The successive dignities thus heaped upon him are sufficient evidence of the rising favour with which he was regarded by the Members of the Government; and as matter of fact he had made great progress in the esteem of the leading members of his Party generally. On the 22nd of May, 1872, he received the appointment which was destined to give Canadians a special interest in his career--that of Governor-General of the Dominion of Canada.
By the great mass of Canadians the news of this appointment was received with a feeling very much akin to indifference. The fact is that, except among reading men, and persons intimately familiar with the diplomatic history of Great Britain during the preceding twenty years, the name of Lord Dufferin was entirely unknown in this country. A few middle-aged and elderly persons remembered that an Irish peer named Lord Dufferin had made an eloquent speech on the death of the Prince Consort. Others remembered that a peer of that name had done something noteworthy in Syria. A few had read or heard of "Letters from High Latitudes;" but not one of us suspected that the new Governor-General was destined to be the most popular representative of Great Britain known to Canadian history. It was not suspected that, for the first time during many years, we were to have at the head of our Administration a statesman of deep sympathies and enlarged views; a nobleman combining elegant learning and brilliant powers of oratory with a tact and _bonhomie_ which would win for him the friendship and respect of Canadians of all social ranks, and of all grades of political opinion. By many of us the office of a Governor-General in Canada had come to be looked upon as a sort of sinecure; as a part which any man not absolutely a dunce is capable of playing. We regarded the Governor-General merely as the Royal representative; as a figurehead whose duties consist of doing as he is bid. He has responsible advisers who prescribe for him a certain line of action, and all he has to do is to obey. When his Cabinet loses the confidence of Parliament, he either sends them about their business or accepts their resignation. The successors selected for him by the dominant majority are accepted as a matter of course, and everything goes on _da capo_. This, or something like this, was the way we had learned to estimate the powers and functions which Lord Dufferin was coming among us to discharge. It was reserved for him to give us a juster appreciation of the position of a Canadian Governor-General. The lesson learned by us during the six years of his residence among us is one that Canadians will not soon forget. The learning of it has perhaps made us unduly exacting, and it would have been most unfortunate had his successor been chosen from the ranks of respectable mediocrity whence Colonial Governors are not unfrequently selected. Happily the choice fell upon a gentleman whose character and attainments bear some affinity to those of his predecessor, and the dignity and respect due to the Governor-General are not likely to suffer depreciation while the office remains in his hands.