resided in Montreal a Mr and Mrs Robert
Sweeny, {66} well-known and popular society people. Among the military
officers stationed there was Major Henry J. Warde of the 1st Royals, a
friend of the Sweenys. One day an anonymous intimation was received by
Mr Sweeny to the effect that Major Warde was too attentive to his wife.
Shortly afterwards the Sweenys gave a dinner, in the course of which a
note, addressed to Mrs Sweeny, and a bouquet were brought in. Sweeny,
whose suspicions had become thoroughly aroused, demanded to see the
note. Mrs Sweeny refused, whereupon he took it from her by force. The
party broke up in confusion. Sweeny rushed to the officers' mess,
where Warde was dining. As he bounded up the stairs, the officers,
recognizing his step, called to him to join them in a glass of wine.
He entered the room, and going up to Warde then and there publicly
insulted him. The inevitable duel took place next morning, and at the
first shot Major Warde fell dead. Sweeny had to flee the country. He
escaped to St Albans, Vermont, where he died, it was said, of remorse a
few months later. What must have added poignancy to his sufferings was
the statement, afterwards made, that the whole affair was a malicious
plot, and that {67} the fatal missive which caused all the trouble was
a forgery. Afterwards Mrs Sweeny returned to Montreal, where she went
into lodgings. About the same time a raw Scottish lad, who had been
teaching school in the county of Huntingdon, came to Montreal to study
law. There he met Mrs Sweeny, with whom he fell in love, and they were
married. This was John Rose, and Mrs Sweeny as Lady Rose lived to
adorn the society of the chief Canadian cities and afterwards of London
until her death in 1883.

The parliamentary record of the years immediately succeeding 1858 is
not particularly interesting. George Brown continued to fight for
representation by population with undiminished vigour, and although
both he and his Lower-Canadian colleague, Dorion, were defeated in the
general elections of 1861, he was gaining ground. The antagonism
between Upper and Lower Canada yearly became more tense, and there were
signs of the approach of that deadlock which was still in the future.

An agreeable occurrence of the year 1860 was the visit of the Prince of
Wales to Canada. The occasion served to bring a truce to the political
warfare which was being waged with {68} incredible bitterness for
twelve month