Saint or Scoundrel 13

February, 1864

Finally a letter back from Teddy. I had almost given up hope of hearing from him again, as it had been many more months than the required four for the passage of two letters. And what a letter to cherish!

Christchurch, New Zealand

December 5, 1863

Dear Margaret, (I am happy that you have agreed to communicating on a more informal basis.)

I was pleased to get your letter and thank you for the kind things you said about my book. That was a very exciting and wonderful time in my life - each day an adventure. Now my days are filled with gloom and despair.

I’ve tried to write this letter many times and end up throwing out the various attempts. Whenever I think about my father, I end up in tears and then go and drown my sorrows in alcohol. I will admit to you that it has become a problem for me, drinking in excess. I suppose it was always a problem but has become even more so of late.

I can’t write about my father without feeling that I failed him so dreadfully. He was such a wonderful man, and to me he was a Saint - some one to be looked up to, copied, revered. But he never seemed to care very much about me - about what I thought, about what I did. Even my book was due more to his efforts than mine. I knew from a very early age that he didn’t like me very much - he blamed me for my mother’s death, as she died a few days after I was born. And my sister Nina looked like Mother, and had the same sort of effervescent personality, and Father doted on her. He hardly noticed that I was there. After her death, he seemed to take a bit more interest in me,
but I never felt truly loved by him. And yet, I didn’t blame him for his lack of interest. I knew it was up to me to make him love me, and to be a better person so that he could value my contribution. I
lived for his praise, and it came so seldom, and was always followed by the impression that I could have done better if I had really tried.

I’m sorry to be saying these things to you. Please don’t let Aunt Catherine know that I am such a mental wreck. But somehow, I feel that because I don’t know you, I can write things to you that I
couldn’t say to relatives or friends.

I’m sorry not be able to forward your research into your book. Most of the important things that Father did, he had done before the communication with your father ceased, and after that, his health was so poor much of the time that he never regained his enormous capacity to make things happen in the world. I have written to Aunt Catherine asking her to make the letters he wrote to her available for you to read. Perhaps you might be able to spend a weekend with her, and you could copy out some information at the same time.

All the best to you. I wish that you would continue to write to me, but let us write of other things. Tell me about yourself and your town of Altrincham. I have not spent much time in the North of England. What do you do when you are not working or writing out the details of your book about my father?

I can tell you a bit about the city (since 1856) of Christchurch, current population about 6,400. You would feel very at home here - as most English settlers do - as the town centre is based on a typical
English town. There is a beautiful Cathedral planned for the centre (although it will be a long time before services can be held in it as they have not even yet laid the foundation stone). I have seen the
plans and it will be very similar to the one in Worcester. We have a River, called the Avon, which snakes its way through the city centre and it has weeping willow trees which droop into it, and tall
Lombardy poplars which form an avenue, making it very picturesque. People boat on the river, much as they do in Oxford. We have a huge park - Hagley Park - 400 or so acres right in the centre of town.

The Provincial Council Chamber is nearly finished. It was started in 1858. It was designed by Benjamin Mountfort, a leading Gothic Revival architect. It is meant to ape Westminster, with one section which holds ministerial offices, done in wood, and the Council Chamber itself, for all the world like the House of Commons, containing the finest barrel vaulted ceiling in the southern hemisphere, done in locally quarried stone.

One difference is that our streets are wide and straight, crossing each other with precise right angles, and follow much more the American style than the English. But the names will interest you - Manchester Street is the major North South road going towards the Cashmere Hills. Other street names are Worcester Boulevard, Gloucester Street, Hereford Street, Oxford Terrace, Cambridge Terrace, Durham Street.

Christchurch is fairly flat - as is much of Canterbury, but you can see the snow-peaked mountains rising fifty miles to the West called the Southern Alps which are very steep and wondrously beautiful. I am truly in love with this country, and would never willingly go back to England to live. Perhaps I can persuade you to emigrate out here yourself.

Best wishes from your new friend,

Teddy

How sad it is that he thinks his father valued him so slightly. I haven’t got that impression from the comments about Teddy in Edward’s letters. Here is the next in the series from Teddy’s father.

December 20, 1838

Toronto, Canada

Dear Daniel,

My son Teddy and I sailed secretly for Canada but before we arrived word
had leaked out and my appointment was forbidden by London. However,
Lord Durham, now titled High Commissioner for British
North America, has retained me as an unofficial representative,
advisor and negotiator, giving me effectively the same powers I would
have had had I been appointed.

I have been slandered by Mr. Roebuck of the Spectator. He called me a
secret agent - a sort of spy, employed by Lord Durham’s
administration, He said I was “actually and openly in communication
with M. Papineau, the denounced leader, in order to devise plans for
the re-establishment of the constitution and the arrangement of the
affairs of the province so as to content the people.”

I wrote this reply to him, “This statement does not contain one word
of truth. I never was employed by Lord Durham, or by any person
belonging to his government, to communicate with Mr. Papineau, or
with any other of the accused upon any subject whatever. I never made
any report either by writing or verbally either to Lord Durham or any
one belonging to his government upon the subject, or any part of the
subject in question.”

I did not deny that I had intercourse with many of the leaders of the
French Canadians - on the contrary, I entered into details respecting
it and I went to Saratoga in the hope of seeing M. Papineau also, but
I failed. I am convinced that the leaders of the French party were
bent on pursing a course which would be most injurious to the colony
and especially to the whole race of French Canadians. They appeared
to me to be profoundly ignorant of their own position and thoroughly
devoid of judgment as leaders of their party. I told them so in
plainest terms. I also interviewed the French-Canadian leader
Lafontaine, but the negotiation was unsuccessful.

Perhaps you do not know who M. Papineau is. Louis Joseph Papineau is a
Canadian agitator, leader in the Canadian parliament of the radical
party. A decade ago, he prepared a list of the demands and grievances
of his countrymen, which were embodied in "Ninety-two
resolutions," forming the basis of petitions to the king, lords,
and commons of the United Kingdom. As it was considered that the
demands of Papineau and his compatriots, if granted, would be
subversive of British authority, they were refused. Papineau
afterward continued his agitation, recommending more violent
opposition to the home government. Recently, Papineau attended the
meetings of the agitators throughout the country and intensified
their feeling of animosity against Great Britain by his eloquent
appeals to their national prejudices. On 6 November last a few
loyalists were attacked in Montreal by a band of men belonging to
"Les ills de la liberte," and as Papineau was held to be
mainly responsible for the uprising of the French Canadians, a
warrant was issued on 16 November for his arrest, which he evaded by
escaping to Richelieu River, where the insurgents were prepared to
rise at the bidding of their chiefs. But he abandoned his friends in
the moment of danger, and fled to the United States and then left for
France. So you see why I do not wish my name to be associated with
his in any way.

Since Lord Durham was ill for much of our time in Canada, Charles Buller,
his other adviser and the chief secretary, and I should be credited
with the success of the mission as we defused the situation and
brought about the union of Upper and Lower Canada. But Lord Durham
has resigned and we are all returning to Britain. It will be our
next job to prepare a report of our trip. The Scotsman has reported
that Lord Durham comes home with a hostile feeling to ministers.
However the truth is that he comes home thinking he can be much more
use as a member of the House of Peers than by remaining in Canada.

I seem to be ranting about things that perhaps are of no interest to
you at all. I will stop.

All the best for the New Year,

Your friend,

Edward Gibbon