responsible government in Canada. The relations
with that colony were, as my brother says, 'confused and entangled in
every possible way by personal and party questions at home and by the
violent dissensions which existed in Canada itself.' The difficulty was
aggravated, he adds, by the fact that my father, whatever his personal
influence, had no authority whatever; and although his principles were
ultimately adopted he had constantly to take part in measures which he
disapproved. 'Stephen's opinions,' says Taylor, 'were more liberal than
those of most of his chiefs, and at one period he gave more power than
he intended to a Canadian Assembly from placing too much confidence in
their intentions.'[39] Upon this matter, however, Taylor admits that he
was not fully informed. I will only add that my father appears to have
shared the opinions then prevalent among the Liberal party that the
colonies would soon be detached from the mother country. On the
appointment of a Governor-General of Canada, shortly before his
resignation of office, he observes in a diary that it is not unlikely to
be the last that will ever be made.[40]

I have already noticed my father's unpopularity. It was a not unlikely
result of exercising a great and yet occult influence upon a department
of Government which is likely in any case to be more conspicuous for its
failures than for its successes. There were, however, more personal
reasons which I think indicate his peculiar characteristics. I have said
enough to illustrate his gluttony of work. I should guess that, without
intending it, he was also an exacting superior. He probably
over-estimated the average capacity for work of mankind, and condemned
their indolence too unsparingly. Certainly his estimate of the quantity
of good work got out of officials in a public office was not a high one.
Nor, I am sure, did he take a sanguine view of the utility of such work
as was done in the Colonial Office. 'Colonial Office being an Impotency'
(as Carlyle puts it in his 'Reminiscences,' 'as Stephen inarticulately,
though he never said or whispered it, well knew), what could an earnest
and honest kind of man do but try to teach you how not to do it?'[41] I
fancy that this gives in Carryle's manner the unpleasant side of a true
statement. My father gave his whole life to work, which he never thought
entirely satisfactory, although he did his duty without a word of
complaint. Once, when advising Taylor to trust