Cover
ALSO BY RICHARD ROHMER
A premier Canadian author
Fiction
Ultimatum 2 (2007)
A Richard Rohmer Omnibus: Ultimatum, Exxoneration, Periscope Red (2003)
Caged Eagle (2002)
Death by Deficit (1995)
Red Arctic (1989)
Hour of the Fox (1988)
Rommel & Patton (1986)
Starmageddon (1985)
Retaliation (1982)
Periscope Red (1981)
Separation 2 (1981)
Triad (1981)
Balls! (1979)
Separation (1976)
Exodus, UK (1975)
Exxoneration (1974)
Ultimatum (1973)
Non-Fiction
Building of the SkyDome/Rogers Centre (2012)
Building of the CN Tower (2011)
Generally Speaking: The Memoirs of Major-General Richard Rohmer (2004)
Raleigh on the Rocks: The Canada Shipwreck of HMS Raleigh (2003)
Golden Phoenix: The Biography of Peter Munk (2002)
Massacre 007 (1984)
How to Write a Bestseller (1984)
Patton’s Gap (1981)
E.P. Taylor: The Biography of Edward Plunket Taylor (1978)
The Arctic Imperative (1973)
The Green North: Mid-Canada (1970)
Britain’s Real Downton Abbey and Canada’s Birth
Sir John A.’s Crusade
and Seward’s
Magnificent Folly
A NOVEL
RICHARD ROHMER
Preface to the Second Edition
Once upon a time, there was an imagined place in England called Downton Abbey, which was the similarly and brilliantly imagined seat of the aristocratic Crawley family, headed by the upstanding, capable, handsome Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham.
Once upon today, “this” time there is a real place in England named Highclere Castle, which is the seat of the legendary Earls of Carnarvon, the Herbert family. At the time of the 1866 foray to England by the Fathers of Confederation of the colony of Canada, the family was headed by Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, the fourth earl of Carnarvon, and the then colonial secretary to the British government.
Downton Abbey, as it appears in the magnificent television series, is actually Highclere Castle, often known as Carnarvon Castle. It was there that much of the Downton Abbey series was and will be shot. It was also there that the difficult quest for Canada’s status as an ultimately self-governing monarchy nation truly began on December 11, 1866, as this piece of historical fiction demonstrates. The novel also has a focus on the highly secret attempt by future Canadian prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald to negotiate the purchase by the British for and on behalf of Canada the strategically important Russian American holdings known then, and now, as Alaska. It also has a focus on the creative work of William Steward, the U.S. Secretary of State, in his successful dealings with his Congress and the Russian Tsar, leading to the American purchase of Alaska — Seward’s magnificent folly!
Richard Rohmer
October 2012
Collingwood, Ontario
1
December 1–3, 1866
London, England
Late on Saturday, December 1, 1866, the fast new clipper ship docked in Liverpool. A tall, thin passenger stood on the deck, impatient to disembark. John A. Macdonald, having suffered through a long, frigid, stormy crossing of the Atlantic, hurried down the gangplank to collect his trunk and valises. He couldn’t wait to get his chilled-to-the-bone body on the next train for London and his usual haven there, the elegant Westminster Palace Hotel, a long, narrow, pie-shaped structure at the junction of Tothill and Victoria streets near Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament.
From the letters and messages that he had received in Ottawa, Macdonald suspected that his extremely late arrival would bring both joy and anger to the some twenty-odd Maritime and Canadian political colleagues who were waiting for him at the hotel. Joy because he had finally arrived and the long-awaited London Conference on Confederation could finally get under way. Anger because Macdonald had delayed his departure from Ottawa for such a great length of time. The conference had been scheduled to begin in September, and some of the Maritime delegates had arrived in London as early as the end of July. John A. was sure they had twiddled their thumbs and spent a small fortune of government money waiting for him to turn up.
Yes, Charles Tupper and his negotiating team of four from Nova Scotia — Jonathan McCully, William Ritchie, William Henry and A.G. Archibald — were upset. As were Samuel Tilley and his New Brunswick crew of Peter Mitchell, Charles Fisher, J.M. Johnson, and Robert Wilmot. John A. told himself it would be a wonder if they even spoke to him.
But the Attorney General and Minister of Militia Affairs for Canada had good reasons to delay the trip. His explanation would satisfy not only the Maritimers but his own Canadian delegates as well — Cartier, McDougall, Howland, Galt, and Langevin.
Macdonald had learned that there was no possibility that the British North America legislation would be dealt with at that time — that summer or fall — because the Imperial Parliament was to be prorogued on August 10 with the earliest prospect for its reconvening being late January or early February. Macdonald had made the decision to postpone his departure to London for another reason. The summer had been filled with attacks by the Fenians, and he wanted to wait until winter conditions made it impossible for them to launch their assaults across the Niagara, the Detroit, or the St. Lawrence rivers. It was only on November 14 that Macdonald sailed from New York to join his colleagues.
Macdonald’s fears about anger from his frustrated colleagues were unfounded. Instead, when he arrived at the Westminster Palace Hotel on Sunday morning, he discovered that a celebratory luncheon had been prepared to welcome him properly and happily.
“Mind you, John A.,” his close friend Alexander Galt warned him before they left their spacious second-floor rooms to go down to the luncheon, “there’s been a lot of unpleasant muttering about your not being here.”
“I’m not surprised.”
“Wilmot’s been the loudest, griping and bitching every day. ‘Who the hell does that Macdonald think he is?’ — that sort of thing.”
John A. shrugged. “Really, Alex, I can’t blame Wilmot. He’s been sitting over here for weeks ...”
Galt nodded. “Try months. Watch out for him, John A. Right now if the old boy had a knife he’s stick it to you somewhere. He won’t say anything to your face, but he’ll make it difficult for you during the negotiations, mark you. He won’t let on though.”
John A. smiled down at the squat, square-faced Galt. “I hear you, Alex. Now let’s get down and have that welcoming luncheon. It’ll be good to see everyone again, even though I’m the skunk at the garden party. Ah yes, and Hewitt. You said he’d be here for the luncheon?”
“I