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Date: 1866-09-17
By: Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon
Citation: Diary Entry from the 4th Earl of Carnarvon (17 September 1866).
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Monday 17 September (Buxton)

I have had several anxious days and even weeks with regard to Canada and the threatened Fenian invasion. Lord Monck’s letters have been unsatisfactory. At first denying and discrediting all ideas of danger — then a hasty telegram calling for reinforcements — then explaining the news of his requisition by a despatch in which he reiterates his own belief that there is no danger and yet gives way to the expression of alarm on all sides of him — a series of inconsistencies.

His information is very scanty — not nearly as much as I can glean from occasional Canadian papers. Meanwhile in the midst of all this he talks of returning to England to confer on the subject of Confederation, and it is only after repeated letters of mine in which I point out the impossibility of his leaving, and when matters seem coming to a head as regards Fenianism that he writes to say that he must give up coming home — and writes as if we have been urging him to come!

Two days since (the 15th), I have received a telegram stating that the Canadian delegates cannot arrive till the close of the Navigation on the same account. I wrote to Elliott desiring him to fix a day for the North Britain and the Nova Scotian delegates, and that I would come up to London to meet them.

So ends my second attempt to drink the water.