Tennyson and Kelvin. He had a sense of humour,
a quality of which Head and Durham were devoid. He was amused when he
was not bored by the pomp attending his position. 'The worst part of
the thing to me, individually, is the ceremonial,' he writes. 'The
_bore_ of this is unspeakable. Fancy having to stand for an hour and a
half bowing, and then to sit with one's cocked hat on, receiving
addresses.' In person Thomson was small, slight, elegant,
fragile-looking, with a notably handsome face. He was one of those
clever, agreeable, plausible, managing little men who seem always to
get their own way. They are very adroit and not too scrupulous about
the means they use to attain their ends. They have that absolute
belief in themselves which their friends call self-confidence and their
enemies conceit.

Thomson came to his arduous task brimming with ambition and belief in
his ability to cope with it. He realized to the full the difficulty of
the problem set him and {37} the credit which would accrue if he solved
it. 'After fifteen years,' a friend wrote, 'you have now the golden
opportunity of settling the affairs of Canada upon a safe and firm
footing, ensuring good government to the people, and securing ample
power to the Crown.' He was fully aware of this himself. 'It is a
_great field_ too,' he notes in his private Journal, 'if I can bring
about the union of the provinces and stay for a year to meet the united
assembly and set them to work'; and he contrasts the opportunity for
distinction offered by the Canadian imbroglio with the tame
possibilities of a subordinate position in the Cabinet, which would be
his fate if he remained in England.

The new governor-general reached Quebec in H.M.S. _Pique_ on October
17, 1839, after a stormy passage of thirty-three days. His first task
in Canada was the same as Durham's--to acquaint himself with the actual
conditions--and he flung himself into it with equal energy. Like
Durham, too, he was ably assisted by capable men on his staff, notably
T. W. C. Murdoch, his civil secretary, and James Stuart, the chief
justice of Lower Canada. From the very first he won golden {38}
opinions from all sorts of persons. The tone of his proclamations, the
courtesy and tact of his public utterances, his personal charm made him
speedily popular. The party of Reform was conciliated because he was
known to be in sympathy with the principles of Lord Durham's Report,
while the Conser