Sir Dominick Daly (11 August 1798 – 19 February 1868) was a British colonial public servant and administrator during the 19th century, who held positions in British North America, Tobago and South Australia.
Born in Ireland to a well-connected family, he obtained the position of private secretary to the Lieutenant Governor of Lower Canada in 1822. He eventually became the provincial secretary of Lower Canada, a member of the Special Council which governed Lower Canada following the Lower Canada Rebellion, and a member of the Legislative Assembly and provincial secretary of the Province of Canada. For a brief time in 1843, he was the sole member of the Executive Council of the Province of Canada. He then became part of a three-man council, advising the Governor General, Sir Charles Metcalfe. His decision to remain in office angered the Reform members of the Assembly, leading to him fighting a duel with one Reform member. He was dismissed from office when the Reformers were returned to power under Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin in 1848.
After losing office in Canada in 1848, Daly served on a royal commission in England concerning the New Forest and Waltham Forest. He then served as the Governor of Tobago from 1851 to 1852, followed by appointment as Governor of Prince Edward Island from 1854 to 1859. In 1862 he was appointed Governor of South Australia, an office he held until his sudden death on 19 February 1868 in Adelaide, South Australia.
Daly combined an aptitude for public affairs and diligence in his work, along with personal charm and affability. In Canada, he acquired the nickname of "the perpetual secretary", in light of his holding various administrative offices for twenty-five years.
Early life and family
Daly was born in Ardfry, County Galway, Ireland in 1798, the son of Dominic Daly senior and Joanna Harriet Blake. His mother was the sister of Joseph Blake, 1st Baron Wallscourt, and had previously been married to Richard Burke of Glinsk, who was a member of the family of Burke baronets. She had two sons from her first marriage, John Burke and Joseph Burke. Both of Daly's half-brothers inherited the baronetcy in turn. The Dalys were Roman Catholics and Dominick studied at St Mary's College, Oscott in Birmingham.
While in Lower Canada, Daly married Caroline Maria Gore, second daughter of Colonel Ralph Gore of Barrowmount, Goresbridge, County Kilkenny, Ireland, who was on service in Lower Canada. One of their sons, Malachy Bowes Daly, became a lawyer in Nova Scotia. He entered federal politics and was a Cabinet minister in Sir John A. Macdonald's ministry, and later was appointed the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia.
Canada (1823–1849)
Lower Canada (1823–1841)
After finishing his schooling, Daly spent some time with an uncle in Paris who was involved in banking, but came back to Ireland. He then acquired the position of private secretary to Sir Francis Nathaniel Burton, Lieutenant Governor of Lower Canada, who was from an Irish family with political connections. In 1823, Daly came to Lower Canada with Burton. Daly was a diligent worker and earned Burton's approval, to the point that Burton ensured Daly's appointment as provincial secretary for Lower Canada in 1827, even though Burton by then had left Lower Canada on indefinite leave. However, Daly was required to remit the salary for the post, £500 a year, to the former absentee office-holder, Thomas Amyot in England. Instead, Daly received the lucrative fees associated with the position. The arrangement was kept secret so the elected members of the Legislative Assembly would not know that the money was still going to the former absentee provincial secretary.
Daly continued in the position of provincial secretary during and after the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837–1838.
The British government appointed Lord Durham the Governor General of all of British North America, with a mandate to investigate the causes of the Rebellion in Lower Canada, and the related Upper Canada Rebellion of the same year. When Durham arrived, Daly was one of the few public servants in Lower Canada whom Lord Durham kept on in office, including appointing him to the Executive Council of Lower Canada in June, 1838.
In the government of Lower Canada, the position of provincial secretary had been regarded as a non-partisan public service position. However, in the new government of the Province of Canada, Lord Sydenham considered that the provincial secretary should be a member of the Legislative Assembly and the Executive Council. In the general election of 1841, Sydenham persuaded Daly to stand for election in the riding of Megantick in Canada East (formerly Lower Canada). Daly was elected without opposition as a supporter of the union, and Sydenham then appointed Daly as appointed provincial secretary of Canada East and a member of the Executive Council of the Province of Canada.
For the first two years of the union, the different groups in the Assembly and the Executive Council found Daly an acceptable colleague. In the first session, he voted in favour of the union, and thereafter was a consistent supporter of the governor. Sydenham's first ministry in 1841 was composed of Compact Tories, Reformers, and general supporters of the governor, while the new ministry formed in 1842 was dominated by Reformers. Daly got along well with all. He applied himself with his normal diligence and considered that his role was to give advice in Council based on his long experience in government. He did not speak frequently in the Assembly. Although he was an excellent conversationalist in individual settings, he was not a good public speaker. His tenacity in holding office earned him the nickname "the perpetual secretary", but he was nonetheless a popular and convivial character.
Ministerial crisis, 1843–1844
thumb|upright=0.75|Governor General Metcalfe, whom Daly supported in the 1843 crisis
The situation changed when there was a political crisis in 1843. The new Governor General, Sir Charles Theophilus Metcalfe, was determined to retain the prerogatives of the Crown, particularly in the area of appointments to government offices, to ensure the government was based on Crown supporters. The Reformers, led by Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine from Canada East and Robert Baldwin from Canada West, were equally determined to implement the system of responsible government, where the governor would follow the advice of the Executive Council, drawn from the group which had the support of a majority in the elected Legislative Assembly. At first, there were manoeuverings behind the scenes. When it started to appear to some Reformers that Daly would likely side with the governor in a dispute, the Assembly held an inquiry into some of Daly's activities as provincial secretary, including the old arrangement where he remitted his salary to the previous absentee secretary. He was defended in the Assembly by Wakefield, who increasingly was moving from the French-Canadian Group to the group of supporters of the governor. The Assembly committee exonerated Daly, but the proceedings hinted that there was a rift within the Executive Council. In December 1843, Governor General Metcalfe was able to persuade two others members of the Assembly to join the Council: William Draper from Canada West, and Denis-Benjamin Viger from Canada East. The Council, composed of Daly, Draper and Viger, ran the government of the province for several months, under the direction of Metcalfe.
The Reformers viewed Daly's decision to stay in office as a betrayal. However, it appears that for the first time in his long career, Daly had been forced to assess his own political views. For the previous twenty years, he had served the governors appointed by the Crown, as a member of the public service. The transition to a political office, as required by Sydenham, did not change his fundamental outlook, namely to support the governor who represented the Crown. He considered himself to be a non-political public servant. The Reformers disagreed, taking the position that a non-political public servant could not be a member of the Council.
Provincial Secretary and dismissal, 1844–1849
In the 1844 election, the Reformers were defeated by those who supported Governor General Metcalfe. Lafontaine consolidated his position in Canada East, but not enough to make up for the considerable Reform losses in Canada West. Metcalfe was able to form a new government without LaFontaine and Baldwin. Daly had been re-elected in Megantick as a supporter of the governor, and Metcalfe kept him in the Executive Council. In the Assembly, he was a reliable vote for the governor. Resentment over Daly's conduct continued to fester. In March 1845, Daly was challenged to a duel by Reformer Thomas Cushing Aylwin over Daly's refusal to resign in 1843; shots were fired but no one was injured. The "perpetual secretary" had lost his job, after twenty-five years.
Lord Elgin was sympathetic to Daly's position, and wrote to the Colonial Secretary, urging the British government to find some appointment for Daly. Elgin pointed out that Daly had been required to enter the political arena by Governor-General Sydenham, thereby risking his position as a public servant. He had also stood by Governor-General Metcalfe in his dispute with the Reformers, which had led to his dismissal from the Council. Based on assurances from Lord Elgin, Daly returned to England and sought office from the Colonial Office. However he took advice from Wakefield, also back in England, who gave him excessively large expectations. Daly's lobbying efforts were unsuccessful, and the Colonial Secretary refused to give him any position. Instead, in 1849 the British government appointed Daly to a commission of inquiry into the management of the New Forest and Waltham Forest. On receiving that appointment, Daly's seat in the Canadian Parliament became vacant.
Tobago
The forest commission wrapped up its work in 1851. In 1852, Daly was appointed lieutenant-governor of Tobago. However, he resigned the position after only six months, for health reasons.
Politics in South Australia were somewhat tumultuous, as the colony had only been granted responsible government in 1857. During Daly's tenure, there were nine changes in government.
Daly began to show effects of anaemia in the last months of his life. He was reported as being in failing health prior to his sudden illness. Despite the intense heat, large crowds turned out to watch the funeral cortège pass, a tribute to the affection with which he was held. South Australians had come to know him as a kindly and accessible gentleman, dedicated to his duty, and cheerfully impartial as governor.