Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-09-09
A new GOVERNOR.
How Canada Regards Earl
Grey's Appointment.
Traits of the Earl Which Will Please
the Canadian People.


but nobody is vitality interested in 8
matter to much one OF mere routine
The office is one of social Importance
only, numbered with little responsibility
and no political authority. 1t has beer
well settled for many years back tina,
the kings representative in the Do.
minion shall follow the advice of hi.
ministry as implicitly as the king him
self is guided by the cabinet that holds
a majority in the British House Of
Commons. Politically the governor i.
an animated official stamping machine
sent out by the Imperial Government,
to validate whatever the Canadian
Commons shall decide. OF course the
office is not without reserve powers
| analogous to the kings prerogative
| which has not been employed for dec.
AIDES, but which might conceivably b,
of use in emergencies unforeseen. TIL
governor general might be ordered bA
the king -in-council to withhold or re.
fuse assent to legislation, but, if the
matter We're one of any cn's de-
moment, on which Canadians wer>
| unitedfi that asset would have TO be
given pretty soon, else disruption
would come to pass. Meantime the ap-
pointment is felt to be so incOnsequcn-
tial that the good Old Tory Gazette OF
Montreal treats it this morning in al
editorial note of eight lines, while the
afternoon papers deal with it in pure
ly perfunctory way. This Indifference
fairly represents political emotion, and
public emotion. yet it is quite true that
Earl Grey's name is received will
general satisfaction by any who con-
slider the matter. 1t signifies that the
usual order of things is to continue at
Rideau Hall, as Government House in
ottawa is called.
a man of great family, pleasing to
The Tory mind. is to be there. He is
l:.'nther to Lady Mimic, whose husband
is governor now and will be SO for
some six weeks more The Mimic social
regime has been suitable to the cOun-
tr: and the capital. where society Is
"lH'nly composed of people Of what
''ch Americans would consider very
r. nHll means. 1t was a quiet, modest
,ns;itable regime. as Democratic as
re circumstances would permit. Lord
dren were anything but starchy; they
made friends with a great variety OF
resp, ctable people. big and small.
they went on long camping expeditions
almost unattended by servants and
quite in the native manner. From
what is known of the Greys it appears
that they are the same sort of unOs-
tentatious aristOcrats. 1t is of much
Importance to Ottawa and to all Cam
ada that extravaganza and the latest
fashions therein shall not faunt in Ri
deau Hall. The Canadian family purse
conjoins with accepted canons of good
taste in UNFOLDING Dorothea Brooke
opinion that fine dress is the ambition
Of huckster's daughter.
Probably Consuelo, Duchess of Mari
borough would heartily agree. But
at the bottom of the Canadian objec-
ton against the dukes appointment tt
the gOvernOrship was the reasonable
fear of an economical society that hel
New York friends would swarm to the
Canadian capital, bringing with then
the exasperating toilettes and the pro-
fuse ways of Gotham. With this
worked the anti-American animus OF
that element of Canadian society which
is largely derived from the loins OF
American Tories who emigrated to this
country after the Revolutionary War
an element which often reminds one
of Hans Andersen's dry old fagots
that boosted superiority because they
had knots in their bodies. Not many
years ago l heard one of the most con.
spicuous of these amiable people refer
to Americans in general as rebels
He had an historical conscience, and
used his grandfather's terms. 1t may
not be very difficult for magma
tive BOStonians to sympathiZe with the
sense of such pre-Revolutionary relics
that they would be Inundated did the
king appoint to the head of Canadian
society young gentleman distin-
guished for nothing except a great his
toric name and a great American heir
ess. "only three removes from the
steamboat captain" us the fagots say
Earl Grey has had considerable polit-
zeal experience. He was an English
NJ P. for five years. has been Of the
House of Lords for ten. and was adj
ministrator of Rhodesia for a year
His business ability is indicated by
his dictatorship of the South African
Company. Altogether his career APP
pears to assure that he will not re-
peat an endeavOr with which Lore
Mimic, who came out politically mex
perienced. is generally credited-that
of trying to set his cabinet to some eX-
tent aside. You cannot get any mill-
lister to say so. wild horses would not
drag it out of their official mouths
but it became pretty obvious about the
beginning of the South African wal
that Lord Mimic imagined he had
some sort of independent authority in
respect of the militia. He got his les
son then. and the command Of the mill
| tia has since then been more than ever
securely vested in the Government of
the Dominion. In "a more delicate mat
ter Lord Mimic appears to have sue
| cessfuiiy asserted a degree of preroga-
tive. Ministers are sworn not to tell
Sucn thlngs. but somehow they are re-
veaied. possibly by the governors talk
to indlscreet friends. Lord Mimic has
caused the king to knight some Cana
dams hostile to the ministry. and he
mas prevented the king knighting some
whom the ministry wished to have dis
| uns"ished in that way. This by vir-
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