months. This was Anna Brownell Jameson, wife of Robert S. Jameson, then attorney-general of Upper Canada. Mrs Jameson took a fancy to Colonel FitzGibbon, saying that, “The men who have interested me through life were all self-educated, and what are called originals. This dear, good F. is originalissimo”. FitzGibbon amused Mrs Jameson, who was also Irish-born, with stories of his boyhood in Ireland and of his life in the army, and he told her of his romantic marriage. “With so much overflowing benevolence and fearless energy of character, and all the eccentricity, and sensibility, and poetry, and headlong courage of his country, you cannot wonder that this brave and worthy man interests me”, she wrote.

Mrs Jameson viewed the political scene in Upper Canada with insight. “We have here”, she wrote, “a petty colonial oligarchy, a self-constituted aristocracy, based upon nothing real, nor even upon any thing imaginary”. She sensed that the mood in the province was resentful, that the Upper Canadians suffered from “the total absence of all sympathy on the part of the English government with the condition, the wants, the feelings, the capabilities of the people and country”.14 Mrs Jameson left Canada three months before the outbreak of rebellion.

As the signs of revolt increased, James FitzGibbon became alarmed, but when he tried to warn Lieutenant-Governor Head he was met by incredulity and irritation. In the days immediately preceding the uprising, James FitzGibbon faced one of the greatest crises of his life.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.